He may have to be if you buy what Hugo Chavez says about him:
Remarking on the former Cuban president's health for the first time since their latest meeting, Chavez said Castro was "much better than all the times I've visited him in the past three years, two and a half years."
Excellent piece from Giancarlo about the utter ineptitude of the Diaz-Balart brothers:
Now with a Democratic President and a strong majority in both houses of Congress, the Diaz-Balarts have entered a dark realm known as — no, not the Twilight Zone — absolute political irrelevance. To put it bluntly, the Diaz-Balarts suffer from a severe case of political erectile dysfunction and no amount of Viagra can help them.
There is no clearer example of the Diaz-Balarts’ impotence than their inability to influence yesterday’s 245-178 House vote in favor of a bill which included, among other things, the lifting of restrictions on family visits and remittances to Cuba — their one-hit wonder issue that really never was a hit. Lincoln Diaz-Balart spent days pompously claiming to the South Florida media he had the power and votes to shoot the measure down. But when it came time to vote, both Lincoln and Mario’s political erectile dysfunction kicked in and were unable to do anything. As noted before, the bill passed with a wide margin.
Score. Somebody finally put up a video to YouTube about Bobby Jindal's impression of Kenneth the NBC page in last night's Republican response to President Obama's speech.
According to Beth Reinhard, Jindal's less than stellar performance on national TV is good news for Charlie Crist and his 2012 aspirations. Beth calls Jindal's tour de force, "goofy," "unpersuasive," "nervous and insecure." We have to agree.
Dana Milbank was following lawmakers' twitter feeds last night. Here are the best twitter updates from the floor:
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.): "One doesn't want to sound snarky, but it is nice not to see Cheney up there".And best of all.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.): "I did big wooohoo for Justice Ginsberg," misspelling the name of the ailing Supreme Court justice.
Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.): "Capt Sully is here -- awesome!"
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.): "Aggie basketball game is about to start on espn2 for those of you that aren't going to bother watching pelosi smirk for the next hour." A few minutes later, a correction followed: "Disregard that last Tweet from a staffer." Sure, buddy.
The consensus seems to be that he did a dead-on impression of Kenneth from 30 Rock last night.
I've done some TV pundit work, and it is not all that fun. I was on a Spanish TV show after McCain's speech at the Republican Convention, and, for the life of me, I could not come up with anything thoughtful to say about the speech. I probably looked like a stuttering fool. I'll leave most of the punditry to those poor souls on TV tonight.
I got a chance to see Fareed Zakaria's talk at the FIU geopolitical summit today. I wanted to see some of the other speakers, especially Francis Fukuyama, but I may have totally forgotten that thing was today until it was too late. I'm not going to write much about it, but I will post some blurry photos below.
There was one point he made that I found astounding. Zakaria cited a Pew Research study that found that out of 44 countries polled, the United States ranked last in support for free trade from the public. That's a scary statistic, but not all that surprising. The problem is I can't find the study anywhere now. In fact, most studies I've found all show that the American public still feels free trade is a good thing. But they're a little dated, so who knows.
Has anybody seen the study he's talking about?
Sousa’s inaugural column ends with a short restatement of her values. And there is nothing really wrong with that--everyone, including myself, is convinced someone else cares about what they believe. The problem is that Sousa's little device and at least one of her beliefs are clearly lifted from Crash Davis’ brilliant speech in the movie Bull Durham.
This is Kevin Costner's speech [avert your eyes if you're offended by profanity]:
I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap.And this is Sousa's:
I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe that there oughtta be a constitutional amendment outlawing astro-turf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft core pornography, opening your presents on Christmas morning rather than Christmas eve, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.
I believe that Main Street is as responsible for the current economic crisis as Wall Street. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone; that NFL play rules are beginning to coddle quarterbacks; and that all elected officials should be subject to term limits. I believe that man really did land on the moon; that history will redeem George W. Bush; that life begins after conception but before birth; and that nature will destroy us before we destroy it.Yep. The Lee Harvey Oswald line is identical to the line from Bull Durham. A lot of people believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, so the line by itself doesn’t prove a lot. But when you put the lines in context, you see a different picture. The cadence of the two paragraphs is practically the same, and so is their general subjects—the mixture of politics and sports, the complaint about the erosion of certain values in sport. Sousa switches baseball for football--yeah, that's clever. There is no doubt that Sousa’s beliefs, or at least in the style in which she sought to convey them, were “inspired” by Crash Davis. And we know one belief in particular is either stolen from Bull Durham or the result of a major coincidence.
I have not been blogging lately as I have been too busy with school. But I felt this needed to be said to finish a line of blogging I stated previously.
