Composer John Cage, who died in 1992, is perhaps best known for his musical piece 4’33": It consists of the pianist going to the piano, and not hitting any keys for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. (He uses a stopwatch to time this.) In other words, the entire piece consists of silences — silences of different lengths, they say. (Click … Read More
Attacking Bush’s Only Weapon: Fear
Everybody’s talking about Glenn Greenwald’s post at Hullabaloo. A taste: And literally for four years, this is what Americans have heard over and over and over from their Government – that we face a mortal and incomparably powerful enemy on the precipice of destroying us, and only the most extreme measures taken by our Government can save us. We are … Read More
What’s The Difference Between A Neo-Con President And A “Con” President?
Not much. Mark Schmitt observes: Roughly speaking, there have been four great showdowns over abuse of executive power in modern U.S. history. The earliest has to do with domestic surveillance by the CIA, and other ill-conceived schemes, as revealed by the 1975 Church Committee hearings. The second, closely overlapping the first, involved all the excesses of the Nixon administration, including … Read More
Those Who Can’t Do, Teach
Bush, today, apparently with a straight face (from the White House website): First, we’re going to work with the Iraqi government to increase the training Iraqi police recruits receive in human rights and the rule of law, so they understand the role of the police in a democratic society. Yup. The Bush Administration is going to teach Iraqis about human … Read More
The Question
Atrios asked a question several days ago, and Bush apologists still can’t answer it: No one has yet managed to explain how revealing that the administration illegally spies on American citizens without obtaining warrants, instead of legally spying on people after obtaining such warrants, damages national security. The only plausible answer is that the revelation clues in suspected terrorists that … Read More
Read Publius
Right now.
So…
I hear there was a football game or something last night? Was it any good?
Dave Barry Reviews 2005
Read it. Some samples…. From June: In disturbing medical news, a new study of 1,000 Americans finds that obesity in the United States has gotten so bad that there actually were, upon closer scrutiny, only 600 Americans involved in the study. From November: President Bush, needing to make another appointment to the Supreme Court, conducts a thorough and painstaking investigation … Read More
Lead Paragraphs We Love
From CNN: OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (AP) — A pastor who has spoken out against homosexuality was arrested after propositioning a male undercover police officer outside a hotel, authorities said. UPDATE: Big Brass Blog has more. Apparently, the pastor offered up oral sex, but told reporters later that he was "pastoring to the police". Oh, is that what they call it … Read More
Christiane Amanpour Update
Re: my posts here and here It looks like NBC is looking into whether or not there was eavvesdropping on the CNN journalist, Yestreday, NBC released the following statement: "Unfortunately this transcript was released prematurely. It was a topic on which we had not completed our reporting, and it was not broadcast on ‘NBC Nightly News’ nor on any other … Read More
You Knew This Was Coming…
Pat Robertson says that God is punishing Ariel Sharon: The Rev. Pat Robertson said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is being punished by God for dividing the Land of Israel. Robertson, speaking on the “700 Club” on Thursday, suggested Sharon, who is currently in an induced coma, and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated by an Israeli extremist in … Read More
And You Thought The Intelligent Design Thing Was Contentious…
An Italian court is tackling Jesus — and whether the Roman Catholic Church may be breaking the law by teaching that he existed 2,000 years ago.
The Strange Gets Stranger
Early today, I posted about Andrea Mitchell’s interview with James Risen. In that interview, Andrea Mitchell pointedly asked Risen if he knew anything about government wiretapping of CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour. Risen said "no", but it caused me (among others) to wonder what prompted the question in the first place. Was Andrea Mitchell aware of something that nobody else is? … Read More
Miner Miracle
The Talent Show looks at today’s major newspapers across the country, some of which carry the banner that the miners were found alive, and some of which actually get the story right. What amuses me (well, "amuses" isn’t the right word, but you know what I mean) is how the same photos are used to convey the entirely opposite outcomes. … Read More
Christiane Amanpour Being Spied On?
UPDATE: The story has gotten weirder since I first posted it. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviewed James Risen, the NYT writer who broke the NSA wiretapping story. Here’s the key segment of their interview: Mitchell: Do you have any information about reporters being swept up in this net? Risen: No, I don’t. It’s not clear to me. That’s one of the … Read More