sonia-belle

Santorum's trifecta

2012-02-08T16:11:00.000+01:00

President Rick Santorum ?

With his trifecta win in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, Rick Santorum has emerged not only as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, but as a very likely Republican nominee.

A few thoughts: he would definitely be a far better general election candidate than Romney. Unlike Romney, Santorum could define this election as a choice between an elitist, Hollywood-loving, Wall Street-dominated, uppity liberal snob and a working-class, compassionate conservative, down-to-earth, church-going, salt-of-the earth Midwestern everyman.

Personally, I find Santorum too anti-libertarian, but that's just me. Objectively speaking (and assuming that Newt Gingrich fails to ressurect his campaign for the third time), Santorum might now be GOP's best hope to recapture the White House.

Two specific affairs certainly contributed to Sanorum's success among the conservatives. The tastless Google campaign organized by gay activists to smear Santorum obviously backfired, turning him into a martyr suffering for his religious convictions. And a truly monstrous campaign by several liberal journalists (Alan Colmes, Eugene Robinson and others) who tried to denounce Santorum because his son died shortly after birth, backfired even more strongly, earning him sympathy even among people who, like me, strongly disagree with many of his political positions.

Top 10 Films of 2011

2012-01-28T18:32:00.009+01:00

Note: the NSFW links are invitation-only. To be invited, just post a comment with your e-mail address.

1. "Shame" (Steve McQueen, UK)

2. "Drive" (Nicolas Winding Refn, USA)

3. "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" (David Fincher, USA)

4. "Secrets Objects" (Lee Young-Mi, South Korea)

5. "Super" (James Gunn, USA)

6. "The Slut" (Hagar Ben-Asher, Israel)

7. "The Skin I Live In" (Pedro Almodovar, Spain)

8. "Ticket To Paradise" (Gerardo Chijona, Cuba)

9. "Melancholia" (Lars von Trier, Denmark)

10. "Zhila-byla odna baba" (Andrey Smirnov, Russia)

Other sexy films:

Above Us Only Sky (Germany)
Cafe de Flore (Canada)
Ces amours-la (France)
Coteau rouge (Canada)
A Dangerous Method (Canada)
Elle ne pleure pas elle chante (Belgium)
Eternal Ashes (Venezuela)
Funkytown (Canada)
Gerry (Canada)
Good Neigbours (Canada)
Kaboom
Laurentie (Canada)
Marecages (Canada)
Mlyn i krzyz (Poland)
My Week With Marilyn
Nuit #1 (Canada)
She Monkeys (Sweden)
Sleeping Beauty (Australia)
Tilt (Bulgaria)
Underwater Love (Japan)
Uwiklanie (Poland)

Sexy shorts:

Camp (Canada)

Other great films:

The Adventures Of Tintin
The Artist (France)
Bridesmaids
Cars 2
Crazy Stupid Love
The Descendants
Le Gamin au velo (Belgium)
The Guard (Ireland)
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Larry Crowne
Midnight In Paris
Monsieur Lazhar
Le Sens de l'humour (Canada)
Tous les soleils (France)

Great shorts:

Le Diable en personne (Canada)
Margaret And The Dollhouse (Canada)
Noeud papillon (Canada)

Weak films of 2011:

17 filles (France)
Adventure (Hungary)
Agua del fin del mundo (Argentina)
Amnesty (Albania)
Angle mort (Canada)
Apollo 18
The Bad Truth (Argentina)
Un Baiser papillon (France)
Beginners
La Bellezza del somaro (Italy)
The Bend (Canada)
Body (Turkey)
Un Bouteille dans la mer (Israel)
Brand (Austria)
Bumrush (Canada)
Carnage
Che bella giornata (Italy)
Le Colis (Canada)
Crazy-ism (Japan)
Dance Town (South Korea)
The Dead Sea (India)
The Debt
A Decent Arrangement
Decharge (Canada)
Die (Canada)
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark
En terrains connus (Canada)
Facing Mirrors (Iran)
Festung (Germany)
The Finger (Argentina)
Fish And Chips (Cyprus)
Five Square Meters (Spain)
French Immersion (Canada)
French Kiss (Canada)
Frisson de collines (Canada)
Good Neighbour (Germany)
The Graveyard Keeper's Daughter (Estonia)
The Hangover Part II
Hanna
Hasta la vista (Belgium)
Here I Am (Australia)
The Ides Of March
Immortals
Innocence (Czech Republic)
In Our Name (UK)
Jo pour Jonathan (Canada)
The Kate Logan Affair (Canada)
Lapland Odyssey (Finland)
Less Modern Times (Argentina)
Limitless
My Prince My King (Germany)
Nessuno mi puo giudicare (Italy)
Operation Casablanca (Switzerland)
La Peur de l'eau (Canada)
Pour l'amour de dieu (Canada)
Une Pure affaire (France)
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
The Roadside House (Russia)
Salt White (Georgia)
Sherlock Holmes A Game Of Shadows
Snow And Ashes (Canada)
Starbuck (Canada)
Sur le rhythme (Canada)
Transit Cities (Jordan)
The Tree (Australia)
The Tree Of Life
Le Vendeur (Canada)
La Vérité (Canada)
La Vie meilleure (France)
Une Vie qui commence (Canada)
War Horse
The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom (Canada)
Young Adult

Weak shorts:

All That You Loved
Amor Azul
Awake
Bento Monogatari
Beyond Man
Bill Please
Bip Bip
Blink
Les Bons termes selon Dewey
Brain Juice
Breathing
Bred In Captivity
Brother's Keeper
Cafe Cleopatre
Celia
Chers amis
Close To Her
De quel sommeil reviendrons-nous ?
Despertar
Dulce
Eka utshite - N'oublie pas
Entre deux etats
L'Ete indien
Exilio e transhumancia
Faraway
Les Fausses notes
The Fruit Machine
Going
Le Grand Cycle
Hit Me
Hotel Alpha Mike
I'll Be Waiting Outside
Les Interdits
L'Invite
It's Nobody's Fault
Jardiniers clandestins
Je les aime encore
The Kidnapping
Landing
Leben Lassen
Liz
Looking Up
Mise a pied
Moving Slowly
No Words Came Down
Pas de deux
La Piece
La Queue du peloton
Recits d'hyperinflation
Release
Rising Son
Ryan And Ally
Shades Of Grey On The Silver Screen
She's A Soul Man
Smoulder
La Statege
Strike 3
Suburban Swingers
Vodka canneberge
Wiggle Your Toes

Weak cartoons:

The Ame Seller (Canada)
Door (Canada)
Une Fin de loup (Canada)
Les Petites chimeres (Canada)

Iranian actress poses topless

2012-01-27T23:40:00.000+01:00

Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani (best known in the West for "Body Of Lies", starring Leonardo di Caprio and Russell Crowe) has posed "topless" for a French magazine, and now the Iranian government has barred her from returning to her own country. Looks more like a reward than a punishment. More here.

Newt wins South Carolina

2012-01-22T23:11:00.003+01:00

When Newt Gingrich finished fourth in Iowa (with 13% of the vote) and fifth in New Hampshire (with 9.4%), it looked like his campaign was effectively over. But with his landslide win in South Carolina, where he won the record 40.4 % of the vote (Romney only won 39.3% in New Hampshire), Gingrich not only ressurected his campaign for the second time, but he emerged as the effective frontrunner. While Romney still leads in the total delegate count (36 elected and unelected delegates to Newt's 28), Gringrich now leads in the elected delegate count (27 elected delegates to Romney's 20). So Romney is still the favorite of the party's hierarchy, but Gingrich is now the favorite of the party's base.

Newt's win in South Carolina, which occured after his ex-wife's revelations of their "open marriage", effectively puts to rest any worries that his unconventional sex life might hurt him among evangelical voters. When forced to chose between a Mormon and an adulterer, the Christian fundamentalists definitely prefer the latter.

Next battleground - Florida, where Gingrich's moderate stance on immigration is more likely to please the Cuban-Americans who dominate the Sunshine State's GOP than Romney's jingoistic stance on the issue.

Hero of the Hour - Anonymous

2012-01-20T15:05:00.001+01:00

The hacker group Anonymous has launched a cyber attack that brought down the websites of the US Justice Department as well as those of the Recording Industry Association of America, Motion Picture Association of America and Universal Music.

This attack was launched in response to a truly outrageous act of totalitarian oppression - the arrest of seven executives of the website Megaupload, which was itself an act of vengeance in response to the Internet's mobilization against the SOPA/PIPA censorship bills in the US Congress.

Forget Al Qaeda. Foreget Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan. This is the new War Against Totalitarian Oppression. On one side the Forces of Freedom, which include Internet pirates, hackers and libertarian activists. On the other side the Forces of Oppression, the supporters of outdated copyright laws, that should be completely changed (as written, they are completely anachronistic in the Digital Age).

Copyright laws were create to promote innovation. And in the pre-Digital Age, they indeed promoted innovation. But in the Digital Age, they don't just stiffle innovation. If fully enforced, they would literally destroy any exchange of ideas on the Internet. The only reason they didn't do it yet, is because they weren't fully enforced.

There is a great article in The Guardian about how SOPA and PIPA would completely destroy freedom on the Internet.

Opposites attract

2012-01-17T21:22:00.000+01:00

What Spain and New Zealand have in common ? What unites Argentina and China ? Brazil and Philippines ? Venezuela and Indonesia ? And how about Peru and Cambodia ?

If you want to find out, visit this cool site.

Oscar predictions

2012-01-13T18:39:00.003+01:00

I will soon be posting my annual "Top 10 Films of the Year" list. But before that, the Oscar nominations will be announced on January 24. Many critics are making predictions about the 10 films that will be nominated for Best Picture. Roger Ebert's predictions, for instance, are quite good:

"The Artist"
"The Tree of Life"
"Hugo"
"Midnight in Paris"
"The Descendants"
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
"Drive"
"The Help"
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes"
"Take Shelter"

Remember, those are predictions, not favorite films; otherwise, Ebert's list would certainly include films like "Shame", "Melancholia" and "Margaret".

My own predictions are only slightly different. I haven't yet seen "The Help" and "Take Shelter", but I seriously doubt that they will be nominated over "My Week With Marilyn" and "War Horse". And unlike Ebert, I also think that "Shame" has a better chance of being nominated than "Rise of the Planet of the Apes".

So this is my list, in order of probability (if there is no comment, it's because the movie is good and deserves a nomination):

"The Artist" (I personally don't like it all that much, but it's definitely this year's favorite)
"The Descendants"
"The Tree of Life" (it's actually one of the worst films of the year, but try telling that to the pretentious snobs in Hollywood)
"Hugo"
"Midnight in Paris"
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
"Drive"
"Shame"
"My Week With Marilyn"
"War Horse" (it's dated, old-fashioned and emotionally manipulative - precisely the kind of film Academy voters love - at least those over 75 - and there are still quite a few of them on life support)

You can click on the links for my reviews of the films. The NSFW links are invitation-only. To be invited, just post a comment with your e-mail address.

UPDATE (2012-01-24):

Ultimately, Ebert's predictions were as good as mine. We both predicted 5 films - "The Descendants", "Hugo", "Midnight in Paris", "The Artist" and "The Tree of Life" (not surprisingly, those were also the five films nominated for Best Director). In addition, Ebert was right about "The Help" being nominated, and I was right about "War Horse". And neither of us predicted a nomination for "Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close" and "Moneyball".

Much A-Boob About Nothing

2012-01-12T02:04:00.001+01:00

You can barely see a nipple! Why is this even a story ? This is the Ann Lynne McCord tweet that's causing all this commotion.

Naked natives dance naked for tourists

2012-01-11T23:37:00.001+01:00

This is the ultimate "dog-bites-man" story (tourists watching native women performing folk dances), and yet it has caused quite a stir around the world. Apparently unaware that native women in the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean are always naked, various moralistic morons are shocked and outraged that they would dance naked for tourists.

Next "shocking video": "Strippers in strip clubs strip for men!"

Arab G-Spring And Blue Bra

2011-12-22T20:53:00.000+01:00

The Arab Spring revolution in Egypt has finally found its iconic image (the equivalent of the naked Vietnamese girl fleeing a napalm bombing or the Tiananmen Square protester stopping a tank). It's an image of a savage beating of a young girl stripped to her blue bra by uniformed soldiers.

This image perfectly symbolizes the current mess in Egypt, where Muslim fundamentalists have just won a perfectly democratic election. We can easily guess what the future will bring - it has already happened before, in Iran, after the fall of the Shah.

There is no Arab Spring in Egypt. Unlike in Tunesia, which elected a moderate Islamic government (a local equivalent of the GOP). Unlike in Libya, where an anti-Western dictator was overthrown by force. Unlike in Syria, where an anti-Western dictator will soon be overthrown by force.

In Egypt, a pro-Western dictator was overthrown, and therefore, by the simplest of logic, he will be replaced by an anti-Western Muslim fundamentalist regime.

The best analysis of the current mess in Egypt can be found in this article in The Daily Mail. Key excerpts:

This is not the climax of a battle between a great mass of the Egyptian people and a despised military establishment. It is the last gasp of a tiny idealistic minority as they fight to the death for their core beliefs.

The majority of the conflict-weary public have now sided with the armed forces — who are seen as upholding order against the continued, anarchic impulses of the demonstrators.

In Egypt in recent days, there has been no groundswell of outrage at the girl’s treatment (...) Partly this is because the revolutionaries in Tahrir Square are so small in number — probably no more than 3,000 in a nation of 84 million. Their position has been weakened by the military, which has portrayed them, with much success, as conspirators and criminals bent on chaos.

And this process has been helped by the deeply conservative attitudes of most of Egypt’s population. The widespread response to the picture is not anger at the soldiers’ actions, but puzzlement as to why the woman’s family let her join the protest (...) The Islamists, no allies of the pro-democracy movement, are playing the long game. Ultimately, what they aim to construct is a Muslim state run according to strict, fundamentalist Sharia law. And they are well on their way to that goal.

In the first round of the recent Parliamentary elections last month, they emerged as the dominant force.

In the second round, currently underway, it looks as though the Muslim Brotherhood, and the even more extreme Salafi Muslim parties, will again win around 70 per cent of the vote — compared with just over 10 per cent for the parties set up by revolutionaries.

Femen activists kidnapped in Belarus

2011-12-21T18:44:00.001+01:00

Three Ukrainian Femen activists, Aleksandra Nemchinova, Inna Shevchenko, and Oksana Shachko, were kidnapped in Belarus after a topless protest in Minsk against the local dictator, Alexander Lykashenko. They were stripped, doused with gasoline and threatened to be set on fire. Afterwards, they were left naked in the forest and had to make their way to a nearby village by foot.

Femen is famous across Eastern Europe for their raunchy protests against oppression and corruption. In other countries, like Ukraine or Russia, those protests are tolerated. But Belarus is the most oppressive of all Eastern European countries and their local Gestapo, known as KGB, is known for extremely ruthless behavior. Of course, KGB denies that they were behind the kidnapping. And they might even be right. Because if the KGB really had kidnapped the girls, they would probably be dead.

