Now This

This blog is now read by more machines than humans: RSS robots, spam-laying insectopoids, echoes of blog-gathering .edu projects. This essentially is the state of affairs that all human activities w

Cleaning Up the Nation

Austin Bay:

If Air America were a conservative radio network its corrupt funding trail and cynical abuse of a poverty program would be front page news at the NY Times and full-time mega-scandal at

Rank Materialism

Freedom. I am now the proud new owner of a Gateway 6020GZ laptop, perfect for students and others with limited means. I can now go into a Starbucks or a Barnes & Noble and look like I'm doing some

Fallujah Fonda

Uh-oh. From the Telegraph comes this exciting news:

Jane Fonda is returning to anti-war activism and embarking on a cross-country tour to call for an end to US military operations in Iraq.

Acros

John Pilger: Partner in Terrorism

In an outrageous piece of terrorist propaganda appearing on the cover of today's New Statesman, John Pilger puts the blame for the 7/7 London attacks not on the terrorists, but rather on Tony Blair:

Fascists, Brownshirts, Etc.

Interesting story about a couple of MoveOn.org wackos (via baldilocks):

Moviegoer, Richard Streeter, was one of the many who made his way to a theatre to see what the hype was about. After viewing the film [Fahrenheit 9/11], he was greeted outside the theatre by members of the Las Vegas MoveOn.org.

The group was handing out leaflets on the importance of the film. Streeter voiced his view on the movie, "I made the comment, apples and oranges -- Kerry, Bush -- one's no better than the other. You really ain't got much of a choice. This guy comes up to me and says, 'Oh yeah?' " Streeter was then spat on by the same man.

He attempted to call police to report the incident when he was told not to, "A guy standing next to him said why don't you drop it. I said, 'No, I'm calling the police. I'm exercising my right as a citizen, I've been assaulted.' "

But the horror kept on growing for Streeter as he walked to his car on the phone with police, "This guy turns, and totally by surprise takes his hand and bam! It was a big guy. Shoved me onto the ground, I hit my head." A police report has been filed.

Of course the story, if true, doesn't represent the behavior of 99% of MoveOn.org wackos. Yet it amazes me that thoughtful people (of the left) don't see (or refuse to see) that this kind of thing is as prevalent on the left as it is on the right, if not more so, and particularly on campuses. The left is certainly more angry than the right is these days. And manipulated anger is a tool of fascism.

But that's a simplistic and grandiose argument for what is simply a bunch of angry people with an opinion. Channeled anger is also quite useful in self-defense, for instance.

See Orcinus for an in-depth look at how the right is on the verge of fascism, why not, and this old post of mine which looks at the fascist potential of the left. Frankly, I'm highly skeptical of the fascist redux theories and wish both sides would focus on more productive debate, like what the next phase of the war on terrorism should be.

The US isn't fascist; there aren't any digital brownshirts to be concerned about; this isn't likely to change.

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