Here.
I have a midterm today, and a meeting at 12:30, so this will be short. In lieu of actual, substantive posts, get yourself ready for Ich Bin Ein Oberlin: The Lightning Round.
Ezra Klein has an even more eloquent than usual post on John McCain's campaign. He writes:
Elections have life cycles. They have beginnings, middles, and ends. The beginnings tend to be exciting. The middles tend to be exhausting. And the ends tend to be ugly. The ends are ugly because the candidates are desperate and their teams are scared. They are ugly because the echo chambers have filled with sound, and because the strategists are quietly confident that the electorate will have time only to absorb smears, not recognize and punish their perpetrators.
Right now, we're entering the ugly period.
Intrigued? Go, read.
We at Wilder Voice need to raise $15,000. I think, basically, that we're too big to fail. You hear that federal government? Wilder Voice needs a goddamn golden parachute. Get on that shit.
In a similar vein, go read The Grape's unsigned editorial. Funny, funny stuff.
Also, if you're reading this and (1) have access to $15,000, know of grants for publications, or (3) know of donors or foundations that give away this kind of money, please let me know.
Sarah Vowell's new book--which I will review later--The Wordy Shipmates is not only funny, but a must-read for anyone serious about critiquing American culture and politics. No shit. She opens her book thus:
The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief. And by dangerous I don't mean thought-provoking. I mean: might get people killed.
Take the Reverend John Cotton. IN 1630, he goes down to the port of Southampton to preach a farewell sermon to the seven hundred or so colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Led by Governor John Winthrop, a gentleman farmer and lawyer, these mostly Puritan dissenters are about to sail from England to New England on the flagship Arbella and ten other vessels in the Winthrop fleet.
By the time Cotton says amen, he has fought Mexico for Texas, bought Alaska from the Russians, and dropped napalm on Vietnam. Then he lays a wreath on Custer's grave and revs past Wounded Knee. Then he claps when the Marquis de Lafyette tells Congress that "someday America will save the world." Then he smiles when Abraham Lincoln calls the United Stats "the last best hope for earth." Then he frees Cuba, which would be news to Cuba. Then he signs the lease on Guantanamo Bay.
Intrigued? Go, read. They're selling copies at Mindfair (and also probably at the B&N-run College bookstore).
I have to dash. More to come.
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