Mr. X, KXB, Darth, Musical: How will I recognize you when I pass you in the street? You’ll be wearing an Apu button ironically?

James Gordon Jr.: Why's he running, Dad?
Lt. James Gordon: Because we have to chase him.
James Gordon Jr.: He didn't do anything wrong.
Lt. James Gordon: Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.

My self-pretension aside, one of the attractions of blogging is that no one has to know what you look like.

I can understand the decision. You have done a hell of a job with this blog. Good luck on your future projects.

Lisa Simpson - I will not be a Gamecock!

She actually is, I can’t deny that. Don’t let her succubus powers take control, though.

Easier to do when she goes blonde - yikes! Brunette & redhead are more suited for her.

While it does seem kind of ridiculous, I am somewhat sympathetic. There has been a debate going on over at the Washington Post between Deepak Chopra and Aseem Shukla about how yoga has been divorced from its Hindu origins. I think Shukla makes a valid point that too often in the West, yoga is presented originating in more general "Eastern origins." That does not mean that non-Hindus cannot perform yoga or that they have to sit through a long lecture on its origins. But, a little acknowledgment would be welcome.

So, if you are a Christian that enjoys the health benefits of yoga, but, you interpret your faith in such a way that you believe repeating mantras would be a betrayal of that faith, then Christian yoga may be a happy medium. Again, so long as the practitioner of Christian yoga does not dismiss the Hindu-origins of yoga as some ancient sorcery or wicked faith.

Maybe I'm more sympathetic because I still think Janine Turner is still a babe.

Kalyan currently stars as Timmy, on CBS's Rules of Engagement. He is a long-suffering assistant to David Spade. Unlike Raja, Timmy is clearly the smartest one in the room when he is on screen. When Spade makes continuous mistakes regarding where Timmy is from, like jokingly saying "Put another shrimp on the barbie, or whatever it is that they say where you are from.", Timmy yells back, "I keep telling you, I am from South Africa!" The show itself is a B- at best.

BTW - on an upcoming episode, we are introduced to Timmy's fiance, played by current 24 actress (and Canuck) Nazneen Contractor.

Remember, this is a show that still has not hired a black man to portray Obama.

Actually, it is a holiday in Cook County (IL) and the City of Chicago, since we have the second largest Polish population of any metro area after Warsaw. Danny Pudi grew up around here, and like other kids, probably had the day off from school.

"Pakistan went from zero to a bomb in about a quarter that time." - with very generous Chinese help.

Israel may be lack a strict hierarchy like India, but the top positions in most Israeli ventures tend to be Askenazi - descended from Eastern European Jews. Jews with roots from the Middle East like Iraq, Morrocco, or Iran do not do as well. Ethiopian Jews consistently lag behind other groups. Plus, many of those firms have the roots in military ventures. India does need some quality defense infrastructure, but it has not met basic infrastructure needs yet. Brazil and Indonesia are more applicable models - both have large areas, diverse population, issues of violence.

Interesting that a desi-oriented site is where I would find the most clear-headed write-up of the main points. Since Knox coverage was wall to wall this weekend, I asked my family, "Do you think the deficiencies of the American legal system are as scrutinized in every case as the Italian system is in this one?"

My sister comes from the "anything Indian but a sari" school of fashion. No matter how much she tries, she cannot get the pleats right, and a frumpy sari is not a pretty picture. Mrs. Jindal's fashion choice is her business.

As much as many posters can justly get on Theroux's case about his attitude towards India, I can't help but enjoy his writing. I am currently reading "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star" - where from 2005-2006, Theroux retraces his early 1970's rail journey from the UK to the Far East. As he enters India this time, he is struck by the one consistent complaint that Indians voice to him - too many people. At first, he believes they are exagerrating, but by the time he is in Chennai, he cannot even cross the street due to the sheer volume of people and cars. He expresses tremendous relief once he gets to Sri Lanka, which despite still being in the middle of a violent civil war, he finds almost too tempting, and expresses the desire to settle down, much as Arthur C. Clarke did. Clarke is also interviewed in the book.

Other countries get it just as bad in the book - Romania is portrayed as Europe's ugly stepchild. Turkmenistan might as well be Mars. And his travel book - Dark Star Safari, where he travels overland from Egypt down to South Africa has many targets for his pen, particularly NGOs and Christian missionaries.

There was already a cable movie about this a couple of years ago with Naveen Andrews in the role of Banerjee called, oddly enough, The Chippendales Murders.

