Posts tagged with:

Bush

Inquiring Minds

December 19, 2008

A Slate magazine column, The Explainer, is a must read for me. It typically explains issues in the news or suggested by the news, such as these recent entries: What do Iraqis find so insulting about shoes and feet? Can you be a gay Mormon?

Reading through the archive of questions answered this year is a refresher course on what’s transpired, from the important (Can Blagojevich still appoint a new senator?) to the absurd (Who first put lipstick on a pig?). Read More

{ 1 comment }

More Shoes in Bush’s Future

December 15, 2008

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush in Baghdad was hailed as a hero today across the Middle East. In Baghdad, where the incident happened, protesters filled the streets and demanded his release from custody.
When I first watched the video, I marveled at Bush’s sharp reflexes and calm under fire. [...]

Read More

Arc of nations

August 8, 2008

I doubt I’ll ever see anything as wondrous as tonight’s opening ceremonies at the Olympics. Never has a story been told so vividly on such a sweeping scale. Perhaps only an authoritarian government could pull it off. And yes, the story glosses over a shameful past and present. But to conceive and execute it so [...]

Read More

Frat boy farewell

July 12, 2008

Choose your most admired U.S. president. Imagine him saying this:
Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.
Now imagine him grinning widely and punching the air. And saying it while leaving a meeting of world leaders who had gathered in Japan to discuss combating climate change.
According to a British newspaper, those present, including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy, [...]

Read More

Worse than 9/11?

July 2, 2008

Fox News calls the Obamas’ playful fist bump a “terrorist” handshake. An on-air guest says half-jokingly that Barack Obama needs to be assassinated. Fox refers to Michelle Obama as a “baby mama” (euphemism for unwed black mother). Now this on the fair and balanced network: digitally altered photos of two New York Times reporters to [...]

Read More

And God gave us words

June 30, 2008

Touchy, touchy some people are, especially zealots on the way-out-there religious right. The American Family Association’s news web site has a filter that automatically changes words it doesn’t like. So an Associated Press story from Eugene, Oregon, about track star Tyson Gay was “corrected.”
The headline: “Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympic trials.” The [...]

Read More

The real appeasers

May 15, 2008

Sometimes the best insight and analysis of the day’s news comes from anonymous “readers” who, like me, devour our favorite blogs with unbridled fervor. Here’s a nod to just such a person, who takes on President Bush and John McCain for their attacks today on Barack Obama for his willingness to talk to Iran’s president. [...]

Read More