Archive Listing
February 13, 2006 - February 6, 2006
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Hero?
XXX marks the spot.
XXX marks the spot.
PSAYINGS.5X.1. Am I the only one who's having trouble with this? Let me give you my timeline. First, I heard on the radio that Deep Throat has finally come forward to announce his identity. He's a ninety-year-old man who used to be Number 2 at the FBI. My immediate thought is of a deathbed confession: an old man wants to get a burdensome and painful weight off his chest. Later that afternoon, I turned on TV cable news and there I saw footage of the old man smiling and waving at the camera next to his beaming daughter. Here's that picture:
Then the daughter appears to be giving a press conference, and I concede her words are something of a blur to me because she seems to be taking a bow on behalf of her old man and using syllables that sound something like "he-ro." Subsequently, I seem to hear the same syllables being tossed around by other TV pundits. They keep replaying footage of the old geezer smiling, waving, smiling, as if he really is pleased as punch with himself. Apparently, my deathbed confession take was delusional.
As should be abundantly clear to everyone here, I am no lawyer and so I do not understand all the legalities associated with Mark Felt's role in the Watergate investigation, but my gut feeling is that they can't possibly create the sort of context that would make this guy a hero.
I do have sympathy with the plight of a whistleblower -- generally underlings in some huge organization that is doing wrong and can't be stopped from inside. I understand their need for secrecy in the amassing of evidence, both as a practical investigative tactic and as a safeguard against the possibility of harm befalling them or their families. I do not believe that it is always wrong to be an "informer," as my lifelong fondness for the movie On the Waterfront should attest. I liked it before I knew it to be Elia Kazan's defense of his naming of names in congressional investigations of the Communist Party, and I liked it after that (though I note that many on the righteous left continued to defame Kazan even after the fall of the Soviet Union made it possible to confirm that many members of the American Communist Party were, in fact, Soviet spies).
The informer can indeed be heroic. Whatever its beginning, the climax of such a hero's tale occurs when he comes forward to put a face on his charges; he testifies in public to some commission or committee responsible for determining the truth. This one act simultaneously puts his integrity to the test of cross-examination and kills or mutilates his career in the organization he is exposing. It is a moment both brave and tragic -- the latter because a whistleblower with real information has almost always been an accomplice in wrongdoing to that point in the road where his conscience called a halt. The real life instances of a Serpico whose hands were clean throughout are rare. More often, life imitates the fiction of On the Waterfront, where Terry Malloy (Brando) has gone along with wrong or illegal practices because it was simpler, easier, or more profitable to do so.
After the climax of the heroic version of this plot comes the denouement, where there can be redemption for earlier sins because the hero is willing to pay a price even if the law gives him immunity. Elia Kazan gave Terry Malloy a redemption he himself was denied by his erstwhile peers in Hollywood. After enduring a terrible beating, Malloy returns to work at his old job, proving his courage and his loyalty to the principle that had inspired his actions.
What part of this rite of passage can we connect with Mark Felt? Almost none of it. He was no underling. Rather, he was a very powerful executive who could have made a huge impact by going public as soon as he objected to the goings on in his organization. Did he? No. He chose a route so sleazy that even the men whose careers he helped make gave him a nickname borrowed from a dirty movie. Did he come forward after the presidential downfall he worked to effect had been accomplished? No. He remained at the FBI because his career there was more important to him than helping to salve the national wounds that have continued to fester ever since. The character he most resembles is the phantom sniper who, according to 40 years of conspiracy theories, got away with the assassination of John F. Kennedy: he hides in the shadows to bring down a U.S. president, then disappears without ever having to account for his deeds. He's a creature of the dark, a dishonorable self-aggrandizing weasel, a well-connected coward, a snitch.
Too mean to say about a ninety-year-old? No. Think of the scorn and abuse that has been heaped on Linda Tripp. What's different? She had the guts to come into the sunlight. This guy comes blinking out into the spotlight decades after the fact, and he actually has the nerve to bask there like a contented reptile. Doesn't anybody have a sharp stick they want to use?
posted at
1:54 am
by
InstaPunk
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Surfing
THENCE AND ALL OVER.
We couldn't help feeling a bit disgusted after the Republican
leadership ignored our
advice last week and took just a few days to
prove how right we'd been. So we went looking for something, anything
other than politics to occupy our minds. Here's a hodgepodge of
places we visited on our surfing expeditions.
For some reason, the subject of Republican power got us to thinking about optical illusions. Some of these are pretty interesting, but be warned: they can give you a headache if you look at too many like this one.
