http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 24 Feb 2004 14:22:13 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/02/24/142213.php Moe FreedmanI went to see "The Passion" tonight, and I would like point out a few things to those of you considering seeing it. First, on an entertainment level, it isn't much of a movie in the traditional sense, so if you're looking for entertainment skip it, this movie is downright painful for anyone not looking for an affirmation of their faith. Second, on all the Anti-Semitism charges, the really shouldn't be that much controversy - the movie is anti-Semitic only inasmuch as the gospels are. Don't get me wrong, Jews come off quite badly, and are the primary causes of Jesus' death in the film, but that's pretty much the way the gospels went the last time I read them, so you can't exactly blame Gibson for that. I do think the Movie will cause some Anti-Semitism (especially in parts of the world prone to it) but again, you can't blame Gibson for that either. When it comes to depicting the Jews, the movie mixes up the Sanhedrin, the Kohanim, and the Pharisees in general, into an all purpose villainous group. But it wasn't all that horrible on that front. Cinematically it was quite good, and the actors were terrific, though some of them seemed to have problems with the cadence of their Aramaic and Hebrew (I'm nitpicking here). James Caviezel was great as the suffering Jesus, but I thought he was a little stiff during the flashback scenes. The problem for me though, is that I'm not a Christian (I'm an Orthodox Jew BTW), and so I didn't really have any emotional involvement other than simple curiosity, and that makes the film just about worthless. The violence didn't "move" me, it just seemed like a ridiculous amount of overkill. They should have called this "The Bleeding of the Christ," most of the movie is just that, Jesus bleeding. Charge me with deicide if you will, but after about 2/3's of the movie I was begging for the guy to die already so we could all go home. To sum up, if you're a Christian and want your faith bolstered, tweaked or whatever this is supposed to do, go see it. It certainly seems to work (the two girls sitting next to me were sobbing), But if you aren't, stay home and I'll sum it up for you...Bleeding, lots of it. (Also posted at Occam's Toothbrush) Video13096@blogcritics.org Tue, 24 Feb 2004 14:22:13 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/02/15/175335.php Moe FreedmanI recommended Lee Harris' new book Civilization and it's Enemies a couple of weeks ago I didn't really have the time to give it a full review then, and I was sure if I waited long enough someone would do the job for me. David Warren : Mr. Harris whose essay on "Al Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology", two summers ago, gave the most cogent account of what had actually happened on 9/11: of an enemy in the grip of a worldview too insane for us to reckon with, and committing huge massacres from motives more aesthetic than strategic. We had to grasp that this enemy was not in any kind of dialogue with us -- even as war is a form of dialogue -- but instead in a conversation with himself, in which we, his victims, are merely objects, symbols....The most fundamental insight is borrowed, jointly as it were, from both Hegel and the great Arab historian, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406). It is that a civilization evolves by overcoming huge obstacles, through brilliant creative leaps, the memory of which is implanted in the people as moral and ethical norms, which we come to "embody" through the universal social mechanisms of shame and pride. These norms must be wired into the visceral code of every generation of children, long before they reach the age of intellectual consent. We are what we are, not as the result of some abstract reasoning, nor by an accident of nature, but from a long historical development. Yet we can only continue to be, as civilized men and women, so long as we are capable of remembering not only what we are, but why. It is when, at the highest level of society, we begin to forget what it took to make us, that our very existence is put in peril. In particular, we have almost forgotten the ancestral category of the "enemy" -- that no matter how civilized, "nice", we think we have become, there are people "out there" who would be pleased to kill us. Mr. Harris writes, tough-mindedly, of what has always been necessary for a civilization to see off such threats. It's really a remarkable book, and though I found its density made it a slow read (it's not too long, thankfully) I'll be reading it again in not too long. Pick up a copy; it's well worth the money. Books12771@blogcritics.org Sun, 15 Feb 2004 17:53:35 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/02/03/133038.php Moe FreedmanIn August of 2002 Lee Harris wrote an essay, Al Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology, that was the most astonishing thing I had read about 9/11 (and I've been unable to shut up about it since then). It wasn't that he had any new facts to add, or any revealing new summation of data that I, or the writers