Posts Tagged ‘George Will’
Is a Dream a Lie If It Don’t Come True, or Is It Something Worse?
Such ardor has a history. In 1984, George F. Will, in a bow tie and double-breasted blazer, his ears plugged with cotton, attended a Springsteen show. “I have not got a clue about Springsteen’s politics,” wrote a swoony Will, before declaring them like his: “He is no whiner, and the recitation of closed factories and other problems always seems punctuated by a grand, cheerful affirmation: ‘Born in the U.S.A.!’ ” That same year, President Reagan, visiting Jersey, declared, “America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen.”
‘The right’s unrequited crush on Bruce Springsteen.’ Via Kevin.
Sunday!
Sunday!
* Literature: no cell phones allowed.
JULIET: Fakn death. C U Latr.
ROMEO: gud plan.
Recently published narrative fiction is still uneasy about the telephone, much less cell phones or the Internet…
* In defense of The Life Aquatic: Jamie Rich defends the most unfairly maligned of all of Wes Anderson’s films. (Via Rushmore Academy.)
* ‘North Carolina Town Prints Own Currency to Support Local Business.’ I support the effort, but I thought that was illegal…
* The Washington Post continues its efforts to make up for allowing George Will to lie with impunity on its editorial pages.
* Muppets vs. Zombies. If only it were real.
Tuesday Night Linkdump #3
Tuesday night linkdump #3.
* Here comes the Dollhouse? ‘Scientists Erase Painful Memories Without Drugs.’
* Both Inside Higher Ed and Barack Obama himself can declare victory alongside UNC.
* Even the National Review says it’s time for Coleman to concede.
* Environmental reporters at The Washington Post hit back at George Will over the many inaccuracies in his climate change columns.
Ecolinks!
Still working through a backlog of open tabs. First up: ecology and the environment.
* There’s no such thing as clean coal. Just ask the Coen brothers. Also at Grist: dealing with the fact of environmentalism’s soft public support.
As I have argued before, our attention to wide but weak public support is misplaced, leaving us vulnerable to the cycles of an ADD media and alienating our potential core. It is increasingly evident that the vast scale of climate risk provokes a number of numbing psychological responses — pre-conscience cognitive dissonance and buffering in various forms — which exacerbates the usual forces of diffusion.
The only means by which a worldview and solution that is significantly at odds with majority public opinion may be driven onto the public agenda is through the agency of “a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens” — in other words, a determined, partisan core.
* ‘Hacking the planet: The only climate solution left?’ First up: a sunshield. I guess it’s true what they say: from the dawn of time mankind really has yearned to block out the sun.
* Sympathy for the Unabomber? Don’t open any packages from Kevin Kelly for a few days.
* Times Square and several blocks of Broadway are being shut down to cars for most of the year in the name of traffic management and pedestrian malls. Awesome.
* Nuke your city. Via BLDG BLOG (which has a lot of examples) and io9. Of course, we’ve already done Durham.
A Rare Treat
A rare treat: good news on climate change. A glitch in satellite sensors caused scientists to underestimate the extent of Arctic sea ice by 500,000 square kilometers (193,000 square miles), a California- size area, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center said. Of course, it’s good news on an objective level, but perhaps bad news politically, as this is just now other isolated data point for the ignorant, the deluded, and the actively dishonest to latch onto in their efforts to deny real progress.
Friday Night Links
Friday night links while I wait for Jaimee to get home so I can watch some science fiction and turn my brain off.
* George Will is in the news this week for his latest stunningly dishonest column on climate change, which the Washington Post has perversely decided to stand behind. The statement from the paper’s ombudsman is here.
* The EPA under the Obama administration will finally be able to take carbon seriously.
* Secure website authentification questions.
* Howard Machtinger looks back at his participation in the Weather Underground to acknowledge the group’s failures. Via MeFi and Matt Yglesias.
While “New Morning” signaled the WU’s commitment to taking greater care after the accident to target property and not people, it did not acknowledge the WU’s own responsibility for the politics of the Townhouse collective.
WU leaders––then and since––failed to reckon candidly and directly with what it meant, politically and humanly, that core members of the organization had planned to use fragmentation bombs to kill attendees at a dance.
* The complete Pac-Man dossier: everything there is to know about the game, from ghost logic to how to play the kill screen. Via MeFi.
* Hard to believe we’ve all outlived Late Night with Conan O’Brien. I haven’t watched the show in years, but it was formative to my sense of “funny” as a teenager. Here’s Colbert saying goodbye the only way he knows how.
* Wither Burris? It doesn’t look good for the man nobody wanted to be Senator anyway.