Archive for July 2011

Neither Culmination, Nor Rapture, Nor Even Armageddon

“How is this a Mexican standoff?” – Kremensky  “Uh.” – Sterling Archer “Dumbass.” – Lana Kane “I don’t care if you shoot her.” – Kremensky “Oh.” – Sterling Archer As I write this, I do not know how (or if) the sadly self inflicted wound colloquially known as the “debt ceiling” fight will be sutured.  [...]

Let the Commemorative Stupid Begin

“And what about the families of the victims of 9/11?  Their feelings matter for another ten months, damn it!” – Stephen Stotch We’re just over a month away from the tenth anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, and the first tiny ripples of the media tsunami have begun to wash ashore.  The cover article of [...]

New News Is Old News

“Scoop Chang, New New York Times On-Line Podcast Blog Comments Editor, Mr. Mayor, isn’t this e-waste dangerous?” – Scoop Chang There is something meta to approximately the fifth power about writing a blog post about a movie about a newspaper dealing with the digital age that ends with a call to action to visit a [...]

A Good Terrorist Is Hard to Find

“Now, let’s discuss the, um, ‘mo-tive’.” – Chief Wiggum In 1993, there was a truck bomb attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.  The FBI made its first arrest after one of the men responsible returned to the truck rental place in an effort to get his deposit back.  In 1995, another [...]

That 2003 Feeling

“But I learned my lesson!  It’ll never happen again.” – Homer Simpson During the surreal months leading up to our disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq, the American media was awash in unchallenged government falsehoods about weapons of mass destruction, the Hussein regime’s ties to the still fresh 2001 terror attacks, and all manner of other [...]

Time to Suck It Up, France and Germany

“Switzerland is small and neutral.  We’re more like Germany, ambitious and misunderstood.” – That Guy “Look, everyone wants to be like Germany, but do we really have the pure strength of will?” – Amy Wong In the most recent issue of the London Review of Books, John Lanchester lays out the ongoing Greek debt crisis [...]

What Line of Business Did You Say You Were In?

“Lisa, the mob is working on getting your saxophone back, but we’ve also expanded into other important areas: literacy programs, preserving our beloved covered bridges, world domination.” – Homer Simpson “World domination?” – Lisa Simpson “Oh, that might be a typo.” – Homer Simpson “Mental note, the girl knows too much.” – Homer Simpson’s Brain [...]

Fundamental(ist) Cracks

“What are you talking about Shelbyville?  Why would we want to marry our cousins?” – Jebediah Springfield “Cause they’re so attractive.  I thought that was the whole point of this journey.” – Shelbyville Manhattan “Absolutely not!” – Jebediah Springfield “I tell you, I won’t live in a town that robs men of the right to [...]

A Cheap Part of the Great Cost

“Very well, begin the thawing of Jim Nabors.” – C.M. Burns This fall, the United States of America will mark a full decade of continuous war.  The end of the Terror Wars, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and fuck knows where else, can only dimly be glimpsed, so we lack a clear number counting down the [...]

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