"There's an American TV show in which the president of the US is black. People say, 'Oh look, that's OK, there's a black president on TV.' That's completely humiliating because that's not how it is. There's no black president. Political correctness kills discussion." - Lars von Trier.

Have I mentioned how much I adore Roger Ebert lately? "Art-directed in gloomy House of Tudor colors, "The Other Boleyn Girl" offers high-toned pulp for those who like to imagine themselves superior to ranch-colonial Desperate Housewives, and who don't like to feel so guilty about the pleasure they get from vicarious lust and treachery. Movies like ( Read more... )

Let's talk about the real issues.

( Super-long political poll )

The "support the troops, not the war" fad bothers me on several fronts. Of course, being a fad, this is an unpopular position. But that's never stopped me from getting up on my soapbox before. In fact, if anything it's probably my biggest motivator to speak up. ( And it's rants like this where my conservative sensibilities start to shine through )

My dad loaned us Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer on audio CD, and Katie has been listening to it pretty much non-stop for the last few days. I haven't been listening too closely to it, but this particular clip caught my ear ( Read more... )

I'm at Trabant. Typical scene. Two older men. Turtle necks with tweed jackets. Arguing about religion. What Christ meant when he said "blah, blah, blah". What the problem with society is. Why Bush is like a Crusader. I assume they're professors. Or they're students who never graduated but never left; take your pick. Anyway, they're really ( Read more... )

My theory on all of this madness about immigration rights is that it was a very clever ploy by economically conservative politicians* (and the corporate funders that hold their leashes) to gain popular support for the exploitation of illegal workers and the continued weakening of labor laws.

Last year the essential workers legislation gained a ( Read more... )

I posted about this a long time ago but I thought it was interesting enough to revisit.

Poll

Feel free to discuss.

I was going to make a post talking about how many liberals will put Europe on a pedestal, but crescimento happened to beat me to it in his post " Screw you Europe". So, instead of recreating the wheel, I've just left a lengthy comment there and am providing this entry as a reference for those of you who have something to say about the topic ( Read more... )

Archiving and deleting is as important to a healthy information management system as indexing and sorting.