Month: February 2003 (Page 4 of 6)

“We’ve got to recognize that when we march into Iraq, we’re setting up the card tables in front of every university in the Arab world, the Islamic world, to recruit for al-Qaida. Why don’t we just go set up the card tables ourselves, right now? Sign them up to commit suicide. And you never hear anybody talking about this. It would be helpful if there were someone telling the president, well, yes, there is this danger from Iraq, but there’s almost a certitude of inflaming the world against us if we intervene.

“And on the war, I think my numbers would be a lot higher if I were out there beating the drum for this war. In fact, I don’t think it, I know it. But I can’t be for the war. I can’t find a reason to be for this war. I’ve looked, and I can’t, so I?m not. The people who are backing this war are more interested in their own ideology than what’s good for the country. It’s not about America. Which is scary.”

Chris Matthews making sense? I must be hallucinating.

I think this pretty much sums things up

Am I allowed to be amused that ultra-conservative shock jock nutjob (and latest MSNBC celebrity in the making) Michael Savage’s real name is “Michael Weiner”?

But then, as one reviewer said of his book, now No. 7 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list, “Weiner Nation” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Sometimes I worry that this site is becoming too political, and/or too deadly serious. Not that those things aren’t important, but I wonder if people come here for that sort of thing. I’ve been noticing how I swing wildly from posting about Joe Millionaire to posting about Guernica. I don’t know if many people hold those interests in common.

But I almost can’t stop myself from writing about the truly bizarre state of the country. With Bill O’Reilly and Patriot II and Guernica and orange alerts and plastic sheeting and Tom Ridge saying “specific information” doesn’t include time, place or manner, I sometimes don’t recognize the world around me any more. And one way I try to deal with it is writing about it. Bear with me.

Quote of the Day

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then give up. No use being a damn fool about it.”

-Groucho Marx

Happy Times

Saw this low-key, charming, happy/sad Chinese film last night after a trip to the video store didn’t yield anything else. I’m glad I did. The details of the plot are best left for you to discover, but it’s definitely what I’ve taken to calling a “Hollywood antidote” movie, where its lack of attention to American movie clichés is refreshing, like a sorbet between courses.

One thing that struck me, despite having to spend a lot of energy following the subtitles, was the brightly colorful and evocative photography. In that way it reminded me of Mike Clarke’s photos on Hunkabutta, so full of color and life.

Recommended.

“Art is a lie that tells the truth.” -Pablo Picasso

I’m a little late in writing about how they covered up the reproduction of Picasso’s “Guernica” at the U.N. just days before Colin Powell arrived with his vial of fake anthrax to make the U.S. war case against Iraq. As they put it in Art Daily:

A diplomat stated that it would not be an appropriate background if the ambassador of the United States at the U.N. John Negroponte, or Powell, talk about war surrounded with women, children and animals shouting with horror and showing the suffering of the bombings.

The irony is funny at first. But is anyone else seriously scared by what this represents?

Shanghai Knights

Amiable goof of a comedy with relaxed, good-hearted performances by Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. Especially Wilson, who has an almost magical way with the throwaway ad-lib. Don’t expect it to make logical sense, just go with the flow, and you’ll probably enjoy yourself quite a bit. Recommended.

I’ve been struggling to figure out what to write about the Michael Jackson interview rebroadcast on 20/20 Thursday night. On the surface it reminds me of the Anne Heche interview: wacky celebrity shows us all how truly wacky they really are.

But unlike Anne, who we could chuckle and shake our heads at and move on, this is sad, tragic, disturbing, and not at all funny. Jackson is the physical embodiment of our obsessions with race, celebrity, wealth, and outward appearance. And what’s truly tragic is how he is passing the scars of his terrible childhood on to his own children, all the while thinking he is doing the opposite. Those kids don’t deserve to pay for their father’s illness and pain.

I’ve been feeling defeated and demoralized since the State of the Union address, wondering if there was anything I or anyone else could do to affect the course of this impending war. I wrote Arthur, who has been my anti-war idol, asking for his advice. What he said was so fantastic, I wanted to share it here.

Adam,

Arthur