These Shootings
I'm sorry, this sounds like the opening of a Grisham or Forsyth novel. The obvious target being the MIT nuclear scientist and the rest a cover up. 48 year old men don't explode in envy over a colleague they knew 20+ years ago. They don't go back to their graduate school and start shooting people. Something is very fishy about this whole incident.
Greatest Generation, No...
But perhaps the most important.
This article about Gen Xers made me emotional.
The world without question is going mad. And I think Gen Xers are just about the only reliably sane demographic left. We just need to do the thing we're most uncomfortable with: exercising authority.
PS - This is the part that got me:
Inspired by the D.I.Y. ethos of the 1970s punk movement, artists decided that, in today’s online parlance, you could just do things. “The wave I rode up on was, ‘Even if all you’ve got is a ukulele, get up onstage and say your truth.’ It was like a post-punk testifying,” says Phair, whose debut began as three self-produced cassette tapes she recorded, under the name Girly-Sound, in her childhood bedroom. “There was a certain amount of, ‘If you have something to say, you’re as legitimate as anyone with all this money,’” she adds. Says Stephen Malkmus, 59, the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of Pavement, whose debut album, “Slanted and Enchanted” (1992), was made in the home recording studio of the band’s drummer: “Just being able to talk about your art in a smart way was as much as what it was itself. So you could have something a little threadbare and shoddy and held together by gum and string, but you could defend it intellectually. That gave me some confidence to maybe not be so professional.”
Palisades Rebuild Disaster
A year gone by and not a single home rebuilt. A mayor way in way over her head. But we always knew it would be this way because CA Democrats are not selected for their competence but whether they look good on the Benetton Ad.
So Called Generational Wealth
I wonder what all those Millenial and Gen Z white and Asian dudes who got aced out of colleges and the job market will do with their "generational wealth" and "privilege." My guess is that it won't go to helping any minorities or non-profits or liberal think tanks.
I also think they'll figure out how to hide it before the others figure out how to confiscate it.
100%
Not a single person who supports affirmative action or diversity in hiring ever gives up their job.
This is how you know the whole thing is bullshit.
UPDATE: This guy saying the same thing.
Bondi Beach
Four cops sitting around doing nothing for 20 minutes while the terrorist attack occurred.
Same story from the school shooting last year when cops don't react quick enough. Need to evaluate the training for this shit.
Awful Weekend
Foiled LA terrorist plot: all this terrorist shit is warm up and modeling for others.
And I agree with this: terrorism ends when fear changes sides.
Hamas Destroyed Baby Formula
During a baby formula crisis in Gaza last year, Hamas destroyed shipments of it coming in. Why do people like Bruno Macaes and Nassim Taleb who seem to follow every moment of the Gaza war not discuss or report this? Sometimes I think there is something deeply wrong with the mind of people who cannot comprehend the depth of evil Israel and the Palestinians face...if you're talking about about how to get rid of Hamas, the rest of the discussion is completely pointless.
Logging
Film: Zootopia 2
Pretty lame film. I fell asleep. But the worst element was the anti-Israel, anti-settler colonist messaging. Let be upfront: there's such a thing as the law of conquest. The Jews conquered the land of Israel in the same way the Communists conquered China and Eastern Europe. If you don't believe in the law of conquest, what you mean in reality is a forever war. Should we restart the Korean war? Should we demand the Northern peninsula back since the US controlled it at one point? Should the Ottoman Turks get to reclaim Iraq? It's like playing basketball to 21 and then continually extending the game when you don't get the result you want.
On what planet do the losers get to set the terms of the peace. None. So get with the program people.
High Comedy
So in addition to Quentin Tarantino and Barak Obama, now Olivia Nuzzi releases her favorite paranoid thriller films from the 70s. Why not?
