|
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Holy guacamole! Joan Croc just left NPR $200 million!
posted by Mr. Ripzaw at 9:52 AM
|
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
Next time they're about to complain about the undue attention paid to negative developments in Iraq, certain hawks should read this cartoon.
posted by Mr. Ripzaw at 11:52 PM
|
According to this poll of 800 adults, only 42% of Americans can name at least one US Executive Department (State, Defense, etc) or member of the President's cabinet (Powell, Rumsfeld, etc.). A total of 4% of those surveyed could name 5 or more. That's out of 19. It gets worse if you look at how many could name any specific agency. Just... just look at it yourself. I can't go on talking about it.
posted by Mr. Ripzaw at 5:33 PM
|
It really does seem suspicious that an all-Republican conference committee would remove the Senate-approved anti-profiteering clause from the Iraq spending bill, doesn't it?
posted by Mr. Ripzaw at 5:17 PM
|
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Another article about the Russian situation, this one from Matt Taibbi of the New York Press. It presents Mr. Khodorkovsky's arrest in an entirely different light, that of the rule of law making one last attempt to rein in a vicious mobster. I'm a bit skeptical, as it seems a little too zealous about attacking not only a wide array of business and businessmen, but also capitalism in general; a little too accepting of the tools of totalitarianism; a little nostalgic for the days of "the revolution", perhaps. Nevertheless, Russia is a foreign place, and I don't know what the heck is going on over there. This guy's as likely right as anyone else.
posted by Mr. Ripzaw at 6:31 PM
|
Just when you think things couldn't get any dumber, you realize that, by order of the President, we are now observing Protection From Pornography Week.
posted by Mr. Ripzaw at 12:02 AM
|
Monday, November 03, 2003
This editorial on the coming 40-year anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination is, in my opinion, quite a moving piece. It begins with the following paragraph:
Benjamin Disraeli, in a speech before the British Parliament, once said, "Assassination has never changed the history of the world." Some terrible decades later, the sentiment was repeated by Robert Kennedy, who commented upon the death of his brother with the Disraelian observation, "Assassins have never changed history." Benjamin and Robert were both wise men. Both were completely wrong in ways difficult to measure. Robert, specifically, was not just wrong, but dead wrong.
Note: I am entirely unfamiliar with the editorial's author, William Rivers Pitt, or his site on which this is posted, truthout.org. I have no idea if he's a flaming liberal, flaming conservative, moderate, moron or Martian. But, at least in my reading, this editorial isn't about any of that. It's about violence, and the violence that it leads to, and the world we may have lived in had we not allowed any of it to take place. Hopefully, we can still all agree on that.
posted by Mr. Ripzaw at 11:00 PM
|
Sunday, November 02, 2003
In a recent Lewis-and-Clarkian exploration of the internet, I came across re-select.com, a humble purveyor of Anti-Bush bumper stickers. I would have left without much thought, were it not for a link near the bottom of the page, describing a rather bizarre episode involving liberal commentary storehouse Buzzflash. Supposedly, Re-Select wanted to advertise on Buzzflash, which had run some of their commentary in the past, but Buzzflash, after ignoring their first inquiries, told them to buzz off. They then proceeded to use some of Re-Select's copyrighted material to promote their own line of bumper stickers. When Re-Select brought this up, Buzzflash responded with a rude, not to mention unsigned and ungrammatical, dismissal.
Now, I've got no dog in this fight, but I was interested in a sotry that seemed to place a fairly well respected site (Buzzflash) out of character. I decided to send them an email, with a link to Re-Select's accusation and the question "I'd hate to think that you guys ignore your fans and violate their copyrights. I've made no conclusions, but I sure would like to hear your side of the story. Preferably in complete sentences." Buzzflash responded with the following:
we don't violate copyrights. period. we don't have time to engage in nonsense with loose canons. believe what you want to believe. we have work to do.
Now, I've never been a reader of Buzzflash. I can now assure you that I will not in the future either. I still don't know what happened between Buzzflash and Re-Select, but if their response to a member of the public seeking to give them the benefit of the doubt is this kind of blowoff, lacking in even the most basic aspects of courtesy, then I have absolutely no interest in patronizing their establishment.
posted by Mr. Ripzaw at 4:22 PM
|
|
