International
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023
The media news-scape is cluttered with war porn, but not so much that it pushed the Trump porn out of the picture. Horse-race stories about the House speakership round out the only news that fits. The big Middle East news is that Joe Biden will travel to Israel and Jordan on Wednesday. He’ll probably find […]
DL Open Thread Monday, Oct. 16, 2023
Whatever you think about the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you have to admit that U.S. media picks and chooses its obsessions, and that dwelling on those stories stirs the deranged to action. Which is how you end up with a landlord stabbing a Palestinian woman’s 6-year-old child to death in that hotbed of ethnic strife that […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023
Whether you’re rooting for Israel or Hamas, the media has plenty of atrocity stories to stoke your righteous ire. I’m not linking to any of them because I don’t think war porn serves any useful purpose. For an overview of what the fighting is about, refer to this editorial cartoon. Saddest part of the Israel-Hamas […]
Song of the Day 10/10: U2, “Pride (In the Name of Love)”
Did Hamas deliberately single out the Tribe of Nova trance music festival, where they massacred at least 260 people and took an unknown number hostage? It wouldn’t be the first time terrorists have struck a music audience – the attack on an Eagles of Death Metal concert in Paris’ Bataclan killed 90 people and wounded […]
Song of the Day 6/25: Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose, “Too Late to Turn Back Now”
So let me get this straight: The revolt of the Wagner mercenaries got halfway to Moscow and then turned back. I’m no warlord, but I don’t think that’s the way you’re supposed to do it. The Cornelius Brothers and their sister Rose (eventually joined by their other sister, Billie Jo) were a family singing act […]
Song of the Day 6/24: The O’Jays, “Backstabbers”
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary forces is marching 25,000 soldiers on Moscow, and Vladimir Putin has responded in classic fascist fashion, describing it not just as treason but that old propaganda standby, a stab in the back. The O’Jays, formed in 1958, had their first Top 40 hit when “Backstabbers” reached No. 3 in […]
Song of the Day 6/20: A.L. Phipps and the Phipps Family, “The Great Titanic”
Five people have been lost descending to the wreck of the Titanic in a small submersible craft. A frantic search for them is underway, but unless the story gets a miracle ending, it seems the “unsinkable” ship is still claiming lives. The mythic element of the sinking of the Titanic seems to have dissipated in […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Delaware holds school board elections today. The News Journal ran a useful voters’ guide, but I don’t know if it’s behind the paywall. Meanwhile, RISE Delaware, the group fighting Gov. Carney’s proposed downgrade to state retirees’ health care, has scheduled a rally at Legislative Hall from 1 to 2:30 p.m. The never-ending legal problems of […]
Song of the Day 5/6: Go West, “The King of Wishful Thinking”
You have to feel a bit sorry for Charles III. Not only does he have to start a new job at age 74, he has to listen to an endless debate about whether the job should continue to exist. My guess is yes: the royal family reportedly generates the equivalent of nearly $2 billion annually […]
Song of the Day 4/27: Yoon Suk-yeol, “American Pie”
Joe Biden hosted a state dinner at the White House and, I guess because guest of honor Yoon Suk-yeol is president of South Korea, he turned into karaoke night. After being told “American Pie” was Yoon’s favorite song when he was in school, Biden said, “Well, we want to hear you sing it.” Yoon obliged. […]
Song of the Day 2/6: Tom Jones, “Delilah”
Many people don’t listen to lyrics, and even those of us who do often know the chorus of a popular song but get hazy on the verses. You can hear this at any crowd sing-along — mumble, mumble, mumble, then everyone, even people who don’t listen to lyrics, joins in on the chorus. This song […]
Song of the Day 2/4: Lily Allen, “Air Balloon”
Look, up in the sky! It’s a UFO! It’s the moon! It’s a…Chinese spy balloon! The media loves a balloon story — remember the Balloon Boy Hoax of 2009? — and this one has it all: International intrigue! Jet fighter planes! Calls for shooting it down! (To be fair, “shoot it down” is the knee-jerk […]
Song of the Day 12/10: Esther Phillips, “Release Me”
In their ongoing effort to show that they can act like whiny babies over absolutely anything, Republicans are bitching about Joe Biden freeing WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russia in a prisoner exchange. He did it all wrong — wrong American, wrong Russian, wrong timing — so it’s obviously bad news for Biden. It’s good […]
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