HOWTO: The Straw Man

by Pete on December 27, 2005

I watched the Robert Greenwald documentary Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price last night. The only other film of his that I have seen is Outfoxed, which I basically liked. This one, on the other hand, exemplified one of (…)

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Year-end music round-up

by Pete on December 23, 2005

‘Tis the season for “Best of” album lists, something I generally look forward to. So far , both Popmatters and Pitchfork have come out with their lists of the top 50 albums of 2005. Popmatters’ pick for number one is (…)

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Angry Dick

by Pete on December 21, 2005

Of course, the big news is that Dick Cheney had to fly home and vote for the first time in two years in the Senate in not one, but two votes, as the Republicans pulled out very trick in their (…)

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Again with the wire-tapping

by Pete on December 19, 2005

Following my post earlier today about The Great Wire-Tapping Caper, I’ve been do some more reading on the whole affair, and while this might seem like an understatement, there’s something about it that has been bothering me. The Fourth Amendment (…)

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The Great Wire-Tapping Caper That Almost Was

by Pete on December 19, 2005

Over the last few days, I have been following the story of the Bush administration’s secret authorization of NSA wiretaps on domestic calls from terrorist suspects (or “persons of interest,” or whatever made-up legalism they’re using now). My reaction to (…)

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King Kong is a giant piece of shit

by Pete on December 18, 2005

In case there is any confusion regarding the above statement, let me take a moment to explain what I mean. King Kong is a giant piece of shit. I was pretty excited to see this movie. I have enjoyed all (…)

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I’m genuinely shocked

by Pete on December 16, 2005

According to this article in the New York Times, the Senate actually failed to end debate on the renewal of the PATRIOT Act today, leaving open the possibility that no action will be taken before the bill expires on December (…)

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If only we were this interested in our own elections

by Pete on December 15, 2005

So the Iraqis are voting, and by most accounts, things seem to be going fairly well. Huzzah for the Iraqis. Yeah, see, here’s the thing. For those of us who opposed invading Iraq in the first place, it is very (…)

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The Fellowship of the Wardrobe

by Pete on December 12, 2005

Much as with the first Lord of the Rings movie, I had no intention of going to the The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe. While I was never a big fan of Tolkien’s books, I read the Narnia books (…)

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