Okay, so we stretch our cat. You wanna make something of it?
Archive for November 30, 2007
Third Party Candidates
Yesterday’s Presidential Candidate Picker generated some interesting comments. In particular, I was casually dismissive of Nader, when my thoughts on the matter are actually more complex.
I think this country desperately needs more than two parties. I don’t know how we’ll ever get there, but I think it’s needed. As with most changes that might happen, I think a big obstacle is the corporate media; the media conglomerates must be broken apart to give smaller voices a chance to be heard.
The authors of the Constitution envisioned a lively electoral process. The 12th Amendment to the Constitution states:
The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.
“Not exceeding three.” After the voting, if there’s no majority, you narrow down to three.
I watch the electoral processes of other countries, where there are multiple parties, and they seem more exciting, more involving, and they give the electorate (us) more choices. The voters would benefit by hearing a variety of voices, with a range of opinions. My Presidential Candidate Picker results showed a cluster of similar Democrats on one end, and a cluster of similar Republicans on the other. Multiple parties with a real chance at the White House would give real choice; you know, like the Libertarians and Greens pretend to do. Right now, alternative parties are symbolic votes; we all know those candidates can’t win. People vote for them to make a statement.
I like making statements. I also like winning.
The electoral system makes my vote virtually meaningless in a general election. I live in New York. We’re a very blue state. Blue blue blue. So blue that candidates don’t come here much. So blue that political advertisements don’t play on my TV much.
Under such circumstances, a symbolic vote makes sense. My vote for a major party candidate in 2000 would have had no impact on the results; New York was for Gore and that was that. But my vote for Nader (and I did vote for Nader) did have an impact. An important goal of the Nader candidacy was to get 5% of the vote, thereby forcing the Green Party to automatically appear on the ballot thereafter. It didn’t work; Nader got 3%, but I had no doubt that every vote counted in the effort.
I remember, in 2000, knowing that Nader appeared here or there, for this debate or that, and it never got onto the news. There was some rally or debate that Nader was shut out of, and there were pro-Nader protesters who were interrupting Gore or something, and the news reported the interruption, and I remember yelling at the radio, because the reporters weren’t telling me what the protesters were saying, or why Nader was shut out. They were reporting it as a “Gore was interrupted” story; no differently than if he’d been rained out. Nader was just a weather condition.
We, the voters, need a voice. We need candidates who address issues. And we need a media that communicates what the candidates say. The media we have doesn’t much do that. They mostly just report the horse race. Which takes me full circle, back to the corporate conglomerate media. Back to the need for many parties; not two, not three, but many.
Right now, this year, I’m not interested in voting symbolically. I’m not interested in casting a vote for a candidate with no chance, a candidate being shut out of the media circus, because he’s the most progressive (that’s Kucinich). Because there is a robust field, and because my vote does matter now, while the field is so populous, I will choose a candidate who has values I can support and integrity I can admire (that’s Edwards). But soon enough the field will narrow; the media and the money machine will force that on us; New York’s candidate will likely be locked in before I have a chance to vote.
Solutions to Robbery Trivia
A satisfying array; not too easy, but solved in a few hours.
Presidential Candidate Picker
| Ultimate 2008 Presidential Candidate Matcher
Your Result: Dennis Kucinich
The top priority of Dennis Kucinich is to end the war in Iraq. Kucinich also favors a repeal of the Patriot Act, would fund stem cell research, and create a universal healthcare program. He is liberal on social issues, and favors eliminating Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy. Kucinich is also concerned about global warming. |
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| Barack Obama |
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| John Edwards |
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| Hillary Clinton |
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| Rudy Guiliani |
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| John McCain |
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| Ron Paul |
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| Mitt Romney |
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| Ultimate 2008 Presidential Candidate Matcher Take More Quizzes |
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Yeah, sure, but I’m still not voting for him.
Tuesday Trivia: Robberies, heists, and crooked schemes
1. “Cute as a pail full of kittens.”
Solved by Daven (comment #10).
2. Made for TV movie starring a James Bond and someone killed off in the pilot of a popular current TV show.
Solved by Roberta (comment #5).
3. Stopping to watch a pretty girl dance to a juke box proves his undoing.
Solved by Melville (comment #1).
4. This movie co-stars two men who played the same character in a movie and its sequel. This is the only movie in which they both appear.
Solved by Melville (comment #2).
5. A small, pampered dog causes an airport baggage cart driver to swerve.
Solved by Tom Hilton (comment #3).
6. 1st Man: “Why do they always paint hallways that color?”
2nd Man: “They say taupe is very soothing.”
