The Obama effect

For months we heard rumours that Obama was some kind of closet Panther, hiding his afro pick while plotting revolution.  Starting around 11 PM on November 4, the same people who made these claims suddenly decided he was actually a center-rightist, that his victory reflected America’s inherant conservatism.
Obviously, this put actual black nationalists in a [...]

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Humanizing Ataturk

The Times has a video feature today on Mustafa, a controversial new Turkish film portraying the life of national hero Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.  Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish Republic, is revered in a way not normally seen outside of countries ending in “-stan.”  His image as a war hero, statesman, and ideological guide is [...]

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Approximating a summary

“Somewhere in the universe, a gear in the machinery shifted.”
-Eldridge Cleaver on Rosa Parks
I haven’t Cleaver’s way with words, so I hope you’ll forgive my reducing history to one man’s personal narrative of 12 hours of chaos.  At best, this will fade into the millions of personal sketches that comprise the people’s history hiding behind [...]

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I’m staying with Aunt Sally / But you know she’s not really my aunt

I read the news today, oh boy:
CHICAGO (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he didn’t know that one of his relatives was living in the United States illegally and believes the appropriate laws should be followed.
The Associated Press found that Obama’s aunt had been instructed to leave the country four years ago by [...]

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Meanwhile in beer news

August 12  (Originally posted by Mireille)
A British friend of mine once described American beer thusly: “Its like having sex on a life raft– fucking close to water.”

With the pending purchase of Anheuser-Busch by the Belgian-Brazilian InBev, there has been a scramble to name the next great American-owned beer. Many assume that the Beer King’s perceived [...]

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