with ryan adams.
(and the pointer sisters).
STEREOGUM: Watch Ryan Adams Cover The Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron Dance”
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Friday, May 30, 2014
undun.
a moment of clarity.
words.
"The unspoken divide between black people and white people—whether over reparations, affirmative action, or the question of paying N.C.A.A. athletes—comes down to a question of history. In one version, that history appears as an incremental movement toward equality after a long night of discrimination; in the other, history looks like a balance sheet, and the cumulative debits of sanctioned theft, enforced poverty, and scant opportunity far outweigh the inconsistent credits of good will. Few whites recall, for instance, that General William Sherman, during his March to the Sea, issued orders mandating the redistribution of land seized from Confederates, in forty-acre parcels, to newly emancipated black families. But within black America, that fact—and the fact that the orders were revoked following Lincoln’s assassination—is common knowledge, recalled with the bitterness of an outstanding debt.
Absent an understanding of this past, it’s possible—even entirely reasonable—to conclude that affirmative action represents a full recompense for the social engineering that produced a disproportionately black underclass in the United States. To the extent that the history remains obscured, the narrative looks like a lineage of failed handouts to a feckless and troublesome population, never quite capable of pulling themselves up, and mired in their own self-defeating ways. These deletions in our own history deliver various national oddities, like an overwhelmingly white Tea Party movement that is fixated on government encroachment on liberty and yet has almost no regard for the concerns of African-Americans, whose history is defined by the government-sanctioned theft of their freedom.
...We are discussing reparations at this moment because in two years Barack Obama will leave the White House, having repaired the economic collapse that greeted his inauguration, but with African-Americans still unemployed at a rate twice that of whites, and struggling to see how this world differs from the status quo ante. Those who saw Obama’s election as redemption for slavery were off by fourteen decades: his election was supposed to expiate sins much closer to the surface, and therefore far more difficult, and far too expensive, to confront.
The point of Coates’s essay—and, ultimately, the point of this conversation, despite the political impossibility of enacting reparations—is a broader understanding of black poverty as the product of public policy and private theft facilitated by racism. The belief that blacks have been given too much is made possible by the refusal to countenance how much was actually taken away in the first place."
THE NEW YORKER: What We Talk About When We Talk About Reparations
words.
"The unspoken divide between black people and white people—whether over reparations, affirmative action, or the question of paying N.C.A.A. athletes—comes down to a question of history. In one version, that history appears as an incremental movement toward equality after a long night of discrimination; in the other, history looks like a balance sheet, and the cumulative debits of sanctioned theft, enforced poverty, and scant opportunity far outweigh the inconsistent credits of good will. Few whites recall, for instance, that General William Sherman, during his March to the Sea, issued orders mandating the redistribution of land seized from Confederates, in forty-acre parcels, to newly emancipated black families. But within black America, that fact—and the fact that the orders were revoked following Lincoln’s assassination—is common knowledge, recalled with the bitterness of an outstanding debt.
Absent an understanding of this past, it’s possible—even entirely reasonable—to conclude that affirmative action represents a full recompense for the social engineering that produced a disproportionately black underclass in the United States. To the extent that the history remains obscured, the narrative looks like a lineage of failed handouts to a feckless and troublesome population, never quite capable of pulling themselves up, and mired in their own self-defeating ways. These deletions in our own history deliver various national oddities, like an overwhelmingly white Tea Party movement that is fixated on government encroachment on liberty and yet has almost no regard for the concerns of African-Americans, whose history is defined by the government-sanctioned theft of their freedom.
...We are discussing reparations at this moment because in two years Barack Obama will leave the White House, having repaired the economic collapse that greeted his inauguration, but with African-Americans still unemployed at a rate twice that of whites, and struggling to see how this world differs from the status quo ante. Those who saw Obama’s election as redemption for slavery were off by fourteen decades: his election was supposed to expiate sins much closer to the surface, and therefore far more difficult, and far too expensive, to confront.
