the windows crack and the cold is crushing
* From a speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. regarding the Casualties of the War in Vietnam, 25 February 1967, in Los Angeles, California:
"Curtailment of free speech is rationalized on grounds that a more compelling American tradition forbids critism of the government when the nation is at war. More than a century ago when we were in a declared state of war with Mexico, a first term congressman by the name of Abraham Lincoln stood in the halls of Congress and fearlessly denounced that war. Congressman Abraham Lincoln of Illinois had not heard of this tradition or he was not inclined to respect it. Nor had Thoreau and Emerson and many other philosophers who shaped our democratic principles. Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters."
* New York Press on the lack of WMD. excerpt:
"Among the rest of the population, this laughably tiny news item—I'm writing this column on Jan. 13, but by the time this hits the newsstands on the 18th, it will surely, and amazingly, have been a dead story for days—was mainly fodder for two minutes of office water-cooler gloating among the anti-Bush crowd.
"It is unrealistic to expect anything different. In the run-up to the war, every major daily and television network in the country parroted the White House's asinine WMD claims for months on end, all but throwing their panties on stage the instant Colin Powell showed what appeared to be a grainy aerial picture of a pick-up truck to the U.N. Security Council.
"Justice would seem to demand that a roughly equivalent amount of coverage be given to the truth, now that we know it (and we can officially call it the truth now, because even Bush admits it; previously the truth was just a gigantic, unendorsed pile of plainly obvious evidence). But that isn't the way things work in America. We only cover things around the clock every day for four or five straight months when it's fun.
"O.J. was fun. Monica Lewinsky was fun. 'America's New War' was fun—there was a war at the end of that rainbow. But 'We All Totally Fucked Up' is not fun. You can't make a whole new set of tv graphics for 'We All Totally Fucked Up.' There is no obvious location where Wolf Blitzer can do a somber, grimacing 'We All Totally Fucked Up' live shot (above an 'Operation We All Totally Fucked Up' bug in the corner of the screen). Hundreds of reporters cannot rush to stores to buy special khakis or rain slickers or Kevlar vests in preparation for 'We All Totally Fucked Up.' They would have to wear their own clothes and stand, not in front of burning tanks or smashed Indonesian hovels, but in front of their own apartments."
* In case you are wondering, here's a checklist on how to break into the porn industry. [via the morning news]
* From a speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. regarding the Casualties of the War in Vietnam, 25 February 1967, in Los Angeles, California:
"Curtailment of free speech is rationalized on grounds that a more compelling American tradition forbids critism of the government when the nation is at war. More than a century ago when we were in a declared state of war with Mexico, a first term congressman by the name of Abraham Lincoln stood in the halls of Congress and fearlessly denounced that war. Congressman Abraham Lincoln of Illinois had not heard of this tradition or he was not inclined to respect it. Nor had Thoreau and Emerson and many other philosophers who shaped our democratic principles. Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters."
* New York Press on the lack of WMD. excerpt:
"Among the rest of the population, this laughably tiny news item—I'm writing this column on Jan. 13, but by the time this hits the newsstands on the 18th, it will surely, and amazingly, have been a dead story for days—was mainly fodder for two minutes of office water-cooler gloating among the anti-Bush crowd.
"It is unrealistic to expect anything different. In the run-up to the war, every major daily and television network in the country parroted the White House's asinine WMD claims for months on end, all but throwing their panties on stage the instant Colin Powell showed what appeared to be a grainy aerial picture of a pick-up truck to the U.N. Security Council.
"Justice would seem to demand that a roughly equivalent amount of coverage be given to the truth, now that we know it (and we can officially call it the truth now, because even Bush admits it; previously the truth was just a gigantic, unendorsed pile of plainly obvious evidence). But that isn't the way things work in America. We only cover things around the clock every day for four or five straight months when it's fun.
"O.J. was fun. Monica Lewinsky was fun. 'America's New War' was fun—there was a war at the end of that rainbow. But 'We All Totally Fucked Up' is not fun. You can't make a whole new set of tv graphics for 'We All Totally Fucked Up.' There is no obvious location where Wolf Blitzer can do a somber, grimacing 'We All Totally Fucked Up' live shot (above an 'Operation We All Totally Fucked Up' bug in the corner of the screen). Hundreds of reporters cannot rush to stores to buy special khakis or rain slickers or Kevlar vests in preparation for 'We All Totally Fucked Up.' They would have to wear their own clothes and stand, not in front of burning tanks or smashed Indonesian hovels, but in front of their own apartments."
* In case you are wondering, here's a checklist on how to break into the porn industry. [via the morning news]
posted by hackmuth at
1:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home