So the Nobel Peace Laureate is going to escalate further the already-longest war in US history, right there in the Graveyard of Empires.  Okay.
What the fuck?  What do we do?  I honestly don’t know how the elected Democrats should stick a more jagged shiv in their base’s back.  I vaguely remember promises of hope and [...]

So by now everyone’s heard the thing about the judge in Louisiana who won’t marry interracial couples because the kids turn out all wrong and shit, and have absolutely no chance to become president or a supermodel or win an Oscar.  Fucked up, but more retardant than anything else.
Naturally, most elected officials in the states [...]

When you consider the structural advantages that health care reform had going for it early this summer (election for change, economic decession, giant Democratic majorities, supportive president who didn’t trounce committee chairs’ precious egos, etc) it’s obviously very depressing that we’re at where we’re at.
However, there are tougher battles to come.  People can go on [...]

I’ve never really understood the venerable position he has always automatically assumed.  Contentless bloviations extolling the virtuous fantasies of non- or post-partisanship have always coalesced around Bloomberg, as if he represents the triumph of technocratic pluck over squabbling.  What a load of shit.
There were two mentions of him in the Week in Review section of [...]

My (double) alma mater has behaved, for some time, like a nouveau riche wannabe determined to out-Ivy the Ivy League.  It is primarily a real estate management empire with some auxiliary teaching duties on the side.  And now, they are encouraging low-income applicants to look elsewhere.
Seriously.  They’re calling poor teenagers and passive-aggressively letting them know, [...]

There is just nothing to say except that Ongina’s breaking down after winning the MAC Viva Glam challenge and admitting that she has HIV and her parents don’t know might be the singularly most intense moment of reality television I’ve ever witnessed.
Let’s face it, “Reality TV” is as scripted as anything else, the producers of [...]

I’m not scolding.  Smart people enjoy stupid shit, and I’m as big a lover of bright, shiny things as anyone else.  But this was just hilarious.  The Times website is currently a roster of meaningless crap, bookended by truly pointless articles that come from the Week in Review and Metro sections.
When people say they hate [...]

Sander Mecca went to jail for two years for selling ecstasy in Sao Paulo because Brazil has no minimum threshold for when possession becomes dealing.  Sads!  Meanwhile, Argentina is about to decriminalize possession of some drugs. Having spent the semester during and after September 11th there, I can vouch for the quality of Argentine drugs, [...]

In addition to bizarre full-page ads like the one I mentioned two days ago, another pleasurable thing about the dead-tree version of newspapers is the ironic juxtaposition of articles and opinion pieces.  For example, on Sunday in hte NYT there was a smart article about how in light of Rod Blagojevich (and the other 3 [...]