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For years now, I've been bored senseless by the morality plays that comprise most sit-coms… certainly those that fall in the "family/relationship" mold. Doofus but lovable dad/male relationship figure, who's not-so-secretly hiding a heart of gold and endearing love for his wife/family/girlfriend. He usually suffers from some "debilitating failure" in the looks department (overweight, unusually tall, simply funny looking, etc.). He's joined by a (generally) hot wife who is absurdly tolerant, wiser, by far, than her schlub of a husband, and the glue that holds everything together. Children come in mixed assortments, but almost always wiser/smarter than their parents, yet always loving and reaffirming by show's end. Each episode begins with some character flaw being revealed, 17 minutes of 3-beat jokes ensue as everyone exposes the foibles of said flaw, then the resolution swoops in and everyone learns a valuable lesson about love, family, relationships...

You'd think that headlines like this would make me happy… FBI abuses may lead to Patriot Act limits After all, I've been vocal about my opposition to this attack on the Constitution and civil liberties almost from it's inception (and god knows, I'm not alone in that!). But what disgusts me, more than the thought that it's taken this long for someone in Congress to even TALK about doing something about this Act, is the fact the people are acting surprised by these revelations. (And don't even get me started on our Attorney General's outrage and criticism of the FBI. With the revelations coming out this week about his involvement in the firing of federal prosecutors, he doesn't get to take the moral high ground with anyone.) Let's face it, right now. We've got NO right to be surprised: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? If the Roman's were asking this question nearly 20 centuries ago, then how the hell can we be surprised that our contemporary watc...

The problem, I think, with most of the negative reviews for Black Snake Moan is that they're taking it all way too seriously. Not that I think the movie's a laugh riot. (Ebert may nail it best with his reference to "half-snorts"), but it's the thought of treating this as a realistic film that gets me. Let's face it, there's no chance, in real life, that this situation ends well for anyone. There's bloodshed, death or prison (or some combination thereof) for all the major characters at the end of this movie, if we pretend this is real life. There's no way to argue, for instance, with the reviewer's assertions, in this review from Slate, that chaining a woman to a radiator is wrong. But that's assuming this is the real world we're talking about. Frankly, I think the only way to approach the movie is as some blues-inspired riff on magical realism… it looks like the real world, but it's a place where an older black man can chain a y...

Backed into a metaphorical corner, I would be forced to acknowledge that Bush can't possibly be as dumb as he appears. It's not even worth joking about anymore, as the jokes have been beaten to death and, frankly, his Presidency is nothing to laugh at, no matter what you think of his intellect. Certainly he's not well spoken, but this doesn't necessarily mean he's dumb. Right? Perhaps. But this quote really speaks to me… Of course, the mastery of language is not the sine qua non of competence in literacy. But ease in communication in the language shows how one's cognitive abilities have developed. Kenendy Buhere; Proposal to Split TSC Ill-thought; The Kenya Times (Nairobi); Jan 19, 2007. (from AWAD email for today.) By that standard, the charge of "dumb" can be set aside. But a far more serious accusation comes to the fore, as we wonder if, based on his flummoxing of the English language, there are any cognitive abilities at work at all.  

…It's that you're so fucking juvenile. I can't stand Anne Coulter. I find her brand of commentary insulting, derogatory, hateful and juvenile. But then, I'm a West Coast liberal, so I'm not exactly her target demographic. But the question is, who the hell IS her demographic? Every few months , Coulter spits out another one of her childish remarks with the obvious intent that it get her more attention and maybe sell a few more of her fucking books. Her latest came last week, when she ran with this little gem: "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I… can't really talk about Edwards." She later defended this juvenile exhibit by saying she was "just joking". Seriously. How the hell old is this woman? This is the kind of crap most of us outgrow before we graduate high school. Name calling? "I was just...

Another Academy Awards has come and gone and, judging from the new releases for the past couple of months, the studios have greeted the Awards with a collective shrug. A lot of this has to do with the comparative money the awards winners are making, compared to the box office winners. When a disappointing muddle like Ghost Rider can rake in over $90 million in a couple of weeks, and The Departed (the highest grossing of the Best Picture nominees) only manages $132 million in it's entire run, there's a major disconnect between quality and the marketplace. This isn't a new thing, by any stretch of the imagination. Last year's awards, I remember comments that the 5 top movies together couldn't match the gross of any of the February opening movies (or some such statistic like that). And I saw more than one article this year where some studio head was quoted as saying they'd just like to get back to work making movies and not have to worry about Oscars and campa...