Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Will Ann Ever Ride Horses Again?

Still In The Buh-Buh-Bubble

I Just Really Like This Graphic.

It was surrealistic; Marcel Duchamp could have written the script:  Mitzy, arriving at The White House for lunch with the Once and Future President Of The United States, Barack Hussein Obama. The pair photographed shaking hands in the Oval Office -- Romney a textbook image of awkward discomfort, Obama at ease, hand-in-pocket casual. It was bizarre; What did these two people have to talk about, really?

This was followed by a Washington Post article which underscores how badly out of touch, how In The Bubble the Republicans were -- and specifically Romney, his wife Ann, and Little Paulie Ryan. All of them were served Kool-Aid by GOP pollsters, and had been drinking it for months.  Reality arrived on election night.

In a conference call with big-money donors after the loss, Romney claimed he had failed to win because of "big promises" made by Obama and the Democrats of entitlements or social program spending to specific constituencies -- Hispanics, African-Americans; 'the youth'. It wasn't because the message the GOP delivered during the campaign -- that they were the party of wealth, godliness, racism, homophobia and Good-Ol'-Boy southern power -- was so out of touch with... well, Reality.

At nearly the same time, one of Romney's campaign advisors quipped that Romney had carried the (Republican-defined) true middle-class voters, so by inference had actually 'won' the election. He hadn't failed. He hadn't really 'lost', and the Republican Party was really strong and a reflection of real America -- because the People Who Mattered had all voted for Mitzy. Simple! Wasn't it?

Now, Romney is in seclusion in San Diego -- not far from San Clemente, where another bitter Republican loser nursed his wounds, after being forced to resign ahead of an Impeachment for conducting a criminal conspiracy from the Oval Office. His wife, Ann, is heartbroken, and just can't make herself ride the horses again (These are rich people, remember. They can afford to buy, house and keep horses).
“Is [Romney] disappointed? Of course he’s disappointed. He’s like 41,” adviser Ron Kaufman said, referring to former president George H.W. Bush. “Forty-one would hate to lose a game of horseshoes to the gardener in the White House, and Mitt hates to lose. He’s a born competitor.”
Comparing the contest between Romney and Obama this past year, with an image of GHW Bush vs. the 'White House Gardener' is telling, given who Romney believes he is -- and who the GOP perceives Obama to be... because Romney is an elite multimillionaire with extensive property, investment holdings and Cayman Island accounts, and you're not.

That was really the crux of the election just past, and the Right is utterly gobsmacked to have lost -- not just the Presidency; they lost in most of the hotly-contested, controversial Senate and House races. The American voting population rejected their message.

The Right has been living in a Cloud-Koo-Koo Land of evangelical wishful thinking and Troglodyte hubris since the mid-1990's, and on the night of November 6th, that collapsed on itself again -- as it did in November of 2006, and again in 2008. All the bizarre, self-serving sore-loser comments made by Rightist pundits, the screeching of the Lard Boys and Little Mikey Wieners, ever since only serves to make that clearer.

If Romney had won, the next four years would have etched the divide between  people like Mitzy and Ann and The Rest Of You even deeper into American society -- and Romney would have presided over that with gusto, because he truly believes in that kind of social stratification as the natural order, something ordained by god.

Which is why, after the majority of the American people voted No to this notion, Mitzy is having such a hard time adjusting.

Meanwhile, back in Oz On The Potomac, President Boner and President Yertle The Turtle and President Graham and President Cantor are saying they will not play nicely with the evil illegitimate Socialist up the White House what thinks he's Prestident. 

They intend to force Obama to give them what they could not win at the ballot box by dint of typical Rethug behavior -- bait-and-switch, outright lying, threats, and posturing for the cameras. Little Rupert's Fox is ready to support all this by repeating those same lies over and over, 24-7.  And all this is standard operating procedure for the Right, though these same tactics didn't work in the months leading up to the election. 

In November, the Republicans lost because they only saw what they wanted to see. So far, they haven't really admitted to themselves that they did, in fact, lose the election in a very fundamental and substantial way -- that the very 'Republican Brand' may be heading for extinction.  The reasons for that loss don't seem to have made any difference to the Republican Congressional leadership -- but, clearly, like Mitzy, they have Bubble problems of their own.