Thanksgiving Weekend in California
Two semi-local news stories: a shoot out at a kids birthday party in Stockton and a shootout at a Santa Clara mall. Both targeted, but horrific. Just a glimpse into Gavin Newsom's California. I simply don't see how anyone thinks this guy has done a good job as either mayor or governor. Does anything matter to Democrats other than "electability."
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Film: Caught Stealing
A film right up my alley. Crime film set in 1998, centered around an ex-baseball player, made by an auteur filmmaker, terrific cast. And I enjoyed the film, but nevertheless felt like it missed the mark. How? Tone. Meant to be darkly humorous and none of the comedy worked. I didn't laugh even though I could tell the moments were supposed to be funny. I found it a bit odd for Aronofsky to be doing a sort of Guy Richie impersonation. I'm all in favor of filmmakers evolving their style and so I support the effort, but I can't really say it landed for me. Some nice shots but tbh, I'm not sure I could've identified it as an Aronofsky film without the credits.
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TV: All Her Fault miniseries
By the end, this show becomes unintentional Trump propaganda. Because the majority of Americans would rather live in our actual 2025 world with Trump as Pres than the world this show imagines. Could've been a satire of middle aged female madness, but instead takes itself seriously. Beyond being bad on every dramatic level, the key thematic takeaway of the show is it is perfectly morally acceptable to steal babies, murder husbands, and participate in corruption to get your kid into fancy private schools . The "peaceful resolution" of the show - is two middle aged women sitting together drinking wine - having jettisoned their husbands in different manners. For all the decades of investments in female empowerment, this is the big beautiful worldview they can come up with? Drinking good wine and sitting together with a bestie. Shit, the Sicilian ladies in Godfather had it better than these women - at least they had more people to sit around with and a better view.
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Film: Sirat
Three terrific elements here: faces of the cast, location filming, music. A few sequences - shots - that were incredible. But the movie? Disinterested in the characters or telling a story which makes it hard to enjoy. I mean people aren't avatars for ideas - especially not very interesting ones.
TV: All Her Fault
Ridiculous, terrible, laughable, but somehow watchable. Even engaging. Should be studied why this shit sometimes works.
TV: The Chair Company
Makes me laugh.
Book: Adventures of Pinocchio the original book
One of the best children's books I've read. Dark, weird, full of wonderful lessons about life.
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Film: Frankenstein
There is a sequence in the film when the monster picks up Paradise Lost to read and that's when I turned to my wife and said, "let's turn this off" and she agreed.
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Was this GDT's idea? Or Netflix's? Hey guys - I was thinking here we could do a sequence where the monster goes around helping on a farm and learns to become an English professor. Good?
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The two new and era defining genres of the last 10 years: Middle Aged Woman Wanders Around and Aktschually, the Monster Is The Good Guy.
I Find This To Be The Weirdest Thing In The World
Never ever once have I ever "wondered" about black people's hair, never ever felt the urge to "touch it," never ever to be honest, ever thought about it at all. It might be the least interesting topic of all topics in the entire universe. I'm being serious here. But I hear black women talk about this a lot - and here is Michelle Obama - who one would think might have other things to think about or do - lecturing whitey about how not to be worried about her hair. What the hell is going on here? What is she even talking about? She's straightening her hair because of white beauty standards? WTF? If that were so, just don't do it. I don't like Facebook. So I don't do it. I don't like pilates. So I don't do it. Seriously. How much power and money and worldwide acceptance does one need in order to cut and wear their own hair the way they want? My sense is that everyone on the planet save for young children pretty much get the choice on how to wear their hair. It barely costs a thing. And yet here we have Michelle Obama - pretty much the closest thing we could have to a queen on earth - complaining that she can't wear her hair the way she wants. If you think on this, it is seriously the most bonkers thing on the planet. And tells you something about people who ask you to think or believe or do something that helps validate them-- they'll never be happy.
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Film: Red Rooms
By no means do I recommend this film to the average viewer, but fans of serial killer stories and independent cinema - someone who might like a film like Holy Spider - for them, I'd call it a "must see." Or, Ryan Murphy fans should watch it to see how it can done in a more interesting manner.
