Canadian Health Care Continues to play the Bogeyman in American politics

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From the Canadian Blogosphere: Terrible Depths and The Parallel Parliament

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Gendered Spaces: Violence Against Women in South Africa

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Jason Kenney: Adding Insult to Irony

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More Empty Promises? Some Skepticism about Mac Harb’s Argument to End the Seal Hunt

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Fox News insults the Canadian military - Canadians pay attention

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4 more Canadians killed in A/Stan: PM Harper speaks of “heroism”

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Gary Goodyear Would Be an International Embarrassment, if Anyone Were Paying Attention

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Striking Similarities Between Vancouver and Cape Town, South Africa - both film industry favourites.

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Canadian Film R.I.P. A Remix Manifesto is the World’s First Open Source Documentary

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The Long Arm of International Law Reaches for Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan

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Electoral Reform Process Proved Public Efficacy

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The Obama Administration and Choices

In reacting to the president's "fate of the union" address, Steve Clemons anticipates the Obama team having to make "some tough judgment calls" when it comes to the economy. This is also something that will have to occur with U.S. foreign and defense policy as well. (Policy toward India, the subject of yesterday's post, may well prove to be one of the first challenges.)

On the question of choices, Derek Reveron over at New Atlanticist made these observations:

With two important operations ongoing and security assistance programs with 149 countries, the U.S. military is in high demand. President Obama’s strategic outlook does not suggest this will change. And with the inability or unwillingness of allies and partners to increase contributions to international security, the post-modernists are likely to guide future defense spending to get Gates’ balanced force structure.

(Visit his post to get his description of the three "schools" for defense policy.)

Canada and Mexico: Drug cartels, gang warfare: a new security risk?

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Posturing

Yeah, I think it's safe to say that Wells Fargo will be giving back their bailout money on the same day that Mr. and Dr. Instapundit "go Galt." Coincidentally. this will be the same day that I win "America's Next Top Model."

Cramer calls Obama White House “Thin Skinned”

Jim Cramer is complaining about the Obama administration and its MSM allies attack on him following his comments about their policies. He sounds wounded.

So, why after toiling in the cable wilderness for four years with Mad Money am I the target of the wrath of the Obama clan…

He points to his previous criticism of the Bush administration.

After all, my criticism of Obama's handling of the economic crisis is a lot less pointed than my withering August 2007 "They Know Nothing" meltdown against the previous regime's handling of the economic crisis.

So what does he perceive to be the difference?

The answer lies in the way the two administrations handled criticism.
The Bush administration, I believed, simply chose to ignore my warnings, perhaps because of a brutal combination of ideology, fecklessness and complacency.

By contrast...

President Obama's team, unlike Bush's team, demonstrates a thinness of skin that shocks me.

Jim, Jim, Jim. Don’t you understand a damn thing, do you? No, I guess not. You see, you are a self identified Liberal. The Bush administration needed a thick skin. How else do you continue to govern when the Democrats in congress and the media question whether George Bush was the Prince of Darkness or if that post was held by Dick Cheney?

What the hell good would a phone call from the White House have done? Supposed they called you or to the editorial page of the NY Times? Tell me Jim, would you not have considered it a badge of honor if they had called to respond to you? Would you have told your viewers you were on the Bush White House “enemies list?” And what do you think would have been the reaction from the editorial writers of the NY Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post or the alphabet networks if the Bush staff would have complained? At best an eerie silence, at worst complaint that they were trying to silence their critics.

Sorry, Jim. The treatment you’re getting only works when the Democrats are in power. These are your people, Jim. This is how they work. This is how they handle dissent. This is how life is lived in state where the government and the press are in love.

And Jim, I thought you were a blowhard before. Now I see that you are a stupid blowhard. But there is a life lesson, as my friend Rush Limbaugh would say.

Even after this, you still don’t get it. They invented a phrase for you: stuck on stupid.. Obama is thin skinned ... because he can.

Chu: Nuclear Must Be Part of Energy Mix

Not our headline – that of the AP story that covers Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s testimony before the Senate Budget Committee. A lot of the Senators there had no intention of letting nuclear energy slip away as a priority and Chu reassured them that it won’t.

