The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
- Greta Van Susteren Defends Her Husband's Consulting Work For Sarah Palin
- Michael Roston: After the nuke test, the US and North Korea should keep talking
- Memorial Day Roll Call Honors 148,000 Veterans
- Aubrey Sarvis: For Gays in the Military, Obama's Good Intentions Not Enough
- David Weiner: Dance-Off (or Is It "Dance Off"?) Makes College Baseball Interesting...? A Memorial Day Treat
- NKorea says it conducted nuclear test
- Paul Rieckhoff: This Memorial Day, Honor the Fallen
- John Farr: Just When Did The Quality Of Hollywood Films Start To Drop?
- Jayne Lyn Stahl: An Insult to Service
- Alan Greenspan, Richard Posner Duel Over The Causes Of The Financial Crisis
- Jeff Danziger: War Correspondents
- Susan Boyle Sings 'Memory' From 'Cats' In Semi-Final (VIDEO)
- Robert Kuttner: Selective Lion
- Robert Smith And Robert Phelps, Ex-NYT Journalists, Say They Heard of Watergate First
- Jodi Lipper and Cerina Vincent: Find Bikini Bliss
- Sara Avant Stover: Unplug and Recharge: If You're Feeling Tired, Try This
- David L. Wolper: Castro: Never Mr. Nice Guy
- Job Losses Push Safer Mortgages To Foreclosure
- Thrice-Married Weekly Standard Writer Slammed For Making 'The Worst Case Yet Against Gay Marriage'
- Cheryl Saban: Lessons Learned
- Michael Giltz: Cannes 2009: Chat With Award-Winning Director Xavier Dolan (Video)
- Michael Giltz: Cannes 2009 Wrapup: Quick Movie Rundown and Sights & Sounds Of The Fest
| Greta Van Susteren Defends Her Husband's Consulting Work For Sarah Palin | Top |
| Even by the standards of cable news, Greta Van Susteren is an outsize personali | |
| Michael Roston: After the nuke test, the US and North Korea should keep talking | Top |
| Just in time for the stock markets to open in Asia, Kim Jong-Il's North Korea conducted another nuclear weapons test, according to Reuters . Much noise will be made by conservatives all week that President Obama's weak foreign policy is emboldening Kim and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and the weird missile test some weeks back and now this bomb test prove that he's moving America on the wrong track. My reaction: 1. Kim did these things under President Bush, too. Failing to negotiate with the Norks didn't stop any of this from happening back then, either. 2. There's a pretty decent likelihood that the 2006 bomb test was a 'fizzle,' i.e. a weapon that didn't properly go off. Building plutonium-based bombs is hard. We're not even sure how well most of America's (or Russia's for that matter) work under non-test-circumstances, we just take it on principle that they'll go off as expected after more than a thousand test explosions. North Korea's first test didn't go so great, showing that any state that wants to go through the complications of building a plutonium-based bomb has some difficult work to do. So while North Korea may have a nuclear capability, it's actual nuclear war-fighting powers have yet to be proven. 3. President Bush and team's pig-headed refusal to negotiate with North Korea actually made nuclear testing possible. North Korea's plutonium supply was under IAEA seal for years after the negotiation of the 1994 Agreed Framework. When the Framework was suspended, due to the allegation that North Korea was enriching uranium, North Korea kicked out the IAEA and re-claimed the plutonium it had extracted from spent nuclear fuel in previous years. A physicist I once spoke with told me that the North Koreans didn't manufacture enough electricity NATION-WIDE to enrich enough uranium to develop a credible nuclear deterrent. So I say, keep talking. History is not on North Korea's side, and ensnaring the hermit state in negotiations establishes some possibility of reining in its behaviors. But hey, I'm just a former nuclear nonproliferation analyst, what do I know? What do you say? Does President Obama need to get tough with North Korea and refuse to negotiate with Kim Jong-Il? Or should he stick with it, and try to negotiate a solution? Answer our poll at True/Slant and tell us what you think. More on North Korea | |
| Memorial Day Roll Call Honors 148,000 Veterans | Top |
| RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Abts, Richard. Adamski, Walter. Ahlman, Enoch. The names are whisked away by the hot, gusting wind as soon as they are spoken, forgotten in the stream of the next name and the next name and the next name. Fuller, Addison. Fuller, Mary. Furlong, John. The story of America could be told through these names, tales of bravery and hesitation, of dreams achieved or deferred and of battles won and lost. Taken alone, they are just words, identities stripped of place and time, stripped of rank and deeds and meaning. But they are not taken alone. They are taken together _ 148,000 names, representing the entire veteran population of Riverside National Cemetery, a roll call of the dead read aloud over 10 days by more than 300 volunteers. They read in pairs, rotating through 15-minute shifts in the beating sun, in the chilly desert night and in the pre-dawn hours thick with mosquitoes. Some time on Memorial Day, they will read the last name on the 2,465th page. Some read for their country. Others read for a father lost in battle or a beloved son cut down in his prime. And one man reads for no one in particular _ except, maybe, for himself. _____ Richard Blackaby was just 18 and fresh out of high school in 1966 when he was drafted for Vietnam. His father had served as a Seabee in the U.S. Navy during World War II and Blackaby was desperate to follow in his path. But the Army said no: Blackaby had epilepsy and asthma and was unfit for service. Twelve years later, Blackaby _ now married with three children _ reapplied to the Army and was accepted to the 4th Infantry Division as a forward observer. But Vietnam was over and the eager recruit spent the next six years waiting for a war that never came. When he was honorably discharged in 1984, he was a sergeant but had never experienced combat, had never called in a real air strike or fired at a real target. Nearly 25 years later, Blackaby's missed opportunity weighs on him as he patrols his self-selected battleground: Riverside, the nation's busiest national cemetery. While others gave their lives, Blackaby gives his time _ and a lot of it, nearly 30 hours a week. Over the years, Blackaby has made his specialty here not among the remembered and the honored, but among the lost, the abandoned and the forgotten. The work seems to fit his story of missed chances and dashed dreams, his yearning to belong to something greater than himself. Every day, the 60-year-old grandfather with the crinkly, blue-gray eyes slips on the black leather vest that's his personal uniform and stands at attention as the cemetery honors the cremated remains of dozens of abandoned or forgotten veterans. Every day, he salutes as the National Guard reads the names off the simple wooden boxes filled with ashes. Every day, he accepts the folded flag for soldiers he will never know _ and then gives it back for the next day's dead. Dog tags engraved with the names of 145 forgotten veterans dangle from a thick key chain that never leaves his side, a different color for each branch of service. He knows the story behind almost every name. "If I didn't do it, who would do it?" he says. "I mean, they have friends, they HAVE to have friends. They don't go through a whole lifetime and not have somebody that cares about them." And, true to form, Blackaby reads names _ hundreds of them _ for the roll call project. He reads for hours on overnight shifts in the cemetery's eerie gloom, the podium illuminated only by a floodlight. He reads during the weekend afternoons and late into a Saturday night to cover gaps in the schedule. "Every one that we read off, I feel like I am probably doing their family a favor because they can't be here," he said. "I'm reading off a whole litany of history. It kind of makes you wonder what's behind each name, what their life was like, what they did." ___ Lamborn, Richard. Lamphear, Everett. Landaker, Jared. A gust of wind springs up and snatches the last name away. No one notices it and later, even the volunteer readers won't recall the name of the young Marine or which one of them read it. All they know is he was a 1st lieutenant, fifth from the bottom on page seven of 2,465. ___ Joe Landaker was the first person to touch his son, Jared, as he slipped into the world on his parents' bed on May 3, 1981, after 36 hours of labor. From the beginning, Jared was special _ but not in the way most parents would want. His skull was compressed during birth and doctors warned that he might be mentally challenged. During childhood, he kept falling off the growth chart. He barely topped out at 5-foot-8. But Jared, who went by the nickname J-Rod, surprised everyone. He took calculus in high school, knuckled down in college and got a degree in physics. He signed up for the Marines his sophomore year and graduated from officer training school in Quantico, Va., among the top five in his platoon of 80 men. By fall of 2003, he was in flight school and on Aug. 18, 2006, Jared shipped out for Iraq as a Marine helicopter pilot flying a CH-46 Sea Knight with the famed HMM-364 Purple Foxes. "He overcame so many adversities in his life, time after time," said his father, Joe. On Feb. 7, 2007, a week before Jared was expected home in Big Bear City, his father was watching CNN at 5:30 a.m., getting ready to go to work, when he saw that a CH-46 chopper had been shot down near while on a medical mission. Two months before, when two Marines died in a CH-46 crash, Jared had e-mailed his parents within two hours to let him know he was OK. But this time, hours passed with no word. "They said there were seven people on board, so I waited. I didn't go to work, waited and waited all day long, waited again for his e-mail or a phone call that he was all right," said Landaker, choking back tears. "It never did come." At 4:15 p.m., a Marine captain, a chaplain and a 1st sergeant came to tell Landaker his son had died on his last mission before coming home. Since that day, Landaker has been consumed with keeping