Politics
-
Putin Scares Pants Off Condé Nast, Gawker Saves Day
Did you know that GQ recently published a groundbreaking story which questions “the official line” on the 1999 bombings — supposedly committed by Chechen rebels — that Vladimir Putin used as a springboard to put himself in charge of Russia…
-
Tom Wolfe Takes on the Rich
“‘Tarantulas’ was the term the late-19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche—steady … steady … some of us rich people went to college, too—used for those who are consumed by resentment. Unable themselves to be great men, they burn with a feverish fervor,…
-
The Great Beast’s Landlady
Rodney Davis has a very entertaining essay up about talking to Aleister Crowley‘s landlady Kathleen “Johnny” Simonds. Apparently, Crowley lived with Simonds shortly before his death, and despite his reputation as “The Wickedest Man Alive,” he was a very solid…
-
Afghan Star: A Conversation with Tamim Ansary
Pop Idol has been widely imitated throughout the world [American Idol here in the states] , but Afghanistan is possibly the only place where the mere existence of a televised, Western-style talent show amounts to a political statement.
-
The Paramount Moral Challenge Of Our Time
“Yet if the injustices that women in poor countries suffer are of paramount importance, in an economic and geopolitical sense the opportunity they represent is even greater. There’s a growing recognition among everyone from the World Bank to the U.S.…
-
Former Rapper’s PhD Paid for By Record Label
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably seen the television ad for Dr. Pepper where spokes-rapper Dr. Dre utters the phrase, “Trust me, I’m a doctor.” But while Dre’s doctorate is fantastical at best, Roxanne Shante’s PhD is…
-
Poet and Drunken Boat Editor Meets NYPD
Ravi Shankar, the founding editor of Drunken Boat, has an opinion piece in the Hartford Courant about a particularly terrible run-in with the NYPD in which he overheard his arresting officer say, “Always a good day when you can bag…
-
Greed Foiled in San Francisco
“From what I’ve seen, all their claims are smoke and mirrors.” — IT/New Media/tech issues lawyer Colette Vogele. Score one for the good guys. A private company claiming it owned Muni arrival prediction data in San Francisco has been foiled,…
-
Bottled Bull
As a man who likes his water like he likes his beer (from a tap), I’ve always found it funny that the popular bottled water brand Evian is “naive” spelled backwards. Of course this is only a coincidence (the name…
-
When The Perfect Story and Perfect Writer Are Matched
You get this incredible Sunday NYTimes Magazine piece from a couple weeks back by Jack Hitt. Hitt never goes wrong anyhow, but this odd tale of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic’s hiding in plain sight in Belgrade as a long-haired…
-
Why We Need Health Care Reform
Our nation is now engaged in a great debate about the future of health care in America. And over the past few weeks, much of the media attention has been focused on the loudest voices. What we haven’t heard are…
-
Charlie Stross Talks Happy Slapping, Robot Chauffeurs with Paul Krugman
I just came across this transcript of a conversation between Paul Krugman and the sci-fi writer Charlie Stross. They talk about why flying cars are a bad idea, what kitchens tell us about ourselves, and how “future shock” leads to…