I was born that way

I found this article about the reasons we are liberal or conservative interesting, although maybe more could have been said of those who are politically apathetic. Which kids were they in the playground? Did they suffer both ups and downs in their development that made them decide the path of least resistance was easiest? I admit to my own bias creeping in when when I was horrified at the suggestion that perhaps medicare contributes to increasingly conservative elderly populations. Either way, interesting reading.
Enjoy.

That's my girl!

"Interviewer: How would you handle a situation like the one that just developed in North Korea?
Palin: Well, North Korea, this is stemming from a greater problem, when we're all sitting around asking, 'Oh no, what are we going to do,' and we're not having a lot of faith that the White House is going to come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is that North Korea is going to do. So this speaks to a bigger picture that certainly scares me in terms of our national security policy. But obviously, we've got to stand with our North Korean allies – we're bound to by treaty....
Interviewer: South Korean.
Palin: Yes, and we're also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes."

All I can say is, Palin for 2012.
Watch the whole car crash in full slow-mo at The Guardian.

OOOOOOObama

Nobel peace laureate, leader of the free world and comedian. Is there anything the man can't do?
Enjoy.

What we have all been thinking

I think the cover of yestedays g2 liftout from The Guardian couldn't have said it better...

"Politics, noun. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage." —Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

An interesting article from John Kinsley, founder of Slate magazine, about intellectual honesty.
I'm sure most of this could be said to apply universally to politicians, not just those in in the US.

Um...fantastic.

The above is courtesy of the blog Palingates ("The Sarah Palin Watchdog Team").
Hahahahaha
                  ...hahahahaha
Enjoy.

Decison Points

A handy guide to George W. Bush's just-released memoir Decision Points courtesy of The Daily Beast. I have to admit I am now curious to read it myself - something I never thought I would admit.
Enjoy.

Politics

A very interesting article about US politics, with some very salient points.

Food for thought

I enjoyed this article which compared mutually assured destruction between the Soviets and USA with the current economic stance of the states and China. A very interesting read, indeed.

Inspirational

I very rarely describe something as "inspirational" - I think it has become one of those overused terms that has lost the sense of what it was really attempting to convey, but Chinese political activists Liu Xia and her husband Liu Xiaobao are two people who I would probably deem worthy of such a charicterisation. The letter Xiaobao wrote to his wife as he was jailed is one of the most romantic things I have read.


"Your love is sunlight that transcends prison walls and bars, stroking every inch of my skin, warming my every cell, letting me maintain my inner calm, magnanimous and bright, so that every minute in prison is full of meaning… My love is hard, sharp, and can penetrate any obstacles. Even if I am crushed into powder, I will embrace you with the ashes."

A scary article about North Korea and how it's citizens are kept in the dark - literally and figuratively.

The world today

An article about the changing nature of international politics today.

Enjoy

I went as Sarah Palin to a party to celebrate the final year of school, which is always a costume party.

Bringing the Buzz Back to the Café
Once they plotted revolutions, now they're typing blogs. Today's cafe society is a weak decaf.
 
Your thoughts?

Food for thought

TOWARDS the end of 2006, the academic Tony Judt found himself at the centre of, depending on your point of view, a political tempest or a storm in a teacup. Due to speak at the Polish consulate in New York, the event was cancelled following telephone calls from the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, who reacted as if the Poles had invited a smashed Mel Gibson to speak on the subject of international Jewry. This, said some, was a straw in the wind - evidence of the power of the "Israel lobby" of which Judt was notoriously critical. Others, among them Christopher Hitchens, saw it as a fart in the wind - evidence of little more than the hysteria and self-pity of the anti-lobbyists.

Gorbachev

One of the truly great leaders.

I'm cynical about most politicians, but I think Gorbachev genuinely wanted to serve his people more than he lusted after power. It was largely due to him that 1989 was a year of velvet revolutions.

And because I love a possible Russian political intrigue, even at its most mundane.