31. May 2008 by admin.

I have an intense interest in what’s going on in the world and, most of the time, it makes me mad or depressed or both.  However, I spend a fair amount of my little spare time seeking out good laughs.

Here are some things that make me (or have made me) laugh. 

"The Worst Week of My Life" (TV Series on DVD): I’ve discussed this previously in this entry, Recommended TV shows you might not have seen but should check out.  It is truly hilarious, if you like British humor.  It’s one of those shows where you think the embarrassment can’t get any worse, and then it does.  There are 3 series, each one detailing a different week in the life of this couple–the first, their impending marriage, the second,  Christmas holiday, and the third, the wife’s grandmother’s funeral.

For example, the male lead is having dinner at his fiance’s parents’ house. His future mother-in-law is not a great cook and he finds her lamb inedible.  So, instead of eating the lamb, he puts the pieces in his coat pocket.  The family dog keeps harassing him to get the lamb from his pocket, so he excuses himself to go to the bathroom, where he will flush the lamb pieces down the toilet.  Of course, the toilet stops working, so he has to scoop the lamb pieces out of the bowl–this is the point where his future father-in-law walks in to see him scooping things out of the toilet and making God-knows-what assumptions about the man’s bathroom habits; he hastily departs.  So the hapless man decides instead to fling  the lamb pieces out of the bathroom window. Unbeknownest to him, the family eating dinner below, hears thumps hitting the greenhouse roof, and see unidentified things hitting the glass roof, with the future father-in-law putting  2 and 2 together and realizing his future son-in-law is flinging things from the bathroom above the greenhouse.  This is just one example of what goes on. Wikipedia entry:

"30 Rock": I’m assuming most of you have seen this–if you haven’t, it’s very funny.  Alec Baldwin, in particular, is outstanding.  Start with the beginning of Season 1.

"Absolutely Fabulous": Another very funny British series, though some episodes are better than others.  This is a series about two middle-aged women who are decadent and aimless, but manage to turn it into an art form.  The two female leads are both really good–Jennifer Saunders & Joanna Lumley, with one of them, Patsy, being the female Keith Richards.  The supporting cast are all very good as well. Wikipedia entry:  absolutely fabulous

"Class", a book by Paul Fussell: This is one of the 5 funniest books I’ve ever read. Period. It may not strike you the same way it struck me, but I bet it will. It’s a book about the class system in the U.S., and how to tell which class someone belongs to me, based on what they wear, the type of house they live in, car they drive, etc.

"A Confederacy of Dunces", a book by John Kennedy Toole. The story about how the book was discovered and published is almost as good as the book itself: Toole wrote this book, failed repeatedly to get it published, and committed suicide. His mother took up the cause, refusing to accept rejection. She was able to get a copy to the famous author, Walker Percy. He read the first page or two, and knew it was a brilliant book.  He made sure it got published and it went on to win the National Book Award, among many others.  It is another one of the 5 funniest books I’ve ever  read.  Wikipedia entry.  It’s about Ignatius Reilly, a bed-bound, highly flatulent perpetual grad student who lives with his mother, and writes long and furious essays railing against the modern evils of Doris Day and Greyhound SceniCruisers.  If you can get through this book without laughing hard…

"Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris.  This is a collection of essays which purport to recount events in Sedaris’ life. I don’t know if they really happened or happened but were heavily embellished, or never happened.  In many ways, it doesn’t really matter–a number of these essays are really funny, including esp. his recounting of taking French lessons and some of his childhood family memories.  His new book is about to come out.

I’ll add more later.

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29. May 2008 by admin.

There’s a great site, called "Opensecrets.org", that details which candidate receives how much from whom. Interestingly, though most of the top 20 contributing industries are substantially the same, it doesn’t appear that the Oil & Gas industry is in the to 20 for the Democrats, as it is for Mcain.

Here’s a breakdown of what Obama has received so far by industry:

Here’s a breakdown of what Clinton has received so far by industry (not terribly different from what Obama is getting):

And, finally, the Mahatma Gandhi of the Far Right, John McCain:

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29. May 2008 by admin.

From his book, "On Power and Ideology", is a quotation from Chomsky that I think sums up the problem I see with effective debate on issues in our country: The range of what is possible to discuss is limited by a set of assumptions that are never questioned.  Here’s the quote from Chomsky, which says it much better: 

"One of the most effective devices is to encourage debate, but within a system of unspoken presuppositions that incorporate the basic principles of doctrinal systems.  These principles are therefore removed from inspection; they become the framework for thinkable thought, not objects of rational consideration."

On Power and Ideology: The Managua Lectures by Noam Chomsky Read more about this book…

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29. May 2008 by admin.

If you haven’t heard the recent "Winter Soldier" testimonies either at a special meeting in Washington, D.C., or in front of Congress last week, you owe it yourself to hear from these veterans firsthand what they have and are going through.  It’s one thing to hear propaganda from the government or from FoxNews or CNN about our soldiers; it’s quite another to hear the soldiers, many of them who have served several tours of duty and who have been honorably discharged, talking candidly about their experiences in Iraq.

These are not a few discontented, dishonorably discharged veterans who are speaking out. These are decorated, honorably discharged men and women who can no longer bear to remain silent about what they have witnessed and about what our government is doing to people in another country.

You can see a C-Span video of their testimony before Congress at Iraq war veterans’ testimony about their experiences in iraq & Afghanistan

My favorite lines from the "Matrix", lines which have come to symbolize everything the last 8 years of media neglect have wrought:  You have to decide in committing time to listening to the testimony…red pill or blue pill?

Morpheus: You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. (a red pill is shown in his other hand) You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. (Long pause; Neo begins to reach for the red pill) Remember — all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.

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29. May 2008 by admin.

President Bush has threatened to veto the education benefits our troops deserve. Help us pressure the Senate to override the President’s veto. Send an email to your Senators, and tell them to support our troops with a quality education now!

Click to send an email >>

Last week, the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of Senator Jim Webb’s New GI Bill by a 75 to 22 vote. The New GI Bill would help veterans keep up with skyrocketing tuition costs and pay for a quality education after they return from service.

Already, our WesPAC community has sent over 15,000 emails to our Senators, urging them to support the New GI Bill. However, there is still one roadblock that threatens to undo our progress and prevent our veterans from receiving the education benefits they deserve. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, and we are going to need a two-thirds majority in the Senate to override his veto.

Click here to help us build on our momentum. Email your Senators, and tell them to override the President’s veto against the New GI Bill now!

VoteVets, Brave New Films, and WesPAC have pushed for the New GI Bill with TV ads, op-eds in major newspapers, and online petitions for weeks. With pressure continuing to build on John McCain and President Bush to support the New GI Bill, our grassroots efforts have clearly paid off.

But we still need your help to overcome the last hurdle in providing our men and women in uniform with the tools they need to obtain a quality education.

Click here to join thousands of other WesPAC community members. Email your Senators, and tell them to override the President’s veto against the New GI Bill now!

Thank you for your support. Our troops have given everything that has been asked of them, and together we can ensure that their service is honored when they come home.

Sincerely,

Wes Clark

P.S. The more people we can get to email their Senators in favor of the New GI Bill, the louder our message will be in Washington. After you’ve contacted your Senators, click here to tell your friends and relatives to do the same!

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28. May 2008 by admin.

My wife and I watched a great PBS Frontline documentary which originally aired in January of this year, called "The Medicated Child".  This is a very good but also very scary documentary because it brings to light how many children in the U.S. are now being diangosed with bipolar disorder (a controversial diagnosis for children) and are prescribed–many as early as 4 years old–anti-psychotic & anti-anxiety drugs, some of which are kiddy substitutes for lithium. 

