gdp's Comments

Big Hollywood : Trailer Talk: 'John Carter' - The Next Big Franchise, or Another 'Prince of Persia?'

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:04:14 +0000

You haven't read the original books, have you?

Big Hollywood : Two Biggest Disappointments of 2010

Sun, 2 Jan 2011 03:10:20 +0000

I agree. I have never got around to seeing the first film (bad me) but rather enjoyed the second.

Big Peace : Marines: 67% Say Putting Homosexuals in Their Units Will Hurt Their Effectiveness in the Field

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 13:38:02 +0000

The Don't Ask Don't Tell policy does not ban homosexuals from serving, it stops them being open about their homosexuality or being asked about their sexuality. And most Marines already have homosexuals in their units. If the Israeli Defense Force can cope, I am sure the US Marines will manage. The Spartan Army and the Roman Army would have thought even making a fuss about the issue simply bizarre: and they managed to be effective military forces.

Big Hollywood : Elton John: Artists Who Boycott Arizona Are '(Expletive) Twits'

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:02:52 +0000

By "personal sexual choices" I take it to mean his refusal to be at war with his own sexual nature? Sir Elton is in a stable long-term relationship: puts him way ahead of many prominent Hollywood actors.

Big Hollywood : Movies We Like: 'Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang'

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:46:13 +0000

Agreed, great movie, great lines, great acting, wonderfully referential. And I learned useful things from the review. Also, the movie is emotionally quite powerful as well as funny.

Big Hollywood : In Defense of Obama's Safe School Czar (Sort Of) - or I Was A Teenage 'Lolito'

Fri, 9 Oct 2009 13:51:12 +0000

And your evidence for this is ...? It is one of those irregular nouns. Q: What is a man who has sex with prepubescent girls? A: A paedophile Q: What is a man who has sex with prepubescent boys? A: A homosexual The gender of the victims of paedophiles says nothing about the (adult) sexual preferences of the paedophile. Indeed, male paedophiles who are heterosexual in their adult attachments tend to prey on younger boys than homosexual male paedophiles, since they have fewer of the adult masculine traits they are not attracted to.

Big Hollywood : Why Do Public Schools Suck?

Fri, 9 Oct 2009 07:17:30 +0000

If the owner of a football club offered to take over running the entire football league, everyone would see that was really stupid, because of the obvious conflict of interest in having the same club competing in the league while being also in charge of setting and enforcing the rules. Obviously stupid. But that is exactly how public education works. The government sets the rules, enforces the rules and is the main producer. The conflict of interest is obvious, but ignored because somehow government is magical. The two main providers of schooling are governments and churches. That is because they both are interested in socialising children into particular sets of beliefs. Since it is hard to test whether you have actually inculcated the beliefs, one controls the inputs. So, extending school hours means control over more inputs. Not only is school choice needed, governments should stop running schools at all, and just stick to making and enforcing the rules and ensuring all students have funding (since we all benefit from the literacy of our fellow citizens).

Big Hollywood : Two Firefights: One Video

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 21:14:32 +0000

Churchill and FDR allied with Stalin during WWII. Does that mean they "created" Stalinism? The ideological roots of al-Qaeda go back decades before the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Read The Looming Tower (which I review here) if you want genuine understanding.

Big Hollywood : Adam Lambert Turns the Other Cheek (Again)

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:40:07 +0000

People really should not cite Leviticus for moral commands. Citing Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13 but not other commands in Leviticus is in clear defiance of Leviticus 18:4-5, 26; 19:19, 37; 20:22 which require all the laws set out be followed. If one is picking and choosing, then one’s authority is not Leviticus but whatever criteria one is using to pick and choose one particular bit of the "Holiness Code" and not others.

Big Hollywood : True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 21:48:37 +0000

But that is why the index not only has some attitudinal features but includes such things as: Number of civic and social organizations per 1000 population Average number of club meetings attended in last year Average number of group memberships Average number of times volunteered in last year Average number of times entertained at home in last year Average number of times worked on community project in last year Number of non-profit (501[c]3) organizations per 1000 population Served as officer of some club or organization in last year (percent) Served on committee of some local organization in last year (percent) You mix in attitudinal and behavioural indicators to get a more complete picture.

