Bangladeshs government on Thursday gave up its executive control over the judiciary, ending a practice that dates back to British rule over the Indian subcontinent. Undoubtedly, it is a historic and momentous day in the history of Bangladesh, said Fakhruddin Ahmed, the head of the army-backed administration. After 200 years of colonial rule and some 36 years after the establishment of independent Bangladesh, today the countrys judiciary has been separated from the executive branch, as per directive of the constitution, he said. This day will be a milestone in establishing the rule of law and justice.
Under the reform, lower courts will come under the control of the chief justice of the Supreme Court, which will also appoint judicial magistrates to take over the lower courts across the country. The government and its law ministry will also no longer have the power to appoint judges, replace or sack them. Political governments used to impose their will on the courts, said Borhanuddin Khan, the dean of Dhaka Universitys law faculty.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/02/2007 00:00 ||
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Alexander Feklisov, the Soviet-era spy chief who oversaw the espionage work of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and helped mediate the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, has died, a Russian official said Friday. He was 93. Feklisov died Oct. 26, said Sergei Ivanov, a spokesman for the Foreign Intelligence Service, one of the successor agencies to the KGB. He gave no cause of death.
Born March 9, 1914, in Moscow to a railroad signalman's family, Feklisov was trained as a radio technician and was recruited into the American department of the KGB's predecessor, the NKVD, according to his official biography posted on the Foreign Intelligence Service's Web site.
He arrived in New York in 1941 and during his five-year stint "completed a series of crucial tasks aimed at acquiring secret scientific-technical information including in the areas of electronics, radiolocation and jet aircraft technology."
Years later, he published an autobiography "The Man Behind the Rosenbergs" in which he described his work guiding the intelligence-gathering work of the couple. The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953 after being convicted of supplying the Soviet Union with top-secret information on U.S. efforts to develop the atomic bomb.
Feklisov said Rosenberg was a Soviet sympathizer who handed over secrets on military electronics, but not the atomic bomb. He said Ethel Rosenberg played no part in spying claims that were consistent with declassified U.S. intercepts of Soviet spy communications.
He was later dispatched to London, where he made contact with Klaus Fuchs, the German-born scientist who worked at the U.S. atom bomb project as well as at Britain's Harwell nuclear research laboratory. Information passed to the Soviets by Fuchs and another spy, David Greenglass, gave the Soviets crucial new information on a new way to ignite an atomic bomb.
In 1950, Fuchs was sentenced to 14 years for disclosing nuclear secrets. "Fuchs ... provided important nuclear information, including on the structure of the hydrogen bomb," according to the intelligence service biography.
Feklisov later spent four years in Washington where he was known as Alexander Fomin and was a behind-the-scenes intermediary between the Kremlin and Washington during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, which brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of war.
A relatively clear-headed look into the future. He doesn't even once mention global warming!
Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) views with alarm developments in some of the world's huge cities, where national police forces are on the retreat, BND President Ernst Uhrlau said in Berlin Thursday.
Uhrlau, who does not reveal his thoughts in public often, named Mumbai, Mexico City and Jakarta, saying they had become partially ungovernable. He noted the rise of private security firms to protect wealthier residents in sealed communities or to support the army, as in Iraq. "The increasing privatisation of core state responsibilities in the military and security areas carries with it the danger - even in Western states - of the erosion of the state's monopoly on the use of force," Uhrlau said.
"The increasing privatisation of core state responsibilities in the military and security areas carries with it the danger - even in Western states - of the erosion of the state's monopoly on the use of force"
He was addressing a conference in Berlin on the theme "Collapse of Order," attended by politicians, diplomats and intelligence service personnel from a number of countries.
International security was being compromised by the retreat of police and military in the face of terrorists, militias and drug dealers in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, he said. "Some states are now only partially able to carry out their original core responsibilities - protecting their people from violence," Uhrlau said. This could lead to the destabilisation of entire regions and promote international terrorism, he warned.
Afghanistan provided a good example of how a "failed state" had provided a base for the al-Qaeda network, Uhrlau said. Europe had its own problems, particularly in the Balkans, where the causes of conflict were "far from overcome."
