Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Tom Friedman Again, Almodovar, and Doug Feith

Is New York Times columnist Tom Friedman back from the dead?

He wrote a touching Mothers' Day column last Sunday and today wrote a well reasoned column regarding Iran, and Middle East policy. He's come to some pretty illogical conclusions in the past (like the 2006 election of Hamas being a GOOD thing for peace because it would moderate Hamas policies-- just as the Nazis moderated their policies after being confronted with governing), but his latest columns have been pretty well reasoned and have added to the conversation. Take this for instance:

"The big debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is over whether or not we should talk to Iran. Obama is in favor; Clinton has been against. Alas, the right question for the next president isn’t whether we talk or don’t talk. It’s whether we have leverage or don’t have leverage."

He also points out that, like Afghanistan, in the past Lebanon has been a graveyard of imperial dreams.
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I just read in Spanish newspaper El País that Pedro Almodóvar is filming another movie with Penelope Cruz. Almodóvar's one of the top directors in Europe. His last film, Volver, was good but not great, but he's won a plethora of awards and his movies are always very interesting. Watch the first half of La Mala Educación (with Mexican Gael García Bernal speaking with a Spanish accent), it will blow your mind.

The movie's called "Abrazos Rotos" (Broken Hugs), the article didn't reveal anything about the film's plot but, judging from Almodóvar's past work, I can assure you that their will be a love component and some really fucked up sexual thing (incest, child molestation, crossdressing, whatever. It's always there in his movies). Once you get past that stuff his movies are always entertaining and original.



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Also, I almost forgot but former Under-secretary of Defense Doug Feith (an ideological architect of the Iraq War) was on the Daily Show the other night promoting his new book, War and Decision.

Jon Stewart(who I'm not always a big fan of) conducted one hell of an interview, much better than you'd see on CNN. No soft ball questions, and did his best not to let Feith talk his way out of anything or "misremember" the past. here it is:

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