In pictures of Cheney following the failed assassination attempt in Afghanistan, he seems to be smiling in an almost non-smirkish way. According to Wonkette, this is his first real smile in years. Afficionados of the Cheney smirk will remember, however, that Cheney may not be able to move the right side of his face. In [...]
{ 1 comment }
Dear Senator Obama, I am writing to you from Hyde Park, Chicago, as your constituent and as a long-term supporter. I admit that I have been severely disappointed by your response to the stories peddled across right-wing sites that you attended a ‘Madrasa’ in your youth. Ever since the story broke, I had been waiting [...]
{ 21 comments }
I don’t read Friedman, or any other NYT columnist, thanks [wholeheartedly] to TimeSelect. However, his column from 12/20 is so beyond the pale. The Arabist has the full column but short Friedman: Arabs are a tribe of lying, conniving, cheating, haters who are genetically unable to stop their lying, fighting, cheating and hating – esp. [...]
{ 6 comments }
Time Magazine is hunched over its dad’s computer in the den, learning how to personalize the desktop, search for pornography and make small-time day-trading deals online. It likes the den, it likes choosing the sound the computer makes when a new email comes into the ‘mailbox’. Time has plenty of cheetos and gatorade for snacks. [...]
{ 1 comment }
Six Imams walk into a Terminal…and then they stay right there. They were deplaned from a US Airways flight after bring found suspicious. CAIR is, rightfully, asking for investigation. I received an email from our teacher, Naim Sahib with an oped he wrote to the Chicago Tribune. With his non-explicit-permission, I am reprinting it below [...]
{ 8 comments }
On Saturday, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, conceded that the president had not come into direct contact with ordinary Vietnamese, but said that they connected anyway. “If you’d been part of the president’s motorcade as we’ve shuttled back and forth,” he said, reporters would have seen that “the president has been doing [...]
{ 4 comments }
I hear they have a nice retirement colony in Cuba.
{ 5 comments }
It’s election week and thinking about all our favorite politicians across the land keeps us up at night. After so many years of Republican rule it’s hard to imagine anything like a victory tomorrow, especially when a perpetual slide-show of Dick Cheney’s perma-smirk dances in our heads. Chapati Mystery’s medical expert, Dr. Haroun, reports that [...]
{ 4 comments }
I haven’t been able to work for any campaign this year. Did some phone banking. And am hoping to do some election-day moniter-y stuff. Or perhaps, I will just drive people to vote. Next elections, I will vote. I don’t know if people still remember that Raed Jarrar was denied boarding on a plane because [...]
{ 8 comments }
Habeas Corpus, RIP 1215-2006. Habeas Corpus, friend to many, died today in Washington, DC. It was seven hundred ninety one years old. Habeas’ violent demise came after a long, robust and celebrated career as defender of the weakest members of society, during which it freelanced as a bulwark against encroachments on civil liberties. Habeas Corpus [...]
{ 2 comments }
Probably the most disturbing thing about the Joan Didion article on Dick Cheney in the New York Review of Books this month is that she tries and tries, but she can’t really figure out what makes him tick. Is it ideology? No, none there, really. Is it will to power? Maybe, but that’s not really [...]
{ 0 comments }
It wasn’t enough that the Pope had to go all medieval on Muhammad but now we get news that Hans Neuenfels at the Deutsche Oper Berlin decided that what Mozart’s Idomeneo really lacked was a decapitated head of Muhammad. And Jesus and Buddha. And Poseidon. I mean, seriously, how tripe is that? Freakin’ Dante pulled [...]
{ 2 comments }
The health of leaders is at no time more important than when there’s a war on. Nations, ethnic communities and loosely affiliated gangs of rag-tag warriors depend upon the physical and psychological well-being of their chiefs for morale and direction. Several players in the War on Terror have been in the news lately for health [...]
{ 2 comments }
What the Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City needs are some bright colors to lift his mood. I have depicted him here surrounded by a warm bath of candy pink to brighten up his outlook. Pink is a great color for Pope Benedict XVI, who is undoubtedly a summer. Usually in my portraits [...]
{ 0 comments }
As an undergraduate student of comparative religion, and a Christian, I was often infuriated by the pronouncements of my professors. One, an imminent historian of religion, refused to write the word “Christ,” and instead replaced it with the Greek letter Chi, or X. When I asked him about it, he explained that he got tired [...]
{ 2 comments }
Fiction is Truer than Fact. Attributed to E. Hemingway. Like you, few things would please me more than to soak in a hot tub with Clinton, five supermodels, an 8-ball of fine Ecuadorian flake, and a split of Dom. But let’s not kid ourselves: Clinton was a weak leader governing in a sweet spot. It’s [...]
{ 6 comments }
The Body Shop has no regard for desis. None. Here is a letter written, with unkempt hair, by one dear friend of mine. He may not want me to publish it on CM, but I think it needs to be. I think that The Body Shop needs to know what they are doing to their [...]
{ 1 comment }
Last night, I happened to catch the beginning of a Law & Order episode [don't ask me which variety but it starred Pvt. Pyle] which was set in the ‘tech’ world. The story, though, quickly moved beyond the use of a pringles can for wireless into torture at Gitmo and an army psychologist who decided [...]
{ 3 comments }
In case you noticed, Iraq is kinda back in the news. The Chosen One is up 8-10 points in the polls. The Dems are finding every possible way to not think or act. In the annales of Iraq War, the following would get indexed as high comedy: Republicans say: Stay the Course; Democrats say: Cut [...]
{ 1 comment }
Kumuda kindly drew my attention to historians Eric Hobsbawm, Niall Ferguson, Priyamvada Gopal, Linda Colley and Robert Beckford’s appearence on BBC’s Start The Week. They were to be “examining how Britain and other countries around the world have been changed by their experience of empire…discussing whether Britain should apologise and make reparation for its imperial [...]
{ 9 comments }
