Amber Sparks
You can scroll the shelf using ← and → keys
Are we REALLY playing the blame-the-victim game again? REALLY?
May 20, 2011 — 2 Comments
I am so unbelievably tired of all these rich powerful assholes who start circling the wagons when one of their own does something unspeakable to a woman without without any power.
Now dear old former-IMF-Director Strauss-Kahn, accused of sexual assault, is being defended by his own. And of course, they can’t help but disparage the victim, an immigrant hotel maid, while they’re at it. That’s how these things work, of course. Read the following and be outraged. (more…)
I’m Sorry, Russ Feingold.
November 2, 2010 — 2 Comments
Because you’re probably going to lose tonight to a plastics magnate with no experience, no ideas, and no plan to increase jobs for Wisconsin.
Because you were my Senator for a long time, and because you were a close friend of my other favorite Senator, the late Paul Wellstone.
Because you took brave stands on things like the Iraq War and the Patriot Act, even when it was highly unpopular to do so.
Because you’re a true liberal, but with a truly independent streak. Sometimes you drove me crazy, but it was always because you were standing up for your principles–even if they weren’t the principles I agreed with. You never wavered from what you believed.
Because you have been a perfect match for the people of Wisconsin, and a very good senator, and they’re idiots to ditch you now in a reactionary fervor. And unfortunately, we’ll all pay for your absence.
Jonathan Cohn has a nice tribute here, too.
This makes me want to stab Borders management in the eye.
September 1, 2010 — 4 Comments
I mean, WTF, Borders? No, really. WTF? I understand your stores are failing and you are losing money and people are buying ebooks. But hello, just quietly fold up and go away rather than selling your soul like this.
I used to like you, Borders. Better than Barnes & Noble, even, and I worked at Barnes & Noble once upon a time. But this is just too much. What’s next? A Dippin’ Dots counter in the store? A ball crawl for the kiddies?
Stab, stab, stab.
Ross Douthat on the Mosque, in Other Words (Mine)
August 16, 2010
Immigrants are really great and we should totally celebrate them! But only if they’re Christian and white. If they’re not, they’ll have to work fourteen times as hard to prove to us they aren’t terrorists. Then we’ll be happy to tolerate them, kind of.
The real article is here. Read it and see if you don’t agree that this is his slippery, weasely point.
P.S. I can believe that we’re having this debate. What I can’t believe is the insane amount of media coverage it’s getting. I guess it’s just that August political news drought.
You COULD read this piece in McSweeney’s…
August 12, 2010 — 2 Comments
…or, I could just sum itup for you as “yet another crotchety faux-rant against e-readers that’s not really funny, but just kind of poorly-written and puzzling and a little bit tragic in its that-ship-has-sailed futility, like your grandfather mistaking a DVD for a coaster just the other day.”
There. Go back to what you were doing. And you’re welcome.
We Broke the Planet
June 11, 2010 — 3 Comments
So says one of the commenters here, and so we did.
These are the most comprehensive, revealing, grotesque and heart-sickening photos I’ve seen yet of the oil disaster.
Most of Us Aren’t Like That
June 7, 2010
Roger Ebert has a beautiful piece up on his blog with his thoughts on the Arizona mural horrorshow and his reflections on growing up with the rest of the country, out of innate racism and into greater understanding towards equality. It’s really lovely, and made me feel a little more hopeful about the situation; it made me feel that these hateful people are a small, small, damaged and sad minority.
I began up above by imagining I was a student in Prescott, Arizona, with my face being painted over. That was easy for me. What I cannot imagine is what it would be like to be one of those people driving past in their cars day after day and screaming hateful things out of the window. How do you get to that place in your life? Were you raised as a racist, or become one on your own? Yes, there was racism involved as my mother let the driver wait outside in the car, but my mother had not evolved past that point at that time. The hard-won social struggles of the 1960s and before have fundamentally altered the feelings most of us breathe, and we have evolved, and that is how America will survive. We are all in this together.
But what about the people in those cars? They don’t breathe that air. They don’t think of the feelings of the kids on the mural. They don’t like those kids in the school. It’s not as if they have reasons. They simply hate. Why would they do that? What have they shut down inside? Why do they resent the rights of others? Our rights must come first before our fears. And our rights are their rights, whoever “they” are.
Read the whole thing here. It’s well worth it.
…and David Markson, too.
June 6, 2010 — 2 Comments
RIP David Markson, one of the best.
I’ve often and often been inspired by this writer who did things his own way and lent legitimacy to the collagist’s way of writing, and who led me to another favorite, Malcolm Lowry. Great interview with Web Conjunctions in 2007, here.
Rampant Dickishness On Display by Hurt Locker Producer
May 19, 2010
Wow. Someone sent a polite letter to the producer of the Hurt Locker (you know, the one who’s suing everyone) boycotting his movies because of his lawsuit. This is the letter of peevish dickishness he got back. I mean, how does it help your case to tell this letter writer you don’t even want him to PAY for your movies?
I’m glad you’re a moron who believes stealing is right. I hope your family and your kids end up in jail one day for stealing so maybe they can be taught the difference. Until then, keep being stupid, you’re doing that very well. And please do not download, rent, or pay for my movies, I actually like smart and more important HONEST people to watch my films.
What an asshat. I hadn’t seen the Hurt Locker yet, and I suppose I eventually would have. But I never will now.
