Saddam Hussein's execution is a sideshow to Iraq's far graver problems. A bigger concern is what will the U.S. do next, and will its actions make things better -- or, God forbid, worse -- in the country it invaded, asks BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen.

   more »

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, one of the 20th century's most notorious tyrants, was executed at dawn on Saturday in Baghdad, along with two senior members of his deposed regime.

Does it matter if he is guilty, but, in the opinion of one major human rights group, wasn't fairly convicted?

   more »

From the Online Journalism Review blurb: All U.S. journalists, pro and amateur, need for better field reporting is a better cell phone. Fortunately, some are on the way.

   more »

This NY article looks at how former U.S. President Gerald Ford dealt with the almost weekly lampooning at the hands of physical comedy master Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live.

   more »

It's that time of year to look back on the best and worst of the year that was. Here's one Canada reference that stuck out.

In the film The Last King of Scotland, Nicholas Garrigan, the recent medical graduate protagonist, realizes how bored he is at home and decides to seek an adventure.

He decides spin the globe in his room and travel to the first country on which his finger lands.

It lands on Canada.

He shakes his head 'no' and spins again. :)

Canada got a mention in Spike Lee's When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Parts. One New Orleans resident (if I remember correctly) said when he asked some emergency workers where they were from, they said they were with the RCMP! What made the man shake his head is that no one seemed to be around from the U.S. government.

I felt relieved tonight when I felt a few flakes of snow on my face. :)

The Beeb covers off some key questions about the conflict in Somalia.

Expect the West to put more pressure on Pakistan to deal with the Taliban -- and expect that pressure to go nowhere, writes the Beeb's Paul Dahar.

   more »

The Rev. Al Sharpton had this to say about James Brown, who lay on the stage at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem on Thursday:

"It was James Brown that with one song erased the word negro from our vocabulary forever and made us say it and say it loud, that we were black and we were proud.

"He proved to us if you believe in God and you believe in yourself you can make it no matter what."

If you don't know what I'm referring to, it's his famous 1968 song.

From the NYT story:

James Brown, with a catalog of socially conscious music, including “Say It Loud -- I’m Black and I’m Proud,” which at least one person waiting in line yesterday called “the real black national anthem,” changed America’s collective black consciousness, Mrs. Harper said.

“When he said, ‘Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud,’ that was very important for us,” Mrs. (Brenda) Harper said. “At that point, black people as a whole were confused about where we stood in America. But he said, ‘You are beautiful, you are important.’ He made us feel that and believe that.”

Harper first saw Brown perform at the Apollo in 1961, when she was eight years old. She was the first in line for the public viewing of his body on Thursday.

Here's the BBC's photo gallery. This CTV.ca story has video attached and links to a few backgrounders on Brown. My initial post on JB has been updated with some YouTube links.

Addendum

The popularity of Say It Loud among the black militant set of the time may well have cost Brown some of his white audience. Here's what he wrote in his autobiography:

"The white community took it entirely the wrong way, as a kind of aggressive statement meant to induce fear. So negative was the reaction to the song that radio programmers refused to play it on white stations."

This is a fantastic film! Personally, I ranks up there with Blade Runner (the director's cut) as one of the great dystopian movies ever (although 28 Days Later is damned fine piece of work too).

Great cast, great script and outstanding direction by Alfonso Cuarón (Y tu Mama Tambien).

Here's the NYT review by Manohla Dargis.

Some images to watch for: Picasso's Guernica on the apartment wall of Theo's (Clive Owen's character) politically-connected cousin; the Abu Ghraib-like imagery in the scenes Bexhill refugee camp, which is itself a combination of Baghdad, Grozny and Mogadishu all rolled into one.

If you like serious, adult films (but still fairly mainstream, with a few surprising chuckles thrown into the overall bleak story line), don't miss this one.