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Sunday, April 09, 2006
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I saw two fine political works this weekend, taking different approaches, and making different points.
V for Vendetta is an excellent movie, driven mostly by very good performances by Natalie Portman, John Hurt, Stephen Rey, Tim Pigot-Smith, and Stephen Fry, among others. I liked the way it blended The Count of Monte Cristo with Guy Fawkes. Coming from a comic book graphic novel, it also had a great look to it. Hugo Weaving was good, though it's hard to know if it was really him beneath the mask, or if he was just doing voiceovers. Of course it was him, but like the actor who played Darth Vader, it hardly mattered.
Zorro in Hell, at Berkeley Rep, is a riff on the Zorro story from its birth as a pulp novel to its place in contemporary California. Lots of topical humor was fun, and as is always the case at Berkeley Rep, the production values were top notch, making it visually arresting. I was expecting something polemical, and while it was polemical and pointed, it hit the spot. As one of the little white Zorro's back in the day, who drew Z's with plastic swords up and down the alley, it wasn't hard to identify (I much preferred being Zorro to Davey Crocket).
8:47:57 PM 
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What happened during Holy Week? Beats me. And the Bible isn't much help.
Mark 11:2-7, Luke 19:30-35 - Following Jesus’ instructions, the disciples bring him one animal
Matthew 21:2-6 - Following Jesus’ instructions, the disciples bring him two animals
John 12:14 - Jesus doesn’t instruct the disciples at all and gets a single animal himself
Mark 11:7, Luke 19:35, John 12:14 - Jesus rides a single animal when entering Jerusalem
Matthew 21:7 - Jesus rides two animals at the same time
7:38:27 PM
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Another general goes on the record, calling for the resignation of Don Rumsfeld.
Two senior military officers are known to have challenged Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the planning of the Iraq war. Army General Eric Shinseki publicly dissented and found himself marginalized. Marine Lieut. General Greg Newbold, the Pentagon's top operations officer, voiced his objections internally and then retired, in part out of opposition to the war. Here, for the first time, Newbold goes public with a full-throated critique:
In 1971, the rock group The Who released the antiwar anthem Won't Get Fooled Again. To most in my generation, the song conveyed a sense of betrayal by the nation's leaders, who had led our country into a costly and unnecessary war in Vietnam. To those of us who were truly counterculture--who became career members of the military during those rough times--the song conveyed a very different message. To us, its lyrics evoked a feeling that we must never again stand by quietly while those ignorant of and casual about war lead us into another one and then mismanage the conduct of it. Never again, we thought, would our military's senior leaders remain silent as American troops were marched off to an ill-considered engagement. It's 35 years later, and the judgment is in: the Who had it wrong. We have been fooled again.
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Enlisted members of the armed forces swear their oath to those appointed over them; an officer swears an oath not to a person but to the Constitution. The distinction is important.
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent statement that "we" made the "right strategic decisions" but made thousands of "tactical errors" is an outrage. It reflects an effort to obscure gross errors in strategy by shifting the blame for failure to those who have been resolute in fighting. The truth is, our forces are successful in spite of the strategic guidance they receive, not because of it.
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My sincere view is that the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions--or bury the results.
Tags: Lt. Gen. Newbold, Iraq war, Donald Rumsfeld
(Via No More Apples.)
7:18:58 PM
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In today's New York Times, Garry Wills has written a very interesting analysis of the religion in politics question:
Christ Among the Partisans
By GARRY WILLS
Published: April 9, 2006
Chicago
THERE is no such thing as a "Christian politics." If it is a politics, it cannot be Christian. Jesus told Pilate: "My reign is not of this present order. If my reign were of this present order, my supporters would have fought against my being turned over to the Jews. But my reign is not here" (John 18:36). Jesus brought no political message or program.
This is a truth that needs emphasis at a time when some Democrats, fearing that the Republicans have advanced over them by the use of religion, want to respond with a claim that Jesus is really on their side. He is not. He avoided those who would trap him into taking sides for or against the Roman occupation of Judea. He paid his taxes to the occupying power but said only, "Let Caesar have what belongs to him, and God have what belongs to him" (Matthew 22:21). He was the original proponent of a separation of church and state.
