Camera Obscura: Go See "Drive"; Stephen King Talks on TCM

More than two weeks since I wrote a movie post?

Let me fix that right now:

It's nearly impossible to find a unique movie at your local multi-plex, which depends on a constant stream of bland predictability, NameBrand stars, special effects and various combinations of such aspects. But I found one last week which slides around all those elements and stands as one of the best mainstream releases this year (though I am sure many who see it will just leave it feeling uncomfortable for reasons un-expressable).

The movie is "Drive", from Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn, and it defies movie conventions while also following them, a rare and brilliant play on the crime thriller (and it's getting top-notch reviews nationwide). Ryan Gosling plays an LA stuntman who also is a getaway driver for hire - a skilled wheelman who barely speaks out loud, yet that enormous restraint creates an enormous tension which, makes the movie a most intense experience. The movie is based on the novel by James Sallis.

His Man With No Name character accidentally engages a very pretty neighbor (played by the beautiful Carey Mulligan) and her young son, and this trio eases into a nearly happy ride, though we know it cannot travel far. Her husband arrives, newly released from jail, but thugs from his criminal past immediately threaten the family and as with many an iconic movie hero from the past, the Driver decides to take action to protect them - it's his only way to express his devotion and concern, an expression soaked in violence.


There is a moment late in the movie when the Driver decides to reveal his desire and he kisses her, a moment of immense tenderness and it is immediately followed by a graphic attack on a villain aiming to hurt her. In his mind, both are expressions of how much he cares for her, and is both touching and terrifying.

The movie has a terrific opening scene, as this movie steers into a sort of homage to movies from the 1980s, complete with a throbbing electronic score. Refn has a solid grasp of American movies, though he never lets go of his European roots. And his visual style here is, as with his other films, is gorgeous and powerful, no wonder he gets comparisons to legendary visual filmmakers like Tarkovsky, Kubrick, Hitchcock and Greenaway. His work on "Drive" earned the Best Director award at the Cannes festival this Spring.

The casting is first rate too - Gosling hides his roaring emotions just at the edges, Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad" plays his mentor and friend, a hitch-legged loser who can almost see success, Albert Brooks gets a turn as a vicious mob boss and does it flawlessly, and as I mentioned there's Carey Mulligan. By chance I've seen three of her earlier films this year, and she is a real star in the making. Her big moment will likely be in "The Great Gatsby' as Daisy, out next year - but DO NOT miss her work in "An Education" or "Never Let Me Go".

There's also a wonderful bit where the Driver dons a mask of a "leading man" he has stolen from a movie set - but the mask doesn't really fit and it stands as an excellent metaphor for the film itself.


Refn has been tapped as the director for a "Logan's Run" remake, but his earlier works are must-see movies. I watched his 2009 movie "Valhalla Rising" last week too, and was again mesmerized by his work. The movie is set amid a grim and muddy landscape of Vikings who have begun to see the emerging Christianity movement as a promise of a better life. The main character here too has no name, but is simply called One-Eye (and is played by the very talented Mads Mikkelsen, best known to Americans as Le Chiffre in "Casino Royale"). He plays a slave used for fighting and gambling, is beyond brutal and his captors claim he is from Hell itself. What place does he have in a journey to the Holy Land? The movie is hypnotic and surreal and carefully created.

Refn again depends on setting, camera work, and acting to build a powerful metaphysical story in a brutal world. His other films, "Bronson" and "The Pusher" likewise challenge audiences with stunning storytelling.

Best advice: see "Drive" on the big screen, it's a great experience. (Note: Check out my friend Lee Gardner's interview with Refn here.)

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October approaches and so does an army of scary movies, so Turner Classic Movies turns to America's Master of Fear, Stephen King, for a one-on-one interview with King about the movies he loves and those based on his works.

"In A Night at the Movies: The Horrors of Stephen King, which premieres on TCM Monday, Oct. 3, at 8 p.m. (ET), Stephen King discusses how he discovered terror at the movie theater. He takes viewers on a journey through many aspects of the horror genre, including vampires, zombies, demons and ghosts. He also examines the fundamental reasons behind moviegoers' incessant craving for being frightened. Along the way, he discusses the movies that have had a real impact on his writing, including Freaks (1932), Cat People (1942), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Changeling (1980).

Good job, TCM!

100% Confidence For One Government Policy: Execution

"So, sadly, I don't think the execution of Troy Davis will have much effect on the national "conversation" about the morality of capital punishment or the glaring flaws in America's system of justice. Because while it's very reasonable to argue that "we" should only kill someone if we're really, really, really sure they did it, the modern American conservative is really, really, really sure about everything." (via Salon)


Despite doubts raised prior to the execution last night of Troy Davis in Georgia, despite the enormous evidence of wrongful convictions, it just is not 'popular' to oppose the death penalty in the U.S.

People say to me - "Some crimes and criminals are so terrible, what else can we do but rid the world of such awful people?"

Last night in Texas, Lawrence Brewer was executed for a grisly crime, dragging a man to death by chaining him to his pickup until the body fell apart. It was a horrifying crime. The victim, James Byrd Jr.'s son, Ross Byrd, though, says execution is not justice:

"You can't fight murder with murder," Ross Byrd, 32, told Reuters late Tuesday, the night before Wednesday's scheduled execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer for one of the most notorious hate crimes in modern times.

"Life in prison would have been fine. I know he can't hurt my daddy anymore. I wish the state would take in mind that this isn't what we want."

