Dear Elliot, be thankful you died so young. You didn't have to experience what would probably be a miserable existence under the fear of a being that doesn't exist or under the wrath of those who believe in it.

"You got your first cordless pictures today. No feeding tube, oxygen, or stickers, this was no small accomplishment, but we got it done"

Two days later...

"Dear Elliot, today you went to be with Jesus"


This is so sad, but not just for the usual reasons.

We have a video here about Jane Elliot's experiment. It's a classic episode of Frontline, A Class Divided. Definitely worth watching.

nice work.

Elliot Smith is great "make you want to kill yourself" music.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'FRONTLINE, Jane Elliot, Racism, A Class Divided, Prejudice, Discrimination' to 'FRONTLINE, Jane Elliot, Racism, Prejudice, Discrimination, psychology' - edited by mauz15

>> ^vairetube:
You know what, I'll just google the phrase: convicted criminals appointed by bush .
Here's a start for you:
John Poindexter, Convicted of conspiracy, lying to Congress.
Appointed to head DARPA by Bush [...in December 2002]

"The convictions were reversed in 1991 on the technical grounds that the prosecution's evidence may have been tainted by exposure to Poindexter's testimony before the joint House-Senate committee investigating the matter, in which Poindexter's testimony was compelled by a grant of 'use immunity'. The prosecution was not able to re-try the case."

You know what, I'll just google the phrase: convicted criminals appointed by bush .

Here's a start for you:

John Poindexter, Convicted of conspiracy, lying to Congress.
Appointed to head DARPA by Bush

Elliot Abrams, Pleaded guilty in 1991 to withholding information from Congress in the Iran-contra affair. Appointed as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy by Bush

Otto Reich, Convicted in 1990 on five felony charges of conspiracy.
Appointed by Bush to direct Inter American affairs at the State Department. President Bush used the tricky recess appointment procedure to bypass potential hostile and damaging questioning by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

And that's just the stuff we already know they did.

Thanks for the promote!

In reply to this comment by dag:
*promote this gem.

Hey, that very last thing he played was an Elliot Smith tune! "Everything Means Nothing to Me":

Volumptuous has this cool Sam Elliot look going on.

http://content9.flixster.com/photo/30/75/63/3075639_tml.jpg

Portishead's P3, very fine comeback.

A cover of Elliot Smith's "Twilight" (nothing to do with the recent movie!) from a certain Alex Cohen.

Usual digging on the "past-yard" at music villa.

If you get around to watching it, lemme know what'cha think. You may get a kick out of Jullianne Moore's role.

Sam Rockwell is the shit! Anyone that plays Zaphod Beeblebrox is cool in my book. Though my favorite role of his has gotta be Chuck Barris in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind -- Love that movie sooo much. Which brings to mind a genius writer (Charlie Kaufman) and an actor/director who is both over and underrated: George Clooney. I love half of his work (inevitably the underrated stuff) and the other half I could do without.

Diane Keaton, Nicholas Cage, Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, etc. etc. Don't do it for me either. Though Cage Occasionally gets it right. (Or maybe it's the writers.) Mel, Mel, Mel -- what scares me about him is that his true personality may be Martin Riggs, but with a touch of the religious zealot. Definitely not a good combination. I would be careful not to harm his dog.

Favorite actors... Oh my, where to begin. So many decades of cinema to recall! To avoid a carbon copy of your list -- all noteworthy thesbians -- I'll fill in some of the missing pieces: The Marx Brothers (I love them all equally), Hepburn's flame, Spencer Tracy, the other Hepburn, Audrey (mostly because of those eyes), Cary Grant, Humprey Bogart (Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon are films that I can watch from any point and be satisfied completely for every second the films goes by), Lauren Bacall (Ze Big Sleep; dear lordy, more top ten material), Clark Gable, Gary Oldman (You said it, but he's too good and far too underappreciated to not mention), Helena Bonham Carter (another one I CANNOT avoid mentioning -- a dark favorite of mine: Morgan le Fay, Elizabeth Frankenstein, Ophelia, Anne Boleyn -- dear GOD, she's a even a freakin' death eater. She has to be a reader.), Elliot Gould (More noir favorites), Michael Gambon (brilliant), Alan Rickman, Edward Norton, Tim Roth, Brad Pitt, lil' Dakota Fanning, Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, and Dennis Hopper -- I think that's the cast of Blue Velvet, another potential top ten movie with top ten actors lol. Maybe we should make lists of the people we DON'T like... on second thought... (Sorry, this got long.)

