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Charlotte Higgins knows an awful lot about really old stuff. When she says “classics,” she’s not talking about rock ‘n’ roll shredders from the 1970s. She’s talking Greek and Latin language writers from before Jesus first spit up on a pile of hay.

It’s All Greek to Me is one of those compendium books that, in a series of snippets and vignettes, tries to give the casual reader (commuting on the train or hanging out in a café trying not to be distracted by everything go on around her) a sense of where she came from.

But that sense will only be even moderately inclusive if our imaginary casual reader is very, very white. There’s no sense in Higgins’ book of there being any foundational culture other than the Greeks. Indeed, there’s no indication here that having the Greeks as the foundation of all that is good, true and beautiful might not be such a good or beautiful thing. There’s no sense here of the horrible xenophobia that is central to the ancient Greek cultures, nor of the racist sense of superiority that infuses much of ancient Greek literature. Even though they lived in a Mediterranean culture themselves, the Greeks figured that pretty much everyone living in the “warm climates” was lazy, uncultivated — and dark-skinned. Read the rest of this entry »

Doug Stanhope: Voice of America – ABORTION IS GREEN.

Well, duh.

via YouTube – Doug Stanhope: Voice of America – ABORTION IS GREEN.

This comes from the latest Harper’s email. If stripped of U.S. citizenship, I wonder then what happens? Are you kicked out of the country? Rendered with extreme prejudice to Syria? Does anybody know?

Senators Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Scott Brown of Massachusetts proposed a bill to allow the State Department to strip Americans of their citizenship if there is evidence that they support terrorism. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported the measure, and House speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed with its “spirit.”

The New York Times has more details but no answers to my questions.

Green Building Council Italia will be the first organization in the European Union that has decided to implement the LEED green building rating system. In the GBC Italia version of LEED, local standards and codes will be referenced, Italian specific units will be incorporated, and alternative compliance paths will be provided as appropriate to account for regional variances and contexts. The MOU also agrees to collaboration between the U.S. Green Building Council and the Italian group through the sharing of tools, research and information around green building.

“LEED has been very successful in the U.S. in transforming the approach to building design, construction and operation,” said Mario Zoccatelli, Presidente del GBC Italia. “After reviewing all of the existing green building tools out there, we ultimately chose LEED because of USGBC’s history of innovation and its flexible approach.”

via USGBC and GBC Italia Enter into Momentous International Green Building Agreement | Business Wire.