Let me preface this little missive by saying that I abhor television. I find it mostly bland and totally lacking in originality. That's not to say that there haven't been a few things on the idiot box that I liked. The list is narrow and most of them are British comedies but I have found some things engaging that I enjoyed thoroughly. The recent glut of "reality shows" however, has proven once again what a vast wasteland TV can be. The moments of actual brilliance are so rare these days as to be the anomaly. About the only thing left that I can count on with any degree of certainty is the History Channel. Being a history buff may expose a bias for that particular channel but I stand by my assertion that it's the only decent channel out of the more than 150 I have access too.
I've often heard friends and family, while talking about some show or another say, "Oh, I LOVE that show!" I personally don't ever feel love for anything on television but I do get close every now and then. Every once in awhile, a new show will pop up that totally intrigues and fascinates me. A precious few that spring to mind are The X-Files and CSI, and no, I don't mean that Miami or New York crap, I mean the original. I was taken with the X-Files for much the same reason I was taken with "The Night Stalker", a creepy show from the late 70's that was all about vampires, werewolves and other things that go bump in the night. CSI took my fancy simply because the heart of the cast, William Peterson, is a terrific actor and the show itself was so unique and so well written that I couldn't take my eyes off of it. Thank goodness for syndication or I'd never have anything to watch.
I will confess at this point that something very close to love for a television show finally happened for me. It's another show that's extremely well written and filled with things that go bump in the night...or the jungle as the case may be. I'm talking about LOST, a show that has completely captivated a great majority of the country. It recently even affected the timing of the State Of The Union Address. The President, not wishing to anger millions of LOST fans, chose another date for his speech. Let it not be said that he doesn't have the occasional moment of clarity in discerning what the American people really want.
I have yet to talk to anyone who has any ambivalence to this show. Those who are fans, are rabid in their support of it and it's well deserved. The show has elements of religion, magic, horror, passion, adventure and most importantly...humor. I have quite a few friends who spend countless hours discussing the mythology of the show, the depth of the characters and even the occasional..."who's sleeping with whom" moments. I confess that I am a true aficionado of the series. I've seen every episode more than once and I reluctantly admit that I've even spent a few hours on the LOST forums trying to discern what things mean. There is so much symbolism laced throughout the show in the form of flashbacks and the like that I sometimes have to get a second opinion of something I've seen on a recent episode. For those of you who really "get" this show, have you played those damn numbers on lotto yet? I have. I was strangely compelled to at one point and I never play the lottery. I tend to consider the lottery to be a tax on stupid people but that's a subject for another time.
With the final season well underway, the show has at times been even more cryptic than usual, if that's even possible. While I am somewhat saddened that this show will soon be all over, at least I'm getting some answers to some questions that needed to answered. There are characters on the show that have been treated as little more than window dressing but were so intriguing that I wanted to see them fleshed out a bit more. The character of Richard is one such person. The writers have made me furious, excited and depressed alternately and with such regularity that I've often yelled at the TV when that final graphic and the ominous sound signal the end of an episode. My fellow travelers will understand the heartfelt, "You can't DO this to me!" when an episode ends.
The announcement that the 6th season would be the last has stirred a hornets nest of anguish amongst the shows many loyal fans. Alas, all good things must come to an end but I still find some satisfaction in that at least television lived up to it's ideal of entertainment for me again. Rare though it may be that it happens for me but I find solace in the knowledge that it can happen again. I'll just have to wait another 4 or 5 years before it does.
Now...for those of you who feel as strongly as I do about this show, here are a few of my own insights on this rare gem of television.
1. They're not in hell or dead. The island is just a little pocket of magic still left in the world.
2. Jacob, while manipulative and secretive, does have a vested interest in the people he chooses.
The way I see it, if he chose you to come to the island, you can't be all bad.
3. Kate is probably the hottest female ever to appear on television. End of story. (Sorry ladies)
4. Hurley is the logical replacement to remain on the island. He wasn't happy being rich
anyway...right?
5. Ben STILL deserves to die. He's a miserable bastard who's visited mayhem and destruction
on so many people, his point of redemption passed years ago. Put him in a bag and drown him
in the ocean. Charlie can go from a drug addled loser to a heroic person and he dies but Ben
the evil one gets to live? I think not.
6. I was personally not sad to see Boone or his whiny sister get whacked. Sorry. Same thing with
Anna Lucia.
