Archive for March 12th, 2008

Sinbad ain’t giving mad props to Clinton for her Bosnia “experience”

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

It turns out that Sinbad supports Obama. Oops again for Hillary.

He remembers that trip to Bosnia that he made with her and Sheryl Crow. He has a somewhat different recollection on the trip.

Clinton, during a late December campaign appearance in Iowa, described a hair-raising corkscrew landing in war-torn Bosnia, a trip she took with her then-teenage daughter, Chelsea. “They said there might be sniper fire,” Clinton said.

Threat of bullets? Sinbad doesn’t remember that, either.

“I never felt that I was in a dangerous position. I never felt being in a sense of peril, or ‘Oh, God, I hope I’m going to be OK when I get out of this helicopter or when I get out of his tank.’”

In her Iowa stump speech, Clinton also said, “We used to say in the White House that if a place is too dangerous, too small or too poor, send the First Lady.”

Say what? As Sinbad put it: “What kind of president would say, ‘Hey, man, I can’t go ’cause I might get shot so I’m going to send my wife…oh, and take a guitar player and a comedian with you.’”

A Clinton surrogate replied that even Sinbad has been to Bosnia, and Obama has not. Whatever, man. The fact remains that Clinton is exaggerating her accomplishments.

And to continue that little tangent we have been on… Obama’s former advisor Samantha Power has reported from Bosnia. Clinton’s advisor Andrew Shapiro probably has not.

controversy on the handling of the discovery of Palau bones

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

There is a bit of a controversy surrounding the discovery and announcement of those skeletons found on Palau. The locals were completely cut out of the discovery, and when the National Geographic Society came into the picture, it seems that the movie documentary was a higher priority than a scholarly paper describing the bones.

Memories of the shenanigans of Teuku Jacob definitely play a factor in this, as much as any eagerness to land sponsorship.

via Gene Expression.

James Wood asking the wrong questions

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

ReadySteadyBook doesn’t care for James Wood’s How Fiction Works. Knowing Wood’s prejudices, i doubt if i would either (although i plan to read it sooner or later.) The post nails something about this book that describes the problem with Wood in its entirety:

It seems to me that asking how fiction works is a very dull question indeed next to the existential one that really matters: why fiction is.

He’s damned right it is.

So why did Wood write about how instead?