The Daily Slant

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4

Media: Thompson, Why Aren?t You Courting Us More?
2007-12-12 00:00:00
We have another article on Slate this week criticizing Fred Thompson for his continued distaste for pandering.
More About: Media

Associated Press Endorses Clinton
2007-12-04 00:00:00
This Glen Johnson fella has no biases. No. He just thinks Hillary Clinton did an amazing job tackling a dangerous situation ? an hour after it happened. After the last hostage was released from Clinton?s campaign office (she was not at the scene during the ?situation? itself)?
More About: Press , Associated Press , Linton

Department of Education Fails Math (& Common Sense)
2007-12-02 00:00:00
I may have thrown out the baby with the bath water, so to speak, in ?The Teachers? Unholy Union.? I wrote that the Department of Education whipped out a bunch of figures to placate parents about their kids? education, and joked that I couldn?t read them anyway, since I?m a product of the NYC public school system.
More About: Sense , Math , Common

The Teachers? Unholy Union
2007-12-02 00:00:00
Today we mourn the slow, agonizing death of education in this country. We were painfully reminded of its decaying state by the NY Sun, which reports that charter school teachers are voting to join the United Federation of Teachers .
More About: Union , Unholy

Putinocracy
2007-12-02 00:00:00
Vodka?s become too Soviet for Russia?s beau monde, where Jack Daniel?s whiskey is all the rage. Having thrown off the shackles of communism, Russians embrace cowboys, fast food, American slang and the Dollar even as they denounce capitalism, American ?Imperialism? and culture. In other words, Russia?s a country of contradictions. The current election controversy serves merely as the latest example of Russia?s identity crisis which began with its naive adoption of Communism, a traipse past a juvenile flirtation with democracy, and recent entrance into the territory of fascism?all in the span of 90 years.

Fear, Dishonesty Rampant Among Today?s Intellectuals
2007-11-17 00:00:00
Chatter on the internet and among ?intellectuals? reveals embarrassing inconsistencies in public discussions of race. Current popular opinion dictates that intelligence is equal across all races. Were this not so, the Noble Prize-winning geneticist, Dr. James Watson, would not have been publicly lynched for saying that he was ?inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa? because ?all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours, whereas all the testing says not really.?
More About: Today , Fear , Dishonesty

John Reed and Sean Penn: The Blind Leading the Dumb
2007-11-09 00:00:00
Anne Applebaum, by way of her new Slate article, breathed new life into my quarrel with Sean Penn and his fellow Tinseltown intellectuals. Taking advantage of the anniversary of the storming of the Winter Palace by Lenin?s minions, Applebaum ponders the eternal attraction of pampered princes to various revolutionary causes. She likens John Reed ?s gushing account of the violent overthrow of Russia?s provisional government, as described in his Ten Days That Shook The World, to today?s logically-impaired, day-glo gurus. 
More About: Dumb , Blind

RADAR Trashes Israel for Picking Fox News Over CNN
2007-11-05 00:00:00
The UN needs to bust out with some sanctions on the double. How could Israel refuse to pay CNN for its anti-Israeli news coverage? What kind of civilized nation would join the likes of ?Iraq, North Korea, and Myanmar as the only countries that do not carry CNN??
More About: News , Fox News , Radar , Picking

Fred Thompson Takes The Road Less Traveled (These Days)
2007-10-26 00:00:00
Seems like the good people at Slate threw up their hands and quit on the notion of presidential integrity. That, or we are underestimating the gargantuan bloat of the American citizen?s desire for blandishment. Either way, I?m baffled. Slate?s John Dickerson on Thompson ?s ?laid-back? approach to campaigning?
More About: Fred Thompson , Fred , Days , Road

Are There Limits to Free Speech?
2007-10-26 00:00:00
Iran has been uncharacteristically quiet ? sated, for the time being, by its recent hate-speech forum at Columbia University; Syria has taken its nuclear facility bombardment by Israeli forces quietly as well (tough to complain of unwarranted aggression when you?re caught building nukes); so the New York Times seized on a free speech issue in a bid to revive some interest in the relatively sedentary news-month. Government infringement on our liberties remains a Times (and ACLU) hot-topic ? so long as said infringement has nothing to do with excessive taxation or paternalistic social policies.
More About: Free , Free Speech , Limits , Speech

