rip shit up

courtesy of the new york times. would this be considered "going postal"? consider barbara ehrenreich's new book bait and switch, on the anxieties of "white-collar" laborers who struggle to find work (i'm delighted to see the book front and center at my local borders). there's a scarcity of decent jobs, and many who have them are subjected to the stress of continual speed-up. there was a great discussion on cspan book tv the other week between her and and stephen moore, senior economics writer at the wall street journal.

speaking of book tv, i see on their website that they also recently broadcast a panel discussion here in chicago on "race and hip-hop" that included one of the best music critics working today, oliver wang.

bill clinton talks some sense

The former US President expounds thusly:

“On the US budget, Clinton warned that the federal deficit may be coming untenable, driven by foreign wars, the post-hurricane recovery programme and tax cuts that benefited just the richest one percent of the US population, himself included.

‘What Americans need to understand is that ... every single day of the year, our government goes into the market and borrows money from other countries to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, and our tax cuts,’ he said.

‘We have never done this before. Never in the history of our republic have we ever financed a conflict, military conflict, by borrowing money from somewhere else.’

Clinton added: ‘We depend on Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Korea primarily to basically loan us money every day of the year to cover my tax cut and these conflicts and Katrina. I don't think it makes any sense.’”

working

One of the best responses I’ve heard to the common question at academic social gatherings, "What do you work on?": “Right now, I am occupied chiefly with the fable, the poetic view of history, and the architectonics of the skies, especially our nation’s.” – Friedrich Hölderlin, letter to Leo von Seckendorf, 12 March 1804. (Epigraph to Jennifer Bajorek’s fine article, “The Offices of Homeland Security, or, Hölderlin’s Terrorism” Critical Inquiry 31 / Summer 2005.)

headline of the day

"Frisco fuckjobs shoot arrows up indie kids' butts"

hold everything

getta load of this.

refraining from potty humor now.

viewing/reading

Friday Night and Me and You and Everyone We Know are beautiful films.

Scott McLemee interviews Astra Taylor, the maker of a documentary on the self-professed "dialectical materialist philosopher." I wonder if Doc Films could book it before Zizek comes to campus.

New "biopics" of Bettie Page, Truman Capote, and Johnny Cash.