I had been reading up to then, had missed. He simply had seen something, hiding in plain sight, which no one else had noticed. Since then, I've read everything he's written (that I know about), and to my mind, there isn't an idea man out there that has a clearer picture of the threat our civilization faces from the Islamists who would tear it down. He has just published a book, Civilization and its Enemies: The Next Stage of History, that lays bare both the threat we face and the steps we must take to make sure that civilization itself survives. I pre-ordered the book the moment Amazon put it up, and have spent the last few days reading it, and it's a wonderful fleshing-out of the ideas he's put forth in essays such as Fantasy Ideology, Our World-Historical Gamble, Sheep Amidst Wolves : On The Fine Art of Being Stupid , The Intellectual Origins of America Bashing, as well as the Tech-central station column he's been writing for a while now. I can't recommend this book enough. If you've read any of his stuff before I don't think you'll need my recommendation, but if you haven't, read the Fantasy Ideology article (which approximates the book's first chapter) then go buy the book. Books12323@blogcritics.org Tue, 3 Feb 2004 13:30:38 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/12/17/201105.php Moe FreedmanI just returned from seeing the latest installment of the Lord of the Rings, and I have to say I just hated the hell out of it. It's not that I'm not a fan, I am. I've seen the first two, and loved the books as a teenager but this one was just way, way, too long. Peter Jackson decided to tell the story using the faces of his actors and the long, lingering close- ups go on forever. Even the battle scenes, spectacular though they may be, are ruined by achingly long shots of the actor's faces and their vigorously furrowed brows. The film goes on for 3 hours and 20 minutes, and at about the two-hour mark I was seriously starting to resent all the long pauses. Every director would make their films four hours long if the studios would let them, and Jackson seems to have earned a little too much clout. The film could have easily have been an hour shorter without cutting even one full scene. There's something to be said for acting, but I would have been more emotionally invested had I not spent an hour and a half thinking let's get on with it. Save your nine bucks, and if you must, rent it when it comes out on DVD. That way you can watch it over the course of, say, a week. (cross-posted on Occam's Toothbrush) Video11066@blogcritics.org Wed, 17 Dec 2003 20:11:05 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/10/01/194614.php Moe FreedmanOpinion Journal has a good excerpt from Richard Miniter's new book, Losing Bin Laden: Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror (see below). It's worth a read (the excerpt, that is, I haven't read the book yet). (cross-posted from Occam's Toothbrush) Books8824@blogcritics.org Wed, 1 Oct 2003 19:46:14 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/09/17/131134.php Moe FreedmanBernard-Henri Levy writes of his doubts about our "ally" Pakistan. Levy is a fascinating character, a French celebrity/intellectual who is a self described Anti-Anti-American (yep, they do have a few of those over there), and recent author of Who Killed Daniel Pearl? which outlines his theory that Pearl was killed because he knew too much about the Pakistani government's Islamist connections and their trade in nuclear secrets. The book looks pretty interesting. Books8439@blogcritics.org Wed, 17 Sep 2003 13:11:34 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/08/24/145214.php Moe FreedmanI've been playing poker in some form for a few years now, mostly in small weekly games with friends. Late-night surfing got me a little hooked on the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour and I've watched the ESPN's coverage of the World Series of poker this year with a rabid fascination, but nothing got my juices flowing like James McManus's "Positively Fifth Street" The story of the World Series of Poker and one man's unlikely trip to the final table.McManus went to Vegas in 2000 with an advance from Harper's and a mission to write an article about the upsurge in women participants at the World Series. (Read the article Here) He turned his advance into a $10,000 entry fee and joined 511 other players, pros and amateurs alike, all vying for the big money. He made it to the 6 person final table in a remarkable few days. The book though, is about far more than his feats at the poker table. McManus explores the murder of Ted Binion, purportedly done in by a stripper and her boyfriend whose trials were going on while he was sitting at the tables. McManus is a tremendous writer (it comes as no surprise when he mentions David Sidaris is a personal friend), and he keeps each chapter alive with the struggle between good and evil. Will you be rooting for "bad Jim" (who keeps the author from folding hands he knows he should), or "good Jim" (who knows that playing by the book is the way to success)? Either way, it's a great ride. Books7790@blogcritics.org Sun, 24 Aug 2003 14:52:14 EDT