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Sunday, December 2, 2012

I Do What The Superintelligent Parakeet Says

What I  Saw When I Opened My Eyes

I haven't been sure whether to continue with Before Nine or not -- principally because (sadly) writing isn't my full-time gig -- though, who knows; that may change over time -- and recently, I've had to pay more attention to the sit up and beg tricks Witless Labor™ I perform for money every day at the Happy Factory than I have before. 

And, I'm a voracious reader; I appreciate good writing, evocative writing. Most of my adult life's labor has involved written communication one way or another. So, coming to the blank CSS file in the same way that Hemingway faced the white bull that is paper with no words on it is not something I take lightly, no matter how throwaway blog posts can sometimes be.

And with multiple calls on my time at the Happy Factory, the allure of the blank CSS frame had, over time, become... well, work.  It was a drag, a requirement, and not a delight.

I didn't know what to do, so I just stopped, letting things simmer for a while. And then, it happened.

This morning, I was preparing to wake up when I felt a presence in the room. Opening my eyes slightly, I was confronted by the visage of the Superintelligent Parakeet who reads this blog, perched on the side table beside the bed, regarding me.

I could go on dragging this out -- but the bottom line is, he told me not to stop. We're talking about a parakeet with the equivalent of a human's 110 IQ. You may not think that's a big deal for a person, but the idea of a parakeet being smart enough to get into your home without being heard and watching you sleep should be enough to scare the living daylights out of you. 

And take my word for it -- you don't ever want to piss off a bird that smart. Ever.
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Thursday, November 15, 2012

Appointment In Samarra

As the Middle East smoulders, again, I reread a post I published on DailyKos, in July 2006.  Then, "Lil' Boots" Bush and President Cheney were still riding roughshod over the rest of the world; the price of single-family homes had just peaked; Goldman-Sachs was selling mortgage-backed securities they knew were worthless, and America's economy was poised on the brink.

Another clash between the Israeli government and Palestinians in the Gaza strip, but most visibly in southern Lebanon, was going on then and also looked poised to spark a wider conflict. Watching it unfold then, and watching it now, is a heartbreak. And this time, six years later, so much of the dynamic is the same.

But this time, the potential for a regional war is greater. In 2006, the 'Arab Spring' was just a dream, and the Syrian leadership hadn't yet started to build a reactor in the middle of nowhere. "Lil' Boots" was still 'The Decider' and there was still a possibility that -- even with the obvious unforced errors of war in Iraq and an ignored war in Afghanistan -- America would double-down and take on the Iranians.

Now, there is civil war in Syria; the 'Arab Spring' removed Mubarrak and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood leads Egypt's government. The Shiite - Sunni war over who is the dominant faction in Islam and the Arab world continues. Meanwhile, the (non-Arabic) Iranians want to become the dominant Middle East Islamic nation, and apparently intend to continue developing their capability to manufacture nuclear weapons -- against a backdrop of cyberwarfare, targeted assassinations of Iranian physicists, and continuing threats to 'wipe' Israel off the map by Iran's leaders. This time, things are different. 

It should be clear from the outset that I have a bias in favor of the State of Israel (what its governments may do, not so much), and that I am no fan, whatsoever, of Hamas. At the same time, I'm a human being -- and it was from that perspective that I wrote the post. What I said then still rings true, for me, and particularly now.

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7/15/2006

In another blog posting this morning, there was occasional language which suggested that the Israelis were behaving like nazis in Gaza and Lebanon -- and equal responses that even hinting at these comparisons was anti-Semitic.

I could see what I assumed was being said, on both sides, but it reminded me of demonstrations at various Israeli consulates in the United States this week -- usually two opposing crowds, a sea of Palestinian flags on one side, the blue-and-white of Israel on the other, each separated by the dark blue of police uniforms -- and dull grey of steel barriers, hastily set up. At the demonstration I witnessed, there was no overt violence -- but the atmosphere between the two sides was explosive, ugly and unreasoning in the extreme. There was an ocean of gasoline between them, searching for a flame.

Reading the blog postings and responses -- and they've been on almost every blog discussing the events in Israel and Palestine, and now Lebanon -- I remembered that one casualty of the nazi's rise between 1933 and 1945, was the use of critical language. The nazis repeatedly used specific turns of phrase, keywords, to begin the semantic transformation of the Jews of Germany (and later Europe) into things, not persons -- which would make ordering physical action against them later more simple.

