Chomsky and Foucault

Nancy Reagan's Faults

Here's a quote from an old* Washington Post article:

"Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography" is the portrait of a woman who schemed her way into marriage, treated her mother horribly, was big on astrology, treated her children horribly, always insisted on everything for free, treated the help horribly, once tried marijuana and didn't like it, nicknamed George Bush "Whiney," and, in general, treated everyone horribly."

Is believing in astrology really that horrible?





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*April 8th 1991 by David Streitfeld

Peter Schiff Smackdown

In the interest of accountability, please watch this series of clips. The whole thing.

Consumption is the problem. Lack of production is the problem. Lack of savings is the problem. Finally, someone who makes sense amidst the dizzy ramblings of wanton shills.

Here's part of what what Schiff has to say today:

When it comes to bailouts, the real discussions are not centered in Washington but rather in Beijing, Tokyo, and Riyadh. With no money of our own, our ability to bailout our own citizens is completely dependent on the world's willingness to foot the bill. While I am sure that Bush and Paulson are doing their best to convince the world that open ended financing of the United States is in the global interest, my guess is that, unlike Congress, our foreign creditors will see through the self-serving nature of our plea.

I don't agree with all of Schiff's proposed solutions (he's clearly a free market Reaganite and I most certainly am not) but he certainly deserves to be listened to.

Readings: Smoking and Gender

Men are 15 times more likely to smoke than their female compatriots in China today, with the rate of male cigarette usage hovering around 60 percent, whereas among women it is less than 4 percent. The effects of these radically divergent smoking rates on mortality are unsurprisingly stark. By the early 1990s, tobacco was already responsible for 1 in 8 male deaths (compared to 1 in 33 for women). If current trends persist, by 2050 1 in 3 male deaths will be tobacco-related. Perhaps even more arresting, during the next fifty years, no less than 100 million Chinese men are likely to be killed by cigarette usage. One might expect that the cigarette-ravaged beneficiaries of what Connel calls the “patriarchal dividend” would be strong accelerants for popular protest. That has not been the case.

- Matthew Kohrman from Depoliticizing Tobacco's Exceptionality

There's No Tear in My Beer

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I hope that Bush gets the full Nixon treatment.

And, color me impressed that CNN finally has the technological capacity to enter search terms into google. I just put the terms "CNN" and "boneheads" into the google and got 54,000 hits so what does that prove?

Sex Ed and Driver's Ed

The other day, S and I got into a disagreement about sex ed in the US. I finally found some support from a source that is as convincing as it is amusing.

DanSavageonSexEducation

If for some reason the embedded player doesn't, work try this link.

Click here for the whole interview and here and go to the 11:00 show for the awful discussion that set me off in the first place.

Great Leaders Think A Like

A few weeks ago, I spent a Saturday evening with some friends watching Return of the Jedi special edition. I say special edition because we skipped most scenes that didn't have Admiral Akbar in them. It's all about Admiral Akbar and his clear head in the face of nearly insurmountable odds.

Oh Balls

“I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked.

“Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?”

Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — Touché.”

(via The London Times and Glen Greenwald)

Low Cost Health Care

I just found out that the radio show, Marketplace, featured my friend and colleague Korben and his clinic, Philadelphia Community Acupuncture. Very exciting.

It's about time someone mentioned Acupuncture as a possible solution to the rising cost of health care.

The Election's Over

I could hardly wait another day. I feel like I've had a bee trapped in my ears for two years straight. I've had enough unreasoned and ultimately false predictions, catty gossip masquerading as news, blatant double standards and grossly unnecessary technology to last me a long while.

So, here's a little for something for you sons of dogs in the media that milked every last ounce of human dignity out of the process.




(photo by Jesus Arellanes)

Goodbye Fun Machine

I really wish NY would hold on to the voting funbox. Voting won't be quite as exciting without them.

Some dorky Stuff

This...

...and this...
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/10/10/votd-padme/
thank you for your cooperation.