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called for closer cooperation between German and other intelligence services. He pointed to the cracking in early September of a major German Islamist terror cell with the assistance of other intelligence services.
#1
Obviously Ernst Uhrlau isn't experiencing multicultural induced denial. In addition to "closer intelligence cooperation" which he suggests, it would be interesting to hear more of his commentary on root causes and potential solutions for the future. If we are to establish the framework for our children for the defeat of what certainly appears to be global urban anarchy, futurists like Herr Uhrlau most continue to step forward with ideas and solutions.
#4
"He doesn't even once mention global warming! "
given that we arent sure of the extent of GW, exactly what impact GW will have on economies and migration patterns, etc, thats probably wise. His big concerns are 3rd world megacities - will GW accelerate their growth, by harming 3rd world agriculture, or retard their growth, by harming the 3rd world more generally and creating more migration to the first world? Damned if I know, and I doubt anyone else does.
#5
we arent sure of the extent of GW, exactly what impact GW will have on economies and migration patterns
Are you serious? There's been millions spent studying this stuff.
IT'LL BE BAD, AND GET WORSER. Millions unborn will die, millions now alive will perish. We may save a few million only to face the Red Giant (yes the Sol's a commie) stage of the solar system. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED
So Ima get me a HD TeeVeee.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
11/02/2007 18:16 Comments ||
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#6
IT'LL BE BAD, AND GET WORSER.
unless if it doesn't...
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/02/2007 18:53 Comments ||
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#7
IOW, Germany is worried about SPACE/STAR MAFIAS + LEGAL CRIME/FRAUD???
The White House on Thursday sympathized with Arab-Americans who took offense to a memo that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote saying that "oil wealth has made Muslims averse to physical labor." Rumsfeld's belief is "not at all in line with the president's views," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
As Pentagon chief, Rumsfeld wrote scores of internal memos which employees called "snowflakes." In May 2004, Rumsfeld wrote that oil wealth had left Muslims detached from the "reality of the work and investment that leads to wealth for the rest of the world." "Too often Muslims are against physical labor, so they bring in Koreans and Pakistanis while their young people remain unemployed," Rumsfeld wrote in one of several memos published by The Washington Post. "An unemployed population is easy to recruit to radicalism."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/02/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"An unemployed population is easy to recruit to radicalism." Rumsfeld
Wasn't Mohammed at 25 married to a wealthy merchant woman?
#8
It has long been a arab custom to raid other tribes for slaves and make them do the hard work. Not working = physical wealth/success. Much like our own capitalistic keeping up with the Jones' tendencies. While this has helped keep us viewing a good work ethic as positive, the opposite has happened in the arab world. It is better to get some other sucker to do the work for you.
#9
"oil wealth has made Muslims averse to physical labor."
The Philippine government reports that of the 43000 Filipino maids working in Saudi Arabia, about 4000 seek their embassy's assistance each year.
http://www.time.com/time/international/1995/951023/justice.html
George, just like your blindness to the murder, robbery and rape by illegals in this country because you're focused on Maria and her kids, the rest of us down in the trenches see something entirely different.
A Saudi man convicted of sexually assaulting an Indonesian housekeeper and keeping her as a virtual slave was sentenced yesterday to 27 years to life in prison in Colorado.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/012947.php
I know, it wasn't oil, he made his money in the early distribution of iPods, right?
Why don't you ask your Pentagon officials why the Saudis just picked up Soviet Russian equipment, the low end stuff that requires a lot less maintenance and up keep than Western stuff.
#11
I dont think its fair to accuse all muslims of a social phenomenon largely restricted to KSA and the gulf states.
Israeli joke:
Old man takes his city born grandson on a tour of the kibbutz.
"See those buildings over there? I built them with my own hands"
"Grandpa, I didnt know you were an Arab."
#12
I can't remember what the river's name is but is separates Israel from the Palos. On the Israel side the fields are lush and fertile. On the Palo side it is a dust bin.
Darth is right, slave labor has been a main stay in the culture (Sudan post yesterday) for a millenia.
Wasn't Mohammed at 25 married to a wealthy merchant woman?
Yes. muhamhead was a leach all his adult life down to the last minute. From the raids in Medina to his Jewish slave girl who may have poisoned him.
