Archive for November, 2009

Monday, November 30th, 2009

No Swiss Minarets this Christmas

In general, I think that Juan Cole’s article today on the new Swiss law banning the building of minarets is oversimplified, but I do think he makes a few good points always overlooked in our they’re evil we’re good discourse:
Others will allege that Muslims do not grant freedom of religion to Christians in their midst. […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Essays by eric

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Getting Things For Nothing

One of the reasons why Americans are so indifferent to the U.S. invading other countries is because the wars usually don’t affect us at all. Do you think that all of the Republican war-mongers would be so eager to support the ongoing, ineffectual wars in Afghanistan and Iraq if Americans were actually made to pay […]

5 Comments » - Posted in Essays, Obama 44 by eric

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Friedman Delusional

This morning I woke up to one of the most shockingly delusional Friedman op-eds to date. Self-righteous Thomas Friedman astonishingly writes,
Yes, after two decades in which U.S. foreign policy has been largely dedicated to rescuing Muslims or trying to help free them from tyranny — in Bosnia, Darfur, Kuwait, Somalia, Lebanon, Kurdistan, post-earthquake Pakistan, post-tsunami […]

5 Comments » - Posted in Essays by eric

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Jacovo

My friend and former right hand man at FON, Jacobo (aka Hysidro), recently started a blog covering some of his design work. I used to just look over to my left to see what he was working (or procrastinating) on. Now that I don’t get to see him every day, I check out jacovo.com. I […]

1 Comment » - Posted in FON, Friends / Family by eric

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

My One Track Mind

At this time every year I start getting excited about the day after Thanksgiving;  and not because of the Black Friday sales, but because the Christmas Season officially begins and I can finally start annoying everyone with my Christmas favorites.
Although I am normally excited at the end of November, this year coming home for Christmas […]

1 Comment » - Posted in Digressions, Friends / Family by eric

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Nubian Fury

Yesterday I was listening to a Talk of the Nation segment about “Modern Black Face: Offensive or Just Irrelevant”and was thinking about how similar diminutive portrayals of minorities in Spain are never discussed or ever considered offensive and are widely accepted as endearing (as I have complained about here, here, here, here and here).
Then later […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Essays, Living la vida española by eric

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Perspective

 
In an op-ed yesterday on why he has grown so pessimistic about the prospect for Israeli-Palestinian peace, Roger Cohen quotes Israeli author David Grossman,
We have dozens of atomic bombs, tanks and planes. We confront people possessing none of these arms. And yet, in our minds, we remain victims. This inability to perceive ourselves in relation […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Essays by eric

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

Go George Will (Again)

George Will is at it again. After remarking about the obvious absurdity of conservative claims about closing Guantanamo to making the cases for leaving both Iraq and Afghanistan, he has now disagreed with his fellow pundits on the right — including the ever blood thirsty David Brooks — siding with the Department of Justice in […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Essays by eric

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

The Fear of the Tough Guys

I find it increasingly incomprehensible how the hawks panic whenever terrorism crosses paths with the U.S. justice system, as if terrorism will always prevail. Just watch how David Brooks – everyday more of an extremist – views American justice as being incapable of handling terrorists and their propaganda:
I found [Holder’s decision to try the terrorists […]

No Comments » - Posted in Essays, Obama 44 by eric

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Changing Behavior

Of course, “fun” loses its novelty over time.
Thanks, Bill.

No Comments » - Posted in Digressions by eric