tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65334209899594838612024-03-14T10:54:12.950-04:00NOOCYTE"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." --Voltaire
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(Oh, and it's pronounced "NOH'-oh-site")Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.comBlogger300125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-51315301042681311302019-09-11T04:08:00.000-04:002019-09-11T04:08:33.903-04:00Barely Legal<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">For a long time, I resisted it.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The subject was simply too BIG to contain mere politics.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">But now?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Nine-Eleven is old enough to VOTE.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And it *NEEDS* to!!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The beastly, wretched, contemptible current occupant of the People's House actually DARED to invite the fucking TALIBAN to Camp David for a meeting.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">This barbarous, benighted, toxic assemblage of *ostensible* humans, was invited by the so-called president of the United-Fucking-STATES to attend a sit-down in a space traditionally reserved for heads of state, and legitimate representatives of the human species, in civil assemblage.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">This.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Is.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">ENTIRELY.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Unacceptable.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">On that chilly Tuesday morning, 18 years ago, civilization was dealt a grievous blow by its OPPOSITE: Malign, retrograde, nihilistic representatives the most savage, feral manifestations of what our type of naked ape could possibly embody.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I would not endorse the treatment for a rabid **RAT** that I would enthusiastically support for these fucking murderous savages.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And yet, there was Donald t’Rump, in the full FLOWER of his clueless arrogance, the absolute tone-deaf APOTHEOSIS of his witless, arrogant, self-absorbed idiocy...</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">LEGITIMIZING these bipedal tumors with an invitation to the space where Statesman and Peacemakers had sat down to discuss the matters of human civilization.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Many, MANY have been the examples of how he has COMPREHENSIVELY disqualified himself as a leader, as a citizen, as a gods-damned *MAMMAL*.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">*NONE* has *EVER* surpassed the craven stupidity of this plan.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And --color me ALTOGETHER unsurprised-- those cowardly, dark-hearted, theocratic miscreants used a car bomb to slaughter more innocents, before their unwiped arses ever difiled a seat at the table with the Founders’ heir.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Again.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And, as a result, the FOOL elected to cancel the meeting he should NEVER have scheduled in the first place... </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And dismissed his National Security Advisor --flawed as he might be, but FAR too principled to serve in this pustule’s ‘administration’-- for daring to contradict him on this matter that any PARAMECIUM would have seen as perfectly OBVIOUS.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">**ENOUGH!!**</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">There are people who, in the course of my life, have given me many reasons to love them.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I am fortunate in this.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">However, some of them STILL manage to support that steaming pile of putrescent vulture-shit. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">SOMEHOW, they have managed to insulate themselves against the information that would lead them to the incontrovertible, *OBJECTIVE* conclusion that Donald-fucking-t’Rump is the WORST thing that has EVER happened to this Nation. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And I include the Civil War in that.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> Many are the reasons that I love these people. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">But I will NEVER again entirely trust their judgment.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">This Nation means far too much to me. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The harm that was done to it on 9-11-2001 was far too devastating to EVER trust people who could be so misguided in their beliefs about what is good for this Republic that I love.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">9/11 is 18 years old.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I trust that it will guide the people of this Grand Experiment to make a much, MUCH better choice, next year.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A slow, excruciating, humiliating, natural death to Donald-Fucking-t’Rump, for defiling what I revere, for dishonoring the memory of the fallen, for all-but-ENSURING that our worst days are yet to come.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And SHAME on the FOOLS who support him.</span></div>
Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-55636471925542160312016-09-12T04:23:00.000-04:002016-09-12T04:29:54.188-04:00Suite: 15<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><br />Almost didn't post this year. (Still counts if I haven't slept, yah?)<br /><br />This was the first time since That Tuesday that I've actually <i>been</i> in New York on 9/11. Went up alone this weekend to help out my mom, in my childhood home. <br /><br />As I drove back to my present home tonight, on the Belt Parkway, I could see --for the first time with my <i>own</i> eyes-- those twin pillars of light, tracing their starward trajectories opposite those described by the Towers whose memories they evanescently embody each year. <br /><br />Zero-Seven hushed from the speakers. Late-night traffic was sparse. The Moon serenely choreographed its silvery swarms on the estuary.<br /><br />I was Sad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Still am.<br /><br />This has been a year replete with Losses: Bowie, Rickman, Wilder, Schandling, Marshall, Vigoda, Finkel, Baker, Formerly-Formerly-Known-As, etc., etc.<br /><br />And <i>other</i> Losses, <b>FAR</b> more personal. Losses of the kind that <b><i>BAMPF</i></b> the marrow from your bones, suck the mitochondria out of each and every cell, leave you gasping for joy like a COPD sufferer on Everest's summit. One of them I associate inextricably with New York (I fear seriously for my equilibrium and my breath, when next I set foot in Lincoln Center...or in pretty much <i>any</i> Irish pub...).<br /><br />So, awash in the howling winds of all those vortices (and yet <i><b>VERY</b></i> consciously Mindful of one I've thus far been spared [<a href="http://www.woodruffs.com/Kiri/Kenahorah.html"><i>Kenahorah-Poo-Poo-Poo</i></a>]), revisiting That Other One seemed a bit much.<br /><br /><br />So, I almost didn't post.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><br />It was the lights, done me in.<br /><br />Photons, fired from the very site of such ruin were striking mine own retinae at just under vacuum-C, in real-time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Whatthefrak was I supposed to do with <i>that??</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As I've said before, I watched those Towers go up. From my sixth to my thirty-fifth years, they lived....and then they died.<br /><br />And they were <i>anything</i> but alone.<br /><br />Alas, it made me think of the status of the zeitgeist that lurched its charnel-fanged maw to our throats on That Day.<br /><br />And that did nothing for the Sadness.<br /><br />The three --variously-quixotic-- contenders for the Oval Orifice do <i>not</i> inspire.<br /><br />One, whose tenure as SecState offered up a dreary litany of squandered opportunities (Green Revolution, Al-Maliki's Electile Dysfunction, Ukraine incursions, Arab Spring, "'Reset' Buttons" [Staples irregulars?]...), and a prickly, imperious tone that frosted every interface. It was dismal to a degree that rivals <i>even</i> that of her sodden successor at Foggy Bottom.<br /><br />And another: <i>notoriously</i> mercurial, <i>viciously</i> thin-skinned, <b><i>exuberantly</i></b>-unburdened by <i>any</i> discernible capacity for critical, strategic thought...nor much in the way of <i>raw material</i> for such thought.<br /><br />And, of course, the Upstart: affable, experienced, idealistic, congruent (at times to the point of unprecedented --and v<i>ery</i> refreshing-- self-deprecation)....but possessing his party's characteristic Achilles...well...<b>LEG </b>of a <i>breathtakingly</i> naïve conception of geopolitical realities.<br /><br /><br />So....Yah. Not sanguine.<br /><br />Neither volatile bellicosity, reptilian manipulation, nor ostrich imitations stand even a Truth's chance on social media of bending the orbit of such Malevolent Clarity by so much as an <i>arc-<b>milli</b>second</i>.<br /><br />"Spectacle" attacks like the one having its <i>Quinzeañera</i> today seem to have fallen out of vogue (cf. Yiddish utterance, above), having been succeeded by Lone (/<i>Known</i>) Wolf, and platoon-level soft-target wetwork.<br /><br />Decisively draining the political, ideological, and economic feeder streams of such "democratized" mayhem would require a multifarious deployment of subtle, nimble, attuned, toothy (with baked-in face-saving compromises), FOCUSED foreign policy, a global <a href="http://noocyte.blogspot.com/search/label/Counterinsurgency" target="_blank">Counterinsurgency</a> approach whose likelihood of arising from the daily briefings of <i>any</i> of these Misfit Toys' tenures on Pennsylvania Avenue is....well...<br /><br /><br />Let's just say that, amid everything else, I was aware of being rather ignominiously <i>discomfited</i> at the fact that I was in New York today.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />And that <i>Pisses Me OFF</i>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Troofer-Dipshit Half-Wit Mental Gymnastics aside, it's plain to any reasonably-informed, <i>rational</i> thinker from the pic below that the Towers' structural support system was exceptionally well-conceived...save for a low-probability but <i>devastatingly</i> exploitable vulnerability.<br /><br />Alas that the same might be said for the security of the Republic and of its citizenry.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Damned lights.<br /><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwTU4_YDM9R4y97yKAJSeGdIE5Qm4xKDiX610CUNIgmI3wWFuEx9yxX2Ci1ufrM6nkiuV351wLaBv8tVOeYL4wO03eaBvVan6bsVmaXxAhvv0Vta4iXLR_hFu_LHCd0nx6m9cJii-HR0uA/s1600/Under+The+Skin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwTU4_YDM9R4y97yKAJSeGdIE5Qm4xKDiX610CUNIgmI3wWFuEx9yxX2Ci1ufrM6nkiuV351wLaBv8tVOeYL4wO03eaBvVan6bsVmaXxAhvv0Vta4iXLR_hFu_LHCd0nx6m9cJii-HR0uA/s400/Under+The+Skin.jpg" width="311" /></a></span></div>
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Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-69484214443871842102015-10-02T17:44:00.000-04:002015-10-02T23:49:11.070-04:00"The Martian" Review<div>
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Okay, I'll admit it: I've never
watched a single episode of MacGyver. I'm almost afraid to do it at this
point, considering how deeply woven into my code the ethic
of the show has become. I'm worried that the 80s cheese will taint that Mojo of Inventive Improvisation that so guides my
approach to the problems that can so pretzel up my days.</div>
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Indeed,
there have been times when, in the process of tackling one of those
problems, I have arrived at a "MacGyvered" solution, using available
materials (Madame 'Cyte frequently...errm...<i>laments</i> the heaps of bric-a-brac
that I keep around, expressly for its utility as a pool of raw materials
for such projects...till the moment when they allow me to construct --like a Master
Builder in Lego World-- a Fix)...only to find a purpose-specific tool
for the job...and experience actual <i>disappointment</i> over that, and the sudden obsolescence of my jury-rigged solution.</div>
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If that Moment rings <i>any</i> kind of bell in you, then you are just the sort of person who will groove <i>HARD</i> on "The Martian."</div>
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<div>
<a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443812420&sr=1-1&keywords=the+martian" href="http://www.amazon.com/Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443812420&sr=1-1&keywords=the+martian" shape="rect" target="_blank">The novel --the first by engineer Andy Weir--</a>
had sat in my Kindle queue for a couple of years, after it had been
recommended to me by someone who'd read and enjoyed (and written a <i>lovely</i> review of) my novella, <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Night-Music-ebook/dp/B004CLYHKC/ref=as_li_wdgt_js_ex?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=n03c-20&creative=391825" href="http://www.amazon.com/Night-Music-ebook/dp/B004CLYHKC/ref=as_li_wdgt_js_ex?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=n03c-20&creative=391825" shape="rect" target="_blank">Night Music</a>.
She'd said that it bore strong affinities to my book, in its scrupulous
attention to technical detail, its inventive use of technology, and its
celebration of the human mind as a problem-solving engine. Naturally, I
was intrigued (and more than a little flattered/honored to have communicated so successfully that she so
clearly <i>Got</i> what I was going for). </div>
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<div>
Finally
read it over the Summer (before I found out that it had been optioned
as a film, let alone that it was nearing completion....with <i>Ridley-Freakin'-<b>SCOTT</b></i> at the helm!)....and immediately <i>re</i>-read it as soon as I was finished (and I almost <i>never</i> do that). I was even <i>MORE</i> flattered/honored at the comparison!</div>
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<div>
As for the film....Yay. Just Yay.</div>
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<div>
As
I say, this is not a movie that will speak with too loud a voice to
those with not even a whisper of tech-geek in their souls. It is <i>very</i>
faithful to the book, though with some notable exceptions which are all
in service of making it work better as a film (successfully. The "Iron
Man" beat comes most vividly to mind). It moves at a deliberate pace.
