The Hall of Fire

My favorite is the spoon scene from Kurosawa's Red Beard . (The film as a whole is only fair, though the fight scene is also very good.) The return of Apu's father near the end of Ray's Pather Panchali . The moment Apu discovers the necklace, as well. The last scene of Tucci and Campbell's Big Night...

Another "not exactly a review" (and this one also "not in English"), but the Polish online magazine Ancalina has a long interview with me (done in English, but tranlated into Polish), along with translations into Polish of the reviews/essays that were in Beyond Bree about Arda R...

The IPCC has been forced (through FOI requests) to release the comments that were made as its report was reviewed. The review process was apparrently two rounds by scientists, and one by governments ( not sure why governments should be commenting on it... ) The reason for government comments is tha...

From a Washington Post report on a rally with Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin: Betty Soban, an admiring constituent of Bachmann's, said: "My family left Germany because of Hitler and socialized medicine. I see it happening here." Important to her, she said, are "freedom of ownership....

I found this to be an eloquent commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian difficulties.

Insurance companies fear that the public option would put them entirely out of business, because the government, not needing to make a profit, would be an unfair competitor.

This conservative web site gathers together some opinions on why the mandate requirement could be unconstitutional. Would any case have standing until it goes into effect a few years from now? And if, at that time, the courts struck down the mandate requirement as unconstitutional, wouldn't that ra...

In what the New York Times called "an extraordinary session," President Obama began his speech by quoting Abraham Lincoln. "I am not bound to win, but I'm bound to be true," he said. "I'm not bound to succeed, but I'm bound to live up to what light I have."... That's t...

See here for the bill and a summary chart.

Here's an explanation of the process for passing (or not) the bill:
"The legislative process stopped resembling Schoolhouse Rock a long time ago".

After all, this is the most transparent administration ever. I'm all for transparency and am disappointed that the government departments under Obama aren't more open. But your article reads more kindly to the Obama administration than its opening paragraph suggests. It notes repeatedly that the Wh...

(which liberal blog did you get it from?) This one : However, this kind of end run by the House is not that unusual, according to congressional scholar Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution. Mann says Congress has used self-executing rules to pass such legislation as the smoking ban on domestic ...

This chart is interesting, if also a little baffling: health care would cost a lot less now if only Nixon's plan had been adopted 35 years ago.

Edit: link fixed.

Is it extreme rhetoric if you actually believe it to be true? I'm absolutely astounded by what's going on in Washington over this... Trying to pass the bill without a vote. I am shocked! shocked! and astounded! that the Democrats would use the same legislative method Republicans have used in the pas...

I'm absolutely astounded by what's going on in Washington over this: Remember back in the good ol' days, when laws were passed by the House, and the Senate, and they got together in a conference commitee to iron out the differences, and then voted on the resulting bill to pass it in both houses bef...

Apparently the Senate Parlimentarian says the Democrats can't do this.

halplm wrote:Obama can't even claim it as a political victory any more, because it is so unpopular.

"So unpopular" means 43% in favor vs. 48% against.
And some of that 48% oppose the bill for not going far enough.

OK, your National Review commenter has followed up with a much more < thorough > explanation. The House would have to vote on a rule, which would, if approved by a majority vote, then cause the Senate bill to pass the House automatically when one of the amendment bills was passed by both the House a...

I apologize for my error, and thank you for the clarification.

I think < this blog post > by Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic , though addressed to a different source than the one to which you linked, is responding to the same issue. An excerpt: So let me get this straight: If Republicans want to introduce an endless stream of amendments simply to prevent a ma...

Well, the I[nformation] C[omissioner's] O[ffice] has found that [the] C[limate] R[esearch] U[nit] [at the Universirty of East Anglia] did violate the F[reedom] O[f] I[nformation] Act (don't you love acronyms?). Unfortunately, the law was written to have no effect, so they get off without any reperc...