Associated Press
Thursday morning's response by the Swiss government to an American lawsuit bucks a trend nearly two centuries in the making. Johnson and Johnson, one of the United States' most enduring mega-corporations and friend to smooth-skinned babies all over the world, has filed suit against the American Red Cross for gross violation of a longstanding trademark agreement. Both organizations use a red symbol of a cross on products and official stationary, and for years have abided peacefully according to an 1895 writ.
"Our official statement?" remarks Gerthe Feiner, a spokesman for the 12-member Swiss government, "Fuck the both of them. We're going for the jugular." The position is a remarkable contrast to the longstanding trend of Swiss neutrality. "For years," states Feiner, "We've been international pawns, known only vaguely throughout the world for cheese and various chocolate products, perhaps a watch here and there." Switzerland has filed an international damages case against Johnson and Johnson, the American Red Cross, and even the United States government itself, citing from such monumental establishments as the Geneva Convention and the Lanham Act.
Switzerland's national flag is a white cross symbol on a red background. American response has been one of mild indifference. Columbia Professor Michael Dorf published in his Dorf on Law blog it's unlikely that "...the disqualification for national flags contains an implicit corollary applicable to dyslexics."
Feiner's response? "We smell cash, we're going after it. The Center for Consumer Research (CCR) estimates Johnson and Johnson's earnings since 1895 [the first year the symbol was used] to be a little over 10 trillion dollars." According to CCR statistics, over the same period of time the American Red Cross profit is estimated to be about zero. Says Feiner, "Either way you slice it, 10 trillion could still buy a lot of schnitzel."
Switzerland has pledged to see the case through until the end, and has even threatened deploying an appropriately-armed Swiss Army should the need arise. The purpose would be, presumably, to demonstrate the use of the cross symbol on the base of the knives.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
The State of Education in Burlington
Mike
In 2006, the Burlington, VT school district commissioned a task force made up of community members (administrators, teachers, and citizens) to investigate the widening achievement gap in Burlington's city public schools. Burlington is a microcosm for the education problems happening throughout the country. The Task Force's findings are summarized here.
Since the resolutions were made public last fall, there has been major opposition to socio-economically integrating the city schools. Here is my response.
A year ago the immigration question was the hot topic of debate. “They take the jobs the rest of us don’t want,” or so the maxim went. In this country, though it’s rarely acknowledged, there’s an accepted faith in the reliability of our poverty-level workers, American citizens or not. They clean our hotel rooms, pump our gas, and pave our highways. Our economy is based on their invisible strength, and their unsung devotion to the most basic of job skills. It’s also based, though, on growth, and it is to their children, that rich and worldly cache of diverse cultural knowledge, that we look for the future. It is the American children of our legions of poverty-level workers on whom we will one day lean for economic stability. There are countless reasons why people are forced into wage slavery, sub-blue collar work, and even unemployment. The lack of quality education is a factor, but it doesn’t have to be a requirement.
It’s been said it takes a village to raise a child. The idea has never been more pertinent. Raising a child raises the village itself, because a community is a living, self-supplying thing, and its most valuable resource is that which it seems to take most for granted, and keeps most repressed. Educated children, especially at the poverty level where they are most neglected, mean a higher community wealth in the future. By increasing the quality of education for every single child in our community, thereby enriching our labor pool, the very basic charge and aim of the Burlington Task Force, we’ll notice a vast difference. Business owners will see increases in the productivity of their workers. Doctors will see increases in the health of their patients’ families. Financiers will see increases in the community markets. Better education for all isn’t a Utopian ideal, it’s an essential part of our growth economy.
Recently a friend’s 4-year-old brother came up in a conversation. His play habits weren’t at all peculiar, he moved from toy to toy and from one activity to another like any child does, and learned many things through this diversity of attention. His social interactions, though, teach a far more valuable lesson because they play against commonly held assumptions. His friends, like his toys and his activities, varied in color, size, and caste. These interactions, along with the rest of his cognitive development, benefited from the diversity!