Think about this–children are growing up in the U.S. heavily medicated with mood-altering, even consciousness-altering drugs, not knowing what unaltered consciousness is like.  One boy who is a focus of the documentary, started on 4 of these heavy drugs when he was 4, and is still on them at 16. 

My two beefs with the documentary were: a)  how little focus it gave to the pharmaceutical industry’s push to have more children prescribed with heavy drugs formerly used only on adults (there is documentary evidence showing that when, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, big pharma decided to expand its markets for drugs to juveniles, there was a huge increase in the diagnosis of ADD, ADHD, and ultimately manic depression and bipolar disorder, and it should have been covered here); b) how rates of manic depression and bipolar disorder among juveniles compare with those of children in foreign countries.

If you get a chance, try to watch this documentary online at the following link–The Medicated Child (PBS Frontline).  I think you’ll find it, as I did, interesting, scary and depressing all at the same time. 

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28. May 2008 by admin.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s me, but I find the videos on this site pretty interesting, even though I could never have guessed that such a site (or the activities that it chronicles) would exist. 

The site is called "Japanese Bug Fights", and it chronicles life-or-death combat between various types of insects.  It’s like WWF for chitinous creatures.

What’s most fascinating is that these matches are not just put on by the people who run the site but also include user-submitted videos.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

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26. May 2008 by admin.

I was curious to find out what the most popular tattoos are for people who get tattoos.  Not because I want one, but because I’m fascinated by what images people would like enough to have them permanently embedded on their bodies.  I can hardly decide on artwork to hang on my wall, let alone images that I would want carved into my skin.

So, the most popular tattoos based on online research and tattooists in parlours are:

1. Star tattoos
2. Angel tattoos
3. Tribal tattoos, including Maori, Polynesian and Haida styles (I have never even heard  of Haida before–have you?)
4. Flower Tattoos
5. Celtic tattoos
6. Swallow tattoos
7. Butterfly tattoos
8. Kanji tattoos
9. Black & Gray tattoos (based on prison styles)
10. Lower Back tattoos, which aren’t really a particular style as much as a location.

I think someone should make a documentary about tattoos and why people get them, in particular why women get tattoos on their lower backs and choose to get tattoos of symbols that they can’t read without an interpreter.

Why would someone from, say, Idaho, who’s not a Pacific Islander and has no Pacific Islander ancestry, want to get a Maori tribal tattoo?  Nothing against Maoris, but where would someone whose ancestors all came from England or Germany or Ireland have ever come across Maori tribes and said "wow, I’ve got to get me one of those tattoos"?  Just curious…

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26. May 2008 by admin.

In an earlier Post, I talked about "2001" being one of favorite films. Recently, there was an event in Hollywood commemorating the 40th anniversary of the film’s release..  Participating in this event were Douglas Trumbull and Tom Hanks.  In this summary of the event, from Entertainment Weekly’s site, Douglas Trumbull, who did the special effects for the film, reveals some interesting facts about the film that may not have been disclosed before.  If you’re a big fan of the film–as I am–you may want to take a look.

2001: A Space Odyssey–secrets revealed

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25. May 2008 by admin.

This may not come as a shock to you: Best Buy reduces its customer base to 4 target customer profiles. Rather than regurgitate them for you, I’ll let Best Buy’s own slide deck speak for the company:

I don’t know how much Best Buy spent to arrive at this result, but it’s interesting that they were able to narrow it down to these 4. Further, ask yourself: does MY company have its markets embodied into profiles like Best Buy does, and, If not, shouldn’t it? I don’t know how Best Buy measures its success WITH these profiles vs. WITHOUT (how does it know that its increased sales are the result of having these profiles vs. one or many other factors?), but it certainly can’t hurt.

So…Are you a Ray, Barry, Maria or Helen type?

The rest of this very interesting profiling deck can be found at http://consumerist.com/photogallery/bestbuylifestyles/

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25. May 2008 by admin.

When I published the previous entry, somehow one of the 4 target profiles got left out. So, here it is.

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25. May 2008 by admin.

In January of this year, I finally bought a game console.  Over the years, I worked with games publishers while running a large developer program, and have followed the space closely because of my interest in the creative application of computer graphics.  However, until recently, I didn’t feel a real need to have a games console or play games on the PC.

I broke down and bought an Xbox 360, which I run through my Pioneer Elite 50" Plasma.  It rocks on the big screen.  While I’m still not a rabid gamer, I do enjoy a few genres and titles, which I will share with you.  Why did I buy an Xbox 360, you might ask, instead of a PlayStation 3 or Wii?  A couple of reasons: a) while the Playstation 3 comes with blu-ray, which, in itself pays for the cost of the console, I will be shortly setting up a home theater PC which has a blu-ray DVD-Rom drive included, so that’s not a motivation; b) there are more titles written for the Xbox 360 than the PS 3, and c) the Xbox 360 was cheaper and came bundled with games that I wanted (Forza and Marvel Ultimate Alliance) or thought I wanted.  What the Xbox 360 doesn’t include that would have been very useful: WiFi, Blu-ray, HDMI output without having to buy extra cables.

Some games that I like:

1. Burnout: Paradise.  This delivers a great catharsis from daily work life.  You drive through immersive environments and purposely knock other cars off the road and destroy things around you without fear of legal consequences.  The graphics are very detailed and realistic, and, in the case of Paradise, don’t require periodic reloading of environments to the extent that other games do.  The full city environment is loaded at the beginning, and as you drive around (which you can do without actually getting into any races or events), you get the feeling of having a persistent world around you that exists wherever you go.  The ‘road rage’ events are especially interesting and get more difficult over time. 

You would think that driving using a joystick is unnatural and more difficult than driving with a steering wheel, but, actually, quite the opposite is true.  In fact, after a while, I bought a steering wheel for the Xbox and found that I didn’t like it as much as the wireless controller. 

Highly recommended.

2. Dead or Alive 4:  This is a great martial arts fighting game with great graphics.  Each martial artist has her/his own look and fighting style (Kung Fu, Wu Shu, Jeet Kune Do, Karate, etc.), and the environments in which they fight are very well done.  There are several different playing modes (one on one combat, timed matches, facing serial combat with one opponent after the other in sudden death mode) all of which are engaging. Finally, there is no blood-and-guts.  Though the game is about martial arts fights, there is no breaking of limbs, blood, or death.

By the way, if you have a console and don’t know about this: Gamestop, which is just about everywhere, has used console games for sale.  You can buy these games at fairly decent discounts off of the price for new copies, and Gamestop will refund you your money if the discs are defective when bought used. I have yet to buy a disc there that was defective.

I’ll mention some other games as well as how you can use your console as a media player (videos, photos, etc.) in a future posting.

Tags: xbox 360, playstation 3, gamestop, Burnout Paradise, Dead or Alive 4, blu-ray

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24. May 2008 by admin.

This car, which will cost around $200,000, is a V8-powered Ferrari with a retractable hardtop, that will come out in 2009. It is beautiful, no? For the target audience, paying $7 a gallon to fill up a car that only gets 15 MPG won’t be a problem, I suppose. Feast your eyes on this…

By the way, I get most of my new car news from The Torque Report, a great car blog.

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24. May 2008 by admin.

When the ‘Smart’ micro-compact car comes up in conversation, and it has several times recently—there are always questions raised about how such a small car can be safe enough to drive. Aside from the fact that it’s widely used in Europe where the safety standards are fairly high, it has also done very well in NHTSA safety tests, as shown here: Results of NHTSA ‘Smart’ Car safety testing.

Here’s a picture of the Smart, where you see everywhere in France, at least. It’s so compact, you can park it perpendicular to the street!

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24. May 2008 by admin.

Though I’m not a metrosexual (I spend only $20 a year on grooming products, so am automatically disqualified), I do appreciate well-designed things when I see them. This chaise lounge is pretty cool looking. It’s designed by a guy named Nolen Niu. You can see it here: Nolen Niu chaise lounge .

