Pudding Time! Archives: politics

"I look forward to a spirited debate."
So said President Bush when informed of John Kerry's choice of John Edwards as running mate, and so says he anytime anyone asks him...
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Three Dead Branches
Yesterday, the Supreme Court declined to rule on the civil court case demanding that Dick Cheney reveal the energy-industry leaders with whom he sat...
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The Wall Street Journal is full of shit and almost certainly knows it
A Saturday night with a martini and my boss's discarded WSJs... The Wall Street Journal; June 17, 2004; pg 1, col 6: The [9/11]...
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Quoting Now
Billmon: And, assuming the "transition" goes off more or less as planned, what will have been gained--other than a couple of marginally useful 30-second...
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Flinty Moore
I admire the filmmaking of Michael Moore. But give him a mic or a keyb, and he can be counted on to go a...
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Name That Death-Cult
Which apocalyptic zealots trouble you more? The ones with knives in a desert somewhere? Or the ones who get meetings with the White House?...
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Sound Moral Reasoning
Overheard on CNN this morning in a "man on the street" piece about the prisoner torture (let's lay "abuse" to rest, shall we?) scandal: "Well...
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American Torture
You've probably seen or heard about this by now; I had, but I hadn't seen the pictures. I'm sure there are more, but I...
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Why I Like Portland, Reason No. 3209
From the latest voter's pamphlet: Scott (Extremo the Clown) Campbell for Mayor...
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Burning Questions
I was pleased to note that John Derbyshire won the Wonkette "Honorariest Homo" contest, which leaves me wondering if that means a new competition is...
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Dept. of Half Full (Hawk Div.)
Hey, hawk, feelin' sort of down? Just remember to tell yourself: I'll still have my wife, my house, and my job. My neighborhood, my city,...
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Name That Rogue
In his column today, David Brooks is talking about one person. But make a few words generic--OK, and delete just a couple--and he could be...
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Saruman Vows Revenge on Israel
Hmmm... Curumo, Curunír, Sharkey, yes, but I don't think Saruman went by the name "Yassin," so I'm assuming he's one of the people in...
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"He's done a terrible job"
Tonight, 60 Minutes is airing an interview with Richard Clarke, who has been the top shaper of anti-terrorism policy since the Reagan administration, retained...
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Spanish Bombs
If you have access to Salon, I found this article very instructive in putting into perspective the terrorist event and subsequent political event that...
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Separate But Equal But Despised
The Massachusetts legislature has gone ahead with approval of a "separate but equal" amendment to its constitution, making same-sex marriage forbidden, but same-sex civil...
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Libertarians of Oregon Acknowledge the Two-Way Street
"Get the state out of marriage" says the Libertarian Party of Oregon: "Under the Libertarian approach, the government would stop issuing marriage licenses, replacing...
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The Establishment Clause Dodge (Yet Again)
Pleasant to get a ping from b!X this afternoon that directed me to one of his latest entries on the queer marriage issue as...
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Reasonabling Himself to Death (Updated)
Oh for God's sake, Josh, quit dithering about it: The state has no business discussing marriage or any other "spiritual matter." It has some...
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President Disappears, Suit Takes Questions
Here's a heavily linked Claim/Fact breakdown of Bush's appearance on Meet the Press Sunday, from the Center for American Progress (via Salon). In terms...
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Defense of Marriage
Bush Expected to Endorse Amendment on Marriage If this discriminatory amendment is ever tacked onto the U.S. Constitution, I think I'll talk to my...
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Be Vewy Quiet, I'm Hunting Tewwowists. With a Blunderbuss and an Orbital Mind Control Laser
You may have spent some time wondering about the heightened state of terror alertedness we were all at over the holidays. You may have decided,...
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Be Vewy Quiet, I'm Hunting Mawxists!
Finally, some campaign reportage I can enjoy: "Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean today accepted the endorsement of the Workers World Party, declaring that the...
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Falling Water
It's good for George W. Bush's 2004 candidacy that revelations about his administration's perfidy in taking us to war in Iraq have been gradual...
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Pretty Is As Pretty Does
There's a distressed squawk from Jim Henley re: Hesiod's comments calling Colin Powell a "Stepin Fetchit" who "dances for his massah." "Will some liberal...
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Election 2004 in a Nutshell
Jesse Walker notes that Robert Anton Wilson seems to get it best: These days, choosing your politics is a matter of choosing who you’re...
