At Least the Banks Are Safe!

Reuter’s reports, “U.S. stocks advanced on Monday as a stronger-than-expected profit from Citigroup helped financial shares shake off worries that the foreclosure mess could threaten the stability of the housing market.” And why not? The Administration has made it clear it plans to do nothing about foreclosure mess.

Four Men Convicted in FBI Plot to Bomb Synagogues?

As has been widely reported, the four men who talked about blowing up synagogues last year have been convicted. There is no doubt that these are bad guys, but this is yet another case where the defendants mightn’t have done anything or been able to do anything, if it weren’t for the FBI providing them with the tools to do it. For every Timothy McVeigh, there must have been thousands of people who talked about doing the same thing. I just don’t see that FBI sting operations make us that much safer. Why not just lock these guys up for making terrorist threats and use our resources to protect us against people can actually accomplish their twisted dreams? On good days, I think the government runs these sting operations to make us feel less fearful; on bad days—that is, most days—I think it does it to make us feel more fearful.

On a related note, CNN reports, “Four men were found guilty Monday of planning to bomb a synagogue and Jewish center…” Note how it is usually the Ground Zero mosque and not the Ground Zero mosque and community center.

More Fun With Sharron Angle

Sharron Angle’s racist border security ad was removed from YouTube for copyright infringement. Oh! And she wants to build a border fence to keep Asians from coming in from Canada. (This is one of her more reasonable policy positions.)

Lizz Winstead on The Ed Show

Lizz Winstead—co-creator of The Daily Show—was on The Ed Show. I don’t usually find her that funny, but she had something very funny to say about “Coons v. Crazy Lady.”

Illegal Foreclosure

In Friday’s column, Paul Krugman discusses the foreclosure mess that has seen at least one man’s house foreclosed on when he didn’t even have a mortgage—to anyone. But the problem is much bigger than this. Krugman writes:

This raises the question: does any particular entity own enough of one of these mortgages to make it worth foreclosing? I’m used to being this disorganized, but I always thought bankers were very organized. In fact, I thought that was all they were.

I picked up a copy of Sweet Charity from the library. It was Bob Fosse’s first film, and his most straight forward. The choreography is probably the best I’ve ever seen. And the songs are great, with lyrics by Dorothy “The Way You Look Tonight” Fields. And the whole “A Doll’s House” plot. But most of all, what I like is that Charity sings the end of “If My Friends Could See Me Now” while hiding in Vittorio’s closet. Up to that point, it had been triumphant and then it is—quite suddenly—sad and wise.

All of Fosse’s movies are about destruction—usually of hope or something like it. Since I was on a Fosse roll, I watched All That Jazz via Instant Watch on Netflix. Sweet Charity is about the destruction of Charity’s hope and illusions. All That Jazz is similar. It is given that Joe Gideon is self-destructive; the movie is about his acceptance of the consequences of his life up to that point. It is about the destruction of his hope for a do-over. Right before he dies, he tells the orderlies, “This is just a rough cut you know; I don’t have the titles in yet; and the underscoring’s not in. It’s not really finished; I need more time.” It is the most important and poignant line in the movie, but the first-half is said in a long-shot, facing away from the camera; the second-half is said off camera. At that moment, he has but a sliver of hope.

Bob Fosse only directed five movies—additionally Cabaret, Lenny, and Star 80. Yet, it is remarkable that they are all at least very good. It is also remarkable that even though he was really a theater director-choreographer, his films are easily as cinematic as any film director in the world. It annoys me when he is compared to Federico Fellini—it seems whenever an American film ombudsman has to deal with a film that isn’t a traditional narrative, they start talking about Fellini. In particular, All That Jazz has often been compared to 8½. I think this is due to the autobiographical nature of each of these films more than anything. Also, whereas All That Jazz is Fosse’s best work—probably one of the ten best films I’ve seen, 8½ is not—although I think it is a rather good film. (Just a note: I don’t see how All That Jazz was influenced by 8½ even indirectly.)

