Sacred Disorder | Cliff Bostock's blog – 'Finally, I came to regard as sacred the disorder of my mind' (Rimbaud)
Lee Camp: America, the land of unopportunity
Here is comedian Lee Camp describing with absolute clarity in four minutes what is happening in America. I learned long ago that the only way to effectively undermine cruelty and willful stupidity is ridicule. You cannot reason with liars whose only interest is preserving their power. Among those stupid and cruel people, alas, are the […]
The royals jump the barricade to join the peasants
I find this video amazing in all it encapsulates. It is a demonstration by Occupy Wall Street at Lincoln Center that began during the third act of Satygraha, Philip Glass’ opera about Ghandi. As Alex Ross, the New Yorker music critic, explains: The protest “was directed not at the opera itself but at a certain disparity […]
What enables Bishop Eddie Long to be such an a**hole
Rev. Eddie Long (or “Schlong”) is the latest homophobic preacher to turn out to be having covert sex with young men. I’ve written a lot over the years about the process behind such behavior. It’s called a reaction formation and it is extremely common. Whenever you hear someone taking a very extreme position on something, […]
The more things change, the more they…
Republicans are still calling the shots. (From Salon.com)
Another broken promise
Here’s another (infuriating) example of President Barack Obama’s failure to make good on a campaign promise. In this case, it’s his failure to suspend the idiotic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that prohibits gay people to serve in the military unless they manage to keep their orientation a secret from everyone. In this, Obama reminds […]
The ‘dean’ is delusional
Here’s an altogether amazing column from David Broder, the longtime Washington Post columnist. Broder, often called the “dean of the Washington press corps,” argues against prosecution of anyone involved in the development and execution of the program to torture detainees. The column, to be published Sunday, is dense with the usual contemptuous regard for fact. […]
David Brooks grieves rapacious commerce
I read a good bit about how out of touch the political, corporate and pundit classes are, and I always tend to take it with a grain of salt. Glenn Greenwald often borders on shrill in his rants about this. Then I read something like David Brooks’ latest column and I feel beyond flabbergasted. Here’s […]
A benevolent dictator?
My disgust with Barack Obama continues to grow. In the most recent travesty, Obama’s Department of Justice has literally reiterated the Bush argument that it is not bound to turn over “secret” evidence in a lawsuit challenging the legality of warrantless eavesdropping. (Weirdly, the evidence in this particular case isn’t even secret.) Glenn Greenwald has […]
Another gift from the free market
Paul Krugman cites a report in the Wall Street Journal that Big Pharma and friends organized for this noble purpose: The drug and medical-device industries are mobilizing to gut a provision in the stimulus bill that would spend $1.1 billion on research comparing medical treatments, portraying it as the first step to government rationing. The […]
Obama: a major betrayal
I’ve tried to remain neutral about Barack Obama despite some actions that have angered me. First, there was his voting in favor of FISA, the bill that immunized telecom companies against prosecution for eavesdropping on Americans. This was during his election campaign, while he was still a senator, and was in direct contradiction to what […]