As I mentioned on Twitter, giving Obama the Nobel Peace Prize would be like if the 1907 committee had given the Nobel Prize for Medicine to Mary Mallon. It would be interesting to have some documentary filmmaker speak to the Afghan and Pakistani civilians who have lost family members and get their reactions to Obama’s [...]
All right, this is getting to be too much. I ignored it when a friend warned me not to “defend rapists” on her LJ for linking to an article (See sidebar for the link.) Now another friend has signed a petition calling for this 76-year old man to “receive justice.” The cynicism is appalling. There [...]
Tags: Media · Politics · Steve
The World Socialist Web Site has just finished a four-part article on the 1938 general driver’s strike in Minneapolis. It’s quite good. It can be found here.
Tags: History · Politics · Steve
It seems to me that many LWPs when discussing AR with POCs and other LWPS (not to mention RSs) sound as they’ve gotten so LiA that they are CI. Is it necessary to be OttPoA in order to discuss AR? Does it really help to become LiA to the point where you sound like a [...]
It started with reading the sidebar of Making Light–a habit I encourage. On “PNH’s Sidelights”, I came across this. It’s brief, take a moment to read it. Now, here is my problem. A certain Walter Williams says “Thirty, 40 or 50 years ago, no one in their right mind would have believed the Merv Grazinski [...]
Tags: Media · Politics · Steve
I have set out to write in defense of tobacco. I do it for the challenge. There are other things that would be almost equally challenging, but I don’t know enough about them: I’ve never committed pedophilia or sent out spam emails or run for congress, so tobacco seems the only remaining choice. I know [...]
Tags: Health · Politics · Steve
Apparently a number of my friends are hurt, puzzled, angered, offended, or some combination because known gay-bashing Reverend Richard Warren was asked by Obama to give the inuagural invocation. I don’t know whether to be hurt, puzzled, angered, offended, or some combination by how they’re reacting. Some of Obama’s appointments include: Ken Salazar for Secretary [...]
Damn, they sure do sound noble, don’t they? “We can’t bail out the auto makers unless they gave us a plan.” Lovely. “They shouldn’t ask the tax payers to pay for their mistakes.” Uh huh. “Look at those executives flying to meet with us in private jets.” Ducky. Am I missing something? Didn’t they just [...]
Many years ago at Fourth Street, a bunch of us sat around for too many hours and came up with the following theory: From the perspective of society, the function of art* and the function of science are identical; the difference is that the final product of science is a theory, the final product of [...]
Tags: Politics · Steve · Writing
I put this on the sidebar, but I thought I’d link to it here, as well, in case anyone felt inclined to talk about it. Leon Trotsky on Culture and socialism.