Have You Seen This Little Gem?
2007-10-19 00:00:00
The NY Times currently features an article about an internet jihadist who lives in North Carolina, was born in Saudi Arabia and bred in Queens. Samir Khan translates jihadist preachings on his blog and says, ?I will do my best to speak the truth, and even if it annoys the disbelievers, the truth must be preached.? The truth being, among other things, that America needs to listen to Bin Laden, because ?America is known to be a people of arrogance.?

Al Qaeda Going Nuclear?
2007-10-19 00:00:00
In an article in the Washington Post, David Ignatius discusses the findings of Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Energy Department?s director of intelligence, which seem to point to the fact that Al Qaeda has been actively trying to acquire nukes for at least ten years now. 
More About: Nuclear , Al-Qaeda , Going

Unions: We Smell a Rat
2007-10-19 00:00:00
Of all the feelings the New York Times has ever provoked in me, embarrassment is hardly the first that comes to mind. My feelings generally fall in the pissed-off category (?and yet, wouldn?t that be the point?). But yes, with the help of the esteemed paper, I sheepishly acknowledged today that the huge, inflatable gray rat which bedecks various New York City construction projects is not, in fact, an unfortunate advertisement for a construction company.
More About: Unions , Smell

Foot In Mouth Disease Spreads to Iran
2007-10-12 00:00:00
Curiously, someone ?high up? was embarrassed enough by Ahmadinjad?s claim that Iran doesn?t have any homosexuals to clarify his statements. 
More About: Spreads , Disease , Mouth , Foot

Support for the UN Is A Pathology
2007-10-04 00:00:00
It?s a popular topic in the blogosphere, but seems to somehow escape the notice of the big, bad dailies. Granted, you can?t win too many friends if, say, you?re The New York Times publishing editorials on the laughably ineffectual United Nations. And I suppose that the Post, the philistine?s right-leaning daily read, simply doesn?t concern itself with the issue. So here I am, futilely awaiting the world?s wake-up call and adding my own two cents to the web?s faint hum of condemnation. 
More About: Pathology , Support , Path , Holo

Putin and Power: Like Bread and Butta
2007-10-04 00:00:00
Ok, we?re not exactly shocked, so this update is merely a heads-up: Putin can?t seem to keep his hands to himself when questions of power arise, so he will pursue the position of a prime minister and a seat in the Duma.
More About: Power , Bread , Brea

Update II: British Boycott of Israeli Universities
2007-10-04 00:00:00
Having been advised that the proposed boycott of Israeli Univers ities will break British laws, the University and College Union dropped its plan to exclude Israeli academics. The boycott, it seems, would have teetered too close to breaking anti-discrimination laws.
More About: Update , Boycott

Money For Nothing (You Can Keep The Chicks)
2007-09-26 00:00:00
Some of us seem to continually struggle with the knowledge that the toothfairy doesn?t replace canines with cash, that presents under the Christmas tree are courtesy of our parents? labors, and that money doesn?t blossom in the spring time. Can?t say that I fault our castles in the air: this is a country where millions of people do, in fact, get something for nothing.
More About: Money , Chicks

Say It Ain?t So: NY Times?Biased?!
2007-09-26 00:00:00
The mother of all dailies may not have intended to seem quite so biased, but this article somehow escaped the notice of its head honchos. And really, I hate to beat a dead horse, but when you?ve got a news story that simply insists on yanking at your heart strings, you can?t help but grimace at the smell of something rotten.
More About: Times

The Song That Never Ends
2007-09-26 00:00:00
Unless you live under a rock, you?re bound to have read or viewed at least one news item about Ahmadinejad?s visit to New York. So I?ll fast forward past that circus and land you square inside the hall of mirrors, which is Iran?s media.
More About: Song , Ends

