Author Archive

Women in power?

From Salon:

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on women in power: “I’m not a person who thinks the world would be entirely different if it was run by women. If you think that, you’ve forgotten what high school was like.”

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July 6, 2006

Courtesy of UrbanDictionary:

check your neck – a phrase used as a warning to be on the look out for someone or a group of people whom are going to attack you. Used mainly among prisoners and street hoods to instill fear in a rival gang member or person whom they dislike.

i.e. – best check your neck son

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It’s a Liberal Sing A Long

And you and your money grubbing, war mongering conservo-bot friends aren’t invited:

Date: June 27, 2006 5:06:22 PM EDT
Subject: News Release: A Prairie Home Companion

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COME SING ALONG WITH GARRISON KEILLOR, MERYL STREEP, LINDSAY LOHAN AND THE REST OF THE CAST OF ROBERT ALTMAN’S A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION

NEW YORK, June 27, 2006 — Theater chains across the country are hosting “Sing Along” screenings of Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion, where audience members receive a book containing lyrics from the songs in the film and are encouraged to sing along with the cast.

“When the film opened we noticed that people immediately responded to the music and would hum or sing right along with the film,” said Bob Berney, president of Picturehouse. “Since the film has such a communal feel to it, we decided that going into the holiday weekend, we should encourage the audience to interact with the film and one another.”

Currently, “Sing Along” screenings are taking place in more than one hundred theaters across the country.

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Intellectual Zingers (it tastes like burning)

Consider yourself Zinged to the Nth degree, Mr. Kaplan:

To be sure, there has been previous unrest in Kaplanistan. In 2000, the historian Robert Kagan noted Kaplan’s “cheap pessimism,” his indifference “as to whether societies are governed democratically or tyrannically,” and his “weak” grip on history: “Just about every historical event or political philosopher he discusses he gets at least half-wrong.” In 1993, the Balkans expert Noel Malcolm gutted Kaplan’s Balkan Ghosts for its many errors of fact and judgment; Kaplan’s hapless response earned this rejoinder from Malcolm: “The basic problem, I think, is that Mr. Kaplan cannot read.” Kaplan’s new book, Imperial Grunts, in which one cannot be sure whether the latter word is a noun or a verb, has unleashed a new offensive. Writing in The New Republic, David Rieff takes Kaplan to task for his “boneheaded nonsense.” In the New York Times Book Review, David Lipsky laments that Kaplan “appears to have become someone who is too fond of war.” But these traits have been visible in Kaplan since his first book, as has his love of intellectual shortcuts and invincible humorlessness. Kaplan’s real and growingly evident problem is not his Parkinson’s grip on history, or that he is a bonehead or a warmonger, but rather that he is an incompetent thinker and a miserable writer.

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A Few Lightyears Away CNN

Breaking news from CNN: Iraq contractors make billions on the front line.

Private military contractors are earning billions of dollars in Iraq — much of it from U.S. taxpayers. Business is booming for those willing to tackle one of the most dangerous jobs on Earth. Lucrative U.S. government contracts go to firms called on to provide security for projects and personnel — jobs that in previous conflicts have been done by the military.

Gee, REALLY? No one ever thought about this before. Ever.

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