It seems the young Nabokov has finally decided to go ahead and publish his father's fragment. I, for one, can't wait.
There is strong evidence that the new Cuban junta will need to implement some changes, and gradually modernize the country’s government. The new de facto leader, Castro’s brother Raul, has almost conceded the need to reform large parts of the economy. Beyond that, it is practically inconceivable that the new junta–devoid of Castro’s impelling charisma–will be able to continue to rule so effectively without making concession.
Today’s announcement is another reminder of the abject policy failure that is the U.S. embargo against Cuba. As long as Castro ruled, the United States provided a convenient windmill for him to turn into monsters. The embargo never weakened Castro’s government, in fact, it became a rallying cry for misguided, self-destructive leftists in Cuba and the rest of Latin America, and it metastasized Castro’s hold on power.
(I can imagine that today some of the more fanatical proponents of the embargo on Cuba will try to frame today as a victory for their cause, but the assertion would only make sense if you’re willing to believe an economic embargo can cause an intestinal illness.)
Today is a bittersweet experience for Cubans–yeah, I know that’s a cliché. It marks the beginning of the end of 50 years of dictatorship. But it also means that the man who engineered so much suffering–in Cuba, Latin America, and even Africa and Asia–will never see trial.
I know so many people who should read [watch] this video from Slate.com:
From http://www.slate.com/id/2182187
One night and one roll of film. Chien-Chi Chang's photographs of "a night in a karaoke bar" explore a different scene from that which we are used to in Western karaoke establishments.
He evocatively captures the other side of karaoke culture, in which divorced or married Vietnamese women entertain Taiwanese men, portraying what some suggest is a new "concubine phenomenon" emerging from karaoke culture in certain parts of Asia.
It seems Starbucks might be in trouble. I think their coffee is overpriced and tasted burnt, but like so many people, I continue to drink it because it is everywhere. And because there is not enough of this going on.
I had no idea Starbucks was in trouble, but as I was searching for a pic to post, I came across this story, too.
I know at least one person that this will directly affect, so for his sake and the sake of his family, I hope Starbucks can keep it together. Hopefully, this is all a wake up call to give better service and to serve better coffee.
Following a previous post on the greatest American [Russian] novelist, I though this was pretty funny. Had these people been living in a cave? Who hasn't heard of the Lolita connotation? Even if it is not through the book, or the movies, or the Police song? Are there no guys working for these people who surf porn? I doubt it.
Gricel sent me the following story, which I quote here in its entirety:
Shop pulls "Lolita" bed for young girls
Fri Feb 01 19:01:27 UTC 2008
LONDON (Reuters) - A chain of retail stores in Britain has withdrawn the sale of beds named Lolita and designed for six-year-old girls after furious parents pointed out that the name was synonymous with sexually active pre-teens.
Woolworths said staff who administer the web site selling the beds were not aware of the connection.
In "Lolita," a 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the narrator becomes sexually involved with his 12-year-old stepdaughter -- but Woolworths staff had not heard of the classic novel or two subsequent films based on it.
Hence they saw nothing wrong with advertising the Lolita Midsleeper Combi, a whitewashed wooden bed with pull-out desk and cupboard intended for girls aged about six until a concerned mother raised the alarm on a parenting website.
"What seems to have happened is the staff who run the website had never heard of Lolita, and to be honest no one else here had either," a spokesman told British newspapers.
"We had to look it up on (online encyclopedia) Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now."
Woolworths said the product had now been dropped.
"Now this has been brought to our attention, the product has been removed from sale with immediate effect," the chain said.
"We will be talking to the supplier with regard to how the branding came about."
(Reporting by Peter Apps, editing by Paul Casciato)
It seems Andy has forgotten he owns a blog. This is an e-mail he sent me, and I thought it was interesting:
"The American election, according to Spain's El mundo:
"Yo voto por Hillary porque va a hacer más por los hispanos y va a
solucionar la cuestión migratoria", confesó Gerardo. "Del 'moreno' leí
su biografía y no me gustan sus raíces musulmanas. Nosotros no tenemos
nada que ver con eso".
Mariana Fuentes, 53 años, protestó enérgicamente en cuanto vio a Bill
Clinton haciendo campaña en la entrada del 'caucus'. "Le di la mano
por pura cortesía, pero está bien de vagabundear por aquí", protestó.
"Ya hemos decidido a quien votar y no necesitamos que vengan a
comprarnos. Yo voto por el moreno porque es buen hombre y pasó más
hambre".