I went through the public school system in a higher income area, succeeded academically, and saw many others around me succeed. My schools regularly passed state and federal standards tests. My experience, though, supported a serious deficiency. Throughout school I knew only a handful of people who were Jewish, Black, Native, Hispanic, Gay, Refugee, or otherwise culturally diverse, and I suffered for it. Among the handful was a black friend of mine, the child of a single-parent home, who graduated top in our class, and went on to receive Phi Beta Kappa honors at Stanford University. He’s a professional now in the field of human resources. I visited him in California last year and learned an important lesson about the real value of diversity in this world. His girlfriend, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was another high-powered professional. His daily phone conversations regarding the hiring of personnel ranged from midnight calls to India and China to meetings about an African branch. It struck me that the real world was far more culturally diverse than what I’d experienced in my quaint, “successful,” schools, and I see now how unprepared for it I was.
According to professionals, we identify culture in various ways, but the first level of recognition is through surface traits. The first thing we associate with a culture is what it looks, sounds, and tastes like. We see skin color, we hear language, and we taste foods. It’s a lack of depth that leads to stereotypes, labels, racism and classism. Only through deeper interaction do we start to associate more complex levels of cultural identity, such as behavior, community values, and morality. As the son of a Task Force member put it very nicely in his college essay: “You can learn something from anyone.”
In today’s world, low-income communities produce thriving internet businesses, African interests represent seats on the boards of American companies, Indian workers dominate jobs in the technology sector, and Chinese markets hold an integral stake in our daily lives. Learning the “three R’s” isn’t enough anymore. Our children’s futures don’t depend on Bilinguality. They depend on Biculturality. Burlington has the resources right here in the diversity of our communities. Integrate the schools and we all benefit. Just like the refugee parents of our Somali Bantu students learn English from their children, our business owners will learn about productivity from their workers. Like the single mothers in our poorer communities learn to quit smoking and pay more attention to nutrition, our doctors will learn from their increasingly healthier patients. Like our minority populations succeeding economically where their historically repressed parents were never given a square deal, our financiers will learn from the new economic feedback in the community. We’ve got to learn how to grow, and we’ve got to learn in order to grow.
Traditionally, the public school systems seem to have worked well in keeping communities thriving. My school had a high success rate, and my community reflects it. Times have changed, though. This country is in the waning days of an industrial revolution. The last decade produced an amazing period of economic growth, but it’s slowing. Globally, though, the revolution is just getting started. Smaller economic powers (though no less important) are catching up and becoming players in the global economy. Countries such as China, India, Russia, and the Middle East are filling industrial niches, and our undereducated workers can’t keep up. There are many reasons why the American blue-collar population is disappearing in favor of an outsourced labor force. The deficiency in quality education is a huge one. Comfortable middle class citizens in Burlington may not realize the change that’s happening. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Well, the country’s not breaking, but it’s certainly dividing. Burlington doesn’t have many of the problems apparent in rich/poor communities like Long Island, Hartford, and East St. Louis, but we’re not far off. Business owners will see a decline in the productivity of their workers. Doctors will see a decline in the health of their patients’ families. Financiers will see a decline in community investment. If we don’t keep up a long tradition of progressive thinking, and take steps toward integration, then the future will most definitely see us in a similar shape to any one of those communities.
Opposition groups have tabled the initiatives proposed by the Task Force to integrate our schools. It’s obvious something needs to be done, though. In the name of social justice, our community needs to provide a model to the rest of the country that minority groups can be given an equal chance to succeed. Unless you’re an outright racist, you cannot for one second believe that students of color inherently achieve less than white students, as the statistics represent. Unless you’re an outright racist, you must agree that there is a systemic problem. There are many assumptions about the quality of family support in low-income and high-minority areas. Parents in these communities don’t care enough about their children’s education? Here’s a better assumption: For every parent out there that doesn’t care, there’s another that cares desperately, and is mutely crying out for a fair chance to help his or her child. Parents in low-income and high-minority communities don’t care about their children’s education? If the well-to-do families in Burlington don’t take into consideration the Task Force’s findings and recommendations, then obviously they don’t care about those children’s education either.
In 2006, two Burlington-area schools failed to meet adequate yearly progress standards for the fourth year in a row. Edmunds Middle School and Milton Elementary School include populations of the lowest income and highest minority students. They’ve been put on corrective action status and with our two Old North End elementary schools not far behind, it’s clear what the future has in store for our labor population. Now is the time for action. The Task Force has done the work, and now it’s up to the rest of the community to accept the charge. Not only will our business owners find they have better workers, our doctors see health increases in their patients’ families, and our financiers see a more valuable community market, their children will also gain an immeasurably rich social education, and be fully prepared to enter the vastly diverse “real world.” We need to throw off the stereotypes, erase the assumptions, and begin to strengthen our community from the bottom up. In order to do this, though, it’ll require some support from the top down.
