I watched this much-talked about film recently. It was interesting but not quite what I expected. I expected a more biting comedy about the kinds of racial tensions that exist on elite college campuses that seek to have a diverse student body and yet struggle to make minorities feel welcome, making mistakes that are can be awkward, patronizing, and cringe-inducing. It is something that the college I work at also struggles with.
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The first upset win of the tournament came yesterday when Ireland defeated West Indies. The West Indies batted first and the game followed the same pattern as the previous four matches with the first team scoring 300 or more runs. In the other games, the chasing teams all failed to exceed the score but in this case, Ireland proved well up to the challenge of the WI total of 304/7 and reached it comfortably in 46 overs with four wickets in hand.
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David Carr, the media critic for the New York Times collapsed and died in the news room on Thursday at the age of 58. There have been many testimonials to the quality of his writing and about the man himself. Not being a regular reader of that newspaper, I did not know much about him but was struck by something he said recently in the wake of the story of NBC News anchor Brian Williams having made up false stories.
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Jon Stewart points out that president Obama’s opponents seem to be quite sure of the kind of qualities they want in a leader as long as Obama does not display those qualities.
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Yesterday’s two games ended up with the expected results of the favorites winning, South Africa beating Zimbabwe and India beating Pakistan.
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I have not seen, and do not plan to see, this film about a real life sniper Chris Kyle who apparently has the deadliest kill record in US military history. While some critics say that Clint Eastwood’s film portrays war in a complex way, it may have been too nuanced because the public seems to have reacted to it with jingoistic pride at the way that Kyle gunned people down in the war in Iraq, making it a huge success at the box office. The fact that Eastwood put the word ‘American’ in the title seemed to me that he was saying that Kyle somehow represented America and this undoubtedly would have colored people’s perceptions to think of this film as an exercise in patriotism.
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Jordan Klepper goes to Las Vegas where students in the schools are bemoaning the fact that their schools don’t teach any sex education at all, leaving them at a loss as to where to get reliable information. Klepper also interviews a woman who says that parents are the ones who should talk about these matters with their children.
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The first day of the tournament did not produce any surprises. In the opening game, New Zealand beat Sri Lanka quite easily, displaying the strengths that have made them serious contenders for the trophy this year. They showed the power and depth of their batting, with lower order batsmen being able to build upon the excellent start provided by their openers, and ended up amassing a formidable total of 331/6.
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The stakes just got raised in the legal tussle between state probate judges in Alabama who refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and a federal district judge Callie Granade who had ruled that the state’s ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. Granade has now directly ordered the probate judge Don Davis in the town of Mobile to issue licenses to same-sex couples. (You can read her ruling here.)
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On Tuesday, the long time host of The Daily Show announced that he would be leaving sometime later this year after doing this show for 16 years. Although like many others, I wanted him to continue doing it forever, just like with Stephen Colbert, I was not really surprised by his announcement. He had clearly found his niche and made an impact and anyone who is creative gets tired of the routine even, and especially, when it is a success and becomes a well-oiled machine. He had become a recognized leader in deconstructing the news and media coverage of it, exposing the shallowness and hypocrisy that is rampant in politics and journalism in the US.
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