Translation:
I will vote for Hillary because she is going to do more for hispanics and will solve the immigration question," confessed Gerardo. "I read the "moreno's" biography, and I didn't like his Muslim background (connections? -- keep in mind I am not a professional translator). We have nothing to do with that.
Mariana Fuentes, 53, protested energetically when she saw Bill Clinton campaigning in the caucus. "I shook his hand out of courtesy, but he is welcomed to wander around here (again, probably not the best translation). "We have decided who we are going to vote for, and we don't need him coming by to try and buy us. I will vote for "el moreno" because he is a good man and has suffered hunger."
...I don't like the black one's Muslim roots, but I do like that he has
experienced hunger. ¿Mama, que será lo que tiene el negro?"
In response to Gerardo: Where is he getting that "el moreno" is Muslim? This report has been proven false for quite some time now. Just look here or here
And well... I'll leave it up to you to make some comments about that second comment. And what is it with these Spainards calling Obama "the black one"? Can't they just use his name?
It turns out that the world might get to read Nabokov's last work. Thanks to Ron Rosenbaum who has been writing Nobokov's 70 year old son and telling him to let the world have the elder Nabokov's last work.
I can see the conflict: you want to respect your father's last wishes, but you also want the world to see his greatness one last time. Especially as a son respecting his father's wishes. It, I believe, was a different situation when Max B. ignored Franz Kafka's wishes. Max was a good friend (not a son). Nonetheless, thank God Max didn't listen to Kafka and gave us all his disturbingly existential literature.
And I hope that Dimitri will do the same. He shouldn't worry that the "Lolitologist" will ruin his fathers work with their misinterpretation. After all, the different critical readings are only read by the critics and scholars... Which is no reason to keep your average, everyday bibliophile from reading the last great words of the greatest [Russian] American writer.
There is a great article talking about the value of melancholia here.
It talks about modern society's obsession with wanting to be happy while ignoring sadness, and the problem with this will be the end of beautiful art that taps into that sadness in order to create:
I for one am afraid that American culture's overemphasis on happiness at the expense of sadness might be dangerous, a wanton forgetting of an essential part of a full life. I further am concerned that to desire only happiness in a world undoubtedly tragic is to become inauthentic, to settle for unrealistic abstractions that ignore concrete situations. I am finally fearful of our society's efforts to expunge melancholia. Without the agitations of the soul, would all of our magnificently yearning towers topple? Would our heart-torn symphonies cease?
Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.
So I have been slacking on the posting. It has been hard for me to get back into the swing of things since the holidays. I just don't seem to have enough time. But it turns out that time might not even exist. I love the way Western science has wrestled with this for years.
Meanwhile the Buddhist have been saying the same thing for years (even before Jesus Christ):
Regarding the Buddhist concept of time, our philosophy has. adopted several positions. The Sautrantika school, also known as the "Holders of Discourse," affirms that all phenomena and events exist only in the present moment. For this school, past and future are nothing other than simple concepts, simple mental constructs. As for the Madhyamika-Prasangika school, the Consequence School of the Middle Way, it generally explains time in terms of relativity, as an abstract entity developed by the mind on the basis of an imputation, the continuity of an event or phenomenon. This philosophical view &scribes, therefore, an abstract concept whose function is dependent on the continuum of phenomena. From this point on, to try to explain time as an autonomous entity, independent from an existing object, proves impossible. That time is a relative phenomenon and can claim no independent status is quite clear; I often give the example of external objects which can be easily conceived of in terms of the past or future, but of which the very present seems inconceivable. We can divide time into centuries, decades, years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. But as the second is also divisible into multiple parts, milliseconds for example, we can easily lose our grasp of the notion of present time!
As for consciousness, it has neither past nor future and knows only present moments; it is the continuum of a present moment being trans . formed into another present moment, whereas with external objects the present disappears in favour of notions of past and future. But further pursuit of this logic will lead to absurdity, because to situate past and future we need a frame of reference which, in this case, is the present, and we have just lost its trace in fractions of milliseconds.. . .
I have been on vacation (and more), so it has been hard to concentrate. I did come across this, though, and thought it was pretty funny.
Turns out there is an intellectual dispute among philosophers and one of them is a Miami boy. I can't wait to get a Phd. and get into stupid arguments that no one cares about.
Our friend Alan is a big time reporter for USAToday. When I am bored at work, I read his stories and try to pick out any mistakes that were made--mostly grammar mistakes. In his defensiveness he showed me the recent AP story, and while I hate to be the grammar police can anyone tell me what this lead means:
Motorists slid off roads Sunday across the Great Lakes states and into New England as a storm already blamed for three deaths cut visibility and iced over highways with a wind-blown brew of snow, sleet and freezing rainAnyone?
