"Covering Cuba 3: Elian," banned by the American Film Institute (see earlier postings), got its first national exposure on Fox News Channel Sunday afternoon. Host Gregg Jarrett interviewed director Agustin Blazquez and associate producer Jaums Sutton about the possible impact of their film on the 2004 election. Jarrett seemed to treat Agustin Blazquez as the Cuban-American Michael Moore. Although the Fox network gave Moore a TV series in 1995, "TV Nation, " and hasn't offered anything to Blazquez, at least not yet.
Here's the transcript:
Gregg Jarrett (host): That is a clip from a documentary about little Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban refugee who was fished from the ocean off the Florida coastline and the custody battle that arose over little Elian ended up actually playing a role in the 2000 election and now nearly 4 years later there is a documentary out. It is being released in the U.S. It attacks the way the Clinton Administration handled the case so here is a question for you: “Could the film be as favorable to President Bush in this year’s election as it was in 2000?” Well, lets put that question to a couple of folks. We are talking to Agustin Blazquez, producer and creator of Covering Cuba 3 and Jaums Sutton, interviewer for the documentary. Gentlemen, thanks for being with us and we will get to that question in a moment, but first, Agustin, it move you to the press release because your press release states the following and I’m quoting: “The film offers the opportunity to tell the American people what the Clinton Administration and the U.S. media censored! The media manipulated information to fool the American people.” Now, Agustin, that’s a pretty serious charge and I’m no apologist for the Clinton Administration, but I’m a member of the media. I covered the case. What did we in the media censor and manipulate?
Agustin Blazquez: But, wait a moment. Your station got very good ratings in my documentary and also Diane Sawyer got very good ratings in the documentary. It’s other networks like CNN, Lucia Newman and also. . . .
GJ: What did we manipulate and censor?
AB: Well, there was a lot of information that actually existed that wasn’t released at that time, like for example that the Cuban Constitution actually gives all the custody of the children to the parents—I mean to the state, not the parents.
GJ: We don’t recognize in a court of law the Cuban Constitution. We recognize American law. American law was very clear; both family and immigration law, the biological father, absence of any evidence of abuse, dictates the course of a child.
AB: Absolutely. The problem is that what the American people did not understand is that when that child was returned to Cuba that it was going to be in the custody of the state. That’s why the Cuban Americans were trying to protect that child from going back to Cuba . . ..
GJ: We knew that and we reported that, Agustin. Jaums, let me turn to you. Most of the Cuban American People you interviewed for this documentary were actually born in the U.S., as I understand it, thus they have little or know personal knowledge of Cuba. So, in fairness, what do they really know about the realities of life in Cuba?
Jaums Sutton: They grew up with this from their families. Their parents lived it and have discussed it. It became part of their soul because of their families.
GJ: Agustin, let me move back to you again. You accused the U.S. government of violating the law, that’s in your press release. Now look, I am a lawyer, as I mentioned. I covered it. It was litigated in both state and federal courts, which denied Elian Gonzalez political asylum. Even the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the father and refused to intervene. All those judges were wrong and you’re right?
AB: No I don’t mean that I am right. It seems to be that the justice was violated. You just have to see the documentary in order to understand what the people are talking about and what happened. I think the people in my documentary are very eloquent and speak clearly about the whole thing.
GJ: Yeah. Jaums, back to you. Your documentary clearly tells what is a heart-wrenching story from the Cuban American point of view, so you’d admit that it’s not objective, correct?
JS: Right. The whole point was to get across a side that is—we felt was lacking in the media of the U.S. That Americans needed more information from the Cuban Americans who were closer to it.
GJ: And, Jaums, still with you. Elian spent the last 4 years with those who love him, I mean his father, his, Elian’s brother, extended family in Cuba. He just celebrated his 10th birthday. I mean, we hate communism, we loath it, but whose to say this little boy is not better off with his immediately family in that environment?
JS: Well, he’s physically, we understand from family in the U.S., that he is physically with his family there, but there is also a guard at the front door and a guard at the back door that’s not there to protect him from the outside. It’s to make sure that they can’t get away and can’t do anything, that Elian and his father can’t do anything that the government wouldn’t like. He is the government poster child there. He is not—doesn’t have—a normal life of a child there.
GJ: No easy answers here. Again a heart-wrenching story. Thank you both for being here—Agustin Blazquez and Jaums Sutton. We appreciate it.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Monday, August 23, 2004
An American Tragedy (continued)
Angus Crook writes to tell us that Josef von Sternberg also made a version of Dreiser's classic novel, in 1931, starring Sylvia Sidney, among others.
Jamaat Ansar Al-Jihad Claims Credit for Paris Jewish Center Fire
From The Jerusalem Post ] [link thanks to Little Green Footballs]:
"The group, Jamaat Ansar Al-Jihad, issued a claim of responsibility Sunday evening on the Islamic Web site known for militant Islamic comment. The message said the attack was 'in response to racist acts by Jews in France against Islam and the Muslims and the desecration of Muslim cemeteries by Jews'. It is also meant ... as a simple response to the racist and savage acts by Jews in Muslim countries like Palestine and other Muslim and Arab countries,' it said...
"...Minister-without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky said, "In France the radical Left and the intelligentsia demonize and deligitimize the very existence of Israel... There is a very close connection between that and the existence of anti-Semitism. The government of France doesn't want to acknowledge that and even denies it. Until they see the connection between the demonization of Israel and the deligitimization of Israel, the anti-Semitism will continue, even though they are truly, honestly doing more to combat anti-Semitism than any other government in Europe."
"The group, Jamaat Ansar Al-Jihad, issued a claim of responsibility Sunday evening on the Islamic Web site known for militant Islamic comment. The message said the attack was 'in response to racist acts by Jews in France against Islam and the Muslims and the desecration of Muslim cemeteries by Jews'. It is also meant ... as a simple response to the racist and savage acts by Jews in Muslim countries like Palestine and other Muslim and Arab countries,' it said...
"...Minister-without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky said, "In France the radical Left and the intelligentsia demonize and deligitimize the very existence of Israel... There is a very close connection between that and the existence of anti-Semitism. The government of France doesn't want to acknowledge that and even denies it. Until they see the connection between the demonization of Israel and the deligitimization of Israel, the anti-Semitism will continue, even though they are truly, honestly doing more to combat anti-Semitism than any other government in Europe."
John Kerry's Nuclear Option
John LeBoutillier says the Swift Boat ads controversy is a mere bump in the road, because John Kerry will stop at nothing to become President:
"Knowing Kerry, here is what he is contemplating: he is signaling GW Bush that everything is on the table now. That means that Kerry will take Bush - who he believes is directly involved in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign - right into the gutter as payback. Past allegations not only about Bush’s Texas Air National Guard problems will suddenly re-surface soon. But - ominously - so, too, may past rumors of Bush’s use of cocaine in his “young and irresponsible years” and rumors of Bush girlfriends having abortions. These have been raised in the past. Look for Kerry to have carefully researched them and prepared some type of attack based on them. In other words, Kerry is ready to go nuclear to win this election.
"All along Kerry has tried to have it both ways on his Vietnam service: he saw himself as a war hero-turned anti-war leader. Anything that gets in the way of that picture infuriates him. And the Swift Boat Vets have gummed things up for him. But, in his pathological brain, he sees the Bush Attack Machine behind this and he is determined to destroy the Bushes once and for all. [emphasis added]
"Look for a MoveOn. org ad - or some other pro-Kerry 527 group - to air devastating negative commercials against Bush. And know that they are operating on direct orders from John Kerry.
"Kerry has been telling people since high school - I know this because my brother was one year ahead of Kerry - that he was going to be President. And Kerry knows this is his one shot; if he loses, he is toast as the Democrats move to Hillary in 2008. So Kerry has to do everything he can to win this election. And he will do whatever it takes."
"Knowing Kerry, here is what he is contemplating: he is signaling GW Bush that everything is on the table now. That means that Kerry will take Bush - who he believes is directly involved in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign - right into the gutter as payback. Past allegations not only about Bush’s Texas Air National Guard problems will suddenly re-surface soon. But - ominously - so, too, may past rumors of Bush’s use of cocaine in his “young and irresponsible years” and rumors of Bush girlfriends having abortions. These have been raised in the past. Look for Kerry to have carefully researched them and prepared some type of attack based on them. In other words, Kerry is ready to go nuclear to win this election.
"All along Kerry has tried to have it both ways on his Vietnam service: he saw himself as a war hero-turned anti-war leader. Anything that gets in the way of that picture infuriates him. And the Swift Boat Vets have gummed things up for him. But, in his pathological brain, he sees the Bush Attack Machine behind this and he is determined to destroy the Bushes once and for all. [emphasis added]
"Look for a MoveOn. org ad - or some other pro-Kerry 527 group - to air devastating negative commercials against Bush. And know that they are operating on direct orders from John Kerry.
"Kerry has been telling people since high school - I know this because my brother was one year ahead of Kerry - that he was going to be President. And Kerry knows this is his one shot; if he loses, he is toast as the Democrats move to Hillary in 2008. So Kerry has to do everything he can to win this election. And he will do whatever it takes."
10 States Will Decide
Charlie Cook says the other 40 states don't matter very much by now:
"At this point, there remains 10 states that are too close to call: Florida with 27 electoral votes, Iowa (7), Minnesota (10), Missouri (11), Nevada (5), New Hampshire (4), New Mexico (5), Ohio (20), Pennsylvania (21) and Wisconsin (10). While too close to call, these states are not necessarily dead even. In Pennsylvania, President Bush, after holding a consistent lead over Kerry, finally slipped behind last month, but not far enough to warrant moving it into the 'Lean Kerry' column. The same case exists in Florida, where a recent poll by a Republican firm for a private client put Kerry up by four points, but no one believes that the state is anything but a toss up. In Minnesota, New Hampshire and New Mexico, Kerry seems to be up by a bit, but again not quite enough to move those into the Kerry column. Bush is ahead in Missouri, but it's a close call as to whether the lead is big enough to justify moving it into the 'Lean Bush' column. In adding up all the electoral votes that are in the safe and lean columns for each candidate, President Bush has a tight 211 to 207 lead in the Electoral College. Bush also has 120 votes in the toss up column. However, if you pushed each of the 10 toss up states to Kerry -- who seems to be ahead by a slight margin -- he would come out on top."
"At this point, there remains 10 states that are too close to call: Florida with 27 electoral votes, Iowa (7), Minnesota (10), Missouri (11), Nevada (5), New Hampshire (4), New Mexico (5), Ohio (20), Pennsylvania (21) and Wisconsin (10). While too close to call, these states are not necessarily dead even. In Pennsylvania, President Bush, after holding a consistent lead over Kerry, finally slipped behind last month, but not far enough to warrant moving it into the 'Lean Kerry' column. The same case exists in Florida, where a recent poll by a Republican firm for a private client put Kerry up by four points, but no one believes that the state is anything but a toss up. In Minnesota, New Hampshire and New Mexico, Kerry seems to be up by a bit, but again not quite enough to move those into the Kerry column. Bush is ahead in Missouri, but it's a close call as to whether the lead is big enough to justify moving it into the 'Lean Bush' column. In adding up all the electoral votes that are in the safe and lean columns for each candidate, President Bush has a tight 211 to 207 lead in the Electoral College. Bush also has 120 votes in the toss up column. However, if you pushed each of the 10 toss up states to Kerry -- who seems to be ahead by a slight margin -- he would come out on top."
Taxonomy of Road Rage
Yesterday, I was the victim of an aggressive driver suffering from road rage. Driving down a quiet road for a Sunday drive in the country, the other driver pulled behind me honking his horn. So I slowed down. At a stop sign, he pulled up next to my car and began screaming insults at the top of his voice, before driving off. What the heck was he thinking? Afterwards, I found this interesting Taxonomy of Road Rage by Drs. Leon James and Diane Nahl:
"My cumulative research using the self-witnessing reports of hundreds of drivers, reveals an agitated inner world of driving that is replete with extreme emotions and impulses seemingly triggered by little acts. Ordinary drivers can display maniacal thoughts, violent feelings, virulent speech, and physiological signs of high stress.
'Right now I feel scared, anxious, fearful, panic stricken, agitated, bothered, irritated, annoyed, angry, mad. I feel like yelling and hitting. I'm thinking, Oh, no what's he doing. What's happening. How could he do that. and I hear myself saying out loud, @#$% Stupid guy! I'm breathing fast, gripping the wheel, perspiring, sitting up straight and slightly forward, my eyes are open and watching straight ahead.'
This incident involved a car cutting into the lane and forcing the driver to slam on the brakes causing a chain reaction; however, no collision occurred. The self-witnessing reports of drivers routinely contain scary incidents of this sort in which near misses occur. Hence it has become normal and usual for drivers to experience stress and panic under everyday traffic conditions. The following is a summary of the variety of negative reactions routinely mentioned in driver self-witnessing reports.
Extreme Physiological Reactions: heart pounding, momentary stopping of breathing, muscle spasms, stomach cramps, wet hands, pallor, faintness, trembling, nausea, discoordination, inhibition, visual fixation, facial distortion, back pain, neck cramp.
Extreme Emotional Reactions:outbursts of anger, yelling, aggressive gestures, looking mean and glaring, threatening with dangerous vehicle manipulation, fantasies of violence and revenge, panic, incapacitation, distortion, regressive rigid pattern of behavior, fear, anxiety, delusional talk against non-present drivers and objects.
Extreme Irrational Thought Sequences:paranoic thinking that one is being followed or inspected, addressing other drivers who are not within ear shot, script writing scenarios involving vengeance and cruelty against 'guilty' drivers, denial of reality and defensiveness when a passenger complains of a driver's error, psychopathic interactions as when two drivers alternately tailgate each other dangerously at high speed.
These findings raise an important public issue: What is the mental health of the nearly two hundred million licensed drivers in North America? Demographic sampling research with the self-witnessing method is needed to assess the generality of my early findings. We need to create behavioral maps of drivers under varying social and psychological conditions in order to construct a comprehensive theory of driving behavior within the language of drivers, not the language of scientists. Managing the future of driving in our society requires a knowledge of driving psychology because it provides the content needed by instructors, safety officials, law enforcement, and all regulatory agencies in society that administer roads, cars, and drivers. I use the phrase 'driving informatics' (Nahl, 1999) to cover the entirety of information sources society now needs to manage its expanding driving and automotive environment."
"My cumulative research using the self-witnessing reports of hundreds of drivers, reveals an agitated inner world of driving that is replete with extreme emotions and impulses seemingly triggered by little acts. Ordinary drivers can display maniacal thoughts, violent feelings, virulent speech, and physiological signs of high stress.
'Right now I feel scared, anxious, fearful, panic stricken, agitated, bothered, irritated, annoyed, angry, mad. I feel like yelling and hitting. I'm thinking, Oh, no what's he doing. What's happening. How could he do that. and I hear myself saying out loud, @#$% Stupid guy! I'm breathing fast, gripping the wheel, perspiring, sitting up straight and slightly forward, my eyes are open and watching straight ahead.'
This incident involved a car cutting into the lane and forcing the driver to slam on the brakes causing a chain reaction; however, no collision occurred. The self-witnessing reports of drivers routinely contain scary incidents of this sort in which near misses occur. Hence it has become normal and usual for drivers to experience stress and panic under everyday traffic conditions. The following is a summary of the variety of negative reactions routinely mentioned in driver self-witnessing reports.
Extreme Physiological Reactions: heart pounding, momentary stopping of breathing, muscle spasms, stomach cramps, wet hands, pallor, faintness, trembling, nausea, discoordination, inhibition, visual fixation, facial distortion, back pain, neck cramp.
Extreme Emotional Reactions:outbursts of anger, yelling, aggressive gestures, looking mean and glaring, threatening with dangerous vehicle manipulation, fantasies of violence and revenge, panic, incapacitation, distortion, regressive rigid pattern of behavior, fear, anxiety, delusional talk against non-present drivers and objects.
Extreme Irrational Thought Sequences:paranoic thinking that one is being followed or inspected, addressing other drivers who are not within ear shot, script writing scenarios involving vengeance and cruelty against 'guilty' drivers, denial of reality and defensiveness when a passenger complains of a driver's error, psychopathic interactions as when two drivers alternately tailgate each other dangerously at high speed.
These findings raise an important public issue: What is the mental health of the nearly two hundred million licensed drivers in North America? Demographic sampling research with the self-witnessing method is needed to assess the generality of my early findings. We need to create behavioral maps of drivers under varying social and psychological conditions in order to construct a comprehensive theory of driving behavior within the language of drivers, not the language of scientists. Managing the future of driving in our society requires a knowledge of driving psychology because it provides the content needed by instructors, safety officials, law enforcement, and all regulatory agencies in society that administer roads, cars, and drivers. I use the phrase 'driving informatics' (Nahl, 1999) to cover the entirety of information sources society now needs to manage its expanding driving and automotive environment."
How "The Scream" Was Stolen
According to The Guardian :
"The first anyone heard was a crash as the two armed robbers, masked in balaclavas, careered into plate glass doors at the front of the Munch Museum. In their adrenalin-psyched eagerness to snatch one of the most renowned and valuable of modern paintings, the gang reportedly misjudged the gallery's sequence of automatic sliding doors. But the blundering entrance - which startled Sunday morning tourists drifting through the gallery and alerted security guards - was followed by a rapidly executed theft."
