Saturday, May 30, 2009

Links For The Weekend

It's been a while since I had a links post. Here's stuff to read if you're at home with nothing to do.

The American right-wing has officially lost its shit on this whole Supreme Court nomination thing. Actually, I should amend that. They were never really in possession of their shit; perhaps it is more accurate to say that their level of shit-lostness has just jumped a level. Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings has the goods. Krugman piles on. Yglesias has a post that can be roughly translated as: are they fucking serious?

Archie chose to get married to Veronica (courtesy reader Faizaan). Unbelievable. It's not just that Betty is nicer than Veronica. It's that she's considerably hotter too, both face-wise and body-wise. The only way I can explain this decision is that Archie is hoping to get married to Veronica before he murders her for the life insurance money. Given how loaded her family is, I don't even want to imagine how much he collects. He'll probably marry Betty afterward. Actually, now that I think about it, Betty probably set up the entire thing. (Wait a minute -- did I just describe the "plot" of Wild Things?)

An interesting story in the WSJ on the emergence of Spain as a sporting powerhouse with Nadal, Barca, Alonso, the Spanish football team and some dude who managed to out-dope everyone to win the Tour de France (courtesy Nabeel).

The Taliban appear to be spreading their tentacles in Karachi, at least insofar as imposing their cultural and social worldview -- such as it is -- on the women of the city is concerned (courtesy Sarah and Anam). Apparently women are being threatened to cover up or else, and even elite schools (which have historically been co-ed) are being warned to observe these norms. While this story is disturbing to be sure, I wouldn't want to overstate the pervasiveness of this without better data -- a few anecdotes don't constitute a sociopolitical trend. It's still a little worrying though.

After all the talk about plagiarism on this blog recently, poor old Arif has a couple of sentences directly lifted by The News, as the Mir family continues its long and tenacious fight against good, decent journalism. Good times. I wonder if he'll get an apology, or even an acknowledgement?

Oba lets loose on Kanye West. Laugh out loud stuff.

Schools in the U.S. clamping down on...wait for it...hugging.

Really, really insightful (and hopeful) column by Cyril Almeida on militantism and democracy in Pakistan.

Pakistani consumers will be paying ten percent more for their electricity next year. And so the entirely strange spectacle of citizens paying ever increasing prices for a service they don't actually receive continues.

And finally, a book recommendation. Jon Wertheim, tennis writer for Sports Illustrated, has a book out on last year's Wimbledon final between Nadal and Federer, titled "Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played". Man, he's not joking. It was an awesome match, and widely acknowledged as the best ever. Wertheim weaves together the lives and careers of both superstars in the midst of giving us a gripping account of that day's events. It's got some really interesting details about both of them, as well as the professional tennis circuit in general. I read the whole thing in about two and a half hours. Tennis fans, or even casual followers, should definitely check it out.

Have a good weekend guys.

14 comments:

Nadir Hassan said...

Ha. Amir Mir strikes again. He was fired from Herald after being caught for plagiarism twice in like four months. Hameed Haroon even calls up every one employing Mir to let them know. I guess The News is just ethically challenged.

Faisal.K said...

Veronica is so much hotter than betty sorry i think old archies made the right choice.

Excellent article by Cyril...and "the mir mafia" continues

Ahsan said...

Bubs:

Um, don't YOU work for the Jang group?

Faisal:

Please tell me you're joking. Veronica is only hot because of the makeup, and because she can afford to get manicures and pedicures and going to a nice salon every week. Betty is naturally hot, though I admit her goodiness can get a touch overbearing at times.

Nadir Hassan said...

Ahsan: Used to work for them. Now instead of two shitty-paying jobs, I have one shitty paying job and one decent paying job.

Anonymous said...

Archie was always shallow and had no great depth. Marrying Veronica makes sense.Archie and Veronica deserve each other. Veronica will ultimately make his life miserable.

AKS said...

The fact that so many Americans continue to support the right wing is scary.

And I've always thought that Betty and Veronica were identical, except for the hair of course.

takhalus said...

this link is a must read!

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/from-much-sought-after-to-most-wanted-159

From much sought after to ‘most wanted’ By Zahid Hussain
Sunday, 31 May, 2009

Anonymous said...

hugging is not romantic or sexual but just a way teenagers connects and say “hello”. Hugs are the new hive fives and handshakes and it is ridiculous to ban this greeting.

karachikhatmal said...

the big question always has been if archie was getting head from both. i personally think only veronica would give him head, although betty seems really needy and lacking self esteem when it comes to archie, so she could have been up for a lot lot more. regardless, the 12 year old in me is incensed, since archie always fucked betty over and i had hoped there would eventually be a happy ending. guess not.

Anonymous said...

What do you expect from a guy who took like 40 years to get through high school? Hope he enjoys being a door mat.I think Vericonica's father should lose his money in the stock market and bad investments and she drops Archie for a wealthy man or she elopes with Reggie but by then Betty will have found someone new who really appreciate her and Archie ends up alone like he deserves!!!Archie will become a fat alcoholic by then. Betty will become a famous author, empowering other women. One day, Archie will meet her in one of her book signings in the mall. She'll pretend not to recognize him, but signs his book. He never sees her again.In the end, Archie will turn out to be a bad loser.

Majaz said...

I have to agree with Anonymous and Gigi on this. Archie deserves Veronica. Betty should marry Jughead.

And as for the hugging bit .. saw an interesting episode of Boston Legal on it. You should see it if you haven't.

Anonymous said...

Betty should count herself damn lucky she lost the Love Triangle Lottery.Who needs a loser like Archie?

zeyd said...

Archie should still fuck Betty on the side. Betty's quite used to be back-up anyway.

Sennaz said...

Archie was always an idiot,so his marrying veronica makes sense

btw I have nothing against hugging but it was the bane of my college existance...for me greeting male members of society means a hello/salam or at most a handshake and my group of friends in college are great huggers...so whenever a hugger-guy-friend would come, two of the f-friends would hug and i would be the one dodging a hug with a handshake...VERY awkward :P