http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/09/dissent-of-the-day-3.html#more

From Sullivan:

“The protestors keep saying that they want their country back. Sorry, my fellow small-governmenters, but this country is a democracy, and you didn’t lose your country, you just lost an election. You had your chance for eight years. You blew it, and you lost.”

David Brooks’ column in yesterday’s NYT is well worth reading:

“The dignity code commanded its followers to be disinterested — to endeavor to put national interests above personal interests. It commanded its followers to be reticent — to never degrade intimate emotions by parading them in public. It also commanded its followers to be dispassionate — to distrust rashness, zealotry, fury and political enthusiasm.

Remnants of the dignity code lasted for decades. For most of American history, politicians did not publicly campaign for president. It was thought that the act of publicly promoting oneself was ruinously corrupting.”

Sullivan nails it:

“This is more like the American revolution than the French one… What the Mousavi movement wants is a revolution within the system. What they want it perestroika and glasnost. Of course, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad realize that this could lead to what perestroika and glasnost led to in Russia: the end of everything.”

Erika M. Anderson kicks it:

Arsenal’s new signing – yes he’s fucking political.

I was saddened to hear about the death this week of one of the true greats of American letters. I must confess to not having read as much of his work as I would like; I did, however, recently stumble upon this interview containing this rather thought-provoking observation:

“When I was a boy, the bestselling books were often the books that were on your piano teacher’s shelf. I mean, Steinbeck, Hemingway, some Faulkner. Faulkner actually had, considering how hard he is to read and how drastic the experiments are, quite a middle-class readership. But certainly someone like Steinbeck was a bestseller as well as a Nobel Prize-winning author of high intent. You don’t feel that now. I don’t feel that we have the merger of serious and pop — it’s gone, dissolving. Tastes have coarsened. People read less, they’re less comfortable with the written word. They’re less comfortable with novels. They don’t have a backward frame of reference that would enable them to appreciate things like irony and allusions. It’s sad. It’s momentarily uphill, I would say.”

Agree/Disagree? Either way, I encourage you to discuss.

If anything speaks to the United Nations’ impotence as an international political actor it’s this.

You do know that it was Israel, the 25th richest country in world, that destroyed all those buildings and killed all those people, right? Seems to me it wouldn’t be impolite to ask them to put their hand in their fucking pocket…

…even though I haven’t seen all of the films involved, I would say that, with the exception of Wall-E, there’s absolutely no value to be found in sticking money on the favourites at this year’s Oscars. Here’s what Blue Square are offering:

Best Film
Slumdog Millionaire 1/4
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 4/1
Milk 10/1
Frost/Nixon 16/1
The Reader 20/1

Best Director
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire 1/3
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 4/1
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon 8/1
Gus Van Sant – Milk 14/1
Stephen Daldry – The Reader 14/1

Seems to me that both Best Film and Best Director categories are tossups between Slumdog and Benjamin “Forrest Gump with an Honourary Doctorate” Button. Good chance of the awards being split although it’s anyone’s guess which gets which. All things being equal I’d take the longer odds.

Best Actor In A Leading Role
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler 10/11
Sean Penn – Milk 5/4
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon 11/2
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 20/1
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor 25/1

I think Sean Pennis took this role because he heard the words “Gay” and “Biopic”, did the calculations and awarded himself the Oscar in advance. I don’t want him to get it and would be perfectly happy if any of the others did. Richard Jenkins was great in The Visitor but is probably a little unlikely; Brad Pitt at 20 is tempting but I think my 50p’s going on Langella or Rourke.

Best Actress In A Leading Role
Kate Winslet – The Reader 5/6
Meryl Streep – Doubt 11/4
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married 11/4
Melissa Leo – Frozen River 16/1
Angelina Jolie – Changeling 20/1

Conventional wisdom suggests that Winslet’s been nominated for the wrong film and, even though she stole the show with her Golden Globes, that might leave an opening for one of the others. Angelina Jolie at 20 to 1? Yes please.

Best Actor In A Supporting Role
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight 1/50
Josh Brolin – Milk 16/1
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt 16/1
Robert Downey Jr – Tropic Thunder 25/1
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road 25/1

Heath Ledger at 50 to 1 on? That means that for every £1 you put on, you’ll get £1.02p back. I know he died and was great and everything but 16/1 for Josh Brolin’s just too tempting for this one. No idea if he’s any good but he was the only one from the No Country crew to miss out completely last year, and he’s been generally good in stuff of late, so why not? (Robert Downey Jr’s nomination will forever be the moment when the Academy “jumped the shark”. what the fucking fuck?)

Best Actress In A Supporting Role
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona 8/11
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler 5/2
Viola Davis – Doubt 9/2
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 12/1
Amy Adams – Doubt 12/1

Looks like this is the only category where the bookies haven’t seen any of the films, haven’t heard of any of the actresses and are generally a little unwilling to go out on a limb. Heard Marisa Tomei ont he radio last week and she seems lovely, so why not her?

Best Animated Film
Wall-E 1/9
Kung Fu Panda 8/1
Bolt 9/1

If Waltz With Bashir had made it into this category it might be at least a little competitive. As it goes Wall-E’ll walk this one. Should have received a Best Film nod as well

In moral terms Israel’s recent operation in Gaza was an obscenity and an abomination. Whether or not it was illegal, under International Humanitarian Law, is for wiser minds than mine to argue over.

Equally unquestionable is that the conditions in Gaza’s refugee camps constitute a humanitarian crisis; unfortunately this crisis has been caused by an act of man and not God and is therefore a political one as well. There simply is no separating the two and the BBC simply cannot afford to undermine itself by broadcasting a third-party appeal of this kind. Commercial (or semi-commercial) institutions can be as selective as they like when it comes to the causes they support, public ones cannot.

One thing I don’t know is if the BBC has screened DEC appeals for previous humanitarian campaigns with political overtones (namely Darfur and the Congo); if it has then Mark Thompson’s a hypocrite and should be ashamed. Consistency is everything.

Another question worth asking is how the Beeb’s own Comic Relief and Children in Need fits in with all this?

Fo Brizzle

Surprisingly decent BBC vampire/werewolf/i-see-dead-people drama called Being Human. In case you missed it last night, you can watch it here.