"The first anyone heard was a crash as the two armed robbers, masked in balaclavas, careered into plate glass doors at the front of the Munch Museum. In their adrenalin-psyched eagerness to snatch one of the most renowned and valuable of modern paintings, the gang reportedly misjudged the gallery's sequence of automatic sliding doors. But the blundering entrance - which startled Sunday morning tourists drifting through the gallery and alerted security guards - was followed by a rapidly executed theft."
Who is Killing Iraq's WMD Experts?
The Washington Times says America is failing to protect those who know most about Iraq's WMD program--even when they are kept in US custody:
"Anti-coalition forces have killed a prominent Iraqi chemical-weapons scientist whom U.S. investigators were questioning at Abu Ghraib prison, in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of Saddam Hussein's arsenal. The scientist's death is not the first such killing, and it has some U.S. analysts wondering whether there is a pattern and also whether the Iraqi insurgents had incredibly good intelligence and a deadly aim "
"Anti-coalition forces have killed a prominent Iraqi chemical-weapons scientist whom U.S. investigators were questioning at Abu Ghraib prison, in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of Saddam Hussein's arsenal. The scientist's death is not the first such killing, and it has some U.S. analysts wondering whether there is a pattern and also whether the Iraqi insurgents had incredibly good intelligence and a deadly aim "
Arsonists Burn Parisian Jewish Center
From The Washington Times: AP:
"Authorities immediately suspected the fire was set deliberately. Inside the building, investigators found anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas scrawled in red marker. One message read, 'Without the Jews, the world is happy.'"
"Authorities immediately suspected the fire was set deliberately. Inside the building, investigators found anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas scrawled in red marker. One message read, 'Without the Jews, the world is happy.'"
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Watch Europe Carefully
Historian Victor Davis Hanson favors American troop reductions in Europe, but warily:
"Anyone old enough to have known the Wehrmacht in the past and the intra-European hounding that goes on in the present does not believe that we are at the end of history — at least not until the nature of man changes and national character is revealed as a mere construct. Germany is united again, but an economic colossus stalled, as its politicians silently gnash about "unfairness" in the EU, and as German Euros go east and south to subsidize "others." Germany, in fact, is in flux, a period of shake-out not seen since the late 1920s, in which the reaction to a failed socialist-pacifist agenda will one day either bring pro-American reform or unpredictable fury, in any direction"
"Anyone old enough to have known the Wehrmacht in the past and the intra-European hounding that goes on in the present does not believe that we are at the end of history — at least not until the nature of man changes and national character is revealed as a mere construct. Germany is united again, but an economic colossus stalled, as its politicians silently gnash about "unfairness" in the EU, and as German Euros go east and south to subsidize "others." Germany, in fact, is in flux, a period of shake-out not seen since the late 1920s, in which the reaction to a failed socialist-pacifist agenda will one day either bring pro-American reform or unpredictable fury, in any direction"
Tolstoy on War
The Kerry medals controversy brings Tolstoy's descriptions of battle in War and Peace to mind. His point then, as it seems clear now, is that battle is complicated and confusing, and that historians are frequently wrong:
"The whole battle consisted in what Orlov-Denisov's Cossacks had done: the rest of the army merely lost some hundreds of men uselessly.
In consequence of this battle Kutuzov received a diamond decoration, and Bennigsen some diamonds and a hundred thousand rubles, others also received pleasant recognitions corresponding to their various grades, and following the battle fresh changes were made in the staff.
'That's how everything is done with us, all topsy-turvy!' said the Russian officers and generals after the Tarutino battle, letting it be understood that some fool there is doing things all wrong but that we ourselves should not have done so, just as people speak today. But people who talk like that either do not know what they are talking about or deliberately deceive themselves. No battle- Tarutino, Borodino, or Austerlitz- takes place as those who planned it anticipated. That is an essential condition.
A countless number of free forces (for nowhere is man freer than during a battle, where it is a question of life and death) influence the course taken by the fight, and that course never can be known in advance and never coincides with the direction of any one force.
If many simultaneously and variously directed forces act on a given body, the direction of its motion cannot coincide with any one of those forces, but will always be a mean- what in mechanics is represented by the diagonal of a parallelogram of forces.
If in the descriptions given by historians, especially French ones, we find their wars and battles carried out in accordance with previously formed plans, the only conclusion to be drawn is that those descriptions are false."
"The whole battle consisted in what Orlov-Denisov's Cossacks had done: the rest of the army merely lost some hundreds of men uselessly.
In consequence of this battle Kutuzov received a diamond decoration, and Bennigsen some diamonds and a hundred thousand rubles, others also received pleasant recognitions corresponding to their various grades, and following the battle fresh changes were made in the staff.
'That's how everything is done with us, all topsy-turvy!' said the Russian officers and generals after the Tarutino battle, letting it be understood that some fool there is doing things all wrong but that we ourselves should not have done so, just as people speak today. But people who talk like that either do not know what they are talking about or deliberately deceive themselves. No battle- Tarutino, Borodino, or Austerlitz- takes place as those who planned it anticipated. That is an essential condition.
A countless number of free forces (for nowhere is man freer than during a battle, where it is a question of life and death) influence the course taken by the fight, and that course never can be known in advance and never coincides with the direction of any one force.
If many simultaneously and variously directed forces act on a given body, the direction of its motion cannot coincide with any one of those forces, but will always be a mean- what in mechanics is represented by the diagonal of a parallelogram of forces.
If in the descriptions given by historians, especially French ones, we find their wars and battles carried out in accordance with previously formed plans, the only conclusion to be drawn is that those descriptions are false."
An American Tragedy
A call from a Hollywood screenwriter friend yesterday reminded us that Upstate New York has at least one more literary association, in addition to James Fenimore Cooper and Mark Twain. Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy was based on a real-life murder case in Cortland, NY, which we also drove through on our recent pilgrimage to New York's cultural meccas. The book became George Stevens' film A Place in the Sun, starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. Interestingly, legendary Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein prepared a screenplay of Dreiser's novel, but it was never filmed.
Evidence of Coordination?
Is there more to come on this item from The Washington Post?
"CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 21 -- The Bush campaign said late Saturday that it dismissed an adviser on veterans issues after learning that he is part of an independent group that has been running anti-Kerry ads."
"CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 21 -- The Bush campaign said late Saturday that it dismissed an adviser on veterans issues after learning that he is part of an independent group that has been running anti-Kerry ads."
The Washington Post Investigates the Kerry War Record Controversy
And finds all sides are hiding something, according to Michael Dobbs:
"In his book, Brinkley writes that a skipper who remains friendly to Kerry, Skip Barker, took part in the March 13 raid. But there is no documentary evidence of Barker's participation. Barker could not be reached for comment.
"Brinkley, who is director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans, did not reply to messages left with his office, publisher and cell phone. The Kerry campaign has refused to make available Kerry's journals and other writings to The Post, saying the senator remains bound by an exclusivity agreement with Brinkley. A Kerry spokesman, Michael Meehan, said he did not know when Kerry wrote down his reminiscences."
"In his book, Brinkley writes that a skipper who remains friendly to Kerry, Skip Barker, took part in the March 13 raid. But there is no documentary evidence of Barker's participation. Barker could not be reached for comment.
"Brinkley, who is director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans, did not reply to messages left with his office, publisher and cell phone. The Kerry campaign has refused to make available Kerry's journals and other writings to The Post, saying the senator remains bound by an exclusivity agreement with Brinkley. A Kerry spokesman, Michael Meehan, said he did not know when Kerry wrote down his reminiscences."
Kerry's Comrade-in-Arms Tells His Story
William Rood writes in Chicago Tribune:
"Known over radio circuits by the call sign 'Latch,' then-Capt. and now retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, the task force commander, fired off a message congratulating the three swift boats, saying at one point that the tactic of charging the ambushes was a 'shining example of completely overwhelming the enemy' and that it 'may be the most efficacious method of dealing with small numbers of ambushers.'
"Hoffmann has become a leading critic of Kerry's and now says that what the boats did on that day demonstrated Kerry's inclination to be impulsive to a fault.
"Our decision to use that tactic under the right circumstances was not impulsive but was the result of discussions well beforehand and a mutual agreement of all three boat officers.
"It was also well within the aggressive tradition that was embraced by the late Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, then commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Vietnam. Months before that day in February, a fellow boat officer, Michael Bernique, was summoned to Saigon to explain to top Navy commanders why he had made an unauthorized run up the Giang Thanh River, which runs along the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Bernique, who speaks French fluently, had been told by a source in Ha Tien at the mouth of the river that a VC tax collector was operating upstream.
"Ignoring the prohibition against it, Bernique and his crew went upstream and routed the VC, pursuing and killing several.
"Instead of facing disciplinary action as he had expected, Bernique was given the Silver Star, and Zumwalt ordered other swifts, which had largely patrolled coastal waters, into the rivers.
"The decision sent a clear message, underscored repeatedly by Hoffmann's congratulatory messages, that aggressive patrolling was expected and that well-timed, if unconventional, tactics like Bernique's were encouraged.
"What we did on Feb. 28, 1969, was well in line with the tone set by our top commanders."
"Known over radio circuits by the call sign 'Latch,' then-Capt. and now retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, the task force commander, fired off a message congratulating the three swift boats, saying at one point that the tactic of charging the ambushes was a 'shining example of completely overwhelming the enemy' and that it 'may be the most efficacious method of dealing with small numbers of ambushers.'
"Hoffmann has become a leading critic of Kerry's and now says that what the boats did on that day demonstrated Kerry's inclination to be impulsive to a fault.
"Our decision to use that tactic under the right circumstances was not impulsive but was the result of discussions well beforehand and a mutual agreement of all three boat officers.
"It was also well within the aggressive tradition that was embraced by the late Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, then commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Vietnam. Months before that day in February, a fellow boat officer, Michael Bernique, was summoned to Saigon to explain to top Navy commanders why he had made an unauthorized run up the Giang Thanh River, which runs along the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Bernique, who speaks French fluently, had been told by a source in Ha Tien at the mouth of the river that a VC tax collector was operating upstream.
"Ignoring the prohibition against it, Bernique and his crew went upstream and routed the VC, pursuing and killing several.
"Instead of facing disciplinary action as he had expected, Bernique was given the Silver Star, and Zumwalt ordered other swifts, which had largely patrolled coastal waters, into the rivers.
"The decision sent a clear message, underscored repeatedly by Hoffmann's congratulatory messages, that aggressive patrolling was expected and that well-timed, if unconventional, tactics like Bernique's were encouraged.
"What we did on Feb. 28, 1969, was well in line with the tone set by our top commanders."
Saturday, August 21, 2004
I, Robot
Just saw Will Smith I, Robot. It really was good, entertaining, moving, gripping, thought provoking, allegorical, operating on a lot of different levels, about everything from Microsoft, to racism, to "contracting out" jobs, to science, love, humanity, identity, freedom, you name it. Lots of exploding fireballs, too many perhaps, car chases, special effects. Afterwards, googled Isaac Asimov (the name is an Uzbek name, I learned in Tashkent, though Asimov was born to a Jewish family near Smolensk, Russia). And there was an interesting link on Wikipedia to the first commercial robot, made by Honda.
Is is called the ASIMO, after Isaac Asimov. So, as Oscar Wilde noted, life imitates art.
Is is called the ASIMO, after Isaac Asimov. So, as Oscar Wilde noted, life imitates art.
AFI's Banned Elian Film Director To Appear on Fox News
This just in from Agustin Blazquez, the producer director of COVERING CUBA 3: Elian, which was banned by the American Film Institute. He will be interviewed tomorrow, Sunday, August 22, 2004 at 3:15 p.m. [all U.S. time zones] by Gregg Jarrett on Fox News Live on the Fox News Channel.
Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry
If you want to see what all the fuss is about, here's where you can buy a copy ofUnfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, which asks the question: "'Why do an overwhelming majority of those who commanded or served with John Kerry oppose him?'"
How Can Kerry Prove Bush Coordination?
From MSNBC :
"What does it take to prove coordination under the FEC rules? To prove, for example, that an outside group’s ad was coordinated with a candidate’s campaign, any one of the following is required, according to FEC spokesman Bob Biersack:
* The ad being aired by the group was broadcast at the request or suggestion of the candidate, his campaign or an agent of the campaign.
* The group suggested the ad and the candidate or his agent assented to the ad, for example, by saying something such as, “That sounds like a good idea to me.”
* The candidate or his agent was materially involved in decisions about the content of the ad, the times and places where it would air, the medium used, etc.
* The ad was aired after what the FEC calls “substantial discussion” between the person or outside group paying for the ad and the campaign. If, for example, a campaign manager said to the head of a 527 group, “Over the next two weeks, our campaign’s ads will focus on the loss of textile jobs in this state,” and the outside group then ran its own ads buttressing that message, it would be coordination.
'It's very difficult' to prove coordination, said former FEC general counsel Larry Noble, who is now head of the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington. A case 'is very much reliant on showing that certain types of discussions took place and the only way to get that (evidence) is from the people involved.'"
"What does it take to prove coordination under the FEC rules? To prove, for example, that an outside group’s ad was coordinated with a candidate’s campaign, any one of the following is required, according to FEC spokesman Bob Biersack:
* The ad being aired by the group was broadcast at the request or suggestion of the candidate, his campaign or an agent of the campaign.
* The group suggested the ad and the candidate or his agent assented to the ad, for example, by saying something such as, “That sounds like a good idea to me.”
* The candidate or his agent was materially involved in decisions about the content of the ad, the times and places where it would air, the medium used, etc.
* The ad was aired after what the FEC calls “substantial discussion” between the person or outside group paying for the ad and the campaign. If, for example, a campaign manager said to the head of a 527 group, “Over the next two weeks, our campaign’s ads will focus on the loss of textile jobs in this state,” and the outside group then ran its own ads buttressing that message, it would be coordination.
'It's very difficult' to prove coordination, said former FEC general counsel Larry Noble, who is now head of the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington. A case 'is very much reliant on showing that certain types of discussions took place and the only way to get that (evidence) is from the people involved.'"
Mark Steyn on Politics and Show Business
From the Sun-Times:
"But it's not healthy for political parties to embrace the mental state of the Michaels Jackson and Moore. Celebrity supporters are not naturally inclined to supporting roles. That's the trouble with the Streisand-Goldberg-Affleck Hollywood-heavy Democratic Party: Barbra, Whoopi and Ben are the stars, and the party looks more and more like just a slightly bigger than usual entourage."
"But it's not healthy for political parties to embrace the mental state of the Michaels Jackson and Moore. Celebrity supporters are not naturally inclined to supporting roles. That's the trouble with the Streisand-Goldberg-Affleck Hollywood-heavy Democratic Party: Barbra, Whoopi and Ben are the stars, and the party looks more and more like just a slightly bigger than usual entourage."
Good Morning, Vietnam
The new Swift Boat Veterans ad is all about John Kerry's anti-war activism.
Which raises another issue: If Kerry thought the war was wrong, and American veterans were war criminals, why pretend to be proud of medals for participating in an immoral war? Why not say he was against the war then, and is against it today, because of his own wartime experiences, which is what he said in 1971?
That is why this issue isn't going away--because it is reopening the wounds of Vietnam. Kerry surely didn't forget that among the high officials who lost the Vietnam war were then-White House Chief of Staff Dick Cheney and then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
They probably haven't forgotten, either.
Which raises another issue: If Kerry thought the war was wrong, and American veterans were war criminals, why pretend to be proud of medals for participating in an immoral war? Why not say he was against the war then, and is against it today, because of his own wartime experiences, which is what he said in 1971?
That is why this issue isn't going away--because it is reopening the wounds of Vietnam. Kerry surely didn't forget that among the high officials who lost the Vietnam war were then-White House Chief of Staff Dick Cheney and then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
They probably haven't forgotten, either.
Military Medals Are Not Always What They Appear
SaysDavid Hackworth:
"Not that these abuses of the awards system are anything new. The U.S. military’s awards program -- designed to recognize both our combat heroes’ valor and the meritorious deeds by those hard-working supporters who bring up the rear -- has never been exactly fair. In the past, Joe and Jill have often gone unrecognized because there was no one left at the end of the battle to bear witness, or the paperwork got lost or wasn’t written persuasively enough, or some eager-beaver officer in the chain of command stole their glory. I know of two Medals of Honor -- one in Korea and the other with a Navy unit in Vietnam -- that shamefully went to still-living former officers when in fact their above-and-beyond deeds "witnessed" by sycophants were actually performed by grunts.
"In the latter days of the Korean War and in Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm and Somalia, such abuses of military honors increased with each battle. In Vietnam, a dog was awarded the Bronze Star, and in Grenada, more medals were awarded than there were soldiers on that tiny island. In Desert Storm, Army infantry battalions that never saw a shot fired were awarded the coveted CIB."