Some money quotes:

"I believe in nuclear power as a central part of our energy mix. It provides clean, busload [sic: baseload] electricity"

“Closing the fuel cycle is something we want to do.”

Chu said he is ready to act on loan guarantees for the first group of new reactors and plans on "moving very aggressively to getting the money out the door."

"Nuclear is going to be part of our energy future. It has to be."

Read the whole story for the senatorial jitters – all good, in our view – and Chu’s remarkably reassuring performance. We’ve noticed that the Obama administration has displayed a tendency to roll back over an issue it’s passed by once – see the squabble over earmarks in the omnibus spending bill, for one – so, although Chu has never been particularly harsh in his rhetoric about nuclear energy, we now have to see if these soothing words are followed by effective actions.

Consider these tangles between Congress and the administration preludes to an energy policy. That’s where the tale will really be told.

Bad Analogies of the Day

William Saletan.

I take it that for most our audience the analogy between Obama repealing Bush's ban on stem-cell research (or, at least, defending this policy in terms Saletan does not approve of) and Dick Cheney's policy of arbitrary torture is so specious that to restate it is to refute it. But perhaps Saletan may wish to conisder one rather obvious difference: opponents of torture actually favor categorical bans on torture, whereas Bush and most of his supporters thought that stem-call research should be perfectly legal but that some forms of this research should be denied state funding. Or may he shouldn't consider it, such most of his writing on these issues ceding the moral high ground to people who don't even take their own purported ideas seriously.

2010 House Ratings

Here are our first House ratings of the 2010 cycle.

Pure Toss-Up (0R, 1D)

• NH 2 (Open; Hodes, D)

Toss-Up/Tilt Republican (0R, 1D)

• NY 20 (Open; Gillibrand, D) *March 31 special
  

Lean Republican (1R, 0D)

• WA 8 (Reichert, R)

Republican Favored (8R, 0D)

• AK A-L (Young, R)
• CA 3 (Lungren, R)
• CA 44 (Calvert, R)
• MN 3 (Paulsen, R)
• MN 6 (Bachmann, R)
• NJ 7 (Lance, R)
• PA 6 (Gerlach, R)
• SC 1 (Brown, R)

Toss-Up/Tilt Democratic (0R, 4D)

• AL 2 (Bright, D)
• ID 1 (Minnick, D)
• MD 1 (Kratovil, D)
• MS 1 (Childers, D)

Lean Democratic (1R, 9D)

• CO 4 (Markey, D)
• FL 8 (Grayson, D)
• LA 2 (Cao, R)
• MI 7 (Schauer, D)
• NH 1 (Shea-Porter, D)
• NC 8 (Kissell, D)
• OH 1 (Driehaus, D)
• OH 15 (Kilroy, D)
• PA 10 (Carney, D)
• VA 5 (Perriello, D)

Democrat Favored (0R, 8D)

• AL 5 (Griffith, D)
• GA 8 (Marshall, D)
• NM 2 (Teague, D)
• NY 19 (Hall, D)
• NY 24 (Arcuri, D)
• NY 29 (Massa, D)
• TX 17 (Edwards, D)
• VA 2 (Nye, D)

What Happened at Midway?

Apparently there is still some controversy. The standard story is this; a flight of torpedo bombers approached the Japanese task force, and was massacred by Japanese combat air patrol. That CAP was then in poor position to fend off an attack made shortly thereafter by USN dive bombers, with the result that Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu were damaged beyond repair. Steeljaw at the USNI blog, however, has been in contact with a retired dive bomber pilot who claims that this story isn't true. The dive and torpedo attacks did not take place is such quick succession that the absence of CAP can be pinned on the sacrifice of the torpedo bombers. The story, developed later, was in order to cover up what was a straightforward military blunder.

Take a look; it's interesting reading.

Left Field Cinema: Aku Louhimies' Frozen Land

Aku Louhimies' Frozen Land
Left Field Cinema



Aku Louhimies excellent hidden masterpiece, this Finnish film is based on Leo Tolstoy's short story The Forged Coupon.

To Listen to the Episode

Three More Books...

I have posted a new bibliographic essay at the Denver Seminary Philosophy Blog: Three More Books That Influenced Me Most. Please tell people about this blog, which helps generate interested in the Denver Seminar Philosophy of Religion Masters Degree program.

Afghan Redefinition

In his interview with Matt Lauer, President Obama made a very clear statement about U.S. goals and objectives:

We are not [going to] be able to rebuild Afghanistan into a Jeffersonian
democracy. ... What - what we can do is make sure that Afghanistan is not
a safe haven for al-Qaida. What we can do is make sure that - it is not
destabilizing neighboring Pakistan, which has - nuclear weapons. The key is
... we've got to have a clear objective. And there's been drift in
Afghanistan over the last couple of years. And that's something that we
intend to fix - this year.

TWR readers can draw their own conclusions from what was said over the weekend.

Gibbous Europa

The Key Differences Between AQI and the Taliban

President Obama has indicated to the New York Times that he might be willing to reach out to moderate portions of the Taliban.

President Barack Obama says he hopes U.S. troops can identify moderate elements of the Taliban and move them toward reconciliation.

...

There may be opportunities to reach out to moderates in the Taliban, but the situation in Afghanistan is more complicated than the challenges the American military faced in Iraq, Obama said.

U.S. troops were able to persuade Sunni Muslim insurgents in Iraq to cooperate in some instances because they had been alienated by the tactics of al-Qaida terrorists.

Obama cautioned that Afghanistan is a less-governed region with a history of fierce independence among tribes, creating a tough set of circumstances for the United States to deal with.

President Obama goes on to say that reaching out to the Taliban is something that military including General Petraeus. Before we attempt to do this though, we must all understand the differences between Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Taliban.

The so called Sunni Awakening that started in the end of 2006 (before Petreaus even arrived back in Iraq) reached out to Iraqi Sunnis that had alligned themselves with AQI. AQI, formed initially by Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, had been formed mostly by foreigners, but reached out to locals to act as so called foot soldiers. Throughout 2004-2006, Iraqi Sunnis faced a choice. Either they could move forward with their nation and act nationalistically. In this way, they would move forward as part of a new unity government in a new Iraq. Of course, this would have meant a significant reduction of power, Since Sunnis are a minority ethnically in the country.

On the other hand, the could join up with AQI and get into bed, so to speak, with their ethnic brethren (since AQI were almost exclusively Sunni themselves). Initially, Iraqi Sunnis joined up with AQI. They joined in the insurgency in hopes that AQI would over take the country and they would get power again.

Then, AQI's brutality overplayed its hand. (famously recounted in this Michael Totten piece) Their brutality knew no end. They would beat and rape women that put their vegetables in the wrong order in their grocery bags. They would invite families for dinner and then serve their own child's head on a platter. They would cut off the fingers of men that smoked. Worse than that, this brutality was often perpetrated on the very Sunni Iraqis that had allied themselves with AQI.

As such, when the U.S. reached out to Iraqi Sunnis in late 2006, they had an interested ear. Calling these Iraqi Sunnis "moderates" would be an unsophisticated way of analyzing the situation. The marriage of Iraqi Sunnis and the foreigners that made up the leadership of AQI was one of happenstance and convenience. Furthermore, the Iraqi Sunnis had another natural place to go, alligning themselves with their country, when they turned on AQI.

The dynamic in Afghanistan is entirely different. There are likely so called "moderate" elements of the Taliban, but there are two problems with this identification. First, moderate is a relative term. Choosing a moderate out of the Taliban is like choosing the sober one out of a bunch of drunks. Second, even if there are truly moderate elements, how do we identify them? With Iraqi Sunnis, it was easy. The Taliban is not a new group like AQI was. It's both a nationalistic movement and an ideological one. No one in the movement is obviously someone that would be moderate.

So, I say, please try and reach out to the "moderate" Taliban, Mr. President. Before you do though, please know which one is moderate and what you have to offer them.

The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan

Alex Harrowell has a couple of interesting posts on the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, one at Fistful of Euros and the other at Yorkshire Ranter. The point is essentially this; the Soviets executed the withdrawal more competently that just about any other aspect of the war, and it worked out really well for them. The government that they left in place survived for another three years, and only collapsed when Soviet support ended in 1992.

