Posts tagged with "politics"
Saturday, 14. November 2009, 18:59:44
studies, quote of the day, politics
Ethelread the Unready was the first Weak King of England and was thus the cause of a fresh Wave of Danes.
He was called the Unready because he was never ready when the Danes were. Rather than wait for him the Danes used to fine him large sums called Danegeld, for not being ready. But though they were always ready, the Danes had very bad memories, and often used to forget that they had been paid the Danegeld and come back for it almost before they had sailed away. By that time Ethelread was always unready again.
Finally, Ethelread was taken completely unawares by his own death and was succeeded by Canute.
- 1066 And All That, page 19.
By W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman.
Wednesday, 5. August 2009, 15:58:00
megalomania, politics
The Norwegian elections are closing in, and as usual, it makes me have unreasonable amounts of fun taking political tests online. On
this test I got this result:
And on
this test, I got this result:
Wednesday, 5. August 2009, 15:18:40
megalomania, politics, doomed optimism, people
...
Miss Kingsley repeatedly chided the colonial powers for abolishing political systems they did not understand and for then showing pained surprise when the natives failed to reveal a proper gratitude.
The imperial story, she wrote, was very like "that improving fable of the kind-hearted she-elephant who, while out walking one day, inadvertently trod upon a partridge and killed it, and observing close at hand the bird's nest full of callow fledglings, dropped a tear, and saying 'I have feelings of a mother myself,' sat down upon the brood."
- Mary Kingsley on British impreialism in Africa in the 19th century,
as rendered by Basil Davidson in African Kingdoms, page 167-168.
Monday, 3. August 2009, 16:06:05
politics, doomed optimism, people, expectations
...
Accounts of religion in Benin are vague, but the Bini apparently believed in a supreme god who created and ruled the earth; they considered it useless to worship him, however, since he was already benevolent. Instead, they worshiped numerous lesser gods, who they felt could mediate for them with the supreme god. The human sacrifices were offered not to the gods, but to the devil, whom the Bini blamed for all their misfortunes. Victims rarely struggled; some actually assisted the executioner, and a few even volunteered to be sacrificed - powerful proof of the intensity of their religion.
[...]
After the Europeans arrived, the slave trade mushroomed; farming and commerce were slighted and the economy - inevitably - started to collapse. The Oba [king], believing his bad fortune was the work of the devil, ordered more and more human sacrifices to turn the tide. But by 1897 the disintegration was complete; that year a British force found the city of Benin all but deserted and littered with the bodies of sacrificial victims. After four centuries of greatness, Benin had finally passed into history.
- Basil Davidson
in African Kingdoms, page 112 & 118.
Tuesday, 30. June 2009, 13:55:56
politics, always-wanted-to-do-that, Non-Whedon-Television
I was going to entitle this post "Brotherhood, season 1-3", but as of yesterday, the show has officially not been renewed for a fourth season. What there is, then, is what you get. But what there is is worth getting. Come one, come all, as I pull my weblog-act together enough to post a review of Showtime's late
Brotherhood.
Michael Caffee to his younger brother, after returning home after seven years: You're pissed at me.
Tommy Caffee: How can I be pissed? You're the prodigal son. You know, if Ma could, she'd kill every fatted calf in New England.
Michael: Ooh, you're wicked pissed.
As this quote shows,
Brotherhood tells the tale of how a prodigal son returns to his family after seven years, and how he and his younger brother deal with their newfound co-existence in a fictional district of Rhode Island. Michael, a member of some standing in the local Irish Mob, and Tommy, a promising and popular politician in the State House of Representatives. The shows deals with how Tommy is torn between his career, wife and children and his love for his brother; a huge political liability to say the least. Simultaneously, it portrays Michael's re-integration into a criminal environment he had to flee seven years prior. They each have their issues, and they each have their values, and maybe most importantly, they both dearly love their little district. Michael sets out to use his shaky standing in the local mob to perform crimes he thinks will improve the neighborhood for the elderly and the children, while Tommy spends his days at the Rhode Island House of Representatives fighting hard to keep his district from being mowed over by the richer and more influential ones. The contrast between each characters intentions and morality and their actions and decisions are marvellously portrayed, and the show's by far strongest point.
