ThISh SuNDaE EyES pOStiNG a piTCHeR of RuFuS aNd DuLciE...DuLciE isH tHe nEw kiTTeN in tOWn. AfTeR a fEW dAZe oF hoUSe-mATe SukI haVinG a hiSSy fiT, DuLciE fOUnd a nEw FRiEnD aN sAnCTuaRy in sWEeT RuFuS. EyEs lUvz tHisH piCTheR 'n RuFus, SuKi & DuLciE's mOm kiNDLy lEt mEEsa pOSt iT fOr aLL tHe KarNIe kAtZ to eNJoY.
-- mOllY
[CATNIP: Check out Leslie's Omnibus excellent Carnival of the Cats...lots of cuteness and Frank J. tweaks the meme.]
Evidence that Karl Rove is far cleverer than his opponents thought?
(*What would Machiavelli Do?)
If there is a heaven, or afterlife, Howard Hughes must be enjoying the irony of a Hollywood he so depised preparing to bestow an Oscar on Marty Scorsese for "The Aviator". Those of us old enough to recall the real Hughes didn't buy DiCaprio...Hughes projected a totally different energy and chrisma. However, unlike Oliver Stone, Scorese has talent to overcome a formulaic studio script and a lightweight lead actor.
Hindrocket at Powerline remarks on Stone's colossal flop "Alexander":
No one ever makes a bad movie anymore. Oliver Stone doesn't, anyway. His movie Alexander, which bombed in the U.S., is opening in the United Kingdom. Stone gave a press conference to British reporters last night, in which he explained the film's failure to do well in America:"I was quite taken aback by the controversy and fierceness of the reviews about a character we don't really know too much about," Stone told reporters in London Wednesday before the film's British premiere.Stone said the commercial failure of "Alexander" in the United States could be linked to "a raging fundamentalism in morality."
"From day one audiences didn't show up," he said. "They didn't even read the reviews in the South because the media was using the words, 'Alex the gay.' As a result you can bet that they thought, 'We're not going to see a film about a military leader that has got something wrong with him.'"
And again:
Sexuality is a large issue in America right now but it isn't so much in other countries... From day one audiences didn't show up.For America-bashing, however, the movie's producer, Moritz Borman, exceeded Stone:
Moritz Borman, the producer of Alexander, took the opportunity of the London premiere to reveal he wanted to create a "dumbed down" version of the film for US audiences but Stone would not have let him do it."We always knew America would be more difficult for this kind of material," said Mr Borman.
"Do you have two versions? A lighter, shorter, popcornier, simple version for American audiences that takes out the homosexuality and a more sophisticated one for the rest of the world?
"In retrospect I would have said 'let's do that'. Oliver wouldn't have let me but I'd have tried."
To some extent, I suppose Stone and Borman were trying to hype the film's UK attendance by flattering the European audience. But American consumers should not forget American entertainers who insult them when they go overseas.
As for Alexander, I suspect that actor Colin Farrell shed a little more light on why it was a flop:
Colin Farrell, who plays the title role, helpfully added his own explanation for the biopic's commercial failure: "The film is a draining experience to watch. It's loaded with mythology, icons, symbolism and destiny. My friends have watched the film and said: 'Jesus Christ, it's not exactly Gladiator'."In other words, it's a turkey. American audiences can spot "mythology, icons, symbolism and destiny" a mile away.
Why yes, we can, in a military dining room, at the ballot box and the local movieplex.
The "what can one expect?" tone of this news item from the Hindustan Times is infuriating and sad :
Lanka’s tsunami sensor not repaired since 2003How many thousands could have simply walked away from the low-laying shoreline areas in two hours and survived?The tsunami-warning equipment gifted to Sri Lankan by Japan had been out of order since August 2003, and the authorities had not bothered to repair it, says disaster management expert Dr Ranijth Premalal De Silva.
"Sri Lanka does not need new equipment. It already has the necessary equipment at the University of Peradeniya in Kandy, gifted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. But the equipment had broken down in August 2003, and not repaired since then. A power failure had corrupted the software. But this could have been set right in a week's time. That, alas, was not done," he said.
Dr De Silva told Hindustan Times that Sri Lanka could have got two to two- and-a-half hour's warning if the equipment was working.
