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photos by Lara Shipley

Entries from December 2010

On Ascriptions of Racism

December 31st, 2010 · 37 Comments

It’s a tedious exchange we’ve seen play out countless times before, and in the aftermath of Haley Barbour’s confused praise for the old white supremacist “Citizens’ Councils” we’re watching a slew of fresh iterations. The ideal form of it goes something like this: A: Wow, what conservative X said sure was racially offensive/ignorant/insensitive. B: Are […]

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Tags: Language and Literature · Sociology

Why ARE Restaurant Web sites so bad?

December 27th, 2010 · 76 Comments

On Twitter, my friends Shani and Erie are engaged in a bit of time-honored kvetching about the legendary and general awfulness of restaurant Web sites. Who thinks it’s good idea to blast annoying music at people going to your site? Why do they so often rely on Flash, which doesn’t really add anything to the […]

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Tags: Uncategorized

The Inevitable Top 10 List

December 22nd, 2010 · 11 Comments

I (somewhat hastily) rattled out my 10 favorite albums of 2010 for a GQ musical poll of political “hacks” (hey!), which reveals that there’s at least substantial bipartisan convergence on the FM side of the radio dial. Or would be if people listened to music on the radio anymore. ANYway, for the three of you […]

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Tags: Art & Culture

Religion, Morality, and Character

December 20th, 2010 · 20 Comments

This is a bazillion years ago in Internet time, but a quick note on a line from Sarah Palin’s recent book that occasioned some controversy a few weeks back, to the effect that “morality itself cannot be sustained without the support of religious beliefs.” It may, of course, be true in some very narrow sense […]

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Tags: Moral Philosophy · Religion

Yeah It’s Strange, but What’s So Strange About That

December 14th, 2010 · 34 Comments

Here’s how far down the rabbit hole we are. Josh Marshall writes: A year ago, no one took seriously the idea that a federal health care mandate was unconstitutional. And the idea that buying health care coverage does not amount to “economic activity” seems preposterous on its face. But the decision that just came down […]

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Tags: Law

Earworm: Wikileaks Edition

December 8th, 2010 · 3 Comments

Some of the lyrics to Blur’s “Pressure on Julian” are eerily appropriate to this week’s big story:

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Tags: Art & Culture · Journalism & the Media · Privacy and Surveillance

The Criterion Shlock Collection

December 4th, 2010 · 1 Comment

From the ingenious Fake Criterions tumblr.

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Tags: Uncategorized