Logan is waaayyyy better looking than the unremarkable Scarlett Johanssen.

Joolz has a stronger argument. But I would add one more thing, a point which Fareed Zakaria made shortly after the attack. India has an increasingly vibrant and creative provate sector, a thriving cultural life - but the operations of the state are still poor, and not improving fast enough. A state which cannot provide clean drinking water, toilets, some basic law & order, functioning courts - such a state will be ill-prepared to face the challenges of terrorism, whether that terrorism is sponsored by Pakistan or homegrown Maoists. Given the low voter turnout in Bombay several months after the attack, I am not so sure that terrorism is a priority with Indian voters. While I like PM Singh, and believe he has generally been a good PM for India, it must be said that there have been more spectacular attacks on civilians during his administration.

Keep in mind, his stereotype of old people is harsher. At least he did not comment on Indians tipping the skycap.

Well written and very detailed. Thank you for posting this. I will probably pick up the issue over the weekend.

But, what is it supposed to be spoofing?

Pretend they're back in the old country - where men holding hands is not a big deal.

Disgusting

Channeling Nelson Muntz - "Ha ha!!"

I need to finish Mad Men season 2 before the new season begins.

I finished that last week - well worth it.

I don't get IFC, so I will have to wait for it to come out on DVD. NPR had a clip of the dance scene on their website, and as a frequent Bollywood critic, it did not look too bad. It looked like the sort of dancing you might actually see in a Bombay club, and not some over the top, quikcly edited piece of over-choreographed junk. Kattan is an unlikely choice, but it is nice that he pokes fun at himself, playing a washed up actor. It does not have to be a masterpiece - just well-acted and able to hold one's interest. But is there a way to make these productions without having the word "Bollywood". in the title?

This is good news. It seems that Zardari and Kayani are realizing that Obama will not play along like Bush and Co. If Islamabad cannot eliminate the threats, then the U.S. will take matters into their own hands. Unfortunately for India, the best they can hope for is that enough of the U.S. targets also happen to target India. I don't expect New Delhi to take any proactive steps to demonstrate that it values the lives of its people.

While black American men do express a preference for light-skinned black women, black American women do not use skin lightening creams. Instead, they use creams that keep the color consistent. The only place you can find such creams are stores that cater to Indian, Asian, and Latino shoppers. Lil Kim is hardly an example of most black women.

Given that Bollywood casts Indian-born desis, not American ones - my statement stands. They show Indians hanging around NY or LA, often teaching their confused America-born cousins how to be a true Indian.

The world over this image has transplanted reality: the inhabitants of tropical/temperate coastal
waters are black-haired dark-skinned peoples. That’s successful image re-making/marketing.

True - just as Bollywood stars film themselves galavanting around Swiss mountains and American cityskapes.

It looks to be humorous and informative, but Salon may miss the mark to simply say it is black women trying to meet a European standard of beauty. Aside from hair, black women do not really change anything else about their bodies to mimic a "European" look. The jokes about their respective posteriors are well-known and need not be repeated here. Secondly, if it is European look they go for, why use Indian hair? It is the case of one group of colored women buying hair cut from another group of colored women. The desire for longer hair on women seems to be a cross-cultural phenomenon. OTOH, my sister and cousin cut their hair short - it is not out of a desire to mimic some other ethnicity - but they are rather short themselves, and long hair on a short woman does not always look good.

Why do you subject yourself to this junk?

My dad would often joke that trying to withdraw cash from a teller in Calcutta in the 1970s was a series of 20 question - "What is coming up that you need to withdraw so much money for? Couldn't you find a cheaper store to shop in? Shouldn't you save your money?" Granted, he probably embellished a bit. But I guess there was a kernel of truth.

I think it is a translation

Man - I really needed that.

In the early part of this decade, Zakaria was actually hopeful about Musharaff. Like many others, he believed Musharaff's secular background would help him realize the danger the Taliban posed to Pakistan. But, what Zakaria and others did not see, was just how obsessed the Pakistani military is with India. And that they would let this obsession direct all their policies, including using $10 billion in aid that was supposed to go after the Taliban and repair civic institutions, instead to arm for that ever imminent war with India.

Although I do not watch the show, Desai can still make a good career in music eventhough he did not win. Case in point - Jennifer Hudson.

Ok, so he authorised the killing of Somalian pirates and his Af-Pak policy doesn’t look like it’s working out so well.

