ummm...

Open mouth, insert foot. Best wishes to the Russert family.

A scavenger hunt in a NYC apartment.
An interview with J.G. Ballard in The Guardian, and an excerpt in the latest Harper's.

Can't forget what happened last night...

The Celtics had an amazing comeback!

U.S. Finally Gets Around To Closing Last WWII Internment Camp
Scott Horton weighs in - A Setback for the State of Exception.

Outrageous.

Fox News has gone too far (again, but this is disgusting beyond all measure). Referring to Michelle Obama as "OBAMA'S BABY MAMA"? How dare they use such a slur! There is no excuse for such blatantly sexist and racist remarks. No apology could possibly suffice. This is outrageous behavior for a "news organization", but it is even outrageous behavior for a reactionary propaganda cadre such as Fox News.

The definition of baby mama from urbandictionary.com:

baby mama

The mother of your child(ren), whom you did not marry and with whom you are not currently involved.
Oh her? She ain't nothing to me now, girl, she just my baby mama. So, can I get your number?;

And from Wikipedia:

A baby mama (also baby-mama and baby-mother) is a mother who is not married to her child's father. The Oxford English Dictionary defines baby mama as "the mother of a man's child, who is not his wife or (in most cases) his current or exclusive partner".[1]

Fox News doesn't do "news". It does targeted, political attacks clothed in entertainment. I hope Americans have the good sense to switch channels once and for all, and that Fox goes bankrupt for such callous and demeaning remarks. The posers on Fox are always first to take offense at anything, real or imagined; if they can't find enough offensive about someone in their sights, they make something up, such as questioning the patriotism of that person for not wearing a flag pin on their lapel.

They have no right to call foul in such a clear and unambiguous case of vicious, hateful propaganda.

It must stop, now.
Stand To better stand up and do the right thing.


(Tip-o-the-hat to D'Alessandrius!)
The return of Habeus Corpus. Hallelujah! A return to reason is a welcome thing.

Rebroadcast

Indecision 5768...

The Black Cab Sessions.
It's a powerful motivator. Hate informs much of human interaction - too much. Us versus them. Me versus you. It is so easy to hate. It is so primal, so visceral. It is much harder to understand or to listen.

Ya wanna see some hate? Here's The Obama File. It's not mere demagoguery - it's hate. This is just the beginning, of course. By November, the hate machine will be running on all cylinders, cranking out ugly crap at an alarming rate. The hate machine will align itself with powerful interests, and money will pour into its coffers, and hate will become a full-fledged industry, not just the cottage variety of the Obama File.

Very soon, we're going to find out what America is really made of. We'll soon see if the people of this country still deserve the Republic that our ancestors created or whether we have devolved to such a degree as to be only worthy of the country that BushCo. have left us with.

I remain skeptical. People in this country voted for George W. Bush not once, but twice. A people that stupid, that suicidal do not engender faith in their decision making capabilities. I hope my skepticism will be proved wrong...

Exactly.

David Gailbraith hits the nail on the head.
for better or worse, things change. Like today for instance. Here's an article on the end of the monarchy in Nepal. Or this - the rise of the Salaryman in Japan... while another fights for his job in Turkey... well, at least this is good (news) - [Via things magazine]
How is everyone today? About to turn on the NBA Finals, but thought I'd post some things of interest...Is peak oil a myth? One guy thinks so. Kinda doubt he's right... Six, count 'em, six times! Cautionary words for Obama - The Iran Trap. A lack of sensitivity, or an overly satirical wit? Die Tageszeitung claims satirical innocence... you decide.

For all you guitarorists out there, check out the new Moog Guitar.

Bizarre.

A series of 14 videos documenting a visit to North Korea. Start here.
Yet another example of the deceitful practices of BushCo. - Gitmo interrogators told to trash notes.
Well, isn't this interesting... according to a new study, 92% of English-language books skeptical of environmental issues printed between 1972 and 2005 have roots in conservative think tanks (CTTs). Surprised? Don't be. It isn't hard to find the workings of CTTs in almost any aspect of contemporary life. Tip-o-the-hat to Andrew Sullivan...

Sunday Morning

Something's wrong. The sun is shining, the birds are singing. As Ren Hoek would say, it's too nice a day to be stupid indoors. I can't remember the last time I saw sunshine in the morning here in Portegon... what? oh, that?... It's a contraction my young daughter made a few years ago of Portland and Oregon... Portegon. Rolls off the tongue nicely.

Anyway, it's over. Billary called off their campaign and endorsed Obama yesterday. It'll be interesting to see what they get in return for putting their narcissism on the back burner. Now Obama can focus on defeating McBush. Let loose the dogs of war...

• The New York Times Magazine is featuring architecture today, and there are some things more or less worth reading in it. An article entitled Cities for Living by Roger Scruton in the City Journal - that bastion of reactionary thought - caught my eye. It discusses urban design and the work of Leon Krier. It is such an awful article that I cannot recommend it enough. I'm writing a response to it, which I hope to finish and post soon.

• Ian Buruma discusses Standard Operating Procedure in the New York Review of Books this week.

I hope it's sunny wherever you are, too.

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