Tag Archives: OddBox
REPORT: China jails more journalists than any other country in the world
China #1!
Another World, Stavanger, Norway
Bigmob Dontwannastop posted a photo:
GRACE & FRANKIE & OTHER NEWS
So much going on. Since we wrapped Grace & Frankie mid-November, Lily has been nominated for a Golden Globe both for her role as Frankie and for her lead performance in “Grandma” and I’ve been nominated for a Golden Globe for my role in “Youth.” “Youth” is the film I travelled to Switzerland and Italy to make last year. An incredible experience working with Paolo Sorrentino. The film just won “Best European Film” and Paolo won “Best European Director”. The film is a feast for the eyes and a sort of meditative exploration of life, aging and passion.
To top it off, the same day the Golden Globes were announced, we got an official Season 3 renewal for G&F! Such great news all around. We really found our groove shooting Season 2, so I’m thrilled we will get an opportunity to do more. Don’t have our air date yet for Season 2 but of course I will keep you posted.
Let’s see, what else? There’s been such a great reception to the Box set of my Original Workout Programs on AMAZON. I’m finding out that it’s become a popular gift item this season. Amazon has it as part of their deal of the month, so check them out here, if you haven’t already.
Then there’s been the Paris Climate Conference. Here’s a link to Bill McKibben’s Op Ed piece in the New York Times.
http://nyti.ms/1P6sG5a
I agree with Bill. If we’d passed the accord that has come out of Paris back during the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 (I was there), the weather disasters that are occurring at an ever increasing rate could have been at least partly avoided and we’d have been given a much better chance today of achieving the newly adopted goal of 1.5 degree Celsius (above pre-industrial levels). This is the level at which climate scientists say we can avoid the worst catastrophes that could make parts of the planet uninhabitable. The goal set by the Paris accord, if implemented, is more than twice that. Achieving the 1.5 degreeC goal requires leaving most of the remaining fossil fuels in the ground. That is why people like the Koch brothers and their ilk have spend $100s of millions funding Climate-denying “research” . . . making the world safe and habitable would hurt their bottom line. They’d rather die rich than help save the world –God’s creation, as Pope Francis says. Since the coal and oil and fracking industries fund so many political campaigns, most prominently the Republican Right Wing, if we elect a Republican we’re selling ourselves and our children’s children down the drain.
What is to be done (besides turning out next Nov in large numbers and voting for the planet)? As Bill McKibben says, ” . . . we need to build the movement even bigger in the coming years, so that Paris turns into a floor and not a ceiling for action. We’ll be blocking pipelines, fighting new coal mines, urging divestment from fossil fuels—trying, in short, to keep weakening the mighty industry that still stands in the way of real progress.”
And, trust me, I’ll be dragging these old bones and young heart to every rally and protest I can get to (when I’m not filming) and financially supporting the worthiest of climate efforts because I think it’s all worth saving and I have grandchildren.
Kim Jong-un ordered his girl group home after learning Xi Jinping wasn’t planning on attending their performance
Reasons for the abrupt and shocking cancellation of the official DPRK girl group’s performances in Beijing may now have come to light. Reportedly, the Moranbong Band’s visit to China was terminated once North Korea learned that Chinese President Xi Jinping would not be attending their concert.
Sounds so sweet
msnbc: Since Sandy Hook, an American kid has been killed by a…
Since Sandy Hook, an American kid has been killed by a gun every other day
.554 kids under the age of 12 have died from gunshots — both intentional and accidental — since Adam Lanza stormed into the school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012 and shot dead 20 children and six staff members, according to an NBC News analysis.
Here are more of the shocking statistics since Sandy Hook: http://on.msnbc.com/1mkgG4M
(4/11) “These things are very hard for me to remember, but I…
(4/11) “These things are very hard for me to remember, but I try not to cry because I want to be strong for my mother. It was hardest for her because she had children. During the war she had to worry about herself, but she also had to worry about us. It made her very ill. Her blood pressure is very high now. Her hand shakes. She has bladder problems. But she is my hero because she always protected us. One time when my father wasn’t home, a strange man entered our house. But my mother pretended to be a man and screamed downstairs in a very deep voice. And she saved us.”