That this film is more or less unknown suggests to me the death of indy cinema, murdered by wokeness. The film isn't easily categorized but it is "about" the depravity lurking for us within the internet. Which seems to me "relevant" and "timely" and "purposeful" all those buzzwords the wokie folks tell us are important. It initially presents itself as a courtroom thriller, but quickly jettisons the concept. On the surface, it is also about women who fall in love with criminals and killers, but that's not the most interesting question asked in the film.
The movie got reviewed and can be found on AMC+ via amazon prime. On Rotten Tomatoes, it is one of these films with 75+ critical reviews and only 250+ audience reviews - now there are entire categories of films whose central viewership are "critics". I don't mean critical darlings. I mean literal critics - if you add up these numbers we are talking about 30% of the people who've actually seen (and I suppose rated) the film are critics. That's just weird.
All that said, it was "refreshing" to feel like I "found" a film - a recent movie that was fascinating and totally flew under the radar.
Gavin Newsom's Legacy
UCSD students can't do basic grade 1-grade 8 math. This is UCSD, one of the more prestigious UC colleges - oddly, known for their science programs. This isn't some right wing conspiracists calling this out, this is coming from the faculty who observe through the classroom, the kids can't do basic shit. Why has this happened? They will say learning loss from the pandemic. Okaaaayyy... Maybe if the AP scores went down a bit, or the kids couldn't do calculus like they used to. No...this is remedial stuff. Stuff my elementary school kids could actually do. And we have freshman college students unable to pass these basic tests.
Why has this happened? We all know why. The entire CA educational establishment spent the last decade working on "equity" issues, DEI, and putting up land acknowledgements while lowering any and all standards to laughably low levels. And to cover it all up, they make it illegal to NOT participate in the DEI of it all. So they insist on letting in total incompetents into college. The total incompetents they refused to teach for 12 years or hold to any standard.
So why will we get socialism in NYC and rent control in our cities? Because people cannot do math.
Japan-China-Taiwan
While China - I suppose - has a claim on why they should "control" Taiwan, it being in their sphere of interest...Japan could make a similar, counter-claim. And note, both have. If you go to Taiwan, it was ruled by Japan from something like the 1860s-1945. A lot Japanese buildings and structures everywhere.
Attack the Central Nervous System
I actually quite agree with this idea: the Republicans should get rid of the charitable tax deduction. It's a no lose for them. If Dems "complain" about hurting the non-profits they can retort: we're not stopping you from contributing to non-profits - just contribute your post-tax money all you want. But of course, the Republican churches might complain. I'd still say the same thing...
Genocide
The different between the holocaust and the Palestinian "genocide" is the Jews in the holocaust didn't strategically trigger the holocaust to shame the Germans in the eyes of the rest of the world.
Also, the Palestinians modeled their resistance on the FLN in Algeria. The Algerians wanted to collapse the French colonial state by triggering a nasty response by the French such that the French couldn't live with themselves. I view this as a tragic strategic miscalculation by the Palestinians. See the difference between the French and the Israelis - the Israelis have no home country to go back to. So they picked a fight with the only group with more at stake than them. And this group happens to be richer, better organized, and more moral. So that explains why the Palestinians keep losing.
Middle Age
When buying things, I now think about how to dispose of them. Where will they go? Too easy to buy shit and pile up junk. Then you need to buy the space to store it. We should all think about these things more. I told my wife when we bought a Peloton it would become an expensive clothes hanger. It's not even that, just something in the way now.
Logging
Book: Dog Soldiers
Quite an exciting and good read. Conjures up 70s vibes of strangely competent individuals lost in a hellscape of moral degeneracy, corruption of authority, and violence. Also, been awhile since I read a what I'd call a drug book - where not only the characters use, but its quite clear the author used as well. Can't say that about many things you see mainstreamed these days. I don't know if my reading comprehension went down, but sometimes I got lost when certain characters were discussed or referenced in the story. It felt like the writer assumed I knew who these people were, but I didn't. I sometimes get this same sensation reading George Higgins books. Not sure what that's about.