7. It's a good thing I didn't own a gun what Ethan kidnapped Claire and hung Charlie. I would
have shot at my TV every time he showed up on the screen.
8. I have to admit being more than a little confused as to how the remaining characters can be
both on the island and back home at the same time. This little paradox has given me fits
trying to figure out. I will entertain any coherent explanation and even some that aren't.
9. Is it just me or is the fact that Sun and Jin haven't found each other yet pissing anyone else
off?
10. So, is Jacob dead or is Hurley becoming the "Jacob whisperer" all of a sudden? This also
confuses me a little.
Ok, that's enough for now. 8 episodes to go and that's an awfully short time to fill in all the gaps and tie up the loose ends. Let's hope the DVD for this season includes lots of behind the scenes and mythology stuff to satisfy even the most die hard fan...like me...and a few of you reading this as well. It's ok to grin right now...you know who you are.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Cause & Effect
I've often called the Democrat party the party of unintended consequences and through the years they've never proven me wrong. I'll stick with modern examples because there are so many it's hard to keep track of them all.
Pennsylvania: The new traffic lights used to replace the incandescent bulbs were of the LED variety. Low energy, long lasting and extremely bright. An initiative of the mostly democrat city council at the time, they never even considered the consequences of this earth friendly action. The LED's were installed during late summer of 2009 to great fanfare and applauded as a great step toward making the municipality a "green" haven. The cost savings were touted as a wonderful way to reinvest in the community. Every traffic light in town was changed and the city council prided themselves for their forward looking vision.
Now let's look at the reality those humanitarians didn't think of. When winter came around the LED's didn't create enough heat to melt the ice that continually built up on the metal housings. A rash of accidents occurred because motorists couldn't tell what color the light was. The ice blocked it completely. In response, the council was forced to pay city workers overtime to keep the ice from forming over the lenses. In total, the cost of the extra road crews and overtime amounted to three times the annual cost savings of the new, "green" LEDs.
Do I need to go on? I can but this isn't really the point. I've come to realize that any time a Democrat pushes a piece of legislation that "feels good" now, it always means it's going to hurt much worse later.
What I'm really interested in talking about is cause and effect. A simple scientific premise that is as immutable as truth and just as beautiful.
I'd like to use our new "free health care" as a more than adequate example. It's filled with lots of things that "feel good" right now but are bound to be extremely painful in the years to come. I'll start slowly so as not to make this too glaringly obvious and allow you, the reader, to acclimate yourself to both the reality of what we are all in store for and the sometimes peculiar way my mind works. I'll set this up in very simple vignettes that relate to a cause and an effect.
Cause: The new bill allows for free diagnostic screenings, mammograms, colonoscopies and the like. When I say free, I mean the patient pays nothing. The doctor and his office receive the same payment they would customarily receive from the patient's health insurance company.
Effect: My insurance company, in order to recoup their losses for all these free procedures will raise my premiums and rightfully so.
Cause: Obama has said often that his goal is to lower premiums by $2,500.00. A farce on it's face and ultimately deadly to an insurance company.
Effect: With ever shrinking premiums coming in, continued losses in the balance sheets leads inevitably to my insurance company going out of business. I am thus forced into the government "plan". I also like to call it the "final solution".
Cause: My employer, faced with staggering tax increases due to the stated goals in the health care bill of raising the money to pay for it all, decides to cut one of two things: payroll or health insurance. It is, after all, cheaper to pay the fine for not offering me health insurance than to actually offer it. Which do you think they will choose?
Effect: I am faced with unemployment which leads me into the final solution or the loss of my insurance which does the same thing.
I'm beginning to see a pattern here, aren't you? Two things spring instantly to mind. First: the death of private health insurance and second, and perhaps most insidious, the inevitability of all Americans to be dumped into the final solution.
I am not so naive that I don't know that both are the ultimate goal of the Obama administration. I've been vocal about the President's desire to see America become a single payer system. He's said it before and I suspect he's said it since taking office but only in private and never when he could be cornered by his words. For more than a year the Democrats in the Congress have made health insurance companies the biggest boogeyman since the Soviets of the 50's and 60's. They were made the enemy by the usual complement of class warriors who sought to instill anger and fear into an electorate that was already nervous and shaky from the collapsing economy.
The cause is universal health care and the effect will be the enslavement of an entire country. Likening the signing of this bill to civil rights legislation is reprehensible and diminishes the thousands who died for those rights. Mentioning Dr. King in the same breath as Barrack Obama is to spit on King's memory and his struggle.
Pennsylvania: The new traffic lights used to replace the incandescent bulbs were of the LED variety. Low energy, long lasting and extremely bright. An initiative of the mostly democrat city council at the time, they never even considered the consequences of this earth friendly action. The LED's were installed during late summer of 2009 to great fanfare and applauded as a great step toward making the municipality a "green" haven. The cost savings were touted as a wonderful way to reinvest in the community. Every traffic light in town was changed and the city council prided themselves for their forward looking vision.
Now let's look at the reality those humanitarians didn't think of. When winter came around the LED's didn't create enough heat to melt the ice that continually built up on the metal housings. A rash of accidents occurred because motorists couldn't tell what color the light was. The ice blocked it completely. In response, the council was forced to pay city workers overtime to keep the ice from forming over the lenses. In total, the cost of the extra road crews and overtime amounted to three times the annual cost savings of the new, "green" LEDs.
Do I need to go on? I can but this isn't really the point. I've come to realize that any time a Democrat pushes a piece of legislation that "feels good" now, it always means it's going to hurt much worse later.
What I'm really interested in talking about is cause and effect. A simple scientific premise that is as immutable as truth and just as beautiful.
I'd like to use our new "free health care" as a more than adequate example. It's filled with lots of things that "feel good" right now but are bound to be extremely painful in the years to come. I'll start slowly so as not to make this too glaringly obvious and allow you, the reader, to acclimate yourself to both the reality of what we are all in store for and the sometimes peculiar way my mind works. I'll set this up in very simple vignettes that relate to a cause and an effect.
Cause: The new bill allows for free diagnostic screenings, mammograms, colonoscopies and the like. When I say free, I mean the patient pays nothing. The doctor and his office receive the same payment they would customarily receive from the patient's health insurance company.
Effect: My insurance company, in order to recoup their losses for all these free procedures will raise my premiums and rightfully so.
Cause: Obama has said often that his goal is to lower premiums by $2,500.00. A farce on it's face and ultimately deadly to an insurance company.
Effect: With ever shrinking premiums coming in, continued losses in the balance sheets leads inevitably to my insurance company going out of business. I am thus forced into the government "plan". I also like to call it the "final solution".
Cause: My employer, faced with staggering tax increases due to the stated goals in the health care bill of raising the money to pay for it all, decides to cut one of two things: payroll or health insurance. It is, after all, cheaper to pay the fine for not offering me health insurance than to actually offer it. Which do you think they will choose?
Effect: I am faced with unemployment which leads me into the final solution or the loss of my insurance which does the same thing.
I'm beginning to see a pattern here, aren't you? Two things spring instantly to mind. First: the death of private health insurance and second, and perhaps most insidious, the inevitability of all Americans to be dumped into the final solution.
I am not so naive that I don't know that both are the ultimate goal of the Obama administration. I've been vocal about the President's desire to see America become a single payer system. He's said it before and I suspect he's said it since taking office but only in private and never when he could be cornered by his words. For more than a year the Democrats in the Congress have made health insurance companies the biggest boogeyman since the Soviets of the 50's and 60's. They were made the enemy by the usual complement of class warriors who sought to instill anger and fear into an electorate that was already nervous and shaky from the collapsing economy.
The cause is universal health care and the effect will be the enslavement of an entire country. Likening the signing of this bill to civil rights legislation is reprehensible and diminishes the thousands who died for those rights. Mentioning Dr. King in the same breath as Barrack Obama is to spit on King's memory and his struggle.
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Great Pyramid
The Great Pyramid at Giza, believed to have been built for the Pharaoh Khufu, took more than 20 years to build and is a marvel of engineering. Compared to watchmaking of the present day for it's intricate measuring and construction, it stands today as it has for more than 3,800 years - the oldest of the seven wonders of the world. Though having been plundered by thieves and explorers for thousands of years but the monument itself stands as a testament to the ambition of one man. Tens of thousands of slaves and free men spent untold years creating this wonder. Thousands of others died during the construction. Some, worn out and tired from the work, simply died of exhaustion while others fell during the transport of the massive limestone blocks that were floated along the Nile or pulled through the sands of Egypt. Crushed beneath the blocks or between them as they were set into place, they died and became a permanent part of the pyramid. Their bones became the mortar with which the blocks became strong enough to survive the centuries that would follow.
