The US government is now relying more and more on private security contractors like Blackwater (which changed its name to Xe and then later again to Academi) to do things that the military used to do.
A series of videos have surfaced that show these contractors acting like they were in the old west, shooting indiscriminately at people as they careened dangerously through the streets of Iraq and not bothering to even stop and help when their vehicles knock down pedestrians.
Now that the Republican primary race seems to be effectively over as far as the pundits are concerned, they will have to fill airtime and newsprint with other sources of endless and mindless speculation. Brace yourselves because from this point onwards, you can be sure that nothing substantive will be discussed and the media will lurch from one ginned-up ‘controversy’ to the next, often about the most trivial things, with each one being framed in terms of its impact on the election. [Read more…]
I wrote recently about ‘the talk’ that black parents give their adolescent sons in order to try and keep them out of trouble. Writer John Derbyshire decided to publish his own ‘nonblack version of the talk’. It included such gems as: [Read more…]
Have you ever wondered what might have happened if Alfred Hitchcock had tried his hand at comedy? Me neither.
But in his latest commercial, Herman Cain tries to channel the master of suspense in a remake of The Birds and ends up with an ad that I think is supposed to be scary but which made me burst out laughing. Watch out for that skeletal arm, kid! [Read more…]
Now that it is widely conceded that Mitt Romney will be the Republican party nominee, we enter phase two of the presidential election cycle.
It may be the scientist in me but I tend to favor theoretical models that enable some predictivity in events, rather than the idea that we are totally at the mercy of idiosyncratic factors. This is true even in the world of presidential elections, despite all its seeming unpredictability. As I wrote earlier, strip away the surface turbulence and you see the steady flow of a predictable current. [Read more…]
… and is even crazier.
Echoing the tactics of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, Congressman Allen West (R-Florida) says that he “has heard” that up to 80 Democrats in the US House of Representatives are members of the Communist Party but he won’t give their names. At least he did not say that he had the list of names in his hand.
What does it mean that the four people who entered the race suggesting that it was god’s idea in the first place (Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachman) have now all been eliminated? God’s power seems to have waned quite a bit from the days when he created the universe and parted the seas. Now he cannot even get his people the Republican nomination. Perhaps appearing on pieces of toast is the best he can do now. [Read more…]
The actor has become an anti-fracking, clean water activist. (Link corrected)
The Colbert Report
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(This clip appeared on March 28, 2012. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
Stephen M. Walt wants to know, since he is confused by the mixed signals sent by the Obama administration, first saying that they want to talk and then putting forward proposals that were blatantly unacceptable to the Iranians, who predictably rejected them.
Justin Raimondo poses similar concerns, saying “For all this administration’s alleged attempts to “engage” the Iranians, there were never any serious efforts to come to any kind of agreement: unconditional demands, exemplified by this latest ultimatum, were always at the core of various Western “peace” proposals. Now that the Iranian drama is coming down to the wire, virtually all pretenses at real negotiations have been rapidly discarded.”
Is there anything that symbolizes the absurdity of US attitudes towards Cuba more than the fact that Ozzie Guillen, the manager of the Miami Marlins baseball team, was suspended by team owners for remarks he made about Fidel Castro? What did he say that was so outrageous? “I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but (he) is still there.” How horrifying! This is despite the fact that even pope Ratzo just had a friendly meeting with Castro and called for an end to the embargo. There goes the pope’s chance of ever being made manager for the Marlins. [Read more…]