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Saturday, August 24, 2002
posted by gbarto at 1:21 PM:
Film review: Mostly MarthaFinally... for the first time since Amélie, there's a foreign film with a happy ending! Mostly Martha tells the tale of an obsessive-compulsive chef who is running herself (and everyone else) ragged when she suddenly finds herself in charge of a young girl (her late sister's daughter) and can no longer keep control. Into the picture steps an Italian chef, brought in to help in her kitchen but soon helping with everything else as well.
Mostly Martha does not break down barriers, does not shock, does not cause the viewer to question his/her worldview. And for this we are grateful. While everyone else is making bold, daring or disturbing dramas, Mostly Martha is a light comedy that pulls the appropriate emotional strings enough to make the happy ending all the happier. A wonderful film.
Note: If Mostly Martha doesn't make it to your town and you're wondering what to see, may we suggest that "The Good Girl" is well acted, does show another side of Jennifer Aniston, and is probably the last thing you want to see unless you enjoy depressing portraits of rural folk who just can't seem to get it together. Enjoy the magic of "Possession" instead.
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posted by gbarto at 1:03 PM:
Diabolical Governor's Race in Conn.Pols trade barbs after Democrat calls GOP incumbent 'Beelzebub'
And you thought only Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell did this kind of thing... The guy who made the comments was defeated in the Democratic primary; the Dem's nominee is said not to appreciate the sideshow, nor, we presume, having to come out and publicly assure that he does not think the incumbent governor is "the living Satan."
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posted by gbarto at 12:55 PM:
Hepatitis Alert at N.C. SupermarketCustomers advised to throw out food, receive medical treatment
Oops. He was working in the deli of Harris Teeter in Wake County, NC. Glad I'm not in charge of their marketing.
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posted by gbarto at 12:51 PM:
Hmm... For some reason, blogger seems not to have been updating correctly.Update: About seven pieces had gone missing; they've now appeared.
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posted by gbarto at 1:23 AM:
Floods Threaten Central China270,000 people are evacuated as waters destroy 27,000 homes
This was developing when we did French news last night; now the flooding seems to be well underway. And unconnected to the mess in India from what I understand.
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posted by gbarto at 1:19 AM:
Report of death was delayedPolice say hospital often fails to promptly notify authorities of crimes
In this case, they called police two hours after the psychiatric patient had died.
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posted by gbarto at 1:17 AM:
West Nile in Michigan. Here's the Detroit Free Press story. While the hospital and hometown are not being released, Michigan's first fatality was in Oakland county and all human cases so far are in Oakland, Wayne and Cass counties - i.e. Detroit and the southern part of the thumb of Michigan. Of course, as noted below, the virus has shown up a lot further north in birds.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:12 AM:
Report: First Michigan Man Dies of West NileOfficials believe virus was present in 65-year-old; twenty-four new cases diagnosed this week in Louisiana
Yikes! Just a few days ago, Illinois was the shocker. Now the virus is has even reached my home county (in birds; FNC doesn't say where the person in question lived).
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posted by gbarto at 1:08 AM:
French news round-up:Le Monde leads with "Earth Summit: from promises to action." The first big Earth summit, in case you're keeping score, was in Rio six years ago. Now they're moving to Johannesburg for another one. Here's the photo Le Monde has with the story:
Apparently Greenpeace put the balloon at this site in Thailand. But if you're just skimming the headlines it's a bit jarring to see the headline and the pic together.
Le Monde lead two: Now there's flooding in India. The headline: "India: Flooding in the northern part of the country."
Le Figaro leads with fiscal politics: "Supporters of tax reductions counterattack." Will France get its tax cut? Chirac campaigned on it. Raffarin said it was in the cards. But then momentum slowed. Some tried to create doubts while others displayed less than ample enthusiasm. The UMP is now getting back on track and tax cut talk again is in the air.