While this little history lesson may seem a tad too random, allow me to tie this into a neat little package that perhaps may make more sense.
Those of you who have read my little rants in the past have seen me refer to Barrak Obama as the boy king - an obvious reference to king Tut. I made this comparison partly due to his age versus his lack of experience and partly due to how the left leaning press seemed to be treating his impending inauguration after the 2008 election more like a coronation. He was lauded for what he wanted to achieve, not for what he'd actually done. His nomination and subsequent award of the Nobel peace prize is evidence of is mindset. Never before had someone with so few accomplishments been afforded such latitude during a presidential campaign and in the ensuing months after his coronation ... or inauguration depending on your point of view or political affiliation. During the initial debate on Obama's push for health care reform, I referred to the first bill from congress as Obama's "great wall"- a monument to himself that would stand forever as a symbol of his presidency. This belief that health care reform was more about Obama then about the American people was proven true in the week more the senate bill made its way through the house.
The Politico reported on a meeting between Obama and the black caucus that said essentially that passing health care reform was more important to Obama's presidency and his ability to implement any of his remaining agenda then it was about what reform meant to the average American. His ability to govern, his reputation , why... his legacy was at stake and no Democrat with a conscience was going to stand in his way. Today this reform seems less like the great wall than it did. It feels more like the boy king building the pyramid that would eventually carry his spirit to the heavens and secure his place amongst the gods.
The only problem with this analogy is that we, the American people, are the builders that will eventually be crushed under the weight of this monument. It is the bones of our Republic that will serve as the mortar with which this new structure will grow strong. Like the Pyramid of Khufu, it will be plundered and robbed by thieves for years to come but the man for whom it was built will be remembered as the one who made it all possible. In building his magnificent monument, he is destroying what was once great about our Republic. In his quest to get this reform bill passed, he has sullied a once noble institution whose seats were once filled with gallant men who died for their convictions and gave their fortunes for an idea that this boy king finds repugnant.
He does not deserve a monument and years of accolades for his bravery. He deserves to be exposed as the destroyer he truly is.
While this little history lesson may seem a tad too random, allow me to tie this into a neat little package that perhaps may make more sense.
Those of you who have read my little rants in the past have seen me refer to Barrak Obama as the boy king - an obvious reference to king Tut. I made this comparison partly due to his age versus his lack of experience and partly due to how the left leaning press seemed to be treating his impending inauguration after the 2008 election more like a coronation. He was lauded for what he wanted to achieve, not for what he'd actually done. His nomination and subsequent award of the Nobel peace prize is evidence of is mindset. Never before had someone with so few accomplishments been afforded such latitude during a presidential campaign and in the ensuing months after his coronation ... or inauguration depending on your point of view or political affiliation. During the initial debate on Obama's push for health care reform, I referred to the first bill from congress as Obama's "great wall"- a monument to himself that would stand forever as a symbol of his presidency. This belief that health care reform was more about Obama then about the American people was proven true in the week more the senate bill made its way through the house.
The Politico reported on a meeting between Obama and the black caucus that said essentially that passing health care reform was more important to Obama's presidency and his ability to implement any of his remaining agenda then it was about what reform meant to the average American. His ability to govern, his reputation , why... his legacy was at stake and no Democrat with a conscience was going to stand in his way. Today this reform seems less like the great wall than it did. It feels more like the boy king building the pyramid that would eventually carry his spirit to the heavens and secure his place amongst the gods.
The only problem with this analogy is that we, the American people, are the builders that will eventually be crushed under the weight of this monument. It is the bones of our Republic that will serve as the mortar with which this new structure will grow strong. Like the Pyramid of Khufu, it will be plundered and robbed by thieves for years to come but the man for whom it was built will be remembered as the one who made it all possible. In building his magnificent monument, he is destroying what was once great about our Republic. In his quest to get this reform bill passed, he has sullied a once noble institution whose seats were once filled with gallant men who died for their convictions and gave their fortunes for an idea that this boy king finds repugnant.
He does not deserve a monument and years of accolades for his bravery. He deserves to be exposed as the destroyer he truly is.
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