Guy Fawkes Day
Okay, folks. First, the news.
With all of the buzz about elections in the United States, Algeria has their own election dilemma at hand. They're facing the question of whether or not to amend their constitution to allow President Bouteflika to run for a third term. I'm fairly supportive of President Bouteflika, but part of having a real, functioning democratic society is following the rules. Countries have laws limiting the amount of time a person can hold office for good reason, and although I like Bouteflika, I think it would be better for Algeria if he were to mentor a successor, rather than amend the constitution in order to stay on for a third term. And speaking of North African politics, the BBC also has an article about the eventual succession in Egypt.
Japanese scientists have developed a method that could eventually lead to cloning extinct mammoths. That would be totally sweet.
Finally, there's an article that, although somewhat narrowly written, discusses various upcoming American defense expenditures. The point that the article gets at, but doesn't really say because it isn't the point that the author is getting at, is that defense procurement doesn't seem to be learning many lessons from our current conflicts.
So, a buddy from work felt compelled to loan me his copy of V for Vendetta. Both for the sake of the film's focus on Guy Fawkes Days (which is today), and because of the obvious political undertones, I watched it last night instead of paying any attention to election coverage. I tend to agree with Michael Medved's review of the film. It's completely polemic in nature, and somewhat clumsy with respect to plot and feasibility. In particular, it's somewhat enraging to see terrorism glorified like this - but really, they pick on conservatives, Christianity, patriotism - they hit pretty much every great institution in this world. They seem to insinuate that 9/11 and the 2001 anthrax attacks were false flag operations (a myth that has been fairly conclusively debunked), and they draw extensively from themes and imagery from Orwell's 1984. This is despite the fact that Orwell was writing against extreme socialism. Oh, and like most in Hollywood, they somehow overlook that fascism is a form of extreme liberal socialism, not extreme right wing conservatism (which would result in less government control, not more). An interesting flick, but disappointing and largely ridiculous overall. A British government executing a gay dude for having a Koran? I wouldn't count on that happening, ever.
Also, I still think that Natalie Portman is hot, but I doubt that I could bring myself to mess around with her on account of she can't shut her giant ****ing mouth.
As you've noticed, I haven't talked about the election. That's because I'm writing this prior to the dust settling. Based on what happens during the course of today, I'll write something up for tonight. No matter who they announce to be the winner, something tells me that this thing won't be over any time soon. With the Democrat leaders still committed to the phrase "stolen election" after eight years, and the rampant voter fraud that appears to have gone on in this election (and, I feel compelled to say, very nearly entirely on Obama's side - I can't recall hearing a single accusation of voter registration fraud on the Republican side), I'm fairly confident that unless McCain has summarily and indisputably smoten Obama by a decisive margin, this thing's going to be hotly contested after the fact. I suppose we'll see.
Happy Wednesday, folks. Stay safe.
UPDATE: Yeah, I saw the news. This is going to be exceptionally ugly.
With all of the buzz about elections in the United States, Algeria has their own election dilemma at hand. They're facing the question of whether or not to amend their constitution to allow President Bouteflika to run for a third term. I'm fairly supportive of President Bouteflika, but part of having a real, functioning democratic society is following the rules. Countries have laws limiting the amount of time a person can hold office for good reason, and although I like Bouteflika, I think it would be better for Algeria if he were to mentor a successor, rather than amend the constitution in order to stay on for a third term. And speaking of North African politics, the BBC also has an article about the eventual succession in Egypt.
Japanese scientists have developed a method that could eventually lead to cloning extinct mammoths. That would be totally sweet.
Finally, there's an article that, although somewhat narrowly written, discusses various upcoming American defense expenditures. The point that the article gets at, but doesn't really say because it isn't the point that the author is getting at, is that defense procurement doesn't seem to be learning many lessons from our current conflicts.
So, a buddy from work felt compelled to loan me his copy of V for Vendetta. Both for the sake of the film's focus on Guy Fawkes Days (which is today), and because of the obvious political undertones, I watched it last night instead of paying any attention to election coverage. I tend to agree with Michael Medved's review of the film. It's completely polemic in nature, and somewhat clumsy with respect to plot and feasibility. In particular, it's somewhat enraging to see terrorism glorified like this - but really, they pick on conservatives, Christianity, patriotism - they hit pretty much every great institution in this world. They seem to insinuate that 9/11 and the 2001 anthrax attacks were false flag operations (a myth that has been fairly conclusively debunked), and they draw extensively from themes and imagery from Orwell's 1984. This is despite the fact that Orwell was writing against extreme socialism. Oh, and like most in Hollywood, they somehow overlook that fascism is a form of extreme liberal socialism, not extreme right wing conservatism (which would result in less government control, not more). An interesting flick, but disappointing and largely ridiculous overall. A British government executing a gay dude for having a Koran? I wouldn't count on that happening, ever.
Also, I still think that Natalie Portman is hot, but I doubt that I could bring myself to mess around with her on account of she can't shut her giant ****ing mouth.
As you've noticed, I haven't talked about the election. That's because I'm writing this prior to the dust settling. Based on what happens during the course of today, I'll write something up for tonight. No matter who they announce to be the winner, something tells me that this thing won't be over any time soon. With the Democrat leaders still committed to the phrase "stolen election" after eight years, and the rampant voter fraud that appears to have gone on in this election (and, I feel compelled to say, very nearly entirely on Obama's side - I can't recall hearing a single accusation of voter registration fraud on the Republican side), I'm fairly confident that unless McCain has summarily and indisputably smoten Obama by a decisive margin, this thing's going to be hotly contested after the fact. I suppose we'll see.
Happy Wednesday, folks. Stay safe.
UPDATE: Yeah, I saw the news. This is going to be exceptionally ugly.
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