What Mark Edmundson would like to tell the bores in his life: ‘“There is no more infuriating feeling,” says the classicist Robert Greene, describing this sort of an encounter, “than having your individuality ignored, your own psychology unacknowledged. It makes you feel lifeless and resentful.” That’s exactly how I feel when I have these encounters: lifeless and resentful. But why? Why is this kind of treatment so painful? People do all kinds of aggressive and antisocial things to each other—surely I do a few myself—and talking on and on can’t be the worst of them. Still, being on the receiving end of such verbiage reliably sends me close to the edge.’ (American Scholar)
Tag Archives: outrage
Horror Stories
Blind Traveler Asks Too Many Questions On Delayed U.S. Airways Flight, Is Dragged Off, Jailed, Told He’s Faking His Blindness (The Consumerist). What part of the difference between ‘frustrated passenger’ and ‘security threat’ does the US airline industry not understand?
Do They Want Our Soles?
A friend and I were talking about Bush’s recent run-in with Shoe Bomber II in Baghdad. In response, we propose that people package up their old shoes and send them to Bush at the White House between now and January 20th. This would serve a whole roster of functions.
- It would give a needed boost to the US Postal Service’s income.
- The White House could contribute the received footwear to the needy, to the impoverishment of most of whom it has already been a major contributor.
- Furthermore, the right shoe would help stop Bush from putting his foot in his mouth so often.
- And, finally, the action would be a symbolic reminder that we are giving the Bush administration the boot.
In sum, we think this is a shoe-in. [thanks, henry]
Relaced:
Sign the ACLU’s Petition to Shut Down Guantanamo Bay
Five high-profile detainees this week attempted to submit guilty pleas before the government’s ill-conceived military commissions at Guantánamo Bay. But, by the end of the day, their pleas were tied up in a blizzard of confusion over unresolved legal questions.
Whatever happens, it is abundantly clear is that, no matter how hard the government tries to advance the military commissions, this process doesn’t work.
What’s happening at Guantánamo flies in the face of justice, fairness and our American ideals. Please take a moment to tell President-elect Obama to close the prison at Guantánamo. Click here: http://action.aclu.org/openletter
It will take just a few minutes –and the public pressure is critical.
ACLU.
Mukasey’s smarmy Nixon defense of Bush crimes
Jason Leopold:
‘When it comes to protecting George W. Bush and his administration, Attorney General Michael Mukasey is stretching legal arguments as far as his predecessor Alberto Gonzales ever did – now even invoking the “Nixon Defense” for justifying presidential wrongdoing.
This week, Mukasey argued that there is no legal basis to prosecute current and former administration officials for authorizing torture and warrantless domestic surveillance because those decisions were made in the context of a presidential interest in protecting national security.
“There is absolutely no evidence that anybody who rendered a legal opinion, either with respect to surveillance or with respect to interrogation policies, did so for any reason other than to protect the security in the country and in the belief that he or she was doing something lawful,” Mukasey said during a Dec. 3 roundtable discussion with reporters.
Mukasey’s argument is, in essence, the same as Richard Nixon’s infamous declaration in his 1977 interview with David Frost that – in the context of Nixon’s illegal wiretappings, black-bag jobs and infiltration of antiwar groups – “when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.” ‘
via Consortiumnews.com.
Related?
Orwell Strikes Again
“The White House altered documents regarding the nations involved in the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” that aided the US invasion of Iraq.
A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign political science professor says he found that the White House had modified elements of its website dealing with the coalition and in some cases deleted key documents in the public record.
At the onset of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the White House released a list of the nations participating in the coalition, an important part of Bush Administration PR efforts, as the war was not UN-endorsed. Over a period of years, however, the original releases were modified to account for the diminishing number of nations.
Two releases were deleted from the White House website entirely, the professor says.
“I think that it raises the question of whether or not we can trust the government to maintain public records of things that were said or done that later prove embarrassing,” Illinois political science professor Scott Althaus said.”
via The Raw Story.
Related:
- The Bush Administration is font of incompetence that keeps on giving
- George Orwell and where we are today
- Stuart Evers: You don’t get to choose your literary heroes
- Paul Anderson: What would George Orwell have made of events at Tribune?
- Christopher Brauchli: Bush Lies and Deception-A Farewell
- Iraq Ally Lists Were Altered, Study Shows
- The “Coalition of the Willing” Comes to an End
Company tries to get gun classed as medical device
“A US company claims to have received federal approval to market a 9-mm handgun as a medical device and hopes the US government will reimburse seniors who buy the $300 firearm. But the US Food and Drug Administration says there are currently no formal designations of the gun as a medical device.
Called the Palm Pistol, the weapon is designed for people who have trouble firing a normal handgun due to arthritis and other debilitating conditions.”
via New Scientist.
