Five Living Presidents: What distinguishes them…
Look at this picture carefully. What distinguishes the current (Bush junior) and the future president (Obama) from the ex presidents? The little America pin on their jackets. Apparently the ex-presidents are not worried that anyone would question their patriotism.
Fighting Sin with Catholic Google
Catholic Google is supposed to help avoiding sin. I don’t think it works. Try it out with your favorite sinful words!
Continue ReadingOh, Liza… John Lahr is too sharp for you
Just read John Lahr’s review of Liza Minelli’s new show “MORE ABOUT ME” in the New Yorker. I felt bad for Liza because the review is almost too penetrating. But it is a joy for the reading public.
Liza Minnelli
Continue ReadingThe Edge of Heaven
The German title of the film (Auf der anderen Seite) means something like “on the other side”. Fatih Akin, the German writer and director of Turkish background has wonderful material to work with (growing up with Turkish parents in Germany) but lacks the skill to shape the material into a first-class film. He comes across like a recent film school graduate who received money to turn his school project into a full feature film: the writing is unfocused and, worse, he shoots the film in such a way that you always remember that everything is an act rather than real. By not allowing the fundamental magic of movies to unfold where you lose yourself into the plot as if you were watching a real thing, Aktin is making it unnecessarily hard for the viewer. I recommend that you watch instead http://peter.murmann.name/movies_comments.php?id=256_0_2_0_C ]The Lives of Others[/url]which shows you what a good filmmaker can do with powerful material.
Twilight
Most people I know woke up to the full powers of the flesh sometimes in their second decade. Some experience this discovery as ‘no big deal;’ others are thrown off balance. Trying to explore this new territory with some success often proves dauntingly difficult. Many films have been made about teenage romance. A few of them are delightful to the adult mind. Twilight is one of them. It takes you to a different place: A truly dangerous love affair that every parent, for once, would have a right to oppose: Do you want your teenage daughter fall in love with a classmate who happens to be Vampire? Visually, the film takes you to stunning views and mood of the Pacific Northwest. You don’t want to miss these vistas.
What George Bush learned during his Presidency
Kimberly Strassel: I ask the president what he’s learned from his time in office—not from a policy perspective, but as a person. His answer is unsurprising from a man who has always talked openly of his faith—though that, too, has earned him criticism.
“I’ve learned that God is good. All the time.”
PM: Hallelujah. We paid a very heavy price to afford Georgie this personal learning experience. The very fact that Georgie became president is strong evidence that God sometimes does not pay attention. 
Historians will have to call in an army of psychologists to figure Bush’s brain out. Read the full he full Interview in the Wall Street Journal, click on more.
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The Power is Shifting
I remember reading a reminiscence either by President Truman or Eisenhower about the remarkable change they felt the day after they handed over the presidency: While the day before everyone was most interested in them, no one wanted now wanted to see them. The office has the charisma, not they as individuals. Democracy is about the peaceful handing over of power. George Bush is getting a first strong taste of what every president seems to go through. The NY Times reports:
In an effort to inject confidence into the quavering financial markets, Mr. Obama made certain that his first formal cabinet announcement dealt with the economy, not, as is often the case with national security or diplomacy. In announcing the nominations of Mr. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, and Mr. Summers, a Harvard economist, Mr. Obama sent a signal that he was set to pursue aggressive, yet centrist policies, in crafting moves to help jump-start the economy. He was stretching his economic announcement into a two-day affair, planning another news conference Tuesday to present the rest of his team.
The televised news conference, which came shortly after President Bush made brief remarks at the Treasury Department with Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., created a stark image of the transfer of power that is under way in Washington. Mr. Obama and his new team arrived in a room of dozens of reporters, while Mr. Bush stood nearly alone on the steps of the Treasury Department.
William Kristol changes his tune after the election
Some conservative commentators had already swung to Obama before the election, but not so William Kristol. Unlike William Safire whose conservative columns I found rewarding to read, Kristol struck me as the mouthpiece of Dick Chenney. His transformation for this reason is all the more stunning. Pollster have long demonstrated that after an election suddenly more people claim that they have voted for the winner than is mathematically possible. Kristol did not vote for Obama, but he sure seems to be pulled by the same psychological forces that make us want to be on the side of the winner.
James Carville on the Transition Process
A campaign is the time to stab your enemies and a transition is the time to stab your friends.
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