People in Europe and America understand these same phrases, having heard them in documentaries and other media about the nazi era; there are enough Europeans alive (including some of my relatives) who can remember hearing them when they were actually in use. And because of the connections to the Holocaust, no one with any sensibility would contemplate comparing the government of Israel, or Israelis, over their relations with and treatment of Palestinians with the nazis.

The nazi regime practiced genocide -- the international legal definition of which is found in Articles II and III of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. You can debate that, but under either article, I don't believe the actions of Israel's government to be genocidal -- reprehensible, frequently inhumane, potential human rights violations, and limiting and ghettoizing the Palestinians; but (again, you can argue the point) they aren't attempting to eliminate Palestinian art, music, or anything else which could be claimed as an expression of a regional culture; and the Israeli government isn't herding the Palestinians into gas chambers on a timetable with the intent of exterminating every single one of them, as a people, forever.

And in using or reacting to criticisim of Israeli actions in language that sounds even remotely like nazi propaganda, it might be helpful to remember that Israel is the one place on the planet where a Jew can be a Jew, without wondering when the next pogrom will occur, and that there are real-world reasons why that is so. The Holocaust is the worst example, but that means there are others.

But, Israel is also a nation-state, with a government that adopts specific policies and takes specific actions. There is a legitimate complaint on the part of the Palestinians over questions of land and soverignty, which if it is a responsible nation, Israel's government is supposed to consider and negotiate in fairness. People can be free to criticize decisions or actions of the government of Israel, but not to abscribe those actions to all Jews. It isn't accurate, any more than saying about the Iraqis or Palestinians, or Syrians, or Lebanese, or Saudis, or Kuwaitis, or the OAE, or Iranians or Pakistanis -- 'Oh, you know how all the Arabs are; they're a bunch of tribal children; they're all thieves; and they'd kill every last Jew in the world if they had the chance."

That there is animosity, on the level of a blood feud between specific groups of Arabs and Jews, is beyond question -- but even so, that comment isn't accurate, either.

And, remember -- the United States is also a nation-state with a government, carrying out policies which under U.S. and international law may be determined unconstitutional and war crimes; which polls indicate few of our citizens want or support. As individual citizens, the distinction that "our 'government' is not acting in my name" is nearly the last refuge we have in any discussion of what that government continues to do. And there are Israelis who feel similarly about their own.

________________

All this triggered a whole series of memories around how I know what I know of European history, and what the nazis did there over the twelve years of their rule. In part, we're sensitive to anti-Semitic language -- to language that denigrates anyone on the basis of race, or religion, or even food choice -- through studies about the Holocaust which are (fortunately) now a part of scholastic cirriculums.

The context of the teaching is not that the Holocaust was only a crime against the Jewish people (it was), but a stain and a crime against all of humanity. In order to prevent its repetition, for any people, you have to study genocide's most obvious and monstrous example --  because, sometimes, social responsibility has to be learned. And empathy.

What I took away from my own education was that even the Holocaust could give birth to a hopeful paradigim -- if people can recognize, and empathize with the suffering, the pain and fear of others, their response to that as individuals, and hopefully as governments, would come in action and not apathy. If people could learn to respond to that internal connection, we might begin to unlearn some of the supported beliefs around violence, hatred, and revenge that marks almost every corner of the planet to one degree or another.

(Someone may say, Oh, we know so much about the Holocaust because Jewish, and Zionist, organizations have promoted it as an act of manipulating guilt. I reject that; it's an argument David Irving might raise --  but whatever your heritage or religion or race, if your people had experienced an almost universal persecution, over thousands of years, wouldn't you sieze the opportunity in turning an unthinkable human tragedy into a teaching lesson, for everyone, and to insure you could live without fear, handed down across generations like a dark heirloom, of being discriminated against, robbed, and murdered? I would. And so would you.)

Considering this and what is unfolding in the Middle East didn't stop there, for me, and the events of the past two weeks made me think seriously about the United States and Israel, about the Palestinians; about Iraq, the Sunni and Shiites; and Iran, which appears more and more to be the next target of a dangerous, and (in my opinion) criminally malevolent government [Note: That reference, at the time this was written, was to the Bush administration.].
________________

One of my memories as a boy is looking at a photograph in a book about the Second World War: A seven- or eight-year-old boy, part of a group of Jews being rounded up for transport, wearing a flat cap, knee pants and a coat with a Star of David sewn on it, his hands raised; in the background is an SS sargeant with a machine pistol.

I reread the book a number of times, and always paused over that picture to focus on the boy's face. The uncertainty, the fear, is obvious; his looking away from the photographer (probably wearing an SS uniform themselves); you can read the question in his expression: Where are we going? What is happening to me? Why are you doing this to us? The group he was with were being rounded up for Auschwitz, and in the selection on the loading ramp after arrival, his chances for survival were slim and none.

Later, I learned that the photograph had been used to positively identify the SS sargeant with the MP-40 standing in the background, and to send him to prison in West Germany. At the time, I felt a momentary rush of vengeful anger, satisfaction: Good; you should've blown his brains out instead.

In retrospect -- even though I was fifteen at the time -- I was studying a relic, another grave marker, in the long history of human violence and and revenge, and I really had learned nothing.

****

For almost twenty years, I've watched from the safe and comfortable remove of America as the Palestinians and Israelis continue to spin in that cycle. My constant feeling has been one of discomfort -- as if I had an appointment for something, but have continually put off meeting it. Whenever the subject of Israel, the Palestinians, the Intifada, Rabin's murder, came up in conversation, I used the same language as everyone else I spoke with: Horrible. Tragic. I just don't understand what's going on. Then I, or someone else, would change the subject.

After September 11th, and when the Iraq war began, it was natural, and easy, to focus on America's actions, our invasion; on the decisions of our sainted leaders. But that was still a comfortable remove -- especially in the bloody years after the invasion of Iraq, the continuing agony in Gaza and the West Bank, the suicide bombings in Israel -- and I knew intellectually what horror I was witnessing, but some voice in my mind kept repeating, they can't stop themselves; what can anyone do? What can I do?

Over the past year or so, I'd seen two photographs, from Israel and Palestine, on news websites which made me pause to study them. In the past several weeks, I've remembered them, held them side by side in my mind. They became, for me, a hand tugging at my coat, at my sleeve, from the level a child could reach. Something wants my attention, and I can't shake it off.

One photo showed a Palestinian boy of ten or twelve, dressed in dirty jeans and a torn green T-Shirt, his body swung in a classic pose as if he had just thrown a discus; he had just thrown a rock at an Israeli armored vehicle in Gaza. His expression seemed an utter abandonment to an anger and defiance that comes from the worst despair, part of the bottom of the human barrel of experience -- your rage is so all-encompassing, in that moment, you're willing to throw stones at a tank. For that instant, you don't care what happens to you because things are that bad.

Not a circumstance many Americans can identify with.

The other photograph was almost nondescript, except for its context: A middle-aged Israeli couple, standing at the side of the grave of their teenaged daughter, killed by a suicide bomber while out on a date. It may have been the speed of a camera shutter capturing a single moment, but they weren't yet wailing or gesturing; only standing quietly, the man's arm around his wife's shoulders. It was all in looking closely at their faces.

To me, the immensity of their grief was palpable; it jumped off the screen; and in that captured instant was so reined in, internalized, you knew how inexpressible their wound was. It was a sealed room they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. It was a depth of loss that separated them from the 'ordinary' world as if part of them would always be adrift on an ocean, never reaching any safe harbor again.

Both photographs, and other images that have come out of entire Middle East, made me look at them in the same way I'd studied the black-and-white photo of the European boy, years ago. And then I understood that my appointment with what all of these images represented couldn't be put off any longer. And it didn't only deal with the Middle East.

In all of my considering about the Holocaust, what part it played in teaching me about my own relation to human tragedy, is one of the roots of my response to the cycle of violence and revenge in the Middle East.  What I took away from that part of European history was some idea of the depth of pain and misery we can inflict on each other, for reasons that are so worthless, so ignorantly divisive, that it still makes me feel ashamed, injured as a human being that any of my own species were responsible for it.

It taught me that any violence, any oppression against others, anywhere, should be resisted before it became something as dark as the organized murder of the Camps -- because the permission to commit mass murder for a belief was dragged into this world by the nazis, and could reappear. (And it has. Ask Cambodians of a certain age about Pol Pot. Ask the Muslims who were "ethnically cleansed" in what was once Jugoslavia. Ask almost any Rwandan.)

