Month: May 2020

Who’s on My Side?

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Nowadays there are a thousand labels and each group will tell you that they are the real Americans.  There are the groups on the Left like the Progressives, the Socialists, the Bernie Bros and all the various identity groups that inhabit their alliance, the feminists, the LGBTQ crazies and the racial minorities.  On the Right are a similar mixed group of ideologies, the libertarians, the neo-conservatives, the fiscal conservatives, the establishment conservatives and moving farther right we have the social conservatives, the religious right, the so-called alt-right and the dissident right.  For the last forty years and more I’ve been following politics in this country and I’ve always been two steps behind the real story.  But the last five years have been extremely clarifying.  The unmasking of the establishment conservatives as the controlled opposition has made it much easier to understand why things always got worse.  But at the same time, I’ve never been sold on the whole racialist destiny where everyone will be voting their skin color and ethnicity thing either.  In my experience ethnicity, race and identity group memberships are a pretty poor way of running a society.  In fact, it’s the whole notion of basing policy on racial and sexual victim status that has gotten us into the sorry state we’re in now.  Rather than join into that mess I want it ended.  No more special rules based on race and sex.

Instead what I’ve always used as a gauge for in-group status with me is whether someone had the same goals for his children.  First of all, if somebody doesn’t think marrying a pretty girl and having a family with her is high on his priorities then he won’t be very supportive of the kind of world that I’m interested in inhabiting.  And after that if he isn’t interested in his kids following in the same pattern then he’s not in my camp.  Now granted there are people who are happier single and I’ll allow that they have the right to live their lives the way they want.  But if they don’t at least see the value of having society revolve around the family then they’re definitely not on my side.

Now once you’ve passed those hurdles what comes next is the Bill of Rights.  Your ancestors and mine could have come from the same peasant town in Campania but if you don’t think freedom of speech and the rest of our freedoms are more important than being in good with the local big shot then you’re not on my team.  After that, all I ask is that you don’t expect me to pay your bills.

So that’s how I see the political landscape.  I can probably get along with a spectrum of people who respect the merits of a traditional society.  And to use a word that has been bandied about on a few too many bumper stickers, I can “coexist” with lots of people who don’t believe in the same things I do.  I neither need nor want to convince liberals, libertarians or even establishment conservatives to think the way I do.  What I do need is for them to get out of the way while we dismantle the program, we have been subjected to for the last fifty years that systematically attacks all the things that I see as normal, necessary and fundamental for living a healthy life.  What I can’t coexist with is the radical elements of the left who are leading that attack on normal, wholesome life.  These people are indeed a cancer attacking the good things in America that have up until now given this country it’s strength and character.

So hopefully that helps define where I stand on the political spectrum and who I see as my allies, as neutral parties and my enemies.

Tell me what you think.  Have I identified the situation we live in or have I got it wrong?  I’m honestly interested in your opinions.  Do you think we can put Humpty Dumpty back together again or are we already too far gone?  Leave a comment.

 

Looking for Good Ideas

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article called, “How Do We Live Our Lives in an Upside-Down World?”  What I said there was that we have to look at the big picture and the little picture at the same time.  So, supporting President Trump and any other leaders who show that they can get the job done is very important.  But just as important is improving your life, your family’s existence and extending out into your circle of friends and acquaintances.  And that’s how this gets to OCF.  You folks out there, the ones who like the content here, are my friends.  I put up content that I think will be entertaining, interesting and maybe even useful to people on our side of the fence.  By the same token I want anyone who comes to the site who has insights and information that I don’t have but could help me do a better job, to pass it along.  I’ll have to figure out a way to keep a wanted list of information I’m looking for.  As a for instance, I have a quote of the day that I’ve been doing for a couple of years.  You’d be surprised how hard it is to find good quotes after you’ve been digging through them for that long.  So, for readers who have favorite authors of quotes, and especially if you’ve been following the quotes for a good long time, I’m looking for more authors to search through.  If you have authors, I haven’t checked please pass them along in a comment.  And in the same way, I’m always looking for movies and books to review both old and new.  If it’s something you’ve always enjoyed or something good you recently discovered pass it along.

