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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Will Warner's LiveJournal:
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| Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | | 7:14 pm |
| | Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | | 2:49 pm |
Nathan Myhrvold is writing a molecular gastronomy cookbook. | | Monday, November 16th, 2009 | | 5:20 pm |
| | Friday, October 16th, 2009 | | 10:02 pm |
Anyone have any opinions on Vail, Breckenridge, Taos, Aspen, Telluride, and other ski resorts Andrew and I might go to this December? | | Thursday, October 15th, 2009 | | 1:31 pm |
The HRC has a long history of trying to bully opponents like Dr. Laura off the air with total disregard for free speech, moronically leapt from Lawrence v. Texas to gay marriage without making sure ENDA was done first, and in HRC president Joe Solmonese's latest weekly update, told us not to expect any real change until 2017. I wholeheartedly despise Andrew Sullivan, but he is absolutely right that HRC are scum, and they need to go. So is there a nationwide gay rights organization with a spine? Or does a new one need to be created? | | Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 | | 10:25 pm |
| | Monday, October 12th, 2009 | | 6:50 pm |
| | Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 | | 11:09 pm |
| | Sunday, October 4th, 2009 | | 1:00 am |
Capitalism: A Love Story
Saw Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" tonight, and I can't believe it's getting such bad reviews. Fahrenheit 9/11 was full of specious claims and intellectually dishonest arguments, Sicko was far too positive about oppressive dictator Fidel Castro, although visibly conflicted about it and a great film anyway, but "Capitalism" is rock solid in its arguments. Moore should perhaps have used "Exploitation" instead of "Capitalism," terminology that seems to be at the root of many of the criticisms of the film, but setting a higher bar and taking on "capitalism" itself makes for a more attention getting, engaging film. All in all, this movie was absolutely excellent, and despite spending huge amounts of time reading left-leaning news sources, until I watched it I was unaware of commercial airline pilots' shockingly low wages, Senator Dodd's borderline-bribery home loans from Countrywide, or the use of the desperate citizens of Flint, Michigan to send over 60% of all foreclosure notices. Moore also puts in some excellent archival footage of Ronnie Reagan, and an absolutely heartbreaking story about a family in Illinois evicted from their farm who cleaned the entire place for the bank that was taking it, ordinarily a very expensive job, for only $1000. If you have the slightest interest, please, see this movie! | | Monday, September 28th, 2009 | | 6:55 pm |
| | Thursday, September 24th, 2009 | | 5:29 pm |
| | Saturday, September 19th, 2009 | | 3:03 pm |
Arkansas senator Blanche Lincoln and rep Mike Ross are Democrats, and 80% of Arkansas Democrats and over 50% of all Arkansas voters want a public option, yet Lincoln and Ross are serving lobbyists by fighting against one. The Firedoglake blog has created an ad pointing this out, and is trying to raise $78K to run it in Arkansas, of which they already have $49K. The ad would put real pressure on these two to serve their constituents instead of corporate fat cats. If you have $25, you can help. | | Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 | | 11:02 pm |
| | Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 | | 4:06 pm |
| | Thursday, September 10th, 2009 | | 3:26 pm |
Michael Pollan writes for The New York Times, "The market for prescription drugs and medical devices to manage Type 2 diabetes, which the Centers for Disease Control estimates will afflict one in three Americans born after 2000, is one of the brighter spots in the American economy. As things stand, the health care industry finds it more profitable to treat chronic diseases than to prevent them. There's more money in amputating the limbs of diabetics than in counseling them on diet and exercise." | | Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 | | 4:07 pm |
| | Monday, September 7th, 2009 | | 11:59 pm |
Am just back from a truly decadent Labor Day trip to New Orleans with Andrew during Southern Decadence. LUST and GLUTTONY are now checked off for the week, so it's time to move on to a bit of SLOTH before I get back to work tomorrow. However, first, please spare a little of your WRATH for Texas justice, or rather the complete lack thereof, as you read this week's New Yorker article about Cameron Willingham, a Texan executed for a heinous crime of which he is most probably innocent. | | Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 | | 9:53 am |
Dems demand a public option, yet Obama and the Blue Dogs offer only AWFUL excuses and take insurance company cash, pushing liberals to go Green or not vote. Glenn Greenwald has the full story. | | Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 | | 6:32 pm |
Movies!
Last week I saw "In The Loop," which was exactly the vicious, hilarious, loud, angry, fast-moving political satire promised by Exiled Online, "District 9," which was also brilliant, funny, a wonderful thrill ride, and also very nicely pointed with its message, and "Inglourious Basterds," which I loved. It's completely ahistorical, chronicles a massively different alternate history, has nearly nothing to do with the original "Inglorious Bastards," and is basically a wildly implausible fantasy, and pure story for story's sake. It's also unconcerned with making either the German soldiers or the American soldiers look moral or righteous, which is fairly accurate, but still unusual for any WWII film. Instead, Tarantino gives us stylistic perfection, a magnificent soundtrack, and thoughtful meditations on actors as cultural traitors, actors and filmmakers as spies spreading secrets, and film both as the propagandistic cause of wars and as the destroyer of war and of history. Tarantino really is the reigning king of 90s ahistorical postmodernism, between the Cold War and the War on Terror. And like Goebbels crying at Hitler's compliment that "Nation's Pride" was his best film, or Aldo Ridge announcing at the end that he might just have completed his masterpiece, this is probably Tarantino's best film yet. | | Monday, August 24th, 2009 | | 1:47 pm |
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