drat fink

gods people

"To free ourselves from this self-defeating conundrum, American Jews must understand our unwitting complicity in this pact with, well, the devil. We must entertain the possibility that Israel, the nation, may not be the ultimate realization of Jewish ideals as much as a necessary compromise. Israelis get this; New Yorkers seem to have a little more trouble because we insist on seeing Jerusalem as somehow more sacred than Manhattan.

There are better arguments to be made for a Jewish homeland than the assertion that the "one and true God" gave it to us. (That’s not what abstract monotheism was invented for, anyway. She’s not just our God–she’s everyone’s.) After centuries of exile or worse by nation states with their own official religions, one Jewish strategy was to create our own nation, with its own official religion. Although long characterized by an independence from territory and local gods, Judaism might not be completely wrecked by the temporary suspension of these values for the greater priority."

desolation crow

"But one of the most important things I learned about New York was the importance of the summer song. The song on the airwaves and in the air that summer, the song that defined that summer for me and more than a few others, was "Mr. Tambourine Man"—the Byrds’ seductive electric version of the Dylan songwriting break-through which was a surprisingly big radio hit, the kind that was handed off to you from the window of a passing car, wafted out from the open doors of a steamy laundromat, the open window of a tenement basement, competed with the sound of the waves at Coney Island, blasted out a transistor radio hanging from the handle of a hand truck: "In the jingle-jangle morning" it came following you. (See my piece in the May 28, 2001, Observer for an explanation of how Dylan once defined for me, in an interview, the precise meaning of the "jingle-jangle morning." )"

move it

"Which brings me to the MoveOn primary. MoveOn is the most powerful and effective part of the progressive internet movement, with over 1.5 million active members (both in a grassroots and monetary sense), they are our flagship organization, so to speak. Now they're deciding which candidate to endorse and throw their very substantial money and numbers behind. This endorsement will likely make the difference for whomever it goes to, immediately catapulting whoever gets it up a tier and ahead of their opponents. The effects of that endorsement, the push it will give its recipient, has the potential to instantaneously make this internet group, and by association the online progressive movement, a powerful, make or break constituency. In effect, gaining MoveOn will give one candidate access to the heart and soul of the progressive movement - and from that point on, our work for that person will give us unheard of power to shape the future of the Democratic Party.

This is our moment, I cannot emphasize this enough. You must go register with MoveOn and make your voice heard. I don't care who you vote for, this is not a partisan thing - I just care that you vote and make our rhetoric and fervor a real, tangible, shining prize that will have to be won in ever coming election. Make a choice and give us a candidate we can support, that we can carry to victory. Make grassroots support important again, take back this democracy from the top down media manipulation we are all subjected to and frustrated by. Give us the power again."

television society

"News footage from the first BBS broadcast of June 2 1999, records the cheer that resounded around Changlimithang. Bhutan's spiritual and cultural leaders were all agreed that TV could only increase the country's Gross National Happiness and help the people to pave the way to a modern, democratic nation. Mynak Tulku, the reincarnation of a powerful lama, is the Dragon King's unofficial ambassador for new technology. Light pouring in through the carved wooden windows catches his large protruding ears and bathes the monk in a golden glow. Nearby, in the main library, some of the oldest surviving texts in Tibetan Buddhism, dharmic verses penned in liquid gold, are being digitised. "I am so excited about technology," beams the Tulku, the epitome of the king's notion of Gross National Happiness. "And let me tell you that TV's OK, as long as you appreciate that it is a transitory experience. I tell my students that it's like rushing in from the cold, going straight to the heater and ending up with frostbite. Ha, ha. TV can make you think that you are being educated, when in fact all you're doing is blinking your life away with a remote control. Ha, ha."

valordictorian

one student who wont be suing her classmates to get ahead.

talibanter

"KARACHI - Such is the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, compounded by the return to the country of a large number of former Afghan communist refugees, that United States and Pakistani intelligence officials have met with Taliban leaders in an effort to devise a political solution to prevent the country from being further ripped apart."

via atrios

memo rex

had this message waiting for me on my computer this morning.

"COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT WARNING:
It appears that you are offering copyrighted music to others from your computer. Distributing or downloading copyrighted music on the Internet without permission from the copyright owner is ILLEGAL. It hurts songwriters who create and musicians who perform the music you love, and all the other people who bring you music.

When you break the law, you risk legal penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk: DON'T STEAL MUSIC, either by offering it to others to copy or downloading it on a "file-sharing" system like this.

When you offer music on these systems, you are not anonymous and you can easily be identified. You also may have unlocked and exposed your computer and your private files to anyone on the Internet. Don't take these chances. Disable the share feature or uninstall your "file-sharing" software. For more information on how, go to http://www.musicunited.net/5_takeoff.html.

This warning comes from artists, songwriters, musicians, music publishers, record labels and hundreds of thousands of people who work at creating and distributing the music you enjoy. We are unable to receive direct replies to this message. For more information about this Copyright Warning, go to www.musicunited.net."

let me intertain you

bunch of interviews ive read in the last two days.

*sidney blumenthal at the wash post
*maer "radar" roshon at black table
*matt drudge at radar
*claire zulkey on her bio page
*michael "moneyball" lewis at bb primer
*bill james at slate

more

*liz phair gets in touch with her inner avril

*and one from that malkmus feller

cigarette girls

study shows that most studies prove nothing.

just duckie

"By any definition, not acting now to narrow the gap between revenues and outlays is a dereliction of fiduciary responsibility. Cutting taxes in the face of it is willful recklessness. But this policy failure is a political success for the Rove/Bush strategy of keeping the sun from setting on the GOP era. Rove is open about the alchemy required. He laid it out for his Boswell, the invaluable Nicholas Lemann, of The New Yorker. Tax cuts and budget deficits will starve the government of funds for discretionary spending on things like after-school programs, health care, and public transportation. Receiving fewer services, Americans will demand tax relief. The idea is to create a permanent constituency for tax cuts, especially among poorer Americans, those "lucky duckies," in the words of a Wall Street Journal editorial, who pay little or no federal income taxes now. The Journal, the Administration's oracle on taxes, says the key to cutting government is to shift more of the tax burden on to the people at the lower end of the economic spectrum—those who work at Wal-Mart, who clean office buildings, staff nursing homes and school cafeterias. Since most state tax codes follow the federal template, the Bush cuts will trigger state income tax cuts, which will force more reductions in state spending and/or increases in state sales and local property taxes to balance state budgets. Sales and property taxes fall with painful severity on the less affluent. Piece by piece, under successive tax revolts, the regulatory responsibilities assumed by the federal government beginning a hundred years ago will be abandoned, and the programs of the Great Society (Medicare, Medicaid, Federal Aid to Education, Head Start, etc.) and the New Deal (Social Security) will be hollowed out, dismantled, or privatized."