Monthly Archives: December 2005

'Midnight Express'

Film, The Zeitgeist

That “Midnight Express” didn’t make Time’s All-Time 100 Movies confirms my opinion of the magazine. (Thankfully that 1952 classic, “Ikiru,” made the cut. I’m a big fan of Akira Kurosawa’s work. You bought that last statement? It was a joke; I was just mimicking the pretentious pseudos at Time.)

These days, a man’s home is considered the government’s castle. The case of Cory Maye, unjustly placed on death row for defending his home during a drug bust (the intrepid Tom Knapp elaborates on the case here, as does Radley Balko) conjures the achingly beautiful words of the convicted protagonist in “Midnight Express”:

“Mr. Prosecutor, I just wish you could stand right here where I am standing and feel what that feels like…cause then you’d know something you don’t know—you’d know what mercy means, Mr. Prosecutor—and you’d know the concept of a society is based on the quality of its mercy, of its sense of fair play, its sense of justice…”

‘Midnight Express’

Film, The Zeitgeist

That “Midnight Express” didn’t make Time’s All-Time 100 Movies confirms my opinion of the magazine. (Thankfully that 1952 classic, “Ikiru,” made the cut. I’m a big fan of Akira Kurosawa’s work. You bought that last statement? It was a joke; I was just mimicking the pretentious pseudos at Time.)

These days, a man’s home is considered the government’s castle. The case of Cory Maye, unjustly placed on death row for defending his home during a drug bust (the intrepid Tom Knapp elaborates on the case here, as does Radley Balko) conjures the achingly beautiful words of the convicted protagonist in “Midnight Express”:

“Mr. Prosecutor, I just wish you could stand right here where I am standing and feel what that feels like…cause then you’d know something you don’t know—you’d know what mercy means, Mr. Prosecutor—and you’d know the concept of a society is based on the quality of its mercy, of its sense of fair play, its sense of justice…”

My Evisceration of Catharine Mackinnon

Feminism, Gender

“The strength of ideas rests on their relationship to reality. Mackinnon’s unrealistic fulminations against a phantom patriarchy exist in the arid arena of pure thought. There are places where Catharine Mackinnon might pursue her métier more productively. Decamping to Darfur is one option—her work will have relevance there.”

This is an excerpt from my withering review of Catharine Mackinnon’s Women’s Lives, Men’s Laws is in The American Conservative’s end-of-the-year issue. Writer Rob Stove tells me that my “philippic,” entitled “MacKinnon’s Textual Harassment,” demonstrates that “MacKinnon is clearly even ghastlier than [he’d] imagined.” Purchase the magazine—it will remain in shops well into January—and be sure to check out Rob’s “Beethoven piece,” which appears alongside mine.

My Evisceration of Catharine Mackinnon

Feminism, Gender

“The strength of ideas rests on their relationship to reality. Mackinnon’s unrealistic fulminations against a phantom patriarchy exist in the arid arena of pure thought. There are places where Catharine Mackinnon might pursue her métier more productively. Decamping to Darfur is one option—her work will have relevance there.”

This is an excerpt from my withering review of Catharine Mackinnon’s Women’s Lives, Men’s Laws is in The American Conservative’s end-of-the-year issue. Writer Rob Stove tells me that my “philippic,” entitled “MacKinnon’s Textual Harassment,” demonstrates that “MacKinnon is clearly even ghastlier than [he’d] imagined.” Purchase the magazine—it will remain in shops well into January—and be sure to check out Rob’s “Beethoven piece,” which appears alongside mine.