Why Glengarry Glen Ross’ Alec Baldwin scene is so unusual

My wife and I re-watched Glengarry Glen Ross this past weekend, and I am always struck by the Alec Baldwin scene. Alec Baldwin only appears in Glengarry Glen Ross for something on the order of five or six minutes, but arguably, his scene not only makes the whole movie, but he turns in perhaps the best performance on the entire cast in those few minutes; and in case you weren’t aware, the cast isn’t exactly a group of unknowns…

Mike D’Angelo, writing at The A.V. Club:

All hail young, skinny Alec Baldwin. His character—inexplicably called Blake in the credits, rather than Fuck You—doesn’t exist in the play, and he only appears in this one scene. Yet he arguably sets the tone for the entire movie, providing a much more concrete sense of the pressure these salesman are under. Baldwin gives the monologue a marvelously practiced ring, as if he goes around performing it for various seedy offices around town; he’s the motivational speaker from Hell, determined to either increase productivity or inspire suicide. And Baldwin knows how to put his own arresting spin on Mamet’s famously repetitive dialogue. I read the shooting script long ago, and the line as written was “You think I’m fuckin’ with you, I am not fuckin’ with you”—quick, stabbing, emphasis on not. Baldwin transforms it into more of a slow ritual disembowelment, separating the two sentences with a curt head-shake that seems to nullify his victims’ entire existence. (I also love the way he shoots a glance at Levene’s crotch before asking, “You call yourself a salesman, you son of a bitch?”) Vocational terrorism has rarely been so delectable.

What a movie.

by Paul on August 21, 2012 at 9:48pm | Permalink
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Foundation Beyond Belief teams with Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for Light the Night Walk

I caught team captain Todd Stiefel on the Penn’s Sunday School podcast talking about the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and specifically their upcoming Light the Night Walk.

Foundation Beyond Belief is hoping to make a big splash this year by raising over a million dollars, which is an awesome goal. The idea being that atheists, humanists and all other manner of freethinkers already give generously, both monetarily and of themselves, to charitable causes, but they don’t tend to do it collectively as a group. Well, here’s the chance to make a big splash collectively as a group.

Todd also had a great quote on Penn’s show:

You know, that was the most, I think, effective technique that the gay rights movement has used is being “out,” and it’s one of the statistics that’s most correlated to eliminating discrimination is knowing someone who is LGBT. I believe strongly that the same thing is true in the atheist community, if you know an atheist, and you know that we’re decent hard-working people like anybody else, you’re much more likely to drop the stereotypes that we’re evil, immoral, baby-eating bastards.

Check out the links and give what you can or participate if you can.

by Paul on August 20, 2012 at 7:43pm | Permalink
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Ebert: Don’t tear down that wall!

Roger Ebert gets the separation of Church and State; unfortunately, many, many Americans don’t. Writing at his Chicago Sun-Times site “Roger Ebert’s Journal”:

And make no mistake: it is a principle we’re discussing here. If I believe my church’s teachings are correct, my obvious course should be to convert you to my church, not pass laws forcing you to follow its beliefs. Isn’t that obvious?

It should be, but no, it most certainly is not.

by Paul on August 19, 2012 at 1:10pm | Permalink
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Random find on Twitter: Bragging about paying 13% in taxes

Guy Endore-Kaiser (@GuyEndoreKaiser):

Bragging about paying 13% in taxes is like wanting an award because you threw a can at a homeless person that bounced into a recycling bin.

by Paul on August 19, 2012 at 12:50pm | Permalink
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I hate the word homophobia.

I see that this is not a verified account, and as a general rule I loath these “parody” accounts, but this tweet was so damned “spot-on” I just had to share it everywhere possible and with everyone possible…

Morgan Freeman (unverified) writing on Twitter:

I hate the word homophobia. It’s not a phobia. You are not scared. You are an asshole.

by Paul on August 18, 2012 at 7:20am | Permalink
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Religiosity on the decline, atheism on the rise

A new global survey on faith and atheism, released by WIN-Gallup International, and based on interviews with more than 50,000 people selected from 57 countries — asked participants, “irrespective of whether they attended a place of worship, if they considered themselves to be religious, not religious, or an atheist.”

Dominique Mosbergen writing at the Huffington Post:

The number of people in the U.S. who self-identify as religious dropped 13 points to 60 percent. In addition, 5 percent of Americans declared themselves atheists, an increase of 4 points since 2005.

