But yes, Virginia, there really is
free stuff on the web. Of course,
they're all commies. Why?
Because Bill Gates says so. And we haven't even conclusively proved that communism is evil...
Well, I guess it's not the first time that
big business didn't get it.
In semi-related news,
Larry Sanger tries to discredit the Wikipedia, even though the latter beats any printed encyclopedia in the
web-culture,
bad jokes and all-around geek-factor departments hands down. (Well,
we'll always have e2.
Were you aware that Casablanca was made into a
TV series?
Twice?) Now I don't know about Larry, but personally, I found most of the more mundane entries to be nothing to be sneezed at, either. Oh, and
Susan Sontag died while I was away.
America, [D.H.] Lawrence divined, was on a Europe-destroying mission, using democracy --- particularly cultural democracy, democracy of manners --- as an instrument. And when that task is accomplished, he went on, America might well turn from democracy to something else. (What that might be is, perhaps, emerging now.)
Where is the acknowledgment that this was not a "cowardly" attack on "civilization" or "liberty" or "humanity" or "the free world" but an attack on the world's self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions? [...] And if the word "cowardly" is to be used, it might be more aptly applied to those who kill from beyond the range of retaliation, high in the sky, than to those willing to die themselves in order to kill others. In the matter of courage (a morally neutral virtue): Whatever may be said of the perpetrators of Tuesday's slaughter, they were not cowards.
Rest in peace, Susan Sontag.
Finally, some gnus news — the new
gnus t-shirts are out. On an almost unrelated note, did we ever hear back about the
funny crease in Bush's suit?
That's it from
me for today, bonne année, and good to have you back!
When I was in school, the music teach taught us thus: There are innumerable sub-genres of metal — heavy metal, black metal, death metal, what-not. You can usually tell them apart by what size amps they have. Of course, he was being sarcastic &m
Tracked: Feb 01, 11:49