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
May 30, 2007
Good Internet Things
• I thought I was the only human being on earth who'd ever read the fascinating book Selling Free Enterprise by Nancy Fones-Wolfe, but apparently not
• John Conyers endorses impeachment efforts, but doesn't commit to doing anything himself
• Haans Petruschke has made the dangerous move from blurff commentator to active blurfffer.
• IOZ steals the thoughts out of my brain:
Now imagine you're a kid, a product of the American public school system, a good student--perhaps even an excellent one--but by no means the rare auto-didactic type who goes off to read history on his own...it's not just that you lack a meaningful counternarrative to recieved history; you don't even know the received history.
• Dennis Perrin is funny:
The United States and Iran traded accusations Monday about responsibility for violence in Iraq, but agreed that the goal there should be a stable, democratic country at peace with its neighbors. And if that's not possible, both sides said they'd accept an oil producing hell on earth.
Posted at May 30, 2007 09:54 AM | TrackBack
If 1945-60 were the years of business assault on labor and liberalism, then what were the 1980s?
Posted by: abb1 at May 30, 2007 10:57 AMThe mopping up phase.
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at May 30, 2007 11:03 AMBa-dum-BUM!
Posted by: darrelplant at May 30, 2007 12:11 PMThe Conyers article shows that Congress has already figured charges for Articles of Impeachment. KEEP CALLING.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at May 30, 2007 01:09 PMHaving been involved in manufacturing for many years in Silicon Valley I found the first link concerning Selling Free Enterprise of particular interest. There always has been a war between workers and management. It would seem in the end management has won via the exporting of manufacturing jobs overseas and I believe they won in a two-fold manner. One, they increase their profits through exploitation of cheap overseas labor and two, they have pretty much done in the unions who have been an integral part of progressive movements, a management’s dream come true as it were.
I have a question for you Jonathan: Has anyone written about the demise of manufacturing in Silicon Valley in particular? It seemed to happen almost overnight and I have never come across any definitive writing on what happened. My impression is that it was a direct result of deregulation started by Reagan culminating in the free trade agreements but if you have ever come across any good articles or books on what happened I would be very interested to know about them.
IOZ's post reminds me of comments from Malcolm X's autobiography about the books he read in prison. I lent my copy to somebody years ago and never got it back, otherwise I'd look for it and post the passage I'm thinking of.
Posted by: Jonathan Versen at May 30, 2007 04:44 PMIOZ's post reminded me of one of the more memorable parts (for me) of Fahrenheit 911:
The young American soldier says, with sincere surprise, "We're here to help them, and they're shooting at us."
Posted by: mistah charley, ph.d. at May 31, 2007 02:52 PMThat kid was a soldier? What a faggot! If I were his CO, I'd break his scrawny neck! What an insult to everyone involved and everyone who served or survived in any war or conflict, ever.
What bitch that kid must have been. I mean C'MON MAN! You're a fucking killer! That is what you signed up for you bleeding twat!
Seriously, I would've killed him samarily, then billed his parents/gaurdian/family for the bullet.
Posted by: at June 4, 2007 10:58 AM