The point of Coates’s essay—and, ultimately, the point of this conversation, despite the political impossibility of enacting reparations—is a broader understanding of black poverty as the product of public policy and private theft facilitated by racism. The belief that blacks have been given too much is made possible by the refusal to countenance how much was actually taken away in the first place."
THE NEW YORKER: What We Talk About When We Talk About Reparations
yes. we can.
a moment of clarity.
words.
"In the aftermath of the weekend’s ghastly events at UC Santa Barbara, there’s been plenty of discussion about our pervasive culture of misogyny, and the myriad destructive ways in which it manifests. A large part of the narrative has been that men need to shut up and listen to women’s voices on this topic, which is certainly true. But men also need to talk, honestly and amongst ourselves, about the nature of masculinity, and acknowledge our own destructive impulses. This is a problem that men need to be discussing precisely because it’s a problem with men. And it’s only men who are going to fix it.
The most important thing we need to realize is that potential to be the problem lies within all of us — and because only by acknowledging this can we start to look to a solution. I’m not saying we all have the potential to be killers, but we all have the capacity to to be unthinkingly misogynistic, to refuse to examine our behavior and our assumptions, to subscribe to the sentiments that fuel the “men’s rights” movement and its ilk.
.... Men don’t talk about violence against them because our culture, shaped by millennia of male dominance, tells them not to, because to do so is unmanly. Men are denied access to children because of gender roles imposed by patriarchy — that the man is the provider, and the woman the carer. And so on.
...Understand that your actions don’t exist in a vacuum. They exist in the context of a society where literally every woman you will ever meet has a similar story to tell, if she feels safe enough to do so. Understand that society is a large-scale representation of this. Understand that you are owed nothing.
You don’t get a gold star for being a good person. It’s the minimum standard of human decency that anyone should be able to expect. You don’t get taught this stuff. But you can work it out for yourself. Pay attention. Recognize misogyny when you see it. Don’t be an asshole. Listen to women. Believe them. And most of all, understand that they are your fellow humans and deserve to be treated as exactly that: people who share this planet with you. We’re not going to fix society’s ingrained misogyny overnight. It will take generations. But we won’t make any progress until we acknowledge that it exists."
FLAVORWIRE: Yes, All Men: Every Man Needs to Understand Internalized Misogyny and Male Violence
words.
"In the aftermath of the weekend’s ghastly events at UC Santa Barbara, there’s been plenty of discussion about our pervasive culture of misogyny, and the myriad destructive ways in which it manifests. A large part of the narrative has been that men need to shut up and listen to women’s voices on this topic, which is certainly true. But men also need to talk, honestly and amongst ourselves, about the nature of masculinity, and acknowledge our own destructive impulses. This is a problem that men need to be discussing precisely because it’s a problem with men. And it’s only men who are going to fix it.
The most important thing we need to realize is that potential to be the problem lies within all of us — and because only by acknowledging this can we start to look to a solution. I’m not saying we all have the potential to be killers, but we all have the capacity to to be unthinkingly misogynistic, to refuse to examine our behavior and our assumptions, to subscribe to the sentiments that fuel the “men’s rights” movement and its ilk.
.... Men don’t talk about violence against them because our culture, shaped by millennia of male dominance, tells them not to, because to do so is unmanly. Men are denied access to children because of gender roles imposed by patriarchy — that the man is the provider, and the woman the carer. And so on.
...Understand that your actions don’t exist in a vacuum. They exist in the context of a society where literally every woman you will ever meet has a similar story to tell, if she feels safe enough to do so. Understand that society is a large-scale representation of this. Understand that you are owed nothing.
You don’t get a gold star for being a good person. It’s the minimum standard of human decency that anyone should be able to expect. You don’t get taught this stuff. But you can work it out for yourself. Pay attention. Recognize misogyny when you see it. Don’t be an asshole. Listen to women. Believe them. And most of all, understand that they are your fellow humans and deserve to be treated as exactly that: people who share this planet with you. We’re not going to fix society’s ingrained misogyny overnight. It will take generations. But we won’t make any progress until we acknowledge that it exists."
