It's amazing how the actions of President Ahmadinejad dovetail nicely with the needs of the Neocon "Attack Iran" chorus. If I didn't know better, I'd think that Ahmadinejad had been put there by the Americans to make Iran look bad.

Nah, I can't imagine the CIA or anyone like that getting directly involved in Iranian politics.

Posted at January 22, 2006 4:22 AM in response to What to do about Iran?

When the seven-headed dragon rises from the sea you all will be laughing out of the other side of your mouths.

Yeah, and Pythagoras with a looking glass reflects the full moon. In blood he's writing the lyrics of a brand new tune.

Posted at January 13, 2006 6:33 AM in response to Pat Robertson and Israel

...and Jazz is bad and Rock is bad and Rap is bad and violent movies are bad and everything is bad except, oddly enough, whatever the person who's speaking happens to like which (by some miracle) is double plus good.

Posted at December 27, 2005 11:39 AM in response to The Case for Video Games

I wish the TWU would have hired buses and vans and provided shuttles for people trying to get around the city. Perhaps merely a token gesture but great PR and great video for the media:

Heroic Transit Workers Say Their Fight Not With New Yorkers - Provide Free Shuttles/Buses.

That would have worked.

Posted at December 21, 2005 9:51 PM in response to Some Thoughts on the NYC Transit Strike

How the mighty have fallen. I used to love McLaughlin when he was with Mahavishnu Orchestra. Fastest guitar player ever? Perhaps. Holdsworth and Fripp are up for the same award.

Posted at December 20, 2005 5:45 PM in response to John McLaughlin Dazed and Confused

How is it that only 15% believe in science? I'm sorry, I just don't understand. Any thoughts?

Maybe not the main reason but I believe that science educators have done a poor job in communicating difficult ideas in easy to understand ways. What may be a simplified explanation to a scientist might still be utterly indecipherable to a lay person. Somewhere there is someone who can explain concepts like natural selection or even quantum physics in ways that are understandable to anyone. Cartoons anyone? Michael Moore was able to use a cartoon to great effect in "Bowling for Columbine".

Posted at December 20, 2005 1:34 PM in response to Before We Get Too Excited

Bush as a politican looks to dominate allies and enemies. He makes them submit to his will.

Bush, simply put, is an empty-suited salesman whose personality as President is merely a reflection of Karl Rove, a true sociopath if there ever was one.

Posted at December 3, 2005 9:39 AM in response to Ignorance is Strength

The death penalty is something I've found myself feeling contradictory about.  I am opposed to it as it stand - government sponsored murder.  Yet oddly enough, if something were to happen to someone close to me (i.e. my nephew), I wonder if I wouldn't be driven to kill the individual who did it if I could.

Posted at December 1, 2005 10:14 PM in response to One Thousand Ghosts

Your reply to my comment is confusing two different issues: Whether we should have invaded in the first place and what we should have done once we invaded.

For the record, I would have preferred there to be no invasion at all considering the fact that Iraq had been pretty effectively contained since Gulf War 1.  However, if the invasion was as forgone a conclusion as the Bush Administration seemed to make it, then it would have made much more sense to make sure the country did not fall into chaos.  Keeping the streets safe and people employed would have gone a long way in winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

Posted at November 27, 2005 2:53 PM in response to Where's Muqtada?

I detect distinctively little appetite in Iraq for the construction of strong national institutions and the subsuming of sectarian (ethnic, religious, and tribal) identities to a broader national identity

Iraq already had those before we gleefully took them all apart to make way for the New and Improved Halliburton McGovernment.  

I will admit to not even having a Bachelor's degree in anything but what would have been so difficult about marching into Iraq, picking a top general of their army, telling him he's our friend now and the new leader of Iraq and making sure the country didn't fall apart?  I know, I know - the NeoCon dream of a corporate utopia.  How'd that work out anyway?

Posted at November 27, 2005 5:27 AM in response to Where's Muqtada?