Envy

Is what makes the world go round. This is right. 

The man could cure cancer, take us to Mars and miraculously walk on water and half this country would still hate Elon. Not surprising at all, unfortunately.

Psychotic

It is psychotic to want to see men playing in women's sports at a competitive level.

Hamas Documents

These are the people Israel is dealing with. There will be no peace for Israelis or Palestinians until Hamas and Hezbollah are gone. It will be fake and temporary. If you care about the Palestinians the fastest path would be surrender. If you cared about the Israelis...come on, you don't care about the Israelis...

Fire The Entire Commission

CA state commission in charge of coastal wildlife rejects SpaceX plans to shoot rockets because they don't like Musk's politics. 

And you wonder why Donald Trump appeals to people.

Tragedy

Yes, there are horrors in Palestine - a terrible situation for all. But made so by the intractable and ridiculous demands of Palestinian political leaders and all those who support them. Imagine if the Chinese who lived in Taiwan demanded their lands and property back - confiscated by the Chinese Communists. What if they conducted suicide raids on the mainland. What do they think would be happening to them? Would Americans be supporting them? Not in a million years. Plus, they aren't so stupid to think this could ever work.

My Lovely Alma Mater

Protestors at Pomona College celebrate October 7th in numerous violations of student codes.  

1) Disrupting classes, not letting teachers and admin into their work

2) Vandalization

3) Wearing masks on campus (many of these "protestors" are not students but activists from the area)

Easy solution - kick all participants out of the school. Make they pay for destruction to property. No arrests needed. 

Lunatics

Think Saleh was fired as Jets coach because he wore the Lebanese flag. These fools no nothing about football and see the world through one lens - Palestine. No one in the US or football fans even cares about this stuff. Delusional.

So Lame

Bring me back to the 20th century, please...

Who wants to play VR games on an omni-directional treadmill? Begin on a treadmill is a metaphor for boredom - go outside, people!

Vibes

The vibe I get from Kamala -- drunken class President who organized the 30 year high school reunion. Goes around hugging and slurring and reflecting how much she misses everyone.

Lies

From Scientific American about inequities between males and females in sport. 

In my casual observations as a youth soccer coach, by age 6 I can see significant athletic differences between boys and girls - strength, speed, coordination so much so that 95% of girls would simply not enjoy playing real competitive sport against boys. And for the record, 25% of boys do not like competing against other boys their age simply because of the physical challenges. So if you want to get rid of this gender stuff - and did a simple thing like made soccer co-ed - you would see probably about 1 girl per team of 8 actually playing and enjoying it. 

I Know

The Republicans are crazy, inept, and conspiracy-oriented. Yet there's quite a bit of evidence they'd be better at governing or at least not worse.

In Chicago, the public schools doubled per student spending over the past decade only to see test scores drop.

This is what happens when liberals govern. They spend more money for worse results. You see the same exact thing in California on both public schools and homelessness. Why? Because they create incentives for career bureaucrats to make up fake work for themselves in order to pay themselves more. The Republicans at least attempt to cut this stuff and do better by just not fixing what isn't broken.

All of DEI can be seen this way. It's all fake work. And costs money. To get worse results than if they had done nothing at all.

True

This is true about humiliation, but people also remember suicide bombings and fanaticism -- people know by instinct the order of things can be worse. Suicide terrorism is a glimpse into it.

Blacks and Browns

Are testing nearly six grades apart from Asian students in California. It seems like average black and brown students are 3 grades below grade level and average Asian students are nearly 3 grades above grade level. Even if you believe there might be some genetic and demographic aspect to these differences, I cannot think that could account for more than 1-2 grade levels at most. 

This is at least two trends - main one being a the total shit show of public education - bureaucrats trying to change how they teach basics like reading and math and no one in the system being held to any standards at all. And two, Asian parents not giving two fucks and insisting on their kids learning by paying for tutoring like Kumon to get it.  

My question: why not just outsource all math education to Kumon? It couldn't be worse than what the public school system is doing. Why won't they do it? Too many people making money for not doing shit.  

The Sopranos: Johnny Sack doesn't like the shoes

Answers

Now seems to be a great time to get deep answers about dark American secrets. Ask Joe Biden, he will forget what he's not supposed to say. "Mister President, was there a second shooter when Kennedy was shot?" "Oh yeah, definitely...right on the grassy knoll. I've seen the film." "Mister President, are there aliens living amongst us?" "Not living amongst us right now, but there are alien artifacts being studied by scientists in Area 51. Next question?"