"Byrd says the execution of Brewer is simply another expression of the hate shown toward his father on that dark night in 1998. Everybody, he said, including the government, should choose not to continue that cycle.

"Everybody's in that position," he said. "And I hope they will stand back and look at it before they go down that road of hate. Like Ghandi said, an eye for an eye, and the whole world will go blind."

SEE ALSO: Former prison wardens appeal for an end to the death penalty.

Justice Absent In Georgia?

It's grisly nightmare scenario - being held in prison for a crime you did not commit. If that cell is on Death Row, the nightmare is likely beyond description.

Unless there is a momentous change in Georgia, inmate Troy Davis will be executed today, despite his efforts which show the prosecutor's case against him has crumbled. Given that the victim of the murder Davis is accused of is a police officer, the legal system could be seeking an execution regardless of any doubts about the conviction.

There is no physical evidence in the case linking Davis to the crime, most of the prosecution hinged on eyewitness testimony - but seven of the nine eyewitnesses have recanted their testimony. One witness allegedly confessed that he was the killer.

Efforts to bring that accuser now turned confessor into court failed as Davis' defense attorneys were not given the authority to force a subpoena on him.

Tragically, our society has steadily become one in which we mistakenly think that the rules of our justice system are created to punish the guilty and not protect the innocent. Too often the public thinks the defense must prove innocence, which is not the reality - it is the prosecution which must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And once such proof has turned upside down or contradictory then - the very least which should follow is that an execution be halted.

Some years back, Davis was withing 2 hours of execution and received a stay. Living on that kind of edge is more than I can imagine. For the families of the murder victim, I doubt Time has healed or will heal their loss. I cannot imagine their suffering either. Like most everyone else in the world, we're seeing the events in Georgia and in those lives from enormously safe vantage points.

A few days ago, a former Republican prosecutor in California, Don Heller, who wrote the legislation re-instating the death penalty, issued an editorial calling for an end to the death penalty. Though somewhat crudely citing costs as a motivator, he also adds that the loss of life for one innocent person amid a broken system demands that changes be made.

But it appears no appeal, no petition, no calls for clemency will help Troy Davis. The real killer may never be punished. For Davis and for murder victim Mark MacPhail, and for the rest of America, the decisions in Georgia are expanding a tragedy.

TN Home to America's 'Most Corrupt Congressman'

This is one of those days when I'm realizing the more I know the less I understand. Rather unpleasant feeling really. Much of this weirdness however, is not my fault - it is the fault of someone else (blamethrower alert!) who does not seem to know diddley-squat about the world they live in.

Example: a survey of some 1400 people shows that even though they receive government aid and/or tax breaks, they don't know they do, or at least, they don't understand what they have but yet a majority of them are utterly against the kinds of aid they receive. Whaaaa?

"The results reveal a striking gap between perception and reality. Almost half of people who received such submerged state benefits as home mortgage interest deductions, student loans or the earned income tax credit reported that they had not used a government social program.

People are quite aware of the visible government programs -- Social Security, Medicare, food stamps and the G.I. Bill -- but they are "least aware" of such programs as tax-free retirement accounts, the home mortgage interest deduction and government subsidized employer-based health insurance that emanate from the tax system or the public subsidy of private organizations, Mettler said."

Now the reality is this is one sampling of some 1400 people, so how accurate a portrait of folks does it present? Depends on how much veracity you give to a survey.

Another item -

A report aimed at naming who, in Congress, is the worst/most corrupt politician names recently elected Stephen Fincher of Tennessee as the worst. And this is just based on how he campaigned for office, not for what he has been doing since he got elected.

I'm pretty sure one would have to have a family member or a great friend in the finance business to suck up the money Fincher has ... oops, the report says he does have that kind of back-up for his plays:

"As a candidate, Rep. Fincher filed a financial disclosure form reporting he expected to earn roughly $60,000 from his farm in 2009. On a subsequent form filed just seven months later, in May of 2010, he reported earning more than twice that amount. Oddly, on both forms he claimed the farm was his only asset, and that he did not have a bank account of any kind. Once elected, he also disclosed nine loans he’d failed to report earlier.

In July of 2010, his campaign reported it had received a $250,000 loan from the candidate. A lie, as it turned out. In fact, the loan was made by Gates Banking and Trust Company, where Rep. Fincher’s father serves on the board of directors. The bank refused to reveal the loan’s terms or collateral.

Even the Federal Election Commission (FEC) took notice of Rep. Fincher’s shady finances. While finding Rep. Fincher’s campaign committee had probably violated federal campaign finance laws, in typical toothless FEC fashion, however, the commissioners split 3-3 on whether or not to access a civil penalty. A majority is required to take any action."

And naturally, the group that created the report cited above is cited themselves for being horribly biased and one-sided, despite the fact they issued this statement about their newest report, which names 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats on their list: "Neither political party has a monopoly on shady conduct. In fact, it’s the only thing that seems bipartisan these days.”

And one more item -

American ranks 25th for Internet service.

What does it mean? It means rules and regulations which most of Americans know nothing about - giant communication corporations and little-known Congressional legislation are in charge of your Internet. I suppose we should just be grateful we have any Internet service at all. At least, I can use mine to read and learn about things which end up depressing me.

So there's that.

Dog Blogging

I forgot to mention earlier today that I was most fortunate last week and was able to spend a lot of time with one of my favorite people ... I mean, favorite dog. Sophie and I had a fine time, thank you. She is this blog's official dog, you know.

