Nobody 680
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Nobody # 680
Nobody Asked Me But:
Once more the moon is shining on my desk, so let’s have a few words.
"In matters of foreign affairs, our country, may she always be right, but our country right or wrong." Commodore Stephen Decatur.
“My country, to fight for, perhaps to die for, but only when her cause is just and necessary.” JT.
I saw "Letters From Iwo Jima" this past week. It absolutely stunned me. I have never seen a greater picture on war, on its futility, on its frequent injustice to those who are sent off to fight and, perhaps, die.
In my opinion, every leader who kills his countrymen in an unjust war is automatically a war criminal. What is unjust? Every war is unjust except those fought in self- defense or to save people from slavery, genocide or conquest by an oppressor nation.
The next morning I wrote this to Elizabeth and Greg:
“In as much as you can control the situation, (including refuge in Canada) do not ever allow your children to fight in an unjust war.”
Hugh and I saw “Letters” together. Here are his thoughts on it:
“I will have no problem adding both pictures (“Flags Of Our Fathers is the other one) to my DVD library. Both are exceptional and so moving. Again Clint is a master storyteller. Both movies were "little" (as in intimate) pictures of soldiers that were given impossible jobs to do. The characters in both pictures had so much in common and were the centerpiece of this tragic battle (over 7,000 Americans killed and only about 200 Japanese that survived out of a garrison of 21,000). I cannot think of anything else to say that was not said in this tremendous work of art.”
But not everyone who saw this picture is this intelligent, which leaves me with an ethical dilemma. As you know I belong to a semi-secret group known as The Dead Bruin Society. Last week one member proposed a friend named Tony Medley for membership. It seems that, among other things, Medley writes movie reviews for the web site “Rotten Tomatoes.” I checked it out and discovered, among his other incredibly stupid reviews, an incredibly, incredibly stupid one of “Letters.”
“So Clint Eastwood makes two movies trying to make a moral equivalence between imperial Japan, responsible for all the atrocities, and America, fighting to end the horrible atrocities, one right after the other, “Flags of Our Fathers,” about the three surviving Americans who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima, and, now, “Letters From Iwo Jima,” about the battle from the Japanese point of view.”
“Now in “Letters From Iwo Jima,” Clint creates moral equivalency between the heroic Americans invading Iwo Jima and the zealots who were defending it.”
“… it (‘Letters’will influence the ignorant and uninformed, and that's the main reason I condemn it.” (What a pompous ass.)
Here is my commentary on his review. I wrote this to “Tomatoes”:
How can you post a taste sample for reviewer Tony Medley when he has no taste? Anyone who thinks "Letters From Iwo Jima" justifies Japan's aggressive role in starting WW II either didn't watch the film or should avoid watching movies that are beyond his ability to understand - which probably includes everything deeper than "Frat House; The Sequel.”
His review of "Letters" is the worst review on any film in any media I have ever encountered. I hope that he has a day job.
So, am I justified in voting no on admitting this man to the DBS? Note – In DBS, majority rules, which it should, so my vote would not be a veto.<<<
“Letters” afterthought:
Contrary to “critic” Tony, Eastwood, in no way, creates moral equivalency between America and Japan. His message is that most of the Japanese soldiers on Iwo were men who know they were going to die and, in most cases, don't want to. Oh, there are some are hard cases who die willingly for the glory of Empire. Others reluctantly put survival second to duty. And some, bewildered by it all, would just like to be back home running their small business or farming their land. Isn't this the tragedy of war - that men, in many ways so alike, are sent to kill one another?
As a critic wrote recently, Eastwood has become an American Master, and this is a masterpiece.<<<
I am sorry to tell you that there will be no 10-best movie list from me this year. I didn’t even see 10 movies. I am sure that nothing will come close to “Letters,” although “The Queen” was a wonderful film. Here is my “to see” list of 2006 movies – “Children Of Men,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “The Good Shepard,” “Venus” and perhaps “Babel.” Did I forget anything?
Lead line in NY Times: Chaos Overran Iraq Plan in ’06, Bush Team Says.
The Bush team is wrong. Iraq was chaotic long before 2006. It just turned into greater chaos this past year. The dream of a democratic Iraq as a Middle-Eastern “city on a hill,” always, in reality, a pipe dream, became a nightmare. After the November election, the president, forever one or a dozen steps behind reality, offered up Rumsfield as a placebo and, according to reports, has decided to send another 25,000 troops - as if that will do more than increase the number of Americans killed beyond the 3,000 gravestone mark reached in 06.
Two things perhaps best symbolize Iraq in 2006:
The first is the recent execution of Saddam Hussein. Only a country in shambles could offer up such a spectacle, execution turned into circus, clowns taking pictures with their cell phones while other clowns in black masks shouted the name of their rebel leader Muqtada al-Sadr as they fastened the noose around Hussein’s neck.