Woops

CNN says Nasrallah agreed to a ceasefire before he was killed. Now remember Hamas and Hezbollah both had a ceasefire with Israel on October 6th.

For all the folks who claim to stand with the Lebanese Shia and Palestinians on "moral" grounds - does it give them any pause to consider these are groups are allied, funded, and controlled by the mullahs in Iran? Does that reality sink into their mind at all? Does it give them pause? 

Bring It On

Some students at Tufts want to "bring the war home." These folks are so weird - desperate for their lives to have meaning, but at the same time too scared to step off campus. 

When They Tell You Who They Are...

Believe them. A US progressive organization wants to "Flood the Streets of NYC" on October 7th.

Now This Is True

I woke up with a disturbing thought: with Kamala there is a near-certainty of more wars coupled with a lot of bullshit about "peace" initiatives. With Trump (rather, Trump-Vance) there is a possibility of peace coupled with loud saber rattling.

A Lie Agreed Upon

Both Israel and Iran are incentivized to lie about the damage done by the Iran missile attack. Iran, so it looks like they can retaliate. Israel, so it looks like they are under siege and continue their war on Hezbollah.

Weird times. 

 

Apparently, Charles Schulz had the same issues with organized kids sports that I have in 1972-1973. Hmmm...

Logging

Film: The Wild Robot

It would not surprise me to see this get a best picture nomination. I'm loathe to admit, but movie animation making large creative strides that cohere artistically unlike its live action counterparts.

Film: Megaopolis

I've encountered this phenomenon twice now in theaters where some part of the audience laughs, but I'm not sure whether it's at the movie or with the movie. Or perhaps both? For all the low audience numbers in the press, at the AMC on Monday night, this movie was half-full. Not bad although this might be the movie crowd sensing it won't last long in cinemas. One of these laughs was when a giant hand reached out of a cloud and grabbed the moon. Cut to Giancarlo Esposito sitting up in bed telling his wife "I just had a dream where a hand reached out of a cloud and grabbed the moon." Not sure what's going on here on a narrative, filmmaking, and audience level -- is it the equivalent of listening to drunk Uncle Bob on Thanksgiving? At another point in the movie Adam Driver says something to the effect, "Man should only love women," which elicited uncomfortable chuckles (I am assuming he was quoting Marcus Aurelius, btw).

I'm enjoying the contrarian takes on the film that its full of ideas and not boring, etc. But...come on now. What astonishes me is not all the clunky writing and uneven pace and plot holes but how the film wasn't all that pleasurable to look at. Consider the images in The Godfather films, The Conversation, or Apocalypse Now -- or even the documentary films he produced - Koyaanisqatsi or Powaqqatsi? It seems to me the quality of images has regressed.

For the first half of the movie I was thinking: this is brilliant - Coppola has managed at age 85 to make what feels like a first feature film. He's somehow regressed into his youth. But by the end, I no longer felt that way. 

I have one strange theory...this film was actually made to be re-cut by billions of people on the internet into their own remix versions of the film.

Film: Billy Madison

Kids loved it.

Film: Mission Impossible 

Kids weren't that into it, actually got frightened by first act since Ethan Hunt's entire team was murdered. I did not recall Emilio Estevez was in this film and gets impaled in the first act. That said, I think I'm doing them a service by showing them how DePalma places the camera...

I might start including the scene in the restaurant between Cruise and Henry Czerny as a scene study. Really awesome scene...

Lemme Get This Straight

Progressives are complaining about the US not putting brakes on Israel destroying Hezbollah. This is a terrorist organization with American blood on its hands and your position is that we should help it survive? That we should be ashamed of building the bombs that Israel used against them?

I guess their argument is that Hezbollah will just disappear on its own if we do nothing. Feel like that tactic has been tried for 30+ years. Did it work?

This Argument

That Israel created Hezbollah and Hamas by its actions is bizarre. It'd be like saying the Northern states caused the KKK by defeating the South in the Civil War. 

APAIC

Re: the claims made by folks like Macaes and Taleb that APAIC controls Congress, etc. If this were the case, why wouldn't the Arabs have formed a similar group to influence Congress in their favor? Lack of money? Doubt it. Nobility? Doubt it. They just can't accept the reality that Americans aren't going to be persuaded by suicide bombing campaigns and invasions of Israel. Sorry. Just go visit a 2nd grade classroom, they'll tell you all you need to know.

Is It Just Me

Or does Israel seem like they're handling all family business. 

To all the naysayers and Jihadist apologists: the receipts are all on twitter. 