Rent Control
Leftists going for rent control all over the place. Why don't we call this what it is: welfare. These are for the most part able bodied people who want to live in awesome areas but can't afford it. They want welfare from landlords instead of earning more money or moving to a more affordable place or cutting back on luxuries.
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Film: House of Dynamite
Or is it better understood as a movie-of-the-week with high production value?
I loved the opening 5 minutes but did not at all like where the movie went structurally or thematically. My thematic takeaway from the film was that people in really important positions of power will get distracted by small family matters when they should be focused on their task.
Just Throw Them Out
Students demanding for a professor to be fired because he is Jewish and served in the Israeli military in the 1980s. Violates every standard of any functioning instution.
Obama
Obama out here doing ads in favor of Prop 50. I'm old enough to remember when we went through this whole redistricting fiasco and "solved" the issue with an independent commission. Now, not enough for CA Democrats to control the entire state, they need to rig more votes to seize back control of Congress. Nice work, supposedly the party of "democracy."
Last time Obama stuck his nose in CA politics we got Karen Bass instead of Caruso and our city burned. And rebuilding remains a distant pipe dream. The homeless issue is as bad as ever.
So again, Obama will probably help swing 50. And again, California will descend into the blue abyss.
"Open Air Prison"
A reminder the reason the Palestinian territories are a so-called "open air prison" is because they launched the 2nd infitada, a wave of suicide bombing attacks on Israel and Israel did what they needed to do to stop it. Also, a reminder the far Left at the time said "There's nothing you can do to stop suicide attackers," and yet, Israel basically did. The same way they said "You can't defeat Hamas" because Hamas is an idea. And yet, Israel did. What the Left should really say is simply: we root for Hamas and hope they will defeat Israel. Just be more honest.
New York
8 million plus, you can't find a Republican who can beat Mandami. In New York fricking City. What a joke.
You make your bed, I guess.
I don't get this whole Republican movement to "run away" from cities and industries. Are these people the biggest pussies on the planet? What do I expect of them? To compete. To win. To fight.
Chunky AOC
Some pics on internet have AOC looking a little chunky...she's misspeaking a lot last night. That's a sign of preggo brain. You heard it here first. No punishment if I'm wrong.
Hamas Slaughter
The only interesting thing about a Palestinian on Palestinian bloodbath will be how the global left finds a way to blame Israel.
Trans Stuff
Seems to be fading away amongst the youth. Soon it will feel like a Hootie and the Blowfish tattoo, only tougher to remove. I predict a great number of once trans people who will hold fury in their heart toward their parents and school counselors and therapists who lead them down the primrose path. What is the job of an adult but to look out for the long term interests of children who are not yet capable of doing it for themselves?
Israel
How come people who hate Israel always end up in alliance with the most heinous, cartoonish villains on the planet. Doesn't it ever give them pause? If they had half-a-brain they'd see how it undermines their argument. Or perhaps it is the argument itself that attracts the cartoonishly evil...
Good Lord
Why don't we just flush the state down the toilet if we vote this Katie Porter in. I didn't think our CA politicians could be worse than Newsom or Harris or Gascon or Bass. We can. Here she is.
And all this makes 100% sense...abusive toward her husband, divorced, had a restraining order against her. She seems like an evil mom from school who everyone avoids like the plague. I wouldn't invite her to a party, much less vote for her.
Neo Confederates
I never bought any of the civil war talk but I now witness Democratic politicians routinely arguing to not obey the law. The basic concept of a sanctuary city is an excuse not to obey immigration law. Why they do this, I have absolutely no clue whatsoever. Who dreams of a borderless, lawless world? Psychopaths.
