I’m pretending I’m an art student today, hanging out in the very pretty but comfortable offices over at Steinhardt, doing work and drinking tea. When I imagine an alternate life at an imaginary university in Europe somewhere, my imaginary office looks a lot like the one I’m in right now — stacks of magazines, slide [...]
Category Archives: Politics
This, and That
03-Apr-09Department of Eagles
02-Apr-09And, on the theme of war, the new video for No One Does It Like You, by the Department of Eagles (h/t to Bridge for passing along).
Overseas Contingency Operations
02-Apr-09While WILBing around during office hours today, I happened upon a Times opinion piece that calls into question the Obama administration’s verbal distancing from the Bush reign of (war on) terror. In the midst of a bunch of domestic turmoil, it helpfully reminds those of us in the U.S. about the continuation of wars and [...]
Kids for Cash
27-Feb-09About to head to Western Mass for some time with the chosen fam. I’ve been promised cupcake-baking, Thomas the Train videos, and diaper duty. In honor of my jury duty stint (which ended unceremoniously yesterday by getting excused early), I bring to those of you who haven’t yet heard of it, the “Kids for Cash” [...]
Ghost Stories
24-Feb-09I haven’t quite been able to wrap my head around the conversation about racism over at scatterplot. One thought I’ve had is that the pain inflicted by the cartoon under question, the pain of viewing the cartoon for people who know that monkey means them, has gone largely unacknowledged by those who question the racist [...]
New School
18-Dec-08I stopped by the New School briefly, which has been occupied by students since last night. You can read about it at the New School In Exile site. Although there are demands being made by the students inside, including for President Bob Kerrey to step down, the demands and the occupation seem not to be [...]
Racism without Race
16-Oct-08The chains of signification being mobilized in this last leg of the presidential race — Obama – Hussein – Anti-American/Other (“doesn’t see America like you and me”) -Terrorist – Muslim – Arab — is almost too stunning to catch. By never having to say “Black,” McCain’s campaign and followers are able to disavow race and [...]
So Bored I Can’t Even Think of a Header
08-Oct-08We kept joking about live-blogging the debate last night, and for a moment I thought I really would, but then I died of boredom, making live-blogging no longer feasible. Yawn! Town Hall? Town Lull is more like it. (Sorry, that’s the best I could do.) My favorite part, as per usual, was the commentary after. [...]
Reality as Parody
06-Oct-08I’m very enthused about Tina Fey’s return to SNL to play Sarah Palin for what will hopefully be just a few weeks more, after which time she can retire the role, as Sarah Palin fades from memory and American politics resume a normal level of absurdity just below the current level of absolute and utter [...]
I think Gwen has said it best. Or, the longer version, from Tim Wise.