It explains many things (usually via the protagonist, Mark Watney's
video log). It sets up problems, establishes the stakes, and walks us
through the solutions (and setbacks. <i>OY!</i> Such setbacks!).</div>
<div>
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<div>
The situation is that Watney --played <i>superbly</i>
by Matt Damon-- finds himself left alone on Mars after his fellow crew
members on an exploration mission need to abort very early, due to a
terrible storm that jeopardizes the crew's ability to leave safely
(gotta give a Mulligan here; the actual atmosphere on Mars is so thin
that even a hurricane-speed wind would exert little more dynamic force
than a stiff breeze at Earth-level atmospheric pressures. But whaddya
gonna do; gotta tell a story here). While trudging to the MAV (Mars
Ascent Vehicle) to evacuate to orbit, Watney is struck by a fragment of
the high gain antenna and hurled into the Martian night, <i>very</i> plausibly killed in the process.</div>
<div>
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<div>
But, it turns out, he is not dead....but <i>will</i> be if anything breaks down, and <i>when</i> the food supply runs out.</div>
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<div>
So, as the trailers say, he's gotta "Science the <i>shit</i> outa this!"</div>
<div>
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<div>
And
Science he does! It is a JOY to watch him attack problems, inventorying his assets and liabilities (rather bigger column, that one), apply
scientific principles in solving them, fail to be defeated by the
odds and the obstacles, and maintain a wry, profane sense of humor
about the whole affair (wait for the whole "Space Pirate" thing..).</div>
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<div>
All Hail Duct Tape. 'Nuff said.</div>
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<div>
One of the characteristics of Scott's films that most stands out is his eye for <i>breathtaking</i>
visual design. This film is no exception. The surface of Mars is
rendered with heart-stoppingly stark, majestic beauty. Being something
of a Mars Geek, I was impressed at how precisely the color palate of the
4th rock from the Sun is reproduced. "You Are There" doesn't <i>begin</i>
to cover this! The space scenes are stunning, conveying the brain-melting vastness of
the distances in every direction, while also preserving the
paradoxically claustrophobic quality of hurtling through that Vastness in a succession of pressurized tin
cans.</div>
<div>
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<div>
Probably
set in the early 2030s, the technology is marvelously realistically
designed. Things are functional and plausible, treated in the
matter-of-fact way that tech is treated by real people (when was the last time that you
described your computer as a "silicon-CPU information processing node?"). It was the little things: the big outboard thermal radiator vanes
on the aft end of the mothership, <i>Hermes</i>, glowed orange while the ion engines
were active (and those low-but-constant-thrust engines glowed a
realistic arc-blue-white, with no dramatic flares like you'd see with
chemical rockets). Also, things fell on the Martian surface at rates and on trajectories that
accurately depicted what it would look like at .38-gee. Most folks
wouldn't notice these things consciously, but the dividends in
verisimilitude pay off quite nicely in the hind brain.</div>
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<div>
All
of this visual and technological wizardry, however, would fall flat
without recognizable people in its midst. The character work in this
film is highly effective in its deft, understated clarity. These
characters come across as real individuals, into whose lives we have dropped
at a critical time. Jessica Chastain's Cmdr. Lewis is someone who takes
her job <i>very</i> seriously. She is <i>wracked</i> by leaving
Watney behind, even as she clearly knows it was the only responsible
choice. The conflict of these realities is at times heartbreakingly
manifest in her performance. </div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
The unfolding relationship between Kate Mara's Johannson and Sebastian Stan's Beck comes across in a series of sweet, almost-imperceptible little beats. Michael <span class="st">Peña's
Martinez is a good-hearted, wise-cracking natural counterpart to
Damon's Watney. The Earth-bound cast plays out the politics and
practicalities of this extraordinary situation with a recognizable
Truthfulness that makes no one the Villain (even Jeff Daniels' NASA
Director has defensible motivations for choices that might otherwise
have been turned into a stock "Gutless Bureaucrat" cartoon in a lesser
script). Honorable mention goes to Donald Glover's Rich Purnelle, the
brilliant, quirky, socially inept astrodynamics savant; his description
of his rescue plan during the "Project Elrond" meeting (One does not
simply <i>walk</i> to Mars...) was high-LARIOUS!</span></div>
<div>
<span class="st"><br data-mce-bogus="1" /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="st">And Damon. Ah, Damon. He simply <i>LIVES</i> in Mark Watney. It's like how I will never again read LOTR without seeing Viggo as Aragorn. He <i>inhabits</i> that character with such an unforced, real-to-the-<i>marrow</i> way that his voice will sound in my head when I eventually (inevitably) re-re-read The Martian. It's clear (as it actually <i>wasn't</i> in the book) that the wise-cracking persona is a defense against the Dread and Despair that it only <i>very</i> precariously holds at bay. His humanity is a stand-in for our own, speaking to the <i>best</i> aspects of how we might manage any analogously dire situation in which we might find ourselves.</span></div>
<div>
<span class="st"><br data-mce-bogus="1" /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="st">Final
note: Of all the things I love about this film, perhaps the one that
lies closest to my heart of hearts is the degree to which it
non-preachily extols the virtues of learning and critical thinking as
the means by which we can deliver ourselves from the atavistic Fears
that lie within us. Lateral, creative thinking, fueled by an intelligent
deployment of well-learned lessons about how things work in the 'verse
are what allow us to transcend the shadows all around us. The bootstraps
by which we can lift ourselves from even the deepest of pits are
composed of well-tempered strands of neural fiber, honed by exposure to
and flexible recombinations of the DNA of knowledge and logic, informed
--but <i>not</i> dominated-- by emotion, intuition, and Love.</span></div>
<div>
<span class="st"><br data-mce-bogus="1" /></span></div>
<span class="st">"The Martian" not only tells us <i>how</i> we can survive even the most desperate of straits...but <i>why</i> we can and <i>must</i> do so.</span>Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-65943302864824118882015-09-11T04:10:00.000-04:002016-01-25T14:03:19.128-05:0014<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnwAmJXelpUdj9Y1ZBJofn9qwaE8SuTxUl4pyca2_Z0qKC4LTaWeqa-6T1N55CIhLrayc6LRguw4KHCHAhBfSRzSQsskBCi20iTO8oQvi-RkOXbXk1m_PANLMjP8vUNKBz_lI_qBU8P0J/s1600/120246-wtc011-thumb-600x407-120245.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnwAmJXelpUdj9Y1ZBJofn9qwaE8SuTxUl4pyca2_Z0qKC4LTaWeqa-6T1N55CIhLrayc6LRguw4KHCHAhBfSRzSQsskBCi20iTO8oQvi-RkOXbXk1m_PANLMjP8vUNKBz_lI_qBU8P0J/s320/120246-wtc011-thumb-600x407-120245.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
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<div>
14 years.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
Many decades.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
No time at all.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
Lost
in the blur and the bustle of the day-to-day, eclipsed by the Meantimes
--marvelous and morbid-- overwritten by the business of existing, and
--<i>every </i>now and then-- Living......It waits.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
The defining Moment of our times.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
As
with all things of comparably enormous import, the interval seems
murky, phenomenologically muddled as to perceived duration, because,
although it slips farther and farther away in 'objective time'
(whateverthefrak <i>that</i> is), it remains <i>present,</i> because it underlies --at varying depths-- <i>everything</i> else.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
"Why should it loom so large, when suffering at <i>least</i> as horrid befalls <i>vastly</i> more people on a daily basis, elsewhere in the world?"</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
Fair
question. And one which is typically answered with far too little
depth, such that it appears --alas, all-too-often correctly-- to connote
an ugly over-undertone of chauvinism ("Because they were <i>MERRRRcuns</i>!").</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
But obviously that's not it, or I would hardly have brought it up.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
That was the day that asymmetric warfare joined --and <i>soundly</i>
upstaged-- Great Powers War (hot and Cold) in the annals of
geopolitical mayhem. It was the day that a band of highly disciplined,
guilefully canny, chillingly Certain individuals successfully exploited
the very best aspects of an advanced, evolving civilization, in order to
deliver a <i>withering</i> blow upon it --and, in so doing, force a
spasmodic realignment of the vectors of power across the whole skin of
this Marble-- for the sake of one that's <a href="http://noocyte.blogspot.com/2008/05/from-kosovo-to-kuwait-renaissance-and.html" target="_blank">among the <i>least</i> advanced</a>, and <i>pointedly</i> retrograde in its evolution.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
It was the day that <i>decisively</i> cemented into the zeitgeist that which had already been true for some time.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
Wars no longer had "fronts."</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
And they never would again.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
Warriors
could, once upon a time, come "Stateside," and reflect --in safety-- on
the horrors of battle, while "civilians" would seek to comfort them,
secretly thanking their deity of choice for the fact that they wouldn't
have to face such nightmares, themselves.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
And now they <i>would</i>.
Now they would have to bare their muffin-tops at the airport if they
should be foolhardy enough to wear metallic belt buckles, expose to
public scrutiny their threadbare, swampy socks. All because a caustic
ideology had sufficient emulsifying force to yoke the divergent hatreds
of myriad factions into a perfect storm of deadly intercontinental
venom.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
On that day.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
Yes, a great many people in this world just <i>might</i> be sufficiently aware of those events to look up briefly and say "Yeah? And?" But <i>everyone</i> that any readers of these words would be likely to encounter did experience a Sea Change on that day.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
It's the kind of thing that <i>always</i> lives/lurks, to varying degrees in the background.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
How <i>far</i>
into the background has a distinct bearing on how we approach these
Anniversaries. Many say that we ascribe an outsized value to That Day's
events, and in so doing we create the conditions under which the
hatreds that burst like a long-neglected pustule are simply allowed to
re-fester. They add that we must strive to live in the kind of world in
which such things are not allowed the space to happen ("Be the change
you want to see in the world").</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
A
laudable sentiment. However, it is one which perilously papers over the
fact that, in the absence of evidence that it is broadly shared, serves
essentially the same purpose as a "Gun-Free Zone" sign does to an armed
psychotic (Target-Rich Environment [without the irony]).</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
Which
brings us to those for whom it is seldom/never very far into the
background (like Yours Truly). For people toward that end of the
spectrum, the alarm clock didn't come with a snooze button. The
vigilance which was triggered by an understanding of the <i>full</i> scope of those events' antecedents <i>continues</i> to resonate to the frequencies that reveal their continued presence in the world.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
And they grow worse.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
Thus,
the task incumbent on this magnificent, vulnerable Civilization is to
harry and scatter the agents of chaos that struck with such malevolently
spiteful brilliance on That Day. We must discredit and Shame those
raging revenants' ideology without respite, without recourse to the
precious platitudes with which the typically --though not <i>exclusively</i>-- well-meaning apologists for negotiated, multicultural coexistence seek to minimize the <i>existential</i> threat that it <i>still</i> represents.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
As is sometimes said, "<i>We</i> may not be at war with them...but <i>They</i> still are with <i>us</i>." </div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
That bears reflecting on.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
And for those who are gearing up to deliver some retort which suggests (or asserts) that the USGOV was <i>responsible</i> for 9/11 (either via missiles/planted explosives, or via <i>deliberate</i> withholding of <i>actionable</i>
threats [e.g., for the sake of ginning up a war, on behalf of Big
Oil/the Military-Industrial-Complex/whateverthefrak])....I reckon you
might as well Unfriend me instead. Right now.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
I'm not having it.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
You
see, I have no respect for Troofers. That would seem an
uncharacteristically un-nuanced position for me to take. I am pleased to
report that this would be an accurate statement. I fully acknowledge
that it is not altogether immune to exception (what <i>is</i>?)...but it has sufficiently robust heuristic value that I choose to treat it as a functional Fact.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
I do not consider 9/11 conspiracists to be serious people.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div>
The
willful dereliction of intellectual rigor which is required in order to
partake in an Alex Jones version of that reality is of sufficient
magnitude as to disqualify an individual's opinion from my
consideration. I don't listen to Scientologists, either. I'd not
presume to infringe on their right to express their opinions,
obviously. But life is short.</div>
<div>
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
You see, there are people in this world who are <i>entirely</i>
too invested in the belief that, somehow, they are clever or savvy or
well-connected enough to be On To It....which all-too frequently leads
them to drift more and more Out Of It.<br />
<br />
"Theories" like these are the very definition of such Mission Creep.<br />
Hint: The unfolding of any sufficiently complex occurrence, in nature and/or in human affairs will <i>invariably</i> be <i>riddled</i> with <span class="highlightNode">anomalies</span>.<br />
<br />
And so will our descriptions of them....even when they are accurate.<br />
<br />
A scattered smattering of "hmmm"-worthy, <i>apparently</i> paradoxical factoids do not invalidate the central thrust of events, any more than line noise nullifies the music.<br />
<br />
There <i>are</i> no altogether Noise-free Signals in any 'verse that <i>we're</i> ever gonna live in.<br />
<br />
But "Paranoid is just Reality...on a finer scale." (/"Strange Days")<br />
<br data-mce-bogus="1" />
Seriously. Just keep it to yourselves.<br />
<br data-mce-bogus="1" />
<br data-mce-bogus="1" />
