Toronto councillor asked to remove logo from Facebook page

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 3:07 PM - 9 Comments

Ford Canada, the automaker, has asked Toronto Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti to remove its “Built Ford Tough” logo from a Facebook page supporting Toronto mayor Rob Ford’s administration. A Ford car spokesman says the company received about a dozen calls from people upset with the unauthorized use of the Ford logo. Giorgio Mammoliti’s Facebook page has been the ire of many Torontians lately, as it promises to block “communists” from its membership list. Mammoliti, once an NDP MPP, has expressed concerns lately about people he believes to be communist making deputations at City Council meetings.

The Globe and Mail

Scientists find pitch-black alien world

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 2:32 PM - 1 Comment

Astronomers have discovered the darkest known exoplanet, which reflects less than one per cent of the sunlight that reaches it—making it blacker than coal, and less reflective than acrylic black paint, according to the Royal Astronomical Society. Using NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, which precisely measures the brightness of distant stars, they determined that exoplanet TrES-2B is a Jupiter-sized gas giant. But although Jupiter is surrounded by bright clouds of ammonia, which reflect more than one-third of the sunlight that falls on it, this planet is too hot for reflective clouds and contains light-absorbing chemicals. It’s so hot that it emits a red glow, like an ember. Kepler has already found more than 1,200 planet candidates.

Science Daily

Women with depression at increased risk of stroke

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 2:20 PM - 0 Comments

Women with a history of depression have a 29 per cent increased risk of suffering a stroke, according to a report in the BBC. The new study looked at over 80,000 women aged 54 to 79, and found that depressed women were more likely to be single, smokers, and less physically active, as well as being slightly younger with a higher body mass index. They also suffered from conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. Depression seems to stop some women from curbing other medical problems, taking their medications and following a healthy lifestyle, they said.

BBC News

Frequent tanning can alter brain activity

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 2:14 PM - 0 Comments

Frequent exposure to ultraviolet radiation can actually become addictive, according to new research in an upcoming issue of the journal Addiction Biology. In fact, the New York Times reports, people who often use tanning beds show changes in their brain activity that looks similar to what happens in the brains of drug addicts. Several parts of the brain related to addiction were activated when subjects—who liked to tan at least three times a week and said being tanned was important to them—were exposed to UV rays. This could help explain why some people tan frequently even though the dangers, including increased risk of skin cancer, premature aging and wrinkles, are known.

New York Times

Power to the people

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 1:50 PM - 2 Comments

In light of events in British Columbia and Wisconsin, Greg Fingas defends direct democracy initiatives.

The leading example is of course California, whose combination of conflicting citizen initiatives and political gridlock has made it virtually impossible to make reasonable budgetary decisions or carry out any long-term planning. And direct democratic processes shouldn’t serve as the only outlet for citizen involvement between elections. Indeed, both of the above examples could have been avoided if the governments involved had consulted with residents to determine whether their policy choices were even faintly defensible.

But there’s always some risk that a government that believes itself to be four years away from any accountability might push far beyond the limits of reasonable political choice. And some mechanism for citizens to take back our representative authority in case of emergency might work wonders to reduce the danger of overreach in the future.

Governments must adapt to Internet, not other way around

By Peter Nowak - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 1:09 PM - 11 Comments

Photo by Jeremy Brooks c/o Flickr Creative Commons

When the Cold War ended just over twenty years ago, it was convenient to think of it as democracy’s final triumph over tyranny, autocracy and every other form of government. With communism defeated, it seemed pretty obvious that the system left standing was the best one – the one we were always destined for and the one that every country should strive for.

It would be foolish, however, to think that the way we govern ourselves has stopped evolving. Our current system of democracy is by no means the be all and the end all of human governance. The same way that the printing press and a newly educated population forced the evolution of monarchies into republics centuries ago, so too is the internet now forcing governments of all stripes to grow, adapt and change. As people become further connected with advanced technologies, this movement will only accelerate.

But before things get better, they will get worse. The riots in London are only the tip of this iceberg. The internet has furthered the collective education and consciousness of the public and given us access, literally, to a world of information. It has never been easier for the average person to see just how much of the world’s increasing wealth they’re missing out on, or how much their particular government is screwing them. This, as much as anything, can explain the unrest and riots, which seem to be happening in both developed and developing countries with a growing frequency.

