Month: December 2007

Faith4 Comments

Take Your Holiday Back

Hecate, of course, gets to the heart of what I was fumbling towards a few days ago: It wasn’t until I finally began to realize that this time of year is about the Dark, about going into the cold cave without enough food, about surviving — by hook or crook or sheer, cussed refusal to die — long enough for the sun to begin to linger longer in the Spring, that I became a fan of the last weeks of December. And, as Sia so beautifully puts it, I’ve also worked to take back this holiday, back from the xians … Continue reading Take Your Holiday Back

Diary11 Comments

Let Nothing You Dismay

Thers: Either way, one clear effect of the War on Christmas nonsense was and is to further aggravate the already overblown sense of victimization, isolation, and indeed entitlement on the part of those who are interpellated and hence flattered by Bill O’Reilly-standard propaganda. And that’s depressing, because that’s kind of made Christmas suck, a bit. I’m not particularly sentimental by nature but I do have something of a soft spot for the Christmasy peace on earth, good will towards men stuff: we need more of that in this nation. But the War on Christmas baloney points in the other direction. … Continue reading Let Nothing You Dismay

So Called Liberal Media4 Comments

Why Journalism Matters

Nine times out of ten, it takes the kids to remind us: Several hidden security cameras hung in the halls of Newton South High School for months, not yet operational and apparently undetected, until reporters for the school’s student newspaper started asking questions. Now the School Committee and teachers’ union say they want an explanation, and the superintendent is promising to be more forthcoming about the new security tactic before activating the cameras, intended to catch thieves. “We probably did not introduce this security measure in a particularly great way, and we need to go back now, after vacation, with … Continue reading Why Journalism Matters

Terrorism19 Comments

Bhutto Assasinated

Jesus: RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, aides said. “The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred,” Bhutto’s lawyer Babar Awan said. A party security adviser said Bhutto was shot in neck and chest as she got into her vehicle to leave the rally in Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad. A gunman then blew himself up. “At 6:16 p.m. she expired,” said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto’s party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken … Continue reading Bhutto Assasinated

Hurricane Katrina & Federal Flood11 Comments

Columnwhoring: War Zone

Jesus fuck, Maine: Every place in America is safe until it isn’t. Contrary to what you hear on the evening news, there aren’t places where crime is nonexistent, where nobody can hurt you, where the walls are so thick and the locks so strong that no one can reach you tonight. Just because people say, when a terrible thing occurs in a rich neighborhood, that they didn’t think things like this could happen there … terrible things can happen anywhere. What truly makes us less safe is our refusal to help one another. We become less able to go out … Continue reading Columnwhoring: War Zone

Happy Democrat Photo

Happy Dodd Photo: Care Packages Edition

Packing up goodies for the troops. More Dodd love: Personally, I believe we are at a 1932 moment in history. The last gasp of the Reaganism that tainted even the Clinton administration is being played out on that Republican debate stage. After November, they will sweep the remains of that grand movement into the dustbin of history. You could choose those that stood back, and waited until history was on their side before they moved bold agendas forward. You could hope that their theories of change were correct. Or you could choose the person, who, against all odds, advanced the … Continue reading Happy Dodd Photo: Care Packages Edition

Uncategorized4 Comments

How can I resist when…

…it involves a Louisiana blog exposing Drudge stupid on a Green Bay Wisconsin story. We Saw That blog saw a link at Drudge on December 23rd to a story at WBAY-TV in Green Bay on plans for Green Bay police to begin fingerprinting motorists at traffic stops. The article included a quote from an attorney which We Saw That found “particularly nauseating.” In their attempt to track down more information on that they contacted the reporter for the story who responded with this… The attorney I interviewed for that story has since passed on. I believe I did that story … Continue reading How can I resist when…

Stupid Republican Tricks14 Comments

Today on Athenae’s Obsession with the Freepi: ‘if your a whore your a whore’

Al. the way, from your first cigarette: Well, that is what liberals think; by ending moral judgments, woman can be easy and thus end their oppression. Its a notion absolutely ridiculous on its face. One, you are not going to change men’s mind; if you are a whore, your a whore. Now what can you say when your a whore? In the end, men dont want to stay with whores. No apologies, but I have to be that blunt. I used the duct tape example. Rub a strip of duct tape on the forearm and describe how sexual intimacy is … Continue reading Today on Athenae’s Obsession with the Freepi: ‘if your a whore your a whore’

Of Interest2 Comments

Neither Wind Nor Cold Nor 93 Years …

Awww: OBERLIN, Kan. – A postcard featuring a color drawing of Santa Claus and a young girl was mailed in 1914, but its journey was slower than Christmas. It just arrived in northwest Kansas. The Christmas card was dated Dec. 23, 1914, and mailed to Ethel Martin of Oberlin, apparently from her cousins in Alma, Neb. It’s a mystery where it spent most of the last century, Oberlin Postmaster Steve Schultz said. “It’s surprising that it never got thrown away,” he said. “How someone found it, I don’t know.” Ethel Martin is deceased, but Schultz said the post office wanted … Continue reading Neither Wind Nor Cold Nor 93 Years …

