Chris Hayes, a political commentator on MSNBC, has created quite a stir – on Memorial Day of all days – for remarks he made yesterday in regard to the designation of military personnel as “heroes.” The journalist said he feels “uncomfortable” throwing that word about because it is “so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war.” In other words: How can we refer to someone as heroic if we disagree with the cause for which he or she died? It certainly seems like an odd way to make a point about war. Surely we can differentiate between policy and the troops carrying out that policy in the name of a country they love, can’t we? Watch the clip and form your own opinion. Chris Hayes Asks: Are Military Men Heroes? Should Chris Hayes apologize for these comments?
Chris Hayes, a political commentator on MSNBC, has created quite a stir – on Memorial Day of all days – for remarks he made yesterday in regard to the designation of military personnel as “heroes.” The journalist said he feels “uncomfortable” throwing that word about because it is “so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war.” In other words: How can we refer to someone as heroic if we disagree with the cause for which he or she died? It certainly seems like an odd way to make a point about war. Surely we can differentiate between policy and the troops carrying out that policy in the name of a country they love, can’t we? Watch the clip and form your own opinion. Chris Hayes Asks: Are Military Men Heroes? Should Chris Hayes apologize for these comments?
Chris Hayes, a political commentator on MSNBC, has created quite a stir – on Memorial Day of all days – for remarks he made yesterday in regard to the designation of military personnel as “heroes.” The journalist said he feels “uncomfortable” throwing that word about because it is “so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war.” In other words: How can we refer to someone as heroic if we disagree with the cause for which he or she died? It certainly seems like an odd way to make a point about war. Surely we can differentiate between policy and the troops carrying out that policy in the name of a country they love, can’t we? Watch the clip and form your own opinion. Chris Hayes Asks: Are Military Men Heroes? Should Chris Hayes apologize for these comments?
Chris Hayes, a political commentator on MSNBC, has created quite a stir – on Memorial Day of all days – for remarks he made yesterday in regard to the designation of military personnel as “heroes.” The journalist said he feels “uncomfortable” throwing that word about because it is “so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war.” In other words: How can we refer to someone as heroic if we disagree with the cause for which he or she died? It certainly seems like an odd way to make a point about war. Surely we can differentiate between policy and the troops carrying out that policy in the name of a country they love, can’t we? Watch the clip and form your own opinion. Chris Hayes Asks: Are Military Men Heroes? Should Chris Hayes apologize for these comments?
Chris Hayes, a political commentator on MSNBC, has created quite a stir – on Memorial Day of all days – for remarks he made yesterday in regard to the designation of military personnel as “heroes.” The journalist said he feels “uncomfortable” throwing that word about because it is “so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war.” In other words: How can we refer to someone as heroic if we disagree with the cause for which he or she died? It certainly seems like an odd way to make a point about war. Surely we can differentiate between policy and the troops carrying out that policy in the name of a country they love, can’t we? Watch the clip and form your own opinion. Chris Hayes Asks: Are Military Men Heroes? Should Chris Hayes apologize for these comments?
President Barack Obama’s pot-smoking past is detailed in Barack Obama: The Story , a new biography of the Commander-in-Chief by David Maraniss, who had previously revealed Obama’s early girlfriends (including Genevieve Cook ) in Vanity Fair . The President himself has been remarkably and refreshingly candid about his past drug use, but new details of Obama smoking marijuana with his buddies at Hawaii’s Punahou School are still setting the web ablaze (sorry). Maraniss writes , “When a joint was making the rounds, [Obama] often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted ‘Intercepted!’ and took an extra hit.” Yeah. Let’s all take a moment and let that image sink in. “But Obama’s buddies, who called themselves the “Choom Gang,” didn’t mind him messing up the rotation,” he continues. “After all, this was Hawaii.” Indeed. That’s not all. Maraniss writes that Obama was known for starting a trend called “TA,” short for “total absorption.” Use your imagination. “When you were with ‘Barry’ and pals, if you exhaled precious pakalolo (Hawaiian slang for marijuana, meaning “numbing tobacco”) instead of absorbing it fully into your lungs, you were assessed a penalty,” writes the author. “Your turn was skipped the next time the joint came around.” Maraniss also describes Obama’s technique of “roof hits” while hot-boxing cars … i.e. smoking up with all the windows closed: “When the pot was gone, they tilted their heads back and sucked in the last bit of smoke from the ceiling.” The book is one of two biographies making the rounds about Obama. The Amateur , by Edward Klein, contains this alleged Obama divorce story . Again, it’s worth noting Obama has been less than shy about his drug use in the past, writing about the topic in his memoir Dreams from My Father . “Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it,” the future president wrote in the memoir, before taking a darker tone. “Junkie. Pothead. That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man. Except the highs hadn’t been about that, me trying to prove what a down brother I was. Not by them, anyway.” “I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory.” As Obama moved to higher stage, he’s also been forthcoming about drug use. On Bill Clinton’s absurd claim that he had once tried marijuana but “didn’t inhale,” Obama said smiling in 2007, “That was the point, wasn’t it?”