Terrible Ideas

Both candidates have terrible, disqualifying ideas toward the center of their campaigns. For Trump and Republicans - its these tariffs and trade wars. Bad idea with a lot of unintended consequences. For Kamala, reparations and taxing unrealized capital gains. Can you think of a more polarizing idea than reparations? Can you think of a more clumsy and burdensome procedure than taxes unrealized gains?

The good, the bad and the ugly - Ecstasy of Gold

Can AI Do Better Than This?

Spending Money

When CA spends money on homelessness, we are giving money to people and organizations who "work" with the homeless -- not, actually, the homeless.

Must Watch Clip

On why parents of trans children will fight to death on the issue. She is right. They will never accept what they have done which is irrevocably harmed their own children. 

They Have A Name for this in the US

It's called the suburbs. 

Right wing dude moves family to Budapest in order to discover Montessori schools. Loony. 

Logging

TV: Alex Gibney Doc on the Sopranos E1

So far, great. My favorite bits are Chase's early days in LA.

And it reminds me -- this is so clearly the greatest tv show ever created. It's far better than The Wire or Deadwood, as great as those shows are. Only close competition is Seinfeld. 

Funny bit (not from the doc) by Chase:

It’s just very difficult to end a series. For example, ‘Seinfeld,’ they ended it with them all going to jail. Now that’s the ending we should have had. And they should have had ours, where it blacked out in a diner.

I Wonder...

What would happen if Hollywood just made normal movies that attempted to entertain the 1 billion or so English speaking adults in the world.

Logging

Film: Godzilla: King of the Monsters

I've never heard anyone talk about the Godzilla and Kong cinematic universe, but this has managed to pay many bills for some decent actors and keep the trams at WB working, while at the same time showing the total lack of imagination and exhaustion of Hollywood. This is what you get for trying to make movies for 1 billion Chinese people you've never met or care to meet.

Logging

Screenplay: The Killer 

I like my nihilism in art to avoid it in real life.

Kamala

My only real worry with Kamala becoming President is WW3 and nuclear holocaust. But if a supreme court justice retires and she can nominate a Democrat, those might cancel each other out.

Agree

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer the old school tech industry of navy blue suit / red tie IBM yes men and pocket protector autistic worker drones in beige cubicles. At least they didn't try to convince themselves they were cool visionary hippies

Also, they didn't feel the need to "change the world." They kinda sort of happened to (although are things so different, really?) but didn't go on and on about it. 

Random Memory

On 9/11, I was in central California at a PG&E office on a consulting assignment - my first post college job. For all intents and purposes, this was like being in a red state. They had set up a tv in the conference room where we were working. Everyone from my consulting team and the office were in and out all day watching the news. I remember an older white women was watching it unfold and she said "we gotta bomb them." I said "bomb who." She looked at me and said, "you know who."

The Case Against AI

Ladies and gents: an American politician:

In comments made on the forum of a porn website between 2008 and 2012, Mark Robinson called himself a "Black Nazi," said he supported reinstating slavery and -despite a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric - said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography.

and

On the porn website Nude Africa, Robinson also graphically described his own sexual arousal as an adult from the memory of secretly “peeping” on women in public gym showers as a teen, recounting the story as a memory he said he still fantasized about.

AI will never be able to come up with stuff and that's why there is a future for us.  

Logging

Film: A Woman Under the Influence

Johnathan Haidt and his fellow "free range" parents ought to watch or rewatch this film. As much as I'm persuaded that we over-parent -- the sequence of Peter Falk dragging the kids out of school, taking them to the beach, throwing them in the back of a pick up truck, and giving them beer to get to sleep without eating dinner seems me maybe actually NOT better than the parents today all taking kids to soccer practice. I dunno. 

Rules Based Order

The same people who are saying the Western "rules based order" is dead because of the way Israel is fighting Hamas and Hezbollah also claim Israel stole land from Palestinians in 1948. So - I'm confused -when did this "rules based order" die. It seems like it never quite existed in their minds and yet, it has suddenly just died. They act as though there was some fair system before (that they of course, rejected) and now that fair system has somehow become worse? Incoherent people. 

Israel's Opponents

Tough to take seriously the moral condemnations of Israel's beeper attack by Hamas and Hezbollah supporters. 

