“Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops.”

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

There’s a whole site devoted to this sort of animated gif/quote combination. Go check it out. If you’re a movie fan, plan on spending some time there.

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. … Time to die.”

Blade Runner (1982)

…[P]eople have stopped thinking global warming is real. One major reason pollsters say is we had a very cold, snowy winter. Which is like saying the sun might not be real because last night it got dark. And my car’s not real because I can’t find my keys.

That’s the problem with our obsession with always seeing two sides of every issue equally — especially when one side has a lot of money. It means we have to pretend there are always two truths, and the side that doesn’t know anything has something to say. On this side of the debate: Every scientist in the world. On the other: Mr. Potato Head.

Read the whole thing.

The film is a classic “mistaken identity” story with Chaplin in a double role as the Jewish barber and the fascist dictator (or “Phooey”, parodying “Führer”) clearly modeled on Adolf Hitler.

Wikipedia:

First released in October 1940, it was Chaplin’s first true talking picture as well as his most commercially successful film, and more importantly, was the first and only major feature film of its period to bitterly satirize Nazism and Adolf Hitler.

The film is unusual for its period, as the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany. Chaplin’s film advanced a stirring, controversial condemnation of Hitler, fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis.

According to The Tramp and the Dictator, the film was not only sent to Hitler, but an eyewitness confirmed he saw it. According to the Internet Movie Database, Chaplin, after being told Hitler saw the movie, replied: “I’d give anything to know what he thought of it.” Hitler’s response is not recorded but he is said to have viewed the film twice.

The clip is of the closing speech in which Chaplin sounds a timeless theme of the people rising up against the “machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts”.

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone, if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness — not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another.

In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood, for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world — millions of despairing men, women and little children — victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say — do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed — the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people.

Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes — men who despise you — enslave you — who regiment your lives — tell you what to do — what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men — machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your heart. You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate — the unloved and the unnatural!

Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the 17th Chapter of St. Luke it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” — not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power — the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power! Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie! They do not fulfill their promise; they never will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people! Now, let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Artist Mar Dore stumbled on a box of slides in her family’s home in Texas a few years back, and inside, discovered photographs that her father, John Mizenko, took of the parades back in the era of “Mad Men.” That box of slides was like a time capsule, Mar says, and opened a door into history—the history of New Orleans, and of her own family.

I do love a parade and there is nothing like a Mardi Gras parade.  Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

The science-fiction sensation “Avatar” and the war-on-terror thriller “The Hurt Locker” lead the Academy Awards with nine nominations each, including best picture and director for James Cameron and ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow.

For the first time since 1943 the Oscars feature 10 best-picture contenders instead of the usual five.

I understand they expanded the field to make sure the less popular films also had a shot at Best Picture glory, although The Hurt Locker probably would have made it regardless.

Side note: The Hurt Locker probably set the record for lowest grossing film ever to score a Best Picture nomination. I’d love to see it win just so that Cameron gets spanked — by his ex-wife.

Something different happens when you’re viewing three-dimensional motion projected onto a flat surface. When a helicopter flies off the screen in Monsters vs. Aliens, our eyeballs rotate inward to follow it, as they would in the real world. Reflexively, our eyes want to make a corresponding change in shape, to shift their plane of focus. If that happened, though, we’d be focusing our eyes somewhere in front of the screen, and the movie itself (which is, after all, projected on the screen) would go a little blurry. So we end up making one eye movement but not the other; the illusion forces our eyes to converge without accommodating.

Translation: some viewers will suffer from eyestrain, headaches and even nausea (not to mention those upon whom the effect is completely lost).

The fact is, the technology for projecting a 3-D movie is unchanged since the early days — and people complained back then, eventually leading to the demise of the technology.

So how come, if these movies are still giving us headaches, no one talks about it?

It may be that the visual fatigue, however pervasive, is small enough to hide in the novelty of the experience—we’re so jazzed up that we barely notice our eyes hurt. If we did become aware of some discomfort, we might not recognize where it came from: Were my eyes tired from watching Monsters vs. Aliens last night or from having sat in front of my computer all through that morning and afternoon? Did the RealD projection give me a headache or was it the movie’s lamebrained script?

Indeed, several of the critics who reviewed the film seem to be suffering from a form of source amnesia: A.O. Scott calls Monsters vs. Aliens “strenuous, noisy, 3-D fun;” Anthony Lane describes growing “fuzzy with exhaustion;” even Time‘s Josh Quittner must confess, “After watching all that 3-D, I was a bit wiped out.”

Well, we plan on seeing M vs. A this weekend; I’ll keep you posted.

McCain came out this morning, well in advance of Secretary Paulson’s press conference, guns blazing.  “McCain all but blames Obama for the crisis.”

He’s a Maverick, by golly, and he’ll fight, fight, fight the evil enemy dudes who conspired with Barack Obama to create this mess that makes him look bad for his lack of understanding of the economy when he’d rather be talking about lipstick.

How absurd.  I won’t rehash the idiocy of someone who supported the policies that got us into this mess for 26 years blaming they guy he calls an upstart for a mess whose roots are founded in years of neglect, malfeasance and corruption.

The contrast with Obama this morning, flanked by respected financial leaders like Volker and Rubin was striking.  Calm, thoughtful . . . Presidential.  Here’s what Perry at Young Turks had to say about it.

McCain went first at about 9 am. As I watched I saw him throw barbs
at Obama and speech in a very stilted, rehearsed tone. What message
would any passing very get from this speech? Its your average stump
speech that any candidate would give.

