White Music for Black People

Coates on the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album:

I think my opinions are shaped by basically missing any music created by white people during the mid to late 80s. Kids like me would have been dismissed as "acting white" for listening to a ban like the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs. OK, that's dishonest--I would have been the one doing the dismissing. What can I say? I was young and stupid, and thought the Bomb Squad and Marle Marl created the world. To get a listen from me, you had to run game--think George Michael who half my hood thought was black. We couldn't get cable in the city, and so we missed a lot of videos. (Hell, even Madonna got cut off, post "Get Into The Goove.")

Kenyatta, who did listen to a lot of white 80s acts, was saying how much of the stuff I'm digging today is derived from her childhood. I can vaguely hear that. But not really. The YYYs offer a shot at redemption, a chance at forgiveness for that imaginary black kid who I mocked as white because he dug Flock Of Seagulls. Forgive me Derwin. Everyone else, cop It's Blitz. Derwin already has it.

I agree with Coates, the album is quite good. It sounds sort of like a David Bowie album mixed with the Pretenders. And Karen O's voice is great. Like Coates says, it's not flashy but she never oversings. And her voice has this thing where it sounds like it's part of the rhythm section as much as it is part of the melody of the song. Just listen to her sing on "Soft Shock," which may be the best song on the album, and how she says the words "what's the time, what's the day, don't leave me?" Good stuff.

Benny Lava

This is simply brilliant. I couldn't stop laughing. 

Asian's Beware! Drinkers’ Red Face May Signal Cancer Risk

So I know a lot of Asian people whose faces turn red when they drink. I used to just make fun of them. I don't think I will anymore:

People whose faces turn red when they drink alcohol may be facing more than embarrassment. The flushing may indicate an increased risk for a deadly throat cancer, researchers report.

The flushing response, which may be accompanied by nausea and a rapid heartbeat, is caused mainly by an inherited deficiency in an enzyme called ALDH2, a trait shared by more than a third of people of East Asian ancestry — Japanese, Chinese or Koreans. As little as half a bottle of beer can trigger the reaction.

The deficiency results in problems in metabolizing alcohol, leading to an accumulation in the body of a toxin called acetaldehyde. People with two copies of the gene responsible have such unpleasant reactions that they are unable to consume large amounts of alcohol. This aversion actually protects them against the increased risk for cancer.

Paul Krugman keeps ripping the Obama administration's financial policies

You have to hand it to Paul Krugman, at least he's consistent. He knows far more about economics than I do, his criticism of Obama feels valid to me. But does anyone really know the correct solution to our financial crisis?

But the Obama administration, like the Bush administration, apparently wants an easier way out. The common element to the Paulson and Geithner plans is the insistence that the bad assets on banks’ books are really worth much, much more than anyone is currently willing to pay for them. In fact, their true value is so high that if they were properly priced, banks wouldn’t be in trouble.

And so the plan is to use taxpayer funds to drive the prices of bad assets up to “fair” levels. Mr. Paulson proposed having the government buy the assets directly. Mr. Geithner instead proposes a complicated scheme in which the government lends money to private investors, who then use the money to buy the stuff. The idea, says Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser, is to use “the expertise of the market” to set the value of toxic assets.

But the Geithner scheme would offer a one-way bet: if asset values go up, the investors profit, but if they go down, the investors can walk away from their debt. So this isn’t really about letting markets work. It’s just an indirect, disguised way to subsidize purchases of bad assets.

The likely cost to taxpayers aside, there’s something strange going on here. By my count, this is the third time Obama administration officials have floated a scheme that is essentially a rehash of the Paulson plan, each time adding a new set of bells and whistles and claiming that they’re doing something completely different. This is starting to look obsessive.

But the real problem with this plan is that it won’t work. Yes, troubled assets may be somewhat undervalued. But the fact is that financial executives literally bet their banks on the belief that there was no housing bubble, and the related belief that unprecedented levels of household debt were no problem. They lost that bet. And no amount of financial hocus-pocus — for that is what the Geithner plan amounts to — will change that fact.

You might say, why not try the plan and see what happens? One answer is that time is wasting: every month that we fail to come to grips with the economic crisis another 600,000 jobs are lost.

Even more important, however, is the way Mr. Obama is squandering his credibility. If this plan fails — as it almost surely will — it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to persuade Congress to come up with more funds to do what he should have done in the first
place.

All is not lost: the public wants Mr. Obama to succeed, which means that he can still rescue his bank rescue plan. But time is running out.

