Driving Blind: Stalinists and Kafka
“The first thing you learn in life is you’re a fool. The last thing you learn in life is you’re the same fool.” Rebecca Rosen explains why we should care about the government collecting...
Monthly Archive: June 2013
Let the Character Assassinations Begin
It comes with the territory obviously, but its predictability doesn’t make it any less ridiculous or frustrating. Jeffrey Toobin and David Brooks have fired the first shots, outlining the many failings of Edward Snowden because...
Why State Surveillance Is Worse
“The NSA isn’t doing anything that Google doesn’t already do,” runs the newly struck establishment line. “So you have nothing to worry about now that you didn’t already have.” As often happens, Richard Cohen...
How Metadata Could Have Squelched The Civil Rights Movement
Perhaps it would be of interest to the ongoing discussion about NSA accumulation of phone use metadata to see how some math gets mixed with metadata in a relatively simple universe. Professor Kieran Healy does...
Driving Blind: The Passing of a Literary Giant
In light of the season three finale, Kathleen Geier speculates on the politics of the show using historical analogs. John B. Judis on the administration’s constitutional-amnesia, and the difference between congressional checks and balances, and...
On Wrigley Field and Governments vs. Corporations
Jonathan has an interesting conversation going below on the subject of the loss of privilege that occurs when governments end monopolies. The initial conversation was actually started by Roger in the threads of another...
Who’s Crazier: Me or Chad Ochocinco?
Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson had his plea deal rejected because the presiding judge objected to him playfully swatting his attorney on his rear when asked if he was satisfied with his representation. And I find...
David Simon Misses the Point
The acclaimed creator of HBO’s The Wire, David Simon, is using his experience as a reporter and deep knowledge of wiretaps to set the record straight on all this ruckus over the leaks regarding the...
Things to Hide
I have things to hide. No, I won’t tell you about them. I’m hiding them. Don’t worry. I’m not hurting. I don’t need professional help. It’s just some things about me are (1) unlikely...
Post Game of Thrones Jukebox: Write Like the Wind
And so Game of Thrones comes to an end for another year. Instead of posting spoilers, I thought I’d commiserate with all those who are impatient to see what comes next. The wait between...
Random Thoughts on the NSA and Metadata
There’s a part of me that’s hesitant to say anything about the NSA scandal. It involves a lot of things that I’m not clear about, such as how you comb through the data without...
Saturday Jukebox – Franco-tastic
One benefit to growing up near some francophone communities was being able to watch MusiquePlus, Quebec’s MTV. There’s a lot of good French music out there that I would never had heard without Musique+,...
Military Pride
Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Edmonton has marked a new first in the history of the Canadian military. They are flying the Pride Flag. From CTVNews.ca: n a show of support by the Canadian Armed...
Lemonade, Taxis, Victims and a Comment Rescue or Two
In a recent post by Tod about privilege, a discussion emerged regarding the role of government in providing privilege via the enforcement of monopolies. As noted, such privilege does not just belong to the...
In Which I Lose My Temper
Look, kudos on Glenn Greenwald for getting new information. Good on you, Business Insider, for reporting on the NSA facility in Utah. CREDO has a petition up, notable. Here’s the thing, Social Media Outrage...
The Price We Pay…
…to fight Jihadist terrorism. Andrew Sullivan’s obsession with Islamic terrorism, or radical Islam’s unique penchant for terrorism (it’s not easy to tell the two apart anymore), continues
Fish Don’t Care If It’s Rainy and Cold
A beam sea rolls F/V Pontos to starboard as she enters Montauk Harbor, June 7 2013, Montauk NY For more photos of Montauk’s commercial fishing fleet, click here.
Daniel Larison’s Libya Fixation
Via Andrew Sullivan I’ve come across this Daniel Larison post on the ascension of Susan Rice and Samantha Power. It is not his best work, although its flaws are rather predictable for anyone whose read Larison on the...
Driving Blind: I Spy
“We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?” As Mark pointed...
Late Thursday Jukebox: Dean Ween Vents Spleen
Ween is a world unto itself, a band whose fierce independence has forever earned my appreciation, even if its music often left me behind. Unfortunately, the band dissolved last year in precisely the sort...