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24. May 2008 by admin.

One of the many magazines I read each month, TWICE (which stands for This Week In Consumer Electronics),

routinely lists the top consumer electronics "CE" retailers. In looking at the latest list, I was struck by how much

this has changed from the past, e.g. no Compusa, Good Guys, etc..

Here are the top 10 for 2007:

10. Sears

9. RadioShack (not surprising)

8. Apple Stores

7. GameStop (this was a surprise)

6. CostCo

5. Target (!)

4. Dell

3. Circuit City (not surprising)

2. Wal-Mart

1. Best Buy

Tags: RadioShack, Sears, Apple, GameStop, CostCo, Target, Dell, Circuit city, Best buy

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24. May 2008 by admin.

If you’re thinking about buying a personal navigation device with GPS, like the one I recommended–

the TomTom Go 920, which I bought before my trip to France–you might also want to check

out the Uniden Maptrax RD 438.  This one comes with an integrated radar detector, so you

not only get told where to go, but also how likely it is you’ll get nailed for speeding if  you’re

getting there too fast.  I have friends (you know who you are) who always drive 75MPH,

so this would be a godsend for them.

Amazon.com Widgets

Tags: Uniden, Maptrax, TomTom  GPS, PND

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23. May 2008 by admin.

Okay, if you read any of my DVD reviews, you’ve got to wonder how well or badly my tastes might be aligned with yours.

The only way to get a better sense for that–other than by watching some of the movies I recommend and finding out whether

or not you like them–is to see a list of what I consider great films and see if any of them resonate as much with you.

So, here are my favorite films. If you haven’t seen some of them, they might be worth checking out.

I must stress that these are not in any kind of order.  I have seen thousands ((I don’t exaggerate) of movies in my life,

and I couldn’t begin to prioritize my favorite films.  It’s hard enough to list them at all.

1. "2001: A Space Odyssey".  Kubrick, one of my two favorite directors (the  other is Sidney Lumet), directed this.  It’s the

only film I’ve ever seen that truly and completely takes you on an alpha-omega journey.  Plus, if you’ve ever read "The Sentinel", the short

story by Arthur C. Clarke that ‘2001′ is based on (keep in mind, Clarke didn’t write the novel version of "2001: A Space Odyssey"

until after he and Kubrick had written the script for the movie), and you compare it to how the movie was ultimately visualized,

it’s a stunning evolution. 

The film has one of the best edits of all time–after the ape throws the bone up in the air and it comes down and changes into a

space shuttle taking people from Earth to an orbiting satellite, all set to the music of Strauss. There’s not much I can say about

2001 that Pauline Kael or others haven’t said much better.

2.  "Network".  This film, directed by Sidney Lumet, and with a script written by Paddy Chayefsky (one of the all-time great screenwriters), is brilliant from beginning to end.  Starring in the film are William Holden (his last and maybe best performance), Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway (certainly her best performance for which she won Best Actress), Beatrice Straight (who won an Oscar for a five minute performance), and Peter Finch (who won the Best Actor award posthumously) as the mad (and I don’t mean lost-his-temper mad) news anchor Howard Beale. 

To say that this movie presciently captured the advent of reality television, the eventual conversion of network news to entertainment a la Fox Broadcasting, the centralization of mass media into ownership by a handful of major conglomerates is to capture only part of the film’s mastery.

Here are few scenes that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I see them–they’re that good: 1) when William Holden tells his wife of 20+ years that he’s leaving her for his co-worker, Faye Dunaway–it looks and sounds like a real event and is shatteringly emotional; 2) when Holden breaks up with his girlfriend, Faye Dunaway–a great soliloquoy by Holden, which easily could have backfired if it hadn’t been so well acted, scripted and directed; 3) when network executives are sitting down with terrorists and CAA agents in a house in LA, negotiating rights for a reality TV series (keep in mind this was in 1976, fully 25 years or so before reality TV really hit), and having an argument over residuals; 4) Ned Beatty as the network executive explaining the new world order to the crazy anchorman [this is only an extract]:

There are no nations. There are no peoples.
There are no Russians. There are no Arabs.
There are no Third Worlds. There is no West.
There is only one holistic system of systems!
One vast and immense, interwoven, interacting, multi-variant, multinational dominion of dollars!

This is a great film.  Watch it if you haven’t seen it.

3.  "Pulp Fiction": This is a film that polarizes people like almost no other that I know of.  There are the people (like me) who love it and there are other people who can’t stand it.  I don’t know of anyone who has mild feelings about it.  Now, I’m not saying that the film is brilliant from beginning to end or that there aren’t parts that could be edited, because there are.  Nor am I saying that all the performances are great–Bruce Willis’ girlfriend in the film really annoys me.  However, the parts that are great more than make up for the parts that aren’t, and the out-of-order narrative really works and makes several points on a meta-level which are fairly profound.  This, like 2001, was a film that changed the rules for films that followed it, and yet has never been duplicated or exceeded in what it excelled at.

4. "Lion In Winter": Two of the best actors to ever live, Katherine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole give two amazing performances in a great film.  Katherine as Eleanor of Acquitaine, and O’Toole as King Henry II, with a young Anthony Hopkins playing Henry’s son.  This isn’t a film with lots of action; but, if you want to see two actors at the top of their games with a script that does them justice, see this film.

5. "Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense": This film unlike any other or live performance I’ve seen made me sad that I would never be a major live performer on stage in front of lots of people, because it captured–for me–the joy of coming together with other people to be more than a group of individuals.  The film is considered one of the best concert films ever done.  It was directed by Jonathan Demme. 

The film captures the Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense tour. It starts out with the lead singer and songwriter, David Byrne alone on stage with a boombox and guitar, and each song adds another performer and another piece of stage equipment, until, finally, the whole group is assembled for ‘Slippery People’.

There are some groups I’ve seen in concert films whose music I loved more than Talking Heads, but I’ve not seen a better capturing of a musical performance on film.

6. "Full Metal Jacket": Another Kubrick film. The first 2/3 of this film are especially amazing.  The first segment in basic training camp, is so good it’s hypnotic.  I have rarely seen more communicated by the camera to the viewer without dialog than is done here (2001 may be one example that accomplishes the feat better.  The marine sergeant in the film was an actual former marine sergeant in the military.  He went on to act in other films.

7. "Fight Club": A great script, perfect for the first 30 minutes especially.  A plot that never gets dull or ceases to surprise.  A great group of actors–certainly Brad Pitt’s and Helena Bonham Carter’s best roles, and one of Ed Norton’s best, not to mention a great supporting cast–Meatloaf, Jared Leto, etc.  Finally, a great direction job by David Fincher–much better than "Se7en".  What else needs to be said?

8.  "Pink Panther" films:  one of the greatest comedians to act in films, Peter Sellers, playing a character, Chief Inspector Jacques Closeau,  that he and Blake Edwards tailor made to show off Sellers’ talents.  There are some parts of these films that I cannot see (no matter how many times I’ve seen them) without laughing hard–"Do you have a license for your monkey", "Butler: That was a priceless Steinway!  Closeau: Not anymore.", the scene where Closeau has disguised himself as a sea captain and has an inflatable parrot on his shoulder that has sprung a leak; he has to keep inflating it by pumping his arm against his side–I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it, etc.

9.  "Paper Moon": The greatest film by Peter Bogdanovich filmed in beautiful black and white, and starring 3 great actors (at least great in this movie): Ryan O’Neal, who deserved a Best Actor award for this part, Tatum O’Neal, who deserved and received a best actress award for her role (she was the youngest actor ever to get an academy award), and Madeline Kahn, who also played memorable parts in such Mel Brooks films as "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein".  Incredible cinematography that convinced you you were in the Great Depression watching events as they unfolded.

