akarra

From the page: Britain may also lose Sir Michael Caine, who shortly after the 50p announcement, threatened to quit his homes in Chelsea and Surrey for the United States. He fumed: "I will not pay the government more than I get. No way, ever. So they've reached their limit with me. That's the lot."

From the page: If you chance to like this sort of thing [Al Franken/Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert], then this is undoubtedly the sort of thing you will like. It certainly works very well with audiences who laugh not because they find something to be funny, but to confirm that they are - and who can doubt it? - cool enough to "get" the joke. What you will not find, in any of this output, is anything remotely "satirical" about the pulpit of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, or any straight-faced, eyebrow-raising (and studio-audience-thigh-slap-triggering) mention of, say, The New York Times's routine practice of captioning Al Sharpton as "the civil rights activist." Baudelaire wrote that the devil's greatest achievement was to have persuaded so many people that he doesn't exist: liberal platitudinousness must be a bit like that to those who suffer from it without quite acknowledging that there is such a syndrome to begin with.

I'm not interested in bashing President Obama - I know this whole issue of "he bowed to the Emperor" is utter nonsense. What I like about this article is the description of how one should bow, which is something I think the President might do better next time.

From the page: "In Portland, Oregon this past Wednesday I went to my first Veterans Day Parade. I served from 1964-1968 on active duty in the Navy, then from 1979 -1996 in the Navy Reserve. This was the first time in 42 years I did not have to work Veterans Day."

From the page [a blogpost about an editorial]: "This incredibly stupid article is a grievous insult to the thousands of Muslims who serve with great valor in the US military, side by side with their comrades of different faiths. And it's a profoundly un-American point of view to promote."

"From Her Notes" (Nomi Stone)

My last Sabbath,
I follow the girls, who sneak into
the wedding

tent, scattered with sun
flower seeds and remnants of
celebration. They

each stand up on a
table. Take a crushed beer can
as a microphone,

sing and move their
fifteen-year-old hips. I watch,
clap for them, until

a small face peers in
the door. A boy. His face white
with something. The door

slamming, his very small
fist holding it shut, having
found what was inside

wrong. Enough, I tell
him; enough! He leaves. The girls
dance again, but less

bold. Look: the boy
has come back, is looking you
hard in the eye, through

the crack of the door.
There, in his hand, a neon
plastic BB

gun. He does this for
his grandmother and for his
son.

There's a lot here I don't like - this essay is extraordinarily mean to Evangelicals, lumping them automatically with hate, the dismissal of the Book of Revelation isn't as simple a case as he makes it out to be etc. etc. (he seems to reduce any serious complaint about values to one about identity, and doesn't go through the hard work of showing how reasonable complaints become unreasonable wishes). Nonetheless: the author does a very solid job of exposing just how extremist and insane some of mainstream Evangelical culture is, and this should be read and his obvious biases against anyone who has traditional values (i.e. is pro-life) ignored.

More bloggers really should be using this service - I was looking for a way to reward my readers for commenting for the longest time, and this goes a long way towards giving something back. Combine this with "dofollow" and people can build pagerank for particular posts of theirs.

I think it's a win-win: I actually am disappointed there aren't that many comluv blogs, and not all of them are dofollow.

People demonize Karl Rove, but a Democrat could have written this, and it is less a criticism and more a plea:

"Mr. Obama's aides could be worried that by sending more troops to Afghanistan the White House will draw the fury of the left and lose support for its domestic agenda.

That fear is both dangerous and unnecessary. The president can retain liberal support for liberal domestic initiatives regardless of the war. And he can sustain support for the war by assembling a coalition of Democrats who want to win in Afghanistan, Democrats who would reluctantly follow their presidentâ€" and almost every Republican.

It's vital that the president build this coalition because without decisive American leadership, international support for confronting terrorism will soon dissipate. The unraveling of Afghanistan and nuclear-armed Pakistan might not be far behind.

Mr. Obama is right to ask tough questions about Afghanistan. But he needs to act soon to defend vital American interests in a troubled region that gave safe haven to our enemies before 9/11. Decisive support of his previously announced strategy in Afghanistan is what is required."