Christopher Hitchens Visits Room 101

Overweight, out-of-shape, alchoholic Christopher Hitchens chose to be waterboarded on video for Vanity Fair. Hitchens has been a defender of torture for terrorism suspects, and his primary assumption is that the intelligence agencies do everything not to kill their detainees. Therefore, how tortuous can it be?

Watch the video. That's torture, baby. Hitchens 'fesses to this here:

Also, in case it’s of interest, I have since woken up trying to push the
bedcovers off my face, and if I do anything that makes me short of breath I find
myself clawing at the air with a horrible sensation of smothering and
claustrophobia. No doubt this will pass. As if detecting my misery and shame,
one of my interrogators comfortingly said, “Any time is a long time when you’re
breathing water.” I could have hugged him for saying so, and just then I was hit
with a ghastly sense of the sadomasochistic dimension that underlies the
relationship between the torturer and the tortured. I apply the Abraham Lincoln
test for moral casuistry: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Well,
then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing
as torture.

Hitchens will next be dressing up in drag and performing at comedy clubs to prove his theory that women aren't funny.

Dennis Haysbert Needs A Reality Check!

According to CNN, Dennis Haysbert believes that David Palmer (the FICTIONAL president he played on 24) opened the doors for Barack Obama.

"If anything, my portrayal of David Palmer, I think, may have helped open
the eyes of the American people," said the actor, who has contributed $2,300 to
the Illinois Democrat's presidential campaign.
"And I mean the American
people from across the board -- from the poorest to the richest, every color and
creed, every religious base -- to prove the possibility there could be an
African-American president, a female president, any type of president that puts
the people first," he said Tuesday.

Come on, Dennis. You seem a pretty reasonable guy. Why make statements that make you look like an unbelievable ass? I, actually, think it's Morgan Freeman who made it cool to be a black President. Morgan played God, for crying out loud. Try to top that, Haysbert!

Why You Just Paid More

Carol Marin writes a fantastic column in today's Sun-Times about where we can place the blame for the higher expenses we Cook County residents bore witness to yesterday.

Then again, what we don't need is what Stroger has offered in terms of
leadership. He runs a government that spits in the eye of the taxpayers who
support it. It is an 8th Ward fiefdom in which friends, relatives and precinct
workers get high-paying, often six-figure jobs whether they have credentials to
do the work or not.

Reform efforts are more often than not thwarted by Stroger allies who like
things just the way they are.

The only way to solve the Todd fiasco is to get him out of office. Cook County is the most inefficient and corrupt government this side of Panama. Educate yourself! The County takes more out of our pockets than the feds, state, or city.

Make Todd history in '10!

Fortieth Anniversary of Paris Protests

Over forty years ago this year, middle-class Parisians, teachers, and students took to the streets of their city to protest the poverty and unemployment which they had been subjected to by the de Gaulle government. Students and faculty took over the Ecole des Beaux Arts and formed the Atelier Populaire. The Atelier Populaire paperbilled the cities with a series of screens. Creative Review features a number of these posters from an exhibit at the Hayward Project Space in London.

The Paris street protests took down de Gaulle's government and ushered in the social protections which would become standard all over Western Europe. All in all, these protestors were much more able than our own. An interesting look back, and some fascinating street art.

Your New Milk Jug

I'm a big fan of process. I loved when Mr. Rogers would show us how your mail arrives, or how milk gets to your table. Well, watch out. Our milk is changing. It's getting square.

I felt like George Costanza a few months ago when I ran into the new carton at my folks (they're so hip it hurts). George believes that toilet paper will never change, and I thought milk delivery would remain the same. It isn't. According to the New York Times, the new cartons are greener and cheaper. Cheaper they must be, or Bill Brett would never have it in his house.

Get ready to learn how to pour milk-all over again.

The Boss and Alejandro Escovedo

A few weeks ago, Alejandro Escovedo (a Shambollocks favorite) found himself playing in his home state in front of the largest audience he ever entertained. All courtesy of the Boss, natch.



Alejandro told the Tribune's Greg Kot:

“I shook his hand for the first time ever a few hours before the show,” says Escovedo of Springsteen, the hook-up brokered by their mutual manager, Jon Landau. “We sat in his dressing room and ran down the song acoustically with the band. Later, before I went on stage, I was scared to death. But about halfway though [the song], the fear started to melt away and I just had the time of my life. I told everyone it’s like dropping into a 30-foot wave: You’ve got to go for it, and I did not want to die in front of 18,000 people.”

Escovedo will play the Taste with Old 97s this Friday at Grant Park. K and I won't be there (boo!) because of a previous engagement.

Poetry, Metaphysics, and Looney Tunes

The Warner Bros. cartoons of the '30s and '40s reside on a pinnacle of animation with their Disney feature-length peers from that time and, more recently, the Pixar films (can't wait to see Wall-E this weekend). Bugs, Porky, and Daffy lead a crew of characters who closely engage in a completely visceral universe where the laws of normal human behavior and nature are besides the point. The whole point is to get the laugh. The method which generates the laughter, the sheer madness of their pursuits and misadventures, inspires a sense of child-like awe in even the most jaded viewer.

And it inspires poetry.

The Wall Street Journal has a great article by former poet laureate Billy Collins on how Looney Tunes has effected his art. Billy is absolutely correct that artists recycle influence lists, and what is most influential is the stuff subsumed into the culture.