The People vs. the Profiteers via Digby: The trailer, unit number R-89, had been lying idle for two weeks, Conyers says, in temperatures that daily reached 120 degrees. “Inside, there were 15 human bodies,” he recalls. “A lot of liquid stuff had just seeped out. There were body parts on the floor: eyes, fingers. The [...]
Sylvia Poggioli’s latest series on NPR, Exploring the Status of Muslim Women in Europe, is excellent. One of the best reports I’ve come across on immigration, feminism and politics – let alone Muslim Women in Europe. Highly recommended.
The Chicago Reader quoted and paraphrased: From Adlai Stevenson to John Kerry, high-minded liberals have acted as if they were blind to the root feelings that feed the followers of politicians like Nixon and Bush. Instead, they alternate between expecting a fair fight on the issues (and getting swiftboated instead) and imagining that once people [...]
I stupidly watched a Soviet science-fiction movie from the mid 80s this morning. We don’t get to see very many in-depth expressions of such a vastly different political reality. Will Chinese movies ever shock American sensibilities? I don’t think so. My guess is that the American point-of-view is now so universal that no mass-market film [...]
A few times now, on television mostly but once on the local NPR station, KPCC, I’ve caught breathless promos for “special reports” on race, gender and the Democratic presidential hopefuls. Forty-three percent of all public school students are Hispanic and/or Black. Fifty-seven percent of college students are not men. When will we discuss race, gender [...]
Far From Heaven is the best Todd Haynes movie ever? I loved it. Beautiful, complicated and simple. Emotionally stirring and intellectually expansive. A Living Imitation of an Imitation of Life.
The Science of Sleep may be Michel Gondry’s best attempt at a movie, yet. For all of its trickery, it’s very honest. I wonder if the protagonist is a stand-in for the director? And if so, is Gondry conceding some vulnerability, suggesting his motives for constantly showing off – changing the subject.
A columnist unwittingly reports on her her paper’s news room, revealing its less-than-professional underbelly. Glenn Greenwald: Dowd is describing here the conversation that took place in her “office” – which happens to be the newsroom of The New York Times – between what are undoubtedly very Serious Journalists, including one who covers (said with whispered [...]
Bloomberg, via The San Jose Mercury News, has the tidiest summary of the subprime lending fiasco I’ve read yet. It’s full of great quotes. On the ripple effect: “The magnified losses caused by derivatives made it possible for a small number of defaulting subprime borrowers to freeze world credit markets.” On the basic miscalculation, part [...]
Anthony Lewis, reviewing The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin: George W. Bush fit the conservative judicial campaign perfectly. As governor of Texas he indicated that judicial niceties were not at the top of his concerns. A study by the Chicago Tribune, published in June 2000, showed that he [...]
Matthew Yglesias: Trying to do a piece of extended drama that embodied the values of pragmatic progressive reformism would be impossible. The results, if serious and true to the spirit, would be deadly dull. Moderate optimism about human nature and the possibility for change is, if done in an entertaining way, the stuff of light [...]
Nathan Rabin: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: politics and good intentions have ruined more filmmakers than drugs and money combined. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. That goes double if the knowledge involved is political in nature.