10.  "Unforgiven": Maybe the best western that has ever been done.  People may argue and say that some of Sergio Leone’s films were better or John Huston’s films with John Wayne were better.  It’s a tough call, but I think that Eastwood really nailed not only the spirit of Westeerns but the whole American ethos with this film. 

    There’s one scene, where he talks about killing someone:  "When you kill a man, you rob him of everything that he has, and everything he’s ever gonna have."  That’s a great line and not just a great line: it’s a statement about America’s martial spirit.  The shot of William Munny, Eastwood’s character, as he says this line is searing and unforgettable. 

I think it’s the greatest film of its genre, and certainly the best film directed by Eastwood.

11. "Dr. Strangelove": I don’t have to say much about this one–another Kubrick film and one of the greatest political satires/comedies ever created.

I will do another list sometime soon to finish off my top films.  This should give you some idea of how to calibrate your preferences relative to mine, though.

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23. May 2008 by admin.

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23. May 2008 by admin.

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23. May 2008 by admin.

This is a great article from Rolling Stone magazine (one of the few really good magazines for commentary on American Politics that doesn’t just rely on White House press releases) about the man who the Pentagon turns to to market wars to the American people. Please read this article when you get a chance.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/8798997/the_man_who_sold_the_war

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22. May 2008 by admin.

This is a great video–not sure it would make me want to buy a Honda as a result of watching it, but very cool.

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22. May 2008 by admin.

If you want a good laugh, check this out.  You probably should see the original if you haven’t already before watching this ‘remix’.

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22. May 2008 by admin.

Here are some TV shows I think are pretty good. If you get a chance, check them out–they should all be on DVD at this point. 1. "The IT crowd": This is a British series about people who work in the IT Department at a company in the UK. It’s pretty funny, and the three leads are all very good. One example of the show’s humor: the lead woman in the show is a smoker. She and the other smokers (who are all Russian) are increasingly exiled further and further from the building in which they work. This whole sequence about her smoking is presented as a bleak foreign film–pretty funny on a couple of levels. You can find it at Amazon or Netflix for rent.

2. "In Treatment": This show, which ran every week night for months on HBO, tracks 4 indivduals and one couple through a weekly therapy session.  There are several outstanding performances in the show, I think, including Gabriel Byrne as the psychotherapist, a young woman who plays a teenage gymnast who purposely caused herself to be in an auto accident months before Olympic tryouts, and Blair Underwood as a navy pilot who is having issues after having bombed people in Iraq.

Each episode is 30 minutes long and the episodes are generally very well written and directed.

3. "The Worst Week of My Life": Another British series, the first 6 episodes of which have to be some of the funniest TV I have seen in a long time. There are 3 6 episode seasons (each season is called a ’series’ in Britain), and the first details an about-to-be-married couple’s preparations for their wedding.  Everything that can go wrong does, but in ways that are so excruciatingly embarrassing for the couple and esp. the man, that you almost can’t bear to watch. 

Very funny.  The second and third series are also very funny (esp. compared to most American sit-coms), but don’t match the first series.  You definitely need to watch this.

4. "Carrier": A PBS series about life on the state-of-the-art Nimitz Aircraft Carrier, a floating city.  Though the naval personnel aren’t always that interesting individually, learning about what life is like onboard such an amazing ship is certainly interesting.

I think you can watch the whole series streaming off of the PBS website.

"The IT Crowd" and "Worst Week" are available on DVD for purchase and rental; "In Treatment" hasn’t yet been released on DVD but soon will be.

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22. May 2008 by admin.

Here are some DVDs that were a waste of my time and probably yours, too:

1. "Lions for Lambs": A serious political film that purports to examine the issues underlying our current foreign policy with respect to Iraq.  Meryl Streep gives the worst performance I can remember in the last 10 years.  Robert Redford acts stilted and looks like he’s on drugs (perhaps it’s his botox injections or face-lift), and the dialog he gives himself (he’s also the director) sounds like it came out of a college freshman’s writing class.  To cap it off, Tom Cruise delivers the coup de grace in the acting department, playing a self-satisfied super-patriotic senator, who has come up with a new strategy for winning the war in Iraq.

I left the film thinking that it failed on all accounts: despite trying to be a film like (the much-better) "Syriana" or "Traffic", that asks penetrating questions about our place in the world and delivers performances that infuse these questions with poignancy, it wound up taking rote Q&A dialog and trying to elevate it to a higher plane than it , the script, deserved.

See "Syriana", "Traffic" or "Babel".

2. "Sleuth" (the 2007 remake): At first blush, this film, directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Michael Caine–who was also in the original, but playing the other lead role–and Jude Law, seems like a ‘can’t-miss’ line-up.  If you thought that, you’d be wrong.  Caine does okay, but Law looks like he’s a couple of testosterone shots short of qualifying as male; I know women, including my wife, find Law to be irresistible, but here he seems like a real ponce.

The set design of Caine’s designer home is so bad, so distractingly awful,  that I spent most of the time, during the scenes set there, marvelling at how anybody could/would want to live in such a trainwreck of a contemporary super-upscale house.  It looks like it was designed by art-school grads who had suffered macular degeneration.

Finally, you walk away from the movie saying "I spent hours of my life on this?"

Watch the original with Olivier and Caine.

3. "Brothers Solomon": A ‘comedy’ (I put this in quotes because that’s what it claims to be, but doesn’t turn out that way) with two funny guys who manage not to be funny in this movie: Will Arnett (from "Blades of Glory", "30 Rock", etc.)  and Will Forte (from "Saturday Night Live") are brothers who want to find women to impregnate so they can give their comatose father a grandchild. Now you might blame me (probably rightly) for watching this piece of  crap film in the first place and say, "Joe, it doesn’t even SOUND like a good film in the first place, and I haven’t even watched it yet".  To this I would say, "it had good comedians including the two I mentioned and Jenna Fischer from ‘The Office’ tv series, and was directed by a writer for ‘The Simpsons’"–surely it could have had some decent scenes and laughs?"

Anyway, it’s bad–real bad. We’ve already spent too much time writing about it and reading about it.

4. "Suburban Girl": This would be a watchable movie with someone other than Sarah Michelle Gellar (she played Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the TV series).  However, she is not a good actress in my opinion and, to top it off, she had a bad nose job, which is almost as big a distraction as the set design in Michael Caine’s house in "Sleuth" (see above review of "Sleuth").  Alec Baldwin, who’s never bad in anything–he could make a cough syrup commercial compelling–does all he can here, but it’s not enough to save the picture from Gellar.

Rejoice in the time I’m saving you and see some good movies…

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22. May 2008 by admin.

Here are some more DVDs I recommend:

1. "Atonement": Many of you have probably already seen this film either in theaters or on DVD.  If you haven’t, you should.  The main reason is the cinematography.  The director of photography on this film, Seamus McGarvey, does an outstanding job. 

The acting is solid, esp. two of the lesser roles in the film, Romola Garai, who plays the grown-up sister of Keira Knightley’s role, and Lynn Redgrave, who plays an even older version of Keira Knightley’s sister.  The editing and script could be better. 

As a big fan of David Lean’s cinematographer, Freddie Young, I have to say that McGarvey comes close to matching the heights achieved by Young in Lawrence of Arabia.  Simply stunning film visually.

2. "Jesus Camp": A documentary about a camp for fundamentalist Christian children.  The woman who runs the camp likens her philosophy to that of Muslims who train children to become suicide bombers;  her viewpoint is, ‘if Muslims can be inspired to be that zealous in their beliefs, why shouldn’t we inspire equal zealousness in our children’?

Very interesting view on what some kids do on their Summer Vacations.

3.  "Nine Queens": An Argentinian film, since re-made (not nearly as well-done) in the U.S., that is like a David Mamet heist-within-a-heist story.  Very well-done and entertaining as long as you don’t mind sub-titles.