The Films of Alfred Hitchcock – Part 9 – Rope – A Classic Movie Review

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This is a very strange film, even for Hitchcock.  It’s an adaptation of a stage play that Hitchcock turns into a claustrophobic one set crime drama.  Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan (played by John Dall and Farley Granger) are upper class New Yorkers living together in an East Side apartment with a panoramic view of the city.  They are the products of a prep school and Ivy League education and are convinced that they are Nietzschean supermen who thereby have the right to murder ordinary men with impunity.  As the movie opens, they are seen strangling one of their school chums David Kentley with a piece of rope in their apartment.  After hiding the body in an antique wooden chest, they go about setting up their apartment for a dinner party that will feature David’s father (played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and aunt and David’s fiancée Janet.  The other cast in the play and party attendees are Mrs. Wilson who is Brandon’s housekeeper, Kenneth Lawrence who is another school friend and also a former boyfriend of Janet’s and Rupert Cadell (played by Jimmy Stewart) who was Brandon and Phillip’s prep school housemaster and the inspiration for their Nietzschean philosophical justification for murder.

Brandon brazenly uses the chest that David’s body is hidden in as the buffet table for the dinner that the guests feed on during the party.  Brandon makes several sly allusions to Kenneth that maybe Janet may be available again for his romantic interest.  All the guests are acutely aware that David is unexpectedly late for the party and unaccounted for.  Phillip from the start of the movie is extremely nervous about the prospect of being caught.  And as the party proceeds, he becomes more and more agitated and begins drinking heavily.  In the middle of the proceedings Brandon steers the conversation to his Nietzschean theory of the superman and his right to kill with impunity.  When Rupert agrees with this logic at least theoretically Brandon gets heatedly enthusiastic about its validity and this elicits a response from Mr. Kentley to the effect that he is offended by the disrespect for human decency and morality.  This snaps Brandon back into a more normal mode and alerts Rupert that something very strange is going on at the party.  Rupert starts to put together the various threads of the scene.  He recognizes that Brandon is trying to bring Janet and Kenneth together romantically in David’s absence.  He recognizes the anxiety in David’s friends and family at his very unusual disappearance and he keys in on Phillip’s anxiety, anger and drunkenness as the way to pry into what was going on below the surface of the gathering.

Rupert corners Phillip as he is playing the piano to cross-examine him about David’s absence, Brandon’s strange behavior and Phillip’s own anxiety.  And as the climax of his investigation he witnesses Phillip’s panic when he sees that Brandon has used the murder weapon, the piece of rope to tie up some old books that Brandon is giving as a gift to Mr Kentley as the old man is leaving to go home to his panicked wife.  Right before everyone leaves, Rupert has a talk with Mrs. Wilson, who is an old friend of his.  She tells Rupert about the fact that her employer told her to take the afternoon off and then decided at the last minute to serve the dinner off of the chest instead of the dining room table.  As Mrs. Wilson is cleaning up and about to open the chest to put some books back into it, Brandon hurriedly stops her from opening it and tells her to hold off her cleaning until the next day.  And finally, as Rupert is leaving, he takes the wrong hat from the closet and looking into it he sees a monogram DK (David Kentley).

