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Looking for a few good men …
America is no longer home to “macho men,” forcing Hollywood to look to Britain to play all the tough guys in today’s big movies, according to today’s London Telegraph newspaper.
While the U.S. film industry once was dominated by men’s men such as Steve McQueen and Robert Mitchum, today’s leading men include the “fey” Johnny Depp and the “goofy and boyish” Brendan Fraser.
As a result, directors are looking across the Atlantic and to brawny British actors including Gerard Butler, star of the historical war epic 300. At the same time, the star of the year’s highest-grossing film, The Dark Knight, is Britain’s Christian Bale as a brooding Batman who dispatches his enemies with an array of martial arts skills.
Indeed the only U.S. actors apparently still capable of playing tough guys are now on the wrong side of 50 — Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, and Samuel L. Jackson.
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Two Southern gems charm a Brit …
London’s Telegraph newspaper has sent a reporter to check out the tourist appeal of Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia.
And the verdict? Overwhelmingly positive.
Reporter Nigel Richardson called Savannah “one of the finest American cities to walk round.” He said Charleston appeared both “beautiful and affluent.”
In general, he said he “loved walking in Savannah and Charleston, spotting, through tropical tangle, the ghostly cousins of a Chelsea mews or a Brighton seafront terrace, reading heritage plaques on reconditioned facades and visitors’ books in hallways that smelled of floor polish.”
In the reporter’s view, here were the top sights to check out:
In Savannah the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, admission $4. The First African Baptist Church is at 23 Montgomery Street. Tours Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m., admission free but donation appreciated.
Gullah Grub is on St. Helena Island at 877 Sea Island Parkway. The Penn Center Historic District is signposted off Sea Island Parkway. A museum tells the story of the school for freed slaves.
In Charleston the Aiken-Rhett House is at 48 Elizabeth St. Al Miller’s Sites and Insights Tour: the Black History/Porgy and Bess Tour costs $13 for one hour, $18 for two hours.
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Does American count in the Olympics medal count?
The headline says it all: America Refuses To Accept Defeat In Olympic Medal Count.
For days newspaper reporters around the world have been yammering on about how the United States is the only nation in the world that ranks countries based on total number of medals — and not on total number of gold medals.
On Monday the London Times newspaper said that the recent Olympics were sensational, with China celebrating its ultimate aim of heading the Olympic medals table for the first time. Indeed everyone was celebrating — except those in America, where people believe that Team USA remains the main force in world sport.
The paper said: “The race for the Olympic title is measured in medals, it just depends on which medals you consult. The IOC issues its league table based on the number of golds won, which gives China the honors, but then admits that there is no official system in place to decide who is top dog. So the American public is reading tables counting the total number of medals, including silver and bronze, won at the Games. On that measure, the U.S. keep the whip hand over the home nation.”
However, the paper said that there’s no denying that the Olympics belonged to China in every sense. In Beijing, China contested almost every event and, even where they could not win medals, showed signs that they will be a formidable force in London in 2012. Like Australia, who sank from fourth in Athens to sixth in Beijing on the IOC medals table, the U.S. will have to accept that the rest of the world is catching up fast and that they will not be able to flex their sporting muscles for much longer.
The paper said: “The U.S. may feign ignorance, but there is a new Olympic order led by China, whichever league table you read.”
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A nation of racist, gun-selling, unhealthy polygamists?
America is a nation of polygamists that sold large piles of weapons to Saddam Hussein and whose citizens are not entitled to emergency medical care.
For the launch of a new pro-America Web site www.AmericaInTheWorld.com this week, a special opinion poll of nearly 2,000 British citizens was conducted. It was startling to see just how little they know about their closest ally.
For example, 58 percent believe polygamy is legal in parts of the United States. (It’s not.) More than 80 percent believes the United States sold Saddam more than one-quarter of his weapons. And many see the United States as a racist society — much more racist than Europe.
The good news is that this new Web site, launched by “a few London-based friends of America,” is designed to make the case that the United States is fundamentally a good nation. “America isn’t a perfect nation but it’s not had a fair press in recent times,” the site says. Amen to that. The group — British Conservative Leader David Cameron will be at the site’s formal launch party — rejects both American isolationism and anti-Americanism.
And tomorrow — Aug. 20 — the group launches a two-minute YouTube video entitled “A World Without The American Soldier.” Check it out.
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Bush rebuking Russia? To some Brits, that’s a joke
This week’s operation in Georgia has displayed the failure of the West’s policy of belligerence towards Vladimir Putin’s Russia, charges Simon Jenkins in a column in today’s London Guardian newspaper. “The policy was meant to weaken Russia, and has strengthened it,” he says.
He reminds readers that Georgia is a supposed Western ally and applicant to NATO. “The West has lost all leverage and can do nothing,” he says. “Seldom was a policy so crashingly stupid.”
Tbilisi is one of the few world cities in which Bush’s picture is a pin-up and where an avenue is named after him. But America is too busy to get involved in Georgia, otherwise engaged in wars that bear a marked resemblance to those waged by Putin. It defended the Kurdish enclaves against Saddam Hussein. It sought regime change in Serbia and Afghanistan. “As Putin’s troops in South Ossetia were staging a passable imitation of the US 101st Airborne entering Iraq, Bush was studiously watching beach volleyball in Beijing,” Jenkins says.
He says that Putin would die laughing if he read this week’s American newspapers. Bush declared the Russian invasion of Georgia “disproportionate and unacceptable.” According to Jenkins, Bush says that great powers should not go about “toppling governments in the 21st century,” as if he had never done such a thing. “The lobby for sanctions against Russia is reduced to threatening to boycott the winter Olympics. Big deal.”
