spent a large part of my weekend watching the two-DVD deluxe set for the superb documentary "The Corporation." It includes the 144-minute feature, plus tons of extras, including extended interviews with both critics and defenders of corporations (Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, but also Miton Friedman, and the CEOs of Shell Oil and Goodyear).

The film explores the history of the corporation in the modern world, from the creation of the fictional "legal person" in Roman law to the current situation in which many experts agree that the corporation has become the dominant institution in our lives, supassing the Church, the empire, and the nation-state in power, wealth, and influence.