Even though news is no not nearly so soul crushing like it was while Trump was in office, I still find myself burned out on all of it. I’ve often advocated that a democracy depends on a well-informed electorate, so I’ve felt that its almost akin to a patriotic duty to follow the news.
But increasingly, I’m trying to step away from news that is likely not to impact me or the nation / world. That might sound self-centered, but by way of example I’m talking about stories of some Woman who drowns herself and her kids in Texas.
Maybe there is an underpinning in the story about depression, drugs or abuse that is relevant outside of her community. But reading such tragedies takes something of a mental toll.
And then there are the endless celebrity fluff pieces or the speculative news articles of something that might happen e.g. Apple might buy Disney based on Rumors.
Still, I tune into big global news like Russia’s war on Ukraine. And I enjoy positive happenings like the Artemis program.
But with our phones in hand, it’s so easy to occupy an idyll minute while on hold with a support desk or waiting for a friend to meet. It becomes a twitch.
I have those bored moments and am likely not going to step away from using my phone to kill time when there is nothing else to do, but increasingly asking myself when I read a headline, “How will this help me?” “What will I get out of this?” The answer is usually, “It won’t” or “Nothing much”. When you start looking at news this way, then one observes that 98% of it is passable noise.
I think I need to start carrying a good old fashioned paperback book with me everywhere.
Instead of world news commentary, here is a piece of inane trivia that I observed one evening while watching a rerun of Columbo.
From season 9, episode 6 entitled, ‘Murder in Malibu‘ which was released in May 14, 1990:
“Those are crows, they were nesting up here.”
I wonder how much time was spent looking through stock film before the producers said, ‘Ah, screw it! Let’s use bats instead. Nobody will notice or care.‘
“Fantasy, if it’s really convincing, can’t become dated, for the simple reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond the reach of time.”
Taken at a Massai Boma in Oldupai Emanyata, Tanzania on January 12 2022.
With another villager’s help, this man started a fire with friction in less than a minute. A humbling exposure to another culture, another way of life.
I recently saw a Facebook post from a really sweet guy I know. (I’ve redacted his name.) He is a very compassionate individual. The kind of man who is sensitive and cries at life’s tragedy. He also happens to have an advanced degree (Doctorate) and has a career that requires constant education.
And yet, this objectively well educated, good guy drinks deeply from the well of misinformation.
In the early days of the internet, this smart, kind person reflexively forwarded every joke or meme that came into his email inbox. (He was a one man spammer.) Now, in the age of social media, in spite of his good character and quantifiable education, he continues to consume and propagate easily falsifiable bullshit. – All of which is far right leaning.
It’s exhausting and feels like a losing battle. It doesn’t take much work to investigate a claim, but for most people it’s still too much effort and doesn’t come with the dopamine release of bias confirmation. I believe that there are real world consequences of this mindset to our country and world.
Often, when I see these posts and have time to spare, I’ll provide evidence refuting the meme. But it all seems so futile. By the time I see the posts, there are invariable already a series of ‘Likes’ and affirming comments. And when I do post the evidence, he (and his followers) never addresses my remarks. Instead, like the mass-forwarding days of yore, he’s already moved on and posted more junk. (I suspect that he posts and never looks back.)
I’m reminded of the saying:
A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes
Here is one of the more recent posts he shared on Facebook:
I immediately sensed the dubious nature of this meme and did a quick search to check the validity. With the super simple entry of the words (lifted directly from the post), ‘A gas powered van, towing a diesel generator, charging an electric car‘ into Google, the first results returned debunked the meme: No, that’s not a van towing a diesel generator to charge an electric car.
But that’s not the punch line.
I intended to share this information to his post by pasting the link into the comment section, but upon doing so, I saw a series of Facebook auto-generated links that also disproved the validity of the post as the header to the comments.
Facebook provided fact-checking.
The punchline is: someone named, ‘Jill’, went to the same comment section as I did and ignored the FOUR fact checking links provided by Facebook. ‘Jill’ went on to write, “Yep, can’t fix stupid!“
Maybe Jill… Maybe… Or perhaps you can’t fix confirmation bias.
The people protesting the overturn of Roe v Wade outside of the Supreme Court are wasting their time. That battle has been lost at the federal level… (for now.) The American Taliban (formally known as the GOP) have sufficiently packed courts to ensure the enforcement of their crusade. (Grand Wizard Trump appointed one quarter of the federal bench – for life!) And regardless, the courts aren’t even the right branch to protest. Those lifelong appointees people aren’t reactive to your votes.
For all of the people expressing their anger on Facebook with Handmaid’s Tale memes: I understand the instinct. But there should be equal or greater anger and engagement over the January 6 attempted coup by a sitting president. (Probably only nuclear missiles raining down on our cities would be as an immediate of a crisis for our democracy.) But we mostly yawn through the attempted overthrow of our government… We are amused to death. What’s next on Netflix streaming?
Once those levers are thrown, and the scales weighted even further, the American Taliban Party will becoming for your other rights until we’re living in a theocratic / plutocratic nation. All hail America!
Don’t like the Roe v Wade decision? Here’s what’s next on the docket…
Don’t assume that the ‘pendulum’ is going to swing in the other direction. As Bill Maher says, ‘It’s like being in an arm wrestling contest. You can comeback from here, (gestures 10 degrees deficit). It’s almost impossible to come back from here’ (gestures 80 degrees deficit).
“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.”
There is something seriously broken about the United States. It goes deep to the bone.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
~ Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
There are various readings of the 2nd amendment. But I believe, that it is fair to say that there are generally three significant schools of thought: 1) That the amendment was in reference to a militia or 2) That the amendment is an absolute right for citizens to bear arms wholly unrestricted. 3) To various degrees, guns should be legal but controlled and regulated.
That said, just because I’m not into something doesn’t mean that I casually dismiss the argument that Americans have the right to own guns. I’m very, very cautions about the idea of removing citizens rights. But I also don’t think that just because it is currently a constitutional amendment that such a debate is off the table. (There is the case of at least another amendment having been repealed. [The 18th]).
