Letters to the Editor
Xrandadu Hutman
Published Letters: 2630 Editor's Choice: 52
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I second the above response to Garry Owen's post
[Read the article: Movies that shock and awe]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Where were these films when it would have mattered?"
Uh, you wanted these people to make these movies in 2004? Timeline: The war begins in March 2003. The crap starts hitting the fan in small amounts in summer/fall 2003. It gets worse in 2004. In fall 2004 there is a U.S. presidential election. Bush wins. Immediately after Bush wins the military nearly destroys Fallujah, irrevocably damaging 70% of buildings and using white phosporous as a munition in violation of international law (i.e. we invaded Iraq on a false pretense of WMD, then we attacked them with WMD). Then in spring 2005 the torture at Abu Ghraib is revealed. By this time the Iraq public has learned to hate the United States military and the insurgency is out of control. By summer 2005 Dick Cheney utters his famous "last throes" comment.
So what good would a couple of movies have made? With the rah-rah jingoistic fervor overwheming the country around the time the war began, do you really think any of these films could have gotten made and distributed, let alone seen by an audience?
Keep in mind that most major Vietnam flicks did not get made for TEN YEARS after that war ended.
One of those Vietnam flicks was Brian DePalma's "Casualties of War," one of the great overlooked anti-war films of all time. DePalma has already made one powerful anti-war statement. His "Redacted" is an addendum to that. I can't wait to see it.
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Um...
[Read the article: Starring roles: Cate Blanchett as Dylan and more]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Isn't it a little early to make Oscar calls? The big studios are about to trot out their real contenders come November/December. (And hey, what's with not giving Shia LaBeouf props for his thespiantacular performance in "Transformers"?)
Personally I hate to see critics weigh in on the Oscar horse race, though in this case you two get off the hook because you use it as a chance to highlight two performances in new films (where do I get tickets for a sneak of the new Coen Bros. film?). I am sorry that Stephanie Zacharek didn't spend a little more time explaining the "why" of Todd Hanes casting a woman as Bob Dylan. Sure, it captures him at his bird-like prettiest, or whatever, but that hardly covers the "why"! (Maybe I'll dig into Zacharek's text review for more info.)
That said, now to more important matters: Zacharek has officially replaced Joan Walsh as my fantasy Salon girlfriend. Sorry, Joan, but those poorly lit shots of you on bad hair days have been trumped by Zacharek's amazing fire-mane (real?) and devastating eyes. Zachar-OOHK!
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Oh my.... Ellen lost it...
[Read the article: Iggy-gate TV ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The guy in the first video, David Spates, is pretty funny. I'd rather not watch his commentary while he's sitting on a toilet, but I guess it could be worse.
I hadn't seen the Ellen video. I'm not a daytime talk-TV kinda person. But now that I've seen it, my first thought it, "What in the ever-loving was Ellen thinking?" That was not professional. That's lose-your-show material right there.
Whatever the merits of Ellen's side, it is a personal matter. She shouldn't have used her show as a forum or sounding board for making a plea to some small company. The viewing public should not have been pulled into it. It's not our business.
Ellen, did you know there's a war on? People losing limbs and lives daily? Billions of dollars flushed down the toilet? Tens of thousands of people still displaced by Katrina? Inflation and a recession? The dollar at its lowest against the Euro ever? Widespread government corruption? Really screwed-up immigration policies? Crumbling infrastructure? 120 people blown up in Pakistan? Hundreds "disappeared" in Myanmar? Millions displaced by the Ganges Dam fiasco in China? Deformed Iraqi children poisoned by depleted-uranium munitions? Continued bloodshed in Sudan? Kidnapping and human trafficking throughout Eastern Europe and Asia? An ongoing massacre and land-grab in East Jerusalem? An impending crisis involving Turkey and the Kurdish border? Spine-chilling saber rattling involving the U.S., Iran and Russia? To name but a few issues...
And you're crying about a dog that's still alive, and some sad kids who can easily bond with another doggie?
Jeez woman, what meds are you on? Or off?
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Wow, what a self-righteous bullsh*t article
[Read the article: Ellen, the dog bullies and me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Heather writes at length saying she understands why dog-rescue people become rigid. Then she lashes out at them for it anyway -- calls them "mouth breathers" (WTF?). Heather wants to have it both ways: She wants to claim symapthy with the people who have these demanding jobs, then she wants to rip into them when they actually have balls enough to hold people to the contracts they sign.
Ellen was an idiot for ever making this problem public. She should have given in and taken the blame among her friends because she's the one who blew the deal. She should have kept it private. Instead she aired it to the world and set up the dog-rescue organization for outside abuse. Which they got in spades.
Now Heather Havrilesky is piling on the excuse, armchair-analyzing everybody in the profession but specifically the people in the Ellen case. When is it our turn to armchair-psychoanalyze you based on a set of bullshit assumptions, Heather? A woman who makes a living sitting on her ass watching TV? Please let me know because I'll happily be first in line to use my creative-writing skills on your sorry psyche.
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Bunnies and Ellen
[Read the article: Rabbit Bites: The Bionic Bunny and Hannah Montana]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Those bunnies need to hop onto the subject of Ellen crying before it gets completely stale.
It's a perfect topic for the bunnies.
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Wow, "Dumbledore Is gay" is Salon's top story on a Monday in which...
[Read the article: Dumbledore? Gay. J.K. Rowling? Chatty.]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]-- San Diego is burning to the ground
-- Dick Cheney is laying one more piece of groundwork for war with Iran
-- Turkey is on the verge of all-out war with the Kurds
-- etc.
Hey, Salon, why isn't your top story the world's largest Caesar salad in Tijuana?