Big Hollywood : True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 03:32:17 +0000

Putnam's original study was of Italy after the introduction of provincial government. He famously found that the strength of choral societies in a region predicted how well governed a province was. My original point was simply to suggest a way in which the legacy of slavery may still matter. The connection to economic success is a more complicated matter and not one I was alluding to, you brought that up. Regions low in social capital are more likely to be comparative poorly governed, to have higher levels of social division and to have lower rates of economic growth. To put it another way, the less connected a society is, the poorer the information flows within it, the less likely effective citizen organisation to restrain office holders from being corrupt, inefficient and divisive is and the less likely people are to connect in mutually beneficial ways.

Big Hollywood : True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 03:17:18 +0000

JFK was being ironic: so he found Washington charmless and inefficient. Attitudinal surveys such as that are generally crude measures, that is why Putnam's index is a composite of a series of indicators. I am not sure, however, that I understand your question. The question results are just what proportion of people responding stated they agreed with those statements.

Big Hollywood : True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 01:01:03 +0000

If you did a cross-tab with how rural a State is, it is unlikely you would find much correlation with the level of social capital. Indeed, it is part of Putnam's contention in Bowling Alone that rising urbanisation has seen in recent decades a decline in social capital. Nor is slavery at all likely to be the only factor which affects levels of social capital. Very strong kinship structures can be bad for social capital since it encourages an "us and them" attitude. You can see this in Southern Italy, most of the Middle East and, I take it, Appalachia.

Big Hollywood : True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 00:52:32 +0000

That reminds me of JFK's comment on Washington DC: "a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm" :) But social capital is not really about charm, vivacity or immediate friendliness, it is about more enduring connections and deeper attitudes.

Big Hollywood : True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 08:09:05 +0000

(Second go at replying). The concept of social capital is about levels of social trust and connectedness. Robert Putnam, in his Bowling Alone, found that Southern US States had low levels of social trust and low levels of social participation and low levels of networking. The data is online.

Big Hollywood : True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 08:03:15 +0000

The issues is not the relative poorness of the South, but its lack of social capital. While these things may be causally connected, it is the lack of social capital that has retarded economic growth, not vice versa. None of the factor you mention would much explain the results Robert Putnam found. Turchin suggests a similar long term "mass slavery" effect for Sicily.

Big Hollywood : True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 05:33:13 +0000

Southern States of the US tend to show higher levels of social distrust, and lower levels of various forms community networking and social participation, than other areas of the US. Robert Putnam analysed the relevant data in his Bowling Alone. He constructed a social capital index and ranked US States, the data and results of which are available online.

Big Hollywood : True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 00:37:41 +0000

Suppose we take the average income and wealth of African-Americans descended from slaves and then we took the average income and wealth of West Africans and said African-Americans were owed the difference. That would be quite a foreign aid transfer to West Africans. The concept of reparations this many generations later between descendants of slaves and slave-owners is nonsensical, even without considering the blood and treasure expended in the Civil War. The concept that the situation of current African-Americans has only been made worse as a result of the slave experience of their ancestors is equally nonsensical. As it happens, my ancestors were also transferred to a British colony in chains: they were convicts. That bondage was temporary and the result of criminal conviction, so not to be equated with the experience of slavery. (I have a longstanding interest in the economics and other aspects of human bondage, which I have blogged about, particularly here.) Yet it is quite clear that the original couple became much better off as a result of being convicts than their likely personal history back in Britain. The effects of slavery do persist: the depressed level of social capital in the American South is very plausibly the result of slavery. But reparations for slavery is about self-righteous rhetoric, it is not about anything morally serious.

Big Hollywood : Bad Medicine

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:30:25 +0000

Your combination of informative reporting and photos is a winner, again, thank you.

Big Hollywood : NBC's Reality TV: To Catch a Terrorist

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 12:14:47 +0000

If your worldview is defined around righteous opposition to the ills (real, exaggerated or imagined) of your own society then seeing defending it as virtuous rather gets in the way.