Month: February 2011

by Zoe Pollock

 Deron Bauman eagerly awaits Werner Herzog's new 3D film, and rereads Judith Thurman's 2008 New Yorker essay:

The question of who “they” were speaks to a mystery that thinking people of every epoch and place have tried to fathom: who are we? In the century since the modern study of caves began, specialists from at least half a dozen disciplines—archeology, ethnology, ethology, genetics, anthropology, and art history—have tried (and competed) to understand the culture that produced them. The experts tend to fall into two camps: those who can’t resist advancing a theory about the art, and those who believe that there isn’t, and never will be, enough evidence to support one. … Yet no one who studies the caves seems able to resist a yearning for communion with the artists. When you consider that their legacy may have been found by chance, but surely wasn’t left by chance, it, too, suggests a yearning for communion—with us, their descendants.

by Zoe Pollock

Andrew Leonard refutes Mitt Romney's claim that CEOs make for great presidents:

One could even argue that the American CEO has the worst possible preparation for the job of president — for switching from a job in which there is absolute power to serve a very narrow interest, to a position in which there is extremely limited power, but a mandate to serve the general interest.

Jamelle Bouie sympathizes:

Government service is hard, and even low-profile elected officials have a tough job ahead of them. Underpaid (considering their credentials) and rarely appreciated, they have the mostly unenviable job of writing laws, hashing out legislation, and trying to represent the interests and aspirations of their constituents. Not everyone can do this, and it diminishes lawmakers to tout "business experience" as the only thing you need to successfully run (or participate in) a government.

 

 

by Zoe Pollock

Reuters:

Although things are much calmer in Cairo today, there is still dramatic footage emerging online from days gone by. This footage (after the two-minute mark) seems to show a civilian shot by the police in Alexandria. Be warned: it is graphic and may offend some. Al Jazeera reporter Ayman Mohyeldin, was appealing for more information about this video just before he was taken into military custody.

The Guardian on the most recent developments:

10.08pm: In an interview on Fox News, Barack Obama says he believes Egypt is "not going to go back to what it was", and that the time for change is now. …

Obama also said he believed the Muslim Brotherhood is only one faction in Egypt and that they do not have majority support. He added that they are well-organised and that there are some strains of their ideology that are anti-American.

AJE:

11:45pm The US state department has said that Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, spoke last night with Ahmed Shafik, the Egyptian prime minister. Clinton emphasized the need to ensure that the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people are met, and that a broad cross-section of political actors and civil society have to be a part of the Egyptian-led process.  She also stressed that incidents of harassment and detention of activists, journalists and other elements of civil society must stop.

8:52pm Reports of human chains created to block the army tanks from entering the Tahrir Square.

Blake Hounshell takes stock:

No question, the protesters have won some important victories: Mubarak and his son are finished in Egyptian politics, and a number of the most corrupt party figures have been cashiered. Tens of thousands of young Egyptians have risked their lives and their livelihoods and inspired the entire world with their courage (this incredible footage of last Friday's epic battle on Qasr el-Nil bridge leading into the square gives you a taste of it). One of the most common phrases you hear in Tahrir Square is "we've regained our dignity" — the protesters are enormously proud of what they've done, and rightly so.

But there are no signs that the regime is willing to concede any fundamental authority, and plenty of signs that it is trying to tire and isolate the protesters politically, divide opposition movements and groups in order to weaken them, and stall for time in the hopes of going back to business as usual.

The Guardian summarizes events of the afternoon:

Details of concessions agreed by Omar Suleiman at a meeting with groups have emerged. Concessions include liberalisation of the media and the release of political prisoners. Suleiman's office noted that a transition of authority will take place "within the constitutional framework".

The negotiations were criticised by opposition leaders Mohamed ElBaradei and Ayman Nour. The British protester Khalid Abadalla said the concessions are "not enough" and that protesters would stay until Mubarak goes.

 A new batch of WikiLeaks cables reveals that Suleiman has long sought to demonise the Muslim Brotherhood in his contacts with a sceptical US.

Reuters:

Opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei says he was not invited to the talks on Egypt's future and says the talks lack credibility.

Sandmonkey tweets to a video of the Christian Mass in Tehrir:

Please note that under Mubarak's rule, this has never happened. #jan25

And:

Can u imagine the briefing Mubarak gets on Tahrir now? Singing, poetry reciting, religious service , weddings, honeymooners..Awesome #jan25

EA features a collection of photos from today of protest city in Tahrir. And in other good news, Al Jazeera's correspondent was released:

Ayman Mohyeldin, an Al Jazeera correspondent who was detained while covering the unrest in Egypt, has been released. He was seized by the Egyptian military near Tahrir Square in Cairo on Sunday, but was freed seven hours later following a concerted appeal by the network and supporters of Mohyeldin.

But there is still cause for concern:

Amnesty International today warned that a Google employee reportedly arrested in Cairo during mass protests is facing a serious risk of torture and other ill-treatment by Egyptian security forces.

Father of two Wael Ghuneim was arrested by Egyptian security forces on 28 January 2011 during protests in Cairo, eyewitnesses said. His whereabouts remain unknown.

by Zoe Pollock

Daniel Zalewski visits Guillermo del Toro, who was supposed to direct the Hobbit movies, in his lavish workspace:

He has said of his fetish for the macabre, “It’s as hard to explain as a sexual proclivity. Some guys like high-heeled shoes. I like horror.” The size of the collection was disconcerting; it was as if the 40-Year-Old Virgin had been handed a three-million-dollar decorating budget. Del Toro owned more than five thousand comic books and several puppets of Nosferatu. On a shelf, a posed plastic figurine of Leatherface, from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” battled Edward Scissorhands. A life-size statue of Boris Karloff, in the guise of Frankenstein’s Creature, lurked in a corner of the dining room. At one point, del Toro issued the apt warning, “This is the room where I keep most of my aliens.”

by Zoe Pollock

After last week's visit to the Russian and Turkish baths in New York, I think this one's seasonally appropriate:

(Hat tip: Bonnie Downing) 

by Conor Friedersdorf

Ben Greenman reports on the hazards of political bets on the Super Bowl.

Fairbanks, Alaska, 11.28 am

by Conor Friedersdorf

That's Joe Posnanski's advice:

Twenty-two people crash into each other, an official kind of guesses where he should spot the ball, it's about as imprecise as it can possibly be… and then they measure the thing to a hundredth of an inch. I mean, it's ludicrous. And as I have pointed out before, what often happens then is that they throw the football across the field and re-spot it… I say bring the chains back out. Sometimes you will see a center move the ball up a couple of inches before he snaps it… I say bring the chains out yet again.

Chains? Really? That's the measuring device we are using?

When was the last time anything was measured by chains? What was that, about 160 BC? "Spartacus, he's about 20 links tall now." Chains. You have to be kidding me. It's so much a part of football we NEVER think about it, but it's absolute ludicrous. This is the most successful sports league in America, and they're measuring with perhaps the least precise measuring tool available. It's like the Flintstones. Seriously: How do they keep the chains in a perfect straight line? If they're not in a straight line, then you might be measuring less than 10 yards. How hard do you pull the chain to make it exactly 10 yards? They couldn't use a tape measure or a laser or something?

by Zoe Pollock

"Coyotes" by Mark Jarman ran in The Atlantic in May, 2003:

Is this world truly fallen? They say no.
For there's the new moon, there's the Milky Way,
There's the rattler with a wren's egg in its mouth,
And there's the panting rabbit they will eat.
They sing their wild hymn on the dark slope,
Reading the stars like notes of hilarious music.
Is this a fallen world? How could it be?

And yet we're crying over the stars again,
And over the uncertainty of death,
Which we suspect will divide us all forever.
I'm tired of those who broadcast their certainties,
Constantly on their cell phones to their redeemer.
Is this a fallen world? For them it is.
But there's that starlit burst of animal laughter.

The day has sent its fires scattering.
The night has risen from its burning bed.
Our tears are proof that love is meant for life
And for the living. And this chorus of praise,
Which the pet dogs of the neighborhood are answering
Nostalgically, invites our answer, too.
Is this a fallen world? How could it be?

(Photo: An anti-government protestors stand inside a destroyed bus used as barricade near Tahrir Square in central Cairo, on February 06, 2011, as people gather for the 13th straight day calling for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak's regime . By Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)

by Zoe Pollock

Stefany Anne Golberg sums up the insane scheme of Dennis Chamberland, star of the recent VBS.TV episode that aims to colonize the ocean with people:

[H]e wants his undersea colonists to be Americans, to live under U.S. rules. It makes perfect sense. The secret whispers of redemption and renewal in Chamberland’s efforts are right in line with all the American idealists that have come before him. “We are not running away from anything,” he writes, “but instead are running toward the new dominion of man.” It could have been written by Donnelly himself, but also by the Shakers, or Thoreau, or any number of the founding fathers.