FLAVORWIRE: Yes, All Men: Every Man Needs to Understand Internalized Misogyny and Male Violence
Thursday, May 29, 2014
american beauty.
a moment of clarity.
words.
"One of Maya Angelou’s greatest gifts was breaking people down to their core, often with just one line. She seemed to know exactly what to say, when to say it, and how to say it so that it would register as the most necessarily emotional gut punch imaginable. Interestingly enough, this typically happened with some of the more idolized men of their respective generations. Powerful men, often trapped by their own machismo, shunning emotions. On numerous occasions, she’s mentioned the people who have visited her — people who wanted to make the pilgrimage and talk to her, people like Richard Pryor and Chris Rock. People who needed to have a conversation with her, with the intentions of leaving cleansed. And clear-headed. And most importantly, talking with someone who will listen, impart wisdom, and will not judge. That nonjudgmental nature, mixed with Maya’s calm and Maya’s knowledge, is one of the many reasons she exists on an island of importance, even after her death."
GRANTLAND: The Teacher and the Students: Remembering Maya Angelou in Culture
SEE ALSO:
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Maya & Me & Maya: What Maya Angelou Meant to Me
words.
"One of Maya Angelou’s greatest gifts was breaking people down to their core, often with just one line. She seemed to know exactly what to say, when to say it, and how to say it so that it would register as the most necessarily emotional gut punch imaginable. Interestingly enough, this typically happened with some of the more idolized men of their respective generations. Powerful men, often trapped by their own machismo, shunning emotions. On numerous occasions, she’s mentioned the people who have visited her — people who wanted to make the pilgrimage and talk to her, people like Richard Pryor and Chris Rock. People who needed to have a conversation with her, with the intentions of leaving cleansed. And clear-headed. And most importantly, talking with someone who will listen, impart wisdom, and will not judge. That nonjudgmental nature, mixed with Maya’s calm and Maya’s knowledge, is one of the many reasons she exists on an island of importance, even after her death."
GRANTLAND: The Teacher and the Students: Remembering Maya Angelou in Culture
SEE ALSO:
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Maya & Me & Maya: What Maya Angelou Meant to Me
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
maya.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be better.
For they existed.
SLATE: Maya Angelou on What Happens When Great Souls Die
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be better.
For they existed.
SLATE: Maya Angelou on What Happens When Great Souls Die
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
f***in' problems.
a moment of clarity.
words.
"...We don’t have a Shinseki problem, in other words. We have a President Obama problem. We have a Congress problem. We have a civil service system “in crisis,” as the Partnership for Public Service said in a recent report.
Such “scandals” will recur, likely with increasing frequency, as long as government leaders ignore the underlying problem: a personnel system that has not been upgraded to suit the 21st-century knowledge economy.
...It is a cumbersome system that can’t recruit or compete for talent and doesn’t reward top performers or punish poor ones. Some of the resistance to change is political: Democrats rely on government unions that are suspicious of merit-based policies, and Republicans are suspicious of government altogether. But Mr. Stier says the bigger obstacle to reform is structural. Political leaders want to influence policies that will bear fruit while they are in office. Civil service reform is hard work, requires sustained attention and would pay off mostly in future presidential terms.
...Less than 6 percent of the federal workforce is younger than 30 , compared with 23 percent in the country. As the public workforce ages and retires, dysfunction will increase, unless someone gets serious about attracting and retaining talent."
THE WASHINGTON POST: The true VA scandal is shared across the federal government
words.
"...We don’t have a Shinseki problem, in other words. We have a President Obama problem. We have a Congress problem. We have a civil service system “in crisis,” as the Partnership for Public Service said in a recent report.
Such “scandals” will recur, likely with increasing frequency, as long as government leaders ignore the underlying problem: a personnel system that has not been upgraded to suit the 21st-century knowledge economy.
...It is a cumbersome system that can’t recruit or compete for talent and doesn’t reward top performers or punish poor ones. Some of the resistance to change is political: Democrats rely on government unions that are suspicious of merit-based policies, and Republicans are suspicious of government altogether. But Mr. Stier says the bigger obstacle to reform is structural. Political leaders want to influence policies that will bear fruit while they are in office. Civil service reform is hard work, requires sustained attention and would pay off mostly in future presidential terms.
...Less than 6 percent of the federal workforce is younger than 30 , compared with 23 percent in the country. As the public workforce ages and retires, dysfunction will increase, unless someone gets serious about attracting and retaining talent."
THE WASHINGTON POST: The true VA scandal is shared across the federal government
a moment of clarity.
words.
"My purpose here is not to convince everyone that Rockefeller is right about the massive GOP resistance to Obama — although I certainly agree with him — but rather to consider the things we say when we want to avoid talking about race. “You called me a racist” and “You played the race card” have become all-purpose conversation stoppers.
Whenever I write about race, some readers react with one or the other of these end-of-discussion criticisms. Some people believe, or pretend to believe, that mentioning race in almost any context is “playing the race card.” Nearly 400 years of history — since the first Africans landed at Jamestown in 1619 — amply demonstrate that this view is either Pollyannaish or deeply cynical. We will never get to the point where race is irrelevant if we do not talk about the ways in which it still matters."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Talking about race is no black-and-white matter
"My purpose here is not to convince everyone that Rockefeller is right about the massive GOP resistance to Obama — although I certainly agree with him — but rather to consider the things we say when we want to avoid talking about race. “You called me a racist” and “You played the race card” have become all-purpose conversation stoppers.
Whenever I write about race, some readers react with one or the other of these end-of-discussion criticisms. Some people believe, or pretend to believe, that mentioning race in almost any context is “playing the race card.” Nearly 400 years of history — since the first Africans landed at Jamestown in 1619 — amply demonstrate that this view is either Pollyannaish or deeply cynical. We will never get to the point where race is irrelevant if we do not talk about the ways in which it still matters."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Talking about race is no black-and-white matter
six degrees.
starring ghostface killah, danny brown, & badbadnotgood.
PITCHFORK: Ghostface Killah, Danny Brown, BADBADNOTGOOD Team for "Six Degrees"
PITCHFORK: Ghostface Killah, Danny Brown, BADBADNOTGOOD Team for "Six Degrees"
Friday, May 23, 2014
-INTERLUDE-
Caught this video yesterday morning during a workout. I really wish the song would go somewhere like, OUT OF MY HEAD! YEEZUS!
Thursday, May 22, 2014
boost mobile.
an ongoing discussion/moment of clarity.
words.
"...In a nation where most people’s wages have been stagnant or dropping for many years, and where the combination of globalization and de-unionization has stripped from workers the bargaining power they once possessed, the role of government in addressing wage issues has become more central than ever. By investing in job-creating public works, by raising the minimum wage, by lowering taxes on those corporations that give their workers annual productivity increases and raising taxes on those that don’t, government can take up the slack created by the suppression and near-disappearance of private-sector unions. But first, it must dispel the canard that raising wages destroys jobs. Now it can point to San Francisco and Washington as evidence that it doesn’t."
THE WASHINGTON POST: The boost that comes from raising the minimum wage
words.
"...In a nation where most people’s wages have been stagnant or dropping for many years, and where the combination of globalization and de-unionization has stripped from workers the bargaining power they once possessed, the role of government in addressing wage issues has become more central than ever. By investing in job-creating public works, by raising the minimum wage, by lowering taxes on those corporations that give their workers annual productivity increases and raising taxes on those that don’t, government can take up the slack created by the suppression and near-disappearance of private-sector unions. But first, it must dispel the canard that raising wages destroys jobs. Now it can point to San Francisco and Washington as evidence that it doesn’t."
