What I'm Watching: Interview with Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier in 2000.

Your Head Trucker prefers history and biography for light reading and leisure viewing, but not too often do I come across something worth sharing that seems to fit the format of the Blue Truck.

Usually, I post only short videos on this blog - who has time for more than a couple of soundbites in this modern world?  But apart from news of the day, too often frightfully depressing, it's not always easy to find short videos that are worth recommending.  So here is the first of what may become a feature on the Blue Truck:  a longer video that might take more than one sitting to get through, but which is entertaining or noteworthy for one reason or another.

I'll start off with this 2009 interview with renowned actor Sidney Poitier, from the American Academy of Achievement - an organization I never heard of before now. Among other incidents, his experience at age 15 coming to America from his native Bahamas - a majority-black British colony - and his encounters with American racism are most interesting - starting at about the 1:13 mark.

Obama: Your Job

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From an interview with David Remmick in the New Yorker - emphasis mine:

How did he speak with his two daughters about the election results, about the post-election reports of racial incidents? “What I say to them is that people are complicated,” Obama told me. “Societies and cultures are really complicated. . . . This is not mathematics; this is biology and chemistry. These are living organisms, and it’s messy. And your job as a citizen and as a decent human being is to constantly affirm and lift up and fight for treating people with kindness and respect and understanding. And you should anticipate that at any given moment there’s going to be flare-ups of bigotry that you may have to confront, or may be inside you and you have to vanquish. And it doesn’t stop. . . . You don’t get into a fetal position about it. You don’t start worrying about apocalypse. You say, O.K., where are the places where I can push to keep it moving forward.”

Mike Jones Talks

A Blue Truck reader (thanks much, bud!) has kindly sent the link to last Wednesday's Feast of Fools radio show, in which Mike Jones discusses both the old and new news about Ted Haggard's twisted sexual escapades, oops, I mean "heterosexual-with-complications" issues.

This reader says he's been acquainted with Mike, and he believes Mike is an honest, sincere fellow who's gotten an undeservedly bad rap from both the MSM as well as the gay press.

You be the judge. Here's the direct link to the .mp3 of the show, which should open in your default player.

I Had to Say Something by Mike Jones is available in hardcover from TLA for $6.99

BTW - A few days ago I noticed ads for tedhaggard dot com were showing up on my blog. Now that was funny. I blocked them, natch.

Forbidden Words: Richard Rodriguez

An intriguing, provocative interview by Reason magazine with the brilliant author Richard Rodriguez - gay, Catholic, Latino - whom I highly admire and have blogged about before.

To view the entire hour-long interview, which covers a wide range of ideas about race, religion, sexuality, and the limitations of language, click here.

Jane, Jane, stop this crazy thing!

I've thought since day one that there's really no need to attack Palin; just let her talk, and she will hang herself with her own rope. I was right.

From the Couric interview, on McCain and the bailout, which is all about healthcare reform:

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On her foreign affairs expertise, which apparently comes from watching Putin fly over Alaska:

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Will somebody p-l-e-a-s-e stop the madness? I can hardly believe my eyes and ears. This woman is a candidate for Vice President of the United States in the 21st century. It's just beyond absurd, like some weird Fellini movie.

Hell, Jane Jetson would make a better candidate than this!

Not a Reality Show!

Stop the madness! An Op-ed in the NYT by Bob Herbert spells it out for those who can't read the handwriting on the wall (emphasis mine):

While watching the Sarah Palin interview with Charlie Gibson Thursday night, and the coverage of the Palin phenomenon in general, I’ve gotten the scary feeling, for the first time in my life, that dimwittedness is not just on the march in the U.S., but that it might actually prevail.

How is it that this woman could have been selected to be the vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket? How is it that so much of the mainstream media has dropped all pretense of seriousness to hop aboard the bandwagon and go along for the giddy ride?

For those who haven’t noticed, we’re electing a president and vice president, not selecting a winner on “American Idol.”

Ms. Palin may be a perfectly competent and reasonably intelligent woman (however troubling her views on evolution and global warming may be), but she is not ready to be vice president.

With most candidates for high public office, the question is whether one agrees with them on the major issues of the day. With Ms. Palin, it’s not about agreeing or disagreeing. She doesn’t appear to understand some of the most important issues. . . .

Ms. Palin’s problem is not that she was mayor of a small town or has only been in the Alaska governor’s office a short while. Her problem (and now ours) is that she is not well versed on the critical matters confronting the country at one of the most crucial turning points in its history.

The economy is in a tailspin. The financial sector is lurching about on rubbery legs. We’re mired in self-defeating energy policies. We’re at war. And we are still vulnerable to the very real threat of international terrorism.

With all of that and more being the case, how can it be a good idea to set in motion the possibility that Americans might wake up one morning to find that Sarah Palin is president? . . .

John McCain, who is shameless about promoting himself as America’s ultimate patriot, put the best interests of the nation aside in making his incredibly reckless choice of a running mate. But there is a profound double standard in this country. The likes of John McCain and George W. Bush can do the craziest, most irresponsible things imaginable, and it only seems to help them politically.

What I hate about Oklahoma

In case you missed Michael Signorile's interview with God's own "Judeo-Christian Warrior," state representative Sally Kern, last week at the Republican convention, here it is. Listen to what she says about straight teen sex versus homosex.

Part 1:


Part 2:


(Honk-honk to Joe.My.God.)