Udamnskippy’s NewsCloud Journal

Privacy vs. technology, freedom vs. convenience: it’s only going to get worse

Perhaps innovation and individual liberties aren’t inherently opposed, but a glance around the landscape suggests the difficulty in investing more deeply in the bounty of tech-enabled consumerism without sacrificing our personal privacy. Thousands of Facebook users and millions of online shoppers say they’re worried already. If so, the next decade promises to be absolutely terrifying.

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Posted in social+media, facebook, privacy, business, technology | No Comments » | Post to NewsCloud »

Mission accomplished, part deux (and part trois?)

 

Mr. President, if they’re still shooting at you, you should be careful about declaring victory. If your soldiers, as they walk down the road, have to confront the possibility that each step might be their last because the locals have planted a bumper crop of IEDs, the fat lady hasn’t yet sung. If your policies are serving as the enemy’s greatest ongoing recruiting tool, the war is far from over. And most importantly, winning a battle - which you may or may not have done - is a significantly different thing from winning the war.

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Posted in al+qaeda, john+mccain, barack+obama, war, iraq, terrorism, 2008+elections | No Comments » | Post to NewsCloud »

God-talk in the presidential election (or why evangelicals are voting for Barack)

Evangelicals are not fundamentalists; many would resist the idea that they want to impose their worldviews on others. Many are now struggling to figure out how to live in a religiously and culturally plural culture, and Obama’s message not only resonates with their sense of integrity, but it also appeals to their desire to find ways to live together less divisively. I don’t think Barack has a prayer with the fundamentalists. But I think he’s definitely striking a chord among evangelicals.

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Posted in evangelicas, fundamentalists, obama, religion, election | No Comments » | Post to NewsCloud »

Iraq and Afghanistan: Dual Fronts | The Agonist

US and Iraqi troops are now repairing breaches in an earthen berm, a 20-foot high barricade built around this northern city in 2004. It’s perhaps the most visible part of a grinding fight for control of the last supposed urban stronghold of Al Qaeda in Iraq. US officers here acknowledge that security is the No. 1 priority. But they quickly add that talk of a decisive battle in Mosul is misguided. This, they say, will be a protracted struggle in which US soldiers juggle an array of complicated tasks related to counterterrorism, economics, and politics.

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Posted in war, afghanistan, iraq | No Comments » | Post to NewsCloud »

TunesDay: The divine stupidity of Dick Valentine

What makes Electric Six work so wonderfully is that the stupidity belies a real cleverness, both in lyrics and music. They write great tunes and they perform them really well. They know their way around the rock canon. And their deadpan style helps, too. So today TunesDay honors the fine art of brain-pickled fun by naming E6 our Band of the Week.

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Posted in electric+six, dick+valentine, funny, music, entertainment | No Comments » | Post to NewsCloud »

Oscar: the best moment of the night

Once was never going to win best film, but the win for best song seemed like the most genuine moment of the night. I like to think that a lot of the people in that crowd realized what I did - that as big and bold and lavish and exciting as their industry is, it’s mostly lost touch with the most important quality of all, honesty.

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Posted in marketa+irglova, once, oscars, glenn+hansard, hollywood, entertainment, music, academy+awards, movies | No Comments » | Post to NewsCloud »

Why do people keep making Huckabee talk about Jesus when he doesn’t want to?

Mike Huckabee is upset that people keep asking him about God instead of all the policy issues he says he’d rather talk about. Gee, we have no idea. I mean, aside from the fact that he can’t say hello with working God into it…

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Posted in dominionism, mike+huckabee, religion, 2008+elections | No Comments » | Post to NewsCloud »

The L-word: Al Sharpton and the Golf Channel eliminate racism in America

S&R’s “devil” character, Dr. Bonesparkle, flogs Sharpton and the Golf Channel for cynical grandstanding and faux-outrage. The beatdown is funny, insightful, and occasionally vicious in invoking Tawana Brawley, the Jena 6 and the NAACP’s burial of the N-word.

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Posted in al+sharpton, tiger+woods, lynching, golf, racism, sports | No Comments » | Post to NewsCloud »

Is Obama the new JFK?

Something big happened a few nights ago in Iowa. Barack Obama began the evening as one of the top two contenders for the Democratic nomination and by the time people went to bed he was John F. Kennedy. If the results we saw in the Hawkeye State last Thursday are replicated in New Hampshire and beyond, then what we are seeing may be a defining shift in American politics and culture.

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Posted in john+f.+kennedy, elections, barack+obama | No Comments » | Post to NewsCloud »

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