Random fun from today's New York Times:
1) The big applause lines the Republican candidates deployed at the Straw Poll make me ashamed to be from Iowa. (Actually, the concept of a "straw poll" makes me ashamed to be from Iowa, but...)
Mitt Romney (who won the damn thing...Did I mention my embarrassment over being from Iowa?) got cheers for claiming, "If there has ever been a time that needed change in Washington, it is now."
Forgetting the tortured syntax of that sentence, hasn't your party been in charge most of the time? Weren't the Republicans happily towing the Bush line as recently as a year ago?
More depressing is this, from Colorado's Tom Tancredo, after pledging to deport anyone in this country illegally: "They call us who believe in the rule of law xenophobes and racists."
They sure do, Tom, because you are. Also, you forgot "hypocrites".
2) William Safire is still writing his "On Language" column. When Apocalypse comes, this thing will outlast the cockroaches.
3) How The "Good War" In Afghanistan Turned Bad is a lengthy piece by reporters David Rohde and David Sanger, neatly summarized by its sub-headline: At key moments in the war, the Bush administration diverted scarce resources to Iraq.
Um, this is news? Coming soon in The Times: Weapons Of Mass Destruction: Were We Duped?
4)Brief piece on the significance of various versions of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, notable only for telling me something I didn't know: The latest version, The Invasion, opening this week, doesn't even have pods.
Okay, Hollywood, now I'm pissed. If you're doing Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, you have pods--thus the term "pod people". it's poetic, it's metaphoric, it's the only reason for doing the umpty-umpth remake of a movie that was perfect the first time. If you don't even get that, you'll never get the rest.
5) According to Woody Allen's touching piece on Ingmar Bergman, everyone's favorite dour Swede liked to kick back and relax by watching James Bond movies. I'm guessing he found particular comfort in Roger Moore's efforts, which surely reinforced Bergman's belief that there is no just and loving God.
