Logging

Book: Journey Into Fear by Eric Ambler

A lesser known spy novelist from WW2 era known for amateur/regular people falling into the espionage world. An alright book that works as a decent look at how we have become much more sophisticated, wise to the ways of the world and at the same time less patriotic. 

Film: You Me and Dupree

A solid concept, strong cast, but entirely flat execution. 3rd act storytelling really wanes. Way too long. Strange this a film by the Russo brothers of The Avengers fame. 

Terrible Sign

In my hometown area, 3 of the 8 places one could go catch a flick are now closed down with no signs of re-opening. 

Movies are cooked.

Logging

Film: The Edge

Caught on good old fashioned hotel room TV last night. Couldn't stop watching. By no means a great film, but a satisfying (what they now call elevated) genre flick. They used a real bear. So when a guy gets eaten instead of CGI-ing the bear, they literally created a man-shaped doll and gave it to a real bear to tear to pieces. It was awesome!

This Sums Up the Man

Obama's list of best films. As dumb as his lists were before, he takes it to the next level this year by including some movies he produced. This sums up the man well: he wants to be both a filmmaker and movie critic. But of course, doesn't have the balls to actually make a film as a director or writer or actor and let someone else judge his work. Nor does he feel any need to write anything about any of the films he choose, or why he chooses them. You might think W painting pictures of his dog is a dumb hobby, but it's so much more impressive than what Obama is doing. 

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Film: Monster

Some great moments and performances, but perhaps my least favorite Kore-eda film of the several I've seen. Quite a bit of the dramatic situation felt forced in order to land an effect. Ultimate "mystery" didn't pay off - a bit shallow and par for the festival circuit course.

Film: Best of Times

Get past the silly conceit and there are pleasures to be had. Two stand out "big" scenes in the Elks lodge and the double date - both using clever dramatic irony to comedic effect. The scene where the girls and guys struggle to talk about world events - what better times those were...

Harvard Pres...

Seems like folks have uncovered 5-10 instances of plagiarism...which seems like quite a lot given she hasn't written much.  

My guess is that she's been plagiarising for as long as she can remember dating back to high school. What an ugly shame - just imagine how many other unethical and poor little decisions a person like this makes throughout her everyday life. 

Mmmmm...K

Now Taleb on the Palestinians "were never offered a state train." I suppose next they'll be telling us all the billions of aid didn't go into tunnels and weapons.

Menu Anxiety

34% of Gen Z report "menu anxiety" when ordering a meal. Not to defend Gen Z, but I somewhat relate to the general stress of the retail experience. During the Christmas season, I am reminded of pre-internet Christmas shopping and how much I hated it. Actually going to retail stores can give me a headache. Nevertheless, that we need such a term explains a lot. These are the same people who support the Palestinians. So if you find this future threatening perhaps you should not. Israel could defeat these losers by opening up restaurants and making the menus a tad more complicated that average to crush their spirits. 

Random Screenwriting Thought

All movies are actually mysteries - but you choose between plot or character and occasionally, both. 

Logging

Film: Napoleon 

I enjoyed The Last Duel, so I was quite looking forward to Napoleon despite the negative reviews. I went in happy to overlook whatever flaws took place in the narrative for some cool battle sequences. But I came away unimpressed and wanted to know a lot more about Napoleon. First flaw - you would hardly know why Napoleon is considered one of the greatest military commanders of all time by watching the film. He actually seems like a bit of a loser. Also it seemed to me he dumbfucked his way into power in the film and I can hardly believe this is historically accurate. The research on the military-political stuff felt wikipedia level deep. So fine, the film concentrates more on the Josephine love story. But does it? I feel like the majority of scenes were the two of them sitting on a couch together with glazed, confused looks interspersed with some unsexy doggystyle scenes. In this respect, it had similarities with the Last Duel. Did Scott do some research on sex in that era? Was it predominantly doggystyle that women didn't enjoy? I wonder...

The best parts are few and far between moments of self-deprecating humor - Kirby taunting Napoleon's "costume," his attempts to impress children by taking credit for burning Moscow, describing the fate of his pork chop coming to his plate, etc. But the humor bits didn't land because we weren't invested enough in the narrative. 

If...

If Hamas had instead invaded Israel to murder 1,200 innocent dogs I wonder if the progressive left would be more outraged, less outraged, or equally outraged. My guess is more.

Perspective

It's not that kids make you realize it's not just about you, but rather that it never was.

Political Persuasion

I'm a Bill Maher liberal or Megyn Kelly conservative, with a slight dash of Amy Klobuchar with a sprinkle of Ron DeSantis on top. And a lifelong Californian. Which might explain why my political aspirations have never moved beyond blogging for a few people!

