The notion for this blog has been rattling about on my to-write list for months. It many ways it should not need to be written. All the same, again today another of Those Comments came in: "Just stick to movie reviews. you have no idea of what you're talking about. You love socialism? Move to Europe." There are 352 comments on that blog. My guess is that 15 or 20 of them give similar advice. I also get it constantly via Twitter and Facebook. It goes without saying that it's my blog on my site and I can write what I please. But that makes it all too simple, especially since almost all of these comments are friendly: "I've enjoyed your reviews for years, etc." "I like your writing, etc."
But...stick to the movies! There is an implication here that I have been assigned a role and must perform it. I was...
But...stick to the movies! There is an implication here that I have been assigned a role and must perform it. I was...
- 10/20/2012
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Americans will be "f**ked" if Barack Obama gets re-elected ... this according to Beach Boys singer Bruce Johnston. Bruce was signing autographs for fans in New York yesterday when the conversation turned political. "Obama's an a**hole, "Johnston says ... adding, "Unless you're interested in never having any money and being socialized."But Johnston was an equal opportunity disser -- saying, "And who's the Republican a**hole?""Our guy isn't any good."He continued, "You got...
- 5/11/2012
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Sen. Jon Tester hunts, farms, has seven fingers, and could well determine his party's fate in 2012. So why are liberals at his throat?
Jon Tester, United States senator, is face down in the mud. Earlier today, Tester and his wife, Sharla, drove from Great Falls, Mont., to their home, T-Bone Farms, 80 miles northeast. It's a journey the Testers have been making nearly every weekend since Jon joined the Senate in January 2007. As usual, they followed the Teton River through sloping sandstone canyons and out onto a vast expanse of flat, treeless farmland, with only the occasional man-made interruption: the United Grain silos in Kershaw, the Ace High Casino in Loma, a billboard about chewing tobacco. "Quitting Was Tough," it said, "But I'm Tougher." The trip took 80 minutes.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Double Trouble for the Reid Family
Not everyone, however, enjoyed such a pleasant drive. After turning down Son Lane,...
Jon Tester, United States senator, is face down in the mud. Earlier today, Tester and his wife, Sharla, drove from Great Falls, Mont., to their home, T-Bone Farms, 80 miles northeast. It's a journey the Testers have been making nearly every weekend since Jon joined the Senate in January 2007. As usual, they followed the Teton River through sloping sandstone canyons and out onto a vast expanse of flat, treeless farmland, with only the occasional man-made interruption: the United Grain silos in Kershaw, the Ace High Casino in Loma, a billboard about chewing tobacco. "Quitting Was Tough," it said, "But I'm Tougher." The trip took 80 minutes.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Double Trouble for the Reid Family
Not everyone, however, enjoyed such a pleasant drive. After turning down Son Lane,...
- 5/8/2011
- by Andrew Romano
- The Daily Beast
Gas prices are heading toward $5, single-family home sales are at a low-and with President Obama ignoring his base like Jimmy Carter did, he could end up being another one-term president, Eric Alterman writes.
Can You Spell "M-a-l-a-i-s-e?"
Related story on The Daily Beast: Should We Hit Gaddafi Next?
Stylistically speaking, Barack Obama could hardly be further from Jimmy Carter if he really had been born in Kenya. Carter was a born-again Baptist who was raised on his father's peanut plantation and supported George Wallace on the road to the Georgia state house. Barack Obama-well, you know the story. But the two men have a great deal in common in their approach to the presidency, and not one of these similarities is good news for the Democrats or even for America. Both men rule without regard to the concerns of the base of their party. Both held themselves to be...
Can You Spell "M-a-l-a-i-s-e?"
Related story on The Daily Beast: Should We Hit Gaddafi Next?
Stylistically speaking, Barack Obama could hardly be further from Jimmy Carter if he really had been born in Kenya. Carter was a born-again Baptist who was raised on his father's peanut plantation and supported George Wallace on the road to the Georgia state house. Barack Obama-well, you know the story. But the two men have a great deal in common in their approach to the presidency, and not one of these similarities is good news for the Democrats or even for America. Both men rule without regard to the concerns of the base of their party. Both held themselves to be...