his son's memory alive. He shares his story with anyone who will listen. He has memorized every detail of his son's life and death. He now knows that the boy who called him "Pops" took 58 seconds to lower his stricken chopper from 1,500 feet to 200 feet; seven seconds faster, and he might be alive today. "The last thing I want to do is forget about Jared. He comes to my mind all the time, songs, things that you see," said Landaker. "When he was a baby, I'd give him a shower and I'd hold him up and those kind of memories come to mind all the time." "He's so special to me," he said. "Those Iraqis have no idea who they killed." The rows of grave markers are cool and smooth in the heat, their numbers obscured by tufts of grass that have crept around the edges of the stone. Landaker walks, head bowed, along the rows of plots in Section 49B. "3438. It should be right around here," he says, bending low. Then Landaker falls to his knees, weeping. The stories, the details don't matter now: There is no way to unbury the dead, to bring the CH-46 from 200 feet back to 1,500 feet, to reset the clock with seven extra seconds. "Well, all right son," he says. "Take care, son." And so he volunteers to help call the roll at Riverside. He will not have an opportunity to read his own son's name, but at least he can ensure that the sons of others are not forgotten. ___ The heat beats down on the volunteers. A dozen spectators press themselves into any sliver of shade _ a tree, the thin shadow of the flagpole, an awning. In the shade near the sign-in booth, Richard Blackaby and Joe Landaker stand ready to take the podium, two strangers awkwardly chatting before their shared 15 minutes of service. Landaker wears a white T-shirt printed with Jared's photo; Blackaby, for once, has shed his black leather vest for a dark suit adorned with military ribbons and an American flag pin. They discover a bittersweet bond: Blackaby escorted Jared's coffin to his military funeral at the cemetery two years before. The two men embrace, then step to the podium. The names pass between them like fragile treasures. White, Clark. White, Mary. Whito, Russell. Their 15 minutes pass, and they step down. Landaker, eyes red with tears, has another piece of his puzzle, another connection _ another story to cling to. But Blackaby is not finished. He steps forward again, ready to read for those who will never have the love of a father like Jared's. He will be there until 2:30 a.m. on this muggy Sunday and back again the next day and the next day and the next. He is patrolling the boundaries of the past, filling gaps in this American story and in his own life _ one name at a time. | |
| Aubrey Sarvis: For Gays in the Military, Obama's Good Intentions Not Enough | Top |
| Sunday morning on ABC's This Week , the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told George Stephanopoulos that they'd been talking about "don't ask, don't tell" in the Pentagon. Admiral Mullen said , "The President has made his strategic intent very clear. . . . I've had discussions with the Joint Chiefs about this. I've done certainly a lot of internal, immediate staff discussions about what the issues would be and . . . ." Sounds like a plan? No, it doesn't, and without a strong push from the White House, it won't be. Nonetheless, it does show considerable progress from last Tuesday when the Pentagon's press secretary Geoff Morrell (a deputy assistant secretary of defense and Secretary Gates's personal spokesman as well as another holdover from the Bush Administration) was still spouting the old message at Tuesday's Pentagon briefing: "no internal planning efforts underway in anticipation of a change in that [DADT] law," and so on. Business as usual. As to his attitude, here's the video . You can judge for yourself. (The DADT discussion begins about eight minutes in.) The White House changed his mind, however, and Morrell, who said Secretary Gates believed his Tuesday comments had been "mischaracterized," asked him to release a " statement of clarification, " something like what Catholics might call an act of contrition. Fox News reported that Morrell gave it to a few Pentagon reporters Thursday night and to the rest of the world Friday morning. At the White House briefing the day before (around the time Morrell first released his "clarification"), in response to a question by Ana Marie Cox , Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs said he believed "the Pentagon did correct that statement on efforts regarding . . . 'don't ask, don't tell.'" Well, if they hadn't done it before, they got right on the case and it was done that night. And Chairman Mullen did make it clear on This Week that he knew what the President wanted to accomplish with respect to repealing DADT. "The President has made his strategic intent very clear," he said. "That it's his intent at some point in time to ask Congress to change the law." "At some point in time . . . " Now what do you suppose that means? Time is a pretty nebulous notion, and there are an infinite number of points in it. I'd like to know what particular point in time Admiral Mullen and the other deciders at the Pentagon have in mind. This month? This year? Next year? This term? Next term? Somehow, Admiral Mullen didn't convey a sense of urgency to it. Stephanopoulos reminded him that one of his predecessors, General John Shalikashvili, who was chairman in the early '90s, now says he believes "if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces. Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East, and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job." George asked, "Is he right?" "He's certainly entitled to his own personal opinion," Admiral Mullen replied, quickly adding "And certainly, I have the greatest respect for him." Hardly a ringing endorsement. In the next sentence he noted, "There are also lots of retired generals and admirals on the other side." I can see Elaine Donnelly now, exchanging high fives for the gratuitous plug with her crew of aging flag officers that Admiral Mullen referred to. If you review Admiral Mullen's brief, it sounds like he learned a lesson from his immediate boss, Secretary Gates, who famously said, "Let's kick that one down the road a little bit." It also sounds like Admiral Mullen took a leaf from Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi. Passive resistance. That seems a bit odd coming from a Bush appointee who would like to be reappointed to another term as Chairman of the JCS when his term expires in October. I'm all for a "measured, deliberate" path, as Admiral Mullen put it, but at some point the White House has to have a plan to get repeal through this Congress. We have to get beyond mere intent. "Intent" is not a plan and it isn't action and so far President Obama hasn't asked Congress to change the law. The President sent his Defense Department budget up to Congress a couple weeks ago and there was no repeal language in it. That budget will be working its way through Congress over the next several months. There's still time to fix it. What we don't need is yet another study or national commission to look at repeal. We all know those commissions involve delay and more delay and "kicking it down the road" more that a little bit. I say, put together a working group within 30 days. Have them focus on implementing open service and charge them to report back to the President within 90 days with a detailed plan and a timeline and how to get it done in this Congress. Good intentions and warm handwritten notes from the President will not carry the day. They certainly did not save the career of Lieutenant Sandy Tsao who was scheduled for discharge last week. The Arabic speaking Lieutenant Dan Choi is now at risk of being discharged. Sign his petition . Urge the Air Force Secretary to allow Lieutenant Colonel Victor Fehrenbach to keep flying. Hundreds more service members will be discharged over the next few months unless Congress and the President, and, yes, the Pentagon act. Good intentions are no substitute for the change our service members are counting on, especially those who might like to be relieved from a third or fourth or fifth tour in Iraq or Afghanistan. They really don't care much if the person who relieves them is gay. Would you? More on Afghanistan | |
| David Weiner: Dance-Off (or Is It "Dance Off"?) Makes College Baseball Interesting...? A Memorial Day Treat | Top |
| College baseball managed to not be boring for about twelve minutes on Thursday when players from UConn and USF held an impromptu dance-off during a rain delay. The guys brought out all the freshly old standards such as Soulja Boy and the Macarena to keep themselves from going stir crazy during the 5-hour waiting period. While fun and somewhat endearing, Bronx Rockers vs. Beat Street Breakers this was not. | |
| NKorea says it conducted nuclear test | Top |
| SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea announced Monday that it successfully carried out an underground nuclear test, weeks after threatening to restart its rogue atomic program. The country's official Korean Central News Agency called Monday's test "part of measures to bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense." President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency security session. His spokesman, Lee Dong-kwan, confirmed that a nuclear test may have been carried out in the North. Seismologists from the U.S., South Korea and Japan reported earthquakes in an northeastern area, where North Korea conducted a nuclear test in 2006. A 4.7-magnitude earthquake was registered in northeastern North Korea at 9:54 a.m. (0054 GMT), the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake, measured at a depth of 6 miles (10 kilometers) underground, occurred 40 miles (70 kilometers) northwest of the city of Kimchaek, the USGS said. The Japan Meteorological Agency also said it detected seismic activity Monday morning. "We are checking whether they were due to a nuclear test," agency official Gen Aoki said in Tokyo. In Seoul, the Korea Institue of Geoscience and Mineral Resources reported a 4.5-magnitude quake in Kilju in North Hamgyong Province. North Korea also carried out a nuclear test in October 2006 in Kilju, a test that drew sanctions from the United Nations and prompted five other nations to push negotiations on a nuclear disablement-for-aid pact with North Korea. In Washington, State Department spokesman Andy Laine said the U.S. government had no confirmation of a new nuclear test. "At this point we've seen the reports and we're trying to get more information, but we're not able to confirm at this time," Laine said. More on North Korea | |
