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WHO were you on September 11th? To paraphrase the political cliche, are you really different now from what you were two years ago? A collective blog project taking place in one week (of course) will try and answer that question.
comment posted at 12:34 PM on Sep-4-03
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comment posted at 7:00 PM on Sep-4-03

Lies and the Lying Presidents Who Tell Them. The Washington Monthly publishes its "mendacity index" of the last four U.S. presidents, ranking their overall history (and severity) of lying. TWM's site also lets you rate them yourself, just in case ranking the 20 worst Americans got boring.
comment posted at 4:03 PM on Aug-27-03

Pray for Paul Wolfowitz Many across America and Americans in other countries are heeding the call to pray for our President. In a short time since the September 11 terrorist attacks, well over a million people have registered their promise to pray daily for the President. That number is increasing by tens of thousands of new team members every day. News of The Presidential Prayer Team is spreading rapidly throughout America as people march to the tempo of an almost forgotten tune, "God Bless America." The independent, nonprofit organization behind The Presidential Prayer Team, has a singular purpose: to encourage specific nationwide prayer for the President. The goal is to enlist at least 2.8 million participants, or 1% of the American population, to make this prayer commitment.
comment posted at 3:52 PM on Aug-22-03

Alabama's Chief Justice refuses to remove Ten Commandments. Despite a unanimous decision by the 11th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Chief Justice Roy Moore has refused to remove the four foot high, two and a half ton monument to Christianity, vowing he'll take the case all the way to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the sharks are already beginning to circle.
comment posted at 2:35 PM on Aug-21-03

Chaos in Iraq is breeding support for terrorists. This is a refreshingly lucid piece by Jessica Stern on the situation in Iraq. Stern has also written recently on al Qaeda's protean nature. She is the author of Terror in the Name of God, and apparently she was the inspiration for Nicole Kidman's character in The Peacemaker.
comment posted at 2:52 PM on Aug-21-03

We're number one! We're number one! From a source quoted in the article: "We have the wealthiest society in human history, and we maintain the highest level of imprisonment. It's striking what that says about our approach to social problems and inequality." (apologies for the usual US-centrism)
comment posted at 2:17 PM on Aug-18-03

On Sundays West Coast Live I heard an interview with Adam Johnson, the author of Parasites Like Us, a post-apocalyptic novel with a decidedly (if somewhat spurious) anthropological bent. Literary criticism aside, as an anthropologist myself (and die-hard sci-fi reader), it got me thinking of what our vaunted Western culture may have to offer the survivors of whatever catastrophe may befall our civilization in the future. From classic novels like Earth Abides, or even The Stand, writers and storytellers have tried to discern what may be the surviving aspects of culture once all else fails; what it is that has made and defines us as modern humans, and perhaps what it is that will sustain us. So, what is it that would sustain you? What would separate you from the crazed and the mad that seem to populate the annals of post-apocalyptic literature? Or perhaps more specifically, what is it that you value of your culture and your technology that makes it worthwhile to maintain and perhaps fight your way back to?
comment posted at 12:59 PM on Aug-18-03

"Bring them home now!" is a campaign of military families, veterans, active duty personnel, reservists and others opposed to the ongoing war in Iraq and galvanized to action by George W. Bush's inane and reckless challenge to armed Iraqis resisting occupation to "Bring 'em on." At a news conference yesterday, reported the Washington Post, the organization has stated their goals of returning to their home bases the 150,000 U.S. troops serving in Iraq.
comment posted at 7:33 PM on Aug-14-03

Officials: Bush Administration Was Slow to Approve Drones to Kill Bin Laden I am not able to say how accurate this posting is, but I post it because it strikes me that if true, Bush is certainly not the strong and forthright Texan gunman he has been made out to be. Any one know more on this issue?
comment posted at 2:19 PM on Aug-12-03
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comment posted at 6:52 PM on Aug-12-03

"So I thought about the story of the rabbit jumping into the fire and realized that Grendel would have wanted to give me every last little bit of joy possible, and I should do something truly personal with her body. I decided to make a fancy dinner with her." (via memepool)
comment posted at 3:27 PM on Aug-11-03
comment posted at 3:41 PM on Aug-11-03

The Itsy-Bitsy Spider. I was looking online to try and identify the freaking huge spiders I saw today (possibly wolf spiders), and I came across this hand spider identification chart. Slightly unnerving when the spiders randomly wiggle. Perhaps more so if you have a problem with spiders.
comment posted at 11:57 AM on Aug-9-03

Jeus hates Christmas.
comment posted at 2:57 PM on Aug-8-03

Geek or killer? Can you tell the difference? (via Daypop)
comment posted at 3:01 PM on Aug-4-03

Interesting list of college athletic teams' nicknames. [More inside.]
comment posted at 2:24 PM on Aug-4-03
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comment posted at 3:50 PM on Aug-4-03

