Friday, April 16, 2004
Friday Night Frolic
I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but here in Wisconsin, it's been glorious today--in the 80s with a breeze, and fluffy clouds overhead. But did I go outside and enjoy it? Frolic with small animals? Lie down in the grass and become one with the universe? Hell no! Sometimes the vast responsibility that comes with this blog is a bitch. I have instead come up with more recommended reading. Just the thing if you're frolic-phobic or something.
--Yesterday, an outfit called OpenTheGovernment.org released its list of the 10 most-wanted documents classified secret by the U.S. government, as well as the results of a survey regarding citizens' concerns about government secrecy. One of the documents originally set for the list, the fabled PDB from August 6, 2001, was declassified last week--but plenty of other documents remain out of public view, despite the fact that they are ostensibly records of business done in the public's name.
--While doing his taxes the other night, journalist Dave Lindorff started wondering how much of the bill is going to fund the war in Iraq, especially since he got (Warning: the following is sarcasm. Thank you.) such a big, extravagant tax break this year. (End sarcasm.) What he found after a little research was eye-opening. A fairly typical two-earner household probably paid at least two grand to fund the war--and their tax cut was a hell of a lot less than that.
--Last week, we had the first-of-its-kind blogger feeding frenzy. It started when Kos remarked bluntly that he didn't give a damn about the deaths of the four Americans in Fallujah whose corpses were mutilated, because they were mercenaries. The ensuing brouhaha reached all the way to John Kerry's campaign website. The Gadflyer examines the controversy, and says that liberals reacted to it in precisely the wrong way.
(Earlier this week, the Gadflyer published the Reader's Digest version of Bush's Tuesday press conference. It's hilarious.)
Quiz: The country was a rogue nation that exported terrorism. Its terrorists collaborated in underground cells, and staged attacks on Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and Central America. A segment of the world community joined in an effort to confront and stop the terrorists, and some people accused the country's government of actually sponsoring them. Which country was it?
I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but here in Wisconsin, it's been glorious today--in the 80s with a breeze, and fluffy clouds overhead. But did I go outside and enjoy it? Frolic with small animals? Lie down in the grass and become one with the universe? Hell no! Sometimes the vast responsibility that comes with this blog is a bitch. I have instead come up with more recommended reading. Just the thing if you're frolic-phobic or something.
--Yesterday, an outfit called OpenTheGovernment.org released its list of the 10 most-wanted documents classified secret by the U.S. government, as well as the results of a survey regarding citizens' concerns about government secrecy. One of the documents originally set for the list, the fabled PDB from August 6, 2001, was declassified last week--but plenty of other documents remain out of public view, despite the fact that they are ostensibly records of business done in the public's name.
--While doing his taxes the other night, journalist Dave Lindorff started wondering how much of the bill is going to fund the war in Iraq, especially since he got (Warning: the following is sarcasm. Thank you.) such a big, extravagant tax break this year. (End sarcasm.) What he found after a little research was eye-opening. A fairly typical two-earner household probably paid at least two grand to fund the war--and their tax cut was a hell of a lot less than that.
--Last week, we had the first-of-its-kind blogger feeding frenzy. It started when Kos remarked bluntly that he didn't give a damn about the deaths of the four Americans in Fallujah whose corpses were mutilated, because they were mercenaries. The ensuing brouhaha reached all the way to John Kerry's campaign website. The Gadflyer examines the controversy, and says that liberals reacted to it in precisely the wrong way.
(Earlier this week, the Gadflyer published the Reader's Digest version of Bush's Tuesday press conference. It's hilarious.)
Quiz: The country was a rogue nation that exported terrorism. Its terrorists collaborated in underground cells, and staged attacks on Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and Central America. A segment of the world community joined in an effort to confront and stop the terrorists, and some people accused the country's government of actually sponsoring them. Which country was it?
