Opinion: In today’s pages: polar bears and Armageddon
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Digital media attorney Jonathan Handel eyes the talks between the Directors Guild and the studios, and lays out a Hollywood doomsday scenario:
So the stage is set for a disaster. If the directors accept a lowball new-media deal, the Writers Guild and SAG may well reject it as a template, and pattern bargaining would break down. SAG’s position would embolden the Writers Guild leadership to maintain the strike, despite pressure from some writers to end the walkout. Come June 30, when the actors deal expires, SAG would go on strike too. At that point, the industry would be in all-out civil war, with battle lines drawn ...
Also on the Op-Ed page, cartoonist Nick Anderson comments on tensions between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over race and civil rights. Columnist Tim Rutten berates the federal government for invading civilian scientists’ privacy, and former space station exec Jeffrey Manber makes the case for inviting China into outer space. Chuck staff writer Zev Borow provides an off-beat critique of this year’s movies: ‘Most disappointing, though, was ‘There will be blood.’ Three words: not enough blood.’
The editorial board condemns California for sentencing juveniles to life without parole,
Not long ago, scientists thought the human brain was fully developed by early adolescence. But modern technology, allowing more sophisticated brain scans, has shown that isn’t true. ... Few go so far as to commit murder, and those who do obviously must face serious penalties, but it is perverse to condemn a minor to prison for life for committing a crime that he or she might find unthinkable on reaching adulthood.
The board also looks to Congress to protect consumers from future Enrons, and turns up the heat on the Interior Department approving oil drilling in a polar bear habitat.
Readers run over Gov. Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal. ‘If California is in a deep financial hole,’ writes Robert L. Douglass, ‘raise my taxes. I’m willing to pay.’ Adds Barry H. Davis,
Like the baby-friendly pit bull that suddenly turns vicious, as I expected, the governor has turned into a Republican. So as the poor, elderly and disabled get left further behind, yacht owners can sleep calmly and securely in their staterooms. Don’t worry, there will be no new taxes.