THE WASHINGTON POST: The boost that comes from raising the minimum wage
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
i retired.
a lyric video.
from the walkmen's hamilton leithauser and vampire weekend's rostam batmanglij.
from the walkmen's hamilton leithauser and vampire weekend's rostam batmanglij.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
paid in full.
words.
for your consideration...
THE WASHINGTON POST: Paying for your fair share in an app-based economy
for your consideration...
THE WASHINGTON POST: Paying for your fair share in an app-based economy
magic.
a moment of clarity.
words.
"Johnson’s businesses have thrived, and through his foundation he has donated millions of dollars, and thousands of hours of his time, to charities—including those in south Los Angeles. In 2008, Johnson worked tirelessly in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Proposition 8 in California, saying at the time that the same-sex marriage ban was “unfair and wrong…’ and that it … “singles out one group of Californians to be treated differently—including members of our family, our friends, and our coworkers.” Last year, his son Earvin Johnson III, known as E.J., announced that he was gay. Johnson and his wife Cookie (whom he married in 1991) offered public words of support (and did so in an interview on CNN and also from the biggest platform they could find: Oprah Winfrey’s couch). “I go to church,” Johnson said at the time. “I’m a Christian, but the reality is, my son is gay…. And I tell my pastors that, I tell other pastors that.… I love my son, nothing is going to change that. I don’t care if you don’t agree. If you don’t want to deal with me, or you don’t like me, that’s on you.”
Although it may seem callous to say so, millions of Americans are lucky that Magic Johnson was infected with H.I.V. There is no way of calculating how many lives he has saved. No advertising agency could have invented a better, or more effective, role model. So let us thank Donald Sterling for helping remind us what we owe Magic Johnson, for his contributions to a struggle that is still far from over. Thirty-five million people have died since the AIDS epidemic began. At least two million more are infected every year. The only people who should be ashamed about that are those who believe viruses make moral judgments and choose their victims accordingly. I don’t know how many Americans think that way, but one of them owns the Los Angeles Clippers."
THE NEW YORKER: How Magic Johnson Fought the AIDS Epidemic
words.
"Johnson’s businesses have thrived, and through his foundation he has donated millions of dollars, and thousands of hours of his time, to charities—including those in south Los Angeles. In 2008, Johnson worked tirelessly in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Proposition 8 in California, saying at the time that the same-sex marriage ban was “unfair and wrong…’ and that it … “singles out one group of Californians to be treated differently—including members of our family, our friends, and our coworkers.” Last year, his son Earvin Johnson III, known as E.J., announced that he was gay. Johnson and his wife Cookie (whom he married in 1991) offered public words of support (and did so in an interview on CNN and also from the biggest platform they could find: Oprah Winfrey’s couch). “I go to church,” Johnson said at the time. “I’m a Christian, but the reality is, my son is gay…. And I tell my pastors that, I tell other pastors that.… I love my son, nothing is going to change that. I don’t care if you don’t agree. If you don’t want to deal with me, or you don’t like me, that’s on you.”
Although it may seem callous to say so, millions of Americans are lucky that Magic Johnson was infected with H.I.V. There is no way of calculating how many lives he has saved. No advertising agency could have invented a better, or more effective, role model. So let us thank Donald Sterling for helping remind us what we owe Magic Johnson, for his contributions to a struggle that is still far from over. Thirty-five million people have died since the AIDS epidemic began. At least two million more are infected every year. The only people who should be ashamed about that are those who believe viruses make moral judgments and choose their victims accordingly. I don’t know how many Americans think that way, but one of them owns the Los Angeles Clippers."
THE NEW YORKER: How Magic Johnson Fought the AIDS Epidemic
Thursday, May 15, 2014
slow motion.
a moment of clarity.
words.
