Readers of a Connecticut newspaper were jolted when they came across an article about the Newtown school massacre and found an advertisement touting an upcoming gun show displayed right next to it.
The Advocate of Stamford — 42 miles southwest of Newtown — published a story about classes resuming at the school where 20 students and six adults were killed last month, under the headline “A Different Sandy Hook Elementary Opens.’’ Next to the text and poignant photos is a jarring ad for the East Coast Fine Arms Show (“Investment quality arms from all eras”), set for Saturday and Sunday.
The cringe-worthy placement had red-faced officials at the Hearst Connecticut Media Group quickly issuing a mea culpa. Read More Here
When one does a biopic about Alfred Hitchcock, one of the most influential movie directors of all time, that film had better have a lot of details about his life, and had better be loaded with here-to-fore unknown bits and anecdotes about what’s going on inside his gifted, but quirky mind. To do otherwise, makes for a somewhat boring 98 minutes of watching the great man of suspense and thrillers become a victim of his own reputation, to say nothing of wasting the talents and gifts of Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, and those of the great Helen Mirren as Hitch’s wife, Alma Reville.
The screenplay written by John J. McLaughlin, based on the book “Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of ‘Psycho’”, by Stephen Robello, is dully and confusingly directed by Sacha Gervasi. The story revolves mainly around the making of Hitchcock’s famous film “Psycho”. The “film within a film” device attempts to serve as a way of understanding Hitchcock’s so called Freudian obsession with blonde leading ladies in his many films. However, the movie never explores the fetish or provides a satisfying answer to the premise. All we see is Hopkins, as Hitch, chewing the impersonation and giving the audience a peek into voyeuristic tendencies by installing a peephole into the dressing rooms of his actresses.
The story, such as it is, flails about looking for some semblance of a believable plot-line that is associated with the master of suspense. Instead of a compelling, and engaging story-line McLaughlin chooses to invest his script with a cast of predictable characters (Yes, I know the story revolves around real-life Hollywood names). However, it’s not the fault of the actors that many of them appear vapid and colorless. It’s the industry that they work in that makes them appear so. At least, Mirren looking trim and terrific, can always be counted on to give a first rate effort, which she does.
The search, so to speak, for a subplot utilizing Mirren and Danny Huston as a B-grade movie writer/director looking to hawk his script to Hitch via Alma, is weakly drawn. It’s also predictable, and is an unworthy ploy, which should have gone back to rewrite before filming began. The film lacks energy and … well,dare I say it … “suspense”. It’s about Alfred Hitchcock for crying out loud. One of the best things about “Hitchcock”, beside the photography and costumes, is the luminous performance of Scarlett Johansson portraying Janet Leigh. She lights up each and every scene in which she appears, even the famous shower-stabbing scene. Toni Collette as Peggy Robertson, Hitch’s right arm on the set; Jessica Biel as Vera Miles; and James D’Arcy as Anthony Perkins/Norman Bates, fall on their respective swords in this mish-mash of a “tribute” to the great master of filmmaking.
Forget the Hollywood PR hype. This is not “Best picture of the Year” material. If Hitchcock were alive today, he would groan at the amateurish, venal, and non-engaging movie that bears his famous name.
The White House and Mitch McConnell have reached a tentative deal early New Year’s Day.
The measure would raise taxes by about $600 billion over 10 years and delay for two months across-the-board spending cuts otherwise set to begin slashing the budgets of the Pentagon and numerous domestic agencies.
Highlights:
Income tax rates: Extends tax cuts on incomes up to $400,000 for individuals, $450,000 for couples. Earnings above those amounts would be taxed at a rate of 39.6%, up from the current 35%. Extends Clinton-era caps on itemized deductions and the phase-out of the personal exemption for individuals making more than $250,000 and couples earning more than $300,000.
Estate tax: Estates would be taxed at a top rate of 40%, with the first $5 million in value exempted for individual estates and $10 million for family estates. In 2012, such estates were subject to a top rate of 35%.
Capital gains, dividends: Taxes on capital gains and dividend income exceeding $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for families would increase from 15% to 20%.
Alternative minimum tax: Permanently addresses the alternative minimum tax and indexes it for inflation to prevent nearly 30 million middle- and upper-middle income taxpayers from being hit with higher tax bills averaging almost $3,000.
Other tax changes: Extends for five years Obama-sought expansions of the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, and an up to $2,500 tax credit for college tuition.
Unemployment benefits: Extends jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed for one year.
Cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors: Blocks a 27% cut in Medicare payments to doctors for one year. The cut is the product of an obsolete 1997 budget formula.
Social Security payroll tax cut: Allows a 2-percentage point cut in the payroll tax first enacted two years ago to lapse, which restores the payroll tax to 6.2%.
Across-the-board cuts: Delays for two months $109 billion worth of across-the-board spending cuts set to start striking the Pentagon and domestic agencies this week. Cost of $24 billion is divided between spending cuts and new revenues from rules changes on converting traditional individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs.
People around the world ushered in 2013 with a fanfare of record-breaking fireworks displays and raucous revelry. However, the New Year was also a more somber occasion for some, overshadowed by the events of 2012.
Sydney’s celebrations have set the tone for the first iconic images of the new year, which started sweeping across the Pacific with stunning displays of light shows. The biggest Australian city was lit by 7 tons of fireworks fired from rooftops and barges.
US President Barack Obama speaks before Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner (3rdR) and other cabinet members during a meeting.(AFP Photo / Toby Jorrin)
The deadline for the ‘fiscal cliff’ has passed in the US, with senators approving a bill to soften the impending tax hikes and spending cuts. Economists warn the austerity measures could send the US back into recession if lawmakers do not act.
The stopgap bill will now be presented to the House of Representatives, where it will face a crucial vote in the Republican-majority lower house.
Senators reached a deal on Monday after a weekend of political wrangling that saw Democrats and Republicans clashing over measures to avert the fiscal cliff. In an almost unanimous vote the Senate voted to approve the bill 89 to 8.
Obama praised the Senate for the new bill and called on the House of Representatives to follow suite and approve the legislation. He called the agreement “the right thing to do for our country” and said the House should pass it “without delay.”
“There’s more work to do to reduce our deficits, and I’m willing to do it. But tonight’s agreement ensures that, going forward, we will continue to reduce the deficit through a combination of new spending cuts and new revenues from the wealthiest Americans,” Obama said.
A delay in the voting will likely have no impact on the US economy, as Tuesday is a bank holiday in the US.
A Senate source has said the new deal would postpone the government spending cuts for another two months and extend the Bush administration-era tax cuts for households making less than $450,000 annually, CNN reported. President Barack Obama previously proposed allowing the tax cuts to expire for households making more than $250,000.
Americans are living in an Orwellian state argue Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuznick, as they sit down with RT to discuss US foreign policy and the Obama administration’s disregard for the rule of law.
Both argue that Obama is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and that people have forgiven him a lot because of the “nightmare of the Bush presidency that preceded him.”
“He has taken all the Bush changes he basically put them into the establishment, he has codified them,” Stone told RT. “It is an Orwellian state. It might not be oppressive on the surface, but there is no place to hide. Some part of you is going to end up in the database somewhere.”
According to Kuznick, American citizens live in a fish tank where their government intercepts more than 1.7 billion messages a day. “That is email, telephone calls, other forms of communication.”
RT’s Abby Martin in the program Breaking the Set discusses the Showtime film series and book titled The Untold History of the United States co-authored by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick.
The story, such as it is, flails about looking for some semblance of a believable plot-line that is associated with the master of suspense. Instead of a compelling, and engaging story-line McLaughlin chooses to invest his script with a cast of predictable characters (Yes, I know the story revolves around real-life Hollywood names). However, it’s not the fault of the actors that many of them appear vapid and colorless. It’s the industry that they work in that makes them appear so. At least, Mirren looking trim and terrific, can always be counted on to give a first rate effort, which she does.
The White House and Mitch McConnell have reached a tentative deal early New Year’s Day.
