Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubes
- The Urgent Matter of Books (“You must stop listening to the contemporary double-speak discourse and the dominant modes of entertainment production. You must silence the clicker, take a facehooker break, and put down that latte.”) (via)
- The Last Two Veterans of WWI (“What are you supposed to do when an era is inches away from disappearing???”) NOTE: Two days after this story was posted, one of the two died.
Osama bin Linkage
- Is this what closure feels like? (“I also wish this achievement [bin Laden’s death] could mean we get our country back, the one before the Patriot Act, before FISA, before rendition and torture and Guantánamo; before we began giving up the freedom and belief in due process that makes us Americans, out of our fear of totalitarians like bin Laden.”)
- Nothing new here either.. (“I find it hard to tell the difference between religious fanatical zeolots yelling “Death to the USA” and patriotic fanatical zealots screaming “USA, USA, USA” in celebration of Osama being shot.”)
- Osama bin Laden Died a Fool and Has No Legacy (The so-called Arab Spring “revealed bin Laden for what he always was, a trust fund brat peddling delusions of past grandeur as a cure for the present’s pains.”)
- Best blog line on bin Laden’s death: “And to think that all those times I took off my shoes in the airport were what made it possible!”
Bookish Linkage
- Congrats to Linda Daugaard, wife of Gov. Dennis Daugaard, for announcing she will work on two literacy initiatives. It shouldn’t be a huge surprise since she previously worked as a school librarian and served on the board of both the Siouxland Libraries and the State Library.
- Better book titles (via)
- Russia and the Ukraine are in a spat over which is the home of some fairytale characters.
Nonbookish Linkage
- Cost of funding SETI for one year vs. Citbank executive’s bonus. (via)
- Map of the cities safest from and those most threatened by natural disaster. (via)
Man produces evil as a bee produces honey.
William Golding