A related item; this Tsunami photo gallery page from Matichon, a Bangkok news/media company provides local coverage and a glimpse of the overwhelming recovery/rebuilding task ahead. (text in Thai characters)
Which makes this item from Hindrocket all the more disgusting:
A first-hand report from one of the diplomats at Diplomad:This Embassy has been running 24/7 since the December 26 earthquake and tsunami. Along with my colleagues, I've spent the past several days dealing non-stop with various aspects of the relief effort in this tsunami-affected country. That work, unfortunately, has brought ever-increasing contact with the growing UN presence in this capital; in fact, we've found that to avoid running into the UN, we must go out to where the quake and tsunami actually hit. As we come up on two weeks since the disaster struck, the UN is still not to be seen where it counts -- except when holding well-staged press events. Ah, yes, but the luxury hotels are full of UN assessment teams and visiting big shots from New York, Geneva, and Vienna. The city sees a steady procession of UN Mercedes sedans and top-of-the-line SUV's -- a fully decked out Toyota Landcruiser is the UN vehicle of choice; it doesn't seem that concerns about "global warming" and preserving your tax dollars run too deep among the UNocrats.
Sitting VERY late for two consecutive nights in interminable meetings with UN reps, hearing them go on about "taking the lead coordination role," pledges, and the impending arrival of this or that UN big shot or assessment/coordination team, for the millionth time I realized that if not for Australia and America almost nobody in the tsunami-affected areas would have survived more than a few days. If we had waited for the UNocrats to get their act coordinated, the already massive death toll would have become astronomical. But, fortunately, thanks to "retrograde racist war-mongers " such as John Howard and George W. Bush, as we sat in air conditioned meeting rooms with these UNocrats, young Australians and Americans were at that moment "coordinating" without the UN and saving the lives of tens-of-thousands of people.
Capt'n Ed posts a terrific story:
Thirteen years ago, a natural disaster in the South Pacific killed hundreds and left thousands more homeless. The eruption of Mount Pinatubo created an emergency for Filipinos and the American dependents of the servicemen and servicewomen station in the Philippines. George Bush (41) sent the US Navy to provide disaster relief and to evacuate Americans from the area, in a manner similar to what we are doing with tsunami relief today.One of the people sailing to the relief of the tsunami victims understands exactly what they have experienced -- because she was rescued from Pinatubo by the same ship she serves now:
Standing in the hangar bay of this mammoth aircraft carrier, Seaman Joviena Kay looks across the waves toward the devastated coast of Sumatra, remembering a time 13 years ago when she huddled on the same deck with evacuees from another great Asian disaster.
Joviena was 6 years old then, a refugee from a volcano. The Filipino-American eventually joined the U.S. Navy, and she is serving on the ship that rescued her as its sailors help the survivors of an earthquake and tsunami.
As Ed suggests, read the whole story.
I wish to hell Colin Powell would keep his frickin' pie-hole shut. He is such a thin-skinned sap, all the left or the MSM need do is take a jab at the administration's relief policy and he leads with his chin. Video of Powell strolling around with officals signing autographs as this unfolds, makes my skin crawl.
We're not in South Asia to win Muslim hearts and minds. I can't imagine any of us who recoiled in horror and leap to donate money, goods and/or time ever stopped to consider the politics for a nanosecond. I can't speak for you, but my reaction was OHMYGOD!!! Not, Oh goodie! A political opportunity. Jeebus. What sort of crimped soul views a natural disaster as a PR exercise?
Would I rather that a man receiving a food packet from a US Navy helo not be wearing a UBL t-shirt? Damn straight, and perhaps, just perhaps, he will remember who was there when he needed help most and turn away from radical Islam, if and when they come to call, but it cannot and should not be our immediate concern nor a condition of our assistance, explicit or implied.
We're there because human beings, like the 6-yr old Joviena, are in extremis. Period.
While Europe chastises America's parsimony and failure to embrace their global vision, fissures appear in the EU facade:
"Without growth, without job creation, without more dynamism in our economies we cannot maintain the high levels of social insurance, protection and environmental protection which ... we call the European model", Mr Barroso told MEPs
At its weekly meeting on Thursday (9 December), where its strategic programme was discussed for the first time, Commissioners were divided between two themes.
Günter Verheugen, the powerful industry Commissioner, wants to push the message of ‘cutting red tape’ for businesses and emphasising competition.
He was opposed by the Communications Commissioner, Margot Wallström. She argued that the message should be something that means something to EU citizens.
According to an EU diplomat, she pushed for a more general theme of "solidarity, security and prosperity" to be the Commission's over-riding theme for the coming years.
