Banned Media

Is it wrong for the president to eject certain media agencies from the White House press room?  CNN, MSNOW, and Politico certainly think so.  Many other news agencies agree.  However, there is only so much space in the press room.  Do certain agencies have a right to that limited space?  Do they have more right to the space than an obscure newspaper from Wyoming or Iowa?  Sure, it makes sense to have news agencies with the greatest reach to have access as that gives the easiest route to disseminate news.  Then again, that could be a detriment if those news agencies are consistently hostile.

In the early days of the republic, there were party papers.  Andrew Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet had a couple of friendly newspaper editors as members.  Jackson's message was printed as he wanted it printed.  Did the people only get government propaganda through such a system?  No, the Whigs controlled newspapers as well, blasting whatever message the Jacksonian papers delivered.

Supposing that there are 100 seats in the pressroom, why can't the administration choose which agencies get them?  If a thousand news agencies across the country and internationally apply, could the administration just pick the 100 least hostile?  Would that be censorious?

The media is overwhelmingly left leaning, which means it is reliably hostile to Republicans and cheerleaders to Democrats.  A quick request from ChatGPT came up with these numbers:

With such an obvious tilt in the coverage, why wouldn't the administration take some action to mitigate it?  Where the Trump Administration seeks to limit access to proven hostile news agencies - which he claims produce 'fake news' - the Obama DOJ was aggressive in law enforcement regarding reporters and their sources.  He was getting net positive coverage and still sought to muzzle the media.

The entire press corps apparatus in the White House is a convenience first extended by President Theodore Roosevelt, which means it did not exist for the first half of the country's history.  There is no requirement for it.  Besides, Trump is constantly out speaking.  In his first term, he had 88 press conferences, which averages to around 2 a month.  By contrast, Biden had 37, less than 1 per month.  Trump was interviewed 326 times, or nearly 7 times a month; Biden 125, or 2.6 times per month.  There is no dearth of Trump in the media.

Supergirl (2026)

Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) is on a planetary pub crawl to celebrate her 23rd birthday when Ruthye (Eve Ridley) entered the bar.  The bar is one of those hives of wretched scum and villainy that abound in space settings and Ruthye is a teenaged girl who clearly does not belong.  Ruthye offers a bounty of a well-made sword for anyone who helps her avenge the murder of her family by Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts).  One rather large and thuggish monster that looks like an evil version of a teenaged mutant ninja turtle simply confiscated the sword.  With a resigned sigh, Kara intervened to recover the sword, demonstrating that she was a skilled combatant despite the vast size difference.

Though Ruthye followed Kara back to her starship, Kara declined to help on her quest for revenge.  However, by a miracle of bad luck, Krem appeared, poisoned Krypto - Kara's dog, and stole her starship.  Krypto had three days to live unless Kara could retrieve the antidote from Krem.  Now Kara was committed to finding Krem though she still wasn't keen on the revenge quest.

In order to even begin to chase Krem, Kara had to take public transport.  She waited at a galactic bus stop in the middle of a field until a rocket bus arrived.  Interesting.  Oh, yeah, this planet had a red sun so she didn't have powers.  Sounds awfully reckless.  On the other hand, she was incapable of getting drunk in systems with a yellow sun.  Though she had left Ruthye behind, Ruthye appeared on the space bus!  In fact, Ruthye proves to have a talent of stowing away on ships.  There follows fights with Sklarian Raiders, investigations, interrogations, false friends, rescues of slave girls, and more battles with brigands.

There are multiple flashbacks to detail Kara's past.  Her father, Zor-El, was the brother of Superman's father.  Zor-El had created a shield generator that allowed a city to escape the doomed planet of Krypton.  Kara was born and raised on this floating chunk of Krypton.  However, like Superman, she was sent to Earth.  Superman (David Corenswet) makes several appearances, both in flashback, on facetime calls, and a homecoming scene at the end of the movie.

Based on the graphic novel Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which itself was a retelling of True Grit, the movie is a hodgepodge of action scenes that are poorly stitched together.  Kara tends to be a slovenly drunk, a woman who seems to be drinking away her sorrows rather than celebrating her birthday.  At one point, she plops onto the toilet while leaving the door open.  Um, okay.  On the other hand, Ruthye is sober and clearheaded but naive beyond belief.  Does this planet have no law enforcement to deal with the likes of Krem?  Does she expect noble behavior among the patrons of the bar?  But for the presence of Kara, Ruthye had walked into her likely enslavement by entering the bar.  Did she not know that?  Does not matter because Kara and Ruthye need to meet somehow.  About halfway through, the pair encountered Lobo (Jason Momoa), a bounty hunter who happened to be tracking one of Krem's associates.  He looks like some space Hells Angel with evil clown makeup.  Yeah, this movie needed a dark edge and this character doesn't really fit.  His inclusion comes off as nothing but fan service.  Krem is a lazy villain.  He's just competent enough to be a nuisance but not competent enough to be a threat.  Whenever he and Kara fight, one or the other pull up short from securing victory.  Kara could have snatched the poison cure in an early encounter, but doesn't.  No, let's have something distract her.  Krem has just poisoned Kara with Kryptonite, but pauses for a monologue.  Sigh.

Kara is not a likable character.  A woman doing a solo pub crawl is a big red flag.  That she would go to a planet with a red sun to do such makes her seem suicidal.  She certainly has cause to be depressed, but is drunkeness the cure?  Much of the time, she looks hungover and unkempt.  Even in the midst of the adventure, she is still somehow always less than 100% on account of this poison, that green sun, or those Kryptonite arrows.  And what is with all the primitive melee weapons?  Why are the villians running around with swords, axes, crossbows, and spiked chains?

Mediocre.  Skip.

Oikophobia

Oikophobia (noun)

1. Ecophobia; fear of a home environment.
2. Dislike of one's own culture or compatriots

This is the going thing.  For some decades now, the West has become oikophobic; there is no civilization worse than Western Civilization.  Indeed, the West has oppressed - and often enslaved - all other civilizations in the world.  Thus, the current reversal of fortune with hostile immigrants flooding into Western countries is an appropriate comeuppance.  Though the West is entirely capable of preventing this destructive influx, enough of the citizens have embraced oikophobia to not only tollerate it, but to encourage it.

In a video on YouTube, Joomi Kim discussed how this was not the first time that this has happened.  In fact, it appears to be a normal feature of powerful civilizations.  She starts off with the Ancient Greeks, who had risen to prominence.  Alexander the Great had conquered vast territory and left Hellenic dominance behind.  However, there arose among the Greeks those who attacked their culture.  She mentioned Diogenes in particular.  By the time the Romans arrived on the scene, the Greeks had already self-sabotaged.  The Romans followed a similar though slower pattern.  France ripped itself apart during the French Revolution, handing global dominance to England.  Modern England appears to hate its history and seeks to erase the English through mass migration.

After World War II, the United States stepped into England's shoes to become the dominant civilization.  The self-hatred soon followed.  US History is more often described as one long crime spree rather than the rise of a great and laudable nation.  Joomi suggests that the US has, since 1976, elected presidents who were either committed oikophobes (Carter & Obama) or sympathetic to oikophobia.  Only Reagan and Trump have been enthusiastic Americanophiles, which may explain their popularity outside the usual Republican demographics.

Excellent, though somewhat depressing, video.  Highly recommended.

My Latest Book

The next installment of Downland Tales.  There are the birthday stories that have been written since the last volume, a series of random character sketches, and a couple of other random stories.  The fifth book that takes place in Downland.

Palestinian-Israeli Conflict 101

The podcast provides some background of the conflict from 4000 years ago until the modern day.  It is broken into 3 parts, each about 45 to 50 minutes in length.  The narrator does an excellent job of being neutral in the conflict.  She announced from the start that it was meant to inform those who know next to nothing of the conflict and is merely a primer.

Part 1: 4,000 years ago to 1917.  Our story begins with Abraham, whose sons are the putative ancestors of the conflicting parties.  Jews trace their ancestry to Isaac while Muslims trace theirs to Ishmael.  The Jews lived in the region that is now Israel for hundreds of years, interrupted by the all too frequent conquest by a more powerful state.  However, the Romans grew tired of Jewish rebellions and deported many Jews from the area; this was the Jewish Diaspora.  Moreover, the Romans renamed the region to Palestine.  Though there were still Jews in the region, they were a minority.  Time passed and the Romans were replaced by the Byzantines who were replaced by a series of Muslim caliphates.  Then the Crusades conquered the area, briefly, before Egyptian Sultanate took over.  In turn, the Ottoman Empire ruled from the 16th century.  Meanwhile, Jews in Europe were suffering pogroms and needed somewhere to go.  In the 19th century, many migrated to Palestine.  During World War I, the British proposed a homeland for the Jews in the Balfour Declaration (1917).  That was not popular among the resident Muslim population.

Part 2: 1917 to 1967.  In the wake of World War I, the Ottoman Empire - which was on the losing side - had its territory divided among the victors.  The British acquired what is now Israel along with the growing tensions between the Jewish and Muslim residents.  There was a lot of unpleasantness between the wars.  Then World War II came.  Jews in Europe sought to escape to Palestine but were largely foiled.  After the war, they flooded in and Britain decided to split the territory in two and bug out.  Immediately, there was war between the Jews and the Muslims.  The Jews fared far better, claiming the majority of the territory.  Many Palestinians who had fled during the conflict demanded the right to return to their homes now that the fighting was ended.  Denied.  Instead, those homes were provided to the incoming flood of Holocaust survivors.  In the 1960s, Egyptian President Nasser threatened to destroy Israel, stating it had no right to exist.  He put troops in the Sinai Peninsula and prepared to attack.

Part 3: 1967 to 2023.  Taking Nasser at his word, the Israeli Airforce attacked Egypt, disabling its airforce and making its ground-based force in the empty desert an easy target.  The Israeli Airforce likewise bombed Jordan and Syria.  This was the Six-Day War and saw Israel capture the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights.   Egypt and Syria took another crack at Israel in 1973's Yom Kippur War.  In 1978, President Carter hosted a peace conference between Egypt and Israel which resulted in Egypt recognizing Israel, a first for an Arab country.  At this point, the Palestinians, who had been in the wilderness for 4 decades now, gave up hope of being restored by neighboring co-religionists and took matters into their hands.  The PLO and similar groups emerged to fight by other means: terrorism.  In the 1990s, the Oslo Accords were negotiated but never fully implemented; it was another effort at a two-state solution going back to dividing the region like the British tried during the Mandate period.  Since then, there have been a series of Intafadas (uprisings) as well as Israel trading land for peace (evacuation of Gaza, some of the West Bank).

The podcast was released in August and September of 2023.  On October 7, 2023, the latest and most dramatic Intafada took place.

As mentioned, the narrator sought to be neutral regarding the conflict, offering the reasons each side views their position as superior.  She points out that atrocities have been committed by each side and each has been dispossessed of homes in the area.  She does not delve into the religions, giving each equal merit.  She does not delve into the governmental systems, again offering equal merit.  By ignoring the differing character of the competing peoples, it is easier to stay neutral on who should prevail.

Recommended.

Used Cars (1980)

Rudy "Trust Me" Russo (Kurt Russell) is a used car salesman with dreams of political office.  In order to secure his nomination, he must provide a cash donation; he's $10,000 short.  His boss, Luke Fuchs (Jack Warden), offered to give him the money.  Rudy is so grateful that he offers a 50-50 split on all the graft once he's in office.  However, Luke's brother, Roy (Jack Warden), owns a used car dealership across the street and has eyes on securing a monopoly.  If something happened to Luke, he would inherit the lot.  Well, as long as Luke's daughter didn't show up.  Barbara Fuchs (Deborah Harmon) came looking for her father and found herself as the owner of a failing car dealership.  Could she and Rudy keep it solvent long enough to benefit from a new highway exit?

The movie is a series of zany gags and crazy humor.  In order to drum up business, Rudy contacted Freddie (David Lander) and Eddie (Michael McKean) to hijack the local TV signal and air a commercial for the dealership.  That Lenny and Squiggy appear was itself hilarious.  The commercial goes horribly wrong with the female model (Cheryl Rixon) somehow made topless; the lot was packed the following day.  Further such antics saw the pair hijack a presidential address!

Jack Warden makes for a terrific villain as Roy Fuchs.  There is no underhanded tactic that is beneath him, including an effort to put his niece in jail.  Kurt Russell inhabits his role as a sleazy car salesman, only too happy to do whatever it took to sell a car.  Despite his dishonesty, manipulativeness, and general lack of morals, he was somehow likable.  Gerrit Graham was a great wingman to Russell.  His faith in superstitions from rabbit's feet to saltshakers to fear of red cars made him a constant source of laughs.  By contrast, Deborah Harmon is left as the straight man in most of the gags.  To add yet another classic guest appearance, Al Lewis (best known as grandpa from The Munsters) played Judge Harrison.

At the time this was released, it was quite the raunchy comedy.  Today, it feels tame.  Nonetheless, it is a lot of fun.  Recommended.

9/11 + 25

It has been 25 years since planes crashed into the twin towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. In the wake of this attack, President Bush declared Islam to be a religion of peace. Nonetheless, we went to war with a couple of Islamic countries: Afghanistan and Iraq.  Moreover, a new department was created to keep the country safe: Homeland Security.  Where the hijackers had come into the country to execute their terrorist attack, such an agency would surely curb future intruders.  Clearly, those who would scream Allahu Akbar must get the hairy eyeball before entering.  As such, the number of Muslims in the United States has been careful monitored so as to rise from 2.5 million to 5.5 million.  Likewise, where there were approximately 1200 mosques in 2000, there are now only 2,800 or thereabouts.  Of course, New York City has been particularly active in preventing future incursions.  Where there were 120 mosques in 2000, there are now only 300.  Additionally, where NYC was in the process of electing a Jewish mayor - Michael Bloomberg - during the 2001 attack, it now has its first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

To look at where things stand, the Muslims are winning.  They have changed tactics - for the moment - and just begun to migrate into the West.  The situation is dire in England, but the West has chosen to just idly watch as the invasion progresses.  Eventually, the numbers will favor the Muslims and, like Lebanon, they will take over and oppress the infidels.

Good Intentions

In Good Intentions, Walter Williams, a noteworthy economics professor, discussed the unintended consequences of those good intentions.  He detailed his own youth, education, and job history compared to what was possible today (early 1980s).  Education had degraded since his time, seeing a dramatic rise in administrators at the cost of resources to the classroom.  Furthermore, efforts to give control of education to parents was foiled by teachers' unions and government.  Where he had a job as a teen for a $1/hour, a modern teen could not be hired for less than $3.35/hour.  That minimum wage, intended to protect the youth from an employer who would take advantage, limited the number of teens who could be hired.  Rather than get job experience - even for a pittance, the teen was instead unemployed.  Then there was the licensing scam.  Many governments required a license to participate in an industry.  He gave the example of driving a cab.  In Philadelphia, it cost $20,000 to get a license and thus be an independent cab driver.  By contrast, Washington D.C. only required $50.  Unsurprisingly, vastly more cabs were available in DC and there were more independent cabbies.  All too often, government efforts to assist the citizenry results in exactly the opposite.

Highly recommended.

Mr. Baseball (1992)

Jack Elliot (Tom Selleck) was a New York Yankee, an MVP from the World Series.  He viewed himself as untouchable.  Then a new player arrived and the Yankees traded Jack.  "Not Canada!" Jack insisted.  No, not Canada.  "Cleveland?"  Nope.  He was being traded to Japan.  Jack arrived in Japan to find himself assigned an interpreter, Yoji (Toshi Shioya), who often changed Jack's replies to completely change the meaning.  His coach, Uchiyama (Ken Takakura), was a serious and sober man who did not appreciate Jack's disrespectful antics.  Hiroko (Aya Takanashi) was his assigned agent and arranged for his mandatory endorsement deals and TV commercials in Japan.  She soon became his love interest.  Jack was not the only American on the team; Max 'Hammer' Dubois (Dennis Haysbert) had been in Japan for 5 years and offered pointers on assimilation, most of which Jack didn't take.

The movie doesn't know what it wants to be.  The comedy elements are purely situational and fish out of water variety humor.  There are no laugh out loud gags or jokes.  The romance between Jack and Hiroko is bland.  She's the only woman he knows in Japan who speaks English; she's the only fish in the pond.  Later revelations about her parents paint this in an even weirder light.  Because much of the dialogue is in Japanese, the other players - except Max - don't get much development.  It is unclear why this movie was even greenlit.

Of course, this was the year that ended Tom Selleck's movie career.  Also in 1992, he had a cameo in the critically panned Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, and stared in Folks!, a movie where Don Ameche played his senile father who moved in with him; it was a comedy.  All three were box office bombs.

Skip

Lake America

 

He's done it again! So long to Lake Ontario and hello Lake America.

I would prefer a bit more creativity in Trump's naming.  Gulf of America vs. Gulf of Mexico made sense.  Lake America?  We weren't calling it Lake Canada.  Ontario is a province.  May Lake New York?  If he does manage to acquire Greenland, will it get renamed to Americaland?

To Vax or Not to Vax?

On X, someone noted that 127 children had died from the measles vaccine while only 2 have died from contracting measles.  Proof that the vaccine is more dangerous than the disease!  No, sorry, it does not prove any such thing.

The measles vaccine was introduced in 1963.  Prior to vaccination, the annual death toll was 300 to 400 per year.  The population was considerably lower then, but let's stick with that number and just compare.  With the vaccine, we can have 2 measles deaths and 127 vaccine deaths, but without the vaccine with can have 300 to 400 measles deaths and no vaccine deaths.  I'll let you choose.

As Thomas Sowell explained, there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.  By only examining one side of the equation, it can appear that the status quo is obviously wrong.  However, once you look at both sides, the tradeoff is apparent and the cost/benefit can be answered.

AI Scouring the Web

Though I have been writing this blog for 15 years, it is not a popular or widely read blog.  However, there have been the occasional bursts of activity.   In October 2018, I had over 5,000 views!  Prior to that, I only saw a few hundred in a month.  It flattened out to the regular few hundred until June 2019 when I broke 3,000.  Cool.  It then dipped to the usual few hundred for the next several years.  In December 2023, I had over 4,000.  In May 2024, there were more than 6,000.  Wow!  That was the high-water mark until July 2025 when I broke 42,000.  What?  How is that possible?  It was so out of the blue.  In the last few months, the real craziness occurred.

The last 4 months have seen 273,000 views, which constitutes more than 60% of all the views I've had since starting this blog.  What could possible account for such skyrocketing views?  Artificial Intelligence.  Yes, the AI bots must be grabbing everything that can be found.  I suspect all bloggers have seen a huge increase in views.  How long will this last?  In a few months, will I look back on this as the slow times?

For the rare human reader, thanks for stopping by.

DSA: Working-Class Democracy

In addition to changing both domestic and foreign policy, the DSA has idea on reforming how the government governs.  Let's go back to the DSA website.

Working-Class Democracy

Democracy for All: Extend full voting rights to all permanent U.S. residents and restore the right to vote for incarcerated people and people with criminal convictions. Establish statehood for Washington D.C. and recognize the right to self-determination for all U.S. territories and colonies. Expand and protect voting rights and end voter suppression.

Death row inmates get to vote.  Criminals are a reliable voting block for Democrats because Democrats are the soft-on-crime party.  Of course, the DSA would seek to benefit its voters.  Beyond criminals, what sort of expansion of voting rights are being considered?  Recognizing a right to self-determination is just an invitation for secession and disintegration of the country.  When combined with the instant amnesty proposed in the abolition of ICE, a lot of newly-minted permanent residents will join the voter rolls and they will mostly vote for the party offering the most freebies (psst, that would be the DSA).

A Real Democracy: For the working class to govern, we need a new political system. End political corruption and legalized bribery: get rid of lobbyists, dark money, and Citizens United, and publicly finance all elections. Abolish the Electoral College. Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.

Repeal the Constitution.  This requires a constitutional convention or several new amendments to the Constitution.  By eliminating the president, the Congress would become more like the British Parliament where the Prime Minister is just one of the members of parliament who happens to exercise the executive.  If we have eliminated the presidency, the Electoral College is irrelevant.  However, if the Electoral College was eliminated before the presidency was folded into the Congress, it would greatly diminish the representation of smaller states.  This is a call for the destruction of the US Republic.

A Democratic Congress: Replace the two-party system with a multi-party democracy. Expand the House of Representatives, implement proportional representation and ranked choice voting in all elections, and abolish the Senate.

By abolishing the Senate, the DSA would abolish the states.  Wyoming would have one representative in the new unicameral legislature and would be pillaged by neighboring states with more say.  Proportional representation means that parties have slates of candidates who are elected based on the proportion of the vote that the party gets.  You aren't voting for your congressman but merely a party who will get so many seats in government.  Furthermore, a multiparty system can lead to empowering minority parties, such as the DSA.  A coalition party is likely to be both less stable and more extreme, allowing for wide swings in governing.  Again, this is a repeal of the Constitution and a destruction of the Republic.

Economic Democracy: Establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people. Enact aggressive wealth taxes on the richest individuals and corporations to spend on public goods and infrastructure.

Communism.  Yeah, we finally got there.  There is public ownership of the means of production.  There is from each according to his means (i.e., the rich) to each according to his needs (i.e., the public).  The DSA has adopted communist policies, but made them sound like democracy and fairness.  How long will the rich remain rich under such a system?  This will lead to an equality of poverty though the governing elites will be a bit more equal than everyone else.  Sounds familiar.

Democracy at Work: Empower workers to come together and fight the boss. Protect, expand, and enforce the rights of all workers to form, join, and strike with their unions, regardless of industry. Support union members who organize reform caucuses, democratize their unions, and take political action.

For those industries that have not been nationalized, the workers are to view the boss as an adversary.  Rather than being unified in providing a good or service to the public, the boss-employee dynamic should be one of constant contention where the workers chip away at the boss and inevitably make the business less productive and profitable.  This is sure to encourage more entrepreneurship and expand the economy, right?  No, quite the opposite.  There is a reason that Detroit has fallen so far as car manufacturing fled to less hostile locations.

It should be noted that the DSA does not need to achieve all of its policies to crash the US.  Just defunding the military could end the US.  Opening the borders like the Biden Administration for a more extended period with the amnesty policy could destroy the US.  The only reason Europe has been able to enact so many of these policies is because the US has footed the bill for defense.  The US has no one to cover that bill.

Vote against the communists in November!

DSA: Foreign Policy

Where Thriving Communities concerned itself with domestic policy, the DSA also has plans on how to handle international relations.  Let's return to the DSA website.

Working-Class Foreign Policy

End the U.S. War Machine: Defund the Department of War. End all foreign wars and close overseas military bases. Support and fully employ veterans. End immunity for U.S. war criminals and support the International Criminal Court's mandate to prosecute war crimes.

This is a prescription for national suicide.  How does the US defend itself without a military?  Who will fill the vacuum left by a US withdrawal from all overseas bases and a dismantling of the US Navy?  Who will determine which Americans are war criminals that need to be prosecuted in the ICC?  A call for unilateral disarmament is an invitation for hostile nations to invade.

Free Palestine: Recognize the rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return, the right to resist military occupation, and the right to self determination in a free Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. End all military and economic aid to Israel. Prosecute U.S. and Israeli leaders responsible for the genocide in Gaza.

Why doesn't anyone call for Free Tibet?  Or how about Free Kurdistan?  Free East Oregon?  No, it is always about the Palestinians.  Where Tibet is under the thumb of China, Kurdistan is dominated by Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, and East Oregon is oppressed by Salem, it is the Jews who are blamed for Palestine.  Yes, those rascally Israelis are uniquely evil and require a statement in DSA foreign policy.  Nevermind that the Palestinians always start the wars which result in the Israelis implementing defensive measures that further restrict the Palestinians.  Basically, until Israel is eliminated, Palestine is not free.  Understand that and you understand the whole Israel-Palestine conflict.  DSA wants the destruction of Israel.

End Blockades, Embargoes, and Sanctions: People around the world deserve to live their lives without U.S. interference. End economic warfare against countries whose governments act independently of the United States, such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran.

Stop making life difficult for those who hate us and wish our destruction.  Yes, what an obvious plan.  Let's make nice with communist Cuba (clearly, DSA is sympathetic to communists), ease up on narco-state Venezuela, and let the Mullahs of Iran resume their title of leading state sponsor of terrorism.  We've gotten rid of the military, so let's also get rid of our economic tools for fighting hostile powers.  Can't wait for those Iranian missiles to get installed in Cuba.  This time, there will be no missile crisis because we have ended blockading and defunded the navy that would implement the blockade.  I'm sure it will be fine.

Abolish ICE: End ICE detention and deportations and punish federal agents' brutality. Legalize migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status, provide a path to citizenship for all permanent residents, and end visa caps and quotas.

Throw open the borders!  Let everyone in and grant them amnesty.  A country without borders soon ceases to be a country.  Combined with the policies outlined in Thriving Communities, the US - which is already under heavy financial strain - will be bankrupt in months.  If it survives that long.  With the borders open and the military defunded, what is to stop a flood of hostiles from sweeping into the country?

Are there people who are stupid enough to believe this?  Apparently there are.  This proposed DSA Utopia would quickly devolve into a hellscape.  It must be remembered that Lenin spoke of useful idiots, people who believed the Utopian pap he spouted and supported his overthrow of Russia.  After their usefulness was at an end, firing squads can eliminate them.  The DSA playbook is an old one.

DSA: Thriving Communities

In much the same way that the Republican Party has suffered a hostile takeover by the MAGA crowd, the Democratic Party has been invaded by the Democratic Socialist of America (DSA).  President Trump and others have accused the DSA of being communists.  Is that the case?  Let's check out the party's proposed policies on the DSA website.

Thriving Work Class Communities

Freedom to Flourish: Expand public resources to support recreation, learning, and social spaces accessible to all. Establish paid family leave for all workers, a 32 hour work week with full pay and benefits, and a living minimum wage. Provide free, quality public education from pre-K to college and cancel all student debt.

Here the DSA proposes increasing social service costs, diminishing work hours while increasing pay and benefits, and eliminating all educations costs.  Where will they get the money to pay for this?  Clearly, the pay and benefits will be assessed to the employer, who will have to make do with 20% less productivity (i.e., 32 hours instead of 40).  Education and social services are funded by the state via taxation; the necessary tax increase is not mentioned here.

Healthcare for All: Guarantee universal healthcare at no cost to individuals, including complete access to reproductive and gender-affirming care. Expand healthcare access and quality by investing in new public hospitals and clinics. Make all medical education and training public and free.

Quality healthcare access to everyone, with a special note that both abortion and transgender care are included.  Moreover, medical education will also be free.  Last I checked, healthcare costs accounted for a sixth of the US economy.  If it is free, the government will assume control of that part of the economy.  There are models for how this works (e.g., Canada, the United Kingdom, etc.), which does not bode well for a government takeover here.  Like the expanded services in Freedom to Flourish, this will expand government costs and thus require increased taxation.

Housing for All: Housing is a human right. Build new, publicly-owned social housing, strictly regulate investment properties, establish universal rent control, and guarantee right to counsel for all tenants.

Everyone gets free housing?  Not exactly.  There is talk of rent control and regulating investment properties, so some housing will still cost money.  However, there will be an increase in publicly-owned housing.  In any case, landlords are going to find it even less profitable to provide housing under these new rules.  That is likely to drive many property owners out of the housing business and thus reduce the supply.  Moreover, with housing as a right, the government will have to step in to cover costs or provide shelter.  The UK is currently trying this and is paying a fortune to house immigrants in hotels.

Finish Reconstruction: End the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Reinforce anti-discrimination laws. Honor all treaties and tribal sovereignty. Enact reparations and massively invest in good jobs, quality housing and infrastructure in neglected minority communities.

Though it has been 60 years since the civil rights movement and more than 160 years since slavery was abolished, there is still more to do?  Yes, the government needs to invest in good jobs (what are good jobs?) and enact reparations (what does that mean?).  What is meant by tribal sovereignty?  Do the various reservations become independent countries within the US?  These actions will serve to further divide the country, which is the point.

End Mass Incarceration and Police Immunity: Demilitarize police departments, disempower police unions, and redirect funding to public services as steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system which protects the rich and jails the poor. Treat drug addiction and mental illness as health issues, not crimes. End qualified immunity and empower civilian oversight bodies with real authority over the police.

How much incarceration are we allowed to have?  What do you mean by 'fully abolishing the police and prison system?'  The catch & release system is already being tested in many jurisdictions and has proved to be detrimental to the public.  Repeat violent offenders have been released and offended again.  These policies will lead to increased violence, which we've seen again and again through the decades.  The infamous Willie Horton ad touched on this back in the 1988 presidential campaign.  Irina Zarutska would be alive today if only a violent offender had been kept in prison.  This is a recipe for chaos, which is likewise not accidental.

Feminism for All: Socialist feminism fights for queer liberation and the freedoms of all working class women. Stop gender violence and end policies that oppress bodily autonomy and intimate life, including patriarchal restrictions on abortion, childbirth and childraising, gender expression and transition, marriage, and divorce. Ban sex discrimination and ensure fair compensation and support for all forms of labor, including care work.

Just in case the message wasn't received under Healthcare for All, let's reiterate that DSA is pro-abortion.  What is meant by 'including care work?'  Is the government going to cut a check for stay at home moms?  Why is marriage and divorce listed under Feminism for All?  Don't men participate in these as well?  Do the courts not favor women enough in these areas?  Let's further divide the sexes.

Green New Deal: Workers must lead our democratic transition to a green future. Pass a federal jobs guarantee. Implement massive investment in sustainable, publicly owned energy and transit infrastructure. Phase out the use of fossil fuels. Reclaim and repair our earth's resources for all.

Bankrupt the country.  As if all the other policies that will dramatically increase the federal budget were not enough, here is a plan to crush the economy.  Unless the DSA plans to transition to nuclear power, phasing out fossil fuels will result in manufacturing fleeing the country, probably to China.  What is a federal jobs guarantee?  I would suppose that the government would employ the unemployed, which is going to be costly.

The policy prescriptions that propose to create thriving working class communities will not work.  Anyone with a basic understanding of economics or human nature will see that the incentives are counter-productive and harmful.  This is a way to destroy the country, not make it thrive.  However, once it is destroyed, there will be an opportunity for new management, which is the actual end goal.

Deporting Milo

Milo Yiannopoulos, the British subject who once dominated right-wing punditry, has been arrested by ICE and is now in detention until he can be deported.  The man who adoringly called Donald Trump "Daddy" overstayed his visa.  It is amazing that Milo allowed his visa to lapse.  It is even more amazing that he didn't immediately self-deport.  However, this is a good object lesson.  Trump supporter deported by the policies of Trump.  Does he still support Trump?  I haven't heard from Milo in years and things may have changed.  Nope.  I should have looked that up before I started.  Turns out that Milo worked on Kanye West's presidential campaign as he felt Trump betrayed his loyal supporters.

In any case, deport him.  Let's have no exceptions.  Keep deporting until everyone still in the country is a citizen or has a valid visa.  That's how the system is supposed to work.

The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002)

In a church in Whitechapel, a monk knelt before the statue of a saint and prayed.  Suddenly, a dark figure appeared and attacked him.  When others arrived, the monk was dead with two holes in his neck, like a vampire's bite!  In the wake of this death, Brother Marstoke (Shawn Lawrence) called upon Sherlock Holmes (Matt Frewer) at 221 Baker St.  Between the concerned clerisy and the panicked parishioners, something needed to be done.  Holmes accepted the case.  He and Dr. Watson (Kenneth Welsh) soon arrived at the church to investigate.  Immediately, there are suspects.  Brother Caulder held Marstoke responsible, largely because of his collection of pagan artefacts from their time in Guyana.  Indeed, many of the brothers and sisters had spent time in Guyana where a deadly disease had been spread by vampire bats.  Holmes learned that two servants - natives of Guyana - had been brought to London: Signora de la Rosa and her son, Hector.  Most interesting of all was Dr. Chagas (Neville Edwards), an expert on bats who had quarreled with Marstoke about exterminating bats in Guyana to stem the disease.  After Holmes began his investigation, yet another brother was slain by the vampire.

This was the fourth and final Hallmark Channel production of Sherlock Holmes with Matt Frewer.  It does not give high hopes for its predecessors.  Frewer is a flat Holmes, almost Vulcan-like in his delivery.  He is entirely pleasant and gets along well with others.  Inspector Jones - an intentionally contentious stand-in for Inspector Lestrade - treats Holmes as the enemy from the moment they meet.  Then, at the height of his fury and the climax of the mystery, he suddenly changed his tune.  What?  Why?  Well, Holmes was still his entirely reasonable self.  There's no fire in Holmes.  The mystery is little more than a distraction to him, hardly more interesting than a crossword puzzle.  On the other hand, Watson is good.  Welsh has followed the model of Edward Hardwicke, a competent aide to Holmes rather than a clueless bumpkin to show how brilliant Holmes is.  The rest of the cast is unremarkable.

The script does no favors.  The Brother who is killed in the alley was alarmingly stupid.  Gee, I can't see a thing in this alley, someone is killing monks, and a spooky voice is calling for help.  I'll just abandon the blind nun who I am guiding to check on this mysterious voice in the alley.  Face palm!  It was hard to feel sorry for him when he was killed.  Many of Holmes deductions are made off-screen, so the viewer doesn't have an opportunity to follow the logic.  It's just revealed at the end.  As for the defeat of the villain, good grief.

Mediocre and disappointing.  Skip.

Project Hail Mary (2026)

Somewhere in space, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) awoke.  He was disoriented and a robot prompted him with questions.  Soon, he was coherent, but he didn't know who he was or where he was.  After exploring the ship, he found that his two crewmates had died.  As he familiarized himself with the ship, Hail Mary, some flashes of memory returned to him.  The sun was dying on account of an alien lifeform.  In fact, every star in the neighborhood was dying with the exception of Tau Ceti.  He was at Tau Ceti to find out why and perhaps save the earth from an inevitable and unending ice age.

Some days after he awoke, the ship's flight plan concluded and now it was up to him to determine what to do.  However, an alien vessel approached!  A meet-cute between Grace and Rocky (James Ortiz) takes place.  Rocky is a five-limbed rock-like creature and has come to Tau Ceti for the same reason as Grace.  Together, the duo investigate what makes Tau Ceti immune to the sun-eating micro-organisms.

The story takes place both in the present - Tau Ceti - and in the past - Grace's recurring flashes of memory as his amnesia fades.  His earth memories show him as a middle school science teacher who was recruited by an international agency headed by Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller).  She is not friendly and quite ruthless.  Understandable considering the situation, but not a likeable character.  These past memories show that he was not intended to be on the mission and also introduce his two deceased crewmates.

The movie does a very good job of following the book.  It simplifies here and there, but hits all the important points.  The very different environment of Rocky is softened, which allowed him to wander around the Hail Mary in a hamster ball rather than building a tunnel system.  Solid xenon is much funnier in the movie than it was in the book.  Where I liked the book Grace less as I got to know him, the movie Grace was more likeable by the end.

Excellent film and great popcorn fun.  Recommended.

Qualifications Don't Matter

Darlene Graham, sister of the recently deceased Lindsey Graham, debated Ralph Norman.  During the debate, she was asked a question about Taiwan and the South China Sea.  She was clueless and had no idea how to answer the question.  Most embarrassing.  The pundits had a field day.  Clay Travis and Buck Sexton declared her answer to make her unqualified to be a senator.  Of course, she is the sitting senator, having been appointed in her brother's place.  Moreover, she has been endorsed by President Trump.  Sean Hannity defended her, saying her brother just died.  Oh, so that excuses it?

If I were a South Carolina voter, I would probably switch to Ralph Norman; this is a primary election, so he is a Republican too.  However, if she secures the nomination, I can guarantee that Clay and Buck will change their tune on her qualifications.  An 'unqualified' Republican will suddenly be vastly preferable to a highly-qualified Democrat.  Do you want a reliable Republican vote or a reliable Democrat vote in the Senate?  That is all this is about.  If the general election were between a candidate with Henry Kissinger level knowledge of world affairs and a chihuahua, you vote for the one who will reliably toe the party line.  That goes for both parties.  Recall that Pennsylvania Democrats selected a recovering stroke victim over a medical doctor.  Tragically, that is where we are.

Prior to the 17th Amendment, it is unlikely that a sibling would be chosen to fill a vacant senate seat.  Name recognition is important for popular elections, but no so much in being selected by the state legislature.  The legislature would seek someone who could effectively argue on the state's behalf, not someone who was broadly known and could get votes.  Repeal the 17th and the qualifications of senators will rise.

Rise of Insanity

Economics is a social science, which makes it dependent on human behavior.  As human behavior can be wildly divergent, hard scientists look askance at the 'dismal science.'  To provide a foundation economics, the economist assumes that man is rational.  Given the choice between two goods of equal quality, the rational man will choose the one that costs less.  From here, we can graph a demand curve.  Likewise, a rational man will sell his product for as much as someone will pay: a supply curve.  The rational man theory carries into other social sciences as well.  But is man rational?

Lately, it is getting harder to accept that humans are rational.  Or, perhaps, a growing number of them are becoming irrational.

1. Gender identity.  Men claim to be women and women claim to be men.  Those making the claims are rarely those who possess biological markers of both sexes.  Nope, they are physically one sex while claiming to be the other.  Rather than view this as a psychological issue - gender dysphoria - to be treated, an alarming number of people are treating it as something that requires medical intervention, whether that be puberty blockers or even gender reassignment surgery.

2. Lindsay Clancy.  In 2023, this Massachusetts woman strangled her three children to death, all aged 5 and younger.  The trial is currently in progress.  Many women have come to her support with online videos claiming they have been close to strangling their kids.  Nearly a million dollars has been raised for Lindsay while many are pointing at the husband as the true villain.  What?  When Susan Smith drove her kids into a lake in 1994, she received no sympathy.  When Andrea Yates drowned her five children in 2001, there wasn't a fundraiser and a Conga line of women saying they could relate.  Today, Clancy has a fan club and astrologists who claim her husband is the true killer.

3. Jason Arday.  This Cambridge professor committed suicide after his life story was revealed to be fraudulent and his academic work plagiarized.  Rather than blame those who lifted an unqualified man to a position beyond his demonstrable skills, there are calls to outlaw an excess of stories on any one person.  Moreover, the professor who got the ball rolling on Arday's lack of qualifications has been suspended.  Thus, there are moves to protect the gatekeepers who should never have allowed Arday to rise so high, and instead to effort to punish the whistleblower who exposed it.  That sounds like exactly the prescription to produce more unqualified professors.

4. Celebrating Criminals.  George Floyd was a career criminal.  Today, he is viewed by many as the sainted victim of police brutality, the first martyr of BLM.  Carmelo Anthony stabbed a student to death and hundreds of thousands of dollars were donated to him and his family.  Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant with gang affiliations and accused human smuggler, was glorified as a 'Maryland father' and an example of ICE overreach.

None of this is rational.  What has led to this degradation of society?  Mental illness is now to be validated, criminals are to be excused or celebrated, and academia shall promote the incompetent.  This is no way to maintain civilization.  In fact, it is unlikely that this is accidental, as the madness seems to focus on Western countries.

Hellfighters (1968)

Chance Buckman (John Wayne) was known internationally as the best oil rig firefighter in the business.  When the call came in that his services were required, he turned his jet around and summoned his crew.  There was Greg Parker (Jim Hutton), a playboy with a different woman in every city.  There there was Joe Horn (Bruce Cabot), a reliable and able man.  Lastly, he had George Harris (Edward Faulkner), who mostly served in an administrative capacity, but was eager to get in the thick of the action.  The crew convened at the fire, which was being actively covered by NBC News.  In fact, the news crew became a nuisance that resulted in a serious injury to Chance.

Chance's injury was serious enough that Greg contacted his estranged daughter, Tish (Katharine Ross).  Of course, Greg is drawn to her and vice versa.  By the time Chance awakens, Greg has become his son-in-law!  What will his ex-wife, Madelyn (Vera Miles), think of this?

The story covers several fires, with particular interest on the anxiety of Madelyn and Tish.  Madelyn had divorced Chance because she could not endure his dangerous profession.  She was worried that Tish would have the same issue with Greg.  Unsurprisingly, he nearly dies in every fire.  Will he survive the movie?

The original script didn't have enough action for John Wayne's tastes, so he insisted more was added.  Thus we have a barroom brawl in Southeast Asia, rebels attacking a series of wells in Venezuela, and even a strafing run by rebel planes that is countered by military anti-aircraft guns.  Oil well fires just aren't sufficiently exciting.  Intermingled with all this action are the love stories of Greg & Tish and Chance & Madelyn.  These are very much by the numbers romances that feel tacked on.

The character of Chance Buckman was based on Red Adair, a famous oil rig firefighter.  He was still active when Saddam Hussein ignited the oil wells in Kuwait during the Gulf War (1991).

Mediocre.  John Wayne needed to stick to the Western or the World War II epic.

Civilizational Dead Ends

By strange coincidence, I encountered two different stories (one as a YouTube video and the other as an article in SciTechDaily) about signs of ancient civilizations.  Though each sought to elevate the story to groundbreaking or rewriting history, they both concern civilizations that went nowhere.

Murujuga concerned rock art in Australia.  There are a variety of carvings that date as far back as 50,000 years.  Yes, it is pretty cool, but it represents a people who never advanced beyond the Stone Age until more advanced civilizations arrived.  Is it important to preserve Stone Age graffiti in situ or will a photographic record be enough?  Do some 3-D modeling of the area to preserve it and carry the more interesting pieces to a museum.

Aquiry is a lost civilization in Amazonia on the Acre River.  I was at once reminded of The Lost City of Z when reading about it.  In this remote area, a civilization of up to 3 million people once flourished though it faded away sometime in the 9th century.  Though it may be interesting to study, it proved to be a civilizational dead end.  It is a cul-de-sac that leads to nothing beyond it, certainly nothing that applies to the modern world.

Where the Romans, Greeks, Chinese, Norse, Israelites, and countless others contributed to what has become our modern civilization, these two are dead ends or mere footnotes.  The Murujuga folk may be the source of the didgeridoo and the boomerang.  As for Aquiry, they weren't around to meet modern folk and pass on their innovations, if they had any.

Good Intentions and Racism

In 2003, Rush Limbaugh had a guest analyst post on an ESPN show.  Limbaugh was a huge football fan, and was thrilled to have the role.  During one appearance, he noted that a certain quarterback was getting more credit than the numbers indicated he should be getting.  He said the league and sports press was so desirous of having a successful black quarterback that it was promoting him beyond his talents.  This immediately led to accusations of racism on Limbaugh's part and he was removed from the show.

In 2008, a first term senator with only 2 years on the job ran for president.  Obama was championed despite a thin resume.  As with the quarterback, the media and the country in general had high hopes for a black politician.  Opposition to him or his policies was declared racist throughout his two terms in office.

Jason Arday, who plagiarized his PhD thesis and told the most outlandish stories was nevertheless awarded a doctorate and rose to be the youngest black professor ever at Cambridge.  Academics had high hopes for him and allowed him to bypass obstacles that no other candidate would be allowed to ignore.  His rocket rise was followed by an inevitable meteoric fall.  His tragic fall was enabled by those who wished him the best, misguided cheerleaders who allowed an unqualified man to assume a post to which he was almost certain to fail.

This has been an ongoing problem.  Colleges have given black students an advantage in enrollment - as demonstrated by the recent Harvard lawsuit settlement - where they find themselves in settings beyond their abilities.  A student who would excel and graduate from a state university is instead thrust into an elite institution where he falls behind and often drops out.  This 'benefit' to make up for past wrongs only sets the student for failure.  Such partly explains the fall of Jason Arday.

One must stick to merit alone.  By taking race into account to either benefit or penalize a candidate is harmful.  It is a misallocation of talent.  It is better to be a successful plumber than a drop out burdened by student loan debt.  One must be allowed to honestly assess an individual's abilities and accomplishments without being called a racist.  On the other side, one must hold all candidates to the requirements, regardless of how eagerly it is hoped for the candidate's success.

Keen vs. Webberley

Konstantin Kisin of Triggernometry hosted a debate between Kellie-Jay Keen (aka Posie Parker) and Dr Helen Webberley on the topic of transgender.  The sparks flew from the very start as it was clear that neither guest respected the views of the other.  Keen has been one of the most visible anti-transgender personalities for nearly a decade.  She holds that transgender is a mental disorder and that it is medical malpractice to treat them with hormone blockers or surgery.  She is particularly opposed to such treatment being given to minors.  By contrast, Webberley holds that transgender youth are able to decide their gender and that Keen was causing harm with her statements.

A good portion of the debate was Keen attempting to elicit exactly what age was appropriate for a child to decide on gender, how many encounters with a medical professional should be required before hormone blockers could be considered, whether gender dysphoria was a mental illness associated with other conditions (e.g., homosexuality, autism), and whether treatment resulted in permanent sexual disfunction.  Webberley refused to pick a specific age for treatment, though she offered 15 as a reasonable age, but would not categorically rule out 11.  She dismissed the idea of contributing conditions, even suggesting that the autism diagnosis might be in error.  Gender dysphoria is not a mental disorder and saying that it was is hate speech, which is illegal under British law.  Both ended the debate by declaring the other should be in jail, Keen for hate speech and Webberley for child abuse.  Lively!

Keen's big weakness was that she would refer to studies and then not cite them.  Which study?  She mentioned a few examples, but that is all anecdotal.  However, she was specific and clear in what her views were.  There was nothing vague or gray in her answers.  Webberley was hopelessly ambiguous and offered nothing specific except that the law stood on her side.  At one point she said that sex cannot be changed and at another point, she said that a trans-woman is indeed a woman.  Okay, which is it?  She would then explain the issue in such a way that it was entirely confusing.  She had a strategy of filibustering, denouncing interruptions and going on tangents.  She denounced Kisin for platforming Keen.

Keen's argument was far superior.  Webberley spent much of her time being offended and giving answers as clear as mud.  Comments on the debate massively favored Keen.  That said, it was not an hour well spent.  Much of this was the same old stuff gone over again, with Keen offering the standard litany and Webberley mostly offering non-answers with accusations of bigotry on the side.

Blame Israel and the USA!

In response to the sudden influx of 'immigrants' into the Spanish town of Ceuta, the Spanish government has determined that the fault lies with... Israel!  And the United States!  Even Iran agrees with this assessment.  Gee, it must be true.

No, it isn't a logical response to the incentives of recent Spanish laws and court rulings.  Spain just legalized hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and the Spanish courts have ruled that deporting those who arrive by water is near impossible.  Look at those incentives.  Spanish citizenship - with its sweet, sweet welfare checks - is just a short swim away.  But no, that can't possibly explain the hordes of invaders.

Clearly, Israel is furious about Spain's stance on the Gaza issue.  And the US is peeved that Spain barred US access to Spanish airbases during the dustup with Iran.  Obviously, Israel and the US engineered this border breach to punish Spain.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez needed to shift blame from his disastrous policies that have set a reversal of the Reconquista into motion.  He's a socialist so he isn't going to take responsibility for this.  Better to blame those who are already unpopular with the Spanish people.  Maybe they will buy it.

As for Iran, they have jumped on Sanchez's bandwagon since it drives a wedge between Western nations.

His Dark Materials (Season 1)

During the night of the great flood, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) placed an infant girl in the protection of the master of Jordan College (Clarke Peters).  Twelve years later, Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) eagerly awaits a visit from her Uncle Asriel.  During his brief visit, Lyra learns about something called dust, which attached to adults but not children, whatever that meant.  Moreover, the talk of dust is treated as the gravest sin, a topic that should never be discussed.  Though she wanted to travel north with him on his further research, she was left behind.  However, Marissa Coulter (Ruth Wilson) arrived at Jordan College soon after and enlisted Lyra as an assistant.

In this world, humans have an external soul that is called a daemon (pronounced demon).  Though the daemon of a child can change shapes, it settles into one form after puberty.  Lyra's daemon is named Pan.  The religion of the world is an oppressive form of Christianity that is maintained by the Magisterium, a militant order that deploys armed airships and ground troops in the later episodes of the series.  The world also has an underclass of folk called Gyptians, a gypsy-folk whose children have been targeted for abduction for unknown purposes.  The abductors are called Gobblers.  Then there are the armored bears, polar bears who live in the cold north, wear suits of armor, and maintain a kingdom.  They look like normal polar bears who just happen to have the power of speech.  Not particularly dexterous paws and yet they have buildings and skilled craftsmanship items.  Interesting.  Lastly, there are witches.  Witches are long-lived - the only one who appears claims to be 300 years old - can fly without a broom and move like the Flash.

Before Lyra left Jordan College with Miss Coulter, she was given an alethiometer.  It is a peculiar device that can answer any question, but few can deduce the meaning of the answers.  Where most must spend years to learn how to decipher an alethiometer, Lyra has a natural ability.  She is thus an unmatched augur, able to know the unknowable if only she can craft the right question.

The story follows Lyra as she traveled north, having different allies along the way.  Initially, she is with the Gyptians, then she teamed with Iorek Byrnison (Joe Tandberg) the Armored Bear and Lee Scoresby (Lin-Manual Miranda) the Aeronaut.

Meanwhile, in our world, Will Parry (Amir Wilson) is the son of an explorer who went missing 13 years ago.  He is a highschooler who boxes after school.  His mother, Elaine, suffers from anxiety and Will is more her caretaker than vice versa.  As it happens, Carlo Boreal (Ariyon Bakare) of the Magisterium has a doorway between worlds.  He believes that Will's missing father, who was exploring in Alaska, may have found another path between worlds.

With how central dust is to the plot, it is not well explained.  Is it the physical manifestation of sin, thus it sticks to adults but not children?  Is it a byproduct of the clash of worlds, most easily investigated at the northern lights where cities in the sky can be viewed with the right lens?  Why is the Magisterium ramping up to Def Con 1 over a couple of scientists investigating the northern lights?  Even after 8 episodes, it is unclear why there is panic.  Perhaps this adaptation missed something.

Dafne Keen is good as Lyra.  In the previous adaptation, The Golden Compass, I developed an almost instant dislike of Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) because she lied with glee from the moment we met her.  This Lyra likewise proves to be a talented liar, but it is a tool rather than a personality trait.  Lin-Manuel Miranda is a downgrade from Sam Elliot as Lee Scoresby.  He's okay, but he doesn't pass as a Texan.  As for the armored bears, there is no matching Ian McKellan and Ian McShane from the 2007 version, but the new actors are adequate.

Overall, pretty good.  The longer format provides for more explanation of some characters and development of the world.  The character development of Lyra, Lord Asriel, and Miss Coulter greatly benefit from a miniseries format.  Good popcorn fun.

A Glimpse of Europe's Future

Ceuta is a Spanish enclave on the coast of Africa.  It has been a Spanish enclave since 1415.  The population is somewhere around 80,000 people.  This week, tens of thousands of Moroccans flooded into the area, overwhelming border enforcement and leaving residents in panic.  Thanks to the new law passed by the Spanish government, these folks can claim asylum.  If that happens, the flood will continue until Spain is destitute and no longer Spanish.  The seriousness of the situation is clear in that fellow Schengen Zone members are closing their borders to Spain.

Where some European countries (e.g., Denmark, Sweden, Italy) have begun to push back against the continuing waves of non-assimilating immigrants, others have left the borders open (e.g., U.K., Spain, Ireland).  Unlike the United States, which is not a country based on an ethnicity, most Europeans are.  Thus, though a person from Japan could become an American, he could not become English, French, or Swedish.  Rudyard Kipling may have been born and raised in India, but he was always an English.  On the current path, Europe is doomed.  The immigrants are having far more kids.  Without remigration in the very near future, much of Europe will suffer a similar fate to Ceuta.

The Odyssey of Homer

No, not the movie.  However, I did read the book because the movie is currently in theaters.  When I was in college, I read The Iliad and enjoyed it immensely.  The book included The Odyssey and I started reading it next.  Amazingly, I lost interest about halfway through.  That was in 1993.  I picked it up last week.

The story opens with an argument among the gods.  Athena wants Odysseus to be allow to return to Ithaca after 20 long years.  Zeus ascents and Poseidon is not around to veto.  While Athena ushered Telemachus - Odysseus's son - to travel abroad in search of news about his father, Hermes informed Calypso that she was the release Odysseus; she had him sequestered on her island for the last 7 years.  Odysseus sailed toward home but was once again shipwrecked.  He found himself on an idyllic island of Scherie where the residents treated him with the greatest of honor and eagerly heard his tale of woe.  Interestingly, virtually all of his adventures from departing Troy until arriving on Calypso's island are detailed here as he narrates them to the credulous folk.  There are sirens, a cyclops, giants, divine bags of wind, a sorceress who transformed his men to pigs, a journey to the underworld, the wreck that killed the last of his men, and so on.  Here is all the crazy adventures and it is all told by Odysseus.

The folk of the island sailed Odysseus back to Ithaca and bequeath him with tremendous wealth, far more than he had - and lost - from Troy.  No sooner has he set foot on Ithaca than he met a young man - Athena in disguise - and he spun a tale of being from Crete.  Athena brushed away his needless deception and sent him to Eumaeus the Swineherd.  Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus told a tale of being a prince from Crete who had fallen on bad times in Egypt and was now reduced to begging.  When he went to his palace and mingled with the suitors who sought to marry his wife, Penelope, he again spun a tale.  Penelope asked to meet this stranger and Odysseus lied through his teeth, testing his wife.  Soon thereafter, he dispatched the suitors, though he was aware his vengeance would not be appreciated by the families of the suitors.  Next he went to his father's farm.  Laertes was an old man who looked more like a laborer than a former king of Ithaca.  Of course, Odysseus went up to him and... spun a tale of being someone who had met Odysseus some years before.  When the suitors' families arrived at the farm to kill Odysseus, he and his coterie of loyal men slew several before Athena intervened.  She said, effectively, 'knock it off.'  They did and peace returned to Ithaca.

Odysseus is a larger than life type of fellow who demonstrates impressive combat prowess and great feats of strength.  However, he and honesty have a tentative relationship.  It is peculiar that the only folk with whom he does not assume an alias was on the island of Scherie.  Were the adventures he told true or just another fantastical tale?  It all depends on whether Odysseus is a reliable narrator.

Odysseus is not a particularly likable fellow.  He spoke with pride about sacking a random town on his way home from Troy.  He's just a roving pirate, a band of coastal raiders.  Then there are the suitors.  Penelope led them on, giving the indication that she might marry one of them, using a strange stratagem to hold off when she would make a decision.  And regarding that, why are these men trying to marry a woman who has a 20-year-old son?  It appears that the estate should be Telemachus' and that Penelope would move to the home of the winning suitor.  It felt like she was a tease who wanted the attention.  Then again, it has been 20 years!

The translation was done by Samuel Butler in 1900.  In his preface and throughout the endnotes, he refers to his previous book, The Authoress of the Odyssey (1897), where he posited that the poem was written by a young woman on Sicily.  Initially, that sounded preposterous, but the more I read the more I thought he might have a point.  The frequent weeping and moping of Odysseus and several other male characters struck me as odd.  Penelope has spent the majority of the last 20 years weeping.  Maybe that is just a Mediterranean thing.

There is a lot more to the book than any movie could ever cover.  It tells all sorts of tangential stories from Helen, Agamemnon, Achilles, Hercules, and more.  It was a good read and recommended.

Appointment with Death (1988)

Before the will can be read, Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie) blackmailed the family lawyer, Jefferson Cope (David Soul) into using an older will that gave her complete control over the estate.  She was the 2nd Mrs. Boynton and step-mother to all but one of the Boynton children, all of whom were adults.  They mostly knew there had been a new will but could not prove it.  Soon afterwards, the family went on a world tour and everyone pondered how to kill Emily Boynton.  On a cruise from Trieste to the Levant, the family revealed all unwittingly in earshot of the eminent Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov).

While on a day trip to an archeological site in Palestine, Mrs. Boynton was discovered to be dead!  Poirot quickly deduced that it was murder!  But who could it be?

Was it Lennox Boynton (Nicholas Guest), the oldest of the Boynton children who was forced to live with his step-mother despite being married?

Could it be Nadine Boynton (Carrie Fisher), Lennox's wife?  She was Mrs. Boynton's nurse and had met Lennox by way of that occupation.  She was tired of her oppressive mother-in-law.

Maybe it was Jefferson Cope the lawyer who was having an affair with Nadine.

Perhaps Raymond Boynton (John Terlesky) killed her so he could run off with Dr. Sarah King (Jenny Seagrove).  Speaking of Dr. King, maybe she killed the old bat to clear the way to marrying Raymond.

Then there is Carol Boynton (Valerie Richards), who had plotted with Raymond while on the cruise ship.

Of course, there is no reason at all to suspect Lady Westholme (Lauren Bacall) who just happened to be on the same trip and has an alarming amount of screen time for a character with no link to the plot.  Really, it is a complete mystery why she is even included.  What possible motive could she have?

The story is half-baked but the scenery is great and the acting passable.  The cast is impressive.  In addition to the above, John Gielgud played the local military commander, Colonel Carbury, Hayley Mills appeared as an archeologist.

Just okay.  Fun to see Ustinov in his final appearance as Poirot.

Perry Mason (Season 2)

It has been some months since Perry (Matthew Rhys) won the Emily Dodson case.  Well, it was a hung jury, but the DA declined to try the case again, so essentially a win.  Despite that, Perry has avoided criminal law.  He and Della (Juliet Rylance) have acquired a litigious grocer (Sean Astin) as a client who allows them to pay the bills and even hire a receptionist.  Though his legal career was on an even keel, his emotional state was a wreck.  His farm was sold, so he lived in an apartment and was reduced to riding a motorcycle.  Emily Dodson had since drowned herself.  Yes, time for more drinking and feeling sorrowful.

Then a big case arrived.  Two Latino brothers were arrested for the murder of Brooks McCutcheon, the son of the wealthy wheeler-dealer Lydell McCutcheon.  Though Perry was approached by the family of the brothers, he initially declined the case.  However, Della pushed and he investigated just enough to think they might be innocent.  And so began his latest case.

Much of the cast from last season is back.  Detective Holcomb (Eric Lanuge), who killed his partner in the last season, has returned as a shady business partner to the murdered Brooks McCutcheon.  Pete Strickland (Shea Whigham) had split from Perry at the end of last season and now works for the DA's office, a fact which Perry proves oblivious despite hearing about it repeatedly.  Assistant DA Hamilton Burger (Justin Kirk) has been elevated to DA, but he is being blackmailed for being gay.  Paul Drake (Chris Chalk) was the prime investigator for Perry, but also had outside jobs, including one for the DA's office.  Then there is Perry's ex-wife and son, who move back to Los Angeles.  His son is enrolled in a private school where Perry soon finds himself involved with his son's teacher, Miss Ginny Aimes (Katherine Waterston).  Della Street's love life also changed, where she abandoned Hazel (Molly Ephraim) for the more exciting & wealthy Anita St. Pierre (Jen Tullock).

In order to fill 8 episodes, it had to be a more complicated case than expected.  Of course, that also means that all the introduced characters are probably linked to the crime.  Yes, that proved to be the case.  Brooks' antics were small time but, if investigated, could reveal much bigger crimes related to his father and his father's business partners.  The murder was strategic, to prevent something worse.  Are the Latino brothers just scapegoats or assassins for hire?

Perry proved to be mostly an idiot.  In an early episode, he took measurements about the murder scene and of the two brothers.  This convinced him that they were not the shooters and that he should take the case.  He never brought this up in court and it proved to be bogus.  So, he was an idiot then, but you should have forgotten that from episode 2 by the time we reveal evidence in episode 5.  Right.  Later, the DA somehow learned of critical evidence in the defense's hands.  How could that possibly be?  Well, the obvious solution is that Pete Strickland - who had been in the office many times before and was now working for the DA - might have done some snooping.  This is even more likely when you consider how Pete and Perry have had a falling out.  What does the brilliant Perry Mason deduce?  It must have been his son's teacher, Ginny Aimes!  He confronted her immediately.  Ugh.  When Pete later admitted to it, Perry was dumbfounded.  What?  The DA's investigator investigated my office?  Duh!

By contrast, Della was on the ball.  She gets to have the final confrontation with the main villain and she gets to do much of the strategizing.  She's not some depressed drunk, but a mostly well-adjusted lesbian whose life and career are looking good.  And just to battle those rumors, she and Hamilton start attending events together and hint at marriage.

The season ends with Perry Mason in jail!  Yeah, his withholding of key evidence - accessory after the fact - put him in the klink.  Is it any surprise that the series was cancelled after this?

Skip

The January Man (1989)

Bernadette Flynn (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and her friend, Alison Hawkins (Faye Grant), headed home after a New Year's Eve Party.  They shared a cab to Alison's apartment building.  Drunk and happy, Alison stumbled into her apartment and said hello to her fish.  Then, a figure appeared behind her and strangled her to death with a blue ribbon.  This was the 11th murder in the last 11 months with the same M. O.

Mayor Flynn (Rod Steiger) was furious and vented his anger to Police Commissioner Frank Starkey (Harvey Keitel).  Bernadette is his daughter, so this struck alarmingly close to home.  The mayor demanded that Nick Starkey (Kevin Kline), who happened to be the commissioner's brother, get reinstated as a police detective to solve the case.  Frank was less than keen, but obeyed orders.  Nick had been with the fire department since his scandalous departure from the police.  Nick's methods were unorthodox and his choice for an assistant - an artist named Ed (Alan Rickman) - raised eyebrows.  Captain Alcoa (Danny Aiello) was apoplectic that Nick was reinstated and that he was required to provide whatever the crackpot needed.

Despite the setup, the murder mystery is almost secondary as far as the plot is concerned.  A great deal of time focused on Nick's obsession with his brother's wife, Christine (Susan Sarandon).  Indeed, it would seem that they were an item before his exit from the police.  He even accuses her of marrying the wrong brother.  Oddly, Nick's one requirement for returning to the police was that he could have dinner alone with Christine.  Bizarre.

Later, Nick clumsily followed Bernadette, only to be spotted by her.  Okay, so he's not that good at tailing someone.  Then, rather than talk to her about the case, he convinced her to go to a hotel and hop in the sack.  She agreed!  Um, is this a murder mystery or a romance?  Bernadette moved in with Nick and became his Girl Friday for the remainder of the film, with relatively little pushback from her father, the mayor!

The movie has no idea what it wants to be.  None of the relationships are sufficiently developed.  The brothers more or less hate one another and it was Frank who was guilty of the crime that got Nick kicked off the force.  Christine rejected Nick at the dinner but later returned to find Bernadette at his apartment; now she was jealously incarnate and couldn't wait to leave Frank.  Huh?  Ed is an artist and computer whiz with a Maynard Krebs view on life; kind of a wasted use of Alan Rickman.  Rod Steiger is just a blowhard with a bad perm.  So, is this a romantic comedy, a murder mystery, a thriller, a whodunit, or what?  All of the above in a hodge podge fashion.

With such a great cast, this is an astonishingly mediocre film.  Skip.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

In the post-apocalyptic world, two young girls were picking fruit in a garden-like oasis in the middle of a vast Australian desert when they spotted a band of bikers.  Furiosa (Alyla Browne) sneaked through the brush to investigate but was grabbed by a biker.  She fled and blew her whistle but was soon slung across the bike - bound hand and foot - which raced into the desert.  Her mother (Charlee Fraser) gave chase, picking off members of the band, but the last one successfully returned to the camp of Dementus (Chris Hemsworth).  Furiosa became the faux-daughter of Dementus and never spoke.

Dementus was an ambitious man, eager to secure more power in the Wasteland.  When he came upon the citadel of Immortan Joe, he immediately sought to capture it.  That didn't go well.  However, he was a crafty fellow and soon had an 'understanding' with Joe.  The understanding cost - among other considerations - Furiosa.  For the next decade, Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) quietly - almost entirely mute and posing as a boy - earned a spot for herself among the mechanics.  Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) - a noted road warrior - recognized her talents during a mission and apprenticed her as a road warrior.

A prequel to Fury Road (2015), this movie gives the story of Furiosa's rise.  I preferred the vague backstory from Fury Road rather than this detailed chronology.  Initially, she was brought into Joe's harem to eventually be one of his brides, but she ran off before she was of age.  Where did she go?  Down to the garage.  Clearly, Joe's efforts to find her failed.  Rather than explore this transition, the story just jumps forward a year or two with her already established among the laborers.  By the time she is Praetorian Jack's apprentice, it is clear she is a woman and no one seems to care.

The movie has some great road combat, very like those of Fury Road.  However, it was harder to be invested in the characters.  Praetorian Jack gets a lot of screen time but not so much character development.  Throughout his time with Furiosa, he's the leader but at the same time he plays like her sidekick.  Yeah, it didn't quite work.  Imagine a Batman movie where Robin was the main character.  Furiosa's mission is to get revenge against Dementus and then return home.  This movie tells her revenge story - mostly - while the next one is her return home story.  Early on, Dementus is an impressive villain and it is hard to believe that dainty Furiosa could overcome him.  By the last act, he's easy to kill, a mouse to her cat.  He's no threat to her at all, having destroyed himself and his gang in a futile war against Immortan Joe.

As far as the acting, the only stand out is Chris Hemsworth.  His Dementus dominates any scene he's in, being a loud-mouthed braggart who is supremely confident in his abilities.  He's clever and daring.  If not for his cruel villainy, he might be a fun fellow to have over for dinner.  By contrast, Anya Taylor-Joy is stuck being mute for most of the movie, offering the occasional glare to mar her otherwise expressionless face.

Just okay.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Mildred (Frances McDormand) wanted justice.  Her daughter was raped and murdered six months ago and the police have made no arrests.  In order to remind Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) that the case is pending, she rented three accusatory billboards with the chief's name on the last.  Unsurprisingly, the news media reported the billboards.

Chief Willoughby was a competent police chief and well-liked by the citizens.  Though he would like nothing more than to solve the crime, there were no leads and no evidence to follow.  He has nothing but compassion and understanding for Mildred's point of view, but there isn't anything he can do.  On top of that, he has terminal cancer.

Deputy Dixon (Sam Rockwell) was a racist bully who was completely loyal to Chief Willoughby.  He was more offended by the billboards than the chief and intended to do something about them.  One thing was to confront the man who rented them to Mildred: Red Welby (Caleb Landry Jones).  This visit involved beating the man and tossing him from a second story window.  This clearly criminal behavior was witnessed by a senior officer who did nothing more than fire Dixon from the force.  Yeah, that's some justice for you.

Mildred, Willoughby, and Dixon are the three main characters and each is surrounded by support characters.  Mildred has an ex-husband (John Hawkes), a son (Lucas Hedges), a man eager to date her (Peter Dinklage), and Father Montgomery (Nick Searcy).  Willoughby has a wife (Abbie Cornish) and daughters.  Dixon has his mother (Sandy Martin).  The movie revolves around them, initially with Willoughby standing between Mildred and Dixon, but later with Mildred and Dixon coming to an accord.

Of all the characters, Dixon has the most dramatic character arc.  He begins as quite detestable but ends as a man who is seeking redemption.  Still, he should be in jail for tossing Red out the window and smacking Red's secretary in the face.  Willoughby is the only one who was likeable throughout, a really decent man who was dealt some tough cards to play.

Both Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell won Oscars for their performances.  Rockwell did an impressive job of bringing Dixon to life and making him both a terrible human being but also one who improves through adversity.  By contrast, McDormand is just a grieving mother who is acting out.  She is the same person at the end as at the beginning.

Just okay.

Convoy (1978)

Rubber Duck (Kris Kristofferson) was a trucker when the speed limit was changed to 55 miles per hour.  Between the new speed limit and the regulations on how many hours per day could be spent driving, some truckers were having trouble staying solvent.  This was made all the worse by sheriffs like Dirty Lyle Wallace (Ernest Borgnine).  Dirty Lyle used CB chatter to set up speed traps where he would let the truckers go for a bribe; that way their insurance premiums wouldn't increase.

Rubber Duck was at an Arizona truck stop when Dirty Lyle started rousting Spider Mike (Franklyn Ajaye) and threatening to arrest him.  The Duck moved to intervene and a fight broke out.  Soon, all the truckers joined into a brawl against three police officers.  The truckers skedaddled, disabling the police cars on the way out of the lot.  Soon, a line of trucks drove east across Arizona and into New Mexico and Texas.  Many others got word and soon more trucks joined.  It was a convoy!

The movie doesn't make a lick of sense.  Somehow, the states are powerless to stop the convoy and the governor of New Mexico (Seymour Cassel) wanted to negotiate with Rubber Duck.  Negotiate about what?  When Spider Mike heads home - leaving the convoy - he got arrested and jailed.  Well, he did participate in that brawl.  In response, many of the truckers went to the town where he was jailed and flattened buildings, destroyed a police car, and crashed through the jail.  Um, okay.

Now they knew they were in big trouble.  Duck suggested crossing into Mexico.  So, he led the way but all the other trucks were cutoff by an ice cream man accident.  Alone, Duck approached the dinky bridge that crossed a river - presumably the Rio Grande - but Dirty Lyle was waiting on the other side with an armored vehicle.  In Mexico?  Huh?  Nonetheless, Duck raced across the bridge and the machineguns opened fire.  The wreckage plunged into the river.  So much for Rubber Duck?

Melissa (Ali MacGraw) was a traveling photographer who had a run-in with Rubber Duck in the opening and then encountered him again at the Arizona truck stop.  She needed a ride.  Despite the brawl, she climbed into Duck's truck and became part of the convoy, often nagging Duck about the ongoing events.  She repeatedly declined offers to get out.  Like most of the other characters, she also acts like some great injustice is occurring and Duck should make demands.  Huh?

Amazingly, this was Sam Pekinpah's most financially successful movie.  Of course, trucker movies were all the rage in the mid to late 70s (e.g., Smokey and the Bandit) and CB culture was everywhere for a time.  However, the movie has not aged well.  It's thin on plot and often inexplicable.  Why are the police so stymied by the convoy?  It feels like a chunk of the movie that explained the grievances of the truckers ended up on the cutting room floor.

Mediocre.  Skip.