January 30, 2003 – 12:00 am
There’s been a request, showing up on mailing lists and some weblogs, for people to send a half cup of uncooked rice, along with a verse from the New Testament about feeding one’s enemies, to the White House in protest of the incipient war.
NB: Thanks to Adina for recommending the extra comma in the previous [...]
January 18, 2003 – 12:00 am
Over at Unqualified Offerings, Jim proposes a drinking game for folks attending today’s anti-war rallies.
Speaker mentions “blood for oil” - drink
Speaker mentions “white male” anything - drink
Speaker mentions capitalism - drink
Speaker mentions “Palestine” - drink
November 6, 2002 – 12:00 am
Let’s take the good news where we can find it. Tammy Baldwin, actual liberal, won her third term in the House, holding on to her seat in the Second District of Wisconsin, also known as Madison.
Before you dismiss that, it helps to remember that GOP incumbent and ex-newsanchor Scott Klug held that seat for several [...]
October 25, 2002 – 12:00 am
My friend Cynthia just called with this terrible news. Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesotta and his family died in the crash of their chartered campaign plane this morning. Senator Wellstone was a person of great integrity, something missing from the Congress and the Executive branches. His nation will miss him.
August 29, 2002 – 12:00 am
[ via RC3 ] Over at Lake Effect (which is great to see back in business) Dan Hartung explains the seemingly contradictory term ‘libertarian-socialist’.
August 16, 2002 – 12:00 am
Spinsanity went after MWO over their tone. That’s all nice and idealistic, but the ‘other side’ isn’t playing nice. They throw dirt in your face, dip their rapiers in the sewer, and in the case of The Blonde from Hell — turn both keys within five seconds of each other and let loose with rhetorical [...]
Rightwing bloggers have been quick to take up Pym Fortuyn, the ‘rightist’ politician murdered yesterday in the Netherlands, as the latest bloody cudgel to smack around those of us on the Left.
Fortuyn’s apparent assassin was a member of a ‘vegan animal rights group’ — which somehow makes the asssassin a member of the Left. Sorry [...]
April 17, 2002 – 12:00 am
[ via Boing Boing ] Rumours of broad-based opposition by the Left to cloning and stem cell research are just that. A piece in the NYT left the impression that the Left had aligned with an anti-abortion Republican senator’s bill to ban all research in the field. Several Lefties had signed a petition circulated by [...]
Add Professor J. Bradford DeLong to the list of economists who write for general audiences, and are interesting reading.
March 31, 2002 – 12:00 am
Gary Farber writes about the conflict with which those of us from the Left are grappling. He talks about the 1930s Left who formed the Abraham Lincoln brigades to fight Franco, and the 1960s Left who mobilized to stop a war. We’ve remained in the mode of the 1960s: assuming wars and interventions are wrong. [...]
March 10, 2002 – 12:00 am
[ via Doc Searls ] I’ve been reading a facinating essay by philosopher and cognitive scientist George Lakoff. He identifies and describes the metaphors at the core of Conservative thought that explain such seeming paradoxes as being anti-reproductive choice, yet pro-death penalty.
He argues that both the Conservative and Liberal worldviews share the “Nation as Family” [...]
The Independent asks a few questions from its readers of Mother Theresa’s favorite biographer, Chrisopher Hitchens.
You’re a highly-paid newspaper columnist. How do you square this with your left-wing leanings? — Jo Spencer, Leeds
Nothing’s too good for the working class.
That’s why I like Hitchens.
February 27, 2002 – 12:00 am
Following up on my link to John Nichols coverage of the story, Phillip Winn, who is in Dallas, has more info on Laura Miller, Dallas’ new mayor.
She survived a contentious term as a member of the city council that included physical fights and demonstrations at her own home, including things left burning in her front [...]
February 26, 2002 – 12:00 am
Dallas elected an outsider to Mayor. Laura Miller, a columnist for the independent weekly The Dallas Observer, won 55% of the vote in a runoff last Saturday. She did that despite the opposition of the Dallas Morning News and the city’s elites.
She declared city officials “brain dead” and portrayed them as fawning sycophants to wealth [...]
February 11, 2002 – 12:00 am
[ via Boing Boing Blog ] China Miéville (Perdido Street Station) put up his list of 50 science fiction and fantasy novels which a socialist, or other politicaly minded person, should read.