Obama came on
sometime after 11 am, and his had a completely altered tone. He came
out, flanked by economic advisors, and answered questions from the
press in a very serious manner. He expounded on points and sounded very
knowledgable. Then he said him and his advisors were going to get
together and come out with a more specific, detailed plan in the coming
days to deal with this. He also struck a very bipartisan, “we gotta
pull together and get through this together” chord, as well.

I think this is important, more important that what we in blogtopia (y!sctp) always say is important.  People decide these things by tone, what they see, hear and feel in their gut.  It’s something that Obama exudes and McCain has forfeited with his gimmicks and slimy tactics — gravitas.

McCain’s type of side show often works, but right now it’s the wrong message at the wrong time.  It’s like going to the movies when you’re in the mood for a good laugh only to discover that the comedy you just paid for is some film noire with foreign subtitles.  It just doesn’t sit well.

Mind you, both candidates are playing the hands the financial crisis dealt them, but Obama’s demeanor, his careful “less is more” approach is masterful.  Amazing that the younger, less experienced candidate is the one who comes across mature and filling us with just the right emotional impression — here’s an unflappable guy who looks like he’s in charge and knows what he’s doing.

Face it.  He’s good.

For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how it was possible that McCain won the GOP nomination when he was such a sniveling douche that had pissed off half of the Party.  It wasn’t what he said or what his record showed.  It was all about reputation.  It worked for many in that field as well.  Guilliani was only there because of the image the public had of him as he filled the leadership vacuum left when George Bush disappeared during a crisis — a pattern he repeated during Katrina and again this last week.

But at that moment, a wholly different type of crisis, Guilliani’s gung-ho kick ass style is what we needed– then.  We were scared on 9/11, but also pissed.  The look on Rudy’s face, the way he marched through the streets, taking charge and too tough to wear a face mask so we saw the anger.  Yeah!  Let’s kick some ass!

This crisis is different, a numbers crisis, although it’s just as threatening to our way of life.  We again are scared, and pissed, but in a way we’re pissed at ourselves.  Remember how even the thought of America in any way being responsible for the circumstances that lead to 9/11 where met with swift and decisive derision.  Certainly something you dare not utter let alone think, whether you were on the left or the right.  Truthers and Falwell types who blame teh gay are still ostracized for such irrelevancies.

Insisting that now was not the time for partisan squabbling showed me (at least) that Obama “gets it.”  Going out of his way to tie Obama to the crisis diminished McCain’s standing as a serious man who could provide thoughtful crisis management.

At a time every Wall Street expert and leaders in Congress and the Administration were putting partisanship aside to avert a crippling depression the likes of which no one alive can contemplate, John McCain stood alone, maverickly demanding Obama give up “the lectures and just this once admit” his responsibility for something that is obviously systemic involving the decisions of hundreds of thousands of homeowners, investors, bankers, politicians, lobbyists and several presidents from both parties.

A sad and selfish display.  At times like these it’s hard not ascribe to a certain amount of High Broderism, much as I usually detest such attitudes as fake and self-serving.  McCain simply didn’t need to go there, not now.  This just wasn’t the time for the cheap shots, not when he was presenting his plan to save us all from ourselves.  But with a the likelihood of adding another Trillion Dollars or two to the national debt, and we don’t really know how many mortgages the taxpayers are going to buy or what they’ll cost us, just this once John McCain could have acted like a grown-up.

At this stage of the game anyone who is swayed by policy proposals, governing philosophy, or adhering to their tribal roots has made up their minds.  Right now, as usual, it’s up to the 5%, 7% or 9% who are unfathomably undecided, who really don’t pay attention and might not figure it out until they walk into the polling booth.  And in a race that is still tight (much to the delight of the cable news networks), these folks who don’t pay attention unless they’re hit over the head will pick our next president on the most trivial and irrelevant of criteria.

These folks, to the point they are persuadable (and I think they’re paying attention, finally) can no more visualize a Million Dollars let alone a Trillion.  Who really can?  They’ve no interest in learning why a “derivative credit-default swap” matters, because it doesn’t touch their lives in the least.

More importantly, where Obama and McCain propose completely different tax and spending priorities, events of this past week have thrown those plans out the window.  By January there’ll be a completely different financial landscape, and that reality will come crashing down upon both candidates’ platforms.

Knowing that, maybe those low-information voters are on to something.  When the dust settles, the character of our choice of who will lead us will matter a great deal more than any agenda they want to implement.  Our choices as a people just got narrowed considerably about what we are to do moving forward.  The how, and the ability to confidently inspire us to achieve that future matter much more than they did when this thing got started.

I have two podcasts and you HAVE to listen to them:

• Jack Lessenberry’s film review podcast of Life is for the Living (3:00)
• Jack Lessenberry’s interview with filmmaker Michael Rubyan (4:25)
• Life is for the Living trailer (Quicktime, 3:00)

Here’s some print coverage:

• Ann Arbor News
• Michigan Daily
• Great Lakes IT Report

The film may also become a catalyst for change, as Michigan’s stem cell research ballot initiative will be up for a vote in November. The film will be showing around the state between now and then.

At the end of the film review (you gotta listen to it!) Lessenberry actually says this:

If I were Michael Rubyan’s father I might be thinking, “Whether my son becomes a doctor or a filmmaker, I’m pretty darn proud.”

I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am of Michael. I always said that I grew up in the shadow of Michael Rubyan. Now everyone knows what I meant.