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February 11, 2008
Posted by yaman

The thesaurus’ antonyms for ‘superficial’ are so superficial

 

If I could subscribe to Daily Cal articles by author, I’d subscribe to Ryland Walker Knight’s column in the Arts & Entertainment section. I haven’t seen any of the exhibits or movies he has reviewed recently, but his articles are interesting enough for me to want to see them–even the negative ones.

Drawn Out: Political Satire Doesn’t Make Up for Unoriginal Commentary

Worse than the politics is the oppositional structure Chagoya employs. Everything is a dig, a sign, a referent of the evil intentions of the world. Instead of restructuring the historicity (say, the power) of the art world, as appears the goal, these works rather reiterate the same old argument in an opposite (negative) vocabulary. The coin is flipped but it’s the same coin.

Shock and Awe: Despite explosions aplenty, ‘The Kingdom’ falters under poor execution

And no matter what Berg’s film says about the never-ending cycle of violence at its close, “The Kingdom” is just as racist as (though a little less fascist than) its robot counterpart—which is an odd claim given that it stars Foxx, a black man. But, of course, there are other Others to hate on out there, and “The Kingdom” sure does like its Near Easterners in an American box—or wrapped up in bombs. Ashraf Barhom and Ali Suliman (stars of the 2005 suicide-bombers-are-people film “Paradise Now”) are both fine here, but their characters, save a few scenes of Muslim prayer scored to Explosions in the Sky’s weepy-heroic guitar solos, are prized for valiant American mimicry. I look forward to the time when we Americans make stars of Muslim actors for being valiant Muslims just as we have now made Jaime Foxx a star for being an American actor, not a black American clown.

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    ‘Scores die’ in Afghan village raid

    Up to 52 civilians killed in Nato attack in Helmand, Afghan president’s office says.

    How regrettable. How unfortunate. Bombs away!

    Source: english.aljazeera.net

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    Paranoid Politics: The Denial of Islamophobia

    While anti-Semitism means, rightly, social death, Islamophobia might get you a television spot, a column in a newspaper, or academic tenure.

    Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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    No To Oligarchy | The Nation

    The 400 richest families in America, who saw their wealth increase by some $400 billion during the Bush years, have now accumulated $1.27 trillion in wealth. Four hundred families! During the last fifteen years, while these enormously rich people became much richer their effective tax rates were sla…

    Source: www.thenation.com

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    Secret Archive Gives Grim View of Afghan War – NYT

    A six-year archive of classified military documents to be made public on Sunday offers an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal.

    Shoot, you don’t need secret documents to tell you that… but viva WikiLeaks either way.

    Source: www.nytimes.com

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    Israel and Economic “Warfare”: A Report on The Criminalization of Boycott in Israel

    Israeli parliament passes first of three readings illegalizing boycott activism or advocacy

    Source: www.youtube.com

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    Israel turns upon its own | Rachel Shabi | Comment is free | The Guardian

    But what we’re seeing today is just the unleashing of a long-incubated racism, both institutional and incidental. It doesn’t emanate from the Jewish component of Israeli nationhood. It is informed by the Eurocentric cornerstones of the country: the belief, expressed by Israel’s founding fathers and …

    Source: www.guardian.co.uk

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    Battle Of Walnut Creek: Pro Oscar Grant Supporters protest a Mehserle Rally in Walnut Creek

    More then twice as many Oscar Grant protestors came out to the Walnut Creek Courthouse to show that nowhere in the bay area will attempts to justify the murder of Oscar Grant go unquestioned. While about a hundred supporters of Johannes Mehserle and law enforcement attended the rally, their numbe…

    Racists for Mehserle

    Source: www.youtube.com

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    None

    Source: bit.ly

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    Source: www.arabs48.com

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    myMADRE: In Israel, Miscegenation Equals Rape

    In the US, anti-miscegenation laws were on the books until 1967, when the Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional. That was the same year that Israel began its occupation of Sabbar Kashur’s home in East Jerusalem. Since then, Israelis have fine-tuned their own obsession with racial purity. Only…

    Source: madreblogs.typepad.com

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    RSS: ‘Scores die’ in Afghan village raid http://bit.ly/b1mgj1

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