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I Hate it When That Happens
Anyone else remember the obnoxious SNL Billy Crystal character "Willy the Masochist"? Each week featured five minutes of increasingly horrible recollections like "Have you ever...
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Blood on the Donkey
The right wing of the Democratic Party... er... I mean, the credible, open, inclusive, hard-working, imaginative, progressive, persuasive, rational, energized, idea-based, and positive wing of...
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Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as "The Kurdish Chieftain"
Like Ed, I had more fun thinking there was some poetic justice involved in Saddam's apprehension. But Josh Marshall has picked at enough nits...
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Roofies for Saddam
Ed's got some linkage about whether or not Saddam was sent special delivery from the Kurds. More plausible than the "unseasonal dates" story me-fi...
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Mr. Baker's Sleighride
Yesterday, Billmon, with help from Josh Marshall, looped together an interesting analysis of what's at stake with Jim Baker's new mission. (If Baker's going...
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the heartland's temperature
Two nice pieces in the Village Voice: an essay on "how the rich rule the stupid," and a story on how Republicans are losing...
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The PoMo Presidency
Josh Marshall dissects the White House team's sudden interest in truths "people know" as opposed to the literal kind I prefer when our country's...
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Just Saying
Salon rounds up rightist reactions to the Massachussets marriage decision, including one from the president: The question, though, is just how far George W. Bush...
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I Wish to Convey to You My Passion in This Area
Sympathetic lurch of nausea this morning as I listened to John Kerry on NPR (Real or Windows Media) earnestly telling reporters "I am feisty."...
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Analogies
E.J. Dionne asks "Is Dean Goldwater?" It is the Goldwater campaign, not George McGovern's 1972 antiwar crusade, that Dean's movement most resembles. Goldwater was not...
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Major Combat II: Mission Back in Effect
You'll never hear it from the White House, but at least Slate's Fred Kaplan acknowledges that the war isn't over: The latest lesson of...
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Rebel Yell
Tardy and vis-à-vis last weekend's "Dean gaffe": Maybe I've completely misunderstood the reasons for the hubbub, but since when is the South all sensitive about being pegged with the Stars'n'Bars?
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Get Your Feed On
:tpm: now has a real RSS feed all its own. Works great in :nnw:, but the plugin I use to parse feeds for the sidebar...
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No Cluetrain Whistlestop Here
There's now an Official Bush/Cheney '04 Blog. Not one but four RSS feeds, and entries by George W. Bush, er, GeorgeWBush.com him... itself. Having...
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Our Mr. Brooks
What follows is an e-mail I sent to David Brooks in response to this column in today's New York Times. He's sad because politics...
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Chilling Out the Plame Spinners
Kevin Drum has a useful roundup and takedown of the obfuscation and fallacy being tossed into the mix from administration apologists desperately trying to...
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various fixes in
Many will have already come across this, but this needs airing on every street corner. Josh Marshall has details on New Bridge Strategies, a...
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Support Your Local Embezzling Loser In Exile
I was feeling so certain this morning, but the fly in my certitude ointment has to be Ahmed Chalabi, whom TAPPED mauls as grossly...
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The Sound of Misplaced Cawing
I read MoveOn's side project, The Daily Mislead, like a good little liberal. It's a newsletter focused on "mis-representations, distortions and downright misleading statements by...
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Yankee Ingenuity Will Find a Way
Frustrated by a lack of public will to kill people because of growing awareness of human fallibility, the governor of Massachussetts is out to...
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In Texas, the Middle Finger Means "Hi!"
Slate's Fred Kaplan says "Bush's message can be summarized as follows: The U.S.-led occupation authority is doing good work in Iraq; you should come help...
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Buckets and Mops
One of Salon's senior news editors argues Iraq is also the responsibility of the American left, not in the sense that we caused the...
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Welcome aboard, General
You'll note a few qualifiers and exit strategies in my post yesterday about Wesley Clark. I hope I'll stay comfortable with it as a...
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yonder he comes
Republicans hate Clark. Quelle surprise.
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Arnold: Illegal Alien
I said I was swearing off political writing, which I'm not very good at, but that doesn't mean I have to swear off the...
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Grinding the Debunking Axe
Update (9/8/03): Barbara Mikkelson of Snopes graciously admitted to her error and apologized to Michael Moore. I continue to hope that Snopes will adopt a...
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back to school
A new political season arrives after a record-breakingly soggy weekend where I live. I've been out for awhile. (I was actually surprised when I...
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Happy Labor Day
We saw an ad for a Labor Day sale on the television today. Alison's first question was "What the hell is up with all the...
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croaked
b!X has a roundup on Portland Police Chief Kroeker's resignation. At least, I suppose, he can look forward to his garbage being left in...
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Don't Trickle Down on My Forehead
. . . and tell me it's raining: Halliburton's [post-war Iraq] Deals Greater Than Thought (washingtonpost.com)...
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Snowball We Hardly Knew Ye
Some interesting things float to the top at Technorati sometimes, including this 63-year-old report on the assassination of Leon Trotsky: "According to the police...
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Hawash Note From b!X
Along with my luggage, following the Communique fell victim to my jaunt to Michigan. Here's an oldish entry from b!X regarding Mike Hawash's recent...
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bedfellow payoff
I wonder if there are better uses for 30 million American dollars than paying Iraqi gangsters to turn rat. This won't be good for...
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What About "Support the Spooks"?
I'm not of a mind to debate the Yellowcakegate issue much if only because I thought even the neocon war cheerleaders had already slid into...
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Under "B" for "Bloody-mindedness"
I suppose we should commend the Greens for having the courage to live out their convictions as they agree to support the Bush reelection...
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denial
Hey, thanks, glad to be back. It's almost more depressing than exhilerating that now, NOW the media have jumped on this single shred of...
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speechifyin'
Those politicians sure say some krazy things! "[T]there's no doubt in my mind, when it's all said and done, the facts will show the...
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well, this is interesting
CRUEL MEDIA HOAX! UPDATE FOLLOWS ORIGINAL POST! POSTED 7/9: Make what you will of this, but Capitol Hill Blue has an on-the-record quote and...
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dodge, parry, thrust
Sticking with the Wall Street Journal--and why not; if they say it, it must be true--here's a piece on how the White House has...
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A Hard Right to the Chin
Hey! Even the Wall Street Journal slams the new Ann Coulter jeremiad. Strengthening the blow, they assure us they haven't gone soft on "liberals"...
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Do you feel a draft?
As reports of rock-bottom morale roll in, military service is clearly not the attractive option it used to be--and not just because the odds...
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Happy Indefensible Day
Maureen Farrell unlocks a veritable arsenal of smoking guns in a long piece bristling with excellent links at BuzzFlash.com: Intelligence President Bush ignored in...
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welcome to the occupation
A BBC account (6/28/03) of a hit-and-run incident in which an 11-year-old Iraqi boy was apparently killed by a vehicle in an American convoy....
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The Last Angry Man
Another speech by Senator Robert Byrd. Go, read it....
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Muckrakers, we hardly knew ye.
Good piece by Eric Boehlert on Salon this morning, detailing the pro-Bush media tilt as it continues into another election year. Boehlert and the...
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They Just Get Madder
Re: Supremes/Sodomy: Let the backlash begin. Or whatever you care to call all the grunting and squawking that'll get 'em whipped up in Nashville....
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no conspiracy
Not at the Carlyle Group, cause the guys who really run shit don't have to conspire--they just plan and implement. Got a link to...
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neoconspiracy
This has been out there awhile--since September 11, 2001, in fact, when you might have been wondering about it yourself--but a lot of strange...
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Finding Her Level
Reflexive bile? Subjectivist fallacies? Outrageous positions staked out to rise above the din of ten thousand others chattering about the same topic? Ann Coulter...
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It's a Whole BioRegion
Ed asks: "Why has PuddingTime never taken a stand on the issue of Cascadian independence?" Good question. Probably because the second we secede, all the...
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when the right goes wrong, they're left
Pat Buchanan practices some tentative doomsaying, attempting to carve some daylight between neocons and the rest of the right, and identify some high ground...
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unthinkable?
Paul Krugman has a piece on this administration's "dereliction of duty." As he inflames world opinion and uses the war on terror to excuse...
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the other war we haven't won
Bob Harris, Tom Tomorrow's co-blogger at This Modern World, pulls together some interesting stories about just how not-stable Afghanistan is. So unstable, in fact,...
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Draft Bill Moyers!
On June 4 in Washington, Bill Moyers gave this amazing speech to the Take Back America conference, sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future....
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if a wmd doesn't fall in the forest...
All together now: Saddam was a murderous tyrant whom his people are well rid of. But how does the world, and history, judge a...