For me, the Holocaust was a lesson for all people, not just Europeans, or Arabs, or Chinese. It was a teaching story as  much as any written by Nasrudeen or Confucius, one that applies equally to any people, any culture. And in part it informs my response to what is happening in the Middle East;  and that is this:

It has to stop. It has to end. The way to interrupt a cycle of violence and revenge is to stop.

It's an act of sincerity, of hope in the face of what all rhetoric and what passes for reason says is wrong. But the time for only speech to stop violence is past. Someone needs to step forward, put their gun on the ground, and say, I do this even if I feel it isn't what I should do -- because all of this has to stop.

I'm aware of how this sounds, to some. It's simplistic and naive, more emotional and unsophisticated one-world nonsense. But I would argue that at this moment, we are beyond sophistication and rhetoric. There is a point at which the amount of death and misery no longer matters; a point where it's no longer important whom to blame -- only that it ends. And that point has been passed.

The circumstances in the entire Middle East at this moment have the potential to become a wider war in the blink of an eye. Some may see it as an opportunity to take on all Arabic governments or groups perceived as hostile to the United States and force them, somehow, to surrender; others may see it as an opportunity to unite the Arabic and Islamic world as never before against a hostile and imperialist West. Both of these perspectives are insane.

Would either side trade the life of any child for some goal, some belief they claim is more important than life? Go, look into that child's eyes. Look hard. Look at the expression written there: Where are you taking us? Why are you doing this? What will happen to me?

Will you tell them, when you put your pistol to their head, that it's for a greater good, for the glory of a faith; because your brother or sister, or your parent or cousins, were killed and revenge demands that now their life has to end?

Some are saying yes, to that. Some say their beliefs are worth taking any life, even a child's. That the lives of others, because they have different faiths, are worth less than their own. Because death demands more death.

People like this leave me stunned, with an honest wonder, at whether we will survive as a species. Anyone who thinks that a belief or a side in an argument, or a religion, is the basis for killing a single human being is wrong.

There will be time enough for talk; it will be critical, unavoidable. But in the moment a choice is made for the violence to stop, it doesn't matter which side is wrong, more brutal, or who has the right to what land, who killed more of whose people; which religion is the more correct, or who stands on more of a moral high ground so as to shoot down on the Other.

It doesn't matter who actually takes the first step -- only that someone does. And it may not be a government or a side who takes that step; it may be one person, in one place and time who says None of this is right. I refuse to participate. I stand up as a single human being and say no

Because this is what it comes down to. This is the appointment every single human being has: With our own consciences, with a real and wider world -- with the choice to save the child, or shoot them and by so doing proclaim that beliefs are worth more than life. And nearly as a species, we've deferred that appointment for so long that it's a time which is coming to find us.

If we continue to refuse to face up to our responsibility, refuse to recognize we are parts of a community of human beings -- if we walk away from the child's hand we feel tugging at our sleeves, we may not have many more opportunities.  And when real trouble comes -- even for all of us -- by then, it may be too late.

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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Yes; Mars, Bitches

 
Majority To Clueless Oligarch: STFU


_________________________________________________________________

 Meanwhile, Back In Downtown America: Fat Karl Goes Galt

According to TPM's Josh Marshall,
Shortly after Fox and everyone else called Ohio and the election for President Obama, [Fat Karl] Rove staged a live TV mutiny.

He insisted that the Ohio call had been premature and then forced Fox’s Megan Kelly to make an SNL like walk through the Fox building and confront the network’s official number counters with Rove’s objections.

...the guy calmly explained to Kelly that yes they were quite certain that Obama had defeated Romney and it was over. Kelly then walked back through the Fox building and gave the news to Rove. But it still wasn’t over.

This full Fox News network meltdown continued for a while... [Fox news then] brought in Michael Barone — key political numbers guy who just a day ago was saying that Romney would win with 70,000 electoral votes — to basically calmly, empathetically talk Rove down from the ledge...

As this was happening the other electoral votes were piling up to the point where Ohio didn’t even matter anymore. 
 This is what being a Rightist wingnut in America -- refusing to live in a reality-based world -- is all about.  I feel so (cough cough) sorry for poor Karl.
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You Know

Uh... what?  Something going on today?

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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Disney Buys LucasFilm

Not Really A Great Surprise, But...

