November 2008
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Zizek - Why Cynics Are Wrong (about Obama) →
inthesetimes.com
This attitude is best encapsulated by the French expression âje sais bien, mais quand memeâ (I know very well that it can happen, but nonetheless⦠I cannot really accept that it can happen)….
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“The world authority on the climate crisis, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, after 20 years of detailed study and four unanimous reports, now says that the evidence is “unequivocal.” To those who are still tempted to dismiss the increasingly urgent alarms from scientists around the world, ignore the melting of the north polar ice cap and all of the other apocalyptic warnings from the planet itself, and who roll their eyes at the very mention of this existential threat to the future of the human species, please wake up. Our children and grandchildren need you to hear and recognize the truth of our situation, before it is too late.”
—The Climate for Change
“Maybe, just maybe, the result will be a step away from the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life. Smart and educated leadership is no panacea, but we’ve seen recently that the converse — a White House that scorns expertise and shrugs at nuance — doesn’t get very far either. We can’t solve our educational challenges when, according to polls, Americans are approximately as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution, and when one-fifth of Americans believe that the sun orbits the Earth.”
—Op-Ed Columnist - Obama and the War on Brains - NYTimes.com
“This generation has been knocked for putting all of their personal stuff on full display,” said Mik Moore, 34, a founder of the Great Schlep, which used a Sarah Silverman online video to help young Jews win their grandparents’ support for Senator Obama. “But there is an upside, too, which is a willingness to communicate with large numbers of people in your network about what’s important to you.” Ideology doesn’t matter. Young evangelicals can be just as creative in their use of the Web as liberal bloggers. The point is that communication technology is the tool that makes all things possible, from hook-ups and pop songs to protests or the president of their choice, said Neil Howe, a sociologist who studies young adults.”
—Presidential Election Delivers on Promise of a New Generation of Voters - NYTimes.com
Vote Report: Help NPR Identify Voting Problems : NPR →
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Vote Report: Help NPR Identify Voting Problems
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Three reasons that “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” (1966) could be the most subversive American film ever:
1) The Grinch is a character in a Cormac McCarthy novel. Let’s think for a minute. How come there’s only one Grinch? No girlfriend, no cousins, no shrink. And what is he doing in Whoville? Why isn’t there a Grinchville? If I were the only one of my kind, eking out a miserable existence in a post-apocalyptic cave with my dog without the benefit of any medication, I’d hang myself from the nearest tree, provided it had tinsel.
Maybe he was displaced. Maybe he’s a refugee of some kind.
What if there was a war, a horrible war, and all the other Grinches were shipped off to gulags and the Grinch escaped by hiding inside the Moss-Covered Three-Handled Family Credenza (see Cat, Hat). And traumatized by survivor’s guilt, he has been relocated to just north of Whoville, where he can see the table and smell the cooking but never gets invited to dinner.
2) Or though it credits Chuck Jones, I smell Martin Scorsese.
The Grinch, a petty thief and vandal, lives in a state of arrested emotional development and an entrenched sense of entitlement. He has nothing but contempt for the suckers who follow the rules and a domestic partner, Max, who is terrified of him yet remains devoted.
3) But it could be a horror film written by Aeschylus.
Who are the Whos exactly?
One big, vaguely humanoid cult with curly eyelashes that, despite a lot of singing about Christmas and love, manages to stalk and kill the hapless Roast Beast and feed it to its children.
There is a vault somewhere with unseen footage of the Whos playing their karfloofles at earsplitting volumes until the Roast Beast flees from its lair and falls into the Who Death Pit, and they all stab it with spears. And then they take the carcass to the Who butcher, who chops it in pieces and wraps it in bloody packages to sell for filthy lucre, or worse, to give away in the spirit of the season. And at the very end the Grinch is so terrified of them that he himself carves the Roast Beast, his own brother in persecution and loneliness. JENNY LUMET, screenwriter of “Rachel Getting Married.”
” —Holiday Movies - Favorites, From Some Insiders - NYTimes.com