One of the management texts I've been reading has a chapter on ethics. Now, before you laugh, there are plenty of managers with a sound ethical sense; as the annals of the financial collapse develop, much of the information will no doubt come from managers who made strenuous internal objections to the practice of making money based on predatory loans. The book was published in 2004, after news of the Enron shenanigans broke, but before the meltdown. It makes ready reference to increased public demand for ethical management, evidence not always in evidence in the wake of the meltdown.
The perpetrators of the meltdown have expressed no remorse about their role and practices; they've been bolstered by large swathes of a public that blames their victims for taking out loans they couldn't afford, as if these people were presented with a number of clear alternatives, one of which they chose despite being labelled as "unaffordable and dangerous to the international economy." Of course, the victims of the loans are perceived of as being poor, minority, and underserving, even though that's a false perception: Besides targeting inner cities as for predatory loans, lenders looked also to the exuurbs and young, white, first-time homebuyers.
We've come to a pretty pass when youth, color, and economic status deprive one of the right to ethical treatment in the eyes of their fellow citizens. But such is the right-wing vision of freedom and liberty: A society of every man for himself and devil take the hindmost, unless you're a man like us. In which case, you deserve citizenship, Social Security, Medicare, and -- of course -- your gun...
The Town. D: Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner. Standard caper pic bolstered by strong performances (Hamm's miscasting notwithstanding), the Boston locale and accents, and a penetrating examination of the Charlestown criminal ethos. The friendship of Affleck and Renner serves as a flip side to the friendship of Affleck and Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, and the strengths of the film pivot off of that. Ironically, the most lingering bit of a violent movie is a brief silent vignette in which the bank robbers enjoy a family respite within the protective embrace of Charlestown, a vision of false fantasy and security that drives them to violence. Other highlights include the tense opening robbery and an exciting chase scene through the North End. The culminating heist of Fenway Park proceeds from a Yankees series takes us deep into the bowels of the "cathedral of Boston" (as one character has it), although the sequence is undermined by a costuming decision that has Affleck and Renner looking like members of the Village People. All in all, though, a solid film greatly enhanced its take on a fascinating milieu and its feeling for the locale. Nice cameos by Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite...
PHOTO GALLERY
Garden, Beauregard-Keyes House...
Bayouecreole tucks into the world's biggest king cake...
James Dean gives directions to bicyclist. The residents of Marfa, TX, where Dean filmed Giant, remember him fondly as an unassuming man who mixed easily and often with locals...
Iconic Moment Dept: Paul Simenon of the Only Band That Matters smashes his guitar...
Blackberries in Indian Valley, ID...
Streetcar Sunday in Leipzig...
Roy's World in pastel...
Premium T. and the BVM...
Lakewood buttons up for cold weather...
ON THE JUKEBOX
Joan Baez sings "Sweet Sir Galahad"...
Lowell George and Little Feat perform "Dixie Chicken" with Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, and Jesse Winchester...
Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets...
Chet Flippo extols the Hank Williams box Complete Mother's Best as "a breathtaking display of the width and breadth of American music and culture from the first half of the 20th Century and even earlier..."
Justin Townes Earle sings "I'm Learning to Cry" and "One More Night in Brooklyn," from his excellent new CD Harlem River Blues:
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5 comments:
Great collection of cartoons, as usual. That last one, the animation, was so spot on!
I may break down and go see The Town. Everybody I know who's seen it says Affleck really has Charlestown to a T.
I've just been to Bunker Hill, but he seems to know what he's doing. If you like Boston movies -- and I do -- then you definitely was to see The Town. The Friends of Eddie Coyle is still the best, though. Gotta be a stand-up guy!
Another great selection of links K
Thank you for the revue on The Town, It is now on my list.
I love your selection of comics; all are favorites of mine.
And your commentary is so good that I wish it were on the editorial page of every newspaper. You really have a way of getting to the heart of the issue.
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