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You think TV news is bad? So does this the Guardian …
Europeans have long charged that TV news in the United States is dreadful: obsessed with trivia and celebrity, forever interviewing citizens about some artifact of small-town life when a major news story is breaking elsewhere.
But in London’s Guardian newspaper, commentator Kieren McCarthy says the truth is far, far worse than the above.
He said that although there are a multitude of news channels — CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, CNN, and MSNBC — after an hour of flipping between them one day last week, this was the sum total of information gleaned: “there are two U.S. presidential candidates; they have produced campaign ads, people have made video parodies and posted them on the Internet; a U.S. TV news host appeared on a U.S. TV chat show last night; and someone said something controversial (read ignorant) on a different TV show the day before.”
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All the world loves Team USA basketball
Even though the U.S. men’s basketball team played their opening game on a very away court, and even though they humiliated host nation China to start their quest to Olympic gold, the packed stadium in downtown Beijing erupted in cheers each time Dwayne Wade hit a jump shot and Lebron James slammed over a hapless defender.
The U.S. team’s 101 to 70 victory over China started what fans from around the world predicted would be a smooth road to a gold medal.
“Of course I want China to win, but the U.S. team is too strong,” said a Chinese fan who gave only his surname, Wang. “They’ll certainly win the gold.”
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Faster, Higher, Stronger … Hotter?
In Beijing, speed, stamina, and strength will be important. But there’s no denying that every athlete’s looks and style will be scrutinized as well.
Here are the world-class pinups most likely to capture the world’s attention over the next two weeks — according to London’s Independent newspaper.
The two Americans on the short list include:
Dara Torres, 41, USA Swimmer Torres proves that age is no barrier. Despite having shoulder surgery in November 2007, Torres not only qualified for Beijing but beat her 25 year-old competitor Natalie Coughlin in the 100m freestyle qualifying race. She will be the first Olympic swimmer to compete in five Games: 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008.
Allyson Felix, 23, USA Felix, already an Olympic silver medal-holding sprinter, lives in Los Angeles and is a committed Christian. Her father is an ordained minister and is professor of New Testament Greek; her mother is a primary school teacher. “My running is an amazing gift from God,” says Felix on her personal Web site.
The other glamour gals include: Alexandra Orlando, 21, a gymnast from Canada; Christine Arron, 35, a runner from France; Shanaze Reade, 20, representing Britain in bicycle motocross; and Margherita Granbassi, 28, a fencing champion from Italy.
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Poem ‘relay’ protests Olympics in China
A poetic protest of China’s human rights abuses traveled around the globe and reached its destination in Beijing this week, shortly before Friday’s the opening ceremonies for the summer Olympics.
The literary group PEN International organized readings and other events in 65 countries for the poem “June,” written by poet and journalist Shi Tao (seen here), who is serving a 10 year prison sentence. His poem laments the violent crackdown of the protests at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, a subject that is now taboo in China.
The poem was translated into 98 languages in a four and a half month “virtual” trip that roughly followed the route of the Olympic torch. In the final leg of the trip, the 144-page protest petition was delivered to Chinese officials by mail. The poem and a map of its travels can be seen at www.penpoemrelay.org.
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Remember Ray Ewry?
With the Olympic Games about to kick off in Beijing, the Times newspaper of London has come up with its list of the top 100 Olympic athletes of all time, using a complex points system. It’s no surprise that many of the greatest athletes — at least according to the paper — are American.
Here are the top 10:
1) Raymond Ewry (United States) 120pts born 1873 Lafayette, Indiana; died 1937 Long Island, New York
2) Paavo Nurmi (Finland) 108pts born 1897 Turku; died 1973 Helsinki
3) Carl Lewis (United States) 105pts born 1961 Birmingham, Alabama
4) Martin Sheridan (United States) 104pts born 1881 Treenduff, Ireland; died Manhattan, New York
5) Eric Lemming (Sweden) 94pts born 1880 Gothenburg; died 1930 Gothenburg
6) Ville Ritola (Finland) 75pts born 1896 Peraseinajoki; died 1982 Helsinki
7) Merlene Ottey (Jamaica/Slovenia) 70pts born 1960 Hanover, Jamaica
8) Meyer Prinstein (United States) 65pts born 1878 Szczuczyn, Poland; died 1925 New York
9) Ralph Rose (United States) 64pts born 1885 Healdsburg, California; died 1913
10) Jackie Joyner-Kersee (United States) 63pts born 1962 East St Louis, Illinois
Latest comments
Rush Limbaugh has talked about the feminization of America & men. Women working outside the home while their husbands care for the kids. The definition of “real men” has changed. Hollywood, that created the image, has no real men. Now we
... read the full comment by dittohead | Comment on Looking for a few good men ... Read Looking for a few good men ...
I am an Atlanta native and have lived in Europe for several years. As such, I am quite accustomed to defending the US and its people. I am glad that someone is coming to our defense because Hollywood and US media doesnt do us any favors.
As far
... read the full comment by Ebaby | Comment on A nation of racist, gun-selling, unhealthy polygamists? Read A nation of racist, gun-selling, unhealthy polygamists?
im sorry this swiss visitor had such a bad time on their vacation…but its very unfair to label americans with name calling… justfrom one visit to alanta….true there lots of people who are racists ,but that goes in in every country
... read the full comment by danny | Comment on A nation of racist, gun-selling, unhealthy polygamists? Read A nation of racist, gun-selling, unhealthy polygamists?
Yep,wot have the Swiss ever given the world apart from cheese and cuckoo clocks,suggest u go home.
... read the full comment by John Lonergan | Comment on A nation of racist, gun-selling, unhealthy polygamists? Read A nation of racist, gun-selling, unhealthy polygamists?