The Lesbian Man: A Greek's Crusade to Protect His Island's Name
“‘My wife is a Lesbian, my daughter is a Lesbian and I am a Lesbian,’ Lambrou’s witness began, to laughter from the gallery. ‘Do you hear those people laughing?’ the witness asked the female judge. ‘All of Greece is laughing about it. And now you can imagine how we are treated abroad.’”
I think this guy should probably drop the lawsuit and start praying to St. Jude instead. Talk about lost causes.
From the flap copy: “Politicians tell us constantly that they trust the wisdom of “The American People.” New York Times best-selling author Rick Shenkman explains why we shouldn’t—at least when it comes to politics.
Levees break in New Orleans. Iraq descends into chaos. The housing market teeters on the brink of collapse. Americans of all political stripes are heading into the 2008 election with the sense that something has gone terribly wrong with American politics. But what exactly?
Democrats blame Republicans and Republicans blame Democrats. Greedy corporate executives, rogue journalists, faulty voting machines, irresponsible defense contractors—we blame them, too. The only thing everyone seems to agree on, in fact, is that the American people are entirely blameless.
In Just How Stupid Are We?, best-selling historian and renowned myth-buster Rick Shenkman takes aim at our great national piety: the wisdom of the American people. The hard truth is that American democracy is more direct than ever—but voters are misusing, abusing, and abdicating their political power. Americans are paying less and less attention to politics at a time when they need to pay much more: Television has dumbed politics down to the basest possible level, while the real workings of politics have become vastly more complicated.
Shenkman offers concrete proposals for reforming our institutions—the government, the media, civic organizations, political parties—to make them work better for the American people. But first, Shenkman argues, we must reform ourselves.”
I’ll put this one in my to-read list.
The First Annual "Robbed!" Film Festival
The other day, I was watching the movie Boiler Room, and thought to myself for the 40th time, “Ron Rifkin really should have had the Oscar for this role, or at least a nomination.” So it occurred to me that you could make a pretty good film festival out of movies where the actors were robbed of either nominations or maybe of wins, if they were actually nominated. These are the ones I came up with for the First Annual Robbed! Film Festival (actors who were robbed are in parentheses). There are probably several dozen I’m missing:Boiler Room (Ron Rifkin)
Two-Lane Blacktop (Warren Oates)
Gods and Monsters (both Ian McKellen and Lynn Redgrave)
A Simple Plan (Billy Bob Thornton)
Being There (Peter Sellers)
Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers again)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (Martin Landau)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
The Manchurian Candidate (Angela Lansbury)
A Streetcar Named Desire (Marlon Brando)
Pan’s Labyrinth (Ivana Baquero)
Full Metal Jacket (Vincent d’Onofrio)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Brad Dourif)
Mrs. Brown (Judi Dench)
The Station Agent (Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Canavale)
Cutter’s Way (John Heard)
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