In fact, the withdrawal was about the best idea the Soviets had in Afghanistan. Having decided to go, they pursued a policy of building up the Afghan government, changing the military strategy to one based on defending the bulk of the population and leaving the mountain wilds to the enemy, pouring in aid of all kinds, negotiation with those who were willing, and leaving a strong advisory mission in place.

I recall at the time that predictions of the survival of the Soviet-sponsored Afghan government were measured in weeks or in months, but it turned out that the opposition split, foreign support for the rebels vanished, and the regime was able to win several crucial military victories. Nobody talked much about this after 1989, because nobody really cared much about Afghanistan. I'm thinking that the United States and Europe could do much, much worse than what the Soviets managed; Harrowell thinks (perhaps only half-jokingly) that the Soviet general who managed the post-withdrawal advisory mission should be tracked down and consulted on the future of the NATO mission. A Soviet style operation would concede certain facts about Afghanistan; the central government will never have much control over the hinterland, and a liberal democratic regime is unlikely to exist in any thing but name, but it may be past time to think about such concessions.

Cross-posted to TAPPED.

Named Parameters and Builders in Scala

Tonight was the monthly BASE meeting. Jorge did a great talk on Scala actors. Before the talk, Dick was talking about looking for a good builder implementation in Scala. This seemed to be an area where Scala did not offer much over Java. Even using some of Scala's more sophisticated syntactic sugar, the resulting builder is not satisfactory. I asked Dick that if Scala had named parameter, would that be good enough?

So I did some playing around with simulating named parameters in Scala. Let's say we have a class like this

class Beast (val x:Double, val y:Double, val z:Double){
// other stuff in here
}

Now suppose that x and y are required, but z can have a default value of 0. My attempt at simulating named parameters involved creating some classes corresponding to the variables.

class X(val x:Double)
class Y(val y:Double)
class Z(val z:Double)
object X{
def ->(d:Double)= new X(d)
}
object Y{
def ->(d:Double)= new Y(d)
}
object Z{
def ->(d:Double) = new Z(d)
}

Do you see where this is going? Next we need a companion object for Beast:

object Beast{
def apply(xyz:Tuple3[X,Y,Z]) = new Beast(xyz._1.x, xyz._2.y, xyz._3.z)
}

Now we can do something like this:

val c = Beast(X->3, Y->4, Z->5)

So X->3 calls the -> method on the X object. This returns a new instance of the X class with value 3. The same thing happens for Y->4 and Z->5. Putting all thee inside the parentheses gives us a Tuple3. This is passed in to the apply method on the Beast object which in turn creates a new instance of Beast with the given values. So far so good?

Now we just need a way to make z optional and give it a default value if it is not supplied. To do this, we need some Evil.

object Evil{
 implicit def missingZ(xy:Tuple2[X,Y]):Tuple3[X,Y,Z]=(xy._1,xy._2, new Z(0))
}

Now it is possible to get the optional value behavior:

object BeastMaster{
  import Evil._
  def main(args:Array[String]){
      val b = Beast(X->1, Y->2)
      println(b)
      val c = Beast(X->3, Y->4, Z->5)
      println(c)
  }
}

The implicit def missingZ is used to "invisibly" convert a Tuple2[X,Y] into a Tuple3[X,Y,Z].

Unfortunately this is where the coolness ends. You can't switch around the order of the variables, i.e. Beast(Y->2, X->1) or even Beast(Z->5, X->3, Y->4). You can't just add more implicit defs either. Like if you try:

object Evil{
   implicit def missingZ(xy:Tuple2[X,Y]):Tuple3[X,Y,Z]=(xy._1,xy._2, new Z(0))
   implicit def missingZ2(yx:Tuple2[Y,X]):Tuple3[X,Y,Z] = (yx._2, yx._1, new Z(0))
}

This will cause Beast(X->1,Y->2) to fail to compile. You will get the following error:

error: wrong number of arguments for method apply: ((builder.X, builder.Y, builder.Z))builder.Beast in object Beast
val b = Beast(X->3, Y->5)

This is not the most obvious error. The problem (I think) is that the compiler can't determine which implicit def to use. The culprit is type erasure. There is no way to tell the difference between a Tuple2[X,Y] and Tuple2[Y,X] at runtime. At compile there is, so you would think that it would be possible to figure out which implicit to use... Or perhaps it is possible to merge the two implicit together by using an implicit manifest?

