Heard on the radio

Wow. Last night listened to crotchety old man Harold Bloom on npr about the decline of the humanities. Translation: people study books and poetry that he doesn’t like. However, if like me you like literary criticism and you have the stomach for listening to him (he is quite amusing actually) then here is the link. [...]

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In the Loop

I saw In the Loop last night and I can’t recommend it enough. The film is an offshoot of the British television series “The Thick of It” which I have only seen a couple of episodes of. The series and film have a sort of docu-drama feel although the actors don’t confront the camera at [...]

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Willfully ignoring history

There’s the popular adage that those who never learn from history are destined to repeat it. But that’s really all it is. An adage. Something to put on a t-shirt, but certainly not something to practice apparantly. I was listening to NPR yesterday and I heard Bob Edwards Robert Siegel interview Errol Morris the filmmaker [...]

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Historical revision of the day

It’s interesting how photographs create history. We’ve all seen the Ken Burns’ affect in countless documentaries, but what if the photographs are deliberately misleading? Will anyone remember and revise the historical record? My sister brought this story to my attention. A Japanese-American battalion liberated the concentration camp of Dachau during World War II but no [...]

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Jean Gabin in La Bandera

I have to say I’m really enjoying watching Jean Gabin movies. Thus far, we haven’t seen a bad film. Sure there are some we like more than others but they’re all pretty good. The exception might be Golgotha which we found out was dubbed and promptly ejected it. Here he is in La Bandera. You [...]

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Want to read an angry post on the travesty of Guantanamo Bay?

Oh, it will make you angry. There are several dimensions to the debate over the U.S. prison facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba that the media have largely missed and, thus, of which the American people are almost completely unaware. For that matter, few within the government who were not directly involved are aware either. The [...]

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Quote for the day

Regarding the “personal triumphs” of Kate Winslet’s character in the Oscar nominated The Reader: What, exactly, was the Kate Winslet character’s “personal triumph”? While in prison for participation in an act of mass murder that was particularly gruesome and personal, given the generally impersonal extermination process—as a death camp guard, she helped ensure 300 Jewish [...]

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The Day the Clown Cried

Jerry Lewis in a film about the Holocaust? That’s what I said when a friend told me about The Day the Clown Cried. Truly unbelievable. The infamous “lost” film of Jerry Lewis, which was buried due to a legal dispute between him and the writers of the original screenplay. It tells the story of a [...]

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The George W. Bush we never knew

This video is actually not difficult to watch at all. If you have a George W. Bush phobia you can handle it. I suppose because he’s nothing like what we’ve come to hate.

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It’s all in the marketing

Once again George W. Bush explains that the failings of his presidency were due to bad marketing — his choice of poor words “that conveyed the wrong message.” If only he could have sold himself better, everything would have been A-okay. “I regret saying some things I shouldn’t have said,” Bush told CNN’s Heidi Collins [...]

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Whitewashing Stalin

I was telling a friend a rather embarrassing story of me telling a Georgian diplomat that of course I knew that Georgia was a country: “I know, Stalin’s home,” I said. To my surprise my friend launched into a speech that Stalin wasn’t really that bad. My friend is Chinese leading me to believe his [...]

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McCain in Why We Fight

I saw the enlightening film Why We Fight when it came out a few years ago. In this article filmmaker Eugene Jarecki describes his unsettling experience with McCain. The whole article including video from the film is worth a look. John McCain was featured prominently in my documentary film Why We Fight, which premiered at [...]

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What is sacrifice?

I’ve always been a bit of a romantic. As I’ve said in earlier posts, I really bought into the idealism of the founding of the U.S. You know the checks and balances that have been withered away over so many presidents who cared more about power than they did about the idea of America. Anyway [...]

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The Human Condition

Last night I watched the first part in the trilogy The Human Condition (Ningen no jōken). The Japanese film takes place in Manchuria during World War II and begins when an idealist writes a thesis on getting more productivity out of workers by treating them decently. He is sent to an ore mine in Manchuria [...]

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Georgian President has McCain’s Number

Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili on Wednesday called for John McCain and other American leaders to do more for Georgia in their response to the conflict in his country. “Yesterday, I heard Sen. McCain say, ‘We are all Georgians now,’” Saakashvili said on CNN’s American Morning. “Well, very nice, you know, very cheering for us to [...]

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We are the enemy

The widow of US anthrax victim Robert Stevens has called for US government compensation for her husband’s death. Maureen Stevens thanked the FBI for their investigation into Bruce Ivins, who killed himself last week after being told he was to be charged. But she said it was “shocking” that the army scientist had been able [...]

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Obama’s Foreign Policy

A good short article by Arianna Huffington. Republicans love to portray Obama as naïve when it comes to foreign policy. Let’s go to the scorecard. Iraq: Prime Minister Maliki just announced he supports Obama’s troop withdrawal plan. Afghanistan: Obama has long argued that Iraq has been a dangerous distraction from what should be the real [...]

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Happy Bastille Day!

I have this story of the time I went to Paris and I tried to find the Bastille only I was actually expecting to find the Bastille itself. I felt very stupid, but I have a friend who did the same thing so clearly it’s not that unusual. The confusion comes from the fact that [...]

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Naomi Wolf: Sex Crimes in the Whitehouse

I like how Naomi Wolf always takes a subject that the average American may think is far removed from themselves and puts that subject in a context that is recognizable. I had a sense of déjà vu when I saw the photos that emerged in 2004 from Abu Ghraib prison. Even as the Bush administration [...]

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Goodbye from the world’s biggest ass

This story has been well reported, so I don’t expect anyone reading this will be surprised, but I thought it might bring about a good topic for discussion and that is “is this guy psychotic or what?” Bush has said many times that history will vindicate him as a president. I just have to wonder [...]

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Iran Missile Photo Altered

Via the New York Times. As news spread across the world of Iran’s provocative missile tests, so did an image of four missiles heading skyward in unison. Unfortunately, it appeared to contain one too many missiles, a point that had not emerged before the photo appeared on the front pages of The Los Angeles Times, [...]

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Duck and Cover

In light of this morning’s Iran missile tests, I thought it might be interesting to look at this film from 1950 on how to survive an Atomic bomb. Amazing to think that a whole generation of kids grew up thinking an atomic threat was imminent. This film is scary. I mean that house that blows [...]

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It’s almost like they want us to leave or something

It’s encouraging to know that it is the Iraqis themselves who may end this war and thus control their own destiny. Think about every justification you have ever heard about the war from George Bush. Those justifications are tremendously hollow when the liberated people don’t want you there. Iraq will not accept any security agreement [...]

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Hitler Wax Replica Decapitated

A man has been arrested after tearing the head off a wax figure of Adolf Hitler at a newly opened branch of Madame Tussauds in Berlin. Police spokesman Bernhard Schodrowski said a security guard had been shoved aside by the attacker. “He tried to prevent the man from acting but failed. The suspect, from the [...]

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BBC Finds Missing Iraq Billions

Remember how we lost (literally) billions of dollars in Iraq? This needs to be read in full so I have posted it in full. The link to the article is here. A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq. For the first [...]

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