"...Electricity wholesalers such as Enron are akin to Internet service providers such as Time Warner and Comcast in important ways. The electricity wholesalers had incentives to starve the energy market in order to extract greater fees from utilities and consumers. ISPs have similar incentives to manipulate their bandwidth in order to extract fees from websites (such as Netflix and YouTube), as well as not build out any infrastructure that would make bandwidth cheaper or make your Internet faster.
...Many customers are already living with a virtual Internet brownout. Tier 1 Internet provider Level 3, which provides top-level “backbone” services that reach the entire world, has posted several scary updates on the state of affairs. General counsel Michael Mooney observes that the ISPs are playing a game of chicken by demanding content providers pay them before they build out any further infrastructure. “These ISPs break the Internet by refusing to increase the size of their networks unless their tolls are paid,” Mooney said. Worse, they don’t even use the capacity they have, artificially starving their customers and slowing down the Internet. (Which explains why Game of Thrones is always buffering on your HBO Go, for example.) Level 3 Vice President Mark Taylor provided evidence that five U.S. ISPs (and one European ISP) are refusing to upgrade their infrastructure despite their connection ports being saturated. In other words, these ISPs are intentionally letting their service degrade because they’re cheap, like a city not fixing potholes in its roads..."
SLATE: Yes, Your Internet Is Getting Slower
words.
"...Electricity wholesalers such as Enron are akin to Internet service providers such as Time Warner and Comcast in important ways. The electricity wholesalers had incentives to starve the energy market in order to extract greater fees from utilities and consumers. ISPs have similar incentives to manipulate their bandwidth in order to extract fees from websites (such as Netflix and YouTube), as well as not build out any infrastructure that would make bandwidth cheaper or make your Internet faster.
...Many customers are already living with a virtual Internet brownout. Tier 1 Internet provider Level 3, which provides top-level “backbone” services that reach the entire world, has posted several scary updates on the state of affairs. General counsel Michael Mooney observes that the ISPs are playing a game of chicken by demanding content providers pay them before they build out any further infrastructure. “These ISPs break the Internet by refusing to increase the size of their networks unless their tolls are paid,” Mooney said. Worse, they don’t even use the capacity they have, artificially starving their customers and slowing down the Internet. (Which explains why Game of Thrones is always buffering on your HBO Go, for example.) Level 3 Vice President Mark Taylor provided evidence that five U.S. ISPs (and one European ISP) are refusing to upgrade their infrastructure despite their connection ports being saturated. In other words, these ISPs are intentionally letting their service degrade because they’re cheap, like a city not fixing potholes in its roads..."
SLATE: Yes, Your Internet Is Getting Slower
anxiety.
with Blood Orange's Dev Hynes.
PITCHFORK: Blood Orange's Dev Hynes Shares Performance and Talk About Synesthesia and Anxiety
PITCHFORK: Blood Orange's Dev Hynes Shares Performance and Talk About Synesthesia and Anxiety
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
...and then you shoot your cousin.
an album stream.
starring the roots.
PITCHFORK: Stream The Roots' New Album ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin via Pitchfork Advance
weird science.
a moment of clarity.
words.
THE WASHINGTON POST: Michael Gerson: Americans’ aversion to science carries a high price
words.
THE WASHINGTON POST: Michael Gerson: Americans’ aversion to science carries a high price
Monday, May 12, 2014
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Friday, May 09, 2014
Thursday, May 08, 2014
MIXTAPE FRIDAYS!!!
cake.
a playlist.
1/g.u.y./lady gaga
2/indo/cassie + solange
3/hi/warpaint
4/drunk in love/beyonce + jay z
5/cash in/solange
6/birthday/katy perry
7/real thing/tUnE-yArDs
8/cobbler/kelis
9/disco//very/warpaint
10/runnin'/kelis
11/huey newton/st. vincent
12/pour it up/rihanna
m.v.p.
words.