In 2006, the Burlington, VT school district commissioned a task force made up of community members (administrators, teachers, and citizens) to investigate the widening achievement gap in Burlington's city public schools. Burlington is a microcosm for the education problems happening throughout the country. The Task Force's findings are summarized here.
Since the resolutions were made public last fall, there has been major opposition to socio-economically integrating the city schools. Here is my response.
A year ago the immigration question was the hot topic of debate. “They take the jobs the rest of us don’t want,” or so the maxim went. In this country, though it’s rarely acknowledged, there’s an accepted faith in the reliability of our poverty-level workers, American citizens or not. They clean our hotel rooms, pump our gas, and pave our highways. Our economy is based on their invisible strength, and their unsung devotion to the most basic of job skills. It’s also based, though, on growth, and it is to their children, that rich and worldly cache of diverse cultural knowledge, that we look for the future. It is the American children of our legions of poverty-level workers on whom we will one day lean for economic stability. There are countless reasons why people are forced into wage slavery, sub-blue collar work, and even unemployment. The lack of quality education is a factor, but it doesn’t have to be a requirement.
It’s been said it takes a village to raise a child. The idea has never been more pertinent. Raising a child raises the village itself, because a community is a living, self-supplying thing, and its most valuable resource is that which it seems to take most for granted, and keeps most repressed. Educated children, especially at the poverty level where they are most neglected, mean a higher community wealth in the future. By increasing the quality of education for every single child in our community, thereby enriching our labor pool, the very basic charge and aim of the Burlington Task Force, we’ll notice a vast difference. Business owners will see increases in the productivity of their workers. Doctors will see increases in the health of their patients’ families. Financiers will see increases in the community markets. Better education for all isn’t a Utopian ideal, it’s an essential part of our growth economy.
Recently a friend’s 4-year-old brother came up in a conversation. His play habits weren’t at all peculiar, he moved from toy to toy and from one activity to another like any child does, and learned many things through this diversity of attention. His social interactions, though, teach a far more valuable lesson because they play against commonly held assumptions. His friends, like his toys and his activities, varied in color, size, and caste. These interactions, along with the rest of his cognitive development, benefited from the diversity!
I went through the public school system in a higher income area, succeeded academically, and saw many others around me succeed. My schools regularly passed state and federal standards tests. My experience, though, supported a serious deficiency. Throughout school I knew only a handful of people who were Jewish, Black, Native, Hispanic, Gay, Refugee, or otherwise culturally diverse, and I suffered for it. Among the handful was a black friend of mine, the child of a single-parent home, who graduated top in our class, and went on to receive Phi Beta Kappa honors at Stanford University. He’s a professional now in the field of human resources. I visited him in California last year and learned an important lesson about the real value of diversity in this world. His girlfriend, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was another high-powered professional. His daily phone conversations regarding the hiring of personnel ranged from midnight calls to India and China to meetings about an African branch. It struck me that the real world was far more culturally diverse than what I’d experienced in my quaint, “successful,” schools, and I see now how unprepared for it I was.
According to professionals, we identify culture in various ways, but the first level of recognition is through surface traits. The first thing we associate with a culture is what it looks, sounds, and tastes like. We see skin color, we hear language, and we taste foods. It’s a lack of depth that leads to stereotypes, labels, racism and classism. Only through deeper interaction do we start to associate more complex levels of cultural identity, such as behavior, community values, and morality. As the son of a Task Force member put it very nicely in his college essay: “You can learn something from anyone.”
In today’s world, low-income communities produce thriving internet businesses, African interests represent seats on the boards of American companies, Indian workers dominate jobs in the technology sector, and Chinese markets hold an integral stake in our daily lives. Learning the “three R’s” isn’t enough anymore. Our children’s futures don’t depend on Bilinguality. They depend on Biculturality. Burlington has the resources right here in the diversity of our communities. Integrate the schools and we all benefit. Just like the refugee parents of our Somali Bantu students learn English from their children, our business owners will learn about productivity from their workers. Like the single mothers in our poorer communities learn to quit smoking and pay more attention to nutrition, our doctors will learn from their increasingly healthier patients. Like our minority populations succeeding economically where their historically repressed parents were never given a square deal, our financiers will learn from the new economic feedback in the community. We’ve got to learn how to grow, and we’ve got to learn in order to grow.