Lindsay Lohan leaked Playboy photos

2011-12-21T18:01:00.000+01:00

Were they worth 1 million dollars ? Judge for yourself. Set to cover the spread of the first issue of 2012, those pics might have been racy back in the days of Marilyn Monroe. But today, they might even be legal in Iran.

Quote of the Day - 2011-12-14

2011-12-14T16:07:00.007+01:00

The (...) problem Romney has is (...) his Massachusetts health care reform. He says it worked great for his state, that he’s proud of it, and that his first act as president will be to make sure no one else in America ever has to experience anything like it.

Jonathan V. Last, Weekly Standard

Sonia Belle endorses Newt Gingrich

2011-11-11T20:49:00.001+01:00

As the fight for the Republican presidential nomination is entering its final stretch, there is little doubt about who is the strongest candidate to take on Barack Obama in next year's election.

Newt Gingrich.

Only a few months ago, it looked like his campaign was over, sabotaged by a massive exodus of his advisers and managers. But precisely because Newt refused to run a conventional campaign, he managed to avoid all the pittfalls that ultimately doomed once-promising campaigns of Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry and destroyed the campaigns of Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman before they even took off.

Right now, the choice is between Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney (the only candidate who run a conventional campaign and survived... so far) and Herman Cain (who run a campaign even more unconventional than Newt).

Cain was never a serious presidential candidate. 80% of the job of the President of United States is related to foreign policy. Cain knows nothing about foreign policy and he freely admits that. At best, he will be an effective Vice-President.

Mitt Romney, an otherwise interesting candidate, is probably the worst person to run against Barack Obama next year. It's not that he isn't conservative enough, or a flip-flopper, or insufficiently opposed to Obamacare, or too-Mormon, or anything like that. It's just that he has very little charisma. That wouldn't be a problem if Democrats picked Michael Dukakis or Al Gore or John Kerry, because compared to them, even Romney has some charisma. But against charismatic Obama, Romney would lose badly.

Only Newt Gingrich has both the political experience that Cain lacks, and enough charisma to take on Barack Obama and win. He is also a great debater, as he proved in the last GOP presidential debate in Michigan. When asked about whether private companies can both be profitable and be able to create jobs, he aswered splendidly:

Corporations can and should do both. Henry Ford started as an Edison Electric supervisor who went home at night and built his first car in the garage. Now, was he in the 99 percent or the one percent? Bill Gates drops out of college to found Microsoft. Is he in the one percent or the 99 percent?

Notice how effectively Newt moped the floor with Occupy Wall Street. And when asked (along with all the other candidates) how he would replace Obamacare, his answer was sheer genius:

Well, I just want point out, my colleagues have done a terrific job of answering an absurd question. To say in 30 seconds what you would do with 18 percent of the economy, life and death for the American people.

Newtmentum?

UPDATE (2011-11-30):

There is a brilliant (and screamingly funny) analysis of Newt Gingrich's rise by Charles Hunt in Washington Times. Best bits:

Getting Republicans to line up behind Mitt Romney, it turns out, is like trying to stuff a cat into a trash can. No matter how you present the feline to the receptacle, at least one claw always manages to reach out at the last second and cling desperately to the rim.

In this round-robin primary, all anybody has had to do is stand still in one place long enough and eventually you take your turn as the front-runner. Unless, of course, you are Jon Huntsman Jr., who is nothing more than a penumbra of Beltway parlor speculation — Washington’s idea of “a good conservative.”

GOP voters were looking for a snow machine-racing, Harley-rumbling, trash-talking, manure-kicking executive with a Mississippi twang and now appear to be settling for a man whose giant portrait hangs in the grand Speaker's Lobby off the House floor.

His laundry has been so well-aired over the decades that we are not likely to see Gloria Allred midwifing any new salacious scandals now.

Sure, he thinks that a system that takes from workers and gives to those who refuse to work is evil. But he is most passionate about the evils of a system that destroys and enslaves those it teaches to live off government handouts.

Scarlett Johansson's pictures

2011-09-15T19:53:00.001+02:00

Those are the infamous pictures, shot by Scarlett Johansson herself and stolen from her cellphone. The FBI is hunting for those photos, warning websites that Scarlett owns the copyright to her nude pics. Warnings include: "If you fail to comply, you will be acting at your own peril. Please govern yourselves accordingly". More here.
I am SO scared.

Caught on Google

2011-09-10T22:04:00.000+02:00

Google Street View has accidently photographed a naked woman on her front doorstep. Strangely, instead of just removing the photo (aren't they afraid of a lawsuit ?), Google has only camouflaged the woman behind a pixelation shroud. More here, but be warned, their photo has been photoshoped by perverts.

Trip to Cuba

2011-06-21T17:42:00.000+02:00

This was my sixth trip to Cuba. The first one was in 1991. A lot has changed since then. Cubans are fascinating people. The longer they live under a Communist system, the more capitalist they become in their attitudes and values. In fact, today, Cuba is probably the most capitalist society in the world. Nowhere else is the state more irrelevant in people's lives.

Cuba is the only place on Earth with two parallel economies using two parallel currencies (both legal): the Cuban peso and the convertible peso (or CUC). Originally created only for tourists, to replace the American dollar, the CUC is now used by all Cubans.

Except nobody gets paid in CUCs. At least nobody working for the government. In theory.

In theory, Cuba is one big slave plantation, where all workers get paid in worthless Monopoly money (the Cuban peso), which is only accepted in libraries selling books about Che Guevara and government grocery stores, where you can only buy rice and beans (and only by presenting government ration cards).

In practice, however, nobody could possibly survive on government salary and ration card food, unless going on a hunger strike for about 14 days every months (for most families, their monthly rations run out after two weeks). So to survive, Cubans are Communists for the first two weeks of the month and then become capitalists for the remaining two weeks. It works beautifully.

Essentially, the secret of the Cuban economy is that the state pretends to pay the people, and the people pretend to work for the state. Everybody is happy. It applies to all sectors of the economy, even the celebrated health care system and the equally celebrated education system. Both are total frauds. In theory, both system are free. In practice, only a consultation with a physician is free, provided one can still be found (physicians are slowly becoming an endangered species in Cuba, they are shipped by the dozens to Venezuela in exchange for oil, and most never come back, getting lost on the way home and miraculously reappearing in Miami). If a physician can actually be captured alive, he or she can`t do much for a patient. Drugs are free, but impossible to find, unless one can bribe a pharmacist (in CUCs, of course). Wouldn't it be simpler to just pay for the damn drugs, instead of getting them for free after paying a bribe ? Hospital are free as well, but they don`t provide bed sheets, or food, or toilet paper, or any other physical objects necessary for patients to function properly. And don`t expect a nurse to visit you unless you pay her a bribe too.

The education system is free as well. But nobody cares, except for language classes. Cuba's equivalent of a nuclear physicist or a rocket scientist is a linguist. If you can speak English and one other language, you might be hired by the only industry where Cubans actually want to work - tourism. And yet, tourism doesn`t pay any better than nuclear physics or rocket science. But working in tourism, you get tips - something no Cuban rocket scientist has ever got. An average tourism worker (a barman, a taxi driver, a tourist guide or a chambermaid in Varadero) gets paid 250 Cuban pesos a month. But he or she can also get 250 convertible pesos a month in tips. 250 Cuban pesos (or 10 convertible pesos) plus 250 CUCs is 260 CUCs or roughly 250 dollars a month - enough to live quite well in Cuba.

But because teachers don`t get tips, they have to survive on 250 Cuban pesos a month (or 10 dollars). So language teachers are even harder to find than physicians. If you speak English, why teach it if you can work in tourism instead, and earn 26 times more money ?

If you ask a Cuban about socialism, he will give you the same look a gangsta rapper would give you when asked about 17th century Gregorian chants. But it doesn`t mean that most Cubans are necessarily anti-Castro. Mention United States of America, and the attitudes are often very hostile. Mention the Cuban community in Miami and the hostility reaches a boiling point. The education system is free for a reason. Every Cuban is taught intense hatred towards Americans in general and Cuban-Americans in particular. Imagine what Germans were taught about Jews under Adolf Hitler, multiply it by a hundred and you still won`t get nowhere near what Cuban are taught about “imperialismo yankee”.

On this trip to Cuba, I first visited the Zapata peninsula. It's a Cuban equivalent of the Everglades, with plenty of crocs and other swamp creatures. After spending some time in Guama (a Cuban swamp version of Venice, only empty of tourists) and Aldea Taina (a reconstruction of an aboriginal village with beautiful, and sexy, sculptures), we went to the Bay of Pigs. It was for a reason that that place was chosen for an invasion - it`s fairly isolated by swamps and hard to reach by land, and yet quite close to Havana. It`s also quite close to Cienfuegos and Escambray mountains, which back in 1961 were the strongholds of the anti-Castro resistance movement.

Like Venice, only hotter and without any tourists

Nude wrestling, Cuban-style

Which brings me to the most obvious shortcoming of the Cuban education system. Everybody is taught that armed Cubans who came from Nicaragua on American boats and landed at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 to overthrow the government in Havana were traitors, assholes, murderers and horrible, horrible inhuman beings. But everybody is also taught that armed Cubans who came from Mexico on an American boat called “Granma” and landed near Sierra Maesta in 1956 to overthrow the government in Havana were heroes, darlings, martyrs and wonderful, wonderful human beings. And yet no Cuban, despite all this free education, has ever noticed this patent absurdity.

After Bay of Pigs, I visited Trinidad, a wonderful colonial town full of architectural wonders. In a former Franciscan monastery, there is a fascinating museum called “Museum of Struggle against Bandits”. Expecting artifacts about Carribean pirates and local “fritos banditos”, I was quite surprised to find that the museum is in fact devoted to anti-Castro freedom fighters who controlled large swaths of territories (especially in central Cuba) from 1960 until 1963. There are even maps showing the extent of the counter-revolution and they cover almost a third of Cuba.

Trinidad, the most beautiful town in Cuba

Former Franciscan monastery in Trinidad, now a museum inadvertently celebrating anti-Communist freedom fighters

Escambray mountains as seen from Trinidad, anti-Castro guerrillas` last stand

El Rocio waterfall in the Escambray mountains

After Trinidad, I went to Santa Clara. It's probably the least interesting town in Cuba, completely devoid of any historical buildings. There is only one reason tourists come to Santa Clara – Che Guevara. That's where Che's troops defeated Battista's soldiers in 1958. The victory is commemorated in a bizarre monument consisting of a derailed train – easily the ugliest tourist attraction on the whole island. Much better is the Che Guevara Monument, with a giant statue of the rebel leader and a nice crypt with his remains and those of his companions from Bolivia. Unlike other such monuments in Cuba, which range from ugly to austere to bizarre, the Che Monument is actually very beautiful.

Che Memorial - even Communists can build beautiful monuments

But usually, they can't - The Derailed Train Monument

I also vited Matanzas, Cardenas, Cienfuegos and Varadero. The first two are crumbling, the third is surrounded by rusting Soviet-era industrial plants and the fourth is the closest Cuba has to Cancun or Miami Beach (minus a nightlife).

Old fort in Matanzas

The only beautiful building in Cardenas

Cienfuegos

Al Capone was Battista's pal and he had a beautiful beach cottage in Varadero

The American millionaire who built this mansion in Varadero wasn't a gangster but a respected industrialist, but this didn't prevent Castro from confiscating the Xanadu Mansion just like the Al Capone Mansion.

There are good reasons to visit Cuba now. Fidel is dying and pragmatic Raul is quite old as well. After Raul dies, things could get very ugly in Cuba. If genuine democratic reforms are ever introduced and border controls are lifted, probably as many as 40% of all Cubans (those who don't hate the “Yankees”) will leave the country. The rest of Cubans will be hiding in bunkers at the Bay of Pigs with AK-47s, and waiting to US troops to land. If no reforms are attempted, a civil war will break out sooner or later. Havana and the Oriental provinces will fight against the rest. And when the civil war will be over, Cuba (like Panama in the last two decades) will get rich very quickly. The prices will rise along with the salaries. And it will no longer be possible to pay $500 Canadian dollar a week for an all-inclusive vacation at a 4-star hotel in Varadero (flight included).

A bunker on a beach at the Bay of Pigs.

Hero of the Hour - Barack Hussein Obama

2011-05-02T13:22:00.003+02:00

Osama Bin Laden is dead. Back in 2001, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, nobody could have predicted that he would be killed by soldiers acting on the "shoot-to-kill" orders of a president whose middle name was Hussein. History clearly has an ironic sense of humor.

It's also interesting to note that Osama's death was announced on May 1. Adolph Hitler's death was also announced on May 1... exactly 66 years ago (if it was 666 years, it would be really eerie). What used to be the Communist "International Workers' Day" is slowly morphing into a "Death of Evil Day".

Soviet Art under Stalin

2011-04-18T13:38:00.000+02:00

Ross Wolfe posted an interesting article about the Soviet Art and its decline under Stalin. It's essentially correct on most points, so its arguments cannot really be challenged, but sometimes an elaboration might be in order:

In the visual arts, it meant an end to the daring work of abstract painting and creative photomontage experimentation and a return to representational verisimilitude

That is true, but it might be worth noting that Russian artists didn't stop experimenting even under Stalin. The most daring stylistic experiment (and arguably the greatest painting of the Stalinist era) was Fiodor Shurpin's "Morning Of Our Fatherland" (1948), with its absolutely unique yellow-on-yellow color composition.

Konstantin Yuon's "Red Square Parade November 7, 1941" is also quite remarkable for its subtle use of colors (notice how the white snow and fog of war seems to cover everything, even the Kremlin, except for Lenin's tomb, which remains bright red).

And even Boris Vladimirski (whose mediocre "Roses For Stalin" is posted in Wolfe's article) painted a far superior work of art, "Lenin In Red Dawn" (1947). While not as daring as Shurpin's, Vladimirski's composition is still impressive as a study in contrast between black and red.

Wolfe's writes:

Around 1931-1933, Stalin and his henchmen intervened and wanted to put an end to the various competing groups and form an official style that would be run by forcibly unionizing the different art and architectural groups together. Once all the groups had been subsumed into All-Union appendages of the state, bureaucratized and monitored closely, the decision was made to institute Socialist realism. This way, all artists and architects had to be registered with and licensed by the state and made to conform to union mandates handed down from above, by the Stalinist hierarchy. Those who did not join with the state-funded unions would not have their work supported or even recognized by the Soviet government, and would not receive the regular income that the union provided.

It is all true, of course, but it is important to point out that Stalin was only able to achieve it because by the early 1930's, the State became the only patron of the arts. Until the late 1920's, rich kulaks and NEP enterpreneurs could still be counted to buy a painting or two, but as Stalin completely destroyed those bourgeois classes, Soviet artists became completely dependent on the State. So it's not just the Stalinist oppression that destroyed the great flowering of the Russian art between 1900 and 1930, but the destruction of the private property (and the private patronage) by the Soviet Revolution led directly to the enslavement of the Russian artists by the State.

