...and Stuff
There’s No News…
While my head has been in the clouds and FAFSA applications, it’s been a busy week.
Working backwards:
Patriot Act as Law
While the public is in panic mode because of happenings in London (more father down) the House has just signed many of the key provisions of the Patriot Act into permanent law.
Land of the Paranoid, Home of the Hysterical.
I understand the Patriot Acts good intent in “allowing” more information to be shared between intelligence agencies but it doesn't actually solve the huge problem logistically as it has to be done by hardcopy. Nor it does not provide law enforcement agencies with any more tools than they already had to investigate and prosecute terrorists. It does however, give them much greater lattitude in investigating John Q. Citizen. In this amount of time, Congress couldn’t amend the provision 215 and 505, which allows the FBI to check into all of your personal records without a warrant? These are not only invasions of privacy designed not to spy on suspected terrorists, for whom the FBI already had the rights to do so, but any random American.
Here’s what the ACLU had to say on the matter:
“The government already has the authority to prosecute anyone whom it has probable cause to believe has committed or is planning to commit a crime. It also has the authority to engage in surveillance of anyone whom it has probable cause to believe is a foreign power or spy - whether or not the person is suspected of any crime.
Section 215 takes away a great deal of our liberty and privacy but isn't likely to get us any security in return.
There's a real possibility that setting the FBI loose on the American public will have a profound chilling effect on public discourse. If people think that their conversations and their e-mails are their reading habits are being monitored, people will inevitably feel less comfortable saying what they think, especially if what they think is not what the government wants them to think.”
As it is, no one has yet to tell me how the FBI looking at the results of my pelvic exams helps to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.
I actually have to say that I am o.k. with the random bag searches the NYPD are conducting on the subway, at least in the interim. For no other reason than I didn’t say boo when they instituted all the random bag checks on airlines post 9-11. Still, I am reminded….
“Those willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither security nor liberty.” ~ Ben Franklin
But where do you draw that line?
The Real Hunt of Terrorists Continues in London
London has been dealing with terrorism for much longer than the U.S. has, but it is extraordinarily easy in time of such heightened fear to move too quickly. I hope this is not the case in the shooting death of that man.
It is neat that the Brits have set up a portion of their website for witnesses to send in pictures taken from their cell phones and such.
It is odd that al Queda went after the U.K. twice in such a short time span when their main target should be the U.S. Perhaps their idea is to remove all support? Pressure Britain to pressure us into leaving? Gods what a vile situation this is. Hate and villainy on both side of the fence and the common man stuck in the middle.
“The mind is everything; what you think, you become.” – Buddha
But what if you don’t know what to think?
Conservative Nominee, What a Surprise.
That John Roberts Jr. is a conservative is no surprise . What is surprising is his lack of experience. This guy has only sat on a bench for 2 years. He also has long standing personal and professional ties to the Bush clan.
Read: Highly Malleable.
What is this? The Corelone family?
Rather amusing given how much Bushie and Company complains about “activist judges legislating form the bench”* when they are installing an activist judge to legislate.
“We trust the president, we trust the people who are speaking for him ... and we also believe that at the heart, this is about the Constitution, and if someone has the right judicial attitude about the Constitution, we will trust them with the issues that we care about," Ruse said.”
Guess neoconservatives are fine with legislating from the bench when it suits them.
*Doubly ironic given that THAT IS THEIR JOB FUCKWITS! Go back and take Poly Sci again, will you? The chapter that reads “Checks and Balances”: Legislative Branch makes the laws, the Executive Branch approves the laws and Judicial Branch interprets the laws against the Constitution.
Hello! You people have 100K plus educations, could you at least make it *look* like your parents money was well spent?
Anyway, Neo-Conservatism marches on.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." – Gandhi
On the Bright Side…
Bolton still hasn’t been confirmed.
Props to Congress!
And Then Of Course…
There’s Karl Rove.
Personally I think “American Dad” did the best profile when the portray him as Satan.
