Word: swording
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...usual course of politics takes over: Card will suffer briefly for his "misunderstanding," while Bush et al. skirt any real trouble. In fact, the President probably owes thanks to Card, who, apart from his apparent willingness to fall on his sword, has, perhaps inadvertently, shown the administration the path to take on these two controversial topics - and that similarly touchy issues should be subject to more of a look-before-you-leap examination in the future...
MIDDLE EAST Those Who Live by the Sword . . . The former Lebanese warlord whose Israel-allied Christian militia slaughtered hundreds of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982 was assassinated in a Beirut car-bomb explosion. Elie Hobeika had no shortage of enemies, but initial suspicion has fallen on Israel. Hobeika met earlier last week with Belgian officials considering war crimes charges against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The potential charges, permitted under Belgian law, stem from Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, when Sharon was Defense Minister and strongly allied to Hobeika's Lebanese Forces. Sharon was forced...
Zhang Ziyi rolls across a library floor in a gauzy white tunic, trying to perfect an action stunt and she's in pain. Her forefinger is a swollen lump, bruised from an injury the previous day, and each thrust of her sword sets it throbbing anew. Her instructor lists the problems to work on: straighten the legs, revolve the body faster and finish at a better angle. Ziyi huffs, shuffles her Nikes, then dives again. No good. She squeals in agony. Director Zhang Yimou gives his action director the word: "Simplify it." Cinematographer Chris Doyle heaves a sympathetic sigh, which...
...start shooting until I know exactly how every scene will look," he says. And he's not exaggerating. He delights in the minutiae of his vision. The rhythm. The angles. His taciturn bearing vanishes as he pantomimes the way his camera will trace the edge of Jet Li's sword or follow a tear down Cheung's cheek. When Cheung complains that he makes her cry too often, he counters, "Nothing moves me more than the sight of a woman crying onscreen...
...answer, provided in James Carroll's fascinating, brave and sometimes infuriating history, Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews (Houghton Mifflin; 616 pages), is St. Augustine. In the year 425, shortly after Christians slaughtered the Jews of Alexandria in the first recorded pogrom, the influential church father cautioned, "Do not slay them." He preferred that the Jews be preserved, close at hand, as unwilling witnesses to Old Testament prophecies regarding Jesus. Augustine's followers elaborated on the idea, writes Carroll: Jews "must be allowed to survive, but never to thrive," so their misery would be "proper punishments for their...