Yes! Mothersbaugh, of course. Wes Anderson's pocket composer and devolution advocate. Don't forget Sigur Ros, either. That's the part of the movie where yer supposed to cry. I heart those Icelanders. A Bowie fan too. David Bowie is my best friend's father.

Make up a top 5 real quick. (No pressure.)

In reply to this comment by thepinky:
You're right. I have about 15 or so that are floating around in my favorites list. My top movies are not neccesarily the best ones I've seen. Like you said, they are the ones that I have an emotional connection to.

Wes Anderson is awesome but I haven't seen all of his films yet. My favorite so far is also The Life Aquatic. I love those covers. The Mark Mothersbaugh numbers are awesome, too. The scene where Steve introduces his boat and crew, accompanied by Mothersbaugh's "Let Me Tell You About My Boat" is one of my favorite scenes. I also really liked The Royal Tenenbaums.

Oh, underappreciated and overrated actors. It is relatively easy for me to rattle off some of my favorite actors. Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, and Ingrid Bergman are definitely in the top 5. Other actors I love off of the top of my head: Gary Oldman, Anjelica Huston, Gregory Peck, Katharine Hepburn, Bruce Willis (most people love him for the wrong reasons), Bill Murray, Charlie Chaplin, Helena Bonham Carter (I love how much her older stuff contrasts with her more recent roles. She's great.), John Goodman (I have always had a thing for this guy. He is a pleasure to watch.), James Stewart, Topol (I've only seen him in Fiddler but it is one of my favorite performances EVAR), Henry Fonda, Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Oliver Reed. This list was about 5 times as long before I cut it down. You're welcome.

I'm sure you're the same way that I am with actors. Sometimes I love them because they are truly great actors and sometimes I love them because they are good actors and you just enjoy watching them for whatever reason. I admit that one of the reasons that I love Newman, Brando, and Bergman is because they are all incredibly sexy. They also happen to be exceptional actors. Who are your favorites?

Severely overrated: Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton (used to be okay, now I can't stand her), Nicolas Cage (liked him in Matchstick Men...which reminds me that I love Sam Rockwell), Keira Knightly, and there is something about Mel Gibson's acting that seems...is it insincere? Affected? All I know is that something is off with him and I'm not a fan.

I'll rent The Big Lebowski one of these days.

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Tags for this video have been changed from 'royal, tenenbaums, luke, wilson, suicide' to 'royal, tenenbaums, luke, wilson, suicide, elliot, smith' - edited by berticus

Schools can take reasonable measures to maintain a secure learning environment--but they cannot do so at the expense of free speech: see Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. I'll quote just this snippet: students don't "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression at the schoolhouse gate."

You can't wear a bikini to school because wearing a bikini would disrupt the learning environment and because wearing a bikini is not, as the courts say, "expressive conduct." In other words, it doesn't express an opinion on some issue.

The shirt in this case clearly DOES express an opinion--an unpopular or misguided one maybe, but still an opinion. So long as the expression of that opinion does not use vulgar or obscene language, (see Bethel School District v. Fraser) the Supreme court has ruled it must be allowed. This includes unpopular or even anti-diversity opinions (search for Elliot Chambers and his "Straight Pride" t-shirt, although that issue was on a college campus).

And Christ, volumptuous, that school of yours sounds like a massive lawsuit waiting to happen. I'm pretty sure the courts would agree that wearing a cross or other religious symbol is "expressive conduct" and would strike down any attempts to prevent students from wearing them. Which of course means that some asshat student would probably come to school with a pentagram or something and claim they worship Satan just to rile people up on purpose, but I can live with that as the price paid to live in a free society.

Oh, come on, nothing in that film was breathtaking.

It had some nice moments, some seriously plumped up Nicole Kidman lips... Sam Elliot playing, well, Sam Elliot... but anything that was breathtaking, this was a fairly by the book battle scene really, at least in today's age of cg Lord of the Rings, then The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe etc.