Author: dumpster

  • Life, Death, and Entertainment Culture

    Like the old Bill Murray character on SNL, I haven’t actually seen this year’s nominee, but I’m going to write about it anyway. According to this piece from Chicago Reader, Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby apparently endorses its main character’s assisted suicide after she becomes paralyzed (and takes some implausible-sounding plotting to get to that…

  • Wishing the President Well

    Gary Hart’s op-ed “The restoration of a mythical golden age” concludes by striking just the right balance between the degree of respect that any president is due ex officio and that which this president has actually earned: “Despite all this, people of goodwill must wish George Bush well and hope that his hubris will be…

  • The Sad Death of Spencer Dryden

    I’m old enough to remember when the Airplane ruled San Francisco and rocked my adolescent world, but I confess I barely noticed Spencer Dryden’s drumming between the trebly distortion of Jorma’s guitar and Grace’s Icy Bitch Goddess persona. But this post isn’t about my taste in popular music. Reading through the fan tributes in the…

  • Now that we’ve lost…

    Where do we go from here? How do we begin to reclaim secular democracy? The most disheartening thing I’m hearing on all the networks is that “moral issues” rather than economic issues were the deciding factor. How can we possibly convince American voters – over the next decade or two, for it will surely take…

  • Quote of the Day

    From Molly Ivins: “Sometimes, I get the feeling the whole country is being run by Paris Hilton.”

  • From the Washington Times, no less

    Found this on the redoubtable Buzzflash. Considering the source, Arnaud de Borchgrave of the Washington Times, it’s a remarkably cogent summary of the situation. Also a little off-message, especially the bullet point that “the war on terror” is a political fiction – “a misnomer tantamount to rhetorical disinformation.” Bleepin’ A, Arnie!