For Libé tonight, we'll offer the number two story: "Food aid: discord over GMO foods." Specifically, Zambia is turning aside American corn. Their choice, says the TurkeyBlog, though he wonders if the people who are actually hungry are as puritanical or politically pure about such matters as the bureaucrats and pols involved.
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posted by gbarto at 12:50 AM:
The Government Monkey wonders, whither Bob Barr?* * *
Friday, August 23, 2002
posted by gbarto at 11:58 AM:
Lovely Lileks piece about oil and other atrocities.* * *
posted by gbarto at 11:37 AM:
Speaking of Mr. Stærk (see below), he's wondering, whither socialist Norway?* * *
posted by gbarto at 11:35 AM:
Bjørn notes the dismal state to which Nigeria has come under sharia. According to the Norwegian papers, it's almost as bad as the US.Mr. Stærk finds the moral equivalency a bit off, however.
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posted by gbarto at 11:31 AM:
Natalie Solent has returned.* * *
posted by gbarto at 11:13 AM:
No Steely ResolveAdministration pulls back on its own tariffs after EU threatens trade war
The steel industry isn't happy, but the TurkeyBlog is. One quarter of the original tariffs are now gone, swallowed up by exemptions. It's still three-quarters to go, but bit by bit things are moving in the right direction. More importantly, if Bush is smart he can use the experience as an object lesson in why free trade is better than restricted trade, arguing that the retaliation to tariffs shows that it is impossible to win a trade war. But he will have to show that starting the tariffs was not just a political gambit - a tough sell, considering that it was - but a way of seeking an idealized fairness that may not be able to be achieved in a marketplace where others as well have the power to impose restrictions on trade and that he therefore needs full support in trading negotiations so he can get others to knock barriers down since we can't keep barriers up.
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posted by gbarto at 2:52 AM:
Is rape the new means for Muslim men to express their identity? Here's Mark Steyn on multiculturalism's latest twist: Rape victims are to blame after all. Sickening.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:42 AM:
Uh oh. It's spreading...Two West Nile Deaths in Ga.
Men, 51 and 77, fall to virus; disease also found in Mont. and N.M.
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posted by gbarto at 2:41 AM:
French news round-up:Le Monde leads with: "Columbia: Uribe arms his peasants." That is, 20,000 ordinary folk are being recruited to help take on the rebel forces in the countryside.
And here's a headline that looks familiar but isn't: "Floods threaten millions." But the dateline is no longer central Europe; it's China, where Lake Dongting threatens to overflow.
Le Figaro, meanwhile, leads with an embarrassment for French justice officials: "The incredible escape of Berasategui." The presumed leader of a Basque terrorist cell has been determined to have been gone for six days! Oops! But talk about your dedicated friends: He pulled it off because a visitor swapped places with him last week.
Libé leads with more of the mess of Raffarin's plans to change the electoral system. Their second lead, which has been floating around a little ways down in all the papers recently, concerns the city of Somme, where three young women have been killed in seven months. Connecting dots between the cases, it looks like it might be a serial killer, giving rise to the headline, "The specter of a killer terrifies Somme."
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Thursday, August 22, 2002
posted by gbarto at 12:28 PM:
Are Defense Department Oreos made to order to keep procurement officers employed? Common Sense and Wonder thinks so. I always thought it was so Congressman X could throw a little high paid government work his donors' way.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:25 PM:
Common Sense and Wonder wonders what "Islam is peace" means, and why the least progressive cultures in the world have the backing of the progressives. So does the TurkeyBlog.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:21 PM:
We are running way too late on this (been busy with other areas of the site so not reading as many bloggers as usual) but would ask that if you haven't already you add Daniel Taylor to thoughts and prayers. The Dreaded Purple Master has been doing poorly of late, though he is improving. His wife is again giving updates.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:15 PM:
Bush Takes on WildfiresPresident to endorse controversial plan to prevent blazes by allowing more logging in national forests
Here's what the TurkeyBlog had to say way back on June 28:
This is about the setting of the fires, but in a larger sense there's a group of people that is especially culpable: those who worked for the Forest Service during the Clinton-Gore years. The policy of leaving nature untouched, other than to put out the occasional fire, meant that we neither let nature clear things out her way bit by bit, acre by acre, nor cleared it out ourselves. Which is to say that we created the conditions for these fires to rage. It's time for that to change: forest workers should again clear the underbrush, just as they should allow loggers to harvest the most mature trees while either paying them or offering them a premium to remove the dead trees as well.I stand by this with one exception: Some in the Forest Service have tried to get the forests cleaned up, only to be stopped by lawsuits or their superiors. These we salute. Tree huggers and endangered species advocates that prefer burning trees and widespread death in forests to a single logging company profiting from a single tree we condemn.
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posted by gbarto at 12:12 AM:
Den Beste has tons of stuff on CDMA, democracy and more, and even corrections where he was a bit off in another massive essay.* * *
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
posted by gbarto at 11:58 PM:
Sharon to Meet With Jeb BushFor parity, Arafat will be meeting with Roger Clinton.
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posted by gbarto at 11:56 PM:
"Allahu akbar" update:Hostages Beheaded by Guerrillas
Muslim rebels linked to Al Qaeda kidnap and murder two men
Surely the Islamic community can find it in itself to denounce this.
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posted by gbarto at 11:53 PM:
French news round-up:Le Monde leads with "Afghanistan: Inquiry into a Mass Grave." It's suspected that the grave contained captured Taliban; their slaughter, which the interim government has labeled a "horrible atrocity," took place before said government was in place.
Le Monde goes about six steps left from its lead for its second story, "Pakistan: Musharraf reforms the Constitution," specifically to give himself the power to dismiss the parliament.
Le Figaro leads with "Voting methods: the small parties lash out." At issue, PM Raffarin and Interior Minister Sarkozy offered a reform that would make such as LePen's big move in April more complicated. It would also shut out the Communists and Greens, or so said parties say. Pretty much everyone has now protested the plan, which Le Figaro is somehow still claiming to be a tough sell for Raffarin as opposed to simply dead in the water. I suspect the plan won't go through - the French love their messes and they take joy in giving a voice to politicians to whom they'd never actually listen (are you listening, Arlette?) for the sake of feeling more radical, openminded and activist than they are.
Libé wins for interesting headline of the day: "Sarkozy to Ravers: I heard you!" The Interior Minister met with representatives from "official" raves (don't ask me, Libé put the "official" in quotes) and proposed a panel to mediate disputes between good-hearted, well-meaning, basically law-abiding ravers and the French government.
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posted by gbarto at 1:25 PM:
Mama Don't Let Your Baby Grow UpProsecutors go after woman for breast-feeding 8-year-old son
Man, is he going to have issues!
Actually, the case is a rather sad one, and a big part of the reason why for all the efforts of some to push parents' rights, the state has an interest in how people raise their children. The sad fact of the matter is that there are mothers and fathers who put their own psychological issues ahead of their kids' best interests, either pushing the kids away too quickly or holding to them too tightly in order to fulfill their own needs. But one doesn't have a right to control one's children. One has stewardship, which means that added control is granted only because one has added responsibility. Parents who use their special relationship with their children to take care of their own psychological needs without concern for the child's ability to grow into an independent, mature adult are not more loving, more connected, closer. They are themselves emotionally ill and in need of treatment before they create a new generation with greater problems.
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posted by gbarto at 1:25 PM:
Arrests in Hebrew U. AttackBombing killed five Americans
Hopefully we'll see justice done.
