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Thursday, November 03, 2005In the most awesomely awesome football column ever, the most awesome Gregg Easterbrook opines the following. My favorite phrase is highlighted for your enjoyment. My main death-ray blast against The War of the Worlds movie is that it represents another case of Hollywood buying the name of a famous work, then producing dreg with only passing resemblance to the famous work. H.G. Wells' 1898 book presented a complex struggle between humanity and its attackers; Spielberg's version presents human beings as appalling fools who practically deserve to be wiped out, while reveling in scenes of slaughter of the helpless and destruction of U.S. cities. Somehow Spielberg manages to glamorize violence, dumb down great literature, be misanthropic and be anti-American all at once -- quite a feat even by Hollywood standards. Wells' book was written at the peak of the imperial era, when European powers were seizing African and Asian lands under the pretext that industrial superiority gave Europe a right to conquer. Wells wrote a parable to ask: If superiority justifies conquest, why shouldn't another world conquer ours? In the book, the Martians believe their technical superiority entitles them to seize whatever they want and kill whomever stands in the way -- exactly what European imperialists believed. Wells' 1898 War of the Worlds was an indictment of the notion that might makes right, and played a role in turning European public opinion against imperialism. The Spielberg movie is just explosions and screaming, every last trace of intellectual merit squeezed out -- quite a feat even by Hollywood standards. posted by Nate on 10:11 PM link Wednesday, November 02, 2005To paraphrase Boz Scaggs: Alito, whoa-oh-oh-oh He's for the money, he's for the show Alito's waitin' for the go Alito, whoa-oh-oh-oh He said one more job ought to get it One last shot 'fore we quit it One more for the road Now and again on a Saturday night I'll drink too much scotch and halfheartedly flip through the late night cable channels, finding a VH1 show called "Best Week Ever." This program selects a number of movie stars or singers or whatnot who had huge premiers or videos or tabloid romances, and nominates them as having (you guessed it) the Best Week Ever. Now, for as cynical and depressed as I am regarding the demise of participatory democracy in the American experiment and the ascendence of people who think the Daily Show is intelligent news commentary, I was heartened this week for two reasons. #1) The newly liberated Iraq approved a constitution. #2) Harriet Miers withdrew her ill-conceived Supreme Court Nomination, and the President instead nominated Samuel Alito. American Conservative Movement: you've had the Best Week Ever. Now, let me define what I mean by Conservative for the 122nd time on this blog. I am not in favor of giving machine guns, Bibles, and American flags to unborn fetuses. Rather, I am someone who thinks that the Founding Fathers laid the heretofore most well-thought-out framework for governance, and that a democratic Republic is the motherhubbard bisquick, or something phonetically similar. With the second fewest casualties in any American war, we have overthrown a terrorist-sponsoring regime, and demonstrated that representative government can work in Arab countries, which will ultimately reduce the disenfranchisement that is one of the root causes of radical Islamic terrorism. Also this week, we have nominated a judge who will, well, judge things. It is not the role of the Judge, especially a Supreme Court Justice, to make a ruling to sway the political process. One of the awesome things about the seperation of powers is how the Legislature makes laws, and the Courts interpret them. The lower courts interpret laws in light of local tradition and precedent, while the Appeals and Supreme Court weigh their impact against the Constitution, the supreme law of the land, and the other principles that the Founders carefully considered while crafting it. Despite what you may have learned from college poli-sci professors, America was based on more than white slave-owning bourgoise consolidating power; it was a well-thought out balance between public opinion and inalienable rights, a limitation on majorities and corrupt officials keepin' us down. (I'll argue the slavery issue another day, but in a nutshell, it was a necessary stipulation to get the Constitution done, and just about everyone figured "the peculiar institution" would die out within a generation or so. Then Eli Whitney had to invent the cotton gin, which made slavery profitable again, the bastiche.) So I feel pretty happy, having voted for George W. Bush in 2004 for three reasons: #1) Foreign policy-- solid job, despite misunderestimating the Arabic Islamic resistance deciding to make Iraq the location of its last stand, #2) Supreme Court nominees-- Roberts was solid, and I [heart] Alito. The only way this will get better is if Souter or Ginsberg suffer a freak tennis injury and Luttig gets nominated. #3) John Kerry was and is a douchebag. Nothing much we can do to overcome the smarm, but his moment is over, and to quote Meatloaf "two out of three ain't bad." Best Week Ever. posted by Nate on 10:55 PM link
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your stolen base are belong to Rickey Henderson. Questions or comments? Email nate@swankypimp.com |
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