Yesterday, DemocracyNow! featured an hourlong talk given by Arundhati Roy called Public Power in the Age of Empire. As always, she brings cutting insight and important ways of thinking to the table.

No government's condemnation of terrorism is credible if it cannot show itself to be open to change by nonviolent dissent. . . .

Terrorism is horrible and demeaning for the perpetrators, as well as for its victims; but so is war. You could say that terrorism is the privatization of war. Terrorists are the free-marketeers of war. They're people who believe that the state does not have a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence.

There may be no urgent voice for the world to hear right now. And did you know she was named by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1998? It's true!

I'm also not making up this essay by John Dolan in eXile, a Moscow-based alternative newspaper, which tries to clam Roy as one of the "Great Literatury Frauds of Our Time".

And she is a fraud. A literary careerist who has parlayed an overwritten melodrama into unearned fame; a child of privilege whose early experiments in poverty were no more than a smart career move; a Yuppie whose real job was aerobics instructor, not slum bottle-recycler; a world-travelled, overeducated dilettante posing as a regional writer; and a fake saint who ****ed her way to fame and survives, in spite of her complete lack of talent, because her crude scolding warms the heart of old British lefties who love it when their tame Indian slaves get up on their hind legs to denounce the bloody Americans, who oppress the world so much less skillfully than they used to.

Now that's literary criticism! But the truly bizarre part is who the column (apparently part of a series) is sponsored by. (No, I will not tell you -- you must see for yourself.)

Stuff

Gotta get into school to prepare for the new year. Here's some junk that's been piling up in my bookmarks.

Thanks to Sam for linking us to the trailer of Batman Begins (Quicktime). It's too soon to tell much from this, but the cast sure looks good!

And speaking of things worth seeing, make sure you watch the ads for J. E. Jones, Republican for County Commissioner in Escambia County, Florida. Everyone likes pie!

Aljazeera is reporting that the US has, in fact, damaged the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf. I'll be the Shia are gonna like that!

Hey, gimme a break, officer. I just had a few drinks before my first period class comes in.. (hic)

And because I had to do the cutesy post title, here is an exclusive photo of the tiger attack against the Vegas superstar.

TimeWaster™

Mashed Taters is fun. Lord o' the Rings, remixed. Via ABS, via MoFi.

Today I'm listening to: Groove Salad!