Solved by Tom Hilton (comment #4).
7. “I made a cardinal rule: never to answer the phone in December.”
Solved by Evn (comment #8).
Monday Movie Review: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007) 9/10
Hank (Ethan Hawke) and Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are brothers. For their own reasons, each is desperate for money. Together they decide to commit the perfect crime—rob their parents’ small suburban jewelry store. As things fall apart, the brothers become increasingly desperate, and more and more of their motivations and characters are revealed. Directed by Sidney Lumet.
Nowadays, movie fans are obsessive about continuity and plot holes. I honestly don’t think Hitchcock would get the raves today he got in his heyday, because people would walk out of the theater griping. “That’d never happen!” “Why didn’t he…?” “Police procedure would require…” Yada yada yada. So let’s start out by saying that Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead has plot holes. Some of them are problematic, and detract from the enjoyment of the film. But BtDKYD is also a brilliant movie, and you shouldn’t let a few details get in the way of your experience.
I bring this up because BtDKYD is a heist movie, and a heist movie demands more attention to plot construction than, say, a romance. This week I also watched The Killing, another heist movie in which everything falls apart. But The Killing is flawlessly constructed. None of the heist movies that I love (and I love many) have glaring plot holes; good construction is important to the genre.
But is BtDKYD really a heist movie? One could argue that it is a noir, a family story, or a character study. The heist guides us into an examination of complex and difficult people. We learn more about them, hating them more and more as the film goes on, yet paradoxically caring more and more about what happens to them.
Hank is a loser. Everything about him screams it: His ill-fitting, cheap clothes, his cheesy mustache, his sad-sack expression. He allows himself to be brow-beaten by his older brother, and it’s clear he’s been doing so his whole life. Hank is clearly the charmer of the family, perhaps taking after his mother’s clear-eyed beauty (she is played with great dignity by Rosemary Harris). He is the pampered, beautiful baby, getting by on looks where common sense and brains are lacking. Andy, on the other hand, is shrewd and calculating, apparently his father’s son (and Albert Finney is a good choice, physically, to play Hoffman’s father).
Wonderful cast, right? I have been complaining lately about the unworldly beauty of every single person you see on a large or small screen. The real faces and ages of actors are disappearing. But not only do the people in this cast have real character, they are allowed to age. Hoffman’s wife is played by Marisa Tomei, who is actually three years older than him. When was the last time that happened in a movie?
Lumet is a master of knowing where to place a camera and what to do with it once he gets it there. There are amazing things done with color and light in this film. In a disturbing scene, Andy begins to reveal himself in the most inappropriate way, as a white background is replaced by red. The suburban stripmall that houses the jewelry store is as ordinary as a home movie. Hank’s cheap apartment is washed in the colors of dirt.
There is something in BtDKYD about wasted lives, about how we keep being the assholes we are, and about how we can spin that so it gets worse and worse and worse. Andy and Hank are assholes, no doubt. They are shitty husbands, dishonest sons, crooks, theives, and not even good brothers. But we relate to them because they look at the mess their lives are in and long to get out, and they look to their own family to help them. It won’t work, of course, but the insanity of the longing is compelling.
Solutions to Nameless Trivia
More hints than usual, but we’re all solved now.
Mohinder and Me
Speaking of co-workers, one of our consultants is very handsome. Very handsome. In a Mohinder Suresh kind of way.
A few weeks ago, I started to realize that Mohinder has kind of a crush on me. Always laughs when I make a little aside in a meeting, always gives me a big, cheery hello in the mornings, always big beautiful eyes and a dazzling smile. It just feels like he’s paying extra attention to me.
At the same time, I keep telling myself, that’s how beautiful people make you feel. That’s what their power is. When you have those eyes and that smile, everyone feels like it’s especially dazzling when pointed at them.
But still.
(Oh my GODS he just did it again. “Hi Deb.” Big smile. Raised eyebrows. Eye contact. Oh. My. Gods.)
I’ve been working late for days and days. Hell of a project. Here every night until seven. And the other night, around 6:45 or so, Mohinder comes up to me and offers me an apple and a granola bar. Because I’m working late. And he’s concerned. With big eyes and a sweet face. And again I say: Oh my Gods.
So I tell this story to Arthur and he’s all “Go for it!” But, but, but…What does go for it even mean in this context? He’s fifteen years younger than me, he’s from a very different culture, he’s a co-worker, he lives in a rooming house owned by his consulting company, with six other Indian consultants. Go for it? I’m stumped to even define “it.”
Still. Mohinder. Wow.
Hints are up
Trivia has hints for the three remaining questions.