When you compare the United States to other countries that also have high-gun ownership, you find that we are a far higher rate of gun related homicides.
Nor can these deaths be waved aside as a matter of mental illness nor is it violent video games and movies. Other countries have all of those things in equal proportions.
Through there lack of action, it is evident that there is one party who has clearly defended these deaths as an acceptable norm (in spite of their ‘thoughts and prayers’). The Trumpkin MAGA Party (formerly known as the GOP) uses guns (and other tactics) to distract and inflame their base while they pilfer the nation. If the Republican leaders really believed all of the bullshit that they said about how secure guns make everyone, then they would allow them in their conventions and rallies but they don’t, because they know the truth.
Since the latest school shooting at the Texas Robb Elementary School, I’ve seen conservative social media posts like this one:
We will never create enough laws to control evil – evil does not obey laws!
From the supposed party of ‘law and order’, this sudden abdication of responsibility is almost funny if it weren’t for the deadly ramifications. But one wonders where such logic should stop? Does this only apply to laws meant to curb gun violence, or should we throw in the towel on all evil acts since evil, ‘does not obey laws’? It sounds as if they are setting the groundwork for The Purge.
Honestly, I could keep going and going with supporting statistics and logic, but facts seem to be out of favor with much of the population. I don’t have the energy for throwing my heart at that wall of willful stupidity.
We are a fearful nation. A nation that fetishizes guns. There is something broken in the spirit of this country. Something that we seem unresolved to correct.
“I should like to save the Shire, if I could – though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don’t feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.”
~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Shadow of the Past
Given current affairs, especially with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, I’ve seen this quote circulating a lot:
There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Sadly, it simply isn’t true.
Two quick examples of long lived tyrant murders include, Joseph Stalin, dead at 74 of a stroke while in power. Kim Jong-Il died at age 69 of a heart attack while in power. And it’s not just in the past. Many are still going to this very day.
From this article: Kim Jong-Il’s Natural Death Typical for Dictators, “The death by natural causes of Kim Jong-Il highlights a possibly unpleasant truth about repressive dictators: Many, if not most, end up living long lives and dying peacefully. Those who live by the sword don’t necessarily die by it, according to “The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History’s 100 Worst Atrocities” (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011). In it, Matthew White tracked the fates of the leaders most responsible for the 100-deadliest human events. A majority, he found, lived out their natural life spans in peace. “About 60 percent of the individual oppressors and warmongers who were most responsible for each of these multicides lived happily ever after,” White wrote.“
I mention this, not to despair. I say it, because I don’t think there is any magical guarantee that the right thing is going to happen.
And this situation with Putin, is so very dangerous. Except for the cold war, (which is only decades old), the world has never had circumstances like they have today. This one man has in his power, the ability to start a civilization ending (if not humanity ending) world war. The only thing that consoles me is that his avarice appears to outstrip his ideology. That is to say, it is my hope that his greed and personal vanity keep him in check over his political views that the old dead ghost of the USSR must rise and stand over the ashes of the west.
But, I also wonder at what could get him removed from power. If, somehow, the censor blinded populace wakes up, grown weary from sanctions and oppressive rule, and march to the doors of the Kremlin, torches in hand, I highly suspect that Putin would push the button before being drug out into the streets. This one man could end us all.
We shouldn’t pretend that history is template of what is to come.
“Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.”
There are so many serious concerns in the world. Right now, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I feel we’re probably as close to the brink of World War III as we have been since the cold war. Maybe closer.
But as is often the case, the more serious the issue, the more depleting it is and I’m de-energized to write about it. The childish games we play with the future of humanity is soul crushing. So, instead, here is 2 cents on the exceedingly trivial matter of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars last night. (Also, I’ve only had four hours of sleep, so that doesn’t help fuel any extensive writing, making this is my cop-out entry just to get something posted before the end of the month.)
I didn’t watch the event happen in real time. I haven’t had interest in the Oscars (or other award shows) for decades. Not sure I was ever particularly interested in them but for years I’ve been somewhat repulsed by them.
But anyway, the main event, so to speak, was the brouhaha around Will Smith slapping (and then cursing) Chris Rock for a joke he made. Will Smith went on to be awarded the Oscar for best male actor.
Chris Rock(ed) by Will Smith
A lot of people are defending Will Smith since Chris Rock made some very insensitive comments about his wife. And, although I can understand the anger and desire to slap someone who said something about a loved one in my life, I’m also fully confident that if I did so as part of a work meeting, not only would I be fired, I’d be escorted out of the building with the distinct possibility of having the police called on me. I certainly would not receive any award that night and if future would-be employers ever got wind of it, I’m confident that I’d not be hired by any of them.
Also: kudos to Chris Rock for taking it all very well. I don’t think I’d have kept my composure nearly as well.
Naturally, I won’t spoil anything if you aren’t versed in the subject.
Short Summary
Don’t have time to read my ramblings? Understood. Here is my quick take: It looks like a train wreck. I hope I’m wrong, but wouldn’t bet against myself.
Extended Summary
As far as we know so far, the story is based off of the Lord of the Rings ‘backstory’ referencing parts of the ’Second Age’ and the creation of the Rings of Power. Initially, it was generally understood that Amazon had bought some portion of story rights from the Tolkien estate. At first, it appeared to be parts of the Silmarillion but now there are indications that Amazon only procured rights from the Appendix of the Lord of the Rings.
I’m honestly not sure how much legendarium the show runners have legal access to but I’m guessing it generally amounts to something akin to what is found in the Silmarillion’s chapter, ‘Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age’.
The bottom line though, appears to be that the show will be based off access to some relatively small fraction of Tolkien’s lore.
Mythopoeia
The frame story for Tolkien’s writings are that of a pre-history as opposed to a ‘fictional universe‘. The stories are not meant to be seen as another world, but as a pre-history to our world and Tolkien treats himself as a historian and philologist who is deciphering and translating ancient, pre-history texts. He conceived of these texts as part of a legendarium, or collection of legends.
I’m providing this background, because there is a very significant backlash to the content people have seen so far around this, ‘Rings of Power’ series. Much of that backlash has to do with race. – A third rail of discourse. I’ve also had friends casually mention to me that, anything can go with the story because it’s ‘just’ fantasy and ‘takes place on another planet’.
“I propose to speak about fairy-stories, though I am aware that this is a rash adventure. Faërie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold.”
~ J.R.R. Tolkien, Tolkien On Fairy-stories
Before I dive in, I need to provide some further context to the casual fan. Much of the conversation stems around the concept that Tolkien ostensibly wanted his writings to provide a, ‘mythology for England’.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s tales of Middle-earth are hailed as founding texts of modern fantasy. But his recently published commentary on the Old English poem Beowulf suggests that Tolkien saw his creative writing as a work of historical reconstruction. The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings were conceived as the original stories behind an ancient but long lost English mythology.
But there are other scholarly writings that challenge this claim, or at least, take umbrage with the shorthand / simplification, such as found in the paper, A Mythology? For England?
For many years it has been a received truth that what Tolkien wanted to make was (or was initially) “a mythology for England”, a phrase which is always put within quotation marks and never provided with a source.
~ Anders Stenstrom
As much as I love Tolkien’s works, I’m only a fan. I’m not paid to be a Tolkien scholar and so my time to dig deeper is limited. Tolkien was exceedingly subtle in thought and I’m not sure how binary he’d be on this presumption of his writings being created as an English myth, but I’m of the school that more or less, that the concept informed the direction of his writings. Even Anders Stenstrom, who challenges the shorthand version goes onto report that he had uncovered a piece of writing that was a probable derivation for the notion. From a Tolkien draft letter to an unidentified, ‘Mr. Thompson’:
Thank you very much for your kind and encouraging letter. Having set myself a task, the arrogance of which I fully recognised and trembled at: being precisely to restore to the English an epic tradition and present them with a mythology of their own: it is a wonderful thing to be told that I have succeeded, at least with those who have still the undarkened heart and mind.
I’ll cut to my thesis on the subject of race and the Rings of Power show: I have significant concerns with what I’ve seen from the trailer and what I’ve read in articles but the least of my concerns is the depiction of characters by people of color.
That said, because it is such a controversy, I feel I need to spend some time sharing my thoughts on the matter even though I think it is a mountain from a molehill.
The race controversy stems from characters of black elves and black dwarves seen in the promotional materials.
The ‘pro’ black elves / dwarves generally follows these lines:
Tolkien should be for everybody and will be more relatable if it shows people of color.
It’s a ‘only’ a fantasy, and if a person can except wizards and dragons, why can’t they except black elves?
If you have a problem with black elves / dwarves, you must be a racist.
The ‘anti’ black elves / dwarves argument generally follows:
This is only being done as part of a ‘identity politics‘ and ‘wokeness‘. The Lord of the Rings has sold more than 150 million copies, translated into at least 38 languages, so, it’s already ‘for everybody’. Begging the question: must every race, creed, sexual orientation and more be represented before it can be seen as sufficiently diverse?
Tolkien wrote his stories as part of his ‘mythology for England’, specifically ancient, anglo-saxon England. (See background references, noted above.)
Tolkien does not describe any elves or dwarves as black.
Biologically, it doesn’t make sense for dwarves to be black because they live underground.
Tolkien did write about people of color, specifically in the realms of Harad, so if they showrunners want to be inclusive, why not expand on stories involving them?
I actually agree with a little from each camp and disagree with each camp.
Pro Multi-Ethnic Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits
From the ‘pro’ team, I’m an advocate of inclusion in life and we need to see a diversity of people in our media. However, ‘inclusivity’ is a broad idea, and it might need some guardrails. For example, if the the new series doesn’t include a deaf, asian who identifies as transgender, then does that mean that the ‘Rings of Power’ was not sufficiently inclusive?
That’s question may be a bit of a straw man fallacy, leading to a slippery slope fallacy, but really, what is the answer there? Are we looking at quotas?
Secondly, from the ‘pro’ camp, although I don’t like the implications in stating that middle earth is fantasy and therefore anything goes, I have to acknowledge that black elves or dwarves really don’t tax my suspension of disbelief more than a halfling. I can shrug, nod my head and accept a black elf.
“The association of children and fairy-stories is an accident of our domestic history. Fairy-stories have in the modern lettered world been relegated to the “nursery,” as shabby or old-fashioned furniture is relegated to the play-room, primarily because the adults do not want it, and do not mind if it is misused.”
“But, essentially, the well-written men of the Lord Of The Rings have given us a beautiful example of healthy masculinity; one that allows men to cry without shame, to experience deep love and affection, to treat women and girls with the same thoughtfulness with which they like to be treated, to create and maintain friendships, to express themselves, and to treat all others with the kindness and respect that they deserve.”
~Lord Of The Rings at 20: how the fantasy epic offers up the perfect antidote to toxic masculinity, Kayleigh Dray
Sometimes gender, race or creed, etc. are important (or even fundamental) to the story and the character and sometimes, they are not.
On both sides of this argument, I see too many people who argue canon from the perspective of the Peter Jackson movies. The Jackson movies are not canon. That it is an adaptation. And although I love the movies and generally think them masterpieces, there are liberties taken in the movies that are far more jarring to me than black elves. For example: super-hero Legolas single-handedly taking down a Mumakil in Jackson’s Return of the King. The pigmentation of an actor, really doesn’t change the story at all but Legolas single-handedly taking down a Mumakil most certainly has story implications, not the least being that with dozen or so super-powered elves could single-handedly take down the armies of Mordor. So, if you want to be outraged by Elven variations from Tolkien’s story, let’s start witht that scene!