Larry Flynt will run in the California recall election And he's serious too. Could he get the plurality needed to win? Oh and Arnold has anounced... that he'll anounce his decision on the 6th
comment posted at 4:12 PM on Aug-1-03

The war just got $30mil more expensive. (More inside)
comment posted at 3:35 PM on Jul-31-03
comment posted at 3:37 PM on Jul-31-03
comment posted at 4:19 PM on Jul-31-03

An article in the newest Adbusters magazine asks the question - is America becoming fascist? (a condensed version of this article written by Anis Shivani Oct. 2002). In it, Shivani states that “American fascism is tapping into the perennial complaint against liberalism: that it doesn't provide an authentic sense of belonging to the majority of people. And that is a criticism difficult to dismiss out of hand. As the language of liberalism has become flat and predictable, some Americans have become more ready to accept an alternative, no matter how ridiculous, as long as it sounds vigorous and muscular.” More inside...
comment posted at 9:34 PM on Jul-28-03

Doc Savage Pulp Covers, 1933-1949.
comment posted at 2:58 PM on Jun-26-03

Unbrand America
In the coming months a black spot will pop up everywhere...on store windows and newspaper boxes, on gas pumps and supermarket shelves. Open a magazine or newspaper - it's there. It's on TV. It stains the logos and smears the nerve centers of the world's biggest corporations.
comment posted at 3:18 PM on Jun-11-03

Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected and rightful leader of Burma (Myanmar,) and the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was arrested by Burma's military government 9 days ago after a premeditated attack on her motorcade. The U.N. representative visiting Burma has not been allowed to see her. There has been a crackdown on the democracy movement, and Suu Kyi's arrest may signal a split within the military government. [More inside.]
comment posted at 6:23 PM on Jun-9-03

Regime Change Bonanza. Donald Rumsfeld is pushing for Iran to be the next to fall.
comment posted at 10:05 AM on May-30-03
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comment posted at 1:27 PM on May-30-03
comment posted at 2:21 PM on May-30-03

They're ugly. I mean small and really ugly! And they don't do us any favors at all. We can hold each other's hands, and share support. Our fight against them may lead to knowledge in other battles, but I think its time to go on the offensive. Its time to defang the beastie. (Maybe I should have posted this at Warfilter instead?)
comment posted at 3:35 PM on May-20-03
comment posted at 3:47 PM on May-20-03

Texas Rangers are facing a unique task. They have been sent to arrest over 50 Democrats and drag them back to Austin, TX. The problem: They've fled Texas to 'hide' in Oklahoma. The reason why they left the state? To stop a quorum on Congressional Redistricting.
comment posted at 2:47 PM on May-13-03

And they say irony is dead. Bush and Blair are nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, for...
uh...
...I guess for waging war.
comment posted at 3:47 PM on May-8-03

Did Bush know? An article in today's New York Times (link to mirrored site with no reg. req.) pieces together data that the author claims proves that Bush and his inner circle were well-aware that they were using false "evidence" of Iraqi WMD. Sy Hersh from the New Yorker is also chiming in, as is Salon's Joe Connason and Katha Pollitt of The Nation. A pretty decent subsection of media is finally descending on this story. If Bush or Powell or Rumsfeld are proven to have been knowingly deceitful, will the American public be even half as angry as the rest of the world?
comment posted at 3:01 PM on May-6-03
comment posted at 3:15 PM on May-6-03

Happy Loyalty Day, Everyone!
comment posted at 2:30 PM on May-1-03
comment posted at 2:57 PM on May-1-03
comment posted at 3:56 PM on May-1-03

New push to 'get U.S. out of U.N.' Congressman Ron Paul asks for House floor vote during a time of disdain for the global organization. HR 1146 is also known as the American Sovereignty Restoration Act.
comment posted at 3:14 PM on May-1-03

Draft Clark, the website recently established to promote the idea of recruiting retired Gen. Wesley Clark as the Democratic nominee for vice president, "seems to have been taken down and replaced with the word 'chromium.'" [via PoliticalWire.]
comment posted at 3:16 PM on May-1-03

Former N. Korean Nuclear Contractors are "pretty sure that at some point Don was involved," since it was not unusual to seek help from board members "when we needed contacts with the U.S. government." An article in yesterday's Fortune mentions and quotes a number of former employees/contractors for a Swiss engineering firm -- headed by Donald Rumsfeld at the time that Pyongyang began getting its nuke on. Nevertheless, Today Rumsfeld, riding high after the Iraq war, is reportedly discussing a plan for "regime change" in North Korea. But his silence about the nuclear reactors raises questions about what he did--or didn't do--as an ABB director. unsurprisingly, the media is not exactly all over this.
comment posted at 3:07 PM on May-1-03