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posted by gbarto at 1:04 PM:
USS Clueless is now loading again. Here he's baiting Mac users, always good sport. More seriously, he explains here why he doesn't consider Israel to be a first class fighting force. His reflections on the breakdown of discipline among reservists defending their own territory is especially worrying. I'd say it reminds me of the National Guard at Kent State; there are times when military power consists not in the force you can project but your ability to hold back from using it.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:02 AM:
Uh oh. USS Clueless is coming up missing.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:56 AM:
By the way, be sure to visit Little Green Footballs, where you'll find not only the opportunity to help a really great website (see below for more) but a great song to sing if Cynthia McKinney's exit from Congress delights you. And LGF is always your best source for Israel news, this side of the Jerusalem Post.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:54 AM:
LGF reminds readers that it is an unpaid venture which welcomes donations. For the record, so is the TurkeyBlog. But the TurkeyBlog, knowing that you may not have money to throw around, also has some lovely book pages where you can get materials for learning languages, literature, computers and more, and every time you shop there you help our efforts. You can even use the search box to get anything you want. If you're really bored, you might even reset your amazon bookmark to http://gbarto.com/books. This concludes this week's pledge drive. Now back to another quality documentary on PBS...* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:43 AM:
Cool. The Jerry Scott of Zits is also the Jerry Scott of Baby Blues. Go here to see. If you're wondering, we do read more than the front page and the editorials.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:39 AM:
It's all Reagan's fault. Global warming on Pluto, that is. (visit Common Sense and Wonder for the story)* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:32 AM:
A Dog's Life has some words for us today. Leave it to Churchill to have written them better than sixty years in advance.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:30 AM:
Goddamn straight. A Dog's Life tells us just why Al-Qeda needs to go away. I'm glad Greg got here first. For I was getting tempted to post a CNN photo with the simple question: Did they wrap this up with a cry of "Allahu akbar?" Islam ought be hiding its face. Even Jimmy Swaggart wasn't this big an embarrassment to his faith.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:25 AM:
Not your brightest aider and abetter of terrorists:Fake-ID Suspect Picked Up at Airport Returning From EgyptAnd he came back? Either he's innocent and thinks he can prove it... or he's nuts. Looking at the story, it looks like his best defense is that he's not a terrorist co-conspirator: He'd make fake documents for anybody. If he gets the right jury, it just might work.
NEWARK, N.J. — A man accused of providing fake IDs to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers was arrested Tuesday at New York's Kennedy Airport as he returned from Egypt, authorities said....
El-Atriss left for Egypt just hours before Passaic County authorities raided his home and businesses July 31.
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posted by gbarto at 1:19 AM:
Georgia moves toward emotional health...Ga. Voters Oust Two Incumbents
Five-term Rep. Cynthia McKinney, GOP's Bob Barr both sent packing
... but I'm sure glad I don't make my living writing political fundraising letters. Both sides lost some great fodder today.
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posted by gbarto at 1:17 AM:
Ex-Enron Exec to Plead GuiltyMichael Kopper to surrender $12M in 'criminally derived' assets
But to whom is he turning them over? Low level employees now jobless? Investors and those whose pensions are in jeopardy? The story doesn't say, but we're not holding our breath waiting for the genuinely injured parties to get recompense.
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posted by gbarto at 1:12 AM:
French news round-up:Le Monde leads with "Tsahal between retreat and incursions," about the efforts of the Israeli military to figure out what to do to keep the Israeli people safe. Now, of course, they're withdrawing from some areas and the Palestinians are expected to take charge. Will they? Time will tell. (That one sent straight up from the cliché department.)
Le Figaro also leads with the Israel story, under the headline, "Bethlehem, a fragile truce."
Le Monde runs the floods second, with the headline, "The Floods move North."
Libération has the American president's biggest headache of late up top: "Coalition against war on Iraq."
Notes Libé:
An advocate for overthrowing Saddam Hussein, the American president finds more and more resistance among his allies, and even at the heart of his own party. - Baghdad takes advantage of this to gain time and pick up the support of China and Russia.Do I detect a hint of warning amidst Libé's cackling? Or is this another example of the French being too taken with anti-Americanism to think through the meaning of a union of Mideast tyranny with two aspiring powers that are less than sympathetic to democracy and freedom, even EU style?
