not quite ready for primetime

Oct 11

“Ari Kohen on the collateral damage of the death penalty:” —

“The executioner is the one that suffers,” [Jerry] Givens says on the day after Davis’s execution in Georgia. “The person that carries out the execution itself is stuck with it the rest of his life. He has to wear that burden. Who would want that on them?”

During the 17 years that Givens worked as an executioner in Virginia, he put 62 men to death.

We don’t spend nearly enough time thinking about the collateral damage of the death penalty: What it does to the families of the condemned inmates, to the people whose job it is to kill, and — of course — to all of us as members of a society that condones killing people as the proper response to murder.

(via kohenari)

(via kohenari)

Jun 16

merlin:

I love you anyway too
Best. Line. Ever.

merlin:

I love you anyway too

Best. Line. Ever.

Dec 18

My Favorite Albums of 2010

This was a great year for music for me. So here’s my list:

LCDS - this is happening
National - High Violet
Best Coast - Crazy for You
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Kanye West - Dark Twisted Beautiful Fantasy
Sleigh Bells - Treats
Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
Sufjan - Age of Adz
Arcade Fire - Suburbs


The first two are so close for me. All I Want may be my favorite song of the year though. The National put out another great album, as did Deerhunter. Best Coast blew me away. And one of the reasons I probably rank it higher than other people may be the way I listen to music: I’m in the mood for something, and an album comes to mind. For some of the groups, there are other albums from the same group (Spoon, BSS, etc) or other similar sounding albums that I think of at that time. But Best Coast has a different sound.

Kanye and Sufjan’s ratings are the most likely to change over time. Either I’ll grow to love the new sound, or not. Right now, I really like both albums. At this point, as the list shows, I am more excited about Kanye’s album.

Treats is a riot. A/B Machines is fantastic.

Other newbies I loved: Radio Dept, Wild Nothing, Sharon Van Etten, Laura Veirs, Land of Talk, Ben Sollee, S. Carey

Solid efforts from much loved bands: Spoon, Frightened Rabbit, New Pornographers, Tallest Man

Album I need more time with: Neil Young’s Le Noise. I may like this one a lot more with more listens.

OK albums but still disappointments given other efforts: Vampire Weekend, She & Him, Josh Ritter, Blitzen Trapper, Stars, Of Montreal

Dec 07

Easy Pumpkin Bread - The Amateur Gourmet

Support for independence hits a new low - Scotsman.com

Dec 04

Easy Frozen Margaritas Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Dec 03

Winter Drink Recipes - Slide Show - NYTimes.com

Dec 01

EUROPA - Public Opinion analysis - Eurobarometer Interactive Search System

FT.com / Brussels / Economy - Interactive: EU structural funds guide

Nov 10

Choropleth Maps of Presidential Voting « David B. Sparks