The second is the continued killing of innocents - 2,000 civilians were killed there in December, which was pretty much the monthly average. Did we liberate this country or destroy it?
Iraq is a black hole, sucking in life after life as our President dreams on.<<<
Saddam add-on: Death is sometimes justified but rarely, for civilized people, a matter for celebration.<<<
A walk on my dark side: people seem fascinated by violent death as witnessed by the number of hits in the web site that posted pictures of Hussein’s execution. I was very tempted to join them, a fact that shames me. But I didn’t, so maybe there is some redemption in that.<<<
Arizona Daily Star lead-line: Our 'most underestimated president.'
Let’s not get carried away here. Gerald Ford was a good and decent man and he should be mourned as such. But he was an average president whose success was more passive than active, the latter being the real measure of being underestimated. He was accidentally in the right place with his goodness and modesty in a time when goodness and modesty were needed.
On the other hand, he gets an A+++ for this comment he made in an interview with Newsweek Magazine’s Michael Beschloss:
"If I'd been elected in '76, the party wouldn't be as far right as it is at the present time … I sure hope it comes back to the center."<<<
Short and sweet.
This week’s Abraham Lincoln - “It is better to keep silent and be thought an idiot, than to speak and remove all doubt” award goes to:
Henry Kissinger for this inane gem - "Few (historians) will dispute that the Cold War could not have been won had not Gerald Ford emerged at a tragic period to restore equilibrium to America and confidence in its international role."<<<
No surprise here:
Many health insurance companies will not sell policies, at any price, to hale and healthy people who have, or had, such serious ailments as hemorrhoids and jock itch.
These are, of course, stupid examples of a deeper problem. We are becoming a country where only the healthy can qualify for health insurance .<<<
Coals to Newcastle:
Even some oil executives have said they don't need all of the tax breaks the government has granted the industry in recent years.<<<
On capital punishment:
A blue-ribbon commission recommended Tuesday that New Jersey abolish the death penalty and urged legislators to replace it with the sentence of life without parole.
The 13-member commission said the costs of the death penalty are greater than the costs of life in prison without parole and concluded that "the penological interest in executing a small number of persons guilty of murder is not sufficiently compelling to justify the risk of making an irreversible mistake."
I have been telling you this for how long?<<<
“One week to ‘24.’ But who's counting?” – Mike Lupica
Blowing smoke:
"It's a little disappointing because we can play with anybody and we knew that. " Pete Carroll
Except UCLA that is.<<<
Nobody # 680
Nobody Asked Me But:
Once more the moon is shining on my desk, so let’s have a few words.
"In matters of foreign affairs, our country, may she always be right, but our country right or wrong." Commodore Stephen Decatur.
“My country, to fight for, perhaps to die for, but only when her cause is just and necessary.” JT.
I saw "Letters From Iwo Jima" this past week. It absolutely stunned me. I have never seen a greater picture on war, on its futility, on its frequent injustice to those who are sent off to fight and, perhaps, die.
In my opinion, every leader who kills his countrymen in an unjust war is automatically a war criminal. What is unjust? Every war is unjust except those fought in self- defense or to save people from slavery, genocide or conquest by an oppressor nation.
The next morning I wrote this to Elizabeth and Greg:
“In as much as you can control the situation, (including refuge in Canada) do not ever allow your children to fight in an unjust war.”
Hugh and I saw “Letters” together. Here are his thoughts on it:
“I will have no problem adding both pictures (“Flags Of Our Fathers is the other one) to my DVD library. Both are exceptional and so moving. Again Clint is a master storyteller. Both movies were "little" (as in intimate) pictures of soldiers that were given impossible jobs to do. The characters in both pictures had so much in common and were the centerpiece of this tragic battle (over 7,000 Americans killed and only about 200 Japanese that survived out of a garrison of 21,000). I cannot think of anything else to say that was not said in this tremendous work of art.”
But not everyone who saw this picture is this intelligent, which leaves me with an ethical dilemma. As you know I belong to a semi-secret group known as The Dead Bruin Society. Last week one member proposed a friend named Tony Medley for membership. It seems that, among other things, Medley writes movie reviews for the web site “Rotten Tomatoes.” I checked it out and discovered, among his other incredibly stupid reviews, an incredibly, incredibly stupid one of “Letters.”
“So Clint Eastwood makes two movies trying to make a moral equivalence between imperial Japan, responsible for all the atrocities, and America, fighting to end the horrible atrocities, one right after the other, “Flags of Our Fathers,” about the three surviving Americans who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima, and, now, “Letters From Iwo Jima,” about the battle from the Japanese point of view.”
“Now in “Letters From Iwo Jima,” Clint creates moral equivalency between the heroic Americans invading Iwo Jima and the zealots who were defending it.”
“… it (‘Letters’will influence the ignorant and uninformed, and that's the main reason I condemn it.” (What a pompous ass.)