The Right of Return

Yglesias ponders the unhealthy obsession.  You know, if these 3rd generation removed Palestinian kids actually had the right of return, they would maybe visit once, find it pretty boring and unnoteworthy and then return to their normal lives. You know how I know this? Because my mom lived in a farming community in the late 1940s in California and my kids have gone exactly once in their lives and never ask about it at all!

SF Reparations Plan Dead

Or perhaps it succeed in keeping a few progressives employed on a project that made them feel good?

A Forever Problem

Affirmative action creates a "forever problem." What do I mean? I was just reading about Disney being in a big pay equity lawsuit with some female executives. And several thoughts occurred to me: if you're being underpaid by your employer, isn't the move to leave for an employer that would pay you what you're worth? How is it efficient to stay for nearly a decade and then sue? While there might be some friction issues with my solution, the main point is: these ladies know they couldn't make that much more "out there."

And I got to thinking about what happens if you use affirmative action in hiring. By definition you are choosing someone less based on merit and more for their diversity. Maybe a decent number of these hires will catch up and be productive members of the team. Maybe some will become all stars. But by definition, as a group, they will underperform their peers presuming the company knows what it is doing with respect to hiring. So you'll get into this situation when down the line, the affirmative action group will make less money than their peers, get promoted less, get lower performance bonuses and so forth. Then will come the lawsuits and claims of "unequal pay." So almost by definition, if you do affirmative action hires, you will down the line also be guilty of unequal pay.

The alternative would be pay your affirmative action hires equal to their higher performing peers. It might work for a short while, but soon the high performance people will grow disgruntled and leave for greener pastures. So you will be in this race to the bottom situation eventually where you will lose the most productive and keep the least productive. 

This will work across different levels of society. We're seeing this in education right now. Everyone realizes the average Asian person at Harvard scores (or would score if they took SATs) around 1500. And every African American at Harvard probably scores around 1300. Well, maybe most Asians who score 1500 are okay with this and presumably the African Americans scoring 1300 are okay with this, but guess who isn't (and shouldn't be) okay with this? Asians who score 1300-1500 and African Americans who score 1500!

And so it goes on. I wonder what the impact across generations will actually be? I know all the proponents think the future will be a Benetton Ad, but it will be more likely be goofier and more corrupt forms of epic copes than we see today. 

Interesting

It actually seems like the NBA is going to crack down on Draymond Green. An "indefinite" suspension.

Young Americans

Matt Yglesias notes young people are turning against Israel. My reaction: who cares! Young people love Hamas and Ukraine. And guess what? Both are getting their asses handed to them right now. Young people like the unpowerful. How's it working out?

Marxism

Any notable people who became Marxist late in life after bearing witness to how poorly capitalism worked over a long period time?  

Notes on Luttwak Podcast

From Hidden Forces:

-Xi Jiping planning for Taiwan invasion. Why? War starts with a concept. Xi has it in his head Chinese to establish themselves as a war fighting people. 

-Evidence: promoting violent, unprovoked actions against India on the border.

-Evidence: ordering the production of wheat/grain against growing oranges, fruit, etc because planning for future sanctions.

-Evidence: leading political theorist right now in China (and Xi's intellectual boss) believes China's communist party will fall unless democracies proven to be weak/ineffectual.

-How? Xi will put pressure on Taiwan and count upon treason from Generals within Taiwanese army. He sees some KMT members in powerful military positions in Taiwan as essentially mainlanders who when push comes to shove will lose on purpose. Evidence: they already have apartments build for them in Beijing.

-What else? Xi wants a skirmish against the US to prove China is tough. Maybe over Taiwan.

-Luttwak makes the point the Han are wonderful people, but not warlike. They've been controlled by other groups for centuries - the Mongols and the Japanese. He said there would still be Japanese garrisons in China if not for the Americans. 

Update

Apparently I've been mistaken. Previously, I've often joked wokesters should be fired from their President of Universities and other DEI positions and instead get jobs as baristas. But it turns out wokesters can't even do that job. 

She Is Thoughtful She Is Kind

Words of support from alumni and faculty for Claudine Gay. 

“She is thoughtful. She is kind. She is resolutely dedicated to the growth and wellbeing of our very diverse community."

You would think she was a kindergarten teacher rather than the President of the most former most prestigious university on the planet. 

 

Jersey Man

Sentenced to 8 years prison for shouting racial slurs at neighbors. I bet he regrets turning down that Harvard scholarship where he would've been protected by free speech.

Wow - Claudine Gay

She should be fired not just for her disastrous performance, but for being a total fraud. In nearly any profession she'd be long gone. 