Regardless Bush shouldn't have wasted his time commenting on this. Not all countries and muzzies are averse to labor but slavery and murder are part of the foundation of the moon goddess cult.
I'm sure Zen will jump in here with some more historical references.
"The Saudi's are the laziest people on the planet. We had a standing bet in the press pool that the first person to see a Saudi lift anything heavier than money would win the bet -- nobody won"
Posted by: James ||
11/02/2007 14:14 Comments ||
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#14
The White House on Thursday sympathized with Arab-Americans who took offense to a memo that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote saying that "oil wealth has made Muslims averse to physical labor." Rumsfeld's belief is "not at all in line with the president's views," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
Perish the thought of the Master Race getting its hands dirty. Also, complaining that this is a smear on all Muslims misses the important qualification that Rumsfeld made with respect to "oil wealth". I'm certain there are many hard-working Muslims in the less fortunate Arab nations. However, our attentionand that of Rumsfeld's memo is and rightly should be focused upon those who are most capable and most desirous of doing us harm. Petro-dollar fueled Saudi terrorism conducted by elitist royals who view themselves as ubermensch are those people.
I'd also say that a quick examination of all the big Arab oil exporters would validate Rumsfeld's observation. Moreover, Darth absolutely nails the more pervasive syndrome. Much like the colonial Spanish, Islam is the spawn of a looting culture.
It has long been a arab custom to raid other tribes for slaves and make them do the hard work. Not working = physical wealth/success. Much like our own capitalistic keeping up with the Jones' tendencies. While this has helped keep us viewing a good work ethic as positive, the opposite has happened in the arab world. It is better to get some other sucker to do the work for you.
It is this prestige of both control and avoidance of manual labor that stands at the root of why the Islamic world is so economically, technologically, spiritually and mentally retarded. Without direct application of themselves to everyday problem solving it is their slaves who were obliged to make whatever innovations that have been made. This does not lend well to any sort of industrial revolution as can easily be seen in both Islam and Spain to this very day. A cursory survey of how even the fabulously wealthy Saudis cannot keep operate and maintain something so rudimentary as an oil refinery stands as stark proof of this.
The yawning gulf that is the discrepancy between Jewish and Muslim Nobel Prizes stands as searing testimony to this simple fact. Even more difficult to disregard is how the recent Nobel Prizes won by Muslims like Arafat and ElBaradei rank as some of the most farcical and ludicrous awards given in modern times. Arafat and ElBaradei epitomize how deceit and manipulation are glorified in Islamic culture just as the immensely negative downward ramifications of aversion to physical labor and retrogressive culture are direct manifestations of this.
Bush's decline into Muslim appeaser and apologist is nothing short of revolting.
#15
While this has helped keep us viewing a good work ethic as positive, the opposite has happened in the arab world. It is better to get some other sucker to do the work for you.
This happens here too, it's called Employees, bosses do no work, the peons do it all, and the bosses get rich.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/02/2007 15:22 Comments ||
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#16
"can't remember what the river's name is but is separates Israel from the Palos. On the Israel side the fields are lush and fertile. On the Palo side it is a dust bin."
You can't cause there isnt any. If it were, it would make the whole fence thingie a helluva lot simpler.
In the 1970s and 1980s Pal day laborers became the MAIN source of labor on Israeli contruction sites, and remained so till the intifadah made Pal labour supply too unreliable (too many border closings) and caused Israel to use east asian and balkan guest workers instead. The US imports labor, Europe does, even Japan does now, I think. Its simply a logical response to having a high wage economy.
The Saudis are different cause they got their wealth from oil, not from economic development. Which is a big issue for KSA society, I agree, but its not some huge thing about muslims. You think Bengalis dont to manual labor? Malaysians? I mean WTF?
Ayman Awat has turned up early at Jordan's national boxing arena and, as he puts his gloves on, the previous pair of trainees is still sparring in the ring. The two fighters are hopelessly mismatched in height and weight, and the little one has to fight a desperate rearguard action. "Easy, easy," the little one appeals, and the coach in the ring intervenes angrily. "What's all this 'easy?'," he demands. "You're supposed to be fighters!"
Awat, who boxes at 69 kilograms for the Jordanian national team, frowns at the pair sparring. "I don't agree with this at all," he says darkly. "It's a physical thing. They shouldn't fight, they should stay at home. A woman should be a lady."
Women's boxing is not a mainstream sport in the deeply conservative Middle East, yet it does exist in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.
And Awat's branch of the sport can no longer get by without it: Olympic rule changes decree that if a country does not have a women's team then it cannot enter its male fighters in most major tournaments. "That's why we had the idea of women boxing," says Walid Jarrar, a committee member of the Jordanian Amateur Boxing Association. "I have no problem with it," he continues gallantly. "I'd let my own wife box. I'm already teaching her tennis and swimming."
Right now, though, the association has all the women it wants four of them. All were recruited onto the police force, then seconded to box full time. Or at least, to train full-time. Despite having sparred together for two years now, the four have yet to fight a competitive bout.
That will change next month, at an Arab women's tournament in Tunisia. "Some of them started boxing five years before us and have had lots of fights so I'm a little bit worried about it," says Rudeinah Hejazeen, 24, the biggest of the four Jordanian women at 78 kilograms. "But I'll live. And because there aren't that many Arab women boxing at my weight I might even do well."
It is hard to avoid the suspicion that Jordan's method of setting up its women's team owes more to its ambitions for its male boxers than to any desire to see local women in the ring. None of the four comes from Jordan's Muslim and Arab mainstream. The three Muslims on the team, who train in hijabs, are members of Jordan's small minority of African descent. The fourth, Rudeinah, is a Christian.
#1
"A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more you beat them, the better they be."
-- Thomas Fuller, English Churchman and satirical wit, who was even kidding about it in the mid-17th Century.
#2
"If he beats her, the beatings must be light and must not make her face ugly.
"He must beat her where it will not leave marks. He should not beat her on the hand... He should beat her in some places where it will not cause any damage. He should not beat her like he would beat an animal or a child -- slapping them right and left.
So from this I take it this guy is either some kinda pimp or a Muslim scholar...
Bingo, Ice. Yusuf Qaradawithe closest Islam has to a Popewho is widely regarded as a "moderate Mulim" also spews this "beat them lightly" bullshit. Muslim women need to attend lectures by Lorena Bobbitt.
#6
One of the great movie woman beating scenes was by Wings Hauser, as the pimp "Ramrod", using a wire hangar to beat one of his girls, in the movie Vice Squad. He was such a good villain that audience gave the police a standing ovation when they finally killed him. Not *that's* a good villain.
Scientists at Case Western Reserve University have genetically engineered mice that outrun, outlive, and out-eat ordinary mice while staying lean, light, and fertile well into old age.
Chalk it up to a change in a single gene. That genetic tweak boosted levels of an enzyme called PEPCK-C in the mice's skeletal muscles, knocking mice's muscle metabolism into orbit. "They are metabolically similar to Lance Armstrong biking up the Pyrenees," researcher Richard Hanson, PhD, says in a news release.
Will they be entered in the Tour de Mouse?
The mighty mice were seven times more active than normal mice. They showed unusually high levels of activity in their cages from the time they were 2 weeks old. Running on special treadmills designed for mice, the genetically engineered mice left ordinary mice in the dust. . . .
A major unanswered question, Hanson's team notes, is what brain changes accompany the genetically engineered mice's hyped-up activity.
"What're we gonna do tonight, Brain?"
"The same thing we do every night, Pinky: try to take over the world!"
"Egad, Brain, brilliant!"
Posted by: Mike ||
11/02/2007 11:26 ||
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#1
I sure hope their lab has some serious security. All we need is for some 'animal rights' bozo (or distracted grad student) to let 'em out and then we've got 100 trillion mice locusts in short order.
#2
I have this mental image, a note on the front door.
"If you want to see the cat again, leave 10 pounds of cheddar by the mailbox".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/02/2007 15:28 Comments ||
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#3
Yes, doctor. We can rebuild them, we can make them better, we can turn them into super mice.
Or, we can pick them up by the tail and...BANG...crush their little skulls on the washing machine.