Ugh

Watching some of these Republican Senators grilling Maya Berry - ugly. I have zero tolerance for Hamas apologists, but the hyperbole about Jewish students being in danger on campus is out of control. I agree the pro-Hamas stuff is gross, but what the hell are Lindsay Graham and Josh Hawley gonna do about it? Nothing but blow hot air. Do Senators need to be involving themselves in this? Cannot the campuses resolve these issues? Are Hawley and Graham gonna go around reading all the protest signs and distinguishing between free speech and hate speech. Don't they have more important things to be doing? This just furthers my suspicion that the vast majority of our so-called elites just enjoy their status and like pretending to be doing their jobs. What they should actually be doing is figuring out how to sort out this new world order that's growing in front of our eyes. Instead, they want to pick the low hanging fruit.

Man...I don't know...

Logging

Film: Rebel Ridge

Rather enjoyable all things considered. Conceit of the action hero who wants to do no harm worked in the end. Casting all around not terribly exciting for me, though.

Book: Life's Work by David Milch

Fascinating he could write this thing while losing his mind. Tons of nuggets about life and writing along with some decent gossip. Quite a candid discussion of professional and personal failures. At rare moments, I get exhausted by his weighty approach to drama. Still, a singular voice and person - unlikely to have another like him.

Think For Yourself

The crazier the world gets, the more important it becomes to think and for yourself. Parent listened to the internet and the doctors and pretty is responsible for mutilating their child. Heinous. Tropes are often tropes for reasons - they are true.

"Putin Warns" 

NATO will be at war with Russia if Ukraine uses long range weapons. But according to Putin, he started the war to prevent NATO expansion into Ukraine. So...is anyone double checking his strategy...

Tyreek

Unpopular opinion over here...the issue isn't that Tyreek is a criminal or the cops are terrible racists...he's just dumb. Like really dumb. He's driving too fast, he gets pulled over. Why? Not because the world is racist, but the world doesn't want people driving 60 mph in a 40 mph zone. The community is going to want/have some type of police to enforce basic safety laws. He interprets this as racist, because he's dumb. And somehow doesn't understand that other people aren't cool with crazy drivers. So he starts protesting, acting a fool because he thinks he's a victim when in fact, he's being mildly irresponsible. Cops overreact because they are dumb too, just not quite as dumb as he. 

Logging

Film: Predator 2

In honor of the heat wave in LA, decided to rewatch. Not a stand alone classic as the original film, yet holds up as a maniacal genre exercise. Gary Busey and Bill Paxon are both in this film. Also, the film deserves quite a bit of credit of expanding and elaborating the so-called Predator mythology. 

Could pair well with Marked for Death as entries in the Jamaican gangs as villains sub-subgenre. 

Good Line

From the Lady Bird script:

They perform the next night. 

No fun. It’s no fun because their boyfriends are gay.

Israel-Hamas War

I'd be sympathetic to the so-called pro-Palestinian position if they proposed neutering the Iranians and starving Hamas financially rather than taking it out on the Palestinian people. But I never hear such ideas or proposals. 

Georgia School Shooting

Boy does this sad story have something for everyone. It's like a Rorschach test.

Liberals can point blame at gun laws and trans/homophobia, two of their favorite topics.

Conservatives can point blame at the public schools and radical trans-ideology brainwashing the kid.

One thing we can probably all agree on...I would guess...the father is freaking nuts for giving a gun to the kid. 

America can probably to a 75-80% degree agree with what makes good parents. I wonder if that's a starting point.

My Politics

Could probably best be described with an image - a man somewhere outside Indiana or Iowa wearing a Caitlin Clark jersey while watching an NFL football game.

No Change

Hamas murders seven innocent hostages, violating every single international and moral law known to man. But it changes nothing to the ceasefire crowd. It only reconfirms their priors. I would like to understand how one is expected to make a ceasefire with such a group? All those who want to stop the war, should join along with the coalition to end Hamas as quickly as possible so that the war will stop. And stop it will when Hamas loses the will and support to fight.

A New Approach to Cold War 2.0

I'm sure Xi, Putin, and Sinwar will be dissuaded to rein in their evil plans by auntie Kamala's charming insistence on having a slice of cake.  

Individual Stocks

Strong article on why to avoid individual stocks, but this detail particularly compelling:

Even among the 30 stocks with the highest cumulative compound returns the results were relatively modest—the median annualized return across the 30 stocks was 13.03%, while the mean was 13.05% and the largest was Altria Group’s 16.29%. How many investors would have guessed that one?

Meaning even if you manage to pick a winner (not as easy as it looks), the annualized returns are not what I'd call spectacular.

Okay...

Now we're getting somewhere with ideas about how to deal with student loans. Rubio proposes a one-time financing fee to be paid over the life of the loan. Loan to be paid back based upon income. Not bad.  