4. "DiG": A documentary chronicling two bands, "The Dandy Warhols" and "The Brian Jonestown Massacre" from their initiation to one of the band’s ultimate success and the other’s plunge into obscurity.  The leaders of both bands are considered by many as the ‘ next big things’ in popular music. The story of how they fulfill or don’t fulfill these expectations over 7 years was very interesting, at least to me.  I am now a big fan of the Dandy Warhols, and became introduced to them through this documentary.

That’s all for now

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22. May 2008 by admin.

We can survive without oil. We can’t survive without drinking water.

Potable water supplies are growing smaller and it is increasingly likely

that we will have massive conflicts over drinking water at some point in the

not too distant future.  Already, there are severe droughts in the Atlanta area and others across

the U.S. Yet what attention do we see at a national level to addressing this problem, and

to figuring out how to make it rain in places that are suffering severe droughts?

Perhaps rather than competing to see who can be the poster-boy (or girl) for change,

our presidential candidates should worry about increasing the supply of potable water.

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22. May 2008 by admin.

Every time you watch a commercial DVD, one of the first things

you see is an FBI warning.  I really resent the idea that my

entertainment experience has to be marred by an FBI seal

and jail threat.  Imagine a generation of kids growing up

who will never have a home video experience that isn’t

accompanied by a warning from our Federal Government.

Why do we tolerate this?

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22. May 2008 by admin.

Good essay by Naomi Klein & Jeremy Scahill

www.naomiklein.org

Players, Not Cheerleaders

By Naomi Klein and Jeremy Scahill - March 26th, 2008

“So?”

So said Dick Cheney when asked last week about public opinion being overwhelming against the war in Iraq. “You can’t be blown off course by polls.”

His attitude about the the fact that the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq has reached 4,000 displayed similar levels of sympathy. They “voluntarily put on the uniform,” the Vice-President told ABC news. This brick wall of indifference helps explain the paradox in which we in the anti-war camp find ourselves five years into the occupation of Iraq: anti-war sentiment is as strong as ever, but our movement seems to be dwindling.

Sixty-four per cent of Americans tell pollsters they oppose the war, but you’d never know it from the thin turnout at recent anniversary rallies and vigils.

When asked why they aren’t expressing their anti-war opinions through the anti-war movement, many say they have simply lost faith in the power of protest. They marched against the war before it began, marched on the first, second and third anniversaries. And yet five years on, U.S. leaders are still shrugging: “So?”

There is no question that the Bush administration has proven impervious to public pressure. That’s why it’s time for the anti-war movement to change tactics. We should direct our energy where it can still have an impact: the leading Democratic contenders.

Many argue otherwise. They say that if we want to end the war, we should simply pick a candidate who is not John McCain and help them win: We’ll sort out the details after the Republicans are evicted from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Some of the most prominent anti-war voices–from MoveOn.org to the magazine we write for, The Nation–have gone this route, throwing their weight behind the Obama campaign.

This is a serious strategic mistake. It is during a hotly contested campaign that anti-war forces have the power to actually sway U. S. policy. As soon as we pick sides, we relegate ourselves to mere cheerleaders.

And when it comes to Iraq, there is little to cheer. Look past the rhetoric and it becomes clear that neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton has a real plan to end the occupation. They could, however, be forced to change their positions — thanks to the unique dynamics of the prolonged primary battle.

Despite the calls for Clinton to withdraw in the name of “unity,” it is the very fact that Clinton and Obama are still fighting it out, fiercely vying for votes, that presents the anti-war movement with its best pressure point. And our pressure is badly needed.

For the first time in 14 years, weapons manufacturers are donating more to Democrats than to Republicans. The Dems have received 52 percent of the defense industry’s political donations in this election cycle – up from a low of 32 per cent in 1996. That money is about shaping foreign policy, and so far, it appears to be well spent.

While Clinton and Obama denounce the war with great passion, they both have detailed plans to continue it. Both say they intend to maintain the massive Green Zone, including the monstrous U.S. embassy, and to retain U.S. control of the Baghdad Airport.

They will have a “strike force” to engage in counterterrorism, as well as trainers for the Iraqi military. Beyond these U.S. forces, the army of Green Zone diplomats will require heavily armed security details, which are currently provided by Blackwater and other private security companies. At present there are as many private contractors supporting the occupation as there are soldiers so these plans could mean tens of thousands of U. S. personnel entrenched for the future.

In sharp contrast to this downsized occupation is the unequivocal message coming from hundreds of soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq Veterans Against the War, who held the historic “Winter Soldier” hearings in Silver Spring, Md. earlier this month, are not supporting any candidate or party. Instead they are calling for immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. soldiers and contractors. Coming from peace activists, the “out now” position has been dismissed as naive. It is distinctly harder to ignore coming from hundreds who have served–and continue to serve–on the frontlines.

The candidates know that much of the passion fueling their campaigns flows from the desire among so many rank-and-file Democrats to end this disastrous war. It is this desire for change that has filled stadiums and campaign coffers.

Crucially, the candidates have already shown that they are vulnerable to pressure from the peace camp: When The Nation revealed that neither candidate was supporting legislation that would ban the use of Blackwater and other private security companies in Iraq, Clinton abruptly changed course. She became the most important U. S. political leader to endorse the ban, scoring a point on Obama, who opposed the invasion from the start.

This is exactly where we want the candidates: outdoing each other to prove how serious they are about ending the war. That kind of issue-based battle has the power to energize voters and break the cynicism that is threatening both campaigns.

Let’s remember: unlike the outgoing Bush Administration, these candidates need the support of the two-thirds of Americans who oppose the war in Iraq. If opinion transforms into action, they won’t be able to afford to say, “So?”

Posted in Politics & Current Events, Uncategorized | Print | 1 Comment »

21. May 2008 by admin.

Bacteria can be turned into living computers

This article appeared in the Telegraph Newspaper at Telegraph.co.uk
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/05/20/scibacteria120.xml

Last Updated: 1:01am BST 20/05/2008

Posted in "wow", electronics | Print | 1 Comment »

21. May 2008 by admin.

From the Telegraph Newspaper in the UK:

Home Office plans to create ‘Big brother’ database for phones calls, emails and web use

By Andy Bloxham

Last updated: 7:07 AM BST 20/05/2008

The Home Office will create a database to store the details of every phone call made, every email sent and every web page visited by British citizens in the previous year under plans currently under discussion, it has emerged.

The Government wants to create the system to fight terrorism and crime. The police and security services believe it will make it easier to access important data as communications become more complex.

Telecoms firms and internet service providers (ISPs) have already been approached by the Home Office, which would be given customer records if the plans were realised.

The security services and police would then be able to access records for any individual over the previous 12 months by gaining permission through the courts.

The plans will raise concern from data protection and civil liberty campaigners and fuel objections to the perceived rise of a “Big Brother” state. There will be worries about the Home Office’s ability to safeguard the data from loss or theft, after recent incidents such as when the child benefit information of every family in Britain with a child under 16 were mislaid.

There will also be doubts about its capacity to manage such a large volume of information. About 57 billion text messages were sent in Britain last year, while an estimated three billion emails are sent every day.

Since last October, telecoms companies have been required to keep records of phone calls and text messages for 12 months.

The plans are being considered for inclusion in the draft Communications Bill to be published later this year. They are at an early stage and have yet to be passed to ministers.

A Home Office spokesman said the move was needed to reflect changes in communication that would “increasingly undermine our current capabilities to obtain communications data and use it to protect the public”.

Story from Telegraph News:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1990999/Home-Office-plans-to-create-%27Big-brother%27-database-for-phones-calls%2C-emails-and-web-use.html

Posted in Politics & Current Events | Print | 2 Comments »

21. May 2008 by admin.

Welcome to the world of Robocup NanoSoccer. Nanotechnology will change the world, but
first it will result in nano-scopic soccer games…perhaps, eventually, nano-sports leagues?