Terrorism4 Comments

‘I am a mother and I will wait for my son’

Our very own commenter Jules, at Sirens: Looking back on the time between his leave and the time he was done with his tour seems so short. But it went agonizingly slow. My partner and I both had trouble sleeping. Our sleep was plagued with nightmares. As things got worse in Iraq, we dreaded coming home, afraid to find a car in the drive. We both knew what that meant. Throughout his deployment the people around us would tell us how proud we must be. The hardest ones to take were the ones who started spouting the “fight them over … Continue reading ‘I am a mother and I will wait for my son’

Uncategorized4 Comments

Shiftless norms

The vote on demolition of NOLA public housing spurred a thought provoking discussion on poverty and personal responsibility in the NOLA blogosphere earlier this week, examples in the comments of postshere andhere. In contrast to thought provoking is the vitrioliccomments on breeding and the breeding “welfare mentality” at a related post by Michelle Malkin. It’s had me thinking a great deal of expectations in American society and those outside the norm. Then today, via Atrios, I read this from a post atCalculated Risk… One of the greatest fears for lenders (and investors in mortgage backed securities) is that it will … Continue reading Shiftless norms

Congress17 Comments

‘Don’t You Ever Let It Happen Again’

That’s it. I mean it, that’s it. Chris Dodd for president. I said I couldn’t pick and I couldn’t commit and you know what? It wasn’t me, it was them. I just hadn’t heard anything that got me enough. I heard ittoday: If this disastrous war has taught us anything, it is that the Senate must never again stack such a momentous decision on such a weak foundation of fact. The decision we’re asked to make today is not, of course, as immense. But between fact and decision, the disproportion is just as huge. So I rise in determined opposition … Continue reading ‘Don’t You Ever Let It Happen Again’

Hurricane Katrina & Federal Flood3 Comments

Good Questions

FromOyster… In October, Senator Vitter said400units were available “right now”. Then the T-P reported as “fact” that“hundreds” of units were available “right now”. Days later, the number of available units “right now” was down to154.Does even that number hold water, especially in light of DNOPH’s claim that last year HUD acknowledged that the “250 prepared units…never existed”? Neither the T-P nor the activists were willing to find out for sure.Why didn’t activists press hard on this dubious, evolving HUD number upon which the T-P based so much of its reporting and editorial opinion? Wasn’t this a politically exploitable “soft spot”? … Continue reading Good Questions

Holden's Obsession with the Gaggle

Today On Holden’s Obsession With The Gaggle

Tony Farto Says The President Doesn’t Know What He Is Talking About Q At the risk of getting lost in the weeds here, what is the White House position on the argument that earmarks that are contained in committee reports do not have the force of law? MR. FRATTO: That’s something that the OMB Director will have an opinion on, and we’ll get an answer for you on that. Q The White House does not have — MR. FRATTO: I don’t have an answer for you on that. I don’t have an answer for you on that right now. Are … Continue reading Today On Holden’s Obsession With The Gaggle

Political Crack4 Comments

New Crush Blogging: Lucky Woman

Mrs. Democratic Hotness: Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of Democratic candidate and Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, moved with her family to Iowa for the presidential campaign. Clegg Dodd says that finding doctors, hair stylists, and schools for her two daughters has helped put her in touch with the concerns of Iowans. “When you’re living in a place, versus coming in and spending time in hotels, you actually get to know a little bit more about it,” she tells Michele Norris. “There are some candidates who fly in and fly out again.” She says that it took a period of years — … Continue reading New Crush Blogging: Lucky Woman

Economy1 Comment

News, Good and Bad — Mostly Bad

TheAP has some great news about the US economy! The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending surged by 1.1 percent last month, nearly triple the October gain. [snip] The November advance was the biggest one-month jump since a 1.2 percent rise in May 2004 and was significantly above the 0.7 percent analysts had expected. Isn’t that just fantastic! Wait, there’s more! Incomes were also up last month, rising by 0.4 percent, double the October increase but slightly below the advance that had been expected. Hold on, what’s this? An inflation gauge tied to spending showed a 0.6 percent increase … Continue reading News, Good and Bad — Mostly Bad

War in Iraq

“Talk About Reconciliation”

Oy. When Leila Nasser was six months pregnant, U.S. soldiers burst into her house and wrestled away her husband, Mohammed Amin, who was asleep on the roof, trying to escape the summer heat. This week, Nasser waited outside what’s now called the “reconciliation hall” in Baghdad’s Jihad neighborhood for Amin to appear. In her arms she cradled her year-old son, whom she’d named Moubin, the Iraqi word for apparent. [snip] More than 25,000 Iraqis are now in U.S. detention facilities. The Jihad reconciliation committee of Sunni and Shiite Muslims had requested that 562 men be released. Last month, 48 people … Continue reading “Talk About Reconciliation”