« June 2007 | Main | August 2007 »
July 17, 2007
Entirely Malign
Immensely satisfying broadside against Cheney in the New Yorker this week.
[I]t is now, so to speak, official: for the past six years, Dick Cheney, the occupant of what John Adams called “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived,” has been the most influential public official in the country, not necessarily excluding President Bush, and his influence has been entirely malign. He is pathologically (but purposefully) secretive; treacherous toward colleagues; coldly manipulative of the callow, lazy, and ignorant President he serves; contemptuous of public opinion; and dismissive not only of international law (a fairly standard attitude for conservatives of his stripe) but also of the very idea that the Constitution and laws of the United States, including laws signed by his nominal superior, can be construed to limit the power of the executive to take any action that can plausibly be classified as part of an endless, endlessly expandable “war on terror.”
Perhaps a play or a novel is too small for Cheney. I'm thinking he needs an opera.
Posted by Drew at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2007
It's funny how much we have in common . . .
As part of my always interesting job, I spent Wednesday morning at a press conference held by far-right Christian groups opposing hate crimes legislation. I won't bother explaining how wrong they are on the substance of the bill (you can read about it here) but aside from the obvious political differences, the press conference was eye opening for another reason: far right Christianist theo-cons are really, really friendly.
That's not really well communicated when they speak publicly though.
Posted by Drew at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2007
The Road
[I used to have a special Book Blog, but that doesn't seem to be working, so I'm just going to post this over here.]
This book gave me nightmares, and made me seriously think about buying a gun. But for a Cormac McCarthy novel, it's downright uplifting.
That said, whereas most post-apocalyptic novels are, in part at least, about beginnings, this one is only about endings. Sarah TW introduced me to a mantra that’s useful in reading this book: “There’s no hope in a Cormac McCarthy novel,” which is kind of fascinating in itself. What kind of value is possible beyond the point at which hope ends? It turns out that there’s quite a lot, actually, if you look in the right places.
At first I thought that this book could be well compared to Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood -- another post-apocalyptic novel that I enjoyed -- but now I think it actually has more in common with Robert Altman’s film of A Prairie Home Companion -- which is about the messy overlap of love and death.
(For the record, you can get a paperback version without the Oprah logo if you send your brother to Australia to buy one for you. Thanks Rob!)
Posted by Drew at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)