Posted in "wow", technology, electronics | Print | No Comments »

21. May 2008 by admin.

There’s an interesting article in the June issue of Portfolio Magazine which discusses the emerging ‘brain sciences’ industry. The most interesting question that arises for me from this article is: at what point in altering our brain functions and chemistry, do we stop being human and start being post-human? Or, put another way, what mix of chemicals defines our humanity and what mix of chemicals defines our mutation into something else/less/more?

The other thing that was really interesting to me was the breakdown the article provided on the amounts of money currently spent worldwide on drugs to treat depression, anxiety and psychoses–approx. $65 Billion dollars. When you couple this with the separate statistic I heard in an interview that 14% of Americans (10% are women 4% are men) are prescribed at least one anti-depressant medication, you get the idea that keeping people happy and psychosis-free is big business.

Chart showing expenditures:

http://www.portfolio.com/graphics/2008/05/Where-the-Money-Is

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21. May 2008 by admin.

I just returned from 2 weeks in France–1 week in Paris and 1 week in Provence. I decided prior to the trip to buy a portable navigation device (commonly known in the biz as a “PND”), a TomTom Go 920 GPS device.

When I had read about these in the past, I thought ‘here’s another device I will have to carry around and worry about–I’ll just get a phone that has assisted-GPS instead’. However, after talking to someone who had bought one for a trip to Europe, and finding out that this particular TomTom has both North American and European maps pre-loaded, I decided to get one.

Let me tell you, it was worth it. Here’s what makes this device worthwhile: 1) voice recognition that really works pretty well–you can tell it the address you want directions to and it will tell you how to get there; 2) bluetooth–if you have a bluetooth-capable phone, you can make calls through it by synching it with your phone’s address book; 3) it always can tell you the nearest hospital/doctor/gas station/auto repair shop to where you are or at least one of them (if not every one); 4) it has a more accurate speedometer than your car does, since it relies upon actual distance/rate calculations based on the satellite fix it has; 5) you can download map modifications that other customers have input to the maps, so you get updates not only from TomTom but also from other people.

In France, the TomTom made our lives much easier. We never had to worry about getting lost and it knew exactly how to get us where we wanted to go.

The device cost me $368, but you can get it even cheaper now, since it’s being replaced by a newer model. I’m not sure that the newer model is worth the extra money, but the model replacing mine is the TomTom Go 930.

If your car already has navigation built-in, then you probably don’t need this. If you don’t have it built in, skip getting one in your next car (probably at least a $1000 option) and get this instead.

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21. May 2008 by admin.

Here are some more movie recommendations:

1. “My kid could paint that”: A real-life whodunnit involving a very young child prodigy abstract painter. The central question of the documentary is this: did the young girl actually paint the paintings she is getting acclaim for, or did her father paint them?

2. “Remember that Night Live at the Royal Albert Hall” (David Gilmour live): One of my favorite all-time musicians, David Gilmour, gives an amazing performance in this DVD chronicling his 2006 world tour. He is accompanied by Ray Manzarek from Roxy Music, Richard Wright (keyboardist from Pink Floyd), and joined for some songs by Crosby & Nash and by David Bowie.

His solo work is pretty good, but the highlights are his versions of classic Pink Floyd tunes. He performs my favorite song, “Echoes”, live for the first time in 20 years and it is stunning. When you see/hear him perform it, you’ll understand what an amazing accomplishment it is.

The camera work is great as is the audio mastering. If you can see it in Blu-ray, you should.

3. “Angel-A”: This film really worked for me. It’s a love story between an angel, played by former Supermodel Rie Rasmussen, and a man who is about to kill himself. It is directed by Luc Besson, the man behind “La Femme Nikita”, “Fifth Element” and “Leon the Professional”. You wouldn’t think that the guy who did those films could also pull off an interesting love story, but there you have it.

It is shot beautifully by Thierry Arbogast (the same cinematographer who did “Fifth Element”) in black and white. Not only is it a romantic fantasy but also an ode to Paris.

I was very pleasantly surprised by Rie Rasmussen’s performance. When I first saw her onscreen, I had no expectation that she would do as good a job acting as she did. Compare her performance here to any romantic comedy performance by Scarlett Johanssen, and see who you think comes out on top.

4. “The Hoax”: A very entertaining film with Richard Gere, based on a true story, about a reporter who faked a series of interviews with Howard Hughes. Well worth seeing.

5. “The Future We Will Create: The World inside of TED”: This is a documentary about the TED conference which takes place every year in Monterey. Aside from making me sick with envy of the people who get invited to attend this conference, the film was a very compelling insight into a diverse set of thinkers/artists/scientists. So much so, that I went to the TED site to download the full lectures that the film draws upon, so that I could watch them in their entirety. Very interesting and entertaining film because of the subject matter and not because of the talent of the film-makers per se.

You can access all of the TED lectures, many more than are covered in the DVD documentary, at www.TED.com. It’s worth checking out in its own right.

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21. May 2008 by admin.

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20. May 2008 by admin.

Another eye-opening interview from Democracy Now about

the increasing hunger in America.

April 02, 2008

Record Number of Food Stamp Recipients Projected

Government officials are projecting the number of Americans receiving food stamps will reach a record twenty-eight million later this year. Over the past year, more than forty states saw the number of food stamp recipients rise. A ten percent jump in food stamp recipients was recorded in six states: Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, North Dakota and Rhode Island. In West Virginia, one-in-six residents now receive food stamps. We speak with Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center. [includes rush transcript]

Guest:

Jim Weill, President of the Food Research and Action Center, or FRAC, a national anti-hunger public policy group based in Washington, D.C.

Related Links

• Food Research and Action Center

AMY GOODMAN: US government officials are projecting the number of Americans receiving food stamps will soon reach a record twenty-eight million. The number of food stamp recipients is quickly rising across the nation. Forty states reported an increase in food stamp recipients last year. The biggest increases were in Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, North Dakota and Rhode Island. In West Virginia, one-in-six residents now receive food stamps.

This comes as the price of food is soaring. Over the past year the price of milk in the US has risen 17 percent. Rice, pasta and bread prices have jumped over 12 percent. And the price of eggs has risen by 25 percent. It’s the highest grocery inflation since the early ’90s.