Democracy has been on a downward spiral in many developed nations for decades, with voter turnouts hitting new lows – excepting periodic uptick aberrations – in each successive election (the recent election in Canada saw only 61% of voters turn up, slightly higher than the record low set in 2008). The decline shows more people are either losing faith in the system, or they are fine with the status quo and simply can’t be bothered with it.

Whatever the case, with their mandates shrinking, governments are feeling less beholden to the public and are acting more boldly. Whether it’s stripping away civil rights, detaining people without due process or negotiating legislation and treaties in secret, our democratically elected governments are behaving more and more like the communists they defeated not so long ago.

But democracy is alive and well on the internet. Indeed, it’s the de facto model that almost every online operation works on; topics trend on Twitter depending on how many people are discussing them, news stories get assigned, ranked and displayed based on similar factors (as opposed to chosen by human editors, like they were in the past) and websites show up in Google searches based on how many links they have pointing to them. Online, the good and popular rises to the top – whether it’s YouTube videos, Apple apps, Amazon books or Digg stories – while the bad or unpopular is ignored or voted down.

Moreover, online democracy is exerting itself as its own form of court system, which some might call vigilantism. When Sony recently sued a hacker who had cracked the PlayStation 3, other hackers took down the company’s online video game network for a month. Conversely, when Microsoft welcomed the hacking of its Kinect games system, it earned kudos and thanks from the online community. The underlying notion behind both being that cracking devices is necessary to learn and thus propel innovation forward. Anyone who stands in the way of that, the online community has ruled, is being a bad netizen.

This is because from its very beginnings, the internet has been based on the principles of openness and community. The technical protocols on which it runs were made available for free, as was the first web browser. The fundamental principles of the internet, therefore, are the same as democracy – each user is entitled to freedom and openness, so long as they don’t harm anyone else. Those that do harm in the eyes of the collective are punished, one way or another.

Governments, whether they’re in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada or China, are beginning to understand this and are now trying to extend their reach and control into the online world through various forms of censorship or control (China is obviously further ahead). It’s a struggle they are not likely to win because laws and enforcement take time, despite diminishing democratic controls, whereas new technological circumventions move at lightning speed. The continued survival and success of The Pirate Bay, the file-sharing site that authorities have been trying to shut down for the better part of a decade, is just one example of this. Simply put, laws will never catch up to technology.

Indeed, the inverse is more likely. The principles of openness and freedom cultivated on the internet, which has coincidentally been part of mainstream culture since the end of the Cold War, are more likely to bleed into the real world – literally, through riots. Governments will inevitably have no choice but to acquiesce and adapt to what are ultimately basic human desires: to be open and free. Otherwise, as advanced technologies make living in a virtual online world more realistic and palatable, people will inevitably abandon the real world and move into the ether permanently, leaving governments with no one to govern.

What are we doing in Honduras?

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 12:53 PM - 7 Comments

Steve Rennie looks at the circumstances surrounding the Prime Minister’s visit to Honduras, including mixed signals of a military exercise.

On Aug. 4, the National Congress of Honduras approved the entry of Canadian soldiers into the country to take part in a joint training exercise. The results of three votes on the matter were posted this past Monday on the National Congress’ website.

Canada’s Department of National Defence has not announced any training exercises in Honduras. The Prime Minister’s Office said it was unaware of any joint training exercise taking place.

Hey look: Harper’s new Ford

By Paul Wells - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 12:35 PM - 0 Comments

From the print edition, my new column ponders the meaning of that big picnic in Toronto mayor Rob Ford’s mom’s back yard, at which the surprise guest was Stephen Harper.

A point I, uh, forgot to mention in the column is that Harper has begun referring in speeches to “that Conservative fortress of Toronto.”  I suspect that’s still a bit tongue in cheek. But if the 2011 results solidified or if the Conservatives were able to extend their gains in the GTA, Toronto would start to play a big part in Conservative election hopes. And as I say in the column, this comes after everyone’s already seen so much of Harper that he might reasonably have been expected to be waving goodbye to parts of his voter base, not adding to it.