There's nothing more entertaining than a good nasty review. We laughed ourselves sick at the search and destroy mission carried out by Matt Taibi on Thomas Friedman's new book. A sample paragraph:
It reminded us of Mark Twain's infamous annihilation of James Fenimore Cooper. Just a taste, in case you don't remember it:
Maybe there should be an annual prize for the best savaging by a critic. Maybe not.
We began by promising no politics, and we think we're sticking by it because science isn't politics, is it?
Is it?
Do you think you're a film buff? Try testing your mettle here. What's strange about subjecting movies to this level of analysis is that at some point, you lose track of whether it's telling us more about the carelessness of directors and producers or the silly obsessiveness of the fans doing the analyzing. Star Wars anyone?
Raise your hands all of you who know that there's a missing dark age back in ancient history. Well, there is, and a lot of people are pretty hot under the collar about it:
It sounds like there's going to be even more trouble in the middle east.
Head hurt after that? How about a spot of shooting? You get a shotgun, an accent, and a choice between clay pigeons, beer cans, and chickens. (Chickens are the most fun.)
Too much effort required? Maybe you'd rather just get some free stuff.
If you're interested by none of the above, here's a new movement you may want to join. It's not for us, though. We plan to be back to our real job of annoying people real soon.
For some reason, the subject of Republican power got us to thinking about optical illusions. Some of these are pretty interesting, but be warned: they can give you a headache if you look at too many like this one.
There's nothing more entertaining than a good nasty review. We laughed ourselves sick at the search and destroy mission carried out by Matt Taibi on Thomas Friedman's new book. A sample paragraph:
Thomas Friedman does not get these
things right even by accident. It's not that he occasionally screws up
and fails to make his metaphors and images agree. It's that he always
screws it up. He has an anti-ear, and it's absolutely infallible; he is
a Joyce or a Flaubert in reverse, incapable of rendering even the
smallest details without genius. The difference between Friedman and an
ordinary bad writer is that an ordinary bad writer will, say, call some
businessman a shark and have him say some tired, uninspired piece of
dialogue: Friedman will have him spout it. And that's guaranteed, every
single time. He never misses.
It reminded us of Mark Twain's infamous annihilation of James Fenimore Cooper. Just a taste, in case you don't remember it:
I may be mistaken, but it does seem to
me that "Deerslayer" is not a work of art in any sense; it does seem to
me that it is destitute of every detail that goes to the making of a
work of art; in truth, it seems to me that "Deerslayer" is just simply
a literary delirium tremens.
A work of art? It has no invention; it has no order, system, sequence, or result; it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality; its characters are confusedly drawn, and by their acts and words they prove that they are not the sort of people the author claims that they are; its humor is pathetic; its pathos is funny; its conversations are -- oh! indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against the language.
Counting these out, what is left is Art. I think we must all admit that.
A work of art? It has no invention; it has no order, system, sequence, or result; it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality; its characters are confusedly drawn, and by their acts and words they prove that they are not the sort of people the author claims that they are; its humor is pathetic; its pathos is funny; its conversations are -- oh! indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against the language.
Counting these out, what is left is Art. I think we must all admit that.
Maybe there should be an annual prize for the best savaging by a critic. Maybe not.
We began by promising no politics, and we think we're sticking by it because science isn't politics, is it?
Dr Peiser is not the only academic to
have had work turned down which criticises the findings of Dr Oreskes's
study. Prof Dennis Bray, of the GKSS National Research Centre in
Geesthacht, Germany, submitted results from an international study
showing that fewer than one in 10 climate scientists believed that
climate change is principally caused by human activity.
As with Dr Peiser's study, Science refused to publish his rebuttal. Prof Bray told The Telegraph: "They said it didn't fit with what they were intending to publish."
Prof Roy Spencer, at the University of Alabama, a leading authority on satellite measurements of global temperatures, told The Telegraph: "It's pretty clear that the editorial board of Science is more interested in promoting papers that are pro-global warming. It's the news value that is most important."
As with Dr Peiser's study, Science refused to publish his rebuttal. Prof Bray told The Telegraph: "They said it didn't fit with what they were intending to publish."
Prof Roy Spencer, at the University of Alabama, a leading authority on satellite measurements of global temperatures, told The Telegraph: "It's pretty clear that the editorial board of Science is more interested in promoting papers that are pro-global warming. It's the news value that is most important."
Is it?