German interior minister Otto Schily told this week's edition of news magazine Der Spiegel that his long-term goal is that Muslims in Germany accept a 'European Islam' - which respects the vales of Enlightenment and stands up for the rights of women.
An intellectual-political examination of Islam is part of a programme that he wants to press ahead with for the integration of immigrants, Mr Schily told the magazine.
He said that the Germany's regions should be more rigorous about the possibility of deportation when integration efforts fail.
The European Parliament and Council have two active investigations each.
-Development aid corruption
One problem area that the report highlights is in the area of development aid.
The report refers to "the complex and well-organised nature of financial fraud in humanitarian and development EU aid to third countries".
"Such fraud takes advantage of the lack of coordination in monitoring and auditing activities between the various international donors".
The report cites one case it opened, concerning a dam in Lesotho, which was to provide water to neighbouring South Africa. A bank account in Switzerland contains over 3 million euro in suspected bribes for a Lesotho official - over the years more than 180 million euro had been pumped into the project.
-Eurostat
Referring to Eurostat, one of OLAF's most high-profile cases which came to light last year and involved millions of euro being siphoned into private bank accounts, the director of OLAF said he expects "visible results within months".
No such thing as a free lunch By Guoda SteponavicieneEUOBSERVER/COMMENT - The recent report of the High Level Group on the Lisbon strategy has given new impulse to the debates on this broad and controversial issue. As the report says, the Lisbon strategy is about everything and about nothing.
But the group also stated, however, that the "Lisbon’s direction is right and imperative" and saw only one problem - that much more urgency was needed in its implementation.
The report, fraught with slogans and calls to act, resembles an advertising campaign rather than evaluation and prompts the following questions - what is the Lisbon strategy needed for and what should be done to attain its goals (if we agree that the goals are growth and employment).
Dovetailing the incompatible
So, why do we need the Lisbon agenda? The first answer is because we have to be the best in the world, or at least be better than the US. For Eastern European people, this recalls the famous Soviet slogan, "Catch up with and take over America." No wonder for some people, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.But do people actually care about being number one in the world or do they care about better living? It seems more reasonable to be concerned about one’s own well-being rather than measuring yourself against others. I believe that Europeans are less interested in being better off than the American people and more concerned with simply living well. What living well means is another, not easy question...cont'd below
...Another reason for the Lisbon agenda, stated in the report is that we need it "in order to sustain Europe’s social model." The essence of this model, we should remember, is not changing much or, more specifically, not taking away any of the existing social guarantees and benefits. Protests against attempts to reform labour markets and health care systems in Germany and other European countries demonstrate this very well.How then can we expect the agenda for "growth and employment" to be implemented? This is the really tricky question: most people in the old European countries would like to preserve the current level of social welfare and even to increase it.
And the painful truth is that in order to enjoy real welfare, at least some part of the present benefits should be sacrificed. It is logical to say that to increase productivity, people have to work better and they should have the opportunities to do this.
Structural reforms, please
Education and social security are also key areas which Europe needs to consider carefully in its Lisbon strategy.Sadly, not a single, specific measure has been proposed for structural changes in education systems. It would be naïve to believe there is no need for reform. Even if we are not making Europe a "copycat" of the US, we should bear in mind that most European countries have no private universities, while in the US even state-owned universities offer their services as market players.
The same is with health care and social security reforms. The report states, "Already from 2020, projected spending on pension (with current level of benefits) and health care will increase by some 2% of GDP in many member states and in 2030 the increase will amount to 4-5% GDP."
These forecasts are serious and almost certain to come true as a natural result of the pay-as-you-go pension systems and government financed health care schemes.
However, again, not a single hint at how to crack this problem can be spotted in the report, except an invitation to multiply the number of immigrants who would kindly earn the tax money to cover the proliferating costs of the European way.
Knowledge economy overrated
The report contains a huge chapter on the knowledge economy. This is natural as this topic is wide and complicated.But bearing in mind that other crucial issues of growth and productivity - CAP, a more open external trade or a replacement of regulations with market instruments – have not been mentioned at all, the significance given to the knowledge economy seems slightly overblown.
The key ideas of the knowledge economy, underlined in the report, are to make R&D a top priority and to develop the high-tech industry. We are far from sure such priorites are justified.
Most analysts agree that the bottleneck of productivity growth is not in knowledge creation (R&D), and, especially, not in the sums spent, but in the application of knowledge (innovation).
