THE OTHER SIDE OF FILM Haven't marshalled up enough courage to check out the latest releases at your local mega-plex? Why not toss down $30 for a movie and popcorn, and check out the Palestinian political satire "Divine Intervention," or the jazzy yet troubling Brazilian flick "City of God"?

FINDING LIFE ON THE FRONT Rahul Chandran diaries this week at slate.com on his life as a U.N. worker in Afghanistan, painting a picture of a rich culture, hesitantly emerging from darkness and teetering severely. But the bulk of his writing is personal -- attending Buzkashi contests, mangling traditional greetings and playing football with neighbohood kids.

MALKMUS MUTTERS Spin Magazine brightens the corners with an interview with Stephen Malkmus about Matador Records' release of the 10th anniversary, double-CD version of Pavement's "Slanted and Enchanted" and "Watery, Domestic."

LOSING THE WIN Like it or not, values and how they are practiced have everything to do with our culture and society. So, questions about the practice of torture are worth asking, even if the starting point of the conversation is that torture is wrong. The Washington Post took an in-depth look at this grey area in America's anti-terrorism efforts, and it is disconcerting. Low-level torture of al Qaeda suspects is commonplace, as are prisoner transfers -- sending captured suspects to countries with less-than-savory interrogation methods, like Egypt or Pakistan. Our national leaders have choices to make, and too often of late it seems that the choices are ill-considered, especially in terms of longer-term consequences. As The Economist notes in this insightful editorial, "...there is a line which democracies cross at their peril: threatening or inflicting actual bodily harm. On one side of that line stand societies sure of their civilised values. That is the side America and its allies must choose."

LUNCHING WITH WOLVES David Ignatius recounts a lunch he had recently with Paul Wolfowitz, who claims the title of the Bush administration's pet hawk, albeit an intellectual one. Ignatius posits that Wolfowitz is a bit of a romantic-realist when it comes to Iraq, hopeful that a successful regime change will open the window for the breezy, summer winds of democracy to sweep the Arabian peninsula. Which is, truthfully, one way to view things. But, as Ignatius notes, pretending that an invasion of Iraq is an easy choice -- even for a foreign policy hawk -- is a fool's game. "Iraq," he writes, "is a close call because the risks are so evenly distributed. It could be a great success that opens a glorious new chapter in the history of the Arab world, as I have long hoped. Or it could be a frustrating killing ground that would embolden America's adversaries and endanger the United States and its allies, as many critics have warned. Either way, Iraq is a roll of the dice..."

40 MILLION DAGGERS Downright discouraging. That's my read on news these days. At the same time that I'm scowling, wondering when the media is going to start being more investigative and skeptical, the general public seems to think that the media serves us best that asks least. Howard Kurtz reports on a new ABC News poll --"Two-thirds of the public believes the government should have the right to stop the media from disclosing military secrets...Fifty-six percent of those surveyed also say news organizations are more obliged to support the government in wartime than to question the military's handling of the war." Would someone please start shattering the glass windows of Arab businesses so that we can move on to the public book burnings?

IMMIGRATION GONE WRONG Look, I'm for a clear, consistent policy on immigration, but I'm also practical enough to realize that when you've hundreds of official points-of-entry and dozens of ways to apply to enter this country clear and consistent won't be the norm. Which makes high-level policy and the tone of that policy all the more important. Which, in turn, makes the post-September 11 detention policies of the Justice Department disappointing and just plain wrong. "If the INS looks hard enough, it can find a technical violation by many if not most immigrants, particularly through the ever-shifting prism of the immigration bureaucracy," says the Washington Post. "When those rules are enforced with exceptional zeal for a selected group, the message becomes: Terrorist or not, even legal or not, we're better off without you." It's the wrong policy, the wrong message, and the wrong way to deal with global threats. Someone let me know when the "Deport Ashcroft" campaign kicks off.