Nothing wrong with killing pirates, and considering that Af-Pak have had problems before Obama showed up, and will continue after he leaves, that seems unfair. Al Qaeda heads are still sleeping with one open as drones fly overhead, which is not a bad thing.

No nukes in Somalia, that's why

I guess she's getting a little tired of that 70-something year old dude she's dating.

No, his character was adopted by Jewish parents

While your anger is understandable, the idea that the actions of the last administration tarnished an otherwise clean reputation in domestic matters is not supported by facts. Japanese internment comes right off the top of my head, different legal protections (or none) depending on your race. What we can say is that for people in my generation (Gen X), such violations of civil rights and rule of law was no longer something I read about in history books.

However amusing we found Dubya's mangled syntax, amusement is not the feeling I get when I hear America's worst VP in history speak.

But, the apparent site of a stable India in an increasingly unstable subcontinent presents a challenge to India's leadership. For a good chunk of the reform period, it seems that India thought it could ignore its neighborhood, and simply develop through its relationships with developed nations. That seemed to work for awhile, but it may no longer be effective. Just as China has developed more mature relations with it East Asian and SE Asian neighbors, so too must India realize it has to play some role (albeit a backstage one) to stabilize its neighbors. Given India's porous borders, it cannot believe that violence in Pakistan or Bangladesh will stay there. The Bombay attack can be seen in this light.

I bought this issue of Esquire a couple of months ago. The writer, Mike Sager, is African-American, so he may have thought he had more lee-way in writing about Jindal's appearance. Word to the wise Mr. Sager - you don't.

MSNBC is fast becoming the democrat version of Fox News.

And as much as MSNBC was a needed balance to Fox, its act starts to wear thin after awhile.

He is still at the core a bright guy, albeit a snake oil salesman who betrays his own postgraduate education for political power.

Keep in mind - Obama did not once mention the words "Columbia" and "Harvard" during his campaign. He kept boosting the value of education, while avoiding any mention of his own.

When Obama started his political career on the South Side of Chicago, he turned off a lot of black voters because the thought he was putting on airs, with his professorial manner. A colleague took him aside and urged him to change his speech, to incorporate more of the moving oratory of a black preacher. He did, and became more successful. Now, he balances that sharp oratory with a solid grasp of the facts.

When Jindal was on a broader stage, such as when he was a Congressman, he altered his speech to sound less regional. But when he ran for governor the first time in 2002, his foreign appearance and egg-headedness could not convince voters he was the best man for the job, plus there is always the matter of residual prejudice. But after Katrina, LA voters decided an egghead would not be so bad. But to be on the safe side, it appears that Jindal did not want to be questioned about his background again, so his accent became heavier and his religion became more prominent. That might work well to get elected governor in Louisiana, but it may not impress voters from other parts of the country. Here, he might take a page from Bill Clinton, who could modulate his Southern accent from a genteel manner to hillbilly with ease.

Interesting. It's happens to me occasionally, although never in the mode of expressing hostility or unease towards non-whites. And I"ve experienced this at different times from whites, blacks, and Indians. Indian cab-drivers are usually the most incredulous when I tell them, yes, I am Indian, and no, I am not mixed.

I cant stand it when people get acting awards for doing imitations of people who lived and have been documented on film already over an actor who has to bring some fictional character to life.

It’s not fair.

Agreed - they should setup a separate category for Best Actor/Actress based on a historical figure. They also need to acknowledge comedy, and have a separate category for that. Does anyone remember who won Best Picture in 1984? Nope, but everyone loves Ghostbusters!

All movies about India that have ever won Oscars were directed by British directors. Coincidence?

Not really - the Academy has a soft spot for the Brits. They are over-represented in most acting categories.

Is there a more over-rated actor than Sean Penn? Aside from Dead Man Walking (which owed more to Susan Sarandon's performance), I can't stand watching him in anything he does.

BTW - when did minstrel shows come back into style? Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Sean Penn - all straight actors playing gay characters. And it seems to be for men only. Hollywood does not seem to care for famous lesbians.

I usually don't care about awards shows, and last night was no exception. I enjoyed the movie, regardless of whether it won or not. But I can't get help but feel good inside when I see the pictures of these adorable kids.

I did see the clip, and I read about these guys when the story broke 2 months ago. I really enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire - as a film. I even bought the soundtrack. I just don't think you can apply the term to every story involving Indians who are trying to make it.

Memo to Sawyer - you don't have to make a Slumdog reference to every story about Indians.

(‘Pinto is Italian, but I’m 100% Indian.’) [Isn’t it Portuguese?]

I knew one Pinto back in high school - Italian guy. "Bolina" is another Indian name (Punjabi) that is also found in Italian families.

A bit of humility might be in order, instead of a wholesale grandstanding blanket condemnation.

Nonsense - the only thing that matters is that 2 newspaper editors were arrested for hurting the feelings of a handful of Muslims.

Nitin Pai of The Acorn coined the most appropriate term to describe this - competitive intolerance.

I have no problems with not liking the movie, even if it is solely on the issue of "image". But when people make claims like Americans are only interested in films about Indian poverty, when there is no evidence to suggest that, that bugs me. City of Joy was a dud, both as a story and at the box office. When Danny Boyle made Trainspotting, how many Scots were up in arms over its portrayal of life in grey and wet Edinburgh?

BTW - Lim can't write for crap. There are more coherent ways to list one's objections to the film.

Best pictures

2007 - No Country for Old Men - movie follows the violent exploits of a man on the run

2006 - The Departed - movie follows the violent machinations of Boston mobsters

2005 - Crash - racial animosity in Los Angeles

2004 - Million Dollar Baby - women brutalizing each other in a boxing ring, and euthanasia

2003 - Lord of the Rings - fantasy, with hundreds of dead Orcs

2002 - Chicago - a musical about a woman accused of murdering her lover

2001 - A Beautiful Mind - mentally disturbed mathematical genius

2000 - Gladiator - well, the title says it all

Look, the Oscars are not the final arbiter of all that is good in cinema. I still can't forgive them for overlooking Goodfellas in favor of Dances with Wolves. But right-leaning critics in the U.S. often levy the charge that the Oscars reward films that celebrate the worst in people. Given the topics in some of the films above, they may have a point, albeit a small one.

Slumdog is not some small feature that no one will see, but was made solely to get awards, like The Reader. The reason it has done so well is word of mouth. It is no small feat.

Mainstream entertainment ignores the inner city? That's a joke right? For years, black actors, writers, and directors complained that they cannot get a project approved in Hollywood unless it was set in the inner city. It is only in the past 2-3 years that Hollywood realized it can make good money making black family comedies set outside of inner city dysfunction. They vary in quality - but it's a nice change from where the only storyline involved drugs and gangs.

And while The Wire did deal with drugs and gangs, it featured fully fleshed out characters, with intricate story-lines.

So far, Slumdog Millionaire has grossed $56 million in 11 weeks at the US box office. Paul Blart, Mall Cop has grossed $64 million in 2 weeks. Not all movie-goers have the same taste - and sometimes the movie-goer who goes to see Slumdog one weekend may want to see Paul Blart the next. Even the Indian-themed Hollywood films vary from year to year. A couple of years ago - the somber Bengali family drama The Namesake did strong business in the U.S. A few years before that, the lively Punjabi marriage film Monsoon Wedding was winning audiences over. So the idea that Americans only want to see Indian poverty on screen is not borne out by the ticket sales.

I agree with Suzy. It seems middle-class and upper-class Indians object to the film more so than the poor. I'm as uncomfortable with depictions of Indian poverty as the next guy, but the film is not a documentary. If Indians are tired of seeing their poverty on screen, try to lessen the poverty. I'm sure there is an appetite among moviegoers from seeing something other than another Sydney/New York/London themed piece of junk.

Personnaly, I thought the Lowery bit was juvenile.

It is true that targeted assassination does not lessen the level of terrorism, but it does increase the cost of doing. Israel extracts a very high cost from groups that engage in terrorism against it. Up until the 1990's, India was actually pretty tough when it came to dealing with various insurgencies. However, India has not been able to increase the cost of the terrorism business when it is based outside the country.

Since Pakistan regards Kashmir as disputed territory, any Indian attack on Pakistani-Kashmir can be sold as an attack not on Islamabad, but a military action in a disputed area. Second, India has an extensive and growing supply of cruise missiles, which seem to be ideal for something like this. Again, an attack against a terrorist camp does not mean less terrorism, but it does make terrorism more expensive. Right now, there is no downside for the Pakistani military sponsoring terrorists against India. This needs to change.