Although Fosse lasted nine years after Joe Gideon, it does seem that Fosse’s hope died with him. He certainly worked less after All That Jazz—maybe for health reasons, I don’t know. But Star 80, the only film he made during those nine years, is certainly his darkest. So his film arc took him from the bittersweet in Sweet Charity and Cabaret to the self-destructive and redemptionless world in Lenny and All That Jazz to the utter hopelessness in Star 80. Who knows where he would have gone from there, but I seriously doubt it would have been a remake of Oklahoma!

Two weekends ago, I attended Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. There were many young people at the event. In fact, I sat right in back of a young couple who were very much in love. It is always nice to see youthful optimism. It prompted me to pull out my notebook, but not to write about them. I wrote only a single line—and it was about the arc of my life: “The death of hope.”

Update

In 1958, eleven years before he made Sweet Charity, Fosse choreographed the film Damn Yankees. It is remarkable just how generic the choreography is. Frankly, it looks a lot like Onna White’s choreography for The Music Man. I don’t say this to slam Fosse or White. It is just remarkable that the very next time Fosse is choreographing on film (in Sweet Charity), he had fully developed his craft.

I don’t feel much up to posting today, and it’s the weekend, but you know how it goes: I don’t have many friends.

Tides Foundation CEO Call for Ad Boycott of Faux News

Earlier this week, Media Matters for America reported on the important roll that Glenn Beck played in causing Byron Williams to attempt to assassinate people at the Tides Foundation. Now they report that Tides CEO and founder Drummond Pike has written a letter calling on advertisers to stop supporting Faux News. Of course, Beck himself refuses to admit to any culpability.

Sometimes “Whore” is Just a Metaphor

As I have talked about before, the Whitman campaign wants to make an issue out of a Brown aide saying that they should call her a whore for her deal with the police union. When Brown countered that Pete Wilson (Whitman’s campaign manager) called Congress whores for their protection of employee unions, Whitman said it was a “completely different thing,” Media Matters for America points out that Faux & Friends is making a big deal of the Brown aide’s comment, while ignoring the Wilson comment—even selectively editing debate coverage.

Tea Party Set to Win Enough Races for Wide Influence?

Without the question mark, that was the headline for a New York Times article today. The article does not support this headline. It says at best teabaggers could make up 8% of either house of Congress. A more likely number is 4%. And most of these teabaggers will simply be replacing more establishment Republicans. Given that teabaggers really aren’t much different from establishment Republicans, I don’t see the issue. Because of their highly dogmatic approach to politics, however, it is likely they will be highly ineffective. Wide influence? I don’t think so.

The Fed Finally Willing to do something

Ben Bernanke announced that it is time that the Fed stopped sitting on its hands and actually tried to do something about the bad economy. Where did he announce it? You gotta love this: Revisiting Monetary Policy in a Low-Inflation Environment Conference. I guess it beats, Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Hellbound, Flesh-Eating Subhumanoid Zombified Living Dead, Part 3—one of the greatest movies I’ve never seen. (Actually, I had wanted to use Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 but I couldn’t remember the title. I thought it was something like, “For somebody who will be blah, blah, blah.” Obviously, it was the “who will be” that finally succeeded. But it took a couple of hours! Thinking it started with “for” was a big part of the problem.)

What Bill Clinton Would Ask Carl Rove

I just found this. It is old, but it shows why Bill Clinton is so great.

Condoleezza Rice on The Daily Show

Jon Stewart provided another softball interview for a conservative. No shock there. More interesting perhaps was at the end of the interview when Rice said, “This is the most tolerant country in the world when it comes to other religions.” Two points here. First, by saying “other” religions, she was implying that America has some kind of official religion. (I wonder what it could be?) Second, I am so tired of hearing about how America is the most and the best and the first and the biggest. The night before, Eric Cantor talked about how our economic system made us the richest country in the world (misleading, because several countries are richer per capita) and therefore allowed us to be the most generous (a common conceit of Americans that is totally untrue). It is also interesting that Rice got two segments—instead of the usual one—during which Stewart gazed at her lovingly like a schoolboy. Is Jon Stewart gearing up for a move to the Republican Party?

Snigger and Jigger on The Young Turks

I like listening to The Young Turks from time to time, but I am usually struck by their general level of ignorance about, well, just about everything. The word “jigger” came up as a possible veiled racial slur in the Illinois Senate race. They dismissed this because jigger is a proper word to use in this case. But one of the Turks mentioned that she didn’t know the word and then didn’t believe that “snigger” was a word. (Interestingly, my textbox doesn’t think it’s a word either.) Oh, those young turks! Oh, those browser programmers!

