December 2010
57 posts
'Sacred Cows' →
Cutting non-security discretionary funds by $100 billion means a 21% annual reduction in the part of the budget that includes funding for education, health and human services and housing and urban development, among other things, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank.
In other words, the sacred cows of domestic Democratic policy.
Ahem. Let’s look...
“Here’s the danger: [modern ‘geek’ culture] creates weak otakus....”
– MUST. READ. [via @pattonoswalt]
1 tag
“The Internet has become as important as anything man has ever created. But those...”
– The Woz weighs in…
“Consider that in the 2008 election both sides were struggling to reach so-called...”
– Dan Lyons on one of the most important issues of our time.
"Obama FCC Caves on Net Neutrality"
For the first time in history of telecommunications law the FCC has given its stamp of approval to online discrimination.
Instead of a rule to protect Internet users’ freedom to choose, the Commission has opened the door for broadband payola - letting phone and cable companies charge steep tolls to favor the content and services of a select group of corporate partners, relegating...
1 tag
“In a sense, not ever letting yourself be bored as an adult amounts to a...”
– Normalarkey
2 tags
“Week after week, month after month, we watch politicians who disappoint us, not...”
– Matt Taibbi looks back at Bernie’s one-man show.
Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid →
World Public Opinion, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, conducted a survey of American voters that shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources. What’s more, the study shows that greater exposure to Fox News increases misinformation.
Study confirms...
"Why are wars not being reported honestly?" →
In the US Army manual on counterinsurgency, the American commander General David Petraeus describes Afghanistan as a “war of perception … conducted continuously using the news media”. What really matters is not so much the day-to-day battles against the Taliban as the way the adventure is sold in America where “the media directly influence the attitude of key audiences”. Reading this, I was...
“We want you out.”
– Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog) and Afghans for Peace (http://afghansforpeace.org/)
“You’ve got to stop this war in Afghanistan.”
–
Richard Holbrooke’s last words. (via cajunboy)
He said this to his Pakistani surgeon as he was getting sedated for surgery.
Enough said.
“Even though I’m the crazy one supposedly, and everyone else is normal, if...”
– passage from upcoming The Genius of Kate Gosselin.
“In the wake of this “war to end all wars”, Edward Bernays, a confidante of...”
– I highly suggest John Pilger’s Freedom Next Time. There’s a great BBC doc on Bernays that’s up on YouTube as well.
"The climate deal that failed us" →
“History will be the judge of what has happened in Cancun.” These are the last lines of the Bolivian Government’s press release yesterday about the outcome of the climate negotiations here in Cancun. The talks ended here today after two weeks of negotiations by a 192 governments. It is a deal that will be remembered by our future generations as one that killed the climate treaty, unless we...
1 tag
extremelyverynotgood:
stop-its-ginger-time:
...
NEW FOLLOWER!!!
pillowwillow:
Welcome timstrube!!!!!
"Today in WikiLeaks: Inherent Contradictions" →
Irony no. 3: Dot Coms vs. Dot Org: Last week, Amazon refused to continue hosting WikiLeaks on its servers, claiming that the whistleblower broke its terms of service—despite the fact that some news organizations that published stories about the leaked cables did so on the Kindle. Today, it emerged that one of Amazon’s e-books sellers, listed as Heinz Duthel was hawking excerpts...
Zadie Smith on The Social Network (the movie) and... →
youmightfindyourself:
When a human being becomes a set of data on a website like Facebook, he or she is reduced. Everything shrinks. Individual character. Friendships. Language. Sensibility. In a way it’s a transcendent experience: we lose our bodies, our messy feelings, our desires, our fears. It reminds me that those of us who turn in disgust from what we consider an overinflated...
"Tax Cut Ironies" →
From The New York Times:
“Congressional Republicans in recent days have blocked efforts by Democrats to extend the jobless aid, saying they would insist on offsetting the $56 billion cost with spending cuts elsewhere.”
Instead, as it turns out, they agreed to offset the cost with tax cuts elsewhere.
Still, though, I place the blame for this one squarely on the White House. The Republicans...
“I wrote a story one about a man who began a very large picture, and therein was...”
– Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones (via itgivesitthew)
