Posts tagged as "politics" - Chris Hardie

The Constant Gardener is surely one of the best films I've seen in a while. It's easy to forget that such a thoroughly high standard of moviemaking is being observed out there somewhere, so it's always refreshing when beautiful and touching exceptions like this one come along. It's even better when you're not expecting it - I went into the theater with only a vague notion of what it was about and a recommendation from a friend who had been to Africa, and was just swept away. The story is epic...

I was going to write something about the impact of hurricane Katrina - on our collective consciousness, the "energy crisis", politics, humanity's relationship to nature and the land, comparisons to 9/11, and so on. Then I read Dave Pollard's article, "Do Events Like Katrina and 9/11 Make Us Crazy?" and he got most of my key points in there, so now all I really feel motivated to say is, "uhhh, what he said." Thanks, Dave. (But don't forget to find your sanity again - there's lots to be done.)

I generally avoid national bestselling political books that are just consolidated accounts of the political soap operas that go on in our nation's capital, designed to make more buzz and more money for the journalists or whistle-blowers or former aides that happened to keep really good notes during the experience. But once in a while there are some pretty compelling publications that appear in that genre, and I can't help but dive in. Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack certainly emerges as an example...

It looks like the War on Terror is over. That is, it's now become a Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism, according to the Bush administration's shift in language being used to describe that particular set of economic, military, domestic law enforcement, and foreign policy initiatives. I suppose we've come along way from the national security policy known as "Smoke 'Em Out" or "Bring 'Em On", but this new phrasing doesn't really warm the heart either. As someone who has come to appreciate...

The eminent and celebrated E. Thomas Kemp points us to a wonderful and clever use of news aggregation and weblog technologies, Plogress. Using Perl and Wordpress, the apparently anonymous administrator has created a site that sucks data out of the Library of Congress and displays a blog of the doings of individual Senators and Representatives. Now I can keep an eye on Mike, Richard, and Evan through my RSS newsreader! I'm sure they all read my blog, right?

I always look forward to seeing the speakers that my alma mater, Earlham College, brings to Richmond, Indiana because they often bring perspective, insight, and experience that you just can't otherwise get living in a small Midwestern town. Tonight's event was no different: William Kristol (neo-conservative pundit, editor of the Weekly Standard, Bush/Quayle advisor, and member of the American Enterprise Institute) would be giving a talk entitled "America's Foreign Policy After 9-11" on campus free...

In January 1935, President Roosevelt submitted a proposal for "Social Security" to the Congress. The draft legislation is introduced as "a bill to alleviate the hazards of old age, unemployment, illness, and dependency..." It is entirely fitting, I think, that the U.S. government would classify old age as something hazardous, dependency as something to be alleviated. That characterization is consistent with the role of government, as so many of us see it: to take care of us when our abilities...

There are too many people ranting and speculating on this election, who's going to win, and why it matters. So I'll keep it simple: for the love of $DIETY_OF_CHOICE, please vote early and often tomorrow.

It is somewhat comforting to know that Mumm-Ra supports the Workers World Party, especially given that Batman is a registered Republican. I'd be curious how the Voltron folks are registered though - Keith remains something of a childhood idol for me. Let's go Voltron Force!

I got two nice letters in the mail today, one from President Bush, another from John Kerry. Apparently, both of them are interested in having me be a more active part of their lives, and I was heartened by their efforts at reaching out. George invited me to have dinner with him in Washington, which I thought was a nice gesture. I did have some questions about where we might eat though, since he seemed to think it would cost around $2,500 per person. I haven't eaten out in D.C. in a while but my sense...