Dalai Lama denied visa for South Africa peace conference

How do you deny the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize a visa so he can't attend a peace conference? Talk about irony:

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africa has refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend an international peace conference in Johannesburg this week, a presidential spokesman said.

The Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Laureate did not receive a visa because it was not in South Africa's interest for him to attend, said Thabo Masebe.

South Africa thinks that, if the Dalai Lama attended the conference, the focus would shift away from the 2010 World Cup -- the global soccer championship it will host next year.

"We cannot allow focus to shift to China and Tibet," Masebe said, adding that South Africa has gained much from its trading relationship with China.

Great Quote

"The fact is, the marijuana law in the U.S. is a big lie. It's racist and classist. White rich people can smoke marijuana with impunity and poor black people get a record, can't get education, can't get a loan, and all of sudden go into a life of desperation and become hardened criminals. Why? Because we've got a racist law based on lies about marijuana.

There's 80,000 people in jail today for marijuana. We arrested 800,000 people in the last 12 months on marijuana. Even in my rich little white suburban community of Edmonds, Wash., 25 percent of police action is marijuana-related. Everybody knows it's silly. I'm not saying I'm pro-drug. I'm just saying it's parallel to alcohol prohibition. When they rescinded the laws against alcohol, nobody said booze is good, they just said it was stupid to make it a crime, that you're creating organized crime and people are dying," - Rick Steves, broadcaster and travel guru.

The difference between wisdom and intelligence

I was thinking about this today because of something someone brought up to me...

Intelligence is valued in our society. It combines knowledge, experience, innate reasoning skills, logic and more. It's very useful in work, solving problems; it is logical. Very few people think they're dumb, and assume their intelligent. This leads to a lot of arrogrance and grandiosity, to the idea that you have the right answers in life because you came to it logically. (This reminds me of Robert McNamara, the Security of Defense under Kennedy and LBJ. He was one of the brightest minds of any generation, and through logic and intelligence decided that the Vietnam War was a great idea. Worked out pretty well.)

Wisdom is something completely different. There is a belief in our world that somehow the older you get, the wiser you are. But, and this sounds condescending as hell, I've spoken to far too many older adults who may be very intelligent, but don't have any wisdom, and I learned long ago that while their advice is appreciated, it should be with a grain of salt.

Wisdom is not grandiose and arrogant like intelligence often is; it doesn't purpose to have the right answers like intelligence which will use logic, knowledge and experience to come up with the right answer. Wisdom is humble. It knows that there are no right answers in life. Wisdom doesn't come from the mind like intelligence does. It is deeper. Zen Buddhists believe it comes from the hara. It comes when we're able to turn of our minds and feel things deeply and calmly and with humility.

Intelligence, in my humble opinion, is overvalued. I try to think of the mind as a computer. It is great at solving problems. But should it be used for more? The deeper and most important things in life have little to do with intelligence. It's much more about humility and feeling things out. It comes from an understanding of not only one's self but the world around us.

Virginity rates among students by major

I think the lesson here is that if you want to get laid a lot in college make sure you're a liberal arts major of some type and stay the hell away from math and science.

Great Quote

Great advice... it's a reminder to me that despite all the advice you may receive from people and the conventions of society, that no one can fully understand the experience of each individual, and that too live honestly means accepting your reality for what it is-- all one's thoughts and feeling and perceptions-- and using that as your guide through life. Fuck what other people say, I say.

"We must accept our reality as vastly as we possibly can; everything, even the unprecedented, must be possible within it."- Ranier Maria Rilke

Jon Stewart destroys Jim Cramer

There's been a lot of hype about this, mainly because Jon Stewart showed video clips of Jim Cramer saying that you should buy Bear Stearns stock right before its collapse. If Jim Cramer knew better he wouldn't have responded (see Tucker Carlson). But he did, saying Stewart took his quotes out of context. And then Stewart ripped again. And again.

Here's the interview they had last night. I haven't actually watched it, but I hear Stewart owns him.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 2

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 3

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Great Poem: Stanley Kunitz's "Touch Me"

I just discovered this poem this morning. In an age were irony rules the day and sincerity is lost in the shuffle, it's wonderful for me to see a work of art were this direct & simple but beautiful and truthful. Amen for Stanley Kunitz.