| Paul Rieckhoff: This Memorial Day, Honor the Fallen | Top |
| Your weekend newspaper—assuming your town still has one—will be stuffed with pages of glossy advertisements for holiday sales. Your local TV news will do a story on the folks waiting in line in the dark for your local mall to open its doors. All weekend, people will be firing up their grills or spending a day at the beach. Nothing’s wrong with enjoying your three-day weekend. But I worry that, even after almost eight years of war, too many Americans see today as just another summer holiday. Memorial Day should mean much more than barbeques and clearance sales. Today is a solemn day of remembrance for our more than one million American service members of all generations who, on the field of battle, made the ultimate sacrifice. For my part, I am honored to join President Obama and other veterans’ groups in the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery today. It is a humbling opportunity to pay my respects to the generations of American warriors who have given their lives in defense of our country. This Memorial Day, please take the time to learn a little about a few of the men and women who we are honoring this weekend. Each of these servicemembers is a recipient of America’s highest military award for valor, the Medal of Honor . World War I. Army Captain Marcellus Chiles and his men were near Le Champy Bas, France, when they came under heavy machinegun fire. Captain Marcellus picked up the rifle of a fallen soldier and led his men across a waist-deep stream to engage the enemy. Shot in the stomach by a sniper, Captain Marcellus refused to be evacuated until his team was under the leadership of the next senior officer. Soon after reaching the hospital, Capt. Chiles died. World War II . On Dagami Leyte, in the Philippines, Private First Class John F. Thorson was an automatic rifleman on a team tasked with taking a heavily fortified enemy position. Under intense fire, Pvt. Thorson moved ahead of his team and single-handedly attacked a trench defended by several hostile riflemen. Seriously wounded, he fell a few yards from the trench; as his platoon reached him, an enemy fighter threw a grenade into the group of men. With his last breath, Pvt. Thorson rolled his body onto the grenade. Killed instantly by the explosion, he saved his fellow troops. Vietnam . Gray Martini, a Private First Class in the Marine Corps, was conducting offensive operations with his company at Binh Son. Moving without cover over a rice paddy, the Marines in Pfc. Martini's platoon assaulted an enemy trench line under fire from grenades, rifle and mortar fire. Within minutes, 14 Marines were killed and 18 wounded. Pfc. Martini crawled from an area of relative safety to hurl hand grenades, killing several of the enemy. He then crawled through fire to rescue a wounded comrade. A fellow Marine had been killed in a previous rescue attempt, and Pfc. Martini suffered a serious injury. Nonetheless, he braved enemy fire again to rescue a second Marine. This time, he was mortally wounded. Using his final strength to move the second rescued man to safety, Pfc. Martini gallantly gave his life defending his fellow Marines. Afghanistan . Operating in an enemy-controlled area, Navy Lt. Michael Murphy's team of four was discovered and assaulted by more than 30 Taliban fighters. The ensuing firefight killed one member of Murphy’s team, and wounded the other three. The mountainous terrain was making it impossible to call for support, so Murphy fought his way to an unsheltered position where he could transmit a call. Exposed to direct enemy fire, Murphy was mortally wounded. But he fought on, reporting his coordinates to headquarters and requesting immediate support for his team. He continued to engage the enemy until he finally gave his life, having saved his comrades. There are no words that can truly commemorate the heroism of these men. But one voice, in my opinion, comes closer than any other. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln had this to say about the men who had fought and died at the battle of Gettysburg : “We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Almost 150 years later, the words of Lincoln still resonate. But it doesn’t take being Commander-in-Chief to honor the fallen. This Memorial Day, I hope you add your own words of remembrance for the brave men and women that have heroically served this nation, and perished on the battlefield. It is the duty of every American to ensure that they are never forgotten. Crossposted at IAVA.org . More on Barack Obama | |
| John Farr: Just When Did The Quality Of Hollywood Films Start To Drop? | Top |
| To build the number of solid DVD recommendations on my site, for several years now I've been watching roughly fifteen films a week- old and new, domestic and foreign. This process has yielded a broader appreciation of the scope of feature films beyond my pre-existing expertise, which was Hollywood's Golden Age (1930-1960). It has also led me to a striking conclusion: though in revenue and distribution terms Hollywood continues to dominate the global film market, the most original, intelligent, and enduring movies today are being made outside this country. It's a disturbing dynamic when the majority player in a global industry keeps turning out a largely indifferent product. Inevitably, parts of the traditional consumer base start to fall away. In Hollywood's case, the industry is gradually losing their educated adult (40 years plus) audience. As a consequence, they are working that much harder to keep our offspring hooked on a steady stream of comic book and computer game adaptations, brought to the big screen with lots of quick cuts, deafening noise, and whiz-bang special effects. In pursuing this dubious strategy, a fundamental part of great film-making- excellence in script, character development and overall story-telling- gets sacrificed, because the bells and whistles, the sheer noise and kinetic pacing of today's commercial releases, would seem to render them unnecessary. I suggest they are never unnecessary. True, even at Hollywood's peak, there was plenty of junk being made. But with the built-in efficiencies of the studio system creating much more product overall, there was enough quality work rising to the top to keep discerning moviegoers happy. Also, studio moguls then consciously wanted to build industry prestige with what were then termed "important pictures". Today, "important pictures" in Hollywood represent only risk, a virtual death knell in a business driven solely by dollar signs. For today's thinking adults, movies are being increasingly marginalized because there is less reason and excuse for us to make time for them as we did in the past. Technology encourages us to stay forever chained to our PCs and Blackberries, answering every email and phone call in real time, and looking up our old school chums on Facebook. And if we're disillusioned with what's currently in theatres, we're unlikely to work that much harder to identify and absorb an older film or foreign release, even if we're promised a disproportionate reward in the end. It's easier just to tune in to "Dancing With The Stars". Maybe as a movie lover, I over-dramatize the situation. But to me, it feels terribly sad. Just when did the mighty Hollywood movie machine really start to sputter? To find my own answer, I tried an experiment. Though few outside the industry know of it, The Quigley Poll has annually tracked the top ten Hollywood stars at the box office since the early thirties. I decided to review their results every ten years from 1938-2008, and for each star listed in a given year, tally the corresponding number of their films featured on www.bestmoviesbyfarr.com. Examining the trend-line of total number of films contributed by the stars over time should help indicate when overall film quality started to decline, at least from my perspective. Since this in effect links the subjective notion of quality to my own personal standards, the results are hardly conclusive, but hopefully still worthy of debate and discussion. I myself would have expected the thirties to produce a higher total, yet the top ten box-office stars of 1938 are only represented by 27 films on our site, with sixteen of those contributed by just two actors: Spencer Tracy (10) and Clark Gable (6). Beyond runners-up Myrna Loy and Tyrone Power (each with 4 films), most of the other stars have faded with time, including Alice Faye, Sonja Henie, and Jane Withers (a child star who'd go on to play Josephine in those memorable "Comet" commercials in the sixties). Ten years later, and the number of Quigley stars' films on our site more than doubles. On the 1948 list with ten titles each are Tracy again, along with Bogart, Cary Grant, and Gary Cooper. Ingrid Bergman scores with 9 titles, while Bing Crosby adds 4. With all other names contributing at least one title, the forties' total was 62. The overall number for 1958 stars is down only slightly, at 57 titles. All the prior actors with ten titles represented are gone, replaced by James Stewart (10), Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor (each with 9), William Holden (8), and Frank Sinatra (7). As with the prior decade, each star listed in the Poll's top-ten contributed at least one title. We hit our peak in 1968 with a record 75 titles, ironically not the best time for Hollywood itself, but in terms of stars, reflecting a vibrant, prolific new generation. Only Liz Taylor returns to the list, joined by late bloomer John Wayne (11 titles). They are joined by Paul Newman (10), Sidney Poitier (10), Jack Lemmon (8), Lee