President Barack Obama’s pot-smoking past is detailed in Barack Obama: The Story , a new biography of the Commander-in-Chief by David Maraniss, who had previously revealed Obama’s early girlfriends (including Genevieve Cook ) in Vanity Fair . The President himself has been remarkably and refreshingly candid about his past drug use, but new details of Obama smoking marijuana with his buddies at Hawaii’s Punahou School are still setting the web ablaze (sorry). Maraniss writes , “When a joint was making the rounds, [Obama] often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted ‘Intercepted!’ and took an extra hit.” Yeah. Let’s all take a moment and let that image sink in. “But Obama’s buddies, who called themselves the “Choom Gang,” didn’t mind him messing up the rotation,” he continues. “After all, this was Hawaii.” Indeed. That’s not all. Maraniss writes that Obama was known for starting a trend called “TA,” short for “total absorption.” Use your imagination. “When you were with ‘Barry’ and pals, if you exhaled precious pakalolo (Hawaiian slang for marijuana, meaning “numbing tobacco”) instead of absorbing it fully into your lungs, you were assessed a penalty,” writes the author. “Your turn was skipped the next time the joint came around.” Maraniss also describes Obama’s technique of “roof hits” while hot-boxing cars … i.e. smoking up with all the windows closed: “When the pot was gone, they tilted their heads back and sucked in the last bit of smoke from the ceiling.” The book is one of two biographies making the rounds about Obama. The Amateur , by Edward Klein, contains this alleged Obama divorce story . Again, it’s worth noting Obama has been less than shy about his drug use in the past, writing about the topic in his memoir Dreams from My Father . “Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it,” the future president wrote in the memoir, before taking a darker tone. “Junkie. Pothead. That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man. Except the highs hadn’t been about that, me trying to prove what a down brother I was. Not by them, anyway.” “I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory.” As Obama moved to higher stage, he’s also been forthcoming about drug use. On Bill Clinton’s absurd claim that he had once tried marijuana but “didn’t inhale,” Obama said smiling in 2007, “That was the point, wasn’t it?”
IBM has reportedly banned the use of the iPhone 4S voice recognition service Siri, but not because it’s annoying or pointless. It’s a security risk. Possibly, anyway. IBM Chief Information Officer Jeanette Horan said earlier this week that destination for outgoing search inquiries made using Siri could be a concern. When people ask Siri a question the data is sent to Apple’s facility in Maiden, N.C. After that, no one knows what the company does with the date. This alarms IBM, as Apple could be storing their information on their servers. Apple doesn’t sayow long data is stored or who can access it, but Horan has made it pretty clear that the company is “extraordinarily conservative.” Edward Wrenbeck, Apple’s Siri developer, downplayed concerns, saying “People already do these things on mobile devices. Maybe Siri makes their lives easier, but it’s not exactly opening up a new avenue that wasn’t there before.” Well, except for cellphones getting racist or telling off Zooey Deschanel .
When you’re the most powerful and famous person on Earth, every photo gives way to the next in a matter of hours if not minutes. Except this one. By popular demand, it’s remained on display at his office since 2009. An “aw”-inducing photo hangs in the White House’s West Wing showing President Obama leaning over to allow a 5-year-old boy to touch his hair. The New York Times reveals the back story that led to the picture: The boy in the picture is Jacob Philadelphia of Columbia, Md. Three years ago this month, his father, Carlton, a former Marine, was leaving the White House staff after a two-year stint on the National Security Council. As departing staff members often do, Mr. Philadelphia asked for a family photograph with the Commander-in-Chief, who happily obliged. When the pictures were taken and the family was about to leave, Mr. Philadelphia told Mr. Obama that his sons each had a question …
