Long weekend digest

- I've caught the new Dixie Chicks video a few times on CMT over the past couple of weeks. Every time I see it, I'm reminded of the infamous line as spoken by Jack Nicholson's character in "As Good As It Gets":

Q from a fan: "How do you write women so well?"
Nicholson: "I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability."

With lines like "I'm not ready to make nice/I'm not ready to back down/I’m still mad as hell and I don’t have time to go round and round and round/It’s too late to make it right/I probably wouldn’t if I could/‘Cause I’m mad as hell/Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should" and "Forgive sounds good/Forget, I don't think I could" on top of scenes where Natalie Maines likens herself to an inmate in an asylum, it seems that these girls are bound and determined to bite the hand that feeds (see video here).

I think three years later, country music fans were more than prepared to start anew, but the Chicks can't seem to grasp the fact that mouthing off about your President in war time on a foreign shore and then making it worse by antagonizing your industry by telling other artists to fuck off while never missing an opportunity to piss and moan about how you've been called on it is an act that has worn thin in Nashville. Witness this remark from fiddler Martie Maguire:

"I'd rather have a small following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith" ... "We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."

It's a shame because these girls were once on the cusp of greatness. Another great line comes to mind ... something about pride always going before a fall.

- Even mild Republicans like John McCain aren't welcome on university campuses. So much for the free and open exchange of ideas. (Perhaps Natalie get an appointment at North Maine State College or somewhere like that as a professor of pop culture once their album and tour flops and they're relegated to playing theatres with the Indigo Girls in front of all the "really cool people who get it".)

- I used to believe that democracy and all it implied was the most necessary precondition for peace and stability in a country. Not any more. As Fareed Zakaria shows, it's prosperity that people want first and foremost. Only then will they turn their attention to political institutions. While I'm still a big fan, relatively speaking, I think the Bush administration needs to pay more attention to this part of the equation.

- Darfur: Given the impotency of the "international community", is it time for a little unilateral action?

- A survey of 6,000 people by a travellers' website has found that respondents believe that the French are the rudest, cheapest and most boring people on earth. Germans came in a strong second. No word on where Canadians ranked.

- And finally, Lionel Richie, pillar of the Arabic community. Who knew?