IT’S NOT TIME TO DEBATE issues of sovereignty—it’s time to prevent a disaster from metastasizing. Call me naive, but I think we should be sending plane-load after plane-load of aid and aid workers into Burma, with or without the permission of the military junta.
We can go in under the UN’s “responsibility to protect” principle if legal cover is necessary. Or we could hold a press conference and say that the leadership in Burma has graciously decided to allow foreign assistance. How it’s done is not the not the important thing. The going is. The going now is.
Sasha Frere-Jones, the music critic for the New Yorker, offers this harsh (yet mostly accurate) assessment of American Idol favorite David Archuletta:
David Archuleta, a smooth-skinned man-child with a giant smile, a good voice, and a creepy inability to become displeased with himself … may lose to the dark horse David Cook, a slightly doughy twenty-five-year-old rock singer who sounds improbably assured, and seems smarter every week, as Archuleta’s woodland-creature routine feels increasingly forced.
I’ve never been a big fan of Archuleta’s style, but I can give the 17-year-old a lot of credit—he’s the most natural talent on the Idol stage.
MATTHEW YGLESIAS points out an unfortunately irony in our country’s car-dominated western expansion: the sunbelt cities that offer the perfect climate for walking and other alternative modes of transportation are the same places that have the weakest alt-transit infrastructure. Meanwhile, the most walkable/bikable cities, located primarily in the Northeast, are the ones with the lousiest weather. Hmph.
A LOT OF FUSS has been made of Barack Obama’s chagrin at the price of arugula at Whole Foods. For the past couple weeks, arugula has been, for McCain and the right wing of the Republican party, a handy emblem for Obama’s alleged “liberal elitism.” Move over latte, arugula is the new gastronomical weapon of the reverse snobs of the right (who are, as it happens, usually beltway insiders who are pretty well fed on fancy food, but I digress … )
[Full disclosure: Three Roads blog loves the lively and spicy taste of arugula but usually buys it at the local Albertson's, not at Whole Foods, so I'm not in a position to bemoan the cost of arugula. I simply bemoan the cost of everything at Whole Paycheck Foods.]
So if we’ve left the era of the latte-liberal, what’s going to be the catchy, reductive and polarizing term that incorporates the leafy green vegetable known as arugula? Here are some ideas, free for use to all conservatives who frequent this blog (I’m looking at you, John Lofton!):
- Demarugulas
- Arugulacrats
- Liberugulas
Hmmm. As you can see, none of these has the same snap as latte liberal. Maybe it’s alliteration that we need! Ok, here goes:
Arugula ahhh … arugula ahhh ….
I’m stuck. Can anyone think of an a-word that describes people who are left of center? Aristocrat could work, but it’s historic ties are to, I would guess, a more conservative political ideology.
Let me know if you come up with anything.