Finocchio

ACLU's Romero Guest-Blogging at TPMCafe

Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, will be guest-blogging next week, beginning Monday, at TPMCafe.

Queens Of The Night (And Of The Gym)

Oh, we do adore those saucy ladies at Trrill.  Only a heart of stone would not warm with delight at their coverage of Deborah Voigt's revenge on critics of the diva's abbondanza.  Indeed, we found ourselves chuckling about this on the elliptical trainer at the gym this week, as we delved again into our cardio reading (which this week is Harold Bloom's "Where Shall Wisdon Be Found?").  The charming ballet dancers working out alongside us (have we mentioned our fatal weakness for ballet dancers?) were mildly surprised.

Decalogue

Irony (OK, sarcasm, which is irony with sharp little teeth) -- way of life, or way of lifestyle?  Well, it has certainly proven central to our worldview.  Downtownlad offers the following thoughts on today's oral argument before the Supreme Court:

"I've been reconsidering my position on displaying the Ten Commandments in public spaces. Maybe it's really not that bad. I mean how in the world can someone possibly say that a stone monument that has the words

'I AM the LORD thy

God'

is an establishment of religion??? That's gibberish. I mean surely

'I AM the LORD thy

God'

is just an historical reference to show how the law was created. How in the world can a non-believer be offended by the words

'I AM the LORD thy

God'

??? True, the 10 Commandments are the Protestant version, and not the Jewish or Catholic version, but surely that doesn't mean that the Government favors Protestantism over these religions. I mean c'mon, does anyone really think

'I AM the LORD thy

God'

has any religious connotations whatsoever?

Liberals are so silly sometimes."

Mojtaba And Arash (Continued)

Juan Cole, at Informed Comment, reports that media reponse to the plight of two imprisoned Iranian bloggers, noting that "[t]he Iranian government is not immune to public opinion."

It is rare that a government would (or could) be wholly immune from the force of public opinion (the slow coalescence of world public opinion, for instance, transformed official regard for apartheid from an "internal affair" to a human rights issue of general concern).  Mere publicity of the Iranian government's suppression of speech may not be sufficient to alter that government's behavior, but it is a start and a crucial step.

O Brave New World

George Washington University's Henry Farrell, at Crooked Timber, has an interesting piece on the US-centric limitations of the blogosphere.

"[T]he blogosphere’s interests track those of traditional media, and that in some ways it does a worse job than traditional media in covering world politics."