Month: November 2010

A reader writes:

Your reader points out that "Song of the South" and "Victory Through Air Power" are not included in the list of 50 animated features. As a lifelong animation fan, I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

Ostensibly, the reader writes, Disney did so because it is ashamed of the films for being un-PC. While this may certainly be true with respect to "Song of the South," I'd point out that "Victory Through Air Power" was released as part of a DVD set within the last decade, suggesting no major conspiracy to sweep it under the rug.

An easier explanation is this: neither film meets the parameters of the list, which I believe is defined as fictional narrative animated features. "Victory Through Air Power" is non-fiction, and this is likely the reason it was excluded. "Song of the South," like "Mary Poppins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" is a hybrid of live action and animation. Note that neither "Poppins" nor "Bedknobs" is on the list either.

I do think they should release "Song of the South" already. This tiptoeing around the film is just silly.

Another writes:

It is a great tragedy that the Uncle Remus stories are deemed racist and politically incorrect.  Yes, the plantation setting and the Uncle Remus character can make one cringe.  But the folklore itself, recorded by Joel Chandler Harris, is authentic to the slave stories that were told by blacks across the South.  Brer Rabbit is the symbol and exemplar of black survival throughout this brutal and dehumanizing period.  And I think if people read those books and listen to the stories that Uncle Remus is actually telling, they will be forever enriched by the astonishing storytelling power and creativity of American slaves.

My old friend has been doing more and more superb interviews lately, armed only with facts, calm and persistence. Check out this rhetorical dismemberment of a birther.

Check out this refreshing and penetrating analysis of Palin as a politician. Money quote:

Mayor Palin has no goals outside of increasing her own power. She isn’t trying to change the political culture, to protect a set of political values, to make the country stronger or unleash the entrepreneurial spirit. For all his faults of judgment, the unsustainable risks of his brash foreign policy and complete naiveté–shared by almost all of us–about the over-leveraging of our financial sector, George W. Bush did in fact possess a vision about where he wanted to take the country.

What, after all does she believe in, apart from generalities designed to flatter her base and demonize her opponents? My two conclusions: herself and divine destiny.

A great little Wikileaks nugget on the French president, the American ambassador, and a rabbit:

One "rare glimpse of a relaxed Sarkozy" came when the then interior minister and presidential hopeful invited the US ambassador, Craig Stapleton, to see him in 2006, to say how "proud and honoured" he was to soon be meeting Bush. After the exchange, Sarkozy, who is renowned for introducing his son Louis to dignitaries, opened the patio windows and called the nine-year-old. "Louis appeared at the threshold with a small dog at his feet and a large rabbit in his arms," the memo said. "To shake hands with the ambassador, Louis put down the rabbit – and the dog started chasing the rabbit through Sarkozy's office, which led to the unforgettable sight of Sarkozy, bent over, chasing the dog through the anteroom to his office as the dog chased the rabbit, and Louis filled the room with gleeful laughter."

Simon Jenkins lets it rip:

Some stars shine through the banality such as the heroic envoy in Islamabad, Anne Patterson. She pleads that Washington’s whole policy is counterproductive: it “risks destabilising the Pakistani state, alienating both the civilian government and the military leadership, and provoking a broader governance crisis without finally achieving the goal”. Nor is any amount of money going to bribe the Taliban to our side. Patterson’s cables are like missives from the Titanic as it already heads for the bottom.

The money?wasting is staggering. Aid payments are never followed, never audited, never evaluated. The impression is of the world’s superpower roaming helpless in a world in which nobody behaves as bidden. Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, the United Nations, are all perpetually off script. Washington reacts like a wounded bear, its instincts imperial but its power projection unproductive.

America’s foreign policy is revealed as a slave to rightwing drift, terrified of a bomb exploding abroad or of a pro-Israeli congressman at home. If the cables tell of the progress to war over Iran or Pakistan or Gaza or Yemen, their revelation might help debate the inanity of policies which, as Patterson says, seem to be leading in just that direction. Perhaps we can now see how catastrophe unfolds when there is time to avert it, rather than having to await a Chilcot report after the event. If that is not in the public’s interest, I fail to see what is.

Redding, California, 7.30 am

Weigel doesn't see a GOP at war with itself:

In order for there to be a real split in the new GOP, something bigger than a fight for attention or some backbone-stiffening, there needs to be a disagreement on some issue big enough to distract the party from its mission. It needs to be a big enough distraction to make Republicans, Tea Partiers, libertarians, evangelicals, Bo Derek, and everyone else temporarily pause the war on Barack Obama's policies.

So far, nothing is playing that role. 

The writer in Jewish Week actually means four hardcore neocons: John Podhoretz, Bill Kristol, Seth Lipsky, and Joe Lieberman. Why? Because she supports increased and rapid Israeli colonization of the West Bank and war against Iran, and might be able to bring along the Christianist masses in such a new crusade. The Palin-Bill axis is really the old Reagan-Irving axis – history repeated as farce.

A reader writes:

As a transportation-focused environmental advocate, it pains me to see all the fawning over electric cars and their buyers, while ignoring scores of innovations that make bicycling a viable choice for more trips: cargo bikes, folding bikes, bike sharing, workplace showers, secure bicycle parking, and so on. I suppose it's a good thing to make a car that doesn't require any oil, but energy use is only one of the problems with cars, especially in a "livable" urban environment. Show me a car that doesn't require a parking space, then I might be interested.

Another writes:

In the bike mecca of Portland, OR, many of us bike with kids a lot – even in the rain (there are good rain covers for the kids).  My neighbor has a tandem bike that he frequently uses to take his nine-year-old son to school. Then he bikes to work (not too far from the school) alone on the tandem.

Here's a picture of my then-11 month old  in a bike trailer with my wife pulling. Admittedly, the biking with kids is mostly a weekend affair – to the store (throw the groceries in the trailer with the baby and/or in the bike bags if you've got two kids), to friends, etc.  It's a little heavier, but not too bad.  And we generally take the slower route on the less-traveled streets.

(Top photo via Sean Bonner)

Well, some dude called Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey. But wow.