Resignations Are Just the Beginning

Not only should the 3 Presidents resign, the entire DEI bureaucracy needs to be dismantled. Title IX should be overturned or rewritten. This is de-Nazificiation shit. Once the money for this stuff is gone, it'll be all over. Everyone will be happier. All the minorities in America will. be fine. Or at least no worse off. Literally no one will be harmed except for the people who making a living in DEI and dedicated their lives to it. And they deserve to lose those fake jobs. In fact, in the long run, even they will be better off because they'll be forced to do something of actual use to the world like teach kids to read or make coffee.

Treason

Thinking about all these pro-Hamas people in the West...college students, DSA groups, CAIR, etc. What are they actually guilty of? Well, they are entitled to their speech, differing opinions, etc. We continually cherry pick instances of maybe where their speech crosses over into incitement. But is this really the point? I don't think so. What I think the lies beneath all this is a more fundamental thing: many of these folks are treasonous. They don't care about the Palestinians or Hamas or any of that. They actually just hate their own countrymen. They want to overthrow the government. They don't come out and say it, but if pressed, I bet they would admit it. They don't have any clue about what would replace it - they'd just pick up a bad Communist playbook if they got the opportunity. But treason is giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Well? Is Hamas not our enemy? Is supporting Hamas not an act of treason? Can someone explain why not?

What I like about this formulation is that I actually think there are quite a lot of people who make valid points about the poor decisions of our foreign policy and the poor decisions of Israel. But those type of valid arguments get completely drowned out by the vast number of people who simply want the US and Israel and the whole Western system to fail. Treason is a serious crime. Why don't we charge people with it more? It might make our political discourse a whole lot more fruitful. We need to get rid of the fringes because they glom on and take over. So yes, many people will think I'm crazy for suggesting locking up my political enemies. But that's exactly what I'm saying: these are the political enemies of civilization and a few thrown in jail will make the rest go back into hiding and working customer service jobs like they should be. 

DEI

Institutions captured by DEI won't reform for the same reason that when a club or restaurant becomes lame, it stays lame. Because the lame people will stay and the cool people leave. DEI solves a real issue: what do mediocre losers do? They know they can't leave the DEI gig because there is nothing else they can do that would be remotely as rewarding. It's Harvard President or barista.

The Thing Is Not The Thing

One of the best points re: Western leftists I've come across lately. 

What actually matters is the behavior of Western leftists, who care about the Palestinian cause precisely because it is so hateful and dysfunctional, just as how they romanticize the most anti-social elements of the criminal underclass at home.

 

More on Grass

I know people say grass uses a lot of water. So what? Am I missing something? Isn't there something called the water cycle? Doesn't the water just cycle through the earth and still exist?

All This Fake Grass

My kids and I play sport on this fake grass. Beyond my suspicions this causes extra injuries, the plastic shit gets all over your shoes and socks. What happens to all this shit? Where does it go all this little plastic crap? Wherever it ends up, it can't be great. However this shit is made - it isn't natural. I never wondered any of this with real grass. 

More on the University Presidents...

Even Elizabeth Warren is shitting on the University Presidents! Senator Pocohontos for all her loony ideas, is at least intelligent and capable. She can tell these three don't meet the basic qualifications for leadership. Why? We all know why. Affirmative action. This is what you get. 

What Do We Need?

We just need to cut the shit. That's it. Just cut the bullshit. 

End DEI. End affirmative action. End it all. Teach kids to read. Do math. Write. We need to build. Build literally everything. Housing, weapons, bridges roads, cities, cars. Cut all the uselessness. It can be done.

Winning

Israel closing in on Hamas leader in Gaza.

If this constitutes Hamas "winning," someone please explain to me what Hamas losing would look like.

Free Speech and Genocide

I consider myself a pretty free speech absolutist, but it's obvious you can't cry "fire in a crowded a theater." In a similar logic, Charles Manson was found guilty of murder for inciting his followers. It is illegal to tell someone suicidal to go kill themselves, is it not? Seems to me campus radicals calling for genocide of the Jews is a layup in terms of speech that crosses the line into incitement. The 3 women Presidents say, it depends on the context. Well, the context is this: you have thousands of willing mass murderers on standby with guns right next to a whole lot of Jewish people in Israel. I'd say that qualifies as incitement, wouldn't you?

How hard would it be to say the following:

1) Calling for genocide against Jews or anyone else is a violation of our student code. This does not constitute free speech, but rather an incitement to violence.

2) That said, no one on our campus has called for the genocide of Jews. Merely supporting a Palestinian state or the Palestinian dreams of statehood cannot be construed as "calling for genocide."