Touch Me
By Stanley Kunitz

Summer is late, my heart.
Words plucked out of the air
some forty years ago
when I was wild with love
and torn almost in two
scatter like leaves this night
of whistling wind and rain.
It is my heart that's late,
it is my song that's flown.
Outdoors all afternoon
under a gunmetal sky
staking my garden down,
I kneeled to the crickets trilling
underfoot as if about
to burst from their crusty shells;
and like a child again
marveled to hear so clear
and brave a music pour
from such a small machine.
What makes the engine go?
Desire, desire, desire.
The longing for the dance
stirs in the buried life.
One season only,
and it's done.
So let the battered old willow
thrash against the windowpanes
and the house timbers creak.
Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am.

How To Twitter

A nice little story in the WSJ today about how to twitter. I must say I'm a believer, much more than any other internet phenomenon of past years like Youtube, Facebook and the such. The reason? Well the article spells it out:

But I have to admit I didn't understand the appeal of Twitter when I joined, at the prodding of friends, in November. One answer that explains its popularity: It's not about chatting with your friends -- it's about promoting yourself.

Sure it's narcissistic as hell. But there are few things at good marketing than twitter. Twitter provides an easy way to promote whatever it is you do, whether it's music, write, design websites or anything else. Unlike Facebook, which is mostly to maintain acquaintances, twitter has real value. And it's free.

The Company of Women over Men

(I know this is a bit of strange post, but I've been thinking about it and was curious if any other males out there knows what the hell I'm talking about)

For all of my life, I've been a guy's guy: sports, comic books, drinking beer, playing poker etc. (I'm still very much all these things.) Hanging out with girls, unless it was in hopes of a relationship or sex, just didn't seem like that much fun or very appealing.

But something has changed over the past two or three years. I'm not really sure what happened, but I find myself enjoying the company of women over men more and more.

I wonder why that is. It's not because of sex; sure I'm attracted to some of the girls I hang out with, but that's an afterthought when I'm with them.

It comes down to this, I think (I realize these are generalizations): women, in general, are more thoughtful than men, and are better able to express those thoughts, emotions and insights. This makes for more thoughtful conversations as a result. Women, it seems, are generally better listeners too, and allow the conversation to flow its natural course. With the "boys," everything is a joke, everything is fun, but rarely is it enlightening or thoughtful in some meaningful way.

Don't get me wrong, I still want to watch football and play poker and shit and I wouldn't give up hanging out with the "boys" for anything because it's a huge part of my personality.

But when I want to chill and enjoy someone's company, I am turning more and more to women these days. It's a strange thing for me. But it's also, I think, a sign of finally leaving adolescence behind and maturing a bit...

An abortion for a 9-year-old rape victim condemned by Catholic archbishop

The amazing thing about all this is that an abortion may have helped saved this 9-year-old's life because, as the article states, having a baby that young is a high-risk pregnancy. What an asshole:

A CATHOLIC archbishop has sparked controversy in Brazil by saying the mother of a nine-year-old girl who had an abortion on Wednesday following a rape is automatically excommunicated for allowing the procedure to go ahead.

Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife also declared that according to canon law the doctor who performed the abortion is considered excommunicated, along with anyone else involved.

The child was raped by her stepfather, who has since admitted abusing her over the last three years. Abortion is generally illegal in Brazil but allowed in cases of rape or when the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life.

The child entered hospital in the northeastern city of Recife on Tuesday night, where she was given medication to interrupt the pregnancy, which doctors said was terminated by early Wednesday morning. She was pregnant with twins.

The archbishop’s statements have drawn condemnation from Brazilian politicians and caused disquiet among some theologians concerned by the difficulties raised by the case.

But Archbishop Cardoso Sobrinho has denied media reports that he personally ordered the excommunications. “I simply recalled what is in church canon law. Excommunication is automatic for those who participate in an abortion. I did not excommunicate anyone, just remembered the church’s law which says they are automatically excommunicated,” he said.

Before the abortion was carried out the archdiocese’s lawyers threatened to charge the mother with homicide, citing the Brazilian constitution’s guarantee to the right to life.

The doctor who carried out the procedure has defended his actions. “If the pregnancy had continued, the damage would have been worse, being a high risk pregnancy. The risk would have been of death or at the very least that she would never have been able to become pregnant again,” Dr Olímpio Moraes told O Globo newspaper.

How to Smoke Smarties

My roommate showed me this. I think it made my week or year.

Great Poem: "A Song On the End of the World" by Czeslaw Milosz

Just discovered this poem. Milosz has such a command of simple images interchanged with grand themes that never seem self-conscious, but real, humble and true. Amazing stuff.