Back to basics

2011-04-12T04:04:00.000+02:00

I got so caught in current political events, especially in Libya, that I kind of forgot about the main focus of this blog. There's got to be some balance!

The Coulter-Chavez Pact

2011-03-31T19:40:00.000+02:00

"A campaign of lies is being spun together regarding Libya. I'm not going to condemn him. I'd be a coward to condemn someone who has been my friend."

Hugo Chavez on Gaddafi

"Gadhafi accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid the victims' families $8 million apiece (...) Gadhafi suspended Libya's nuclear and chemical weapons program, inviting international inspectors to verify that the programs had been halted. A few years after that, Gadhafi paid millions of dollars to the victims of other Libyan-sponsored terrorist attacks from the '80s. Gadhafi (...) poses no threat to the U.S. -- whereas the rebels we are supporting might."

Ann Coulter on Gaddafi

Obviously, Ann Coulter isn't part of that "campaign of lies" about Gadhafi that Hugo Chavez is so concerned about. This Coulter-Chavez axis reminds me of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. It's one more proofs that the extreme left and the extreme right are exactly the same thing.

Heroine of the Hour - Eman al-Obeidy

2011-03-29T17:55:00.001+02:00

On Saturday March 26, a young woman burst into a Tripoli hotel as international journalists were having breakfast. Her face was bruised, as were her legs. She showed reporters blood on her right inner thigh. She screamed that she was kidnapped by Gadhafi's soldiers and raped by them for two days. "Look at what Gadhafi's brigades did to me," she said. "My honor was violated by them." Al-Obeidy displayed visible rope burns on her wrists and ankles. Government officials tried to stifle her, but she persisted. Security forces moved to subdue her, and even a member of the hotel's kitchen staff drew a knife. "Traitor!" he shouted. Another staffer tried to throw a dark tablecloth over her head. As the security forces subdued the screaming woman and dragged her away, al-Obeidy last words were, "If you don't see me tomorrow, then that's it."

In light of this story, it's interesting to read this Washington Times piece about former Obama's aide Samantha Power, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and Hillary Rodham Clinton. According to the article, it was this trio of women who overruled reluctant military MALE leaders in persuading Obama to finally launch military operations against Gadhafi.

The Fall of the Arab Wall

2011-02-21T18:25:00.004+01:00

First Tunesia. Then Egypt. And now Libya. Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is a pattern. It is now clear that in the Arab World, 2011 is the year 1989 of the Islamic calendar. The totalitarian regimes are falling and the rest of the world is watching with a mixture of amazement and apprehension.

This is a game changer. Of course, many Western observers are ambivalent. They were also ambivalent in 1989. Many Western socialists, communists and other "progressives" openly worried that Eastern Europe could fall into the hands of ultra-Catholic, antisemitic nationalists and fascists. They simply didn't understand that Eastern European Communists were themselves antisemitic nationalists and fascists (though perhaps not "ultra-Catholic"). Similarly, Western observers today, worried about the potential rise of "ultra-religious, antisemitic Arab nationalists and Islamofascists", fail to understand that dictators like Qaddafi and Mubarak were themselves antisemitic Arab nationalists and Islamofascists (though perhaps not "ultra-religious"). In other words, the worst that could happen now is that secular monsters will be replaced by religious monsters. And even that would be a huge improvement, because at least "secularism" would no longer be associated with "totalitarian oppression" in the minds of ordinary Arabs.

This false perception was also due to the fact that the current wave of revolutions began in two pro-Western countries: Tunesia and Egypt. But one thing became obvious almost from the get-go: it was anti-Western dictators (like Qaddafi), who first condemned the uprisings (correctly predicting that they were the next to go). It was also Israel that clearly sided with Mubarak (in either a stupid mistake or a calculated "reverse psychology" manoeuver). By contrast, pro-Western (but also pro-democratic) Arab governments, like those of Morocco, Kuwait, Quatar and United Arab Emirates, immediately sided with the protesters (Quatar's Al-Jazeera and UAE's Al-Arabiya networks leading the pan-Arab opinion). And just as importantly, almost none of those progressive Arab countries were targeted by protesters. This false perception was due to the fact that most Western observers fail to distinguish between two very different kinds of pro-Western Arab governments: authoritarian, secular and socialist republics (like Tunesia, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen and Syria) and democratic, religious and capitalist monarchies (like Morocco, Kuwait, Quatar, United Arab Emirates, as well as Jordan and Oman - those last two did experience some protests, but they were very minor and mostly peaceful).

But there is nothing peaceful about the protests in Libya. This is a full-scale revolution against the most anti-Western Arab regime since the fall of Saddam Hussein. So what happened to trigger this revolt in Libya ?

Most Western conservatives will hate to hear it, but Barack Hussein Obama's election in 2008 was probably the trigger. Dictators like Qaddafi were clinging to power by essentially telling their fellow Arabs: "the West hates you, the West hates Islam, the West hates Arabs". By electing a man whose middle name was Hussein, the West essentially called Qaddafi a wretched liar.

And now the wretched liar is being deposed. Good riddance.

Top 10 Films of 2010

2011-01-17T23:16:00.037+01:00

This was a really weird year at the movies. American films and East Asian films were very disappointing. The only "American" film on my "Top 10" list, despite its title, was a purely European flick, directed by a Dutchman and set in Italy. There were only three films that deserved 4 stars, and no film that got 5 stars. It was, without a doubt, the weakest year for movies in over 30 years.

Below is my annual "Top 10" list (only films with nudity are eligible), followed by various also-run lists. Every title has a link to my review of the film. Good films with nudity are on my "Sonia's Favorite Films" blog, which is invitation-only (you have to ask me, in comments or by e-mail, if you want to visit it). Obscene films (those without nudity) and bad films with nudity are on my "Sonia's Film Dictionary" blog, which is open to all. Enjoy.

1. "Año bisiesto" (Michael Rowe, Mexico)

2. "Kynodontas" (Giorgos Lanthimos, Greece)

3. "Enter The Void" (Gaspar Noé, France)

4. "Carlos" (Olivier Assayas, France)

5. "Silent Souls" (Aleksei Fedorchenko, Russia)

6. "Meat" (Victor Nieuwenhuijs, Maartje Seyferth, Holland)

7. "Pepperminta" (Pipilotti Rist, Switzerland)

8. "Stolen Dreams" (Sandra Werneck, Brazil)

9. "Srpski film" (Srdjan Spasojevic, Serbia)

10. "The American" (Anton Corbijn, USA)

Other sexy films:

10 ½ (Canada)
2 fois une femme (Canada)
Les 7 jours du talion (Canada)
À l'origine d'un cri (Canada)
Les Amours imaginaires (Canada)
Attenberg (Greece)
Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adele Blanc-Sec (France)
Barney's Version (Canada)
Biutiful (Mexico)
Bo (Belgium)
Bus Palladium (France)
D'amour et d'eau fraîche (France)
Ella (Peru)
Forgive Me For Raping You
Gainsbourg (France)
The Ghost Writer (UK)
L'Héritage perdu (Gabon)
Jestem twoj (Poland)
The Kids Are All Right
The Last Flight Of The Flamingo (Mozambique)
Les Lignes ennemies (Canada)
Lisanka (Cuba)
Love and Other Drugs
Machete
Memories Of Overdevelopment
Le Nom des gens (France)
Orpheline avec en plus un bras en moins (France)
Piché - Entre ciel et terre (Canada)
Piranha 3D
La Princesse de Montpensier (France)
Run If You Can (Germany)
Shutter Island
Les Signes vitaux (Canada)
Somewhere
Splice (Canada)
Stricken (Holland)
Tamara Drewe (UK)
Thelma Louise et Chantal (France)
Trois temps après la mort d'Anna (Canada)
The Truce (Russia)
Tuesday After Christmas (Romania)

Sexy shorts:

Opasatica (Canada)
Vapor (Canada)

Sexy cartoons:

Princesse (Canada)

Other great films:

Cabotins (Canada)
Le Cœur d'Auschwitz (Canada)
La Dernière fugue (Canada)
Des hommes et des dieux (France)
The Fighter
How To Train Your Dragon
Incendies (Canada)
Inception
The King's Speech (UK)
Never Let Me Go (UK)
Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time
Salt
The Social Network
Tangled
La Tête en friche (France)
Toy Story 3
The Trotsky (Canada)
True Grit
Unstoppable
The Way Back
Winter's Bone
You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger

Great shorts:

Félix et Malou (Canada)
Original Sin (Canada)
Sophie Lavoie (Canada)

Great cartoons:

The Gruffalo (UK)
Let's Pollute
Higglety Pigglety Pop (Canada)

Weak films of 2010:

127 Hours
Abacus And Sword (Japan)
Alice In Wonderland
All Good Things
Animal Kingdom (Australia)
L'Arnacoeur (France)
Le Baiser du barbu (Canada)
The Belgrade Phantom (Serbia)
La Belle endormie (France)
Beloved Berlin Wall (Germany)
Between Two Worlds (Sri Lanka)
Black Swan
Blue Valentine
Box The Hakamada Case (Japan)
Casual Connection (Russia)
Cell 211 (Spain)
Chance (Panama)
Chantrapas (Georgia)
Chatroom (UK)
Chloe
Cinco dias sin Nora (Mexico)
La Cité (Canada)
Clash Of The Titans
Curling (Canada)
Des Filles en noir (France)
Despicable Me
An Earthy Paradise For The Eyes (Czech Republic)
L'Enfant prodige (Canada)
A Espada e a Rosa (Portugal)
Fair Game
Fatso (Norway)
Filière 13 (Canada)
Fubar II (Canada)
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (Sweden)
Greenberg
Der Grosse Kater (Switzerland)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Hereafter
Hustawka (Poland)
I Am Love (Italy)
L'Illusioniste (France)
Inshite Miru (Japan)
Jaffa (Israel)
Joseph et la fille (France)
Le Journal d'Aurélie Laflamme (Canada)
Journal d'un coopérant (Canada)
The Kate Logan Affair (Canada)
Kerity la maison des contes (France)
Killers
Knight And Day
Korkoro (France)
Lance et compte (Canada)
The Last Airbender
Let Me In
Looking For Eric (UK)
Love On The Beat (France)
MacGruber
Mammuth (France)
Mandrill (Chile)
Manon Lescaut (France)
Le Mariage à trois (France)
El mar muerto (Mexico)
Martin At Dawn (Mexico)
Miss Mouche (Belgium)
Monsters
Motel Nana (Serbia)
Mr Nobody
Nannerl la soeur de Mozart (France)
New Denmark (Canada)
Nowhere Boy (UK)
Octubre (Peru)
Oscar et la dame en rose (Belgium)
Oxygen (Belgium)
Please Give
Le Poil de la bête (Canada)
Portraits In A Sea Of Lies (Colombia)
Preludio (Mexico)
Princess (Finland)
Question In Details (Hungary)
Rabbit Hole
Red
The Red Spot (Japan)
Rendez-vous avec un ange (France)
Reste avec moi (Canada)
Robin Hood
Le Roi de l'évasion (France)
Route 132 (Canada)
Rozyczka (Poland)
Le Sentiment de la chair (France)
Sex And The City 2
Shrek Forever After
Sigwa (Philippines)
Simon Konianski (Belgium)
Skyline
The Snow Queen (Estonia)
Solitary Man
Sortie 67 (Canada)
Sword Of Desperation (Japan)
Tête de turc (France)
The Tourist
Tournée (France)
The Town
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand)
L'Uomo nero (Italy)
We Are What We Are (Mexico)
Websidestory (Romania)
Wenecja (Poland)
The Wild Hunt (Canada)
Wszystko co kocham (Poland)
Y'en aura pas de facile (Canada)

Weak shorts:

7.57 am-pm (France)
L'Amour à trois (France)
Cabossés (France)
Catherine (Canada)
Cheveu (France)
Climax (France)
Dolorès (Canada)
File Under Miscellaneous (Canada)
First Aid (Israel)
Les Fleurs de l'age (Canada)
Le Fleuve à droite (Canada)
The Gold Mine (Mexico)
Impossible (Canada)
Jonathan et Gabrielle (Canada)
Kill Brass
Marius Borodine (Canada)
Mokhtar (Morocco)
Out Of Zinc
Le Perfectionniste (Canada)
Les Poissons (Canada)
Poudre (Canada)
Reign Of Terror (Canada)
Summer Days Are Longer (Mexico)
That Thing You Drew

Weak cartoons:

Le Cirque (Canada)
Day And Night
Lipsett Diaries (Canada)
Strips (Canada)
La Tranchée (Canada)
La Traversée (Canada)

Clear choice

2010-11-25T12:34:00.003+01:00

Anti-immigration hysteria isn't confined to the United States. In fact, in Europe it has a much uglier, almost Nazi-like face. Here is a twin campaign poster from an anti-immigration referendum in Switzerland, promoted by the largest party in the Swiss parliament. Curiously, Barack Obama, so eager to denounce Arizona's very mild and reasonable new law, hasn't commented on this campaign yet.

The REAL reason Republicans won

2010-11-05T01:37:00.006+01:00

There are many theories as to why the GOP won this election. Bad economy, Obamacare, Democrats being too liberal, etc. etc. But I bet the real reason is that leftist women are so goddam ugly. With female Democratic candidates who could "make the children scream and babys cry", and with female Republican candidates who could compete in Miss Universe pageants (and win), no wonder the voters gave the GOP its greatest mid-term victory since 1946.

You want evidence? I've got evidence!

Just compare Democratic "California Girls" (ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Barbara "please-call-me-an-ugly-Senator" Boxer), Patty "uglier-than-tennis shoes" Murray, ex-Rep. Carol Shea-Porter from New Hampshire, and defeated gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink from Florida, with bewitching Christine O'Donnell, foxy new Rep. Kristi Noem from South Dakota, new South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, Michele Bachmann and their Queen Bee/Mamma Grizzly, Sarah Palin.

Elephant Stampede

2010-11-03T18:29:00.002+01:00

Few incumbent Democratic donkeys have survived the GOP elephant stampede in this mid-term election. Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer... and that's about it. Paramedic are trying hard to revive Patty Murray, who probably will survive the stampede as well. The only Republicans who lost their seats were those who voted for Obamacare, like Joseph Cao of Louisiana.

So this was a great night for the GOP. But not such a great night for the Tea Party. Many of their most colorful candidates, like Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell, Sharron "black athletic jerseys are un-Christian" Angle, John "Minimum wage is an archaic system that has never worked" Raese of West Virginia, Joe "let's handcuff a journalist" Miller of Alaska, Linda "World Wrestling Entertainment" McMahon of Connecticut and Ken "Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I'm on the camera?" Buck of Colorado, were defeated.

Among the sweetest GOP victories: Democrat Alan Grayson (who said "these are people who were wearing sheets over their heads 25 years ago" about the participants at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally) was defeated by Republican Daniel Webster, whom he called "Taliban Dan".

But unfortunately, it looks like Democrat Raul "please boycott my state" Grijalva of Arizona will survive his re-election bid.

Assclown Award winner - Hugo Chavez

2010-10-11T15:17:00.004+02:00

Our greetings and solidarity go to the government of the People's Republic of China, Viva China! And its sovereignty, its independence and its greatness.

Conveniently forgetting that China has a capitalist economy now, Hugo Chavez proves once again that he is an asslicking supporter of totalitarian oppression and dictatorship, by denouncing this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. The sooner the Venezuelan people get rid of this degenerate monster the better. Pinochet, where are you when you're needed the most ?

So, for siding with the oppressors against the oppressed, Chavez deservedly receives

A Hot Piece Of Ass quits her job

2010-08-10T22:54:00.014+02:00

Farmville? What's wrong with Farmville? And did her boss call her a HPOA or a HOPA? And what's HOPA anyway? Hematology Oncology Pharmacy Association? A town in the Artvin province in Turkey ? Maybe it was all just a misunderstanding ?

Anyway, her story is all over the Internet (here and on Slate's XX factor), but nobody seems to know her name or the name of the company where she used to work. So I'll be monitoring snopes.com to find out if it isn't some kind of a hoax...

UPDATE: 2010-08-12

Indeed, it was a hoax. But it's curious how the most rabid feminists fell for it hook, line and sinker. Slate's Dahlia Lithwick: "it’s incredibly honest and funny and probably resonates with every one of us who ever overheard similarly grotesque remarks (“nice rack”) in the workplace and did nothing about it." Just shows how backward and old-fashioned those feminists are. The main reason I was suspicious from the get-go was that it was hard for me to believe that such a mild (and actually flattering) remark could so grossly offend a young girl TODAY. If my boss called me a "Hot Piece Of Ass", I would give him a blowjob.

Rape by deception

2010-07-21T04:42:00.004+02:00

UPDATE-2010-09-07:

This case ultimately turned out to be very different than it was first reported. Allegedly, this was real rape, with the mentally-disturbed Jewish girl found naked after being raped by an Arab man. But because the victim wasn't a reliable witness, the persecution offered a plea bargain to the accused. More here.

ORIGINAL STORY:

This story is VERY disturbing:

An Israeli man of Arab origin has been convicted of rape after having consensual sex with a woman who had believed him to be a fellow Jew.

Sabbar Kashur, 30, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday after the court ruled that he was guilty of rape by deception. According to the complaint filed by the woman with the Jerusalem district court, the two met in downtown Jerusalem in September 2008 where Kashur, an Arab from East Jerusalem, introduced himself as a Jewish bachelor seeking a serious relationship. The two then had consensual sex in a nearby building before Kashur left.

When she later found out that he was not Jewish but an Arab, she filed a criminal complaint for rape and indecent assault.

More here.

It seems like Israel is slowly moving away from being a liberal democracy. This is a kind of story one would expect to read about Iran or Saudi Arabia.

This is real racism.

Hero of the Hour

2010-07-12T04:58:00.003+02:00

His name is Paul. He is an octopuss. And he has never made a wrong prediction in this year's World Cup games.

Paul is a resident of the Sea Life Aquarium Center in Oberhausen. Oberhausen is in Germany, so Paul's correct prediction that Germany would lose to Spain in the semi-finals almost cost him his life, as he's received numerous death threats from Teutonic football fans threatening to serve him with Bratwurst and Sauerkraut. And his final prediction, that Spain would win against the Netherlands, while 100%correct, also led to culinary suggestions that he should be served with slices of Gouda cheese.

But in Spain, Paul is a hero. So there is no way he will ever end up in a paella dish.

Elephant in the room

2010-06-11T19:33:00.006+02:00

Who the hell is Alvin Greene ?

That's the question all journalists are asking themselves after the unexpected victory of Alvin Greene in South Carolina's Democratic primary for the US Senate. Of course, the race itself was quite insignificant, because a Democrat's chances of winning in November in South Carolina are non-existent. But still, how could Vic Rawl, a former judge who has served four terms in the state legislature, lose against Alvin, an unemployed bum facing felony obscenity charges for showing pornography to a minor, who was dishonorably discharged from the Army, who has only $114 in his campaign bank account, and who never gave a single speech during his campaign ?

In a Slate article, there is this hilariously obtuse (and clueless) "elephant in the room" hypothesis:

The best theories about Greene's victory suggest that voters picked him because he was listed first alphabetically, and that Republicans took advantage of the state's open primary system and came out en masse to vote for him.

Maybe. Or maybe Alvin won for another reason. 60 % of South Carolina's Democrats are black. Alvin won the primary with 60% of the vote. Now, look at the photos below. Can you guess which one is Alvin and which one is Vic Rawl ?

Slippery slope

2010-05-27T16:29:00.003+02:00

The French cabinet has just approved a draft law to ban the Muslim full-face veil from public spaces.

I am against it, because under such a drastic ban, the two women below could also be arrested. It's a dangerous slippery slope.

Besides, there is nothing wrong with covering one's face. It's the covering of tits, buttocks and vaginas that should be outlawed.

Photo of the Day - 2010-05-24

2010-05-24T12:35:00.005+02:00

Venus Williams caused quite a stir at the French Open at Roland Garros on Sunday with a racy new dress. Looking more like a cancan dancer than a tennis player, she definitely spiced up the proceedings. More here.

Shocking Religions

2010-05-22T16:08:00.004+02:00

Ren has challenged me to ridicule other religions beside Islam. So, not to be accused of favoritism, I decided to take on Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism. With Hinduism, it was really like shooting fish in a barrel - there are pornographic sculptures showing hardcore copulation on many Hindu temples. Christianity was easy too - there have been religious paintings of topless Virgin Mary and naked sinners sodomized by devils since the Middle Ages. Judaism was a bigger challenge, but to be provocative all I had to do was use erotic images from "Schindler's List". As for the Buddhists, good luck trying to offend them. I think it's against their religion to be shocked.

Sonia Belle, "Naked Virgin Mary" (2010)

Sonia Belle, "Sexy Buddha" (2010)

Sonia Belle, "Kama Sutra" (2010)

Sonia Belle, "Spielberg's Buns In The Oven" (2010)

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

2010-05-20T21:15:00.002+02:00

May 20 has been declared "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day", so I am doing my part. Like Pagan, I can't really draw, but I can certainly do a nice collage. This one is called "Mohammed and His Harem".

Sonia Belle, "Mohammed and His Harem" (2010)

Nude subway riders in London

2010-05-18T15:07:00.004+02:00

This was an unexpected sight. Especially in London. London, England. "No sex, we're British", England.

Four naked men and women were seen riding the London subway (known over there as The Underground or The Tube), attracting gasps from stunned fellow commuters. Carrying handbags or briefcases to cover their genitals, the nudes travelled on escalators and rode in trains as though their lack of suitable attire was completely normal.

Of course, this was just a publicity stunt, a rather unorthodox promotion of a new TV series "The Naked Office".

Still, it could be a beginning.

More here.

Charlotte Lewis accuses Roman Polanski of rape

2010-05-15T22:18:00.006+02:00

It would have been a very serious accusation in any case (Charlotte Lewis claims to have been only 16 at the time), but under present circumstances (Polanski under house arrest in Switzerland awaiting deportation to United States), this is simply devastating.

Having, just barely, escaped the Nazis during the Holocaust and a band of hippie psychopaths and a publicity-seeking judge in Los Angeles, Polanski might finally meet his match. Move over, Adolf Eichmann, Charles Manson and Laurence Rittenband - what you weren't able to achieve, an erotic actress from Hollywood will finally accomplish for you.

Charlotte Lewis has only appeared in two mainstream movies - Romanski's "Pirates" (1986) and Eddie Murphy's "The Golden Child" (1986). These films were so incredibly bad (although "The Golden Child" actually made a lot of money), that poor Lewis found herself making only low-budget, softcore erotic films from then on. She posed nude in Playboy. But as she became old (which, in erotic film years, usually means mid-30's), her career was over. Her last film was in 2003, when she was 36.

Her erotic filmography isn't particularly memorable. Ever heard of 1988's "Dial Help" (first photo), 1992's "Storyville" (second photo), 1992's "Sketch Artist" (third photo), 1993's "Excessive Force" (fourth photo) or 1994's "Men Of War" (fifth photo) ? Neither did I.

Charlotte Lewis has made many bizarre statements in the past. In 1987, as her mainstream Hollywood career flopped and she was preparing her softcore gig, she proudly declared: "I need someone who's going to strip me down and say, 'Do it!' I've never done nude scenes, and I can't wait. I can't wait to be abused in a film. Maybe it's a secret fantasy burning inside of me."

Now, she claims that Polanski abused her in real life long before she was "abused in a film". Is she lying ? Probably not. Polanski is a sexual predator. And he certainly should pay for his actions. Still, I am unable to hate him for it. And I am unable to have sympathy for his accusers and prosecutors.

English math

2010-05-11T23:35:00.006+02:00

However you count it, it never adds up.

In the last British election, no party won an outright majority. The Tories (blue) won the most seats, 306, but they need at least 326 to actually govern. The Labour Party (red) was next, with 258 seats and for a while, they were negotating with the third place Liberal Democrats (orange) to form a coalition.

The problem is that the Liberal Democrats only won 57 seats, so even adding their seats to Labour's 258 seats still leaves them with only 315 seats, well short of a majority.

So who is hogging the other seats ?

All kinds of weird fringe parties. The Irish Protestant nationalists (light red) have 8 seats. The Irish protestant moderates have 1 seat. Usually, Irish Protestants support the Tories, but 306 + 8 + 1 is still short of 326. Then come Scottish nationalists, with 6 seats, who usually support the Labour Party. However, 315 + 6 is only 321.

After that, we are well into terrorist (dark green) lands, with Sinn Feinn's 5 seats. Those Irish Catholic nationalists are not considered, to put it as delicately as possible, as likely coalition partners.

Then there is a party called Social Democratic & Labour Party (light green), with 3 seats. As their name indicates, they are already a coalition between the two parties, but only in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, 321 plus 3 is still short of the magic number.

The Greens have 1 seat, bringing the leftist coalition to a total of 325 - still coming up short of a majority.

Finally we get Plaid Cymru (green) - Welsh nationalists with 3 seats. Only with their support can a leftist Labour-Liberal Democrat-Scottish National Party-Social Democratic & Labour Party-Green-Plaid Cymru Coalition actually get a real majority.

But of course, there is a much simpler alternative. A Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition has 363 seats.

But this is England. Nothing is simple for these people.

Photo of the Day - 2010-04-18

2010-04-18T18:20:00.003+02:00

No, this is not a poster for a horror movie, but a radar image of the three craters of Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano in Iceland responsible for the ash cloud hanging over most of Europe. More here.

The Katyn Curse

2010-04-10T19:20:00.008+02:00

Polish President Lech Kaczynski has died in a plane crash in Russia today. While this event, being investigated personally by the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, might yet turn out to be a simple accident, it is highly curious and for reasons that have nothing to do with present-day relations between Poland and Russia.

Since 1943, three Polish supreme leaders have died tragically while in office.

All three died abroad.

And all three died shortly after a major international controversy surrounding the 1940 Katyn massacre.

First, General Wladyslaw Sikorski died in a plane crash in Gibraltar in 1943, shortly after the Germans discovered the Katyn graves and accused Stalin of this atrocity. According to historians, Sikorski was carrying secrets documents related to the Katyn massacre while his plane went down. To this day, the exact cause of the crash is unknown and various conspiracy theories abound, many related to Katyn.

Then, in 1956, Polish Communist leader Boleslaw Bierut suddenly died in Moscow, immediately after Nikita Khruschev's famous denounciation of the Stalinist crimes at the Communist Party Congress. Those crimes included the Katyn massacre. To this day, the exact circumstances of Bierut's mysterious death are unknown and many conspiracy theories abound, some related to Katyn. Back then, the Soviets were falsely blaming the Nazis for the massacre and it's quite possible that Bierut had a sudden heart attack upon learning the truth.

And finally, in 2010, Polish president dies in Russia while travelling to Katyn for the 70th anniversary of the massacre, following a long controversy regarding some important Katyn documents (the so-called "Belarus list") that Polish historians are looking for, and that Putin promised to find, but didn't.

Coincidences ?

In United States, seven presidents between 1840 and 1963 have been victims of the Tecumseh's Curse: if elected in a year ending with a zero (1840, 1860, 1880, 1900, 1920, 1940 and 1960), they all died while in office. And significantly, only one US president who was elected in a year NOT ending with a zero, has ever died while in office.

In Poland, the supreme leaders seem to be victims of the Katyn Curse. By another strange coincidence, the last Polish president-in-exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, also died on Kaczynski's plane in Russia.

Heroine of the Hour - Constance McMillen

2010-03-27T14:52:00.003+01:00

All she wanted was to bring her girlfriend to the prom. The school board could have simply refused her request. But instead, they decided to cancel the entire prom, turning her into a pariah in her small Mississippi town.

Parents at her school have organized a private "ball" for the same night that prom was intended. Constance McMillen wasn't invited.

A Fräulein is disgusted by me

2010-03-21T20:51:00.012+01:00

I recently came across this fascinating German blogger, known as Evil Style Queen or The Editrix, who comments on the Beak Speak's blog. In fact, I noticed her when she wrote this about me:

Beak, this is not about approving or disapproving of Sonia. I strongly disapprove of her way of life, in fact, I am disgusted by it. But I keep this outlook to myself because it has nothing to do with what we are discussing here. Should I ever want not to be seen in her company, I'd stay away and not discuss it here out of respect for you.

What a sweet little Fräulein, I thought.

So I decided to dig a bit deeper into her background. One of her favorite musical composition is "Panzerlied", a Nazi military march used by Wehrmacht. Curious, but hardly conclusive. After all, one can certainly love "The International" as a song without being a Communist.

More interesting is this little nugget of wisdom which she addressed to Beak, criticizing him for refusing to censor a comment:

You are not liberal, but a weakling if you allow that.

Ouch! It certainly would have been easier to suppress blog comments if Herr Goebbels was in charge of the Internet. And then there is this charming little post about Nazi generals Guderian, Von Rundstedt and Rommel (complete with highly flattering photographs). Needless to say, our darling Fräulein never disapproves of their way of life, never says that she is disgusted by them, and doesn't mind to be seen in their company.

And then there is this denounciation of an inter-racial romance.

You probably think you know where this is all going. Well, you're wrong. Our Fräulein isn't a Nazi at all, despite her questionable tastes in music, morality and men in Nazi uniforms. Her politics are generally anti-totalitarian and she is on the right side of most issues, and not only about Iran, but even about the Polanski scandal. Browsing through her posts, I wasn't able to find a single political issue on which I disagreed with her, and believe me, I was trying very hard.

You can't imagine how I hate to be fair to this woman who holds me in such a contempt and who is disgusted by my "way of life". I would much prefer to denounce her as a Nazi sympatizer, but I simply can't.

Damn it.

P.S. I am not sure what in my "way of life", our charming Fräulein finds so "disgusting", but it could be one of the following:

Being "disgusted" by nudism, lesbianism or hardcore sex is narrow-minded, homophobic and silly. But it's not pro-Nazi, even if our Fräulein loves to listen to "Panzerlied"....

Anonymous Prude

2010-03-21T13:34:00.004+01:00

Here's what a certain anonymous commenter recently wrote on the Beak Speak blog:

Anonymous said...
Speaking of Western values as which we want to see them. Have you actually looked at what Sonia is wearing on her avatar? It's not green, that's for sure. I can actually see why the strict Islamists could have a problem with women like her. It's the burka vs. nude all the time, Garden of Eden style. What a blog she has too! Take a look at her favorite picture, if you dare. Beak, are you sure you want to advertise for that? I mean, it's totally up to you, for sure, you being the host and all.

8:38:00 PM

And here's how Beak responded to our Anonymous Prude:

beakerkin said...
Anon

Sonia is brilliant and vexes communist and jihadists of all types. Never let her interests on film distract you from her depth. You can find a great interview with her here. You can also see her debate the Marxist Duck on film. She has a range of interests from film, architecture, politics and has a caustic wit. She destroys commies on their turf, but they are too stunned to figure it out. I guess when we deal with commies she is the sunshine and I am the wind. A little sunshine sends the Bolshevik roaches running for "ahem" cover.

This is a very nice defence, Beak, and I am very grateful for it. However, you didn't really responded to the Anonymous Prude's concerns. She (I suspect it's a "she") didn't accuse me of Communist sympaties. Her comment reflects her unease about my nudist lifestyle, and Beak's response doesn't really address that. So I will have to respond to the Anonymous Prude myself:

Dear Anonymous Prude:

You're not the first person to freak out after finding out that I don't approve of people wearing clothes. But despite my complete and utter disgust with all human beings who cover their bodies with textiles, I still tolerate their comments on my blog. Therefore, I expect the same courtesy in return.

The habit of wearing clothes is probably the most bizarre of all human excentricities. No other living creature in nature has ever come up with such an insane idea. Of course, there are a few extreme circumstances (such as a trip to Greenland or Alaska) under which covering one's body might be justified. But many people cover their bodies even on tropical beaches and inside well-heated appartments. It's total madness ! Why on Earth would anybody do that ?

This bizarre brain disease even compels some people to completely cover their bodies in burkas. At least such extreme behavior draws condemnation from most people. But less extreme forms of clothing draw little condemnation. People usually tolerate such awful perversities as pants, skirts, shirts, bras and panties. Total insanity !

So go cover yourself in your burka, dear Anonymous Prude. Or seek help. You suffer from a horrible disease. But it's a curable disease. Just say no to clothes. Millions of people do.

Iraqi elections - Maliki in dead heat with Allawi

2010-03-17T21:03:00.007+01:00

The final results aren't in yet, but so far, the race is very tight between current Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition (dominated by his Shiite Dawa Party) and former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Al-Iraqiyya coalition (which includes both Sunni and Shiite parties). Maliki is winning most of the Shiite South (including Baghdad, Basra, Karbala and Najaf), while Allawi is carrying not only the Sunni triangle, but also Mosul.

The Shiite-only Iraqi National Alliance (which includes pro-Iranian radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress and Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Badr militia) seem to have lost rather badly, only winning in three small, rural provinces in the South. The Kurdistani Alliance (which includes current Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party) has also performed below expectations, losing many votes to an upstart Kurdish Gorran Movement for Change, led by Nawshirwan Mustafa.

Maliki's State of Law provinces are in green
Allawi's Al-Iraqiyya provinces are in blue
Iraqi National Alliance provinces are in violet
Kurdistani Alliance provinces are in red

For the latest news, click here.

2009 - Best Nude Actress Awards

2010-03-04T01:15:00.007+01:00

Forget the Oscars. The most important prizes are The Best Nude Actress Awards. Ten actresses have been nominated, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Penelope Cruz, Amy Smart, Miss-USA-1991-turned-porn-actress Kelli McCarthy and porn-actress-turned-legit-actress Sasha Grey.

This year, nobody cares about the Oscars anyway, because they are EXTREMELY predictable. If "The Hurt Locker" doesn't win best picture and best director, and if Sandra Bullock ("The Blind Side"), Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart"), Mo'Nique ("Precious") and Christopher Waltz ("Inglourious Basterds") fail to win in the acting categories, I will be very, very surprised. And I won't be the only one. Of course, there might be an upset in the "best costume design" category, but that's about it.

But NOBODY can predict who will win this year's BNA Awards. So here are the nominees:

Malin Ackerman, "Watchmen"

Penelope Cruz, "Broken Embraces"

Charlotte Gainsbourg, "Antichrist"

Heather Graham, "Hangover"

Sasha Grey, "The Girlfriend Experience"

Amy Landecker, "A Serious Man"

Kelli McCarthy, "Faithless"

Gwyneth Paltrow, "Two Lovers"

Betsy Rue, "My Bloody Valentine 3D"

Amy Smart, "Crank: High Voltage"

Top 10 Films of 2009

2010-01-22T03:19:00.040+01:00

Sasha Grey almost covers her ass...ets for PETA

2010-01-16T15:50:00.004+01:00

Usually, celebrities strip for PETA. But porn superstar Sasha Grey (of "Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge", "Babysitters", and especially "Fuck Slaves" fame, though best known to mainstream audience for Steven Soderbergh's arthouse flick "The Girlfriend Experience"), actually had to partially cover her ass...ets to appear on a PETA's poster.

Quotes of the Day - 10/01/16

2010-01-16T06:09:00.002+01:00

"When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I’m sayin’?"

Left-wing crank Danny Glover, refering to the earthquake in Haiti.

"They got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.' True story. And so the devil said, 'Ok it’s a deal.' And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got something themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another"

Right-wing crank Pat Robertson, offering his explanation of the earthquake.

Photos of the Day - 10/01/13

2010-01-13T16:27:00.003+01:00

The Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, before and after...

Oscar snubs

2010-01-07T11:13:00.001+01:00

Peter Knegt on IndieWire has compiled the list of The 50 Most Despicable Oscar Snubs of the 2000s:

50: Tina Fey for best adapted screenplay (Mean Girls, 2004)

49: Persepolis for best foreign language film (Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, 2007)

48: Hugh Grant and Toni Collette for best actor and supporting actress (About a Boy, 2002)

47: Emily Blunt for best supporting actress (The Devil Wears Prada, 2006)

46: Naomi Watts for best actress (Mulholland Drive and King Kong, 2001 & 2005)

45: Hope Davis for best supporting actress (American Splendor, 2003)

44: Gomorrah for best foreign language film (Matteo Garrone, 2008)

43: Andy Serkis for best supporting actor (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 2002)

42: Adaptation for best picture (Spike Jonze, 2002)

41: Christian Bale for best actor (American Psycho, 2000)

40: Evan Rachel Wood for best actress (Thirteen, 2003)

39: Woody Allen for best original screenplay (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 2008)

38: Rosemarie deWitt for best supporting actress (Rachel Getting Married, 2008)

37: Cache and The Piano Teacher for best foreign language film (Michael Haneke, 2001 & 2005)

36: Peter Sarsgaard for best supporting actor (Shattered Glass, 2003)

35: Michelle Williams for best actress (Wendy & Lucy, 2008)

34: Shareeka Epps for best supporting actress (Half Nelson, 2006)

33: Kristin Scott Thomas for best actress (I’ve Loved You So Long, 2008)

32: L’Enfant and Le Fils for best foreign language film (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2002 & 2005)

31: Marlon Wayans and Jennifer Connelly for best supporting actor and actress (Requiem For a Dream, 2000)

30: Mulholland Drive for best picture (David Lynch, 2001)

29: Gillian Anderson for best actress (The House of Mirth, 2000)

28: David O. Russell for best original screenplay (I Heart Huckabees, 2004)

27: United 93 for best picture (Paul Greengrass, 2006)

26: Volver for best foreign language film (Pedro Almodovar, 2006)

25: Steve Buscemi and Scarlett Johansson for best supporting actor and actress (Ghost World, 2000)

24: Alexander Payne for best adapted screenplay (About Schmidt, 2002)

23: John Cameron Mitchell for best actor and director (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, 2001)

22: City of God for best foreign language film (Fernando Meirelles, 2002)

21: David Fincher and Robert Downey Jr for best director and supporting actor (Zodiac, 2006)

20: Sacha Baron Cohen for best actor (Borat, 2006)

19: Ewan McGregor and Baz Luhrmann for best actor and director (Moulin Rouge!, 2001)

18: Julie Delpy for best actress (Before Sunset, 2004)

17: Alfonso Cuarón for best director (Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men, 2002 & 2006)

16: The Dark Knight for best picture (Christopher Nolan, 2008)

15: Jim Carrey for best actor (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004)

14: Catherine O’Hara for best supporting actress (Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration, 2000-2006)

13: Patricia Clarkson, Dennis Quaid and Dennis Haysbert for supporting actor and actress (Far From Heaven, 2002)

12: Almost Famous for best picture (Cameron Crowe, 2000)

11: Charlie Kaufman for best original screenplay (Synecdoche, New York, 2008)

10: David Cronenberg, Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello for best director, actor and supporting actress (A History of Violence, 2005)

9: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days for best foreign language film (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)

8: Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan for best actress and supporting actor (Happy-Go-Lucky, 2009)

7: Bjork for best actress (Dancer in the Dark, 2000)

6: Paul Giamatti for best actor (American Splendor, 2003, and Sideways, 2004)

5: In The Mood For Love for best foreign language film (Wong Kar-Wai, 2001)

4: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for best picture (Michel Gondry, 2004)

3: Uma Thurman for best actress (Kill Bill, Vol. 1 & 2, 2003 & 2004)

2: Todd Haynes for best director (Far From Heaven and I’m Not There, 2002 & 2007)

1: Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and WALL-E for best picture (Andrew Stanton or Brad Bird, 2003-2008)

I would divide that snub list into:

A) Actual (i.e. undeserved) snubs

B) Well-deserved snubs

C) Snubs that are understandable considering what the Oscars actually stand for

D) Snubs that are understandable considering what the Oscars are supposed to stand for

A)

The actual snubs are pretty rare. Yes, Paul Giamatti in "Sideways" was actually snubbed. So was Sally Hawkins in "Happy-Go-Lucky", along with "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" and "City Of God". Those films and those performances were pure Academy Awards material and yet, they failed to get nominated. Go figure.

B)

However, "In The Mood For Love" definitely deserved to be snubbed. It was perhaps the most critically overrated film of the decade, a boring melodrama/slash/soap opera/slash/crap and no wonder that it provoked a backlash from those (quite numerous) Academy members who don't have their heads stuck permanently up their asses.

The same goes for "Synecdoche, New York", which despite a rather original screenplay, doesn't really deserve to be called a "movie", because it is so atrociously and ineptly directed. Notice, by the way, that Peter Knegt doesn't even claim it was snubbed for "best picture" or "best director", only for "best screenplay".

Todd Haynes also deserved his snub for "I’m Not There". True, the Oscars sometimes fall for pretentious crap, but apparently this one was emitting such as atrocious aroma, even Academy voters couldn't stand the smell.

David O. Russell for best original screenplay of "I Heart Huckabees" ? Well, even if the Academy changed its rules and allowed 20 nominations in that particular category, it's still far from certain that this particular script would have made the cut. But at least, in that case, it could have, conceivably, be considered a snub. But not with only 5 scripts in the running.

C) and D)

"Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles", "Ratatouille" and "WALL-E" were animated features. The reason they were not nominated for "best picture" is because another category, "best animated feature", was created especially for them.

Todd Haynes wasn't nominated as best director for "Far From Heaven" because the film was released 40 years too late. In 1962, it would have been hailed as "groundbreaking", "progressive", "daring", "cutting-edge", and maybe even, who knows, "ahead of its time". But in 2002, it was simply dated.

Uma Thurman wasn't nominated as best actress for the "Kill Bill" films because Oscars are rarely bestowed upon kung fu/slash/yakuza/slash/blaxploitation action films, whether directed by Quentin Tarantino or Ringo Lam. Chop socky fare (whether from Hong Kong or from United States) isn't exactly a familiar genre to Academy voters.

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" for best picture ? Yeah, right. The average age of an Academy Awards's voter would have to be at least 50 years lower for this to have any conceivable chance of happening.

Bjork for best actress in "Dancer in the Dark" ? Considering that even Nicole Kidman failed to get a nomination for "Dogville", I think it's pretty naive to think that any actress could ever get an Oscar nomination for playing in a Lars von Trier film. What do you think are Charlotte Gainsbourgh's chances this year for "Antichrist" ?

If Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" was snubbed, then what about Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises", which also wasn't nominated for best picture? That's like complaining that Orson Welles didn't win an Oscar for "Othello" and forgetting that he also didn't win for "Citizen Kane"...

Think about it, Sacha Baron Cohen failed to get an Oscar nomination as best actor for "Borat" ! I am sure Academy voters are really embarassed about that one. In 1948 Laurent Olivier won an Oscar for "Hamlet", but in 2006, Sacha Baron Cohen wasn't even nominated for "Borat". Unbelievable!

John Cameron Mitchell as best actor and director for "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" ? In what fucking universe does Peter Knegt live ? This was a film about a drag queen. Academy voters love their gay people when they are clean-cut lawyers, preferably dying of AIDS (remember Tom Hanks in "Philadelphia" ?). Hedwig was a bit too much even for the Academy. A transvestite ? A transsexual transvestite? A transgender transsexual transvestite? And he or she is not dying of AIDS ? Then he or she can forget about an Oscar...

Photo Of The Day - 12/29/09

2009-12-29T16:46:00.002+01:00

Trip to Yucatan

2009-12-25T23:58:00.005+01:00

This December, I visited the Yucatan peninsula. I've already been there 8 years earlier and visited such sites as Chichen Itza, Tulum and Coba. This time, I decided to visit less known Mayan sites as well.

First, I went to Cancun, the most American of Mexico's resorts, as glitzy (and clean) as Miami Beach.

There are actually plenty of Mayan ruins in Cancun, but because they all belong to the latest, Post-Classical phase of that culture, they are quite small and far less impressive than the huge pyramids and palaces of the Classic period. The largest site in Cancun is El Rey. It has a very small pyramid (the photo below has been taken from its top) and a few other, rather insignificant structures.

A slightly larger pyramid can be seen at El Meco, in Cancun's northern periphery. Unfortunately, it cannot be climbed.

The most beautiful Mayan ruin in Cancun is the Templo del Alacran (Scorpion's Temple), located just next to Westin Hotel, on a small hill overlooking the beach.

There are even some small ruins on Cancun's golf courses, like the Pok Ta Pok one.

Just south of Cancun, on the Mayan Riviera coast, there is Xcaret, a kind of Mexican Disneyland, but without any rides. The main attraction is an underground river, where people can swim all the way to the ocean.

There are also many small Mayan ruins in Xcaret.

In order to see some larger Mayan ruins, one has to get out of Cancun and the Mayan Riviera. The most beautiful ruins from the Classical period are located in the Puuc region, just south of Merida, a four-hour drive from Cancun. On the way, I stopped in a small town of Acanceh, where a large Mayan pyramid is located right on a central square, a few yards away from a church. It's a rare sight in Mexico, where ruins are usually located outside urban centers.

Just south of Acanceh is Mayapan, a capital of the Mayan Empire from 1250 until 1440. So these ruins are also from the Post-Classical period, but they are more impressive than the ruins of Cancun and Xcaret, because Mayapan was a much more important city. The photo below (showing a Coracol structure) has been taken from the El Castillo Pyramid (a difficult climb because masonery is quite primitive, but it's worth it). Similar, but larger structures can be seen in Chichen Itza.

Further south of Mayapan is a small village of Mama, with a beautiful colonial church. Just outside of town, I had a flat tire (the roads are awful around that area), but local people were incredibly helpful.

Finally, I got to Uxmal, in the Puuc region. Uxmal was one of the largest Mayan cities during the Terminal Classic Period (700-1000 AD), when many other Mayan cities in Chiapas, Guatemala and Honduras had already been abandoned. Uxmal's architecture is absolutely amazing, much superior to anything that can be seen even in Chichen Itza.

In the evening, there is an impressive "Son et lumière" show.

There are two huge pyramids in Uxmal. The larger, semi-circular one, known as Pyramid of The Magician, cannot be climbed.

But the other one, Gran Piramide, can be climbed quite easily, even though it's much taller than the El Castillo Pyramid in Mayapan. But the masonery during the Classical period was excellent and the steps are still flawless.

Climbing those two pyramids, the Post-Classical one in Mayapan and the Classical one in Uxmal, made me think about one of the greatest mysteries in the history of human civilization - the abandonement of their cities by the Mayas at the end of the Classical period (about 799-1000 AD). Many theories have been proposed, explaining this strange phenomenon, most of them involving environmental destruction, the collapse of the agriculture and climate changes. All those theories have one flaw, however - they might explain why the Maya civilization went into a decline, but they don't explain why the Mayas stopped building anything for almost 200 years, and why they would never again use their Long Count calendar. Those theories also fail to explain the strange coincidence that the collapse of most Mayan cities occured circa 830 AD - the year 10.0.0.0.0 of the Long Count Mayan calendar (the same calendar that will end on December 21, 2012).

The only logical explanation of the Maya collapse is a radical social revolution similar to the one carried out by Pol Pot in Cambodia in the 1970's. Pol Pot also forced all Cambodians to abandon their cities and live in the countryside. He also killed all intellectuals and artists. A similar phenomenon must have occured among the Mayas at the end of the Classical period, explaining why they lost so much of their scientific knowledge and artistic skills.

Not far from Uxmal, there is smaller, but equally beautiful site of Labna. It's most famous for a wonderfully decorated arch.

In Labna, there is also a small palace and El Mirdor, a small pyramid without steps.

A much larger palace can be seen in Sayil.

Not far from Sayil, there is Kabah, most famous for Codz Poop, probably the most beautiful building ever created by the Mayas. Its sculptures are absolutely amazing.

Next to Codz Poop, there is a palace, and a little further, on the other side of the road, a Mayan arch, less decorated than the one in Labna, but much larger.

I left the Puuc region without visiting Xlapak and the Loltun Cave, because I absolutely want to come back and have something new to visit then (I also couldn't find El Mirador in Sayil). But on the way back to Cancun, I decided to visit Aké, located just 10 km from the main highway. It's an interesting site because it has a typial Toltec platform (first photo below) right next to a typical Mayan pyramid (second photo below). So Aké is proof that the Toltec conquest of Yucatan in the 12th century AD wasn't limited to Chichen Itza.

Not far from Aké is Izamal, a beautiful colonial town, most famous for a large monastery and a Mayan pyramid.

Further east, there is Valladolid, another colonial town with a cathedral, a monastery and a beautiful cenote, Zanci.

Back in Cancun, I decided to make a short daytrip to Isla Mujeres. On the southern tip of the island, there is a tiny Mayan temple dedicated to the goddess Ixchel.

Near the center of the island, there are ruins of Hacienda Mundaca.

Posted on December 25, 2009. It's 12.19.16.17.6 according to the Mayan Long Count calendar.

Carrie Prejean

2009-05-16T03:38:00.004+02:00

The Carrie Prejean saga is getting weirder every day. Now, Sarah Palin has come to her defense:

What I find so remarkable is that these politically-motivated attacks fail to show that what Carrie and I believe is also what President Obama and Secretary Clinton believe — marriage is between a man and a woman. I respect Carrie for standing strong and staying true to herself.

And meanwhile, Prejean's arch-nemesis Perez Hilton is stepping up his attacks:

Carrie has been neglecting her duties as Miss California and focusing her lying efforts elsewhere. If she is a decent person and a good Christian, the habitual liar, Prejean, will voluntarily turn in her crown immediately and step down as Miss California and the first runner-up in the Miss USA competition!

Personally, I don't agree with Prejean's views on gay marriage. But this is ridiculous. Perez Hilton is completely insane. What year does he think it is ? 1983 ? That was the year Vanessa Williams lost her Miss America title because of nude photos. But this is 2009 - the year a conservative Republican governor is defending a topless beauty queen, while a gay celebrity gossip columnist is shocked and offended by her nudity.

From Africa With Love

2009-05-13T04:39:00.005+02:00

Since Mexico is off-limits right now, a trip to Africa is more than welcomed...

How To Catch Swine Fever

2009-05-01T20:43:00.002+02:00

"Only in the Muslim World" headline

2009-05-01T17:42:00.005+02:00

"Saudi Girl, 8, Divorces 50-Year-Old Husband"

More here. If this had happened anywhere else, the headline would read: "8-year-old girl freed from the clutches of a 50-year-old pedophile"...

Islam is such a wonderful religion...

Free Darfur Five!

2009-04-27T21:29:00.004+02:00

Five Democratic members of Congress have been arrested for crossing a police line in front of the Sudanese embassy in Washington D.C., during a demonstration against genocide in Darfur: civil rights movement giant John Lewis of Georgia (first photo), Donna Edwards of Maryland (second photo), Jim McGovern of Massachussetts (third photo), Lynn Woolsey of California (fourth photo), as well as Keith Ellison of Minnesota (last photo), the first Muslim Congressman.

Two questions: How come Sudan is still allowed to have an embassy in Washington D.C. ? And why only Democratic members of Congress are protesting the genocide in Darfur ?

Louisiana and Texas are doing fine

2009-04-27T04:59:00.004+02:00

Louisiana (led by conservative Republican governor Bobby Jindal) is the only state in the Union whose economy is booming despite the recession, posting consistent job gains (in blue). Some other Republican-led states, like Texas and Alaska, have also escaped the worst of the recession. The worst hit states (in red) are all heavily Democratic (or RINO).

Assclown Award winner - Janeane Garofalo

2009-04-17T19:51:00.000+02:00

It's not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea party was about. They don't know their history at all. It's about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up and is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. There is no way around that.

Crackpot actress Janeane Garofalo on MSNBC's "The Countdown" with Keith Olbermann, proving once again that some leftists are simply incapable of debating ideological issues. So, for descending into the gutter (and also for never appearing naked onscreen, forcing me to post this lame photoshop fake), Garofalo deservedly gets

Mr Radiation - Tsutomu Yamaguchi

2009-04-16T21:27:00.004+02:00

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when an atom bomb was dropped on the city. He survived the attack despite serious burns to his upper body and escaped to his hometown of Nagasaki just in time for the second atomic bomb to be dropped there on August 9. But that bomb didn't kill him neither, although by that time he was probably getting a bit paranoid.... I don't know where he is right now, but I wouldn't go there myself... And quite remarkably, despite that double radiation exposure, Tsutomu Yamaguchi is still alive and well at 93.

More here.

Why We Fight

2009-04-04T00:44:00.003+02:00

This video was filmed recently in the Swat Valley in Pakistan, a Taliban stronghold, where Muslim fundamentalists have imposed Sharia law. The flogging of a 17-year-old girl took place in a village of Kabal. Some reports claim that the girl was punished for stepping out of her house without being escorted by a male family member. But according to other reports, she was flogged because she refused the sexual advances of a local Taliban commander. Either way, it's savagery. More here.

Foreign idealists in Venezuela

2009-03-31T14:04:00.008+02:00

Beak is often encouraging Ren to immigrate to Venezuela. Ren isn't very enthusiastic about the idea, but there are other Western leftists who have actually moved to Hugo's "revolutionary paradise" (photo). There is even a fascinating article in Slate about them. Key quotes:

Caracas is a dirty, run-down, violent city where tourism is almost nonexistent—Buenos Aires' evil twin—and yet a vital cadre of expats has sprung up there. Most are dedicated to building Chávez's Bolivarian revolution.

They tend to live humbly, many of them in illegally built, ramshackle apartments called ranchitos, where, judging from the holes in the ceiling, every heavy rainfall puts their laptops and video cameras in mortal danger. Plenty have suffered muggings.

He acknowledged that these expat chavistas would never have as much at stake as the Venezuelans involved in the process, because if things turned sour, they could always leave. "You've always got the ticket out," he said

Her biggest sacrifice came when her involvement in the revolution began to cause friction with her Venezuelan husband and his family. They eventually divorced. "He gave me an ultimatum," she said: "Him and life in New York or the revolution. I chose the revolution. It's my life, it's my principles and values and ideals, my dreams. It's too bad. He felt threatened by it. I'm not sorry—it's sad, but those things happen. They make you stronger. They reinforce your choice, because it's the path that's right for you."

Those foreign idealists are a bit like "canaries in a coalmine". As long as they live happily in Caracas, it means that the Chavez revolution is still in its "Trotskist" and "internationalist" phase. But the day they will start to disappear, and to be accused of being "CIA spies", it will mean that Hugo's revolution is entering its inevitable next stage, the Stalinist one...

And it won't be pretty.

Bond girl is a “traitor” according to Russian Communists

2009-03-14T15:40:00.007+01:00

Olga Kurylenko, the star of "Quantum of Solace" and "Hitman" has received this charming letter from the Russian Communist Party:

"In the name of all communists we appeal to you, Olga Kurylenko, wanton daughter of unclean Ukraine and deserter of the Slavic world. The Soviet Union educated you, cared for you, and brought you up for free, but no one suspected that you would commit this act of intellectual and moral betrayal (...) Your peers are engaged in struggles against NATO and you lounge around on the Cote d'Azur. How could you desert your homeland...? Do you really want Crimean girls to be raped by cruel and stupid American marines? (...) Do you know what they did with women who welcomed the occupiers in the Great Patriotic War? Where is your patriotism?".

This letter was written because Kurylenko has starred in a James Bond movie. Russian Communists are apparently unaware that James Bond is a fictional character, because the letter actually refers to him as "the killer of hundreds of Soviet people and their allies".

However, the letter's bizarre reference to "Crimean girls" being raped by foreign soldiers is quite interesting in light of this recent announcement:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has proposed to Russia using a Venezuelan island for hosting of Russian long-range aviation, a top-ranking Russian Air Force official said Saturday. "There is such a proposal on the part of the Venezuelan president. Chavez proposed to us a whole island with an airfield that we can use for basing of strategic bombers," said Maj.-Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, the chief of the long-range aviation staff.

Personally, I am not surprised. Obviously, Hugo Chavez prefers to submit to a White Man (in this case, Vladimir Putin), rather than to someone like Barack Obama. Chavez seems perfectly happy to welcome Russian soldiers (who are all white, unlike American soldiers) to rape Venezuelan women. But what about other Venezuelans ? Where is their patriotism?

United States is regaining its dominance as the largest repository of wealth

2009-03-12T12:29:00.004+01:00

Despite the recession (or, rather, because of it) United States is regaining its dominance as the largest repository of wealth on the planet. Americans now account for 44 % of the world's top fortunes, up sharply from only 37 % a year ago. True, US now has 110 fewer billionaires than a year ago, but other countries (and particularly Europe, Russia and India) have experienced even sharper declines.

According to this article, "Twelve months ago Moscow overtook New York as the billionaire capital of the world, with 74 tycoons to New York's 71. Today there are 27 in Moscow and 55 in New York". In Asia, while both India and China were hit by the recession, India was hit more: "29 Indians lost their billionaire status entirely as India's stock market tumbled 44 per cent in the past year and the Indian rupee depreciated 18 per cent against the dollar. It is no longer the top spot in Asia for billionaires, ceding that title to China, which has 28."

And while 656 billionaires lost money in the past year, 44 added to their fortunes. They include US investor John Paulson, who predicted the crash, and Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte (founder of Cirque du Soleil) who managed to cash out at the very last moment.

Full list of all billionaires.

Watchmen (2009) ***

2009-03-09T21:22:00.001+01:00

Click on the title for my review of the film.

Equal pay for women: Poland is better than Holland

2009-03-05T17:24:00.003+01:00

The European Union has just published an interesting set of statistics, comparing wage gap between men and women in all European countries. The real surprise is that the most Catholic countries in Europe, traditionally considered as "backward", such as Poland, Italy and Malta, have the SMALLEST gap (a statistically insignificant 4.4 % in "macho" Italy and a tiny 7.5 % in Poland), while the allegedly more "progressive" and "feminist" countries, such as Holland, United Kingdom and Germany, find themselves with the LARGEST gaps (in Holland men are paid 23.6% more than women). Even Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Denmark have pay gaps that are larger than the EU average of 17.4 %.

This is not an East-West divide (Estonia is the worst country in Europe with a 30.3 % gap). Rather, the results seem determined by religion: the seven countries with the smallest gaps are all Roman Catholic, followed by Eastern Orthodox ones, while the Protestant nations are among the worst offenders. Below is the full graph. If you have troubles identifying different countries codes (not everybody knows that SI is for Slovenia, and SK is for Slovakia), click here.

Che (2008) **

2009-02-28T14:06:00.003+01:00

It's an uneven and bewildering film. The first part, "The Argentine", describing the Cuban Revolution, is boring, slow-moving, devoid of any tension, conventionally directed, and further weakened by unnecessary flash-forwards to Che's speech at the United Nations in 1964, where he failed to say anything even remotely memorable, only repeating the same old leftist talking points. (Not a mention, however, is made of Che's great speech in Algiers in 1965, where he condemned the Soviet Union and its policies). Also, the first part was shot in Puerto Rico instead of Cuba, making the climactic battle of Santa Clara completely preposterous. As result, "Che: Part One" is simply a conventional piece of Communist propaganda, identical to countless Soviet films about revolutionary heroes and far less innovative than most Cuban films on the same subject. By contrast, the second part, "Guerrilla", describing Che's disastrous Bolivian campaign, is actually quite good - brilliantly directed, tense, often very exciting, beautifully shot, and most importantly, filmed in exactly the same places in Bolivia where Che used to operate. There is also another reason why both parts are so different - the Cuban episode was based on Che's official memoirs that he had plenty of time to re-edit after the Revolution, eliminating all the darker aspects of the struggle, and selectively showing only the most positive moments. By contrast, the Bolivian campaign was based on Che's unedited notes that were found when he was captured. And those notes honestly and vividly describe the life of a guerilla as it really was - ugly, unromantic and pathetic. And even more remarkable is the fact that this pro-Communist film was made by a capitalist American filmmaker during the presidency of George W. Bush, directly contradicting Che's misconceptions about the United States.

"Che: Part One - The Argentine" *
"Che: Part Two - Guerilla" ***

Best Oscar Quotes

2009-02-23T15:27:00.002+01:00

"You commie homo-loving sons of guns."

Sean Penn, honestly explaining how he won an otherwise well-deserved Best Actor Oscar for "Milk" over an even more-deserving (but Bush-praising) Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler".

"In The Reader, Kate, who is English, played a German - nominated. In Tropic Thunder, Robert Downey Jr., who is American, played an Australian playing an African-American - nominated. Whereas me, an Australian, who played an Australian in a movie called Australia - hosting."

Hugh Jackman

White House: Obama Opposes Fairness Doctrine

2009-02-19T15:46:00.002+01:00

President Obama opposes any move to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine.

"As the president stated during the campaign, he does not believe the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated," White House spokesman Ben LaBolt told FOXNews.com.

The debate over the so-called Fairness Doctrine has heated up in recent days as prominent fascist senators have called for the policies to be reinstated. They include Chuck Schumer, Debbie Stabenow, John Kerry, Richard Durbin, Jeff Bingaman and Tom Harkin.

The Fairness Doctrine, imposed while Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini ruled half the world, and abandoned when the Berlin Wall was crumbling, forced radio stations to provide opposing points of views on controversial issues of national importance. Its only practical (and inevitable) effect was that really controversial issues were never discussed on the radio.

Chavez: "Lech Walesa is barred from entering Venezuela"

2009-02-12T13:20:00.003+01:00

Chavez said Tuesday that "Solidarity" founder, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Polish president Lech Walesa is barred from entering Venezuela. He instructed authorities on Tuesday to ensure that Walesa does not enter Venezuela, which is preparing for a Feb. 15 referendum on a proposal to lift term limits for all elected officials. Walesa was invited by anti-Chavez university students.

They already invited Walesa to a pro-democracy conference last year, but the former Polish leader did not attend, after being informed that Venezuela could not guarantee his security.

It is not surprising that Chavez doesn't want Walesa in Venezuela. What is surprising is that he can deny him entry to the country. That's a clear sign of totalitarian rule. When Chavez visited United States last year, George W. Bush certainly didn't want him there neither. But under US law, Bush had no power to stop Chavez from entering the country. Chavez has such a power. He is a totalitarian thug.

Source here.

Marine One, Obama Zero

2009-02-10T21:43:00.003+01:00

Chavez is going bankrupt

2009-02-07T16:35:00.002+01:00

Venezuela is running out of money. Chavez is behind on billions in payments to foreign contractors. One contractor has stopped drilling because of delayed payments. Another contractor has suspended operations on an oil rig off Venezuela's Caribbean coast because it was owed $35 million.

Chavez isn't even paying his own allies. The Belgazstroy company of Belarus has stopped work on gas networks in western Venezuela because of nonpayment, according to Venezuela's ambassador to Belarus, Americo Diaz Nunez. He also added that two other Belarusian contracts will be annuled because Venezuela cannot pay its bills.

It becomes a vicious circle. If you don't pay the contractors, they stop working, the production is reduced even further and you have even less money to pay the contractors.

Chavez's socialism is going down the drain. Good riddance.

Read the whole thing here.

If Sarah Palin had said this... - 2009-02-04

2009-02-04T19:32:00.003+01:00

"500 million Americans lose jobs every month" - Nancy Pelosi

"you are both beauty and sweetness"

2009-02-04T04:49:00.003+01:00

I've just received this charmingly "sweet 'n sour" e-mail from a certain "Esam of Los Angeles":

I stumbled onto you blog quite by chance ....

So this is the impression... and I hope that this does not come across as hostile... it is meant to be an honest reflection for you to enjoy..... imagine that you walked into a room and there is a mirror there that you did not expect....

...a very beautiful woman, aged 39 (looks 25) who proudly says she has not worn clothes for some time...

Thats a nice luxury. So she does not need to work or function in the world with any responsbilities. How very nice to be either rich or kept.

She opines on films, which she obviously has the time to see.... but says nothing interesting.... at least that I could find...

She has two children.... I suppose having a naked mamma prance around must be interesting, but at the point when they start to attend school, mamma will need to get dressed.

She has lovers... how understanding for the husband...

Such a lovely life... Its good to be european.... better than living in Gaza I suppose.
Or Wichita Kansas.

My compliments on bring me a smile.... It is wonderful to know that there are women as pampered as you appear to be in the world.... Life has crevices of sweetness, and you are certainly that..... you are both beauty and sweetness.

Adios.... e.

Zimbabwe's inflation in pictures

2009-01-30T23:27:00.003+01:00

Zimbabwe's inflation is the highest in the world. Second highest: Chavez's Venezuela.

And there are naive people who think US economy is in trouble...

Kelli McCarty makes a porno movie

2009-01-29T05:58:00.003+01:00

Kelli McCarty, Miss USA 1991 (last photo), who starred on the NBC daytime soap "Passions", has become a porn star. Her first X-rated film, "Faithless" (first three photos), directed by Paul Thomas, will be released on February 4, 2009.

The Obama Doctrine

2009-01-20T23:12:00.002+01:00

"Our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth (...)

We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace (...)

To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

As presented in his inaugural address, the new Obama Doctrine is clear: the Third World dictators won't be able to use racial politics to cling to power anymore. With Carter, Clinton or Bush, tyrants like Mugabe were always able to present any criticism of their regime as White Power trying to re-colonize Africa all over again. But with Obama, that trick won't work anymore. Obama can call Mugabe what he really is: a traitor to the black race. And remove him from power. By force, if necessary. And the rest of Africa will applaud.

Euro-stereotypes

2009-01-17T04:08:00.011+01:00

There is quite a controversy in Europe over this little piece of work, created by controversial Czech artist David Černý to mark the occasion of the Czech presidency of Europe. The piece, called Entropa, resembles an unassembled model kit containing pieces in the shapes of the 27 member states of the EU. Each piece has a distinctive theme that portrays the stereotypes which the artist perceived to be the most associated with that country.

Austria, a known opponent of atomic energy, is a green field dominated by nuclear power plant cooling towers

As Forrest Gump would say, Belgium is like a box of chocolates.

Bulgaria is depicted as "Turkish" squat toilets. This is the most controversial piece. The Bulgarian government demanded that the sculpture be taken down before its official launching.

Cyprus is cut in half.

The Czech Republic's own piece is an LED display, which flashes controversial quotations by Czech President Václav Klaus.

Denmark is built of Lego bricks, arranged to ressemble this controversial cartoon.

Estonia is presented with a hammer and sickle-styled power tools, because the country has considered a ban on Communist symbols.

Finland is depicted as a wooden floor with various animals.

France, of course, is on strike. Évidemment.

Germany is a series of interlocking autobahns, arranged in a slighly suspect way... Not enough to be sure that it's a swastika, but enough to suggest it.

Greece is burned to the ground, evoking the 2007 Greek forest fires and the 2008 civil unrest.

Holland has disappeared under the sea with only several minarets still visible, a victim both of rising sea levels related to global warming and Islamic immigration.

Hungary features watermelons.

Ireland is depicted as a brown bog with bagpipes protruding from Northern Ireland.

Italy is depicted as a football pitch with several players who appear to be masturbating with the footballs they each hold.

Latvia is shown as covered with mountains, in contrast to its actual flat landscape.

Lithuania is urinating on its eastern neighbours (Belarus and Russia).

Luxembourg is displayed as a gold nugget with "For Sale" tag.

Malta is a tiny island with its prehistoric dwarf elephant as its only decoration.

In Poland, Roman Catholic priests are erecting the rainbow flag of the Gay rights movement, in the style of the U.S. soldiers raising the Stars and Stripes at Iwo Jima. In one brilliant image, it simultaneously evokes the influence of the Church, homophobia and pro-Americanism in Poland. The public in Poland appears to be largely in favour of Poland's portrayal, with 64% considering it "spot on" and only 13% thinking it "an insult to Polish people", according to an online poll by news portal TVN24.

Portugal is shown as a wooden cutting board with three pieces of meat in the shape of its former colonies of Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique.

Romania, not surprisingly, is a Dracula-style theme park.

Slovakia is depicted as a Hungarian sausage (or a human body tightened by Hungarian tricolour). Inexplicably, this is one of the most controversial pieces. The Slovak National Party called on Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Ján Kubiš to demand the removal of the sculpture, calling it an offence to the Slovak nation. Kubiš complied and lodged a formal protest.

Slovenia is shown as a rock engraved with the words first tourists came here in 1213.

Spain is covered entirely in concrete, in reference to its construction boom.

Sweden is represented as a large Ikea-style self-assembly furniture box.

The United Kingdom, known for its Euroscepticism and relative isolation from the Continent, is "included" as a missing piece.

Quote of the Day - 2009-01-14

2009-01-14T04:27:00.003+01:00

"I'm not one of those who blames Bush for everything. This shit between Christians and Muslims goes back to the Crusades, doesn't it. It's too easy to blame everything on one guy. These are unpredictable, dangerous times, and I don't think that anyone really knows quite what to do."

Golden Globe winner Mickey Rourke

Wiser words were rarely spoken... especially by a celebrity

More here.

China is losing the Porn War

2009-01-13T18:37:00.000+01:00

China is expanding its Internet cleanup campaign, according to this Yahoo report, shutting down an edgy blog hosting site and naming more than a dozen sites containing pornography.

And according to this article, China is putting pressure on Western-based sites as well. Google has even apologised to the Chinese government for failing to remove search links leading to pornographic material.

But all those efforts to clean up the Internet in China are pointless. The simple fact is that the infamous "Great Firewall of China" isn't working.

You want proof ? Well, people can access my blog in China. According to my sitemeter, I have quite a few Chinese admirers, mostly in Shanghai. It's a trickle (three or four a week), but if they can get through the Porn Wall, anyone can.

Kate Winslet triumphs at the Golden Globes

2009-01-12T19:24:00.000+01:00

This was definitely Kate Winslet's night at the Golden Globes. The actress won both the Best Actress (Drama) for "Revolutionary Road" and the Best Supporting Actress award for "The Reader". Incidentally, both films are on my Top 10 list. "Slumdog Millionaire" won the other major awards (Best Drama, Best Director and Best Screenplay). Heath Ledger won posthumously for "The Dark Knight". The complete list of the nominees is here (arranged in order of my personal preferences; the winners are marked in bold).

But it was Kate Winslet's unprecedented double triumph that really marked this year's ceremony. This superb British actress, first discovered by Peter Jackson in "Heavenly Creatures" (long before he made "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy) has made a career out of appearing in daring, unconventional, and often quite erotic roles:

"Heavenly Creatureas" (1994). Winslet was only 18 years old when she starred in this provocative drama about two murderous lesbian lovers.

"Jude" (1996). Thanks to Kate, this adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel isn't quite a "costume" drama.

"Titanic" (1997). After such a triumph, most actresses would refuse to appear naked from then on. But not Kate. Thank God.

"Hideous Kinky" (1998). Excellent drama set in Morocco.

"Holy Smoke" (1999). Provocative drama about religious gurus.

"Quills" (2000). This is a very "sadistic" film, in the original sense of that word.

"Iris" (2001). Winslet only has a supporting role in this British drama, playing a younger Judi Dench.

"Little Children" (2006). Very erotic drama about adultery.

"The Reader" (2008).

Top 10 Films of 2008

2009-01-10T04:47:00.013+01:00

The most amazing film of 2008 comes from Brazil. It's a stylistic tour-de-force, filmed in a single take. Here's my Top 10 list, from which all films without any nudity have been ruthlessly disqualified (otherwise, "The Dark Knight", "In Bruges" and "Tropic Thunder" would definitely make the list). Click on the links to read my reviews of the films.

1. "Still Orangutans" (Gustavo Spolidoro, Brazil)

2. "Hunger" (Steve McQueen, UK)

3. "Martyrs" (Pascal Laugier, France)

4. "Revolutionary Road" (Sam Mendes, USA)

5. "The Bank Job" (Roger Donaldson, UK)

6. "The Reader" (Stephen Daldry, USA)

7. "The Wrestler" (Darren Aronofsky, USA)

8. "Waltz With Bahir" (Ari Folman, Israel)

9. "Import-Export" (Ulrich Seidl, Austria)

10. "Cumbia callera" (René U. Villarreal, Mexico)

Other sexy films:

The 4th Life (Canada)
À l'aventure (France)
Absurdistan (Azerbaijan)
Un Baiser s'il vous plaît (France)
Borderline (Canada)
Burn After Reading
Le Déserteur (Canada)
Don't Think About White Monkeys (Russia)
The Duchess
Élève libre (Belgium)
En plein coeur (Canada)
Estomago (Brazil)
Everybody Dies But Me (Russia)
Gomorra (Italy)
Home (Switzerland)
La Rabia (Argentina)
Let The Right One In (Sweden)
Mamma Mia!
My Dream Or Loneliness Never Walks Alone (Germany)
No Mercy For The Rude (South Korea)
Nuit de chien (Germany)
Runaway Horse (Germany)
Rusalka (Russia)
Le Silence de Lorna (Belgium)
Slumdog Millionaire (India)
Tout est parfait (Canada)
Two-Legged Horse (Iran)
Une Vieille maîtresse (France)
The Woman of Ahhs (Canada)
Young People Fucking (Canada)

Other great films:

À l'ouest de Pluton (Canada)
Babine (Canada)
Un Capitalisme sentimental (Canada)
C'est pas moi, je le jure! (Canada)
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Elle veut le chaos (Canada)
In Bruges (UK)
The Investigator (Hungary)
Los (Belgium)
Mad Detective (Hong Kong)
Maman est chez le coiffeur (Canada)
Peaceful Times (Germany)
Quantum Of Solace
Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired
Son Of Rambow (UK)
Tropic Thunder
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Wall-E

And The Worst Films of 2008:

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Gigantes de Valdès (Argentina)
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Passe Passe (France)
W.
Your Name Here
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Zimbabwe (South Africa)

Western Mexico

2009-01-03T03:11:00.003+01:00

I spent most of the holidays on Costalegre, which has some of the best beaches in all Mexico.

Not far from Costalegre, in remote mountains of Colima, is the Cave of San Gabriel. It was quite an adventure just to get there.