Tim Hortons raises its quarterly profits 1.5 per cent

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 12:27 PM - 2 Comments

Investors were relieved Thursday when Tim Hortons reported a 1.5 per cent increase in quarterly profits, even amid rising commodity costs. Price increases and the company’s line of new products, including the popular fruit smoothie, were the main contributors to its 10 per cent revenue jump in its second-quarter results. Profits climbed from $94.1 million dollars last year, to $95.5 million dollars this year. Net earnings rose from 54 cents per share to 58 cents per share.

Toronto Star

U.S. hiring security firms to train AU troops in Somalia

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 12:23 PM - 0 Comments

The United States government is indirectly financing private contractors to help train African troops to fight against Islamic radicals in Somalia, The New York Times reports. The newspaper reports that this is part of a growing number of private security firms operating in the drought-ravaged, war-torn country in the Horn of Africa. Among the firms being paid by the U.S. is Bancroft Global Development, which has been indirectly financed to train African Union troops to fight against al-Shabaab in the country’s capital, Mogadishu. Just this past weekend, troops pushed the radical militants out of the city for the first time in years. A Western consultant with the African Union told The New York Times that Bancroft is responsible for turning “a bush army into an urban fighting force.” The Pentagon also plans to send nearly US$45 million to Ugandan and Burundian troops operating in the country.

The New York Times

B.C. attorney helped crack Warren Jeffs polygamy case

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 12:18 PM - 0 Comments

B.C. courts have been hardpressed in their attempt to win polygamy convictions in the Mormon commune of Bountiful, but one of the province’s Attorney Generals, Barry Penner, has taken credit in the prosecution of America’s foremost polygamist leader, Warren Jeffs. Penner says his office relayed information to American prosecutors prior to Jeffs’ life prison sentence—imposed on him by a Texas court on Tuesday after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two teenage girls. Penner did not give details about the information he provided to the U.S. prosecutors, but in the wake of Jeffs’ conviction, the RCMP has launched a new investigation into Bountiful B.C. and Jeffs’ former commune in Texas. Authorities believe the two communities engaged in a cross-border child bride exchange.

CBC News

Republican presidential hopefuls square off in Iowa

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 11:50 AM - 0 Comments

The eight Republicans vying for the party’s 2012 presidential nomination squared off in Iowa Thursday in a debate that saw each candidate criticize the current U.S. president — and each other. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is said to be the early frontrunner as the candidates head into this weekend’s Iowa Straw Poll, a non-binding preliminary ballot. Texas Governor Rick Perry is also expected to put his name forward as a potential nominee on Saturday. The highlights of Thursday’s debate included former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty calling Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann’s political accomplishments “non-existent.” Bachmann responded by criticizing Pawlenty’s past support for environmental legislation, saying he “sounds a lot like President Obama.”

Fox News

‘Something intellectuals fantasize about but rarely do’

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 11:25 AM - 9 Comments

Jordan Michael Smith reviews the rise and fall of Michael Ignatieff.

This is a tale with many morals. But one clear takeaway from Michael Ignatieff’s attempt to storm the citadel of power in Canada is that makeovers, particularly by intellectuals trying to transform themselves into politicians, have limits. Once Ignatieff established himself as a cosmopolitan free thinker and intellectual entrepreneur, it was difficult for him ever to posture as an ordinary Canadian pol. Most intellectuals looking to enter politics presumably would not hamstring themselves by living outside their native country for nearly three decades and then return only to aim so soon for the top job. And perhaps only an intellectual would be detached enough to believe such a track record would not be an impediment to leading a country. But if Ignatieff’s palpable erudition provided an occasional warning sign for his ambitions, as seen in those Hamlet-like meditations on power, it also gave him a sense that he was not subject to the rules that govern more mundane careers.

One quibble: I’m not sure how many would have described Stephane Dion as a “politician waiting to happen” before he joined the Liberal government of the day.

Taking into account the failure of the last two Liberal leaders and the success of Stephen Harper and Jack Layton—both of whom, mind you, can claim some “intellectual” credentials—there is probably something to be said for the career politician. Not necessarily that the public consciously prefers the “career politician,” but that it simply takes time and experience to both figure out how to be a political leader and win the public’s trust.

