January 2010
17 posts
WatchGreat, great interview with former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.
A shiny canvas...
Earlier tonight, I stopped by the Apple Store I used to work in. I’m in the middle of revamping my apartment, essentially turning it into a real home as opposed to just a place to crash in.
The sense of excitement was physical - even though Apple Retail folks don’t know before the fact what’s going to be announced at an Apple Event, the general feeling was that this event would...
I Miss Iraq, Too...
This essay by Brian Mockenhaupt in Esquire really does encapsulate my feelings about the whole war, now nearly six years in my past:
I’ve been home from Iraq for more than a year, long enough for my time there to become a memory best forgotten for those who worried every day that I was gone. I could see their relief when I returned. Life could continue, with futures not so uncertain. But in...
Giving up on Democrats doesn't mean giving up on...
I fully endorse this from Jamelle Bouie. It’s so good I’m quoting it in full:
Apropos of my current, overwhelming contempt for the Democratic Party, I think it’s worth making a distinction between giving up on the party and giving up on politics. I think liberals are well within their rights to give up on Democrats, especially if they give in to their worst impulses and abandon...
What's the point?
Like Jamelle Bouie, I totally endorse everything my friend Ezra says here:
The loss in Massachusetts was a terrible disappointment to Democrats. But it can be explained away. Martha Coakley was a terrible candidate. Scott Brown ran an excellent campaign. These things happen.
But the reaction congressional Democrats have had to Coakley’s loss has been much more shattering. It has been a...
““Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I...”
– If the poem sounds familiar, it’s because it’s Invictus, by William Ernest Henley. You probably know it most recently from the movie of the same title.
On a night like tonight, which feels as if we lost Ted Kennedy again through the collective idiocy of several dozen people, it’s...
WatchThis TED talk by Thomas P.M. Barnett is phenomenal. I spent part of my life in the Army, as all of you know - but I wouldn’t hesitate to spend the rest of it working to rebuild the world, as he proposes in his “Department of Something Else”.
“We’re all fucked. I’m fucked. You’re fucked. The whole...”
– Sir Richard Mottram, on not just a PR fiasco, but really, life in general. Thanks to Kevin Drum for this.
Haiti Needs Your Help
Tuesday, the all-too-tragic country of Haiti was hammered by a massive earthquake. The quake, 7.0 in magnitude, essentially leveled Port-au-Prince, destroying all the hospitals.
It’s times like these that compel our common humanity to reach out and comfort the afflicted. You can help - indeed, millions have already been raised.
The need is still there, though. I’ve compiled this...
“Ad astra, per aspera”
– To the stars, through difficulties. Words I live by.
Back to school...
Ten years ago, I rang in the new year alone, in a new city, uncertain of what the year held in store for me. I had finished Army basic training the year before, and in some ways, I was a brand new man facing a brand new decade.
Six years ago, I knelt on a rock-strewn desert and watched an Army MEDEVAC helicopter take away a soldier who had died in a mortar attack - an attack I had, through the...
Song #2: Buckeye Battle Cry
In old Ohio...
It’s on. Ohio State vs Oregon for The...