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More on the “war on Christmas”
Michelle Goldberg of Salon was on NPR this morning discussing the so-called war on Christmas, the Christian right’s current propaganda cudgel. You have to jump through Salon‘s hoops to read her piece, but it’s worth it. She traces the history of this campaign to Henry Ford and the John Birch Society. In light of this, the words of Fox News’s
A. Roy, continued…
My respondent replies to the previous post: [A. Roy] insists on simultaneously condemning the US and British state terrorism of war and occupation that leads to this violent Iraqi resistance. Condemning terrorism is not enough. One must also address its root causes. My point is that some “root causes” always seem to get left out, like the fascist character of
“War on Christmas”
Christmas time again, which means time for another round of war on secularism and multiculturalism from the right. Yes, it’s “war on Christmas” in the U.S. according to Bill O’Reilly and other shouting heads. Marc Cooper nails it as usual, calling this “one of the most bogus, bullshit, cynical, manufactured, crybaby campaigns that recent history has seen – Christian Conservatives
Items of interest, continued…
— Go here to read my review of Wadada Leo Smith’s 12/3 show in Philadelphia. — I was planning to write something about “My Humps,” the god-awful song by the Black Eyed Peas that continues to eat away at my brain. Hua Hsu of Slate took the words right out of my mouth. The song “veers toward evil,” according to
The trouble with A. Roy
A respondent has prompted me to reconsider my criticism of antiwar activist Arundhati Roy in light of her remarks upon winning the Sydney Peace Prize in Nov. ’04. Roy’s advocacy of “non-violent resistance” to the occupation of Iraq is indeed to be noted. In her acceptance speech she ventured this description of post-Saddam Iraq: Prisons have been privatized. Torture has
Art moment
Walking through an Edvard Munch gallery at the Philadelphia Museum of Art recently, I was reminded of two images I saw displayed together at the MOCA in Los Angeles: Munch’s “Starry Night” of 1893 (bottom) and Rothko’s “No. 61 (Rust and Blue)” of 1953 (top). Just thought I’d put them up here.
Kamm on Atzmon’s reply
UK blogger and columnist Oliver Kamm reacts to Gilad Atzmon’s reply [PDF] to my column [PDF] in Jazz Times. Kamm also directs our attention to this piece at Al-Jazeerah, in which Atzmon endorses Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s call to wipe Israel off the map: This isn’t to say that the Israeli people should be wiped out. As far as I am
Today in Torture, continued
This afternoon I had an MRI done on my left shoulder. For those who’ve never had an MRI, what happens is you lay flat on a table and they roll the table into a narrow cylindrical space. You have to lay extremely still, in my case for about 12 minutes, followed by a second test of about eight minutes. At