Traditionally, the public school systems seem to have worked well in keeping communities thriving. My school had a high success rate, and my community reflects it. Times have changed, though. This country is in the waning days of an industrial revolution. The last decade produced an amazing period of economic growth, but it’s slowing. Globally, though, the revolution is just getting started. Smaller economic powers (though no less important) are catching up and becoming players in the global economy. Countries such as China, India, Russia, and the Middle East are filling industrial niches, and our undereducated workers can’t keep up. There are many reasons why the American blue-collar population is disappearing in favor of an outsourced labor force. The deficiency in quality education is a huge one. Comfortable middle class citizens in Burlington may not realize the change that’s happening. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Well, the country’s not breaking, but it’s certainly dividing. Burlington doesn’t have many of the problems apparent in rich/poor communities like Long Island, Hartford, and East St. Louis, but we’re not far off. Business owners will see a decline in the productivity of their workers. Doctors will see a decline in the health of their patients’ families. Financiers will see a decline in community investment. If we don’t keep up a long tradition of progressive thinking, and take steps toward integration, then the future will most definitely see us in a similar shape to any one of those communities.
Opposition groups have tabled the initiatives proposed by the Task Force to integrate our schools. It’s obvious something needs to be done, though. In the name of social justice, our community needs to provide a model to the rest of the country that minority groups can be given an equal chance to succeed. Unless you’re an outright racist, you cannot for one second believe that students of color inherently achieve less than white students, as the statistics represent. Unless you’re an outright racist, you must agree that there is a systemic problem. There are many assumptions about the quality of family support in low-income and high-minority areas. Parents in these communities don’t care enough about their children’s education? Here’s a better assumption: For every parent out there that doesn’t care, there’s another that cares desperately, and is mutely crying out for a fair chance to help his or her child. Parents in low-income and high-minority communities don’t care about their children’s education? If the well-to-do families in Burlington don’t take into consideration the Task Force’s findings and recommendations, then obviously they don’t care about those children’s education either.
In 2006, two Burlington-area schools failed to meet adequate yearly progress standards for the fourth year in a row. Edmunds Middle School and Milton Elementary School include populations of the lowest income and highest minority students. They’ve been put on corrective action status and with our two Old North End elementary schools not far behind, it’s clear what the future has in store for our labor population. Now is the time for action. The Task Force has done the work, and now it’s up to the rest of the community to accept the charge. Not only will our business owners find they have better workers, our doctors see health increases in their patients’ families, and our financiers see a more valuable community market, their children will also gain an immeasurably rich social education, and be fully prepared to enter the vastly diverse “real world.” We need to throw off the stereotypes, erase the assumptions, and begin to strengthen our community from the bottom up. In order to do this, though, it’ll require some support from the top down.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Dairy Queen; Dairy Tyranny
Frank
Senator Patrick Leahy recently held a hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee to address the fact that national policy overlooks small farms. The sad thing is: NO MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE SHOWED!!!! Except for Leahy himself of course. Luckily some heroes do exist - Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Peter Welch joined up to show some muscle on the issue and listen to comments as well. The problem is farmers need more and perhaps better federal aid if the government wishes to have a stronghold on the farm community big or small, whether it be Vermont or any other state for that matter.
