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June 2013
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August 2013

Despicable Me 2

4 stars out of 5
I liked the original; I really liked the sequel. The plot was a bit thin, but everyone did their entertaining part, and there was extra attention paid to the minions, who were always my favorite part of this franchise. Best of all: not too long! A lovely, delightful, entertaining piece of animation. As I watched it, I found myself wondering; how much longer will the uncanny valley  will exist. At some point, there won't be any more live action. If you go by the percentage of most modern action films that is comprised of Computer Graphics, we are half-way there.

Lone Ranger


4 stars out of 5
And here, I violate my own rule. On the one hand, too long by an hour. On the other hand, fantastically entertaining. This is the first summer blockbuster with a real sense of humor, courtesy of Johnny Depp, in both dialog and body language. Fantastic stunts. Beautiful scenery. What more can I say: good value for your entertainment dollar. Don't believe the critics. See for yourself.

Things have changed, Dan Grobstein File

Racism is no longer as blatant as it once was, but with all the voter-ID laws that were swept into legislatures down in the Confederacy after the Roberts gang gutted the Voter Rights Act, who can honestly say racism isn't just running under a new name? I mean after all, they were just literacy tests. And poll taxes. And intimidation. And no polling places in minority neighborhoods.

Dan Grobstein File
Quote of the day: How your bank
screws you: ow.ly/myWE2 
Be sure to read Felix salmon (of financial times) story linked within.

Virginia outsourced their refund system and now taxpayers are
getting screwed over thkpr.gs/1b20viw #icymi

The Guardian (@guardian)
Shitstorm arrives in German dictionary gu.com/p/3h42y/tw via @GuardianBooks

The New York Times (@nytimes)
As Competition Wanes, Amazon
Cuts Back Its Discounts nyti.ms/16ROEQW

  Guardian news (@guardiannews)
Global food supply under threat
as water wells dry up, analyst warns gu.com/p/3h5ev/tf

 
Op-Ed Columnist

E Pluribus Unum

By PAUL KRUGMAN

America's ever-changing and

enduring identity is worthy of a special holiday salute.


 

Warren Mosler, a Deficit Lover With a Following

By ANNIE LOWREY

From his home in the Virgin Islands, Mr. Mosler is waging a well-financed academic battle against economists who want to cut government spending.

 

Summertime, and the living's not as easy as you might think

My wife won't take my word for it, but I get busy when school's out, just in a different way. Every personal project that I enjoy working on, with the exception of school work, gets pushed to the back of my desk from the third week of August until the second week of June. During the 8 weeks during which I am not teaching, I clean up the piles all over my office. In the process, I discover the truth of Napoleon's mail management technique,(I first learned about it in 1977, while attending a time management course for Bank of America officers) as described in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay entitled Napoleon, or The Man of the World,  quoted on the blog of Tim Ferriss:
...[Napoleon's] practice, when general in Italy, in regard to his burdensome correspondence. He directed [his secretary] to leave all letters unopened for three weeks, and then observed with satisfaction how large a part of the correspondence had thus disposed of itself and no longer required an  answer
Thus, the first action I take on many of the piles is to toss them out. Summer is also when I handle the big projects. For example, cleaning out my electronic gear closet, which consists of lots of cables and software from long-gone computers, a random assortment of audio/visual gear, and other accouterments that are no longer necessary. I also hope to begin my "cull the keepsakes" project, in which I would like to sit down with my daughters and throw out the souvenirs of my life they aren't interested in. One last look should be enough for me, and, at this point, I have to admit that no one is going to want to place my "papers" in a library somewhere. Heck, no one is going to want to place my books in a library somewhere. And then, of course, there is my version of "Seven-up," the documentary which follows a group of English school children from the age of 7 to the age, so far, of 56. It inspired my wife and I to videotape our girls every five years, talking about subjects like religion and love. We now have them from age 5 to age 25 and 30, but the tapes have been lying on my desk for years, unedited. It is time for me to suck it up, sit down in the editing studio, and spend the time needed to create the new editions. Plus, I hope to do more original writing in my blog, and to read the racy, self-published journalism novel someone sent me after seeing my journalism book web site.

And of course, next week is my annual trek to Los Angeles to see old friends; in addition to Auld Lang Syne, I am finally headed to Simi Valley, not because of my enormous respect for Ronald Reagan (that respect is quite contained), but because there is a full-size Air Force One there. I have always been fascinated by Air Force One. My best friend from college, Norman Sandler, was a frequent passenger when he was a White House correspondent for United Press International during the Reagan and Bush I years. I look forward to setting foot on the "real" thing, albeit the "real retired thing."

