the winner of the golden globes

"The three winners have all been sold as complex, nuanced productions that don't shy away from hard truths about US foreign policy. And liberal audiences can't get enough of them. Perhaps it's because, alongside the odd bit of self-criticism, they are all so reassuringly insistent that, in an increasingly complicated world, America just keeps on doing the right thing. And even when it does the wrong thing – such as, I don't know, torture and drone strikes and deadly invasions – it is to combat far greater evil, and therefore OK."
Rachel Shabi, the guardian, Tuesday Jan 15 2013

cinema

Mr.&Mrs. Smith

Ghost World

I Killed My Mother

Moonrise Kingdom

Paris, Texas

Bright Star

Laurence

Laurence Anyways, by Xavier Dolan, 2012

mary-kate and ashley the MET gala through the years

2011
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005

notes from a convict

"I was recently released from solitary confinement after being held therein for thirty-seven months. The silence system was imposed upon me and if I even whispered to the man in the next cell resulted in being beaten by guards, sprayed with chemical mace, black jacked, stomped, and thrown into a strip cell naked to sleep on a concrete floor without bedding, covering, wash basin, or even a toilet....I know that thieves must be punished, and I don't justify stealing even though I am a thief myself. But now I don't think I will be a thief when I am released. No, I am not rehabilitated either. It is just that I no longer think of becoming wealthy or stealing. I now only think of killing -- killing those who have beaten me and treated me as if I were a dog. I hope and pray for the sake of my own soul and future life of freedom that I am able to overcome the bitterness and hatred which eats daily at my soul. But I know to overcome it will not be easy."

"Femaleness"

Attacking femaleness, deriding ‘girly stuff’ and rolling your eyes at ‘women’s issues,’ declaring yourself a ‘tomboy’ who gets along better with men because women are silly or pretty or whatever— these are expressions of internalized sexism. If that’s the way you feel about your own sex you’ll be doomed to feel inferior no matter what you achieve in life.
Ariel Levy, Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture (2006 ed.)

anti-immigration views by contemporary popular figures

"...my country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims."
Brigitte Bardot, in her book Pluto's Square

"All people have a basic human right to preserve their own heritage."
David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan, politician and white separatist

"...although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears."
Morrissey, musician, speaking to NME on why he wouldn't go back to his native Britain.