Here is a very very funny video clip showing cats doing odd and amusing and unfortunate things. Must see!!!
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Update November 3rd, 2004: I have received a cease-and-desist letter from Disney informing me that this video clip is from America's Funniest Videos, and I have to remove it from my site.
Here's a brief overview of Leo Strauss and all the hubbub surrounding him with the rise of the "neocons" Bush Administration.
An interview with Chris Hedges, a reporter from the New York Times and author of "War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning". He was booed off stage and his speech cut short at Rockford College's commencement. Reading stuff like this makes you wonder why we make kids read Lord of the Flies at all.
"You know, as I looked out on the crowd, that is exactly what my book is about. It is about the suspension of individual conscience, and probably consciousness, for the contagion of the crowd for that euphoria that comes with patriotism. The tragedy is that - and I've seen it in conflict after conflict or society after society that plunges into war - with that kind of rabid nationalism comes racism and intolerance and a dehumanization of the other. And it's an emotional response. People find a kind of ecstasy, a kind of belonging, a kind of obliteration of their alienation in that patriotic fervor that always does come in war time.
As I gave my talk and I looked out on the crowd, I was essentially witnessing things that I had witnessed in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina or in squares in Belgrade or anywhere else. Crowds, especially crowds that become hunting packs are very frightening. People chanted the kind of cliches and aphorisms and jingoes that are handed to you by the state. "God Bless America" or people were chanting "send him to France" - this kind of stuff and that kind of contagion leads ultimately to tyranny, it's very dangerous and it has to be stopped.
I've seen it in effect and take over countries. But of course, it breaks my heart when I see it in my country."
Bill Moyers has a wonderful Memorial Day writeup on Alternet.
I am terribly saddened whenever I see righteous nationalism substituting itself for patriotism. It seems that democracy's greatest strength is also its vital weakness, and we see so many themes today reflecting that. Because we are free to speak, and free to trade, and free to own and free to war, we must be exceptionally aware of our actions and the ramifications of our decisions.
On Independence Day and on Memorial Day I think about all the horrors of hell that people have slaved through to bring us our nation and our prosperity. There is so, so much that we have to be grateful for, that we must spend our lives in remembrance... and yet, ignorance still reigns and our greatest enemies still come from within.
It's very depressing to think that those in power think ignorance can truly be strength; that by misleading the people and manufacturing consent, the nation can be steered, like a giant machine, into implementing whatever policies are the fad of the day. These very same people seem to understand that the strength of capitalism lies in the chaotic, dynamic balance of the free market; why can't they understand that the strength of democracy lies in a dynamic, informed citizenry?
Transcript of a speech given by Arundhati Roy. Depressing; worth a read.
Business 2.0 has a great little article about the rise of Vivid Entertainment and how porn is becoming mainstream. It's a fun read and there's a picture of Sunrise Adams on the first page! (Yes, she's fully clothed.)
"In our consumer-driven culture, Pop may have become a god, but its bible is still being written." Read the essay
Time has a good summary of two major incidents over oil in the past 50 years that have shaped our national policy and the Middle East. Definitely, definitely worth a read.
The Emperor's Club
The Dancer Upstairs
The Italian Job
Adaptation
The Hours
Down With Love
Frida (Geoffrey Rush! Ed Norton!)
Punch Drunk Love
This guy is rather pissed about the whole Iraq liberation thing. I rather think he's more pissed than I am! A nice excerpt:
And of course the capacity to be outraged and appalled has been entirely drained out of you, out of this nation, replaced by raging ennui and sad resentment and the new fall season on NBC. This is what they're counting on. Your short attention span. WMDs? That's so, like, last February. Hey look, the swimsuit model won "Survivor"!
GWBush.com has some an awesome selection of bumper stickers.
Among my favorites:
"I wasn't using my civil liberties anyway"
"Without Dissent It's Not America"
"Ken Lay Got the Surplus"
"You voted for Bush and all I got was this lousy recession"
"If you can read this, you're not the President"
Also, be sure to check out the main page, where you can download an MP3 of the leader of the free world saying "There ought to be limits to freedom", in reference to the GWBush.com site.
Bush has apparently succeeded in branding Democratic criticism of his tax cut proposal as "class warfare." Polls show that statements like these have helped to raise support for his tax cut by 10% in the last two weeks.
Bush took another preemptive strike yesterday during a speech in Albuquerque when he told a small-business audience, "Oh, you'll hear the talk about how this plan only helps the rich people. That's just typical Washington, D.C., political rhetoric, is what that is. That's just empty rhetoric."
As for whose rhetoric is empty, take a look at the numbers from the Brookings Insitution, hardly a bastion of left-wing ideologues:
Those same middle-income households would receive a tax cut of $452 and an income boost of 1.1 percent, while millionaires would receive a cut of $93,537, enough to increase their after-tax income by 4.4 percent.
So if you're a millionaire, you can buy a couple of Lexuses with your tax cut. If you're a middle-income household, then hip-hip-hooray! that's just over half a month's worth of housing for a family of four. That's money your family will barely notice.
Anyway, I suppose my point is this: if you want to cut taxes for ideological reasons--for example, because you dogmatically believe in trickle-down economics, or because you want to bankrupt the government in order to limit the scope of its responsibility--then be up front about it. It's too bad that a president who makes so much of personal morality is so intellectually dishonest.
Pictures from the last party at 76 College Ave are up! See silly Adrian, smiling Shaown, drunk-off-her-ass Mary, and a whole cast of other fun people!
Touting themselves as the "Christian Car Club", these guys do not "tolerate drinking, profanity, and sexual promiscuity".
Check out the pimpin' favicon! Oh, and don't forget to see the Christmobile!
Fortune has an article about Donald Rumsfeld's silence over his former company ABB's contract to build nuclear reactors in North Korea, despite the loud and almost unanimous uproar raised by fellow Republicans at the time.
The problem, say a number of nuclear energy experts, is that it's possible, though difficult, to extract weapons-grade material from light-water reactors. "Reprocessing the stuff is not a big deal," says Victor Gilinsky, who has held senior posts at the Atomic Energy Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "You don't even need special equipment. The KEDO people ignore this. And we're still building the damn things."
Given the Republican outcry over the reactor deal, Rumsfeld's public silence is nearly deafening. "Almost any Republican was complaining about it," says Winston Lord, President Clinton's assistant secretary of state for East Asian/Pacific Affairs.
"What do you want your professors to feel when you call them up?"
"Threatened!"
This story reports on the rising tide of upstart conservative newspapers on college campuses.
Do the people who start these things just feel righteous anger, or do they have some other axe to grind? It seems like one could engage campus silliness through other means.
I think slogans like "We do not apologize" speak volumes about the people who feel compelled to go to these special incubators. If you got something to say, say it, don't flaunt it.
I noticed something today - Comedy Central is actually pretty funny. On "Tough Crowd" with Colin Quinn tonight:
[regarding how to deal with North Korea and its alleged nuclear weapons pointed at the U.S.]
Adam Ferrara: "Seriously though, I think there are some peaceful ways we can go about..."
Denis Leary: "I don't think there *is* a peaceful way. They hate us, we hate them, they've got nukes pointed at us - there's no peaceful way."
Adam Ferrara: "Oh, you're right! Like that big Russian War we had."
Denis Leary: [trademark sneer]
Somehow I've managed to fix the Perl backend and Movable Type is all happy again. Yay. Look for more interesting and exciting posts in the next few days.