January 2009
41 posts
Abortion rights go global. →
“In the last four years, in addition to Tysiac’s case, women and their lawyers have brought abortion actions before the U.N. Human Rights Committee and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which investigates human rights violations in the Western hemisphere. Several times, women who’ve been denied abortions have won both compensation and an acknowledgment that their...
Obama raises the bar: a brief history of... →
After Kennedy, LBJ carried on the presidential carrying on, though in his own inimitable style. Joseph Califano tells the story of drinking while riding around Lyndon Johnson’s ranch. “As we drove around we were followed by a car and a station wagon with Secret Service agents. The president drank Cutty Sark scotch and soda out of a large white plastic foam cup. Periodically, Johnson...
Old Artisans of Japan →
ACLU donors affected by Madoff scam →
Eat Dirt! →
Or, more like, feed your kids dirt!
The spiritual journey of Ol' Dirty Bastard. →
Born Russell Jones in Brooklyn in 1968, Dirty got the Five Percent knowledge from his cousin Popa Wu—the knowledge, that is, that there is no “mystery God” or supernatural deity, that the black man is the father of civilization and his own God, and that the human race breaks down into three percentages: the ignorant herd (85 percent), the exploiters (10 percent), and the enlightened (5...
Well, Since We’re Talking About Wrestling: Cyndi... →
via Matt H.
This is the precise moment that postmodernism: a. first infiltrated an irony-starved ’80s Middle America; b. died…of AIDS; c. was reified; d. helped jump-start the P.R. run-up to the release of Cyndi Lauper’s gold album, True Colors, later that year.
The Inauguration, a view from the ground →
Written by Graeme Wood.
Obama to reverse abortion policy →
The move was not a surprise as both Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will oversee foreign aid, had promised to do away with the gag rule during the presidential campaign. Clinton is to visit the U.S. Agency for International Development, through which much U.S. foreign aid is disbursed, later on Friday.
Obama has spent his first days in office systematically signing...
WatchSTRANDBEESTEN_TRAILER from Alexander Schlichter on Vimeo
.
Gitmo detainee actually tortured. How shocking. →
Adaptive Eyecare: affordable corrective eyeware... →
Who Would Jesus Smack Down? - Mark Driscoll, a... →
Driscoll, who is 38, is on the cutting edge of American pop culture. Yet his message seems radically unfashionable, even un-American: you are not captain of your soul or master of your fate but a depraved worm whose hard work and good deeds will get you nowhere, because God marked you for heaven or condemned you to hell before the beginning of time. Yet a significant number of young people in...
A Poverty of the Mind →
A counterpoint to the article on “whiteness.” Thanks Jeb.
The Cost of Stranger Danger →
“In general, we fear strangers much more than we should. Consider a few supporting pieces of evidence:
+ In the U.S., the proportion of murder victims who knew their assailants to victims killed by strangers is about 3-to-1. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice.)
+ Sixty-four percent of women who are raped know their attackers; and 61 percent of female victims of aggravated assault know...
Linx Dating: Silicon Yenta?
→
This is rich:
Ms. Andersen, 30, came up with the idea for Linx from her own dating experiences. She was working in marketing at Merrill Lynch and living in San Francisco’s Marina district, home to former frat boys who now work in finance. She became increasingly frustrated meeting the same type of guy over and over again: extremely good-looking, smart, engaging, and wearing the right Gucci...
Rudy Colombini--landlord, real estate investor,... →
I saw this dude in Walgreen’s today wearing a black velvet trenchcoat. Sweet.
The End of White America? →
“The Election of Barack Obama is just the most startling manifestation of a larger trend: the gradual erosion of “whiteness” as the touchstone of what it means to be American. If the end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability, what will the new mainstream look like—and how will white Americans fit into it? What will it mean to be white when whiteness is no longer the...
Second life for tumbled trees →
Men Mentoring Men To Be Men →
Former public defender specializing in DV is... →
Missy Brooks Batten, a HLS-grad, former public defender and game developer at Microsoft, was shot and killed by her estranged husband, who then turned the gun on himself.
She had obtained a restraining order against him only a week earlier. How terribly, terribly sad.
Sushi Monster's comprehensive review of all sushi... →
Is human placenta a wonder drug, or is it just... →
Judge Agrees With Bush in Ruling on 2 Detainees’... →
Cori worked on these.
NYT Reporter Benoit Denizet-Lewis Talks Addiction,... →
Living Together - Are Cloned Pets the Real Thing?... →
How Caramel Developed a Taste for Salt →
“Salt caramel’s rise as the flavor of the year illuminates the fast flow of food trends in a country that can grab hold of a relatively unknown ingredient like chipotle and move it through a cultural sluice box that ends at McDonald’s.
Something of an overachiever compared with other upstart flavors like asiago cheese and wasabi, the flavor combination made its successful run from rarefied...