January 2011
December 2010
Political views 'hard-wired' into your brain -... →
“Tories may be born not made, claims a study that suggests people with right wing views have a larger area of the brain associated with fear.”
I knew it! Those chickenshits
“This is a worry since the bailouts were based upon two complimentary definitions...”
– Mark Blyth: The Real Reason That the Bailouts May Not Work
“Andy Haldane, executive director of Financial Stability at the Bank of England,...”
– Mark Blyth: The Real Reason That the Bailouts May Not Work
“Seeing facts of this kind, juxtaposed without irony or remedy at this dire...”
– Sam Harris: A New Year’s Resolution for the Rich
“While the United States has suffered the worst recession in living memory, I...”
– Sam Harris: A New Year’s Resolution for the Rich
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“We now live in a country in which the bottom 40 percent (120 million people)...”
– Sam Harris from A New Year’s Resolution For The Rich (via therecipe)
“One truism that I’ve learned about political and media survival in Washington is...”
– Is Barack Obama the Problem? (via azspot)
“That’s what so much “journalism” now is: a means of shielding secrets from the...”
– Glenn Greenwald on Wired’s lies about Adrian Lamo. Read the archives before this article if you want the full context, which does not paint a flattering picture of Wired. (via jonathan-cunningham)
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“It would be better if there were nothing. Since there is more pain than pleasure...”
– Arthur Schopenhauer (via eriisasleep)
Obama's Fear of the Reagan Narrative →
However, at the earlier White House meeting, Obama told the economists that he felt handcuffed by the Right’s ability to rally Americans on behalf of Reagan’s “government-is-the-problem” message. “It was hard to change the narrative after 30 years” of Republican repetition about the evils of big government, one participant quoted Obama as saying.
“He seemed to be looking for a way to reassure...
WatchKim Jong Il Ends Nuclear Program For Lead In Next ‘Batman’ | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source | Onion News Network
Why Europe Is, and Will Remain, Powerful
theutopian:
By Joseph Nye.
Predictions of European decline rely on an outmoded understanding of power. On all issues that require power with - rather than over - others, Europe has impressive capacity.
A defense of Europe’s relevance.
Read More
“If religion is in decline in the modern world, Roy argues, so is culture. On the...”
– Book Review - Holy Ignorance - By Olivier Roy - NYTimes.com
“It is true, he concedes, that conservative religion is growing. But any talk of...”
– Book Review - Holy Ignorance - By Olivier Roy - NYTimes.com
“Whether it takes the form of the Christian right in the United States or...”
– Book Review - Holy Ignorance - By Olivier Roy - NYTimes.com
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“Because if this is gonna be a Christian nation that DOESN’T help the poor,...”
– Stephen Colbert (via loveyourchaos)
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“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
– Oscar Wilde (via acuriousquest)
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WatchTrailer For Natalie Portman And James Franco’s New Movie, ‘Your Highness’ (VIDEO)
“Campaign money is now more than ever the lifeblood of U.S. politicians, and you...”
– Amy Goodman (via azspot)
“The FCC decision was described as a “compromise” between public and corporate...”
– Black Agenda Report (via azspot)
“In the end, those of us who expected the crisis to provide a teachable moment...”
– Wall Street Whitewash - NYTimes.com
“Last week, Spencer Bachus, the incoming G.O.P. chairman of the House Financial...”
– Wall Street Whitewash - NYTimes.com
“Some scientific questions now seem to be a matter of tribal identity: A vast...”
– Michael Bérubé for Democracy: A Journal of Ideas
“So these days, when I talk to my scientist friends, I offer them a deal. I say:...”
– Michael Bérubé for Democracy: A Journal of Ideas
“But what of Sokal’s chief post-hoax claim that the academic left’s critiques of...”
– Michael Bérubé for Democracy: A Journal of Ideas
“You just can’t imagine someone like Sanders doing something like that; his MO...”
– Bernie Sanders Puts Barack Obama to Shame — RollingStone.com
“Sanders blew all of that off and just looked at the deal’s moral implications....”
– Bernie Sanders Puts Barack Obama to Shame — RollingStone.com
“I thought about this when I watched Bernie go through his amazing one-man...”
– Bernie Sanders Puts Barack Obama to Shame — RollingStone.com
Kung Fu for Philosophers - NYTimes.com →
“This is why genre writers cannot claim to have everything. They can take the...”
– Are Stieg Larsson and Dan Brown a match for literary fiction? | Books | The Observer
WatchDr. Christopher Ryan: Sex at Dawn (by DANGEROUS MINDS)
Here’s an interview with one of the authors of Sex at Dawn, the book I recommended yesterday. For those of you who aren’t the reading type, enjoy.
The New York Times Torture Euphemism Generator! -... →
Reading the NYT’s stories about the Iraq War logs, I was struck by how it could get through such gruesome descriptions — fingers chopped off, chemicals splashed on prisoners — without using the word ‘torture.’ For some reason the word is unavailable when it is literally meaningful, yet is readily tossed around for laughs in contexts where it means nothing at all. It turns out the...
“For my friends, my republican colleagues, to tell me that we need more tax cuts...”
– Filibernie’s Greatest Hits (via azspot)
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“Danny knew what he was hearing: a Motivational Speech. Before his pop gave up on...”
– The Keep, Jennifer Egan
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“It’s the voices of the dead, Davis says. He looks gentle, like the idea...”
– The Keep, by Jennifer Egan
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But around the same time that our window glass got straightened out, Davis’s workouts started hitting me a different way. It happened when I listened to his words. The more shaky and worn out Davis gets from his push-ups, the more the normal words we all say every day start getting mixed up with old words he must’ve used at some earlier point in his life: goon and dildo and asswipe and...
“Finally, Morris surprises us. He duly acknowledges that “patterns established in...”
– Book Review - Why The West Rules — For Now - By Ian Morris - NYTimes.com
“To be a fundamentalist, you have to have a book. And you have to forget the book...”
– Joseph Hoffmann (via azspot)
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The Keep, by Jennifer Egan
This is the third book I’ve read by this author and is easily my favorite by her. What I thought was great was that she’s working primarily in an old genre (the Gothic novel), but has written a very contemporary experimental novel, switching back and forth between the tale and the tale of the teller of the tale, and she does it all with a realistic style. Really well done, and super...
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Sex at Dawn, by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha
This is the best nonfiction book I read all year. It’s one of those books that is about one thing, but ends up saying something much larger about the whole world. This is primarily a science book, so those who like sex but don’t like science may not enjoy it that much. But if you like both sex and science, this is the book for you. It’s really intelligent, it points out the flaws...
“Gergen: There’s no question that Sarah Palin has gained more from this as a...”
– Feel the Jebmentum (via ryking)