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Moby Dick
Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquerable whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. — Captain Ahab Thanks to long stretches spent once again on New York’s subways, I’m able to take on projects like Melville’s 1851 masterpiece, which I’d never
Mumbai fallout
Having recently reviewed the work of Amitav Ghosh for Democratiya, I find myself haunted once again by this passage: The thickening crust of our awareness is both a sign and a reminder of our unwitting complicity in the evolution of violence: if that which mesmerized us yesterday ceases to interest us today, then it follows that the act which will
Mumbai
This Thanksgiving eve we should send thoughts and prayers to the city of Mumbai (Bombay), which has just been subjected to a savage multi-site terrorist attack. Some people’s idea of bravery includes attacking a hospital for women and children. Patients are being held hostage as I write this. [Update: Stratfor weighs in on the possible geopolitical fallout. Grim, grim, grim.]
Penn sucks up again
There’s little I can say about Sean Penn’s fluff “interview” with Hugo Chávez and Raúl Castro that Marc Cooper hasn’t said. Some have suggested that I tend to overstate the influence of actor-activists like Penn. If anything, I’ve understated it. Penn’s “journalism” is now being published on the cover of The Nation, right at the moment when audiences are swooning
Nicaragua’s glass house
Just a note on the ironic timing. UN General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua issued his call for a boycott of Israel — and his antisemitic charge that Palestinians are being “crucified” — just as the NY Times and Marc Cooper report on the increasing authoritarianism and corruption of the neo-Sandinista regime of Daniel Ortega.
Muddying the Zimbabwe issue
[Cross-posted at Z Word.] It’s a good thing that Jimmy Carter is pressing the case for help to the Zimbabwean population. But following the Mugabe regime’s politicized denial of a visa to Carter and his group, the former president’s statements have a weirdly passive ring — in stark contrast, one might point out, to his unequivocal denunciations of the Israeli
Top Ten of 2008
My ballot — with snazzy cover art this year — is now up at the website of the Jazz Journalists Association. More year-in-review posts to follow soon.
“I don’t blow. I suck.”
Seemed appropriate to post this as somehow related to the discussion Darcy kicked off here. [Hat tip Phil DiPietro.]