http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/14/golden-globes-2013-girls-rule Comments On: Golden Globes 2013: Girls Rule by David Schmader en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Tue, 21 May 2013 21:45:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by gloomy gus]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 07:55:30 -0800 The Stranger
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/pre…

Of course I found the middle sentence ("Some came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques, but there were many other sources as well.") to be the most relevant and the closest to my impression of the film's content. Still ... I was only joking about the torture thing being a campaign by the other production companies, but who really knows when the Weinsteins are involved?!
Posted by Josh Bis]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:06:16 -0800 The Stranger
The head of the CIA says the question is whether "enhanced interrogation techniques were the only timely and effective way to obtain information from those detainees." He says "the film suggests" they were indeed.

For all your surmises about secret agendas being pursued by her film's detractors, the only agenda that interests me is Bigelow's - why did she choose to tell what the CIA director points out was a one-sided story? In discussions of the film early on she touted how drawn-from-facts her story was, and when questioned about the torture presentation she fell back on "it's a work of fiction".

I don't mind a person trying to have their cake and eat it too - I've tried it often enough myself - but nobody is above being called out on it.
Posted by gloomy gus]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:01:28 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Just Jeff]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:52:32 -0800 The Stranger et.al.) is not a public confessional.
Posted by Rhett Oracle]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:30:21 -0800 The Stranger
Second, the film creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques that were part of our former detention and interrogation program were the key to finding Bin Ladin. That impression is false. As we have said before, the truth is that multiple streams of intelligence led CIA analysts to conclude that Bin Ladin was hiding in Abbottabad. Some came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques, but there were many other sources as well. And, importantly, whether enhanced interrogation techniques were the only timely and effective way to obtain information from those detainees, as the film suggests, is a matter of debate that cannot and never will be definitively resolved. [CIA.gov]
In any case, I just feel like "endorse" is really the wrong word to use w/r/t Bigelow and Boal's presentation of the torturous "enhanced interrogation" program. The film is far too nuanced for that level of agenda-serving simplification.

Posted by Josh Bis]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:29:37 -0800 The Stranger But the real problem is that the film shows that the key piece of information that led to the finding and killing of Osama bin Laden was extracted from a detainee who, for the first 45 minutes of the film, was brutally tortured. He then gave off the key bit of information, which was the identity of Osama bin Laden’s courier, which led the CIA to be able to find bin Laden when he was sitting at a table eating with two CIA agents who had spent the first 45 minutes of the film torturing him, and they then threatened to return him to torture.

The line right before he gives up the key piece of information is “you can tell me what I want to know, or I can hang you back up to the ceiling.” And he then immediately coughs up the name of the courier that led them to bin Laden. So the key message that huge numbers of people—writers, journalists, politicians—who’ve seen this film received, and was intended to be conveyed, is that torture played a critical role in enabling the finding of bin Laden. That would be bothersome even if it were true; the fact that it’s a complete fabrication is what makes this film so reckless and disturbing. http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/01/11…
Posted by gloomy gus]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:59:27 -0800 The Stranger ZDT is that it's "pro-torture" and not "too anti-American".

To my (likely biased) eyes, it [SPOILER, MAYBE?] showed: the ineffectiveness of inhumane torturous treatment of prisoners; an understaffed / underfunded / often disorganized team responsible for tracking bin Laden (the key detail was lost due to misfiling for years); many terrorist incidents that were not foiled by our intelligence agencies; and a raid that, while cinematic and well executed leaves no doubt about the interest in "capturing" vs. killing their target; and a finale that's anything but celebratory.
Posted by Josh Bis]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:49:45 -0800 The Stranger Zero Dark Thirty was initially gathered by Maya tricking the prisoner, not the torture itself. The implication for me was that if we were smarter about it, we could probably have collected better information faster than by torturing suspects.
Posted by Paul Constant]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:18:50 -0800 The Stranger Zero Dark Thirty again, but found it much murkier. I don't remember any useful information coming from the torture scenes, which were uniformly depicted as horrific and futile. I feel like it's disingenuous to say that the filmmakers "endorse" torture simply because they included its shameful existence in their film.
Posted by Josh Bis]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:54:51 -0800 The Stranger
Unfortunate though, that she felt the need to sneer at how others have chosen to handle their coming-out. And if she's so wary of drawing attention to her personal life, why make such a production out of it? She could've done a more classy, Matt Bomer-esque slight of hand and been done with it.

But opaque? Yes. I still need a translation, please (for instance, how did she handle her ex?)
Posted by Michael of the Green]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:49:09 -0800 The Stranger
Jody's stand that everybody who needed to know knew Jodie was a lesbian was at once refreshing but against the whole principle of a wholesome coming out - that being gay was something that needed to be kept private. Is there a heterosexual equivalent? Can a actor say, "It is none of your business whom I am sleeping with."? Yes, but the presumption is that the sleeping partner is of the opposite sex. No one has to come out as straight (not yet anyway).

I think you have to public identify as gay and then you can keep your lover/date/husband/wife/partner and that relationship as private as you see fit. Because if you don't public identify as gay - whether it's the intended consequence or not - you make the statement that it is something that needs to be kept secret. That isn't a healthy attitude. We all have our badges to wear.
Posted by Bauhaus I]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:38:29 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Skeptika]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:24:26 -0800 The Stranger Posted by gloomy gus]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:15:08 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Wicked Virgin]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:07:25 -0800 The Stranger Zero Dark Thirty somehow endorses torture is nothing more than a very effective campaign launched by its competitors to make sure that it doesn't win all of the awards that it deserves.

Lena Dunham was fantastic, but it does seem weird to me that GIRLS is categorized as a comedy.
Posted by Josh Bis]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:03:37 -0800 The Stranger Posted by DOUG.]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:44:00 -0800 The Stranger Posted by sara]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:42:57 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Just Jeff]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:33:27 -0800 The Stranger Posted by gloomy gus]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:02:01 -0800 The Stranger Posted by sisyphusgal]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:01:14 -0800 The Stranger
My favorite response to her ramblathon was that of Dave Holmes, who instantly wrote, "You can be honest about your sexual identity and still maintain your privacy. Enough with this goofy false choice."
Posted by gloomy gus]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:00:26 -0800 The Stranger
Do journalists even know how to use Google?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/art…

And an article from last year describing how she is the first gay woman to win the lifetime achievement award:

http://www.yourtango.com/2012164423/jodi…
Posted by passionate_jus]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:15:48 -0800 The Stranger Posted by WFM]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:12:36 -0800 The Stranger
I love it how some of the coolest people there are are also hollywood celebrities.
Posted by doloresdaphne]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:10:46 -0800 The Stranger