Posts Tagged ‘librarian

06
Dec
13

Nelson Mandela - A personal eulogy

As I’m sure you’ve all determined by now, I’m a bit odd. And that was true in my childhood as well.

I was probably the only freshman in high school who would stop off and buy copies of the New York Daily News and New York Times every morning. (Daily News for the sports and local news, NYT for the national and international news.) And Dan Rather’s broadcast was appointment viewing for me every night.

Growing up I was, while not consumed, very mindful of the struggles of black South Africans to secure freedom from apartheid. For most of the 1980s, their struggles dominated the evening news and newspapers. I remember curling my lip in disgust when the Reagan administration pursued “quiet diplomacy” with the racist regime. That told me all I needed to know about Reagan, as if I didn’t know enough already.

Growing up, Nelson Mandela was a mythic figure, the Once and Future King, kept on the isle of Avalon (Robben), awaiting to return to a nation in desperate need of him. And it finally happened in 1990.

Continue reading ‘Nelson Mandela - A personal eulogy’

08
Nov
13

Repeat After Me: There Is No Liberal Media

The previous President, after the attacks of 9/11, engineered a war with a state which, though abysmal to its own people, had had no direct or indirect link with any terror attack on the United States. It was, if anything, a mortal enemy of the group which carried out the attacks, as that group saw the ruling regime as corrupt and un-Islamic. As the history of that war is being written, the regime sought to stave off war, willing to give the previous President anything he wanted, save for the regime’s destruction. Of course, the regime as it existed stood in the way of the grand plan to remake the Middle East; its destruction, not its containment, was the goal. Anything short of political—and literal—suicide would not suit the ultimate purpose. So the country and the world were lied into a war, which cost nearly 5,000 American lives, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths; a war which was supposed to last a few weeks and pay for itself instead dragged on for nearly a decade, costing over $1 trillion. And the Middle East, far from being remade into a collection of benevolent American satrapies, teetered on the edge of all-out war for the eight years of the George W. Bush administration.

That President, however, was never asked to apologize for the disaster he had wrought. And if ever he had been asked to apologize in a face-to-face interview, he never offered one: no apology for the countless dead, for the treasure wasted, for the lives destroyed. It’s just not the done thing.

Well, it used to not be the done thing.

Continue reading ‘Repeat After Me: There Is No Liberal Media’

25
Sep
13

How the GOP became bad pantomime

Because any article that has “pantomime” in its title needs an appropriate overture, a bit of Monty Python to start things off:

And really, that’s what the GOP has devolved to: a Monty Python skit, but not as humorous, and with much more dire consequences for the country.

Let’s take a short trip down memory lane and dissect the GOP’s behavior since 2009.

Continue reading ‘How the GOP became bad pantomime’

18
Sep
13

Comedy chat - The genius of “HISHE”

When it seems like the world is whirling too much in a maelstrom, one needs to stand back, take a breath, and laugh.

“HISHE” is the Youtube sensation “How It Should Have Ended”. They’re short animation clips which present alternate—and more logical—endings for Hollywood blockbusters.

So, without further ado, it’s time for the funny.

(FYI, there are spoilers in these clips, so if you haven’t seen the movies and still want to see them, don’t play the clips.)

“Oblivion”

Continue reading ‘Comedy chat - The genius of “HISHE”’

18
Sep
13

More adventures in our failed media experiment: Part 1,382

Esteemed NBC White House correspondent and political director Chuck Todd caused quite a furor this morning.

Speaking on Morning Joe, he said quite openly what many of us have just assumed to be the truth by virtue of careful observation: that it’s not the media’s job to correct misinformation and falsehoods. He made this comment in relation to the Obamacare debate, saying that the GOP has been better at “messaging”—i.e. getting the media to repeat its lies ad nauseam—while the Obama administration and Democrats have failed to make their case.

Confronted with significant pushback on Twitter, he had this to say:

Oh no! He was “trolled”, because someone—actually, several someones—called into question why he even has the job of “journalist” if he’s saying that it isn’t his job to fulfill a journalist’s prime responsibility, which is to give his readers/viewers/listeners accurate information about the world around them.

Continue reading ‘More adventures in our failed media experiment: Part 1,382’




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  • Apologies and Arrogance: How Basic Human Emotions Dictate the Modern GOP Trevor LaFauci
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  • #Pixels: A sign of the Apocalypse?
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  • As list of Trump detractors grows, tone deaf attacks unlikely to sink him
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