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Friday, July 12, 2002 |
Those danged French
My old pal Charley in Brno sends the following anecdote by email. I'm not really enclined to believe it (I got bit by the "blacks in Brazil" quote, which now looks apocryphal), but it's too funny not to post anyway:
"Could such disturbing news be true? According to [London] Timesman Jack Malvern, liberal politician Shirley Williams -- also known as the Baroness Williams of Crosby -- recently recounted to an audience in Brighton that "my good friend Tony Blair" told her the following anecdote: "Blair, Bush and [French President] Jacques Chirac were discussing economics and, in particular, the decline of the French economy. 'The problem with the French,' Bush confided to Blair, 'is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur'."" --WP, July 10, 2002
Later, I found the original story on the Washington Post site. A Tony Blair flack is denying the story:
However, we did receive a call from Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of communications and strategy, who did his best to quash the story. "I can tell you that the prime minister never heard George Bush say that, and he certainly never told Shirley Williams that President Bush did say it," Campbell told us. "If she put this in a speech, it must have been a joke."
4:14:13 PM Permalink
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More on Minority Report
There's a very interesting exchange of views on Minority Report in Locus Magazine online. John Shirley wrote a positive review and Gary Westfall wrote a more detailed one, not quite as laudatory. Jeff and Ann Vandermeer point out a number of inconcistencies in the movie, as does Nick Mamatas. Ted White chimes in, calling the movie a "meritricious piece of skiffy." Shirley's last word is, "it's just entertainment," which I think kind of misses the point.
All make some good points. The Vandermeers and Ted White are entirely correct in pointing out the plot holes and inconsistencies in the movie; it's rife with them, and they do threaten to undermine the whole suspension of disbelief -- similar lapses of logic have ruined many another movie for me, such as the various Star Wars things since the second one. There are a lot of problems with this movie -- the cars made no sense, nor did the roads, and of course his eyeballs would have rotted in his pocket. Still, on a human level, the movie worked for me; that is, for the time of the movie I believed in the characters and accepted enough of the vision of the future to make me think about some of the issues the movie makers intended (I think) me to think about. I will also note that Philip K. Dick's stories, in my recollection, are only very rarely rigorous in their science (and even consistent in their characterization).
In any case, these letters are good reading. It helps to bring some critical energy to a movie (or book or song or whatever).
9:45:28 AM Permalink
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A History of Banned Music in the US
First Amendment notwithstanding, this country has a long history of censorship. As Eric Nuzum points out on this page, there is a lot of censorship that is not prohibited by the constitution:
The fact is - musicians have no legal "right" to play music, package album cover artwork, or perform live. Music censorship is only a violation of Constitutional rights when our government, its laws, or its agencies conduct the suppression. Although it may be hard to believe, only in rare instances is what we call "music censorship" actually a civil rights violation. Any other attempt to suppress music, its artwork, and live performances is entirely legal.
"Impossible," you might counter. "I hear about music censorship all the time. You mean to tell me there are no laws protecting music from censorship?"
According to existing laws, art is Constitutionally protected speech. But music is not censored on the basis of art; it is censored on the basis of obscenity. If a work of art, music, or literature is found to be obscene, then it can be subject to legal censorship. Again, that only applies if "the Government" is the censor. Courts do not have the right to force K-Mart to carry a Nirvana album, nor could they force Ed Sullivan to show Elvis Presley from the waist down.
The site has a breezy rundown of various incidents of music censorship from the 50s on. The site is promoting Nuzum's book, Parental Advisory. While this site is nice, the history is a little breezy. For example, he mentions that Bob Dylan walked off the Ed Sullivan show when they wouldn't let him sing Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues, but doesn't mention that the entire Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album was reworked to take the song off. He also doesn't mention the incident of the Rolling Stones changing the words of Let's Spend The Night Together on the Ed Sullivan show.
9:18:57 AM Permalink
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George Bush, Failed Corporate Crook
If Bush really wanted to address the situation, all he'd have to do is to pick up the phone, call Attorney General John Ashcroft, and ask him to launch an investigation of any one of these CEOs for fraud, conspiracy, theft, obstruction of justice, or perjury. The president could also turn to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can refer a civil case for criminal prosecution. Bush doesn't need additional legislation to do this. All he has to do is call. He refused to do that in the Enron case, even though his administration knew about the scandal months before the company went public with its bankruptcy. And he hasn't done it with any of the subsequent double-dealings.
8:45:59 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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