Alien 3

Another note: committing to the suicide of your main character makes for an unsatisfying ending. A character who sacrifices for another, perhaps. But not for some abstract, corrupt world we do not care about.

Logging

Film: Aliens and Alien 3 

Wow is Aliens an enjoyable film. So much wit. Humor. Full of small character moments. Full of life. In contrast, Aliens 3 incredibly dull and seems half-baked. A promising concept - crash landing into a prison environment where the inmates are devoutly religious, but boy the storytelling just doesn't work. They adopted an almost procedural element early on where Charles Dance (later to be Tywin Lannister) is a doctor who pairs with Ripley to try and figure out why strange deaths and events are occurring around the prison. Spoiler alert: it's an Alien. For some reason, each of them withhold quite a bit of information from each other, but they also sleep with each other. I'm watching the film on Hulu and think to myself has Hulu like skipped ahead on accident or done something weird with the cut? I'm honestly not sure. It feels like when you watch an airplane version of a movie. But maybe this is just the movie? I don't know. They have some other good ideas - back to one Alien, Ripley has an Alien inside her, and the prison has no weapons so they need to fight this Alien with primitive tools. But execution, not just ideas, matters. 

The most noticeable thing is how much less charming Ripley herself is in this film compared with the others.

Logging

Film: Alien Romulus 

A movie! A real movie, this is. Patient. Cinematic. Was it shot on film? It certainly looked like it. The downsides of the film: writing and star power. Now let me clear, the acting isn't "bad" but it lacks charisma. Perhaps tied to the writing. There's a noticeable lack of charm in current films - when you go back and consider the original Alien, or even Jaws, the characters are funny, dimensional, human. The characters in Romulus are basically victimized, bummed out, sad monkey, or neurodivergent. But they are diverse of course (which ulimately is meaningless because surprise, surprise mostly they all die). Question: does an Asian audience member care more when an Asian character dies? I wouldn't think so, but what do I know. 

Another problem with films like this - they fall into the same storytelling patterns as the original, so the surprises don't really land as surprises. It becomes more ritual. Like the birthday cake at a party. I guess with my drama, I'd like something more.

Still worth, the cinematic experience in IMax 100%.

Amen

Vanderbilt college president:

The university would not divest from Israel. 

It would not banish provocative speakers. 

It would not issue statements in support or condemnation of Israeli or Palestinian causes. 

Before the hour was up on Monday, he added that Vanderbilt would not tolerate threats, harassment or protests “disrupting the learning environment.”

It's quite easy. Now enforce the rules.  

Ayso-ification of the US

In public, ASYO constantly reiterates "winning doesn't matter" at the young ages. But this is a lie that no one accepts. Even 4-5 year olds start playing for fun any game they want to win. The question they are trying to answer is how not to become overly competitive and focus more on development. But this is a false dichotomy. I believe if people compete and play hard to win, they better accept losing since they tried hard. And feel like they've learned for next time. Saying "winning doesn't matter" encourages what? It encourages nothing. It encourages not playing because it suggests it doesn't matter. 

We see this mentality in our current world. Most people in the US don't see winning in Ukraine or Israel as mattering. This is why we limit how the wars are being fought. We assertlame guardrails on the fight - like bowling with bumpers in the lane. We seem to think it we somehow leverage our "superpower" these wars will eventually just go away and we can return to the way things were in 2012 or something. But that time is over. There is no returning. We should've encouraged Israel to go to war and win quickly. A protracted situation over there is Vietnam-esque. Israel used to know this and fight like this. I don't know what's going on with those folks anymore. 

Putin crossed a red-line and revealed the Europeans won't fight. Which we basically already knew. Scary times. We should know that if Putin isn't stopped it's going to be 100 more years of Russian aggression.

In Hindsight

All the signs were there that at some point a candidate would dance their way to the Presidency.

Why?

We all talk about the JFK-Nixon debate playing on TV vs Radio. Well, we are post-TV. We are in a world of clips. So what plays well on clips? Dancing.

Sorority girls have figured it out.

Dancing with the Stars has it figured out.

Raygun knows, too.

If Kamala wins, it will be known as the election that was decided by dancing. 

Random Notes Reading The Odyssey Graphic Novel

-Odysseus a bit of a man-whore

-Story jumps around episodically and through time quite a bit more than I recalled.

-Outfoxing cyclops was not as "brilliant" as I remember it, but like a little bit clever.

-Filed in the library under non-fiction graphic novels which seems a bit weird

-Reading aloud, I have quite a bit of trouble with the names

Interesting But Similar Dilemmas 

Religious people are happier, but religious societies are poorly governed.