The ruins of El Chanal are located near the town of Colima.

Comala is a typical Mexican town, situated dangerously close to an active volcano.

Fortunately, Volcano de Colima has been quiet this winter, but it has erupted several times in recent years.

Much further to the north is an old colonial town of Guanajuato. In my humble opinion, it's the most beautiful city in Mexico.

The magnificent church of San Cayetano, overlooking Guanajuato, is among the finest examples of the Churrigueresque style.

The 16th century monastery in Yuriria looks more like a fortress than a religious convent.

An old Augustinian monastery in Cuitzeo.

Further south is an old colonial town of Patzcuaro, located near a lake of the same name.

The island of Janitzio dominates the lake.

Overlooking the lake are the old Tarascan ruins of Tzintzuntzan.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-18T03:40:00.000+01:00

No blogging for two weeks. I'm going on vacation to Mexico. Feliz Navidad, Prospero Año y Felicidad...

Bullets and shoes

2008-12-16T13:46:00.000+01:00

Times have really changed. 45 years ago, bullets were fired at US presidents. Today, shoes are thrown at them. I call that progress.

Half a century ago, US was overthrowing democratically elected governments (like in Iran in 1953), installing dictatorships (like in South Vietnam in 1963) and exterminating their own friends by sending them on suicide missions (Bay of Pigs in 1961). No wonder people were angry enough to kill US presidents.

Today, CIA doesn't overthrow democratically elected government (Chavez and Morales are still in power), they no longer support dictators (Saddam learned that the hard way 5 years ago) and Kurdish fighters (unlike the Cuban ones) aren't sent on suicide missions. No wonder people are only angry enough to throw shoes at US presidents.

Playboy of Guadalupe

2008-12-15T13:36:00.000+01:00

Believe it or not, this tame cover of the Mexican edition of Playboy is causing quite a stir south of the Rio Grande. True, it looks suspiciously like the image of the Virgin of the Guadeloupe, but still...

Bettie Page (1923-2008)

2008-12-13T18:18:00.000+01:00

An icon of eroticism has passed away. The most famous model of the post-World War II era has died in Los Angeles at the age of 85. In 1957, at the height of her fame, she disappeared from the public view. What followed were two failed marriages, mental illness, resurrection as a born-again Christian, and years of seclusion in Southern California. She steadfastly refused to be photographed in those later years. "I want to be remembered as I was when I was young and in my golden times", she told in 2006, "I want to be remembered as a woman who changed people’s perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form".

She never made any erotic feature films, but her numerous shorts have been compiled in such DVD releases as Bettie Page: Varietease/Teaserama and The Irving Klaw Classics, Vol. 1: The Bettie Page Films. She was also the subject of the 2006 biopic "The Notorious Bettie Page", starring Gretchen Mol. Click here for my review of that movie and here for the comments.

Can nudity provoke fear ?

2008-12-12T21:20:00.000+01:00

I have received this e-mail recently:

Dear Mrs. Bellechasse,

I just wanted to let you know my appreciation regarding the content and dedication of your excellent blog. The picture material in combination with your comments is beautiful and unique within the www. as far as I browsed the special interest you are focused upon. Keep on going with your excellent work I enjoy very much.

If you may allow I would like to stay in contact with you regarding some interchange of opinions focused on sexuality in commercial and art films. Actually I am aware by analyzing my own interest in it, that this topic is framed by a metaphysical aspect virulent through the time manipulating medium of film and the classical or vulgar or just plain depiction of the naked human body. The depiction of the naked female body is especially an iconographical mystery. Stripped of clothes the female sexuality still is not unraveled. The veil of female sexuality is imminent through all depiction and creates a nearly metaphysical lure into the unknown.

The male reaction to this is different. Could be fear, temptation, passion or even aggressivity. These kind of aspects I think you are very aware of and therefore I would welcome a reply from you!

Kind Regards
Gerard Louis

Dear Gerard,

Thank you. I agree with most of you wrote, except for a few points. I don't believe that a male reaction can be radically different from a female reaction. And I don't believe that nudity, whether presented on the Internet, or in films, or even in real life, can, by itself, provoke such reactions as fear, temptation, passion or aggressiveness. If such reactions occur, they are provoked by cultural prejudices, immaturity or mental disorder. Normal people don't fear naked body. Normal people are tempted by a specific person, not their lack of clothing. Normal people fall passionately in love with actual human beings, not with images of naked flesh. Normal people are not aggressive when confronted with nudity. They might be pleased or embarrassed or indifferent, but that's it.

If a man feels afraid because he saw a naked woman, he should probably consult a psychiatrist. If he falls in love with a woman only because he saw her naked, he is either very young or very immature (or both). And if a man becomes aggressive when seeing a naked woman, he would probably be aggressive when seeing two men kissing or holding hands in public.

It cannot be otherwise. The human species didn't use any clothes until quite recently. On most continents, clothes have been introduced only in the last 100 years or so. If cavemen didn't go crazy seeing women (and men) of their tribes completely naked, why should we ?

Modesty is an entirely cultural conditioning. People cover their bodies because they have been taught to do it, not because there is some natural human instinct to do it.

Sonia

Greek men are angry !

2008-12-11T16:15:00.000+01:00

Greece is in a state of virtual civil war. Greeks are angry as hell, attacking stores and police stations with rocks and firebombs.

Why ?

Some press reports claim that all this anger was caused by a recent police killing of a teenager who has been throwing stones at a patrol car.

That's a bit hard to believe. Police has always been killing teenagers on a regular basis and it has rarely provoked such an anger. No, in my opinion, all this rage can be traced to this recent study, which found that Greek men had the smallest penises in all of Europe !

Here are the full results of the study (they are quite embarassing to the Irish and to the Brits as well):

1. France, length:15.48cm, girth: 13.63cm
2. Sweden, length: 15.36cm, girth: 12.78cm
3. Estonia, length: 15.17cm, girth: 12.54cm
4. Hungary, length: 14.99cm, girth: 11.81cm
5. Italy, length: 14.95cm, girth: 11.95cm
6. Austria, length: 14.89cm, girth: 12.10cm
7. Denmark, length: 14.88cm, girth: 11.75cm
8. Belgium, length: 14.77cm, girth: 13.19cm
9. Germany, length: 14.61cm, girth: 11.80cm
10. Latvia, length: 14.69cm, girth: 11.93cm
11. Lithuania, length: 14.55, girth: 11.27cm
12. Romania, length: 14.30cm, girth: 12.25cm
13. The Netherlands, length: 14.28cm, girth: 11.35cm
14. Poland, length: 14.21cm, girth: 11.62cm
15. Slovakia, length: 14.19cm, girth: 11.54cm
16. Czech Republic, length: 14.17cm, girth: 11.65cm
17. Bulgaria, length: 14.09cm, girth: 11.69cm
18. Slovenia, length: 14.01cm, girth: 11.72cm
19. Portugal, length: 13.91cm, girth: 10.45cm
20. Luxemburg, length: 13.82cm, girth: 11.40cm
21. Spain, length: 13.58cm, girth: 10.43cm
22. Finland, length: 13.52cm, girth: 11.13cm
23. UK, length: 13.32cm, girth: 11.32cm
24. Ireland, length: 12.78cm, girth: 10.94cm
25. Greece, length: 12.18cm, girth: 10.19cm

Victory for free speech

2008-12-11T03:04:00.000+01:00

In a major victory for free speech (and common sense), and a major defeat for troglodyte hysteria, an online watchdog, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), has withdrawn its objection to a Wikipedia page that contained an image of a naked girl. The image in question was an old album cover from 1979, by the German heavy metal band Scorpions. According to this BBC report, a number of internet providers blocked the page after IWF said it could be "potential illegal child sexual abuse". However, faces with protests over its ridiculous decision, the IWF has backed down and the Wiki page is no longer blocked.

In a statement on its website, the IWF said that the image could still potentially breach the Protection of Children Act 1978, but "in light of the length of time the image has existed and its wide availability, the decision has been taken to remove this webpage from our list. IWF's overriding objective is to minimise the availability of indecent images of children on the internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect".

Is that album cover "indecent" ? Judge for yourself.

Photo of the Day - 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T00:59:00.000+01:00

Guess to which product this price chart applies. Hint: Hugo Chavez is shiting his pants every time its price goes down...

Assclown Award Winner - Imraan Khan

2008-12-01T13:24:00.000+01:00

This is Imraan Khan, a very popular movie star from India. The picture taken on November 26, 2008, only a few hours before the terrorist attacks in Bombay began. For picking the wrong suspect on the wrong day, the Bollywood actor deservedly wins -

Is Roger Ebert becoming senile ?

2008-11-29T17:41:00.003+01:00

After almost picking a fight with a fellow film critic Lou Lumenick, near-paraplegic Roger Ebert is begining to act more and more irrationally.

For proof, check his recent review of "Ashes Of Time Redux". He writes about the Wong Kar-Wai movie (essentially telling us that he didn't understand any of it), and then, out of the blue, he starts to reminisce about his career as a scriptwriter for Russ Meyer:

I remember when we were collaborating on "Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens," and Russ Meyer would start lecturing about what Junk Yard Sal could or couldn't do until you'd swear she was a Greek goddess. "Junk Yard Sal wouldn't do that!" Russ would thunder. Once I said, "Of course she would. I've got the typewriter." At least in Russ Meyer's cinema characters could or couldn't do things. That's why he is an artist and never had to make porn movies, in which the characters can do only one thing, or you want your money back.

This is not an isolated case. Recently, and with increasing frequency, Ebert has been peppering some of his reviews with tourette-like non-sequitur attacks against George W. Bush (see here and here). But what is really ridiculous about his sudden nostalgia for his good old times with Meyer is that Ebert's "screenwritting career" was one big joke. Russ Meyer has made many good films, some of them genuine classics, but Ebert didn't wrote any of the good ones. Instead, he wrote what is probably Russ Meyer's worst film, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" (1970), as well as his last two movies, "Up!" (1976) and the above-mentioned "Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens" (1979), which are actually quite good as far as softcore erotica goes, but which have almost no dialogue, no story and no character development. Click on the links for my reviews (and photos) of those films. Ebert was quite aware at the time just how ridiculous it was to be listed as a "screenwriter" for such movies (where big-breasted gals either frolick naked in the woods, or fuck), which is why he wrote them under such aliases as "Reinhold Timme" and "R. Hyde". But now, as he is slowly becoming senile, he actually seem to be proud of his "screenwriting" contributions.

To see how much Russ Meyer's films have deteriorated after he hired Roger Ebert as his writer, check out his earlier, Ebert-less efforts, which include such exciting action films as "Motor Psycho" (1965) and "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (1966), such sexy "Southern swamp" melodramas as "Mudhoney" (1965) and "Lorna" (1964), and such genuine masterpieces as "Vixen" (1968).

Russ Meyer has also directed many erotic experimental films, like "The Immoral Mr Teas" (1959), "Eve And The Handyman" (1960) and "Wild Gals Of The Naked West" (1962), a few documentaries (like 1966's "Mondo Topless"), a fine historical drama about slavery (1973's "Black Snake"), as well as many enjoyable softcore erotic films, like "Good Morning...and Goodbye" (1967), "Common-Law Cabin" (1967), "Cherry Harry And Raquel" (1969) and "Supervixens" (1975).

And the worst one among them is still better than the best Ebert-written movie.

Rape of the progressive whore

2008-11-26T12:44:00.000+01:00

This article by Glenn Greenwald in Salon about Obama's betrayal of his far-leftist supporters is so sexually explicit, it deserves extensive, and annotated, quotes. Greenwald essentially tells his fellow leftists to smile and moan with pleasure while they are being fucked in the ass by Obama. The most priceless bits:

Many progressives were misled about what Obama is and what he believes. But it wasn't Obama who misled them. It was their own desires, their eagerness to see what they wanted to see rather than what reality offered.

In other words, even before describing the rape, Greenwald essentially blames the victim. The progressive slut wanted to be raped.

Markos Moultisas (...) wisely urged that progressives refrain from endorsing or supporting any of the Democratic candidates unless they work for that support, make promises and concessions important to the progressive agenda, etc., lest progressives' support end up being taken for granted. But that advice was largely ignored. For whatever reasons, highly influential progressive factions committed themselves early, loyally and enthusiastically to Obama even though he never even courted that support, let alone made commitments to secure it.

Here, Greenwald reminds us that the slutty progressive whore in question was warned by her brother not to go out with Obama, but she was so horny, she ignored his advice.

As the second-tier positions begin to fill out, there will probably be a handful of appointees who progressives consider to be one of their own.

So, Greenwald reports, after screwing her all night, Obama did took a few bills out of his wallet and threw them on her naked body.

Even in the primary, he paid no price whatsoever for that in terms of progressive support. As is true for the national Democratic Party generally, he has no good reason to believe he needs to accommodate liberal objections to what he is doing.

Here, Greenwald points out that the humiliating rape was witnessed by other female admirers of Obama, but the feeble objections from rare feminists were drowned by cheers and applause from most women.

The point isn't that this reality should just be passively accepted and nothing done about it. The point is that for anything to be done about it, the reality needs to be accepted.

One's political beliefs and principles will be ignored until there is a price to pay for ignoring them. Democrats don't perceive there is a price to pay for ignoring progressives, and so they do. That isn't surprising.

Greenwald now tells the poor progressive slut that despite sucking his cock, licking his ass and being screwed in front of all her friends, Obama is not going to marry her.

There is no question that Obama has inspired among many Democrats a type of deep and intense loyalty that is personal to Obama rather than grounded in policy issues.

In fact, he won't even keep her as a regular mistress.

Republicans, establishment Democrats and Beltway pundits all share more than anything else is a contempt for what they perceive as "the Left" and a belief that it should be scorned -- see here and here -- and none of this should be the least bit surprising. Obama pays no price, and garners many benefits, by embracing the center-right and scorning "the Left."

And the reason is because both Obama's wife and his numeros mistresses have nothing but contempt for such a slutty and disgusting progressive whore like her.

Cunts of the Round Table

2008-11-26T04:59:00.000+01:00

"Leftist Frustration And Impotent Rage" Watch - 2008-11-25

2008-11-25T12:48:00.001+01:00

The Nation, always on the avant-garde of the far-leftist movement, seems to be among the first radical publications to wake up and smell the coffee. Here's Christopher Hayes (and Chris Bowers) finally realizing what has hit them and all the other Stalin-worshippers:

Isn't there ever a point when we can get an actual Democratic administration? Also, why isn't there a single member of Obama's cabinet who will be advising him from the left? It seems to me as though there is a team of rivals, except for the left, which is left off the team entirely.

Not a single, solitary, actual dyed-in-the-wool progressive has, as far as I can tell, even been mentioned for a position in the new administration. Not one. (...) No one who comes from the part of American political and intellectual life that has given birth to all of these ideas is anywhere to be found within miles of the Obama cabinet thus far. WTF?

I love the smell of leftist frustration and impotent rage in the morning...