On the other hand, Hackworth comes to Kerry's defense on his own website:
"O’Neill and his chorus of haters are still in their get-Kerry mode. I suspect the decades-long fury is still fueled by Kerry’s high-profile anti-war stance when he returned home. That was a position that was taken by hundreds of thousands of other Viet vets, including myself in 1971 – which, according to Joe Califono's recent book, Inside: A Public Life, almost cost me my life.
"McCain has already asked President Bush to distance himself from this “dishonest and dishonorable” attack. Advice that Bush should take one step further by ordering Vietnam draft-dodger Karl Rove and the rest of the character-assassination squad who zapped McCain and Cleland to back off. And then publicly stand tall and say that this type of behavior insults every vet who’s served America in peace and war.
"As our commander in chief, Bush also needs to bear in mind that the U.S. Navy and its high standards for handling awards are now on trial as well. Hopefully, the president’s righteous actions will expedite that institution’s exoneration along with Lt. John Kerry’s heroism."
What does it mean to say that a dog can win the Bronze star, but the Navy's high standards for handling awards are now on trial? Most likely, that Kerry is probably not the only veteran with some questionable medals from Vietnam...
"Not that these abuses of the awards system are anything new. The U.S. military’s awards program -- designed to recognize both our combat heroes’ valor and the meritorious deeds by those hard-working supporters who bring up the rear -- has never been exactly fair. In the past, Joe and Jill have often gone unrecognized because there was no one left at the end of the battle to bear witness, or the paperwork got lost or wasn’t written persuasively enough, or some eager-beaver officer in the chain of command stole their glory. I know of two Medals of Honor -- one in Korea and the other with a Navy unit in Vietnam -- that shamefully went to still-living former officers when in fact their above-and-beyond deeds "witnessed" by sycophants were actually performed by grunts.
"In the latter days of the Korean War and in Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm and Somalia, such abuses of military honors increased with each battle. In Vietnam, a dog was awarded the Bronze Star, and in Grenada, more medals were awarded than there were soldiers on that tiny island. In Desert Storm, Army infantry battalions that never saw a shot fired were awarded the coveted CIB."
On the other hand, Hackworth comes to Kerry's defense on his own website:
"O’Neill and his chorus of haters are still in their get-Kerry mode. I suspect the decades-long fury is still fueled by Kerry’s high-profile anti-war stance when he returned home. That was a position that was taken by hundreds of thousands of other Viet vets, including myself in 1971 – which, according to Joe Califono's recent book, Inside: A Public Life, almost cost me my life.
"McCain has already asked President Bush to distance himself from this “dishonest and dishonorable” attack. Advice that Bush should take one step further by ordering Vietnam draft-dodger Karl Rove and the rest of the character-assassination squad who zapped McCain and Cleland to back off. And then publicly stand tall and say that this type of behavior insults every vet who’s served America in peace and war.
"As our commander in chief, Bush also needs to bear in mind that the U.S. Navy and its high standards for handling awards are now on trial as well. Hopefully, the president’s righteous actions will expedite that institution’s exoneration along with Lt. John Kerry’s heroism."
What does it mean to say that a dog can win the Bronze star, but the Navy's high standards for handling awards are now on trial? Most likely, that Kerry is probably not the only veteran with some questionable medals from Vietnam...
Jim Lehrer on Kerry's War Record (continued)
From Friday's Newshour:
"JIM LEHRER: And finally tonight, the analysis of Shields and Kristol: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and William Kristol of the Weekly Standard. David Brooks is on vacation. The rising war over John Kerry's Vietnam War record, Bill. Is Kerry right to blame the attacks on President Bush? Did the Bush campaign influence the ads?
WILLIAM KRISTOL: No. I don't think he's right to blame the attacks on his fellow veterans who didn't like him in Vietnam, particularly didn't like him after he called... after they think he called some of them war criminals in 1971 in his famous testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and to produce this book, John O'Neill who was on last night, no, they're not stooges of the Bush campaign.
JIM LEHRER: Not stooges of the Bush campaign?
MARK SHIELDS: Of course they are, Jim. I mean, the problem with smear campaigns is that too often they work. All we have to see - and there's a modus operandi here. We've seen it before in Bush campaigns; we saw it in 1988, we saw it in '92, we saw in 2000 against John McCain. And this isn't just the fingerprints of the Bush-Cheney campaign, or the footprints; it's the DNA. I mean, it's the funding of it, the people involved in it were involved in McCain; they use exactly the same example to go after the person just as they did with John McCain in 2000.They said John McCain was short tempered, didn't have a presidential temperament. Scott McClellan today said John Kerry's angry, Mark Rosco, the campaign chairman said he was wild eyed. I mean."
"JIM LEHRER: And finally tonight, the analysis of Shields and Kristol: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and William Kristol of the Weekly Standard. David Brooks is on vacation. The rising war over John Kerry's Vietnam War record, Bill. Is Kerry right to blame the attacks on President Bush? Did the Bush campaign influence the ads?
WILLIAM KRISTOL: No. I don't think he's right to blame the attacks on his fellow veterans who didn't like him in Vietnam, particularly didn't like him after he called... after they think he called some of them war criminals in 1971 in his famous testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and to produce this book, John O'Neill who was on last night, no, they're not stooges of the Bush campaign.
JIM LEHRER: Not stooges of the Bush campaign?
MARK SHIELDS: Of course they are, Jim. I mean, the problem with smear campaigns is that too often they work. All we have to see - and there's a modus operandi here. We've seen it before in Bush campaigns; we saw it in 1988, we saw it in '92, we saw in 2000 against John McCain. And this isn't just the fingerprints of the Bush-Cheney campaign, or the footprints; it's the DNA. I mean, it's the funding of it, the people involved in it were involved in McCain; they use exactly the same example to go after the person just as they did with John McCain in 2000.They said John McCain was short tempered, didn't have a presidential temperament. Scott McClellan today said John Kerry's angry, Mark Rosco, the campaign chairman said he was wild eyed. I mean."
Friday, August 20, 2004
And We Thought Hate Is Not a Family Value...
How one family spent their summer vacation, from The Wall Street Journal:
"No!" the husband, who had swallowed his snack, sharply responded. "We're in favor of separation of church and state, and would prefer that those words not appear on our dollar bills, just as we want 'under God' removed from our pledge of allegiance. And you know what we mean," he continued, ratcheting-up the tone. "Bush lied to us about the war in Iraq!" The chairs rocked faster.
"How's that?" I replied. Before he could answer, I added, "Saddam Hussein used weapons of mass destruction three times, once against the Kurds in the north of Iraq, once against his 'marsh' people in the south, and against Iran. And every intelligence agency in the world, including the French, believed he had WMD, and that he was trying to acquire nuclear materials in Africa. If it was an intelligence miscalculation, all Saddam had to do was comply with U.N. inspections, but he refused. There was no lie, at worst a mistake that removed a brutal dictator who supported terrorism and who killed over 1.5 million people during his reign of terror."
"Screw you!" someone shouted from across the porch. My daughter's head swerved to the yelling miscreant, then back to me, somewhat fearful of my reaction..."
"No!" the husband, who had swallowed his snack, sharply responded. "We're in favor of separation of church and state, and would prefer that those words not appear on our dollar bills, just as we want 'under God' removed from our pledge of allegiance. And you know what we mean," he continued, ratcheting-up the tone. "Bush lied to us about the war in Iraq!" The chairs rocked faster.
"How's that?" I replied. Before he could answer, I added, "Saddam Hussein used weapons of mass destruction three times, once against the Kurds in the north of Iraq, once against his 'marsh' people in the south, and against Iran. And every intelligence agency in the world, including the French, believed he had WMD, and that he was trying to acquire nuclear materials in Africa. If it was an intelligence miscalculation, all Saddam had to do was comply with U.N. inspections, but he refused. There was no lie, at worst a mistake that removed a brutal dictator who supported terrorism and who killed over 1.5 million people during his reign of terror."
"Screw you!" someone shouted from across the porch. My daughter's head swerved to the yelling miscreant, then back to me, somewhat fearful of my reaction..."
Zakaria in the Kerry Camp
In Newsweek, the former editor of Foreign Affairs, and student of Samuel Huntington, says why:
"The more intelligent question is, given what we knew at the time, was toppling Saddam's regime a worthwhile objective? Bush's answer is yes, Howard Dean's is no. Kerry's answer is that it was a worthwhile objective but was disastrously executed. For this "nuance" Kerry has been attacked from both the right and the left. But it happens to be the most defensible position on the subject."
"The more intelligent question is, given what we knew at the time, was toppling Saddam's regime a worthwhile objective? Bush's answer is yes, Howard Dean's is no. Kerry's answer is that it was a worthwhile objective but was disastrously executed. For this "nuance" Kerry has been attacked from both the right and the left. But it happens to be the most defensible position on the subject."
Dallas Festival Screens AFI's Banned Elian Film
From The Wall Street Journal:
"Nearly four years after the Thanksgiving Day when Elian Gonzalez was fished out of the waters off the U.S. coast, pundits continue to debate whether he'll be as helpful to President Bush in Florida in 2004 as he was in 2000. Meanwhile, in Dallas, plans are afoot to screen a documentary next month about a much-neglected backstory: the media portrayal of Cuban-Americans during the Elian affair.
"The film is AgustÃn Blázquez's "Covering Cuba 3: Elian." Though it has been out since last year, this summer Mr. Blázquez created a minor stir when he accused the federally subsidized American Film Institute of "political bias" for turning down his film for its AFI Silver Theater in Maryland."
You can watch a clip at this website.
"Nearly four years after the Thanksgiving Day when Elian Gonzalez was fished out of the waters off the U.S. coast, pundits continue to debate whether he'll be as helpful to President Bush in Florida in 2004 as he was in 2000. Meanwhile, in Dallas, plans are afoot to screen a documentary next month about a much-neglected backstory: the media portrayal of Cuban-Americans during the Elian affair.
"The film is AgustÃn Blázquez's "Covering Cuba 3: Elian." Though it has been out since last year, this summer Mr. Blázquez created a minor stir when he accused the federally subsidized American Film Institute of "political bias" for turning down his film for its AFI Silver Theater in Maryland."
You can watch a clip at this website.
Julia Child's Legacy: The Food Network
From MeAndTed.com's Reese Schonfeld, founder of CNN and The Food Network:
"Julia Child died last week as all of you must know by now. She was one of the grandest women I’ve ever known. She was a creator and among the things she had a hand in was the creation of the Food Network.
"We bought Julia’s old shows from WGBH in Boston as soon as we started the network. Because Julia was nobody’s fool she had kept a large piece of the rights for herself and to my great pleasure much of what we paid to WGBH went to her.
"Went we were on the air, she signed up for a weekly commentary on Food News and Views. Every thing she said was right on and rightly said. Her appearance gave the Food Network credibility in the food world. She made us respectable."
"Julia Child died last week as all of you must know by now. She was one of the grandest women I’ve ever known. She was a creator and among the things she had a hand in was the creation of the Food Network.
"We bought Julia’s old shows from WGBH in Boston as soon as we started the network. Because Julia was nobody’s fool she had kept a large piece of the rights for herself and to my great pleasure much of what we paid to WGBH went to her.
"Went we were on the air, she signed up for a weekly commentary on Food News and Views. Every thing she said was right on and rightly said. Her appearance gave the Food Network credibility in the food world. She made us respectable."
Errol Morris Gets Political
Philip Gourevitch in the New Yorker on another Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker for Kerry:
"Errol Morris, whose inventive and stylized documentaries include 'The Thin Blue Line,' 'Mr. Death,' [Note to the New Yorker's famous fact-checkers: the title is acutally 'Dr. Death'] and an Oscar-winning portrait of Robert McNamara, 'The Fog of War,' is also a prodigious director of TV commercials—the ultimate message movies. It’s a lucrative sideline in which he takes considerable pleasure. He’s made successful advertisements for such brands as Miller High Life, Adidas, and Volkswagen, although some of his favorite spots—one for Quaker Oats, for example, which shows an orangutan spooning porridge into his mouth, then setting aside the utensil and blissfully plunging his face into the breakfast bowl—have never been broadcast. A few years ago, Morris directed Apple’s enormously popular 'Switch' campaign, which consisted of vignettes about real people who had abandoned PCs for Macs. And, while he has never before been involved in electoral politics, this year Morris decided to make a series of documentary political ads featuring Republican switchers, people who voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and will vote for John Kerry this time around.
"Morris, who lives in the echt-liberal enclave of Cambridge, Massachusetts, didn’t actually know any such people, but, he told me, 'the pollsters said they’re out there—in America—and I’m really interested in what they have to say.' After all, the outcome of the election is expected to hinge largely on swing voters, and, Morris said, 'these ads are a way of talking to them. It isn’t pollsters talking through actors. It isn’t longtime Democrats talking to themselves. It isn’t longtime Democrats hectoring Republicans. It’s thoughtful Republicans—many of whom have decided to remain Republican—saying it’s not us who are abandoning Bush; he’s abandoned us, abandoned the Republican Party we’ve supported all these years. That is a very powerful message.""
I met Morris several years ago, and he was kind enough to tell me at that time that he thought my film, Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die?, "was the best documentary I have ever seen."
So what can I say, other than read the New Yorker story?
"Errol Morris, whose inventive and stylized documentaries include 'The Thin Blue Line,' 'Mr. Death,' [Note to the New Yorker's famous fact-checkers: the title is acutally 'Dr. Death'] and an Oscar-winning portrait of Robert McNamara, 'The Fog of War,' is also a prodigious director of TV commercials—the ultimate message movies. It’s a lucrative sideline in which he takes considerable pleasure. He’s made successful advertisements for such brands as Miller High Life, Adidas, and Volkswagen, although some of his favorite spots—one for Quaker Oats, for example, which shows an orangutan spooning porridge into his mouth, then setting aside the utensil and blissfully plunging his face into the breakfast bowl—have never been broadcast. A few years ago, Morris directed Apple’s enormously popular 'Switch' campaign, which consisted of vignettes about real people who had abandoned PCs for Macs. And, while he has never before been involved in electoral politics, this year Morris decided to make a series of documentary political ads featuring Republican switchers, people who voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and will vote for John Kerry this time around.
"Morris, who lives in the echt-liberal enclave of Cambridge, Massachusetts, didn’t actually know any such people, but, he told me, 'the pollsters said they’re out there—in America—and I’m really interested in what they have to say.' After all, the outcome of the election is expected to hinge largely on swing voters, and, Morris said, 'these ads are a way of talking to them. It isn’t pollsters talking through actors. It isn’t longtime Democrats talking to themselves. It isn’t longtime Democrats hectoring Republicans. It’s thoughtful Republicans—many of whom have decided to remain Republican—saying it’s not us who are abandoning Bush; he’s abandoned us, abandoned the Republican Party we’ve supported all these years. That is a very powerful message.""
I met Morris several years ago, and he was kind enough to tell me at that time that he thought my film, Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die?, "was the best documentary I have ever seen."
So what can I say, other than read the New Yorker story?
Are We Losing Iraq?
Michael Rubin thinks so:
"If the National Security Council wants to put their hope in Ayad Allawi, they will be sorely disappointed. Allawi is a former Baathist. His close association with the Central Intelligence Agency, Britain's MI6, and Jordanian intelligence have not helped him among a Shia population in which he has little if any constituency. The Kurds also distrust Allawi, who, in 14 months of Coalition rule failed to engage in any serious way with the Sunni community. Najaf ends Allawi's honeymoon. The CIA may sing his praises to the president, but Langley's assets seldom make good leaders. They certainly don't make good democrats."
"If the National Security Council wants to put their hope in Ayad Allawi, they will be sorely disappointed. Allawi is a former Baathist. His close association with the Central Intelligence Agency, Britain's MI6, and Jordanian intelligence have not helped him among a Shia population in which he has little if any constituency. The Kurds also distrust Allawi, who, in 14 months of Coalition rule failed to engage in any serious way with the Sunni community. Najaf ends Allawi's honeymoon. The CIA may sing his praises to the president, but Langley's assets seldom make good leaders. They certainly don't make good democrats."
Youssef Chahine's Love-Hate Relationship With America
The Egyptian filmmaker's new release, "Alexandria...New York," is profiled in The Washington Post:
"Chahine said that he, like many Egyptians, is disturbed by the relentless violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as Iraq. "All the time I am faced by these scenes, every night on TV. We Arabs feel rejection. But if it was only us, it may not matter. It seems it is also 1 billion Muslims are being rejected," he said.
"He says he longs for the days of Busby Berkeley musicals, Fred Astaire dance numbers and Frank Sinatra crooning. Instead, he finds exploding cars and computerized robots. "All we see is Spider-Men and musclemen like Stallone and Willis," he said, referring to action stars Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis. "America has become violent like the new movies."
"Alexandria . . . New York" opens with the Arab filmmaker character deciding to travel to the United States despite his unease over its support for Israel. "It's hard to rip my deep love for America out of my heart," the character says."
"Chahine said that he, like many Egyptians, is disturbed by the relentless violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as Iraq. "All the time I am faced by these scenes, every night on TV. We Arabs feel rejection. But if it was only us, it may not matter. It seems it is also 1 billion Muslims are being rejected," he said.