Milk does a body good, got milk? Sound familiar? Those are a couple crafty slogans wittily thought up by some smart-ass genius with a milk mustache sold to corporate dairy that can afford to have perhaps even a gang of milk-mustachioed knaves brain-storming around the clock obsolete catch phrases to help push gallons upon gallons of the pearly white cookie partner. And yet the poor proletariat of the good 'ol VT farm community is having a hard enough time staying open for business let alone expand their marketing campaigns. It's no big secret (or scheme for that matter) that national policy favors big business and Vermont dairy farms take it in the "you know where" causing them to go under. The Farm Bill, which is updated every five years, is what spearheads federal policy on commodity farming, nutrition programs, rural development, logging, and conservation. This policy is also what controls the price that is paid to farmers for their product but does not in any way control their costs for feed, energy, and supplies to maintain their farms. With inflation and government control on milk "royalties" it doesn't take a genius to figure out why it becomes difficult for a small farm to stay alive in todays 'cow eat cow' dairy market. This poses a grave threat my friends, if local farms begin to sink then cooperatives as well will lose business and in the end the market will be dominated by a few feeding the many which......well......I think we witnessed the damage done earlier when a strand of e.coli made its way into a spinach farm and soon packed its bags for a cross-country trip. See what I'm getting at? It's important to eat local and it's important to support our local farmers.
Senator Patrick Leahy recently held a hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee to address the fact that national policy overlooks small farms. The sad thing is: NO MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE SHOWED!!!! Except for Leahy himself of course. Luckily some heroes do exist - Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Peter Welch joined up to show some muscle on the issue and listen to comments as well. The problem is farmers need more and perhaps better federal aid if the government wishes to have a stronghold on the farm community big or small, whether it be Vermont or any other state for that matter.
Milk does a body good, got milk? Sound familiar? Those are a couple crafty slogans wittily thought up by some smart-ass genius with a milk mustache sold to corporate dairy that can afford to have perhaps even a gang of milk-mustachioed knaves brain-storming around the clock obsolete catch phrases to help push gallons upon gallons of the pearly white cookie partner. And yet the poor proletariat of the good 'ol VT farm community is having a hard enough time staying open for business let alone expand their marketing campaigns. It's no big secret (or scheme for that matter) that national policy favors big business and Vermont dairy farms take it in the "you know where" causing them to go under. The Farm Bill, which is updated every five years, is what spearheads federal policy on commodity farming, nutrition programs, rural development, logging, and conservation. This policy is also what controls the price that is paid to farmers for their product but does not in any way control their costs for feed, energy, and supplies to maintain their farms. With inflation and government control on milk "royalties" it doesn't take a genius to figure out why it becomes difficult for a small farm to stay alive in todays 'cow eat cow' dairy market. This poses a grave threat my friends, if local farms begin to sink then cooperatives as well will lose business and in the end the market will be dominated by a few feeding the many which......well......I think we witnessed the damage done earlier when a strand of e.coli made its way into a spinach farm and soon packed its bags for a cross-country trip. See what I'm getting at? It's important to eat local and it's important to support our local farmers.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Rappin Rove
"He can't be beat/ Cause he's so white from his head to his feet."
This thing is just full of excruciating truths. Don't let this stunt fool anyone. Not only is Karl Rove one of the most evil bastards in the world, he's also one of the most cunning. The evil empire has taken to humility as of late in a scheme to make light of the last seven years of sin. George makes a joke about writing a "pop-up" book about his presidency, Rove dances like a complete ninny. An utterly despicable, vengeful, and stone-hearted ninny.
It's like the bigger kids on the playground laughing at each others' cruelty after they break your toy. Maybe if they make enough self-aware cracks at themselves, then history will be a little more lenient.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Vermont to Impeach Cheney; Bush Will Follow
Here's an op-ed from the not-so-far left by Frank...
Tuesday March 6th, Vermont celebrated its annual Town Meeting Day in which communities from all over the state assembled to vote on current issues including town budget proposals, ballot holders, office seekers, education etc. etc......I would love more than anything to delve into public concern over state property taxes and education but, well, that is not what this blog is about.....sorry. Instead, I will digress a bit and rant about a subject that has captured my attention completely and convey my opinions and concerns in a manner so blunt and obnoxious I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before hate-mail finds its way en route to my humble abode.