Being thrifty is good for your personal well-being and stability, but bad for the overall economy.

Big heavy SUVs are safer for the drivers in the car, but less safe for the folks outside the car. 

David Milch Wisdom

"Irony ultimately is not an adequate informing principle for long-term conduct. It can get you laid or it can get you through a short conversation, but that's about it."

Random Notes Watching Jaws

-death of first girl seemed unrealistic for a shark attack but it works as a movie set piece

-nice withholding of information - when Sheriff arrives he's only responding to the girl's disappearance, but his deputy finds the body while Sheriff is present in the scene to give the needed emotional trauma to get our story going. a lot of bad scripts will "radio in" this moment instead...

-the psychological coherence of characters and dynamics are not entirely realistic...but work as melodrama. the sheriff slapped in front of the mayor by the 2nd victims mother - a powerful and needed emotional moment for the story. of course, it makes no sense. sheriff wanted to close beaches. mayor refused. but woman blames sheriff and he takes it.

-sheriff's flaw is often reported in screenwriting books as his fear of water, but this is not the case. his flaw is being "new" to the community and wanting to fit in. this is why he takes bad advice early on and listens to others, ie gets himself in trouble. 

-well handled exposition re the shark. show brody reading shark books (where he got them - who knows or cares?). later, he runs through ideas of territoriality, etc with dreyfuss - having already taught himself the theories. a lot of "expo" happens off screen. like they realize it's a shark attack and share this info with brody off screen - we just learn it through him typing up the police report

-a good number of "altman" esque filmmaking with multiple characters talking in the background while some type of action is foregrounded, but not heard completely. keeps the frame "full" and we take in quite a bit of information simultaneously. for instance, we track brody's son enjoying/liking the water while brody gets reports about a missing girl. we sense businessmen in the town worried for their livelihoods while at the same time brody is worried about the shark. 

-now they're out on the boat. a nice detail - they don't plan stay the night - but rather only do so because they got a single barrel in the shark and now feel as though they can track him. 

-in case you missed it, quint delivered the bomb. when i was younger, i thought they helped with the targeting or something but now i realized they literally were the ship that carried the bomb from the us to wherever the planes were parked. funny how one can hold onto a small misconception for decades. 

UPDATE:

-many filmmakers would've made the section of the film on the boat the third act, but in Jaws it's like a whole movie-within-a movie. i've heard it said before Jaws is two movies - a movie about a sheriff trying to keep the town safe and then a movie with 3 guys on a boat. i think that is right. 

-the streaming service flowed right into the option of watching The Meg, which I had never seen before. So to be a good citizen of the cinematic world, I gave the movie a shot. I should mention that I also watched Only Angels Have Wings this week, the old Howard Hawks film. Not a bad trio of films by way of comparison. All deal with characters interacting with physical tasks and vehicles - boats, submersibles, etc in Jaws/The Meg and airplanes in OAHW. Some overlapping themes of duty, dealing with death and grief, etc. But all three movies seems as if they are from entirely different civilizations. The understanding of human nature in Only Angels Have Wings is so far beyond The Meg, you would think some type of alien AI made the film. Maybe it did for all I know. Jaws is legit tho and reflects on an underlying humanity of the characters, but I feel like it ultimately is more of a movie than anything else. Like a human element of the story is subordinate to some other thing entirely - I guess what you might call cinema. It doesn't offend me, yet I somehow feel this is "less" that the moments in OAHW even though from a movie/entertainment perspective Jaws is more impressive. The Meg I turned off and was laughing out loud at the film. Let me say this as kindly as possible - this is movie made by and for retarded people. And when I say retarded, I mean not those with down syndrome, but type of person who was called retarded as an insult on the playground. 

Charlie Munger

"I'm used to things not working perfectly. So why should I expect my society is always marching upwards because it has for a long time? I believe you just adjust to whatever society turns out to be. And you do the best you can and that's all any human being can do and it's all I'm going to do."

Silver Lining

While I keep reading about all these weird things they teach in public school like sex is "assigned at birth," there is one silver lining. Schools are so slow with material, you can easily teach basic mammal biology to a kid long before so they can spot the BS.

John From Cincinnati

Feels like the time to finally watch...  

Is it Cake...

Can only end in one way: Mikey Day cuts himself in half to reveal that in fact, he was cake the entire time.