"Durant told his mother, “We weren’t supposed to be here. You made us believe. You kept us off the street. You put clothes on our backs. Food on the table. When you didn’t eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You’re the real M.V.P.” The N.B.A. should broadcast Durant’s speech this Mother’s Day, and on every one after it. Even the most jaded SuperSonics fan would have to grant that the moment was not only a sports dream but also the American dream come to life. Talk about making it."
We all know strong (Black) women like this. And many of us have strong (Black) women like this in our lives. Forever deserving of our respect. Forever loved and in our hearts. Happy Mother's Day to them all, a few days early.
THE NEW YORKER: Kevin Durant’s Mother’s Day Gift
"Durant told his mother, “We weren’t supposed to be here. You made us believe. You kept us off the street. You put clothes on our backs. Food on the table. When you didn’t eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You’re the real M.V.P.” The N.B.A. should broadcast Durant’s speech this Mother’s Day, and on every one after it. Even the most jaded SuperSonics fan would have to grant that the moment was not only a sports dream but also the American dream come to life. Talk about making it."
We all know strong (Black) women like this. And many of us have strong (Black) women like this in our lives. Forever deserving of our respect. Forever loved and in our hearts. Happy Mother's Day to them all, a few days early.
THE NEW YORKER: Kevin Durant’s Mother’s Day Gift
world tour(s).
a moment of clarity.
words.
"It would be equally accurate to say that Obama, for the most part, has been following a consistent strategy—but one that many foreign-policy experts don’t like, because it mitigates against American interventionism. This strategy, which some would call “realism,” is based on cold-hearted self-interest. It’s equally skeptical of far-flung military entanglements and high-minded liberal nostrums. It’s a way of looking at the world that dates back to Machiavelli, and one which, at this moment in history, happens to have the overwhelming support of the American public.
...The war in Vietnam taught the United States that military force is a very blunt instrument, and that exercising it casually can backfire horribly. For some reason, the neoconservatives and the liberal interventionists both eventually forgot this lesson—but Obama, having risen to the Presidency largely on the back of his hostility to the war in Iraq, never did. Where declared enemies of the United States can be located and targeted, such as in Yemen and in the tribal areas of Pakistan, he hasn’t hesitated to use U.S. drones to attack them. Elsewhere, though, he has acted with caution.
...Where Obama sees vital U.S. interests at stake, such as in the progress of the Iranian nuclear program or the need to reassure Asian allies about the rise of China, he is willing to go out on a limb and show assertiveness. Even in the case of Ukraine, which is not an overriding U.S. concern, he has played the key role in bringing the Europeans together to support sanctions. For the most part, however, he follows the admonitions of his electors and keeps his eyes focussed on the home front. To the rest of the world, that’s sometimes frustrating. But compared to the actions of his predecessor, it’s a small fault."
THE NEW YORKER: Obama’s Foreign-Policy “Failures”: A Word for the Defense
words.
"It would be equally accurate to say that Obama, for the most part, has been following a consistent strategy—but one that many foreign-policy experts don’t like, because it mitigates against American interventionism. This strategy, which some would call “realism,” is based on cold-hearted self-interest. It’s equally skeptical of far-flung military entanglements and high-minded liberal nostrums. It’s a way of looking at the world that dates back to Machiavelli, and one which, at this moment in history, happens to have the overwhelming support of the American public.
...The war in Vietnam taught the United States that military force is a very blunt instrument, and that exercising it casually can backfire horribly. For some reason, the neoconservatives and the liberal interventionists both eventually forgot this lesson—but Obama, having risen to the Presidency largely on the back of his hostility to the war in Iraq, never did. Where declared enemies of the United States can be located and targeted, such as in Yemen and in the tribal areas of Pakistan, he hasn’t hesitated to use U.S. drones to attack them. Elsewhere, though, he has acted with caution.