The first show that springs to mind when one first checks out
Brotherhood is indubitably
The Sopranos, and this is likely not coincidental. But where the previous attempts I've seen from Showtime at making shows that pick up the torch from the critically acclaimed, dark and complex HBO-hits usually fall somewhat short,
Brotherhood remains standing. No, it's no
Sopranos, but it is darned good nonetheless. If you take out the psychological angle of
The Sopranos, stir in the political aspects of the later seasons of
The Wire, and adds a focus of two prominent main characters instead of just one or an entire ensemble, you'll get something that resembles
Brotherhood pretty closely. Not quite measuring up to neither the potency of
Sopranos nor the brilliance of
Wire,
Brotherhood is nevertheless a show that captures the same general feel of reality and quality hand in hand. Considering its inevitable comparisons to
The Sopranos,
Brotherhood makes the remarkable feat of not simply withering away in shame. This is a solid, well-made show that deserves a chance based on its own merits.
Brotherhood, importantly, have several interesting characters. Both the brothers are highly engaging, beautifully portrayed by Jason Isaacs and Jason Clarke, but many supporting characters shine as well. In particular I should mention Kevin Chapman's slick mob boss, Ethan Embry's morally ravaged detective, and Stivi Paskoski's drug-addict mob enforcer with a heart of gold. But the jewels here are many, and I only stop at three names to keep the review from becoming a gush-fest of characters and actors.
I mentioned
The Wire, and thematically,
Brotherhood is a close fit. Where the former looked at city corruption through the different layers of the city itself,
Brotherhood looks at what it does to families, and in particular the family of the main characters. In my opinion, it does a grand job at it.
Also a mention here should go to the interesting use of episode titles. The first season's episodes are entirely named after passages in religious texts, particularly the Bible. It is thus up to the viewer to go and actually look them up -
or at least read it where it has been copied down on the handy Wikipedia episode list. The second follows up by similarly referencing Bob Dylan lyrics. And in the third season, the episode titles are, to a one, Shakespeare-quotes. To me, this was highly interesting, and so I found I should make a note of it in this review.
The third and final season ends on a lovely note, with an ending that both tied up the main plots and left the viewer wanting more. As such, while I deeply resent the lack of a renewal for this show, it is an ending better than what most shows get.
If you will only watch one new TV-show this year, you can find those that are better, and I would be happy to recommend something else for you. But if, like me, you will try out two, three or maybe even four or five new TV-shows as the summer and autumn slides by, I seriously recommend you consider picking up the
Brotherhood-DVDs. Because if this review made it sound like you'd like them, you probably will.
Tuesday, 28. April 2009, 01:01:45
politics, quote of the day, general obnoxiousness, studies
...
For what need that I should vent my spleen upon such brute cattle as Clodius, who had browsed to his own bane upon the fodder and acorns of my enemies? If he has realised the nature of the sin that has enthralled him, I cannot doubt that he is the most wretched of men; but if he is blind to this, he may attempt to defend himself by pleading congenital dulness of wit.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero in De Haruspicum Responsis 3.5-6, his speech to the Senate concerning Publius Clodius Pulcher claiming a recent prodigy was because Cicero's house having been returned to him had angered the gods,
translated by N. H. Watts.
Monday, 27. April 2009, 11:47:47
politics, rant, quote of the day, self-pity
...
My retirement1 is cast in my teeth; and to this charge I cannot reply without highly exalting my own merits. For what, gentlemen, must I say? That consciousness of misdoing urged me into exile? But the charge that was laid at my door, so far from being a misdoing, was the grandest deed in the history of the human race!2 That I dreaded prosecution before the people? But such a prosecution was never even contemplated, and had it taken place I should have emerged from it with my reputation doubly enhanced. Shall I then say that the patriotic party failed in my protection? It would be false. Or that I feared death? That would be cowardly. I must say, then, what I would not say save under compulsion - for any self-congratulary remarks I have ever uttered have been made rather to repel insinuations than to claim credit for myself - I say, then, and with all the emphasis I can use, that when, under the ledership of a tribune of the plebs and with the support of the consuls, with the senate humiliated, the Roman knighthood cowed, and the whole community agitated and distraught, the carefully stimulated lawnessness of desperadoes and conspirators was launching an asault not so much upon myself as upon all good patriots through me, I saw that, should I prove victorious, some frail vestiges of a republic would yet remain, but, should I be defeated, it would become utterly extinct. Having come to this conclusion, I was heart-broken at the prospect of separation from my unhappy wife, of the destitution of my beloved children, of the blow that would fall upon my excellent and affectionate brother who was far away, and of the unforeseen wreck of a family whose sense of security had been so complete; but all these possibilities came second in my thoughts to the lives of my fellow-citizens, and I thought it better that the state should falter through the retirement of one,3 than that it should fall through the destruction of all. I hoped, and my hopes have been realised, that if brave men yet survived, my humiliation might be retrieved; but if I should perish, and the patriotic party4 with me, I saw no prospect of a resurrection for the republic.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero in De Domo Sua 35.95-36.96, his speech to the Pontiff Collegium of priests concerning his house having been given away to the goddess of Liberty by Publius Clodius Pulcher,
translated by N. H. Watts.1: Fleeing the country to avoid prosecution.