Regardless, it's been 14 years. Or 25 seconds. I go back and forth.Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-18112874840930025032014-11-10T16:00:00.001-05:002014-11-10T16:35:12.976-05:00INTERSTELLAR: The Stars and Our Selves<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Went to see <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/?ref_=amzn_sr_tt">Interstellar </a>last night, in glorious 70mm IMAX (2-D!) format. <br /><br /><br />Huge. Still digesting...<br /><br /><br />This film paints on a VAST canvas. It involves some PROFOUND reflections on high astrophysics, consciousness, ethics and Love. Right away, you can see the potential conflict here: How do you tell a story on such a scale, and not lose the humanity that must comprise its narrative core.<br /><br /><br />Answer: Like this.<br /><br /><br />The great achievement of Interstellar is that it folds the humanity of its characters (and its characters as avatars of Humanity) into the very quantum foam of its storytelling.<br /><br />They are one and the same.<br /><br />There is an intimacy to the thing that resounds in even the most sweeping of establishing shots, the most mind-bending of theoretical constructs. This is accomplished in subtle ways, like the POV, "rocket-cam" nature of most of the spacecraft sequences (this is happening to You, not to Them). There are really very few of the standard distant, 3rd-person-observer tableaux which are so ubiquitous in spaceborne cinematic SF (though the few that do appear are simply breathtaking!).<br /><br />The objective here is not to point out how puny we are compared to All Of It. It is to establish that, puny as we <i>surely </i>are, we are still the heroes (and villains) of ANY story that involves us. Our hope and dread and resolve and Connection and Love are what propel us into the Big Black (or what SHOULD, so long as we 'do not go gentle into that good night,' so long as we do not succumb to complacency and despair, so long as we preserve and nurture our Explorer's Heart, our Will to survive). We bring the good and evil and valor and cowardice and nobility and cravenness with us, no matter how immense the journey.<br /><br /><br />"No matter where you go.....there you are."<br /><br /><br />And, in the end, in the funny things that happen to spacetime when its physics are pushed to their breaking point, we find that the nature of our consciousness, the purity (or putridity) of our intentions and motivations become (or, rather, reveal themselves to have <i>always </i>been) PART of the equation.<br /><br /><br />The most important part, really.<br /><br /><br />For the particles that form us still swarm in their entangled dance, indifferent to distance, be it a micron or a mile. Or a million-million light years.<br /><br />We are, each of us, a world unto ourselves, and yet our trajectories through the N-Dimensional topographies we traverse are perturbed (and --if we are VERY lucky-- defined) by the gravitational forces that bind us to the Other(s) who travel with us.....even if they are separated by blood-freezing distances and durations.<br /><br />It is LOVE --variously defined-- that sculpts space and makes a tinker-toy of time.<br /><br />I suppose I could quibble about such unsplit hairs as coriolis forces in spin-simulated gravity if too short a moment-arm is utilized, I could bellyache about the VICIOUS radiation environment around a black hole with a luminous accretion disk, about the orbital dynamics that would have to pertain, in order for certain time-dilation ratios to apply, could grouse about a few overly-chatty scenes and a smattering of instances of strained dialog.....but all of that would miss the point by such a wide margin that the point would not be a naked-eye visible object from such a course.<br /><br />And that Point is embodied in the gentle Hope that permeates even the darkest moments of despair in this film. It lives in the bitter tears that fall from the eyes of frustrated Love, in the serene but steely resolve that shines from those eyes at the chance to be of Service to that Love....even if the fruits of that Service might never be seen.<br /><br />For if each of us is a world.....then our world is each of us.<br /><br />And so long as the Blights that might afflict its soil are allowed to settle, uncontested, on the surfaces of our souls...that world begins to die, and inexorably to bury us in that very soil, while we watch in numb helplessness.<br /><br />But so long as we rage against the dying of the light, remember who we are and to whom we are bound in Love, then that light may yet coalesce into luminous spherical portals, which resolve into the eyes of those whom we carry <i>with</i> us.....<i>wherever</i> we go.<br /><br /><br />And that is a very encouraging thought.</span><br />
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Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-1022892876487932652014-09-11T09:12:00.000-04:002014-09-11T09:12:24.630-04:0013<br />
<br />
Just like <a href="http://noocyte.blogspot.com/2013/09/12.html" target="_blank">last year</a>.<br />
<br />
Only worse. Much worse.<br />
<br />
The gods help us all.Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-66859971261664801292013-09-12T04:07:00.001-04:002013-09-12T04:10:52.002-04:0012I've got nothing.<br />
<br />
Every year, I steep myself in the memory of That Terrible Day. Every year, I strive to find something Meaningful, heartfelt, and as non-political to say as I can muster.<br />
<br />
But I've got nothing.<br />
<br />
In truth, 9/11 has barely been on my mind today. Every client's receipt I filled out made me utter a little "<i>huh.</i>" I scrolled down past Facebook posts about Remembrance (most quite lovely and, to a heart which was differently disposed than mine today, quite moving).<br />
<br />
I was largely unmoved.<br />
<br />
Jimmy Carter was responsible for the foolish appeasement and empowerment of the USSR with his prattle about our "Irrational fear of Communism." He demoralized a nation with his defeatist cardigans, appalling fiscal policies and blather about "malaise." He oversaw the gutting of our military, and of our Intelligence-gathering capabilities (particularly the HUMINT which would have saved so <i>VERY</i> many lives).<br />
<br />
And the Soviets invaded Afghanistan (<a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19800102&id=3lQ0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=aLkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1026,12620" target="_blank">"They <i>lied</i> to me!"</a>). And the Shah of Iran was overthrown by Khomeini's goons. And <i>NOBODY</i> saw either one coming, or could do a blessed thing about it. Good Marines and Delta Force operators died in fire, in the desert outside Teheran, because our helos were ill-equipped to fly in sandy conditions, in order to rescue the hostages who should never have been taken in the first place. In a poorly-conceived scheme to make things difficult for the Soviets, what would become the Taliban was trained, armed, and empowered.<br />
<br />
Communism enjoyed a burst of propaganda enthusiasm at the impotence of the Capitalist US, both Sunni and Shiite Islamopaths were emboldened and equipped to take their previously-merely-irksome Jihads into the realm of full-blown Global Asymmetric Insurgency. And <i>oceans </i>of blood were spilled (are <i>still</i> being spilled!) because that imbecile miscreant was somehow elected to be President of the United States.<br />
<br />
And he <i>still</i> won't shut that gangrenous hole in his half-melted, smarmily-grinning/sneering face about the dark fantasies he harbors in that singularity where a heart is generally thought to reside, when he belches forth about Israel and the "Palestinians."<br />
<br />
<br />
And yet, at this moment, I almost feel <i>nostalgic</i> for the Carter years.<br />
<br />
The unmitigated <i>HASH</i> which the 44th occupant of Penna Ave has made of this Nation's foreign policy, the sheer, mind-numbing <i>amateurishness</i> of it simply boggles what little of my mind I can stand to direct toward it (have ya <i>noticed</i> that I've been blogging about movies and tech lately...when at all?).<br />
<br />
It all sounds so eerily familiar: An unnecessarily-empowered Russia, under Czar Vlad I, Iran inching toward nuclear arms, Syria gassing its citizens and launching cyber attacks against Western news agencies, China arming up, Eastern European allies left to twist after risking Moscow's wrath by agreeing to host subsequently-"Reset" anti-missile batteries against the aforementioned Iranians, oil prices unnecessarily high (and the aforementioned Islamopaths and Putin Syndicate kleptocrats rolling in the lucre), because <i>gargantuan</i> domestic energy supplies can't be tapped for fear of angering petulant environmentalists, a <i>hard</i>-won victory in Iraq slipping into ignominious defeat due to inexcusable neglect (thus further empowering both Shiite <i>and</i> Sunni Islamopaths)...<br />
<br />
Again: Mind. Boggled.<br />
<br />
The task of undoing the damage that two terms of an Obama Presidency have already wrought (and threaten to deepen further) will be the work of <i>generations</i>. Indeed, I am none-too sanguine that some of it can <i>ever</i> be undone.<br />
<br />
<br />
And I think back to the 90s and the wholesale turning-away from geopolitics which the End Of The Cold War made everyone think they had the luxury to enjoy. And I think of how I've felt all day. And I <i>shudder</i> at the horrors which will all-but inevitably sprout from the seeds that have been planted over the last 5 years. And I try to find the words for my dread and anticipatory grief.<br />
<br />
But I've got nothing.<br />
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<br />Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-48629426019684183732013-05-17T03:48:00.000-04:002013-05-17T12:49:56.278-04:00Another Bold GoReturned a while ago from the 11:00 showing of "Star Trek Into Darkness" (really liking the omission of the obligatory colon), with friends, old and new. It is difficult to believe that it's been four years since <a href="http://noocyte.blogspot.com/2009/05/abrams-seeks-out-finds-new-life.html" target="_blank">I reviewed its predecessor</a>.<br />
<br />
Clearly, JJ Abrams and his team have been using the time wisely and well!<br />
<br />
There have been reviewers (who I am feeling heartily unmotivated to search out, and who, frankly, I do not believe deserve the traffic) who have decried this as a smashing action movie which has nothing to do with The Spirit Of Star Trek.<br />
<br />
I can state with unassailable Trekker credentials that, whatever it is they have been smoking should be tested forthwith for all manner of unsavory additives.<br />
<br />
This impeccably-paced, visually arresting piece of cinema is positively <i>redolent</i> with all that is finest in Trek. And I'm not just talking about the cornucopia of deft homages (I'll get back to that). It's all here: the Prime Directive, the needs of the many, the emerging triumvirate of Spock (Reason), McCoy (emotion/empathy), and Kirk (Will), the spectre of the <i>Kobayashi Maru</i>, the moral balance between expediency and justice, the triumph of the competent geek....you get the picture.<br />
<br />
This. Is. Trek.<br />
<br />
End of report.<br />
<br />
Yes, the story blazes through set-piece after set-piece...but not in a jagged, fragmented way, and <i>not</i> just for action's sake. The fact that Star Trek may now be painted on a broader, more frenetic canvas does not diminish its fidelity to the franchise one jot. Sheesh!<br />
<br />
One of the things that has (to coin a phrase) <i>fascinated </i>me about this new Trek is the way that the alternate time-line allows for the opportunity to explore the Deep Question of what sorts of things will tend to diverge from an altered set of initial conditions (a la <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect" target="_blank">Butterfly Effect</a>), and what sorts of things will display a more durable tendency to occur, <i>despite</i> those altered conditions.<br />
<br />
Toward the end of the first movie, the characters' personalities --despite <i>wildly</i> different life histories, as a result of Nero's rending of the Trek Prime timeline-- had begin to coalesce into their familiar configurations (with a number of twists). The promise of this has put my fears to rest by receiving a <i>wildly</i> satisfying payoff in this second iteration of the new franchise. Each of the beloved characters is given something Important to do, something which allows us to see how they are both known and new.<br />
<br />
Similarly, there are aspects of the Federation which resonate in familiar ways to those who are conversant in the various series and movies from the Trek Prime universe. But the rippling consequences of the changes which spawned this new timeline have had far-ranging consequences whose implications become clear as the film reveals its secrets (a privilege I am <i>resolved</i> to not usurp in this review!). There are resonances with the Trek which we know....but they are just that: <i>resonances</i>. These are not retreads, nor slavish repetitions. Echoes of events which unfolded as we know them from the familiar Trek universe are present (and many more foreshadowed). But they all bear the stamp of the new conditions under which they arise, and so they retain their ability to surprise. And surprise they do!<br />
<br />
Naturally, this makes my inner <a href="http://www.societyforchaostheory.org/tutorials/" target="_blank">Chaos/Complexity Theory</a> Geek emit all <i>manner</i> of undignified SQUEES!<br />
<br />
All that said, this is a <i>very</i> entertaining film! I had the pleasure of seeing a special preview of the first 9 minutes of it, attached to The Hobbit, back in December. Although the Peter Jackson Extravaganza that followed all-but obliterated those 9 minutes, enough of a trace remained that I was TERRIBLY excited to see what would follow. And I was not the <i>least</i> bit disappointed. The blend of genuinely funny humor and jaw-dropping eye and ear candy is very much still in evidence here.<br />
<br />
You. Will. <i>NOT</i>. Be. Bored.<br />
<br />
Could I predict a few of the plot twists ahead of time? Sure. Did it telegraph these a bit? Yup. But it was neither insultingly obvious nor maddeningly coy about this. Were there sleeper subplots which languished, unrevisited, till the story required them to re-emerge? Sure. But not <i>every</i> story needs to be told in detail, if the telling will derail the overall tale (that's what Deleted Scenes are for!).<br />
<br />
Suffice to say that, <i>long</i> before the iconic Alexander Courage theme rang out at the end, I was <i>SOLD</i> on this New Trek's spirit, its reverence for its roots, and its...well...<i>boldness</i> to grow in truly different (but thematically consistent) directions from those roots.<br />
<br />
It appears that the Final Frontier encompasses even wider expanses than we'd thought.<br />
<br />
And I could not be any more ready to warp out and explore them!Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-44061586090340135992012-11-02T03:39:00.000-04:002012-11-02T03:39:09.904-04:00Obama Champion of Gay Rights? Look Again<a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/11/01/a-vote-for-obama-isnt-a-vote-for-gay-rights/#more-809675" target="_blank">Bethany Mandel, at <i>Commentary</i></a> offers some badly-needed thoughts on the meme that a Romney Presidency will constitute a massive step back for LGBT rights in our society. And yet, prior to the POTUS' "historic" endorsement of same-sex marriage equality, he could hardly be counted among the most staunch advocates of that equality...not till his hand was forced by his running-mate, and an election loomed:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As Obama’s actions both before and after his gay marriage flip-flop have
shown, his commitment to gay rights appears to be merely one of
convenience. Four years ago, it was politically expedient to be against
gay marriage, thus President Obama made statements to that effect. In
May, after Vice President Biden blurted out his previously unmentioned
support of gay marriage, President Obama found it politically necessary
to either repudiate his own vice president or change his stance, and
chose to do the latter. </blockquote>
I have no doubt that Mr. Obama personally supports marriage rights for same-sex couples. That is not the point, really. The point is what he can be realistically counted on to <i>do</i> about those beliefs. Obama is a Statist (albeit not quite as radical a one as many of his Conservative critics like to shriek); he believes that the proper role of the Federal Government is to wade in and <i>fix</i> and <i>do</i> things. Given that belief, and the very strong advantage he enjoyed in both houses of Congress, prior to 2010, does his all-but absent posture on the issue <i>really</i> inspire that much more confidence than might accrue to a Federalist, who believes in the <i>distribution</i> of power away from the USGOV, even if he does not share the beliefs of gay advocates?<br />
<br />