(Gaziantep, Turkey)
Norman Lear Vows to Fight Donald Trump’s Anti-Muslim Rhetoric
Hollywood’s elder statesman says his group People For the American Way will launch a major initiative aimed at combating ‘hate speech’ from Trump and other GOP presidential candidates.
in toleration of intolerance
A news title caught my attention this morning. I was thinking I was more tolerant towards Israeli story recently after frequently scrolling through Ynet. I was reading an article about a special unit that is growing to fight “terrorism” “us”, and the heroic investigative article and operation they held in Anata some days ago. I was also taken by an article that exposes Arab media that calls for the Arab youth to stat away from certain media pages, on Facebook such as that of the army spokesperson. There was also an interesting article about the fuss that was made by the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs against the French consulate in Jerusalem and the cultural center that was posting a vacancy or something stating that the location is in East Jerusalem (Safra Square). I do understand that east Jerusalem today is those roads that are somehow alienated slowly from the old city and some neighborhoods along the settlements. I do understand that the Israeli public doesn’t need to learn anything about the green line and what is “official” East and what is officially “west”. After all, Oslo stated that Jerusalem is in the final stage of a never coming solution.
Again and again, despite my sensitivity in reading Israeli headlines and what comes inside them, they still remain more credible than the Palestinian media.
There is actually no credible source for media inside Palestine except that of Israel, especially these days. Our news states headlines with no context. A Palestinian executed and becoming a Shahid, and then rallies in funerals, bereaved families or celebrating. It is all becoming the same. Big silence at the government end. Everything seems like another day of business. The president receives visitor, the prime minister issues vacation days and open ceremonies. Salaries are the same argument. Hamas and Fateh are still fighting and accusing each other.
In the Israeli media, you can also see the soft side of the Netanyahu’s, with an article about their dog that bit a Knesset member and the story of the saving of that dog by the Netanyahu son.
Among the other nice things that show the best of the Israeli society is today’s article: Gay Iranian poet flees persecution, finds himself in Israel.
No one told him of course that three people were stabbed and killed last year in the gay parade in Jerusalem. After all, anonymous killings by fanatic “minorities” don’t count.
I had to read through the whole article to see if this Iranian was a Muslim. Information that was skipped all along the article. I made some tiny research to be assured that Tehran has 13 active synagogues, five Jewish schools, two kindergartens and a 100 bed Jewish hospital. They have active communities in Shiraz, Isfahan and Kermanshah. (http://bitly.com/1SWkDab).
I am sure it is not the best place to be as a first class citizen in a country like Iran in accordance to what we learnt from the west. And I am sure a second-class citizen in a Jew wouldn’t be too much of a luxury.
What made me think that the man is a Jew that in the description of his looks in the article and later in the photo they have for him a Star of David is tattooed on his neck.
Of course I don’t care if the man comes to Israel or he doesn’t. He is fleeing or not. he is a gay or not … that Israel is the haven for gays or not ..
That part of eluding the reader is what marks our minds. The moment we read the word Iran and Israel. Coming together, it quickly reflects the title that was carefully put for that article.
But more to a Palestinian like me was the sentence that the article started with: …He is visiting Israel, Iran’s archenemy and a country known for its tolerance towards gays.
Israel tolerance towards something.
A word I find myself asking every single day (no exaggeration) when I pass the checkpoint with a smile from the nice Israeli soldiers who think that I cannot be a Palestinian (using my psychological tips on just moving in front of them as an Israeli. with my Arab, Israeli, Italian, Spanish confusing appeal).
What if they made a decision to treat us with some tolerance? What if they just make people pass without this dehumanizing technique that is branded with intolerance. What if they look into these Palestinian eyes and tell him you are a fellow human. Not that “goyim” education that is so natural, it makes classifications fall into a normal order of a country that intolerance is the tattoo that engraves it with the enclaves of apartheid and discrimination.
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