1.6 million vote in HST referendum

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 11:13 AM - 0 Comments

More than 1.6 million BC voters mailed back their ballots in the heated referendum over the HST, according to Elections BC. The provincial agency started mailing ballots on June 13 to the three million eligible voters. The return deadline was extended due to the recent Canada Post strike. But acting Chief Electoral Officer Craig James says results won’t be tabulated until August 25. James says he expects the referendum will cost the province approximately $8.9 million.

Vancouver Sun

Harper visits Honduras, makes “bold statement”

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 11:11 AM - 1 Comment

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit with Honduran President Pepe Lobo is a “bold statement,” according to his spokesman Dimitri Soudas. Harper is the first foreign leader to visit Honduras since a constitutional crisis two years ago that overthrew the previous president. His visit is part of a tour of Latin America that ends Friday night. Violent crime is a serious problem in Honduras, where the per capita murder rate is one of the highest in the world. The country has a 28 percent unemployment rate, while 50 percent of Hondurans live below the poverty line.

Toronto Sun 

Russia toughens sanctions on Libya

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 11:08 AM - 0 Comments

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has agreed to step up sanctions against Libya, the Kremlin said Friday. The move comes five months after the UN Security Council passed an identical measure in March. The decree includes a ban on the use of Russian airspace by Libyan planes and a freeze on the assets of Moammar Gadhafi and his close allies. Medvedev signed an earlier sanctions decree in March that banned weapons sales to the embattled Gadhafi regime. Before the current conflict, Russia was a key arms supplier to Libya.

AFP

North American stocks up after heavy losses

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 10:51 AM - 0 Comments

The Canadian stock market continued to climb Friday amidst strong continental growth. The S&P/TSX and the Canadian dollar both edged up in early trading, as did the Nasdaq composite index and the Dow Jones industrial average. The growth follows a strong Thursday that saw the TSX climb 341 points and the Dow jump 424 points after three weeks of heavy losses.

Toronto Star

Shame on RIM

By Jesse Brown - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 10:49 AM - 12 Comments

“What happens to your data when Facebook is sold off in pieces?”

“We’ll see how ‘un-evil’ Google is when they start losing money.”

Such dot com doomsday scenarios are often used to illustrate the folly of trusting private companies with personal information. But we needn’t rely on these hypothetical scenarios anymore. We have RIM.

The troubled Waterloo-based company is pandering to public hysteria, tripping over itself to hand over the private messages and GPS coordinates of anyone the London cops suspect of rioting. Or anyone they say they suspect—what’s the difference, right?

This desperate act will do little to reverse RIMs’s tumbling market share or restore its tarnished brand. It speaks of a cowardly company pathetically trying to spin negative headlines about “Rioting 2.0″ into free publicity about their concern for public safety.

Instead, they provide us with a sad, tangible example of why we need to reconsider our arrangements with tech service providers. RIM has the power to completely expose millions of people—expose them to ridicule, to violence, to persecution. They have proven in the past that they will do so whenever it seems to be in their best business interest. Oppressive regimes have made spying and/or censorship the cost of entry, and RIM has fallen into line.

Now they are also selling out their customers in a free, Western society. They have become the target of hackers as a result.

It’s hard to feel sorry for them.

Jesse Brown is the host of TVO.org’s Search Engine podcast. He is on Twitter @jessebrown.

Cashing in on foreign students

By Stephanie Findlay - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 5 Comments

Simon Hayter

Last year, Patricia Gartland, who works for a suburban Vancouver school district, brought in $16 million selling 1,700 B.C. classroom spots to foreign students, largely from China and South Korea. Gartland, who started her job as director of international education with the Coquitlam School District in suburban Vancouver over 10 years ago, has made the program in Vancouver one of the most extensive in Canada and the envy of the scores of districts across the country looking to cash in on the growing market for international students.

With international students paying $10,000 to $14,000 to attend Canadian schools, public school administrators across the country are setting up for-profit international student programs to compete for their dollars. One 2009 study estimated some 35,000 foreign students in the K-12 system contribute almost $700 million annually to the Canadian economy—a win-win for students, who get an invaluable leg-up when applying to North American post-secondary schools, as well as district administrators, who make up to 50 per cent profit on the tuition.