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Tuesday, August 20, 2002
posted by gbarto at 12:49 AM:
French news round-up:Says Le Monde: "Flooded Europe fears epidemics." Specifically, the Czechs are worried about what will become of life in zones where floodwaters are receeding. In Germany, meanwhile, 19,000 soldiers have been sent to help rebuild and reinforce dikes.
Secondary Le Monde lead: Abu Nidal is dead. The terrorist, prominent in the '90s, was found shot to death in his Bagdad appartments, according to Palestinian sources. The story, for Francophones, is here. The story is the lead on Le Figaro, which offers "Abu Nidal: death of a master of terror."
Libé is leading with "Harsh Inventory," with respect to a stinging critique of Jospin by a former Public Housing Minister which says he blew it for the Socialists.
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Monday, August 19, 2002
posted by gbarto at 11:58 AM:
Bush to Hold Mini SummitTop officials called to Crawford ranch to discuss 'military transformation'; Iraq may be on agenda
Just got around to reading Bill Saletan's argument about whether there's support, whether Bush can lead, et cetera. It's true that when Scowcroft and Co. start showing up on op-ed pages, a little introspection might be called for. But it's also true that a broad international coalition was both the means to Scowcroft's Iraq invasion in the '90s and the foreign policy establishment's justification for not doing away with Saddam at the time. In other words, Scowcroft, Powell et al would appear to be the fools if they left a menace called Saddam in power for the sake of multilateralism if said multilateralism wasn't necessary. Saletan wonders what Bush can be thinking if the Republican foreign policy establishment from his dad's presidency is against him. Here's an easy answer: That his dad's team blew it, leaving important business unfinished.
Notice that those of the old guard on Bush's new team are making the case for an invasion of Iraq. This may prove simply that they follow orders. But it may also indicate that still being in charge, they have to put current realities ahead of past glories. As to the big question, is Iraq responsible for 9/11? The answer is: of course not. Certainly not directly. Saddam is smarter than to take on the US directly. He knows that doesn't work very well and is not under the delusion that if he starts a war Allah will finish it. But he is funding the suicide bombers, is supporting other forms of terror and until he's gone he will continue to keep things messed up enough that it will be harder to shut down those who threaten Israel and the US from conviction, rather than as part of a strategy to become king of the hill.
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Sunday, August 18, 2002
posted by gbarto at 11:45 PM:
Welch is picking on the rabbit.* * *
posted by gbarto at 11:27 PM:
French news round-up:The floods have again risen to the top of Le Monde after virtually disappearing from last night's page. The headline: "The Floods Overtake Northern Germany." Of course water's not all they're knee deep in. Earlier, this was just a whisper about how far the greens' rhetoric could go, but now Le Monde's one paragraph summary reveals that "A German minister is denouncing the United States' irresponsibility in matters of climate protection." That minister is Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, and you can read about her here. Bottom line, she's saying indirectly that this wouldn't have happened if the US had ratified Kyoto and followed its provisions. Worse, the not so unheard of Joschka Fisher, Germany's Foreign Minister, is arguing that the floods prove the Greens are right and the world must hearken to their message.
We'll refrain from commentary except to offer the extremely nasty note that we in the US aren't the first people that German socialists have scapegoated in an irrational manner.
Le Figaro leads with "Nightmare at the back of a wood," on the discovery of the bodies of the two little English girls who disappeared last week. Their second story carries the title "John Paul II's goodbye ceremony," and indicates that the Pope's return to Poland has the flavor of a parting ritual and that the pontiff might be looking to the end of his time as Pope.
Nothing new at Libé.
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posted by gbarto at 11:08 PM:
New at gbarto.com, a few more book pages. I've mentioned the addition of a page with a few sci-fi selections and some philosophy primers. Now there's also a page with my recommendations for learning French, Italian, Spanish or German.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:09 PM:
Israeli Bus Company to Sue Arafat over BombingsIf they can get a judgment, I understand Arafat's got the money - in Swiss accounts. Good luck.
