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Allan Holdsworth
Behold one of the most innovative, technically gifted guitarists of the 20th century. I’ve been listening to him since I was a teenager. Last week he played at the Iridium in New York. I went there to worship, and I wasn’t surprised to run into some terrific musicians, including the guitarists Jonathan Kreisberg and David Gilmore and an Australian pianist
“Loose Change 9/11”
I’ve come across chatter about the second edition of a documentary called “Loose Change 9/11.” I haven’t seen either edition, but looks like a repackaging of some of the daft 9/11 conspiracy theories that were so forcefully challenged in this article in Popular Mechanics. Bill Weinberg also takes aim at the “conspiranoiacs” in this post. (Here’s a predictable rebuttal to
More on McCain
The other day I lamented John McCain’s between-the-lines apology to Jerry Falwell in the form of his commencement speech at Liberty University. People continue to fawn over McCain as a “uniter not a divider” and miss what seems to me to be the main point: McCain cloaked a naked electoral maneuver in some high-minded language about tolerance. One of the
Against Hayden for CIA
Yeah, like that sentiment matters. Apparently General Michael Hayden is cruising toward confirmation by the Senate. Spencer Ackerman lays out why it shouldn’t happen ($ required, I think). There’s been justified talk that it’s inappropriate for a military man to head the CIA. What really began to baffle me was why Hayden insisted on facing the Senate committee in uniform.
Trouble in Turkey
A fundamentalist lawyer has killed a judge and wounded four others in Ankara. His motive was to protest the banning of headscarves. The judge’s funeral procession turned into a Kemalist (secular republican) display of anger, with people holding aloft pictures of Ataturk and venting against the ruling AKP party, which has vaguely Islamist roots. It’s a scenario practically lifted from
Meanwhile, here at home…
Creeping repression in regard to FBI anti-leak investigations. Journalists need defending, now more than ever.
Liar
“I don’t think in Cuba there is a lack of freedom of speech…. If you approach Cuba from the perspective of the Western world, you might think so. But there, you have the people who express themselves on many matters. There is no repression in Cuba.” –Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela More here. [Update: And here. And here.]
Nazism as a model
Sullivan points us to this immigration commentary from “Vox Day” at WorldNetDaily. This fellow, a self-described Christian libertarian, is upset that President Bush ruled out mass deportation during his Monday night speech: Not only will [mass deportation] work, but one can easily estimate how long it would take. If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves