Joe Speak

Argo,  **** yourself!  I tried to count how many times Ben Affleck and his Fake Studio Six buddies will say this punch line in the movie Argo. As usual, I failed, I lost the count. Based on real events, famously referred to as “The Canadian Caper” Argo is the directorial outing of Ben Affleck, after The Town. Produced by himself and George Clooney, Argo tries to depict the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis and succeeds in doing so to a great extend, rebuilding the movie from available photos and one would presume, with countless interviews with the hostages and John Mendez, the CIA ex-filtration operative who tried to get them out. Ben Affleck plays the harried John Mendez, estranged from his wife and his “buddy man” with great élan, the rest of the crew carries out their part to perfection. One would say that the filming of the events that happened in 1979 in a seemingly innocuous manner, though with certain amount of uncertainties, as too dramatic. Everything happens just i...

And it is again Obama for the second term in the White House. The exit polls had given Obama a slender but a good chance of winning the race to the most powerful job in the world. Mitt Romney, the conservative Republican, came back strongly from a primary defeat to John McCain back in 2008 and enjoyed a great probability in the polls to be the America’s first Mormon president. As the race was nearing its crescendo, Mitt Romney fared well in the debates, and the Republicans thought they had a good chance of getting in to the Oval office. Then came along the devastating cyclone formed in the turbid waters of Atlantic, Sandy, second only to Katrina in its destructive power wrecking havoc in the eastern cost of America. Both the contenders stopped the electoral sparring and engaged in relief activities with Obama leading from the front. This served Obama’s and the Democrats presidential aspirations a real boost and the final lap saw Obama leading Romney by over 100 seats. The majo...

A girl sitting and leaning from a two wheeler, and feeding a stray dog in one of the busiest and crowded byways in Trivandrum pushed me in to a retrospective mode. It has become a fashion statement these days to be an animal lover, or an environment activist. There are hordes of these lovers whose blood will boil at the sight of slightest misery to these canines and bovines.  Tourists come from as far as America to the beaches of Kerala and feed the strays. Off course one can presume that these are the wealthy and affluent, who can afford to catch a business class to the third world India and feed these homeless vagrants called the street dogs. Then there are a certain class characterized by the paternal and maternal love lavished up on the four legs. Here, the otherwise well to do human off springs are brushed aside, and demoted to a secondary level of hierarchy. Dogs and cats occupy the preferred seats in the family vehicle and at times safety seats and seat belts are mandator...