Gee, I seem to be posting a lot about political stuff. Well, anyway, here’s one more, called WatchBlog. It’s a great multi-author blog that presents news and opinions on American politics from three different perspectives: Republican, Democrat, and Third-Party. While the scope of perspectives in American politics is rather limited in my opinion, it’s nice (and sometimes rather illuminating) to find examples and commentary on all three in the same venue. Personally, I think the whole left vs. right thing is pretty damaging to the public’s ability to reason about political issues. But it’s what America has to work with …
Month: October 2003
Korean Sweatshops, Sweatshops Abroad
In this article, Chinese Girls’ Toil Brings Pain, Not Riches, I found something that got me thinking: She and her friend Wei Qi, also 16 and also a Chinese farm girl barely out of junior high school, had been lured here by a South Korean boss who said he was prepared to pay $120 a month, a princely sum for unskilled peasants, to make false eyelashes. I sometimes hear from friends here how their siblings are starting businesses in China, and how it’s the land of opportunity for young Koreans who want to make a lot of money. But I …
Anti-Americanism from a French point of view…
Having spent time online with a number of Americans, I know that there are three kinds of writing about anti-Americanism: the kind mostly by Americans, which I have little time to listen to because it’s usually rather decontextualized and whiney; the kind which is simply foreigners justifying anti-Americanism, which is boring as hell; and, finally, the kind that’s usually (though not always) by non-Americans, which is often interesting because it’s often a criticism of blind anti-Americanism which nonetheless still manages not to completely embrace pro-Americanism, or which celebrates non-American culture as well. As a Canadian, that being a person from …
Mel Gibon’s Passion and AntiSemitism
Rabbi Daniel Lapin on Mel Gibson’s Passion on National Review Online Fascinating. The only thing I fear is his conclusion is wrong, and that Bush is the biggest threat to Western Civilization. Hm.
Lush Life
Sometimes when you feel like crap, it helps to listen to happy songs. And sometimes you have to listen to something that makes you feel sad. This is one of the classics of jazz, and one of the saddest songs I know. Sung by Johnny Hartman, sax by John Coltrane, and composed, of course, by Billy Strayhorn (I got mine from this page). Heartbreaking, sad, somehow hopeless but pretty anyway, like cut roses dying in normal air. (And by the way, the “gay” mentioned in the song is early enough to be understood as “happy” though this could easily be …