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May 16 monorail commented on Do You Recognize This Man?.

It's John Cale from the Velvet Underground.

Apr 25 monorail commented on Why I Oppose Sub-Area Equity for Sound Transit.

I was looking forward to hearing what Ed Murray had to say about this. It is a complicated topic, and I hoped he would provide an articulate response to the issues raised by STB. Unfortunately, this is not an articulate response. He's so fixated on demonizing McGinn, he never gets around to addressing the specific questions that have been raised.

I have mixed feelings about McGinn, but Murray's attacks sound like exactly the same tune that we've heard from the anti-transit crowd (Gregoire, the Seatttle Times, etc). Not a good way to win the votes of transit supporters. Murray keeps shouting about how McGinn is 'divisive,' but all of the vitriol is coming from Murray.

I'm not all that enthusiastic about McGinn at this point (mainly because of the police accountability situation), and I had been considering voting for Murray. But Murray's response here hasn't been very inspiring.

Apr 8 monorail commented on The Only Thing That Can Change My Opinion of the Amanda Knox Drama?.

@17 edit-- that last sentence was supposed to say 'justly convicted,' not 'just convicted.'

Apr 8 monorail commented on The Only Thing That Can Change My Opinion of the Amanda Knox Drama?.

Maybe Ann Coulter sees a kindred spirit in the deranged prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini. Mignini is literally a raving lunatic. He sees a bizarre satanic conspiracy in every case that comes across his desk. If you stand behind his prosecution of Amanda Knox, you'd also probably stand behind the Salem witch trials, or the prosecution of the West Memphis 3 (which has many similarities to the Knox case). If you think Knox was just convicted, I urge you to familiarize yourself with the history of this frightening Torquemada-wannabe.

Mar 13 monorail commented on The New Pope Is a Bigot Just Like the Last Pope.

According to this, he was an active participant in the crimes of the junta:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/…

Mar 13 monorail commented on My Reaction to the New Pope.

@1 He didnt' just side with the junta, he was an active participant in their crimes:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/…

Mar 11 monorail commented on Gun Nuts and Drone Fears.

I'm not much of a fan of Rand Paul, but the intellectual incoherence on display here is coming from the faux-progressives such as the author of this post. We have a president who has actually claimed and exercised the power to execute people without a trial, and the Stranger's only beef is with those few who oppose the policy and stand up for civil liberty. If Bush/Cheney wanted to execute people without a trial, would you have issued the same kind of denunciations of those who challenged him? It's really pathetic that your entire sense of right and wrong is determined by whether someone has a 'D' or an 'R' after their name.

Mar 6 monorail commented on Rand Paul Is Fillibustering John Brennan's Appointment as CIA Director.

It's pretty sad that while the filibuster is being supported by 9 or 10 republicans, only one democrat (Ron Wyden) is willing to stand up for the most basic principle of civil liberty.

The mere fact that Obama wants to appoint Brennan should remove any doubt about about Obama's true nature. He is not a progressive; he's not even a moderate. He is a right-wing piece of shit who tortures whistle-blowers and loves to slaughter civilians in Pakistan. If you think the drone war is in any way just, consider Obama's use of "double-tap" strikes--- launching a strike, waiting for first-responders to rush in to help the wounded, then launching another strike killing the rescuers (a very serious war crime which the UN is investigating). Or consider the strike targeting a teenager in Pakistan (along with his 12-year-old cousin) whose act of "terrorism" consisted of videotaping drone activity for a human rights group. Pakistanis are afraid to send their kids to school, because they believe the schools will be drone targets. When the British slaughtered civilians in Derry on Bloody Sunday, they inspired a transformational surge of recruitment and public support for the IRA. This is exactly what we are doing in Pakistan for Al-Qaeda. Obama and Brennan are guaranteeing that for generations to come, lots and lots of people around the world will hate us enough to fly planes into buildings.

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Feb 13 monorail commented on Charles Krafft Is a White Nationalist Who Believes the Holocaust Is a Deliberately Exaggerated Myth.

@53-- your comment has almost nothing to do with what I actually said. "Embrace the ugliness?" I said nothing of the kind. We can allow objectionable ideas and artwork to exist without embracing them-- and we won't bring about the peace and respect you claim to believe in by "kicking their ass down the block" (as Owens' suggests) when someone steps out of line with what we think is okay. It's really sad that you seem to believe that peer-pressure and conformity (white supremacists' favorite tactics) are all that keep people from becoming white supremacists.

Feb 13 monorail commented on Charles Krafft Is a White Nationalist Who Believes the Holocaust Is a Deliberately Exaggerated Myth.

The weird thing is that, in spite of his ridiculous ideology, the artwork itself clearly works against that ideology. For instance, the Hitler teapot is really creepy and menacing, and not likely to inspire favorable feelings towards Hitler. So, like many artists, maybe his artistic sensibilities are on a higher level than his obviously pathetic intellect (but I've never been too impressed with his art).

I completely disagree with Owens' comment about Seattle's "misguided kind of false tolerance going on here." We can all figure out for ourselves that white supremacy is bad--- it is not necessary for "the art community" to make sure everyone's marching in step. If that's how it works in Brooklyn or Boston, I'm glad I'm not there. And the notion that tolerance is to blame for Krafft's stupidity is utter nonsense. Our sense of humanity and justice comes from compassion, not conformity.