On a related note, the current issue of The Economist has an article on the recent state elections in Jammu & Kashmir. While The Economist is generally dismissive towards India's concerns, the wording in this article is eye-opening:

"A Good Vote in the Angry Valley"

"Unlike previous polls in the state, which is dominated by India’s portion of the divided Kashmir region (Pakistan controls a smaller part of Kashmir, and both countries claim all of it), the election was not rigged."

Everyone knows that the 1987 election was rigged by Congress - no one in India denies that anymore. But subsequent elections were marked not by rigging, but by more typical Indian problems - booth capturing, intimidation, buying votes. You see rampant corruption in West Bengal elections, and outright bullying of voters.

"Under its former leader, Pervez Musharraf, and its current one, Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan has in fact come close to abandoning its historic claim to Kashmir."

Again, not the point. Pakistan knows that terrorism cannot force India to give up Kashmir. But, terrorism does have the nice effect of making India's claim to regional power (and aspiring global power) look laughable.

I would say that as the Indian gov't gets its act together to prevent the next Bombay, the terrorists will move on to a new target. Kidnap or knock off a couple of foreign business executives while visiting India, and hope that India is deemed too dangerous to invest. Hey, it worked for the Naxalites in parts of Chattisgarh and Orissa.

Cricket diplomacy is meaningless. The USSR and U.S. faced off in Olympic hockey during the Cold War. That did not stop each country from keeping their guard up against the other.

India would be fully justified if it were to launch a military strike in Pakistani-Kashmir. However, as Israel learned in its failed war against Hezbollah in 2006, you have to be prepared to fight on terms you may not be ready for. Israel destroyed a lot of buildings and some of Hezbollah's longer range missiles. But, when it actually tried to invade southern Lebanon, Hezbollah held the Israeli army to no more than 2 km incursion. No matter how much the Israelis threw at them, by the time the cease-fire was enacted a month after hostilities began, Hezbollah was able to launch hundreds of rockets. And these rockets were not the Hamas-style pieces of junkyard crap - but high quality Chinese made, Iranian-supplied munitions. Israel's did not beat them, their actions destabilized the American-friendly gov't in Beirut, and now Hezbollah is in a stronger position. A military action against Pakistan runs the same risk for India.

It infuriates me no end that the leaders of LeT and JeM can travel safely around Pakistan, and not have to face any repercussions. And if India had the ability to do an Israeli (or Syrian) style hit on these guys, I'd be all for it. Instead, India can take a number of steps immediately. For starters, training SWAT teams in the major cities, so you don't have to wait 9 damn hours for the cavalry to show up from New Delhi. Have a clear command structure that shows who the hell is in charge - local, state, or central authorities. Give the police an actual handgun, and not some single-bolt WWI era rifle.

I can't remember who said it, but someone commented that this attack can initiate reforms the way India's economic crisis in 1991 initiated economic reforms. That can be true, provided India's voters hold their politicians accountable. If they continue to stay disengaged from politics, preferring to cocoon themselves in their gated communities, with satellite TV and private tutors, believing they can keep India's problems safely at a distance - politicians will have little reason to change their ways.

Terrific panel. Thanks for posting.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to have Aasif Mandvi do this bit? Oliver delivered the goods, but seeing as how Mandvi is from India, the outrage would have been much more visceral.

Today, I will be shocked if over 50% of the American media even knows who the PM of India is let alone the American populace. That is both a statement of the dumbing down of the media and the overall dumbing down of the American populace.

I remember watching NBC News covering Indira Gandhi's cremation live as it happened. We even taped it. In 1997, the networks went to Calcutta to cover Mother Theresa's funeral, which I saw live at 3:00 AM. But in that case, my guess is they would not have gone but for the media frenzy that covered Princess Diana's death a few days earlier.

I'm guessing the American accent you hear is not Rai's character, but another female character in the film. It is not uncommon to splice the audio from one scene to the video from another in a trailer. On another matter, it looks like Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy are in a competition to see how many lousy comedies they can do just for the check.

While we can all take some delight out of Palin's stumbling, keep in mind, she is not there to win you over. She is there to re-assure the evangelicals and suburban white women that she is one of them. What sounded to my ears as robotic repetition will sound to them very differently - a plain-spoken woman who does not shy from a challenge.

How can the Democrats criticize her lack of experience with a straight face, and the same goes for the Republicans henceforth.

Obama was not picked - he was the winner of a long, competitive process. Voters had the chance to see him perform under pressure. And he beat the only Democratic family to win back-to-back elections since FDR.