Rating Obama: Don't Get Fooled

Only a Democrat would face re-election doubts after successfully tracking down and killing Osama bin Laden.

President Obama, it seems, was viewed by some as possessing a magic wand to correct all the massive mistakes from the previous 10 years of Republican-led governing. It is good to see the public at large knows where the trouble lies - in Congress, which gets a 12% approval rating. Still, some rail against Obama, who rates at least 43% approval. Guess which story gets more attention?

Some say he's done little to nothing to change Washington or its policies. Here's a brief look at some accomplishments.

* American job creation is better now than when Bush left office.

* American economic growth is better now than when Bush left office.

* Al Qaeda is dramatically weaker now than when Bush left office.

* The American automotive industry is vastly stronger now than when Bush left office.

* The struggle for equality of the LGBT community is vastly better now than when Bush left office.

* The U.S. health care system is better and more accessible than when Bush left office.

* The federal budget deficit is better now than when Bush left office.

* The major Wall Street indexes and corporate profits are better now than when Bush left office.

* International respect for the United States is better now than when Bush left office.

In truth, I want more things changed - close that Guantanamo prison, end the wars, enhance the much-needed restructuring overseas and at home for roads and schools and business. So much needs repairing in the US - from roads to the economy to basic civil liberties - that indeed just negativity is swaying voters.

Negativity gorges itself in hard times.

Mostly, it seems closed minds, petty revenge tactics and election dreams from Republicans and Tea Party folk, all continue to hold America in a static and losing position.

And as always, Americans most often forget that the decisions made at the state and local level are the ones which determine much of the way we run our education and economic systems. Blaming all ills on one single elected official is juvenile, whether the blame is aimed at a Democrat or Republican. Our job forever remains holding the highest standards of performance and accountability for all our elected officials.

Lately, state leaders in Tennessee and across the country have followed to designs of a single lobbying group, which has the seemingly innocent name of ALEC, to change how Americans vote and where voting districts are. Those changes rise far more from the hopes of getting elected and not serving the citizens:

More on the changes on how you vote here.

Writing For Today's Internet

I took a few days off last week from posting - always risky in the never-ending stream of instant online life. One can easily lose the battle for eyes on a web site in a nanosecond.

I often get advice from folks about how to write and present information online:

"Write shorter posts!"

"Everyone reads Twitter now - why are you writing such long stories?"

"Just use Facebook!"

"Just write about one thing - like bacon or cats."

"Go mobile - no one uses a PC anymore."

Perhaps brevity is the soul of wit and the heart of the Internet. I watched the movie "Drive" this weekend by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, and marveled at the uber-cool leading man's character to speak mono-syllabically, as I have never really been able to do that. I narratize even the simplest communications when speaking to folks, partly because I like to talk (probably too much), partly because I like providing details and contexts to evoke a story.

(Oh yes I loved "Drive" - and am a large fan of Refn's movies.)

Here's the deal - listening and reading should probably take up more time than talking, and for me, writing takes time too. Brevity does plenty well on it's own and does not need my help. And yes, I have taken to Twitter and Facebook, and most likely I'll use them to just include a brief link to what I write here. And if all you are reading today is brief wee sentences via those sites, you are missing out on the luxurious world around you.

I noted there was a line in the new movie "Contagion", which says "Blogging is just graffiti with punctuation." Wrong. That's Twitter (or Facebook maybe).

I forever reserve the right to create items both long, short, visual, or whatever I wish to share ideas which are published worldwide instantly. This is not to be taken lightly, and it requires whatever Time I decide to provide (or you to read).

Brevity might provide some longevity - but no one wants longevity to be brief.

Boatlift: American Resilience On 9-11

A short documentary tells a little known story of the rescue of 500,000 people in the aftermath of the attacks in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It was the largest boatlift ever to have happened – greater than the one at Dunkirk during World War II. Yet somehow a story of such large scale became lost in all the rubble. But a new 10-minute documentary called Boatlift by Eddie Rosenstein captures the boat evacuations that happened on 9/11. The film is part of four new short documentaries that were created for the 9/11 Tenth Anniversary Summit in Washington, D.C."

A Fundamental Difference In The Right and The Left of American Politics

It is an ancient political tactic - the claim a candidate will "bring the Nation back" to something it was but is no more.

I've heard it so often from those on the Right in the last few years, but they are so delusional about what our nation is and was that I have no idea (and neither do they) where or when they want to take anyone to, other than a ride to the polls so the candidate can get elected.

So let me offer a view from the Left, and let's dive deep into the Left

end via Amy Goodman's Democracy Now show and her guest Noam Chomsky from this week.

What I like is that the pair of them do not view America or the rest of the world through ludicrous, limited lens of Washington politics and the sputtering media outlets of television and radio.

In a few short sentences, Chomsky nails exactly the status and nature of the political battle in America in 2011:

" ... there’s a more subtle reason why they’re opposed to [Social Security] it, and I think it’s rather similar to the reason for the effort to pretty much dismantle the public education system. Social Security is based on a principle. It’s based on the principle that you care about other people. You care whether the widow across town, a disabled widow, is going to be able to have food to eat. And that’s a notion you have to drive out of people’s heads. The idea of solidarity, sympathy, mutual support, that’s doctrinally dangerous. The preferred doctrines are just care about yourself, don’t care about anyone else. That’s a very good way to trap and control people. And the very idea that we’re in it together, that we care about each other, that we have responsibility for one another, that’s sort of frightening to those who want a society which is dominated by power, authority, wealth, in which people are passive and obedient."