Jim Weill joins us now from Washington, D.C., president of Food Research and Action Center, known as FRAC, a national anti-hunger public policy group. What’s happening, Jim?
JIM WEILL: Well, two things are happening. One, people are losing jobs, their losing hours of work, their wages are going down, so they need more assistance from the government in the form of food stamps and other help. And two, food prices are rising faster than they have in many years, and they’re particularly rising for staples that low-income people buy. The government’s cost-of-living index for the Thrifty Food Plan, which is the cheapest food plan the government has, has risen one-and-a-quarter percent faster over the last year than the rapidly rising price of food generally. So the poor are facing a double whammy. Last week at an anti-hunger summit in Massachusetts, Governor Patrick compared it to Katrina in its effect on low-income families in this country.
AMY GOODMAN: I just learned about a new field of journalism. I was down speaking at Washington and Lee this past weekend in Lexington, Virginia, and there was a special meeting of the Society of Professional Journalists there, and one of the seminars was on poverty journalism, how to cover poverty in this country. They were talking particularly about places like West Virginia. West Virginia, one-in-six people there are on food stamps; in Ohio, one-in-ten?
JIM WEILL: Right. And according to the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, one-in-three children in Oklahoma has been on food stamps at least at some point during the last year. Often, people aren’t on for the entire year, but two, three or four months. One-in-three children in Oklahoma.
AMY GOODMAN: One-in-three kids?
JIM WEILL: That’s right.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about how food stamps work?
JIM WEILL: Sure. Food stamps are primarily paid for by the federal government, but you apply through a state food stamp or welfare agency. It’s an entitlement program, so the good news is that as economic conditions can get worse, the program can grow to meet the needs of the additional families that fall into poverty or near poverty. You have to meet a very strict asset test and very strict income test. Those tests in some ways are much too strict, haven’t been changed in thirty years for inflation on the assets side. But once you’re eligible, and we’re now approaching twenty-eight million people who are eligible in this country—or who are receiving benefits—there are far more who are eligible, but not receiving it—once you get benefits, benefits average about $100 a month per person in the family. Those benefits are too small. Everybody agrees that they’re too small. And there’s legislation pending in Congress to improve them a little bit—not enough—in the nutrition title of the Farm Bill. One of the important things Congress has to do this month is get that nutrition title of that Farm Bill passed.
AMY GOODMAN: And what exactly does the Farm Bill say?
JIM WEILL: It improves benefits a little bit by changing the so-called standard deduction, which is part of how you compute benefits, and improving the minimum benefit that hasn’t gone up in a long time, and it makes eligibility a little easier for working families and other—low-income working families and others to get into the program. So it’s a big program, and it costs money to fix the problems with it. And the President has threatened to veto the bill because of the possibility of spending more money on the Farm Bill. But we really need to do this now.
AMY GOODMAN: What is the second stimulus package you’re calling for, Jim Weill?
JIM WEILL: Well, in the first stimulus package, which did some good things—it provided the tax rebate, including to families with very low or little or no tax liability; it provides them a rebate if they have earnings—the first rebate package did some good things, but it didn’t have any improvements in unemployment compensation, and it didn’t have any boost in food stamps, even though the economists and leaders on the Hill and former Treasury Secretary Rubin and Republican economists like Martin Feldstein and Ben Bernanke have all said that the two best ways to stimulate the economy, to move money into the economy quickly and to do good for people who are hurting the most, would be to boost food stamp benefits on a temporary basis and to improve unemployment insurance coverage.
So there is a second stimulus package probably moving through Congress in the next few weeks, and the two most fundamental things that has to do is tackle food stamps and unemployment compensation.
AMY GOODMAN: And the purchasing power of food stamps, what is the average? Something like $1 or $1.07 per person per meal?
JIM WEILL: Right. The average benefit is about $1 per meal per person in the family, which is not enough—it’s not enough to stave off hunger and certainly not enough to buy a healthy diet. One of the things to think about when we have these inadequate benefits in the food stamp program, which mostly goes to kids, is we’re not getting kids enough healthy food so that they can do well in school, so that they can develop, so they can stay healthy, so they can learn. So it’s really self-defeating to have benefit levels that are that low.
AMY GOODMAN: What’s causing the rise in food prices?
JIM WEILL: A variety of factors: more demand for food from overseas, India and China, as more people move into the middle class; competition for crops from biofuels—corn—a lot of corn is being bought up for use as fuel. Those are the two main factors people have pointed to.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Jim Weill, I want to thank you very much for being with us. Jim is president of the Food Research and Action Center, known as FRAC, a national anti-hunger public policy group based in Washington, D.C. We’ll certainly link to your website.

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20. May 2008 by admin.

Another highly recommended DVD–

“The End of Suburbia”. This is a documentary

about how our oil-dependent lifestyles are about to change

for obvious reasons. It talks about the evolution of American

society based on the assumption that oil would always be plentiful

and fairly inexpensive, including the heavy dependence of agriculture

on petroleum-based products.

I think you will find this documentary worth your time.

Posted in Recommended DVDs | Print | 1 Comment »

20. May 2008 by admin.

If someone made this stuff up, it wouldn’t be considered realistic enough for a novel.

Remember that the most Anti-Western Muslims around are in Saudi Arabia, and that

virtually all of the bombers on 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia. This is from DemocracyNow.Org:

May 20, 2008

As US Threatens Iran Over Enriching Uranium, Bush Promises to Give Enriched Uranium to Saudi Arabia

The Bush administration has pledged to support Saudi Arabia’s nuclear power program, including supplying enriched uranium for nuclear reactors. The agreement came out of President Bush’s visit to the Saudi kingdom last week, during which Bush also pledged new US assistance in guarding Saudi oil reserves. [includes rush transcript]

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Guest:

Harvey Wasserman, one of the founders of the grassroots movement against nuclear power. He is senior editor of the Ohio-based freepress.org and the editor of nukefree.org.

Rush Transcript

This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
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AMY GOODMAN: We turn from cluster bombs to what could be a major development in nuclear proliferation worldwide: the Bush administration pledging to support Saudi Arabia’s nuclear power program, including supplying enriched uranium for nuclear reactors. The agreement came out of President Bush’s visit to the Saudi kingdom last week, during which Bush also pledged new US assistance in guarding Saudi oil reserves.

In a statement, the White House said the deal “will pave the way for Saudi Arabia’s access to safe, reliable fuel sources for energy reactors and demonstrate Saudi leadership as a positive non-proliferation model for the region.” But questions are being raised about the agreement at a time when the Bush administration continues to threaten military action over Iran’s nuclear program.
Harvey Wasserman joins us now, one of the founders of the grassroots movement against nuclear power, senior editor of the Ohio-based freepress.org and editor of nukefree.org, joining us on the phone from Columbus, Ohio.
Harvey Wasserman, what’s going on here?
HARVEY WASSERMAN: You know, I’d like to know the insane asylum in which this policy was concocted. The idea of giving enriched uranium to the Saudis while threatening war with the Iranians for enriching uranium is astonishing. The idea that the Saudis are going to somehow lower the price of oil on the basis of possibly getting nuclear reactors in the future is just almost staggering to think about. It’s something, I guess, we’ve come to expect with the Bush administration.
But the nuclear power industry is trying desperately to spread itself all over the world, and we have proliferation problems. As you may recall, the Clinton administration cut a deal with the North Koreans to build a reactor there, and of course now suddenly, when Bush comes in, they’re a nuclear threat. We have to put this in perspective. We have to remember that when the Shah was in power in Iran so many years ago, he was in the process of buying thirty-six reactors, and had those reactors been completed before he fell to the Ayatollah, Iran would now have thirty-six reactors. So what the Bush administration is telling us is that this current Saudi government is always going to be in power and it’s perfectly fine for them to have nuclear reactors. We know that India and Pakistan built—both built nuclear weapons from their commercial atomic power programs, as perhaps did South Africa. And it’s just almost staggering to think about this prospect.
AMY GOODMAN: How much attention is being paid to this in the anti-nuclear community?
HARVEY WASSERMAN: Well, at this point, there’s not much we can do. We can protest. The idea of sending them enriched uranium is going to raise the price of uranium for atomic reactors here in the United States. Much of this uranium is mined on Native lands, where lung cancer and environmental—general environmental damage is rampant. Water issues, air pollution issues, all of them arise when uranium is mined and milled. There’s only one enrichment facility in the United States, in Paducah, Kentucky, that’s operating now. The impracticalities of this are amazing.
The Saudis do not currently have an operating commercial reactor. If they do build one, it’s not going to come from the United States. It will probably come from France or Japan. And, you know, it’s just hard to fathom. It is such an irrational idea that it almost boggles the mind, in terms of trying to critique it. But suffice to say, it makes no sense whatsoever. Oil is not a major currency when it comes to generating electricity, and nuclear power plants only generate electricity. So this is just some kind of Alice in Wonderland program that is typical of the Bush administration, particularly on nuclear power policies.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Harvey Wasserman, thank you for joining us. Harvey Wasserman is head of freepress.org, one of the leaders of the grassroots movement against nuclear power, also editor of nukefree.org.

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20. May 2008 by admin.