The fact that Europe produces nearly twice as many science and engineering graduates as the US is presented as an advantage in the report. However, the report doesn’t address a natural question why those scientists don’t produce as much as those fewer in the US.
And it seems somehow strange to focus on such things as R&D, high-tech, clusters and other sophisticated economic formations when people in Europe cannot easily hire a plumber to fix a tap or a baby-sitter for their child.
No such thing as a free lunch
The McKinsey Global Institute suggests that insufficient competitive pressure is one of the most important factors in explaining the relatively poor use of productivity-enhancing ICT in the EU compared with its major competitors. Having admitted this fact, we shouldn’t wonder why services do not enter new markets – they are already scarce on their home markets.Strangely, the report does not question, why. This is not R&D and not high-tech innovation. We cannot blame the market for failing to invest into these undertakings. Nor can we regret over the brain-drain because more hands than brain are required for most of the services that European citizens need and are ready to pay for.
We can only conclude that there is something wrong with the motivation to work in Europe. Or has work ceased to be a value in Europe?
To conclude, let’s get back where we started. Why do we need Lisbon? We need it for better living – high-quality education, health care and other services available in the market as well as the climate suitable for work and preservation of natural motivation to work.
How to achieve this? First, we need to promote competitive pressure and admit an ancient truth that to earn more people need to labour more and better. Contrary to popular statements, human dignity is not enough for attaining material wealth.
Second, before harmonizing regulations in the EU, make them smaller and simplified – this would make life easier for those who live under these regulations and those who are struggling for harmonisation.
The upshot of all this Sturm und Drang ? Europe is not Utopia-in-the-making, they are as divided and unsure which values member countries share or which solutions to endorse as are Blue and Red State Americans. Europeans are no less conflicted over social issues, corrupt, egocentric or parsimoniousness than their American brethren...nor are they more tolerant, honest, enlightened or generous. Antiquity has provided little insight or wisdom as the devastating wars of the last century demonstrated — they possess no magic beans or pixie dust — one global size does not fit all problems.
Europa is no longer a shining beacon in the West, we left her shores long ago and no longer require her approval or example, for better or worse, we have become an unique people with our own destiny.
Baldilocks posts this anecdote:
"Can you let your hatred of George Bush end for just one minute? There are people dying! And what are your countries doing? Amazon.com has helped more than France has. [sic] You all have a role to play in the world, why can't you see that? Thank God for the US Navy, they don’t have to come and help, but they are. They helped you once and you should all thank God they did. They didn’t have to, and no one but them would have done so. I'm ashamed of you all..."
Jools remarks:
The second most difficult part is to realize, yet again, how much the Europeans have wiped American largesse—even to its former enemies--from their collective memory. The third most difficult part to note was the cluelessness of the average European as to the capabilities of a competent military.Will the Americans have to come to the aid of Europe again? If it becomes necessary--and we are able--we will. And no one, outside of the most rabid and marginalized isolationist, will protest.
It's obvious that we Americans do not extend our massive resources in times of need in order to obtain love and acceptance or in order to reciprocate any love and acceptance that has been shown to us previously.
We do it merely because it’s the American thing to do.
Indeed.
Jeff Jarvis notes that not only telecommunications is moving from TDM to VoIP:
The death of the central network, birth of the distributed network: Another stick of dynamite exploding TV and the old, centralized networks: Lost Remote reports that TiVo is abandoning working with cable operators (well, they did the abandoning first) to work, instead, with the PC (read: internet). There's the future of media distribution: what you want, where you want, when you want it. Turn off the old media hose and, instead, dive into the big media pool and swim wherever you want.
Keep scrolling down on Lost Remote's Consumer Electronic Show posts and you find more evidence of this: Microsoft will work with MTV to distribute content to new devices. More cable networks sign with Akimbo to distribute on-demand content via the internet; a few years ago, they wouldn't have dreamed of doing that for fear of pissing off the cable MSOs (which customarily limit the amount of programming a network can put on the internet). But they're not scared of the big, bad wolf pipe now. As AP head Tom Curley has said (Jay Rosen reprises the thought here): The container no longer matters.
The Dems continue their march into the long night of irrelevancy and minority status as they once again display a tin ear and prove they are out of step with the American public.
Mrs. Boxer had objected to counting Ohio's 20 electoral votes, citing reports from that state of long lines and too few machines at Democrat-leaning polling places, voters leaving without having a chance to vote, disparities between counties in the percentage of provisional ballots counted and standards for voter-registration forms.
Democrat-leaning? Jeebus, can the MSM get anymore up the Dem's butt?
KENNEDY: Now, the Post article states you chaired several meetings at which various interrogation techniques were discussed. These techniques included the threat of live burial and waterboarding, whereby the detainee is strapped to a board, forcibly pushed under water, wrapped in a wet towel and made to believe he might drown. The article states that you raised no objection...KENNEDY: Could you just -- I want to point out, if it's true, as the Post reported, that you held several meetings at which the legality of interrogation techniques, such as threat of live burial and water boarding were discussed...
KENNEDY: Well, just as an attorney, as a human being, I would have thought that if there were recommendations that were so blatantly and flagrantly over the line in terms of torture, that you might have recognized them. I mean, it certainly appears to me that water boarding, with all its descriptions about drowning someone to that kind of a point, would come awfully close to getting over the border, and that you'd be able to at least say today, There were some that were recommended or suggested on that, but I certainly wouldn't have had a part of that, as a human being.
In an aside, The Washington Post seems to have missed part of the dialog or is blatantly editing the exchange:
Gonzales acknowledged under questioning from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) that he took part in discussions about the legality of high-pressure interrogation techniques. But he said it was not his "job to decide which methods of obtaining information from terrorists would be most effective" or whether such methods are prohibited by a 1994 law barring torture."That would be a job for the Department of Justice, and I never . . . influenced or pressured the department to bless any of those techniques," he said.
Kennedy responded that "just as an attorney, as a human being, I would have thought that . . . if there were recommendations that were so blatantly and flagrantly over the line in terms of torture, that you would have recognized them."
Rove and Melman couldn't make this up.
Is it just me or is Lileks slyly alluding to film genre/directors with his My Size Barbie series (scroll down), starting with Chuckie or Baby Jane?
This one's a given: Hitchcock
But this one has me stumped; Lulu Bains or Frenchy on library detention?
The Coen's "Barton Fink" or Kubrick's "The Shining"?
The period woodwork says the Overlook on first glance, but the wall paper is sooo Hotel Earle.
I can't wait to see how he works Star trek into the mix.
Continuing a meme, Arthur Chrenoff posts The 12 most stupid tsunami quotes
Number 5 will leave you speechless.
What the hell is wrong with these people?
John Hawkins posts The 40 Most Obnoxious Quotes Of 2004. To paraphrase Nietzsche; they have the courage of the knife, but not the blood.
I am not in a mood for zany today, so I'll just post the photos I prepared for Carnival of the Cats, ably hosted by Daphne, Chloe and Matt at MartiniPundit. These are two of my favorite snaps of Zak, it's hard to believe these were taken 25 years ago, seems like only yesterday that he graced our lives.
I was photographing a hummingbird nest in our patio vines and looked down to see him sitting at my feet, watching with his eyes closed as cats are wont to do...his coloring perfectly blending with the rose brick.
(click for a large image)
This one is self-explantory: winter sun + warm pool coping = snoozing cat.
UPDATE: Can't get enough of cute cat & dog pix? Check out Steve's Friday Ark at The Modulator.
Glenn links to a chilling set of eye-witness tsunami photos. These unfortunate people had no idea of the danger they were in, smiling and laughing as they flee the breaking wave they expected to fall back into the sea.
It's not just Third World naivete, American shores have been impacted by tsunami as recently as the 1940's, 50's and 60's as well and one wonders just how prepared our coastal communities are for a 20 or 30 ft tsunami. Hawaii, the US Western Seaboard and Mexico may be inviting disaster just as did South Asia with extensive waterfront/shoreline development.
I recall news reports from the 1964 Alaska quake and the resulting devastation left by the tsunami in Alaska and Cresent City, CA, and the 1960 Chilean Earthquake which generated a massive tsunami that struck Hilo Hawaii with devastating results. This eerie photo shows the power of the Chilean tsunami 15 hours later. Hilo was previously struck by a destructive tsunami after the 1946 Aleutian Trench earthquake as well, however, both pale in comparison to the massive loss of life and devastation in South Asia.
If only one positive effect emerges from this disaster, thanks to satellite telecommunications and broadcasting, there will be few corners of the globe where people will innocently run to the shore to watch surf surge now that a heightened awareness of tsunami exists. Perhaps governments have taken a lesson in disaster warning systems, preparedness and building contraints as well.