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posted by gbarto at 12:56 PM:
According to the Corriere della Sera, the economic crisis in Argentina is turning into a mess all across society. Violence is at a record high with a crime every 6 seconds. Violent crime up 300% in the last 10 years, murder up 223%. And last month, 800,000 people took refuge in emergency centers at one point or another.This is what happens when the World Bank, the IMF and the government attempt to manipulate an economy. As awful as market forces are (and out here in Silicon Valley they aren't pretty), at least they attempt to assess the reality on the ground. While the markets may be misled and may overcorrect, still they work with a reality that, let's face it, can only change so fast. As a result, our NASDAQ and DJIA tumbled, but they didn't go to zero. But in Argentina, where the government had been playing games for several years and international organizations were attempting to rewrite economic reality, there was no good way for any market - from the stock market to the local grocer seeing what he could get for a loaf of bread - to know what anything was worth, what would become scarce, thus valuable, when artificial supports disappeared and so on. The result is the chaos we now see. Let's hope that when things slow down enough for a clear-eyed assessment of what of value remains in Argentina - including its people and natural resources - there will be something left that the current violence has not destroyed. And let's hope that in the future, those parties both inside and outside Argentina that take on the task of rebuilding will focus on creating real value, not clever ploys for giving the appearance of value - be it pols playing with the books or IMFers playing with exchange rates.
Btw: here's a WaPo story on Argentina, Brazil and loans. Note that it's a week old.
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posted by gbarto at 12:27 PM:
Cruise Missile ThreatReport: Rumsfeld warns enemies are increasingly to obtain weapon
Wonder how that got by the grammar checker.
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posted by gbarto at 12:07 PM:
Oh, the horrors! Joanne Jacobs shares a tale of woe.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:59 AM:
Bishops Proceed Cautiously in Carrying Out Abuse PolicyNo need to click through; just thought I'd pass along the NYT headline.
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posted by gbarto at 12:47 AM:
A Dog's Life to postmodern directors: Let our operas go!His point is well taken. Updated operas are one thing; altered operas another. As a general rule, I prefer operas set in their original time period for the simple reason that translations to new time period mess things up. However, the sight of Don Juan and Leporello munching Big Macs and fries in Peter Sellars' update of Mozart keeps me from holding to strongly to this opinion. But... if Don Juan had escaped death because moral condemnation was dead, that would have been another thing. It sounds like Greg's witnessed some similarly grave offenses against classic opera lately.
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posted by gbarto at 12:36 AM:
President of Counterterrorism Consulting Firm Arrested in New MexicoROSWELL, N.M. — Federal agents found more than 2,000 small missiles worth $54 million when they raided the workplace of a Canadian counterterrorism consultant, who was arrested, court records say.It's just like the NRA warned: When small missiles are outlawed, only outlaws will have small missiles.
Update: Den Beste has a much better joke.
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posted by gbarto at 12:33 AM:
German Village Braces for FloodRiver Elbe rises to historic high; European death toll hits 105
Fox News on the floods.
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posted by gbarto at 12:32 AM:
Envoy: Russia, Iraq to Sign $40B DealWhite House says of economic cooperation plan, 'Russia understands its obligations under United Nations Security Council resolutions'
Yep. But Russia also understands $40B, a fact known to Saddam - who is desperate for any international relation he can build. The bigger question is how the deal will work out if the government of Iraq changes. If I were Putin, I'd be pushing for lots of cash upfront.
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posted by gbarto at 12:27 AM:
Away all day, but here's theFrench news round-up:
The floods have receeded from Le Monde's headlines. The big story today: "Iraq: Bush digs in despite critics."
Le Figaro, however, fronts "European War Council on the Flood Front," regarding a meeting between German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, EU President Romano Pradi and several Eastern European leaders about addressing the costs of the various floods through Central Europe this week.
And alas, the two English girls whose fates had worried all Europe were killed; two people are in custody.
Libération, for its part, hasn't updated since last night.
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