From TED: “This beautiful video titled “Mankind is No Island” recently won first prize at Tropfest NY. Directed by Jason van Genderen, it was shot entirely on a cell phone with a budget of $57.” Creativity and artistic vision trump big budgets and fancy gear (again). (Cross-posted at GlobalCompassion.com)
What are your first impressions after seeing this? How do you want to respond?
Are the people of America guilty of murder? Who is accountable when an innocent man is tortured to death by US troops who believe they are following the will of their government (OUR government). Someday I would like to see the current leadership of the USA indicted for war crimes, but what about all the ordinary Americans who have cried out asking them to “take the gloves off.” Well, they took them off, and now what moral authority will we have to tell others not to torture our sons and daughters when they are captured in future conflicts?
UPDATE: Today the Washington Post reports that top officials of the Bush administration, including Cheney, Rice, and Ashcroft, interacted extensively with CIA director George Tenant concerning the legality of waterboarding. Eventually, the CIA was given some type of document approving the technique. Waterboarding is widely acknowledged as torture, and you can bet Americans would crying foul if it happened to any of our citizens. (Oops, I forgot, our government conspired to torture an American citizen and swept his case under the carpet already.)
Is Sarah Palin a “post turtle”? You decide. If the turtleneck fits…
From India Uncut: Malcolm Gladwell writes in The New Yorker that genius is not just being bold and originally creative. “There is another kind of genius that has more to do with searching than finding, that is realised through painstaking trial and error, that can take decades to reach fruition. Gladwell illustrates this by using Paul Cézanne and Ben Fountain as examples, showing how luck and love are indispensable for this second kind of genius.” Now that’s encouraging!
Are the voices on the right free to disagree? Christopher Buckley’s offer to resign from National Review is accepted after his surprise endorsement of Obama last week.
Julian Sanchez elaborates on the market for conservative punditry saying: you can be pretty damn mediocre and still carve out a nice little niche for yourself at any one of a welter of generously funded ideological publications and think tanks.” He adds:
I’ve long observed a phenomenon in the blogosphere I call “audience capture,” where a once-interesting writer becomes rather dull and predictable, each post another jab at the lever, predictably rewarded with a tasty pellet.
Maybe that explains the evolution of Instapundit.
Finally, this fascinating video via TED | TEDBlog:
I received an email today recommending Call + Response — a “rockumentary” about modern slavery in the global sex industry.
Apparently, the movie has taken off. In the opening week, it averaged $4,000 per screen (a phenomenal amount with virtually no paid advertising).
It’s a low budget film. From a review at The Seattle Times: “What you get is an impassioned…combination of music, activism and shocking undercover footage of the sex, labor and combat trade, shot wherever easy profit results from luring innocents into lives of terrorized dependency…How much impact Call + Response will have is anyone’s guess. But when you see a 4-year-old sex slave, ignoring this crisis is no longer an option.”
Check and see if it’s playing in your area. If not, call your local theater and tell them to bring it on. What if more people watched movies like this and decided to call out for change?
We went to a Japanese national level kayaking competition this weekend. All the best slalom kayakers participated, including the woman who placed fourth at the Olympics. These are photos of three Junior High boys from our kids’ club. The first one, in the red kayak, is already establishing himself among the best in Japan. It’s pretty amazing to see them in the water — they’re so young but coming into their own.
This isn’t meant to be a political blog, but we live in a political world and there’s an important election coming up in 26 days, so…
Today David Kuo and Peter Suderman have posted a pair of articles at Culture11 discussing the failure of McCain and the present crisis in conservatism. Whether you agree with them or not, it’s refreshing to find conservative writers that are thoughtful and even soul searching.
Key quote (by David Kuo):
Today’s conservatism is lost. It is so lost it doesn’t actually know if it lost at sea, lost in space, or lost in a desert. It lacks moral courage, a philosophical core, and intellectual certitude. McCain’s defeat will help change all of that because his defeat will lead to a debate within conservatism unlike anything in several decades.
I think David Kuo has great blind spots, like everyone, but I respect that he’s a man of faith who wants the best for his country (and political party). Kudos to Kuo. But I don’t think conservatism in the USA needs more “intellectual certitude.” Rather, I’m hoping for more intellectual (and spiritual) searching and humility.
The follow-up article by Suderman honestly faces the vacuous and pointless campaign of John McCain. Again, Suderman is a conservative writer. The big question is whether conservatives, when the election is over (assuming Obama wins), will examine themselves deeply or point out blame in every other direction.
Speaking of McCain, Rolling Stone (not a conservative magazine) has posted a whithering biography of McCain entitled Make Believe Maverick. If you believe it in substance (and it’s well sourced) then it undermines the essence of McCain’s strongest appeal: his character.