First Looks category archive
“Back from the Shadows Again” 0
(With apologies to the Firesign Theatre.)
I have returned from my Secure Undisclosed Destination. Shortly after I got there, the local intranet crashed, so I was unable to irritate persons in public.
But I’m back.
I Hadn’t Read This Column Yet 0
Fortunately, Steve saved me the trouble.
“The Kinetic Fallacy” 0
Tim F. explains it here.
Swift Responses 0
Jon Swift has posted his Best Blog Posts of 2008 (Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves).
Read it.
Now.
Why?
He may well be the best writer on the innertubes. His thumbnails of the entries are a hoot.
(Plus I’m right near the top because I happened to be sitting here when his email requesting a submission came in.)
Drinking Liberally 0
Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, Chestnut between Letitia and Second, Philadelphia, 6 p.
If all goes well, I’ll be somewhere else.
Hoist one for me.
The Republican Party Breaks New Ground in Stupid 0
(Yeah, I know this is going to be blogged to death and no one will notice my little rantings back here in the last row, but, as my mother would have said, “Honestly!“)
Lead* from The Hill:
Gunnar Myrdal said that “the Negro problem in America is a white man’s problem.”
Clearly, these Republicans do have quite a problem.
I will not pretend to understand the dynamics of contemporary race relations in the United States. I will claim to understand a lot of the history of them, because I’ve studied it. And I have lived through major changes in them, from growing up under Jim Crow to living, these days, thankfully, not under Jim Crow.
Anyone who would argue that racial prejudice–not to mention religious prejudice, sex (“gender,” by God! is a grammatical concept–it has to do with words, not persons) prejudice, and other types of prejudice are not part of American society is a fool or a self-justifying bigot or a combination thereof.
Now, I’m not arguing that the “Barack the Magic Negro” guy is personally a bigot. I don’t know the gentleman and, fortunately, hope never to meet him.
I will argue and have argued that the Republican Party made itself the party of bigotry with the odious “Southern strategy.” Whether or not individual party hacks leaders were personally bigots is immaterial; the party set out to take advantage of bigotry for electoral gain (in much the same way as it cynically recruited fundamentalist right-wing Christians with its phony-baloney “family values” rhetoric).
I will say this with great certainty: Anyone who’s lived through any part of the 60 years of the current civil rights struggle and hasn’t figured out what he can’t say (or do) in public without getting into trouble is too stupid for words.
(That, of course, eminently qualifies him for RNC Chairperson.)
Steve has more over at ASZ. A nugget:
(The Hill via Huffington Post.)
______________________
* It’s “lead,” as in the “lead into the story,” not “lede,” dammit. Misspelling a word does not make it more important or more special.
Drinking Liberally 0
Tuesday (St. Servulus Day), Triumph Brewing Company, Chestnut between Letitia and Second, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p.
Dick Polman on Darth Cheney 0
The whole analysis of the uber veep is worth a read.
Here’s a nugget (emphasis added):
Nor did he (Cheney–ed.) bother communicating, at least in ways that approximated the truth.
The Bush administration went into free fall for a host of reasons – such as its documented incompetence in Iraq and New Orleans – but it can fairly be argued that, at some point, a landslide majority of Americans simply decided that the White House was telling too many lies. And Cheney was a prime offender. No leader, even a legendarily skillful infighter like Cheney, can repeatedly insult the public and get away with it indefinitely.
Travelog: Big Easy Dept. 0
I’ve been to New Orleans.
It was quite a while ago.
We had a good time, but, even after all these years, I pretty much agree with this.
Understatement 0
Well, golly gosh gee, Batman.
Buy the Book 0
Will Bunch has a book. Buy it. Here.
Freedom of Thought 0
Without, I’m sure, intending to do so, because that was not the point of her post, Karen has described what freedom of thought and freedom of religion are all about:
Well said, Karen.
Fight for the Country, Suffer for the Country, Go to Hell 0
VA:
Officials say help is on the way, but administrators are forever promising to streamline procedures for an era of conquered paperwork that never seems to come. That is why it is heartening to see that one promising form of help has indeed arrived: a 599-page guide to veterans’ issues, from educational help to vocational rehabilitation, from housing to citizenship.
H/T Karen for the link.
Global Swarming 0
Over at the Booman Tribune.