Day: September 8, 2005

Not since Ethel Merman has there been this much hot air on Broadway.

I bet Condi’s kicking herself for not holding out for this instead of Spamalot.

And speaking of everybody’s favorite Secretery of State, Gawker offers this interesting interpretation:

We were admiring the Bushes and their impressive ability to remain optimistic — it must be something about the air in Kennebunkport, or maybe about the fact they have a Kennebunkport — when we started hearing an appropriate song waft through our head. Something about looking to the bright side. Something like:

Life’s a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke, it’s true.
You’ll see it’s all a show
Keep ’em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.

And always look on the bright side of life…
Always look on the right side of life…

And we remembered: It’s in Spamalot.

Which means Condi was simply doing research.

Oh, so that explains it. See, Bush isn’t ineptly bungling the relief effort in the Gulf Coast. He’s merely allowing his campaign contributors’ massive terraforming project to commence unimpeded.

Any other president would do the same, and you know it.

Of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The New York Times writes:

The movie pretends to take the same tolerant, anything’s-possible position. While not especially good…it is still a fascinating cultural document in the age of intelligent design. Its point of view suggests an improbable alliance of postmodern relativism and absolute religious faith against the supposed tyranny of scientific empiricism, which is depicted as narrow and dogmatic.

The sincerity of a believer…is conflated with the plausibility of his beliefs. The doctors, meanwhile, seem so sure of themselves. But of course, the movie says, no one can ever be completely sure, and thus superstition becomes a matter of reasonable doubt. Meanwhile the clocks stop, the wind howls, and we are encouraged to believe – or at least not to disbelieve – our own eyes. Father Moore knows what he saw. So do I: propaganda disguised as entertainment.

As The Onion puts it, the movie “offers the dangerous proposition of hokum as an argument for faith.”

Well, at least it’ll play really well in Kansas then.