It is a question worth pondering, and a much-needed moderating salve on the perpetually-reopened wounds of this debate, among those who are invested in promulgating decidedly immoderate assertions on the matter.Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-40306784527764521092012-10-19T01:58:00.000-04:002012-10-19T02:59:48.841-04:00Al Smith Dinner: 2012As lively and bracing as this election has surely been, I've been looking forward to the traditional Al Smith dinner like even the most avid Football fan looks forward to the Superbowl commercials. I just love this thing, for reasons which I'm sure the tapioca between my ears at the moment will likely fail epically to articulate as satisfactorily as I managed <a href="http://noocyte.blogspot.com/2008/10/big-mac-rocks-roast.html" target="_blank">during the last go-round</a>.<br />
<br />
Obama's comic chops continued to earn honest props. It's a thing to behold, the way he plays against his signature oratorical cadences, executing a really masterful Aikido twirl between what he knows to be perceived as vanity, and the humility of joining in with the mocking of it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/S6g2YkTAYQ4" width="560"></iframe> <br />
<br />
<br />
But what really, honestly surprised me was how readily Mittens was able to morph into a very decent comedic groove. His self-referential ribbing of the "Richy Rich: The Android Years" vibe was right in the pocket (and a deep one, at that....badum-<i>CHING</i>). His bit toward the end, about competing without disliking, and his praise of the President and his family were both gracious and conspicuously sincere.<br />
<br />
Both candidates, in fact, ended on notes of elevated and edifying good-fellowship, even as the roasty bits before made clear that It was still On. That's what these things do: they sit between the crusty bread slices of the debates, like a nice schmear of Nutella.<br />
<br />
Worth taking a bite; leaves a badly-needed good aftertaste.<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yBelIMrKll8" width="560"></iframe><br />Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-83554778101815578222012-10-01T03:39:00.002-04:002016-05-07T01:47:51.524-04:00My Path From Port To Starboard: It's ComplicatedSo, what business does an <a href="http://noocyte.blogspot.com/2010/09/on-limits-of-knowledge-and-knowledge-of.html" target="_blank">agnostic</a>, non-affluent, socially-liberal, post-graduate-educated, Northeast city-born, suburban-dwelling bloke (technically a Minority, to boot) like myself have in calling himself any kind of "Conservative?"<br />
<br />
This is a question to which regular readers of these pages (all three of them!) know I have bent my thoughts for <a href="http://noocyte.blogspot.com/2008/04/now-as-i-expect-some-of-you-are-aware.html" target="_blank">a number of years now</a>. After all, in the Summer of 2004, I still defined myself as someone who believed that it was the government's responsibility to engineer society such that the needs of its citizens could never go unmet. Further, I believed that the national nature of that project was a mere stepping-stone toward the time when Westphalian nation-state borders would all-but vanish, and a new World Government would create a seamless, just, and intelligently-designed global community. Even now, the ideas still have appeal.<br />
<br />
It is understandable that some might perceive a deep irony in the fact that, having undergone such profound change, I should now subscribe to a domain of thought which is often dismissed as being merely the resistance to change. Further, it is just as understandable that a similar irony could be found in a non-theist aligning himself with a political philosophy which has become so enmeshed with hard theism. Finally, some may see a contradiction in the fact that, as someone who works in a helping profession (Clinical Psychology), I should have thrown in with those who are perceived as being all-too ready to throw the weak to the wolves.<br />
<br />
As ever, the reconciliation of apparent paradoxes lies beyond the edges of the screens onto which they're projected. <br />
<br />
Uncharacteristically cutting to the chase: I am a conservative because I am a <a href="http://www.webring.org/l/rd?ring=fractals;id=43;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Evmacgill%2Enet%2Fcomplexity%2Ffractal%2Ehtml" target="_blank">Complex Systems</a> thinker (link, by the way, is to a SPECTACULARLY useful site for the layman to get up to speed on these theories).<br />
<br />
As a student of complex, non-linear, edge-of-chaos phenomena, I have learned to look with deep humility on our capacity to characterize --let alone control-- complex, open, evolving systems. From ecosystems to economies (but I repeat myself), nature finds a way to flow like water into spaces that are un-dreamed-of in our philosophies. Flocks of birds self-organize into fantastically elaborate patterns as they swirl through the sky. There is profound meaning to be found in the the fact that they do so without the aid of any rules more complicated than "keep a certain distance from adjoining birds, steer around obstacles, and travel along basically the same path as your fellow-flockers." The pattern is an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence" target="_blank">emergent</a> property of these simple, strictly local rule-sets.<br />
<br />
This quality of emergence is apparent throughout nature. Traffic patterns arise from local interactions on the level of individual cars...yet they can achieve complex forms which span miles of roads, reacting to (and anticipating) assorted perturbations as though they were subject to some superordinate intelligence. But they're not. Molecules of oil in a shallow dish can align themselves into a regular lattice of hexagonal columns of fluid (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhImCA5DsQ0" target="_blank">Bénard cells</a>) when heated. It almost looks like these molecules are executing a pregiven program. But they're not. Populations of cells act in concert to form and maintain the function of an organism, and those organisms arrange themselves into cooperating and competing biomes and ecosystems, all as though they were cogs in a fantastically-designed clockwork. But they're not.<br />
<br />
These collective behaviors <i>arise</i> from the interactions of local agents, whose activities are regulated at a dynamic cascade of system levels...but with nary a Central Planning Authority to be found. Indeed, I have come to see that the most brittle, least adaptive systems are those which are organized around a strictly "top-down," hierarchical architecture of energy and information. A brain (a self-organizing system) can suffer grievous damage, and yet still regain substantial portions of its previous function by routing around the damage...whereas a computer can grind to a catastrophic crash, owing to a misplaced comma in thousands of lines of code (usually the night before an important presentation is due!).<br />
<br />
You see where this is going.<br />
<br />
As I said (and meant), the ideas from my Transnational Progressive days still have much appeal. I <i>like</i> the idea that society can be designed in such a way that it can remain viable, yet responsive to the needs of all its citizens. I <i>like</i> the idea that smart people can apply those smarts to engineering a setting in which all people can be positioned --well-fed and educated and healthy-- to thrive and create and live well. What kind of person <i>wouldn't</i>?<br />
<br />
The trouble is that those smart people would have to have access to the kind of comprehensive information which the universe simply does not provide, when it comes to the structure and function of complex systems. There is a hard complexity barrier between the unfolding of such systems, and the algorithms we might devise to describe and predict (again, let alone control) that unfolding. As such, all attempts at planning and administering a system as complex as a society and an economy will result in a GARGANTUAN bureaucracy, cobbling together policy after policy, growing and accruing more and more system energy (or, if you prefer, <i>power</i>) to manage the cascade of unintended consequences which it will spawn like metastases as it frantically strives to put even the very noblest of intentions into practice. It happened in the Soviet Union. It's happening in the Euro Zone. I have come (reluctantly!) to the position that it will happen <i>wherever</i> Central Planning is tried.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-Serfdom-Documents--The-Definitive/dp/0226320553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349072000&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Road+to+Serfdom" target="_blank">F. A. Hayek</a> --pre-dating Complexity Theory by decades-- wrote that it is the Smithian, "Invisible Hand" of myriad individual choice-making agents which enables an economy flexibly to assign value to goods and services, and to enable the most efficient flow of energy/capital through that economy. He wrote (during the days leading up to and closely following WW2, when many of these ideas stood in VERY high relief) that efforts to plan and manage the operation of an economy were subject to insuperable obstacles, owing to the invariably imperfect knowledge to which the Planners would have access. (and, since it seems I can't go a full month without linking to this bit of brilliance, here's <a href="http://noocyte.blogspot.com/2011/05/keyneshayek-throw-down.html" target="_blank">another way to discuss this</a>). It was his thesis that a mechanism which would assume such a level of control over what is essentially an evolving system will lead it to steal more and more energy from that system, till it becomes self-perpetuating and parasitical. He posited (again, not in a vacuum) that both economic dynamism and liberty would erode under such conditions. <br />
<br />
Now, of <i>course</i> a "purely" non-interventionist government (if such a beast could ever be said to have existed on this planet) would not be a tolerable scenario. There are aspects of human welfare which simply must be placed behind a judiciously-applied set of firewalls, if a society is to be a just one. However, the Social-Darwinist view of free-market capitalism which is so often set up as a straw man by advocates of Planning is by no means a necessary correlate of the thing. The difference, if you will, is in viewing government as the control rod or the reactor core.<br />
<br />
Thus, I choose to align myself, to as great a degree as is practicable within the Real World, with those who work to create an open, fair marketplace, within whose raucous, generative, evolving, and frequently messy parameters prosperity will arise. Since no pure form of such an approach can be found in our political landscape, in anything like a configuration which is tolerable to me (and which stands a snowball's chance on Venus of achieving the White House), I'm stuck with the GOP (and only then, because I live in a State with closed primaries, in which Independents cannot vote).<br />
<br />
I recognize that this puts me in the company of folks who <i>hardly</i> see eye-to-eye with me on the position that, say, homosexuality is merely a normal (if relatively rare) variation in natural human pair-bonding (and that, thus, it is absurd to deny people access to a central human pair-bonding ritual and status, just because they so vary). I know that there is a (deeply paradoxical!) thread within the party of insinuating uncomfortably high levels of Christian theology into the laws of the land...which flies in the face of the ostensibly liberty-oriented approach to government's footprint in people's lives which is proper to the party's orientation. What can I tell you? We live in a universe where the Perfect is inevitably and irreducibly the enemy of the good, if we choose to hold out for it.<br />
<br />
But the Democratic party has seemingly irretrievably aligned itself with the tradition of Progressives and other Planners. And, for whatever tactical gains it (admirably!) strives to bring about for its constituents, it does so at the price of strategic losses to our society's ability to sustain the benefits it promises. It simply does not fit within my frame of reference that this is a good idea (nor, in the end, particularly humane). So, I ride herd as much as possible on the more pernicious aspects of the GOP's posture (if, the gods forbid, Michele Bachmann, or Rick Santorum had gotten the nomination, I would have had a <i>Very Difficult</i> choice to make...see why I want to be able to vote in the primaries?), while advocating for those parts which move our society in what I judge to be the direction in which it remains most vibrant and viable (which, to paraphrase JFK [who all-but-certainly would have been Liebermanned into obscurity within today's Democratic party] would create the rising tide which lifts all boats). <br />
<br />
Yes, conservatives would find a great many of my positions positively heretical (and, of course, the feeling would be mutual). But no complex system is without internal contradictions, even as its overall organization is coherent. Nature is not kind to Purists. So we choose among imperfect options, in as-educated-as-possible hope that the highest-viable good will emerge.<br />
<br />
It's the worst possible system you could imagine....except for all the others.Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-49269615310611532892012-09-22T03:37:00.000-04:002012-09-29T01:31:04.664-04:00"Cabin In The Woods"Just finished watching the Joss Whedon-written, Drew Goddard-directed <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cabin-Woods-Blu-ray-Ultra-violet-Digital/dp/B008G33O0G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348295718&sr=8-1&keywords=Cabin+in+the+woods+blu" target="_blank">Cabin In The Woods</a>. Had the misfortune of never having had the chance to see it in theaters, despite most of my therapy clients assuring me that if I missed it, there'd be a strong argument for switching places with them. Now I see what they meant.<br />
<br />
Writing a review for this movie is a difficult thing, since what makes it great (along with the crackling, Jossian dialog, the <i>insanely</i> brilliant production design, the surprisingly effective acting, and...stuff) is the way it reveals its secrets, like unlocking levels in a <i>cracking</i>-good video game. Not about to step on that process here.<br />
<br />
On the surface, this is as familiar a story as you could imagine. That's the point, really: the "Teens in an Isolated Forest Cabin" simulation has been run so persistently in our culture that even the self-referential, oh, so <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism" target="_blank">Po-Mo</a> deconstruction of it (care of the "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Scream-Five-Film-Set-Documentaries-Blu-ray/dp/B0057YUV6C/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1348297245&sr=1-1&keywords=Scream+Blu" target="_blank">Scream</a>" series) has become an idiom of its own. <br />
<br />
What Whedon's been able to do in "Cabin" would be nothing short of astounding...if it were anyone but Joss. Somehow, he's been able to take not only our familiarity with the assorted horror movie tropes, and fold it in on itself yet again, but he escapes being merely clever in doing so by creating a framework for understanding how (and <i>why</i>) these meme clouds have become so archetypal in the first place.<br />
<br />
Now, <i>that's</i> what Meta's <i>for</i>!<br />
<br />
I don't even want to go through the characters and describe their stories and how they fit together here. First of all, I don't have to; you'll know them right away. More importantly, though, going into this with too much foreknowledge would be a disservice to the experience of it, the way it turns your expectations and certainties on their heads (which may or may not be attached to anything at the time...), and forces you to reflect on yourself reflecting on the story as it reflects on itself...then takes you where you <i>least</i> expected to end up.<br />
<br />
Now, don't worry: I'm not talking about "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Inception-Two-Disc-Blu-ray-Leonardo-DiCaprio/dp/B002ZG981E/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1348298120&sr=1-1&keywords=Inception+Blu" target="_blank">Inception</a>"-level complexity here (<i>GODS,</i> did I love that film, but <i>man</i>, was it dense!). You could write dissertations on this movie...but it doesn't try to be one, itself. At a mere 1 hour and 38 minutes (less credits, which [a little surprisingly] do <i>not</i> contain an Easter egg at the end), this thing moves along with no lags or hangs in its masterful, relentlessly entertaining pace. You can't get away with <i>not</i> thinking...but you'll never be bored as you do it!<br />
<br />
If you have a penchant for inky-dark humor, a strong stomach (!), and even a casual acquaintance with the vernacular of horror movies (which will be rewarded with a swarm of very excellent visual and thematic homages), you'll see how the seasoned team of Whedon and Goddard have served up a bubbling beaker of Instant Classic.Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-68194995300706542622012-09-14T03:30:00.000-04:002012-09-14T03:30:35.074-04:00Pretty Rock-i-stanA recent walk-on in the Military Industrial Complex Conspiracy Cavalcade is just in time to supplant the Michael Moore absurdity about natural gas pipelines as the Real Reason (tm) for going into Afghanistan. Namely, the discovery of <b>A TRILLION DOLLARS OF PRECIOUS MINERALS!!!1!!1!</b><br />
<br />
Yes, I've been aware of the apparently prodigious mineral finds in Afghanistan since 2010. To the best of my knowledge, there is still insufficient data to confidently support the claims which are made about these discoveries. VERY promising-looking outcrops of mineralized rock have been spotted, but they have not yet been fully characterized as to their extent or purity (and thus their value, regardless of amount). It is not at all uncommon for substantial surface outcroppings to represent the last remains of past deposits which have eroded away, leaving only the *bottom* and not the *top* of a once-rich mineral concentration. <br />
<br />
Getting this information is a laborious and hardware-intensive process of drilling and sampling and drilling some more. So, it is not surprising that it took until last year to get any <a href="http://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2012/07/new-usgs-report-and-maps-highlight-afghanistans-mineral-potential-but-obstacles-remain/" target="_blank">"ground truth" on the deposits</a>. It does look very good so far...but there are non-trivial issues in proceeding to extraction (lining up bidders to undertake these vast projects in the arid, infrastructure-lean, frequently-embattled --especially in the South, where most of the rare earth metals are-- land-locked primordial moonscape of a "country." And that's not even getting into the near-certainty of enormous corruption and very messy jostling by regional warlords to control the most promising territories). <br />
<br />
In short, this thing is a long way from a paycheck.<br />
<br />
As for why there were geologists with the Army ("Proof! <i>PROOF</i>!! I say, that all is going as They have Foreseen!"): it is SOP for a battlespace to be characterized in minute topographical detail, via aerial and orbital reconnaissance, in preparation for insertion of forces. This becomes even more critical when supply lines are VERY limited in their access to personnel who must combat a foe who is, himself, widely distributed around a *most* unforgiving AO. Given the extent of the deposits --as evident in the USGS map in the article I linked above-- it is not the least bit surprising (nor does it make it at all necessary to posit some shadily mercenary intent), that these surveys would also have revealed these VERY attention-grabbing mineralogical aspects of the landscape. <br />
<br />
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-19084830658168647652012-09-11T03:15:00.000-04:002012-09-11T08:19:40.104-04:00 11When I was a kid in NYC, the local TV station, WPIX Channel 11, was commemorating an anniversary or somesuch, and arrived at a creative ad campaign. Actors would play assorted people throughout the city, who were asked to help out Channel 11 with finding a proper symbol for the station. Invariably, over their shoulders, the towering endeca-digits of the WTC mocked their perplexity.<br />
<br />
One of the dwindled but enduring artifacts of my college-era obsession with the ancient Greeks was a deep admiration for the geometric simplicity, the sleek, unadorned, cyclopean sincerity of those Towers. They were edifices of frank, unapologetic Commerce (which, in those days, I conceptualized more as a linear juggernaut, than as the nimble network I envision today). Of course, at the time, I also thought the Chrysler Building was, by comparison, a grotesquely baroque bastardization of Deco and Gothic and Neo-Fascist architectural indecision and pomposity. What can I say: I was, in <i>so</i> many ways, a thoroughgoing ninny back then.<br />
<br />
Like those New Yawkahs from the WPIX ads, the Towers were an <i>axis mundi</i> for me, ubiquitous as the Moon. I remember going over the Queensboro Bridge in my parents' car, gawking at that impossibly high constellation of construction lights. Those brilliantly-silvered or celestially-coruscant or mist-wreathed binary reminders of the power of intelligence and will were ever part of the semiotic scaffolding which defined my world.<br />
<br />
That billowing dust cloud contained a little something besides the (immeasurably more precious) molecules of my fellow humans. It marked the atomization of one literal and countless more abstract nuclei of my scheme of organizing my experience of self-in-world. It was like that character from "The X-Men," the one who teleports, and the air which had just been displaced by him would slam into the sudden vacuum with a "<i>BAMPF!</i>" They were <i>gone</i>. And, in ways both subtle and gross, nothing would ever be the same. If nothing else, the Phantom Skyline Syndrome is likely to be a life-long affliction.<br />
<br />
I've striven to keep these Things as trans-political as could be, and I'd rather like to keep that up. Suffice to say, then, that the forced conceptual and emotional reconfiguration of things did not stop at the local space surrounding me. Rather, it spun vortices outward into my most far-flung theories of how nations and cultures and ideologies and power-flows were arrayed on the whole of the skin of this Globe. And the <i>BAMPF</i> is still echoing, as those views evolve at a pace which would make <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/5/l_035_01.html" target="_blank">Stephen J Gould</a> --rest his bones-- really proud.<br />
<br />
This past July, I was on the Circle Line, with Ma'am 'Cyte, and the Li'l Cyte, and had my first close look at the construction of what I hope someday to stop referring to as the "Capitulation Tower." Of course, any project of such scale and scope will evoke wonder, but the new WTC simply leaves a sour finish on my palate. Am I like a disgruntled denizen of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Row" target="_blank">Radio Row</a> here? Or is it the absurd delay, political wrangling, failure to be configured as a reproduction of the Towers (11 floors taller, their footprints transposed with their fallen forebears'), its misleading altitude tally (a number of stories of non-habitable space --complete with token wind turbines)? Or maybe the residue of the wrenching realignments of the geopolitical context which are woven into its DNA simply by virtue of when it arose. I don't know.<br />
<br />
I just know that I feel myself to be in a holding pattern as to the larger implications of That Other Tuesday (as the unusually self-referential nature of this year's post will attest). Maybe this is the Equilibrium before the next Punctuation (again, with the Gould). Maybe that's just an artifact of the election season. The many gods forfend that the next surge of change should be predicated on so calamitous a happening. May it be so that, <i>whoever</i> is wielding the ordnance, the feeder streams of the torrent which obliterated so many worlds that morning are being drained with implacable and irreversible efficacy ("<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Debunking-11-Myths-Conspiracy-Theories/dp/158816635X/ref=as_li_wdgt_ex?&linkCode=wey&tag=n03c-20" target="_blank">Truthers</a>" need not comment. It will not go well).<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I suppose the news station "New York One" might have something to think about.<br />
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<br />Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-21330748156577548622012-09-10T18:04:00.000-04:002012-09-11T03:27:40.436-04:00The Only Thing We Have to Fear.......Is toxic crap sandwiches like this, from people who bloody ought to have known better:<br />
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<img alt="https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/377292_10151421546643327_1662442617_n.jpg" height="320" src="https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/377292_10151421546643327_1662442617_n.jpg" width="292" /><br />
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<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">You would think that getting to witness the metastasis of Collectivism in its Communist and Fascist forms would bring a modicum of pause to the centralizing aspirations of this Depression-stretchingly pig-headed Prog. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">But you'd be wrong. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">Hey Franklin, "Private power" is SUPPOSED to be
stronger than the bloody State. Ownership of the government is the
CHARTER AND RIGHT of individuals and groups (i.e., <i>CITIZENS</i>).<br /> <br />
And all the blather which will no doubt follow this Self-Evident (sound
familiar?) observation (since I just posted a version of these comments on Facebook, where I found this stomach-acid-squirting pic), you know, the familiar effluvium about
"Corporate Influence subverting the electoral process for the benefit of
special interests and Fat-Cats," will only serve to illustrate more
clearly the gravity of FDR's error. For that kind of Crony Capitalism
is, at its core, profoundly ANTI-Capitalist...and thrives most
exuberantly and perniciously under conditions in which the excessively
bloated power of the State emboldens it to engage in the hubristic
exercise of picking winners and losers.<br /> <br /> When the MARKET --to as
great a degree as practicable-- is allowed to operate as the selective
agent by which value is assigned, and the (humble, lean, CITIZEN-OWNED)
State is NEVER promoted from the status of control rod to that of
reactor, then liberty may truly thrive and evolve as the ecosystem it is
supposed to be, rather than the managed paddock envisioned by
Collectivists like FDR and his Statist stepchildren.<br /> <br /> Harrumph, I say!</span>Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-42664580187488829992012-09-09T03:03:00.000-04:002012-09-09T03:03:49.139-04:00Hubris and Fallen ColumnsFrom the opinion pages of the WSJ comes <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443686004577635292861508300.html?mod=rss_opinion_main#printMode" target="_blank">this withering synopsis</a> of POTUS Obama's relentless (and ultimately self-defeating) pursuit of a Progressive Tranformation Of America (tm). In short, it's turned out pretty much as you'd expect.<br />
<br />
It really is extraordinary how opaque he was (and remains) to the practical and the political implications of his actions, and thus how utterly he has squandered what could have been a <i>most</i> auspicious moment for him.<br />
<br />
Oddly, my tear ducts register no activity at all.<br />
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<br />
Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-85669797118241300412012-09-07T03:01:00.000-04:002012-09-07T03:01:59.125-04:00Will on the Context of a CharacterVia <a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/09/i-am-the-change.php">Powerline</a>, comes this highly-recommended George Will <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-obamas-desire-to-transform-the-united-states/2012/09/05/35f2d582-f790-11e1-8398-0327ab83ab91_print.html" target="_blank">interview with "political philosopher," Charles Kesler</a>.<br />
<br />
Will, via Kesler, dispenses with lurid conspiracy theories about foreign births and anti-colonialism, and executes a nice, close Occam's shave on the stubble of POTUS Obama's motivational set. Clear continuities are traced, not through some exotic/esoteric wetland of subterranean motives, but through the amply-documented trajectory of American Progressivism over the last 100 years (to the year, per the authors, since it was in 1912 that Woodrow Wilson, with chilling candor, proclaimed the objectives and perceived scope of action of the Progressive Project):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">In 1912, Wilson said, “The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of governmental power.” But as Kesler notes, Wilson never said the <em>future</em> of liberty consisted of such limitation.Instead, he said, “every means <span>. . .</span> by which society may be perfected through the instrumentality of government” should be used so that “individual rights can be fitly adjusted and harmonized with public duties.”</blockquote>I seem to recall some other noteworthy incident which occurred during that year... <br />
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It is important to realize that, for those whose priorities and values are thoroughly aligned with Progressivism's aims (fair equalization of outcomes), this sort of gargantuan, Government-powered, industrial-strength social engineering is simply the only way to achieve those aims within what they feel/define is a just and humane time-scale. Within that headspace, this is both fitting and laudable, and worth the (typically understated) risks to liberty. I Get it. Used to feel the same way, m'self.<br />
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But I have arrived at a position which looks back on these (my!) past models as more than a bit naive. There is, after all, an historical context to be considered here. Namely, with a very few exceptions (whose circumstances --e.g., small Scandinavian Social Democracies -- are sufficiently non-representative as to kinda prove the rule), centralized, hierarchical, Statist societies have become schlerotic with bureaucracy and with anemic (trending toward absent) economic dynamism. The ash heap of failed Communist/Socialist experiments is so high it affects regional weather patterns. Those which have found a way to encyst some selected pseudopods of market-driven, capitalist activity have been able to prolong their seemingly inexorable slide into that familiar senescence of evaporating Utopias. But make no mistake, this only buys time, even as behemoths like China lumber on, like a charging sauropod whose nervous system is so slow, its body doesn't even know it's dead yet.<br />
<br />
<br />
I find it reassuring to not have to impute dastardly motives to the POTUS (if for no other reason than the fact that so many of my friends who support him would have to be knaves or dupes to do so...and I pick my friends with <i>considerably</i> more care than that!). It helps me a great deal to develop plausible, non-histrionic models to explain the data of Obama's actions and utterances, since I can test those against my own (try <i>that</i> in the hall of mirrors of competing conspiracy theories!). Thus do I arrive at the conclusion that the perils to the American project along that path FAR outweigh the (undeniable, though unsustainable) benefits enjoyed by individuals in the kind of Constitutionally-unmoored society which lies at its bitter end.<br />
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And thus will my sympathy be no less sincere than my relief, should Obama's own "one-term proposition" prediction prove to have been correct.<br />
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No spiking of the football here (that's the correct term, yes?).Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-32189954765252675072012-06-15T03:10:00.000-04:002012-06-15T03:10:34.831-04:00Attack the BlockStill a mite zingy from seeing birds and clouds between my feet today at Six Flags (grass-sky-grass-sky...), took in "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Attack-Block-Blu-ray-John-Boyega/dp/B005J4TLQG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1339743745&sr=8-3">Attack the Block</a>" on demand. There's been MUCH buzz about this one since last Summer when it opened at...like 18 theaters.<br />
<br />
Believe the buzz. This is as tight and raw and honest a B-movie as you'll ever see. An alien infestation in the heart of a South London slum --I mean Community Housing Project--, with no one to beat it back but a group of <i>very </i>young street kids, hardly paragons of virtue themselves? The only thing resembling a Learned Scientific Infodump device is Dude-like pot dealer Nick Frost and his profoundly stoned buddy, with whom he zones out on National Geographic? Do I really need to say more?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.aintitcool.com/node/50596">Nordling here from AICN</a> lays it out (and yes, of <i>course </i>there's a language warning, It *iS* AICN, after all). This is the kind of flick across which we film geeks sit through hillocks of explosives-grade fertilizer in hopes of stumbling.<br />
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Believe!Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-90173112547246958262012-06-13T21:11:00.003-04:002012-06-13T21:11:00.150-04:00So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish[by Mr.Hengist]<br /><br />Several years ago my good friend Noocyte started this blog and asked if I would like to contribute to it as his co-king - I mean, co-blogger. I accepted, with gratitude, but not without some reservations. It's not like the idea of blogging had never occurred to me, it's just that I wasn't sure what I'd have to say - or, worse yet, I'd have so much to say that it would become one giant time sink. It turned out to be more satisfying yet more work than I'd imagined, what with every post a struggle of revisions and rewrites.<br /><br />Despite my lack of enthusiasm for blogging I've decided it was time to have a place of my own - not that I'll have altogether that much to say, but "<a href="http://echosofthunder.wordpress.com/">Echoes of Thunder</a>" will be my place, which will be nice. It'll be on WordPress, which I'm hoping will be a better platform than Blogger. I've copied my posts from here to there because there are so many of which I am so fond that I just had to bring them with me. I've also decided to change my pseudonym from "Mr.Hengist" - a tongue-in-cheek self-depreciating tribute to the <a href="http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Hengist">dual-natured character in TOS</a> - to "Slab Hardrock", a tongue-in-cheek self-depreciating tribute to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFHlJ2voJHY">the MST3K riffs of "Space Mutiny"</a>.<br /><br />My sincere thanks goes to Noocyte for his gracious hospitality and encouragement.Mr.Hengisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09222310760196934547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-60923538997179932262012-06-09T13:30:00.007-04:002012-06-13T00:06:46.788-04:00PROMETHEUS(Some spoilers, but nothing which strays too far from what one could glean from the trailers) <br />
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<br />
Taking in the midnight showing of Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" on Thursday night into Friday (for which I was rewarded with a nice little promotional poster) I can now understand why Filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro has <a href="http://www.deltorofilms.com/wp/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=454">expressed reservations</a> about ever getting H.P. Lovecraft's justly-beloved novella, "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/At-Mountains-Madness-Other-Terror/dp/0345329457/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339253310&sr=1-6">At the Mountains Of Madness</a>" produced. There is something decidedly Lovecraftian about the film, something wonderfully unnerving, in all the right ways.<br />
<br />
After coming home from the film, I took the dog ('the Woofocyte?') for a wee hours' consitutional, under a brilliant starlit sky, frosted by a crisp, gibbous moon. On any other night, this would have been a serene, elevating sight. That night, however, the heavens seemed sinister, redolent with menace, haunted by leering eldrich specters which lurked in the inky abyss, the blood-freezing whispers of ancient, calculating intelligences, beyond the reckoning of any human mind which would not go mad at the misfortune of understanding them too well.<br />
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That's kinda the vibe of this thing.<br />
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The discovery that a host of ancient civilizations --with no possibility of contact with each other-- had adorned their walls with symbols depicting the same set of stellar coordinates prompts the mounting of a scientific expedition to plumb the depths of a great many mysteries. Some appalling things ensue. And some Very Big Questions are raised...and not especially tidily answered. It's not unlike if Sir Arthur C. Clarke had written <u>2001: A Space Odyssey</u>, while under the influence of some really vicious hallucinogens...perhaps something derived from belladonna-like alkyloids (/gratuitous "Altered States" reference). It has a similar scope, partakes of a similar sense of awe and wonder. But its ultimate lessons (such as they are) sound a far more disturbing note on our prospects, should we choose to pursue some questions too far.<br />
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The tone of the film is spot-on, crafted to induce a steadily-mounting sense of dread. Like in "Alien," the technology is presented in a way to make a geek bounce in his seat, but is just recognizable enough that we can see ourselves operating the controls...which only heightens the dread. The score is effective for the most part, with a main theme which evokes both wonder and warning. I would have preferred a more minimalist musical footprint, though, as it can be just a bit intrusive during some set-pieces. Seldom have I so mourned the passing of the great Jerry Goldsmith (all the moreso at the brief homage to his seminal "Alien" theme).<br />
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The visuals in "Prometheus" are simply spellbinding. It really does appear that we have reached the place where no story is untellable, where no image in the imagination cannot be convincingly committed to film. The ship is marvelously designed, rendered to perfection, and moves through space with a sense of mass and power and flawless physics. 3-D is often an afterthought, a way to amp up ticket prices, while intermittently jumping off the screen at you to go "BOOGIE-BOOGIE-BOOGIE" in your face. This is <i>not</i> the case in "Prometheus." The 3D is immersive and essential, by turns conveying a daunting, dwarfing scale to things, and a terrifyingly claustrophobic closeness to other things from which you would <i>much</i> prefer to keep your distance. I saw this in IMAX 3D, and I heartily recommend that you do likewise if you can. As a sensory experience, there is simply nothing about which I can complain in this film.<br />
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Michael Fassbender's performance as the "artificial person," David, is one of the highest of the high points of this film. The scenes of him roaming the halls of the ship while the crew rests in hypersleep are unforgettable, as he learns ancient languages, sinks perfect baskets while riding a bicycle, and emulates Peter O'Toole's Lawrence of Arabia. What if Commander Data were not governed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics">Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics</a>? On the whole, he'd just as soon be helpful and agreeable toward humans. But of what would he be capable, were he "<span class="st">unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality<i>?"</i> David's<i> </i></span>innocent wonder and infectious curiosity are utterly disarming, at the same time that his altogether dispassionate view of the universe (and all who live in it) is chilling in the extreme.<br />
<br />
Noomi Rapace's performance as Dr Elizabeth Shaw has gotten a bum rap in assorted circles. This is not, IMHO, just. The simplicity of her character is also its complexity: she is a Believer. She's the sort who <i>never</i> would have seen the "cookbook" thing coming. She speaks to our Better Angels. She is heartbreakingly slow to wake from her dreams, and that awakening is very viscerally shattering to her. The form she ultimately takes is both consistent and <i>changed</i>. She is angry, but wounded and <i>still</i> not altogether without hope. She is not especially sophisticated, which is both her appeal and, I expect, the source of much frustration.<br />
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Charlize Theron's Vickers is a perfect embodiment of The Company, an icy pragmatist whose main priority is her own survival ("all other priorities rescinded"). Her character is, in many ways, more cybernetic even than David's, which makes one scene with the irresistible Idris Elba's Cajun Captain Janek (from whom I truly wish we'd seen more) all the more hilariously effective.<br />
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Noomi Rapace's partner and love interest, Charlie Holloway (played by Logan Marshall-Green) is also a truth-seeker, but his motivations are rather less pure than Shaw's. He has an occasionally over-the-top air of striving to dominate nature by wresting her secrets from her. He is, in short, something of a jerk, especially to David. His lack of empathy and insight leads to all manner of unpleasantness.<br />
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This last is one problem which many viewers have had with this story: people behave in irrational, stupid ways. At times, distractingly so. I do share the irritation with some of the choices which people make in this film, but --without giving too much away-- there is some sense to staffing this expedition with people who may not be the most disciplined and professional sorts. When things start to go Very, Very Wrong, these people do not exactly bring their A-Game...which acts to move things along with an increasing inevitability. Most of the characters are pretty superficially treated, but we do get just enough to fit them into the puzzle. I am more than willing to grant that such a large ensemble, if given a more full treatment, would have weighed down an already deliberately (if at times erratically) paced film to an excessive degree.<br />
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Some have complained that this film raises a number of questions which it does not then go on to answer. Duly noted and agreed. But, at its heart, this is not the sort of story which <i>needs</i> to wrap everything up in a neat little bow. There are some profound meditations at the core of this film, questions about our origins, purpose, and fate, questions which hinge on the motivations and priorities of forces so removed from us in space and time and sophistication that it would be the height of hubris to fancy that we could just Get To The Bottom of them (this is, in fact, the tragic flaw in Shaw's and Holloway's characters, and it bears reflecting-on that we should become too huffy at the thought that some mysteries remain mysterious!). Again, there is a strikingly Lovecraftian message that we puny humans meddle in the affairs of the Dark Gods at our extreme peril, regardless of the purity of our motivations.<br />
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In short, I do love this film...but not unconditionally. I do recommend it...but not unreservedly. As I've said, the pacing at times lurches and drags. The score is a bit too in my face at moments (nothing like the outlandishly obtrusive "Predator" score, mind you. But also nothing like the atmospheric "Alien" suite). Some characters never venture far from one-note stereotypes. On balance, though, there is <i>much</i> more here to love than to dislike, and nothing to hate.<br />
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Final note: this is <i>NOT</i> (merely) an "Alien" prequel. That would be rather like saying that the Old Testament was a prequel to the book of Mark. The conditions are set for "Alien," but pretty much as a side-note to a profound and ambitious science fiction story..which is what this is: a tale of macabre science fiction (not "horror," as such...though there are some decidedly horrific things which happen --parents take careful note!).Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-17257262068034262702012-06-05T02:55:00.000-04:002012-06-05T02:55:04.707-04:00Send In The ClonesWell, the Li'l Cyte has grown to the point that he can watch the Star Wars prequels (except for the last bits of "Sith"; still a mite too intense, those). As a result, I have recently had the chance to re-watch "Episode Two: Attack of the Clones" for the first time in years. Thus am I moved by whimsy to post herein a review I wrote for the movie in August of 2002.<br />
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Readers of these pages might be interested by this artifact of a period during which I fancied myself the Leftiest of Lefties, most Transnationalistic of Trasnational Progressives. Curious because, amid the predictable intimations of anti-corporate animus, there are suggestive foreshadowings of my current jaundiced views of bureaucracy, my mistrust of overcentralized political power. It appears that my political transformation may have occurred in soil already fertile for its emergence...<br />
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Anyway, it was nice to see this unjustly-maligned film hold up as well as it has.<br />
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REVIEW FOLLOWS (Moderate Spoilers)<br />
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First, let me speak to that timid, timorous voice of fractured expectations haunting our skulls since TPM. Shush! This is the movie we've coveted in the holiest of holies of dreams since millions of Ewoks (disappointingly) failed to be pulverized by a hail of superheated Death Star debris.<br />
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From the first moments after the disappearance of a crisp screen crawl, this film flies directly into its relentless quest to saturate our senses with shockingly delicious imagery. Gods below! What special FX! I can only imagine a wholesale re-staffing (or a group consciousness-raising exercise, perhaps involving some belladonna-like alkaloids) taking place at ILM!<br />
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Gone are the super-slick, lovely-but-affected `ILM grays.' This film is textured down to fractal levels of detail. It has grit. It has contrast. It has heat distortion from engine ports, glittering droplets of rain, hypnotically languid waves on a low-gravity ocean, quick, shaky photo-journalistic zooms during apocalyptic battle sequences with chips and scratches on helmets in the far background while hundreds of dust-smeared blaster bolts tear through heavy metallic hides of immense space ships and...<br />
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GAH!!<br />
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No words...should have sent a poet!<br />
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Typical. I had to start with FX. These are what immediately kicked me in the arse and convinced me that ILM had, once again, set the bar to an entirely new place!<br />
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What truly gripped me, though, was that there was actually a MOVIE attached to those blazing visuals. A damned good one. Who'd a thunk it?<br />
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This is a morally, politically, emotionally, and tactically complex film. Sure, it keeps you bouncing in your seats and yowling like Slim Pickens riding that bomb (short cut to mushrooms? Sorry.). What it also does, though, is tell a rich, layered, sobering, authentically moving tale. It is the story of things passing away.<br />
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MILD TO MODERATE SPOILERS AHEAD<br />
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Christensen's cocky, heedless, impulsive Anakin nails the archetype of the Brash Young Man with surprising subtlety. He's drunk on his power and youth, a True Believer in his myth of personal immortality, Icarus incarnate. He is a Buddhist's (or a Jedi Master's) nightmare! He covets. The pain of his love for Padme is palpable. We feel it in his hungry gaze. This is a boy struggling to find completion, and suffering because he seeks it always from outside himself. Obi Wan won't validate him (one wonders how a certain Middle-Eastern carpenter would have gotten along with his step-dad, Joe...), Padme won't look at him the way he looks at her, while a lost mother haunts his dreams. He yearns, and, when his longings go unmet, he rages. If he is occasionally annoying (and he is!), it is only because we KNOW him. He is an annoying PERSON, not an annoying part, or an annoying performance. We watch as he's maneuvered to the cliff's edge by his own grasping, and feel it, as he is ultimately undone by the strategic fulfillment of his heart's desires. There is characterization here like we haven't seen since TESB.<br />
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Mad Props to Ewan McGregor! The subtle, non-verbal homages to Sir Alec, first evident in TPM, are just a bit more prominent in this installment. He manages to convey a transitional stage in the maturation of this character which is never forced, never...impersonation. That young bloke can ACT! Obi Wan is focused, authoritative, and NOT to be trifled with. But, too-soon released from his apprenticeship by a star-struck Qui-Gon Jinn, he lacks the depth and experience to appreciate what is happening to his Republic...and to his apprentice. He is troubled by trends he can sense, but can never seem to divert. His fate is foreshadowed in one bittersweet joke, but also in his naïve declaration of victory at a very dark moment indeed.<br />
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As much of a disservice as it is to the many superb individual performances in this film, I need to talk about two doomed characters of a rather more abstract nature: the Republic and the Jedi Order. Their fates are joined, and the feeling of their deterioration pervades the film. They are set in their ways, confident in their power, and entirely blind to the rot growing from within. Only Yoda seems to see it. Imagine the Dalai Lama's rueful resignation as he watched the Chinese advance on his land. That's the sense you get from Yoda's surprisingly unobtrusive CGI face as he contemplates an Order grown so decadent as to declare primly that "if it isn't in the archives, then it doesn't exist." His gradual awakening to the fact of an end-game to whose beginning he'd been completely oblivious is a wrenching sight. He realizes that someone's manipulated the motivations and vulnerabilities of his Order, his society, and even himself, steering them toward choice point after choice point, positioning the players so that the only possible decisions are those which push them closer to their inevitable ruin. And he is sad.<br />
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(And he is one bad-ass little green dude with a saber. Nuff said.)<br />
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It's been said (Plato? Frank Herbert? Thucydides?) that democracies inevitably deteriorate into oligarchies...and that dictatorship is not far behind. Lest we huff and puff too righteously against such heresy, let us pause and contemplate the French Revolution's fate. Or else, just go see AOTC. Lucas' rumored disenchantment with, and grim prognosis for, the state of modern democracies is in full force here. The viruses which effect this fatal mutation in the Old Republic are the calcification and corruption of bureaucracy, the ruthlessly pragmatic avarice of banking and trade conglomerates, the crushing juggernaut of technocracies...all quietly subverted and maneuvered by the insidious (pardon pun) Will to Power. There is some extraordinarily mature (and eerily familiar) political commentary here, light years from the desiccated, two-dimensionally technophobic sketch of TPM. Machiavelli would be proud of the way in which, bit by bit, even the wise are enticed to give away power, ignorant -until it is too late- of how that power has been channeled into fewer and fewer hands, till the only one left is the one with the leash.Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-50191871225584920022012-03-25T03:31:00.000-04:002012-03-25T03:31:45.749-04:00"John Carter" ReviewJust back from taking myself to an 11:35 of "John Carter" (finally!). Thoroughly entertaining! Departs radically from the source material, but in ways that make it a far better film than a more literal treatment would have yielded. Preserves the sweeping spirit of Burroughs' epic, though.<br />
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Visually stunning (3D is well-utilized, and worth the extra scratch for the ticket), with action and humor aplenty, and fine work by supporting actors (the cast of HBO's "Rome" was well-represented, and it's always a pleasure to see Bryan Cranston, however briefly). Willem Dafoe's gruff but soulful Tars Tarkas was spot-on, and Lynn Collins' Dejah Thoris was comprehensively appealing. Strong, intelligent, principled, but vulnerable when she judges that she can afford to be. The actress' training and skill are no less thrillingly on display as are her more accidental attributes (though I'm not above saying that these were *devastating!*). Which is to say, you fall in love with her as quickly and hopelessly as does Carter himself. Taylor Kitsch as Carter brought the courtly Southern cavalryman's feisty but courteous steel to the role, but with far more of a broken heart than Burroughs' rather exuberantly blood-lusty protagonist. Not too much of a purist to concede that this makes him a far more sympathetic character.<br />
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The fact that it is tanking at the box office, while the appalling "Lorax" continues to rake in the bank is a nauseating spectacle indeed. So, take yourself to the theater while you have a chance, and rest assured of time (and money) well-spent!Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-34555017349334597192011-12-09T11:29:00.001-05:002011-12-09T12:18:55.293-05:00NPR: Small Business Owners Really WANT to be Taxed, Of CourseCulled from the viscous surface of my Facebook feed comes <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/12/09/143398685/gop-objects-to-millionaires-surtax-millionaires-we-found-not-so-much">this little nugget from NPR</a>, which (shockiest of shocks) maintains (or, rather <i>implies</i>) that small business owners --the people whom the GOP is striving to protect by opposing the imposition of "Millionaire Surcharge" taxes as part of a deal to extend the payroll tax cuts-- have not spoken up in opposition to those surtaxes...because they just don't care about this stuff.<br />
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In typically tendentious NPR fashion, the point is made that no small business owners were willing to step out and oppose the redistributive tax ideology of this Administration. Does this mean that they were unwilling to expose themselves to the protests, boycotts, and organized smear campaigns (or worse!) of outraged Leftists, which are the near-inevitable fate of individuals and businesses that make themselves too conspicuous in their embrace of free-market principles? Can it be that they are trying to <i>protect</i> their profits by not so exposing themselves?<br />
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No. Of course this means that there <i>is</i> no support for restraining tax rates in the interest of promoting growth, and that the GOP is merely being the obstructionist meanie that it always is, ever vigilant for ways to make this Administration fail...leaving it for the ever-reliable NPR commenters to fill in the inevitable "RACIST" blank, among other tedious canards.<br />
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And no need to look too closely at the fact that the <i>only</i> business owners who spoke up for this editorial --in support of the Administration's would-be policies-- were on record as contributors to Democrats. Why, that's just a coincidence, you mouth-breathing Capitalist troglodytes.<br />
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<i>SIGH</i> Clearly, not enough people are thinking deeply enough on these matters. If only there were <a href="http://noocyte.blogspot.com/2011/05/keyneshayek-throw-down.html">some more accessible medium</a> for clarifying the terms of the debate....Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-43646560440727679412011-09-11T03:48:00.003-04:002011-09-11T15:38:38.696-04:00Ten Years Hence (unstructured musings)Osama bin Laden is dead. Al Qaeda is a scattered shadow of what it once was. A fragile but viable democracy hangs on in Iraq. There have been no successful mass-casualty attacks on soft targets in the US in ten years. Something is <i>finally</i> rising from the hole at Ground Zero. Afghanistan...well, it is just not what it used to be for aspiring Jihadists.<br />
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Despite the best efforts of Liberal Democrats, "Anti-War" Progressives, and their strange bedfellows on the Paleoconservative and Libertarian Right, things are unambiguously better now, Global Counterinsurgency-wise than they were ten years and one day ago, in a host of important ways.<br />
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But I still watch footage of that chilly Tuesday morning, a decade ago, and feel as though a dangerous fire is still smoldering under the wreckage, somewhere.<br />
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The other night, Nickelodeon was running a marathon of "Friends" episodes. After I got over the initial shock and dismay that the episode I watched (which I remember watching when it first aired) had been made <i>17 years ago</i> (!!), I found myself, as I so often do, scanning the background of the establishing shots, and seeing those Towers on the skyline. I suppose there is something unhealthy about this. Just the sight of those marvelously stark rectangles, rising from a thicket of lesser buildings, is oddly restorative for me. It enables me, for just that moment, to position myself in a headspace in which vicious Jihadist murderers had not rammed a jagged dagger through the tender skin of my innocence and idealism. <br />
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But they did. Those Towers are gone. Forever. And thousands of lives have passed from infinite possibility to mere remembrance. And yet, <a href="http://noocyte.blogspot.com/2011/09/forget-911-fuhgeddaboudit-pal.html">as Mr Hengist ably laid out in today's post</a>, there remains a growing cadre of dangerous fools who urge us to "just get over it, already."<br />
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No, dangerous fools. I will not. Not now. Not ever.<br />
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Because the next feeling I have when I look at the Towers in film and video, right after the warm and comfy one of a world in which my main concern was adjusting to marriage, and getting my Psychology license, and finding the best possible cappuccino, is <i>rage</i>. Smoldering, caustic rage. That the kind of atavistic hatred which moved the muscles of those 19 hyperempowered psychopaths was allowed to fester and to find a means of expression, such that it pierced so many lives, <i>enrages </i>me. That the full import of that abominable act <b><i>still</i> </b>eludes so many, and that they can still --with all seriousness-- attribute it to something which is the "fault" of the open, pluralistic society whose very openness provided the means for that horrific spasm of bloodletting...enrages me.<br />
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As I said <a href=" http://noocyte.blogspot.com/2008/09/seven-years-hence.html ">before</a>, I <i>loved</i> those Towers. I loved the fact of them. I loved the aesthetic of them. I loved the <i>meaning</i> of them. I loved the commerce, and the clarity, and the sheer exuberant simplicity of them (even if these things were mostly hidden from the transnational progressive consciousness which lived in that much younger version of me at the time). My rage is the the fire which was ignited in me at the time, and it has not gone out. I hope it never does. That fire is the engine which keeps fresh in my mind the degree to which I cherish the very things which those cancerous zealots sought to extinguish, the very things which so many <a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/the-years-of-shame/">dangerous fools</a> are still trying to <i>aid</i> them in extinguishing. The freedom to think and act and trade and (refrain from) worship(ping) as I choose, to view women and homosexuals and fellow agnostics and atheists and people of faith as equals, to differ with them in a spirited and open dialogue, to tilt a pint with them as I do so. To love them, even as I work with all my might to move this Nation in a direction which is altogether orthogonal to the vector along which they would steer it.<br />
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For the guidance system of those planes is still active. It is still aiming for the symbols and foundations of a civilization which it has never matched, and which it can only muster the wherewithal to destroy.<br />
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And I will be <i>damned</i> if I will let it.<br />
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(Edited to add link in last paragraph [evidence that Paul Krugman needs to find a nice, quiet place with a lot of mirrors, far away from decent people], and address an oversimplification)<br />
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ADDENDUM: Re-reading the above, it occurred to me that it might seem strange to see a psychologist speaking positively of rage. Fair point. To clarify, what I feel is the kind of rage that smolders, deep down, but is not altogether squandered in mere stewing. It is jacked into the power systems, its energy yoked to the motivational systems which feed such things as blogging, voting, campaigning, and maintaining situational awareness (both of the 'scanning a crowd for suspicious activity' sort and the 'keeping abreast of global events' sort).<br />
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So, I suppose there are really <i>two</i> fires smoldering here: the one which feeds the virulent fantasies and hatreds of the individuals and organizations which would like nothing more than to perpetrate an encore to the events of 9/11/01...and the one in me, and in others, to extinguish the first. They are both dangerous...but the latter is a hazard to those who, unlike the innocents on that horrid day, most assuredly have it coming.Noocytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14669229067251260711noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533420989959483861.post-8235147591336668512011-09-09T21:11:00.002-04:002011-09-09T21:11:00.092-04:00Forget 9/11? Fuhgeddaboudit, Pal.[by Mr.Hengist]<br /><br />Now, me, I’m not big on anniversaries, not even my own birthday. Just not caring, is all. When I was a kid I looked forward to my birthday, sure – <span style="font-style:italic;">presents!</span> – but as I got older, for a variety of reasons, I grew out of it. There’s no day I set aside for celebration or remembrance of anything anymore, and that’s just me. I’m not against this kind of thing but it doesn’t resonate with me.<br /><br />That’s why the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has come and gone these blogging years without comment from me, although 9/11 marked perhaps the darkest days in my life and set in motion changes in me which were, for me, profound. It’s in the days leading up to the 9/11 anniversary that people reflect on that day and how we move forward. E.J. Dionne Jr. has phoned it in with his September 7th, 2011 column, “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/time-to-leave-911-behind/2011/09/07/gIQA0dpUAK_print.html">Time to leave 9/11 behind</a>”.<br /><br />As the title promises, the first line delivers:<br /><br /><blockquote>“After we honor the 10th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we need to leave the day behind.”</blockquote>It’s a familiar refrain, one I’ve read from Liberal pundits since, well, shortly after September 11, 2001. We shouldn’t use this as an excuse to make war, we’ve gone off-track, we need to understand that we were attacked because we’re hated, and with good reason, we need to make amends so the world will love us again and we’ll all live together in the world with harmony and respect for cultural diversity, and then unicorns will fart rainbows, blah blah blah, blah blah, blah. <br /><br />Although the Liberal MSM never stopped airing the pictures and video of the planes hitting the towers (look, big explosion!), even in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 they wouldn't air the pictures or video of the jumpers. Those were the victims above the inferno in the towers who jumped to their certain death rather than stay and succumb to the smoke and flame. What hell that must have been for those office workers that the better option was to jump from the top floors of a skyscraper. Not a few, either; surviving rescue workers described having to be exceedingly cautious when entering or exiting the towers to avoid being crushed by a random person falling from the sky, and how unnerving it was to hear the bodies thumping on the sidewalk every couple of minutes. Why the media embargo? While not graphic, they were horrifying, and they angried up the blood. Americans were, by and large, ready to unleash our war machine, but already the imploring chorus of restraint was stirring from the anti-war left, who saw us as having gotten our just desserts - Blame America First.