micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links |
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Welcome to the musings and notes of a Cadillac, Michigan based writer named Micah Holmquist, who is bothered by his own sarcasm. Please send him email at micahth@chartermi.net. Holmquist's full archives are listed here.
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Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution) Aljazeera.Net English Blogs that for one reason or another Holmquist would like to read on at least something of a regular basis (always in development) Thivai Abhor |
Monday, January 12, 2004
A message to Iraqis, the comedy of Sue Murphy and other matters Bill O'Reilly should tell those stupid Iraqi fuckers to shut up or face the consequences. *** The comedy of Sue Murphy –or more precisely the comedy of Sue Murphy that was presented in a Comedy Central Presents special that I watched on Sunday- has conventional themes. Murphy thinks she’s unattractive and has a long history of personal embarrassment. She apparently isn’t ashamed to get on stage and present this to the world in search of laughs. And yet for all that normalcy, Murphy came across much different than the average comedian on Comedy Central. She seemed to be having a good time and yet was awkward, much like the man or woman at a bar or social gathering who is a bit too loud and who doesn’t always make sense as she tells stories, but who entertains herself at least as much as any one else in the audience. I’m not sure when the special was recorded but my guess is in 1998 or 1999 due to an early reference to Titanic (James Cameron, 1997), a film that is neither particularly good nor anywhere near as bad as it is now fashionable to say it is, which seems appropriate if Alain Badiou is correct about the twentieth century being greatly characterized by a “passion for the Real” and stand-up is a play covered by the mask of conversation. Murphy’s act was most likely more the product of revision than improvisation, but it didn’t seem that way, which made it made beautiful and perplexing. *** "Coalition experts are examining dozens of mortar shells found in southern Iraq which could contain chemical weapons," BBC News writes in a Saturday story. "...US officials played down the find, saying the shells were probably left over from Saddam Hussein's 1980-88 war with Iran. Thank Bush that we got there in time. *** In a January 11 story, BBC News writes: Mr Blair told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost he still believed that weapons of mass destruction would be found.*** John F. Dickerson of Time on Paul O'Neill: Discussing the case for the Iraq war in an interview with TIME, O'Neill, who sat on the National Security Council, says the focus was on Saddam from the early days of the Administration. He offers the most skeptical view of the case for war ever put forward by a top Administration official. "In the 23 months I was there, I never saw anything that I would characterize as evidence of weapons of mass destruction," he told TIME. "There were allegations and assertions by people. But I've been around a hell of a long time, and I know the difference between evidence and assertions and illusions or allusions and conclusions that one could draw from a set of assumptions. To me there is a difference between real evidence and everything else. And I never saw anything in the intelligence that I would characterize as real evidence."O'Neill doesn't impress me and he certainly is no Daniel Ellsberg. Assuming that this is true, and I suspect that it is, why didn't O'Neill come out and say this last year around say March when it might have changed the course of events? *** *** I find it hard to dislike Dean when he says stuff like, "George Bush is not my neighbor." *** Thomas E. Ricks of The Washington Post writes: A scathing new report published by the Army War College broadly criticizes the Bush administration's handling of the war on terrorism, accusing it of taking a detour into an "unnecessary" war in Iraq and pursuing an "unrealistic" quest against terrorism that may lead to U.S. wars with states that pose no serious threat...Why treasonous trash such as this report, which is entitled "Bounding the Global War on Terrorism," is allowed to be published is beyond me. It can only strengthen our enemies and convince Americans to forget September 11. *** Who does Hugo Chavez think he is? *** "Hunger and homelessness continued to rise in major American cities over the last year, according to the new U.S. Conference of Mayors-Sodexho Hunger and Homelessness Survey, released today at the Conference of Mayors Headquarters. As the overall economy remained weak, requests for emergency food assistance increased by an average of 17 percent over the past year, and requests for emergency shelter assistance increased by an average of 13 percent in the 25 cities surveyed," The U.S. Conference of Mayors writes in a December 18 press release. Read the report here and find out more about Sodexho at sodexhousa.com. *** *** Jennifer and Richard Pryor on the government's new emblem. *** Via in search of Sasquatch I find Aidin Vaziri of The San Francisco Chronicle saying, "Chris Rock is still the best stand-up comedian to hit a stage since Sinbad." When I read stuff like this, I can't help but think this country deserves Bush and the "war on terror." |