This is Robert Kennedy’s impromtu speech announcing the death of Martin Luther King Jnr.

He asked the crowd for “an effort to understand, compassion and love.” Then he said:
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote, “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our [...]

A beautiful essay as endorsement of Obama by the great Alice Walker, who argues that

we must build alliances not on ethnicity or gender, but on truth.
Alice Walker on Obama, The Root.com
[via Daily Kos]

Who would have thought it? Ireland owns part of the US debt, according to a scary article in The Daily Telegraph.
As of June 2007, foreigners owned $6,007bn of long-term US debt. (Equal to 66pc of the entire US federal debt). The biggest holdings by country are, in billions: Japan (901), China (870), UK (475), [...]

“From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink – greetings!”
– George Orwell, 1984
We are about to enter into a state where every digital step you take is recorded. At the end of March, the Government will introduce the most draconian law [...]

The tagline of a Canadian commenter on DailyKos
Canada - where a pack of smokes is ten bucks and a heart transplant is free.

Will.i.am and Jesse Dylan — and friends — go for Barack Obama
A pro-Barack Obama “Yes We Can” video making the Internet rounds offers an interesting pairing — Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am and filmmaker Jesse Dylan (son of Bob), plus a raft of celebrities. The inspiration of the video — and its core theme — [...]

First the Kennedys endorsed him. Now a writing giant has endorsed Barack Obama. Toni Morrison wrote to Mr Obama, in part:

“In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don’t see in other candidates. That something [...]

Government proposals to introduce surveillance of all internet users are unacceptable. The proposed law will require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to log details of every email, every instant message or chat message, and every time users log on or log off, and to store that information for up to 18 months. This information will then [...]

Hugh McFadden dropped me this (I reproduce it with his permission)
A Limerick on the subject of the German Ambassador & the Celtic Tiger. Why don’t we start a competition?
An astute German Envoy, Herr Pauls,
said this Celtic Tiger appals:
the feline [...]

It looks like our revered Taoiseach isn’t the only international leader in trouble because a pal gave him a dig-out out in getting himself a pad. In France the authorities have opened an preliminary investigation into the purchase of an old apartment in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 2006, after the satirical magazine Le Canard Enchaîné revealed [...]