Gonna Get Ugly

I have this lingering suspicion the economy is going to get ugly, but I can't tell which way to play it. We might have a melt up - a worse version of our present situation where inflation just continues upwards and envelopes start costing $50 a pack and coffee hits $9 a cup. In which case, it's smart to hold stocks and fixed mortgages. On the other hand, we might see a big ole bust in the stock market the result of the chickens coming home to roost on all the government fueled spending from COVID, etc. In which case it would be smart to hold short term bonds and pay down the mortgage with these inflated stock prices. 

Or I could do what I normally do: nothing.

The Biden Economy 

Caitlin Clark can't afford Caitlin Clark.

Also Not Surprising

Impact on savings of sports bettors.

So dumb to legalize sports betting and marijuana. People who like to smoke weed and bet suddenly become libertarians when it comes to these single issues and Dems see "harmless" ways to get more money in the public sector. Example of government exploitation of citizens.

Not Surprising

Given the confusion and dysfunction of Democratic policies during the COVID lockdown, none of this surprises me about our mixed up policies between Ukraine and Israel.

The result of believing in secular fantasies and lacking imagination. 

Thrifty Ice Cream

Took the kids last night. $2.79. Good deal, don't get me wrong. But I remember when it cost $1. Was that 20 years ago? Does it make sense that things from 20 years ago should cost 3x? Maybe? Or is it just ice cream?

UPDATE: VTI is about 5x since early 2000s, so had I invested that $1 in the SP, it would be now about $5 so maybe that Thrifty is a good deal still. 

Envelopes

For the first time in a decade of marriage, I needed to buy envelopes. One, we don't mail much stuff. And two, we had a big box. A box of 100 cost $27 at Office Depot. $27. For envelopes. I suppose if it lasts another decade, it'll be worth it. But still. Seems like a lot.

Logging

Film: Trap

If there's a scale of madness to greatness, Shyamalan tilted mad long ago. In this film, he casts his daughter as an Olivia Rodrigo type pop star who around the midpoint decides to take it upon herself to trap the serial killer who was up until that point, the protagonist of the film.

I was entertained.

Age

An unpleasant aspect of getting older is getting injured doing things that were once routine. 

Logging

Book: Pick-Up by Charles Willeford

One of the most depressing novels I've ever read. Still, wonderful writing. I'd read anything by the author if I had the time.

If This Is True...

And the Biden admin gave up Mossad agents to the Iranians, we should just give over world control to the Chinese. 

Trump - Musk

Listened to a good portion. Trump makes some good points. On foreign policy he's got this whole position that's compelling: Russia would've never invaded Ukraine. And Israel-Hamas wouldn't have gone as far as it has. Counterfactual impossible to prove, but he said something that rings true: Biden's managed to anger both the Palestinians and Israelis - something that's hard to do. Really remarkable -- only there are thinkers out there who predicted that's exactly what would happen. 

Logging

TV: Bad Monkey Pilot

Hard to make Vince Vaughn and John Ortiz boring, but... 

Race

Any discussion of race ends up being full of half-truths and misleading representations. Take for instance Kamala Harris. Is she Black, Indian, or both? Or is she white? She has an ancestor who owned slaves. Quite a large number of black americans probably do. Would this mean paying reparations to themselves? 

Trigger Warnings

Should only be used ironically. 

Vibes

If the Dems plan to run on vibes and Republicans counter with this, Trump wins. 

Are you better off now than you were when I was president?

Logging

TV: House of the Dragon S2

Nearly unforgivable error with this season - no climax. Are you f-ing kidding me? So ready to throw in towel with the show, but it's hard. I'm basically a GoT completist - I think I've read every single book published and seen every episode...

Horrible.

Astrology

Whenever I begin to think screenwriting is a sham or waste of time, remind me to consult this study on astrology. 

A few years ago, I walked into a class where some of my students were in class early discussing astrology...and I caught the tail end of their discussion and they were like "oh...do you ever get a reading?" And I said: "No. Let's start class."

Ah Ha Moment

On kids. 

I had a belief that if they feel better they’ll behave better, and I am now leaning towards if I guide them to behave better they’ll feel better.

Agreed. 

The Biggest Scam In America

Is either social security or student loans. 

I bet the majority of social security payments basically go to rich (millionaire plus) old folks who own homes and who wait until 70 to claim. These are paid by young working folks who can't afford homes and probably have very little assets themselves. Why do liberals never bring up this scam?

OMG

This lady needs to be hired for SNL immediately for her Kamala impressions, but she won't. This level of comic incisiveness is reserved for Republicans only. 

150%

On parenting today:

The vast majority of kids described as “anxious” “has big emotions” and “has meltdowns” (a term I never heard until about 10 years ago) who are referred to my practice simply need parents to be firmer and engage less when their kids tantrum and demand things.