But, it’s really much more than that, because the number of people identifying themselves as “Not a religious person” has risen from 20% in 2008 to 30% in 2012. Over a third of all Americans openly identify themselves as non-religious; now if that’s not freedom, and specifically “religious” freedom, I don’t what is.

by Paul on August 16, 2012 at 5:28pm | Permalink
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Chick-fil-A and free speech

Teller (@MrTeller) on Twitter:

A clear little essay on Chick-fil-A and the 1st Amendment in Boston.

In addition to dealing with what the Mayor of Boston, and others such as certain Chicago Aldermen, have said on the matter, the linked piece is actually a clear and concise primer on Chick-fil-A and the First Amendment, and illuminates some very important points that I think many people simply do not understand…

Marc J. Randazza, a Constitutional attorney specializing in the First Amendment, writing at CNN.com:

Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-fil-A, proudly proclaimed his opposition to marriage equality and drew flak from politicians and citizens nationwide, who said Cathy’s position made the chain unwelcome on their turf. Some of the condemnation crossed the line, offending the First Amendment. Some did not. Many don’t understand where the line is, and now a population already sharply divided over same-sex marriage is collectively less informed about the First Amendment.

The First Amendment protects you from government action suppressing your right to free speech. It does not protect you from private individuals’ negative reaction to your speech. As an extreme example: In my younger and more impulsive days, I punched out a guy who offended my then-girlfriend (now wife). He said he was exercising his First Amendment rights. I agreed and told him that I would defend him if the government messed with him, but the First Amendment didn’t protect him from a private punch. I broke a few laws that day, but I didn’t violate the First Amendment.

Similarly, the First Amendment does not protect you from criticism. Sarah Palin infamously took us all back a few steps by ignorantly criticizing the media for its negative commenting on her views. She said, “I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.” This statement is utterly wrong. The First Amendment does not protect you from scrutiny or criticism by the media or others.

Therefore, those claiming that the private calls to boycott Chick-fil-A have any First Amendment implications are wrong. Cathy put his thoughts into the marketplace of ideas, where they may be bought or rejected. He has no First Amendment right to our approval, or to our money for his sandwiches.

(emphasis added)

by Paul on July 31, 2012 at 7:47pm | Permalink
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‘A Perfect and Beautiful Machine’: What Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Reveals About Artificial Intelligence

Daniel C. Dennett writing at The Atlantic:

Charles Darwin and Alan Turing, in their different ways, both homed in on the same idea: the existence of competence without comprehension.

As a career software engineer, and a longtime fan of the sciences, I find this essay fascinating. Of course, Turing was right. Speaking only for myself, I’ve been creating software with high levels of competency for decades, but comprehension? Zero. But then again, I don’t work in a field attempting such. People who do in those fields are making great progress.

In the end, however, I think Dennett nails it in the last paragraph:

Turing’s strange inversion of reason, like Darwin’s, goes against the grain of millennia of earlier thought. If the history of resistance to Darwinian thinking is a good measure, we can expect that long into the future, long after every triumph of human thought has been matched or surpassed by “mere machines,” there will still be thinkers who insist that the human mind works in mysterious ways that no science can comprehend.

by Paul on July 3, 2012 at 8:49am | Permalink
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Why are believers ignorant about atheists?

Greta Christina writing at AlterNet.org (via Salon.com):

It’s important to remember that most atheists were once believers. We’re familiar with religion because we’ve believed it ourselves. And it’s important to remember that, in most of the world, religious belief is the dominant culture. Atheists have to be familiar with it. It’s shoved in our face on a regular basis. Our friends believe it, our families believe it, our co-workers believe it, it’s all over the media. We can’t be ignorant of religion. We’re soaking in it.

[…]

And one of the largest pillars in this fortress is the bigoted mythology about atheists. The idea that atheists are amoral? That our lives lack meaning and joy? That we’re only atheists so we can reject religious rules? That we hate God? That our atheism is shallow, and we reject it and embrace religion when faced with suffering and death? That we have no basis for human emotions like love and friendship and grief? It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that all this mythology exists to keep believers from listening to anything we have to say.

by Paul on June 30, 2012 at 10:25pm | Permalink
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Daylight Savings Time is Senseless

I understand and appreciate its historical significance during the WWI and WWII eras, but the practicalities that necessitated it during those bygone days haven’t existed for at least two generations.

Plus, it’s backwards: why move the clock forward at the point of the year when the days are naturally “growing longer”? I can’t help but think it would be vastly more useful to do the opposite.

I could care less whether it’s dark when I drive to work or dark when I drive home, but at the very least, we should pick one or the other and stick with it. The last thing we should be doing is exacerbating the difference between planetary tilt having placed the sun above or below the equator!

by Paul on March 11, 2012 at 2:46pm | Permalink
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