Here's a few more expanded comments from Chomsky on our economic issues-

"The Bush tax cuts were carefully designed so that, at the beginning, everyone got a little, and you had a feeling taxes were being reduced. But they were designed so that, as the 10-year period ended, it was overwhelmingly going to the very rich. Now, the population is strongly opposed to that. You take a look at polls during the lame-duck session, when this was coming up: very strong support for increasing taxes for those with incomes over, say, quarter-million dollars a year. Well, Obama didn’t push that. If he had appealed to the public, they, I think, could have overcome the opposition of the financial institutions, you know, the Republican—the new Republican congressional delegation and so on. But he didn’t even try. And that should be done.

Now, the current proposal goes partially in that direction by indirectly increasing taxes through elimination of deductions. But the tax code simply has to be revised. It’s become highly regressive. In fact, the share of GDP, you know, national income by—of taxes, is probably lower than it’s ever been, far lower than 20 or 30 years ago, particularly for the rich. All of that should be adjusted. There is a stimulus in the program, which is a good idea, but it’s much too small. And the concentration on deficit reduction, when the problem is—the serious problem is massive unemployment, I think that’s a very serious error. You can understand why the banks and insurance companies, and so on, like it, but it’s completely wrong for the—for trying to extricate ourselves from quite a serious economic crisis. The other things are unfortunately—the deficit itself, if you want to take it seriously—I don’t think it’s the major issue, by any means. In fact, I don’t even think it’s a serious issue, at least in the short term. But if you do want to take it seriously, it’s pretty easy to trace it to the roots.

Dean Baker, very good economist, has done—has pointed out, done the calculations which show that if the United States had a healthcare program similar to other industrial countries, which is not a utopian dream, not only would there be no deficit, but there’d be a surplus—that plus the huge military budget. Military budget is probably half the deficit. It’s way out of line with anything needed, certainly for any defensive purpose, but for any justifiable purpose. Ron Paul, who you heard before, was quite right about that. If the military—I mean, the U.S. is spending about as much as the rest of the world combined almost on military spending, technologically very advanced, new destructive techniques developing far beyond what any other country has. This is all—first of all, it shouldn’t be done, on principle, but it also ends up being harmful to us, essentially for the reasons that Paul mentioned. The—and very expensive, of course. That plus the hopelessly dysfunctional healthcare system, those are fundamental problems that have to be addressed."

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On Social Security;

"Social Security is not in any crisis. I mean, the trust fund alone will fully pay benefits for, I think, another 30 years or so. And after that, taxes will give almost the same benefits. To worry about a possible problem 30 years from now, which can incidentally be fixed with little—a little bit of tampering here and there, as was done in 1983—to worry about that just makes absolutely no sense, unless you’re trying to destroy the program. It’s a very successful program. A large number people rely on it. It doesn’t pay munificently, but it at least keeps people alive, not just retired people, people with disabilities and others. Very low administrative costs, extremely efficient, and no burden on the deficit, doesn’t add to the deficit. The effort to try to present the Social Security program as if it’s a major problem, that’s just a hidden way of trying to undermine and destroy it.

Now, there has been a lot of opposition to it since—you know, since the 1930s, on the part of sectors of extreme wealth and privilege, especially financial capital. They don’t like it, for several reasons. One is the rich don’t barely—for them, it’s meaningless. Anyone with—you know, who’s had a fairly decent income, it’s a tiny addition to your retirement but doesn’t mean much. Another is, if the financial institutions and the insurance companies can get their hands on this huge financial resource—for example, if it’s privatized in some way or vouchers—I mean, that’s a huge bonanza. They’ll have trillions of dollars to play with, the banks, the investment firms and so on.

But I think, myself, that there’s a more subtle reason why they’re opposed to it, and I think it’s rather similar to the reason for the effort to pretty much dismantle the public education system. Social Security is based on a principle. It’s based on the principle that you care about other people. You care whether the widow across town, a disabled widow, is going to be able to have food to eat. And that’s a notion you have to drive out of people’s heads. The idea of solidarity, sympathy, mutual support, that’s doctrinally dangerous. The preferred doctrines are just care about yourself, don’t care about anyone else. That’s a very good way to trap and control people. And the very idea that we’re in it together, that we care about each other, that we have responsibility for one another, that’s sort of frightening to those who want a society which is dominated by power, authority, wealth, in which people are passive and obedient. And I suspect—I don’t know how to measure it exactly, but I think that that’s a considerable part of the drive on the part of small, privileged sectors to undermine a very efficient, very effective system on which a large part of the population relies, actually relies more than ever, because wealth, personal wealth, was very much tied up in the housing market. That was people’s personal wealth. Well, OK, that, quite predictably, totally collapsed. People aren’t destitute by the standards of, say, slums in India or southern Africa, but very—suffering severely. And they have nothing else to rely on, but what they—the, really, pittance that they’re getting from Social Security. To take that away would be just disastrous."

The cats expressed the fluorescent protein throughout their bodies

Cats continue to exert control over Science and the Internet.

On The Anniversary of Sept. 11th 2001 and The Rise Of Online Writers

This week I received an invitation from Michael Silence of the Knoxville News Sentinel for some thoughts about the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, about how that event influenced those of us writers who have created and maintained blogs over the years.

I of course had a story - so many Americans and others around the world do. And I tend to write rather long essays, which Mike kindly excerpted and included in today's KNS newspaper along with some online heavyweights from East Tennessee, R. Neal at KnoxViews, Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, and the creator of SayUncle - all very prolific, noted writers and bloggers. Mike's roundup of what we had to say can be read here - But my comment was from much longer response, which had to be cut due to size limitations and all, so I wanted to give readers all the context for my part of this tale, one still being told ten years on.

Here is my full response to his Mike's question (and I have to rib Michael at little here, as he has always been a very supportive reader of my blog and often links to me and quotes things I write for the KNS, but today he wrote that I blog from Green County and I don't, I live in Hamblen County, plus Green needs another "e" at the end of it, and my blog's full name is "Cup of Joe Powell" - Mike has confused me a few times with other Joe's on the internet, but he has to wade through tons of material daily, so I am just happy he points folks to my direction.):

"I was actually the host of a radio talk show in Morristown the morning of the attack - the show, which I called "Cup of Joe Powell" on WMTN-AM, ended at its usual time, at 9 am.

In fact I was eager that day to air an interview I had made with a friend. I had called him on Sept. 10th and recorded a conversation with him via the phone as he sat in the stands at Wrigley Field, watching his beloved Cubs play. It was a great piece and it played just as the first plane crashed into the North Tower, though I could not see the studio's TV from my chair and knew nothing of the attack.

Just as the show ended, a staff worker came in the studio and said with a deathly pale face "Something horrible is happening in Manhattan"

I walked into the room where the TV was on, and we all watched in horror the repeated video footage of that first passenger plane slamming into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Stunned and confused, we saw suddenly another passenger plane curve out of the sky and crash into the South Tower and the giant fire ball that followed. An eerie quiet swallowed all our words.

I remember someone saying "This was no accident".

We stood transfixed, watching the news reports attempting to explain what was happening. A newsman said all air flights were immediately grounded.

Within about 30 minutes or so, a report came across that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon.

As my work was done for the day, I raced home, thinking I would find safety and some comfort there - but there was none, as the television kept rolling that footage and the aftermath. As I listened to an ABC radio station on the way home in my car, I heard that one of the towers had collapsed. The thought chilled me beyond definition.

Later that evening, the terrifying thought struck me - I would have to talk about this horror on my show in the morning. What could I possibly say? It seemed no words would offer solace to a single listener. That Sept 12th morning is still a blur in my memory, and I have never gone back to listen to the tape I made. The one memory I have is that I played the almost mournful instrumental version of "Star-Spangled Banner" by Bela Fleck often during that show.

One of the main reasons I began my blog and continue to blog day after day is my unshakable belief that American voices can and do make real differences in our world - I try and stay away from the endless strident denouncing of our world, preferring instead to present questions, and sometimes some add humor of all kinds.

I don't want my country to be defined by terrorism, which in my mind gives power to those who seek destruction.

In September of 2005, writer Bill Moyers offered an essay which I quoted on my blog on Sept 11, 2005 - it reads in part:

"But it is never only the number of dead by which terrorists measure their work. It is also the number of the living— the survivors— taken hostage to fear. Their mission was to invade our psyche; get inside our heads—deprive us of trust, faith, and peace of mind: keep us from ever again believing in a safe, just, and peaceful world, and from working to bring that world to pass. The writer Terry Tempest Williams has said "the human heart is the first home of democracy." Fill that heart with fear and people will give up the
risks of democracy for the assurances of security; fill that heart with fear and you can shake the house to its foundations.

Yes, we are vulnerable to terrorists, but only a shaken faith in ourselves can do us in."

POSTSCRIPT: It must be noted that the staggering loss of so many lives on that September morning is so large, as was the phenomenal efforts of rescue and survival, and all of the humanity which experienced suffering defies any one memorial or anniversary observances.

But one person I would like to highlight is Minoru Yamasaki, the architect who designed the Twin Towers. His life is uniquely American.

Born in 1912 in Seattle, a second generation Japanese American, his early years were spent in the poverty of a slum, but he pushed himself, and worked his way up from very humble origins to become one of the 20th Century's most acclaimed architects and designers. After high school, we worked at an Alaskan salmon cannery to pay his college tuition at the University of Washington, then later at New York University and earned a position with the firm of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, the firm which designed the Empire State Building.

In 1941, he and his parents and family were almost sent to a Japanese internment camp during World War 2, but his employers worked hard on his behalf to insure Yamasaki remained free. He once spoke in an interview that neither poverty nor suspicion would deter his view of the world, saying that he would "not to let that be the pattern into which my life would fall." Awards for his work grew throughout the 1960s, and certainly it was his design of those towers which marked the American landscape as very few designers have done. He passed away from cancer in 1986, and his creations can be found in America and beyond.

On the day of the opening ceremony for the Twin Towers in 1973, he spoke about just what the project meant to him, and how he hoped the world would view it --

“The World Trade Center is a living symbol of man’s dedication to world peace … a representation of man’s belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and, through cooperation, his ability to find greatness.”

With sheer idealism and optimism in my part, my hope is that despite the efforts of a few murderous madmen, that location in Manhattan will utterly defeat all the negativity and stand instead on the values Minoru Yamasaki held highest.