So, although the idea of creating an ancient English mythology might have been an important driver to Tolkien, such as his desire to create fictional languages, it is not the driver for me, the reader as to why I love his writings. So, the skin color of a character doesn’t change their motivation. (- Unless, *gasp*, the storyrunners decide to bring such race politics into their adaptation and we see black elves not being treated equally to white elves or something similar. In which case: I’d say that is the type of political allegory that Tolkien hated and that would undermine the archetypical monomyth that makes the stories timeless. )
Anti Multi-Ethnic Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits
From the anti-team, I do, generally subscribe to the idea that Tolkien had something in mind like creating an ancient mythology for England. Emphasis on ancient. Because, of course, England’s history is full to the brim with people of color, that said, I suspect Tolkien was more focused on ancient Celtic history.
Because of this, I also think that a more authentic way to be inclusive would be to expand on stories regarding the Haradrim. The Haradrim, or Easterlings, were a dark skinned race of people in Middle Earth and there could be perfectly valid story lines that include them.
Tangentially to these arguments, the people who argue against the idea of black elves and dwarves and ‘forced diversity’ counter by asking, ‘Is it racist to have an all asian cast of Mulan? Or an for Wakanda to be made up of just black people?’ ‘Should we have male Amazons in Wonder Woman?’
They fired their premier Tolkien advisor (Tom Shippey), who was originally charged with keeping the story true to Tolkien. There are rumors that he was replaced with Mariana Rios Maldonado, who was cited in the Vanity Fair article. Few had heard of who her but she is an ‘Equality and Diversity Officer’ and supposedly a Tolkien scholar. (Although we can’t be certain she’s a replacement since Amazon won’t officially indicate who their new Tolkien Scholars are.)
The current theory is that Shippey was a good watchdogs shooting down stupid ideas and was then axed under the pretext of having talked to a magazine about the series.
It is also, rightfully, scaring Tolkien fans that Amazon is spending more time promoting the concepts of cast diversity than, you know, actual stories and characters. The Vanity Fair article got off on the wrong foot right away because it started a preemptive attack on the fans and didn’t spend much time discussing the actual content of the series. Amazon then doubled down on this approach with assinie ‘interviews’ with supposed Tolkien influencer, ‘Super-Fans’ who don’t, apparently, have any content on Tolkien and spend their time doing canned interviews about how great all the diversity was in the sneak peak they were granted.
Diversity Double Standard in Hollywood
Both sides of the argument have massive, breathless hyperbole and there seem to be few calm and reasoned arguments. (Such is the state of debate, these days, I suppose…)
The Vanity Fair article rhetorically and preemptively asked, “Who are these people that feel so threatened or disgusted by the idea that an elf is Black or Latino or Asian?” I think such statements drive home the notion that there was an agenda here that was outside of picking the best person for the role. And then they bait fans who might feel differently about the lore by implying that they are disgusted racists. I thought their goal was to reach more people not to offend existing fans who might have a different opinion on what is authentic to the story?
On the other side, people have spammed the comments board with a paraphrased quote from Tolkien that implies that the creators of the series are evil, “Evil is not capable of creating anything new, it can only distort and destroy what has been invented or made by the forces of good.” Having people of color play characters that aren’t explicitly described might not qualify as, ‘evil’.
Sample multi-lingual spamming of comment boards with paraphrased Tolkien quote, ‘”Evil is not capable of creating anything new, it can only distort and destroy what has been invented or made by the forces of good.”’
But I’ll finish up by linking to a video essay that I think does a really good job of highlighting a fundamental question about diversity in Hollywood vs authenticity. The author highlights that there are two sides: that a story needs to be either authentic to its original source and author’s intentions or it needs to be diverse. e.g. Mulan needs to either be authentic to its history, or we should expect a cast of equal parts non-asians whenever the story is depicted.
I could go on, but that rabbit hole keeps going. The idea of inclusivity and diversity are very, very worth considering. But, as I said before, for me, black elves/dwarves doesn’t bother me. I’ve only spent this much time discussing it because it’s the elephant in the room when critiquing the content we’ve seen so far.
Story, Character and Aesthetics
That exhausting controversy aside, I still think that the show is shaping up to be a hot mess. Understanding that this story is, by definition, an adaptation, the more it varies from the source material, the less likely it will be as epic as the original. – That is, unless the writers are as good or better than Tolkien. – And I know where I’m placing my bet.
By definition, this story will be an adaptation and changes will need to be made. But if you start stripping away the underpinnings of the narative and mythology, then I’m not sure you’re making a Middle Earth story any longer and you can’t be too surprised if fans of that story are disgruntled.
Some quick hits:
• Galadriel now a sword wielding, armor wearing warrior who leads armies. (Not even joking.) Galadriel was nothing like this in any of Tolkien’s writings. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t strong nor a leader. In fact, she was one of Tolkien’s favorite characters but her strength came from wisdom, not arms who was responsible for an entire kingdom. Now she’s climbing ice-cliffs with daggers.
• In the Vanity Fair article, we’re told that there is an elf and a single mother human have a forbidden love affair. Note: these characters aren’t in any of the Tolkien writings, which have only four elf / human relationships. These stories were a big deals in canon, rife with symbolism of love and mortality. (For the geek record, those relationships were: Mithrellas and Imrazor, Tuor and Idril, Beren and Luthien and Arwen and Aragorn.) These romances were very insignificant to the stories of Middle Earth. – Especially the love of Beren and Luthien, which was fundamental to the Silmarillion and the love between Arwen and Aragorn which was a primary motivator for the actions of Aragorn and all of his undertakings in the Lord of the Rings. I’m highly skeptical of the show-runners interjection of a new such love affair into canon and emphasizing that she’s a ‘single-mom’. This reads as a contrivance to try and imbue the story with modern soap-opera like drama.
• Overall, I’m skeptical of the interjection of new major characters. The idea that they show-runners felt that they needed to generate a new one given the massive amount of lore already available, seems foolish. There are 245 named characters in the Silmarian. And even if they can only contractually reference 20% of them, that is still 50 characters. The second age spans 3,441 years. I think they already have their work cut out for them and they don’t need to create new variants.
• The trailer starts with hobbits (actually, ‘harfoots, a precursor to the hobbits), even though hobbits play no noted roles in stories of those times. – A fact that underpins the concepts of what makes them so remarkable in the Hobbit and LotR. The Hobbits were under the radar of the ‘wise’ before the Lord of the Rings. The events before that book are not their story. Shoehorning them into the events before the Lord of the Rings book robs them of their surprising role from that story.
• Elrond is described as ‘political’ by the show runners. Elrond for president! I suspect that would be very low on the list of adjectives for the character by most fans and scholars. Remember how great it was when the fantasy Star Wars movies were made political in the prequels? Exactly…
• I hate the elf catching the arrow scene. That shot is taking cues from the worst aspects of the Peter Jackson movies. (Like Legolas skating on a shield down steps; not to the absolute mention super-hero level action in the the scene with the Mûmakil.) Yes, the elves and dwarves and men (especially of Númenor), were meant to be exceptional, they were also not meant to be comic book action characters. Christopher Tolkien said, “They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25.” As proof to my willingness and openness to accepting adaptations, I’ll say that I disagree that the Jackson movies, ‘eviscerated the Lord of the Rings, but those Legolas superhero action scenes were forerunners to the action scenes in the Jackson Hobbit movies. Those movies most certainly eviscerated that book. If we’re getting more of the same in this new series, we’ll have the same results.
• The series story runners (J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay) are two no-name writers who had no IMDB credits before this. None of their projects had ever come to fruition, but they are known to have worked on the horrible J.J. Abram’s Rebooted Star Trek. (Abrams: the killer of cherished series like Star Trek and Star Wars.)
• Diretor J. A. Bayona is the no-talent director behind the terrible Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
• The CGI graphics look like something from a video game console. A quote from an article, “There’s a certain look shared by many modern fantasy television shows; a glossy, textureless sheen that makes picturesque landscapes look like computer screensavers, and knights in armor look like high-effort cosplay.“
• Thematically, the teaser trailer is not at all evocative. It’s just cobbled together random scenes that highlight non-canon ‘story’. It looks like it was created as a work of fan fiction from someone who only ever saw the terrible, terrible, terrible Hobbit movies and who only ever read cliff notes about the books.
Tolkien On Fairy-stories
I don’t know how to wrap this up with a nice bow. I’m sure I could go on… I think the show looks bad, for reasons that have nothing to do with the skin color of elves or dwarves. That said, I repeat, I sincerely hope I’m wrong and that I’m mistaking the evidence. I’ll leave the last words to the Professor, who, not unsurprisingly, sums up many of these considerations far more eloquently than I can.
“Studies [on the origin of fairy-stories] are, however, scientific (at least in intent); they are the pursuit of folklorists or anthropologists: that is of people using the stories not as they were meant to be used, but as a quarry from which to dig evidence, or information, about matters in which they are interested.
…with regard to fairy stories, I feel that it is more interesting, and also in its way more difficult, to consider what they are, what they have become for us, and what values the long alchemic processes of time have produced in them. In Dasent’s words I would say: ‘We must be satisfied with the soup that is set before us, and not desire to see the bones of the ox out of which it has been boiled.’
Such stories have now a mythical or total (unanalysable) effect, an effect quite independent of the findings of Comparative Folk-lore, and one which it cannot spoil or explain; they open a door on Other Time, and if we pass through, though only for a moment, we stand outside our own time, outside Time itself, maybe.”
“If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go.”
Amazon is a huge company that puts in an amazing amount of effort and intelligence to make for great online shopping experiences. But the capricious nature of Amazon’s packing frequently amazes me. A recent case in point: one order of coffee (about $20 value) and an order of two external hard drives (about $500 value). The coffee came in a large, protective box. The hard drives came in a small plastic envelope. Granted: the hard drives are individually wrapped in boxes, and I hate over packaging, but given the relative value of the items alone, shipping the delicate electronic hard drives in an envelope seems like a good way to stress test the hard drive packaging.
In this episode, Marcia is interviewed by a TV reporter on her thoughts on women’s liberation. When she gets home, her family gathers around to see her on TV.
This screenshot is taken from the four minute mark.
Peter and Greg Brady watching TV, in the Brady Bunch episode, “The Liberation of Marcia Brady”.
Nothing to see here, right… Wait… What is that? – Let’s zoom in…
Creepy Cat Close-up
Which of the nine circles of hell did this demon cat abomination crawl? It has grown fat on the souls of the damned!
Wanna know why I think the cat would fit? – Because I copied and pasted it into the painting and I bet you didn’t notice. (Click the image for a larger view and to play, Find Waldo the Demon Cat Sculpture.)
Okay people. Signing off for 2021. It is my desire that 2022 be a good year for all. Peace-out.
I enjoy old TV shows, for the sake nostalgia, and for the little cultural gems that can be found in them.
Take for example, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. At the time, it was very much adult comedy, that explored new territory (such as a happily single, unmarried working woman.) But even the salacious, sexual innuendo have a cute quality to them by today’s standards.
But in the episode “Not With My Wife, I Don’t“, the cultural surprise isn’t the sexual jokes, but rather the scene where reporter, Murray Slaughter (played by Gavin MacLeod), returns from researching a gun story, armed to the teeth with machine guns and bandoliers. Even allowing for the idea that the character was sent to do this for the sake of reporting, the light-hearted tone has a different quality to current sensibilities.
Season 6, 16th episode of the season (136th show episode), entitled, “Not With My Wife, I Don’t“, aired January 3, 1976.
“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.”
Today’s random photo from the vault was taken at Bangalore Palace, October 31, 2015.
Here is a simultaneously funny and scary example of Security Theater: an unattended rifle, leaning, rather precariously against a shrub. I watched for some time: no sign of the guard. What could possibly go wrong? The best case scenario is that the rifle wasn’t ever loaded.
I also like the sad little details of the taped and broken plastic chairs.