Crackpot of the Day

Rod Dreher.

In addition to the obvious, if you read the article that so shocked Dreher for reasons other than the people being butchered with swords in their beds, is that the the alleged "bisexual culture" he adduces at a suburban Dallas high school is about as plausible and rigorous as a Caitlin Flanagan joint. The entirety of the evidence presented is a single incident of a single woman hitting on the daughter of a man who is still outraged by the posture of his daughter's ex-boyfriends, who infers from this that "it's like it was almost cool to be bisexual." If you find this convincing evidence that bisexuality is not only not stigmatized but cool in Texas high schools, please contact me about restructuring your mortgage as soon as possible.

...In fairness, as Weiner notes in comments the oral sex culture epidemic has reached even wholesome Archie comics. Horrifying!

Losing India?

Although the Obama Administration is just beginning to set its priorities in terms of foreign policy, some are worried that the signals being sent to India from the new team aren't the most encouraging.

Peter Pham (at National Interest online) worries that "the nascent strategic partnership [is] being given short shrift—if it is not being subordinated outright to short-term (and shortsighted) preoccupations."

Over at Shadow Government, Dan Twining raises the same concerns and then asks:

So who will have the India account in the Obama administration? Arguably, in the ancien regime, Bush himself was India's biggest booster, which in turn led Secretary Rice to devote considerable time and energy to building the relationship, with day-to-day management by Undersecretary of State Nick Burns and then his successor, Bill Burns. In the current line-up, the president does not appear to hold a particular brief for India. Though her presidential candidacy enjoyed strong support from the Indian-American community, Secretary Clinton seems focused on East Asia. At a traveling press conference this week, her press secretary reportedly dismissed one reporter's inquiries with the declaration, "No questions about India."

It's still early, of course. But the new U.S. - India relationship, while it has progressed a great deal, still remains unconsolidated. New Delhi cannot be taken for granted by Washington. It would be a pity if because of inattention or lack of focus, we have to cover some of the same ground again in the future.

Thoughts from everyone else? (One can see from the comments to Dan's piece a range of opinion, from "have patience, the Obama team will do this right" to "it's amateur hour".)

Those very clever cats

Jonathan Calder draws our attention to an article in the Liverpool Daily Post in which Liberal Democrat Councillor, Richard Kemp is calling on Liverpool City Council to use its financial muscle to set up new credit unions, region-wide building societies and other financial institutions.

Richard is quoted by the paper as saying: “Frankly, my cat could run a better bankers than the London-based banks. So I want to bring some fresh thinking."

This is the second time that such a talented cat has been drawn to my attention. Only a few weeks ago, in seeking to justify his non-attendance at some Council meetings, the Conservative Leader on Swansea Council struck a similar note:

He said: "Much of the time spent in meetings in County Hall is an utter waste of time — pointless pontificating by councillors who know less than my cat about much of what they are considering."

As a result René's cat, Derrick has developed an internet presence of his own. Could Richard Kemp's cat form a double act with Derrick to save the country from recession?

New York 20: DCCC Turns to Ralston-Lapp for IE

By Stuart Rothenberg and Nathan L. Gonzales

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee entered the New York 20 special election over the weekend with a significant $139,000 television ad buy, according the committee’s 24-hour, independent expenditure disclosure, filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday afternoon.

On Friday, the National Republican Congressional Committee filed their $147,000 television ad buy. The GOP independent expenditure ads were produced by Chris Mattola.

The DCCC ads were produced by Ralston Lapp Media . In 2006, Lapp was the DCCC’s political director before moving over to coordinate the committee’s IE campaign. And last cycle, he was a key consultant to the IE campaign, headed up by new DCCC executive director Jon Vogel.

Lapp and his partner, Jason Ralston, are handling the DCCC’s IE program for the special election.

State Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco (R) and venture capitalist Scott Murphy (D) are squaring off in the race to replace appointed Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D).

Open Source: Errol Morris’ “Feel-Bad” Masterpiece -- Standard Operating Procedure

(Last semester only 2 out of over a hundred students knew what Abu Ghraib was until I showed them pictures. United States of Amnesia -- USA. In Kentucky the state leaders are currently debating whether to remove from all state testing the humanities/social sciences components and end the portfolio process/essay tests, effectively making all regulatory/assessment tests multiple choice. Even worse was my students' classroom discussions this semester of how ridiculously easy it was for them to use the Plato Testing system, not in the sense of ease of test-taking, but in the sense of passing the multiple choice questions. Probably why it is so popular? I had a handful of students discuss how their entire last two years of high school where completed through Plato Testing? The conversation between Errol Morris, Chris Lydon and the students is amazing and Morris' film is essential viewing. The documentary is, for me, a masterpiece because it does not "tell" us what happened, instead, for one of the few times, we are encouraged to listen, to watch, and to assess for ourselves, to use our brains, to figure out may or may not have happened. It is a powerful film that encourages active thinking/meaning-making rather than passive consumption.)

Errol Morris’ “Feel-Bad” Masterpiece
Open Source (Watson Institute for International Studies -- Brown University)
Host: Chris Lydon



Errol Morris’s Standard Operating Procedure is a shocking, depressing work of art that might tell you almost nothing you didn’t know in your bones: that the torture chambers at Abu Ghraib were a perfect kernel of the war on Iraq. See the movie anyway, for confirmation or as penance. It is a blood sample of a gross policy of humiliation, emasculation, sophisticated mental cruelty and pitiless domination in the Arab Middle East. Errol Morris makes no bones about it. He says: we are looking at icons of American foreign policy.

To Listen to the Conversation

Prop 8 Oral Arguments

The outcome looks bad from a policy perspective, although legally it must said that the argument for striking down Prop 8 in the abscence of a federally enforceable right are pretty weak. At least it appears as if the marriages that took place under the more just staus quo ante won't be nullified.

Obama's Bizarre Economic Advice to the nation

From the NY Times we learn that ...

The president said he could not assure Americans the economy would begin growing again this year. But he pledged that he would “get all the pillars in place for recovery this year” and urged Americans not to “stuff money in their mattresses.”

“I don’t think that people should be fearful about our future,” he said. “I don’t think that people should suddenly mistrust all of our financial institutions.”

The first part of that forecast is pure "CYA" as unemployment increases, businesses shutter more plants and the stock market declines by 3, 4 5% PER DAY. Market watchers dread the times during the day that members of this administration comment on the economy, each utterance followed by another percentage point drop in the Dow.

Geithner's plan at the IMF sank Indonesia and ended the administration of its ruler. He can't get anybody to work for him ... hell he can't get anybody to talk to him ... and no one has a clue whether he has a plan, or a clue about what a plan should look like (other than taxing the oil industry).

The part about stuffing money under mattresses is pure BS. People are not stuffing money under their mattresses. I know because I am in the business of advising people about their money. I'll tell you what they are doing. They are watching in shock as the value of their stocks and stock mutual funds have evaporated 20% so far this year. They are seeking the shortest term, safest CDs and treasure notes they can find, and they are starting to buy gold. For the first time in a century, the average American - not just gold bugs - are buying gold because they know that some time down the road the trillions of dollars pouring out of the Federal Reserve are going to be recycled into the real economy and inflation will hit like a whirlwind, wiping out the accumulated savings of lots of "average Americans."

At which point the NY Times, if it’s still publishing, will blame Bush.

And people like me stand by in utter amazement that despite the gigantic pain this financial crisis is causing, despite the scattered dreams and lives, Obama has moved on to the next thing on his agenda. Perhaps on the assumption that now that he’s fixed the country's financial health he must move on to minster to its physical well being.