"He says he longs for the days of Busby Berkeley musicals, Fred Astaire dance numbers and Frank Sinatra crooning. Instead, he finds exploding cars and computerized robots. "All we see is Spider-Men and musclemen like Stallone and Willis," he said, referring to action stars Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis. "America has become violent like the new movies."
"Alexandria . . . New York" opens with the Arab filmmaker character deciding to travel to the United States despite his unease over its support for Israel. "It's hard to rip my deep love for America out of my heart," the character says."
Composer Elmer Bernstein Dies
From the Washington Post:
"Pot-bellied, with a mop of shaggy gray hair, Mr. Bernstein worked much of his career in a filthy West Los Angeles apartment.
"Music is a romantic art," the composer said. "It's an art of shades and sounds and it's an emotional art. It deals with feelings rather than intellect. But the making of it is an intellectual exercise. And therefore it can be done in any surroundings. "
"Pot-bellied, with a mop of shaggy gray hair, Mr. Bernstein worked much of his career in a filthy West Los Angeles apartment.
"Music is a romantic art," the composer said. "It's an art of shades and sounds and it's an emotional art. It deals with feelings rather than intellect. But the making of it is an intellectual exercise. And therefore it can be done in any surroundings. "
Jim Lehrer on John Kerry's War Record
A really interesting segment on the NewsHour last night about John Kerry's decorations:
"JIM LEHRER: More now on the charges and counter-charges over John Kerry's war record. John O'Neill is co-founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that sponsored the ad against Kerry. He also wrote 'Unfit for Command,' a book critical of John Kerry's service in Vietnam. And we're also joined by Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant, who has covered and written extensively about John Kerry. Mr. O'Neill, are you doing President Bush's dirty work for him?"
Lehrer is a former Marine, and does a good job with military issues. Certainly, it is unseemly for supporters of a President and Vice-President who avoided military service, who have no medals of their own, to make an issue of John Kerry's medals. While it is legitimate for them to make an issue of his throwing his decorations away as a protest against the Vietnam war, his casting aspersions on Vietnam veterans as war criminals, his subsequent efforts to have it both ways, or whatever else is a matter of principle.
Likewise, Kerry might want to come up with something he has done since fighting in Vietnam--which was some 30 years ago, after all. Lots of people won medals, and are not qualified to be President. It takes something extra, and Kerry hasn't shown it, yet.
After all, Bob Dole was a war hero, Bill Clinton wasn't, and the American people elected Clinton.
On the other hand, the Kerry critics have some juicy tidbits to bait him with...
You can watch the whole Lehrer segment here.
"JIM LEHRER: More now on the charges and counter-charges over John Kerry's war record. John O'Neill is co-founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that sponsored the ad against Kerry. He also wrote 'Unfit for Command,' a book critical of John Kerry's service in Vietnam. And we're also joined by Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant, who has covered and written extensively about John Kerry. Mr. O'Neill, are you doing President Bush's dirty work for him?"
Lehrer is a former Marine, and does a good job with military issues. Certainly, it is unseemly for supporters of a President and Vice-President who avoided military service, who have no medals of their own, to make an issue of John Kerry's medals. While it is legitimate for them to make an issue of his throwing his decorations away as a protest against the Vietnam war, his casting aspersions on Vietnam veterans as war criminals, his subsequent efforts to have it both ways, or whatever else is a matter of principle.
Likewise, Kerry might want to come up with something he has done since fighting in Vietnam--which was some 30 years ago, after all. Lots of people won medals, and are not qualified to be President. It takes something extra, and Kerry hasn't shown it, yet.
After all, Bob Dole was a war hero, Bill Clinton wasn't, and the American people elected Clinton.
On the other hand, the Kerry critics have some juicy tidbits to bait him with...
You can watch the whole Lehrer segment here.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Iraq: Democracy Can Be Fun
Zeyad reports on the National Conference:
"Watching the proceedings of the controversial National Conference for the last three days, most of it transmitted live on Al-Iraqiya channel, has been an enjoyable experience. I have to mention here that the majority of Iraqis are unfamiliar with the rules of parliamentary sessions. The closest thing we had to a parliament was abolished in 1958 with the introduction of 'Revolutionary' Republican rule. Whatever the level of political maturity Iraqis had accumulated at that stage, it slowly disintegrated year after year under the successive totalitarian ('Revolutionary') regimes. Today, 45 years later, we are back again at point zero.
"Under Ba'athist rule, proceedings from the so-called National Council were televised from time to time. The Revolutionary Command Council was the sole source of legislation, so basically the National Council had no other function but to approve and stamp the endless amendments. Votes were always unanimous. It was a joke really. A farce.
"The National Conference also looks like a farce on the surface, but of a totally different kind. Here you have 1000-1300 delegates from all over Iraq, from all ethnicities, religions, sects and social backgrounds. A curious mix of people all put together in one room to try and choose 81 individuals that are supposed to represent Iraqis.
"Young and old clerics in black and white turbans, groomed men in suits and carefully pressed shirts, tribal Sheikhs traditionally dressed, women shrouded in black abayas, others in the latest hairdressing style and glamorous fashion trends and some in headscarfs of every imaginable colour. Doctors, dentists, lawyers, judges, engineers, professors, teachers, generals, businessmen, artists, actors, activists, priests, imams, even sportsmen and a musician...."
"Watching the proceedings of the controversial National Conference for the last three days, most of it transmitted live on Al-Iraqiya channel, has been an enjoyable experience. I have to mention here that the majority of Iraqis are unfamiliar with the rules of parliamentary sessions. The closest thing we had to a parliament was abolished in 1958 with the introduction of 'Revolutionary' Republican rule. Whatever the level of political maturity Iraqis had accumulated at that stage, it slowly disintegrated year after year under the successive totalitarian ('Revolutionary') regimes. Today, 45 years later, we are back again at point zero.
"Under Ba'athist rule, proceedings from the so-called National Council were televised from time to time. The Revolutionary Command Council was the sole source of legislation, so basically the National Council had no other function but to approve and stamp the endless amendments. Votes were always unanimous. It was a joke really. A farce.
"The National Conference also looks like a farce on the surface, but of a totally different kind. Here you have 1000-1300 delegates from all over Iraq, from all ethnicities, religions, sects and social backgrounds. A curious mix of people all put together in one room to try and choose 81 individuals that are supposed to represent Iraqis.
"Young and old clerics in black and white turbans, groomed men in suits and carefully pressed shirts, tribal Sheikhs traditionally dressed, women shrouded in black abayas, others in the latest hairdressing style and glamorous fashion trends and some in headscarfs of every imaginable colour. Doctors, dentists, lawyers, judges, engineers, professors, teachers, generals, businessmen, artists, actors, activists, priests, imams, even sportsmen and a musician...."
Mark Steyn Remembers Fay Wray (1907-2004)
In The Spectator:
"Born in Alberta, raised in Arizona and Utah, and sent at the age of 14 to live with a male friend of her sister’s in Hollywood, Fay Wray had no reason to wind up a movie star other than her own determination: she was good-looking in the way the gal serving you hash in the greasy spoon back in Arizona might be. She was a smart, largely self-taught woman who loved writers. Between them, her husbands and lovers wrote the screenplays of Wings, The Dawn Patrol, It Happened One Night, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, Golden Boy, The Big Knife and Rhapsody In Blue. After acting, Miss Wray turned to playwriting herself – her last work was premiered in New Hampshire a few years back – and also came up with a very beguiling memoir with a Kong-alluding title, On The Other Hand."
"Born in Alberta, raised in Arizona and Utah, and sent at the age of 14 to live with a male friend of her sister’s in Hollywood, Fay Wray had no reason to wind up a movie star other than her own determination: she was good-looking in the way the gal serving you hash in the greasy spoon back in Arizona might be. She was a smart, largely self-taught woman who loved writers. Between them, her husbands and lovers wrote the screenplays of Wings, The Dawn Patrol, It Happened One Night, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, Golden Boy, The Big Knife and Rhapsody In Blue. After acting, Miss Wray turned to playwriting herself – her last work was premiered in New Hampshire a few years back – and also came up with a very beguiling memoir with a Kong-alluding title, On The Other Hand."
eBay Buys Craigslist Stake
Leslie Walker reports:
"Part of the site's appeal is that it still feels like the early days of the Web, with a text-only design and simple publishing tools that predate the flashy graphics, big ads and other commercial flourishes prevalent on leading Internet sites today.
"But users fear that could change after last week's announcement that eBay, one of the giants of Internet commerce, has bought a 25 percent stake in the tiny company for an undisclosed sum. Users have been grousing in Craigslist's open forums that eBay may push to inject advertising and make other changes that would spoil the site's relaxed, back-porch atmosphere.
"Newmark insists that such worries are unfounded. "If anything, all this questioning is just reinforcing our sense of our current mission," he said this week.
"Part of the site's appeal is that it still feels like the early days of the Web, with a text-only design and simple publishing tools that predate the flashy graphics, big ads and other commercial flourishes prevalent on leading Internet sites today.
"But users fear that could change after last week's announcement that eBay, one of the giants of Internet commerce, has bought a 25 percent stake in the tiny company for an undisclosed sum. Users have been grousing in Craigslist's open forums that eBay may push to inject advertising and make other changes that would spoil the site's relaxed, back-porch atmosphere.
"Newmark insists that such worries are unfounded. "If anything, all this questioning is just reinforcing our sense of our current mission," he said this week.
Mariel Zagunis: Fencing's Female Knute Rockne.
From the University of Notre Dame:
"The Beaverton, Ore., native is the only fencer ever to win three gold medals at one World Championships. She was a member of the first U.S. team ever to capture teh gold medal in World Championship competition. She won three consecutive Junior World Cup trophies.And she compiled an unprecedented eight medals at Cadet and Junior level World Championship events. "
"The Beaverton, Ore., native is the only fencer ever to win three gold medals at one World Championships. She was a member of the first U.S. team ever to capture teh gold medal in World Championship competition. She won three consecutive Junior World Cup trophies.And she compiled an unprecedented eight medals at Cadet and Junior level World Championship events. "
The Truth About Olympic Water Polo
From The Washington Post:
"Sure, all these swimming races are exciting and inspiring and all that, but after a few days of watching people paddle back and forth across a pool, your average red-blooded American sports fan begins to wonder: Hey, where's the violence?
"Fortunately, the happy answer is just a couple hundred yards away, in the indoor pool, where the preliminary rounds of water polo are in progress. There's enough violence in an average water polo match to fill all your brutality needs, at least until football season starts."
"Sure, all these swimming races are exciting and inspiring and all that, but after a few days of watching people paddle back and forth across a pool, your average red-blooded American sports fan begins to wonder: Hey, where's the violence?
"Fortunately, the happy answer is just a couple hundred yards away, in the indoor pool, where the preliminary rounds of water polo are in progress. There's enough violence in an average water polo match to fill all your brutality needs, at least until football season starts."
The Botswanan Fandorin
The Scotsman reports on the publishing phenomenon (tip from Artsjournal):
"With sales topping five million in English, Precious Ramotswe is fast becoming to Mr McCall Smith what Harry Potter is to JK Rowling and Inspector Rebus is to Ian Rankin. "
"With sales topping five million in English, Precious Ramotswe is fast becoming to Mr McCall Smith what Harry Potter is to JK Rowling and Inspector Rebus is to Ian Rankin. "
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Solzhenitsyn: The Lion in Winter
By Anatoly Korolev:
"Solzhenitsyn's recent appearance on television has dispelled the persistent rumors about him suffering from a serious illness. He still comes across as energetic, lively and witty, thank God. But the reason behind his reemerging in the public eye has a somewhat comic flavor to it. The governor of the Kuban province, southern Russia, Tkachev came to visit the world-famous writer in his retreat outside Moscow-only to receive lavish praise from the host for handing his late grandfather's two-storied house over to a local church. Isn't it a noble gesture? Very much so. Why, then, the event has been taken with a sigh of general disappointment? Solzhenitsyn's detractors claim that this is a publicity stunt rather than a sincere effort to be helpful to the community. The Russian people may topple their idols as easily as they put them on the throne. But their present skepticism vis-a-vis Solzhenitsyn is understandable-they have expected him to act like Christ -- not like Pyotr Stolypin."
"Solzhenitsyn's recent appearance on television has dispelled the persistent rumors about him suffering from a serious illness. He still comes across as energetic, lively and witty, thank God. But the reason behind his reemerging in the public eye has a somewhat comic flavor to it. The governor of the Kuban province, southern Russia, Tkachev came to visit the world-famous writer in his retreat outside Moscow-only to receive lavish praise from the host for handing his late grandfather's two-storied house over to a local church. Isn't it a noble gesture? Very much so. Why, then, the event has been taken with a sigh of general disappointment? Solzhenitsyn's detractors claim that this is a publicity stunt rather than a sincere effort to be helpful to the community. The Russian people may topple their idols as easily as they put them on the throne. But their present skepticism vis-a-vis Solzhenitsyn is understandable-they have expected him to act like Christ -- not like Pyotr Stolypin."
Mark Twain v. Jane Austen
James Fenimore Cooper wasn't Twain's only literary target. He also had some choice words for Jane Austen:
"I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone."
Mark Twain Letter to Joseph Twichell, 9/13/1898
"I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone."
Mark Twain Letter to Joseph Twichell, 9/13/1898
Twain v. Cooper
By the way, Mark Twain wrote a critique of James Fenimore Cooper, Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses. It might make good preparation for a trip to see their final resting places. Here's a sample of Twain's invective:
Cooper's art has some defects. In one place in "Deerslayer," and in the restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offenses against literary art out of a possible 115. It breaks the record.
There are nineteen rules governing literary art in domain of romantic fiction -- some say twenty-two. In "Deerslayer," Cooper violated eighteen of them. These eighteen require:
1. That a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the "Deerslayer" tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in air.
2. They require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. But as the "Deerslayer" tale is not a tale, and accomplishes nothing and arrives nowhere, the episodes have no rightful place in the work, since there was nothing for them to develop.
3. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.
4. They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. But this detail also has been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.
5. The require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. But this requirement has been ignored from the beginning of the "Deerslayer" tale to the end of it.
6. They require that when the author describes the character of a personage in the tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description. But this law gets little or no attention in the "Deerslayer" tale, as Natty Bumppo's case will amply prove.
7. They require that when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven- dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it. But this rule is flung down and danced upon in the "Deerslayer" tale.
8. They require that crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as "the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest," by either the author or the people in the tale. But this rule is persistently violated in the "Deerslayer" tale.
9. They require that the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable. But these rules are not respected in the "Deerslayer" tale.
10. They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the "Deerslayer" tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.
11. They require that the characters in a tale shall be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency. But in the "Deerslayer" tale, this rule is vacated.
In addition to these large rules, there are some little ones. These require that the author shall:
12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
14. Eschew surplusage.
15. Not omit necessary details.
16. Avoid slovenliness of form.
17. Use good grammar.
18. Employ a simple and straightforward style.
Even these seven are coldly and persistently violated in the "Deerslayer" tale...
...I may be mistaken, but it does seem to me that "Deerslayer" is not a work of art in any sense; it does seem to me that it is destitute of every detail that goes to the making of a work of art; in truth, it seems to me that "Deerslayer" is just simply a literary delirium tremens.
Cooper's art has some defects. In one place in "Deerslayer," and in the restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offenses against literary art out of a possible 115. It breaks the record.
There are nineteen rules governing literary art in domain of romantic fiction -- some say twenty-two. In "Deerslayer," Cooper violated eighteen of them. These eighteen require:
1. That a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the "Deerslayer" tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in air.
2. They require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. But as the "Deerslayer" tale is not a tale, and accomplishes nothing and arrives nowhere, the episodes have no rightful place in the work, since there was nothing for them to develop.
3. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.
4. They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. But this detail also has been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.
5. The require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. But this requirement has been ignored from the beginning of the "Deerslayer" tale to the end of it.
6. They require that when the author describes the character of a personage in the tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description. But this law gets little or no attention in the "Deerslayer" tale, as Natty Bumppo's case will amply prove.
7. They require that when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven- dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it. But this rule is flung down and danced upon in the "Deerslayer" tale.
8. They require that crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as "the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest," by either the author or the people in the tale. But this rule is persistently violated in the "Deerslayer" tale.
9. They require that the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable. But these rules are not respected in the "Deerslayer" tale.
10. They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the "Deerslayer" tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.
11. They require that the characters in a tale shall be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency. But in the "Deerslayer" tale, this rule is vacated.
In addition to these large rules, there are some little ones. These require that the author shall:
12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
14. Eschew surplusage.
15. Not omit necessary details.
16. Avoid slovenliness of form.
17. Use good grammar.
18. Employ a simple and straightforward style.
Even these seven are coldly and persistently violated in the "Deerslayer" tale...
...I may be mistaken, but it does seem to me that "Deerslayer" is not a work of art in any sense; it does seem to me that it is destitute of every detail that goes to the making of a work of art; in truth, it seems to me that "Deerslayer" is just simply a literary delirium tremens.
Denmark's Abu Ghraib?