- 4/25/2011
- by Eric Alterman
- The Daily Beast
With feisty Tea Partiers refusing to fall into line, House Speaker John Boehner is leaning on an unexpected ally: Nancy Pelosi. She reveals their odd coupling to Eleanor Clift.
The Tea Party helped elect the largest freshman class in six decades on the strength of their commitment to come to Washington and cut the deficit. When 54 House Republicans voted no on the latest stopgap budget measure to fund the government for three weeks, most people assumed these were the crusading freshmen determined to fulfill their promise to the voters. But they are wrong: only 20 of the 54 who voted no are part of the 87-member-strong class of 2010; the rest are more veteran members.
Related story on The Daily Beast: House Democrats Adjust to Life Without Power
"I watched the debate very carefully," Nancy Pelosi told a small group of reporters Wednesday afternoon. "New members are interested in cuts; more senior members are interested in riders,...
The Tea Party helped elect the largest freshman class in six decades on the strength of their commitment to come to Washington and cut the deficit. When 54 House Republicans voted no on the latest stopgap budget measure to fund the government for three weeks, most people assumed these were the crusading freshmen determined to fulfill their promise to the voters. But they are wrong: only 20 of the 54 who voted no are part of the 87-member-strong class of 2010; the rest are more veteran members.
Related story on The Daily Beast: House Democrats Adjust to Life Without Power
"I watched the debate very carefully," Nancy Pelosi told a small group of reporters Wednesday afternoon. "New members are interested in cuts; more senior members are interested in riders,...
- 3/16/2011
- by Eleanor Clift
- The Daily Beast
Flamboyant Texan congressman who masterminded covert Us support for the mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan war
It is rare for one individual seriously to divert the course of history. To have done so virtually unnoticed was the astonishing achievement of the former Texas congressman Charlie Wilson, who has died aged 76 after suffering a cardiopulmonary arrest.
His accomplishment in launching and sustaining America's largest clandestine war – supplying arms to Afghan rebels fighting the Soviets in the 1980s – might have been more understandable had he been a discreet figure sliding greyly through the corridors of power. In reality, he was a loud-voiced, 6ft 4in Texan, addicted to outlandish clothes and notorious for his womanising. He staffed his congressional office with beautiful female assistants (dubbed Charlie's Angels on Capitol Hill) and had well-publicised brushes with the law, including allegations of cocaine use and drunk-driving.
Yet he somehow managed to persuade the Bible belt of...
It is rare for one individual seriously to divert the course of history. To have done so virtually unnoticed was the astonishing achievement of the former Texas congressman Charlie Wilson, who has died aged 76 after suffering a cardiopulmonary arrest.
His accomplishment in launching and sustaining America's largest clandestine war – supplying arms to Afghan rebels fighting the Soviets in the 1980s – might have been more understandable had he been a discreet figure sliding greyly through the corridors of power. In reality, he was a loud-voiced, 6ft 4in Texan, addicted to outlandish clothes and notorious for his womanising. He staffed his congressional office with beautiful female assistants (dubbed Charlie's Angels on Capitol Hill) and had well-publicised brushes with the law, including allegations of cocaine use and drunk-driving.
Yet he somehow managed to persuade the Bible belt of...
- 2/11/2010
- by Harold Jackson
- The Guardian - Film News
"All politics is local," the late Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill famously said. And politics don't get much more local than The Garden, an infuriatingly clear-eyed documentary. The Oscar-nominated film, by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, shows in a microcosm what happens at all levels. The Garden is a 14-acre tract in South Central Los Angeles that was turned into a series of small plots for individual farmers to work. Established from the wreckage of the 1992 Rodney King riots, the garden provides fresh produce -- everything from corn and tomatoes to mangoes and avocados -- for the mostly immigrant population that works the patchwork of urban gardens. But 10 years later, the developer who claims to own the land announces that he is reclaiming it. He will evict the farmers, plow under the gardens and build a warehouse. It seems to be a...
- 4/27/2009
- by Marshall Fine
- Huffington Post
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