Rick Perry vs. Galileo

I can't make much headway puzzling out what Texan presidential wanna-be Rick Perry might have meant when talking about science and Galileo during the GOP 'debate' last night. Steve Benen has the skinny:

Q: Gov. Perry, Gov. Huntsman was not specific about names, but the two of you do have a difference of opinion about climate change. Just recently in New Hampshire, you said that weekly and even daily scientists are coming forward to question the idea that human activity is behind climate change. Which scientists have you found most credible on this subject?

PERRY: Well, I do agree that there is — the science is — is not settled on this. The idea that we would put Americans’ economy at — at — at jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet, to me, is just — is nonsense. I mean, it — I mean — and I tell somebody, I said, just because you have a group of scientists that have stood up and said here is the fact, Galileo got outvoted for a spell.

Um ... "outvoted"? Is that shorthand for "was convicted by the Inquisition for heresy, ordered not to talk about his scientific discoveries and was forced to live under house arrest for the rest of his life"?

Oh, and Galileo was right - the Earth orbits the Sun.

What fact does Perry have zero doubts about? Executions:

"Brian Williams noted that Perry signed off on the executions of 234 people*, more than any other governor in modern times. This, remarkably, immediately generated applause from the audience. The question was, “Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?”

"Perry responded, “No, sir. I’ve never struggled with that at all. The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process.” Asked what he made of the audience’s bloodlust positive reaction to the question and answer, the governor said, “I think Americans understand justice.”

"The governor balks when presented with evidence on evolution, abstinence education, and climate change, but embraces without question the notion that everyone he’s killed in Texas was 100% guilty. The scientific process, he apparently believes, is unreliable, while the state criminal justice system is infallible.

Intellectually, morally, and politically, this isn’t just wrong; it’s scary. The fact that Republicans in the audience found this worthy of hearty applause points to a party that’s bankrupt in more ways than one."

Romney: Mark My Words, But Don't Quote Me On What I Said

GOP hopeful Mitt Romney keeps getting into trouble because of one thing - he's using words.

Words, which are made into sentences, which then defy sense. Writers at Reason Magazine captured some of Romney's problem comparing his "policy statements" and what he said at last night's GOP "debate".

A policy plan which -- "Mitt Romney’s campaign released in Nevada earlier this week, works hard not to oversell its own virtues. It criticizes the Obama administration for making post-stimulus jobs and growth predictions that couldn’t possibly be kept.

Romney’s plan, on the other hand, declares early on its intention not to make the same mistake. On page 33, the plan cautions that it “does not promise the immediate creation of some imaginary number of jobs, because government cannot create jobs—at least not productive ones that contribute to our long-term prosperity.” How humble.

At last night’s GOP debate in the Reagan library, however, Romney was considerably more willing to make predictions: “The plan I put forward just two days ago in Nevada,” he said, “will grow our economy at 4 percent per year for four years and add—add—11.5 million jobs.” So government can't create jobs, but Romney's policy plan can?

Does The GOP Crave A Destroyed America?

A recent essay by recently retired Republican staffer Mike Lofgren, after 30 years serving House and Senate Budget Committees, is stirring up a lot of talk on the internet. It's a deeply damning indictment of what he calls a Republican cult - it's just too bad he only found his voice so late in his career. It makes me wonder if he feared what might follow once he shared his views, perhaps his retirement offers some safety.

His views are similar to many I've shared here, shared by many who have been watching dumbfounded as the screeching, distorted, steady drumbeat of talk from the GOP that their one top goal since 2008 (and even far earlier) has been to insure that any elected Democrat be unable to govern.

That drumbeat has not only been echoed by mainstream media outlets, and likely finds it's way into your email inbox from friends and relatives who simply find the fact that Barack Obama is president is an odious horror - the message appears to be that any and all efforts to improve our nation are reprehensible, especially coming from President Obama. Elected Democrats too get called out in Lofgren's essay for failing to challenge the madness of failure as success.

I urge you to read the entire essay, but here are a few excerpts worth noting:

"To those millions of Americans who have finally begun paying attention to politics and watched with exasperation the tragicomedy of the debt ceiling extension, it may have come as a shock that the Republican Party is so full of lunatics. To be sure, the party, like any political party on earth, has always had its share of crackpots, like Robert K. Dornan or William E. Dannemeyer. But the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital center today: Steve King, Michele Bachman (now a leading presidential candidate as well), Paul Broun, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx, Louie Gohmert, Allen West. The Congressional directory now reads like a casebook of lunacy.

It was this cast of characters and the pernicious ideas they represent that impelled me to end a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill. A couple of months ago, I retired; but I could see as early as last November that the Republican Party would use the debt limit vote, an otherwise routine legislative procedure that has been used 87 times since the end of World War II, in order to concoct an entirely artificial fiscal crisis. Then, they would use that fiscal crisis to get what they wanted, by literally holding the US and global economies as hostages.

The debt ceiling extension is not the only example of this sort of political terrorism. Republicans were willing to lay off 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, 70,000 private construction workers and let FAA safety inspectors work without pay, in fact, forcing them to pay for their own work-related travel - how prudent is that? - in order to strong arm some union-busting provisions into the FAA reauthorization.

Everyone knows that in a hostage situation, the reckless and amoral actor has the negotiating upper hand over the cautious and responsible actor because the latter is actually concerned about the life of the hostage, while the former does not care.

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"It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant."

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"Far from being a rarity, virtually every bill, every nominee for Senate confirmation and every routine procedural motion is now subject to a Republican filibuster. Under the circumstances, it is no wonder that Washington is gridlocked: legislating has now become war minus the shooting, something one could have observed 80 years ago in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. As Hannah Arendt observed, a disciplined minority of totalitarians can use the instruments of democratic government to undermine democracy itself."

