In India, Once-Marginalized Now Memorialized

In India, a land of ancient monuments, people are talking about a newly built monument for the nation’s most marginalized people. It’s a memorial to India’s Dalits, the people once called “untouchables,” and it was built by the country’s most powerful Dalit politician. The Indian monument best known to Westerners is the Taj Mahal, but [...]

In Europe’s Crisis, U.S. Mostly An Observer

When Columbus sailed west in the late 15th century, he launched a long and lucrative relationship between Europe and the Americas. Family ties, economic bonds and shared military goals continue to knit us together. But as the European debt crisis has deepened, it has highlighted this early 21st century shift: The United States is becoming [...]

New York Wrestles Over Extending Millionaires Tax

The so-called millionaires tax on New York’s top wage earners is set to expire at the end of the year, even as the state struggles to balance its books. A poll released Thursday shows that New Yorkers favor extending the tax by more than 2 to 1. But the millionaires tax also has its opponents, [...]

The Rising Cost Of Doing Business With Greece

As details of the Greek debt deal passed by the European Union Wednesday are worked out, some businesses in the U.S. continue to grapple with the ripple effects of the prolonged debt crisis. The EU hopes the debt deal will contain Europe’s debt problems, and the problem countries will now start their work of implementing [...]

Herman Cain’s Ads Unconventional If Not Effective

The first presidential caucus and primary voting is a bit more than two months away, and GOP candidates are starting to put up ads on TV and the Internet. No ads have gotten more buzz than those of Herman Cain, who most polls say is the GOP front-runner. They’ve been the subject of a great [...]

‘The Double’: In From The Cold War, A Retro Thriller

Early on in the wacky but watchable espionage thriller The Double, a U.S. senator drops the slightly surprising news that a resurgent Red Peril has waltzed right under the radar of the FBI and the CIA, who’ve been focusing on Middle East terrorism. It would seem the Russians are coming again, this time in the [...]

For ‘Anonymous’ Scribe, A Shakespearean Speculation

“What if” — two words that ignite the plot of Roland Emmerich’s new movie Anonymous, which conjures up an Elizabethan England rife with dark motivations, political maneuverings and bold conspiracy, and dares to imagine a different identity for the world’s most celebrated playwright. John Orloff wrote the screenplay for the movie, which starts with the [...]

A Stone Carver’s Daughter Tells Of Mount Rushmore

On Halloween 70 years ago, an iconic American monument was completed — Mount Rushmore. It took 14 years of blasting and chiseling granite to finish the work. And chief stone carver Luigi Del Bianco, an Italian immigrant, was there for most of them. Del Bianco was responsible for many of the finer details in Lincoln’s [...]

‘Anonymous’: Stylish Claptrap, By Any Other Name

Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare? That is the question — at least according to Roland Emmerich’s new movie Anonymous. Personally, I went in a skeptic of the Oxfordian position, which posits that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays and poems generally attributed to Shakespeare. But I have to concede that Anonymous raises [...]

‘Time’ Bandits: Timberlake, Seyfried Clock Some Sci-Fi

Featuring more running than an entire season of Doctor Who, Andrew Niccol’s In Time is a supremely silly lovers-on-the-lam caper all tarted up with a dash of sci-fi seriousness. And that’s the problem: Unable to wink at the daftness of his own screenplay — and perhaps inject some screwball fizz into the proceedings — Niccol [...]