July 2002
Little Pricks
You think anybody’d be upset if the Maryland and DC police started profiling pygmies…?
Although I go for the Diet…
The brotherhood of non-signifying Pepperheads grows and grows. And America is stronger for it… Dr Pepper trivia, for you steganographers still paying attention: David Naughton, of American Werewolf in London fame, was the original “I’m a Pepper” teevee guy. And if he wasn’t, he was for me. Which is the same thing. He also sang the theme to the Streisand/O’Neal flick, The Main Event — which you have my permission
Compare and Contrast
Writing in the Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby points to the intellectual hypocrisy promoted by many critics of Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria: […] few Israelis dispute the right of their Arab countrymen to justice, dignity, and equity. The spirit of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which appealed ‘to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the state on the basis
Beach Blanket Bingo
“What does it take to get liberals sounding like Ayn Rand in defense of property rights? Having their own property threatened.” So writes Brian Doherty in “My Own Private Malibu” — a piece that finds Doherty’s libertarianism defending some super rich activist Democrats on principle: […] Sure, there’s something unprincipled about people who in their public lives enthusiastically support environmental and political causes that frequently value state power over property
Space Age
Writing in USA Today, Buzz Aldrin warns that the “U.S. again risks losing space race”: If the USA is to retain its leadership in space, it soon must take bold steps to modernize its civil-space infrastructure, including reorganizing and updating its space infrastructure and eliminating hurdles imposed by the government. NASA and the Defense Department need greater vigor in making capital improvements to our space infrastructure, in building and flying
Shag-atrocious
See? Europe has it’s share of prudish victimology and cultural scapegoating, too. To wit: “The Government is blaming Benny Hill, the comedian famous for his sketches involving scantily-clad girls, for its failure to cut teenage pregnancies,” The Telegraph reports. People’s ‘giggly’ attitude to sex — the ‘Benny Hill culture’ — was sending out mixed messages to young people, Cathy Hamlyn, head of the Government’s Teenage Pregnancy Unit, said. ‘On the
The Figure in the Carpet
“Joseph McCarthy and the bottom-feeding red-baiters of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) saw signs of subversion in even the most anodyne Hollywood product. Most observers have interpreted their inability to view art as anything but a conduit for politics as symptomatic of their fascist philistinism. After all, for the past several decades, the conventional wisdom has been that Hollywood’s reds were unable to smuggle their ideology past studio censors
Pomo origato
Another day. Another barrel. Another gun. Same old Fish. [update: interesting discussion taking place here, for those interested. And Eric Olsen has some thoughts here.]
Footnote Me
“Pop guru Mike Batt is being sued for putting out a song that is nothing but silence — amid claims he STOLE it. “Batt, 51 — famed for creating 70s group The Wombles — recorded the track ‘A One Minute Silence’ for his new band The Planets,” The Sun UK reports. But lawyers claim it sounds just like a 50-year-old piece by the late UScomposer John Cage. That song –entitled