Oy.
LOS ANGELES (New York Times) — The Walt Disney Company, in a move that gives it a commanding position in the world of fantasy movies, said Tuesday it had agreed to acquire Lucasfilm from its founder, George Lucas, for $4.05 billion in stock and cash... Mr. Lucas, who is 68 years old, had already announced he would step down from day-to-day operation of the company.

Combined with the purchase of Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion ... and of Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion ... strengthens the legacy of Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, who has become known for his aggressive expansion of the company since taking charge in 2005.
 ...

Like the Marvel acquisition, the Lucasfilm purchase caught Hollywood and Wall Street by surprise... In a hastily convened conference call with investors ... Mr. Iger said Disney planned to revive the Star Wars franchise and release a seventh feature film in the series in 2015, with new films coming every two or three years thereafter.  Mr. Lucas will be a consultant on the film projects, Mr. Iger said.
After Disney bought Pixar in 2006 (and after the company had earlier said it would resist being absorbed), and the original features its founders had wanted to do were complete -- Toy Story (Toy Story 2 and 3 were afterthoughts); Finding Nemo; Monsters, Inc.; The Incredibles (Which needed a sequel but didn't get one); Ratatouille, and Wall-E -- Pixar's work fell off.

It was less edgy, less spontaneously creative. It was less about the ideas of four guys who remembered what it was like to be a child (something Disney forgot about decades ago) and built a company to capture that magic in Computer-Generated, animated images.

Their work was different than almost any previously-created animated features, whether in classic 2D cell animation or computer graphics. The shadow of Disney was omnipresent  -- they had been the gold standard of American commercial animation for generations. But Pixar's characters were being designed by animators who had grown up with a completely different perspective on art and design.

Rather than taking Disney's classic animations, or Warner Brothers' cartoons as their model and building on it, Pixar's influences were things like Ghost In The Shell, or 'Manga' and Marvel; online computer games; Sin City and 'Sandman' and The Watchmen; Miyazaki's Swept Away, "My Friend Totoro"; or music videos on MTV.  Their work was original -- and while animators can't help but acknowledge a debt to Disney's influence in creating an art form, what they were doing was so clearly not influenced by The Big Mouse.

Pixar had so far outclassed Disney's animation efforts of 1980 -2000 that, when the acquisition was announced, I wasn't surprised -- Da Mickey acted predictably and absorbed the competition (What was disappointing was that Pixar's founders had done it). But instead of allowing Pixar's original vision to energize Disney, they forced Pixar to modify it's character design, timing and art into Disney's corporatized look-and-feel.

LucasFilm and ILM started out the same way -- a bunch of film-school geeks who had cutting-edge ideas about advancing the technology of making films, of introducing computer-assisted filming and refining it until it became an industry standard. Lucas and company made a good deal of money from creating software packages for the film industry, and things like their THX sound system for theaters.

Just those two ideas showcased part of Lucas' business acumen. There was more money in changing the standard of how films were made, or presented to audiences, than just in making the films themselves.  Industrial Light and Magic's workshops and CG teams spun off an entire industry that eliminated the need for fully-dressed sets and ushered in the era of greenscreens.

Lucas and his collaborators came of age in the early-to-mid 1960's, and had a hit with "American Graffiti", but really took off with a classic, episodic sci-fi tale; a mildly campy Star Wars: Episode Four -- A New Hope.  And every two years or so, we lined up around the block to see The Empire Strikes Back and The Return Of The Jedi.  Kids bought the toys, the lunchboxes, and grew up to take their own kids to see Episode One.

But the "prequel" episodes weren't as fun as the originals; they seemed to take themselves too seriously. And Lucas' company, which began as a way cool thing in 1972, had ended up taking itself way too seriously.  It had become more about being a business, pushing a 'product' that tied in to so much more marketing: The Greedo and Clone War action figures, the Anakin Skywalker Burger King Glasses, than the real creative magic that was the impetus for getting into film making in the first place.

So, Disney.  It almost seems like a natural progression -- and, aber natürlich, George gets a really tidy sum. I'm not totally surprised, but won't be lining up to see Episode Seven.
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(An earlier version identified the first Star Wars film as "Episode Six", and the first Disney effort to revive the series as Episode Nine. Shame on me.)

