Using Bees To Effect Vengeance |
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I get to be as self-indulgent as I want without wasting anyone's time. Guilt-free solipsism -- excellent!
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Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Friday, April 25, 2003
At my former job, an intern once told me that she got all her news from the Daily Show. I despaired. But since Jon Stewart became host, I'm starting to think that might not be such a bad thing after all. The New York Times concurs in its piece on the show, which under Stewart is smarter, more pointed and more incisive than ever. The fact that an ex-Onion staffer is co-producer might have something to do with it. | Rafe points to this alarming article concerning John Ashcroft's decision to overrule a panel of judges and instead proclaim that illegal aliens can be detained indefinitely even if they're acknowledged to pose no threat to national security. The immigrant in question was a Haitian asylum seeker, and Ashcroft acknowledged that he wasn't a danger to the US -- but overruled the judges anyway on the grounds that dealing with illegal aliens in general was proving a strain on resources. He also questioned whether asylum seekers had due process rights. | The primary reason we moved to New York was to facilitate punkrockgirl's celebrity sightings. The red herrings about pursuing careers in the theatre or the Burgeoning Internet Marketing arena can safely be dispensed with now. Gawker's new Celebrity Sighting feature, then, would have been more fun to follow from a Manhattan eyrie -- or basement apartment -- rather than a Central Austin bungalow (bungalow...such a graceful, mellifluous word). But still.... | Thursday, April 24, 2003
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
George Martin always says that The Beatles should have condensed the White Album into a killer single album. He is of course, completely wrong. What gets cut? Revolution 9 is cool, but cuttable. Good Night is a good natured pisstake, but inessential. But then what? Even the subpar stuff, like, er...the...hmm. Hell, you have a go for yourself and tell me if you end up with a single album that's better than the double they released. And don't you dare cut Honey Pie! [via Metafilter] In the same vein, I recently trotted out Anthology 3, and took a listen to the alternate version of Glass Onion contained therein. Wow! Sweaty upper lip time. Has anyone ever compared to The Beatles' genius/minute quotient? Even Beethoven has to roll over by that standard. [Please note the measured and concise nature of my little appreciation -- usually a stray reflection on the genius of The Beatles ends up snowballing into a furious weeklong binge of Beatlemania, with the upper lip sweat positively spraying off me and my earlobes aching from ill-fitting headphones.] | Wednesday, April 16, 2003
There's an editorial in the Times that echoes some of my thoughts about the European attitude towards work as compared to the American attitude. I feel like each has made a different choice -- generally speaking, America has chosen to work harder (longer) for a higher material standard of living (overall -- not counting for economic inequality), Europeans have chosen to work less but have more "free time". I feel like each choice is valid, but have wondered whether, by working harder, America continually improves its efficiency and productivity -- thereby enabling US companies to outcompete European companies, resulting in more unemployment in Europe (which there certainly is). If that's true, Europe will be forced to abandon its current system for a more ruthless American-style work ethic. There are hundreds of economic variables that come into play, so I don't know if my concern there is legitimate. I hope it's not, because the author's Take Back Your Time initiative is most welcome. America needs to get off the treadmill. (Another thought -- incomes in Europe may not be that much less, but take home pay is significantly less, since higher taxes are required to pay for the extra social services. Oh, and prices are higher as well, so actual buying power is less. Again, a perfectly legitimate tradeoff, but a tradeoff nonetheless). What do you think? Should the US adopt more of a European model? How do we do that? Edit: there's already a good thread about this piece at Signal vs. Noise, for what it's worth. | Monday, April 14, 2003
If you're like me, you spend entirely too much time calculating your most efficient transportation options. For someone like me, moving to New York is akin to handing a crack addict a gift certificate to Spoons & Zippos. The range of permutations creates overload, and figuring out the smartest, most inexpensive way to get from A to B consumes an ungodly amount of synapse juice. Luckily for you New Yorkers, someone has taken the time to figure out the monetary permutations for you -- check them out here. You'll still have to figure out if the B, D, Q, W, R, 1, 2, 3, or 9 is the smartest route to take, but at least you'll be carrying the most appropriate subway currency. As for me, most of my fiendish scenario-spinning has been channeled into Fantasy Premier League Football (with good results -- I'm #1 in my group with 4 weeks to go). [via Kottke] | Friday, April 11, 2003
The latest evidence that pop culture is America's greatest weapon: a voyeuristic trawl through the abandoned residence of Tariq Aziz, as well as one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. These worldwide symbols of resistance to American hegemony read Danielle Steele novels, watched The Sound Of Music and Sleepless In Seattle, listened to Britney Spears and put up pictures of Sylvester the Cat on their kids' walls. Amazing. | Thursday, April 10, 2003
I probably should be posting something more sweeping and profound on this historic day for Iraq, the entire Arab world, and indeed, the United States. But Sex Tips From Donald Rumsfeld is pretty funny, especially the "dirty talk" question. | Monday, April 07, 2003
Thursday, April 03, 2003
Recently, the New York Times magazine ran a fascinating piece about The Philosopher of Islamic Terror. It introduces us to Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian whose thinking seems to have prefigured and informed al-Qaeda and Islamism in general. The piece now resides behind the NYT's pay-per-view archive (a piece on Qutb in the Guardian is not as satisfying), but equally brilliant and eye-opening is Salon's interview with its author, Paul Berman. Seriously, bite the bullet and watch Salon's little ad in order to read this interview -- it's worth it. Salon, with its usual devastating subtlety has chosen to entitle it "Bush is an idiot, but he was right about Saddam", but it's really a challenge to liberals to honor their tradition of anti-fascism and support for human rights. I really feel like this guy is identifying something important, and I'm completely in agreement with his analysis on a number of points -- specifically, how liberals ought to be viewing the Iraq situation and the threat of terrorism, the shallowness of Noam Chomsky's worldview, the unfortunate way that liberals can unwittingly align themselves with their worst enemies (e.g wartime French socialists with Vichy, European Communists with Stalin).... I'm tempted to cut and paste the whole damn thing as a public service, but here is a choice excerpt: What we need is a politics as I describe in my book, a new radicalism which is going to be against the cynical so-called realism of American conservatism and traditional American policy, in which liberal ideas are considered irrelevant to foreign policy. And also against the head-in-the-sand blindness of a large part of the American left, which can only think that all problems around the world are caused by American imperialism and there's nothing else to worry about. What we need is a third alternative -- a politics of liberal solidarity, of anti-fascism, a politics that's willing to be interventionist when tyrants or political movements really do threaten us and the people in their own countries, a politics that's going to be aggressive in spreading and promoting liberal ideas and values in regions of the world where people who hold those values are persecuted. A politics of active solidarity, not just expressions of solidarity, but actions of solidarity with liberal-minded people in other parts of the world. It's scandalous to me that large parts of the political spectrum aren't acting on this now. Where are all the universities and human rights foundations and trade unions and all the other civic associations in the United States? Where are those groups now? Why aren't those groups acting now to establish links of solidarity with people of the Middle East and Muslim world? To try to foment movements, or even revolutions, on behalf of liberal ideals? | Wednesday, April 02, 2003
Military specification for suitable cookies (pdf). Truly Pythonesque, to wit: "5.3.2 Style A, Shortbread. The cookies shall have a sweet, buttery odor and flavor. The surface color shall be light tan to medium brown with the interior crumb having a lighter color than the surface." Can you imagine the hellish existence of the poor soul given the responsibility for writing this document? | |
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