My question now - since cities feel entitled to not follow Federal law, will they also not follow state law? Newsom wants to pass this housing bill and LA / Karen Bass is against it. If he signs it, will she obey it? Why? Why not? How is it any different than the immigration law and enforcement?
Boomers - A Final Act
Interesting observations of boomer protestors raging at the dying of the light.
Methinks it possible for the boomers to have a noble last gasp, some sort of massive effort towards returning America to the type of place they grew up.
Yes
It does feel like the best model of this new world is that we're all being forced into a giant D&D game. Personally, I preferred the world ruled by jocks although I see why it didn't work for a lot of people. Problem is, the techies and other weirdos who don't see how bad this D&D game is for normies. In fact, they really can't.
Best evidence of my claim: people having less sex.
Fascinating
I guess this is what they mean globalize the infitada.
On the cusp of either ceasefire in Gaza or total destruction, numerous Islamicist organizations attack across Europe and Turkey. Not a coincidence these things.
Radio Silence
The best offer for ceasefire in Gaza since October 7th, arranged by Trump with support from all the major Arab players in the region. Where is the "ceasefire now" crowd? Radio silent. These are the same groups who were organized enough on October 8th to put out Hamas shrines. Now they are actually close to getting what they "claim" they want and silence.
It tells you everything. They don't want a ceasefire at all. They want what Hamas wants. Murder, mayhem, and death.
Logging
Script: The Apartment
Speaking of masterpieces, this is one. Irony upon irony upon irony. And the entire second half of the film takes place in - you guessed it - The Apartment.
But what makes it masterful is how the drama captures how life and love works.
With One Battle, yes there is a theme nicely articulated in this review. But let's be fair, this is PTA telling the audience something whereas Wilder is revealing the audience something. There's a difference.
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Film: One Battle After Another
A PTA action film lauded by critics and letterboxd viewers as a masterpiece? A movie night out with the boys where PTA and Leo and Chase Infiniti show up to the theater to introduce the film? This should be just about as good as it gets for me at this point in life. And it was a great evening and an enjoyable film.
But a masterpiece? That is the question isn't it? Or, that's the question we are being forced to contemplate in THE DISCOURSE. I would argue too soon to tell and I'll need to watch it at least 1-2 more times to process. But...here are some thoughts-
1) My personal favorite parts of the film are the emotional dad out of place in this new world stuff both from Sean Penn and Leo. But is this masterful? I feel like every B and C level dad action film contains similar jokes and social commentary. Is it elevated here because of the intensity of Leo and Penn's performances? I suppose. Does it have more prestige power? For sure. Is it particularly innovative or insightful? Not really. But I still really like it.
2) The camera work and scene work is alive and playful and the film itself propulsive. It didn't drag. I was pulled along the entire time. For that, the film should be lauded. I have no hesitation about wanting to go back to watch the movie a second time in the theater. Maybe that's an indication of a masterful work...probably the best indication, actually.
3) The plot and social commentary. Here's where I differ most from the consensus. While I see how people feel argue the film is very "of the moment," I think the movie has nothing to do with how it feels to be alive right here and right now. And perhaps this is my biggest gripe with the film. For all the contemporary themes and superficial relevance, this feels like a hallucination of a world that doesn't even remotely exist. In other words, I don't buy it. A white power secret organization? A black nunnery? A weather underground type of terrorist network? As compared to say, Eddington, these storytelling elements feel caught between a Roger Moore James Bond film and There Will Be Blood.
4) The Comedy. Yes, the theater laughed. People keep saying the film is funny. I laughed at moments. But let me be honest here - the laughs felt a bit like being at a party where other folks are high and finding something HILARIOUS and you're laughing, but not from deep within the soul. The bits don't seem to me funny on the page. They aren't written jokes, but rather played jokes. They depend on the performances so much. On some level, credit must be given to PTA to get that humor out of the serious actors but again...we come back to the masterpiece question. A masterpiece would have better writing. There, I said it.
