Crooks & Liars has a great clip of Viggo Mortensen — or Aragorn, to most people — talking politics on PBS’s Charlie Rose Show.
C&L writes: “Viggo hammered the Bush administration Friday night on Charlie’s show. His arguments were well thought out and sincere 
whether you agreed with him or not. I didn’t know that he was that politically engaged.”
Oh yes! In fact, he edited and wrote for a book about the Iraq war and occupation: Twilight of Empire: Responses to Occupation, which includes essays by Joe Wilson, Naomi Klein, Medea Benjamin, and many more. Another of the book’s editors is our own Other Lisa. O P E N T H R E A D . . .
I wanted to bring this sad and maddening story to your attention:
By Charles Ornstein and Daniel Costello, Times Staff Writers
Christine Maggiore was in prime form, engaging and articulate, when she explained to a Phoenix radio host in late March why she didn’t believe HIV caused AIDS.
The HIV-positive mother of two laid out matter-of-factly why, even while pregnant, she hadn’t taken HIV medications, and why she had never tested her children for the virus.
“Our children have excellent records of health,” Maggiore said on the Air America program when asked about 7-year-old Charlie and 3-year-old Eliza Jane Scovill. “They’ve never had respiratory problems, flus, intractable colds, ear infections, nothing. So, our choices, however radical they may seem, are extremely well-founded.”
Seven weeks later, Eliza Jane was dead.
The cause, according to a Sept. 15 report by the Los Angeles County coroner, was AIDS-related pneumonia.
These days, given advances in HIV care, it’s highly unusual for any young child to die of AIDS. What makes Eliza Jane’s death even more striking is that her mother is a high-profile, charismatic leader in a movement that challenges the basic medical understanding and treatment of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
It’s a lengthy article. Perhaps someone who is familiar with this woman and her “cause” could put a diary together about it.
Truly, truly sad…
Good god. Does she hang with the president of South Africa?
And she’s so damn lucky to have access to some good medications in the U.S.!
She oughta try living in Africa for a while.
I’m thinking of doing a diary about the problem of free will (prime example above). I’m just working it out in my head.
Lynndie England is another example. I bet she was beaten into submission as a tiny child, struggled with thinking tasks, and was easy prey for Graner.
That’s what one psychiatrist says.
Nope.I don’t buy that. I was an abused child who watched my father beat the shit out of my brother and try to do the same to me,until I gave him a swift one in the balls and he backed off.That did not turn me into a monster.
Every person has a choice- if that is what is meant as ‘free will’supposedly given by some unknown deity,but in the end it is your own sense of fairness- meaning that – I could never ,ever do to someone else what was done to me. I suppose it could go either way, but the fair way is to not inflict pain to compensate for your own. </sermon>
My definition is a bit different since I don’t believe in God. Maybe I should write that diary…
I certainly agree with you about choice, but I also know that having the ability to make a coherent or “right” choice depends on a lot of variables. That’s why people react differently to similar situations.
I’m not defendng England. I don’t know enough about her and I don’t know her personally so I can’t make a judgment about her life in the past. All I know is that what she did was abhorrent and illegal and she deserves to be sanctioned for that.
You are right ,hon, it is not my job to judge, and I have no gods to rely on either, but some people just don’t seem to get it. And perhaps they never will. On the other hand,what I saw this weekend was a huge outpouring of love , so it goes both ways, 🙂
C&L also has a clip of Bill Maher’s show on Friday night.
Maher called Bush a “Category 5 president.”
Great interview with Viggo! He is not only hot, hot, hot(an ol gal can dream) he is intelligent and very articulate. Thanks for the link. Bill Maher clip is great. just wish we could have heard what hitchens said at the end about the pictures Bill showed being “unfair”.
Today marks the beginning of Banned Books Week. The American Library Association has a lot of good information about this issue on their site, including lists of banned books. (follow the link)
Larry King announced he’s going to have Bill Nye the Science Guy on again tomorrow night. I saw Nye the other evening on LK — he was great. He explained the science very well, and was flat out blunt about global warming!
And there is always project censored to get your ire up.
Thanks, Susan — Viggo was on Letterman last night and it was a, um… interesting interview. He told a couple of odd stories, yet seemed quite nice. They didn’t get into anything political, although Dave’s Top Ten was great. I don’t remember it exactly, but something like Bush’s Top Ten ways to save money, and it slammed him. At the end, Paul and the band played “When the Levee Broke.” Dave, Jay, and Conan have all been letting loose on Bush lately, but Dave is just relentless.
We had a little gathering this afternoon on the bridge between Fargo, ND and Moorhead, MN.
We’re scheduled for next Sat too.
Nice banner, eh? Good goin’ guys!!
Viggo Mortensen was great. But Charlie Rose’s devil’s advocacy was well inaccurate and forced Viggo to rely on the lying theme. Basically, Rose said that Viggo’s idea of “Out now” goes contrary to what the Iraq people want. This doesn’t sit right with polls I’ve seen