The play for female votes is unlikely to bear fruit. As it is, single women vote Democratic, while married women generally vote Republican. Palin can only attract a substantial number of single women if they look past her pro-life stance.

Second, I would argue this is less a play for women than it is for the men they are married to. Palin is a very photogenic women with limited experience - the kind of woman that working women in their 50's and 60's hate. OTOH - there are probably many men who are married to women kwho inda wish their own wives can look as good at their age. Just as an old man in a sports car seems more appealing than an old man in a minivan, so does John McCain look better with a former beauty queen on one side and a former cheerleader on the other.

So, it looks like an Indian-themed wedding, but the families appear black and white. While I normally don't subscribe to the cultural appropriation nonsense, I can't help but think what I saw can appear as an entry on Stuff White People Like. Plus, it looked less like a Jonathan Demme movie than it does a Wes Anderson piece of junk.

There are plenty of upper-class whites (and Indians) who are afraid. It's a bit much to label at solely as a working class fear.

The Indian state regards its military the way Indian households regard the domestic help - necessary, but better if it stays out of the way. And don't expect a thank you.

I lived in Hyde Park for 5 years. Hyde Park is not really low income. North of 55th Street is middle and working class. South of 55th, the incomes do go up. But it is not your typical college town, and is very different from Evanston. But a lot has changed since I moved out of there in 1996 - more high-end eateries have moved in, but not to the extent of North Side neighborhoods like Wicker Park or Bucktown. Shopping options are still pretty limited compared to other neighborhoods.

Bengali Hindus are not vegetarian - you can't ask them to give up fish.

Between visions of assassination and dodging bullets in Tuzla, why does HRC have such a violent imagination?

SP,

What is truly maddening is that the crowds of men in the stadium did not have a problem with the black cheerleaders. It was the organizers. The cheerleaders made a point of mentioning this, and did not blame the average fan.

If there is an upside to this incident, it is this - before, there was no cost to Indians for practicing discrimination. Now, there is. If India wants to take a greater role on the world stage, guess what? All of India's flaws will be on the world stage as well. And the usual response, "Other nations have problems too." is not going to work.

Same thing happened to the U.S. - Jim Crow was not a problem so long as the U.S. was fairly isolated. After WWII, the costs of keeping Jim Crow were too high, if the U.S. hoped to preserve moral standing.

To paraphrase a line from the forgettable "Bride and Prejudice", the characters in The Elephanta Suite want to experience India without the Indians. Theroux shows that is impossible. Even Alice, the young college grad in "The Elephant God" is surprised that she does not experience the large Indian families she read about in brown chic literature, and instead has to deal with real people, with all the irritations that entails.

I finished the book last week, and I came away with a different feeling. Yes, Theroux does completely shatter some of the "Incredible India" images that is promulgated these days. But I thought these were the thoughts of the characters, not necessarily of the writer himself. If anything, he suggests that when American tourists stray from the well-worn tourist traps, they should be prepared for the unexpected. "The Elephant God" was a difficult read, since the main character is so isolated in a nation teeming with people.

"For example, in 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands."

Mother Teresa did not have an orphanage in Bangladesh. Bridget is Bangladeshi, but Rove's blundering of this fact suggests that he may still think she is black. But who is more shameless - Rove for writing this or McCain for accepting his advice?

Well, Tulia is still on the drawing board, and from what I understand, Berry's character is still Indian. In the case of bring Down the House, they changed the ethnicity of the characters.

I would not be quick to hold Gupta responsible, but a quick search shows that the animator knew the script sucked, which was written by Salesgenie management:

http://blog.milowerx.com/?p=546

This has been picked up on most local news stations - I saw it from my parents' place in NY. Ravi handled it pretty well - I've seen people panic more when there is a bee buzzing by their head. As for his accent, he's a Canuck.

I enjoyed her early stuff, but now she risks becoming the Jay McInerny of Bengalis.

Frederique is still fine as hell.

Indian-Americans who lobbied for this feel burned by New Delhi. They were pushing hard for this deal on Capitol Hill, and to then have PM Singh say "Never mind" leaves them looking like fools.

Is India-Us Nuclear Accord Dead?

Professor Anupam Srivastava of Georgia University says it's now or never.

"If a Democrat regime comes into power, the non-proliferation lobby would successfully insert amendments and conditionalities that will be clearly unacceptable to Indian scientists," says Professor Srivastava, who has been closely associated with the agreement since its conception.

He laments that the deal is stuck after so much hard work.