2: He had a half-dozen men executed without trial.
3: Fleeing the country to avoid prosecution.
4: The conservative über-rich ruling elite, to a large group of whom he is currently talking.
Saturday, 4. April 2009, 18:53:47
politics, people, quote of the day, pessimism
Still, in many rural areas [of China], including Anxi County, a resident whose first child is a daughter is allowed to have a second. Having a third child, however, can mean steep fines as high as $5,800 and other penalties that include the loss of a breadwinner’s job.
A boy, by contrast, can often be bought for half that amount, and authorities may turn a blind eye if the child does not need to be registered as a new birth in the locale.
In some cases, local officials may even encourage people desperate for a son to buy one. After their 3-month-old son died, Zhou Xiuqin said, the village family planning official went to her home and tried to comfort her and her husband, who was compelled to have a vasectomy after the birth of the boy, their second child. “He said, ‘Don’t cry, stop crying, you can always buy another one,’” Ms. Zhou recalled.
- "Rural China's Hunger for Sons Fuels Traffic in Abducted Boys",
by Andrew Jacobs for The New York Times, April 4th 2009.
Monday, 23. March 2009, 13:14:08
politics, quote of the day, Lothair
Last week came the first sign that Obama remembers that he came to
drain the whole swamp, not just to whack a couple of high-profile
alligators.
- Gwynne Dyer, Obama and the Gulag Archipelago, March 15th 2009
Tuesday, 17. March 2009, 14:47:22
politics, doomed optimism, always-wanted-to-do-that, expectations
...
Really, don't ever. The amount of things that are different between the creators' combined sales-pitch to their network and sales-pitch to their fresh audience laying out premises, characters, relations and backstories and your average episode six months (or, if you're really lucky, six years) later are staggering. Sometimes, you hit something where the first episode is actually very telling (I'd say The West Wing is a very good example there), but it is the exception, not the rule. You cannot tell how a show can be by its pilot.
So it is thus dreadfully premature when I say I love Kings. It is the best pilot I've seen since Easy Money early last fall, and honestly, it's probably even better than that. The reasons? Well, let's list them.
It re-tells the story of King Saul and King David of the Old Testament, one of the truly great epics that is hidden in that treasure of a book. It has everything; war, intrigue, religion, politics, prophets, sex, scandal, divine music, great heroes and fallen Chosen Ones. This would be awesome all on its own. But Kings takes it one step further. A bold, stunningly daring step that I am still unsure if I approve of (I love period pieces), but that I'm loving nonetheless. It takes place in the modern world.
Not our modern world, but one with made-up countries and made-up rulers living in made-up cities fighting made-up wars. This is the big caveat that makes this change of venue possible, but that might also be the shows' failing. Will the average viewer be able to buy into a world that looks so similar to our own, but isn't? Time will tell.
The setting, however, is brilliant. It lets the show move all these incredible elements from the Old Testament into a modern situation, where the power of religion is matched by the power of the corporations, and where King Silas (Kings' King Saul) finds himself trapped in the middle at the same time as a young upstart named "David" is suddenly getting everybody's attention. They get to look at current, real-life issues, but do so in a context where we have people who have to wait for the king to rise before they get out of their chairs and Divine Revelations flaunted publicly by the same king of national television.
The show, thus, is extremely ambitious.
Now don't get me wrong. It isn't the strongest pilot I've ever seen. But it's a very, very, very good one. Very good one. And while you shouldn't judge a show by its pilot, I'm already all but ready to declare this my new favourite current show this spring when Battlestar Galactica finds its closure on Friday.
Oh, and by the way, I don't believe I mentioned, Kings has Ian McShane in the lead role.
Yeah, that's right. You're wasting precious time reading this when you could be watching McShane be a bloody king for a full double-episode. Why do you think I didn't mention it until now? You'd have never read all of this post if I opened with that.