BREATHER Hey, flamethrower, I'm taking a break for a few days to catch up on work. Peruse the archives and develop enhanced mental agility in six days or less. While digging through some old notes, I found scribblings from a business conference I went to last fall. It struck me then, as it does now, as very much in keeping with the state of things around us. The keynote was on The Business of Uncertainty and looked at all of the political and economic chaos in the world today. The speaker asked, "What if chaos is the new normal?" What if the relative certainty we've enjoyed at least through the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s was abnormal? If that's the case, he continued, how do we learn how to be effective and focused in chaotic circumstances? The answer requires both context and situational awareness. Increased information does not equal increased certainty -- without the ability to put information into context, there is no relationship between information and certainty. His final thought: "In times of uncertainty, centralized authority does not work, but democratized information does." Go play in the snow, Wonder Twins, and then go do something crazy.

MARCHING THIS WEEKEND? If you're heading to DC this weekend to give a big shout out to The Man, or whomever, you might want to take a gander at this chat with a DC Police Department representative about protesting on public space, and how the police will manage the crowds and events. There's also a helpful summary of what is taking place, when and where.

HIS DAY IS COMING With the Martin Luther King Jr. recognition day just around the corner, Jeanne d'Arc points me in the direction of a speech King gave in 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City soon after he joined the anti-Vietnam War coalition.

ACCESSORIZE FOR SUCCESS Appropriate that Steve Malkmus was just crooning in my ear -- "I've got style. Miles and miles. So much style that it's wasted." And here comes The Morning News' Margaret Berry with Part IV of her series on women's fashion to cast her eye on the importance of good accessories -- "Forget about your butt; consider your jewelry. (You can change it a hell of a lot faster.)" She does a decade-by-decade review of the key accessories that need to be back in circulation. The 1950s offers this take on vices -- "Cigarette smoking is a nasty habit. Don’t cigarette cases make it ever so much more attractive? ... And for god’s sake, get yourself a drink. Why do you think they call it a cocktail dress?"

THE PURR-FECT VALENTINE I just couldn't resist the bad pun, not at least when I'm posting a link to an information and ordering page for the Genuine Sanrio Hello Kitty Vibrator.

AFGHANISTAN UPDATE Journalist Ahmmed Rashid, author of the two outstanding books "Taliban" and "Jihad," visits Bagram Air Force base and the office of Hamid Kharzai to scope out continued plans for the stabilization of Afghanistan. He reports that reasonable plans are finally in the works to combine security, reconstruction and aid teams' efforts in eight cities outside of Kabul by early summer.

DIRECT EVASION I can't decide if Russell Mokhiber is an ass or a journalist-hero, but for months now he's been attending White House press conferences and asking questions of White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer like, "Ari, other than Eliot Abrams, how many convicted criminals are on the White House staff?" And then there is this exchange... Mokhiber: Ari, you said earlier that "Democracy is God-given." Didn't Thomas Jefferson have something to do with it? Ari Fleischer: I cited the Declaration of Independence and the author of our inalienable rights. Mokhiber: Who is the author of our inalienable rights? Ari Fleischer: That's what I said -- it's Jefferson. Mokhiber: Oh, I thought you said "Democracy is God-given"? There's a host of such exchanges posted on the Common Dreams News Center site.

IRAQI PRIMER A guide to the weapons inspections effort; a look at Saddam Hussein's track record on human rights, terrorism and politics; a review of the U.S. position on Iraq and its evolution since September 11; a reminder that there are billions of barrels of oil in play; and a photo gallery that may serve as a reminder that there are people's lives at stake. All-in-all, a simple and clear primer on how the U.S.-Iraq situation has evolved. Or devolved.