5) The Car Chases. Some of the best and most innovative I've ever seen and one of the main reasons I would like to watch the film again.
Illiteracy is a Policy Choice
And Californians support it and vote for it. Despicable. This is the legacy of Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Eric Garcetti, Karen Bass, and all the other CA politicians of their generation.
Violence
Right wing vs left wing violence right now, today strike me as differing in character. My impression of shootings and attacks coming from the "right wing" are committed largely by lunatics with no coherent worldview, and are externally coded as "right wing" by the media and the Left. To give an example, the guy who shot up an Asian massage parlor. He was motivated by sexual rage and racism, which in and of themselves are not what I'd call political motivations. The guy who attacked Nancy Pelosi's husband seemed to me primarily delusional and conspiratorial. You can argue he had "political" motivations, but them seem to me dwarfed by his madness.
But left wing violence strikes me as primarily and explicitly political. Meaning there there are coherent political goals being organized through the violence. And these political goals actually have different kinds of support throughout what we would call The Left. Many lefties overly support Luigism, they wish cast "taking out Trump," and support attacking ICE. Most sane lefties will not overtly support certain tactics - like shooting up tv stations and ICE facilities, but they basically support the broader idea of opposing fascism by any means necessary. They stop short of supporting the violence against Kirk, but many of them feel he "brought it upon himself."
Now consider how the Right responds or would respond to the Asian massage parlor shooting or the Paul Pelosi attack. No where on the Right will have anyone saying anything about how the Asian masseuses "brought it upon themselves" or that the Paul Pelosi attacker "had a point." Not even close. In fact, the right sees these people for what they are: nuts. The Left sees their assassins/attackers as "going overboard" but "not totally wrong."
So yeah, there is a difference in character here and one needs to be very blind not to see it.
Liberal World Order
Another day, another leftist political murder. At this rate, it's about once a week now.
Apparently, the guy attempted to shoot up an ICE facility, mistakenly killed two illegal immigrants and then shot himself. I cannot imagine a better metaphor for what leftism looks like to most Americans these days. Incompetence, unintended consequences, and suicide. And you wonder why we have Trump.
Draw The Line
Libs now saying "we draw the line" at government censorship. Were they vocal about Biden admin demanding Facebook take down information about vaccine side effects? Were they equally upset about Obama weighing in on Roseanne Barr's cancellation? Or the use of progressives use "soft power" within institutions to censor?
Do I like what Trump admin did? No. Do I think what Kimmel said was that bad? Not really. But let's face reality here - we're in a culture war that the liberals dialed up to 11. Conservatives are gonna punch back using the leverage they can where they can. They found something here. Is this a chilling moment about free speech? I don't see it as some sort of different boundary that's been crossed. Does anyone? Really? Yes, I want a detente. But what does that mean for Kimmel in reality? Back on the air for 2-3 more years? Then a podcast. Is our body politic much different either way? No.
The Leave Us Alone Crowd
From the left wing perspective, how should the "leave us alone" crowd fight back against left-wing totalitarianism / wokeness / cancel culture, etc. I'd like to know. Because it seems like every effort has been deemed racist or fascist.
Free Speech
Everyone seems to be worried about free speech with the Kimmel situation. But let me tell an example and see what you think...
I sometimes read a Reddit thread called r/Burbank for local information. A few weeks ago, an anti-ICE thread began popping up in the Burbank thread because of video of raid ICE supposedly did on a local business here in Burbank. This thread had 100s of entries all of which were strongly against ICE and some of which were threatening harm against ICE.
The only problem - Burbank PD and the local newspaper already reported the video was NOT of ICE, but rather LA Sheriff's doing some type of drug bust.
So I posted the article to the ICE thread and said this was violating the terms of the discussion board on two levels: spreading misinformation and promoting violence (against ICE).
What was the moderators response?