Once the guests and Mrs. Wilson have left Brandon and Phillip have an argument.  Brandon upbraids Phillip for getting drunk and about his fear over being caught.  Phillip angrily blames Brandon for risking discovery by throwing out hints that Rupert was able pick up on.  Suddenly the phone rings and Phillip panics when he finds it’s Rupert returning to find his cigarette case.  Brandon tells Phillip to get ahold of himself and before Rupert arrives Brandon puts a revolver in his jacket pocket.  When Rupert comes in, we find out he hasn’t misplaced his case but instead hides it behind some books on the chest and “discovers” it.  He takes the excuse of a drink to continue his questioning of Brandon and Phillip.  He shows pretty quickly that he thinks they are responsible for David’s disappearance and reasons how they could have knocked out David and hidden him.  When Rupert confronts Brandon with the fact that he has a gun in his jacket, Brandon laughs it off as just the protection he will be taking with him to his house in the country.  Brandon throws the gun on the piano and Rupert continues his cross-examination and suddenly takes the piece of rope out of his pocket.  Phillip screams out that Rupert knows everything and grabs the pistol.  Rupert and Phillip fight over the gun.  The gun goes off and grazes Rupert’s hand but he gets control of it and takes control of Brandon and Phillip.  He opens up the chest and finds David’s body.  Brandon tries to justify the murder by virtue of their mutually acknowledged Nietzschean philosophy.  Rupert rejects Brandon’s justification and reviles as a monster whose inhumanity would ensure that he and Phillip would both be executed by the law.  Rupert goes over to the window and opens it.  He fires three rounds into the air and all three wait for the police to arrive.  Rupert moves a chair next to the chest and places his arm and the gun on it as if to protect David from his killers.

As I stated at the beginning, this is a very strange movie.  The only character that I found altogether admirable is Mr. Kentley.  He represents normal human feelings and ordinary sensibilities.  The worst characters are of course Brandon and Phillip.  But only slightly less objectionable is Rupert.  His elitist attitude toward his supposed superior intelligence is contemptible.  The rest of the characters are shallow characters with various foibles and ticks.  During the argument over Nietzschean superiority only Mr. Kentley displays the strength of character and humanity to revolt at the cruel indifference displayed by Brandon, Phillip and Rupert.

With respect to the success of the movie as entertainment I’ll have to say I can only watch this movie every few years.  It’s a fictionalized account of the Leopold and Loeb “thrill killing” from the 1920s.  From that point of view, it holds interest as an almost sociological and psychological statement.  It’s depressing, annoying and as noted above claustrophobic.  One of the more annoying aspects of the film is the tune that Phillip plays almost endlessly on the piano.  I grew to really hate that tune rather quickly.  Another annoying aspect of the movie is the homosexuality of Brandon and Phillip.  It’s never mentioned, of course because this movie was made in 1948.  But the dialog between them makes it clear that they don’t have a normal friendship.  And their personalities, especially Brandon’s are extremely unpleasant in a catty womanish way.  It’s not fun to see.  I would have to say I would only recommend this movie for a fan of Hitchcock who is interested in his technical skill.  The way the scenes are melded together at the film cuts is interesting but the story as I’ve described is a mess.

Finally, Some of the States Are Waking Up and Even Here in the Gulag, Signs of Life

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Fifteen US states are beginning the process of getting back to normal.  States like Georgia and Arkansas are shedding most of the restrictions while Florida and Texas are selectively and incrementally opening up.  And with the two-week increments proposed to step through the process there may be big chunks of the country completely back to normal by June.  And that will be an important outcome.  Lots of economic opportunities are associated with the summer vacation schedule, so this could allow many small businesses to salvage something from the wreckage of this year.

The next milestone I’m waiting for is when the medical community admits that we’re on the downward side of the daily-new-death curve.  From my reading of it we’re already over the hump.  Even with the Blue States, for the last two weeks, calling every death a COVID-19 death, it looks like we’re about to break through.  The last five days have been steadily lower and lower totals.  So, we may hear them admit it soon.

And in addition to the progress in other parts of the country the folks in the blue states are starting to get tired of this too.  You’ve heard about protests in Michigan, Virginia and California.  Well even in the very heart of cower-in-place New England, folks are starting to ignore some of the rules.  They’re going outside for no reason!  They’re walking around without masks!  And, horror of horrors they’re going to visit relatives without a car window or a wall between them.  I was overjoyed on Sunday when my daughter and her family came over and hung around with us in the yard for a couple of hours.  And I swear I could see how much my grandsons have grown since I saw them last!  It was great.  They came to install some raised beds for Camera Girl’s gardens and they did us both a world of good just seeing and talking to them face to face.  It didn’t hurt that it broke seventy degrees yesterday for the first time this spring.  And right on cue, the road past my house was full of motorcycle riders thundering by in droves.