3) That said, there has been a worrying amount of support Hamas on our campus. We as an institution completely and entirely denounce Hamas as an illegitimate and illegal terrorist organization. And we need to do a lot of soul searching to figure out exactly why members of our community are defending and supporting mass murderers. We believe these members are entirely wrong and we need to dissect exactly what is going on here. We will investigate and should we find violations of the student or faculty code we will swiftly act. At our school there is ample room for political dissent. But there is not going to be any tolerance for incitement to violence, celebration of wanton murder and destruction, or antisemitism or racism. In addition, gross propaganda the types of which are spread by Hamas and its supporters will be met with a powerful chorus of truth and accuracy. 

Or something along those lines. It's not hard. 

And let me make the gender point again. A man who had any sort of father or male friends or even just played pick up basketball with other dudes  would not conduct themselves this way in front of Congress. Far left women from the circles these ladies are from have no such social code to adhere to and thus...we are where we are.

If A Game Sucks, Change the Rules

Something is rotten in academia as evidenced by how pathetic the Presidents performed in front of Congress. It comes into such clear focus, doesn't it? Somehow elite Universities can't find the language to describe why calling for genocide is wrong and against their values. Should we let in students who want to become serial killers? How about misogynists who would like to march in favor of murdering women? How about good old fashioned neo-nazis? If the current construction of elite Universities can't figure out why terrorism and genocidal ideations are inappropriate - maybe we need a new construction. Here are a few thoughts:

1) Get rid of tenure. Seems to me tenure hasn't protected Universities from group-think. So...if it's not serving its function, maybe it's past the expiration date. 

2) Fire all the crazy professors. Not so hard, was it?

3) Kick out all the crazy students. Was that so hard?

4) Fire all the crazy administrators. 

5) Cut tuition by 25%.

Colleges overnight could be great again.

3 Women Presidents

I know people like to say misogyny is the reason we've never had a female president. Perhaps there is an alternative explanation, evidenced by the answers the three women presidents of MIT, Harvard, and UPenn provided to Congress today about whether calling for the genocide of Jews constitutes harassment. 

I know that's not the fashionable thing to say, but come on, we're all on some level thinking and knowing that a lot of this DEI crapola is due to women not being able to deal with shit. And yes, of course, not all women...just the median and plus some...

Logging

Film: Guy Ritchie's The Covenant

Gyllenhaal on the down low becoming one of my favorite actors - he's following the model of Denzel or perhaps even Tom Cruise - bringing a level of intensity and craft to tried and true genre pictures for men. This movie is much better than most in the genre. And the first 30 minutes are pretty incredible. At some point, I'd like to watch it right next to the Hurt Locker. But the story suffers a bit from essentially being split into two separate movies. Not quite epic enough to pull it off. And the two pieces don't quite fit naturally - in fact, they may be too similar?

TV: The Bookie Pilot 

I really like this comic, Sebastian Maniscalco but boy this pilot is lame. I guess Chuck Lorre saw Curb and thought to himself: I can do that. He can't. Referencing Two and Half Men throughout this was quite painful to see. 

As a side note, Ray Romano has a little bit in here as a sad sack gambler. Romano and Seinfeld are an interesting contrast in how they handled their post sitcom-world triumph. Seinfeld became the flaneur, the man about town always glad-handing with the elite - the man above the fray. Romano seems to have gone in the opposite direction - playing the "loser" in tiny bit parts, content to be a struggling working man. Let's not forget Romano is worth upwards of 200 million dollars.

Hamas

For all the talk of Hamas "winning" they sure seemed eager for both the ceasefire and the ceasefire to continue.

Logging

Film: The Holdovers

Doubt I'll love a film as much this year. Such an anachronism in 2023. It's incredibly patient, maybe even slow. But builds so well to quiet revelation after revelation about its characters. Did not cheat any moment - nothing felt ham-fisted, gratuitous, or fake.

And yes, I'm going to buy Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. Shouldn't you?

Win

I agree with the basic premise in Richard Hanania's substack: the Palestinians must lose hope. Otherwise they won't change. The plan for the Israel and US should be this: win. Here's a theory about how:

1) Palestinians lose half of Gaza now. It becomes a buffer state. They lose all their Israeli privileges, ie work visas, etc. Maybe Israel operates the water and power from the buffer region or something if the Palestinians for some reason cannot provide basic services to themselves.

2) If Hamas pulls any more shit, they lose another half of what they've got. And so forth.

3) For every Hamas member the Palestinians arrest themselves or hand over to the Israelis, they get an apartment. For every mid level, a house. For every commander/leader: acreage in the buffer zone. 

4) Expel a random 50% of all students who broke student codes during the Israel-Palestine protests. Going forward any student who breaks the student codes gets no warning. They're gone. And yes, this means foreign students will lose their visas. Adios. 

The war would be over in a couple weeks. 

A Fake Country

An interesting challenge would be to describe the difference between a real and fake country.