International student programs aren’t new to Canada, but at the K-12 level they’re rarely talked about, although most provinces have had programs for at least a decade. No province has been more successful at bringing in international students than B.C., with some 9,000. Capitalizing on the demand for a Western diploma and an English-language education, B.C. schools compete with Britain, the U.S. and Australia to recruit students overseas. School districts send staff abroad to meet foreign school officials and to attend trade shows. Domestically, the districts liaise with the Lower Mainland’s tight-knit Chinese and Korean communities, looking for overseas relatives. Once in Canada, the students live with extended family or billets. The students are offered supplementary language classes in tandem with regular studies, though eventually most opt for the standard curriculum.

Continue…

Inside Harper’s big blue tent

By Paul Wells - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 56 Comments

Adrian Wyld/CP

They are incorrigible, these Harper Conservatives. Sooner or later, they’ll wind up right in your own backyard.

Mr. Robert Ford, of the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke, Ont., made that startling discovery on Aug. 2, when 700 federal Conservatives showed up for a garden party on his mother’s property. To Ford’s apparent surprise, one of his guests was Stephen Harper.

Ford recovered quickly, for he is the mayor of Toronto and these folks were, in fact, his invited guests. “My new fishing buddy,” Ford called Harper. They swapped tales about Ford’s prowess in landing a 39-cm smallmouth bass. Harper took the microphone and spoke briefly. He said Ford didn’t live up to his reputation because he refused to kill and eat the fish, although, to be honest, Ford never really struck me as a seafood lover. Harper said Ford did “something very important” by “cleaning up the NDP mess here in Toronto.” Since Harper is, by his account, cleaning up “the left-wing mess federally,” it was up to Ontarians to “complete the hat trick” by electing Conservative Tim Hudak as the province’s new premier this fall.

Continue…

When boys would rather not be boys

By Roberta Staley - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 8:00 AM - 17 Comments

Brian Howell

Cormac O’Dwyer entered Grade 8 in Vancouver as a girl named Amber. All traces of femininity stopped with the name; Amber looked, dressed and acted like a boy. “It was awkward,” admits Cormac, sleeves rolled up to reveal downy, muscular arms, elbows resting on the kitchen table in the family’s immaculate home in upscale Kitsilano. From the other end of the table, Cormac’s mother, Julia, pipes up. “People would use the male pronoun,” she recalls. Usually Julia felt obliged to correct the error, leaving new acquaintances flustered and confused.

But solecisms were the least of Cormac’s worries during the transition from female to male. Becoming a boy involved wearing a breast-flattening binder, changing for phys. ed. in the teachers’ change room, declining invitations to go swimming, and carrying a cellphone to call for help in case of bullying. And then there was the therapy: testosterone injections, counselling and surgery that removed his breasts and contoured what remained into the flat, square planes of a male chest.

Now 16, Cormac is one of a growing number of teenagers in Canada who have been diagnosed with gender identity dysphoria (GID), or transgenderism. These kids feel that they have been born into the wrong bodies, and are actually members of the opposite sex. Cormac recalls his epiphanic moment following a presentation by a peer-counselling group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth at Lord Byng Secondary School. “I always sort of knew I wanted to be a guy,” says Cormac. “They explained to me what transgender was and, for the first time ever, I ‘got it’ and went home and told my mom.”

Continue…

Ernie is Mean to Bert

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 5:37 PM - 9 Comments

In response to an internet petition to let Bert and Ernie get married, Sesame Street has officially announced that the two Muppets “do not have a sexual orientation.” And come to think of it, I can’t recall any sketches where Bert or Ernie were romantically interested in anyone. The idea that a gay couple would be “sexualizing” a show is usually kind of a bogus complaint, since there are plenty of kids’ shows – including Sesame Street – with heterosexual couples. And as people are already pointing out, there are Muppet characters who have expressed heterosexual attraction, so it doesn’t make sense to say they’re asexual just because “they’re puppets.” But the asexuality of Bert and Ernie seems sort of built into their characterizations.