So, all at once we’re waking up and I can sense that nothing will slow it down.  Not even a spike in deaths.  I think even in blue states people are starting to realize this was a bad idea.  The shutdown didn’t stop the deaths.  It probably didn’t even slow it down.  It was already too late to stop the infections in the larger cities from reaching the elderly in those high-density areas.

The next fight will be over the blue states trying to get the federal government to bail them out from their civil service retirement entitlements.  I’m hoping that President Trump won’t want to do that and instead will concentrate on helping small businesses and restarting the economy.  With the election season upon us he’ll do everything he can to cheerlead the economy and eliminate problems for the people trying to get their lives back on track.  At this point Joe Biden seems to be almost a non-issue in the election.  It’s up to the President to call the shots and give us back our hope in the future.  And I think he can.

Well to paraphrase the Bard, “Now is the winter of our discontent turned glorious summer by this Son of New York.”

Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 2 Episode 2 – Who Mourns for Adonais?

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In this episode the Enterprise is surveying an uninhabited planet when a force field in the shape of a giant hand grabs hold of the ship.  Then an image of a man with laurel leaves around his head contacts the ship and tells them that they will follow in the footsteps of their ancestors Agamemnon, Odysseus and worship him.  He proves that he can crush the ship if they defy him and so Kirk, Scotty, Bones, Chekov and a pretty blonde-haired anthropology officer named Carolyn beam down.  The image orders Spock to stay aboard because his demeanor reminds him of Pan whom he always found boring.  Kirk tells Spock to investigate Apollo and figure out a way to escape from him.

On the planet they find a small Greek temple with a stone seat on which is sitting the god Apollo.  He tells them that he has been waiting five thousand years for humans to reach his home.  He wants the crew of the Enterprise to migrate to the surface after which he’ll destroy the ship and turn them into a tribe of pastoralists who will worship him as their god.  He also wants Carolyn to bear a family of young gods by him and to show her his interest he dresses her in a revealing ancient Greek costume.  Carolyn is very receptive and seems to be in love with Apollo.  Meanwhile Kirk and the rest of the men try to convince Apollo that they’ve outgrown the Olympian gods and won’t become his devotees.  Scotty who is in love with Carolyn several times tries to interfere with Apollo’s attention to her and each time he gets punished a little more painfully.  Apollo tells Carolyn that he has been waiting alone because the other gods, Hera, Zeus, Aphrodite, Athena and the rest, gave up and dematerialized.

Meanwhile Spock has been working out a plan.  He has figured out a way to poke holes in the force field that the ship can communicate through and fire phasers through.  He tells Kirk that he has located the source of power as the temple.  Bones identifies an organ in Apollo’s chest that could be the conduit for the power from the temple to be wielded by Apollo.  Kirk convinces Carolyn to spurn Apollo and while he is distracted by her he has the Enterprise attack the temple.  After a short battle between Apollo and the ship, the temple is disintegrated.  Apollo now mourns for universe that no longer needs gods and calls to his comrades, Hera, Zeus, Aphrodite and Athena and asks them to take him away to their abode out of the normal universe.  He disappears from the world and Kirk muses whether it would’ve been so bad to gather a few laurel leaves.

This is a silly episode that has some things going for it.  First off there is the pretty girl in the slinky dress.  That can’t be bad.  Secondly the discussion about the classical Greek gods adds some interest.  Thirdly the actor playing Apollo has some presence and in the end dialog where he bemoans his fate, he does a good job.  The banter between Kirk, Bones and Chekov has its moments.  I’ll be kind and give this an 8.

As far as a Shatner mockery score, there is one scene where Kirk defies Apollo and in return Apollo remotely chokes the breath out of Kirk so we get Shatner making a goofy face while clutching at his throat as if he can’t breathe.  So, let’s call the whole thing 8 // 6.