Tear down that wall

Over at Exiledonline, there’s a piece on the Berlin Wall by Tim Mohr. If you know anything about Mark Ames who runs the site (and previously built the best alt newspaper in history, The eXile), then you already know that it isn’t going to be a fluffy, feel good pile of nostalgic crap.

“It’s important on this anniversary to distinguish between two entirely different events: first, the fall of the Berlin Wall, on November 9, 1989; and then German unification, on October 3, 1990. Americans often conflate the two into one process. But for Germans and those who were there, it’s a much more complicated story. The fall of the Berlin Wall became a poisoned memory for a certain set of Easterners, thanks to the events that followed that event.” [snip]

How the West Hijacked the Berlin Wall Revolution

Go read the rest, because ignorance is only bliss if you’re happy being stupid.

 

Street Smarts: Dance myself to sleep

Socialist junk food

So i took a break from my household activities for a short walk to pick up a few things from the neighborhood grocery. The young man (early 20’s) in front of me did one of the things most likely to make me snap in public someday. He pulled out his bridge card to pay for his purchases. Here in Michigan we don’t call them food stamps anymore, today it’s called “the bridge card”.

I’m not afraid of socialized medicine or spending on social programs. For all i know, there might be a socialist trapped inside me trying to get out. Maybe i’m a socialist-libertarian, but i don’t even know if such a thing exists.

Why the scene above pisses me off after the jump…

A pox on both your houses

Congressional Democrats teared up and patted their own backs last night because they passed the health insurance industry protection bill. The normal apologists are telling us to look past all the nefarious components of the bill because this is such a significant step towards reform. No, no it is not. And the few portions of it that might truly be called steps towards reform will almost certainly be gutted in the Senate. The bill that the President will proudly sign into law will amount to nothing more than a preemptive bailout of the health insurance industry. The real costs–social and monetary–will kicked down the road for someone else to handle. And the Democrats will claim their liberal-reformist credentials.

Taking David Brooks to the woodshed

Werther has a fine piece up at Electric Politics.

As an example of the sort of sloppy, tendentious journalism by which Brooks distinguishes himself, the column is merely typical. What is more interesting is the columnist’s lyrical invocation of sheer will power as the quality that will determine the outcome of the war [Afghanistan]. Believe in victory, he says, do not be distracted by any other consideration, and victory will be ours. Lack of will, by contrast, is a synonym for “defeatist.” This sort of faux-Churchillian preening is a particular characteristic of neoconservative chickenhawks, but it is also key to understanding the psychology of the Right Wing more broadly.

Read the rest…

Street Smarts: Bert’s brother Bart

Breaking wind

“We must never allow the scent of capitalism to attract us,” declared the Minju Chosun (a DPRK cabinet publication), adding, “We are being penetrated by the imperialists with every kind of rotten bourgeois lifestyle, and the sensitive nature of our young generation is being taken advantage of on a massive scale.”

I hate to tell you this, Kim, but that’s how the imperialists work. It always starts with free candy for the kids, then jeans, then rock ‘n’ roll and the next thing you know your kids are riding off in an old, imperialist van with no windows.

Original sin

I abhor the word “romp” in book reviews. “Somebody or another takes us on a romp through/to somewhere, yada yada yada.” That creates a difficult position for me in composing an unsolicited review of Original Sin (A Cultural History) by Alan Jacobs.

The ultimate scene in the film Russian Ark consists of nothing more than dancing. An orchestra plays and masses of costumed dancers fill a ballroom in the Winter Palace. For the scene to be riveting (and it is outstanding), the viewer must have foreknowledge that it was shot in a single take. The orchestra, the costumes, the dozens and dozens of dancers executing complicated steps were really as perfect as they appear on film.

Street Smarts: Five Feet High and Risin’

Thickening the plot

By now any casual reader of the news should have gotten the picture that the Obama administration would prefer different leadership in Kabul. The whisper campaign began almost as soon as Obama took office and grew to crescendo with the charges of election fraud. Along the way we were treated to plenty of accusations that senior, Afghan officials are linked to the opium trade. And by all accounts, Abdullah Abdullah was the D.C. preferred candidate. With Abdullah dropping out of the Western imposed run off, things are likely to get even more complicated in Afghanistan.