From Bjorn Staerk:
"The Danes have been having their own little torture scandal this summer. A Danish officer-- Annemette Hommel--faces charges after an interpreter accused her of mistreating prisoners during interrogations. Iraqi prisoners were refused water, kept in uncomfortable positions, and generally treated roughly. Sounds bad. But according to Hommel, the interpreters, most of them Palestinian Danes, were unprofessional, and openly sympathetic to the prisoners. They also found it difficult to work with a female officer. Hommel did deny one prisoner water during an interrogation, but she says he called for water constantly to cause delay. The interrogations were short and superficial anyway - the British do the real interrogations. Hommel attributes the accusation to revenge."
"The Danes have been having their own little torture scandal this summer. A Danish officer-- Annemette Hommel--faces charges after an interpreter accused her of mistreating prisoners during interrogations. Iraqi prisoners were refused water, kept in uncomfortable positions, and generally treated roughly. Sounds bad. But according to Hommel, the interpreters, most of them Palestinian Danes, were unprofessional, and openly sympathetic to the prisoners. They also found it difficult to work with a female officer. Hommel did deny one prisoner water during an interrogation, but she says he called for water constantly to cause delay. The interrogations were short and superficial anyway - the British do the real interrogations. Hommel attributes the accusation to revenge."
Arafat's Media Relations Strategy
Jeff Jacoby writes:
" In his 1989 memoir From Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas Friedman wrote that "physical intimidation" was a major impediment to honest reporting from Beirut during the years when southern Lebanon was in the grip of Yasser Arafat's PLO. "There were . . . stories which were deliberately ignored out of fear," Friedman admitted. "How many serious stories were written from Beirut about the well-known corruption in the PLO leadership. . . ? It would be hard to find any hint of them in Beirut reporting before the Israeli invasion." Instead of reporting what they knew, journalists censored themselves. "The Western press coddled the PLO," Friedman acknowledged. "For any Beirut-based correspondent, the name of the game was keeping on good terms with the PLO." That was more than 20 years ago. Has anything changed?"
" In his 1989 memoir From Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas Friedman wrote that "physical intimidation" was a major impediment to honest reporting from Beirut during the years when southern Lebanon was in the grip of Yasser Arafat's PLO. "There were . . . stories which were deliberately ignored out of fear," Friedman admitted. "How many serious stories were written from Beirut about the well-known corruption in the PLO leadership. . . ? It would be hard to find any hint of them in Beirut reporting before the Israeli invasion." Instead of reporting what they knew, journalists censored themselves. "The Western press coddled the PLO," Friedman acknowledged. "For any Beirut-based correspondent, the name of the game was keeping on good terms with the PLO." That was more than 20 years ago. Has anything changed?"
America's Cultural Mecca: Upstate New York
This weekend we went to the Glimmerglass Opera Festival, where we saw Richard Rodney Bennett's The Mines of Sulphur, an entertaining ghost story first produced in 1965 at Sadler's Wells. The score was somewhat avant-garde, but very accessible. Bennett went on to a successful career doing scores for movies and television, recently, "Four Weddings and a Funeral."
We stayed in Cooperstown, home not only to the Baseball Hall of Fame and Doubleday Field, but also to America's first novelist, James Fenimore Cooper, who not grew up there, retired there, and is buried there. Cooper immortalized Lake Otsego and the region in his Leatherstocking Tales. There is a Fenimore House Museum with a room of Cooper memorabilia, including letters written in his original hand. There is a little bit of art by people like Thomas Cole.
Unfortunately, the rest of the huge museum is a mish-mash, with some strange rooms devoted to the Adirondacks and children's learning centers next to real treasures like John Henri Isaac Browere's life masks of America's Founding Fathers. The images of John Adams, Lafayette, and other legendary figures were simply uncanny, and worth the visit all on their own.
There is a large collection of American Indian Art in the basement, which was interesting, but not related to Cooper or the region (a seal-gut parka from Alaska, pre-GoreTex waterproofing for the original kayakers).
On the way back, we passed through Elmira, NY, where we saw Mark Twain's grave, his summer study, and Quarry Farm, where he wrote A Tramp Abroad, Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It was a beautiful spot.
Interestingly, Twain and his son-in-law, Russian-born musician Ossip Gabrilowitsch, conductor of the Detroit Symphony, share a monument erected by his daughter in their memory.
For more on the life of the peripatetic Mark Twain, you can check out Terry Ballard's Literary Pilgrimage website.
We stayed in Cooperstown, home not only to the Baseball Hall of Fame and Doubleday Field, but also to America's first novelist, James Fenimore Cooper, who not grew up there, retired there, and is buried there. Cooper immortalized Lake Otsego and the region in his Leatherstocking Tales. There is a Fenimore House Museum with a room of Cooper memorabilia, including letters written in his original hand. There is a little bit of art by people like Thomas Cole.
Unfortunately, the rest of the huge museum is a mish-mash, with some strange rooms devoted to the Adirondacks and children's learning centers next to real treasures like John Henri Isaac Browere's life masks of America's Founding Fathers. The images of John Adams, Lafayette, and other legendary figures were simply uncanny, and worth the visit all on their own.
There is a large collection of American Indian Art in the basement, which was interesting, but not related to Cooper or the region (a seal-gut parka from Alaska, pre-GoreTex waterproofing for the original kayakers).
On the way back, we passed through Elmira, NY, where we saw Mark Twain's grave, his summer study, and Quarry Farm, where he wrote A Tramp Abroad, Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It was a beautiful spot.
Interestingly, Twain and his son-in-law, Russian-born musician Ossip Gabrilowitsch, conductor of the Detroit Symphony, share a monument erected by his daughter in their memory.
For more on the life of the peripatetic Mark Twain, you can check out Terry Ballard's Literary Pilgrimage website.
Does Democracy Cause Terrorism?
According to an article in The New Statesman, cited by Daniel Pipes, England is home not only to the Mother of Parliaments, but to British-based international terrorist networks:
"The Rationale behind "Londonistan"? Like many others, I have repeatedly bemoaned and ridiculed British weakness vis-Ã -vis Islamism (for example, here, here, here and here). But what if there's a method behind the British madness? That's the thesis of Jamie Campbell's cover story in the New Statesman dated today, "Why terrorists love Britain." Relying on the insights of Mohamed Sifaoui, author of Inside Al Qaeda (an autobiographical account of how this French Algerian journalist posed as an Islamist and infiltrated terrorist organizations in France and the United Kingdom), Campbell suggests that hosting so many terrorists renders the UK precious to the terrorists, who in turn leave it alone.
"According to Sifaoui, it has long been recognised by the British Islamists, by the British government and by UK intelligence agencies, that as long as Britain guarantees a degree of freedom to the likes of Hassan Butt [a loudmouth pro-terrorist Islamist], the terrorist strikes will continue to be planned within the borders of the UK but will not occur here. Ironically, then, the presence of vocal and active Islamist terrorist sympathisers in the UK actually makes British people safer, while the full brunt of British-based terrorist plotting is suffered by people in other countries.
"Campbell then tries this thesis out on Omar Bakri, leader of al-Muhajiroun, one of the most extreme Islamist groups in the UK, who confirms it:
"He tells me the story of the companions of the prophet Muhammad who, when travelling to Abyssinia, were given protection and hospitality by that nation. The result of this generosity is the Koranic notion of covenant, namely that as a Muslim it is de rigueur not to attack the inhabitants of any country in which one finds oneself living safely. This, according to Bakri, makes it unlikely that British-based Muslims will carry out operations in the UK itself..."
"The Rationale behind "Londonistan"? Like many others, I have repeatedly bemoaned and ridiculed British weakness vis-Ã -vis Islamism (for example, here, here, here and here). But what if there's a method behind the British madness? That's the thesis of Jamie Campbell's cover story in the New Statesman dated today, "Why terrorists love Britain." Relying on the insights of Mohamed Sifaoui, author of Inside Al Qaeda (an autobiographical account of how this French Algerian journalist posed as an Islamist and infiltrated terrorist organizations in France and the United Kingdom), Campbell suggests that hosting so many terrorists renders the UK precious to the terrorists, who in turn leave it alone.
"According to Sifaoui, it has long been recognised by the British Islamists, by the British government and by UK intelligence agencies, that as long as Britain guarantees a degree of freedom to the likes of Hassan Butt [a loudmouth pro-terrorist Islamist], the terrorist strikes will continue to be planned within the borders of the UK but will not occur here. Ironically, then, the presence of vocal and active Islamist terrorist sympathisers in the UK actually makes British people safer, while the full brunt of British-based terrorist plotting is suffered by people in other countries.
"Campbell then tries this thesis out on Omar Bakri, leader of al-Muhajiroun, one of the most extreme Islamist groups in the UK, who confirms it:
"He tells me the story of the companions of the prophet Muhammad who, when travelling to Abyssinia, were given protection and hospitality by that nation. The result of this generosity is the Koranic notion of covenant, namely that as a Muslim it is de rigueur not to attack the inhabitants of any country in which one finds oneself living safely. This, according to Bakri, makes it unlikely that British-based Muslims will carry out operations in the UK itself..."
George F. Will on Iraqi Sensitivities
George F. Will's column today may have been inspired by a C-Span caller, who challenged him vis-a-vis Republican attacks on John Kerry's call for a more sensitive war on terror.
On the August 13th episode of Washington Journal, the caller told Will and Brian Lamb that Bush is trying to run a sensitive war, only incompetently, in Najaf.
Clearly, Will gave some serious thought to the complexities of this charge since last week's TV appearance, as can be seen in his column today:
"The Bush campaign is pelting John Kerry with dead cats because of his promise to wage a more "sensitive" war on terrorism -- Democrats tend to think in the vocabulary of the therapeutic society and its "caring professions." But the Bush administration is simultaneously struggling to balance the competing imperatives of economizing American lives and waging a war sensitive to the religious sensibilities at stake in the struggle for control of Najaf. In all this, the concept of sovereignty is being pounded shapeless."
On the August 13th episode of Washington Journal, the caller told Will and Brian Lamb that Bush is trying to run a sensitive war, only incompetently, in Najaf.
Clearly, Will gave some serious thought to the complexities of this charge since last week's TV appearance, as can be seen in his column today:
"The Bush campaign is pelting John Kerry with dead cats because of his promise to wage a more "sensitive" war on terrorism -- Democrats tend to think in the vocabulary of the therapeutic society and its "caring professions." But the Bush administration is simultaneously struggling to balance the competing imperatives of economizing American lives and waging a war sensitive to the religious sensibilities at stake in the struggle for control of Najaf. In all this, the concept of sovereignty is being pounded shapeless."
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Be Careful Who You Step On On Your Way Up...
...because they will remember you on your way down. To illustrate that proverb, here's the website for the Vietnam Swift Boat Veterans anti-Kerry ad.
The Un-Captive Mind of Czeslaw Milosz:
Czeslaw Milosz has passed away, in his native Poland. He taught at Berkeley while I was studying philosophy, and although I never took his class, he was a well-known celebrity professor on campus.
His book, The Captive Mind starts with this:
"'It was only toward the middle of the twentieth century that the inhabitants of many European countries came, in general unpleasantly, to the realization that their fate could be influenced directly by intricate and abtruse books of philosophy'. "
His book, The Captive Mind starts with this:
"'It was only toward the middle of the twentieth century that the inhabitants of many European countries came, in general unpleasantly, to the realization that their fate could be influenced directly by intricate and abtruse books of philosophy'. "
Doctors Without Borders, Call Your Office...
Cheryl Benard writes in Opinion Journal:
"The new generation of terrorists does not spare unarmed humanitarians. They do not leave clinics, schools and other benign civilian projects untouched: They destroy them especially, because they want civilians to suffer and reconstruction to fail. Fear and backwardness are a kingdom they can rule; healthy, secure and prosperous populations have no use for them. This means that humanitarian aid workers are not neutral in the eyes of the terrorists; rather, because they work to make things better, they represent a threat.
"The principle championed by Doctors Without Borders--that civilian professionals providing medical help to the suffering will be granted safe passage--is now part of our nostalgic past. Altogether, 30 aid workers have been killed in Afghanistan during the past two years. All of them were unarmed, all of them were working on civilian projects. The absence of weapons and soldiers did not protect them; it just made them easier to kill. Whoever supports progress, stability and the well-being of civil society is the enemy. In this deeply regrettable new situation, security, development and aid are parts of an inseparable whole, and until stability is achieved, humanitarians will have to operate under the cover of arms--or not at all."
"The new generation of terrorists does not spare unarmed humanitarians. They do not leave clinics, schools and other benign civilian projects untouched: They destroy them especially, because they want civilians to suffer and reconstruction to fail. Fear and backwardness are a kingdom they can rule; healthy, secure and prosperous populations have no use for them. This means that humanitarian aid workers are not neutral in the eyes of the terrorists; rather, because they work to make things better, they represent a threat.
"The principle championed by Doctors Without Borders--that civilian professionals providing medical help to the suffering will be granted safe passage--is now part of our nostalgic past. Altogether, 30 aid workers have been killed in Afghanistan during the past two years. All of them were unarmed, all of them were working on civilian projects. The absence of weapons and soldiers did not protect them; it just made them easier to kill. Whoever supports progress, stability and the well-being of civil society is the enemy. In this deeply regrettable new situation, security, development and aid are parts of an inseparable whole, and until stability is achieved, humanitarians will have to operate under the cover of arms--or not at all."
Latest Iraq News
From Healing Iraq:
"As if the suffering of thousands of Najafis who were caught in between
and the deaths of Iraqi policemen and soldiers were all in vain. As if
the silent approval of Najafis and the marji'iya meant nothing.
The Iraqi government has failed its first test. I know it is probably
too early to say that, but that's what we also said in April and May. A
20 something year-old outlaw is free to do whatever he pleases and gets
away with it just because he has a black turban on his head and can
claim a couple of thousand armed followers. What kind of a farce is
this? And what kind of precedent is it going to give others?"
"As if the suffering of thousands of Najafis who were caught in between
and the deaths of Iraqi policemen and soldiers were all in vain. As if
the silent approval of Najafis and the marji'iya meant nothing.
The Iraqi government has failed its first test. I know it is probably
too early to say that, but that's what we also said in April and May. A
20 something year-old outlaw is free to do whatever he pleases and gets
away with it just because he has a black turban on his head and can
claim a couple of thousand armed followers. What kind of a farce is
this? And what kind of precedent is it going to give others?"
Olympic Games: What Is Past, Is Prologue
In the Washington Post, Sally Jenkins explains the history of the Olympics:
"The truth is that Ancient Greeks competed naked rather than clothed, forbade females from contending for medals as well as watching, and didn't give prizes for second and third place, because all they cared about was winning. Moreover, the sacred truce didn't always work. Not all wars stopped.
"Greg Anderson, an associate professor of classics at Wright State who studies games in Greek history, said: 'The modern Olympics are essentially one huge invented modern tradition. Almost nothing about them is authentically ancient.' Anderson, who has published in scholarly journals on the subject of Greek athletes and the Olympic tradition, does see some parallels between 700 B.C. and 2004, but not the ones you might expect. 'The most 'authentic' features of the modern Games are the ruthless political and commercial exploitation that goes with them, the celebrity of leading athletes, and the sheer magnitude of the Olympics,' he contends. "
"The truth is that Ancient Greeks competed naked rather than clothed, forbade females from contending for medals as well as watching, and didn't give prizes for second and third place, because all they cared about was winning. Moreover, the sacred truce didn't always work. Not all wars stopped.
"Greg Anderson, an associate professor of classics at Wright State who studies games in Greek history, said: 'The modern Olympics are essentially one huge invented modern tradition. Almost nothing about them is authentically ancient.' Anderson, who has published in scholarly journals on the subject of Greek athletes and the Olympic tradition, does see some parallels between 700 B.C. and 2004, but not the ones you might expect. 'The most 'authentic' features of the modern Games are the ruthless political and commercial exploitation that goes with them, the celebrity of leading athletes, and the sheer magnitude of the Olympics,' he contends. "
The Olympic Truce
Watching the opening ceremonies from Athens, noted a reference to "the Olympic truce," which seemed a counterpoint to press stories detailing massive anti-terrorist security preparations.
Here's what the term meant to ancient Greeks:
"A truce (in Greek, ekecheiria, which literally means "holding of hands") was announced before and during each of the Olympic festivals, to allow visitors to travel safely to Olympia. An inscription describing the truce was written on a bronze discus which was displayed at Olympia. During the truce, wars were suspended, armies were prohibited from entering Elis or threatening the Games, and legal disputes and the carrying out of death penalties were forbidden."
You can find out more on the Perseus website.
Here's what the term meant to ancient Greeks:
"A truce (in Greek, ekecheiria, which literally means "holding of hands") was announced before and during each of the Olympic festivals, to allow visitors to travel safely to Olympia. An inscription describing the truce was written on a bronze discus which was displayed at Olympia. During the truce, wars were suspended, armies were prohibited from entering Elis or threatening the Games, and legal disputes and the carrying out of death penalties were forbidden."
You can find out more on the Perseus website.
Julia Child Remembered
Last night, we were in the kitchen cooking, while watching the Jim Lehrer NewsHour, where we heard the news that Julia Child passed away at the age of 91.
I had interviewed Child for my book, PBS:Behind the Screen. She pioneered the entire how-to genre for educational television, bringing good French cooking to American housewives. She was an American original.