Along with the many articles that arose on Town Meeting Day, one that tickled my fancy was the Bush/Cheney nonbinding impeachment measure. This was brought up under "other business" and began a wide panel of debate and dispute throughout the state - not really; in fact thirty six towns voted in favor of the movement and only eleven put off a vote on it, a tally in East Montpelier looked a bit like this: 123-27, pro-impeachment! Clarendon, another Vermont town voted 19-17 to reject the impeachment measure- man that says a lot! Of course there had to be a Devil's Advocate who's opposing stance to the idea had to have a stronger foothold and Enosburg (home to a many proud National Guardsmen) played just the part. An outspoken denizen of the quaint VT village, located smugly north of the Queen City east of the great Champlain, stated "......it had nothing to do with town business......" in which afterwards he was shown much gratification from a local soldier who was wounded in battle and had his limbs sutured back on with rubber bands, he is now a covert operative working to undermine the terrorist cell COBRA - not really. Vermont, I'm routing for ya! I really am..... as a state that highly influenced the election of Thomas Jefferson which resulted in rescuing a country from totalitarian tendencies (portrayed in the Sedition Act of 1797) and weighing in the heaviest out of all states, casting the largest percentage of votes for Mr. Abe Lincoln, I believe our voice counts in times like these - so let us be heard!
It is apparent that President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney have been taking a major loss lately in the approval polls, but really, is it much of a surprise? As ring leaders (or perhaps I should say jesters - I just can't decide) of the current administration they have been fumbling their way through their terms. Lately we have witnessed yet another portrayal of misdirected guidance in which brings me to another issue that ties into the latter. I. Lewis Libby Jr. a.k.a. "Scooter", Cheney's former Chief of Staff has been found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice. Scoot you really dun it now! You should've known lyin' and submitting false information would land you a year in the crowbar-hotel, oooops am I being a bit facetious here? Probably not, I mean c'mon, do you really think he's gonna have to do all twenty five years? And now there's a talk about a pardon! Mr. Bush has no comment pertaining to all of this except for ".....I was sad, I was sad for a man who had worked in my administration, and particularly sad for his family." Boo-fuckin-hoo, hey you appointed him my man. In fact if you surf on over to Scooter Libby.com you'll find a nice little cache of concerns and condolences backing a pardon for poor 'ol Scoot, including a fundraiser that the Times Argus reports it already has raised $4 million+ for the old man. Scoot, why don't you help out Cheney with some of his hospital fees with that chunk of change? Rumor has it the fat slob ain't eatin' so healthy these days and he's had enough heart attacks to rival a bevy of elderly war vets attending the screening of Saving Private Ryan. Anyway, what's really going on here? Scooter are you the "fall-guy"? Can we put Cheney on trial yet? And what about poor Valerie Wilson? Well she'll be packing her bags and moving to New Mexico and then hopefully "Fair Game" will sell millions of copies, i mean it's got to - Warner Brothers just bought the movie rights. I can't wait for the casting to begin, I just hope they dig up Dana Carvey to play Dubbya.
Well as they say, "time is of the essence", and it is about that time I tactfully wrap this up. It is no wonder that approval ratings are down, it is no wonder that certain sentiments throughout the world are the way they are these days; could it be because more disgruntled Iraqi refugees have migrated to our shores? Probably not. Since the Iraq War almost four million people have been displaced from their homes and two million have left the country. An article in Time Magazine reports the U.S. taking in only 18 Iraqi refugees in 2005 and only 202 in 2006.......out of four million that no longer have a place called home since we initiated this fiasco. Vermont, don't be afraid to voice your opinions in the manner you had on Town Meeting Day, I would say there is substantial reason to express such sentiments so let us express and be heard.
-Frank
Tuesday March 6th, Vermont celebrated its annual Town Meeting Day in which communities from all over the state assembled to vote on current issues including town budget proposals, ballot holders, office seekers, education etc. etc......I would love more than anything to delve into public concern over state property taxes and education but, well, that is not what this blog is about.....sorry. Instead, I will digress a bit and rant about a subject that has captured my attention completely and convey my opinions and concerns in a manner so blunt and obnoxious I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before hate-mail finds its way en route to my humble abode.
Along with the many articles that arose on Town Meeting Day, one that tickled my fancy was the Bush/Cheney nonbinding impeachment measure. This was brought up under "other business" and began a wide panel of debate and dispute throughout the state - not really; in fact thirty six towns voted in favor of the movement and only eleven put off a vote on it, a tally in East Montpelier looked a bit like this: 123-27, pro-impeachment! Clarendon, another Vermont town voted 19-17 to reject the impeachment measure- man that says a lot! Of course there had to be a Devil's Advocate who's opposing stance to the idea had to have a stronger foothold and Enosburg (home to a many proud National Guardsmen) played just the part. An outspoken denizen of the quaint VT village, located smugly north of the Queen City east of the great Champlain, stated "......it had nothing to do with town business......" in which afterwards he was shown much gratification from a local soldier who was wounded in battle and had his limbs sutured back on with rubber bands, he is now a covert operative working to undermine the terrorist cell COBRA - not really. Vermont, I'm routing for ya! I really am..... as a state that highly influenced the election of Thomas Jefferson which resulted in rescuing a country from totalitarian tendencies (portrayed in the Sedition Act of 1797) and weighing in the heaviest out of all states, casting the largest percentage of votes for Mr. Abe Lincoln, I believe our voice counts in times like these - so let us be heard!