Here is my commentary on his review. I wrote this to “Tomatoes”:
How can you post a taste sample for reviewer Tony Medley when he has no taste? Anyone who thinks "Letters From Iwo Jima" justifies Japan's aggressive role in starting WW II either didn't watch the film or should avoid watching movies that are beyond his ability to understand - which probably includes everything deeper than "Frat House; The Sequel.”
His review of "Letters" is the worst review on any film in any media I have ever encountered. I hope that he has a day job.
So, am I justified in voting no on admitting this man to the DBS? Note – In DBS, majority rules, which it should, so my vote would not be a veto.<<<
“Letters” afterthought:
Contrary to “critic” Tony, Eastwood, in no way, creates moral equivalency between America and Japan. His message is that most of the Japanese soldiers on Iwo were men who know they were going to die and, in most cases, don't want to. Oh, there are some are hard cases who die willingly for the glory of Empire. Others reluctantly put survival second to duty. And some, bewildered by it all, would just like to be back home running their small business or farming their land. Isn't this the tragedy of war - that men, in many ways so alike, are sent to kill one another?
As a critic wrote recently, Eastwood has become an American Master, and this is a masterpiece.<<<
I am sorry to tell you that there will be no 10-best movie list from me this year. I didn’t even see 10 movies. I am sure that nothing will come close to “Letters,” although “The Queen” was a wonderful film. Here is my “to see” list of 2006 movies – “Children Of Men,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “The Good Shepard,” “Venus” and perhaps “Babel.” Did I forget anything?
Lead line in NY Times: Chaos Overran Iraq Plan in ’06, Bush Team Says.
The Bush team is wrong. Iraq was chaotic long before 2006. It just turned into greater chaos this past year. The dream of a democratic Iraq as a Middle-Eastern “city on a hill,” always, in reality, a pipe dream, became a nightmare. After the November election, the president, forever one or a dozen steps behind reality, offered up Rumsfield as a placebo and, according to reports, has decided to send another 25,000 troops - as if that will do more than increase the number of Americans killed beyond the 3,000 gravestone mark reached in 06.
Two things perhaps best symbolize Iraq in 2006:
The first is the recent execution of Saddam Hussein. Only a country in shambles could offer up such a spectacle, execution turned into circus, clowns taking pictures with their cell phones while other clowns in black masks shouted the name of their rebel leader Muqtada al-Sadr as they fastened the noose around Hussein’s neck.
The second is the continued killing of innocents - 2,000 civilians were killed there in December, which was pretty much the monthly average. Did we liberate this country or destroy it?
Iraq is a black hole, sucking in life after life as our President dreams on.<<<
Saddam add-on: Death is sometimes justified but rarely, for civilized people, a matter for celebration.<<<
A walk on my dark side: people seem fascinated by violent death as witnessed by the number of hits in the web site that posted pictures of Hussein’s execution. I was very tempted to join them, a fact that shames me. But I didn’t, so maybe there is some redemption in that.<<<
Arizona Daily Star lead-line: Our 'most underestimated president.'
Let’s not get carried away here. Gerald Ford was a good and decent man and he should be mourned as such. But he was an average president whose success was more passive than active, the latter being the real measure of being underestimated. He was accidentally in the right place with his goodness and modesty in a time when goodness and modesty were needed.
On the other hand, he gets an A+++ for this comment he made in an interview with Newsweek Magazine’s Michael Beschloss:
"If I'd been elected in '76, the party wouldn't be as far right as it is at the present time … I sure hope it comes back to the center."<<<
Short and sweet.
This week’s Abraham Lincoln - “It is better to keep silent and be thought an idiot, than to speak and remove all doubt” award goes to:
Henry Kissinger for this inane gem - "Few (historians) will dispute that the Cold War could not have been won had not Gerald Ford emerged at a tragic period to restore equilibrium to America and confidence in its international role."<<<
No surprise here:
Many health insurance companies will not sell policies, at any price, to hale and healthy people who have, or had, such serious ailments as hemorrhoids and jock itch.
These are, of course, stupid examples of a deeper problem. We are becoming a country where only the healthy can qualify for health insurance .<<<
Coals to Newcastle:
Even some oil executives have said they don't need all of the tax breaks the government has granted the industry in recent years.<<<
On capital punishment:
A blue-ribbon commission recommended Tuesday that New Jersey abolish the death penalty and urged legislators to replace it with the sentence of life without parole.
The 13-member commission said the costs of the death penalty are greater than the costs of life in prison without parole and concluded that "the penological interest in executing a small number of persons guilty of murder is not sufficiently compelling to justify the risk of making an irreversible mistake."
I have been telling you this for how long?<<<
“One week to ‘24.’ But who's counting?” – Mike Lupica
Blowing smoke:
"It's a little disappointing because we can play with anybody and we knew that. " Pete Carroll
Except UCLA that is.<<<
posted by jmt | 7:10 PM
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