Posts
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Seriously, Stop Obsessing About Paladino.
You probably heard all about it: the Republican nominee for the governor of NY made a nasty remark about gays. NY Times and NPR can't stop reporting about it. Predictably, Andrew Sullivan reacts to Paladino's rant with his own typical Sullivan rant. I take one look at Intrade and Pollster and say: who gives a shit. In all seriousness, the chances of him being elected are pretty slim, and clearly rants like this are not particularly helpful. Yes, it is infuriating for a serious candidate for political post to be saying these things .. but honestly, maybe his slim chances of being elected are a testament to how marginal and extreme his views are? So instead of wasting time and energy on him, can we all please get more sleep or run for 10 minutes?
Monday, October 11, 2010
"The Nobel thus not only crowns a career but provides the basis for a fine future Javier Bardem/Antonio Banderas movie."
Gay Marriage Trivia.
Due to reasons I may (or may not) discuss another time, I was on the Wikipedia page on civil partnerships in the UK and on the right hand side, in the list of countries and jurisdictions that recognize same-sex marriage, I see a list: United States: CT, DC, IA, MA, NH, VT, Coquille. Huh? Well, apparently Coquille is an Indian tribe in Oregon which legalized same-sex marriage in 2008. “We want all people to be open to benefits and accepted in our group,” stated the Tribal Chief.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Bad, Bad Due Process!
A terrorist is on trial. The key witness is not allowed to testify since his identify was revealed as a result of torture. The terrorist might possibly be acquitted. As Glenn Greenwald points out, the neocons are angry at Obama for subjecting us all to the inconvenience that is due process.
And of course they are also angry at the assholes who tortured the guy and botched the case in the first place. Finally faced with potentially adverse consequences of torture - a terrorist could be acquitted - they insist on investigating the torture regime of the previous administration.
A man can dream, no?
Thursday, October 7, 2010
“There’s class warfare, all right. But it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Taliban in Afghanistan, Back to Future.
This is quite bizarre. In 2001, when the US attacked Afghanistan "to find Osama bin Laden and other high-ranking Al-Qaeda members to be put on trial, to destroy the organization of Al-Qaeda, and to remove the Taliban regime which supported and gave safe harbor to it," few probably imagined that the outcome of the war would be for the Taliban to be in the government of Afghanistan. And yet, that is what is apparently happening, according to this article, which says that Karzai is in talks with the Taliban over a negotiated end to the war.
I would lie if I said I can envision a different end to the war. But God, how dispiriting: after all these years of fighting, how is one to feel about the fact that Taliban might be back in power in Afghanistan? And not because we failed to stop them from doing so by force but rather because they negotiated some sort of a deal? And how does the "surge" factor into this? What about the counter-insurgency strategy? The administration will have a lot of explaining to do.
More importantly, if a negotiated settlement with our original enemy ("we will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them") is indeed the ultimate solution, can we all please stop for a moment and agree on the obvious conclusion to leads to with regards to American military intervention in foreign lands? Please?
Wanda Sykes: "Neh, nobody's gonna bully me, come on."
Wanda Sykes, Kathy Griffin and Tim Gunn. It's like gay cocaine.
Evil Genius? Who cares.
Pretty good article from the Times about Zuckerberg. I genuinely believe that success on this scale is 5% skill and 95% total randomness (right place, right time, etc). That said, the movie was super fun. http://nyti.ms/atfaaF
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
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