Bow down to me, Super Mice.
#4
I have suspected for years that the key problem underlying Type II diabetes & obesity is a restriction on energy output at the cellular level. Not due to overeating. Not due to insufficient exercise. Not due to defective will-power. Just what causes this restriction is still being researched. These PEPCK-C mice have their energy output vastly bumped up, like turbocharging an engine, by the genetic modification.
The study did not mention what might happen to these mice if they went on a diet. Critters which burn up a lot of energy regardless of how little they eat will tend to waste away/starve to death sooner than critters that are able to conserve their body's energy/weight. A tendency to obesity may be a side-effect of a beneficial genetic adaptation to deal with too little food, a problem which has been much more frequent in human history than too much food.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
11/02/2007 18:25 Comments ||
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#6
MICE-ZILLAS? JURASSIC PARK series . GMed 'Dactyls and 'Teranodons, etc. flying OTH to distant, civilized lands and nesting??? Jinx the Kat got trouble now.
#1
Hot Air audio: University of Delaware professor speaks out
by Bryan
today I interviewed Dr. Linda Gottfredson of the University of Delaware. She and a colleague, Dr. Jan Blits, led the way in exposing and ultimately stopping the universitys insidious indoctrination of students via on-campus housing. We discuss some aspects of the program that havent been in the press yet, how and why she and Dr. Blits exposed it, and its origins in groups like the American College Personnel Association and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, both of which push the agenda and materials that made up the Delaware program.
Journalism: The debate is over. A consensus has been reached. On global warming? No, on how Democrats are favored on television, radio and in the newspapers.
Just like so many reports before it, a joint survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy hardly a bastion of conservative orthodoxy found that in covering the current presidential race, the media are sympathetic to Democrats and hostile to Republicans.
Democrats are not only favored in the tone of the coverage. They get more coverage period. This is particularly evident on morning news shows, which "produced almost twice as many stories (51% to 27%) focused on Democratic candidates than on Republicans."
The most flagrant bias, however, was found in newspapers. In reviewing front-page coverage in 11 newspapers, the study found the tone positive in nearly six times as many stories about Democrats as it was negative.
Breaking it down by candidates, the survey found that Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were the favorites. "Obama's front page coverage was 70% positive and 9% negative, and Clinton's was similarly 61% positive and 13% negative."
In stories about Republicans, on the other hand, the tone was positive in only a quarter of the stories; in four in 10 it was negative.
The study also discovered that newspaper stories "tended to be focused more on political matters and less on issues and ideas than the media overall. In all, 71% of newspaper stories concentrated on the 'game,' compared with 63% overall."
Television has a similar problem. Only 10% of TV stories were focused on issues, and here, too, Democrats get the better of it.
Reviewing 154 stories on evening network newscasts over the course of 109 weeknights, the survey found that Democrats were presented in a positive light more than twice as often as they were portrayed as negative. Positive tones for Republicans were detected in less than a fifth of stories while a negative tone was twice as common.
The gap between Democrats and Republicans narrows on cable TV, but it's there nonetheless. Stories about Democrats were positive in more than a third of the cases, while Republicans were portrayed favorably in fewer than 29%. Republican led in unfriendly stories 30.4% to 25.5%.
CNN was the most hostile toward Republicans, MSNBC, surprisingly, the most positive. MSNBC was also the most favorable toward Democrats (47.2%), Fox (36.8%) the most critical.
The anti-GOP attitude also lives on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition." There, Democrats were approvingly covered more than a third as often as Republicans. Negative coverage of Democrats was a negligible 5.9%. It seemed to be reserved for Republicans, who were subject to one-fifth of the program's disparaging reports.
Even talk radio, generally considered a bastion of conservatism, has been relatively rough on the GOP. On conservative shows, Obama got more favorable treatment (27.8%) than Rudy Giuliani (25%). Sen. John McCain got a 50% favorability rating while Mitt Romney led the three GOP candidates with 66.7%.
The PEG-Shorenstein effort is only the latest to conclude that the mainstream media tilt left. Others include Stanley Rothman and Robert Lichter's groundbreaking 1986 book "The Media Elite"; "A Measure of Media Bias," a 2005 paper written by professors from UCLA and the University of Missouri; and Bernard Goldberg's two books, "Bias" and "Arrogance." All underscore the media's leftward leanings.
