Category Archives: History

Regression

Posted on May 15, 2013 by reflectionephemeral

This doesn’t quite sync up perfectly, but you can make “Band on the Run” a little worse, and improve “Imagine” a great deal, via mashup: Elvis Costello was quite right about “Imagine”: ”I think ‘Imagine’ is a dumb song. … His work was … Continue reading →

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Ya Think?!?!

Posted on April 29, 2013 by dedc79

Thirteen years too late: Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor expressed doubt Friday about the decision to take the 2000 Bush v. Gore case that resulted in the election of President George W. Bush. “It took the case and decided … Continue reading →

Posted in History, News and Current Events | 4 Comments

The Play’s the Thing

Posted on April 15, 2013 by dedc79

The American Scholar has a fascinating article on Abraham Lincoln and his appreciation of the plays of William Shakespeare.  Here’s an excerpt: After Hackett performed before the president, he sent Lincoln a copy of a book he had just published, … Continue reading →

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“The past is never dead…

Posted on April 12, 2013 by dedc79

…it isn’t even past.”   So goes the famous line from William Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun. I was reminded of that line when I saw a rather literal illustration of it in the news this morning: A Sharpsburg man planting trees at … Continue reading →

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Freedom, Democracy, And Political Massacres

Posted on April 8, 2013 by reflectionephemeral

In this 1999 article, the BBC quoted Margaret Thatcher “thank[ing] her old friend [Augusto Pinochet] for being an ally during the 1982 Falklands War – and for ‘bringing democracy to Chile’”. Around the same time, The Economist reviewed the historical record, … Continue reading →

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From The Political Campaign

Posted on April 8, 2013 by reflectionephemeral

Yesterday, DougJ wrote, in a post called “I Am Glad Michael Kelly Is Dead”: Of course, when some establishment asshole dies, the serious people tell us that we’re monsters if we say we’re glad they’re dead. When some asshole they … Continue reading →

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Semantic Infiltration

Posted on April 4, 2013 by dedc79

Back in Poison Your Mind’s early days, I wrote about the way Republicans used poll-tested words to reframe political debates.  (Former Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan aptly described this tactic as “semantic infiltration.”)  My target at the time was the word “entitlements”: … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health Care, History, Politics | 4 Comments

Brain-Scrambling Yawp

Posted on March 28, 2013 by dedc79

We can thank two people for the the privilege of being able to listen to the music of Sid Hemphill.   One, of course, is Hemphill himself. The other is Alan Lomax: Lomax found Hemphill in Senatobia, deep in Mississippi’s Hill Country. … Continue reading →

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Everywhere Is War Against Gay Marriage

Posted on March 27, 2013 by reflectionephemeral

https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/316936193495400449 (Sometimes Tweet embedding doesn’t work, so, to repeat, Erick Erickson wrote: “You’re not really loving your neighbor when you’re cool with him staying on the road to hell.”) Being raised post-religious, I used to wonder growing up how genuinely … Continue reading →

Posted in History, News and Current Events, Politics | 2 Comments

Every Woody Allen Stammer From Every Woody Allen Movie

Posted on March 27, 2013 by reflectionephemeral

Set aside some time:

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How Lies Take Hold

Posted on March 20, 2013 by dedc79

For one thing, they have to be repeated over and over again ad nauseuam: Fox News commentator Eric Bolling on Tuesday marked the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq by arguing that launching the unpopular war was “the … Continue reading →

Posted in History | 5 Comments

Richard Nixon’s Treason

Posted on March 18, 2013 by reflectionephemeral

Long-rumored stuff surfacing in LBJ’s tapes: The idea that Johnson might have been the candidate, and not Hubert Humphrey, is just one of the many secrets contained on the White House tapes. They also shed light on a scandal that, … Continue reading →

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Blogs And The Iraq War

Posted on March 12, 2013 by reflectionephemeral

I think this is entirely true: Looking back at some of the commentary in the run up to the Iraq war, it is hard to ignore how “political” its orientation is, and how nonacademic the arguments being made are. There … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Media analysis, News and Current Events | Leave a comment

The Liberal Media And The Iraq War

Posted on March 11, 2013 by reflectionephemeral

From Howard Kurtz at CNN: [Before the Iraq War, Washington Post articles] questioning the evidence or rationale for war were frequently buried, minimized or spiked.

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Birth Of A New CW

Posted on March 9, 2013 by reflectionephemeral

Reposted from last March. As a kid in the 80s and 90s, I remember hearing the stereotype that Democrats were constantly divided and weakened, beholden to militant pressure groups that led them to support irrational, counterproductive policies. No idea how … Continue reading →

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Nostalgia

Posted on March 9, 2013 by reflectionephemeral

Just came across this, which was probably a big deal at the time: The jailed former Iraqi leader described how Mr Reagan, who was president during the time of Iraq’s 1980-88 war with Iran, sold him planes and helicopters. “Reagan … Continue reading →

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Burying the Dead

Posted on March 8, 2013 by dedc79

Sometimes it takes a really long time: More than 150 years after they fought in the Civil War, two unknown crewmen of the USS Monitor, the Union ship in the first battle between two ironclads, will be buried at the … Continue reading →

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View From The Ground

Posted on February 20, 2013 by reflectionephemeral

The Arab Spring led many to compare the social effect of modern communications technology to that of the Gutenberg press. It’s fun to see the social change wrought by technological developments through the eyes of the engineers: Engineers Martin Cooper, Joel … Continue reading →

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