It is apparent that President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney have been taking a major loss lately in the approval polls, but really, is it much of a surprise? As ring leaders (or perhaps I should say jesters - I just can't decide) of the current administration they have been fumbling their way through their terms. Lately we have witnessed yet another portrayal of misdirected guidance in which brings me to another issue that ties into the latter. I. Lewis Libby Jr. a.k.a. "Scooter", Cheney's former Chief of Staff has been found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice. Scoot you really dun it now! You should've known lyin' and submitting false information would land you a year in the crowbar-hotel, oooops am I being a bit facetious here? Probably not, I mean c'mon, do you really think he's gonna have to do all twenty five years? And now there's a talk about a pardon! Mr. Bush has no comment pertaining to all of this except for ".....I was sad, I was sad for a man who had worked in my administration, and particularly sad for his family." Boo-fuckin-hoo, hey you appointed him my man. In fact if you surf on over to Scooter Libby.com you'll find a nice little cache of concerns and condolences backing a pardon for poor 'ol Scoot, including a fundraiser that the Times Argus reports it already has raised $4 million+ for the old man. Scoot, why don't you help out Cheney with some of his hospital fees with that chunk of change? Rumor has it the fat slob ain't eatin' so healthy these days and he's had enough heart attacks to rival a bevy of elderly war vets attending the screening of Saving Private Ryan. Anyway, what's really going on here? Scooter are you the "fall-guy"? Can we put Cheney on trial yet? And what about poor Valerie Wilson? Well she'll be packing her bags and moving to New Mexico and then hopefully "Fair Game" will sell millions of copies, i mean it's got to - Warner Brothers just bought the movie rights. I can't wait for the casting to begin, I just hope they dig up Dana Carvey to play Dubbya.
Well as they say, "time is of the essence", and it is about that time I tactfully wrap this up. It is no wonder that approval ratings are down, it is no wonder that certain sentiments throughout the world are the way they are these days; could it be because more disgruntled Iraqi refugees have migrated to our shores? Probably not. Since the Iraq War almost four million people have been displaced from their homes and two million have left the country. An article in Time Magazine reports the U.S. taking in only 18 Iraqi refugees in 2005 and only 202 in 2006.......out of four million that no longer have a place called home since we initiated this fiasco. Vermont, don't be afraid to voice your opinions in the manner you had on Town Meeting Day, I would say there is substantial reason to express such sentiments so let us express and be heard.
-Frank
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Stranger Than Fiction
Will Ferrell's dramatic abilities are not exactly impressive. Despite a general critical attitude of mild acceptance of the inevitable fact that the actor can pull off a character that doesn't fit into the SNL worldview (one which Ferrell has arguably been integral in creating), essentially the performance was not the breakthrough some may have imagined. Ferrell's Harold Crick was seething on the verge of a breakdown from the start, and not intentionally. Those beady eyes of his, like a shark's, scanning the murkiness around him, ready to attack any and every comic opportunity, in the end gave him away. Ferrell didn't leave his improvisational genius at the arthouse doorstep on this one, nearly cracking after each successive straightman (honestly, isn't everyone a straightman when appearing with Will Ferrell?) offered up a tasty bit of comic set-up, only to cringe as his line-reading super-ego kicked in. "Talladega Nights" was sillier, stupider, and a lot easier to digest, but man, did it have a vitality and energy that Stranger Than Fiction could never rival. Only one scene breathed with any kind of life. Harold and Ana sit in the bus while the camera follows, um, actually it was hard to tell because the hinge in the big, two-part city bus keeps doing its thing. Eyelines are skewed, the camera gets confused, and it's as if Fellini stopped in as guest director for the afternoon. It's really fun.
