Aspen, CO, June 12, 2008 –– The 2008 Aspen Institute McCloskey Speaker Series opens with a lecture by American historian Martin J. Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Knopf). Sherwin will discuss “Hiroshima’s Shadow: The First Nuclear World and Ours.”
Continue Reading Add comment June 19th, 2008
Highlights of Ideas Festival sessions open to the public (tickets required) include:
· US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff in conversation with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg
· Alice Waters in conversation with The Atlantic’s Corby Kummer, with dessert served from her cookbook
· Award-winning National Geographic photographer James Balog exploring ice on the run in his “Extreme Ice Survey”
· A global perspective on the US elections from Der Tagesspiegel’s Christoph von Marschall, Ha'aretz’s Ari Shavit, Edward Luce of the Financial Times, and others
· A talk with four young, resilient survivors of genocide, war, and gang violence, moderated by playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith.
Continue Reading Add comment June 17th, 2008
ASPEN, COLORADO—What does the little town of Harper Woods, Michigan, unremarkable in so many ways, have to do with the Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, Aspen’s own monarch with the $135 million manse in the beyond posh Starwood section of this mountain town?
Here in Aspen, in fact, the Prince is known as generous to local charities, kind to animals, and generous to a fault when his multiple wives hit the downtown mall with multiple plastic. He is also known to ski within a circle of bodyguards, and to rent out the downtown Isis theatre in toto so as to enjoy a movie of his choice in privacy.
In Harper Woods, in contrast, said Sultan is prince non grata, accused by the town’s employee pension fund of embezzling some $2 billion over 20 years as the go-between betwixt the Saudi government and BAE Systems of the United Kingdom.
Continue Reading Add comment June 12th, 2008
On my score sheet Obama already has three strikes, and I cannot in good conscience vote for him, despite the possibility of inadvertantly promoting a potentially disastrous McCain presidency.
Continue Reading 2 comments June 10th, 2008
The Con Man wonders why we love war so wisely and unwell, then welcomes Plum TV for a recording of a television pilot. His subjects for hour two: the faux anti-war movie "Iron Man," and Paige Price of Theatre Aspen talking about the summer 2008 season--and singing "Tits and Ass" from "A Chorus Line."
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Thursday June 5, 2008.
Add comment June 5th, 2008
The Con Man gets a visit from Lt. Colonel Dick Merrit and Seaman Dan Glidden, two retired veterans who stand for all that's good about those who have served the country. Also: a bit of a rant of flag lapel pins and taking back the lapel flag pin--and the flags--from those who desecrate it with faux patriotism.
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Memorial Day May 28, 2008.
1 comment May 26th, 2008
The Con Man went to a seminar with Randy Udall, sponsored by the Sopris Foundation, and came away a changed man. With peak oil either here or imminent, with demand rising, it's impossible not to look at energy in a new and disturbing way. Life as we know it is about to change.
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Wednesday May 21, 2008.
Add comment May 21st, 2008
When Robert Downey Jr., the inherently ironic leading man, arrives on the scene in the Marvel Comics blockbuster “Iron Man,” it takes us a beat or two to realize his character, Tony Stark, is a drunk, philandering scumbag who just happens to be in the back of a Humvee in Afghanistan, where bad things are all but guaranteed to happen.
A little stark? You can say that again. But it’s not booze or the references to multiple rendez-vous with pin-ups that make Tony Stark a consummate ass—it’s his status as the greatest arms inventor and dealer in the world. You immediately wonder how in the name of all that’s Uzi are we going to end up liking this hipster merchant of death, a quandary multiplied by the realization that in the Great American Blockbuster Movie you have to end up loving this guy.
And we do.
Suffice to say that post-Afghanistan Tony Stark is both (a) an iconic super-hero; and (b) a pacifist who swears off the military industrial complex like an alcoholic face-to-face with a cold Budweiser on a hot day.
Continue Reading Add comment May 18th, 2008
The creation of Israel 60 years ago as a sanctuary for the Jewish people is cause for celebration. Israel is a successful nation, which has contributed much to science and technology. It’s fully capable of defending itself with the fourth strongest military in the world. But Israel is still in jeopardy.
Continue Reading Add comment May 14th, 2008
A new house cannot be built where an old one remains. The old house may be rotting, crumbling, a hazard to its occupants, but until it is brought down completely, and the debris cleared away, a new abode can not be built in its place.
This is why I support John McCain for president. There is no doubt that he will continue the disastrous policies and practices of the current administration. Indeed, many of his staff and advisors will be the very same architects of the old crumbling house we all now find ourselves living in.
Continue Reading 2 comments May 12th, 2008