Do you think you're a film buff? Try testing your mettle here. What's strange about subjecting movies to this level of analysis is that at some point, you lose track of whether it's telling us more about the carelessness of directors and producers or the silly obsessiveness of the fans doing the analyzing. Star Wars anyone?
Tripple Goof!! When Leia says "This is
some rescue" a lock of hair is out of her bun, but in the next shot
it's back in. & In that same scene she blasts a hole in the garbage
shoot and Chewie runs over and puts his foot on it. Then Han shoots
down the hall, and wow dejah vous, Chewie does it all over again. &
when Han jumps in, his foot hits the alleged metal, yet it jiggles! Wow
all those in one scene!!
In the garage, C-3PO is wiping himself off after his oil bath. In one shot, he's holding a rag; cut to different angle, the rag disappears; back to the original angle, the rag's back.
In the Death Star battle, Biggs and Porkins (Red Three and Red Six) go in for a run. Porkins, Red Six, get hit and blows up. Yet a moment later, when Luke is being chased by a TIE and gets grazed, and the others are trying to locate him to help, one pilot says "Red Six, can you see Red Five?" And Red Six, supposedly dead, replies "A heavy fire zone on this side, Red Five, where are you?"
In the garage, C-3PO is wiping himself off after his oil bath. In one shot, he's holding a rag; cut to different angle, the rag disappears; back to the original angle, the rag's back.
In the Death Star battle, Biggs and Porkins (Red Three and Red Six) go in for a run. Porkins, Red Six, get hit and blows up. Yet a moment later, when Luke is being chased by a TIE and gets grazed, and the others are trying to locate him to help, one pilot says "Red Six, can you see Red Five?" And Red Six, supposedly dead, replies "A heavy fire zone on this side, Red Five, where are you?"
Raise your hands all of you who know that there's a missing dark age back in ancient history. Well, there is, and a lot of people are pretty hot under the collar about it:
No wonder the Israeli archaeologists
are in such disarray. They should have realised that once the Dark Ages
of Greece were imposed upon the ancient world, at a stroke they would
effectively wipe out all history outside Egypt for the period from 12C
to 8C -- including Israel's now missing Golden Age. There are good
grounds, therefore, for Israel's archaeologists to back their own
historical records and declare their chronological independence. They
could rescue their country's rightful heritage and historical soul by
identifying a more likely Shishak for themselves, and leave the
Egyptologists to sort out their own chronology problems.
Greece could also do the same. For over a hundred years they have meekly accepted Egyptian dates, along with a Dark Age that goes totally against their own archaeology and their magnificently documented classical ancient history. Athens was never conquered by the Dorians, and has its own tradition of continuous kingship. Archaeology has proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the Dark Ages did not exist. It is now time the Greek Establishment abandoned its exaggerated antiquity in favour of a continuous culture. It would, of course, require considerable courage to make a unilateral declaration of chronological independence, but courage is not a quality lacking in the historical traditions of either Greece or Israel.
Greece could also do the same. For over a hundred years they have meekly accepted Egyptian dates, along with a Dark Age that goes totally against their own archaeology and their magnificently documented classical ancient history. Athens was never conquered by the Dorians, and has its own tradition of continuous kingship. Archaeology has proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the Dark Ages did not exist. It is now time the Greek Establishment abandoned its exaggerated antiquity in favour of a continuous culture. It would, of course, require considerable courage to make a unilateral declaration of chronological independence, but courage is not a quality lacking in the historical traditions of either Greece or Israel.
It sounds like there's going to be even more trouble in the middle east.
Head hurt after that? How about a spot of shooting? You get a shotgun, an accent, and a choice between clay pigeons, beer cans, and chickens. (Chickens are the most fun.)
Too much effort required? Maybe you'd rather just get some free stuff.
If you're interested by none of the above, here's a new movement you may want to join. It's not for us, though. We plan to be back to our real job of annoying people real soon.
posted at
9:26 am
by
The Headhouse Gang
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Quick Quiz
What do these two have in common?
What do these two have in common?
posted at
8:51 am
by
InstaPunk
Friday, May 27, 2005
When faced with a choice of doing our work or getting a jump start on summer, we've got to go with the summer thing. Even in Philadelphia, summer will not just be an idea this weekend, it will come into focus as the afternoon highs press into the eighties.
We'll be having fun -- so don't forget to do the same. But, be careful so we can all get back together next week. Happy Memorial Day.
posted at
9:32 am
by
Chain Gang
