“Bush stopped short of accusing Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill of outright perfidy, but his words recalled those of hardcore FDR- and Truman-haters circa 1945…Bush’s cavalier invocations of history for political purposes are not surprising. But for an American president to dredge up ugly old canards about Yalta stretches the boundaries of decency and should draw reprimands (and not only from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.)” Slate‘s David Greenberg outlines Dubya’s recent mischaracterization of the Yalta conference. Well, Dubya doesn’t even seem to understand diplomacy now, so why would he understand it then?
Month: May 2005
Arianna’s Salon.
The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington’s answer to Matt Drudge, went live today, with a handful of celebrity postings (for example, John Cusack on Hunter) and a blogroll of the usual suspects. Seems ok, I guess, although I think Huffington would do well to make the site layout look less like the print version of The Onion.
III like a bird?
“The bottom line is that ‘Sith‘ has a discipline missing from Episodes I and II. It is just repeatedly not-embarrassing at nearly every turn. Most of the flabby expository walks to landing pads have been neatly snipped. Important things are said with images instead of words. The special effects are better, but draw less attention to themselves.” Ok, now I might be a bit enthused. Alexandra du Pont, far and away AICN‘s best reviewer and a fangirl who loathed the first two prequels, gives Episode III an enthusiastic (and spoiler-filled) endorsement. Her verdict: “Not even close” to ANH and Empire, but Sith “edges out ‘Jedi’.”
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair.
AICN‘s Moriarty checks out the early sets and pre-viz for Paul Greengrass’ The Watchmen, a project apparently still under the gun at Paramount.
Nuclear Apostasy.
“The Republicans’ hands aren’t clean on this either. What we did with Bill Clinton’s nominees — about 62 of them — we just didn’t give them votes in committee or we didn’t bring them up.” On ABC’s This Week, Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) pretty much announces he’s not voting for the nuclear option. “‘My goodness,’ Hagel said, ‘you’ve got 100 United States senators. Some of us might be moderately intelligent enough to figure this out. We would, I think, debase our system and fail our country if we don’t [work it out.]”
Kirk has some explaining to do.
Be careful at those conventions, folks…According to a grisly recent LA Times story on the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit’s attempts to curb kiddie porn, “All but one of the [over 100] offenders they have arrested in the last four years was a hard-core Trekkie.” (Others have rightfully cast doubt on this rather dubious claim.)
Express Shuttle.
A month into his new gig, new NASA administrator Michael Griffin argues for speeding up the shuttle replacement by four years, with a new proposed launch date of 2010. “To execute the new strategy, sources said, Griffin intends to assemble a small, Apollo-style team of NASA experts and scrap the current plan to have two civilian contractors compete for several years for the right to direct development of the exploration vehicle.”
This ain’t a dream no more.
“‘He never missed a single Little League game I had. He’s collected every home run ball I ever hit. And he’s still affectionate to me.’ He paused and smiled. ‘Maybe he doesn’t want people to know that,’ he said. ‘But I’ll tell you, because it’s my interview.'” On the eve of The Wallflowers‘ fifth album, Jakob Dylan relents and opens up about his famous father.
Empires and Shadows.
A couple of NYT book reviews of local interest: Columbia’s Eric Foner peruses the first transcribed volume of the LBJ tapes, Johann Hari reviews Irresistible Empire by Columbia historian Victoria de Grazia, and college acquaintance Nell Freudenberger takes a gander at Stewart O’Nan’s The Good Wife.
E for Elrond.
From agent to revolutionary…Word is Hugo Weaving has replaced James Purefoy as the lead in V for Vendetta. I must say, that casting switch makes this project considerably more exciting.