Wiesel slams tea partiers Nov 7, 2009
" Here's another example from the Philadelphia police blotter: Last year, five African-American youths, just for the fun of it, sucker-punched a passing white man in the Center City subway concourse in the middle of the day. A manager at Starbuck's who was on his way to work, he died from an asthmatic attack triggered by the assault. Surely he had been targeted because of his race. Why, then, was it not denounced as a hate crime? Why did those amoral marauders get a free pass in the hate crimes... (Salon)
Camille Paglia Oct 23, 2009
As in the case of Jean Genet, whom the French government released from prison simply for being a genius, Polanski should, for the greater good, be allowed to continue his work ... Jean Genet, in contrast, was pardoned by France because of his cultural achievements in radically extending and subverting French language and literature (following Gide and Proust). (Salon)
James Howard Kunstler on Michael Jackson as America Jul 2, 2009
He was a poseur, vamping in weird military outfits as though he were a five-star general in the Honduran army, or a character from a melodrama by the reprobate Jean Genet. He once materialized during halftime at the Superbowl in a shower of sparks, thrilling the multitudes while grabbing and stroking his sex organs, as though that was a heroic activity -- and indeed the nation seemed to emulate him as its culture became dedicated more and more to acting out masturbation fantasies. (Harper's Magazine)
Hilton Als: “Merchant of Venice,” at BAM. May 4, 2009
The French writer Jean Genet preferred that male actors perform his play The Maids, even though it s about women; many have attributed this wish to Genet s perversity. Might the same critics make a similar noise about the brilliant British-born director Edward Hall and his all-male company Propeller. (New Yorker)