The media, of course, insist they are careful to keep personal opinions out of their coverage. But the facts tell another story one that can't be edited or spiked.
#1
Interesting that newsroom bias has gotten so bad even Harvard can find it. And its not jsut politics but the war as well.
One of the "pillars of democracy" is rotting, at the head, and from the inside.
This is one of the things that alarms me so much. The Press has turned partisan, and is institutionally turning into "Pravda" supporting liberalism and the Democrats at the expense of objectivity and unbiased reporting. They are trying to push the nation into a single collectivist party state.
Its professional malpractice on an epic scale. They are not only failing to inform the public, they are actively mal-informing the public and destroying the true basis for democracy - an informed public.
If our republic fails, the cheif culprit will be the failure of the mainstream media to do their job, to inform, not indoctrinate, the public.
#2
Actually Spook, they started off partisan. Look around at the sheets who's titles still include Democrat, Republican, and Independent. The game that was played in the last century, was to hide that blaring fact. The lie is that they've really ever been non-partisan. It was a con game both on the public and seemingly enough upon themselves to the extent some inside believe it.
That is also coupled with the Orwellian evolution of the term 'bias'. Everyone is bias towards something in one degree or another. In the left's universe, 'bias' means 'those who don't agree with me'. That is why they don't see 'bias' in television, print or other media - only talk radio and the net. These same people argued for decades that institutions dominated by old white males were by nature bias against minorities and women. Yet, they can not fathom why institutions composed of 90% 'liberal' registered Democrats can be considered 'biased'. The term means something different between them and us.
#3
I'm not saying that the reporters do not have their biases- we all do, its human nature. WHat I am pointing out is that there needs to be a good distribution of bias so we get all sides fo a story, and its up to us to use our judgement, instead of being spoon fed pre-selected one-sided things.
And that is the failure of the modren MSM - its hiding thier bias and becoming a monoculture in the process. The newsroom is as friendly a place to conservvatives now as the Soviet Union was to individualists. This has to change - the so-called "openess" that liberals brag about does not exist - yet its the very thing that woudl save them and the republic - being open to conservativism individuaism, and the supporters of such.
#4
I think the press has always been partisan in one way or another. We are sensitive to it because those oxen being gored are our OUR oxen. I recently had the opportunity to read through some papers and letters from the civil war period (again). I was struck by the similarity in tone to today's journalists. There is not one to one equivalence, but the partisan bickering seemed more venomous then than today. Political fever swamps are not new.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
11/02/2007 12:41 Comments ||
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#6
Reminds me of that article here in 2004 with one newsweek editor confessing to a fellow insider that the msm coverage of kerry was boosting his candidacy by 15 points in the polls, or an another post-election article with a think tank finding that the 2004 campaign had been the most lopsided in term of favorable/defavorable coverage in more than 50 years.
#7
OS is on it - in the pat yellow journalism was rampant, but you knew where the bias lay (lies?) - todays Journos proclaim even coverage while doing the same bias - that's the lie, and teh declining readerships convey the consequences. Is Fox "conservative"? Prolly, especially when compared to a network that employs Olbermann. At least with Fox's opinion shows, you know what you're getting, see: O'Reilly ( I don't watch him), Hannity and Colmes - who could pretend they don't know which side either is on? I think their news shows are balanced, but I guess that makes me a right wingnut
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/02/2007 19:00 Comments ||
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#1
They have writers in Hollywood? What comes out of there sounds more like the demented ravings of unhinged leftists and "moral relativists". Useless in any case.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/02/2007 9:40 Comments ||
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#2
Now we'll get even more reality TV. Thanks, fellas.
#5
They are striking right when several studios might collapse anyway, because of an enormous run of stinker movies.
In the short term, Hollywood is betting on just two to make any money at all: "American Gangster", with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, and the animated "Bee Movie".
Amusingly, AG is opening opposite the anti-war "Lions and Lambs", with Cruise, Redford, and Streep; which judging from its test audience died the death of a thousand dogs, along with the other anti-war box office ebola movies.
