Digest – Jan 17 2010

Roll up roll up and that jazz.

– HOME

Anthony – typically pulling no punches – on Revenue.

The observations of the Puckstown Lane blogger on banking inquiries, post-bust. Also, Veronica on IrishElection.com.

Simon McGarr fillets this bizarre opinion piece by Breda O’Brien.

Shane Coleman makes a lot of sense in The Sunday Tribune today, highlighting the need for nuanced commentary and analysis. Batt O’Keeffe is a minister I have some time for, he has put his head above the parapet on third level fees and actually made some decisions while in Education. Whatever you think of his decisions – closing schools due to weather in this case – at least he made some, something our Taoiseach could consider doing more often.

Also in the Tribune today, ‘What next for Anglo?‘, ‘The Price of NAMA for taxpayer keeps rising‘ and ‘Glass bottle site valuation ‘ignores emissions’. Their Business section really is top-notch today, the revamp looks like it’ll be a success (I’m not a big fan of the opinion section most weeks however).

I thoroughly enjoy the writing on Booming Back. This post is worth reading in full but the (quite funny) description of the Green Party (written by a former member) is particularly quotable:

The more astute of you will no doubt be pointing out that I used to be a card carrying member of the Green Party. This is true, but I viewed the Greens as a loose collection of activists banded together in an attempt to use collective strength to drive forward their own disparate environmental and social justice agendas, like the Shell to Sea campaign, the Tara bypass, opposition to Shannon Rendition flights and the Poolbeg incinerator. I was wrong. The Greens are in fact a loose collection of folks banded together for the sake of banding together. Social justice and activism seem nowhere on the agenda, the party’s sole drive is to stay in existence, an apolitical Oroborus endlessly devouring itself in an orgy of self-preservation through self-consumption. My mistake, I’ve moved on, and to reference Žižek quoting Beckett, I must fail better next time.

One of the many reasons I nominated Bryan Mukandi in the best blog from a journalist category – if you’re reading, Madam, I reckon his face would look well on the opinion pages.

WORLD

Matthew Yglesias on neoconservativism and media feedback loops. The post stems from this piece by Robert Farley.

John Naughton of The Observer on the death of the news package.

James Fallows of the Atlantic has the best perspective on Google and China.

Also on the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates on hardcore hip-hop.

A while back, I had the pleasure of interviewing the writer Tracy Sharpley-Whiting. She took a moment to discuss her favorite DMX song “What These Bitches Want From A Nigger.” And she talked about how guilty she felt saying that, but in point of fact, there were days when she woke up. and put up on DMX because, indeed, walking out the house she felt like, as she put it, “What ya’ll bitches want from a nigger!” I don’t say that to invalidate the important work Tracy has done on gender, or to invalidate charges of misogyny, so much as to discuss how an ugly sentiment may actually capture something we actually feel.

Clay Shirky’s rant about women.

– OTHER

Guido Fawkes’s slides from his presentation to the Online News Association…

View more presentations from Paul Staines.

Adrian Weckler’s interview with the winner of the Young Scientist award. Very capable, confident, guy, can see him presenting something in a few years time if that’s the road he chooses to go down.