So, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. And it goes to Barack Obama, which has now set off an avalanche of grousing and complaining and sarcasm from the right and left. At least we won’t have to talk about the Olympics not being in Chicago any longer. It is always noteworthy when the right and left pick up on the same talking points. Funny for teasing your friends on either side (hey, you and Fox agree!), but also instructive about larger cultural stuffs. Read the rest of this entry »
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So, today the media is announcing that Muntader al-Zaidi has been released from prison. And that he alleges torture, both by Iraqi forces and U.S. intelligence agents. I have no idea of such allegations are true, of course, but I don’t think any rational person would be surprised. I am glad the guy got out of prison alive. I am also saddened by the possibility of torture. My remark here, though, is not about al-Zaidi’s case or the problem of torture in our various wars. Rather, I wonder about all of those people who found his case funny and edifying a year or so ago. Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t really think the internet needs yet another post on the War in Iraq. Yet, I want to say just a little bit, which is as much about two news stories as it is about a place in the Middle East. What a sad and no-win situation this whole “adventure” has become, no? Sometimes stories converge in compelling ways; today is one of those days. The new issue of the online The Onion is out today and – perhaps unsurprisingly, perhaps surprisingly – its lead-story is too perfectly suited to the online edition of The New York Times.
Let me add to the way-too-many posts around the internet concerning Cindy Sheehan. She’s such an odd player on the media-politics scene, really. Few real vocal sympathizers in the image-media scene – though, it is worth saying, her take on the War in Iraq has been pretty much mainstream for the past year: back that shit up and come home.
What has been so divisive, if not uniformly hostile, about Sheehan’s presence? I get the hostility from the Right. They want her to go away because she’s too public and too sensitive of a figure for blunt, mean-spirited critique. You could almost hear the Right’s sigh of relief when she met with Chavez. Read the rest of this entry »