The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Richard Day's picture

    MISAPPROPRIATION

                                                                LAURENCE STERNEWe can say nothing but what hath been said . . . Our poets steal from Homer . . . . Our story dressers do as much; he that comes last is commonly best.                                                           Robert Burton...
    Barth's picture

    Echo Chambers and Critical Thought

    Sometimes, a guy thinks that he has become "Mr. Wilson." Maybe you are not old enough to remember him (though Walter Matthau revived the character in a movie a few years back). He was the Mitchell's next door neighbor and...

    'Israeli commando who shot six dead on ship may get 'medal of valour'

    Once again I am making a comment into a blog entry in its own right because I do not want this event to be buried as some side note. Please be forewarned, what you are about to read is very...
    Richard Day's picture

    WE HAVE TO DRILL EM OVER HERE SO WE DON'T HAVE TO DRILL THEM WAY OUT THERE

                            AESCHINES, THE PLAY ACTORYour health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike... Our...
    SleepinJeezus's picture

    Gulf Disaster Warning was Posted Early on the Road to Hell

    Last night, songwriter Chris Rea channeled for me the ghosts that have been haunting us all in the weeks since the Deepwater Horizon blew sky high and then sunk to the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, taking 11...
    Richard Day's picture

    MONEY FOR NOTHIN'

                                     Overheard playing at a recent meeting of the Young Republicans:   I want my senate seat (a bunch of music)   Now look at them ya ya's that's the way you do it You run for office toward a...
    we are stardust's picture

    Are CIA Operatives Who Oppose Drone Attacks *Objectively* Pro-Taliban?

    Some of you may have already guessed that I am haunted by drone attacks.  They have taken up residence in my brain, though to a lesser degree than the millions of pounds of explosives of all kinds that we rained...
    stillidealistic's picture

    The Worst Thing the Repubs Ever Did

    What was the first thing that came to mind? The war in Iraq? Tax cuts for the wealthy? Dismantling regulations? All good choices, but the worst thing they ever did, the one that I will NEVER, even if I live...
    Richard Day's picture

    THREE LEGGED DOGS

    A three-legged dog is a survivor. A tough, sure sign that life is difficult. Yet sometimes, leaping for a frisbee or bristling at the sight of a cat, he will become graceful, his fourth leg magically visible as he...
    we are stardust's picture

    Problems at TPM Café (plus an update)

    Please understand I love the Café for so many reasons, and appreciate that Josh keeps it up, even though he says it's not a money-maker. I don't love the software problems. I posted a blog at 7:15 EDT this evening;...
    we are stardust's picture

    Supreme Court Narrows Miranda, Obama Gives Legal Cover to Drone Operators

    (In case you missed these tidbits)     In a split decision, the SCOTUS ruled that suspects must speak up in order to ensure the legality of their rights not to speak.  Anthony Kennedy wrote that a suspect who speaks...
    amike's picture

    Memorial Day and the Gaza Incident: A Meditation.

    Memorial Day has been problematic for me for a very long time.  When I was a teenager, a quartet of jet fighters performed stunts over the cemeteries of Minneapolis, which I thought a bit strange--I thought it stranger when two...
    Richard Day's picture

    THE SCREAM

                                                 HISTORY CHANNEL EXECUTIVEGreat series on The History Channel this month: America; The Story of  US. I have been watching these documentaries since I was six; especially those wonderful hours about WWII. The hour on WWII in this series...
    stillidealistic's picture

    Wall Street Snark Alert!

    I don't normally like to make posts that direct you to an article without taking the time to put together a synopsis and my analysis, but I'm in a hurry this morning, and want to make sure y'all see this...
    we are stardust's picture

    Cooperation for Kandahar: Ever More Orwellian.

      The 'summer offensive' (Hamkari Baraye Kandahar) in Kandahar will be the test case for US involvement in Afghanistan, according to Karen De Young at the Washington Post.  She reports that administration officials say that the results will be the...
    Richard Day's picture

    HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY; GOD BLESS AMERICA

                                   EQUITY DURING WAR TIME IN AMERICAI received this email from one of my favorite Congressmen; like Bernie Sanders Representative Grayson reaches out beyond his constituency. I just love this guy: On May 30, 2010, at 10:06 a.m, the direct...

    Update: Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza stormed by IDF. Twenty peace activist murdered, 50 wounded.. Follow the flotilla http://witnessgaza.com/

    Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have attacked the 'International Freedom Flotilla' carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza.  The flotilla was attacked by Israeli gunships and stormed by Israeli commandos while in International Waters.  The IDF have murdered 20 peace activist.  At...
    oleeb's picture

    Shades of Cambodia And Laos! Butcher McChrystal Claims Iran Trains The Taliban!

    Of all the bullshit lies we've seen justifying our unjustifiable imperialist wars in the Muslim world the latest lie being trotted out is, in my opinion, the most absurd and transparently lacking in any credibility whatsoever.  Every lie and deception...
    Richard Day's picture

    LET THEM EAT CAKE

                                                           BARBARA BUSH'S MOMWhat I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were...
    Barth's picture

    Building on Sacrifice

    It would have been a great post. It would have asked how it is possible that the President of the United States, a year and a half after replacing one whose vice president held secret meetings with oil executives to...

    Obama did nothing wrong.

    From the moment Specter became a Democrat it was no secret that the establishment wanted Sestak to defer his own candidacy. Progressives were rather irate pretty much from the instant it became apparent this would be the case. There were...

    Update: Israeli gunships deployed to stop Humanitarian aid from reaching the Gaza. What next, nuclear weapons?

    AP is now reporting the Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza will be stopped using Israeli gunships.'Israeli gunships head to sea to block flotilla.'  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jFki4MerB8GrGJS2hOVmY5...  '...Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said the country was prepared to stop the...
    Richard Day's picture

    DEEP IN THE FARTS OF TEXAS

                                                                THE FIRST TEABAGGERI was thinking about the Hippy Dippy Weatherman. He would describe in great geographical detail some horrendous weather front about to deliver thunderous devastation to the relevant area where his fictional audience resides. Then he would...
    we are stardust's picture

    Anthro-psyops Occupation Programs: the Wave of the Future

      I wandered onto as Army website page last week in search of info about bunker-buster bombs, and read briefly about the Human Terrain Systems project (started in 2006), an 'initiative of the Army Training and Doctrine Command; career...

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