Government Requests Stay of End to DADT

Why? I don’t even know. Gates says it because the military needs time to change the policy. It sounds more like the government trying not to upset anti-gay bigots who already hate the government (except for the Social Security and Medicare benefits they receive).

How Many Ways is This Charmin Ad Offensive?

Are you not enjoying your “go” enough? Then Charmin Ultra is for you!

Wow. This is the first day of the third month of this garbage: I started on 13 August 2010. I still don’t know what the point is.

Byron Williams: Pawn

You may remember Byron Williams as the guy who engaged in a 12-minute shoot-out with the California Highway Patrol in Oakland on 18 July of this year. It turns out, he was on his way to assassinate people at the Tides Foundation. Most people don’t know the foundation, unless they watch a lot of Glenn Beck. They are a good group that gives money to grassroots and environmental causes. Of course, they are something far more nefarious to Beck and his followers—especially Byron Williams. Media Matters for America has an excellent article about Byron Williams, but you will get most of the information you need from this eight-minute video:

The W-Word?!

The San Jose Mercury News has a good overview of last night’s third and final debate between Brown and Whitman. What most struck me in the debate was Tom Brokaw’s assertion that the word “whore” is the same as the n-word to some women. Whitman, of course, pushed this idea—as did her supporters in the audience. This is ridiculous. If there is one word that almost every woman I know hates, it is the c-word. No one says “the w-word” in polite company. In fact, the word “whore” isn’t overwhelmingly associated with women; it is often used in reference to men. The Whitman campaign is just trying to make an issue out of this where none exists.

Another aspect of this will likely strike many as an unimportant detail, but it bugs me. People keep saying that a Brown aide called Whitman a whore. This is not the case. An aide suggested that Brown call Whitman a whore because she was willing to exempt firefighters and police from pension reform in order to get their support. The exact line was, “What about saying she’s a whore?” If we substituted “socialist” for “whore” would anyone be saying the aide called her a socialist? I don’t think so. Obviously, the Brown campaign can’t make such fine distinctions. But can’t the rest of us? Shouldn’t Tom Brokaw be clear on this point?

Eric Cantor on The Daily Show

During the on-air part of the interview of Eric Cantor on The Daily Show, he was given a lot of latitude with the truth. It sounded almost like a commercial for him. It was only during the Internet-only 18-minute interview where Jon Stewart hammered him. Unfortunately, Stewart had to end on a sour note about not being able to have philosophical conversations with Democrats. When was the last time Stewart had someone on the left who is as extreme as Cantor is on the right?

Maybe Ann Can Be Carl’s Second Mistress

Although I think Bill O’Reilly is an offensive guy with some real anger issues, his politics are more varied than you would think—he is pro-choice, for example. Ann Coulter was on his show Monday defending Carl “Gays are disgusting! Check out this video of a woman doing it with a horse!” Paladino. Bill demurred.

Chilean Miners Almost Out

Far ahead of early estimates, the 33 trapped Chilean miners should be out by Wednesday, according to Al Jazeera English. I have been meaning to check out Al Jazeera English for some time—having heard that their reporting was excellent. Like so many good things, Al Jazeera is just dismissed out of hand in America. I realize that some incendiary things have been said on the non-English Al Jazeera, but I think dismissing the network would be like dismissing MSNBC because of thing that Lou Dobbs has said.

You Say “Tea Party” and I Say “Nazi”!

I’m Begging You: Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off!

Not Qualified at Any Speed

Peter A. Diamond and two others just got the Nobel Prize in Economic Science. The reason this is interesting is that the Republicans have been blocking his appointment to the Federal Reserve because they consider him unqualified.

Paladino: Bigoted, Insensitive, or Stupid?

That “or” in the headline is not exclusive: I believe the most likely answer is the implied “all of the above.” Carl Paladino, just after the story about the gang torture of three gay men had already broke, told a group of Orthodox Jewish leaders that children should not be “brainwashed” into thinking that homosexuality was acceptable. He waited a little while after the suicide of Tyler Clementi and many others. None of it is surprising. Intolerance begets intolerance. Hate begets hate. Paladino’s hatred begets hatred in me—of Paladino.

