grist for the mill
A not-so-secret research cacheWednesday, February 25, 2004
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press "
But many Christian audiences at previews walked away just as the crowd did in Sterling Heights -- praising the movie and rejecting any claim that it contains anti-Jewish themes.
One explanation for such starkly differing reactions was pinpointed by Carole Collins, a Bethesda member from Windsor, who estimated that she used half a box of tissues during the film. Through all of that trauma, she said, she focused on Jesus' face.
'For me, that was the personal connection. I kept watching Christ's eyes, his face, his expressions,' she said. "
Monday, February 23, 2004
But in the current furor about George W. Bush's military record it seems to be taken for granted that Mr. Bush got into the so-called Champagne unit of the Texas Air National Guard through influence. The stories begin by saying he was jumped over a 500-man waiting list. Then they quickly go on to investigate the details of his sojourn in Alabama. Using influence to get into the guard and therefore out of Vietnam is no longer disqualifying for "sons of the powerful"; it's assumed. Or could it be that Dan Quayle is judged by stricter standards than other politicians?
That possibility makes it worth taking another look at his academic record. When Mr. Quayle finally authorized the indirect release of his marks, for a long Washington Post profile by Bob Woodward and David Broder — a profile, I should mention, that was much more favorable than people had expected — it turned out that he'd had a C+ average. George W. Bush had a straight C. Dick Cheney flunked out of Yale twice. Nobody accuses them of not being able to spell potato. I bring up these matters not to embarrass the president and the vice president. They have enough embarrassments as it is. But fair's fair.
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Nader to Run As Independent (washingtonpost.com): "The Democratic National Committee issued a statement that Nader had promised Chairman Terry McAuliffe that 'he would not criticize the Democratic nominee, but rather would focus on the failings of the Bush Administration. We take him at his word.' "
Friday, February 20, 2004
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Emerging industry would replace manufacturers "
Jim Macdonald, half of the Doyle-Macdonald writing team, has been presiding over a hundreds-posts-long running tutorial on how to write that is unbelievably good and sensible and right. If you want to write, go read this now."
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Friday, February 13, 2004
AN UN-FUNNY VALENTINE: Greeting card picture evokes race stereotype
Miller said the cards, which were printed and packaged in China, are mistakes, but she and other officials said they were trying to determine how that happened.
David Blinderman, director of global product development for the company, said the printing facility is one of the company's most reliable.
"Culturally, the guys on press in China wouldn't have the faintest idea of who a SpongeBob was or who a black SpongeBob was," Blinderman said.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
You haven't seen it?
That's because it doesn't exist -- yet. "
Saturday, February 07, 2004
University replacing $16 million in loans with scholarships: "CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- The University of Virginia will spend more than $16 million a year to replace loans with scholarships for poor and middle-income students, an initiative dubbed 'Access UVa' to ease the debt students carry from college.
The project, announced Friday, is the most expansive financial aid effort at a public university in the nation and rivals similar programs at elite private schools."
Friday, February 06, 2004
The people who hold the record for shooting black people down like dogs are the thugs who stand on the necks of black communities in this town and just about every other town in the United States. "
Thursday, February 05, 2004
"'No' promised MTV execs when asked if they were in on the exposure plot. Of course not. They merely
told the performers to sing suggestive lyrics while
grinding their asses into each other's crotches.
No one even hinted that things would get
inappropriate.
If your young child must be exposed to
questionable content, which would be worse: Three
hours celebrating a game where the core purpose is
to aggressively and violently collide with another
person and because of which the life expectancy of
its participants is somewhere south of 60 years
(thanks to the weekly beatings they take on the
field), or a millisecond of bare knocker?"
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
And McDonald's has such virtue that it has a lofty place in America. It is good because it is good. Why, the other day, the late Mrs. Joan Kroc left in her will the sum of One Billion, Five Hundred Million - $1,500,000,000 - to the Salvation Army. How marvelous! And how can you disturb her memory, and the graciousness of this act, by saying that the money came off the backs of young blacks like Timothy Stansbury?
The usual McDonald's store is a franchise, and there are individual owners, but all I know is that each store pays $5.15 an hour and has 'McDonald's' on the store, and it is this way all over the country, and it is a monstrous scandal. McDonald's is Un-American activity."
Monday, February 02, 2004
One in five African-American men in their 20s is in prison, on probation or on parole, he says. Sixty-nine percent of all black children are raised in single-parent households; the average life-span of an African-American man is 59, and only 45 percent of black adults are working in any given week."
The Sincerest Form of Flannery: "Bill T. Jones is no stranger to controversy. A few years ago, in support of an N.A.A.C.P. boycott protesting the flying of the Confederate flag atop the statehouse in South Carolina, he refused to perform at the Spoleto Festival. His 'Still Here,' a performance piece that included photographs of people suffering from terminal illnesses, was famously criticized in a 1994 New Yorker essay by Arlene Croce, who called it 'victim art.' She declined to see the production.
Starting on Tuesday, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will present the New York premiere of a 45-minute work provocatively titled 'Reading, Mercy and the Artificial Nigger.' It is based on 'The Artificial Nigger,' a complex and beguiling short story by Flannery O'Connor, which is read aloud during the performance. (Susan Sarandon and Mr. Jones will be the readers on opening night.)
The story opens with its main characters, Mr. Head and his 10-year-old grandson, Nelson, who live together in rural Georgia, preparing for a trip to Atlanta. Mr. Head sees the trip as an opportunity to teach his grandson a lesson about the sinful ways of the city, in hopes that he will never want to return. Nelson views the trip as a chance to see the place where he believes he was born. As Nelson becomes more infatuated with the wonders of the city, Mr. Head grows more distressed, and eventually abandons his grandson, both physically and emotionally. On their way to the train for the trip home, they encounter a mysterious plaster figure, a black boy about Nelson's size from which the story takes its title, and in a moment of revelation, they find the grace to restore the bond between them.
Mr, Jones, 51, discussed the work with Fletcher Roberts, an Arts & Leisure editor, after a recent "
Content Management is for losers. Young people may have discovered the dark truth about digital media: the person who wins the right to store a piece of data has actually won the booby prize. "
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