Child seemed to me exactly as Jacques Pepin described her on the NewsHour broadcast: unpretentious, kind, gracious, "an anti-snob." And as Pepin says in this interview, the food revolution Child helped launch made a big contribution to the abundance of good food and quality ingredients we have today.
If there is a heaven, Julia Child is up there, cooking something right now.
To Julia Child, "Bon Appetit!"
I had interviewed Child for my book, PBS:Behind the Screen. She pioneered the entire how-to genre for educational television, bringing good French cooking to American housewives. She was an American original.
Child seemed to me exactly as Jacques Pepin described her on the NewsHour broadcast: unpretentious, kind, gracious, "an anti-snob." And as Pepin says in this interview, the food revolution Child helped launch made a big contribution to the abundance of good food and quality ingredients we have today.
If there is a heaven, Julia Child is up there, cooking something right now.
To Julia Child, "Bon Appetit!"
Friday, August 13, 2004
Impressions of Uzbekistan
From Russian Newsweek (via Ferghana.ru):
"There is no cult of personality or superficial signs of totalitarianism in Uzbekistan. No portraits of or quotes from Islam Karimov - save for in his native Samarkand perhaps. In the early 1990's, Karimov himself initiated the law banning superficial tokens of exaltation. Upon hearing of the latest development in nearby Turkmenistan, the realm of Super Murat as he is colloquially called here, residents of Tashkent let out a sigh of relief and ponder on how lucky they are."
"There is no cult of personality or superficial signs of totalitarianism in Uzbekistan. No portraits of or quotes from Islam Karimov - save for in his native Samarkand perhaps. In the early 1990's, Karimov himself initiated the law banning superficial tokens of exaltation. Upon hearing of the latest development in nearby Turkmenistan, the realm of Super Murat as he is colloquially called here, residents of Tashkent let out a sigh of relief and ponder on how lucky they are."
Remember the Congo?
Jason Stearns, in The Washington Post, does.
"Who is to blame for the largest humanitarian catastrophe of our times? I am referring not to Darfur, a terrible tragedy in its own right, but to the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 4 million people have died in a conflict that has been going on for eight years.
"So who is to blame? A U.N. panel sent to Congo to look into illegal arms trading believes it has part of the answer. In a recent report, it explains that Rwanda gave "both direct and indirect support" to dissident officers who mutinied in the eastern Congolese city of Bukavu at the end of May. Many civilians were killed as the troubled country was pushed to the brink of war again.
"But while the report accurately describes and condemns Rwanda's meddling, it also constitutes a condemnation of the United Nations itself. As Bukavu was ransacked and hundreds of people were killed, raped or brutalized, the 600 U.N. troops there did little to intervene."
"Who is to blame for the largest humanitarian catastrophe of our times? I am referring not to Darfur, a terrible tragedy in its own right, but to the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 4 million people have died in a conflict that has been going on for eight years.
"So who is to blame? A U.N. panel sent to Congo to look into illegal arms trading believes it has part of the answer. In a recent report, it explains that Rwanda gave "both direct and indirect support" to dissident officers who mutinied in the eastern Congolese city of Bukavu at the end of May. Many civilians were killed as the troubled country was pushed to the brink of war again.
"But while the report accurately describes and condemns Rwanda's meddling, it also constitutes a condemnation of the United Nations itself. As Bukavu was ransacked and hundreds of people were killed, raped or brutalized, the 600 U.N. troops there did little to intervene."
The Place To Go For African Art
Jacqueline Trescott says it is the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art, in Washington, DC:
"So now the museum is the go-to place for contemporary African art in America, both in its galleries and in its research facilities. With the infusion of the Smithsonian money, the library grew from about 3,000 volumes to 30,000. Congress earmarked $440,000 for the acquisition of books over three years. The book collection covers visual arts, history, anthropology, religion, travel and even cookbooks."
"So now the museum is the go-to place for contemporary African art in America, both in its galleries and in its research facilities. With the infusion of the Smithsonian money, the library grew from about 3,000 volumes to 30,000. Congress earmarked $440,000 for the acquisition of books over three years. The book collection covers visual arts, history, anthropology, religion, travel and even cookbooks."
End of an Era-II
London Transport is doing away with its famous open-door double-decker red bus, according to The Washington Post.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
We the Media
Just finished reading my reviewer's copy of We the Media (thank you O'Reilly Publishing).
Dan Gillmor's book on blogging has some interesting technical and historical tidbits, and I'm glad he wrote it, and glad O'Reilly published it as a contribution to the discourse. (Curiously, Gillmor said he couldn't find a New York publisher--perhaps they don't read blogs?)
Strangely Gillmor's list of weblogs at the end doesn't include Glenn Reynold's Instapundit, which he praises in the book--but does include FAIR, which gives you some idea of where Gillmor is coming from. Indeed, "warbloggers" like Reynolds were a real alternative to the mainstream media at a crucial historical moment, reminding a lot of us that we were not alone.
Gillmor has some other hobby horses like the DCMA that are of interest primarly to specialized audiences, and devotes a lot of words to journalism professors.
The good news: He is giving away his book for free, with a "Creative Commons" license (another hobby horse), so you can download it, then decide for yourself whether it is worth buying.
Dan Gillmor's book on blogging has some interesting technical and historical tidbits, and I'm glad he wrote it, and glad O'Reilly published it as a contribution to the discourse. (Curiously, Gillmor said he couldn't find a New York publisher--perhaps they don't read blogs?)
Strangely Gillmor's list of weblogs at the end doesn't include Glenn Reynold's Instapundit, which he praises in the book--but does include FAIR, which gives you some idea of where Gillmor is coming from. Indeed, "warbloggers" like Reynolds were a real alternative to the mainstream media at a crucial historical moment, reminding a lot of us that we were not alone.
Gillmor has some other hobby horses like the DCMA that are of interest primarly to specialized audiences, and devotes a lot of words to journalism professors.
The good news: He is giving away his book for free, with a "Creative Commons" license (another hobby horse), so you can download it, then decide for yourself whether it is worth buying.
Free Academic Publishing!
From The Economist (thanks to ArtsJournal):
"Cornell University, for example, recently reviewed its policies on journal acquisition. In the course of that review it noted that between 1986 and 2001 the library budget at its main campus in Ithaca, New York, increased by 149%. The number of periodicals purchased, however, grew by only 5% "
"Cornell University, for example, recently reviewed its policies on journal acquisition. In the course of that review it noted that between 1986 and 2001 the library budget at its main campus in Ithaca, New York, increased by 149%. The number of periodicals purchased, however, grew by only 5% "
How Islamic is Al Qaeda?
Not very, says Mustafa Akyol:
"Paul Johnson, an American engineer, was killed by al Qaeda after being kidnapped, as was Kim Sun-il, a 33-year-old South Korean. So was Nick Berg savagely slaughtered by militants. These horrible episodes are disgusting, by every human standard. What makes them even more repulsive is that they are committed in the name of Islam."
"Paul Johnson, an American engineer, was killed by al Qaeda after being kidnapped, as was Kim Sun-il, a 33-year-old South Korean. So was Nick Berg savagely slaughtered by militants. These horrible episodes are disgusting, by every human standard. What makes them even more repulsive is that they are committed in the name of Islam."
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Terror in America
A history exhibit at the I N T E R N A T I O N A L . S P Y . M U S E U M. (Tip of the hat to Ken Layne.
More on Bremer v. Chalabi
From the Wall Street Journal:
"One particular concern vis-a-vis the U.N. strategy was that Mr. Chalabi was starting to expose the massive corruption that had characterized the Oil for Food program. Just prior the May raid, Mr. Bremer shut down the KPMG investigation that Mr. Chalabi had initiated, and hired accountants Ernst & Young instead, for no apparent reason other than delay."
"One particular concern vis-a-vis the U.N. strategy was that Mr. Chalabi was starting to expose the massive corruption that had characterized the Oil for Food program. Just prior the May raid, Mr. Bremer shut down the KPMG investigation that Mr. Chalabi had initiated, and hired accountants Ernst & Young instead, for no apparent reason other than delay."
Buddhist Militants in Sri Lanka
From the Weekly Standard:
"Militant Buddhism may sound like a contradiction in terms, especially while Islamic holy war is hogging the headlines. Nevertheless, in one of its periodic flare-ups in Sri Lanka, extremist Buddhist nationalism is threatening both the physical safety and the legal rights of that nation's Christian minority."
"Militant Buddhism may sound like a contradiction in terms, especially while Islamic holy war is hogging the headlines. Nevertheless, in one of its periodic flare-ups in Sri Lanka, extremist Buddhist nationalism is threatening both the physical safety and the legal rights of that nation's Christian minority."
An Interview with Brian Lamb
From August 1999, with Michael H. Ebner :
"Few individuals have done more to promote the reading of history and biography than Brian Lamb. C-SPAN has created a unique way for people in this country--and ninety other nations worldwide--to witness history in the making. Millions have watched its coverage of the political processes in Washington; Senate coverage of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 reached 32.3 million subscribers alone. Lamb has also interviewed hundreds of historians and biographers--among them many OAH [Organization of American Historians] members--on his Booknotes program and since last year on his weekend Book TV program on C-SPAN 2."
"Few individuals have done more to promote the reading of history and biography than Brian Lamb. C-SPAN has created a unique way for people in this country--and ninety other nations worldwide--to witness history in the making. Millions have watched its coverage of the political processes in Washington; Senate coverage of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 reached 32.3 million subscribers alone. Lamb has also interviewed hundreds of historians and biographers--among them many OAH [Organization of American Historians] members--on his Booknotes program and since last year on his weekend Book TV program on C-SPAN 2."
End of an Era
Brian Lamb cancels C-SPAN's "Booknotes":
"In announcing the cancellation of 'Booknotes' -- C-SPAN's popular author interview program -- yesterday, host Brian Lamb was haunted by the numbers. He spends 20 hours each week reading books in preparation for 'Booknotes,' he estimates. That's 1.8 years of his life that have been dedicated to reading since the show debuted April 2, 1989. Now he wants to reclaim some of that time for his personal life.
Has it come to this? The author-interviewer, arguably the most quirky and dedicated on television, the creator and curator of one of TV's few institutions for avid readers -- has he finally tired of books? "
"In announcing the cancellation of 'Booknotes' -- C-SPAN's popular author interview program -- yesterday, host Brian Lamb was haunted by the numbers. He spends 20 hours each week reading books in preparation for 'Booknotes,' he estimates. That's 1.8 years of his life that have been dedicated to reading since the show debuted April 2, 1989. Now he wants to reclaim some of that time for his personal life.
Has it come to this? The author-interviewer, arguably the most quirky and dedicated on television, the creator and curator of one of TV's few institutions for avid readers -- has he finally tired of books? "
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Victor Davis Hanson on John Lewis Gaddis
He reviews Wars New and Old:
"All this is a sober reflection on current events, and a needed reminder that President Bush is acting in line with a long American tradition, even if Gaddis thinks he could learn from FDR's political savvy when it comes to getting along with allies."
"All this is a sober reflection on current events, and a needed reminder that President Bush is acting in line with a long American tradition, even if Gaddis thinks he could learn from FDR's political savvy when it comes to getting along with allies."
Why Kerry Will Win
From Newsmax:
"Kerry is no Al Gore. He is not going to sigh, roll his eyes and make up huge fabrications in the debates. Instead, he is going to be relentlessly on the attack.
"Kerry is ahead in every way right now. True, there are still three months to go. But the trends are all pro-Kerry."
"Kerry is no Al Gore. He is not going to sigh, roll his eyes and make up huge fabrications in the debates. Instead, he is going to be relentlessly on the attack.
"Kerry is ahead in every way right now. True, there are still three months to go. But the trends are all pro-Kerry."
Will Turkey Make It?
Stephen Kinzer in The New York Review of Books wonders:
"Nine centuries after Pope Urban II sent the first Crusaders off to fight 'the Turk,' 321 years after the Ottoman army besieged Vienna, Turkey and Europe are approaching a historic encounter. In December, leaders of European Union countries will vote on whether to begin negotiations that would lead to Turkey's joining the EU. Every day it seems more likely that they will say yes."
"Nine centuries after Pope Urban II sent the first Crusaders off to fight 'the Turk,' 321 years after the Ottoman army besieged Vienna, Turkey and Europe are approaching a historic encounter. In December, leaders of European Union countries will vote on whether to begin negotiations that would lead to Turkey's joining the EU. Every day it seems more likely that they will say yes."
To be Young, Gifted, and a Black Conductor
A profile of Kwame Ryan in The Guardian: "
"The young, British-educated conductor making his UK debut at the opening concert of the Edinburgh international festival this week said yesterday that he had 'no optimism for the future' for black children making it as the stars of classical music. Canadian-born Kwame Ryan, 34, went to school in Britain and studied music at Cambridge University before continuing his training in Germany.
"But the message given to young, black people, particularly in North America, was, he said, that you can be a star athlete; you can be a pop star. 'But neither of those require a special education. To be a conductor you have to start very young and the awareness that that is a possibility for black children is not encouraged in schools or in the media.'"
"The young, British-educated conductor making his UK debut at the opening concert of the Edinburgh international festival this week said yesterday that he had 'no optimism for the future' for black children making it as the stars of classical music. Canadian-born Kwame Ryan, 34, went to school in Britain and studied music at Cambridge University before continuing his training in Germany.
"But the message given to young, black people, particularly in North America, was, he said, that you can be a star athlete; you can be a pop star. 'But neither of those require a special education. To be a conductor you have to start very young and the awareness that that is a possibility for black children is not encouraged in schools or in the media.'"
Monday, August 09, 2004
Why Kerry Will Lose The Election
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
"John Kerry will lose this election, and he will do so decisively. The defeat will go down as perhaps the only thing this candidate has ever done decisively."
"John Kerry will lose this election, and he will do so decisively. The defeat will go down as perhaps the only thing this candidate has ever done decisively."
How President Bush Treats His (Former) Friends
Michael Rubin says Chalabi is being trashed under orders from Paul Bremer:
"On August 8, Iraqi judge Zuhair al-Maliky issued arrest warrants for Iraqi National Congress head Ahmad Chalabi and Salem Chalabi, a trilingual Yale graduate heading the special tribunal that is trying Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity.
"Al-Maliky's actions have less to do with imposing justice than obstructing it. Most Iraqi judges dispute not only al-Maliky's credentials but also those of the Central Criminal Court over which he presides. The court is not Iraqi in its origins. Former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer created it by fiat on June 18, 2003. The head of Iraq's judicial union called the court unconstitutional and illegal. Most Iraqi judges consider it to be contrary to the Geneva Conventions; many Iraqis justices read several clauses in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to forbid changing unnecessarily the judicial system..."
"On August 8, Iraqi judge Zuhair al-Maliky issued arrest warrants for Iraqi National Congress head Ahmad Chalabi and Salem Chalabi, a trilingual Yale graduate heading the special tribunal that is trying Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity.
"Al-Maliky's actions have less to do with imposing justice than obstructing it. Most Iraqi judges dispute not only al-Maliky's credentials but also those of the Central Criminal Court over which he presides. The court is not Iraqi in its origins. Former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer created it by fiat on June 18, 2003. The head of Iraq's judicial union called the court unconstitutional and illegal. Most Iraqi judges consider it to be contrary to the Geneva Conventions; many Iraqis justices read several clauses in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to forbid changing unnecessarily the judicial system..."
The Real Horatio Hornblower
Last night watched an episode of A & E's British ITV series Horatio Hornblower.
It was a thrilling show called "Duel", available on a Netflix DVD.
This Hornblower episode was so terrific that I googled C.S. Forester. Interestingly, the name Hornblower was inspired by Forester's Hollywood producer, Arthur Hornblow, Jr.. Here's his biography from Yahoo! Movies.
Although he had his problems with Hollywood, Forester loved America and returned in WWII to write propaganda films. Forester eventually settled in Berkeley, California.
And here's a link to the C. S. Forester Society.
It was a thrilling show called "Duel", available on a Netflix DVD.
This Hornblower episode was so terrific that I googled C.S. Forester. Interestingly, the name Hornblower was inspired by Forester's Hollywood producer, Arthur Hornblow, Jr.. Here's his biography from Yahoo! Movies.
Although he had his problems with Hollywood, Forester loved America and returned in WWII to write propaganda films. Forester eventually settled in Berkeley, California.
And here's a link to the C. S. Forester Society.
Kerry's Filmmaker's Problem
The New York Observer profiles James Moll, who directed John Kerry's convention film, "A Remarkable Promise" :
The Observer notes: "Since 1994, when he was hired by Mr. Spielberg to assemble an archive of interviews with Holocaust survivors, Mr. Moll has found himself producing a number of Holocaust films and documentaries about the Second World War.
'I approached it like I do all my documentaries,' he said of Mr. Kerry's introduction. 'I didn't think of it as a commercial. For the most part, other than those last 15 seconds, I approached like any other documentary. I didn't have to be manipulative.'"
