Author Archives: oddmanout215

Sweet nothings? No thanks, I’m full

Posted on February 14, 2011 by oddmanout215

“All I have to do is remember and imagine the rustle of your skirt and I’m ready to chew my own hands off.” — Aleksei to Polina in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Gambler Exactly. What a relief from the Valentine’s Day … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction, mainstream media | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Beware the curse of Mubarak’s tomb

Posted on February 13, 2011 by oddmanout215

Sir Joseph Whemple: [translating inscription] “Death [and] eternal punishment for anyone who opens this casket. In the name of Amon-Ra, the king of the gods.” Good heavens, what a terrible curse! Ralph Norton: [eagerly] Well, let’s see what’s inside! — … Continue reading →

Posted in Egypt, Great Depression, mainstream media, Obama, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

HuffPo/AOL — a new reason to avoid J-school

Posted on February 11, 2011 by oddmanout215

The Huffington Post is a brilliantly packaged product with a particular flair for addressing the cultural and entertainment tastes of its overwhelmingly liberal audience. To grasp its business model, though, you need to picture a galley rowed by slaves and … Continue reading →

Posted in mainstream media, Philadelphia, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Fergie and Fyodor do the Super Bowl

Posted on February 7, 2011 by oddmanout215

Yes, we shall set them to work, but in their leisure hours we shall make their life like a child’s game, with children’s songs and innocent dance. — from the Grand Inquisitor’s speech in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov And … Continue reading →

Posted in mainstream media, pop music, sports | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Live from Egypt… the illusion of information

Posted on February 5, 2011 by oddmanout215

I’ll shout and scream, I’ll kill the king, I’ll rail at all his servants. “Street Fighting Man,” Rolling Stones, 1968 Rocks are being thrown on the CBS newscast. At MSNBC, Rachel Maddow is telling me what a Molotov cocktail is. … Continue reading →

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Egypt, Iraq and neocon doubletalk

Posted on February 4, 2011 by oddmanout215

The post-2003 democratic wave was brief and somewhat shallow, and it indirectly benefited Hamas and Hezbollah as well as the Kurds and Shiites of Iraq and the Lebanese democracy movement. But the regime-change school in America can claim a degree … Continue reading →

Posted in economic collapse, finance reform bill, Goldman Sachs, Great Recession, mainstream media, Politics, Wall Street, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

U.S. foreign policy running on empty

Posted on February 1, 2011 by oddmanout215

The rise of powerful Islamic parties [in Egypt] appears inevitable… not because of the Quran or a backward tradition, but because we and Israel believed we could bend the aspirations of the Arab world to our will through corruption and … Continue reading →

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Working at the Inky/DN will be a hard habit to break

Posted on January 30, 2011 by oddmanout215

Tighten your fingers around a teaspoon, feel its metal pulse, its mistrustful warning. How it hurts to refuse a spoon, to say no to a door, to deny everything that habit has licked to a suitable smoothness. — Julio Cortazar, … Continue reading →

Posted in economic collapse, globalization, mainstream media, Philadelphia, unemployment, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The ‘decoupling’ of Americans from good jobs

Posted on January 27, 2011 by oddmanout215

… The President’s failure to address the decoupling of American corporate profits from American jobs, and explain specifically what he’ll do to get jobs back, not only risks making his grand plans for reviving the nation’s “competitiveness” seem somewhat beside … Continue reading →

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The Great Oz explains the state of the union

Posted on January 26, 2011 by oddmanout215

Practicing civility means never having to say you’re sorry. It mostly involves learning to speak in a civil manner, never using words that might cause anger or tears or indigestion. This takes time and effort and — the hard-to-learn part … Continue reading →

Posted in Congress, economic collapse, Great Recession, health care, mainstream media, Obama, Politics, unemployment, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments