The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Author: mongreldogs

  • As for today…

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    mongreldogs
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    … even better than yesterday, which I would not have thought possible.

  • Just wanted to say…

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    … that today has been a very good day.

  • The rising South?

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    mongreldogs
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    Reading through Lawyers, Guns, and Money today, I was eventually directed to the US Army site on the service of African-Americans throughout history. The lead line of the section on the Civil War really raised my hackles: “When Federal troops invaded Southern states….” This bothered me so much I was motivated to actually write the…

  • Review: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog

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    (Updated 2 PM 2008 Jul 20) The latest Joss Whedon effort, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is a short musical made available on the Web and starring Neal Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion (better known as Doogie Howser and Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, respectively). The plot revolves around the titular villian — more like, villian wannabe —…

  • Review: Serenity Found

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    Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon’s Firefly Universe edited by Jane Espenson Rating: 3 out of 5 What can I say? Meh. Another collection of essays (following the superior Finding Serenity) discoursing on the deep meanings to be found in the universe of Firefly, a short-lived TV series as well as Serenity, its…

  • It’s Funny Because It’s True…

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    mongreldogs
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    … and it hurts so much for exactly the same reason: This cartoon neatly sums up the amazing failure of American democracy over the past few years.

  • What I’m Reading: 2008 July

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    This is the first in a regular series of posts meant more for myself than anyone else. I just want to keep a record of what I’m reading. So far in July: Public Enemies: The True Story of America’s Greatest Crime Wave by Bryan Burrough (552 p) Semantic Antics: How and Why Words Change Meaning…

  • Health of the Republic: Down 7% to 5%

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    I’ve been meaning to write this post for a little while but net issues have been keeping me away. In any event, the recent passage of the so-called “FISA reform” (now with telecom immunity!) has sent the Health of the Republic tumbling downward. I had begun to be cautiously optimistic that American liberty might begin…

  • Contata (2)

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    So, on to Contata proper. (See this earlier article for context.) A filk con is different from a regular con (assuming that my limited experience at Lunacon allows me to generalize about a “regular” con) in that the filk con is explicitly organized around the music. In a lot of ways, it was really just…

  • Contata (1)

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    I spent this weekend at the hotel Hilton Parsippany, attending a sci fi con called “Contata 5“. In a somewhat strange co-branding fashion this was also NEFilk 18 — apparently, NEFilk is sort of an umbrella designation. Filk is an odd branch of music deriving from (originally, literally via typo) folk music — it’s folk…