"If you do a referendum in India on this deal it will win, if you do a vote in the parliament it will fall," he says.

These sentiments are echoed by Swadesh Chatterjee of the Indo-US Friendship Council, a group that lobbied hard for the deal. He says he feels "betrayed" by domestic politics in India.

"I personally made 66 trips from North Carolina to Washington for this deal. I feel now the Indian government's credibility is at stake," he says.

Typo - that should be Ghost Wars

To follow-up on Niraj's point, in Steve Coll's excellent Ghosh Wars, there was numerous attempts by the U.S. to decide which Afghan groups they should support, but the Pakistanis insisted they be left in charge of that. So, the Pakistanis supported the most radical groups and kept telling the U.S. not to worry, they had everything under conrol.

He may not have been on the battlefield, but he was instrumental in securing funding for the Afghans. Most Americans, even cold-warriors, were initially not all that concerned about Afghanistan. But Wilson took it on himself to keep this going. I wonder if the film will address the contempt he had for Indians. In the book, it states that he could not stand Indian diplomats' pompous manners (an opinion shared by friends of India, BTW), but even so far as to being annoyed with the Indian head wiggle.

Yes - as a Mets fan, I am in deep sorrow. But this helps,

The hysterical overreaction to Ahmedinajad depresses me. Yes - he says outlandish things. Yes - his regime has been cracking down hard on internal dissent. Yes - elements of his regime are probably arming groups in Iraq, although we seem to give our buddy Saudia Arabia a pass for all the suicide bombers it sends into Iraq.

But, since the Islamic revolution, Iran has not invaded any of its neighbors. It has armed proxies in the region, just as any other regional power would. To call Iran a new Nazi Germany is laughable. Nazi Germany had the most advanced economy in Europe at the time, with the best trained military. Iran has negligible industrial capacity - it has enough trouble keeping some non-Persian regions under control.

Iran is a country of concern, but we are being poorly served by the rhetoric that is being tossed around.

R,

Multilateral diplomacy, while admirable, has a poor track record. Darfur, North Korea, and the Israeli/Palestinian problem are now being handled multi-laterally, with little too show for it. That does not mean the only other choice is armed conflict - but more talk-shops is not the answer. China will have no problem talking about Darfur, but they are not going to put aside their energy interests for it.

Global karma - a fine idea if you are living in an ashram, not so practical in the field of foreign relations. What was the bad karma on 9/11? What was the bad karma for those Indian train passengers who were killed in the Mumbai train bombings last summer? Britain is not a hotbed of Islamic militarism because of its foreign policy, it is a hotbed because it was lax about shutting down extremists in their country. In the 1990's, France experienced a number of Algerian terrorist attacks, and they quietly but deliberately rounded up the worst elements, with far more invasion of privacy than you could even suggest in the U.S.

Guess which country has almost no instances of terrorism. China. Is their behavior so good that karma deemed them exempt?

R,

Basically, you want to punish Obama for Bush's policies. Urging that the U.S. get out of Iraq and pursue the men who attacked us is not a continuation of Dubya's policies.

Also, for all the complaints about improving America's standing - horse-pucky. Nothing is quite so sad as trying to change the opinions of people who refuse to change their mind. Having a low opinion of the U.S. did not prevent the world from asking for America's help when the Asian tsunami struck. It was the American military that led relief efforts in Indonesia, which the Muslim world largely abandoned to its fate. Yet, was there a thank you? Or even a moderating of the continuous criticiscm hurled at the U.S.? No.

American policies should be design on how they best advance American interests. What the world thinks of that policy is of tertiary concern. Pursuing the men who attacked us is perfectly reasonable, and if that means pursuing them in a region where the Pakistani gov't has no real authority, then so be it.

Don't expect the nuance and clear-headedness of Obama's speech to make it's way into the press. "Obama wants to invade Pakistan" is so much quicker.

I don’t think you can characterize asking to sing in Chinese as racism, in previous seasons some South Indian contestants were asked to sing in their native tongue. So its all good, compared to what Sanjaya faced..

Problem with this line of thinking is that Chinese is not his native tongue. Growing up in Calcutta, Bengali and Hindi would come first. Second, I've met South Indians who grew up in Delhi, and cannot speak a South Indian language. Growing up in NY, I can speak Bengali, but it is not my native tongue

The lesson here is that one should not look to show business to demonstrate some sort of enlightenment. Just cause they're on TV does not make them wise.