Author Archives: stephenkmacksd

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About stephenkmacksd

Rootless cosmopolitan,down at heels intellectual;would be writer. 'Polemic is a discourse of conflict, whose effect depends on a delicate balance between the requirements of truth and the enticements of anger, the duty to argue and the zest to inflame. Its rhetoric allows, even enforces, a certain figurative licence. Like epitaphs in Johnson’s adage, it is not under oath.' https://www.lrb.co.uk/v15/n20/perry-anderson/diary

Frank Rich on the Egyptian Revolution and the American Press

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/opinion/06rich.html?ref=opinion Here is Frank Rich cutting through the crap that is mainstream American Journalism, in this instance the revolution in the revolution.

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New Statesman – No vindication for neocons

via newstatesman.com

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Deliver us from Leslie Gelb,Policy Expert

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-04/egypt-protests-obamas-flip-flop-naive-media-on-extremists-and-more-fears/2/ How does one approach the arrogance, the unregenerate paternalism of the self-appointed ‘Policy Expert’ with all the qualifications needed to cow critics: the prestigious emeritus status bestowed by his fellow experts; is that  enough to render ‘serious’ criticism null … Continue reading →

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Vijay Prashad on The Imperial Bag-man

http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad02022011.html#

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3arabawy – صَحـَـفي مِصـْـري’s Photostream

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649 via flickr.com

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After Tunisia: Don’t forget Palestine | Books | guardian.co.uk

Your 10 Arab writers gave voice to the wave of optimism that is sweeping through their countries in the wake of the peaceful revolution in Tunisia (“After Tunisia”, 29 January). It was melancholy to note, however, that Raja Shehadeh, the … Continue reading →

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Ronald Reagan at 100: The Darker Legacy

via politicsdaily.com

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The Good Doctor,The Muslim Brotherhood,Mohamed ElBaradei and the Egyptian Military

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/03/AR2011020305173.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions             The Good Doctor (TGD) reminds us that he is an inveterate paternalist, if we ever could have entertained such a doubt. He is also given to breathtakingly reductionist historical snap-shots, arranged a la David Hockney, to produce a … Continue reading →

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Cockeyed Platonist, the Great Mental Tide and the Eclipse of Authority

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/opinion/01brooks.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss Cockeyed Platonist (CP) titles his latest political essay ‘The Quest for Dignity’. His penchant for the overarching abstraction, the form of his thought, his intellectual modus vivendi is again manifested. We are treated to this argumentative reductionism, again, in … Continue reading →

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Civic Mechanic and made to measure Rhetorical Politics

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-01/egypt-protests-prove-george-w-bush-doctrine-right/ Civic Mechanic (CM) presents us here with a collection of random thoughts and intellectual cliches quickly stitched together into an ill fitting garment. It is misshapen, baggy and full of holes especially where the seams show. Bad construction with … Continue reading →

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