The discussions between Jon Stewart and Larry Wilmore about race issues are almost always both amusing and thoughtful. This one from 2011 concerns the controversy I wrote about earlier today about the removal of the n-word from a recent edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. [Read more…]
Photo from New York Post
In my recent post on why I will not see the film Django Unchained, I gave as one reason my distaste with the fact that Quentin Tarantino seems obsessed with using the n-word as much as possible. This prompted many comments on the use of such words and one commenter noted that I should not use the euphemism. [Read more…]
You now that we have reached a bizarre stage in the so-called war on terror when a court rules that the government is doing something that is likely unconstitutional but legal.
One of the most shameful and appalling actions of the Obama administration is its claim that it has the right to target and kill anyone in the world using whatever means at its disposal, but in practice using mostly drones. Of course the US government, through the CIA, has routinely murdered people for decades but it was done covertly and not acknowledged, which implied that the government knew it was wrong but did it anyway. [Read more…]
These wind-powered sculptures by Theo Jansen are amazing to behold. I have shown them before but they are so beautiful that I wanted newcomers to this blog to see them. [Read more…]
It all depends on what the issue is. And when it comes to cracking down on civil liberties under the excuse of fighting terrorism, bipartisan comity breaks out all over the place and a government in gridlock suddenly finds an open lane to move quickly. [Read more…]
A recent news item caught my eye. It said that the Jesuit-run Regis College at the University of Toronto had started offering a course on “Responding to 21st-Century Atheism.”
It’s an attempt, says the Rev. Scott Lewis, for people of faith to understand and come to terms with the increasingly muscular secularism and atheism that has arisen in Western societies over the past generation.
Atheism “has become militant, aggressive and proselytizing,” said Lewis, a Jesuit scripture scholar, who teaches the class with three other scholars. “It’s made great in-roads and is now socially acceptable. If you’re young and educated and believe in God, you’re (seen as) a jerk.”
President Obama has announced Mary Jo White as new head of the Securities and Exchanges Commission, focusing on her past position as US attorney and her reputation as a tough prosecutor. Since the SEC oversees the operations of many Wall Street activities, this person is someone whom the public would look to to ensure that the rules are followed and that the rights of ordinary investors are protected from the predators who run the big banks and investment houses and which have so far failed at the task. [Read more…]
I have seen just one Quentin Tarantino film in my life and that was Pulp Fiction. I had misgivings about it since I had heard that it was quite violent but watched it after critics raved over it. I was totally disgusted and swore to never see another film by him again. When I expressed my negative views of the film to its admirers, they kept telling me that the film was meant to be funny and implied that I must have no sense of humor to be so repulsed. [Read more…]
In hostage situations someone threatens to harm others and sometimes themselves unless their demands are met by those in a position to do so. But the US congress has taken this to farcical levels by threatening such harm unless actions are taken that it already has the power, indeed the responsibility, to take on its own. [Read more…]