India is a fantastic place. I highly recommend a visit for those who are open minded. But in a country of over a billion people, it is often evident that safety is very, very laxed, because, I’d guess: there is an underlying, unspoken philosophy that have plenty of back-up people.
“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid … Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.”
When writing a post title, I try to think of something witty, or at least punny while also being succinct. Alas, I couldn’t think of how to encapsulate this post with anything pithy. Maybe, my difficulty stems from the fact that I’m writing this with an insomniac brain starting at 3:30am. But I’m going to console myself with the idea that in the entirety of history of spoken language, the words Flamenco, Raccoon and Kitsch have almost certainly never been combined before in an attempt to communicate something.
I’ve noted a few times, that I enjoy yard Kitsch. (At least when it’s not one of my immediate neighbors.) So, here are a few more gems for the collection. Both of these adornments are found in the front yard of a single house: within a few feet of the road. I pass them semi-regularly on the way to a local park until finally, one day, pulled over to get a couple of quick photos to share with the world.
The first figure is probably 15 feet tall and evidently was created from the remains of a tree. As I’d drive by it at speed, I was always left with the impression of Jack Skellington, from the movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
It wasn’t until I started to examine the photo closely, that I started to perceive that this figure may be intended as some sort of Spanish Flamenco dancer due to the belt sash and Cordovan hat.
If Modern Family’s, Ty Burrell were a Flamenco dancer.
Looking closer, at the design and craftsmanship is interesting.
The arms were branches, I’d guess. But the arms and hands also seem to be covered in rubber cloth. So, the creator had to fashion sleeves, of just the right length and created little cuffs with buttons. The hands, or gloves, appear to be filled with some material that gives them a real roundness. I wonder how the glove hands are attached. – It probably wasn’t easy.
The head appears to be made out of plastic or metal and has been customized with a notch to fit neatly around the left arm. The eyes are black Xs. – Kind of an international indication of someone who is either dead or drunk.
Dead or drunk, Jack Skellington, tree Flamenco dancer, bids you to join him in a hug.
The next shot reveals a background with the house and property . – All neatly manicured and in no way exceptional except for the these two giant, permanent figures in the front.
This second sculpture is about 12 feet tall and as far as I can figure, it’s a grey raccoon riding a bike. Let’s look at the details.
Raccoon Bicyclist
The figure also appears to have been carved from a giant tree, but as I examined the bottom of the figure, I started to have my doubts, at least about the base. I circled in red what appear to be pipes, and the eclipse at the bottom shows what appears to be a seam. These items and the odd textures made me question that this wasn’t some sort of artificial base. – I don’t know what to do with that information, but it adds a wrinkle to the story of its creation. Was there some functionality? Did the pipes in the front connect to the pipes sticking out of the ground? Perhaps a fountain at one time?
Base artifacts
Stepping back a little, we can observe some interesting details ranging from giant novelty sized sunglasses, a black top hat, peace sign and a license plate on the front that reads, ‘United States Marine Veteran’. Taking up the rear of the bike is a flag. And, a recent addition is the Covid compliant face-mask.
Covid compliant raccoon
Think about it all as one picture. – Some rural country-dweller who maintains all of their house and yard along cultural standards decided that these two giant statues would add value in their front yard. They spent considerable time making them by chisel or chainsaw or plaster-cast. The got cloth and buttons and fashioned clothes and a mask. They formed hats and heads and painted them. The got a large bike, cut out the midsection and then figured out how to attach it so as to create the illusion that the giant raccoon was astride the bike. Then the creator put on a giant pair of sunglasses; added a peace-symbol to their Veteran American Marine raccoon, and then stuck a flag onto the back of the bike. Finally, after how many days or weeks of work, they stood back, arms folded and nodded approvingly at their handicraft and said to themselves. There! That is what was needed! They then went back into the house and turned on a gameshow.
“If we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition – even when it seems to be doing a little good – we abet a general climate in which scepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate. Figuring out a prudent balance takes wisdom.”
~ Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
I especially like the extra special logical incongruity of the ‘Pro Gun’ pistol barrel pointing at the ‘Pro Life’ heart.
The woman who (apparently) owned the vehicle was about mid-30s. White. She had a huge bag of dog food that I helped her heave into the vehicle. Not sure why that matters, but context is often interesting.
“Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.”
Facebook, like most social media, has been a disappointment to me and I’ve taken to staying clear of it. But recently, after more than a half year’s absence, I did have an occasion to login and wish a friend well on a project. Naturally, I got sucked in…
It wasn’t long before I came across some attrocious posts. The most startling of which was one that reads, ‘So you tear down monuments that remind you of slavery… Then create a holiday to remember slavery‘. – Presented below with poster / commenters names redacted. (Although, I’m not entirely sure why I bothered, since, after all, they clearly shared this publicly from their accounts already. [I suppose, I want to make it less about the individuals and more about the flawed, ‘thinking’.])
So you tear down monuments that remind you of slavery… Then create a holiday to remember slavery meme.
I was tempted… SO TEMPTED to leave a comment to break down what is wrong with this, but wisely, I decided to not feed the trolls… Still, the stupidity of it was so overwhelming and the sentiment so sickening, I feel that I needed to vent somewhere, so… here we are.
The poster had written, ‘SMGDH’ = Smack my God Damn Head. – I volunteer for the duty!
I guess, for starters, I need to note how cock-sure the poster (and vast number of commenters) were, that this was a clearly an obvious sentiment and logical conclusion. And I’m struck about how cock-sure I am that this is unfathomably stupid and evil. But I’m going to outline the arguments and let the reader decide.
For starters, the poster seems to think that the confederate monuments are testaments against slavery, as opposed to being favorable memorials for the white supremacy, the confederacy and their traitorous and loathsome advocacy and support for slavery.
And / or, they seem to think that, the newly enacted federal holiday of ‘Juneteenth’ is an avocation in favor of slavery.
And / or that commemoration of liberty is equivalent morally to the celebration of the villains that tried to take away said liberty.
