The New World (2005)****
I had extremely high expectations for this film which were not all met. I felt the picture was kind of rushed and Malick had cut too much out. I found it very narrative-driven which is not what I expect from a Malick film. Perhaps the DVD version will correct that.

But aside from MY expectations, the film is extraordinary. Q'Orianka Kilcher owns the screen every moment she is on it and she is on it quite a lot. Visuals are stunning. This might be Malick's most box office friendly release.

Cenk Uygur: Al Gore for President | The Huffington Post: "I'm trying to figure out why I can't stop thinking about the speech Al Gore gave today in Washington. And I think I know why. We are starving for leaders who are unafraid. Who speak without equivocation. Who say the things that Democrats should have been saying all along but were too mousy to vocalize."

Um...before you run off to the nearest tree to carve your and Al's initials in the shape of a heart, consider that this great "leader" only seems to have something to say when he has NOTHING TO LOSE! But if he is running for office he says nothing at all. Wake up! This speech was/is irrelevant. You had Lindsey Graham lobbing pre-programmed softballs to Alito about sanctioning torture and unlimited imprisonment without trial and not one Dem said ANYTHING! And you think Al Gore is going to change that? What a moron.

New music roundup

Belle & Sebastian: The Life Pursuit ****


The Strokes: First Impressions of Earth ****


Enya: Amarantine *

Lax Oversight Found in Tests of Gene-Altered Crops - New York Times
"The report, issued late last month by the department's Office of Inspector General, found that biotechnology regulators did not always notice violations of their own rules, did not inspect planting sites when they should have and did not assure that the genetically engineered crops were destroyed when the field trial was done.

In many cases, the report said, regulators did not even know the locations of field trials for which they granted permits."

What can one say to this? Who are these people? What is going on here?????

Backstory: A pill they won't swallow | csmonitor.com
"Against this backdrop, students are still convinced their cause is worth fighting, even if it means giving up a hot meal every day. 'I don't think patients can trust us anymore,' says Kristin Rising, a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco. 'By accepting gifts, we're taking in biases that are going to affect patient care.'"

Good news at last on the medical front. I think these students, once they get into practice, should place PharmFree stickers on their windows so patients can see it. It's a long road to hoe against an incredibly well-established tradition-bound profession, but at least it is a start. A tiny glimmer of hope maybe?

NTI: Wolfowitz Says Iraq War Might Not Have Occurred if United States Knew Hussein Had No WMD

"When asked how he accounted for U.S. intelligence failures before the war, Wolfowitz said, 'Well, I don't have to, and it's not just because I don't work for the U.S. government anymore. In my old job, I didn't have to. I was like everyone else outside the intelligence community'"

I've never wanted to punch somebody in the nose more than I do right now. Read this little article and try not to feel sick to your stomach.

New Scientist Breaking News - GM pea causes allergic damage in mice: "He adds that slight differences in protein synthesis might also occur in other plants with other genes, meaning each new GM food should be very carefully evaluated for potential health effects. “If a GM plant is to go up for human consumption, there should be a detailed descriptive list of how one should go about analysing that plant,” he says.

Tager agrees. It is rare for an investigation of the potential health effects of a GM product to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, he adds. “If it had been a private company doing this, it might never have seen the light of day,” he says."

Once again, of course theoretically speaking genetic modification of plants, humans, etc. COULD be perfectly safe and beneficial. But we all know that theory and reality are two very different things. Should we continue to leave the safety of our food supply in the hands of private companies?

So Iraq Was About the Oil: "Wilkerson made clear that what made Iraq such a strategic concern was the oil.

“We consume 60 percent of the world’s resources,” he said. “We have an economy and we have a society that is built on the consumption of those resources. We better get fast at work changing the foundation – and I don’t see us fast at work on that, by the way, another failure of this administration, in my mind – or we better be ready to take those assets (in the Middle East).

“If you want those resources and you want (Middle Eastern) governments that aren’t inimical to your interests with regard to those resources, then you better pay attention to the area and you better not leave it in a mess.”

So, it appears those Iraq “blood-for-oil” accusations were right all along, at least in identifying one of the real reasons for invading Iraq. The present danger, however, is that U.S. policy-makers have no better solution to the quagmire in Iraq than continuing indefinitely to barter more blood for a continued supply of oil."

There is only one solution to any problem with these people, and it involves other people risking their lives. I don't see a way out of our leadership problem. Hard, hard times appear ahead.

The six Star Wars films form the greatest postmodern art film ever made (kottke.org): "Aidan Wasley argues that taken collectively, the six Star Wars films form the greatest postmodern art film ever made."

Mr. Kottke has not provided a comments area for this link and probably with good reason since this would be one huge-ass thread. I don't want to link to Slate directly because of their idiotic pop-up hell, but Mr. Wasley writes in the opening paragraphs that Star Wars is about plot and the mechanics of storytelling itself. That is far-fetched. I really don't feel it is a "meta" anything. It is about what it intends to be about and nothing more. He states that the fact that the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 end up on Tatooine is a huge coincidence and proceeds to build his argument upon that. The problem is, for all the praise Mr. Kottke gives him for attention to detail, this is NOT a coincidence. R2-D2 KNOWS where Luke is. Only C-3PO had his mind wiped at the end of episode III. They both stay with Bail Organa and Leia.

The protagonist of the whole cycle is really R2-D2.

New Benigni film finds love, laughs in Iraq war - Yahoo! News: "Benigni masterfully creates room for comic release in otherwise tense moments, making audiences laugh during a slapstick dash into a minefield and an uncomfortable run-in with soldiers at a U.S.-manned roadblock."

Sounds like a real knee-slapper there! I don't want to judge a film pre-release and pre-having seen it so I won't. I'll just say that maybe it is just me but I don't have any desire whatsoever to see Benigni hamming it up in the middle of such a senseless tragedy.

Lynndie England blames lover for abuse photos - Yahoo! News: "She said that early in their relationship, Graner would sometimes blare bluegrass music from his room, apparently knowing that sounds of the fiddle and the banjo might lure the Kentucky-born England from down the hall. 'He would change certain little things and he'd pick up certain little things that I liked just to lure me in more,' she said."

Gets 'em every time!

Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division"[At FOB Mercury] they said that they had pictures that were similar to what happened at Abu Ghraib, and because they were so similar to what happened at Abu Ghraib, the soldiers destroyed the pictures. They burned them. The exact quote was, 'They [the soldiers at Abu Ghraib] were getting in trouble for the same things we were told to do, so we destroyed the pictures.''

This has got to be stopped. And I guess it is just an amazing coincidence that The White House counsel writes a memo outlining what is considered torture and our Army proceeds to institutionalize it. Oh that's right, it was all Lyndie England's fault.

Pharyngula::Singularly Silly Singularity
...Or "Future Shock Redux". I think Kurzweil has some pretty interesting ideas, but he falls in love with them too easily. If his premise was correct, why don't we have all those jetpacks we were all promised back in 1965? In 1972 the average automobile fuel economy was something close to 30mpg. Today, 33 years later? About the same. Yes, we have super computers of yesteryear available in handhelds today and what do we use it for? Phones and games. Progress! We may someday build artificially intelligent robots and have them play solitaire for us and answer our phones. Some singularity that will be.

UNDERNEWS: RATHER SEES CLIMATE OF FEAR IN NEWSROOMS
This should really be filed under the "dog bites man" section. But what really ticks me off is that these people always rail about the demise of their "profession" WHEN THEY RETIRE! Why don't they take a stand when it could actually matter, when someone might be actually listening like oh I don't know ON YOUR NEWSCAST? And you know all that talk about reporters finally getting a backbone? That was very short-lived. Once they got out of NOLA and back to their comfortable homes that went away QUICK. On to the next "story"!

The New York Review of Books: The Body Hunters: "Yet the story is based on the premise that a pharmaceutical company would be so threatened by disclosures of its activities that it would have someone killed. That is what is fantasy. In fact, many of the practices that so horrified le Carre's heroine are fairly standard and generally well known and accepted. They seldom provoke outrage, let alone murder. A company like KDH would not kill someone like Tessa even if it were willing to do so; it wouldn't have to. Her concerns would have seemed isolated and futile, and the companies would hardly have taken notice of them."

And this is what is so frustrating today. It just seems like 20 years ago or so if a journalist could find someone to blow the whistle and tell the truth he could almost bring down a government. Today, not so much. We have whistleblower after whistleblower on every issue under the sun from the Iraq War to Pentagon corruption to the travesty of Katrina to all sorts of corporate scandals one seemingly more unbelievable than the next. All the evidence is there. All the evidence has been published in mainstream newspapers, magazines you name it.

And no one seems to give a shit.

Roberts will be appointed without even a QUESTION about his failure to recuse himself from the Salim Ahmed Hamdan case. Rove is still employed by the White House and his outing of Valerie Plame is forgotten. Bolton is destroying the UN and wreaking havoc with our allies and no one does a thing. Billions are going unaccounted for in Iraq and also in the USA thanks to the Pentagon's refusal to use basic accounting principles and nobody forcing them to do so. Drug companies and oil companies continue to gouge the system without recourse.

And who are you going to turn to for help? The Democrats? Please. They are in this up to their eyeballs. Forget them. There is no one. Do you ever talk to your fellow citizens on the plane or bus or at the ballgame? It is frightening. It's like listening to Bill O'Reilly. No, this is all over.

onegoodmove: Incompetence
Finally, FINALLY, the MSM gets a backbone. Also see this.

NOLA.com: LEVEE BREACH SWAMPS CITY FROM LAKE TO RIVER:"As the day wore on, the only dry land was a narrow band from the French Quarter and parts of Uptown, the same small strip that was settled by Bienville amid the swamps. On Tuesday night, it appeared the city was returning to swamp when a daylong effort to shore the levee near the Hammond Highway failed. Mayor Ray Nagin said pumps were being overwhelmed and warned that a new deluge would bury the city in up to 15 feet of water. With solid water from the lake to the French Quarter, the inundation and depopulation of an entire American city was at hand. "Truth to tell, we're not to far from filling in the bowl," said Terry Ebbert, the city's director of homeland security. The waters were still rising at 3 inches per hour, and eventually could move close to the French Quarter levee."

Matador Records | The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema

Buy this. Their best so far.

The Brothers Grimm

It's obvious Terry Gilliam's heart was not in this picture. It is comparable to Sleepy Hollow and
The Pirates of the Caribbean except there is no Johnny Depp who might have saved the picture. Monica Bellucci nearly saves the day just by showing up. I have enjoyed nearly all of Gilliam's work except Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and now this one.

One other thing: when I saw it, the picture seemed very dark and grimy. This could have been the theatre's fault as they barely had it aligned properly (some sub-titles were not shown completely) and the colors looked faded. I can't believe Gilliam intended this and chalked it up to poor projector lighting. It would have been a much more enjoyable viewing experience if it had been lit properly. I will re-review it when it comes out on DVD.

Newsday - Roberts meeting 'illegal': "The article changed the mind of Hofstra University law professor Monroe Freedman, who at first backed the White House. He said Roberts probably broke the law but that it wasn't enough to disqualify him from the high court."

Certainly not nearly enough for THIS court! In fact, if things go to form, Roberts should be the next Chief Justice because of this!

It must be tough at places like The Onion to keep up with this stuff.