April 30, 2008
The Lynching of Jeremiah Wright
Somebody should explain to corporate media bloviators that the United Church of Christ is mainstream — more mainstream, in fact, than they are. Formerly known as "the pilgrims", the early church in America is perhaps more responsible for the political ideas and practices embodied in the U.S. Constitution than any other group. The Presbyterians (my family's affiliation), with their highly decentralized polity, might come close. These establishment WASPs, however, are a dying breed, almost never heard from anymore. Easy targets.
April 27, 2008
Feeding the World
OK — food prices are rising fast, not least here in the U.S. Various countries around the world are stockpiling and rationing staples. Lots of people go hungry. So the establishment paper of record, the Washington Post, publishes a Sunday morning front page feature. Nowhere in it, however, does the word "population" appear. I'm not sure whether this reflects garden-variety stupidity or complete brain-washing against arguments about limits to growth, but either way it's perfectly representative of the impoverished intellectual life in our imperial capital.
April 18, 2008
A Non-commercial Product Announcement
Even in minute quantities, bad bacteria do terrible things to my gut. I'm like a human 'bad bacteria geiger counter'. It's due to my iron over-load disease — lots of food makes me really, really sick. Years ago I gave up eating canned tuna because it always made me sick, and I figured that the reason must be because in big fleets they've got dead tuna in their nets, sometimes for days, that don't get processed properly on a factory ship. OK for regular people, but not for me. Recently, however, I had a craving for a tuna sandwich so, by chance, I picked up a can of American Tuna brand pole and line caught Albacore. To my astonishment and delight I did not get sick (and I've eaten several more cans since), and I'm pretty sure I know why: this tuna is really fresh. And it tastes somewhat sweet. Add just a little organic mayo, and salt and pepper, and spread on a couple slices of toasted Rye. A great sandwich. Even better, the same except open-face with a slice of organic tomato and a slice of organic cheese under the broiler for a classic tuna melt. Available at Whole Foods.
April 17, 2008
An Exchange of Letters Regarding Tibet
Last week, Sean-Paul Kelley, a friend of EP and long-time EP Podcast listener, who's an editor at The Agonist, asked me if I would be interested in having a public exchange of letters debating the wisdom of Western encouragement of Tibetan separatists. "There's a lot more to it than just sticking a thumb in China's eyes," he wrote. Our debate was scheduled to start this Wednesday — due to a delay I jumped the gun (sorry). And since I had gone to the trouble of dredging up a bunch of material about Tibet I wanted to share some of that, and also a few other thoughts I'd not originally intended to include. As composed here my thoughts are not, perhaps, expressed in the limpid prose warranted by a more formal exercise in logical argument, but that's OK. Now we're on, I'm going first and Sean-Paul's reply will be added below with whatever exchange ensues. This graph has been updated but the following content is as originally posted. (Photo credit Phil Borger, for fair use.)
Continue reading "An Exchange of Letters Regarding Tibet"...
The ABC "Debate"
Just a quick word about this — I only watched the first five minutes or so, so it wouldn't be fair for me to condemn the entire proceedings — I'm glad to see the Huffington Post and elsewhere filled with vitriolic criticism of ABC for practicing fake journalism. From the few minutes I watched I knew it would be a waste of time. Loaded questions. Trivia. Sensationalism. Grandstanding by Clinton (assuming Obama gets the nod and Clinton offers to campaign for him his response should be "please don't trouble yourself until I call back"). Almost torture to watch. ABC: you should be ashamed! Peter Jennings would never have countenanced such a travesty...
April 15, 2008
Has McCain Lost His Marbles?
People who used to know him say that John McCain used to talk to himself regularly, at night, when alone in his Senate office. This is, indirectly, from disaffected former staff, and he treats many of his staff like crap, so take it with a grain of salt. I suspect, nevertheless, that it's true. In any case, McCain's recent gaffes on who are Sunni and who Shia don't seem to me trivial. Reviewing the tapes, what I see is an old guy who's already lost a few of his marbles — I'd expect to see continued deterioration over the next, say, four years. Unless, maybe, a medical review proved his mental fitness. There's that, and his cancer, too, which makes me wonder: why won't the McCain campaign release his most recent medical reports?
Hurry Up And Wait ‼
What I object to about Hillary's vainglorious race isn't that she might win (she has a snowball's chance in hell), nor that she'll damage Obama for the general election (he'll be fine — ultimately the damage will be self-inflicted, from people's revulsion with her tactics), but that she's putting the general election on hold for months and months longer than necessary. Instead of a real debate over health care, now, a real debate over Iraq, now, a real debate (as Obama hinted at the other day) over the Bush junta's criminal conduct, now, and all the rest of it, we get to see her swilling shots for votes in Bronko's restaurant and lounge in Crown Point, Indiana. Pardon me, but politics in this country has not yet reached the lows of "reality tee-vee". We've all got better things to do than wait for Hillary to bow out: the Democratic establishment should take charge and give her a swift kick in the ass!
April 10, 2008
Tibetan Splendor
It used to be, Olympic events were a prime grazing ground for spies. Recruiting, counter-espionage, jumping through the hoops: a darn good time was had by all. What role the Olympic Committee played in this remains unknown. With the end of the Cold War, however, clandestine Olympic activities went into the deep freeze. Until now. What's up, I want to know, with Tibet and China?