Monday, 9. March 2009, 20:56:44
webcomic, politics, I implore you
World War 2 - The 101-courseSlightly skewed with the big focus on the US over USSR, but it's not like that's not an element they could be consciously paraodying all on its own for all I know. And the drawings are wonderful. I think my favourite is the downright epic rendering of the USSR's failed effort at conquering Finland.
Thanks to
Amras for providing me with this link.
Monday, 8. December 2008, 13:51:57
studies, quote of the day, politics
However, you and he [Caesar] are not in any way comparable! His character was an amalgamation of genius, method, memory, culture, thoroughness, intellect, and industry. His achievements in war, though disastrous for our country, were none the less mighty. After working for many years to become king and autocrat, he surmounted tremendous efforts and perils and achieved his purpose. By entertainments, public works, food-distributions, and banquets, he seduced the ignorant populace; his friends he bound to his allegiance by rewarding them, his enemies by what looked like mercy. By a mixture of intimidation and indulgence, he included in a free community the habit of servitude.
Your ambition to reign, Antony, certainly deserves to be compared with Caesar's. But in not a single other respect are you entitled to the same comparison.
[...]
When men could not endure Caesar, will they endure you? Mark my words, this time there will be crowds competing to do the deed.
When I was a young man I defended our state: in my old age I shall not abandon it. Having scorned the swords of Cataline, I shall not be intimidated by yours. On the contrary, I would gladly offer my own body, if my death could redeem the freedom of our nation - if it could cause the long-suffering people of Rome to find final relief from its labours. For if, nearly twenty years ago, I declared in this very temple that death could not come prematurely to a man who had been consul, how much greater will be m reason to say this again now that I am old. After the honours that I have been awarded, Senators, after the deeds that I have done, death actually seems to be desirable. Two things only I pray for. One, that in dying I may leave the Roman people free - the immortal gods could grant me no greater gift. My other prayer is this: that no man's fortunes may fail to correspond with his services to our country!
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.
Friday, 5. December 2008, 13:11:22
studies, quote of the day, politics
Those seven hundred million sesterces, recorded in the account-books of the Temple of Ops - where are they now? The origins of that treasure store were tragic enough. Nevertheless, if the money was not going to be returned to its rightful owners, it could be used to save us from property-tax. But how do you account for the fact, Antony, that whereas on the fifteenth of March you owed four million sesterces, you had ceased to owe this sum by the first of April?
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.
Thursday, 4. December 2008, 12:55:46
politics, quote of the day, studies
For never, anywhere in the world, have there been stories of such depraved and discreditable misconduct. He traveled about in a lady's carriage, did this tribune of the people. In front of him marched attendants crowned with laurel-wreaths. Among them, carried in an open litter, went an actress. The respectable citizens of the country towns, compelled to come and meet him, greeted her, not by her well-known stage name, but as Volumnia. Next followed a repulsive collection of his friends: a four-wheeler full of procurers. Only then came his neglected mother, following, like a mother-in-law, her debauched son's mistress. Poor woman! Her capacity for child-bearing has indeed been catastrophic.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.
Wednesday, 3. December 2008, 12:48:12
quote of the day, politics, studies
Just as seeds are the origins of trees and plants, so, with equal certainty, you were the seed of that most grievous war.[*] Senators, you are mourning three armies of Roman soldiers slain in battle: Antony killed them. The authority of your Order has been destroyed: Antony destroyed it. For every evil which we have seen since that time - and what evils have we not seen? - he is responsible. There can be no other conclusion. He has been our Helen of Troy! He has brought upon our country war, and pestilence, and annihilation.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.[* The Civil War between Pompey and Caesar, for which Antony gave the pretext through his tribune's veto]
Tuesday, 2. December 2008, 22:00:26
comments, general obnoxiousness, quote of the day, politics
...
At first you were just a public prostitute, with a fixed price: quite a high one, too. But very soon Curio intervened and took you off the streets, promoting you, one might say, to wifely status, and making a sound, steady, married woman out of you.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.
Tuesday, 2. December 2008, 12:59:42
studies, quote of the day, politics
I've said enough in answer to his charges. Now some attention must be given to our moralist and reformer himself. However, I do not propose to tell the whole story at once: so that if I have to return to the fray, I shall not need to repeat myself. In view of the extraordinary quantity of his crimes and vices, that presents no difficulty.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.
