Good thing Sarah Palin wasn't at the Golden Globes...

In his first speech to Pakistan’s constituent assembly, on August 11th 1947, the country’s president, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, made clear his belief that religious toleration should prevail in the country he had brought into being “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan.”  63+ years later Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s vision is a distant memory.  Where and how did it go so wrong? Religious intolerance anywhere by anyone is unacceptable, yet that’s where we find ourselves.
Palin lacks social awareness.  Once again she goes on the air this time on the friendly confines of the Sean Hannity show to defend herself.  This appearance plus her agreeing to be the keynote speaker at a pro-hunting convention in Reno on January 29th further cements her place as the preferred candidate of 20% of the Republican Party.  She just doesn’t get it.  To further back that up, a new ABC news poll showed that 79% of Americans (71% of Republicans) approved of The President’s speech while only 30% of Americans approved of Palin’s video.  Mr. Huckabee, the nomination via the support of the conservative right are yours for the taking.
90% of the books I read are nonfiction because I find myself looking to be primarily educated and secondarily entertained.  The downside is the learning process and experience can piss me off like getting stuck behind a shopper with 15 items in the 12 item or less line.  Currently I am reading my third book, the excellent, “All the Devils are Here”, on the financial crisis and honestly it becomes harder and harder to feel like something can be done.  Greed + logarithms + piss poor regulation + deceit + hubris + negligence = collapse.  "Hell is empty And all the devils are here" - William Shakespeare, The Tempest
So Ricky Gervais is getting a lot of grief from inside of Hollywood as a result of his acidic biting jokes as host of the Golden Globe Awards.  Hey Hollywood, quit taking yourself so seriously, you all laugh at the Palin, Cheney, and Bush jokes, but heaven forbid someone run some smack your way.  Bravo Ricky.
Speaking of the Golden Globes, I was happy to see both Christian Bale and Natalie Portman walk off with awards.  These two actors caught my attention when they were young stars; a 13 year old Bale as Jim in Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun, and 11 year old Portman in The Professional.  Where and how do such young actors get the talent at that age?  After watching True Grit, I can add 14 year old Hailee Steinfeld to that list.
Red Sox pitchers and catchers report in 28 days.  Good because I have suddenly lost interest in football.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Secular American Jew and a Love for Israel

As many of you know, I have dedicated many postings to the State of Israel on a range of topics including: it’s history, the present day government, the Jewish-Palestinian question, and the region in general.   Growing up in a liberal conservative Jewish household (the oxymoron is quite common as American Jews were almost exclusively political liberals and the conservative branch of Judaism the most common) and attending Hebrew school as a kid you obviously build an affinity for the State of Israel.   I do not remember the Six-Day War of 1967, but I have vivid memories of celebrating Israel’s 25 th anniversary in 1973 and the Yom Kippur War later that year.   As a ten year old attending Yom Kippur services I saw the worried looks on my parents and the other adults at the shul as members of the congregation would periodically step outside to get news reports from car radios and transistor radios (We still drove and used electrical appliances during the high holidays, though several fam
Read more

September 10, 2001 was a Monday

Where were you on September 10, 2001?   What were you worried about?   What occupied your thoughts, worries, hopes, and dreams?   What were you excited about?   What were you interested in? September 10, 2001 was a Monday. Cindy and I were still laughing about the recent visit from the Three Amigas: Leah, Roseanne, and Valerie, and the adventures of Sedona, a certain screen door, a forgotten carrot cake, and breakfast for champions.   We were also dealing with a 1995 Chevy Blazer that seemed to be on its last legs, surviving our first Arizona summer, thinking about what to remodel in the house, dealing with the concept of a Home Owners Association, thinking that my best shot at a World Series game maybe with the fledgling Arizona Diamondbacks, and looking forward to a visit from Scott, Lori, and the boys. But what about America?   We knew nothing about a tiny town in Pennsylvania called Shanksville; Guantanamo Bay was the setting for A Few Good Men, and we still taped shows and listene
Read more

Sunni and Shia: So who are the bad guys again?

Baby faces vs. heals?   Cowboys vs Indians?   Good guy always where the white hat.   “Dig is he a good guy or bad guy?”   Bad guys always, looked, well, bad. You’re either with us or you’re against us.   Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are the axis of evil. Americans, for the most part, have a pretty simple outlook on conflict: just tell us who the bad guys are and we’ll know who to root against.   We tend to lump similar races and peoples into larger buckets, mostly due to the media’s inclination to treat us like potential Jeff Foxworthy competitors.   But the world is anything but simple and as I have written previously, the Middle East is as confusing and confounding place as you can find.   During the Iran and Iraq war of the 1980’s most Americans took the position that “…as long as they kill each other, I’m good.”   When civil war ravaged Afghanistan, we joined the side of the Mujahedeen because they were fighting the Soviets and the Soviets were our archenemy, a position they occupie
Read more