Resources for December 10, 2014

Brody, Reed. "'These Are Crimes': New Calls to Prosecute Bush Admin as Senate Report Reveals Brutal CIA Torture." Democracy Now (December 10, 2014)



Powers, John. "On Jules and Jim." Current (February 4, 2014)

D'Angelo, Mike. "Shock Corridor." A.V. Club (September 14, 2009)

Easterly, William. "The Tyranny of Experts." The London School of Economics and Political Science (December 8, 2014) ["The admirable fight against global poverty has a blind spot on democracy and human rights, which are both good in themselves and also the most well-proven and lasting path out of poverty. Experts in development have too often unintentionally provided a rationale for oppressive autocrats and unenlightened US foreign policy in poor countries."]

Seitz, Matt Zoller. "All Things Shining, Pt. 1 -- The Films of Terrence Malick: Badlands." Moving Image Source (May 10, 2011)

Senate Torture Report Human Rights Watch (ongoing Archive)

Axmaker, Sean. Torremolinos '73: Applying a coat of beige to fertility, pornography and filmmaking in Franco’s Spain." Keyframe (February 11, 2014)

"Universal Declaration of Human Rights." United Nations (No Date)


calumny \KAL-um-nee\

noun 1 : a misrepresentation intended to harm another's reputation; 2 : the act of uttering false charges or misrepresentations maliciously calculated to harm another's reputation

The notion that the mayor knew about the problem before the newspaper broke the story is nothing but calumny.

"Some say that showing respect for your opponent after heaping disrespect upon him … and having disrespect heaped upon you civilizes our politics. In truth, however, it degrades our politics. It says that anything goes—calumny and character assassination are all just part of the rough and tumble of campaigning.…" — Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune, November 7, 2014

Calumny made an appearance in these famous words from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go." The word had been in the English language for a while, though, before Hamlet uttered it. It first entered English in the 15th century and comes from the Middle French word calomnie of the same meaning. Calomnie, in turn, derives from the Latin word calumnia, (meaning "false accusation," "false claim," or "trickery"), which itself traces to the Latin verb calvi, meaning "to deceive."