Marvin (7), Clint Eastwood (7), and Steve McQueen (6). With the '70s' list, totals return to 1940s/50s' levels, with the top-ten stars comprising 61 total films on BMBF, and excepting Clint Eastwood, reflecting a whole new line-up of names: Peter Sellers and Woody Allen (at 10 titles each), followed by Diane Keaton (8), Warren Beatty, and Jane Fonda (6 each). Also, newcomers John Travolta and Richard Dreyfuss appear for the first and only time (each with 5 titles). For the first time since the thirties, one name, Barbra Streisand, contributed no titles to the site. As we then look ahead ten years and beyond, we note that a steady decrease in the number of memorable films begins in the eighties, with the actors from Quigley's '88 poll contributing just over half the number of films (32) from the prior decade. Dustin Hoffman appears, providing 10 titles, as does the up-and coming Tom Hanks (7) and Tom Cruise (5). Yet after Robin Williams (4), the number of titles contributed per star is minimal: Danny DeVito (2), Eddie Murphy (2), Bette Midler (1), Arnold Schwarzenegger (1), Paul Hogan (0), and Tom Selleck (0). (Just reading some of these names, I feel the edifice starting to crumble.) The erosion continues in the 90's, whose totals now drop below the thirties' level to generate just 24 BMBF titles. After Hanks, Robin Williams, Mel Gibson (5 titles), and Leonardo DiCaprio (3), we again have a slew of admittedly big stars who, in my view, have not made that many outstanding films: among them, Jim Carrey (1), Meg Ryan (1), Cameron Diaz (1), Julia Roberts (0), and Adam Sandler (0). The top box-office draws for 2008 hit a new low, contributing a paltry 14 titles to our site. Harrison Ford leads the list with 7 titles, followed by George Clooney with 3. All others on the list contributed two or less movies, including Reese Witherspoon (2), Daniel Craig (1), Christian Bale (1), and with no titles contributed, Will Smith, Shia La Beouf, Robert Downey, Jr., Angelina Jolie, and once again, Adam Sandler. In fairness to this last group, some of these stars have long careers ahead of them, but it won't do them (or us) much good if the industry doesn't start giving them better scripts. (In particular, Robert Downey, Jr. stands out as one actor who always comes off better than the films he finds himself in.) Or... perhaps my idea of who or what constitutes greatness in film has become outmoded. Maybe I've been blinded by generational bias, and will justifiably receive a host of angry comments criticizing the absence of Will Smith, Adam Sandler or Julia Roberts on my site. One request, though, before lodging your protest: first, look again at some of the newer, noteworthy titles from France, Italy, Japan, Germany, Korea, Denmark, Iran and the Middle East. Next, revisit a select few Hollywood classics from the forties, fifties and sixties. In doing this, you'll likely notice some of the differences in film-making emphasis and approach I mentioned earlier. But with so-called progress and the passage of time, such differences are inevitable. Ultimately it all comes down to this basic question: are we in America making our fair share of great movies today, movies that will stand the test of time? I for one dearly wish I could answer "yes". More on Leonardo DiCaprio | |
| Jayne Lyn Stahl: An Insult to Service | Top |
| There is nothing new about this story, and it isn't one that is easy to read. And, for a country that is hooked on novelty, it is even harder to get down, but, on a holiday designed to pay tribute to those who serve this country in times of war, we owe it to those who return from battle to take a hard look at how best we may serve them. As of this month, according to the Veterans Administration's own Web site, about one-third of the adult homeless population has been in the armed forces. Current population estimates are that, on any given night, as many as 154,000 veterans, of both genders, are homeless, and possibly twice as many experience homelessness during the year. 97% of homeless veterans are male; the vast majority of whom are single. Homeless vets tend to be older, and far more educated than their civilian counterparts. 45% are said to suffer from some form of "mental illness," and more than half are African-American or Hispanic. Of those veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, as reported by Aaron Glantz more than a year ago, those who return from battle with some kind of physical, or psychological disability, often fall prey to the Department of Veterans Affairs which victimizes them further by delaying their claims often for months, and sometimes for years. Somewhere around 300,000 returning wounded soldiers have filed for disability benefits, and have waited for as long as two years to find out if they've been approved. Denial of these benefits have led to homelessness. Those whose claims have been thrown out, and who appeal, often have to wait an average of five years for a response. In the first half of 2008 alone, more than 1,100 vets died before hearing if their claims were approved. And, since the onset of the Iraq War seven years ago, the number of veterans filing for disability has nearly doubled. Those who return from war with what the VA simply calls "mental illness," but what we now know to be Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, must first prove that their illness is service-related in order to have their treatment covered by the VA. Any suggestion that the Office of Veterans Affairs use the IRS as a pardigm for how to handle claims was dismissed as unworkable by VA upper managment. Then, there are those who don't return at all. The Army's suicide rate has reached record levels in the past year alone. The number of suicides in the military has increased more than 60% since the war in Iraq started, and it now surpasses that of the general population. Many attribute the growing problem to a seven year war with as many as three tours of duty, but in a volunteer army, loss of faith in leadership, or disillusionment with the reasons for combat, as well as the absence of an exit strategy, may also be seen as compelling factors. But, what of those who survive the battlefield only to die by their own hand? Alarmngly, soldiers, age 20-24, who served during the "war on terror," now have the highest suicide rate of all vets. The suicide rate among Iraq war veterans is egregiously high, and growing. And, importantly, suicide is a reflection of hopelessness, as well as a sense of displacement. When you consider that suicidal ideation is considered a symptom of PTSD, the Office of Veterans Affairs adds insult to injury by setting up road hazards for those who file PTSD disability claims by making them prove that their mental health issues are directly attributable to their service in uniform. This is an outrage, and it is almost as much of an outrage as it is that any member of our armed forces should be released to face the cold pavement of an inner city street. It's not enough for the VA to acknowledge the problem of homeless vets by simply regurgitating the statistics. The VA, and the Obama administration, must work to address the underlying displacement, and disenfranchisement, as well as work to undo the angst of returning from a battlefield where one expected to be treated like saviors by people who,can't wait for us to go home. Expanding benefits under the GI Bill, a measure which was rejected roundly by the Bush administration, would be a good place to start in honoring our returning veterans, but taking the $80 million Defense Secretary Gates was willing to spend on a brand new supermax prison, and using it instead to build low income, federally subsidized, housing for homeless veterans would be a far better way to show what our government thinks of those who have served them honorably. Anything less would be an insult to their service. | |
| Alan Greenspan, Richard Posner Duel Over The Causes Of The Financial Crisis | Top |
| I have received an email from Alan Greenspan in which he expresses regret at what he describes as my "rather thin analysis of the source of the current financial crisis." He states that his "view is different," and by way of explanation prints excerpts of three pieces written by him. The first is from remarks, entitled "Risk and Uncertainty in Monetary Policy," that he made at a meeting of the American Economics Association in January of 2004, while he was still chairman of the Federal Reserve and the housing bubble was expanding. | |
| Jeff Danziger: War Correspondents | Top |
| Susan Boyle Sings 'Memory' From 'Cats' In Semi-Final (VIDEO) | Top |
| WATCH SUSAN BOYLE SING 'MEMORY' - SCROLL DOWN ( AP article, YouTube Video) LONDON -- Surprise singing sensation Susan Boyle made a new television appearance, showcasing once again her soaring voice _ but refusing to compromise on the frumpy look that made her an Internet sensation. The shy church volunteer gave a rousing, but occasionally nervous, performance on the "American Idol"-style show "Britain's Got Talent," with a version of the song "Memory" from the musical "Cats." Members of the public voting in a telephone poll picked her as the best of eight performers who appeared Sunday, meaning she will sing again in the contest's final next Saturday. Flashing a broad smile, Boyle danced in delight as results were announced and said she had relished the chance to perform. "Fantastic, absolutely fantastic," she said. "What pressure? I've really enjoyed myself tonight." Wearing a plum colored beaded dress _ and a touch more makeup than during her last performance _ but with the same unruly shock of hair, Boyle overcame early jitters to deliver a powerful vocal. Producers said the 47-year-old's appearance was being posted on the Internet almost immediately, after about 60 million people watched her last performance via YouTube. In her first performance last month, judges who'd raised eyebrows at Boyle's dowdy image were won over by her bold voice and surprisingly confident performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical "Les Miserables." The sometimes awkward looking Scot won praise from celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey and Demi Moore, and even won a mention in her favorite cartoon "The Simpsons." Story continues below On Sunday, the show's judges and audience rose to their feet to applaud, but those posting comments to the Twitter Web site appeared divided. While some hailed her performance, others appeared underwhelmed. Bookmaker William Hill has made her a runaway favorite to win on May 30. Contestants are competing to perform at Britain's annual Royal Variety Show _ attended by members of the royal family _ and win a 100,000 pound ($159,000) prize. The singer, who lives alone with her cat Pebbles in one of Scotland's poorest regions, said before Sunday's performance that she wouldn't transform her appearance. "I just want people to see me for who I am, and do my best at singing the song, that's what I am focusing on," she said. Boyle, who says she's never been kissed, grew up the youngest of nine children in Blackburn, a community of 4,750 people 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Edinburgh, in Scotland, and a district blighted by unemployment and crime. She suffered learning difficulties as a child and was bullied by other children. As an adult, she's struggled for work but had been a regular on her local karaoke circuit and performed in church choirs. In an interview with The Associated Press at her home last month, she said the death of her mother had inspired her to enter the TV talent show. "I wanted to show her I could do something with my life," Boyle said. WATCH: More on Susan Boyle | |
| Robert Kuttner: Selective Lion | Top |
| This week, we learned that President Obama really is capable of political courage and idealism, as well as calculation. The question is how he will apply these gifts to the financial crisis as well as to issues closer to both his heart and to the strengths of his intellect, such as defense of the Constitution. Each of his major speeches of the past week was a tour de force. At Notre Dame he spoke candidly and movingly about reproductive rights and tolerance. His quest for common ground won repeated applause from this largely Catholic audience, some of whom evidently are less dogmatic than their church's leaders. Said Obama: So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions, let's reduce unintended pregnancies. (Applause.) Let's make adoption more available. (Applause.) Let's provide care and support for women who do carry their children to term. (Applause.) Let's honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as respect for the equality of women." Those are things we can do. (Applause.) At Annapolis, he sounded as resolutely committed to national defense as any chicken hawk, and rather more serious about what true national security entails -- and he got repeated ovations from the midshipmen, among them John McCain IV. Speaking in the Rose Garden on Friday about credit card abuses, Obama signed a bill that takes a small step on behalf of consumers to prohibit the most extreme of bait-and-switch tactics. The President said, "Statements will be required to tell credit card holders how long it will take to pay off a balance and what it will cost in interest if they only make the minimum monthly payments. We also put a stop to retroactive rate hikes that appear on a bill suddenly with no rhyme or reason." Credit card abuses are the easiest to remedy of the financial scandals, but Obama was on the right side of the issue and in good form. It was his major address Thursday at the National Archives, with America's most sacred documents as backdrop, that was Obama at his most thoughtful and eloquent, as well as brave. "I have studied the Constitution as a student;" he declared, "I have taught it as a teacher; I have been bound by it as a lawyer and legislator. I took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief, and as a citizen, I know that we must never -- ever -- turn our back on its enduring principles for expedience sake." Obama stuck to his decision to close the prison at Guantanamo, just a day after the Senate, by a vote of 94-6, denied him the funds to shift detainees, out of concern that alleged terrorists would be instead locked up in maximum security prisons in the continental United States, possibly to escape or might someday be released into American communities. It's an absurd worry, yet where to house terrorists is for most legislators the ultimate NIMBY issue. Obama himself muddied the waters in his insistence that he planned to keep detainees in "prolonged detention," just not at Guantanamo. That, in turn, created the sense that Obama's insistence about shutting down the prison was more about symbolism than constitutional substance. His rather complex position provided fodder for critics on both the right and the left. Dick Cheney appointed himself to make a quasi-official response, in an unrepentant speech defending torture. I suppose we are fortunate that the faces of today's Republican Party are Cheney and Rush Limbaugh, guaranteeing that the Republicans will stay around 30 percent of the electorate. On the other hand, it is odd that Obama would seize on the symbolism of Guantanamo as abhorrent and inconsistent with American values while insisting that "prolonged detention" without trial for accused terrorists could be justified. In a letter sent Friday to the president, Sen. Russ Feingold warned that "such detention is a hallmark of abusive systems that we have historically criticized around the world." The New York Times editorial page effusively praised the president's stance. Its editorial of May 22 began , "We listened to President Obama's speech on terrorism and detention policy with relief and optimism." But in two news stories, May 23, Times reporters first pointedly questioned whether the prolonged detention concept was constitutional -- and then suggested that Obama had handed Republicans "a wedge issue." Having taken a principled position, Obama now needs to deliver -- with a strategy for handling the remaining detainees that both addresses the security concerns and offers more than a fig leaf of constitutionality. All week, Obama demonstrated his great skills as a teacher and orator, but it remains to be seen how he will use these outsized gifts as challenges on several fronts continue to unfold. He chose to invest some political capital on the issue of reproductive rights, but not on the issue of gay marriage; he took a real political risk in beginning the process of shutting down the infamous prison at Guantanamo but not in aligning himself with a constitutional treatment of detainees wherever they are ultimately housed. And though he criticized financial excess in general terms and had some good things to say about credit card abuses, he has not yet thrown the full weight of his office behind comprehensive financial reform. It is tempting to explain his choices simply in terms of his own history and deep knowledge of some issues but not others. If there is any issue that Obama knows well, it is constitutional law. One can see the blend of idealism and calculation in his decision to close Guantanamo, but not to insist on full due process for detainees. Maybe this is all that public opinion and anxious legislators can take for now. We'll have to see how the public reacts as he moves forward with concrete plans to change procedures and move detainees. On financial reform, however, it is very hard, based on past performance, to imagine Obama staking out a courageous position and trying to move public opinion on an issue where most of the Senate is siding with, say, Wall Street. In the coming months, there will be plenty of opportunities. They will include whether to enact regulation of derivatives, hedge funds and private equity companies; whether to support Elizabeth Warren's proposal for a financial product safety commission; whether to keep on bailing out insolvent banks versus taking them into receivership; and how to get serious about saving several millions of American families from foreclosure. On all of these fronts, administration policy to date has been too weak and far too kind to Wall Street. One thing we learned this week is that whatever this president's deficits, they do not include a lack of eloquence, leadership, or nerve. It makes his attempt to straddle the issue of the detainees seem less than fully thought through, and his dithering on the financial crisis all the more bewildering. Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect and a senior fellow at Demos . His recent book is Obama's Challenge . More on Barack Obama | |
| Robert Smith And Robert Phelps, Ex-NYT Journalists, Say They Heard of Watergate First | Top |
| The Watergate break-in eventually forced a presidential resignation and turned two Washington Post reporters into pop-culture heroes. But almost 37 years after the break-in, two former New York Times journalists have stepped forward to say that The Times had the scandal nearly in its grasp before The Post did -- and let it slip. | |
| Jodi Lipper and Cerina Vincent: Find Bikini Bliss | Top |
