scott says05/15/2008
Next, please
A post back, I asked people to explain to me why they thought meeting with Iran (as Obama proposes) was a worse idea than the Bush/McCain/Clinton strategy of blustering in the irrational hope that this somehow persuades Iran to do what we want it to.
…
So, would anybody else like to take a crack at explaining why we can’t talk to Iran?
Joe Klein at Time states that Iran does not want to talk to the United States, either. NYT says that Iran pulled out of negotiations because of what we’re doing in Iraq.
It’s not a bad idea to meet with Iran, in my opinion, but it seems that using the UN and/or IAEA to deal with the nuclear issue is an approach that will be more widely accepted on the world stage.
Text posted at 23:53
05/13/2008
» The Myth of Voter Fraud - NY Times Editorial
[T]he driving force behind strict voter ID requirements in general is not a genuine effort to prevent fraud, since there is virtually no evidence that in-person voter fraud is occurring. It is, rather, the Republican Party’s electoral calculations. Barriers at the polls drive down voter turnout, especially among the poor, racial minorities and students — groups that are less likely than average to have driver’s licenses, and that are more likely than average to vote Democratic.
Link posted at 02:39
Jon Stewart interviews former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, part two.
Make sure you watch part one as well.
Video posted at 01:22
Jon Stewart interviews former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith regarding his new book about the lead up to the Iraq War.
This is an essential clip for anyone interested in the selling of the war to the American people. Make sure you watch part 2 as well.
Video posted at 01:22
05/12/2008
» New group ("VoteBoth") with Clinton ties pushes a dream ticket
Denial is a defense mechanism, postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence. [src]
Link posted at 02:39
05/11/2008
» 8 fonts you probably don’t use in css, but should
This is good. Not much has been written on web-safe fonts beyond the standard Times New Roman and Arial articles from seven years ago.
Link posted at 22:22
» Obama Would Consider Freestyle Meetings on the Road With McCain
Barack Obama is taking “very seriously” the idea of holding town-hall style discussions alongside John McCain, his chief strategist said Sunday.
Promoted by the McCain campaign, the events would unfold as joint debates, perhaps without a moderator, and resemble the approach taken during the Abraham Lincoln-Stephen A. Douglas presidential race of 1860.
Lincoln-Douglas debates??? Please make it happen! The last time I saw something this incredible happen in politics I was watching The West Wing.
Link posted at 16:44
05/09/2008
Quote posted at 04:56
For those of us who have found ourselves watching trick pool on ESPN at three in the afternoon
Video posted at 04:16
05/08/2008
Recognize that scarf? If you don’t, take one stop on the L train and you’ll see it all over the place. Or maybe you could just watch the news. You’ll likely catch a glimpse of it there.
So how did this turn into this?
Well, the scarves first became a popular fashion trend in the US during the First Palestinian Intifada in the 1980s. Now they’re back and being sold all over – TopShop, on the street on Broadway, and even in Urban Outfitters as the “Anti-War Woven Scarf.” Well, at least until controversy arose & they discontinued it, but then released the all too similar “Fringe Square Scarf.” Hipsters, Spanish leaders, even daughters of presidential candidates are all hip to the style.
So I get it – it’s cute, and is great with cutoffs and a wifebeater. Fold it in half and tie it around your neck so the triangle points down, right? Totes. But do they even know what they’re wearing? Perhaps. But perhaps not, as one NYTimes scarf-wearing interviewee says, “I’m not too up to speed in what’s going on in the Middle East.”
Here’s a bit of history about this great new accessory. It’s a Keffiyeh, and was originally the headwear of Palestinian peasants. It became the symbol of Palestinian nationalism and of class struggle during the 1936 to 1939 Great Arab Revolt against the British Mandate of Palestine when the insurgents forced upper-class Palestinians to wear it to show sympathy with the fighters. Later, in the 1960s when the Palestinian resistance movement began, Yasser Arafat adopted it. It now adorns the heads of the younger generation in the Middle East to show support of the Palestinian cause. The black and white keffiyeh is associated with the Fatah, the largest faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and apparently the red and white keffiyeh is associated with the Hamas. You know, the terrorists?
But the Keffiyeh stands for many different things for many different people. For some, it stands for Palestinian solidarity, or “taking a stand against the state of Israel’s oppressive and racist policies toward Palestine” - the PLO scarf. For some, it stands for anti-Semitism while promoting terrorist groups. For others, it is an attempt to trivialize the Palestinian cause by making the symbol so ubiquitous that it loses its meaning. For some it is merely a practicality to shade one’s face from the sun and heat in arid desert nations. For others, it is a shemagh, the Anglicized name given to the scarf by British soldiers who wore them during WWII. For others, it’s just a fashion trend, an item of symbolic meaning marketed for the masses. Get your own at Talibanana.com!
One of the few fashion-related posts you will see me reblog—because of its relation to one of my favorite topics, the Middle East!
Just a usage note: one says “Fatah” and “Hamas,” not “the Fatah/Hamas.” Also, one should be careful to characterize all of Hamas as “the terrorists.” They’re known for the social services work they sponsor, including funding schools and healthcare clinics, which the Palestinian Authority fails to provide. This is part of the reason Hamas won a majority of the Palestinian Authority’s legislature in 2006. Hamas is known as a terrorist group because of its ideological commitment to the destruction of Israel, reflected in the use of suicide bombers. Source and more info
Photo posted at 02:19
05/07/2008
Showtime’s back! Congrats to Kobe for winning the MVP award.
From Forum Blue & Gold, the essential Lakers Blog.
Video posted at 16:23
Typographic World Clock Screensaver for OS X
This was going to be a reblog of topherchris but then I remembered you can embed flash files, so I took the real one from the site which should show the time (GMT) to you!
Video posted at 14:13