Putin: Political Chessmaster
2007-09-19 00:00:00
The bid for presidency can take on baleful tones, the insidiousness of which best matches the country?s political climate. In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez had merely to abolish the presidential term limit to assure his life-long dictatorship. Russia?s democracy is not so primitive as that of its South American ally
More About: Political , Putin , Mast , Politic , Aster

Bomb-Making 101
2007-09-19 00:00:00
If this were a joke, it would begin something like this: A college student posts guides to bomb-making on the internet?
More About: Bomb , Makin

German Engineering: Version 2.0
2007-09-09 00:00:00
If you?re like me?a web surfer of prodigious proportions?you?ve probably seen the hilarious YouTube video ?Arab Technology vs Germ an Engineering .? You may skip it (though I?d advise against it) and jump straight to the real world, where Iran?s posse buys up German-engineered electromagnetic breaks and various other gadgets to build new toys (read: nukes)?
More About: Version , Erin

Hints of Another Cold War?
2007-09-09 00:00:00
Putin has got me brushing up on my Russian grammar; my elementary school dreams of joining the CIA, spurred by Tom Clancy but made unlikely by Russia?s political hard-on-gone-softie in the 90s, may yet find themselves realized.
More About: Cold War , Cold , Hints

Terrorist Plots Give ?Em Something To Talk About
2007-09-07 00:00:00
You know that summer?s not over when the world?s preeminent papers unabashedly rehash last week?s news (fyi amateur writers: the housing and/or the stock market is always news) and gnaw on August?s toy-recall crumbs. Even the realm of celebrity ?news? seems strangely quiet?just the odd, panicked piece on TV violence. So it must have been rather relieving for the idle editor that the wires exploded today with the news that other, less auspicious explosions had been narrowly avoided.
More About: Talk , Give , Terrorist , Some , Plot

Dirty Filthy Money
2007-09-01 00:00:00
The infamous Oil-For-Food program seems to have sullied (and padded the pockets of) dozens of politicians from most major Western counties, including our very own. The stench of corruption wafts through the halls of D.C., as though the program disgorged not just millions of dollars intended for starving Iraqis, but the filth of malfeasance itself onto dozens of politicians, businessmen and lobbyists. In the fallout, and amongst other model citizens, an American oil tycoon finds himself accused of paying kickbacks to Iraq for oil contracts. Oscar Wyatt, at 83, probably never intended to stand trial for stealing from?literally?babies.
More About: Money , Dirty

Stupidity in Direct Proportion to Afghan Opium Increase
2007-09-01 00:00:00
Let?s pretend for a moment that you?re an Afghani farmer who doesn?t much care for politics. Taliban Shmaliban?the only thing you?re really concerned with is putting food on the table and protecting your family. The land you farm may be hospitable to a variety of plants, but you prefer to grow poppies because the cultivation of this crop alone insures that your family gets fed. The Taliban pays well for opium, so you sell it to them. But opium cultivation is illegal, and the NATO occupiers seize and burn your entire year?s harvest one fine day. Not impartial anymore?are you?
More About: Stupidity , Direct , Ghan , Dire , Prop

The Three Little Pigs: 2007 Edition
2007-08-28 00:00:00
Had the Brothers Grimm been around today, their stories may have come padded with all sorts of life lessons and happy endings that parents nowadays demand.
More About: Pigs , Edition , Three Little Pigs , Litt

A Matter of Prescriptions: Plan B
2007-08-24 00:00:00
Gone are the day so crock dung suppositories: sales of the controversial Plan B pills, which reduce the odds of pregnancy by 89% if taken within 72 hours of intercourse, have jumped beyond even the highest expectations of its drug maker, Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.
More About: Prescriptions , Matter , Prescription

Economic Systems and the Worth of Man
2007-08-23 00:00:00
Compare the rescue efforts in the case of trapped miners in Utah to that of a similar incident in Communist China.
More About: Systems , Worth , Economic , Stem , Wort