Yo La Tengo, Lupo's 4/24/03

Great show. Ira still (it's been a few years since I've seen them play live) goes nuts on the guitar. Highlights included Portastatic coming back out to join them for an extended "Nuclear War" jam and a seriously wicked build it up and tear it down "Blue Line Swinger". Ira, man, that guy rips up a song -- plays it upside-down and inside-out, filling up the empty space with noise, playing just about everything except the note so that when he actually plays the note it's like that last drop of phenol red hitting the supersaturated solution in 9th grade chemistry class and you're just like, oh man, that was so effin' cool. Or, as Tif gushed, "I loved it ... except when he had his little fits on the guitar." So I guess you can go either way with it.

Roots of Anti-Americanism

There seems to be a widespread belief amongst neo-cons that anti-Americanism is based on jealousy of our freedom and prosperity. They hate us because we're free. They hate us because we have what they don't. How convenient. How convenient that they just assume our sainthood among nations and assume people have anti-American views for irrational reasons. America would never dirty it's hands to support its interests! Realpolitik is amoral and we have always done business in an above the board, moral fashion. Let's don't look at how we deal and have dealt with specific peoples and nations, let's don't think there may be a rational reason why somebody doesn't like the U.S., just chalk it up to jealousy. If we propped up a repressive dictator who brutalized his people, then the people who endured that brutalization must not love us because ... we can afford to sit around and watch lots of reality TV. Where's the logic in "they hate us because we're free?" Do people really suppose that other people love being repressed and brutalized and hate us because we don't? Do you think it makes sense for poor and oppressed people to blame the free for their misery and not their oppressors? Do certain Americans now hate the French because they have a lower infant mortality rate than we do? Damn those Frenchies and their superior prenatal care! Of course not. A vocal, and stupid, segment of our population thinks the French are not supporting our interests, that they may ... gasp ... have their own interests, and so they are anti-French. It all comes down to protecting our interests. That's what it comes down to for everyone everywhere -- people are against the other people whose interests conflict with their own. Nobody hates us because we're free and prosperous. The only reason anybody would believe that, or tell somebody else to believe something so clearly counterintuitive and illogical, is to justify a "see no evil" brand of smug superiority that they know in their heart doesn't bear scrutiny.

NewsFlash! [via Robot Wisdom]

A Middle Eastern state, already shown to be hostile to it's neighbors and known to practice torture, has Weapons of Mass Destruction! Locations of weapons facilities known with high degree of certainty. (Not like in Iraq, where claims of WMDs turn out to be smoke and mirrors, as even patriotic organs like Time are starting to notice.) Cry "Havoc" and let slip the dogs of war!

I'm Getting the Creeps

From Maureen Dowd's Op-Ed column at the NYT:

Franklin Graham, the Christian evangelist who has branded Islam a "very wicked and evil" religion, was the honored speaker at the Pentagon's Good Friday service.

After Kenna West, a Christian singer, crooned, "There is one God and one faith," Mr. Graham told an auditorium of soldiers in camouflage, civilian staffers and his son, a West Point cadet: "There's no other way to God except through Christ. . . . Jesus Christ is alive because he is risen, and friends, he's coming back, and I believe he's coming back soon."

When Muslim groups complained that the Pentagon was "endorsing" his attacks on Islam, Mr. Graham asked for a photo op with Muslim Pentagon employees. They declined.

Could we try and keep church and state a little more separate? Please? Seriously ... it's spooky [via Ethel].

Fruit of the Poisoned Tree

Law and Order writers take note, "fruit of the poisoned tree" dilemma may soon no longer be viable as a handy device to advance plotlines ...