"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
Shape of Earth: Views Differ
During the last few days stories about armed groups shooting and killing illegal immigrants have begun to appear on TV and in local newspapers. Stories like this. Here’s another. The media seem determined to sooth us by describing these armed groups as “bandits,” perhaps rival gangs of immigrant smugglers fighting each other. As in this quote from an ABC […]
I thought I was reasonably on top of the Scooter Libby trial story. But Nicholas Lemann of The New Yorker threw me with this, in his most recent Talk of the Town commentary: What’s ultimately behind Libby’s trial is the Administration’s obsession with finding hard evidence for what it already believes. President Bush is often […]
Ever since Ethiopian forces went into Somalia, and more so since this week’s US AC-130 gunship attack on what is said to have been a Somalian Al Qaeda encampment, news commentators and reporters have been talking about Black Hawk Down. As in: “US forces strike Somalia again, more than 13 years after Black Hawk Down.” When […]
Woo-hoo, the Arizona no smoking proposition passed (the real one, not the one sponsored by R. J. Reynolds). I can hang around in bars again! As for the election in general, I, for one, welcome our new congressional overlords. Try not to screw up, okay? And while you’re at it, try not to screw us […]
Since I’m working the early shift this month, I get to spend time with Donna in the afternoons. Today, though, we’re doing different things: I’m checking e-mail in the office while she embroiders hash hats in the sewing room. She’s got the TV on in there, listening to Doctor Phil while she works. And what […]
Scare link seen at Drudge: DJs Put a Half Million Marchers in L.A.’s Streets… Oh yeah, them agitators are whipping them up, all right. And in Spanish, so we can’t understand what they’re saying! Could it simply be that Hispanics, the targets of immigration reform, recognize racism when they see it? Damn right they’re marching.
Several months ago, I bitched about the empty-headed celebrity chitchat that passes for “news” on NBC’s Today show. My complaints are usually ineffectual, and this was no exception: my wife still watches Today on the bedroom TV every morning. Then as now, as I brush my teeth in the adjoining bathroom, I’m an involuntary listener. […]
I have to admit I’m curious as to what actually happened on American Airlines Flight 924. Here’s what CNN said: Dave Adams, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service, said Alpizar had run up and down the plane’s aisle yelling, “I have a bomb in my bag.” But according to the same article: . […]