That said, my only problem with Ernie marrying Bert is that Ernie is a terrible, terrible partner who makes Bert’s life miserable. I know some people find Bert to be a wet blanket and killjoy. And he is. But as a kid, I got really angry at Ernie when I saw this sketch. He not only keeps Bert up at night (“oh, not again,” Bert says, implying that Ernie has done this before), but calls on his evil power to command animals and gets Bert thrown out of the house, looking desperately through the window while being menaced by evil dancing sheep. Meanwhile, Ernie happily falls asleep, not caring that he’s left his “friend” to be eaten by demon-sheep. No, Bert just has to get away from this lunatic.

Week in Pictures: August 8th – 14th 2011

By macleans.ca - Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 5:26 PM - 0 Comments

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Week in Pictures: August 8th – 14th 2011

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Refugees lay infant to rest in Dadaab camp

The shrouded body of 12-month-old Liin Muhumed Surow lays before burial at UNHCR's Ifo Extention camp outside Dadaab, Kenya, 100 km from the Somali border on August 6, 2011. Liin died of malnutrition 25 days after reaching the camp, her father Mumumed said. The drought and famine in the Horn of Africa has killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 in the last 90 days in southern Somalia alone, according to U.S. estimates. The UN says 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished, suggesting the death toll of small children will rise. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

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‘The Help’: A feel-good flick that sugar-coats segregation

By Claire Ward - Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 5:21 PM - 4 Comments

(l-r) Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer in 'The Help'

Director Tate Taylor’s adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s wildly popular bestseller, The Help, is bright, funny, and at times uplifting. But those aren’t necessarily desirable traits for a film about the lives of black maids in segregated Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s—a town that saw some of the worst oppression and disenfranchisement of blacks in the South.

The Help centres around a young, white college graduate, Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan, and two black maids—Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson. Skeeter (Emma Stone) is an atypical Southern belle—frazzle-haired, career-driven, and full of righteous indignation. She returns from university to find that her friends have all gotten married, had babies, and embraced an ugly, casual racism toward their black maids. Skeeter aspires to become a novelist and hopes to catch the notice of a New York book editor (played by a canny Mary Steenburgen) with a controversial book pitch—she will interview a group of black maids who spend their lives looking after white families.

The Help is an disturbingly palatable account of the beginnings of the civil rights movement in America. The depiction of Jackson is candy-coated, never lingering on the truly awful realities of segregation and oppression before a punchline or an endearing moment cheers you up. Major moral questions are glossed over with throwaway lines. I found myself wondering: why are the lives of these black maids filtered through this naive white girl’s story? At one point, Minny says to Skeeter, indignantly, “Why do you think black people need white peoples’ help?” She storms out, only to turn right back around and agree to cooperate. Later, when Skeeter publishes her book and the maids are implicated, I wondered what would happen to them. “Don’t worry Skeeter, we can take care of ourselves,” Minny reassures our white heroine, nodding and grinning. I wasn’t so reassured.

Nonetheless, the film showcases some fine performances. Viola Davis performs in a league of her own, bringing some real depth to Aibileen. The Oscar-nominee (Doubt) is complex in front of the camera, conveying deep sadness and hope at the same time. Octavia Spencer, as Minny, steals more than a few scenes as the eyebrow-raised, misbehaving maid who can’t contain her opinions. Playing opposite Minny is a delightful Jessica Chastain (Tree of Life), the loopy, white-trash outsider Celia Foote (their fried chicken lesson is laugh-out-loud funny). Surprisingly, the much-touted Emma Stone didn’t really stand out, but that may have been the fault of the script. Skeeter is a two-dimensional character seemingly designed to reassure us that not all whites were racist. Where her moral compass comes from (Her liberal arts education? She was born that way?) is never explained. It’s as if she’s the only sane white person in the movie—everyone else seems incurious, brainwashed, or wholly unreasonable. Her evil nemesis, Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), is a cartoonish mean-girl villain whose motivations are similarly unexplained. There is no grey area—only good white people and bad white people.

The screening I attended had people laughing and crying (and had the critic next to me scowling with indignation). Frankly, I felt manipulated in much the same way I do after watching a particularly poignant episode of Grey’s Anatomy. The writer pulled my heartstrings, put the bad people in their place, and gave me a hero to look up to. The Help may have its heart in the right place, but ultimately it skims the surface. A movie about the Jim Crow laws and those who suffered under them just shouldn’t be this cute.