Capture and Kill Obama!

This is from last Friday. I thought about posting the Bill Hicks routine that was mentioned, but it is coarse in the extreme. I’m embedding this here for the last part:

I just learned via Woman’s World Magazine via my sister that the theme song from Gilligan’s Island that I know and love was not the song used in the first season. I’m sure you know the later song, so I won’t remind you. (You can find it at metacafe.com if you need a refresher.)

According to the article, Bob Denver (the actor who played Gilligan and Maynard G. Krebs on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) was responsible for the change. In the first season, Russell Johnson (“The Professor”) and Dawn Wells (“Mary Ann”) were not in the opening credits and the song ended with “and the rest” rather than “the professor and Mary Ann.” Denver requested that this change be made, but the studio refused, saying it would be too costly to change the song and opening credits. They relented when Denver threatened to force them to put his name at the end of the credits—which he could demand by his contract. Thus, Johnson and Wells not only got included in the song, they got on the opening credits.

You just knew that any actor known for playing Gilligan and Maynard G. Krebs had to be a good guy!

But Whitman is a Whore

A Brown aide says that they should call Whitman a whore because she will make any deal with anyone in order to become governor. The Brown campaign promptly apologized, because they know what they’re doing. This is in start contrast to Whitman who still hasn’t come clean on her housekeeper. Of course, Whitman and even Fiorina are trying to make this out to be some big insult to all women. Give me (and the rest of the state) a break! Whitman is a whore and her gender has nothing to do with it.

Three Commandments

Lynn Westmoreland, Representative from Georgia in the US House co-sponsored a bill requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in the House and Senate. Back in 2006, when Stephen Colbert asked him to name them, Westmoreland said, “Don’t murder. Don’t lie. Don’t steal… I can’t name them all.” I don’t say this to make the Representative look bad. As can be seen in the clip below, he seems to have a good sense of humor about the whole thing. Unlike most Republicans, he seems, well, likable. There is at least a little hypocrisy in pushing the Ten Commandments when you don’t even know them, but this isn’t that big a deal.

There are two things about this I find interesting. First, it doesn’t exactly say not to lie in the Ten Commandments. It says not to bear false witness against your neighbor. That leaves a lot of room for lying. The second, and more important thing I find interesting is that Westmoreland seems to have missed the main point of the whole thing. He missed the whole, “Have no other gods before me” aspect of it. All that stuff about not murdering or stealing or coveting your neighbor’s farm animals is really just an afterthought. The core really is about how God is jealous and you need to pacify him.

When I think of the Ten Commandments, the first thing I think about is that I shall have no other gods before my personal, jealous God. That is, after all, what the first three commandments are all about. The remaining seven are thing that the I’m sure the Sumerians—and for that matter, the Jews before they were given the Ten Commandments—already knew. This is why any claims about our laws being based upon the Ten Commandments are so ridiculous: other than the jealous God parts, they are just a list of what everyone already knew.

Wall Street

I saw the new Wall Street film. It was strange. Oliver Stone chose to add some stupid happy ending to it. It should have ended on “Gordon Gecko is back!” Instead, we get something of a redemption for a man clearly far past redemption.

Evil

Sam Harris in Letter to a Christian Nation makes the argument that religion is the greatest threat to civilization (ours, not Cid Meier’s). He makes a compelling case in this tiny 20,000 word book. But I can’t help but think that while religion alone is responsible for many bad things (and never wholly responsible for good things), religion is more a symptom than a cause. To me, humans are evil, looking for an excuse.

Office Furniture Vs. Political Action

Al Franken said what I’ve been thinking for a while about contributions coming out of the US Chamber of Commerce: “When the Bahrain Petroleum Company sends the Chamber $10,000, the $10,000 in American money, American money the Chamber was going to use for office furniture, can now go to a new attack ad…” Exactly. The Bahrain Petroleum Company can give the money to the USCoC for office furniture (Wink! Wink!) and the USCoC can use its American-based money for political ads. This is sickening.

A Most Vexing Interview

After watching this interview, I donated $10 to Peter DeFazio. Is this guy annoying or what?!