The number one most popular critical response to my article “Boston Tried a Police State and it Failed” is “What would you have done?” How would I have handled a terrorist on the loose in a major metropolitan area? That’s a great question. Anyone who criticizes must also propose alternative solutions that remedy their criticisms. [...]
How would I have handled a terrorist manhunt? My reply to critics is here. Yesterday a major US city – perhaps as many as 1 million people – was put under martial law. Business and universities were closed. Public transit and Amtrak were padlocked. Paramilitary cops from multiple states rolled down Boston’s residential neighborhoods in [...]
it's no surprise that chechnya might produce dark and extreme people. rarely has any people been more extremely victimized with less outrage. what i'd like to know more about here is the connection between the fbi and the russian secret police. one thing to notice is that if you mess with putin on chechnya, he will keel you.
now it seems like the main thing about apocalyptic disaster is that it is an opportunity for american heroism. these things always show us at our best, er. we should want much much more.
sometimes nothing hardle seems to happen for years on end and suddenly all hell breaks loose. reminds me of 9.11 followed by anthrax followed by dc sniper. so, boston followed by ricin followed by ?
so i've been rummaging around for new female country singers. i don't know how i left out kimberly perry of the band perry, who's as good and interesting as any of these artists. unlike some of the people in that previous entry, the band perry is not a nostalgia act or a tribute to traditional country music; like taylor, they're recognizably country, but they also have a very contemporary pop sound. a good example might be the first single from their fine second album, pioneer.
that song has the little bit of morbidity that people have come to associate with the band perry since their breakthrough single 'if i die young.' and it also has characteristic shifts of mood from gentle to intense, both musically and emotionally. it reminds me perhaps of bobbie gentry's "ballad of billie joe" from back in the day; it's very theatrical.
my 12-year-old daughter jane loves this stuff, and i think the morbid/country-goth streak is part of the attraction, kind of like pretty little liars. but death is by no means the theme of all of tbp's songs, which run the gamut. check, for example, the title track of the new album. it has an unusual and timely theme for a country song, but also makes contact with the tradition at all points.
it's hard to tell from recordings anymore whether someone can really sing. but were i guessing, i'd say kimberley can sing like hell. here's one of their strongest lyrics (and their lyrics are often a bit better than they need to be).
and really kimberly can go into many different modes, from rowdy to sultry to heartbroken. here's the rowdy mode, which is dominant among nashville women right now.
if you can't sell a hundred thousand copies of that to country fans, you can't sell anything to anyone. one thing that i do like about taylor and kimberly is that they're connected to the tradition without constantly emphasizing that fact by mentioning hank williams or loretta lynn. they show country as a living tradition in a compelling way.
also even though tbp and taylor swift are recognizably of the same genre, kimberly is definitely not in any way a taylor imitator; i think she has a very fine country voice: strong with a soaring upper register.
8:15 bolo on a dark-skinned individual in a black hoodie. if anyone sees anything like that, shoot to kill. dude. it's trayvon martin. while you're at it, intern all white male loners.
7:25 sources tell me that the winklevoss twins are under suspicion. those fuckers hate america.
6:12 or wait. of course. it's a coup by ben bernanke.
6:00 PM obviously, the obama administration staged the explosions in boston so they could declare martial law and fully implement nationalized healthcare. no doubt they justify this to themselves with the fact that they'll be able to offer treatment to the victims of their own dastardly crimes!!
be sure to listen for anagrams and codes in the president's statement.
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