City of Life and Death
A harrowing but dramatically not very interesting account of the Japanese sack of Nanjing in 1937 which is said to have killed 300,000 Chinese
Entry from June 15, 2011
In his review in The New Statesman of Windsor Mann’s compilation, The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism — The Very Best of Christopher Hitchens (Da Capo Press, $17.00), George Eaton cannot resist quoting himself quoting Hitchens quoting himself in an interview for, uh, The New Statesman shortly before the latter’s diagnosis with esophageal cancer a…
Entry from June 13, 2011
There’s not been much good news for Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner of New York recently, but one bit of it comes along today with the early signs that his indecent exposure scandal has moved on to what we might call its “cultural studies” phase. That’s not so good as having it disappear from the public…
Entry from June 9, 2011
Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is the current guest editor of the British political weekly, The New Statesman — a remarkable datum in itself, if you ask me — and he has taken the occasion to criticize the British government, also known as “the Coalition,” in somewhat puzzling terms. Like other European governments,…
Everything Must Go
Though disappointing in the end, this is an engaging first feature based on a Raymond Carver story and offers a meaty role for Will Ferrell
Entry from June 7, 2011
Last September, when Lady Gaga first announced the title of her now just-released album, “Born This Way,” at the MTV Video Music Awards, she marked the occasion by appearing in a hat, dress and boots made of raw meat. Was she born this way? For someone who has made her name and reputation so largely…
Entry from May 31, 2011
According to today’s Washington Post “Cost of war in Afghanistan will be major factor in troop-reduction talks.” Says Rajiv Chandrasekaran The U.S. military is on track to spend $113 billion on its operations in Afghanistan this fiscal year, and it is seeking $107 billion for the next. To many of the president’s civilian advisers, that…
Trash Collection
What happens to the culture when it rejects the idea of good and bad in art in favor of personal validation — From The American Spectator of May, 2011
Black Box Controversies
The media stay in business by abdicating their responsibility to moderate partisan passions — From The New Criterion of May, 2011
Entry from May 29, 2011
As with the “Slut Walkers” mentioned in two previous posts here and here, the story about the Canadian couple who are raising their child to be “genderless” is one that has resounded throughout the English-speaking world but not, for some reason, in the U.S. There was a report on Fox News about it, but if the…
Entry from May 27, 2011
“Media Throw a Fit Over ‘Rude’ Netanyahu ‘Lecturing’ Obama” reported Geoffrey Dickens of the indispensable Media Research Center. For many in the media Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s reaction to Barack Obama[‘s] insistence that his country return to the 1967 borders was out of bounds. ABC’s Christiane Amanpour declared she was “stunned” by his “public lecture” of…