How to deal with institutions that simply don’t “get” the internet? In response to a call by Body and Soul, I wrote the L.A. Times and requested that they institute permanent links to stories so that scholars and bloggers can link to their stories without worrying that these links would become out-of-date. Not providing permanent [...]
Why did Bobby Jindal loose the New Orleans governor’s race? The Black Commentator argues that it was a mixture of solidarity with the democratic party among the Black voters and a racist reaction against the Republican Party by rural Whites. The article sees the vote as a repudiation of both Republican and Democratic efforts to [...]
In my travels in the developing world, I’ve often been struck by how even those who hate the United States for its foreign policy have a very idealized image of what life is like in the U.S. “Even the poor people have cars and flush toilets!” You hear. Well, it isn’t true. There are plenty [...]
An American woman has been left with a British accent after having a stroke. This is despite the fact that Tiffany Roberts, 61, has never been to Britain. Her accent is a mixture of English cockney and West Country. Doctors say Mrs Roberts, who was born and bred in Indiana, has a condition called foreign [...]
American’s top man in Baghdad, L. Paul Bremer, last week fired 28,000 Iraqi teachers as political punishment for their former membership in the Saddam Hussein-dominated Baath Party, fueling anti-U.S. resistance on the ground, administration officials have told United Press International. If true, this is truly, truly, stupid. My understanding is that almost anyone who wanted [...]
“Attorney General Ashcroft has dismissed critics of the Justice Department’s tactics as ‘hysterical’ and has even said that such criticism aids the terrorists,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. “But this bulletin confirms that the federal government is targeting innocent Americans engaged in nothing more than lawful protest and dissent. The American people deserve [...]
An interesting article, although like many articles one reads these days, the Iraq tie-in is somewhat tangential to the real point of the story, which is a recounting of Reagan era abuses in Central America, especially Guatemala. (It is a very good history of U.S. involvement in Guatemala, by one of the reporters who broke [...]
So how does Kobayashi, who weighs only 145 lbs., beat the 408-pound Edward Jarvis at a hot dog eating competition? (Note: Kobayashi’s competitor in the photo is Eric “Badlands” Booker, not Edward Jarvis.) It turns out that he has a very strict training regime: Kobayashi’s regimen includes shrinking his gut by jogging for hours, then [...]
Three excellent articles relating to the flap over Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean’s “confederate flag” remark. First, from Paul Krugman: Howard Dean’s remarks about the need to appeal to white Southerners could certainly have been better phrased. But his rivals for the Democratic nomination should be ashamed of their reaction. They know what he was [...]
Please consider supporting grocery workers who are on strike–holding the line for health care. More than 80,000 supermarket workers are fighting to protect health care benefits as their employers–grocery super-chains like Safeway-owned Vons, Albertsons and Kroger-controlled Ralph’s–attempt to cut their health care–driving these workers into poverty. The AFL-CIO has set up a national strike support [...]