| Memorial Day is officially a holiday to remember the men and women who lost their lives fighting for our country and we hope that you will take some time on your day off to remember these people and give genuine thanks. The other thing that this weekend represents is less formal, though somehow more ingrained in many of us, and that's the (unofficial) beginning bathing suit season. Unfortunately, for many of us, the fear and trepidation that comes with the thought of going out in public in a bathing suit overshadows both the true meaning of this holiday and the excitement of having a day off to relax and drink margaritas at a barbeque, pool party or beach. It's no wonder that so many of us dread putting on a bikini; they reveal every imaginable flaw, leave nothing to the imagination and expose all of the insecurities that we have about our bodies. Every year around this time, the tabloid magazines run a "best and worst" beach body story, with pictures of emaciated actresses with ribs poking out labeled the "best," and women with patches of cellulite or fleshy hips the "worst." To add insult to injury, they take a petite and perfectly toned woman that most of us would kill to look like and add some commentary about how brave she is to bare her "curves." When faced with these images day in and day out, it's hard not to wonder what it will take for all of us regular women to feel confident revealing our bodies. Well, the diet industry has an answer - dozens of extreme diets and cleanses that promise to have you swimsuit ready in no time! Between the tabloids' mixed messages and these fad diets with their unrealistic claims, a lot of us end up expecting ourselves to look miraculously perfect and live up to some beauty standard that none of us really agrees with. And it seems like all of us women have made a silent pact to disallow ourselves from having any fun until we do. Well, we are sick and tired of seeing so many women torture themselves over things that are supposed to be pleasurable. Let's not go through another summer feeling insecure and dreading trips to the beach that are supposed to be relaxing and fun, and let's start enjoying them, instead! Life's too short to not spend some of it basking in the sun (wearing sunscreen) feeling confident and carefree. Here are a few ideas for how to find your own bikini bliss. 1. Focus On the Positive Of course we want you to focus on the parts of your own body that you love, whether that's your slim calves or long hair or strong arms, but we also want to remind you not to dwell on other women's imperfections, either. First of all, Hot Chicks (by our definition) do not compete with each other, but furthermore, by focusing on another woman's flaws you are putting your mind in a negative place where nasty thoughts about yourself can more easily infiltrate. When you're at the beach or by the pool, do not to compare yourself to other women or silently cut them down, and instead think about the fact that no matter what they look like in their bathing suit, they probably feel just as insecure as you do. Help put an end to women's body image issues by being compassionate and focusing on the beauty of other women instead of their flaws. You'll end up feeling more confident your own bikini, too! 2. Do Your Job, Not a Super Model's So what if Heidi Klum had a perfect body the day after giving birth? It is her full time job to look like that and you can bet that she works at it just as hard as you work at your job. Unless you're a bikini model, it's not your job to look perfect in a bikini, so cut yourself some slack and stop comparing yourself to celebrities with trainers, nutritionists, chefs and home gyms. Until Heidi Klum is expected to know how to do your job perfectly, stop pressuring yourself to do hers. 3. Eat Smart We will never tell you to cut carbs, count calories, or do any type of cleanse that involves maple syrup, but if you want to look your best you need to feel your best, and we're pretty sure you won't feel your best if you eat a bucket of fried chicken and chase it with a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Now that it's warmer out, take advantage of summer's healthy, natural and delicious offerings. Drink lots of water, snack on strawberries and blueberries, grill up some fish for dinner and eat it with a giant salad. You will not only look and feel better in your bikini, but you'll have more energy to run around in it, too. 4. Talk Nice If you make one change this summer, let it be that you stop saying mean things about yourself, either out loud or in your head. Every time you are tempted to complain to your girlfriends about having to put on a swimsuit or ask your husband to confirm your suspicions that you "look fat in this," just stop it and do something else instead. Just by changing the way you talk to yourself, you'll change your energy and the way you appear to others. Make this your summer resolution and you'll be happier in that bikini than ever. 5. Wear It All Day Okay, this one's a little wacky, but don't knock it 'til you try it. Think about it this way - of course you won't feel comfortable in your bathing suit if you only wear it a few times a year! It can feel foreign and therefore weird and awkward to be out in public in so little clothing, so get used to it by cooking dinner in your bikini, cleaning the house in it, and even relaxing in front of the TV wearing your swimsuit. Eventually, it will feel so natural that you'll love your body in that bikini as much as you do in your favorite pair of perfectly worn-in jeans. More on Health | |
| Sara Avant Stover: Unplug and Recharge: If You're Feeling Tired, Try This | Top |
| I'm tired today. Really tired. The kind of tired that green tea (I'm not a coffee drinker) and eight hours of sleep can't remedy. This week I had a cold, launched a new website , and am preparing to fly for over 24 hours today to teach in Thailand for a month. That's why I'm tired. On days like today I know that the best thing for me to do is take it easy and treat myself to a slower pace and some good, old-fashioned rest. Here's a 5-minute guided relaxation that helps me. I hope it works for you, too: 1. Turn off your cell phone, close the door, dim the lights. 2. Lie down on the floor (a yoga mat or a carpet are best; something like a bed or a sofa are too soft). If you have lower back discomfort, bend your knees, put your feet on the floor, and keep your feet hip-distance apart. 3. If your head tilts back (so your chin is higher than your forehead), put a thin pillow under your head until your forehead and chin are level. 4. Close your eyes. If you have an eye pillow or something soft to place over your eyes, do so. 5. Feel your breath flowing in and out. Notice what parts of your body move and respond to the breath. With each breath, let your body grow heavier on the floor. 6. Feel your feet. Take a breath in and out, feeling your feet. Feel your ankles, take a breath in and out, feeling your ankles. 7. Continue this all the way up to your head, part by part. 8. Rest for another several breaths, feeling your whole body. 9. Slowly roll to one side and use your hands to press back up to a seated position. More on Wellness | |
| David L. Wolper: Castro: Never Mr. Nice Guy | Top |
| On February 20, 2008, because of his health, Fidel Castro resigned as President and Commander in Chief of Cuba and turned over the reigns to his brother Raul. In recent years Hollywood celebrities and U.S. political figures have traveled to Cuba to visit Fidel Castro and treated him as though he is some heroic figure. Most had glowing words to say about their host. Fidel Castro is a very charismatic individual and his long tenure in office adds to his legend, but Castro is defiantly not a heroic figure, far from it. Now that he has stepped down, and as President Obama and the United States seek better relationships with Cuba, with which I agree, I thought it would be timely if we reviewed some of Castro's real record. FACT: In an August 8, 1958 speech Castro said "our primary objective is to reestablish democracy." Five months later, on January 1, 1959, he lead the Cuban revolution to victory. Since then he has never relinquished power and has remained in office 49 years. Not a promised democracy but a communist dictatorship. Castro is not a hero to many of the Cuban people who expected democracy. FACT: By the end of 1959 virtually all major business was under state control and critical newspapers were silenced. All of the media was eventually controlled by the government, including the internet. Today in order to get on the internet you must get permission from the government. Castro is not a hero to journalists or the citizens who lost their business. FACT: In 1961 he declared himself a Marxist Leninist. He purged his military, replacing them with communist militants, and those who complained he jailed, executed, or forced to leave Cuba. They were friends who fought along side him in the revolution. Their crime: they wanted what they fought for, democracy not communism. Castro is not a hero to many of his compatriots of the Revolution. FACT: Commandant Huber Motos, who fought in the revolution alongside Castro and even rode into Havana as a hero on a tank, standing with Castro, complained about communism creeping into government and the military, and he resigned. Castro called him a traitor and he was imprisoned for 20 years, sixteen of these years in solitary confinement. FACT: In July 1961, during the Cold War, the U.S. broke relations with Cuba. In the early 60s Castro made a deal with the Soviet Union to place nuclear missiles in Cuba aimed at the U.S. Castro then suggested, in a cable to Premier Khrushchev on October 27, 1962, that they launch from Cuba a first nuclear strike. In a letter to Castro, Soviet Premier Khrushchev rejected the idea: "You realize of course where that would have led, rather than a simple strike it would have been the start of a thermonuclear war." Castro is not a hero to those who remember he wanted to nuke the U.S. FACT: Castro is the man whose repressive government caused the U.N. Human Rights Commission, along with Amnesty International, from the 1960s into the 21st century to condemn Cuba for "the continuing violation of human rights." In April 1986, "The Tribunal on Cuba" met in Paris and, as reported on April 18 in Le Figaro, "testimony by former Cuban prisoners resembled those made 40 years ago by survivors of the Death Camps." Castro is not a hero to those mistreated in Cuban prisons. FACT: Just six years ago Castro arrested 75 human rights activists, journalists and opposition figures and sentenced them to terms ranging from six to 28 years. Last year a free press group, "Reporters without Borders," appealed to Raul Castro to release the 19 reporters in prison since 2003. Castro is no hero to those unfairly jailed or their families. FACT: Since Castro's triumph in the revolution, over two million Cubans, many at great risk of life, fled Cuba. Something must be wrong. Some were Cubans whose property had been confiscated, small businessmen whose stores and shops were closed, the very poor dwellers in Havana's squalid inner-city, as well as many poor throughout the country. They were fed up with economic hardship and virtual