Monday, 1. December 2008, 13:11:34
studies, general obnoxiousness, quote of the day, politics
Note the contrast between yourself and your grandfather. He, with deliberation, produced arguments relevant to his case; you just pour out irrelevancies. And yet what a salary your teacher or rhetoric has drawn from you. Listen to this, Senators: take note of the wounds inflicted upon our nation. To this elocution trainer - Sextus Clodius - he handed over 1,250 acres of land, tax-free. You made the people of Rome defray this enormous charge, Antony, with no other result than to make you learn to be the idiot that you are. You unprincipled rogue! Was this one of the directions you found in Caesar's notebooks?
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.
Friday, 28. November 2008, 13:07:12
quote of the day, politics, studies
If it is a crime to have wanted Caesar to be put to death, consider your own situation, Antony. Everyone knows that at Narbo you formed a similar plan with Gaius Trebonius: it was because of this plot, while Caesar was being killed, that we saw Trebonius taking you aside. You see - my intentions to you are friendly. I am praising you for the good intention you once had! For not having reported the plot, I thank you; for not having carried it out, I excuse you. That task needed a man.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.
Thursday, 27. November 2008, 12:55:02
politics, awesomity, always-wanted-to-do-that, quote of the day
...
Just listen to the fatuity of this man - this sheep, rather. Here were his words: 'Brutus, whose name I mention with all respect, called out Cicero's name while he was holding the bloodstained dagger: from which you must understand that Cicero was an accomplice.' So, just because you suspect that I suspected something you call me a criminal, yet the man who brandished a dripping dagger is mentioned by you 'with all respect'! Very well, use this imbecile language if you must; and your actions and options are even more brainless. In the end, Consul, you will have to make up your mind! You must pronounce your final judgement on the cause of the Brutuses, Cassius, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, Gaius Trebonius, and the rest. Sleep off you hangover - breathe it out. Perhaps a torch might be administered, to sting you out of your snoring over this far from unimportant matter. Will you never understand that you must decide which description to apply to the men who did that deed: are they murderers or are they the restorers of national freedom?
Concentrate, please - just for a little. Try to make your brain work for a moment as if you were sober. I confess I am their friend - you prefer to call me their associate. And yet even I refuse to see any compromise solution. If these men are not liberators of the Roman people and saviours of the state, then even I assert that they are worse than assassins, worse than murderers. Indeed, on the assumption that the murder of one's own father is less horrible than to kill the father of one's country, even parricides are better than they are.
Well, then, you wise and thoughtful man, what to you say to this: if they are parricides, why, in the Senate and Assembly, do you refer to them with respect? You will also have to explain why you yourself proposed Marucs Brutus's exemption from the laws when he remained outside the city for more than ten days [in spite of being a city-praetor]; why, at the Games of Apollo, he received such a complimentary reception; and why he and Cassius were given provincial commands, and supernumerary questors and legates were assigned to them for the purpose. This was all your doing! So evidently you do not regard them as murderers. It follows - since no compromise is possible - that you must regard them as liberators. What is the matter? I am not embarrassing you, am I? For I doubt if you are quite competent to grasp the sort of dilemma in which this places you. Anyway, what my conclusion amounts to is this: by not regarding Brutus and the rest as criminals, you have automatically proclaimed that they deserve the most glorious rewards.
So I must re-design my speech. I shall write to these men and say that, if anyone asks whether your charge against me is true, they must offer no denials. For, if I was their accomplice and they conceal the fact, I am afraid this may discredit them; whereas if I was invited to join them and refused, this will reflect the gravest discredit on me. For heaven will bear witness that Rome - that any nation throughout the whole world - has never seen a greater act than theirs! There has never been an achievement more glorious - more greatly deserving of renown for all eternity. So if you pen me in a Trojan horse of complicity with the chief partners in that deed, I do not protest. Thank you, I say - whatever your motives. For where so outstanding an action is concerned, I account the unpopularity, which you hope to unload upon me, as nothing beside the glory.
You have driven these men away and expelled them, you boast. Yet they are blessed beyond measure. There is no place in the world too deserted and too barbarous to welcome them and delight in their presence. All people on earth, however uncivilized, are capable of understanding that life could offer no more outstanding happiness than a sight of these men. Writers will continue, for generation after generation throughout time everlasting, to immortalize the glory of their achievement.
Enrol me among such heroes, I beg of you! Though I am afraid that one thing may not be to your liking. If I had been among their number I should have freed our country not only from the autocrat but from the autocracy. For if, as you assert, I had been the author of the work, believe me, I should not have been satisfied to finish only one act. I should have completed the play!
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.
Wednesday, 26. November 2008, 12:50:37
always-wanted-to-do-that, politics, general obnoxiousness, studies
At one point you tried to be witty. Heaven knows this did not suit you.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.
Tuesday, 25. November 2008, 13:58:09
politics, always-wanted-to-do-that, quote of the day, studies
...
For what was left of Rome, Antony, owed its final annihilation to yourself. In your home everything had a price: and a truly sordid series of deals it was. Laws you passed, laws you caused to be put through in your interests, had never even been formally proposed. You admitted this yourself. You were an augur, yet you never took the auspices. You were a consul, yet you blocked the legal right of other officials to exercise the veto. Your armed escort was shocking. You are a drink-sodden, sex-ridden wreck. Never a day passes in that ill-reputed house of yours without orgies of the most repulsive kind.
In spite of all that, I restricted myself in my speech to solemn complaints concerning the state of our nation.
[...]
Antony's action proves he is totally uncivilized. But just see how unbelievably stupid he is as well.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.
Monday, 24. November 2008, 16:10:17
politics, always-wanted-to-do-that, quote of the day, studies
I should not have thought that my life, and my reputation, and my qualities - such as they are - provide suitable material for Antony's contempt. Nor can he have believed, surely, that he could successfully disparage me before the Senate. Accustomed thought it is to complimenting distinguished Romans for good service to the state, the Senate has praised only one man for actually rescuing it from annihilation: and that is myself. But perhaps Antony's ambition was to compete with me as a speaker? If so, how extremely generous of him to present me with such a subject - justification of myself, criticism of him, the richest and most promising theme imaginable!
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,
The Second Philippic Against Mark Antony,
translated by Michael Grant for Penguin Books.
Tuesday, 11. November 2008, 22:40:07
politics, quote of the day, general obnoxiousness
He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/10/obama-collects-comics-50_n_142755.html
That's so cool that I'm willing to forgive him for being a Harry Potter fan.
I bet I have a better Spidey collection than he does, though.
- George R. R. Martin,
Not A Blog, "Another Great Thing About Barack Obama", November 11th 2008.
Sunday, 2. November 2008, 20:09:18
politics, roman-religion, studies, quote of the day
...
They (slaves) ought to respect you rather than fear you... Some may say "This is what he plainly means: slaves are to pay respect as if they were clients or early-morning callers!" Anyone who holds this opinion forgets that what is good enough for a god cannot be too little for a master.
Seneca, in Letters to Lucilius, 47.18, as rendered in John Scheid's An Introduction to Roman Religion.
Sunday, 26. October 2008, 15:03:22
politics, quote of the day, Lothair, conspiracy-theories
Historians generally divide into two schools: the paranoids, who
believe that there is a secret plot behind everything that happens, and the
realists, who think that most large events are the result of a cock-up
somewhere.
- Dr. Gwynne Dyer,
"Hong Kong: A Very Instructive Cock-Up", 10th of July 2003
Wednesday, 8. October 2008, 10:26:47
politics, quote of the day, Non-Whedon-Television
I want it on the record that I've just been called "snidy-butt" by a person whose vote is worth 13000 times more than mine.
- Alan Shore
Saturday, 4. October 2008, 20:38:05
politics, Disney, quote of the day, Non-Whedon-Television
"I suppose we better work this out."
"Does it have to be now?"
"Well, it is the season. Peace on Earth...love for your fellow man..."
"Wait. What was that?"
"'Love for your fellow man'?"
"No, before that."
"'Peace on Earth'?"
"Liberal. I knew it!"
- Jeffrey Coho and Brad Chase,
Boston Legal 3x10: The NutcrackersIf you've read my reviews of seasons 1 and 2 - and you should have, I mean, why on Earth would you otherwise bother with reading my review of the third one? - you know I quite loved this show almost at first glance. And while the snark that enticed me so diminished in season 2, it improved so much in other areas I was still taken, probably even more so.
Season 3 is where the initial crush is finally over and the established affection for the show is what keeps pulling you in. The snark the main character had in such abundancies in season 1 is still more or less missing in action, except for the few situations where Alan Shore gets to do witty retorts to unlikeable or stupid people. Additionally, the forumlaic set-up of the episodes is getting old. They do make choices to spice this up, though. First off, they start the season with a five-episode arc, the longest any trial has any taken on the show to date - and with new characters running the main plot in this mini-arc to boot. Second, as I just mentioned, there's a new big switch-around of characters. This time, though, we don't really lose anyone that mattered, and the two we gain are both very well done and interesting.
Throughout the season, the show is changed further. We see more and more or recurring character Jerry "Hands" Espenson, brilliantly portrayed by Christian Clemenson (whom you might know as Abel Koontz from
Veronica Mars or Socrates Poole from
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.), and he has since his first apperances been my very favourite character outside the dynamic duo at the heart of the series, so this is good. Heck, it's excellent. Additionally, we get the recurring character Bethany, a new romantic interest for Denny Crane. At the middle of the season, cast-changes happened again, we lose an old character and get a new one. Not that crazy about this new one, or of Bethany - the once so serious Crane, Poole and Schmidt-firm is turning into Cage & Fish of
Ally McBeal-fame; a family of oddballs and eccentrics more than a firm of lawyers. Still, it's a minor nuiscance.
The political aspect of the show gets more pronounced - it's always been big, but it gets less and less veiled, having for instance open references to the American presidential election and the different candidates that were still in play at this point. I like this, though. The show's always been very strongly political in its form and content, and being honest about it isn't a minus. A slight problem, though, is the amount of times the "likable" side wins out in the cases. As Alan Shore at one point remarks, it kills the suspense.
And such remarks are commonplace now. While in seasons 1 and 2, the meta-jokes were increasingly common, they were never as omnipresent as here. Several are outright difficult to explain away in-world, which bugs me. Still, on the most part, they're very funny - annoyingly enough it often happens that the funniest ones are the least subtle - and particularly one at the end of the teaser in episode 22 of this season might be one of the most adorably funny things I've seen in ages.
The season ends stronger than it was throughout, and I have to say that while it doesn't measure up to season 2 or in some ways even season 1, season 3 of
Boston Legal is still a solid piece of work with ever more heartwarming scenes between the awesome, awesome characters of Denny Crane and Alan Shore. A friendship for the ages, this one. The initial crush might be over, but this show's earned my trust now, and I'm not going anywhere. On to season 4! As the Buzz Lightyears of the world would say, to infinity and beyond!
Wednesday, 24. September 2008, 01:45:32
politics, quote of the day, Non-Whedon-Television
"You... Democrat! Protesting wars, banning guns! If you nancies had your way, no-one would ever shoot anybody! And then where would we be?!"
- Denny Crane
Sunday, 21. September 2008, 21:10:19
quote of the day, politics, expectations, I implore you
...
"Feel free to mock me all you want, but don't you dare ridicule our troops."
"Just so I'm clear, I should feel free to mock you?"
David E. Kelley is probably the most famous for
Chicago Hope and
Ally McBeal. I never watched the former, but I remember the latter fondly from my teens and whenever I've caught a rerun in recent year, I've never been disappointed. Those are very far from his only escapades into television creation, however, and the long-running
The Practice is thus only one out of the many shows of his I've never seen. When it came to its end, it spawned a spin-off,
Boston Legal. Despite my inclination to watch everything in proper order, I was recently talked into checking this show out. While I must admit I still wish I'd started at the beginning, with
The Practice, I am in no way regretting this, as it is a highly intelligent and highly entertaining piece of televised storytelling.
Where
The Practice is reputed to have been serious and
Ally McBeal was littered with absurd fantasies, funky lawsuits and crazy characters,
Boston Legal finds a neat pathway between the two. Almost every episode has at least one, usually several, interesting and intelligent points of social or political commentary, but the characters are quirky and silly enough that the humour - if only rarely the crazy - I recognise from
Ally McBeal is apparent in just about every single scene.
The two main draws to this show are William Shatner's eminent performance as Denny Crane, over-the-hill rabid Republican superlawyer with an ego the size of the Atlantic Ocean and a brain that's starting to fail him, and James Spader equally stunning portrayal of the direct, witty, resourceful and, well, intolerably smug Alan Shore, the man whose behaviour as an utter bastard is only matched by the kind and caring heart that drives him deep down. These two characters are legendary on their own, but the interplay and dynamic
between them is frequently nigh on perfect television.
These two would be more than enough to make me watch the show, but there's more. The cast of supporting characters, while somewhat underdeveloped as a whole, shows a lot of promise. In particular I hope to see more of Mark Valley's idealistic Brad Chase and Rene Auberjonois' superbly no-nonsense Paul Lewiston as we go along. Another stellar performance is Candice Bergen as senior partner Shirley Schmidt, entering the show halfway through the first season and giving every indication of becoming a major presence as the show continues onwards.
The little peek I've had at season 2 so far promises even more focus on the issues and the politics rather than the inter-office drama, which actually suits me fine, and I look forward to it. The dynamic duo of Spader and Shatner is simply so awesome that their very presence makes every plot they're in character-driven enough.