Unfortunately, Moll's track record as a documentary filmmaker is not without question, although he did win an Oscar. When his Holocaust film, "The Last Days" appeared, it was criticized by WWII veterans as misleading and manipulative. I wrote about the controversy in The Idler:
"An interesting letter about Stephen Spielberg’s The Last Days was recently forwarded to me by Mel Rappaport, who as an army captain during World War II participated in the liberation of Buchenwald by the 6th Armored Division in April, 1945, 54 years ago... He sent me an article by Mark Schulte which had appeared in the New York Post about Stephen Spielberg’s documentary 'The Last Days'. Schulte, the son of a WWII veteran who liberated the camps, demanded the film be recalled because it was false history.
"Like 'Liberators', 'The Last Days' did not credit the actual soldiers who liberated Dachau -- the 45th Infantry Division. Instead it featured an interview with a black soldier to create the impression that an all-black unit had opened up the camp. Rappaport told me that the interview subject had been in Le Havre, France at the time, and he had documentation to prove it. Again, Rappaport feared that truth was being distorted to promote a political agenda. As with Liberators, Rappaport and his friends mobilized, writing letters and calling to complain to the producers.
"Like Liberators, this film about the Hungarian Jewish community had been embraced by the Establishment, promoted by Jewish groups, screened for members of Congress and nominated for an Academy Award.
"Unlike Liberators, it won.
"But the problem was the same. The film was not true."
You can read the whole story here.
UPDATE: AN EMAIL FROM MEL RAPPAPORT (received yesterday):
"re this fellow james moll, the --NOT so
great , director . etc ,,, way back when that film by mr Spielberg
...'the last days'-came out, we wrote many letters to him and the
SHOAH group in los angeles calif etc ,,,, and he called all of US
RACISTS and worse. etc . well we got the news paper
''''the FORWARD'' here in N Y C to get invoved and they did write some
editor. letters re this guy MOLL. i even wrote to the fellow in
charge of the ""ACADEMY -in hollywood , etc" re this film winning
that award,,, and he wrote to me,, saying he was SHOCKED,,SHOCKED (like
claude rains in Casablanca with bogie ,,,etc) but that they
can do NADA,.. it was not their job etc ,, i will send you that
letter if i can find it..."
UPDATE: THE FORWARD'S EDITORIAL ABOUT "THE LAST DAYS":
February 26, 1999
Correcting Spielberg
The chief historian for Steven Spielberg's Holocaust documentary, "The Last Days," has struck the right note by saying he will look into the question of where one of the film's heroes, Paul Parks, was when he shot the German soldier who spit on him. Mr. Parks, an American G.I. in Germany as the war was brought to an end, told our columnist Beth Pinsker that he thinks the film misportrays the situation by suggesting he shot the Nazi right outside of Dachau when, as Mr. Parks remembers, it was at another time and another place. Other questions about the film's accuracy were raised in an article in the New York Post. The film's historian, Michael Berenbaum, formerly the director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, is a former newspaperman of the school that would like to get things right. His attitude contrasts with that of the director of "The Last Days," James Moll, who at one point in his conversations with our Ms. Pinsker suggested that the only reason Ms. Pinsker, or anyone else, was inquiring on the point was because Mr. Parks is black and his interlocutors are racists. Balderdash. It seems the Holocaust movie business is still smarting over the discovery that a now infamous documentary aired on PBS, "Liberators," was way off base in suggesting that Dachau and Buchenwald were first liberated by African-American units. Nobody is saying that "The Last Days" has any fundamental error of the kind that undergirded "Liberators" and nobody is saying that Mr. Parks is not a war hero. What Ms. Pinsker understands from her days as a film and television critic, though, is that there is a tendency toward romanticism when Hollywood enters the journalism or documentary business. Committed custodians of the memory, like Mr. Berenbaum, understand the need for continuing the effort to get it exactly right.
NOTE: A BOSTON GLOBE INVESTIGATION BACKED RAPPAPORT AGAINST MOLL
"UNTANGLING PAUL PARKS'S TALL TALES\ RECORDS CONTRADICT MORE WARTIME STORIES
Published on October 22, 2000
Author(s): Walter V. Robinson, and Thomas Farragher, Globe Staff
"BERLIN - When Boston civil rights leader Paul Parks receives the Raoul Wallenberg Award here tonight for his 1945 role in liberating the Dachau concentration camp, the applause may be tentative, given fresh evidence that he was nowhere near the Nazi death camp and that his multiple stories about his involvement in the D-day landing were also concocted..."
(There is a charge to download the article from the Boston Globe online archives).
You can listen to reporter Walter Robinson talk about problems with Paul Parks' story in third segment of Here and Now, a WBUR radio program, click on the button to play.
Interestingly, Robinson has published exposes of George W. Bush, historian Joseph Ellis, and Al Gore.
The Observer notes: "Since 1994, when he was hired by Mr. Spielberg to assemble an archive of interviews with Holocaust survivors, Mr. Moll has found himself producing a number of Holocaust films and documentaries about the Second World War.
'I approached it like I do all my documentaries,' he said of Mr. Kerry's introduction. 'I didn't think of it as a commercial. For the most part, other than those last 15 seconds, I approached like any other documentary. I didn't have to be manipulative.'"
Unfortunately, Moll's track record as a documentary filmmaker is not without question, although he did win an Oscar. When his Holocaust film, "The Last Days" appeared, it was criticized by WWII veterans as misleading and manipulative. I wrote about the controversy in The Idler:
"An interesting letter about Stephen Spielberg’s The Last Days was recently forwarded to me by Mel Rappaport, who as an army captain during World War II participated in the liberation of Buchenwald by the 6th Armored Division in April, 1945, 54 years ago... He sent me an article by Mark Schulte which had appeared in the New York Post about Stephen Spielberg’s documentary 'The Last Days'. Schulte, the son of a WWII veteran who liberated the camps, demanded the film be recalled because it was false history.
"Like 'Liberators', 'The Last Days' did not credit the actual soldiers who liberated Dachau -- the 45th Infantry Division. Instead it featured an interview with a black soldier to create the impression that an all-black unit had opened up the camp. Rappaport told me that the interview subject had been in Le Havre, France at the time, and he had documentation to prove it. Again, Rappaport feared that truth was being distorted to promote a political agenda. As with Liberators, Rappaport and his friends mobilized, writing letters and calling to complain to the producers.
"Like Liberators, this film about the Hungarian Jewish community had been embraced by the Establishment, promoted by Jewish groups, screened for members of Congress and nominated for an Academy Award.
"Unlike Liberators, it won.
"But the problem was the same. The film was not true."
You can read the whole story here.
UPDATE: AN EMAIL FROM MEL RAPPAPORT (received yesterday):
"re this fellow james moll, the --NOT so
great , director . etc ,,, way back when that film by mr Spielberg
...'the last days'-came out, we wrote many letters to him and the
SHOAH group in los angeles calif etc ,,,, and he called all of US
RACISTS and worse. etc . well we got the news paper
''''the FORWARD'' here in N Y C to get invoved and they did write some
editor. letters re this guy MOLL. i even wrote to the fellow in
charge of the ""ACADEMY -in hollywood , etc" re this film winning
that award,,, and he wrote to me,, saying he was SHOCKED,,SHOCKED (like
claude rains in Casablanca with bogie ,,,etc) but that they
can do NADA,.. it was not their job etc ,, i will send you that
letter if i can find it..."
UPDATE: THE FORWARD'S EDITORIAL ABOUT "THE LAST DAYS":
February 26, 1999
Correcting Spielberg
The chief historian for Steven Spielberg's Holocaust documentary, "The Last Days," has struck the right note by saying he will look into the question of where one of the film's heroes, Paul Parks, was when he shot the German soldier who spit on him. Mr. Parks, an American G.I. in Germany as the war was brought to an end, told our columnist Beth Pinsker that he thinks the film misportrays the situation by suggesting he shot the Nazi right outside of Dachau when, as Mr. Parks remembers, it was at another time and another place. Other questions about the film's accuracy were raised in an article in the New York Post. The film's historian, Michael Berenbaum, formerly the director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, is a former newspaperman of the school that would like to get things right. His attitude contrasts with that of the director of "The Last Days," James Moll, who at one point in his conversations with our Ms. Pinsker suggested that the only reason Ms. Pinsker, or anyone else, was inquiring on the point was because Mr. Parks is black and his interlocutors are racists. Balderdash. It seems the Holocaust movie business is still smarting over the discovery that a now infamous documentary aired on PBS, "Liberators," was way off base in suggesting that Dachau and Buchenwald were first liberated by African-American units. Nobody is saying that "The Last Days" has any fundamental error of the kind that undergirded "Liberators" and nobody is saying that Mr. Parks is not a war hero. What Ms. Pinsker understands from her days as a film and television critic, though, is that there is a tendency toward romanticism when Hollywood enters the journalism or documentary business. Committed custodians of the memory, like Mr. Berenbaum, understand the need for continuing the effort to get it exactly right.
NOTE: A BOSTON GLOBE INVESTIGATION BACKED RAPPAPORT AGAINST MOLL
"UNTANGLING PAUL PARKS'S TALL TALES\ RECORDS CONTRADICT MORE WARTIME STORIES
Published on October 22, 2000
Author(s): Walter V. Robinson, and Thomas Farragher, Globe Staff
"BERLIN - When Boston civil rights leader Paul Parks receives the Raoul Wallenberg Award here tonight for his 1945 role in liberating the Dachau concentration camp, the applause may be tentative, given fresh evidence that he was nowhere near the Nazi death camp and that his multiple stories about his involvement in the D-day landing were also concocted..."
(There is a charge to download the article from the Boston Globe online archives).
You can listen to reporter Walter Robinson talk about problems with Paul Parks' story in third segment of Here and Now, a WBUR radio program, click on the button to play.
Interestingly, Robinson has published exposes of George W. Bush, historian Joseph Ellis, and Al Gore.
Understanding Turkey
Michael Rubin on his visit to Turkey:
"Last month, I visited Turkey for a series of meetings with Turkish government and military officials, as well as prominent journalists and public intellectuals. 'Why have you abandoned us?' one Turkish parliamentarian asked as we drank tea in his office. 'You toss aside an 80-year tradition for an experiment in political Islam,' he explained. He cited not only the president's statement, but also that of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Speaking in Ankara last April, Powell called Turkey a model for Iraq, 'a Muslim democracy living in peace with its friends and neighbors.' National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice has made similar comments.
"Nice words, infused with well-meaning Washington-style political correctness, but they raised hackles in Turkey. 'We are a democracy. Islam has nothing to do with it,' one professor said. 'By calling us a Muslim democracy, Powell endorsed the [ruling] AKP [Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi]. If I called the United States a Christian democracy, what would that say to you?' "
Interestingly enough, a few years ago I attended a panel discussion in Washington where an Israeli general called Turkey a "Muslim country" in a presentation about geopolitics. The Turkish ambassador immediately spoke up, clearly offended. He stated that Turkey was not a Muslim country, rather a secular nation with a Muslim population. Since this distinction is one other nations sometimes fail to make, it is not surprising that Powell's well-meaning comment raised some hackles in Ankara and Istanbul.
"Last month, I visited Turkey for a series of meetings with Turkish government and military officials, as well as prominent journalists and public intellectuals. 'Why have you abandoned us?' one Turkish parliamentarian asked as we drank tea in his office. 'You toss aside an 80-year tradition for an experiment in political Islam,' he explained. He cited not only the president's statement, but also that of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Speaking in Ankara last April, Powell called Turkey a model for Iraq, 'a Muslim democracy living in peace with its friends and neighbors.' National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice has made similar comments.
"Nice words, infused with well-meaning Washington-style political correctness, but they raised hackles in Turkey. 'We are a democracy. Islam has nothing to do with it,' one professor said. 'By calling us a Muslim democracy, Powell endorsed the [ruling] AKP [Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi]. If I called the United States a Christian democracy, what would that say to you?' "
Interestingly enough, a few years ago I attended a panel discussion in Washington where an Israeli general called Turkey a "Muslim country" in a presentation about geopolitics. The Turkish ambassador immediately spoke up, clearly offended. He stated that Turkey was not a Muslim country, rather a secular nation with a Muslim population. Since this distinction is one other nations sometimes fail to make, it is not surprising that Powell's well-meaning comment raised some hackles in Ankara and Istanbul.
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Roger L. Simon
An interesting blog:
"Secretly terrified I was a big fake and would never be a writer, I considered quitting school, but couldn't because I would lose my student deferment and go to Vietnam. So more out of a sense of panic than anything else, I wrote my first novel HEIR. I composed the book over a stiflingly hot summer in the front office of an African-American funeral home in Sumter, South Carolina, the only air conditioned spot available to a Northern white boy civil rights worker. The plot was a thinly veiled fictionalization of the life of a rich fellow Dartmouth student who accidentally killed his girlfriend with an overdose of heroin. The book was published for a small advance, got a couple of good reviews and sold about five copies; that includes to my family.
"Subsequently it was made into an unwatchable movie, but I used the film sale as a bridge to Hollywood, and soon I was out in LA, trying to write screenplays, even make films, something I have been attempting with greater and lesser success ever since."
"Secretly terrified I was a big fake and would never be a writer, I considered quitting school, but couldn't because I would lose my student deferment and go to Vietnam. So more out of a sense of panic than anything else, I wrote my first novel HEIR. I composed the book over a stiflingly hot summer in the front office of an African-American funeral home in Sumter, South Carolina, the only air conditioned spot available to a Northern white boy civil rights worker. The plot was a thinly veiled fictionalization of the life of a rich fellow Dartmouth student who accidentally killed his girlfriend with an overdose of heroin. The book was published for a small advance, got a couple of good reviews and sold about five copies; that includes to my family.
"Subsequently it was made into an unwatchable movie, but I used the film sale as a bridge to Hollywood, and soon I was out in LA, trying to write screenplays, even make films, something I have been attempting with greater and lesser success ever since."
Political Clans in Central Asia and the USA
From Far Outliers (thanks again to The Argus for the tip).
Anne Applebaum on Napoleon's Invasion of Russia
In The Washington Post:
"The confusion and horror of the French retreat through the Russian winter are well described. 'The air itself,' wrote a French colonel, 'was thick with tiny icicles which sparkled in the sun but cut one's face drawing blood.' Another Frenchman recalled that 'it frequently happened that the ice would seal my eyelids shut.' Prince Wilhelm of Baden, one of Napoleon's commanders, gave the order to march on the morning of Dec. 7, only to discover that 'the last drummer boy had frozen to death.' Soldiers had resorted to looting, stripping corpses and even to cannibalism by the time the march was over."
"The confusion and horror of the French retreat through the Russian winter are well described. 'The air itself,' wrote a French colonel, 'was thick with tiny icicles which sparkled in the sun but cut one's face drawing blood.' Another Frenchman recalled that 'it frequently happened that the ice would seal my eyelids shut.' Prince Wilhelm of Baden, one of Napoleon's commanders, gave the order to march on the morning of Dec. 7, only to discover that 'the last drummer boy had frozen to death.' Soldiers had resorted to looting, stripping corpses and even to cannibalism by the time the march was over."
Georgia on my mind
From greenpass (thanks to Nathan at the Argus for the tip):
"Georgia's one of those countries that should have it made. It has gorgeous countryside, the most amazing people, lovely beaches, great skiing (yes, it's true) and Tbilisi is a graciously crumbling crossroads of Asia, the Middle East and turn of the century Europe that is one of the most enjoyable cities I've ever had the good fortune to spend a bunch of time in. Yet the legacy of communism clings to everything like radioactive dust, and unlike the Chinese, the Georgians were not born to commerce."
"Georgia's one of those countries that should have it made. It has gorgeous countryside, the most amazing people, lovely beaches, great skiing (yes, it's true) and Tbilisi is a graciously crumbling crossroads of Asia, the Middle East and turn of the century Europe that is one of the most enjoyable cities I've ever had the good fortune to spend a bunch of time in. Yet the legacy of communism clings to everything like radioactive dust, and unlike the Chinese, the Georgians were not born to commerce."
What Makes a Good Museum?
Blake Gopnik says it is having lots of stuff on display:
"Two new museums open in the Washington area during the last year or so. One, in suburban Virginia a good hour's drive from the Mall, lives up to hopeful expectations: In the eight months the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center has been open, 1.3 million people have flocked to this branch of the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport.
"The other museum, smack downtown and across the street from the new Convention Center, falters after just 14 months of operation: As my colleague Jacqueline Trescott reported recently, the City Museum of Washington has pulled in only 33,000 people, somewhere between one-third and one-tenth the numbers forecast for it, depending on the forecaster.
"The reason for the difference? Wondrous stuff to look at -- or a puzzling lack of such, at the City Museum. "
"Two new museums open in the Washington area during the last year or so. One, in suburban Virginia a good hour's drive from the Mall, lives up to hopeful expectations: In the eight months the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center has been open, 1.3 million people have flocked to this branch of the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport.
"The other museum, smack downtown and across the street from the new Convention Center, falters after just 14 months of operation: As my colleague Jacqueline Trescott reported recently, the City Museum of Washington has pulled in only 33,000 people, somewhere between one-third and one-tenth the numbers forecast for it, depending on the forecaster.
"The reason for the difference? Wondrous stuff to look at -- or a puzzling lack of such, at the City Museum. "
Are New Yorkers in Denial?
