Colbert on Cheney's New Fourth Branch

The best part is toward the end:

What Digby Said

For a while in the blogosphere, there's been a tradition of simply linking to a pseudonomous blogger named Digby, and just saying "What Digby said," because what was said was so eloquent, and true.

But who's Digby? We didn't even know Digby's gender.

Well, now we know:

Adam Curtis on the History of Public Relations

In this documentary, Curtis looks deep into twentieth century history and examines the ideas that influenced American public relations.

This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.
-- Adam Curtis

A Century of the Self:

Part 1, The Happiness Machines (the first few seconds did not make it into this video):



Part 2, The Engineering of Consent:



Part 3, There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads. He Must Be Destroyed:



Part 4, Eight People Sipping Wine:

Gore on Charlie Rose

Here is the best recent interview I've seen with Al Gore on his current book tour:



Speaking of Gore's book tour, there have been quite a few ironies that he's encountered, involving an oblivious media that seems out to prove his book's thesis for him.

Distilled Essence of Wankery

The editor at the Financial Times was snoring away:

Let us resist the politicisation of science and oppose the term “scientific consensus”, which is always achieved only by a loud minority, never by a silent majority

Over at NRO, they can't get enough: "Wow...just, wow."

This just cries out for an Onion link.

H/T: Crooked Timber.

Art Rock Nostalgia Blogging

Back when Peter Gabriel was trying for the Frodo instead of the Gandolf look:

Adam Curtis's The Power of Nightmares

Some nice folks have been uploading the work of British documentarian Adam Curtis to Google Video. This is thoughtful television of a kind you're not likely to see in the US (even on PBS).

Curtis's work ambitiously strings together history and ideas (with help from the BBC archives) and tries to make sense of contemporary events. The documentary I'm putting in this post, The Power of Nightmares, takes on terrorism and the Neoconservatives. If you've read books such as Ron Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine, or George Packer's, Assassin's Gate, you'll recognize some of the themes and subject matter.

It's long, and part 2 drags a bit. But parts 1 and 3 are worth putting in the time, especially if you're not totally familiar with the subject matter (which wouldn't be surprising if you've been watching mainstream US media).

Part 1, Baby It's Cold Outside:




Part 2, The Phantom Victory:



Part 3, The Shadows in the Cave: