I thought I was reflecting on Taibbi and his particular carnal choices through the lens of my own travels in Serbia. In other words, I was speaking for myself - about Taibbi.
If I must offer a caveat, then be quite sure that I am in total agreement that youthful humans of whatever sex are often beautiful. Just as I think most humans - of whatever sex - aren't. To continue speaking for and about myself, I am quite sure I was beautiful once upon a time, just as I am equally sure that no one but my wife thinks so any longer. I do, however, grow more distinguished with every gray hair.
What poet?
Taibbi is funny - sometimes. He is smart - sometimes. Sometimes he is sharp, brilliant, mordant, and furious, with an eye for the unpalatable truth. He is at his unquestioned best when writing what he knows. Kind of like me (and you and you and you...) without the day job.
And on other days he is writing out his ass because he's got a deadline and a block. On those occasions he keeps his anger, misplaces his experience, and loses the truth. And without his personal experience, all he seems to have to fall back on, the contents of the little jars on the end of his mental spice rack, are the cliches some people think must be dangerous because they strike a nerve. However, many of us calling him on his shit have learned to take offense not at dangerous truths, but at dangerous lies.
I am a sucker for style in writing and Taibbi has got a fine patter in polemic. But if he wants me to take his opinions seriously, rather than merely as an example of exciting writing, then he had better learn the where the border lies between gonzo and bozo.
What a profoundly stupid and hurtful thing to say. Not to mention false in the particulars.
Some Rwandans do have "classic" Hutu or Tutsi features - and I wouldn't begin to presume to know in which group other Rwandans would categorize them. Outsiders simply can't tell. But, boy, are they good at lapping up colonial propoganda.
And another thing . . .
Taibbi was clearly paying only select attention when in Serbia (if he's ever been there). Young Serb women are beautiful, but the majority of Serb men, well, aren't. But, you know, young women everywhere are beautiful and most men, well, aren't.
And who is it that's wiping out the Somalis?
I'm not sure people are allowed to have video cameras in polling places. In any case, it would set a very bad precedent, one that could be abused by the poll-watchers.
In a district where there has been police intimidation, people with video cameras roaming the streets and riding in cars taking voters to the polling places might be an excellent deterrent.
As for the safety of our little old ladies: No outsider is going to touch an old woman. There doesn't even need to be any sort of implied threat.
James Macdonald also offers the excellent suggestion of voicing our concerns through traditional media. Let's encourage them to put the pressure on too. Go, C-J, go!
Transparency can intimidate these people right back.
Local residents can walk right up to the poll-watchers and engage them in conversation about who they are, where they're from, how they're registered, etc and write it all down. Have a well-respected local (preferably an old lady; preferably a team of old ladies) shadow them the whole day, writing down everything they say. Ask them to repeat themselves frequently. Have someone, with a loud voice, periodically announce that there isn't anything to worry about because "George here, of 1010 Jefferson Lane, from over in Lincoln, is just doing his part to make sure this election is fair. Let's all give him a big hand!" Then snap some polaroids of voters posing with the poll-watcher. Invite them to a post-election party.
Do all of that sweetly and without a hint of aggression and cocoon the bastards in good will.
Make sure the neighborhood knows before Election Day that this strategy is in place.
That's how my grandparents used to do it in Kentucky.
"Remember, power corrupts other people"
During some part of his education, Bush probably scanned Bartlett's for quotes from "great conservatives". The problem is that he thought Lord Acton's warning was an instruction.
When did you learn that Saddam was a bad man and that he oppressed people? When did you start demonstrating for the human rights of Kurds?
"The situation in Kurdistan has taken a tragic turn. For about a year the Iraqi government has been conducting large-scale operations against the Kurdish minority, which constitutes nearly a third of the population of Iraq."
From a letter to the Editors of the New York Review of Books, May 29, 1975, signed by twenty-two largely left-wing intellectuals and academics. You'll recognize several of them because, over the years, they have been the sort of people who can't quite seem to shut up about state-sponsored evil, wherever it lurks. Sure, some of them have even criticized US foreign policy: give them credit for being consistent in the application of their moral values, rather than applying them contingent upon current interests.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 1 |
| 2003 | 7 |
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