(I love the fact that so many neocons are so stupid and self involved that they don’t realize that Stan Smith is a caricature. Either that, or the very frightening prospect that they actually do think that way. *yeek*)
All political administrations are corrupt to some extent, that just the realities of power sadly, but I never thought I would see one so riddled with such blatant corruption in my lifetime. I thought the Grant administration was dead and buried, but this one is giving them a run for their money. What truly frightening is the lack of public outrage whenever new scandals and crime arise. Are we truly so apathetic that we don’t give a damn about the right conduct of the people we put in office anymore? Do we not care how their lack of ethics affects our lives and reflects on us as a nation? Do we not care how we are ruled?
It reminds me of when the Goths invaded Rome in 5th century. Did Rome rise up against the rule of a foreign barbarian? Well....Alaric wore a toga well and the aqueducts still worked so...*shrug*
I guess humans are more complacent than I thought.
"We all must work to make this world worthy of its children." - Pablo Casals
On the lighter side…
CSM and Ratboy Rejoice!
I finally have gotten my hands on Season 5 of the X-Files.
Thank you amazon sales prices.
The X-Files, the finest flower of the budding Fox network, will go down in TV history as one of the best, most imaginative shows ever created along side the Twilight Zone. Stroking the thin grey line between reality and imagination that is the creative basis for out folklore and urban legends..and sometimes whacking it with a 2x4, The X-Files enthralled the nation with the weird, the gritty and the tragic swirling around one of the most profound and respectful friendships ever created for TV.
Not to mention being just a hell of fun to watch. The writing could switch to terrifying “Shadows” the surreally funny in “Humbug” to the elegantly tragic “Clyde Buckman’s Final Repose” to one of the most poetic monologues ever written in “Anazasi”….
“I have been on the bridge that spans two worlds, the link between all souls by which we cross into our own true nature. You were here today, looking for truth that was taken from you, a truth that was never to be spoken but which now binds us together in dangerous purpose. I have returned from the dead to continue with you... but I fear that this danger is now close at hand... that I may be too late.”
and Memento Mori…
“I feel time like a heartbeat, the seconds pumping in my breast like a reckoning. The numinous mysteries that once seemed so distant and unreal, threatening clarity in the presence of a truth entertained not in youth, but only in its passage. I feel these words as if their meaning were weight being lifted from me, knowing that you will read them and share my burden, as I have come to trust no other. That you should know my heart, look into it, finding there the memory and experience that belong to you, that are you, is a comfort to me now as I feel the tethers loose and the prospects darken for the continuance of a journey that began not so long ago, and which began again with a faith shaken and strengthened by your convictions. If not for which I might never have been so strong now as I cross to face you and look at you incomplete, hoping that you will forgive me for not making the rest of the journey with you.”
Simply beautiful writing as well as intelligent and witty, both plot and dialogue. What other show would you find this exchange?
SCULLY: No, I don't think it's witchcraft, Mulder, or sorcery. I've had a look around and I don't see any evidence that warrants that kind of suspicion.
MULDER: Maybe you don't know what you're looking for.
SCULLY: Like evidence of conjury or the black arts or shamanism, divination, Wicca or any kind of pagan or neo-Pagan practice. Charms, cards… familiars, bloodstones, or hex signs or any of the ritual tableaux associated with the occult, Santeria, Voudoun, Macumba, or any high or low magic?
MULDER: Scully…
SCULLY: Yes?
MULDER: Marry me.
SCULLY: I was hoping for something a little more helpful.
The first time I saw an X-File episode, it was “2Shy” and when Scully pulls a body out of the cooler, all of the soft tissues has liquefied.
“I’ve never seen autolysis work this fast…”
I proceeded to get up and head for the kitchen while Scully explained what autolysis was.
Nope, they just kept going. If you didn’t know and couldn’t figure out contextually what it was, tough luck. Scully would use that word but it wasn’t required for the plot, so they weren’t going to waste time telling you what it meant.
I like a show that doesn’t talk down to the audience.
X-Files lasted 9 seasons, but as far as I am concerned, it ended with the film in between season 5 and 6. After that “grand conspiracy” became the focus of the show rather then the paranormal in general and things began to get soap operatic with Cancer Man being Mulder’ Dad and Scully becoming inexplicably pregnant and..
It just got silly.
It didn’t help matters that in order to keep the “grand conspiracy” hidden, Chris Carter had to resort to playing bait-and-switch with the audience and essentially going back on his word. When you have a fan base like that, you don’t abuse their trust. Actually, you shouldn’t abuse the trust of any fan base like that.
So as far as I am concerned Scully put the bee on the table, the bee is studied, revealed to have the alien DNA, the plot is uncovered, the Syndicate collapses and it’s Iced Teas and Jersey Devils into the sunset.
Without Well-Manicured-Man it wasn’t that interesting anyway. ;)
What is extra fun about watching this show now is the number of now familiar faces that did a turn on it. Luke Wilson showed up and a charming country sherrif who happens to be a vampire in “Bad Blood”, John O’Huley as the modern Frankenstein in “Post Modern Prometheus”, Lili Taylor as a bad ass blind girl in “Mind’s Eye”, Jack Black and Giovanni Ribisi as stoner teens in “D.P.O.”, Peter Boyle (O.K. he was big before, but still…) in an Emmy Winning turn as the loser psychic in “Clyde Buckman’s Final Repose”, Lucy Liu as an obedient daughter of Chinatown in “Hell Money” and so on. Nicolas Lea who played the recurring character Kyceck, more commonly known amoung the fan base as "Ratboy", did some time on C.S.I. as Catherine Willow's boyfriend.
Great stuff. Best show Fox ever produced and one of the greatest in television history.
Just Finished...
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Chevalier. Though I am not a portrait enthusiast, I did enojy this starkly evocative tale of Vermeer's most famous work. It's nothing demanding, but it was an enjoyable read that doesn't twist the screw too hard to gain the readers sympathy for the character, who was well rendered. As a historial novel it seems well researched (though that's not my period so I can't say for sure) and it is refreshing to read a romance for which the most erotic moment is the man seeing the woman with her hair down (not that I mind a good sweaty romp in a novel, it just thay're always written so badly).
So...it's not a "WOW!', but it's good.
Back to Pocono.
Best of luck to the Dale and the 8 Team, Elliott and the 38 team and Mark Martin and the 6 Team this weekend. Everyone have a fun and safe race!
“Mulder, explain to me the scientific principle of “the Whammy”…"
While my head has been in the clouds and FAFSA applications, it’s been a busy week.
Working backwards:
Patriot Act as Law
While the public is in panic mode because of happenings in London (more father down) the House has just signed many of the key provisions of the Patriot Act into permanent law.
Land of the Paranoid, Home of the Hysterical.
I understand the Patriot Acts good intent in “allowing” more information to be shared between intelligence agencies but it doesn't actually solve the huge problem logistically as it has to be done by hardcopy. Nor it does not provide law enforcement agencies with any more tools than they already had to investigate and prosecute terrorists. It does however, give them much greater lattitude in investigating John Q. Citizen. In this amount of time, Congress couldn’t amend the provision 215 and 505, which allows the FBI to check into all of your personal records without a warrant? These are not only invasions of privacy designed not to spy on suspected terrorists, for whom the FBI already had the rights to do so, but any random American.
Here’s what the ACLU had to say on the matter:
“The government already has the authority to prosecute anyone whom it has probable cause to believe has committed or is planning to commit a crime. It also has the authority to engage in surveillance of anyone whom it has probable cause to believe is a foreign power or spy - whether or not the person is suspected of any crime.
Section 215 takes away a great deal of our liberty and privacy but isn't likely to get us any security in return.
There's a real possibility that setting the FBI loose on the American public will have a profound chilling effect on public discourse. If people think that their conversations and their e-mails are their reading habits are being monitored, people will inevitably feel less comfortable saying what they think, especially if what they think is not what the government wants them to think.”
As it is, no one has yet to tell me how the FBI looking at the results of my pelvic exams helps to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.
I actually have to say that I am o.k. with the random bag searches the NYPD are conducting on the subway, at least in the interim. For no other reason than I didn’t say boo when they instituted all the random bag checks on airlines post 9-11. Still, I am reminded….
“Those willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither security nor liberty.” ~ Ben Franklin
But where do you draw that line?
The Real Hunt of Terrorists Continues in London
London has been dealing with terrorism for much longer than the U.S. has, but it is extraordinarily easy in time of such heightened fear to move too quickly. I hope this is not the case in the shooting death of that man.
It is neat that the Brits have set up a portion of their website for witnesses to send in pictures taken from their cell phones and such.
It is odd that al Queda went after the U.K. twice in such a short time span when their main target should be the U.S. Perhaps their idea is to remove all support? Pressure Britain to pressure us into leaving? Gods what a vile situation this is. Hate and villainy on both side of the fence and the common man stuck in the middle.
“The mind is everything; what you think, you become.” – Buddha
But what if you don’t know what to think?
Conservative Nominee, What a Surprise.
That John Roberts Jr. is a conservative is no surprise . What is surprising is his lack of experience. This guy has only sat on a bench for 2 years. He also has long standing personal and professional ties to the Bush clan.
Read: Highly Malleable.
What is this? The Corelone family?
Rather amusing given how much Bushie and Company complains about “activist judges legislating form the bench”* when they are installing an activist judge to legislate.
“We trust the president, we trust the people who are speaking for him ... and we also believe that at the heart, this is about the Constitution, and if someone has the right judicial attitude about the Constitution, we will trust them with the issues that we care about," Ruse said.”
Guess neoconservatives are fine with legislating from the bench when it suits them.
*Doubly ironic given that THAT IS THEIR JOB FUCKWITS! Go back and take Poly Sci again, will you? The chapter that reads “Checks and Balances”: Legislative Branch makes the laws, the Executive Branch approves the laws and Judicial Branch interprets the laws against the Constitution.
Hello! You people have 100K plus educations, could you at least make it *look* like your parents money was well spent?
Anyway, Neo-Conservatism marches on.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." – Gandhi
On the Bright Side…
Bolton still hasn’t been confirmed.
Props to Congress!
And Then Of Course…
There’s Karl Rove.
Personally I think “American Dad” did the best profile when the portray him as Satan.
(I love the fact that so many neocons are so stupid and self involved that they don’t realize that Stan Smith is a caricature. Either that, or the very frightening prospect that they actually do think that way. *yeek*)
All political administrations are corrupt to some extent, that just the realities of power sadly, but I never thought I would see one so riddled with such blatant corruption in my lifetime. I thought the Grant administration was dead and buried, but this one is giving them a run for their money. What truly frightening is the lack of public outrage whenever new scandals and crime arise. Are we truly so apathetic that we don’t give a damn about the right conduct of the people we put in office anymore? Do we not care how their lack of ethics affects our lives and reflects on us as a nation? Do we not care how we are ruled?
It reminds me of when the Goths invaded Rome in 5th century. Did Rome rise up against the rule of a foreign barbarian? Well....Alaric wore a toga well and the aqueducts still worked so...*shrug*
I guess humans are more complacent than I thought.
"We all must work to make this world worthy of its children." - Pablo Casals
On the lighter side…
CSM and Ratboy Rejoice!
I finally have gotten my hands on Season 5 of the X-Files.
Thank you amazon sales prices.
The X-Files, the finest flower of the budding Fox network, will go down in TV history as one of the best, most imaginative shows ever created along side the Twilight Zone. Stroking the thin grey line between reality and imagination that is the creative basis for out folklore and urban legends..and sometimes whacking it with a 2x4, The X-Files enthralled the nation with the weird, the gritty and the tragic swirling around one of the most profound and respectful friendships ever created for TV.
Not to mention being just a hell of fun to watch. The writing could switch to terrifying “Shadows” the surreally funny in “Humbug” to the elegantly tragic “Clyde Buckman’s Final Repose” to one of the most poetic monologues ever written in “Anazasi”….
“I have been on the bridge that spans two worlds, the link between all souls by which we cross into our own true nature. You were here today, looking for truth that was taken from you, a truth that was never to be spoken but which now binds us together in dangerous purpose. I have returned from the dead to continue with you... but I fear that this danger is now close at hand... that I may be too late.”
and Memento Mori…
“I feel time like a heartbeat, the seconds pumping in my breast like a reckoning. The numinous mysteries that once seemed so distant and unreal, threatening clarity in the presence of a truth entertained not in youth, but only in its passage. I feel these words as if their meaning were weight being lifted from me, knowing that you will read them and share my burden, as I have come to trust no other. That you should know my heart, look into it, finding there the memory and experience that belong to you, that are you, is a comfort to me now as I feel the tethers loose and the prospects darken for the continuance of a journey that began not so long ago, and which began again with a faith shaken and strengthened by your convictions. If not for which I might never have been so strong now as I cross to face you and look at you incomplete, hoping that you will forgive me for not making the rest of the journey with you.”
Simply beautiful writing as well as intelligent and witty, both plot and dialogue. What other show would you find this exchange?
SCULLY: No, I don't think it's witchcraft, Mulder, or sorcery. I've had a look around and I don't see any evidence that warrants that kind of suspicion.
MULDER: Maybe you don't know what you're looking for.
SCULLY: Like evidence of conjury or the black arts or shamanism, divination, Wicca or any kind of pagan or neo-Pagan practice. Charms, cards… familiars, bloodstones, or hex signs or any of the ritual tableaux associated with the occult, Santeria, Voudoun, Macumba, or any high or low magic?
MULDER: Scully…
SCULLY: Yes?
MULDER: Marry me.
SCULLY: I was hoping for something a little more helpful.
The first time I saw an X-File episode, it was “2Shy” and when Scully pulls a body out of the cooler, all of the soft tissues has liquefied.
“I’ve never seen autolysis work this fast…”
I proceeded to get up and head for the kitchen while Scully explained what autolysis was.
Nope, they just kept going. If you didn’t know and couldn’t figure out contextually what it was, tough luck. Scully would use that word but it wasn’t required for the plot, so they weren’t going to waste time telling you what it meant.
I like a show that doesn’t talk down to the audience.
X-Files lasted 9 seasons, but as far as I am concerned, it ended with the film in between season 5 and 6. After that “grand conspiracy” became the focus of the show rather then the paranormal in general and things began to get soap operatic with Cancer Man being Mulder’ Dad and Scully becoming inexplicably pregnant and..
It just got silly.
It didn’t help matters that in order to keep the “grand conspiracy” hidden, Chris Carter had to resort to playing bait-and-switch with the audience and essentially going back on his word. When you have a fan base like that, you don’t abuse their trust. Actually, you shouldn’t abuse the trust of any fan base like that.
So as far as I am concerned Scully put the bee on the table, the bee is studied, revealed to have the alien DNA, the plot is uncovered, the Syndicate collapses and it’s Iced Teas and Jersey Devils into the sunset.
Without Well-Manicured-Man it wasn’t that interesting anyway. ;)
What is extra fun about watching this show now is the number of now familiar faces that did a turn on it. Luke Wilson showed up and a charming country sherrif who happens to be a vampire in “Bad Blood”, John O’Huley as the modern Frankenstein in “Post Modern Prometheus”, Lili Taylor as a bad ass blind girl in “Mind’s Eye”, Jack Black and Giovanni Ribisi as stoner teens in “D.P.O.”, Peter Boyle (O.K. he was big before, but still…) in an Emmy Winning turn as the loser psychic in “Clyde Buckman’s Final Repose”, Lucy Liu as an obedient daughter of Chinatown in “Hell Money” and so on. Nicolas Lea who played the recurring character Kyceck, more commonly known amoung the fan base as "Ratboy", did some time on C.S.I. as Catherine Willow's boyfriend.
Great stuff. Best show Fox ever produced and one of the greatest in television history.
Just Finished...
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Chevalier. Though I am not a portrait enthusiast, I did enojy this starkly evocative tale of Vermeer's most famous work. It's nothing demanding, but it was an enjoyable read that doesn't twist the screw too hard to gain the readers sympathy for the character, who was well rendered. As a historial novel it seems well researched (though that's not my period so I can't say for sure) and it is refreshing to read a romance for which the most erotic moment is the man seeing the woman with her hair down (not that I mind a good sweaty romp in a novel, it just thay're always written so badly).
So...it's not a "WOW!', but it's good.
Back to Pocono.
Best of luck to the Dale and the 8 Team, Elliott and the 38 team and Mark Martin and the 6 Team this weekend. Everyone have a fun and safe race!
“Mulder, explain to me the scientific principle of “the Whammy”…"
posted by KiplingKat | 8:22 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home