Those who want the state to engage in public worship, or even to have prayer in schools, are defying his injunction: "When you pray, be not like the pretenders, who prefer to pray in the synagogues and in the public square, in the sight of others. In truth I tell you, that is all the profit they will have. But you, when you pray, go into your inner chamber and, locking the door, pray there in hiding to your Father, and your Father who sees you in hiding will reward you" (Matthew 6:5-6). He shocked people by his repeated violation of the external holiness code of his time, emphasizing that his religion was an internal matter of the heart.
But doesn't Jesus say to care for the poor? Repeatedly and insistently, but what he says goes far beyond politics and is of a different order. He declares that only one test will determine who will come into his reign: whether one has treated the poor, the hungry, the homeless and the imprisoned as one would Jesus himself. "Whenever you did these things to the lowliest of my brothers, you were doing it to me" (Matthew 25:40). No government can propose that as its program. Theocracy itself never went so far, nor could it.
.... Read the complete Op-Ed here.
What do you think?
(Via Greater Democracy.)
7:18:19 PM
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I saw two fine political works this weekend, taking different approaches.
V for Vendetta is an excellent movie, driven mostly by very good performances by Natalie Portman, John Hurt, Stephen Rey, Tim Pigot-Smith, and Stephen Fry, among others. I liked the way it blended The Count of Monte Cristo with Guy Fawkes. Coming from a comic book graphic novel, it also had a great look to it. Hugo Weaving was good, though it's hard to know if it was really him beneath the mask, or if he was just doing voiceovers. Of course it was him, but like the actor who played Darth Vader, it hardly mattered.
Zorro in Hell, at Berkeley Rep, is a riff on the Zorro story from its birth as a pulp novel to its place in contemporary California. Lots of topical humor was fun, and as is always the case at Berkeley Rep, the production values were top notch, making it visually arresting. I was expecting something polemical, and while it was polemical and pointed, it hit the spot. As one of the little white Zorro's back in the day, who drew Z's with plastic swords up and down the alley, it wasn't hard to identify (I much preferred being Zorro to Davey Crocket).
5:16:33 PM
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South Carolina Republicans hold a state convention, with Sen. George Allen (R-VA) as keynote speaker. He's among several potential White House candidates who have visited a key primary state. Some delegates are worried as approval ratings for President Bush and the Republican-dominated Congress near historic lows.
(Via NPR Programs: Weekend Edition - Sunday.)
Scary stuff: we're going to have to put up an electric fence and "fry some of them."
12:21:51 PM
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Republican Dad gets son off in AZ sex case
This is too much.
Poliremix:
"A 19 and 17 year old from Arizona, have been offered a plea deal which requires no jail time and virtually no penalty for crimes they admitted to commiting. What were these crimes? As counselors at a boys camp, the 19 and 17 year old punished 18 of the 11-14 year old boys by making them lay face down on their bed, in front of all the other boys, shoving a broomstick into their anus through their pants. Eighteen 11-14 year olds! And, no penalty despite the parents outrage.
One may ask how this could happen. It is really quite simple. The 19 year old, Ryan Bennett, is none other than the son of Arizona's Senate President, Ken Bennett, a Republican who is part of the effort to ban equal rights for same-sex couples in the state, viewing same-sex relationships as immoral...After his son's admission, Bennett wrote a letter to the D.A. handling the case informing her that his son could not rightfully serve time in jail, because he is prepared to leave the country on a mission - to teach the word of Christ to youth around the world...read on"
Here's the AZ Central article.
(Via Crooks and Liars.)
11:33:46 AM
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Bush is blaming Harry Reid for the immigration bill not getting through the Senate. What an idiot. Hey, pal, you have a 55-44-1 majority in the Senate. You have the White House and the House of Representatives. It’s your own hatred of government (perhaps you could stop comparing it to Al Qaeda) that is preventing you and your party from governing competently.
(Via Oliver Willis - Like Kryptonite To Stupid.)
11:31:35 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 5/1/2006; 8:42:02 AM.
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