or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
June 02, 2004
Because You Are Very Lucky
This is a great Memorial Day piece by Zeynep Toufe. It's about Abe Osheroff, an 89 year-old veteran of the Spanish Civil War.
I am always interested in reading more about the Spanish Civil War, unless such writing appears in the Nation magazine. The Nation has fulfilled their quota of articles dealing with it. If they continue to publish such pieces, we must find some way of stopping them, up to and including civil disobedience.
As it happens, my grandparents lived in Spain in the mid-1930s, and my aunt Susan was born there. Did she fight for the Republican cause at two months old? I suspect so, although she has always maintained a modest silence about it. She's just not the kind of person to brag.
From Muslim WakeUp!, here's something written by Anna Ghonim, an American living in Cairo, about how Bush's apology for Abu Ghraib came across there. Get this: she says the broadcast was entirely in English -- ie, no subtitles, nor simultaneous translation.
And that's the way I like it. If the rest of the world can't be bothered to learn English, they don't deserve an apology. I mean, for god's sake, they have to meet us halfway. We'll take care of the torturing and humiliating, and they can learn our language. That way everybody chips in. Fair's fair.
By the way, Muslim WakeUp! is a beautiful website, despite its unfortunate emphasis on "justice" and "peace."
Finally, here Fred Barnes, a man who -- at least on TV -- appears to have excellent hair, explains that Michael Moore fabricated an embarrassing interview with him. Here Michael Moore explains Fred Barnes may have forgotten the interview, since it took place 17,000 years ago, in 1988.
You can't blame Fred Barnes. I mean, I personally can't remember what my name was in 1988.
Posted at June 2, 2004 11:12 AM | TrackBackApologize? Bush does not, did not, will not apologize.He does no wrong, no one in his administration does anything wrong. Anything goes wrong, it's Clinton's fault.
Slacktivist has a nice summary of Bush's "Christians only please" press conference.
Bush sayeth:
"I said I am sorry for those people who were humiliated. That's all I said. I also said, 'The great thing about our country is that people will now see that we'll deal with this in a transparent way based upon rule of law. And it will serve as a great contrast.' But I never apologized to the Arab world."
As a famous english politician (Chamberlain) once said about the three rules of politics : "Never complain, never explain, never apologise"
Posted by: Chez at June 5, 2004 05:45 PM
