I've never seen this justification for democracy promotion given by a U.S. official.  Granted, you usually don't see justifications for democracy promotion at all.
America has many goals but one we believe in strongly is helping nations build their own democratic institutions, because democratic countries rarely experience famines or start wars; ( Read more... )

Is Superman A Traitor?  "in the short story “The Incident” in Action Comics #900, Superman is renouncing his American citizenship."

Result: A Little Bit of Cosmic Rage.  Aside from the "I will never buy DC comics again!" declarations, there's actually a decent amount of soul-searching in those comments.  I have zero investment in Superman, and I'm ( Read more... )

Tim Hetherington, the conflict photographer who directed Restrepo, was killed in Misrata, Libya (along with many Libyans).

Cue some genuinely asinine comments by people suggesting that Restrepo is "sedition" because war doesn't need to be shared, and Hetherington got what he asked for and "it's hard to feel much grief for those who walk in to harms ( Read more... )

I'm making this call based somewhat off comments on Idol-watching blogs and somewhat off the American political scene today.  And a bit based off American Idol's own trends.

American Idol's past three winners have been different versions of the same basic type: the safe white male (by safe I mean unthreatening to middle class, white America).  ( Read more... )

I've never been made unsafe because of my demographics.  I'm half-white and half-Javanese, but I pass.  I look a lot whiter now than I did when I was younger (my skin has gotten paler, I've started looking more like my mother, IDK).  I guess most people can identify that I don't look totally teutonic, or whatever, but I get to rest in the safe " ( Read more... )

From Richard Seymour (Lenin's Tomb), "A community of heroes":
Roosevelt et al contended that to save America, a new frontier was needed: by waging wars of expansion, always with the fondest motives, always with civilisation and Christian virtue in mind, Americans would be impressed by their collective power and would "come to see themselves, as ( Read more... )

1.  Marc Thiessen on Jon Stewart - extended, unedited interview, in three parts.  One of those cases where Jon Stewart looks genuinely disturbed.  Part 3 is like arrgh.  This is Marc Thiessen - he has an endorsement from Dick Cheney: "Marc Thiessen knows, in ways that few others do, just how effective, heroic, and morally justified were the ( Read more... )

French Open starts tomorrow!  I'm predicting a lot of rage in terms of the results (can't have 2009 every year, I suppose), but I still love the French Open.  The French Open is like, the soccer tournament of the Grand Slams.  There are few things more amusing than watching the French spectators heckle the American players and the American players ( Read more... )

Context:  I saw the first Iron Man because our passes didn't work on Speed Racer (I was one of those crazy people who liked Speed Racer, btw), and I must confess that it was a little much for me.  I know, "too much" is basically the definition of a superhero movie, but the whole uber-American rock star CEO thing was just not something I could get ( Read more... )

Long ass story about how I got to this site (and it does not involve my own feelings toward America), but I thought the different laws states have for flag abuse were kind of neat-o.  I can only conclude there are no Bloods in Oklahoma or South Dakota.

Colorado
The State of Colorado makes it a Class 3 misdemeanor for anyone to burn, cut or tear any U ( Read more... )