They booted me off the anti-ICE thread because of a different rule: no voices allowed in support of ICE.
Consider this. I wasn't even commenting on ICE, nor did I want anything to do with the ICE thread. It only came to me because I was on the r/Burbank thread. So I wanted the correct information to be out there. But instead, they opted to violate their own stated rules: pushing disinformation and promoting violence.
Now you tell me...is this the free speech we want? Because this is what free speech mostly feels like in left-coded spaces.
Podcasts
And man, how did Ezra Klein become one of the voices of "my" generation? He's insufferable. He makes Ben Shapiro seems like a good hang. Someone recently wrote Yglesias and Klein were LLM voice before LLMs and think they are onto something. Aggressively neutered men.
For The Record
I've never seen the terms "demon" and "demonic" thrown around so much in the public discourse. For the record, no, I do not believe the Left are possessed by demons. And no, I don't like the direction of the discourse. But do I think the woke are a huge, major problem that fantasize about murdering their opponents and wishcast it into existence? Yes I do. Do I think exorcisms would help. No, I do not.
But if our options for "fitting into" somewhere in American society are reduced to hardcore Christianity and some version of Wokism, I feel that the Woke people are really, really, really not going to like the outcome.
The Genocide Crowd
Find me someone who supports Israel's actions against Iran and Hezbollah but thinks the war in Gaza has gone too far. You can't. This is why I find the genocide argument hard to buy. It's inseparable from an Israel-shouldn't-exist argument. So what do I call what Israel is doing? War. An evil, ugly, war. This is what I understand war to be. And why it should be avoided, if possible. In any real war, both sides commit crimes by the standards of peacetime. This war started with a crime! My biggest critique of Israel is not having a faster path/strategy to victory against such an inferior opponent. And yes, the human toil is terrible and horrible. But I think inevitable so long as Hamas remains in power and Israel remains a country. So either, Israel can dismantle itself as Jewish state. Or, Hamas can surrender all weapons and political authority. I see the latter as more plausible. Until then...both sides have chosen their path. I'm not so sure it matters what the rest of us do. I suppose the powers that be can force both sides into a corner only to rehash this same play over in 5-10 more years. Is this what the "stop the genocide" crowd wants? Would kicking the can down the road work?
No Prominent Left-Wingers Calling For Violence
Yet knowing fascists are evil and there are groups like antifa whose entire purpose is to violently attack fascists, here is Kamala Harris calling Donald Trump a fascist.
Lord of the Flies
Yikes - what's happening in Nepal.
Honestly, I'm surprised the kids in Western nations haven't attempted to seize the pension and retirement assets held by boomers yet. They're too distract by systemic racism and transphobia and other meaningless topics.
Logging
TV: Alien Earth thru E6
These futuristic lab facilities for housing alien monsters seem less secure than a Wuhan lab.
Book: The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Getting more interesting around page 150. Some great insights into what you might call middled aged love and fears of being alone.
Book: Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
Times have a changed...a few examples...
In this book a 2 year old falls on his face and loses his teeth and no one seems to think it's much of a big deal, including the 2 year old.
The same kid has a birthday party and the parents just leave their other 2 year olds at the party and come back 1.5 hours later.
A fourth grader does a 20 page report for class with two classmates about fixing the New York City transportation system. I can barely get college students to write a 7 page paper now about movie adaptations.
TV: Beavis and Butthead Pilot
My kids loved it, but I had to turn it off for content purposes. Did not want to explain masturbation.
Film: Puss and Boots The Last Wish
Good for teaching screenwriting, what can I say
Script: The Fugitive, early draft
In it, Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) turns out to be the "bad guy" who wanted revenge against Kimble because he let his wife die in a triage situation. Yeah, ridiculo. Interesting, however, what they knew about the story at this early stage and on some level how bad the script was...yet...it had many elements that remained in the final movie. A great study of how a bad script can be quite close to a great script.