<br /><br />It only took a half a year or so for the focus to shift, as the Lefties knew that this war business wasn't going to treat them well. Modern Liberal Democrats are not the leaders you want in charge in a time of war, and they knew it, so on the whole they thought this 9/11 thing was taking domestic and foreign policy in all kinds of wrong directions. Like hamsters running the wheel for hours on end, they get tired and rest for a spell but soon enough they're back at it. It's their hobby horse and they're not getting off it, because we can't change policy until you people get over the hurt. So, like, it's sad & all, but can't you just leave it in the past? Besides which, you <span style="font-style:italic;">deserved</span> it.<br /><br /><blockquote>“As a nation we have looked back for too long. We learned lessons from the attacks, but so many of them were wrong. The last decade was a detour that left our nation weaker, more divided and less certain of itself.”</blockquote>I’ll refrain from rebutting the arguments that Dionne neglects to make himself, but suffice it to say, he’s wrong, wrong, wrong. We learned valuable lessons from 9/11, and perhaps not well enough, and our response has left us stronger, not weaker. Hey, if Dionne won’t make the case against, I’m don’t have to make the case for.<br /><br /><blockquote>“Reflections on the meaning of the horror and the years that followed are inevitably inflected by our own political or philosophical leanings. It’s a critique that no doubt applies to my thoughts as well. We see what we choose to see and use the event as we want to use it.”</blockquote>I suppose it would be unfair to point out that Dionne, perhaps tellingly, focuses on how we choose to “use the event as we want to use it”, because in essence, I agree with this paragraph. Let’s just say, for now, that E.J. Dionne and I disagree on all the particulars.<br /><br /><blockquote>“This does nothing to honor those who died and those who sacrificed to prevent even more suffering. In the future, the anniversary will best be reserved as a simple day of remembrance in which all of us humbly offer our respect for the anguish and the heroism of those individuals and their families.”<br />“But if we continue to place 9/11 at the center of our national consciousness, we will keep making the same mistakes. Our nation’s future depended on far more than the outcome of a vaguely defined “war on terrorism,” and it still does. Al-Qaeda is a dangerous enemy. But our country and the world were never threatened by the caliphate of its mad fantasies.”</blockquote>Long have the Liberal-Left fervently implored us not to take 9/11 so hard. Let me start hitting a couple of the specifics here:<br /><br />First of all, it’s arguable whether we place 9/11 “at the center of our national consciousness”, but if that’s the case then it is so for reasons which are far beyond the ability of anyone to simply wish it away. 9/11 will gradually diminish in importance as time stretches the distance between the now and then, but what Dionne and his ilk have either never grasped or simply wanted to make not so, is that it was an event on the order of magnitude of Pearl Harbor. It is both tiresome and insulting to hear from Dionne et al that we should just get over it. Not happening, not anytime soon.<br /><br />Then there’s the part where he acknowledges that “Al Qaeda is a dangerous enemy”, but “our country and the world were never threatened by the caliphate of its mad fantasies”. I don’t think it’s necessary to belabor the obvious contradiction here, as these two ideas are mutually exclusive. What Dionne means - but apparently lacks the skill to put clearly - is that Al Qaeda will never succeed in reestablishing a caliphate. It's either clumsiness or intentionally intimating that, in some sense, we are really threatened by Al Qaeda.<br /><br />In the sense that Al Qaeda will never succeed in their mad fantasies of a worldwide caliphate, Dionne and I agree. I wouldn't be entirely sure of their chances for a regional caliphate, nor would I take off the table the possibility of various other states in the being absorbed into the orbit of this yet-to-be established caliphate. At any rate, I wouldn't want to establish odds, as I think they're pretty long on even the most modest of their goals.<br /><br />This is an entirely separate question from whether Al Qaeda is an ongoing threat. They are. A diminished, less capable threat, not to be underestimated, but pursued to the ends of the Earth and exterminated wherever they are, no matter how long it takes. Further, Al Qaeda is but one organization of many that are like-minded and equally dastardly. The point I'm driving at is that what Dionne wants is for us to go back to 9/10, and I'm here to tell you this a mad fantasy of Liberal-Leftists. They've probably got a better chance of realizing their fantasy than Al Qaeda does for realizing theirs.<br /><br /><blockquote>“We asked for great sacrifice over the past decade from the very small portion of our population who wear the country’s uniform, particularly the men and women of the Army and the Marine Corps. We should honor them, too. And, yes, we should pay tribute to those in the intelligence services, the FBI and our police forces who have done such painstaking work to thwart another attack.”</blockquote>I presume Dionne is preferentially giving shout-outs to the Army and Marine Corps based on casualty figures, but really, all of our armed service members have borne an extraordinary burden. One of the lessons we should have learned from the military engagements of the last decade is that our military is inarguably too small to do this without having to resort to extended tours of combat duty. Whether you support the war(s) or not, the presumption that we have the ability to fight such wars can no longer be taken at face value - or be relied upon as a part of our defense posture. If the possibility of going to war to defend, say, Taiwan or South Korea, is off the table because it would outstrip our capacity to effectively prosecute that third front, then that’s an excellent argument for augmenting the size of our armed forces because weakness invites attack. That lesson was, alas, not learned.<br /><br />Still, it’s worth noting that Dionne doesn’t go the route of infantilizing our armed forces by talking about them as if they were children forced to go to war, or as bloodthirsty killbot murderers leaving a wake of devastation and suffering. I wish more antiwar folks were as decent as Dionne is here.<br /><br />Hey, I wish for a lot of things.<br /><br /><blockquote>“It was often said that terrorism could not be dealt with through “police work,” as if the difficult and unheralded labor involved was not grand or bold enough to satisfy our longing for clarity in what was largely a struggle in the shadows.”</blockquote>Here Dionne constructs a straw man but doesn’t even bother to knock it down. Let me set it on fire by pointing out that one of the problems with using law enforcement to prosecute a war is that law enforcement is, by varying degrees, reactive rather than proactive. Without probable cause, how to apprehend suspects? How to obtain sufficient evidence to obtain the issuance of arrest warrants, and under what standard of law do we operate – ours, or the laws of a foreign country? To what degree to we constrain and expose our law officers by working with a foreign government in the investigation? By way of example, let me point out that when it was determined that Osama bin Laden was in Afghanistan, the Bush Administration demanded he be turned over to us. The Taliban responded that, no, they would be doing no such thing, but they would consider extradition if we could present a case to an international court of law, and besides which, they had no idea where he was, although they would be happy to pass along any message we might wish to send him.<br /><br />[<span style="font-style:italic;">Go back and read the rest of that last sentence now that you've stopped laughing at how the Taliban were demanding we persuade an international court of law.</span>]<br /><br />Further, law enforcement is subject to the legal constraints of a civil society rather than an effectively lawless badlands or an actual rootin’ tootin’ battlefield. In that kind of environment it is impractical to the point of being an impossibility to maintain the integrity of a chain of custody for physical evidence, and even the problematical nature of the reading of Miranda rights makes the notion of a legal battlespace, quite frankly, bizarre. Proverbially speaking, it’s bringing a knife to a gunfight, or in this case, an arrest warrant to a gunfight. OK, the FBI carries guns, but up against RPGs, AK-47s, IEDs and, well, you get the picture. <br /><br /><blockquote><br />“Forgive me, but I find it hard to forget former president George W. Bush’s 2004 response to Sen. John Kerry’s comment that “the war on terror is less of a military operation and far more of an intelligence-gathering and law-enforcement operation.”<br />“Bush retorted: “I disagree — strongly disagree. . . . After the chaos and carnage of September the 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States of America, and war is what they got.” What The Washington Post called “an era of endless war” is what we got, too.”<br />“Bush, of course, understood the importance of “intelligence gathering” and “law enforcement.” His administration presided over a great deal of both, and his supporters spoke, with justice, of his success in staving off further acts of terror. Yet he could not resist the temptation to turn on Kerry’s statement of the obvious. Thus was an event that initially united the nation used, over and over, to aggravate our political disharmony. This is also why we must put it behind us.”</blockquote>What is obvious to Dionne in Kerry’s statement is left unstated, and it deserves to be fleshed out. I won’t do his work for him, but I will point out that intelligence gathering and law enforcement operations do not preclude warfighting as a means of confronting enemy conspirators and combatants. For a couple hundred years now, the U.S. has used all of these tools in the prosecution of war.<br /><br />The disconnect between these two ideas – those of Kerry and W – is that W was responding to the unstated premise in Kerry’s statement: that we can use intelligence gathering and law enforcement to mitigate the threat of Al Qaeda without waging war. <br /><br />The political disharmony Dionne laments is a direct result of the disagreement between these two ideological camps over this question. What’s more, that disagreement was fueled by the political calculus of Democrats who parlayed an issue of national security in order to get more political power, which is simply unconscionable. <br /><br />I’m sure Liberals will take exception to that statement, but let me preempt their howls by asking this question: how else do you explain the promises of candidate Obama, which were very much in alignment with the spirit of anti-war Liberals, to the actions of POTUS Obama? From the continuance of warrantless wiretaps, to the dramatic expansion of drone airstrikes, and the extension of the Patriot Act, to the Libyan war, and so on, it seems obvious that POTUS Obama has fallen far short of the standards he set for himself. I’m not trying to use these reversals as a cudgel against POTUS Obama, but rather, to point out that, in reality, as POTUS Obama either knew or learned, our country is not well-served by prosecuting a war as if it were a matter solely for intelligence gathering and law enforcement.<br /><br />While I'm at it, let me also point out how disingenuous the Left has been over these past years. Yeah, yeah, when W was in office, the Constitution was shredded, he thought himself a king, the republic was doomed, and America as we knew it was being destroyed by the evil Republicans, damn those soulless ghouls. The Left marched by the tens of thousands, they did, to stop the wars and take back America! When they did take back America, or at least the government - which, surprisingly, still existed, and still somehow allowed free elections - Democrats won all three branches of government and those very same policies were met with... muted grumbling. Only the far left still seems to be waving their pitchforks, but mainstream Liberals have given their guy a pass. <br /><br /><blockquote>“In the flood of anniversary commentary, notice how often the term “the lost decade” has been invoked. We know now, as we should have known all along, that American strength always depends first on our strength at home — on a vibrant, innovative and sensibly regulated economy, on levelheaded fiscal policies, on the ability of our citizens to find useful work, on the justice of our social arrangements.”</blockquote>I’ll defer to Dionne that “the lost decade” is a phrase used with some frequency in Liberal circles, but that phrase has no currency on the Right. At any rate, American strength is not dependent on the false choice Dionne presents. Our economy must be strong in order to have a strong national defense, and our national defense can only be strong if our economy is strong. We can’t have one without the other, but regardless of economic circumstances in our national defense we must wage war on those who wage war against us. It always pays to destroy our enemies, even though it costs us.<br /><br /><blockquote>“This is not “isolationism.” It is a common sense that was pushed aside by the talk of “glory” and “honor,” […]"</blockquote>… aaaand let me stop Dionne right here and call out this BS. Glory and honor were never used by the Bush Administration to justify warmaking; this is a shameless manufacturing of a lie to serve Liberal dissent. We did not go to war in Afghanistan or Iraq for glory, period. We did not go to war against Afghanistan or Iraq for honor, either. We did not go to war against Afghanistan or Iraq for treasure either, but I digress. Dionne would like to portray hawks and neocons as warmongers seeking glory and honor, but Dionne forgets that these are the facile accusations of the Liberal-Left, now so ingrained as to be taken as self-evident truths. Recall what I said above, about how accusations against their political opposition are first taken as a possibility, then as probably true, and from there a certainty. <br /><br /><blockquote>“[…] by utopian schemes to transform the world by abruptly reordering the Middle East — and by our fears.”</blockquote>Here Dionne is alluding to the neocon ambition of upsetting the apple carts of the undemocratic Middle East dictatorships and facilitating the emergence of representative republics. It’s a shame that POTUS Bush largely gave up on that ambition in his second term, but it’s somewhat encouraging to see the possibility of that dream coming to fruition in some parts of the Middle East today as a part of what’s being called the Arab Spring. You might think that current events would have Dionne thinking twice about calling such a scheme utopian, but, well, apparently not.<br /><br /><blockquote>“While we worried that we would be destroyed by terrorists, we ignored the larger danger of weakening ourselves by forgetting what made us great.”</blockquote>And what made us great? Glory? Honor? I’d like to address this statement but as it stands I can’t make heads or tails of it and I’m not about to flesh out his argument that isn’t made so that I can rebut it.<br /><br /><blockquote>“We have no alternative from now on but to look forward and not back.”</blockquote>We can do both, unless you can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. Of course, Dionne has been arguing that we <span style="font-style:italic;">shouldn’t</span> look back, not that we <span style="font-style:italic;">can’t</span>, so this statement is simply empty rhetoric, and it’s just so very lame, but it does set up his final paragraph:<br /><br /><blockquote>“This does not dishonor the fallen heroes, and Lincoln explained why at Gettysburg. “We can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow this ground,” he said. “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” The best we could do, Lincoln declared, was to commit ourselves to “a new birth of freedom.” This is still our calling.”</blockquote>It’s nice that Dionne concluded his piece with a quote from that venerated Republican Lincoln, whom we all hold dear to our hearts, but the conclusion of his piece ends up right where it began, with Dionne lazily waving his arms, chanting, “Forget, forget, forget.”<br /><br />So let me sum up my fisking with this: <br /><br />9/11: Never Forget.Mr.Hengisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09222310760196934547noreply@blogger.com0