The Chris Moeller Archives

Best American movies of the decade

This morning on the Huffington Post, online film critic John Farr named the best eight movies so far this decade. It's not a ranking. Instead, one movie is listed from each year. It's worth a look. We even agree on one.

Here's a refresher on mine, but I'm leaving off 2007 until I get through about another dozen releases:

1) O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000)
2) Mulholland Drive (2001)
3) Lovely and Amazing (2002)
4) Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
5) Sideways (2004)
6) Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
7) Half Nelson (2006)

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The Des Moines Register published an interesting story today in regards to a topic that has gone neglected for three years on this blog (despite its direct impact on some close friends and family): eminent domain, that is, the right of government to take over private property for the purposes of public use. The situation in Muscatine speaks directly to the dangers of the current reading of the law. It seems to me the purposes of public use should be simply that, but increasingly, we're seeing city and county governments attempt to claim private property, then turn it over to private investors or private entities for economic development. What happens then when those private investors then bail out, like they did with this mall project in Muscatine?

In Cedar Rapids, Coe College, a private institution, has attempted over the past two years to use the power of the municipal government to run out neighbors and buy up and raze as many neighboring homes as it can upon its determination that the neighborhood was drug-infested and dangerous. Well, there's two sides to that coin. Drug dealers tend to set up shop near colleges because these schools have a lot of drug buyers. Maybe it's Coe that's the bad neighbor. Have we considered that? I've spent a lot of time in the impoverished neighborhoods near the private higher learning institutions of Coe, Drake University in Des Moines, and St. Louis University, and it seems reasonable to conclude at this point that one of the last for-profit businesses that a person would want to see open up in his or her neighborhood is a private college.

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So long, Scott Rolen. What a terrific player and competitor he was for the Cardinals, a great slugger, and if not the greatest defensive thirdbaseman of all time, then in the top two. It's a shame he has to go to Canada just because Tony LaRussa has such a difficult time communicating with his players. (Check the manager's very long rap sheet.) I regret to hear through reports in the Post-Dispatch that Rolen's departure also completes the dismantling of what was considered the "cynical" corner of the clubhouse, and which apparently included as well the likes of the recently-departed Jim Edmonds and Gary Bennett. And I read "cynical" to mean "anti-LaRussa." Oh well, commitment to youth... oops, except that LaRussa is still the manager so that means that, for example, a rookie upstart like Brendan Ryan can count on about 150 at-bats for the season playing behind Aaron Miles and Adam Kennedy.

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Quote of the day: Sportswriter Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times-- "Cesar Izturis' contract with the St. Louis Cardinals pays the infielder $50,000 if he is named most valuable player of the league division series but, as Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times pointed out, 'There is no MVP award in the division series.' Designated hitters, realizing they've been duped, immediately demanded redress for their Gold Glove incentive clauses."

posted by CM @ 8:45 PM