A Song On the End of the World
by Czeslaw Milosz Translated by Anthony Milosz
On the day the world ends A bee circles a clover, A fisherman mends a glimmering net. Happy porpoises jump in the sea, By the rainspout young sparrows are playing And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be. On the day the world ends Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas, A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn, Vegetable peddlers shout in the street And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island, The voice of a violin lasts in the air And leads into a starry night. And those who expected lightning and thunder Are disappointed. And those who expected signs and archangels' trumps Do not believe it is happening now. As long as the sun and the moon are above, As long as the bumblebee visits a rose, As long as rosy infants are born No one believes it is happening now. Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy, Repeats while he binds his tomatoes: No other end of the world will there be, No other end of the world will there be.

651,000 Jobs Lost in February; Rate Rises to 8.1%

This is feeling more and more like a depression isn't it? And it's only expected to get worse. Those who have jobs now should feel lucky:

Another 651,000 jobs were lost in February, adding to the millions of people who have been thrown out of work as the economic downturn deepens.

In a stark measure of the recession’s toll, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that the national unemployment rate
surged to 8.1 percent last month, its highest in 25 years. The economy has now shed more than 4.4 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007.

And economists expect that unemployment will continue to rise for the rest of the year and into early 2010, with the unemployment rate reaching 9 to 10 percent by the time a recovery begins. With so many job losses occurring in manufacturing, economists say that many workers will struggle to find new jobs that pay as much as they had been earning, even when the recession ends.

“This is not people being on furlough for six weeks or a month or two — this is permanent job losses, and that is what makes this so difficult,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia. “That is very telling in terms of how we’re really restructuring the overall economy.”

This is why you don't cancel on The Daily Show

Watch Jon Stewart rip Rick Santelli a new asshole.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

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Political Humor
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Socialism and Obama

The right's attacks on the new Obama administration seem to be that he is the new Lenin or Stalin. Man do I hate one word labels like "socialism" that say nothing about the complexity of what is going on. Sure there are elements of socialism in Obama's policies but there are also elements of progressivism and dare I say, conservatism. Buzz words are easy. Elevating the political debate so that it acknowledges all sides of policy is not:

It seems that "socialist" has supplanted "liberal" as the go-to slur among much of a conservative world confronting a one-two-three punch of bank bailouts, budget blowouts and stimulus bills. Right-leaning bloggers and talk radio hosts are wearing out the brickbat. Senate and House Republicans have been tripping over their podiums to invoke it. The S-bomb has become as surefire a red-meat line at conservative gatherings as "Clinton" was in the 1990s and "Pelosi" is today.

"Earlier this week, we heard the world's best salesman of socialism address the nation," Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, said on Friday, referring, naturally, to a certain socialist in chief.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas decried the creation of "socialist republics" in the United States. "Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff," Mr. Huckabee said, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference here over the weekend, a kind of Woodstock for young conservatives.

"Socialism is something new for us to hit Obama over the head with," said Joshua Bolin of Augusta, Ga., who founded a Web site, "Reagan.org," which he calls a conservative analog to the liberal MoveOn.org.

Ecstasy Pushed as PTSD Treatment

Our society, for whatever reason, rarely considers the benefits of illegal drugs for useful purposes. Marijuana, for example, does have legitimate medical purposes, but is still frowned on by the establishment, despite being much less harmful for the body than alcohol.

And here is a new report about the possible effects of ecstasy:

If you're a veteran, having trouble getting over your battlefield time, a South Carolina psychiatrist would like to get you really, really high.

Michael Mithoefer, a former emergency room physician turned psychiatrist, is testing the party drug ecstasy as a treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"I heard about it and I decided to give it a try,” a former Army Ranger tells Military.com. "It’s an extremely positive thing. I feel so lucky that I got to take part in the project... It’s basically like years of therapy in two or three hours. You can’t understand it until you’ve experienced it."

Mithoefer has been conducting the FDA-approved tests with ecstasy, known clinically as MDMA, since 2004. "People are able to connect more deeply on an emotional level with the fact they are safe now," he explained to the Guardian, in the trials' early days.

I have no doubts that ecstasy has a number of helpful mental health benefits. But will society relent? Highly doubtful.

Korean Karaoke

This might just be the funniest song "Flight of the Conchords" has performed...

Who likes porn?

This isn't really an invitation, but more a rhetorical question:



Utah, the reddest state around, is the largest consumer of online porn. Even more interesting:

However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

And:

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.

Not sure what this all means. Maybe us New Yorkers are just such slutty, immoral, evil bastards who will sleep with anything, so we need porn less and less than the those repressed, moral, good Christian places.