In your home anyway, you will get what you tolerate.

Hilarious

Taleb says "peace without justice is just submission." 

He's so full of shit on this topic. Ask all the dissidents from the Islamic Republic about justice. Or the victims of the Chinese Communists. Or the people of Ukraine and Georgia. Nope. Only Israel is held to a standard. His allies on the Gaza issue are three regimes who only ask for submission from opponents: Iran, China, and Russia. Fraud.

Peak Irony

Trans activist complains about Hamas supporters hijacking their pride events.

Pot meet kettle.

Republicans

Some interesting takes on the "vibes" shift. If I were the Republicans, I would frame the election around the concept of builders vs. bureaucrats. Who do you want as President? The public school principal and DA? People who regulate or people who build? While Walz and Harris sit at desks and wait for incoming calls, we are the ones who go out into the world and do what it takes to build hotels, write books, and make money. So you pick - the CEOs or the school principals. 

Anyhow, that's what I would do.  

Masks

Is the thing we spend the majority of our energy on really just producing various masks, protecting us from acknowledging how fragile we and the world actually are?

I think what really freaks us out is when we get a glimpse of those fragilities.

Logging

TV Show: Sugar S1

Watched the entire thing over a few nights. Enjoyed it quite a bit. If I image pitching the idea anytime over the past 10 years, I could predict a response of howling laughter. And yet, the show is pretty good. Not great. 

 

Olympic Boxers

My prior statements on the matter stand even though there's been a lot more info released.

Olympic Boxer

So now I guess the debate is whether the Algerian boxer is a man or a woman? Anyone have suggestions about figuring this out? I propose the old fashioned test: was the Algerian born with a dick or a vagina? I'm open to other suggestions if they are more simple or clear. But if they end up being more complicated, I say lets stick with the original.

Batshit Crazy

Olympic female boxer surrenders after 46 seconds - she isn't gonna fight a man.  

Where are all the feminists now? So-called western feminists are not feminists and have never been feminists. They are careerists. The only issues they actually care about are those that help them achieve career success. That's it. They care about "equal pay" and freedom to abort pregnancies when they are inconvenient.

Their silence about women in the Muslim world for the past 25 years is the entire story. Now, the silence comes closer to home on how transgenders impact women in sport. 

Everyone sees you on zooms twirling your hair and cheering for Kamala and doing Tik Tok videos from your office while your supposed "sister" is being beaten up in the ring by a man. Under rules you support.

UPDATE: And that's my nice take. The more delusional folks are persuaded by all the female-centered action movies where little skinny girls beat the shit out of grown men. Or re-edited soccer advertisements suggesting women could play just like men. Folks...that's propaganda you fell for. These are fools who shouldn't be allowed in positions of any type of power.

Logging

Film: Deadpool and Wolverine

Will Ryan Reynolds cause the decline of Western civilization or is he merely the worst movie star of his generation? I can't decide. 

The movie's insufferable. I'm foolish to do so, but I can't help but make a connection with the nihilism in this "entertainment" and the chaos in the world brought on by our fecklessness as a world power.

A few points:

1) For all the insane gratuitous violence none of it matters because all the characters can regenerate themselves. Who cares about any of the fights when no one can actually be injured? I feel this bears some resemblance to how Americans view the wars in Gaza and Ukraine - that the very real violence is somehow just a stage before regeneration of those societies.

2) Deadpool very badly wants to be part of a "team" and to serve a cause greater than himself. The only problem: Marvel Studios can't come up with a cause! The cause is to prevent some squiggly lines on a screen from not going blank. They call this timelines. So apparently, Deadpool is preventing his timeline from being erased. This has about as much emotional impact as erasing a line on a piece of paper to the audience. Thankfully for Marvel, the audience for this film doesn't care. They just care about the gay sex jokes. I get it. I'm old and frumpy. But later on in the film, we're supposed to get even more worried about the bad girl erasing "all the timelines." So a lot more squiggly lines. Oh no! So Marvel here is either cultivating or aping young Americans desire for accomplishment and heroism. Audiences want to be heroes by serving a cause greater than themselves - but see - the cause no longer matters. The cause can be squiggly lines. Or Palestine. Or fill-in-the-blank.

The world of Deadpool is this: disgusting levels of violence but no one actually dies or even get hurt, flirtation with no actual sex or love, and not a single genuine human interaction. Its a long insult comedy routine disguised as a movie. Give me Andrew Dice Clay any day.