Weird Cleveland media doings

The only local media I consume is the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper and the NPR affiliate WCPN.

The newspaper has shifted to a strange model. It used to publish seven days a week and provide home delivery. Beginning in August, it still publishes a print newspaper seven days a week but has home delivery only on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On the other three days one has to buy the print edition at a store or from a vending machine. The newspapers on the three days on which there is no home delivery are slimmer in size and the other four days are supposedly bigger to compensate for that. [Read more…]

How are the mighty fallen

It was less that a year ago that General David Petraeus was the golden boy of US military strategy, the supposed genius who had turned around US fortunes in Iraq prior to the withdrawal. Members of Congress treated him as some kind of oracle whose words must be followed by even the president and competed to see who could praise him the most. Criticisms of him were treated as if they were blasphemy, as could be seen from the howls of outrage when the group MoveOn.org put out an ad in 2007 against the Iraq war that made a bad pun on his name. [Read more…]

Pope Francis’s interesting rhetorical moves

The world of religion is agog over the extensive interview given by pope Francis to various news outlets. In the interview, he did not announce any changes in policy on the core social issues of ordaining women, celibate clergy, abortion, and contraception, but he definitely signaled that he wants to see a change in focus of the church, away from these divisive issues, saying: [Read more…]

Peace moves breaking out?

It was little more than a week ago that the US seemed on the verge of bombing Syria, an action that threatened to spread to Iran and thus open yet another front in the perpetual war against Muslim countries. This was something that was hoped for by the neoconservatives, the liberal war hawks, Israel and its US lobby, and al Qaeda and other terrorist groups that thrive on instability and chaos. [Read more…]

The Breaking Bad phenomenon

I have not watched the TV sensation that is now just two episodes away from the conclusion of its five-season run and that seems to have people completely hooked. But despite that, I did read the breathless coverage of last Sunday’s episode (it was impossible to avoid) that seemed to have been quite violent. As a result, I have (I think) a pretty good idea of the story line. [Read more…]

Using terrorism to make the extraordinary seem normal

We have been steadily observing over time the encroachment of the civil liberties and the violation of constitutional protections by the government, using fear-mongering about terrorism in order to get people to acquiesce. The government seizes any excuse to make inroads into our due process rights, often stampeding people at times of crisis, and terrorism is the best excuse they have. [Read more…]

Syria war billboard update

Yesterday I wrote about the big yellow board that had been placed in front of the university library to let people write their views on a possible war with Syria. The board only went up yesterday and so there were not that many comments. On my way to the library today, I checked on the board to find that it had been almost completely filled up with written comments. Tomorrow is the last day it will be there. [Read more…]