Every once in a while you start watching a show that just flat out entertains you to the core of your bones, and you fall a little in love with it. I have every awareness that this review is written during such a fit of affection, and is thereby probably a little overly positive. Let me therefore just add that there are some issues with this show, mainly in the underdeveloped and underutilised cast of secondary characters. But honestly, you don't fall this strongly for a show after a single season for no good reason. If you liked the comedy and characterisation of
Ally McBeal and think a slightly more realistic take on the same would be for you, or you have an interest in a show that's genuinely fun whilst exploring real-life issues of politics and ideology in today's USA, you should be as excited about this show as I am. And if neither of those things sound appealing, then, well, you should still watch it just for every single scene that ends with the words "Denny Crane".
Sunday, 21. September 2008, 17:17:57
politics, quote of the day, Non-Whedon-Television
It was a shot heard around the world. Remember? Not the punch. Not the stabbing. It was a shot. To rally the minutemen to defeat the Red Coats at Lexington. This nation began with a gun. Will go down with a gun. Or maybe, if we have them, won’t go down at all. Let me tell you about assault weapons. The FBI now reports that terrorists are coming to America to get them because it’s easier to procure them here. Now I ask you, how can we supply terrorists with AK47’s and not give them to our own people?
- Denny Crane
Saturday, 10. May 2008, 09:41:59
politics, rant, MSN, Obdormio
They're blocking messages with "www.youtube.com" in them. How hilariously sad isn't that?
Monday, 28. April 2008, 22:16:50
quote of the day, politics, Gaiman
Occasionally friends ask why I'll write movies -- they're a huge drain on time and emotion, most of the scripts one writes simply do not get made, and when they do get made it's all-too-often nothing like the thing that you thought you were writing, and unlike novels you've given up control from the outset, you can find yourself being lied to or fired or cheated, and while I make a lot of money writing scripts I make a lot more money writing books, which I own and control for ever, and from which I get foreign income, and so on. And I say "Health Insurance," and if they're from America they normally get it, while people from countries that regard healthcare as a human right, like education, think I'm mad.
- Neil Gaiman
Sunday, 20. April 2008, 13:01:29
politics, Lothair
Friday, 18. April 2008, 12:44:34
megalomania, politics, rant, always-wanted-to-do-that
...
If you put me against the wall and push a gun towards my head, I might allow agreeing that democracy is a somewhat functional form of government that, despite a number of obvious flaws, seems to presently be better than most or even all realistic alternatives.
Stress on the "might".
And given that everybody who run things seem to think that democracy can do no wrong - I'll have you know, by the way, that Socrates was very critical of democracy, and that's before they voted to kill him, so there (and do you really think you're smarter than Socrates, Jensen? Stoltenberg? Gahr St-, eh, Solberg? I didn't think so) - my thoughts are, that should be at least somewhat consistent, right?
So how come nobody is proposing making the media democratically run?
I mean, really. The people who tell us what to do are democratically run. The people who punish us if we don't are democratically run. Why aren't the people who tell us what to know?
Why isn't there a rule that says that as soon as some form of media gain an audience-base of a certain percentage of the nation, the chief editor of said media becomes a democratically elected position? Or at least controlled by some board of elected officials? I'm not saying that'd work. I'm not remotely in the vicinity of suggesting that. I'm asking why that isn't seen as equally reasonable as having elected representatives on the school board of private schools, or heck, as having anything run by elected people whatsoever.
The media has a lot of power - more so, in some ways, than many governmental institutions. I'm not talking about making them part of the government here. I'm just asking why, in a democratical society where people go bananas about how great this whole voting-concept is on a pseudo-regular basis, why isn't the principle applied to the people that hand us our information? The information, note, that we then use to go and vote on the basis of. For everything but the source of the information. Is that intuitive? Does that follow the ideals of democracy applied to a society? I don't know - I'm just asking.
And don't come running with some capitalist explanation about the market having a democratical effect on the media unless you're willing to follow that logic to the end. If the guy who tells you what's true and what's important can be elected by the forces of the market, then so can the guy who tows you in for disorderly behaviour. Meaning that you're in favour of privatising the policeforce. And probably the army, too.
The country is run by the beuracracy. The elected officials just sit on top of the pyramid making the big decisions. I'm not suggesting that journalism becomes a job you run for. I'm just asking where the officials on top are.
It is weird, right? I'm just asking.
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