May 16, 2012

Documentary: American Tongues

Watch American Tongues on PBS. See more from POV.

This is a neat documentary about the broad range of dialects and accents found throughout the United States and people’s attitudes and prejudices regarding them. Even though it was made in the 80′s, it doesn’t seem like much has changed. It is interesting as it seems like language may be a much larger factor in racism, and prejudice in general, than I ever thought. I’d be willing to bet that if we could even just get past basing first impressions on how someone else speaks, huge strides would be made in breaking down class- and race-based prejudices.

May 15, 2012

Don’t Call Me Null

 

 

 

Dear Senator Mikulski,
I appreciate the response to my CISPA complaint, I really do. The monospace font is a nice touch as well. But maybe have your people check your email templates and replace ‘null’ with something more creative as a default.

kthxbai

May 14, 2012

Documentary: Why We Fight

This is a must-see documentary to help understand the real motivators behind our foreign policy. In the end, it always comes down to power, which in our society means money.

It was interesting though as I had a very similar turning point as the retired police officer in here. I was staunchly behind President Bush until he came on TV saying that there never were any WMDs in Iraq. At that point I realized that I may not know all of what’s going on but I know that so much of what I had believed was a sham and that it was time to stop believing something just because it fit into my paradigm.

Anyway, watch this thing. It’s a little dated as it was made pre-Obama. But as you’ll see, not much has changed.

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