And / or that people simply want to, ‘forget that whole slavery thing already, so why are we making a holiday about it if we don’t also want statues… (?)’
When the reality is: the confederate statues are analogous to people erecting reverent statues for Osama bin Laden in the country’s town squares and then arguing that they’re there for the sake of ‘history’.
Osama Bin Laden’s bust. Photo by Helen Janes.
In this ever so slightly alternate world, not only would we have statues of Taliban leaders, nobly captured on bronze plinths and Taliban flags hanging from state capitals and as stickers on the bumpers of pick-up trucks, we’d also have memes that joked anyone who supported their removal couldn’t also, be advocates for the 9/11 memorial.
So, class, from the top:
• Statues to the confederacy are championing the leaders and concepts of people who advocated for the violent overthrow of the country, the subjugation of people, and in support of slavery.
• The Juneteenth holiday is in commemoration of the ending of the ugliest chapter in American history and is in celebration of freedom. (Editor’s note: I greatly prefer the other names for the holiday including Emancipation Day, Freedom Day and Black Independence Day which are far better ‘branding’.)
• Summary: Advocates for the holiday do not want slavery forgotten. They want to celebrate its defeat. They do not want to put slavery’s champions on literal pedestals.
“These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, and the terror that it actually stood for.”
I’m a couple of days late in posting, but on May 22, 2021: This website turned 20 years old.
I’m sorry that I did not get to the post on that day, but life has been busy. – Good busy. – So: I’ll forgive myself.
When I started the site, I had some hopes that it might become, ‘something‘. – That hasn’t happened and yet, I’m glad I started and maintained the site. It’s been a good hobby. I’ve watched other people’s sites come and go or fall into neglect and yet I have persevered: which is something I take pride in.
Cheers to you old website. Happy birthday. Happy anniversary. May we have 20 more years or more together!
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
In the last year, Covid has almost become the new, go to small-talk default subject, like weather. And so it was, that in talking with a work colleague, the person I was speaking with balked at the notion of getting a Covid vaccination. The person said, Covid is, ‘Just the flu’. And went on to brag about never even having a flu shot.
The lack of science literacy (much of it, willful), and poor societal risk assessment is getting a lot of people killed.
R0 is the reproductive rate of a contagion. Flu has an R Nought value of ~ 1.3; whereas Covid, has an R Nought value of 2 to 5.7. (And new versions are becoming more contagious. Because the disease is fairly new to medicine, researchers are still tabulating the data required to calculate R0 more or less in real time.) – As a historical comparison, the R0 of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic is estimated to have been between 1.4 and 2.8, according to an article published in BMC Medicine.
What’s more, unlike the flu, for which there is a vaccine, until just recently, everyone in the population is theoretically susceptible to COVID-19. That’s the difference in susceptibility between the flu which affects 8% vs 50% and 80% of the the population could be infected with COVID-19.
Long Haul
The attempts to mitigate the risk and the deaths get most of the headlines, but if people don’t care if they and their loved ones (or, fellow humanity), dies, then maybe perhaps they might be concerned with the potential, crippling ramifications of the disease that is affecting many.
Long COVID (aka Long-Haulers) is estimated to affect 10% to 30% of people who get symptomatic infection. According to new research shared by the medical journal “BMJ Open,” one or more organs are impaired for up to four months in 70% of long haulers.
I take this personally, as I know of a dear friend who took all of the precautions but still got Covid. He was not hospitalized, but now, a year later, he’s still handicapped by the disease with debilitating brain-fog, chronic fatigue and other quality of life crushing symptoms.
Vaccinated
I actually understand that some people are going to look at a disease, and say, ‘death happens’. – I get that instinct. To quote a friend of mine, ‘Over a long enough period of time, life is 100% fatal.‘
But it’s not a matter of unavoidable fate. Just on stats alone, the number of deaths and illnesses are exceptional and global: this isn’t the ‘just’ the flu. (Which would also be a lot worse if it wasn’t for mitigation.) In a perfectly logical world, we could probably erratic Covid. Alas, we don’t operate that perfectly. But we can mitigate the suffering and death if we cooperate more and take what measures we can.
And sadly, so much of this anti-science, anti-reason rhetoric is political. I’m quite willing to bet that there is a correlation between the number of people who are feverishly anti-terrorist, gun hoarding, freedom-fry loving, flag waving, canned food hoarding zealots with those who balk at the notion of wearing a mask to protect themselves and their fellow citizens.
For my part, I got vaccinated as quickly as I could without cutting line. I did my research before I got it. – With any medicine (and, frankly, anything in life), nothing is 100% risk free but I found that the risks associated with a new vaccine vs Covid were inconsequential. I acknowledge that science and human endeavors are often fraught with unintended consequences, and this could, hypothetically, be the case. But, as in all things in life: we are at our best when we weigh the evidence. And the evidence clearly demonstrates that the probability risk easily falls in the favor of a vaccination.
“We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”
~ Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
I spent a good deal of timing writing posts to the Friends and Family section of the site this month, and so: all I have time or energy for here is a quick and lazy sharing of a nearly random photo from my collection.
This is a merchant on the streets of Mandawa, India taken on November 11th, 2015. It’s one of my favorites from the trip because of the depth of the textures and the character of the man caught in some minor, passing moment.
“Groundhog found fog. New snows and blue toes. Fine and dandy for Valentine candy. Snow spittin’; if you’re not mitten-smitten, you’ll be frostbitten! By jing-y feels spring-y.”
Some text spam makes you feel like you’re missing out. I’ve never been ‘gleamed” before. It sounds so dirty and erotic. But it is nice to know that three strangers (Lippke, “I” and Layla) can surely sense that this link could gleam my evening. And it’s cute that they have a pet name for me, ‘Pauline’.
The year that was 2020 was so challenging, it apparently decided to leak into January 2021 with an encore act called, ‘violent sedition in America in the interest of overthrowing a free and fair election’.
I could vent and storm on Traitorous Trump and his minions until my fingers bled onto my keyboard. But after more than four years of the Trump dumpster fire, I feel exhausted.
