Billie Holiday sang a song called “Strange Fruit,” about lynchings in the south, with black bodies hanging from trees.
Well, there’s a black neighborhood in northern Ohio where white bodies fall out of the sky.
All posts by Rand Simberg
Let Them Speak
Federal Air Marshals are suing to have their gag order removed:
The lawsuit alleges that the Federal Air Marshal Service rules are an attempt to smother and prevent the disclosure of information by federal air marshals of agency mismanagement, fraud, waste and abuse. In addition, the lawsuit challenges the Federal Air Marshal Service actions in investigating the Federal Air Marshal Association in an attempt to identify FAMA members, its Board of Directors and other private information about the organization…
…FAMA legal counsel Stephen G. DeNigris called the agency regulations at issue unconstitutional both on their face and in their application. He asserted the regulations were
The Future Is Coming
This week’s Carnival is up, over at The Speculist.
Also, Stephen Gordon has an interesting article on some breakthroughs in solar power, that could be revolutionary for the Third World. Solar thermal power, that is.
You Don’t Have To Wait
Mark Whittington has a survey of space tourism activities in which you can participate today.
You Don’t Have To Wait
Mark Whittington has a survey of space tourism activities in which you can participate today.
You Don’t Have To Wait
Mark Whittington has a survey of space tourism activities in which you can participate today.
If Kitty Genovese Had Had A Gun
Joe Katzman has an excellent post on why we cannot expect, or (sadly) even hope for, the “international community” to prevent genocide, and why there must be a universal right to bear arms.
Well That’s An Earth-Shattering Breakthrough
The Israelis have discovered sarcasm.
I guess I need a “Sarcasm” category.
Actually, this part puzzled me a little:
However, she noted that the research threw little light on the popular national stereotypes of the English as highly sarcastic and the Americans as totally lacking in irony.
I recall a survey in the Economist several years ago, when they had a little vignette of a description by a member of the foreign service about a certain African (or some other Third-World) country. He apparently said, with face straight, that the problem with the place was that the people there “lacked a sense of irony.”
But I didn’t know they thought that was the case here, or that such a stereotype exists. I do think that Brits tend to have a more ironic, drier sense of humor (droll, if you will), but that doesn’t mean that we don’t do it in America. If she thinks that Americans aren’t sarcastic, she’s never been to New York. Or Boston.
[An update]
It reminds me of the old joke about the Soviet Russian, the American, the Ethiopian, and an Israeli (don’t ask me why). A reporter runs up to them, and asks, “Excuse me, what ‘s your opinion about the meat shortage?”
The Ethiopian asks “What’s meat”?
The American asks, “What’s a shortage?”
The Russian asks, “What’s an opinion?”
The Israeli asks, “What’s this ‘Excuse me’?”
Well That’s An Earth-Shattering Breakthrough
The Israelis have discovered sarcasm.
I guess I need a “Sarcasm” category.
Actually, this part puzzled me a little:
However, she noted that the research threw little light on the popular national stereotypes of the English as highly sarcastic and the Americans as totally lacking in irony.
I recall a survey in the Economist several years ago, when they had a little vignette of a description by a member of the foreign service about a certain African (or some other Third-World) country. He apparently said, with face straight, that the problem with the place was that the people there “lacked a sense of irony.”
But I didn’t know they thought that was the case here, or that such a stereotype exists. I do think that Brits tend to have a more ironic, drier sense of humor (droll, if you will), but that doesn’t mean that we don’t do it in America. If she thinks that Americans aren’t sarcastic, she’s never been to New York. Or Boston.
[An update]
It reminds me of the old joke about the Soviet Russian, the American, the Ethiopian, and an Israeli (don’t ask me why). A reporter runs up to them, and asks, “Excuse me, what ‘s your opinion about the meat shortage?”
The Ethiopian asks “What’s meat”?
The American asks, “What’s a shortage?”
The Russian asks, “What’s an opinion?”
The Israeli asks, “What’s this ‘Excuse me’?”
Well That’s An Earth-Shattering Breakthrough
The Israelis have discovered sarcasm.
I guess I need a “Sarcasm” category.
Actually, this part puzzled me a little:
However, she noted that the research threw little light on the popular national stereotypes of the English as highly sarcastic and the Americans as totally lacking in irony.
I recall a survey in the Economist several years ago, when they had a little vignette of a description by a member of the foreign service about a certain African (or some other Third-World) country. He apparently said, with face straight, that the problem with the place was that the people there “lacked a sense of irony.”
But I didn’t know they thought that was the case here, or that such a stereotype exists. I do think that Brits tend to have a more ironic, drier sense of humor (droll, if you will), but that doesn’t mean that we don’t do it in America. If she thinks that Americans aren’t sarcastic, she’s never been to New York. Or Boston.
[An update]
It reminds me of the old joke about the Soviet Russian, the American, the Ethiopian, and an Israeli (don’t ask me why). A reporter runs up to them, and asks, “Excuse me, what ‘s your opinion about the meat shortage?”
The Ethiopian asks “What’s meat”?
The American asks, “What’s a shortage?”
The Russian asks, “What’s an opinion?”
The Israeli asks, “What’s this ‘Excuse me’?”