BEHIND THE NUMBERS OF WAR Polls have shown a consistent level of support behind the possibility of war with Iraq since last autumn, but behind the numbers an increasing degree of anxiety is emerging among the public. As reality continues to sink in, and the administration continues to not build a coherent public case, expect to see that anxiety increase -- and the poll numbers turn negative.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? An excellent online discussion with NYTimes journalist Chris Hedges, who just published his book "War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning," which is not about how lovely war is, but rather about how it defines people in very complex ways. Hedges, who is Swiss and covered the wars in Bosnia and in Iraq, writes: "There are no righteous wars. They do not exist. There are inevitable wars, but there are no good wars. War is always tragic, always a poison. Just as a cancer patient must at times ingest poison to fight off a disease we must at times go to war. But if we forget that war, like any posion, can also kill us we are doomed. Many go into war with this joie de guerre (Celine writes of this in Journey to the end of the Night) but this is because they believe the myth, the lie told by the state, the press, the enetertainment industry and myth makers like Stephen Ambroise." He goes on to note that "pacifism, like cynicism, can be a way to avoid the ethics of responsibility."

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON Thank God, the unseemly poll numbers are starting to deflate, and hopefully Bush's strident tone will deflate along with it. After being credited with saving the world from whatever it was that was threatening the globe after September 11, 2001, Bush's numbers rose from 51% to 90% -- the numbers are now at a much more reasonable 58%. Today's mantra? "It's the economy, stupid."

THE EXISTENTIAL FIASCO OF THE SUV The New Republic's Greg Easterbrook explores how 20 years of crappy governmental regulations have led us to become a nation of oversized vehicles, and what that really means. "Perverse federal regulations have actually encouraged auto companies to make SUVs big and wasteful, creating the very emblem of contemporary selfishness. Special congressional exemptions permit the vehicles to emit far more smog-forming pollutants and greenhouse gases than regular cars. Safety loopholes allow SUVs to be more dangerous than regular cars: it is a common fallacy that the occupants inside SUVs are safer than they would be in ordinary cars, and these Godzillas are instruments of death for non-SUV-driving motorists. Advertising has created the illusion that owning an SUV has something to do with being outdoorsy and adventurous, yet hardly any of these vehicles are used off-road, and the kind of four-wheel-drive systems that many sport to maintain the off-road fiction are nearly worthless in normal driving conditions, and even in snow. Still other perverse special favors have allowed SUVs to have blackout windows, mammoth grill guards, dazzling headlights, and other features designed to make the vehicles as aggressive and hostile as possible. To top off the scandal, the petroleum-waste trends caused by the SUV and its cousin, the light pickup (which is also exempt from most safety and environmental rules for regular cars, though millions of supposedly commercial-purpose pickups are used as cars), keep American society perilously dependent on Persian Gulf oil, diverting $20 billion annually to Saudi Arabia and its anti-American extremists, and $10 billion annually to Saddam Hussein himself. Stuck in the school-bound traffic, I marveled at the absurdity of our national situation." Excellent writing makes this comprehensive article well worth reading.

OUR MUDDLED WAR Former Undersecretary of State Ronald Spiers doesn't offer up anything new in his International Herald-Tribune assessment of post-September 11 focus, but I'm a firm believer in the concept of continuing to raise an issue until it either dies on the flagpole or improves. Spiers takes a look at America's response to the September 11 attacks and applauds the administration's firm, focused approach -- and then goes on to explain why firm transitioned to heavy-handed, and focused turned into confused. He concludes: "But at least Americans should get clearer thinking from their leaders." Not from the current crop of leaders we won't.

SQUASHING RUMOURS South Africa's Mail and Guardian reports that rumours of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's departure aren't true. Or, in the words of Mugabe himself, "I am not used to answering questions about nightmares which are dreamt in Britain at Number 10 Downing Street. I only heard about that in the paper, there is no truth in it." Too bad. Southern Africa could stand some good news these days.

THE BLAME GAME It's inevitable in politics -- shift the blame, preferably to a previous administration from the oppposition party. Which isn't to suggest that the Clinton administration's actions in regards to North Korea didn't help launch the current crisis, but the blame stretches much deeper than 1994. It extends to the 1987 establishment of democracy in South Korea, to 1989 with the crumbling of the Cold War dynamic, to the first Bush administration which stood idle as North Korea prooduced the plutonium now being prepped for weapons, to Clinton's policy of delaying the heavy lifting, to the current Bush team's clumsy statements and dismissive diplomacy vis-a-vis North Korea. Let's at least admit that no administration kicks off with a clean slate -- everyone inherits the decisions of their predecessors. It's what you do with what you have that matters, and the Bush team clearly fumbled the Korean ball. The question isn't what Clinton should have done differently -- that's for the history books. The question is what Bush will do now.

BOONDOCK BARBS Between the September 11 attacks and the Iraq build-up, cartoonist Aaron McGruder has really come into his own. "Boondocks" is the "Bloom County" of our times.

MORE REGIME CHANGE? Zimbabwe's privately run Sunday Mirror newspaper is reporting that Zimbabwe, South Africa and Britain are negotiating a deal that would allow President Robert Mugabe to step down. The New Zealand Herald reports that "the newspaper reported that the 'Mugabe exit plan' had been hatched after realising that the former colonial power's drive to oust him had failed but also that travel and economic sanctions against Zimbabwean political leaders were biting." Mugabe has literally run Zimbabwe into the ground during his rule, especially in recent years -- corrupt elections, political violence and suppression, and the wholesale seizure of white-owned farms have been the norm since the late 1990s.

SPIKE LEE, SOCIAL JUSTICE, FILM NOIR You never thought you'd see those three phrases joined together, did you? Here's the San Jose Metro's lead on "25th Hour" -- "No one with a serious interest in film noir should miss director Spike Lee's 25th Hour, a long but immaculately fatalist study of a high-end drug dealer's last day of freedom. Lee has created something uncommon in a crime drama--a story that's powerful and not just attitudinal. It may be impossible to make a good modern film noir without a sense of injustice, but it is surprising how many directors try."

GET YOUR PROTEST ON This Saturday marks what appears to be the final opportunity for anti-war demonstrators to raise their collective voices in Washington, D.C. Despite the fact that the thousands who gather will have views that range all over the wide map of opinion -- or maybe because of it -- I'm pleased to see a variety of voices being raised. Last October, more than 100,000 people gathered in Washington in the largest anti-war demonstration in the nation since the Vietnam War ended. The marchers were peaceful, passionate and in some cases extremely articulate (and in other cases, utterly idiotic). You've got to love the First Amendment. Really, you do.

THE CONCORD COALITION ON BUSH'S ECONOMIC PLAN For those who have forgotten, or never knew, the Concord Coalition emerged about a decade ago as a non-partisan effort to make better national economic choices about the future. They vanished, along with other voices of reason, during the economic hysteria of the 1990s that we now call "The Boom." As we trudge wearily through the land we know call "The Bust," it makes sense that the Concord Coalition's perspectives are back en vogue. Today, they ask four simple questions about the President's new economic initiative -- Are the new tax cuts justified by a new and more favorable reassessment of the budget’s long-term outlook? Are they advisable as short-term stimulus? Do they improve the tax code’s overall efficiency? With the beginning of the baby boomer retirements in just 5 years, the increased costs for homeland security and a potential war in Iraq, do these new tax cuts make sense?

THE FINE ART OF THANKING In which Mimi pens a few thank-you notes and open letters of vitriolic disdain to select corners of the world.