Because We Need The Reminder

John Neville: The Age Of Reason; Tuesday

Neville As Karl August Friedrich Hieronymous, Baron von Munchausen

The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson: It seems to me, sir, that you have rather a weak grasp of reality.

Baron von Munchausen: Your "reality", sir, is lies and balderdash -- and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it, whatsoever!

--- Johnathan Pryce, John Neville, The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Written and Directed By Terry Gilliam
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Saturday, October 27, 2012

What Do We Want?

-- Sanity And Reality. When Do We Want It? Really Soon. 
We need to build a different model of politics, one in which people who want a different society are willing to actually bargain and back up their threats, rather than just aesthetically argue for shifts around the margin. The good news is that the changes we need to make are entirely doable. It will cost about $100 trillion over 20 years to move our world to an entirely sustainable energy system, and the net worth of the global top 1 percent is $103 trillion. We can do this. And the moments to let us make the changes we need are coming. There is endless good we can do, if enough of us are willing to show the courage that exists within every human being instead of the malevolence and desire for conformity that also exists within every heart.

Systems that can’t go on, don’t. The political elites, as much as they kick the can down the road, know this. The question we need to ask ourselves is, do we?

Not trying to harsh anyone's buzz; only passing the idea along that this is one more election with (in part) a goal to maintain a status quo benefiting Elites. Their agenda is not in the interests of the world as a whole, or even specific national groups. It's about keeping the gravy train going, and the warm feeling that, ultimately, they Rule. Period.

That said, I will pad into a voting booth on November 6th and cast my vote for Obama, because I do not want the LardBoy-AnnieCoulter-Racist-Facisti Party to rule us for four seconds, let alone four or more years. We had Lil' Boots -- didn't that tell us anything?

But, Matt Stoller's case poses a question we have to answer: Do we want a future of Business As Usual? I suggest that not only is it a first-order priority for Americans to answer it, but that it may be easier to do so with A Democrat in the White House.

But, I could be wrong. Perhaps things will have to become manifestly worse before, finally, people say No.

Stoller's full article is here.
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Friday, October 26, 2012

The Reprint Heaven Countdown: Number 10


Berlusconi Struck By Cathedral (From December, 2009)


No; It's Not Simon Pegg In Star Trek (A Bit Old, For Simon)
-- It's The Capo d'Buffoono Capo! (UK Mirror, 11/13/09)

Earlier today (tonight, in Italy), Silvio Berlusconi, 73-year-old Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy and Chief Clown of the European Union, appeared at a political rally in Milan when he was struck by the Duomo Cathedral which borders the square where the rally took place.


Milan's Duomo Cathedral Of The Maria Bambina, Which Is Being
Held For Questioning By Italian Police After The Surprise Assault

Berlusconi, whose reign as Primo Penis L'Italia has been threatened by a series of sex scandals, alleged mafia connections and criminal charges of bribery and money laundering, had appeared at the rally in a local hotel, but was continually heckled by onlookers. Even though he was the only person in the room who happened to have a microphone and a really large public-address system, Silvio! had to spend some time shouting them down.

While exiting the building, Berlusconi had been slowed, walking through a crowd of people, shaking hands (for any other head of state, taking that kind of risk is unheard of), when he was attacked. Obviously bleeding, he was whisked to a local hospital, reportedly having suffered broken teeth, a fractured nose, and various contusions and cuts, but was otherwise still able to have sex (after a fashion) with women forty-five years younger than himself.



(Screencaptures: BBC Video Footage, December 13, 2009)

The 623-year-old Cathedral which struck the Prime Minister was thrown by Massimo Tartaglia, who had gotten close enough to the Capo de Tutti Frutti in the crowd as he left the rally. That Tartaglia (who reportedly "has a history of mental problems") was able to get so close to a major European political figure to carry out the assault is troubling to Italian authorities.

But, even more astounding is how Tartaglia was able to reduce a gigantic, Gothic-style building to the size of a paperweight, and throw it, striking Berlusconi in the snout (probably had been between the thighs of some-a young girl not long before, eh?).

How the huge stone building was then returned to its normal size and position without being seen by anyone is unknown, as Tartagliga was immediately seized -- which raises the spectre of a wide conspiracy.


Italian Authorities Consider A Connection Between The Cathedral,
And Another Architectural Feature With Time-Travel Capabilities

"We have not ruled out aliens from space, or time travelers, using futuristic technology to injure our beloved Silvio," an anonymous source in Berlusconi's security detail told the BBC.

