"No matter how cynical I get, I can’t keep up.” — Lily Tomlin
Shape of Earth: Views Differ
The difficulty of getting at the truth of a story was increased today by Wonkette, an influential political blog, then multiplied by Fox News, a conservative propaganda outlet. Starting with the onion’s outer layer, here’s the headline and blurb from Wonkette: An American state has decided to promote illiteracy? What, are they shutting down schools? […]
A zippier title for this post would be State Secrets & Shit Lists, but I’ll refrain. The way the authoritarians in our midst are calling for Julian Assange’s assassination, I can’t help thinking of Orwell’s 1984, where the citizens of Oceania turned to their viewscreens once a day for the Two Minutes Hate directed against […]
I thought today would be robocall-free, and said so on Facebook. An hour later one of my little Facebook friends reported getting one. So much for that theory. In three years of using one, I’ve received not one sales pitch, robocall, or charity solicitation on my cell phone. Not so my landline, which has become […]
Remember my earlier post about following the money involved in catching, holding, processing, and deporting illegal immigrants in Arizona? And how much of that money finds its way to the private prison industry and associated private contractors? I started following the money in May. Rachel Maddow started following it in August, quickly picking up on […]
NPR, the only radio station I can stand listening to for more than five minutes in a row, is in full horse race mode as mid-term elections near, obsessing over poll numbers, and — what a surprise! — breathlessly advancing the mainstream media meme that Republican and Tea Party candidates are going to win big. […]
I didn’t get around to watching Jon Stewart’s September 16th Daily Show until last night. By then I’d already seen some blog reaction to the “Rally to Restore Sanity” announcement, so I knew what was coming. Even so, I was shocked. A “million moderate march”? I literally squirmed in embarrassment, all the more so as […]
What’s in Paul’s grab bag? Unconnected thoughts and observations too short to rate blog posts of their own, but which might amount to something when aggregated together: Damen und Herren I always wanted to write a lengthy post on restroom signage, complete with illustrations. Well, what do you know? Someone saved me the trouble! A […]
Is there something about aviation accidents reporters don’t understand? Upwards of 95% of airplane crashes (actually, more like 99.9%) are caused by the pilots involved. But you might never guess that from newspaper, magazine, and blog reportage, where a passive-voice form of politeness takes over. They report the who/what/when/where of aviation accidents, but rarely the […]