Print Email Text Size The Spectacle Blog By Wlady Pleszczynski on 5.6.12 @ 1:16PM First out of the box, the Wall Street Journal is calling the French presidential election for François Hollande, by a good, four-point margin. The Spectacle Blog
Chen Guangcheng Left the U.S. Embassy After Threats to His Wife
May 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Via The Guardian: Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng left the US embassy in Beijing only after threats his family would be immediately returned to house arrest, a close friend has said. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, had earlier said that the handling of his stay and departure “reflected his choices and our values”, [...]
Saturday Night Supermoon
May 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Print Email Text Size The Spectacle Blog By Ross Kaminsky on 5.5.12 @ 9:09AM On Saturday night, the moon will be near its closest distance to earth of this year, getting as close as 221,802 miles. Since it is the closest full moon this year, this event is called a “Supermoon”, which appears 14 percent [...]
Obama’s Historical Fiction
May 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
For the sake of compression, some of the characters that appear are composites of people I’ve known, and some events appear out of precise chronology. Devices such as composite characters and shifting times to compress the narrative do not belong to the world of biography and autobiography. Such books are expected to be as long as [...]
Beijing Says Chen Can Apply to Study Abroad
May 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Via New York Times: China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the dissident Chen Guangcheng can apply to study outside China in the same manner as more than 300,000 Chinese students already abroad, signaling a possible breakthrough in a diplomatic crisis that has deeply embarrassed the White House and threatens to sour relations with Beijing. [...]
Chen Guancheng and the Myth of American Decline
May 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Print Email Text Size The Spectacle Blog By Reid Smith on 5.4.12 @ 1:14PM There has been an ongoing discussion, these past few years, among those scholarly opinion-makers in politics, the media and the professoriate that America is in a state of inevitable and irreversible decline. Let’s call them the “declinists.” They readily accept the [...]
Blind Dissident Chen to Obama, Hillary: Help!!!
May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Via BBC: Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng says he has been unable to meet US officials to discuss his desire to leave the country. The blind activist, in hospital in Beijing, told the BBC he believed Chinese officials were preventing US envoys from visiting him on Thursday. After he escaped house arrest last week, Mr Chen [...]
United Methodists Uphold Teachings on Homosexuality
May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Print Email Text Size The Spectacle Blog By W. James Antle, III on 5.3.12 @ 12:51PM It’s not the Tampa convention politicos are waiting for, but the United Methodist Church is currently holding its General Conference in the Florida city. The largest mainline Protestant denomination has voted against changing the Book of Discipline’s holding that [...]
Trayvon and Zimmerman: The Structure and Elements of a Disinformation Campaign
May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Trayvon,” of course, is Trayvon Martin, the black 17-year-old who was killed two months ago in Florida. “Zimmerman” is George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who shot him. Referring to Martin by his first name and Zimmerman by his last is just one small tactic in the national media campaign to make Martin’s death an [...]
Chen Guangcheng Accuses U.S. Of Abandoning Him at Chinese Hospital
May 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Via Channel 4: Chen Guangcheng tells Channel 4 News he left the US embassy for hospital as part of an “agreement” with the Chinese government, and that despite promises, no-one from the US embassy is there. Chen had been under protection at the US embassy in Beijing after escaping from house arrest last Friday. He [...]