But in short:
A) I’m not remotely surprised.
B) The magnitude of the act should chill the blood and nauseate the stomach of every person who supports democracy. It is a topic that should not be washed from the forefront of our consciousness in a month, in a year or a decade.
C) It isn’t over yet. The body of the American democracy has been poisoned and I can’t hardly gauge how long it will last, how bad the reverberations will be. Although Trump was flushed from the Whitehouse, he, his offspring and cronies will continue to pollute our country for the foreseeable future. We now have something analogous to nearly half our population who say the world is flat. That is not the traditional, ‘loyal political opposition’. – That is a fundamental fractured world view. We are not a country that looks at the same facts and come to different conclusions. We are a country where almost half of the populace have ‘alternate facts‘.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
~ Voltaire
On the plus side: Trump is no longer president. The so-called GOP are diminished in power in both houses. Some righting of wrongs can be undertaken. Hopefully, the foundations of our democracy can he be shored up so that they can better weather the next assault.
I wonder if we could dip the entire white-house grounds in bleach to help reduce the Trump stink…? Regardless: I hope, that al least, they replaced all of the mattresses, seat cushions and toilet seats.
So, it was with some enjoyment that I share this house. Every year, it’s good for some amusement. But finally, this year, we pulled over and took a couple of quick pics.
On an initial, quick review, one might find pleasure in the overall random color chaos. But if we zoom in, and pan around, we’ll see some real gems.
Starting on the left, there is a standard Santa alongside what appears to be a gingerbread house with a Santa hat wearing ginger man popping out of the chimney. Next to this is a gingerbread princess. Surrounding the princess are a large candy cane, a small candy cane, a couple of cut-out gingerbread me, an American flag and a nutcracker.
Panning right, we see some sort of stair critter peering from a melting snow mound. I can’t tell what species, but whatever it is, I think it has an eating disorder. I suspect that this is not a seasonal decoration, but intended as a year-round improvement to the yard aesthetic.
Tucked along the porch edge is a bright blue Eeyore with one blue hoof on the head of what appears to be a rabbit holding a lamp (or the glass elevator from Willy Wonka). And if you look in the left corner of this image, in front of the mini-stone bird bath, there appears to be a Mickey or Mini Mouse face-planted in the mulch.
As we continue our journey along the bedding, we find a small collection of Disney Dwarves and a Snow White (whose head is covered under a garbage bag). I wonder if all the dwarves are there, but some are hidden beneath the garbage. In front of the dwarves is a Pepsi can.
Panning further back, and up the fence, we see two Disney decorative plates: a Tinker Bell and a Beauty (of the Beast fame.) I suspect (or hope), that they are not official Disney merchandise given the fact that they are extra garish.
Now, let’s zoom out a bit to appreciate the right side of the image more holistically.
The top windows of the house have 3 light-up plastic wreathes. The porch, the tree, and part of the sidewalk path are garnished with different sized lights.
Tucked on the porch are colorful remnants: some decorations that did not make the cut. One wonders what the criteria is for failing.
Framing the stairs are two large ‘Noel’ candles and a rather puffy candy-cane.
An inflatable Micky monitors the sidewalk and a maliciously grinning Grinch closely inspects the dormant grass in front of the dirty snow. To the right of the Grinch is a stray garbage bag that might be suffocating some additional, unseen dwarves.
To the far right, we see a light-up faux pine tree scaffolding, topped with a star. Behind the tree is a bench painted with the American flag.
Now, let’s zoom back in to the centerpiece…
The pièce de résistance is the plastic Nativity scene which includes an orange cow; a porcelain-white (and yet-somehow middle-eastern) Mary (who seems to be staring into the void, contemplating her life choices); a pink shawed Joseph; two wise-men and a donkey with alien eyes kneeling in reverence over a cradle-less baby Princess Leah (who apparently lights up but is currently unplugged).
Behind all, the gingerbread man seems really delighted at having knocked out the third wise-man who lies supine behind Mary.
It delights me to think of the owner putting down the last of the decorations: the final touches. Standing back, hand on hips, a pleased smile and a knowing gleam in the eye. ‘There. That’s it!‘
I hope they had fun decorating, because I, at least, had fun looking at the decorations.
“Not long ago, if you wanted to seize political power in a country you had merely to control the army and the police. Today it is only in the most backward countries that fascist generals, in carrying out a coup d’état, still use tanks. If a country has reached a high degree of industrialization the whole scene changes…. Today a country belongs to the person who controls communications.”
For starters, I suppose I was wrong because I didn’t want to let my guard down based on the surprise of the Trump 2016 outcome. I didn’t want to feel complacent. And because of my apprehension, I put more effort into fighting against Trump and his enablers.
But, there was also evidence: signs, signs, everywhere Trump signs.
BothTrump rallies and door to door campaigning would have manifested more lawn signs than Biden’s more digital approach.
And then there is the factor of rural vs urban voters. Urban voters far outnumber rural, but, of course, rural, pretty-much by definition, are the ones most likely to have yards and farms for signs to be posted.
Although the maps of counties make PA look overwhelmingly red, those fewer blue counties are more urban and hold the majority of voters.
For us, although we’re rural, we opted to not put out a yard sign for a number of reasons, including the fact that we don’t care to broadcast our political proclivities to many of our Q-Anon, radical right neighbors. But just as importantly, we didn’t want to generate more garbage for landfills. (Yeah: we hug trees too…)
But even if I was wrong in my yard sign calculations, I’ll say that I was way too close to being right. It shouldn’t even have been a contest. Even now, as I did correctly predict, Trump is advocating for nothing less than a coup d’état: an over turning of the will of the people. It amazes and devastates me how normalized this treasonous behavior has now become.
But I want to end on a positive note. The battle is not won, but it is joined. Trump, the loser, lost again. Biden, a man of compassion, has won. And for that, we turned on our smart-bulb lights to red, white and blue and blasted fireworks into the sky. Sometimes, being wrong, is alright.
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