Deshi-Digest: Acquitting the Academia

"Four Bangladeshi university teachers accused of inciting-students during campus protests that caused the government to impose curfews in major cities last year were acquitted on Monday, court officials and lawyers said. ""The teachers at Dhaka-University, the country's...

How to win arguments and change minds

"You ever notice how nobody on the Internet seems to see that wise leader ship involves recognizing the dangers both of paranoia and naivety? Everybody falls squarely in one camp or the other, advocating universal love or a kind of bigoted fascism. "

The Police are Paid to "Protect and Serve" the Rich, Not You and Me

Cops see their badge as a license to take the law into their own hands. Don't like the customer service you've received? Pepper-spray'em and arrest'em.The recent spate of police brutality is no accident. It's not a freak coincidence, it's the way it's always been. Would I...

Military proselytizing and apocalypse by design

"As more information becomes available about the infiltration of the military by fundamentalist Christian groups via Pentagon approved proselytizing, worrisome issues regarding the long term aims of evangelizing the troops present themselves. First there's this...

FISA failure demonstrates why we need real progressives in Congress

"I'm still mulling over the massive Democratic capitulation that enabled Bush to pass into law the most sweeping violation of Americans' privacy yet--legalizing an illegal program, and making it stronger to boot. Why did this happen? Why did Democrats in both chambers...

Appeals court nixes lawsuit against warrantless spy program

"...This ruling comes on the heels of the July 3 decision that national security trumped the public interest in the NYT's quest for classified materials relating to the program. Although Sen. Patrick Leahy and Congressman John Conyers have both pushed ahead with plans to...

Is the end near for Cheney?

"The hot-off-the-presses announcement that the Senate Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed testimony about the Bush warrantless wiretapping program, and asked for a massive document dump, isn't just significant for its surface reasons. In my view, it's the latest signal...

The very long night of Rudy Giuliani

"So let's say you're Rudy Giuliani - darling of the media for turning New York City into Disney World, fawned over as the Saint of 9/11 and a "national security authority" simply for being mayor of a city that was hit by a terrorist attack, and considered...

The Culture is Not Coarse Enough

I hear a lot of people on both sides of the ideological aisle complaining about the "coarsening of our culture" or some similar trash. Fuck that shit; our culture is not coarse enough. People are too hung up on manners and social norms. Sure, it's nice to have polite people...