Michael Powell thinks so:
"But not for the first time I looked at a fellow New Yorker and wondered at how resolutely we deny our unfortunate inheritance. Terrorists have come for us three times in the past 11 years. You are aware, I thought as Murdock talked, that almost 2,800 people died and the city's two largest skyscrapers disintegrated three years ago? That the same crew came within a few misplaced bombs of taking down at least one of those towers in 1993?
"In the end, I didn't pose these questions, perhaps because they sounded too argumentative and perhaps because of my own uncertainty. Am I so confident of my own rationality in such matters? I rode the A-train to the World Trade Center stop that brilliant late summer day in 2001 and came upstairs to the collective gasps of reporters and rescue workers as they watched men and women tumble through the sky. I heard the terrible groan of a tower cracking, and saw a thick, gray eight-story-high cloud roll toward me. "
"But not for the first time I looked at a fellow New Yorker and wondered at how resolutely we deny our unfortunate inheritance. Terrorists have come for us three times in the past 11 years. You are aware, I thought as Murdock talked, that almost 2,800 people died and the city's two largest skyscrapers disintegrated three years ago? That the same crew came within a few misplaced bombs of taking down at least one of those towers in 1993?
"In the end, I didn't pose these questions, perhaps because they sounded too argumentative and perhaps because of my own uncertainty. Am I so confident of my own rationality in such matters? I rode the A-train to the World Trade Center stop that brilliant late summer day in 2001 and came upstairs to the collective gasps of reporters and rescue workers as they watched men and women tumble through the sky. I heard the terrible groan of a tower cracking, and saw a thick, gray eight-story-high cloud roll toward me. "
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Healing Iraq on the Fighting in Najaf
Zeyad writes:
"Over 300 militiamen are reported dead and a 1000 have been arrested according to the governor of Najaf. Overall, the situation looks bleak for Sadr, and one has to surmise if this would end in either his arrest or his death. I doubt that the Sadrist movement would be over with Muqtada's death, they would just have a third martyr from the Sadr family to add to their list.
One also can't help but wonder about the timing of Sistani's departure from Najaf to London for treatment. The man is known for his subtle messages, could this be a sign for his tacit approval to finish Sadr and his militia once and for all?"
"Over 300 militiamen are reported dead and a 1000 have been arrested according to the governor of Najaf. Overall, the situation looks bleak for Sadr, and one has to surmise if this would end in either his arrest or his death. I doubt that the Sadrist movement would be over with Muqtada's death, they would just have a third martyr from the Sadr family to add to their list.
One also can't help but wonder about the timing of Sistani's departure from Najaf to London for treatment. The man is known for his subtle messages, could this be a sign for his tacit approval to finish Sadr and his militia once and for all?"
On the Trail of the Congo's "Cannibal Rebels"
Another interesting story by Eliza Griswold in Slate, published last March:
"Eliza Griswold traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo twice to investigate claims of cannibalism as a weapon of war."
"Eliza Griswold traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo twice to investigate claims of cannibalism as a weapon of war."
Eliza Griswold on Afghanistan
Watch the New Yorker correspondent, author of "In the Hiding Zone" in the July 18th issue (not online!), talk about her clandestine visit to Waziristan onCSPAN's clip of the day for August 4th.
A New Yorker press release summarizes her published story like this:
"In "In the Hiding Zone," Eliza Griswold reports from Waziristan, the lawless tribal borderland on the northwestern edge of Pakistan whose people are sometimes suspected of harboring Osama bin Laden. Griswold, who was detained earlier this year in Waziristan by Pakistani authorities, travels with Khalid Wazir, who, at the age of thirty, is "the de-facto prince of a forbidden kingdom, a putative expert on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, and gatekeeper to a region traditionally closed to outsiders." Khalid tells Griswold that he was recently asked by an international news organization if bin Laden was in fact hiding in Waziristan.
"How was I supposed to know?" he says. "If he's there, why don't they catch him? I have nothing to do with it.... I am the chief. I know there are terrorists in Waziristan? George Bush was elected President by the state of Florida. His brother is governor of Florida. George Bush knew there were terrorists training in Florida?" Griswold notes that "of all the Pashtun tribes, the Wazirs are known as the most conservative and irascible," although "the revival of radical Islam in Waziristan is relatively recent," a product, in part, of the effort to push the Soviet Army out of Afghanistan. "More recently," Griswold reports, "the region has become a haven for Al Qaeda members. As Islamic fighters fled the mountains of Afghanistan, Waziristan became a virtual jihadi highway."
Khalid sees himself locked in a battle for influence with the radical mullahs in the area. His own plan for combatting the influence of radical Islam includes not military action ("Kill one terrorist, make ten," he says) but a comprehensive public-works program that has yet to develop. "The mullah gives a man one meal," he says, "we will give him two." The United States already had crop-substitution programs running in the area before September 11th, although Westerners are not allowed in Waziristan.
"There have been social programs in the region since the nineteen-seventies in the tribal areas," Husain Haqqani, a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says. "I don't think there are any empirical data to suggest that after your house has been intrusively searched you say, 'Oh, those are the good guys! They put the water fountain in my village.' " With the Waziris angry at both the Pakistani Army and America, the situation isn't getting any easier. "We certainly believe there are remnants of Al Qaeda or those closely allied with it up there," one State Department official tells Griswold. "There will need to be a continuing effort.... It's U.S. policy to try as much as we can to assist these people. But you can't just walk in with a bunch of Americans and say, " 'Hi! We're trying to help.' "
A New Yorker press release summarizes her published story like this:
"In "In the Hiding Zone," Eliza Griswold reports from Waziristan, the lawless tribal borderland on the northwestern edge of Pakistan whose people are sometimes suspected of harboring Osama bin Laden. Griswold, who was detained earlier this year in Waziristan by Pakistani authorities, travels with Khalid Wazir, who, at the age of thirty, is "the de-facto prince of a forbidden kingdom, a putative expert on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, and gatekeeper to a region traditionally closed to outsiders." Khalid tells Griswold that he was recently asked by an international news organization if bin Laden was in fact hiding in Waziristan.
"How was I supposed to know?" he says. "If he's there, why don't they catch him? I have nothing to do with it.... I am the chief. I know there are terrorists in Waziristan? George Bush was elected President by the state of Florida. His brother is governor of Florida. George Bush knew there were terrorists training in Florida?" Griswold notes that "of all the Pashtun tribes, the Wazirs are known as the most conservative and irascible," although "the revival of radical Islam in Waziristan is relatively recent," a product, in part, of the effort to push the Soviet Army out of Afghanistan. "More recently," Griswold reports, "the region has become a haven for Al Qaeda members. As Islamic fighters fled the mountains of Afghanistan, Waziristan became a virtual jihadi highway."
Khalid sees himself locked in a battle for influence with the radical mullahs in the area. His own plan for combatting the influence of radical Islam includes not military action ("Kill one terrorist, make ten," he says) but a comprehensive public-works program that has yet to develop. "The mullah gives a man one meal," he says, "we will give him two." The United States already had crop-substitution programs running in the area before September 11th, although Westerners are not allowed in Waziristan.
"There have been social programs in the region since the nineteen-seventies in the tribal areas," Husain Haqqani, a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says. "I don't think there are any empirical data to suggest that after your house has been intrusively searched you say, 'Oh, those are the good guys! They put the water fountain in my village.' " With the Waziris angry at both the Pakistani Army and America, the situation isn't getting any easier. "We certainly believe there are remnants of Al Qaeda or those closely allied with it up there," one State Department official tells Griswold. "There will need to be a continuing effort.... It's U.S. policy to try as much as we can to assist these people. But you can't just walk in with a bunch of Americans and say, " 'Hi! We're trying to help.' "
Fandorin on the Leviathan
Just finished Boris Akunin's entertaining romp Murder on the Leviathan . It's a quick read, a fun homage to Agatha Christie. Here Fandorin, travelling as a Russian diplomat, matches wits with the French Inspector Gauche, no doubt based on Hercule Poirot, to solve a grisly series of murders. Suspects are a veritable United Nations of characters, enabling Akunin to play games with national character issues, as well as literary genres. Not to mention the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. For example, the Japanese gentleman, a Samurai warrior, writes Haiku poetry...
Azar Nafisi on Islamism
From The Dialogue Project's Introductory Essay:
"Islamism has become the biggest threat to the development and survival of democracy in the world today. The Islamist threat lies not only in its potential for terror-based violence, but in the appeal and mass embrace of its ideological and cultural claims. Islamism's combination of visibility, virulence, and aggressive self-righteousness has allowed it to become the dominant lens through which the West judges the Muslim world and the Muslim-majority countries judge the West. Their ideology has come to underlie much of the international discourse on the 'East-West' relationship. "
"Islamism has become the biggest threat to the development and survival of democracy in the world today. The Islamist threat lies not only in its potential for terror-based violence, but in the appeal and mass embrace of its ideological and cultural claims. Islamism's combination of visibility, virulence, and aggressive self-righteousness has allowed it to become the dominant lens through which the West judges the Muslim world and the Muslim-majority countries judge the West. Their ideology has come to underlie much of the international discourse on the 'East-West' relationship. "
Mark Steyn on Eurotrip
From The Spectator, an analysis of Eurotrip-The Movie (you may need to scroll down):
"But, as I said, I was howling with laughter. In among the nudist jokes and Pope jokes, Eurotrip is an honest acknowledgment of near total ignorance. One thing I'm surer and surer of since September 11th is that America and Europe know next to nothing about each other. Every Monday I get a big pile of London Sunday papers full of lame features professing to have the inside track on the latest trends in America, and it's all, as the Speccie's esteemed editor would say, complete bollocks. The one saving grace of the American media is that they can't be bothered to reciprocate: a four-decade old joke about the alleged French obsession with mime will do for at least another four or five decades, by which time the Fifth Republic will be the First Islamic Republic of France and the Yanks may have to come up with a new gag. Eurotrip, its scenes of Paris, Berlin and Rome all filmed on the cheap in Prague, somehow captures the state of the Atlantic alliance more accurately than any in-depth analysis."
"But, as I said, I was howling with laughter. In among the nudist jokes and Pope jokes, Eurotrip is an honest acknowledgment of near total ignorance. One thing I'm surer and surer of since September 11th is that America and Europe know next to nothing about each other. Every Monday I get a big pile of London Sunday papers full of lame features professing to have the inside track on the latest trends in America, and it's all, as the Speccie's esteemed editor would say, complete bollocks. The one saving grace of the American media is that they can't be bothered to reciprocate: a four-decade old joke about the alleged French obsession with mime will do for at least another four or five decades, by which time the Fifth Republic will be the First Islamic Republic of France and the Yanks may have to come up with a new gag. Eurotrip, its scenes of Paris, Berlin and Rome all filmed on the cheap in Prague, somehow captures the state of the Atlantic alliance more accurately than any in-depth analysis."
Friday, August 06, 2004
Sir Max Hastings on Israel and the Palestinians
In The Spectator:
"The Israelis seem to deserve President Bush's support in rejecting any Palestinian 'right of return' inside Israel's pre-1967 borders. But Bush's behaviour has given new impetus to the Jewish settlement movement in a way that appals many Israeli moderates. They recognise a choice between a possibility of peace and a large chunk of the West Bank, and know that they cannot have both."
"The Israelis seem to deserve President Bush's support in rejecting any Palestinian 'right of return' inside Israel's pre-1967 borders. But Bush's behaviour has given new impetus to the Jewish settlement movement in a way that appals many Israeli moderates. They recognise a choice between a possibility of peace and a large chunk of the West Bank, and know that they cannot have both."
Saddam's Archaelogical Collaborators
From Middle East Quarterly:
"Working in a wretched totalitarian country was a conscious choice for archaeologists as it was for businessmen. Iraq purchased most of its weapons from Russia and France, sophisticated electronics from the United States, and germ samples from all over the world. Profit is its own excuse, and those who armed and supported Iraq have much for which to answer. But archaeologists submitted paperwork to the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, knowing full well that staff lists would be vetted by Iraqi intelligence. European and American Jews, among the pioneers of Mesopotamian archaeology during the first half of the twentieth century, were systematically excluded from participation, as they still are in Syria and Saudi Arabia. No one protested."
"Working in a wretched totalitarian country was a conscious choice for archaeologists as it was for businessmen. Iraq purchased most of its weapons from Russia and France, sophisticated electronics from the United States, and germ samples from all over the world. Profit is its own excuse, and those who armed and supported Iraq have much for which to answer. But archaeologists submitted paperwork to the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, knowing full well that staff lists would be vetted by Iraqi intelligence. European and American Jews, among the pioneers of Mesopotamian archaeology during the first half of the twentieth century, were systematically excluded from participation, as they still are in Syria and Saudi Arabia. No one protested."
The Anthrax Connection to 9/11
From Edward J. Epstein:
"The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States reports that a Californian-trained biologist named Sufaat in 2001 spent 'several months attempting to cultivate anthrax for al Qaeda in a laboratory he helped set up' in Afghanistan and that this same biologist provided housing for at least two of the 9-11 hijackers in his Kuala Lumpur condominium."
"The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States reports that a Californian-trained biologist named Sufaat in 2001 spent 'several months attempting to cultivate anthrax for al Qaeda in a laboratory he helped set up' in Afghanistan and that this same biologist provided housing for at least two of the 9-11 hijackers in his Kuala Lumpur condominium."
Why Do They Hate Him?
The Washington Post explains the roots of Bush-hatred:
"Anyone who hobnobs with progressives knows by now that a fair proportion of these bright and articulate Americans hate George W. Bush. They abhor him. The embrace of Bush hatred has even appeared in otherwise sober journals of opinion such as the New Republic. Why? How is it that so many thoughtful people hold a belief that is surprising -- and troubling -- to the vast majority of Americans? "
"Anyone who hobnobs with progressives knows by now that a fair proportion of these bright and articulate Americans hate George W. Bush. They abhor him. The embrace of Bush hatred has even appeared in otherwise sober journals of opinion such as the New Republic. Why? How is it that so many thoughtful people hold a belief that is surprising -- and troubling -- to the vast majority of Americans? "
Praise for Conservative Foundations
The Wall Street Journal publishes a tribute to the conservative intellectual movement, from one of its leading funders:
"The conservative investment in ideas, though modest by liberal standards, has paid large dividends. There exists today, in contrast to the 1970s, an impressive network of think tanks, journals and university programs supported by conservative foundations, which are engaged in different ways in promoting the cause of liberty and limited government. As a result, there is now a robust debate in American intellectual life between conservatives and liberals. The one-sided debate, dominated by the left, is a thing of the past. "
"The conservative investment in ideas, though modest by liberal standards, has paid large dividends. There exists today, in contrast to the 1970s, an impressive network of think tanks, journals and university programs supported by conservative foundations, which are engaged in different ways in promoting the cause of liberty and limited government. As a result, there is now a robust debate in American intellectual life between conservatives and liberals. The one-sided debate, dominated by the left, is a thing of the past. "
Meet Boris Akunin
The Telegraph has this interview with the author of The Winter Queen (discussed here recently) and Murder on the Leviathan (just got my copy in the mail, reading it now...):
"'Boris Akunin' is not his real name. Before he embarked on a life of crime writing, Grigori Chkhartishvili was deputy editor of a literary magazine, a distinguished philologist, translator of Japanese fiction, a critic and the author of the scholarly tome Writers and Suicide. This being Russia, home of the writer-as-sage, it is little wonder that he had almost a Japanese sense of shame that he was dabbling in a new-fangled, low-brow form of writing scarcely able to call itself literature. Hence the disguise. 'In the world that I belong to,' he explains, 'writing detective novels was just unthinkable. Even now, some of my old acquaintances look at me as if I were a defrocked priest or something. My mother often asks me, 'When are you going to finish writing this and return to serious writing?' She was a schoolteacher of Russian literature.' "
"'Boris Akunin' is not his real name. Before he embarked on a life of crime writing, Grigori Chkhartishvili was deputy editor of a literary magazine, a distinguished philologist, translator of Japanese fiction, a critic and the author of the scholarly tome Writers and Suicide. This being Russia, home of the writer-as-sage, it is little wonder that he had almost a Japanese sense of shame that he was dabbling in a new-fangled, low-brow form of writing scarcely able to call itself literature. Hence the disguise. 'In the world that I belong to,' he explains, 'writing detective novels was just unthinkable. Even now, some of my old acquaintances look at me as if I were a defrocked priest or something. My mother often asks me, 'When are you going to finish writing this and return to serious writing?' She was a schoolteacher of Russian literature.' "
D.C.'s Bunker Mentality
Today's Washington Post reports on the toll street closings, concrete barriers, checkpoints and sniffer dogs are having on the nation's capital:
"'We can create a neo-medieval society that will profoundly affect our economy, our politics and society itself,' said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert and senior adviser at the Rand Corp., a nonprofit think tank. 'But we are bordering on creating an atmosphere of terror without the benefit of terrorists.'"
"'We can create a neo-medieval society that will profoundly affect our economy, our politics and society itself,' said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert and senior adviser at the Rand Corp., a nonprofit think tank. 'But we are bordering on creating an atmosphere of terror without the benefit of terrorists.'"
Thursday, August 05, 2004
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