FUELING DEBATE, OR FADING? Count me among the majority of Americans who, when pressed, will admit to having very mixed, very conflicted feelings about the death penalty. And count me among the smaller number who feel strongly that the entire criminal justice system in this country is corrupt, broken and ill-designed to either effectively punish or rehabilitate criminals. So no wonder that Illinois Governor George Ryan's announcement this weekend that he was granting mass clemency to the state's entire Death Row population makes me fidget. On the one hand, it can't help but create an opportunity to reframe the debate -- if other national leaders take up the banner (Ryan leaves office this week, and thus loses a soapbox). On the other hand, Ryan's motives are arguably mixed -- giving supporters of the status quo an opportunity to dismiss the issue entirely. Still, many experts expect Ryan's move to fuel the debate in smaller states, which might gradually give criminal justice reform some national traction. Says the Chicago Tribune [registration required]: "Experts across the country said Ryan's decision probably will further isolate the death penalty into the corners of the nation where it is practiced most often -- such as Texas and Virginia, which have accounted for nearly half of all executions since capital punishment was reinstated in the mid-1970s. Thirty-eight states have the death penalty; 12 do not. Smaller states may abandon the death penalty, the experts said. 'It will have absolutely no effect in states such as Texas, Florida or Virginia, but it will have an effect in states struggling with the death penalty,' said Michael Radelet, a University of Colorado sociologist. States such as Connecticut, Kansas, Montana and New Jersey, which have smaller Death Row populations and rarely if ever use the death penalty, have grown somewhat skeptical of any benefits it might offer."

DEBATE REMAINS DEAD Hurrahh for Michael Getler for asking that the media, and our politicians, and the rest of you, get out of their collective Cones of Silence and start asking genuine questions about Iraq, North Korea, the role of the United States in global affairs, absurd ideas for economic stimulation and the nature of leadership in America. "Since 9/11, Bush has become a popular president and leader. But you could argue that because of 9/11, debate over national security issues has not been as intense as it should have been, that challenging the president was just too risky... Whatever was proper, there now seems, to me at least, a sense of unreality about this moment... in this new environment, one doesn't have a strong sense of whether the effect and aftermath [of a war] will be the start of a better era or the beginning of something even worse. The burden of war will be borne by a tiny fraction of Americans who happen to be in the military or reserves. No sacrifice is asked of anyone else. A possibly more dangerous crisis has arisen in North Korea, yet the talk is of tax cuts. In another month or two, it will be too late for second thoughts, or for discovering things that the government should have thought about, the press should have asked about and the public should have been told about." Debate and argument do not equal disloyalty or stupidity, but rather the opposite.

TURNAROUND IN AFGHANISTAN No, Afghanistan has not made a miraculous recovery; in fact, the country barely limped into 2003 intact. What has turned around, however slightly, is the U.S. commitment to a country in dire need. American military presence has almost doubled in the past six months, and more concerted efforts are being made to create opportunities on the ground for rebuilding and political stablization. Another turnaround -- a more tragic one, if it isn't halted -- has taken place in the Congress, where an $850 million annual commitment to Afghanistan has been choked down to less than $300 million. It's odd to think that the Congress might need to take a lesson in adapting to new realities from an administration that spent its first year thumbing its nose at the idea of nation building.

SLUMBERING GERMANY CRIPPLES A GIANT As the European Union begins to emerge as a potential force in the world, its strongest player slumbers on the sidelines. The Union, which despite having a deep bench of nations, was created to allow France and Germany to play strong leadership roles -- unfortunately, Germany's recently re-elected Gerhard Schroeder is as adrift as the country he barely leads, leaving France in the driver's seat. This is not a knock at France, but the current dynamic is proving to be no good for Germany, no good for France, and no good at all for the continent.

THE DESERT FOX He was to Reagan what Saddam Hussein is to Bush (and was to an earlier Bush). The forgotten leader of Libya, Moammar Gaddafi, has emerged for an interview with the Washington Post and Newsweek to hedge on Libya's culpability for the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, even as he states his growing optimism about the future of US-Libyan relations.

THE UNFOUGHT WAR As AIDS/HIV rates in the United States have passed their peak and reached a quiet plateau, they have skyrocketed in Africa, Asia and Russia -- skyrocketed in every manner except public attention and concern. Disease remains the biggest threat to most people on the globe -- tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS will kill 6 million people this year, creating mortality rates in some countries not seen since the early 1900s. Yet, we spend significantly more money on -- and pay more attention to -- terrorism prevention... to the tune of dollars to the penny. The AIDS epidemic won't peak for another 50 years. Perhaps by then we'll give it -- and its victims -- the focus it deserves.