Negotiating with Evil
Governments typically come into office swearing they will never talk to their enemies, yet within a matter of months or years often find themselves sitting across a table from the very people they had previously vilified.
Pondering the big Picture
HARD ROAD AHEAD Lots of mail now about what the vote in Massachusetts meant. My take, for what it’s worth, is that it is part and parcel with the election of Obama in 2008. The voters in this country are increasingly getting scared. They may not mind that we will tax the golden goose a…
Oliver Stone ignites controversy
Oliver Stone will attempt to humanize Adolph Hitler in his new, upcoming 10-part documentary series, “The Secret History of the United States,” right? That’s evidently the plan as reported last week by The Independent. Stone apparently wants to “liberalize” Hitler and to finger U.S. corporations for their role in the rise of National Socialism in…
Avatar vs. Confucius in China
26 January 2010 ImageHarmony is fine, but China’s moviegoers prefer action What do you do, as a Chinese film board, when the Hollywood science fiction film Avatar smashes Chinese box office records in its first three weeks in theaters, when online chat-sites are buzzing about the uncanny parallels between the fictional film plot – of…
North & South Korea /developing story
News Asia-Pacific North and South Korea exchange fire North Korea declared a ‘no-sail zone’ near the disputed sea border on Tuesday [AFP] North and South Korea have exchanged artillery fire near a disputed sea border off the west coast of the peninsula, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted government officials as saying. South Korea’s presidential…
IT’S OFFICIAL! ‘AVATAR’ SINKS ‘TITANIC’
January 26, 2010 @ 2:54pm The official numbers are in. So Twentieth Century Fox reports that AVATAR has earned $1.859 billion in worldwide revenue in just 39 days. It took place on Monday when James Cameron’s big budget 3D technopic passed the long-standing worldwide revenue record held by his other epic film Titanic of $1.843…
HUMAN TRAFFIC: Epic Tale of Underworld
Book Review In Patrick Radden Keefe’s The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream we finally have a satisfying, comprehensive account of the Golden Venture debacle and its place in the larger story of people smuggling and US immigration policy. In fact, it is not only satisfying; it is excellent….
West Coast Wasteland
The state’s unemployment rate stands at more than 12 percent, and in some poorer counties it’s in the 25 percent range. In Los Angeles, that number is 12.2 percent. “It boggles the mind,” says LA’s mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa. “Not since the Depression have we had numbers this bad.” To make matters worse, in an attempt…
Coca-Cola is tasting green.
Unveiled at the Copenhagen Climate summit, the new bottle has been found to have a 12 to 19 percent smaller carbon footprint than traditional plastic bottles. In part, that stems from the fact that Coke’s petroleum-based plastic bottles require upwards of 17 million barrels of oil per year to produce, the Pacific Institute, a California…
Telluride’s famous slopes
THE SPORT OF THE MONTH Who says all there is to do on a winter trip to a ski resort is hit the slopes? Max Walker-Silverman, 16, a Telluride, Colorado, native, has a message for visiting teens: “There is just so much more to do than ski and eat.” Hint for visiting teens: You’ll always…