A few random amusements for you, before I toddle off to get some real work done: A terrible audio track that my friend Jack posted that WILL make you laugh. Sunset Grill is a webcomic made by my friend Kat. Anyone notice that Obama mentioned non-believers in his inauguration speech without calling them unAmerican? That was interesting.
Tag: USA
Christopher Hitchens Visits Room 101
Hitchens wrote a book about Why Orwell Matters. Looks like he learned one of the lessons of Nineteen-Eighty-Four during his own trip to Room 101. Here is what he had to say about it.
I’m Voting…
… well, I’m not. As far as what I’ve been told, I’m not allowed to vote because I’ve been expatriate too long. Which is bloody stupid, but it’s what I was told during the last national Canadian election. (If you know different, please tell me!) But this is amusing and very interesting, and so are the Mac ad ripoff political spots here. I’m sure there are similar things on the right, though I wonder how much mass appeal is possible given the obvious disadvantages of the Right agenda. Still, the thing to remember is, we’ve only had an internet less …
Just… Wow.
Ellen Datlow linked this at Matthew Good’s site: Wow.
[Some] Koreans’ Perception of The West Wing
A few weeks ago, in one of my classes, we watched that episode of The West Wing titled “Han,” where a North Korean musician playing in the White House informs President Bartlet of his wish to defect, in preparation for a panel discussion on the depiction of leaders in American media. (We also looked at scenes from a King Arthur film that the department had on hand.) I found my students had some interesting things to say about it, though. Well, not “say,” in many cases, but I always have students write up a Prep Sheet and a Reaction paper, …
Eh?
This Associated Press article had me saying, “Eh?” Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accused rival Sen. Barack Obama and his allies of trying to stop people from voting as some of his backers have called on her to drop out of the presidential race. The Obama campaign rejected the charge, dismissing Clinton’s criticism as “completely laughable.” Yeah, I don’t know that I have an opinion on this whole Obama/Clinton thing — I’m more disenchanted with Clinton, like most people, for the obvious reasosn, but I’m honestly dubious about the ability of anyone to change Washington, let alone America, with all …