There are a number of very smart people I know who label

themselves ‘libertarian’. I’ve always been skeptical about this political ideology,

but was never able to articulate it as well as Chomsky does below. I got this

from a blog called ‘The Distant Ocean’.

Chomsky on libertarianism and Murray Rothbard

Since it’s relevant in the context of that last posting, here’s one of my favorite selections from Understanding Power, in which Noam Chomsky discusses the difference between libertarianism and anarchism and comments on the world envisioned by Murray Rothbard:
_____________________________

Man: What’s the difference between “libertarian” and “anarchist,” exactly?

Chomsky: There’s no difference, really. I think they’re the same thing. But you see, “libertarian” has a special meaning in the United States. The United States is off the spectrum of the main tradition in this respect: what’s called “libertarianism” here is unbridled capitalism. Now, that’s always been opposed in the European libertarian tradition, where every anarchist has been a socialist—because the point is, if you have unbridled capitalism, you have all kinds of authority: you have extreme authority.

If capital is privately controlled, then people are going to have to rent themselves in order to survive. Now, you can say, “they rent themselves freely, it’s a free contract”—but that’s a joke. If your choice is, “do what I tell you or starve,” that’s not a choice—it’s in fact what was commonly referred to as wage slavery in more civilized times, like the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example.

The American version of “libertarianism” is an aberration, though—nobody really takes it seriously. I mean, everybody knows that a society that worked by American libertarian principles would self-destruct in three seconds. The only reason people pretend to take it seriously is because you can use it as a weapon. Like, when somebody comes out in favor of a tax, you can say: “No, I’m a libertarian, I’m against that tax”—but of course, I’m still in favor of the government building roads, and having schools, and killing Libyans, and all that sort of stuff.

Now, there are consistent libertarians, people like Murray Rothbard—and if you just read the world that they describe, it’s a world so full of hate that no human being would want to live in it. This is a world where you don’t have roads because you don’t see any reason why you should cooperate in building a road that you’re not going to use: if you want a road, you get together with a bunch of other people who are going to use that road and you build it, then you charge people to ride on it. If you don’t like the pollution from somebody’s automobile, you take them to court and you litigate it. Who would want to live in a world like that? It’s a world built on hatred.¹⁹

The whole thing’s not even worth talking about, though. First of all, it couldn’t function for a second—and if it could, all you’d want to do is get out, or commit suicide or something. But this is a special American aberration, it’s not really serious.

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20. May 2008 by admin.

I read mostly political analysis, history and science fiction & fantasy books. You might think these genres are very different, but, unfortunately or fortunately–depending on how you look at it–they are often not that dissimilar. This is especially true when reading about current political events and contemporary foreign affairs.

Here are some great recent non-fiction political affairs/socio-economic analyses I’ve been reading:

1. “Shock Doctrine” By Naomi Klein

Now, you’ve got to understand that my intellectual hero is Noam Chomsky, when it comes to insights into the workings of American foreign policy. So, if you think that William F. Buckley is the greatest thing since sliced bread, then my recommendations probably won’t do much for you.

That being said, Chomsky is rapidly moving to his mid-80s, and needs an intellectual heir apparent. I would say that Naomi Klein could well be that heir or, more likely, heiress. Klein is incredibly bright. She not only weaves together seemingly disparate facts and narratives into a coherent whole, but also is very well-researched. One of my favorite recent lines from a book came from her: “By ‘think tank’, I mean people who get paid to think by the people who make the tanks”.

“Shock Doctrine” examines the Milton Friedman school of economic theory which Klein calls ‘Disaster Capitalism’. Klein makes the case that this economic theory was applied to Pinochet’s Chile and to post-Katrina New Orleans, both with spectacularly unsuccessful results.

Great book that everyone should read. It’s now in paperback.

2. “American Theocracy” by Kevin Philips. This is another great book which not only advances a thesis–that the American Empire shares similarities with all the empires that came before it (Roman, Dutch, Spanish, English) and is doomed to suffer the same fate that those empires faced, including the eventual obsolescence of the energy type that the empire was based on–but also taught me a number of things that I didn’t already know.

In fact, the book is so dense with interesting info, that I had to read it quite slowly to absorb all the information I was getting. Please don’t think that the book is boring or dry–it isn’t; if anything, it suffers from being too interesting, kind of like the Wall Street Journal used to be, before it was acquired by Rupert Murdoch.

3. “What We Say Goes” by Noam Chomsky: This book, probably the 90th or 100th authored by Chomsky (or something in that range–I lose count), is great. Written like many of his more recent books in Q&A interview style, it is a very lucid and intelligent perspective on American foreign policy through part of 2006.

As always, Chomsky infuses his perspective with a plethora of well-researched facts to support his viewpoints. His ability to clarify his positions very granularly and not succumb to general statements continues to distinguish his positions on everything he discusses. His mind amazes and humbles me. I will miss him when he departs this mortal coil.

That’s all the books I want to recommend right now. I’ll be back with more soon.

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20. May 2008 by admin.

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19. May 2008 by admin.

Periodically, I will list movies here that I see on DVD and recommend that readers watch. I will post a list of my favorite films so you can calibrate my recommendations with your own preferences–or not.

Here’s my first list of recommendations:

1. “Diving Bell and the Butterfly”. Great cinematography–when I first heard about this movie’s cinematography, I thought ‘how exciting can it be to visualize a story about a man who can only move one eyelid?’ However, after watching Schnabel’s movie, I have to say that the cinematography was truly outstanding. The narrative was also well-written and well-spoken.

The only I had to the movie, from a casting perspective, was that all the actresses attending to the paralyzed man ‘Jean-Do’, the protagonist of the film, were attractive. My experience in health care institutions is that you’re lucky if you have even one good-looking health care person, much less three.

2. “Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride”: A documentary about Hunter S. Thompson. Primarily a series of reminiscences and observances about Thompson as a person and ‘Gonzo’ journalist. Reminiscences and observations about Thompson from Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Tom Wolfe and–very oddly, Bill Buckley. William F. Buckley was one of the last people I would have thought to interview about Thompson, but there you have it.

3. “The Business of Being Born”: Another documentary, this one about how we have been conditioned to believe that all women have to give birth in hospitals, attended to by doctors. In the U.S., it turns out, only 1% of births occur outside hospitals, vs. >70% in many Western countries. The kicker is that the U.S. has a higher rate of infant mortality and complications WITH universal hospital deliveries, than other countries do with close-to-universal midwife-assisted births.

4. “Charlie Wilson’s War”: This was another well-done Mike Nichols film, based on a true story about a Texas congressman, Charlie Wilson, who drove Congress to fund a covert war in Afghanistan against the Soviets. Tom Hanks & Philip Seymour Hoffman, especially, did very good jobs. The script was very good and surprisingly (at least for me) funny. Editing was also very good–the film moved along, but at the same time, didn’t feel too rushed.

If you want to see a stunningly good documentary which touches on this subject, check out “The Power of Nightmares”. This documentary, one of the best I’ve ever seen, details the evolution of the Neo-Conservatives and Al-Qaeda, and traces both back to a common view of American societal immorality in the 1940s.

5. “Wristcutters: A Love Story”: A small film that I didn’t expect to like as much as I did. Great premise for a love story: a young man, Zia, played by the actor Patrick Fugit, from “Almost Famous”, kills himself and goes to a place that’s only, as he puts it, slightly worse than Earth in life. It’s kind of like purgatory, and is inhabited only by people who kill themselves. Zia meets a woman, played by the actress Shannon Sossamon, who believes she is there mistakenly, and falls in love with her, while looking for his girlfriend from his past life (she killed herself out of sorrow as a result of him killing himself). The film has a cameo from Tom Waits, among others. Well-acted and a good script, though a little slow in places.

That’s all for now.

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