Posts Tagged ‘politics’

Quick Note on Occupy

Like many, I find the Occupy encampments incredibly interesting—if perplexing at times—and I think there’s a lot of merit in the larger “We are the 99 Percent” concept, which will surely last longer than the occupations. I think both efforts have done much to highlight questions of economic inequality, political corruption and collusion, and state [...]

1st December 2011 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »



More Korean Political Fisticuffs

As an addendum to the previous post, I discovered that the Seoul city council had a brawl of their own over the very school lunches that triggered the latest political turmoil in the country: And a bonus example of politicians behaving badly from 2009 when opposition were upset at the GNP’s relaxing media ownership rules:

29th October 2011 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in politics, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »



Could Lunch Derail the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement?

Probably not, but a controversy over mid-day meals makes it a little more complicated for Korea. Earlier this month, the president of South Korea visited the United States. Remember that? They went to a General Motors plant. They had a state dinner featuring Texas rib eye. Harold (of Harold and Kumar) sat across from Barack [...]

29th October 2011 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Asia, politics | 1 Comment »



Why Elections Matter

Apologies to Joao Silva/New York Times for using their photo. But look: American soldiers walking past a spray-painted blast wall in Al Awad, Iraq, yesterday. The first time I voted in a presidential election was in the 2000 election. I was a senior in college in New Hampshire. I voted absentee in Alaska. Before election [...]

4th November 2008 | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in anticipation, dissipation, history, politics | 1 Comment »



The Oswald Cobblepot School of Debate

A forward link landed in my e-mail yesterday. It led me to a 13-second lark trying to portray John McCain as Oswald C. Cobblepot, better known as the Penguin, from Batman. You can see it here: The Penguin is surely one of the more entertaining Batman villains–my favorite, if we’re working from the 1960s television [...]

15th October 2008 | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in irony, politics | 2 Comments »



Alaska, Factored

When I was in high school, an especially talented teacher brought the hammer down on all of us idealistic almost-voters. Our votes for president, she told us, wouldn’t count. Easy for her to say. And not necessarily wrong. We were living in Alaska, which holds a whopping three electoral votes. And those three electoral votes [...]

29th August 2008 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Alaska, politics, really? | 1 Comment »



Russert

When I heard of the death of Tim Russert yesterday, the grand inquisitor (in a good way) of Washington, I repeatedly thought of Mark Leibovich’s Chris Matthews profile from the NYT Mag in April: On the morning of the Cleveland debate, Matthews was standing in the lobby of the Ritz when Russert walked through, straight [...]

14th June 2008 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in competition, journalism, television | No Comments »



It is on.

Who says politics has devolved into a slideshow? Looks more like it’s the center ring. This was recorded for the WWE, broadcast last night. I guess they really are trying to get that working class white male vote. No more direct route than pro wrestling, right?   I like how McCain suggests that he’s “the [...]

22nd April 2008 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in anticipation, competition, politics, race, really? | No Comments »



Lovely As a Tree: All That Remains

There it is. Or was. All that remains. A pile of soggy sawdust and a few lost leaves. When I wrote about watching this tree being cut apart, I cited a useful Christian Science Monitor article on the value of trees in urban areas. And I am recently reminded of a terrific song called “The [...]

16th March 2006 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in environment, unfortunate | 2 Comments »