disappearance of political freedom. That exodus continues today. Castro is no hero to the millions of loyal Cuban people who had to flee their homeland. FACT: In the 1970s the U.S. and Cuba decided to try to get along. At a secret meeting in the Hotel Pierre, near LaGuardia Airport in New York, Cuban and American officials tried to work out a rapprochement. In 1975 Secretary of State Henry Kissinger announced the U.S. was ready to "begin a new relationship." The two countries were on the brink of an agreement. Then Fidel Castro made one of the worse decisions in his life. Just as the normalization of relations between Cuba and the U.S. seemed imminent, Castro decided to rekindle his international ambitions. He faced a choice, intervention with Cuban troops into Angola's civil war, or normalize relations with the United States. Unfortunately he made the wrong choice. With Cuban troops fighting in Angola, President Gerald Ford said Castro's intrusion into Angola precludes any improvement of relations with Cuba. Castro is no hero to the Cubans who wanted to renew U.S. relations. FACT: Like an ancient potentate, Castro has passed his power on to his younger brother Raul Castro. Raul was then elected president in a sham election as the only candidate on the ballot. According to CNN, Time and the Wall Street Journal , Raul has a "reputation for ruthlessness." If you think Cuba is going to have a meaningful change with Raul, don't bet on it. Raul has said socialism and communism will remain. Recently it is reported that Cuba was discussing a plan to bring the Russian military back into Cuba. Raul just allowed the Cuban people to own a cell phone. A start, but funny, as most Cubans really can't afford them. SUMMARY: So, Castro is no hero. The real Fidel Castro lied when he promised democracy, he confiscated businesses large and small, he executed or jailed many of his fellow revolutionaries, he silenced a free press, he rebuked the U.S. when he had a chance at rapprochement, he caused millions of loyal Cubans to leave their homeland and in a secret deal with the Soviet Union, he had nuclear missiles placed in Cuba aimed at the U.S. Then he actually suggested to Khrushchev he wanted to fire them in a preemptive strike. That's right, nuke America. And so as he leaves the world stage and as the U.S. plans for better relations, let's remember what Castro actually did to his country. The more than two million that fled Cuba, they remember. Yes, I know Cuba has a lot of doctors, but the misery he brought to the Cuban people for the last 49 years is the real legacy of Fidel Castro. More on Cuba | |
| Job Losses Push Safer Mortgages To Foreclosure | Top |
| As job losses rise, growing numbers of American homeowners with once solid credit are falling behind on their mortgages, amplifying a wave of foreclosures. | |
| Thrice-Married Weekly Standard Writer Slammed For Making 'The Worst Case Yet Against Gay Marriage' | Top |
| There is something nice--refreshing even--about a single article that incorporates everything you despise in a certain worldview. What's more, rather than looking for polite or euphemistic words, it is lovely to be able to say that the article is, simply, dreadful. | |
| Cheryl Saban: Lessons Learned | Top |
| I graduated from high school in 1969. During those years, the draft was in full play. "The War" in Viet Nam, though it wasn't really supposed to be called a war, was a constant subject of conversation and heated debates. We were all touched by it in some way. My brother, who is two years older than I am, waited nervously for his number to be drawn. All of my young male friends, relatives, and neighbors who were of eligible age, were either already in Viet Nam, or enlisting, worrying about their number coming up, or trying to find a way out of fighting a war many of my age group didn't believe in. I remember when Viet Nam's deadly net was cast around my relatively small universe. One of my neighbors - a kid we all went to school with, Louie, was killed there. Another very close friend, Frank, joined up, flew helicopters, and went back to Viet Nam on multiple extremely dangerous missions. He survived. One of my second cousins fought in Viet Nam, and became addicted to drugs there. When I think about the horrors of war, it's easy for me to imagine why taking drugs to shift that reality would be appealing. But the drugs didn't erase his memories, and my cousin Eric had been around so much death, that he wanted to kill himself. When he was shipped back home to the US, I went to visit him in the Naval Hospital in San Diego. He was a handsome, gentle guy, with blue eyes that still had a sparkle in them. I guess I had a schoolgirl crush on him, but since he was a cousin, our friendship remained totally platonic. But as it turned out, he needed more friends. Eric was eventually released from the hospital, and though he tried to get back into the swing of everyday life, his addiction and the reason for it was never extinguished. A few years after coming home from Viet Nam, Eric succeeded in taking his own life - by overdosing on drugs. What a waste. I blame the war - it never left him. But I also think Eric was set adrift, and didn't receive enough societal support to overcome the demons unleashed in him. What could have been done differently? In my first year of college, I was among the peaceful, hippie protestors that engaged in sit-ins and street-concerts to try to get our government to change course - to stop. Now that I look back on it, I can imagine that this display of protest was very difficult for the veterans of Viet Nam to take. Could we have done a better job of communicating our admiration for those who fought? Yes, I believe we could have. Though it was the war we were protesting against, not the warriors, sadly, many civilians lost sight of that fact when our warriors returned home. The returning soldiers tried to resume a 'regular life,' but they were wounded psychically and physically, with injuries and memories most of us couldn't begin to fathom. Plenty of veterans felt shame and blame, rather than the support and gratitude they should have been feeling. I hope we never repeat this mistake. Our service men and women and our veterans deserve better than that. This Memorial Day, I am remembering all the Erics, Franks and Louie's - the warriors of all the wars. Some of them couldn't handle the stress, and either took it out on others, or themselves. Some died in battle. And others survived, and signed on for tour after tour - bearing the difficulty and dread of war so that the rest of us can go on about our usual routines. This weekend, I'll be thinking that while we have the right to protest against war, the right to state our opinions and beliefs, and the right to work hard to use peaceful methods to bring about the changes we seek, we wouldn't have many of those rights without our warriors. We owe our way of life to the men and women who have stepped up, followed the orders of the Commander in Chief, and too many times, given the ultimate sacrifice. I will bow my head and offer my respect, admiration, and gratitude to our service men and women, past, present, and future. And as a peacenik, I will also be praying that one day, we'll find another way to resolve our differences. More on Vietnam | |
| Michael Giltz: Cannes 2009: Chat With Award-Winning Director Xavier Dolan (Video) | Top |
| One of the big discoveries of the festival was Xavier Dolan, the 20 year old writer, director and star of I Killed My Mother. The film won three major awards at the Directors Fortnight and is already guaranteed to be playing at the Toronto Film Festival and -- if the rumours are true -- will probably be invited to the New York Film Festival as well before opening commercially. I've got a full length profile of Dolan that should run on The Advocate website in the next few days. Come back here to find a direct link when it goes up or just keep checking out The Advocate's website. Until then, here's a clip for cineastes with the Montreal-based Dolan talking about the visual style he used in his very funny but brutal debut. We were chatting at the private beach of the Majestic Hotel in Cannes, so the sound in the background is the crashing surf. Ce qui charme! More on CANNES | |
| Michael Giltz: Cannes 2009 Wrapup: Quick Movie Rundown and Sights & Sounds Of The Fest | Top |
| Here's my Cannes 2009 scrapbook: THE FILMS I REVIEWED, IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE: Un Prophete **** (out of four) Up *** 1/2 Police, Adjective *** 1/2 The Time That Remains *** 1/2 Inglourius Basterds *** 1/2 I Killed My Mother *** Samson & Delilah *** Fish Tank *** Eyes Wide Open/Einaym Pkuhot *** Looking For Eric *** Daniel Y Ana *** My Neighbor, My Killer ** 1/2 Bright Star ** 1/2 Mother ** 1/2 Vengeance ** 1/2 Visages ** Sister Smile/Soeur Sourie ** 1/2 A Town Called Panic ** The King Of Escapes ** Broken Embraces ** Taking Woodstock ** In The Beginning ** Spring Fever ** The Army Of Crime ** Jaffa ** I Love You, Philip Morris ** The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus ** Precious ** Thirst ** Enter The Void * 1/2 Kinatay * 1/2 Irene * 1/2 Vincere * 1/2 Les Herbes Folles * 1/2 The White Ribbon * 1/2 Montparnasse * 1/2 Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky * 1/2 The Father Of My Children * Anti-Christ * The Silent Army * To Die Like A Man * Map Of The Sounds Of Tokyo -- no stars MOVIES I REGRET MISSING Dogtooth, Farewell Gary, Agora, Drag Me To Hell, Petition, No One Knows About Persian Cats, Tales From The Golden Age, The Wind Journeys, the restored Senso, Tetro, Humpday, Eastern Plays, Les Beaux Gosses, Polytechnique, La Pivellina, The Family Wolberg, Ajami BEST QUOTE PROMOTING YOUR OWN FILM For The French Kissers aka Les Beaux Gosses , director Riad Sattouf declares loudly in an ad that ran in the trades: "I love masturbation! What a great subject. Bring it on, I can talk about it for hours." FUNNIEST MOMENT ON THE BEACH Three young women gasp with delight and literally stop in their tracks when they spot a giant billboard promoting Peter Jackson's upcoming movie The Lovely Bones. First girl, excitedly: " The Lovely Bones! Oh my God!" Second girl, informatively: "That was a book." Third girl, dimly: "I read part of it but I never finished. They turned it into a movie?" BEST POSTERS FOR UPCOMING MOVIES ROUNDUP #1 Hitler Goes Kaput! Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Undead High Kick Girl! is from the producers of Shaolin Girl (I spot a trend) and features a Buffy-like young Asian woman in a school girl skirt delivering a powerful kick sky high. Tagline: "She is more than just a cute high school girl. She is a master of Karate!" MOST HUMANIZING MOMENT Lars Von Trier spent half his press conference responding to indignant questions about his new film Anti-Christ. (Saying you were outraged by a Lars Von Trier film is like saying you went to a John Waters film and found it in poor taste. What the hell did you expect?) He (sort of) joked that he was the best film director in the world. It was said wryly, but he later made clear that this is the sort of self-confidence and ego you need in order to make a movie and he was sure that other directors felt the same way. When Willem Dafoe later referred to Von Trier as "a great director," Von Trier interrupted him and said, "the greatest" to much laughter. Amid all the hullabaloo, people often forgot that Von Trier discussed having a nervous breakdown and believing for a while that he'd never make a movie again. And almost no one mentioned that during the entire press conference, you could see his hands trembling. He may be a provocateur, but he's also human. THE FRENCH APPROACH TO BUSINESS I love grabbing a freshly baked croissant on my way to the first screening of the day, which usually takes place at the ungodly hour of 8:30 am. For various reasons, that wasn't happening this year so I went looking for a croissant AFTER the first or second screening of the day, anywhere from 11 am to 1 p.m. One bakery -- and there's a boulangerie every few blocks -- was especially appealing. It had a cute sign, a warm wood interior and a terrific quiche I purchased one afternoon. Every time I walked towards the place -- literally, every single time -- the only person on staff would be sitting at a chair and table outside, smoking and chatting and drinking with friends. I would wander up, walk in and they would reluctantly get out of their seats and follow me inside. And every time I went there -- yes, every single time -- they would be completely out of croissants, be it 1 p.m. or 11:30 am and almost always out of virtually everything else. Now, an American bakery that sold out of croissants by 11 am and had customers coming in to buy more (I wasn't the only one) would immediately say, "Ha! I need to make more croissants. I'll make more money!" But the French say, "Voila! My work is done and I can spend more time sitting and chatting with friends." I was frustrated about not getting that croissant but couldn't help appreciating their approach to life. On the other hand, my last two favorite bakeries in Cannes have since gone out of business. CRAZIEST PRESS CONFERENCE MOMENT At the press conference for Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, a Brazilian journalist gave a soccer jersey of the great player Ronaldo to Emile Hirsch for no apparent reason. He didn't ask Hirsch a question, Hirsch doesn't play soccer in the movie and it wasn't clear if the journalist was doing this himself or for Ronaldo. Then he talked about Ang Lee's many movies with homosexual themes and asked, "Would you ever realize another kind of Hulk with Brokeback elements, something like this guy?" and then held up a Hulk action figure he had painted all pink. Once everyone stopped laughing, Lee actually gave an interesting answer. "Inside everybody is very complicated," said Lee. "We're all kinds of Hulks with many different elements. I'm fascinated by some great stories and they happen to revolve around homosexuality. It just fascinates me. I don't go inside and examine what exactly is -- I just portray them. I hope people will respond in a very complex way to it. This movie [ Taking Woodstock ] will have that too [the lead character is gay]. But it's not an essential core problem or issue as in Brokeback Mountain. " Then he laughs and adds, "If you examine Hulk , I'm sure there's some homo problem there too." BEST POSTERS FOR UPCOMING MOVIES ROUNDUP #2 Gladiators Versus Werewolves Just Peck, with the tagline: "In suburbia, no one can hear you scream" Gangster Exchange, which pictures two tough guys walking down an alley with one of them splattered in blood and carrying...a toilet. The tagline: "Guns, thugs, and toilets made of drugs." That explains that. Lesbian Vampire Killers, which asks, reasonably enough, "What more could you possibly want?" THE HOLLYWOOD/BOLLYWOOD CROSSOVER CONTINUES The Italian Job is getting remade for the Indian market. Which means there has been a British version, the original Italian Job; an American remake starring Mark Wahlberg and now a Hindi version. But, as of yet, still no Italian version of The Italian Job. Another Hindi film announced at Cannes is Kambakkht Ishq, a big budget Bollywood musical featuring big US stars in the story of an Indian stuntman who takes Hollywood by storm but still can't leap, dive or dodge his way into a woman's heart. Among the US actors set to appear are Denise Richards, Brandon Routh (I guess that next Superman movie has been delayed) and...wait for it, Sylvester Stallone. If they get him to sing and dance, I'm in. THE BOOKS I READ TO PREPARE FOR CANNES OR WHILE STANDING IN LINE FOR A MOVIE Mussolini by Denis Mack Smith *** (out of four) Taking Woodstock by Eliot Tiber ** (but fun) Keats by Andrew Motion *** 1/2 The Complete Poems Of John Keats *** Hypatia Of Alexandria by Maria Dzielska *** Seven Rivers West by Edward Hoagland *** My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell **** (Ok, to be honest I haven't quite finished yet, but I'm loving it) MOST MISUNDERSTOOD FILM Lars Von Trier's Anti-Christ is not only NOT misogynist, it's very clearly pro-woman and against the patriarchal societies that have tortured and killed women throughout history. This is made explicitly clear throughout the film and -- if you still didn't get it -- is pounded into your head with the dramatic images at the finale. That final scene is inexplicable if you believe the film is somehow violating women. Mind you, that doesn't mean the film is actually good. It's not. But it is a film, with a boldly theatrical approach to telling its dark fairy tale and revealing its very Grimm heart. I've loved earlier work of his like Dogville and Breaking The Waves and would gladly see this movie ten times over rather than sit through Gasper Noe's vapid Enter The Void even twice. MOST DRAMATIC MOMENT OFF SCREEN Walking along the Rue d'Antibes (a main drag always filled with locals, tourists and fest-goers), I saw two Japanese people standing about ten feet apart, a young man and a young woman who were clearly together but arguing. The young woman was facing in one direction but looking backwards at the man. He was turning in the other direction and looking back at her. She sort of made a move to go and then stared back at him again, as if to say, "Really? You're going to go in that direction? You're not coming with me?" He stared at her blankly, not giving away his intentions in the least. She feinted again and then finally, angrily started walking away. He sighed, put on his earplugs and then started walking in the opposite direction. I was going his way and two blocks later he suddenly stopped, turned around completely and stared back the way he came. Hadn't she turned around to follow him? I couldn't resist stopping to see. Nope, she hadn't. He hesitated, sighed and then -- defeated -- started to walk back after her. If I'd had a movie camera with me, it would have made a perfect short film. MOST UNEXPECTED SOURCE OF SUSPENSE The dictionary that takes center stage in the gripping 15+ minute scene that ends the brilliant Police, Adjective. THE MOVIE MOMENT I CAN'T SHAKE It happened during the very first screening, which was the world premiere of the latest Pixar film Up. In it, an old man is living on his own after his beloved wife died. They were each other's world and had no children, so he has literally no one, just a small home slowly being surrounded by skyscrapers and some personal belongings, like the mailbox in their front yard they decorated together. When a construction worker accidentally knocks the mailbox over, the old man -- impotent with age, hard of hearing, and grumpy by nature -- loses it. The worker apologizes and tries to fix it, but the old man is furious that the guy is even touching something so important to him. They get in an unintentional tug of war and the old man momentarily lashes out, hitting the worker with his walking cane and drawing blood. People rush to help the worker and the old man is frightened and scared; he knows he's messed up and something as simple as a small accident like this can leave him powerless and in the hands of the authorities who will undoubtedly decide he needs to be placed in a nursing home. It's a quiet, powerful scene that takes place early in the film and it captures with heartbreaking precision the vulnerability and fear that can overtake you when you're old. After years of success and control, you become like a little child again and strangers insist on telling you what to do. Few movies have ever captured the minefield that is old age as adroitly as Up , which is one more reason why the first film of the fest will surely be one of the best films of the year. MY SHORT FILM, A SURE-FIRE WINNER AT NEXT YEAR'S CANNES Here's the short film I shot at Cannes that's certain to be a winner at next year's festival. I wrote, directed, edited and star in it, a la Orson Welles. It's a little more action-packed than most movies that play here, but it's certainly in the same vein as the other films at Cannes. Since I can't sneak you into screenings of the films in Competition, this is as close as you can get at the moment. Enjoy, thanks for reading and au revoir! More on CANNES | |
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