It is also not known whether Massimo is related to the Tattaglias in the Godfather saga ("Sonny hit Bruno Tattaglia at three o'clock this morning"), and what this may mean for Diane Keaton, James Caan and Al Pacino.


Bruno Tattaglia: "Scotch? Pre-War -- Or, A Little Strangling?"

The Duomo was ordered by Italian police to remain in place in Milan and not to attempt to leave the city. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, the Duomo claimed it had never met Tartaglia before and that it had been quietly hosting an evening Mass when it was picked up and swung at the Prime Minister.

"I am innocent", the Cathedral told the BBC. "It's true -- I don't like the immoral and disgusting acts by which the Prime Minister has besmirched his office. But I have never, ever caused harm to anyone, except witches, and Protestants, and a whole bunch of Jews." The Duomo has asked for Papal lawyers from Rome to be present during further questioning.


Silvio's Own Television Network In Italy, Providing Unbiased
Coverage Of The Prime Minister's Glorious Reign Over What's Now
The Theater Capital Of Europe (Photo: UK Guardian 11/09)

[Okay; if you haven't figured it out, or don't follow the links I handed to you: Tartaglia allegedly struck Berlusconi in the face with a souvenir model of the Duomo cathedral. The symbolism is obvious and even amusing -- and no, I'm not going to explain it to you.]

While his popularity ratings remain above 50 per cent, Berlusconi's hold over his office may slip as the result of poor life choices and too much bouncy-bouncy. Dogged by rumors of connections with the mafia as a Billionaire oligarch; publicly romping with women (which led to a messy, continuing public divorce from his second wife); and after a law granting him immunity from prosecution as Prime Minister was overturned earlier this year, Silvio! may be the first leader of Italy in several generations to be convicted of criminal acts while in office.

Silvio's own television network and newspapers continue to broadcast a campaign of positive reports about him (he is reported to like dogs and enjoy life), but many Italians dismiss them as obvious propaganda. Basta!

Then, there is Berlusconi's former pay-for-play mistress, Patrizia D'Addario, who recently published a tell-all autobiography about the Buffoono's inner circle, and their sex life, entitled "What You Require, Mr. Prime Minister".


The Oligarch Minister and a Simple Italian Prostitute Girl

It seems that she saw her chance for opportunities, attention, money, and more money in her relationship with Silvio!; but even if some of her alleged details are incorrect, he is still the married head of the Italian government and was still committing adultery with (at least) D'Addario in a relatively public fashion -- not to mention whispers about the 18-year-old Silvio was seen hanging with after D'Addario smeared him in the press, which seemed one way to thumb his nose at the world (I don't give a rat's ass what you think!) -- ho ho ho; that Silvio!!.

Even his own handlers are stumped by what to say about the public backlash towards their Capo's antics. Asked about the assault, Berlusconi spokesman Paolo Buonaiuti told CNN, "There has been such a buildup of hatred toward the premier, and this is not good... This campaign of hatred has been building quite rapidly recently, and I am not surprised that what happened tonight took place."

Doctors at the hospital in Milan have indicated that CAT scans of Berlusconi's head show no abnormalities, but want to perform additional tests to be certain.


Silvio's! Physicians: Shocked by the assault -- except Dottore Tano
Carridi (At Right), CAT scan director, who wanted extra Pet Treats.

The physicians also agreed that he has Un Poco Pene, then showed scans to reporters and cleaning women on the night staff before blowing off the remainder of their shift to eat Pasta Pesto, or play with catnip bags in the shape of the Pope.
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Monday, October 22, 2012

Turning Around Twice

One reason dogs turn around before lying down to sleep is because that's what instinctively feels right. Ancestral wolves traveled in packs for a number of reasons. Perhaps dogs turn around today because the practice has become ingrained after thousands of years. When wild packs of dogs turn around before lying down in the wild, they may be establishing their territory and orienting themselves within the circle.

Another reason some experts believe dogs turn around is to trample down the area for comfort. A pack of wild dogs may decide to bed down on a grassy field, for instance, so the individual dogs turn around three times to force the tall grasses down. Any other hazards or obstructions may also be uncovered when dogs turn around three times. This trampling behavior is often observed in domesticated dogs who use padded dog beds, or sleep outdoors routinely.
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