The mighty Glenn Greenwald is taken aback by Wolf Blitzer’s ludicrous and antagonistic piece on the “loyalty” of Justice [sic] Dept officials. You see, these officials had represented kidnapped foreigners who have been in cages for . . . just about a decade now. Of course, questioning the state’s blatantly illegal, not to mention obviously evil, actions is grounds for charges of treason. At least, that’s Wolf’s take. Or, to be more accurate, that’s the perspective, delivered by some arch-conservative, that Wolf let go unchallenged by objections or questions.

This is unsurprising to me. My very first memories of Wolf, were of him uncritically covering the first Iraqi slaughter in 1992. Glancing at his CV, he also worked for AIPAC in the 70s. Soooo, yeah, probably not that objective when anti-muslim fervor can be stoked a bit.

I just caught wind of the coffee party. I don’t know that it will catch on, but the sentiments espoused by the founders and participants appeal, I think, to a broad swath of the not-yet-totally-disillusioned. Here’s the mission statement from coffeepartyusa.com:
MISSION: The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots [continue]

I went on my first real wordpress odyssey last week[skip the tiresome narrative]. I encountered a number of sites that helped me on my way. Now I plan to “give something back” in the form of documenting the steps and missteps I took in the hopes that, should someone else find themselves in a similar situation, they can use this post as a resource to find their way home.
A number of tools of modern web development (and software development in general) attempt to provide a clean and simple(r) interface to rather complicated processes. Wordpress is one such tool. The idea [continue]

I have a new guilty pleasure–not sure how much mileage I’ll get out of it, but it’s off to a hell of a start. Behold, Emmett Tyrrell, founder of The American Spectator and appearing as a writer for Townhall. I think I enjoy his particular brand of right wing-authoritarian ranting because it reminds me of Onion founder and columnist Hermann Zweibel*. Beware, if you are a left wing-authoritarian who still believes in the political process, Emmett’s writings will likely fill you with white hot rage or elitist condescension, depending on how your mind responds to a nonsense narrative’s assault on [continue]

For no healthy reason, I love this sort of thing. Rad Geek, a member of the Alliance of the Libertarian Left, registers, via post, his advocacy of revolution against the federal, state, and local government. This is in accordance with south carolina state law.
The entire letter is well written, and I’m sure it will get an interesting reaction, “Merle, where *do* we keep that list of subversive organziations?”
My favorite bit is at the end: “PS. I am told that there is a processing fee in the amount of $5.00 for the registration of a subversive [continue]

I like the thought-exercise of viewing historical events as if one were a disinterested Martian. When stripped of the rhetoric, oratory and emotional appeals to the psychological hooks by which we’re so easily manipulated, what does an event look like?
The resulting narrative–in this case, of the creation of the american revolution and creation of the constitution–looks alot like this post by IOZ.
A gang of propertied tax yahoos who’d read a bit too much Cicero did what any patriotic Roman might’ve done in days of yore. They raised a private army and made civil war on a tyrant. They [continue]

Looking back on it now, Howard Zinn had a major impact on my radicalization.  I remember reading The 20th Century, essentially a subsection of The People’s History, on a park bench in Rutland, VT.  I recall my surprise that the progressive political agenda whose return I had hoped for during the Clinton presidency was, in fact, a reactionary force.
The political giants of the era who, I had been told for years, fought against greedy and monopolistic corporate barons had, in reality, actively crushed social movements challenging the economic dominance of said barons.  The 20th Century also introduced me to dozens of individuals [continue]

As further evidence of my unresolved psychological issues, I’ve occasionally have conversations with theists.  A classic dynamic that I find myself in during these conversations is the faith vs. evidence/discernment–I think most skeptics are familiar with the phenomenon.
First, the theist will claim that their belief is just a reasonable following of the facts.  After the evidence examined, found lacking, and dispensed with, the theist claims that their beliefs are faith based and founded on subjective experience–hard to argue with that!

Today I was talking to an ex-catholic who had been challenged in his teens to reconcile the bible with the tenets [continue]

Before I present the story, I need to make a statement for the record: I hold Islam in no lower (or higher) esteem than any other lunacy invented whole-cloth by crazy people and passed down through the generations by abusive indoctrination of children.  Also, this is apparently an old story (Feb 2009), that I’m just now hearing about due to some even nuttier recent updates (h/t Rob Taylor, btw I disagree w/ his assessment of Lancet).
There’s a television network called Bridges TV, whose purpose is “to foster a greater understanding among many cultures and diverse populations.”  Specifically, the founder and [continue]

Alisa and I just got back from watching Up in the Air.  On the whole, the movie was pretty good.  I’ll not summarize the plot too much, but there are spoilers down below.
In Up in the Air, the George Clooney character is a solitary adult that has spent his lifetime travelling for business.  He’s disconnected from his family and has forsworn marriage and children.  During the film, he meets a fellow business traveller (Vira Farmiga) and they begin a no-committment relationship.  Over the course of the movie, he decides that his life is incomplete–that he’s missing out on something–and he abandons a [continue]