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the matrix and me
The Consortium features a long piece by Robert Parry describing "America's Matrix"--the world of deception and illusion conjured by those presently in political power....
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drunk with power!
No, not the handful of media conglomerates that will soon set the political and cultural agenda for the nation--ME...well, and Mike, and all the...
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Fire
Jim Henley is on fire: ". . . God damn George W. Bush for accepting the advice of knaves and dreamers. God damn Tony...
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On Behalf of All Of Us:
"Pretty Please"....
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Nothing If Not Reliable
On a quiet night, you can hear the dominoes tumble. Andrew Sullivan establishes the utter reliability of neocon hawks....
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Mayor McCheese Never Had It This Hard
b!X has the goods on the clash of the recall campaigns, a pair of ideologically opposed attempts to send Portland Mayor Vera Katz packing....
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Well, Plus Virginia Just Sort of Sucks
Since several of us on a Memorial Day camping trip have recently lived or are from states that call themselves "commonwealths" (Virginia and Kentucky,...
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the real hillbillies
Redneck nation is on its own: Ford Trucks and Toby Keith, the ass-kickin' empty hat who brought us "Courtesy of the Red, White &...
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nothing to lose
At least Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) isn't afraid to take the gloves off: "Making the Military a Prop in Presidential Politics" "The Truth Will...
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border vigilantes
Although the protests against CBS's "The Real Beverly Hillbillies" have me thinking I probably ought to come up with a PC term for rednecks...
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Lieutenant, Your Men Are Etc. Etc.
New This Modern World:...
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Terror Alert Confusion
Given the necessity of having our nation's current Terror Alert Level uppermost in mind at all times, it concerns me that the color codes for...
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I Feel Better Already
The Pentagon has figured out that "Terrorist Information Awareness" sounds less objectionable than the alternative "Total Information Awareness." What with the retirement of their sinister...
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Good... Measure 26-48 Passed
I was at home watching the "Buffy" series finale, but b!X was at the "Yes on 26-48" Party and has some commentary, some links,...
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sometimes you wear the costume, sometimes the costume wears you
Although, for his speech in Indianapolis last week, President Bush did not arrive in a race car, dressed like a race-car driver, his professionals...
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Meanwhile, Back at the Ballot Box . . .
As much as it's fun to write about blogs, googlewashing, and all that, there's also a pressing local matter, which is Measure 26-48, which...
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But What About Elvish?
The headline (Hyperventilating Press Forces County to Nix Klingon's Inclusion On List) pretty much sums up b!X's post mortem on the whole matter of...
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It's Called An "Ad Populum" Argument, And It's Not Nice
I really like The American Prospect's blog, but when they offer up arguments that end with "there's not a truck driver or stockroom clerk...
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Dear South, Redux
I found a link to this piece on Southern Nationalism on Reason's blog. It tackles the question of southern nationalism and the roots of the...
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May Day at Musicland
The National Review has had its say about the Grokster ruling (in which file sharing software was let off the hook): "By legalizing Internet file-trading...
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Hopefully Hallmark Is Working On This
I'm assuming this doesn't entail a white sale....
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Sit Back and Relax . . . Please
b!X reports that our state legislature continues to hold the line against self-serve gas in Oregon....
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Dear South: Please Grow Up
The Guardian looks at that segregated prom (and recounts other instances of segregation in the South). One of the teens who supported a desegregated prom...
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Now Brace for Some Real Self Righteousness
Oh. Well nobody told me Bennett was going to comment: looks like he's giving up gambling because it sets a bad example. On your way...
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Still Crazy
David Duke's both still alive and big in the Middle East and the former Soviet Union....
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Rub rub rub
Michael Kinsley can't contain his glee. (Last item on the Bennett thing, unless, of course, it somehow gets better/worse)....
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The Washington Dispatch offers budding logicians a "find the fallacy" easter egg hunt (with emu-sized eggs)....
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I'm curious about Andrew Sullivan's take on anything approximately once every six to nine months....
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Some ideas to pass along to "support the troops" hawks
Some ideas to pass along to "support the troops" hawks during the afterglow....
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Gingrich's attack on Powell vetted by Pentagon?
Gingrich's attack on Powell vetted by Pentagon? Did the White House call the dogs off afterwards?...
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Cyprus Wall Opened
Hitchens on the opening of the wall in Cyprus...
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© 2002, 2003 Michael Hall under a Creative Commons License. Items not authored by Michael Hall are © their respective authors.