Letters to the Editor
ScienceMan
Published Letters: 2
-
OK, here's the actual movie, not the trailer
[Read the article: "Nancy Drew"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One problem seems to be that none of the folks writing thus far have actually seen the movie. I took my wife, daughter, and her friend this afternoon to see the movie, and am happy to report that Emma Roberts (in the guise of Nancy Drew) holds her own pretty well. She has a hundred different shades of expression between a smile and frown to signal that, well, it's a shame that much of Los Angeles isn't up to exacting standards of my, say, lemon bars, but I'll just have to make the best it. The retro clothes and production design are a clever part of the movie and, more often than not, it is the 'modern folks' that get held up to ridicule. (see the goofy movie director in the Willis cameo movie.) Of course, there are the obvious lifts from Sunset Boulevard and Mullholland Drive (perhaps the director winking at us) but, all in all, Nancy shows herself to be the kind of resourceful young women that we would all like our daughters to emulate. I'll take the penny loafers over the Jimmy Choos anyday.
Now about that annoying little 12 year old sidekick...
-
John McCain
[Read the article: What John McCain didn't learn in Vietnam]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Joe Conason is on the right track here, but he didn't take the analyis far enough. Yes, John McCain is misguided about Vietnam because, in his apparent ignorance of the basic principles of war from Sun Tzu, your chances of winning a war when you don't understand the motivations and intentions of the enemy are no better than 50%. He can't seem to internalize the simple fact that the Vietnamese were willing to spend 1000 years to rid their country of colonialist invaders, be they Chinese, French, or Americans.
That confusion extends to John McCain's understanding of Iraq, and his naive belief that that the Iraqis are going to accept a permanent, massive US military presence in their country in perpetuity. Someone needs to point out that the reason that BinLaden's movement developed critical mass was that it initially focused on getting American troops out of Saudi Arabia, which was a potent recruiting message for Al-Queda. Iraq is neither Germany nor South Korea, even though McCain wishes that were so. Just like the British in the 1920's (whose status of forces agreement we think can be reimposed virtually a century later), we need that presence to prop up a weak government that cannot stand up to the light of day, and control their oil reserves. Everyday more information- like the crude itself- bubbles up regarding the secret backroom deals that are being made to enrich selected American Oil companies, and likely key Iraqi government officials as well. This ought to be the focus of the debate between Obama and McCain with regard to Iraq; instead, we get a phony dialog about patriotism. Is anybody in the Obama campaign listening?