Bush has suddenly decided that the Iraq occupation is kinda like Vietnam after all, but of course he’s careful to draw the wrong conclusions from the comparison. The article quotes American University historian Allan Lichtman as saying that Bush’s spin on the situation “is not revisionist history. It is fantasy history.” On a related note, […]
Entries Tagged as 'History'
Roundup: Fantasy History Edition
August 23rd, 2007 · 1 Comment · Apple, Blogs, Books, Business, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Energy, Food, Foreign Policy, Health, History, LGBT, Macintosh, Media, Nature, News, Peace, Pets, Politics, Racism, Roundup, Science, Tech, TV
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Books: “Too Slow a Form of Information Delivery”
July 13th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Books, Culture, Education, History, Internet, Lit, Mythology, News
Scary quote of the week: In an article from the LA Times about the sad passing of another indie book store owned by a wonderful old eccentric — which is kind of like losing one of the last 12 rare rhinoceroses or something – anyway, toward the end of that article, we read this: Dowdy […]
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NYC Fire Fighters vs. Giuliani
July 12th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Activism, Culture, History, Labor, News, Politics, Terrorism, Video
Speaking of unions … here’s what the New York fire fighters’ union has to say about Rudy Giuliani. It’s a little slow to get going, but if you take a few minutes to watch the whole thing, it’s pretty damning. Rudy really made some incredibly bad decisions. For example, I hadn’t known about him […]
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Liking Norma Rae
July 10th, 2007 · Comments Off on Liking Norma Rae · Activism, Culture, Film, History, Labor, Media, News, Peoria, Politics, The Economy, Stupid
After reading this piece, which originally ran in The Nation, I bumped Norma Rae up on my Netflix queue and was very glad I did. I was really too young for it when it came out in 1979, and had somehow never gotten around to renting it in the years since. And seeing Norma Rae […]
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Notes on Sicko: A Prescription for Change
July 6th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Activism, Culture, Film, Health, Healthcare Crisis, History, Journalism, Media, News, Politics, Science
I saw Sicko Tuesday night, and it did not disappoint. The main impact for me is this: Watching this film makes it unavoidably clear that we as a nation have been completely duped, conned, and as the kids say, “pwned,” by those who’ve spent millions to convince us that universal healthcare is too expensive, can’t […]
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Roundup: Solar-Powered Wi-Fi Turtle Edition
July 5th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Apple, Business, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Film, Food, Hate Crimes, Health, Healthcare Crisis, History, HIV/AIDS, Internet, LGBT, Media, Music, Nature, News, Politics, Racism, Roundup, Science, Tech
Nicole at Crooks and Liars puts it well: It’s ironic to be celebrating Independence Day during a time when we have a virtual King who defies the law with impunity, and is not held accountable to the people he governs. Revolution? What revolution? Also at C&L, what a TV newscast looked like on July 4, […]
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Quote of the Week
June 24th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Culture, Essays, Foreign Policy, History, News, Peace, Politics, Terrorism
From an essay entitled “The Middle of Nowhere,” by Edward N. Luttwak, which appears in the July 2007 issue of Harper’s, reprinted there from the May issue of Prospect: Hardliners keep suggesting that with a bit of well-aimed violence (“the Arabs only understand force”) compliance will be obtained. Yet what happens every time is an […]
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How a Certain Republican President Felt About US War Casualties
June 1st, 2007 · 1 Comment · History, Journalism, Media, Peace, Politics
Over at This Modern World, Jonathan Schwarz quotes a line from The Final Days by WoodwardandBernstein, taken from the phone calls with Nixon that Kissinger secretly taped and transcribed: During another call, Kissinger mentioned the number of American casualties in a major battle in Vietnam. “Oh, screw ‘em,†said Nixon. And as Schwarz observes: An […]
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Copy Rights and Wrongs
May 29th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Books, Culture, Film, History, Law, Lit, Video
This way-clever video, which I found on YouTube, uses short snips from various animated Disney films to provide an entertaining education on the nature of copyright, fair use, and the public domain. The daunting reality is that copyright has way gotten out of control in recent years — where once upon a time copyright […]
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A Book That Will Live in Grinfamy
May 25th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Books, Comedy, Culture, History, Journalism, Language, News
This is a laugh-out-loud good time. Janet Maslin at the New York Times reviews the new book about Pearl Harbor (titled simply Pearl Harbor) by Newt Gingrich and his co-author, William R. Forstchen. The title of her review? “An Assault on Hawaii. On Grammar Too.” OK, I could have stopped right there, and that would […]
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In His House at R’lyeh the Ronald Waits Dreaming
May 8th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Culture, History, LGBT, Lit, News, Politics, Theater
Apparently the Republican candidates spent their recent debate going on and on about how great Ronald Reagan was and blah blah “Morning in America” blah blah Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn! blah. Oh, Republican candidates. You silly creatures. You really should know better than that. Because now I’m going to have to open a […]
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Doctor Who Season Three Debuts July 6 in the US
April 30th, 2007 · Comments Off on Doctor Who Season Three Debuts July 6 in the US · Culture, Doctor Who, History, News, Science Fiction, TV
The Doctor Who two-part story “Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks” wrapped up this weekend on the BBC, with the Doctor and Martha battling Daleks (and their pig-headed assistants) in the newly built Empire State Building in early 1930s New York, against the backdrop of the depression. The episodes featured some great historical background, with […]
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Remembering Kurt Vonnegut: “A Rather Daft and Kind Old Man”
April 16th, 2007 · Comments Off on Remembering Kurt Vonnegut: “A Rather Daft and Kind Old Man” · Blogroll, Blogs, Books, Culture, History, Lit, News, Peace, Uncategorized
Gregory Rodriguez has a piece in the LA Times today in which he remembers working as an editorial assistant for Kurt Vonnegut’s publisher, and getting to know Vonnegut as he worked on revising Hocus Pocus for publication. Their first meeting, as Rodriguez recounts it, has Vonnegut displaying a vulnerability that is at once charming and […]
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