FAIL? I think this list of the 25 Best Conservative Movies might even achieve EPIC FAIL levels. If you can't bear to click on the link, here's a quick rundown of what 25 people think the top 25 conservative movies are (in my rundown, I don't bother to mark the names of most of these ersatz critics, thinking it charitable to let them distance ( Read more... )

Disenfranchisement is a serious matter, not to mention a serious word, but I was thinking about it this morning in the shower--well, that's actually where I do most of my serious thinking. I thought, if we set a minimum age for voting, how difficult would it be to set a maximum age, and would it be beneficial to do so ( Read more... )

That's it--Happy Obama Day!

Voting today in Chicago: no line at 10am at the St. Augustine College polling location in south Logan Square/north Humboldt Park--in fact, maybe 6 people voting, max, which is equal to or less than the number of poll-workers there. No older black women in tears about living to see the day. No college kids voting for the first time because now they ( Read more... )

I like Rachel Maddow, of course, and I like John Hodgman, por supuesto!

So I guess it's only natural that I like them together.

[Edit: Having trouble embedding video. Advice?]



[Coming up: a ((very) short) essay on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.]

After long consideration on this matter, I'm going to reduce the number of political arguments I get into at various right-wing websites.

There's a diminishing return to arguing with the reality-proof¹: at first, it's fun to skewer contradictions and idiocies (no, toppling Saddam Hussein did not isolate Iran by removing its natural ally); And ( Read more... )

I love that my gmail filter (with no teaching on my part) puts emails from Obama's campaign in my inbox, and puts emails from McCain's campaign in my spam folder.

Also, I think it's time we start considering that most Nixonian apparatus, the Enemies List.

Tom Lehrer, speaking of the Spanish Civil War, sings that Remember the war against Franco?
That's the kind where each of us belongs.
Though he may have won all the battles,
We had all the good songs.
Now, I'm not a defeatist when it comes to elections, I'm more bipolar. But as long as I'm manic now, I thought it would be good to coordinate, and that ( Read more... )

Every morning, this last week, I've woken up and watched The Daily Show (and The Colbert Report) to clear the taste out of my mouth of the Republican Convention from the night before. So far, it's worked pretty well. Highlights:

• Sept. 3: the comparison of Thompson to Foghorn Leghorn and Lieberman to Droopy (non-political, but so perfect)
• Sept. 3: the ( Read more... )

So, how do you feel about this political moment? This time next year we'll either have a black man or a white woman in the White House (as mr_void noted), which is nice, even if I suspect the woman in the White House will be asked to get the coffee. I'm interested in this now, although I did have some hopes that Lieberman would get the nod, which would ( Read more... )