Just got around to watching the HDnet documentary “The Smartest Guys in the Room,” about the rise and fall of Enron. Quick synopsis and some comments follow — hoping some other folks have seen it and are interested in comparing notes.

Can you guess what is wrong with this picture? The following post is from what some would call a “progressive.” I’ll say it again… I’m not a progressive, and I don’t EVER want to be one. This guys complaint? Tax money being spent for what you’ll read. This is a pop-quiz for any of you following the gender threads.

Big hat tip to De for digging this one up.

I am posting this piece by Gabriel Kolko not simply because it is so weel-stated, but also because there is an analog here between the democratization of lethal technology and the democratization of information technology. I’ll leave it to others to flesh that out.

Elena Everett of the Institute for Southern Studies interviews Shana Griffin of INCITE. Published by Dissident Voice.

Brief video with powerful images. Please distribute.

is now avaialable, free… online

The newest “Britcom” (British TV sitcom) from Channel Five is about Happy Hookers in a suburban British brothel. No Kidding. Take a deep breath and read on:

This is a disucssion thread that has been moved forward. It was on Alf Hornborg’s “Power of the Machine,” but morphed into a lively discussion of film and cultural criticism.

Control Room, (IMDB) the 2004 documentary by Jehane Noujaim: available through Netflix and most video rental and sales outlets in the US. DVD edition runs 84 min, in colour. A wry and sympathetic portrayal of ‘business as usual’ for the Arab-language TV network Al Jazeera during the early days of the American conquest and occupation of Iraq. On a scale of 1 to 10… a solid 9 in this reviewer’s opinion. My off the cuff comments follow below the fold — curious to see what others thought of it.

Ever so often, when I get a chance, I will review the top-five blog topics out there according to Technorati. It’s a peek into the mass consciousness of at least a section of our society. Then I will attempt to find a story or commentary on each that might get us closer to both the story and the motivations of the masses. Hope this is useful. All re-posts will be linked and are posted under Fair Use.

The top five today are: Snakes on a Plane, Jonbenet, Youtube, Project Runway, and Macaca.

Are we as decadent we want to be yet? Have we adequately nurtured our paranoia? Have we sufficiently sexualized children? Where can we go from here?