From today’s The Note:
Leave it to PBS to go and try to keep the nomination fight interesting. Take a look at the just-launched Presidential Futures Market and track whether a candidate’s stock is up or down, and buy or sell shares in the contenders. The winner, with the highest-valued portfolio, gets a trip to the […]
Fresh from John Kerry’s impressive win in New Hampshire, the New Republic has a dialogue about the senator between two Boston commentators, Dan Kennedy (the Phoenix) and Jon Keller (Boston Magazine and 56News). Kennedy’s opener is great - throughout the primary run up he’s been more impressed with Kerry than I have but here he […]
Whereas various blogs seem to be reporting and commenting full-time on the unfolding primary race in New Hampshire, I’ve been posting here even less frequently. In the time since last week, a once wide-open race now seems determined, not only for this primary but for the whole nomination. (I’d be happy to be proven wrong.) […]
I have to put in a good word for The Note for making my day. Their take on the Dean gaffe is by far the best:
The Note would like to think that success in American politics is based to a large enough extent on substance that Howard Dean’s 6-month run as the Democratic Party frontrunner […]
No one outside Iowa seems to have a kind word about the caucus process, but having read about it at ABCNews, I’m actually quite envious: it sounds like a marvelous, participatory democratic institution. I’m sure, though, that it’s harder to get much participation if the caucus weren’t early and disproportionately influential. Some later primaries have […]
Monster (the quasi biopic of serial killer Aileen Wuornos) has taken a bit of bashing by some critics, such as those in the Slate Movie club who complained of its “tawdry, B-movie universe and stunt casting.” The film wasn’t without its limitations, but I couldn’t disagree more. Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf was stunt casting […]
Throughout the primary race, Howard Dean has been at his best when taking a tack different from the other candidates, adopting stances the others were too afraid to early in the game and speaking in a less stilted, more conversational way to his audiences. How frustrating, then, to see his ad campaigns and speeches rehearse […]
It seems that someone has decided to hold a contest, somewhere in between Bush in 30 Seconds and Project Greenlight , in which the winner gets commissed to film a Bertolucci parody. The winner (you can watch the trailer here) follows a young American in Paris getting entangled in a romantic triangle with a Parisian […]
I’ve been too busy to post regularly this week so far, and may be for a couple of days, though I hope to weigh in more on the presidential primary race that’s simmering to a full boil now that the dates draw nearer. For now, I’d like to point out the tendency of the press […]
Not a good year for rock. Not only do the kids not really care about it (except for a few exceptions more about the hype than the music), but Beyonce and Outkast have reminded us of the joys (and musicianship) of a well-crafted pop single. But I’m not willing to go the route of seemingly […]
Today, opponents of the Supreme Judicial Court ruling on gay marriage (about 200 total) rallied at the Statehouse to urge lawmakers to enact a constitutional ban on it. In response, MassEquality is organizing its own rally tomorrow, at noon, to send the message that not only is gay marriage the right thing to do, but […]
I know I shouldn’t be coming to the intellectual defense of global outsourcing (There but for the grace of God… ). But there is a tendency for its critics to attack it without considering the flip side of economic activity, and to imagine that . Today, Noam Schreiber at the New Republic takes on a […]
I just returned from a trip to H&M where I was doing my bit for the Cambodian economy and stocking up for the oncoming cold winter weather. Given that the retailer has been complicit in trends that are at best questionable, I thought I’d reflect on the worst fashion trends of late. You can’t periodize […]