...Where Obama sees vital U.S. interests at stake, such as in the progress of the Iranian nuclear program or the need to reassure Asian allies about the rise of China, he is willing to go out on a limb and show assertiveness. Even in the case of Ukraine, which is not an overriding U.S. concern, he has played the key role in bringing the Europeans together to support sanctions. For the most part, however, he follows the admonitions of his electors and keeps his eyes focussed on the home front. To the rest of the world, that’s sometimes frustrating. But compared to the actions of his predecessor, it’s a small fault."
THE NEW YORKER: Obama’s Foreign-Policy “Failures”: A Word for the Defense
Wednesday, May 07, 2014
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
Monday, May 05, 2014
blondie 4(0) ever.
album streams.
starring blondie.
ROLLING STONE: Hear Blondie's First Album in Three Years: 'Blondie 4(0) Ever'
starring blondie.
ROLLING STONE: Hear Blondie's First Album in Three Years: 'Blondie 4(0) Ever'
Sunday, May 04, 2014
Saturday, May 03, 2014
our house.
a moment of clarity.
words.
"The problem with Cliven Bundy isn't that he is a racist but that he is an oafish racist. He invokes the crudest stereotypes, like cotton picking. This makes white people feel bad. The elegant racist knows how to injure non-white people while never summoning the specter of white guilt. Elegant racism requires plausible deniability, as when Reagan just happened to stumble into the Neshoba County fair and mention state's rights. Oafish racism leaves no escape hatch, as when Trent Lott praised Strom Thurmond's singularly segregationist candidacy.
Elegant racism is invisible, supple, and enduring. It disguises itself in the national vocabulary, avoids epithets and didacticism. Grace is the singular marker of elegant racism. One should never underestimate the touch needed to, say, injure the voting rights of black people without ever saying their names. Elegant racism lives at the border of white shame. Elegant racism was the poll tax. Elegant racism is voter-ID laws.
...Like Cliven Bundy, Donald Sterling confirms our comfortable view of racists. Donald Sterling is a "bad person." He's mean to women. He carouses with prostitutes. He uses the word "nigger." He fits our idea of what an actual racist must look like: snarling, villainous, immoral, ignorant, gauche. The actual racism that Sterling long practiced, that this society has long practiced (and is still practicing) must attract significantly less note. That is because to see racism in all its elegance is to implicate not just its active practitioners, but to implicate ourselves."
THE ATLANTIC: This Town Needs a Better Class of Racist
words.
"The problem with Cliven Bundy isn't that he is a racist but that he is an oafish racist. He invokes the crudest stereotypes, like cotton picking. This makes white people feel bad. The elegant racist knows how to injure non-white people while never summoning the specter of white guilt. Elegant racism requires plausible deniability, as when Reagan just happened to stumble into the Neshoba County fair and mention state's rights. Oafish racism leaves no escape hatch, as when Trent Lott praised Strom Thurmond's singularly segregationist candidacy.
Elegant racism is invisible, supple, and enduring. It disguises itself in the national vocabulary, avoids epithets and didacticism. Grace is the singular marker of elegant racism. One should never underestimate the touch needed to, say, injure the voting rights of black people without ever saying their names. Elegant racism lives at the border of white shame. Elegant racism was the poll tax. Elegant racism is voter-ID laws.
...Like Cliven Bundy, Donald Sterling confirms our comfortable view of racists. Donald Sterling is a "bad person." He's mean to women. He carouses with prostitutes. He uses the word "nigger." He fits our idea of what an actual racist must look like: snarling, villainous, immoral, ignorant, gauche. The actual racism that Sterling long practiced, that this society has long practiced (and is still practicing) must attract significantly less note. That is because to see racism in all its elegance is to implicate not just its active practitioners, but to implicate ourselves."
THE ATLANTIC: This Town Needs a Better Class of Racist
Friday, May 02, 2014
love never felt so good.
starring michael jackson.
SPIN: Hear Michael Jackson's Off-the-Wall 'Love Never Felt So Good'
SEE ALSO:
SPIN: Hear Michael Jackson's Off-the-Wall 'Love Never Felt So Good'
SEE ALSO:
Thursday, May 01, 2014
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