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"This ill-informed public cynicism, in its turn, further intensifies the long-term decline in public trust in government that has been taking place since the early 1960s - a distrust that has been stoked by Republican rhetoric at every turn ("Government is the problem," declared Ronald Reagan in 1980)."

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"Another smokescreen is the "small business" meme, since standing up for Mom's and Pop's corner store is politically more attractive than to be seen shilling for a megacorporation. Raising taxes on the wealthy will kill small business' ability to hire; that is the GOP dirge every time Bernie Sanders or some Democrat offers an amendment to increase taxes on incomes above $1 million. But the number of small businesses that have a net annual income over a million dollars is de minimis, if not by definition impossible (as they would no longer be small businesses). And as data from the Center for Economic and Policy Research have shown, small businesses account for only 7.2 percent of total US employment, a significantly smaller share of total employment than in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

"The economic justification for Pentagon spending is even more fallacious when one considers that the $700 billion annual DOD budget creates comparatively few jobs. The days of Rosie the Riveter are long gone; most weapons projects now require very little touch labor. Instead, a disproportionate share is siphoned off into high-cost research and development (from which the civilian economy benefits little); exorbitant management expenditures, overhead and out-and-out padding; and, of course, the money that flows back into the coffers of political campaigns. A million dollars appropriated for highway construction would create two to three times as many jobs as a million dollars appropriated for Pentagon weapons procurement, so the jobs argument is ultimately specious."


Tonight, a group of would-be Republican candidates will present themselves as the Best Choice for the next president - but if you bother to read this essay by Lofgren, you'll find their every perspective will be defined in the essay. President Obama is not some end-all, be-all magical politician. He is battling decades of decayed and failed policies - but it's also important to remember than since the day he was elected, his opponents have accepted that a deep American loss of excellence is preferred over any success he might achieve.

I hope, at the very least, this essay prompts readers to consider what political plans shape our future - and what will distort it.

Camera Obscura: Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame; Changing 'Star Wars' Again and Again

While it is only slated to play in a handful of cities in the U.S. and Canada over the next month, the epic adventure "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame'' has already been a film festival hit. Here's the trailer:



J. Hoberman of the Village Voice has the mega-hipster review:

"Magnificent and cheesy, the latest and most proudly absurd of Chinese historical spectaculars, Detective Dee is a cinematic comic book for people who are sick of the mode. Arriving at summer's end, this supernatural period fiction sweeps the season's accumulated superhero detritus straight into the Hollywood dream dump. Tsui Hark's tale of China's late seventh-century Empress Wu (Carina Lau) careens from set piece to set piece, distinguished by its nonstop action, emphatic expository dialogue, bird's-eye angles, decorative snow flurries, and cosmic winds (not to mention fabulous costumes and hairdos). As one character describes the so-called Ghost Market to another, it's "a spooky pandemonium."

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Movie directors critique other movie directors in what is best described as the "30 Harshest Filmmaker-On-Filmmaker Insults In History" - includes tidbits like:

Ingmar Bergman on Orson Welles:
“For me he’s just a hoax. It’s empty. It’s not interesting. It’s dead. Citizen Kane, which I have a copy of — is all the critics’ darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it’s a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie’s got is absolutely unbelievable."

Other insults are more ... "colorful" ... in this list.

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Fanboys (and girls) from around the world are up in arms (again) over changes to the "Star Wars" movies on DVD Blu-Ray - such as adding in a line or two for Darth Vader in "Return of the Jedi" so that he yells "Nooooooo!" to the Emperor as he tries to kill his son Luke with evil lightning bolts. I suppose it is meant to echo the laughable "Noooooo!" uttered by Vader at the end of "Revenge of the Sith" and (oh, boy, does this indignant fan reaction get weird). There's also complaints that the original trilogy - as originally shown in theaters - isn't available on DVD.

One blogger points out some comments from director George Lucas himself, in which Lucas seems to hurl accusations at his future self for all the changes the future Lucas is making to his movies:

"American works of art belong to the American public; they are part of our cultural history. People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians ....

Why are films cut up and butchered?

Attention should be paid to this question of our soul, and not simply to accounting procedures. Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself.

I hope you have the courage to lead America in acknowledging the importance of American art to the human race, and accord the proper protection for the creators of that art--as it is accorded them in much of the rest of the world communities."

Harry "Boehner" Potter and the Half-Brained Congress

"If Americans wanted a responsible Congress, ready and willing to act in the nation’s interest, and able to work constructively in response to critical challenges, they made a tragic mistake in November 2010. "


President Obama gets more utter rejection from Republicans - whose number one priority, as they have repeatedly stated, is to get a Republican elected to the presidency in 2012, no matter the cost to the nation. So it was no surprise that Obama's request to address a joint session of Congress on jobs was refused by Republican Speaker John Boehner.

If they can't agree on when to talk and listen, then there is small hope any advances or changes in economic policy will take place. Ever.

The GOP and Rep. Boehner might need to answer the clue phone which has been ringing and ringing for months now - the disapproval rating for Congress stands at between 80 and 84%.

Since the GOP is focusing on their presidential candidate debates next Wednesday, where they'll keep talking about cutting government spending, none of them will speak to the estimated $60 billion in fraud and waste in government contracts for the war and reconstruction efforts cited this week by an investigative committee.

