Tariq Ali on Bhutto’s Death

This piece probably nails the implications of Bhutto’s death best. A sample:

“Benazir’s horrific death should give her colleagues pause for reflection. To be dependent on a person or a family may be necessary at certain times, but it is a structural weakness, not a strength for a political organisation.”

(Via Dennis Perrin who points out how most US coverage seems to see this as a political football for the primary season.)

Left and Leaving

(with apologies to The Weakerthans) Dennis Perrin has a pretty good critique of why left/progressive ideas have trouble gaining traction among those who might benefit the most from them. My favourite bit:

“American consumer culture has many working people believing that maybe, someday, they too will be rich, and besides, there are more important things to worry about, like keeping queers from recruiting their kids, or making sure that the Mexicans stay on their side of town, and don’t you know that you can save money by shopping at Wal-Mart?”

I wonder to what extent any of us can counter the consumer culture narrative of life consisting of a serious of stages of purchasing power with the prospect held out to all that the highest level is within reach. And if it isn’t, don’t you know how easy it is to get a subprime mortage… oh wait… Sigh.

Quote of the Day

Matthew Yglesias calls out Christopher Hitchens for talking about the “war” he was “waging” or some such nonsense:

“Now say it with me: which war, exactly, was Hitchens waging? He’s not waging a war at all, he’s sitting at a desk writing magazine articles and Slate columns and drinking just like the rest of us. He isn’t waging war, he’s advocating that other people wage war. Which is fine, as far as it goes, but he’s saying that part of the reason he’s advocating that other people wage war is that he enjoys imagining himself as a warrior.”

Not as bad as claiming that working on an election campaign may be equated with military service, but Hitch does have a horrible tendency to pretend he is a warrior (see pic). Dennis Perrin posted a story about Hitchens’ tough-guy poses last year as well:

“Hitchens often played the butch card when I was around him, acting as if he might go off on any enemy, real or imagined, at a dime’s drop. The funny thing was that Hitch was (and still appears to be) physically out of shape, wheezing when walking too fast down the street, his soft gut poking out of his cigarette-burned shirt. Unless he knew some kind of secret fighting system, or simply packed heat, this hardcore pose was patently ridiculous. But that came with the price of admission, and I went along, smiling and nodding my head.”

Perrin continues on about Hitchens demanding some kind of martial arts demonstration, it’s really worth reading. It’s funny because I imagine that there’s great deal that mainstream liberal Yglesias and much-more-radical Perrin would disagree about, but in their own ways they both have fingered Hitchens as a poseur.

Dennis Perrin on Hillary

She’s still the number one pick to win the Democratic nomination, and yet her appeal is a very narrow centre to centre-left slice. Anyone very far to either the left or the right of her has no use for her. So for all of you who don’t fit into that narrow Hillary slice of the population, here’s Dennis Perrin’s take on her campaign song. Enjoy.

Training Terrorists

Dennis Perrin has this witty line here:

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told the Iranians they had to stop arming, funding and training Shiite militants. “We can do that ourselves,” said Crocker. “We don’t need to farm this out.”

And while your musing about just how satirical such a comment might be, Andrew Sullivan indicates that the line is pretty thin.

Gaza’s "Riverbend"

Dennis Perrin stumbled on the blog of a Palestinian single-mother trying to raise her son in Gaza. I haven’t really even had a chance to read it, but I’m interested already. If there’s one benefit we can derive from blogs on a global scale, surely its that we can look beyond the talking points of Israeli settlers or Hamas or whoever the media goes to for a sound-bite.

NATO in Afghanistan

Dennis Perrin has a compensation plan.

Words about a man I never read

I was told, perhaps sometimes even admonished to read Vonnegut. I never did though, I don’t know why, but I never did. He’s on a very long and distinguished list of people I’ve never gotten around to reading despite my intentions. Dennis Perrin’s eulogy for him today though might just push Vonnegut to the top of the should-read pile:

“Thousands upon thousands of words will be typed and uttered on Vonnegut’s behalf, most of them useless, many attaching grand themes to his work and philosophical outlook. But it’s really simple: Kurt Vonnegut had a first-rate imagination, wrote clear prose, and proposed that people be kind to one another. He distrusted authority and painted those looking to rule us as clowns.”

That sounds like someone worth reading.

Brutal

Dennis Perrin fuses anger and irony as I think only he can. Not for the weak.

Humility

Dennis Perrin comments on how Naomi Campbell might attain it.