Ana, as a character, is the worst kind of scriptwriting shortcut. Boy meets girl, boy must get over individual problem to get girl, boy gets girl. I don't want to call it insensitivity, but I wouldn't want to be a woman watching this film. She isn't even given a chance to decide whether she likes him. It's written in. If, as most of its champions will argue, the essence of the film is the simple love story, then it's a pretty one-sided story. The story is about Harold Crick, and all the other characters, including Ana, are foils, incapable of individuality. Perhaps director Marc Forster's take on contemporary fiction is exactly this. Sometimes singularity must be re-examined in the name of a more complex, humanistic story.
I think that's what left me wanting more from Stranger Than Fiction. The love story left me unsatisfied, it just felt a little too easy, and the concept of the story within the story didn't really point any fingers or take any particular stance. I can really only speculate as to Forster's take on fiction as a theme.
Ana, as a character, is the worst kind of scriptwriting shortcut. Boy meets girl, boy must get over individual problem to get girl, boy gets girl. I don't want to call it insensitivity, but I wouldn't want to be a woman watching this film. She isn't even given a chance to decide whether she likes him. It's written in. If, as most of its champions will argue, the essence of the film is the simple love story, then it's a pretty one-sided story. The story is about Harold Crick, and all the other characters, including Ana, are foils, incapable of individuality. Perhaps director Marc Forster's take on contemporary fiction is exactly this. Sometimes singularity must be re-examined in the name of a more complex, humanistic story.
I think that's what left me wanting more from Stranger Than Fiction. The love story left me unsatisfied, it just felt a little too easy, and the concept of the story within the story didn't really point any fingers or take any particular stance. I can really only speculate as to Forster's take on fiction as a theme.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Little Miss Sunshine Was Stupid
This was a boring short-cut of a movie that front-loaded its story with a few nasty issues, dicked around for the entire second act with only one good scene where Steve Carell's Frank gets spotted buying porno magazines, and by the finale, completely blew apart any kind of intelligent resolutions that could have been made. Meanwhile this family unfairly has every bit of script-trickery bad luck thrown at them. The kid finds out he's color blind or something and can't get into the army (Oh kid, your dreams are shot down? That happens all the time, to every kid, once a week. I remember a particular Jimmy Page and Robert Plant reunion my dad wouldn't let me go to when I was 13. Devastating). How does this justify an ending? All other issues are left untouched other than to insinuate that wallowing in your own misery is somehow essential in life. Another determinist piece of garbage that's only bringing us down as humans.
But I had to say something, because the asshole responsible for this thing just won an Oscar. But here's proof that these people need to get out of Hollywood before the whole place implodes on itself. This was said of the writer's nomination:
"To write this script, Michael Arndt [Little Miss Sunshine] had to quit his job as personal assistant to Matthew Broderick."
But I had to say something, because the asshole responsible for this thing just won an Oscar. But here's proof that these people need to get out of Hollywood before the whole place implodes on itself. This was said of the writer's nomination:
"To write this script, Michael Arndt [Little Miss Sunshine] had to quit his job as personal assistant to Matthew Broderick."
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
History Doesn't Repeat Itself, But It Rhymes...
Despite a question as to the extent of the actual Iranian involvement in the arming of insurgent forces in Iraq, the executive branch has made a proclamation, and his word stands. Executive power now rests not only in administrative and military affairs, but in foreign relations as well. As it should. Doesn't it make sense that the word of one man should hold that much power? Why should UN investigations, Iranian justification, or diplomatic proceedings have any bearing here?
Two things get me about this issue. For one, the executive branch is on the verge of igniting another conflict that may have even less to do with the War on Terror. There's a War on something, obviously. We're like a kid at recess saying, "Alright, I know you guys are playing a joke, just tell me what it is." For two, try this one on. Questionable Arms Sales, Foreign Insurgencies, Iran. Weird, I know.
Two things get me about this issue. For one, the executive branch is on the verge of igniting another conflict that may have even less to do with the War on Terror. There's a War on something, obviously. We're like a kid at recess saying, "Alright, I know you guys are playing a joke, just tell me what it is." For two, try this one on. Questionable Arms Sales, Foreign Insurgencies, Iran. Weird, I know.
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