"Overall, the commission said spending on contracts and grants to support U.S. operations is expected to exceed $206 billion by the end of the 2011 budget year. Based on its investigation, the commission said contracting waste in Afghanistan ranged from 10 percent to 20 percent of the $206 billion total. Fraud during the same period ran between 5 percent and 9 percent of the total, the report said. Fraud includes bribery, kickbacks, bid rigging and defective products, according to the commission.

“It is disgusting to think that nearly a third of the billions and billions we spent on contracting was wasted or used for fraud,” McCaskill said.

Instead, we're hearing that funds for job creation, for disaster relief, for the poor, for the sick, for the elderly, for education, for the nation's roads and transportation, just cannot be spared.

Video: Seismic Waves Across U.S. From Virginia Quake

Waves of seismic activity from the Aug. 23rd quake in Virginia swept across the country, as shown in the video below (via)



As the blogger writes:

" ... an enormous number of sensors in the Midwest and Great Plains. These are areas not known for seismic activity, so what are they doing with so many sensors?
They are part of a travelling array (the 'transportable array') of seismometers, part of the Earthscope initative from the National Science Foundation.

The idea is to have a substantial number of seismometers moving stepwise across the US every few years. Then, having a dense array of seismometers, particularly to have them in places that we don't normally, will show us things that we don't normally see. That spectacular wave propagating across the country is one of those things. Get in to the data and you start seeing that the seismic waves didn't travel the same speed in all directions. And that tells us something about what the earth is made of. No idea what is up, but take a look at the Texas-Louisiana area. Early in the propagation of the waves, they follow along with the rest of the US. But later in the animation, that area shows much larger amplitude variations. Why?"

The Streaker and the Raccoon

It is one of those memorable headlines - "Streaker Arrested With Raccoon In Car" - that just begs for more information. Fortunately, WBIR has the skinny. And other than the delightful headline, there was a mug shot of the suspect which was also memorable for the suspect's expression.

Seems 27-year-old Joshua Parker of West Virginia was attending the Bristol NASCAR race and decided, hey, perfect time to go streakin'!!

Once the fellow was nabbed by authorities, they also found his car, his girlfriend and a raccoon in the car with her. WBIR has the full story and also a video. Oh and also some blurred out pics taken by a witness with a cell phone. Nice touch, news crew.

Had the suspect been streaking with the raccoon - well, that's how real legends are made.

Axing the National Weather Service

FOX News and some Republicans want to eliminate the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center, claiming private companies like AccuWeather provide weather information better than the NWS does. But AccuWeather gets their info (for free) from NWS.

Damned Liberal weather!

Called out for Being Really Stupid by Steve Benen at Washington Monthly.

"Hurricane Irene obviously has the attention of millions of Americans, but some are handling the threat better than others. On the right, some of the rhetorical responses haven’t cast conservatives in the best light.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul wants to eliminate FEMA; congressional Republican leaders are reluctant to approve emergency disaster relief; and Fox News is running pieces like these, calling for the elimination of the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service.

As Hurricane Irene bears down on the East Coast, news stations bombard our televisions with constant updates from the National Hurricane Center.

While Americans ought to prepare for the coming storm, federal dollars need not subsidize their preparations. Although it might sound outrageous, the truth is that the National Hurricane Center and its parent agency, the National Weather Service, are relics from America’s past that have actually outlived their usefulness.

The Fox News piece touts private outlets, including AccuWeather, without alerting readers to a key detail: these private outlets rely on information they receive from the National Weather Service. Indeed, the NWS makes this information available to the private sector for free, since the NWS is a public agency and the data it compiles is public information.

Camera Obscura: How Steve Jobs Changed Movies; Tucker and Dale Finally Released

The impact Steve Jobs and Apple have had on technology, communications, business and more takes massive work to catalog. The Moveable Fest offers just 5 ways Jobs changed movies and the industry as a whole:

"The most obvious and most important moment of Jobs’ movie career was purchasing LucasFilm’s computer division, which counted future Pixar prexies John Lasseter and Ed Catmull among its employees, for $10 million initially and continuing to back it out of pocket through the lean decade that followed to the tune of $50 million. As mentioned in Karen Paik’s “To Infinity and Beyond! The History of Pixar Animation Studios,” had the company been sold to Philips Electronics, the Pixar name would’ve been adorning medical equipment or in the service of automotive design if they had gone to GM, as it almost did in late 1985. But Jobs was content to let Lasseter and Catmull pursue their dream of creating a completely computer-animated film and as a result, we not only got Pixar, but countless innovations that would affect productions well beyond the company’s walls."

Also mentioned:

" ... Apple democratized moviemaking for the masses, just one distillation of Jobs’ belief in how if people have the technology, they will be able to do amazing things with it. Certainly, iMovie and its progenitor Final Cut Pro (first developed by Macromedia) weren’t the first video editing software products out there. But alongside the rise of cheaply available digital video cameras, consumers finally had the ability to shape their films with ease using the same software that could be used by professional filmmakers."

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After winning awards and critical praise at Sundance and SXSW, the horror comedy "Tucker and Dale vs Evil" has finally found distribution into theaters and is available On Demand too. I've mentioned the movie a few times before, so here is the new trailer to remind you that this comedy deserves to be seen.



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Stephen King's masterwork, "The Stand" may get the Harry Potter treatment from Warner Brothers. News that Potter director and writer, David Yates and Steve Kloves are reviewing plans to make the huge novel into two or three films has fans talking.