Irreversible Damage? Really?

No attack in the last fifteen years or so has (in itself as opposed to unwise reactions to the event or persons in a position of authority attempting to take advantage of the situation and/or to make money for themselves and their contractor friends) caused "irreversible damage" to the country. Given, for the sake of this issue this week only, that the agency head is correct about "irreversible damage" as he stated to a Congressional committee (ina setting which subjects him to criminal penalties for false statements),  why did he allow a situation to exist where one employee of one contractor could cause "irreversible damage?" Why does he allow a situation to continue to exist where one person could cause "irreversible damage?" What, if anything, is he doing to replace contractors with government employees?
Is He Telling The Truth?
HUMOR
Paying Attention

White House Down

3.5 stars out of 5
In a week of good-quality summer fare, I decided to put my foot down on the stars. I'm not going to give another four-star review this summer to any comedy over 100 minutes  or a drama over 2 hours (and closer to 100 minutes is better).  Thus, this Roland Emmerich film (I am sure he gets proprietary credit for it), a substantial improvement over the previous "they've taken over the White House" movie of a few months ago, gets marked down for somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes of bloat. It is well done, pretty to look at, exciting and entertaining. Alas, writer James Vanderbilt ends up concluding that you can only break into the White House with the help of a traitor in the Secret Service, so that trope gets recycled here. Channing Tatum is better than I expected as the Capitol Hill policeman who wants to be on the Secret Service. Jamie Foxx is great playing another in the series of black presidents we have had in the movies. (Now we need more female and Jewish presidents on film--and then in life). The women in the film are all cameos and cyphers, except the plucky cop's daughter, Emily, played by Joey King, whose performance is impressive. Once again, James Woods leaves no scenery unchewed as the head of the President's Secret Service detail. He's been doing a few projects every year since he wrapped up 38 episodes as Shark (an attorney) on CBS back in 2008., but he's great and underutilized, so it is nice to see him in a major role. Spoiler: the president doesn't die and the White House is retaken.

The Heat

3.5 stars out of 5
At least 20 if not 30 minutes too long, so it lost half a star. Director Paul Feig  has made a really funny movie out of a highly original script by  Katie Dippold (she wrote for MadTV, Parks and Recreation, and is a regular on Conan). Stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy have a certain weird kind of chemistry as the uptight cop (Bullock) and the wild cop (McCarthy), but you already know that if you've seen the trailer. It works, and Hollywood must think it works too, because IMDB already says there is a sequel in development. By the way, there is a very brief cameo by Jane Curtin. I love Jane Curtin. I'm glad to see her working. The film is filled with filthy language and implied sex (not sex, just discussion of it, and of sexual organs), so don't take the kids. But if you like that sort of thing, you'll love this movie.

Monsters University

3.5 stars out of 5
Sorry. I hold animated films and comedies to a stricter standard. Ninety minutes, or "ding." This film is 104 minutes,  (14 minutes too long). But otherwise, director
Dan Scanlon has done a bangup job (four stars if he had shown some restraint) with the script he wrote, along with Daniel Gerson and Robert L. Baird. Billy Crystal and John Goodman reprise their voice roles as Mike Wazowski and James P. "Sully" Sullivan from Monsters Inc. This charming prequel is just that: charming. And I was impressed with the fact that it did NOT teach a bad lesson. SPOILER ALERT: They are thrown out of the university. Now in most children's films I've seen, there would be a deus ex machina that got them readmitted. To my pleasant surprise, the lesson here is, "actions have consequences," a lesson I wish more of my 8th grade students had learned. So, kudos for avoiding the usual cheap copout.

Health and fitness blog, Jewish Buddhism, Poking holes in Internet Ranking, Dalton notes Hi-Res Screen coverage



The friend of a friend has started a health and fitness blog that looks promising. Give it a glance!

My friend Kent Peterman sent along some thoughts on Jewish Buddhism. They are all over the net, so I'll just point you to them here and offer a sample: If there is no self, whose arthritis is this? Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?

The critical analysis of the stupid Verizon propoganda the New York Times obligingly ran is improving and growing in quantity: Comcast, Verizon Editorials Distort True Picture of U.S. Internet Service, Experts Say

Long-time colleague Richard Dalton checks in with this article on High-Resolution Displays by my former boss, Mike Elgan, and adds:
I am interested as I agree with his premise that after you’ve seen very high res, it’s hard to go back to lower.  I have an iPad 3, the first iPad with a “retina” display.  I watch Netflix on it and it is so crystal clear, the image looks chiseled.  Street value for this iPad is about $350, which makes it an incredible bargain.