February 2012
13 posts
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Squashed: Science and individualism →
squashed:
Testing a theory scientifically requires gathering as many data points as possible. While any one point may be an outlier or an error, a robust collection of data has enormous predictive power. We base theories on data, not on anecdotes. This is why I’m very skeptical if any political theory centered around individualism or individual rights. Both of those are fine things—but they...
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“The outrage is tiresome and deeply hypocritical, in all the tiresome ways you’ve...”
– Sasha Frere-Jones on MIA’s middle finger and everyone else’s panties being in a bunch over it. (via iwantnothingless)
So good.
(via zurik)
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“The Haber-Bosch process uses tremendous heat and pressure to force nitrogen and...”
– Lierre Keith, The Vegetarian Myth
(Emphasis mine.)
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“I would just add to that, if you live in one of the rich nations, you live...”
– Lierre Keith, Do We Need a Militant Movement to Save the Planet (and Ourselves)? (via cuntymint)
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January 2012
13 posts
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“One of the real dilemmas we have in our country and around the world is that...”
– Bill Clinton in an Esquire interview about the current political landscape (via kottke)
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Are Any Christians Running for President? →
Actually, what these candidates assure their followers is that one can be a devout Christian (which seems for them to center on eliminating abortion and saying “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holidays) without manifesting any of the paradigm Christian virtues like humility and peacefulness. As long as we reject pornography and eliminate women’s rights to control their own bodies, it is...
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“Congress appropriates military funds with alacrity and generosity. It...”
– Martin Luther King, Jr. (via azspot)
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America Isn’t a Corporation →
But there’s a deeper problem in the whole notion that what this nation needs is a successful businessman as president: America is not, in fact, a corporation. Making good economic policy isn’t at all like maximizing corporate profits. And businessmen — even great businessmen — do not, in general, have any special insights into what it takes to achieve economic recovery.
Why isn’t a...
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My Call to Senator Schumer’s Office on PIPA: It’s... →
Today I called a Senator’s office for the first time.
First, let me say how fantastic it is that when you call the office, a real-live human picks up the phone and can speak to you. There’s no annoying menus, no transfers, no answering machines. Washington, please don’t ever change this.
I was calling mostly to find out why the Senator supports (and co-sponsored!) S.968, aka the...
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Christian Conservatives seldom Conserve the Real... →
Why do I mistrust so much Christian “conservativism”?
1) It usually wants to “conserve” a very recent version of history or Christianity (theirs!)
2) It is almost always tied to money and power, which seems very unlike Jesus.
3) It loves the status quo too much, which is really to love one’s own comfort, security, and status.
4) It seldom loves the poor or the outsider,...
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December 2011
19 posts
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“The entire Republican primary, thus far, has had the quality of a dream within a...”
– Amy Davidson’s commentary on Newt Gingrich and the republican primaries in The New Yorker
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Christopher Hitchens and the protocol for public... →
youngmanhattanite:
Christopher Hitchens and the protocol for public figure deaths
Hitchens was obviously more urbane and well-written than the average neocon faux-warrior, but he was also often more vindictive and barbaric about his war cheerleading. One of the only writers with the courage to provide the full picture of Hitchens upon his death was Gawker‘s John Cook, who — in an...
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“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring.
It is an active noun, like struggle.
...”
– ~ Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers (via bohemianarthouse)
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“However, exploitation is not only found in communism, capitalism is a system...”
– Hayao Miyazaki (via andrewfm)
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American deceptionalism →
kateoplis:
In the US, the message from the mayors is simple: You’ve made your point. Now go to your room and shut up. We’ve got a lawn to keep up, and you’ve spoiled it. America’s “grown-ups” as the political class likes to think of itself, have never had much patience when it comes to the “children”, as its mere citizens are known. And yet, America’s democratic revolutionary origins are at the...
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“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been....”
– Isaac Asimov (via azspot)
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“…I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed...”
– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter From A Birmingham Jail
(via jsmooth)
November 2011
19 posts
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Dear OWS: The police state has been around longer... →
malheureuxmarxist:
The police state has been around longer than you, because the US has been a settler-colonial project since the very beginning. It was designed to keep the internal colonies of the United States contained, dominated, and exploited.
the police brutality against the occupations has been pretty minor compared to the brutal, systemic violence of the colonial occupations of ...