Hey, it’s an election year, maybe Joe’s last. Big Joe is going to be talking a lot. And if his latest “gaffe”— “Romney wants to let the — he said in the first hundred days, he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, unchain Wall Street. They’re going to put…
Nuns die, Rod laughs
What’s funnier than a truckload of dead nuns? Absolutely nothing, according to Rod Dreher, in a recent posting headlined “Why Liberal Nuns Are Dying Off,” busting a gut if not peeing in his pants over a recent confab of nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, who, if you haven’t been keeping up, have been…
Oh, those arrogant Chinese!
Over at the Dish, Andy free during August, Gwynn Guilford posts a rap bemoaning China’s “insularity and paranoia,” giving as an example the reasonably believable “fact” that everyone in China believes that 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by U.S. forces was deliberate. Well, that does sound a little insular and paranoid, but,…
Charlie in Full, Pretty Much
The second part of my two-part review of Flicker Alley’s monumental release of all of Charlie Chaplin’s extant films for Keystone is now up on the still not safe for work Bright Light Film Journal. I’ve now reviewed all of Chaplin’s films except the two weakest, Limelight and A King in New York. The link…
It profits me not
I’ve just noticed that certain words in my blog are highlighted that I didn’t highlight. If you run your cursor over them, an ad pops up. Well, in case you’re wondering, Literature R Us doesn’t get a dime from them. I’ve just noticed them at New York magazine as well. Maybe it’s a function of…
Do I look like I need to be protected, girlfriend?
The Times has a nice story by Mark McDonald arguing the ins and outs of protecting great white sharks. A good case can be made for either, depending on where you stop reading the article. Alexia Wellbelove, senior program manager with Humane Society International, sounds like a bit of a jerk when he says “Australia…
Pseudo-New Yorker. Pigs can talk! And humans too!
Well, they can. But mostly pigs. Because I guess it’s funnier. Legal humor here. “I’ll cover my genitals when you cover your mouth, honey. Your tonsils are uglier than my balls.” “Lady, you stop busting my chops. Your sign don’t say ‘Human Complaints.’ It says ‘Complaints.’” “Yeah, well it may be fine with Farmer Brown,…
Fred in Full
My review of Silk Stockings, Fred Astaire’s final dancing film, is up at the not entirely safe for work Bright Lights Film Journal. I’ve now reviewed all 27 of Fred’s dancing films for Bright Lights, and the link for each is given below. Flying Down to Rio The Gay Divorcee Roberta Top Hat Follow the…
Niall Ferguson wrong-foots me
Generally, I’m not a fan of Niall Ferguson, that frenziedly self-promoting neo-imperialist Caledonian, who now hangs out at the American Enterprise Institute, where he spends his time toasting Winston Churchill and telling us Yanks that we’re not man enough to run the world the way the Brits did. But in his latest effusion, Civilization, which…
You don’t get it—she deserved to die!
That seems to be the gist of conservatives’ complaints regarding the Romney campaign’s argument that if Ranae Soptic had lived in Massachusetts, she wouldn’t have died of cancer, thanks to RomneyCare. Ranae’s sad story is the centerpiece of the, um, “controversial” ad made by Ranae’s surviving spouse Joe on behalf of Priorities USA, a pro-Obama…