Oh the stupidity

Evan Thomas at Newsweek has written an open letter to Barack Obama about race.  It holds little insight but it’s in a widely read magazine, so plenty of feedback pours in.  It’s too much for me to wade all the way through, but the trough is full of stuff that would make pigs turn up their snouts.  [...]

What in the hell is a meme?

And why have I been seeing this word all over the damn place?

The trouble with politics

Thomas Friedman illustrates the limitations of rhetoric, both by and about officeholders and candidates.
I heard that Barack Obama said that not only must Israel be secure, but that any peace agreement  “must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people.” Yikes!
Pssst. Have you heard? I have. I heard that Barack Obama once said “the establishment of [...]

He would have been 83 today

“You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it.”
— Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little on May 19th, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska
 

Winning Game 7

Damn straight I had flashbacks to ‘88, when Bird and Dominique were lighting it up at the Garden in a Game 7.  That Celtic team didn’t go on to win the NBA championship and I have a hard time thinking that this one will, either.  How do you go from being a 66-win team with [...]

For the record, sweetie

Rebecca Traister has a solid take on Barack Obama’s latest “sweetie” moment.  Detroit television reporter Peggy Agar shouted a question on the plight of autoworkers to Obama as he strode by and referred to her as “sweetie” while he essentially said, “Can’t talk now — we’ll catch up later.”  (That’s a paraphrase, people, don’t go digging in [...]

Baltimore props

Not too long ago in this space it was Amadeo.  Now more light to shine on B-More products, sparked by this homage to Ta-Nehisi Coates by PostBourgie, where the writing is also top-flight.
Ta-Nehisi is indeed profound, and I look forward to getting into his first book.  Meantime on his blog he drops a simple line bursting [...]

Dissonance

A nod to The Daily Dish for this primer on relativism and fundamentalism by Peter Berger, director of Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs.  Nothing earthshaking in this snippet:
Both relativism and fundamentalism threaten the basic moral order without which no society, least of all a liberal democracy, can exist: relativism because it makes morality [...]

From my car window

Of Obama and blowhards

I’m thrilled and relieved about the North Carolina and Indiana results.  Hillary Clinton is one step closer to done — might be tomorrow by some appearances.  Barack Obama is one step closer to being able to focus on John McCain and the general election.
The television commentators will regurgitate the same points again and again.  Meanwhile [...]