And not only might L&L ruin Cruise's newly resurrected United Artists, but it might even sink MGM, desperate for money during the current credit crunch.
The icing on the cake is that, except for the sequel to Elizabeth, which didn't do well though not a bad movie, dragged down by the deluge of stinkers, *nothing* stands to get any Oscars at all. So studios are trying to throw out any crapola they can, hoping for an Oscar boost next year.
And *this* is the time to go on strike? Eek.
Several of the other major studios might also be sold off by their corporate overlords, with miserable returns to sizable investments.
#6
Hollywood is pro leftist, and anti-military, so they are our enemy. Therefore, we should celebrate all this good news. It's another sign that Americans are standing tall for cultural values passed down to us from our founding fathers, with a few corrections from the good, fearless President Lincoln.
#10
Hollywood writers striking is like Congress shutting down--it is a good thing if anyone will really notice. Don't strike; don't throw me into the briar patch.
#12
Ditto John Q. I never thought they had any writers in the first place, I look for a huge improvement in the current drivel.
(Almost anything would be better, including no movies at all)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/02/2007 15:17 Comments ||
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#13
How will the Hollyweird "intelligentsia" sound intelligent without someone to write their scripts for them?
#14
"American Gangster", with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, and the animated "Bee Movie".
From the commercials, I plan to see NEITHER ONE.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/02/2007 15:31 Comments ||
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#15
Should we feel some sympathy for the myraid of workers that will be affected by this action: the caterers, the set personnel, the grips, electicians, limo drivers,etc., that while not on strike will not be working? Surely some of them are US Citizens...(or as my lovely daugter says, " no I don't feel any sympathy and quit calling me Shirley. Apple, Tree. Fall. Not far)
#17
I'm looking forward to prime time reruns of the Beverly Hillbillies. Now, that good writin'.
Posted by: ed ||
11/02/2007 16:08 Comments ||
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#18
I'm seeing AG tomorrow. I like both Denzel and Russell Crowe. If you watched "Man On Fire" and "Gladiator" (or "Master and Commander" or "Cinderella Man") and can't say these are great actors...
then I don't care what you think, sorry
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/02/2007 19:06 Comments ||
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#19
They can strike for all I care. Ima not goin to their movies.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/02/2007 19:12 Comments ||
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#20
I like both Denzel and Russell Crowe. If you watched "Man On Fire" and "Gladiator" (or "Master and Commander" or "Cinderella Man") and can't say these are great actors...
Sorry Frank G. you missed the point.
Bad writing, good actors, still a bad film, Shitty animation equals A bad film.
The whole thing put together Equals low revenues,and no more shit films (I hope)
Just saw "The league of extraordinary Gentlemen", Good plot, Good actors, Likewise "I Robot" Very Good actors, Superb animation.
Compare those to "The Dukes of Hazzard" Movie remake for a clear example of poorly written, recycled shit versus Quality.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/02/2007 23:57 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Bangladeshs government on Thursday gave up its executive control over the judiciary, ending a practice that dates back to British rule over the Indian subcontinent. Undoubtedly, it is a historic and momentous day in the history of Bangladesh, said Fakhruddin Ahmed, the head of the army-backed administration. After 200 years of colonial rule and some 36 years after the establishment of independent Bangladesh, today the countrys judiciary has been separated from the executive branch, as per directive of the constitution, he said. This day will be a milestone in establishing the rule of law and justice. 
The White House on Thursday sympathized with Arab-Americans who took offense to a memo that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote saying that "oil wealth has made Muslims averse to physical labor." Rumsfeld's belief is "not at all in line with the president's views," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. 
Journalism: The debate is over. A consensus has been reached. On global warming? No, on how Democrats are favored on television, radio and in the newspapers.
The study also discovered that newspaper stories "tended to be focused more on political matters and less on issues and ideas than the media overall. In all, 71% of newspaper stories concentrated on the 'game,' compared with 63% overall." 
CNN was the most hostile toward Republicans, MSNBC, surprisingly, the most positive. MSNBC was also the most favorable toward Democrats (47.2%), Fox (36.8%) the most critical.
