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Color me shocked that Pat liked “Cold Mountain.” It’s been months since I’ve seen it; but here’s what sticks in my memory.
Nicole Kidman’s botox face – You used to be beautiful. What are you now, 41? For shame! Inject snake poison into your face to smooth out the wrinkles (and nullify what [...]

I saw “Cold Mountain” starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renee Zelwieger. I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew it was a romance of sorts.
I really, really liked it. It’s set during the Civil War and shows some interesting things about that era in history much like “Ride with the [...]

Affleck’s prominence at the Dem Convention must be troubling, but there were better stars in attedance. During John Edwards speech I spotted Poppy’s fave Larry David sitting in front of, I think, Hillary Clinton. They also showed Sarah Jessica Parker glumly waving an American flag after Edwards promised to kill terrorists.
Affleck, however, gave a speech [...]

It’s worse than not paying attention. He often spends the bulk of the time leading the interview away from the heart of the books subject matter. He wastes the time speaking of totally periphereal issues and since no other place allows the authors to expound in great detail on their books, this is [...]

While I agree that Brian Lamb’s interviewing leaves something to be desired, there is something good to say about him:
C-SPAN was his idea and he made it happen. He is the brains behind the whole operation, which is possibly the most valuable source of political information in the U.S.
I also appreciate he very carefully he [...]

Speaking of Mike Tyson, he was knocked out in the 4th round yesterday by a no-name fighter.
Apparently Tyson was doing his usual go-for-the-immediate-knock out punches and this guy took them for 3 rounds. Tyson was technically winning the fight in sloppy form but this guy was had a chin of steel. Then [...]

So dumb…so dumb…so dumb…Brian Lamb of C-Span’s Booknotes is so dumb. Here’s my impression of his interviews.
Lamb: Today on Booknotes we have Tom Johnson, author of the new book “How to Completely Stop Terrorism Forever.” Mr. Johnson, your book is being considered one of the most important books written in the last [...]

According to the National Enquirer (which contrary to popular belief is often correct by the way), Bush wants Gulianni to be his VP.
We’ve blogged about this before. I’m in favor of this particularly since Cheney is not planning to run in 2008 and Hillary is going to run if the dems are stupid enough [...]

At this point, I feel like Kerry is actually Bob Dole Redux.
After watching parts of Kerry’s speech again…I continue to think it was awful and that he has no idea how to get himself elected (the extreme military language and presentations were really over-the-top for instance).
Kerry clearly is not a pleasant person to [...]

Story, text, and audio of DNC convention centre director Don Mischer, as heard on CNN.

First of all, I hope you were all watching CNN so that you could here the guy yelling, “More Balloons Go*damnit!” and “Where is the F*cking Confetti!
Second, I agree Greg. The actual convention participants are very liberal (and in Carter and Kennedy’s camp), but the public face that they have to put on for [...]

Like PRN, I find it hard to believe that Kerry wouldn’t be tough on terrorism, but that’s mostly because I can’t conceive of anyone not being tough on terrorism.
However, there are those who think more in terms of collectivist goodwill than necessity and results. Think Kucinich, recently. More prominently, think Carter, who had a disastrous [...]

So, on the TVs in our cafeteria, who did I just see sitting next to James Carville stumping for Kerry? What qualified pundit, you may ask yourself, or what politician might it be? Why, of course, it was none other than, er, um, Ben Affleck. Ben. Affleck.
Yes, the star of Daredevil and Gigli himself was [...]

Regarding the speakers:
1) Clinton: It was a clever, slick willie speech. He’s always been good at turning things on his opponent and being full of phony self-depreciation to make himself look better. The faux humility is always set within a bigger message which is: “the world was great when I was [...]

I have been able to watch some of the Repub–er, I mean Democratic convention. It is exactly what I expected in an era where neither party has much of a choice on what to say. The overriding issue is the War and Terrorism and it doesn’t matter who is president, a neo-con or [...]

The New York Times may openly campaign against Bush in many forms, but God bless them, they still have fascinating articles day after day.
They just got Paul Kennedy and John L. Gaddis to discuss U.S. foreign policy. Both are top notch historians specializing in geo-political conflict. They make many of the points I [...]

It was somewhat expected that Bill Clinton’s brilliantly delivered (but stupid) speech Monday would upstage Kerry’s eventual address to the convention. But after tonight, Kerry is also in danger of being blown off the stage by a 12-year-old girl, who got a standing ovation calling for Dick Cheney to get a “time-out.” She was a [...]

(Obviously, I didn’t mean to call this post “Father Tony” earlier.)
Matt wrote:

Sometimes I get dismayed at how much of the political debate seems full of unproductive, vile nastiness, and I feel like it’s a sign of the times, but then I watch this movie and it reminds me that it’s always been that way.

Indeed. Consider [...]

Matt wrote:

Sometimes I get dismayed at how much of the political debate seems full of unproductive, vile nastiness, and I feel like it’s a sign of the times, but then I watch this movie and it reminds me that it’s always been that way.

Indeed. Consider that one of the big controversies during the Andrew Jackson [...]

My long-unawaited review of Tony Hendra’s best-seller Father Joe is now posted on the front page, and, permanently, here.