Some director news in brief: Spielberg’s Vengeance is now Munich, Sofia Coppola takes historical liberties with Marie Antoinette, and John Woo may be plotting a comeback with The War of the Red Cliff, a Crouching Tiger-esque tale rumored to star Tony Leung, Andy Lau, Ken Watanabe, and Chow Yun-Fat. Now, that’s a cast, and no mistake.
Category: History
Judge Roberts, Judging Rove.
Federalist Society or no, John Roberts now seems almost assured of winning confirmation as the Supreme Court’s newest justice (barring an eleventh hour revelation of impropriety, of course.) So, the Dems plan for the next best thing, which is to use the Roberts hearings as political theater with which to expose general right-wing looniness. Hmmm. Might work, I suppose. Hopefully, the Dems will keep their eye on the ball and make sure any gamesmanship on Roberts doesn’t suck the press away from the still-growing White House felony investigation, which now seems to include possible perjury and obstruction of justice charges for Rove, Libby, et al. Update: Wilson’s revenge? Salon suggests the operative law in the Rove case may be the Espionage Act of 1917, which isn’t what you’d call one of progressivism’s better moments.
Say Cheese.
Via a friend in the program, Google maps the moon to commemorate the 36th anniversary of Apollo 11.
(Civil) Servants of the Republic.
“‘It seems obvious that a great republic cannot sustain itself unless its citizens participate in their own government,’ Byrd said. ‘But how can they participate meaningfully if they don’t know the fundamental principles on which their government is founded?‘” Senator Robert Byrd introduces legislation that requires federal workers to learn more about the Constitution. I’m all for the principle — in fact, I strongly believe in more civics education in public schools — but, by the time people start working for the government, it’s probably a little late. Still, no harm, no foul.
Beam Him Up.
R.I.P. James “Scotty” Doohan 1920-2005. From the beaches at Normandy to the Enterprise engine room, he was a good man in a pinch.
Chesapeake Fury.
Hey…quiet around here again, I know. As of this week, I’ve moved my summer base of operations from New Amsterdam to my folks’ place in Chesapeake, VA. (I’m sure Jack Greene would approve.) And, otherwise, I’m pretty well swamped with some freelance work. So, posting may well be light this week, or it might not…perhaps I can squeeze in some blogging between trips to Chick-Fil-A.
The Race Card Shell Game.
“Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong.” (And, now that we’ve got all the racist white freakshows definitively in the bag, we’re coming for you…) RNC Chair Ken Mehlman will apparently apologize for the “Southern Strategy” before the NAACP today. Well, I presume there nobody will fall for this ridiculous ruse…Just ask Katharine Harris.
Harry Potter and the Angry Rottweiler.
On the eve of the Half-Blood Prince, letters are unearthed in which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, decries the Harry Potter books. “It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly.” Well, if the future pope could handle the Hitler Youth, I think most kids’ eternal souls should be able to weather the Harry Potter tomes just fine.
What up, dawg (and elbow relations)?
“‘There are no black ovals running around out there and yet they all had the same word for black oval,’ Slobodchikoff said.” Two worthy links on language by way of elsewhere: Do You Feel Loved points the way to this fascinating story on the language of prairie dogs — Apparently, the little critters have words for all kinds of things, and, even more strangely, they all independently come up with the same word when confronted with a new object. And, secondly, The Naked Tree has unearthed this 19th century language primer, which may perchance be exceeding convenient should you need to exercise your demency upon ragamuffins, buckskins, pettifoggers, or even the occasional hooplehead.
“A Republic, If You Can Keep It.”
