Archive for June, 2004
URGENT
REQUEST FOR URGENT FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIP
FIRST, I MUST SOLICIT YOUR STRICTEST CONFIDENCE IN THIS TRANSACTION. THIS IS BY VIRTUE OF ITS NATURE AS BEING UTTERLY CONFIDENTIAL AND ‘TOP SECRET’. I AM SURE AND HAVE CONFIDENCE OF YOUR ABILITY AND RELIABILITY TO PROSECUTE A TRANSACTION OF THIS GREAT MAGNITUDE INVOLVING A PENDING TRANSACTION REQUIRING MAXIIMUM CONFIDENCE.
I AM […]
Profits
Nathan Newman has an excellent post about the reality behind the “economic recovery.” First, he quotes from The Economist:
… for many Americans the economy does not seem so wonderful. The fruits of this recovery, thus far, have been more evident in firms’ profits than in workers’ wages. As a share of GDP, wages are at […]
Under God
There has been great discussion of the phrase “under God” as it is used in the Pledge of Allegiance over at LanguageLog. The long and the short of it is that the phrase, as used by Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address, from which the words were taken when the Pledge was updated, was not used […]
Kurds
That the Kurds are unhappy about being sidelined in the new Iraq is not news. That there is “ethnic clensing” of Arabs in areas that were “cleansed” of Kurds under Sadaam is not news. But that Pentagon officials ignored high level advice from a former U.S. ambassador to institute a plan to officially handle property […]
Plea Bargaining
I was watching last night’s Frontline on “The Plea” (you can watch it online starting Monday), and I was struck between the similarity between how they described the process by which one man pled guilty to murder charges and an article I had read earlier on car salesman.
Here’s how we were supposed to get the […]
Disdain
The rising disdain of the press corps would be positively delightful — except for knowing that it took an unnecessary war, widespread torture, probable war crimes, and several high-level acts approaching treason to get the press to finally show a little proper skepticism.
Shashwati
I’m very happy to announce a new blog that you should all immediately add to your blogrolls, feed readers, bookmarks, etc.
Shashwati’s Blog starts off with a bang, announcing her love of Russ Meyer movies:
I wish there were more Faster Pussycat type films, the best film every made or will be made according to John Waters…
Be […]
Bruce
The Daily News is reporting rumors that Bruce Springsteen might perform opposite the Republican National Convention in New York:
Democratic operatives are buzzing that the Boss has been talking about staging a free concert somewhere on Sept. 2, when President Bush is due to address the Republican National Convention.
It turns out that this is almost true. […]
Ethics
Republican logic:
The Ethics in Nominations Project plans to assemble a group of ethicists to outline rules for how senators should deal with judicial nominees.
The project will seek to highlight what its organizers see as corruption in the confirmation process.
How do these fine conservatives know the confirmation process is “corrupt”?:
Because of the internal Democratic Judiciary Committee […]
Robes
On the recommendation of LanguageHat, I’ve been reading Abdelrahman Munif’s Cities of Salt trilogy. I just received the second volume, The Trench, in the mail, and a particular passage leapt out the page at me. The central character in the novel, introduced at the end of the first one, is the
Machiavellian Dr. Subhi Mahmilji, the […]
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
