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
September 28, 2007
Internet Things
• CurrencyTrading.net has a new post called "10 Important Functions Performed by the Federal Reserve that You’ve Never Heard About." It's quite interesting, though I can't agree with the first sentence:
Most people know that the Fed performs functions like adjusting the discount rate and federal funds rate, clearing checks, and lending money to banks.
...since not only do most people not know this, I'm not sure most people know there is such a thing as the Federal Reserve.
• Jonathan Versen sends along a post from Muzzlewatch about famous Lebanese oud player Marcel Khalifé. Apparently a San Diego concert featuring him was canceled because the venue claimed it would be "divisive" and "unbalanced" without an Israeli performer on the same bill. This is clearly bad, but to me the real scandal is the very real possibility there is no instrument called the oud.
• New blurver and admitted Canadian Ian Garrick Mason has an update on Omar Khadr, the Canadian citizen captured in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was fifteen and held in indefinite detention at Guantanamo since then.
• The Midwest Teen Sex Show has posted a new episode, and is now selling tshirts. Midwest sexy!
Posted at September 28, 2007 10:40 AM | TrackBackThanks for the update on Omar Khadr's case. Recently, I have been wondering whether there is any elected body that could equal our Congress for general spinelessness, fecklessness and total inability to stand up to Bush. Now, in the Canadian parliament, I see a potential rival.
Let the slouch-offs begin!
Posted by: SteveB at September 28, 2007 12:09 PMHave terrible things happen to Omar Khadr? Certainly. Unjust acts? Yes.
He also was in a firefight with US soldiers and lobbed a grenade at them. His youth does not excuse his upbringing as a member of a terrorist family.
His current situation is due entirely to his parents, and the bad choices they made.
I pity the man. I still prefer that he not be returned to Canada. If he is, he should be imprisoned indefinitely as a full fledged, indoctrinated member of a known terrorist organization. We have enough yahoos without allowing the return of one who scorns our values, and has a legitimate grudge against the US.
His is not a story of mistaken identity, nor one of a bounty paid to a local warlord who just grabbed any poor soul and fed them to the machine. He was in with Osama, through and through.
Posted by: Redwretch at September 28, 2007 02:07 PMWe have enough yahoos without allowing the return of one who scorns our values, and has a legitimate grudge against the US.
I think Stephen Colbert did a bit about this - about how, once imprisoned for being a terrorist threat, even if you were innocent (and especially if you were innocent) you would hate the United States, and therefore need to be kept in prison, forever.
Only I think Colbert intended it as satire.
Posted by: SteveB at September 28, 2007 04:17 PMSeems like a lot of things the Bush administration does become self-justifying after the fact. A terrorist haven in Iraq and an Iran unwilling to negotiate its own regime change come to mind. A recent poll showing American trust in the federal government at an all time low prompted McQ over at QandO to celebrate the public's long overdue enlightenment, neglecting the perfectly explanatory quip about Republicans getting elected and proving the government doesn't work.
Posted by: racrecir at September 28, 2007 05:51 PMHere's an update to the story of Marcel Khalife.
http://www.muzzlewatch.com/?p=256
As to the existence of the oud, it is a cousin of the european lute, both instruments being historically related to the arab instrument known as al 'ud (literally "the wood", probably either because its soundboard was made of wood instead of animal hide or because the body was fabricated from strips of wood). This account comes from the entry under lute in the Grove's Music Online, but the etymology is considerably different in the article under 'ud in the same encyclopedia. Maybe there's a lesson about crosscultural misunderstanding in this: from the microcosm to the macrocosm.
Posted by: JerseyJeffersonian at September 28, 2007 06:21 PMI think Stephen Colbert did a bit about this - about how, once imprisoned for being a terrorist threat, even if you were innocent (and especially if you were innocent) you would hate the United States, and therefore need to be kept in prison, forever.
Only I think Colbert intended it as satire.
There's a case of a terror suspect who the US government says must remain in prison because he possesses knowledge of interrogation techniques which are classified. He gained this knowledge by virtue of having those techniques employed on him.
Posted by: Gag Halfrunt at September 29, 2007 01:47 PMOf course there is such a thing as an "oud." Come on!
Posted by: at September 29, 2007 05:04 PMIn fact I believe I may have seen Hamza El Din play the Oud as well as the Tar
More stuff on the Fed at
http://wallstreetthebook.com/
A free PDF download of a published book, though I'm sure the author appreciates donations if you like it. Obviously it covers more than just the Federal Reserve, but there's a good section on it, IIRC.
