Category: Uncategorized

some of the more pungent writing I have seen today

2,974:

9/11 has been robbed of its significance. It no longer lights up the neurons recalling an American tragedy, but instead activates that understand political strategy. I hate them for that. So this isn’t a 9/11 remembrance. We’ve never been allowed to forget 9/11. Not for an instant. What we have been allowed to forget is 2,974 individuals who perished in that attack, who didn’t die because they wanted to invade Iraq or because they thought Republicans were insufficiently competitive in elections, but because they were murdered. Remember them.

Continue reading “roundup”

Noonhat.com – About:

The main goal of Noonhat is to connect us with people outside of our normal social, work, and hobby circles. It’s easy nowadays to filter down to match on particular interests. I want to help all of us open up a bit and have good conversations with a wide variety of people. Occasionally, even people we may disagree with!

Moments:

The political blogosphere grew in the aftermath of 9/11, and quickly bored of the not exciting enough war in Afghanistan, self-styled “war bloggers” quickly turned on the enemy at home. It’s useful to remember, in this imagined time of national unity, just how quickly the Right claimed the tragedy as their own and used it as a cudgel to beat their fellow citizens with. It only took Andy Sullivan 5 days to publish this in the Times of London:

The middle part of the country – the great red zone that voted for Bush – is clearly ready for war. The decadent Left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead – and may well mount a fifth column.

The fact that New York City is generally considered to be one of the enclaves of the “decadent Left” wasn’t enough to dissuade him from putting those words into print.

To say nothing of P-Town or Fire Island . . .

Remember:

There are lots of things you can do today.

You can tell them you really, really, really don’t want to see a strike on Iran.

You can tell them that everybody knows that our presence in Iraq is the problem in Iraq.

You can ask them to do the simple exercise of remembering the last time they fed paper money into a change machine and it was rejected – did they then throw away the bill? Do they think we should trust a machine to count our votes?

You can tell them that you don’t want machines owned by far-right Republicans counting our votes, or a media owned by conservatives to report on our politics, our issues, our candidates.

You can tell your Senators and Congressmen that Terwilliger, Olson, and Silberman are political hacks who are absolutely unacceptable choices for Attorney General.

You can even ask them how George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney allowed a successful attack on America on 9/11, and why nothing has been done about it.

You can tell them you don’t want to vote for people who allow these things to happen.

Senate

House

Media

Signed,
Not Atrios

• Local News | Hunter not ashamed of killing whale without a permit | Seattle Times Newspaper
  I’d like to stick him with 4 stainless steel harpoons and see how he likes it.
  (tags: hunting values antiquatednotions)
• Justin, chill.
  Word.
  (tags: markets safety efficiency values culture)

There were at least three iPhones at the table this evening . . .

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Actually, I ate dinner before I went, family being important and all that, but I was invited to meet with the publisher of MAKE magazine and local MAKErs to see if there was interest in a Maker Faire Seattle.

I coulda called that one early. The answer is Yes.

But an interesting group of people, ranging from dilettante/part-timers like me to guys who have seriously built-out metal-working shops to others who have hacked and soldered their iPhones to work with any carrier they like, convened anyway.

The beer at the Elysian is very, very good. And I realize yet again that I spend too much time at home.

Doesn’t look like I’ve moved all that much. I’m the same old anti-authoritarian lefty . . .

On Friday 9/7, Bryce Lewis was killed when a dump truck turned right across his path. He was 19 years old […] :

Bicycling meccas like Portland and Copenhagen have implemented an intersection marking technique called Blue Lanes [+]. Requiring nothing but road paint, these lanes make it clear to drivers that the bicycle lane continues through the intersection, and that they must yield to bicyclists when crossing this lane.

So, as the Mayor backpedals on implementing the Bicycle Master Plan, I wonder if this city is really doing enough to provide its citizens with clearly marked roads. How many gallons of road paint is a young man’s life worth?

Quote Of The Day: “Have you ever known people who have to turn …:

“Have you ever known people who have to turn on a TV or a radio the moment they enter a room, or can’t stand to do work without some sound on? These are people who are desperately afraid of confronting some truth about themselves, so they try to drown it out with constant distractions.”

Known ’em, hell, I’ve lived in the same house with them as well.