I discovered Aaron McGruder’s comic strip, The Boondocks, in 1999, about the time of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. It was an amazingly funny comic strip about the lives of two young black boys–Huey and Riley–who moved from the projects to live in the ‘burbs with their grandfather, and their culture shock in dealing withContinue reading “On the End of "The Boondocks"”
Tag Archives: Politics
On "Minds… Destroyed by Google"
Bruce Sterling had a new short story, “I Saw the Best Minds of My Generation Destroyed by Google,” published in the New Scientist recently. It’s an amusing little cautionary tale, told from the perspective of a teenager in a world twenty years hence where RFID chips, GPS positioning, and a rampant information culture have destroyedContinue reading “On "Minds… Destroyed by Google"”
On Political Positioning
Courtesy of Michael Evans, a political quiz! Third Way Liberal You scored 69% Personal Liberty and 36% Economic Liberty! A third way liberal believes in little to moderate government intervention on personal matters and moderate to high government intervention on economic matters. They tend to be opposed to war, police powers, victimless crimes, and whatContinue reading “On Political Positioning”
On Interrogation, War Crimes, the President, and Congress
The above-the-fold article in Saturday’s Washington Post covered President Bush’s press conference yesterday. From the two opening paragraphs: President Bush warned defiant Republican senators yesterday that he will close down a CIA interrogation program that he credited with thwarting terrorist attacks if they pass a proposal regulating detention of enemy combatants, escalating a politically chargedContinue reading “On Interrogation, War Crimes, the President, and Congress”
On Political Persuasions
Stolen shamelessly from Ross, my political persuasion! You Are a New School Democrat You like partying and politics – and are likely to be young and affluent. You’re less religious, traditional, and uptight than most Democrats. Smoking pot, homosexuality, and gambling are all okay in your book. You prefer that the government help people takeContinue reading “On Political Persuasions”
On the Things We Now Know
Bernard Weiner, at the Crisis Papers, has written an essay about the “Twenty Things We Now Know Five Years After 9/11.” Now that we’re five years past the events of that Tuesday morning in September, Weiner takes stock of what’s happened to the United States in that span of time. His observations? Not good. InContinue reading “On the Things We Now Know”
On Staying the Course, and Insanity
Last night, in an on-line chat, a friend brought up a defintion of insanity–doing the same thing repeatedly, but expecting different results. I’m not certain who came up with that defintion–I’ve heard it was Albert Einstein, but it may predate even him–and it’s not a definition I’ve always agreed with–circumstances do change, and that canContinue reading “On Staying the Course, and Insanity”
On Defending V For Vendetta
Last night, browsing one of the bulletin boards I frequent, I chanced across a thread blasting V For Vendetta, the adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s graphic novel about an anarchist fighting a near-future fascist British government, for being, and I quote, “boring.” Said the writer of the post: If this was supposed toContinue reading “On Defending V For Vendetta”
On Public Policy and the Middle-East
Yesterday, as I listened to NPR reporting on the Israeli arms build-up on the Lebanon border and the bombing of Beirut, I had a cynical thought. If there were adults in charge of the United States government, the adults would have already brought the Israelis, the Hezbollah, to the negotiating table. The Secretary of StateContinue reading “On Public Policy and the Middle-East”
On Receiving a Letter
After years of writing to Senator Elizabeth Dole, today I at last received a response. I’d written to Senators Burr and Dole several weeks ago, to ask for their support of an increase in the minimum wage. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York had sponsored legislation to raise the minimum wage (and tie future CongressionalContinue reading “On Receiving a Letter”