Sunday, September 30, 2007

Recommended Reading

Ezra Klein discusses the different health plans currently being floated by the various presidential wanna-bes.

• Posted at 2:23 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Here's a couple of minutes from an episode of Erskine Johnson's Hollywood Reel, which was a series of short films that ran in theaters in the late forties and on TV in the early fifties. Mr. Johnson was a Tinsel Town columnist and he was known to haul a 16mm silent camera to events and shoot footage for his films. This one, which he filmed in conjunction with a gent named Coy Watson, was entitled Close Ups and Long Shots and it aired on TV in 1951, though this excerpt was probably filmed a year or three earlier. (Watson had an odd career in movies, working variously as an actor and a director and a cameraman...and he was even a Stage Father. Several of his kids were child actors, including two in the Our Gang series.)

This excerpt takes us to a swimming competition at something called the Brentwood Bantam Club in Brentwood, California. And wait'll you see who's officiating at the event.

• Posted at 10:47 AM · LINK

Sunday Morning

This morning, I watched a few of the political chat shows and came to the conclusion that no one's going to be the next President of the United States. Hillary Clinton is too polarizing and rich Republicans will spend billions to convince voters that she barbecues and eats babies. John McCain is selling out every principle he holds to convince the Religious Right that he's one of them and they're not buying. Barack Obama is too lazy and inexperienced. Rudy Giuliani has nothing to offer other than to incessantly reference 9/11, plus the Religious Right won't go for him, either. John Edwards is just too pretty and vapid, plus his hair disqualifies him from higher office. Fred Thompson is like Giuliani except without the 9/11 connection. Bill Richardson is Bill Richardson. Mitt Romney is a Mormon, a flip-flopper and a congenital phony, plus his name is Mitt. And everyone besides these folks is Alan Keyes, one way or another.

So it's starting to look like we may have to keep George W. Bush for another four years. It probably won't make that big a difference. After all, we're going to keep his war going at least that long.

• Posted at 10:45 AM · LINK

Go Read It

Tom Spurgeon previews a new, must-have book on the war cartoons of Bill Mauldin.

• Posted at 8:34 AM · LINK

Recommended Viewing

dLife is a weekly TV talk show that airs on CNBC and deals with Diabetes and the complications thereof. You can view excerpts from the show over on the dLife website and even if you don't have that problem, you might enjoy this brief chat with Broadway legend Elaine Stritch.

• Posted at 12:29 AM · LINK