"People have the right to protest, but I hope when they protest they realize also that people now have a right to protest in Baghdad and Kabul, and that's a very big breakthrough for the international community."

--Condoleezza Rice addressing Boston College's graduating class, where she got a mixed reaction.

Kerry's Emerson commencement address

Like Mike Corcoran notes, Kerry struck an extremely, almost unusually, light note for his speech. I've only read it, so I can't speak for his delivery, but it seems hit-or-miss to me. A lot of forced pop culture jokes (Anna Nicole Smith, David Spade) but some good ones too:

"A few have lost your bearings, become ( Read more... )

I'm going to try to update this thing more often, to get myself writing over the summer, which previously had always been a time for me to do nothing while brain cells slowly die away. And I like to convince myself that writing about politics in this thing is "work."


Controversy Fuels DaVinci Code


It's funny to me, because all the controversy and ( Read more... )

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/13/southpark.muhammad.ap/index.htmlRead more... )

So I came to a depressing conclusion recently. I don't really like to read ( Read more... )

Put your iTunes on shuffle ( Read more... )

Myheritage.com said I look like:

-- Barack Obama (the black freshman Senator from Illinois... okay)
-- Helena Bonham Carter
-- Jennifer Connoly
-- Scarlett Johannson (ironic)
-- Tennessee Williams (legit)

And, of course, I got Bob Dylan.

Journalists on trial

I originally saw a note about this in Andrew Sullivan's blog.

He writes:

"Most of the Western media didn't publish any of the Danish cartoons for fear of upsetting readers, provoking violence, or whatever reason they came up with. Even when the cartoons prompted international violence, even when art critics attacked them in ( Read more... )

In the past 24 hours, I've broken the only two active boycotts in my life. Last night I went to Wal-Mart to buy cigarettes (not Shields... I'll never be that cool) and to look for Surviving the Game. And I'm current listening to Cat Stevens, which I likewise vowed never to do, on account of his conversion to radical Islam and refusal to condemn the ( Read more... )

In the future, if someone asks me to pinpoint the exact moment of my life when New Jersey stopped being home (I don't know why anyone would, but such a conversation might occur), I would have to say "Spring break, sophomore year." I'm in Cranford now, in the house I've always called my home, feeling generally useless and homesick for Boston ( Read more... )