4th of July

Saw the documentary on Al Gore’s Power Point Presentation on Global Warming: “An Inconvenient Truth.” Quite a movie. After all the weird rains we’ve been having the last two weeks, what with the floods on the East coast – one wonders… and then there’s Al Gore and his global warming message.

The movie is more than about Gore, as the NY Times film critic A.O. Scott noted in the linked review (although the Gore in this film really, for me, was the man I recognized as the man I respected prior to the debacle of Election Day 2000). Indeed, the film struck quite a cord for me, watching Gore point out the before and after pictures of various glaciers and North and South Poles – the ice is melting, and we’re facing a damned future – if we don’t do something about this. This is obviously what Gore cares about, and what he feels we should too, as he put it a “moral imperative,” not just a political one. This is something. The movie does get a little didactic, but there were some humorous moments (including a Matt Groening clip from “Futurama” (? – I think; it was obviously not the “Simpsons”) and the message – again, quite a message. I highly recommend seeing the movie.
Speaking of national figures, apparently former US Senator from South Dakota, Tom Daschle (D) is mulling his (presidential-contending?) future. Hmm.

Kobayashi wins the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest, once again. Look, I like hot dogs like anyone else, but it’s a bit much to eat all that much of the stuff. Really.

I’d be very curious to see if the Emmy rules changes actually does change who gets nominated.

Because Italy won the World Cup game against Germany, my (more-or-less still Italian-American) neighborhood has had an interesting afternoon-early evening of Italian-American neighbors blasting their car horns. Umm, okay, folks. Good for you.

4th Eve or Eve of 4th

An analysis of Justice Kennedy by Dahlia Lithwick.
Bill Moyer’s “Faith and Reason” on PBS has been interesting, as he interviews authors and philosophers on faith and reason.  Are they incompatible?  Or maybe not?  I wonder if he will interview scientists on their view of faith and reason.

Meanwhile, Slate has an analysis of Senator Barack Obama’s views on faith and reason.  Interesting stuff.

Pre-4th Weekend

Now that the US Supreme Court ruled on the Hamdan case, the Navy lawyer in the Hamdan case (who has represented defendant Hamdan, doing his duty and all that) has a fuzzy-looking future.  Perhaps it means he’ll be a litigator in the civilian (private) sector, I’d suggest.

Linda Greenhouse’s interesting look at the Supreme Court’s year.
Ziggy has a birthday.

In Slate, Prof. Tim Wu raises some interesting points about whether China can create its own Hollywood unless it comes up with some changes in its IP law.  Further questions arise for other industries in China, since piracy doesn’t help nurture business.

Sort of like the idea of six degrees of separation, there’s the very real possibility that everyone’s related to royalty.