Happy Birthday to Sir Ian Holm, 82. I've actually only seen him in a handful of movies, with a bunch of things that I easily could have seen but for whatever reason haven't. But two of those I have seen stand out for me: his performances in Big Night, and as Fluellen in Henry V. Terrific.
Ah, nothing like a little good stuff:
1. Margo Schlanger on solitary confinement.
2. Gabriel Arana on the immigration bill.
3. Jamelle Bouie reports from rally for defunding Obamacare.
4. I like this Roseanne McMannus analysis of Obama going to Congress very much; I've argued it was a good idea because it would generate information for him, but she sees it as a way to signal he was serious about a strike. I would add: it's a way to continue to up his threat without actually taking the action. In other words, it may have been a way to extend the bluff (or at least the bluster) one more round before he had to show his cards.
5. While James Fearon is smart as always about Syria.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
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The Sweet Hereafter has the Ian Holm performance that really sticks with me.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was gonna say!
DeleteHolm is such a great villain, Alien and From Hell come to mind. You and McMannus are right on IMO.
ReplyDeleteI liked the Fearon piece. (He had made the same point in passing in an earlier post.) I wasn't so sure about McManus. It seemed to me that she relied too heavily on foreign leaders' focusing on US domestic politics and even more so on their reading US domestic politics the way we do. (Remember how much of your time you spend telling Americans--especially Americans who comment on politics for a living--that they aren't reading it properly.) She could be right, but I'm not convinced.
ReplyDeleteIan Holm was Wonderful as Fluellen, in a Wonderful Henry V.
ReplyDeletejjk