. You don’t have to think of Chris Hayes as the anti-Limbaugh. (That’s most of us.) Consider him the anti Chris Matthews, his stable mate at MSNBC. Matthews drew a lot of attention the other day for his interview of Newt Gingrich, during which he did play, yes, a form of hardball, asking tough questions […]
9/11/11: Chomsky Nation
. (Eleventh in a series) On October 18, 2001, five weeks after the 9/11 attack, Noam Chomsky gave a talk at MIT, still available on the web in video and transcript form, entitled “The New War against Terror.” He employed the same slippery rhetorical constructs and argumentative ploys as were on display in his half-hearted […]
Patriots, Globophiles, and Fools
So the other day I wrote a bit about the conformist emotions and manipulations often found in conservative-style patriotism. It isn’t enough to organize against government policies considered objectionable – the organization need be one of tea party patriots. Those against whom conservatives organize cannot simply be mistaken or wrongheaded – they must by styled […]
Real American Stories
The Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks produced The Pacific is an estimable effort, but has failed, unlike its predecessor, Band of Brothers – about the war in Europe – to produce a cohesive, overarching narrative and vision of the Pacific war. BOB, based on Steven Ambrose’s book about the real life Easy Company, began with […]