William Gillespie: Generation Exxay

(courtesy of Jonathan Vincent)

Generation Exxay
by William Gillespie
Smile Politely

Though I was too young to understand and articulate my objections, I was annoyed to discover at age 20 that everyone in my age range had been declared “slackers” by the ruling generation, the Baby Boomers. I hadn’t even been given a chance to excel in life, and already I was indicted by a blanket statement that declared me apathetic and unambitious. “Generation X” was not exactly flattering either — the seldom-used twenty-fourth letter, the algebraic variable X, implied alienation and emptiness.

By calling us slackers, was the preceding generation trying to falsely claim as tenacity or integrity the coincidence of their good fortune as people who rode the roller coaster of postwar American prosperity from the bottom, where they were born, to the top, where they would be the last people to cash in on a soon-to-be-dismantled private and state retirement apparatus? (And, incidentally, which generation fucked that up? I’m pissed.)

What I am discovering is that “slacker” means “principled.“ We witnessed our elders’ arc from unrestrained idealism (1967) to burnout (1969) to grotesque self-indulgence (1976) to unapologetic materialism (1980); from cannabis to LSD to cocaine to imported wine; from psychedelic pop to mustache jam-band rock to disco to new age; from “Don’t trust anybody over thirty” to “Fifty is the new thirty.“ Against the backdrop of this circus, X inherited those progressive ideals (and great songs) from 1967, and the stewardship and advancement of the environmental, civil rights, and feminist ideologies. And so we found ourselves all but paralyzed with the Boomers’ cast-off responsibilities: the fear of becoming self-centered, obnoxious materialists, or just totally lame; and the imperative to find meaningful work in an economic system driven by greed, waste, and consumerism.

To Read the Rest of the Essay

8 1/2 (Italy/France: Federico Fellini, 1963)

(Archive for my ENG 282: International Film Studies course)

8 1/2 (Italy/France: Federico Fellini, 1963)

“Even if I set out to make a film about a fillet of sole, it would be about me.”
--Federico Fellini







Criterion Collection: 8 1/2

Tullio Kezich: 8 1/2--When? (Criterion)

Alexander Sesonske: 8 1/2--A film With Itself as Its Subject

Derek Malcolm: Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (UK Guardian)

Roger Ebert: 8 1/2 (Chicago Sun-Times)

Trailers/Clips/Mashups (Google Video)

Terry Gilliam on his Favorite Cinematic Moment (8 1/2) (Close-Up/BBC2)

Guide to 8 1/2 (edited by Charles Affron) (Google Books)

Peter Wuss: Dreamlike Images in Fellini's 8 1/2 and Tarkovsky's Mirror--A Cognitive Approach (PDF File) (The Journal of Moving Image Studies)

Antonio Shanahan: Great Directors Profile of Federico Fellini (Senses of Cinema)

George Porcari: Fellini Goes to the Beach (Cineaction)

An Interview with Federico Fellini: The Master Speaks on Life, Art and Carlos Castaneda (Bright Lights Film Journal)

Videos by and about Fellini (Google Videos)

Books by and about Fellini (Google books)

Gerry Manacas: Images and Archetypes... A Personal Perspective on the Films of Fellini: Man/Whore/Wife (Out of Balance)

"Everyone lives in his own fantasy world, but most people don't understand that. No one perceives the real world. Each person simply call his private, personal fantasies the Truth. The difference is that I know I live in a fantasy world. I prefer it that way and resent anything that disturbs my vision." (Fellini in I, Fellini, ed. by Charlotte Chandler, 1995 source link)

Peter Bondanella: The Films of Federico Fellini (Google Books)

Tulio Kezich: Federico Fellini--His Life an Times (Google Books)

Federice Fellini--Contemporary Perspectives (ed. Frank Burke/Marguerite Waller) (Google Books)

The Criterion Collection: Fellini's Films

American Soldier Berating Iraqis Police

An American soldier berating Iraqis police... disturbing, in tone and content...

Arkansas Times Publishes List of Concealed Weapons Holders.

Because it can. It seems only fair to return the favor ...

I agree wholeheartedly with Alan Leveritt, who argued the First Amendment principle of publishing the names and home addresses of those who you disagree with, politically.

Alan Leveritt
12407 Davis Ranch Rd.
Cabot, AR 72023
(501) 988-1211