we bring good

Taken

I could pick on this movie.  It’s an easy multiple choice test of a plot grafted onto a bunch of swift and sneaky violence.  You already know this.  But I wouldn’t deny anyone the indulgence of the straightforward, kill a hundred guys in 90 minutes genre.  Improbable as it is for someone to be kidnapped into the Albanian mob’s sex trade in a rich Parisian neighborhood 5 minutes after entering the country (especially when that someone’s parent openly harbors just such paranoias), it creates a sense of urgency absent from a typical kidnapping gimmick.  An attractive white girl’s virginity is on the line!  Ohh hurry!

The only legitimate criticism I can mount is over the ending.  In a film with a dubious story built to launch Liam Neeson’s murdering spree, I want the credits rolling as soon as the good guy wins.  The longer they drag me past the point of closure, the more I start to think about the reality of having been kidnapped, drugged, probably sexually abused, and rescued via the deaths of dozens of people.  And what about Neeson explaining this to his bitch ex-wife?

Jean Grey:  So how’d you get her back?
Liam:  Oh, I killed about 35-40 people, most with my bare hands.  Then my hands got sore so I shot some.  In the face.
Jean: ….

Don’t let me dwell on these things.  Drop the curtain and play something sentimental or triumphant and I’ll be onto other things.

religulous

I should preface this by saying I agree with the general drift of this film, namely that religion is dangerous nonsense that inhibits human progress and could conceivably be the end of everything we’ve worked for.  The way he focuses on the hubris of those that claims to know the intentions of God riles me up and causes me to look for a direction to point my errant atheist motivation.

As such I didn’t find much to disagree with besides a few glaring omissions.  The biggest void concerns the internal rifts among the major religions.  It’s hard to imagine a discussion of Christianity or Islam without talking about Protestant-Catholic or Sunni-Shia fratricide.  Centuries of misery and cynical manipulation were made possible by disagreements that have nothing to do with the intentions of these religions’ founders, yet this was only discussed peripherally when Mahr mentions that things like popes and the Eucharist aren’t in the Bible.  This would have furthered emphasized the point of religion being used as a tool of manipulation rather than salvation.

I had other beefs with the portion on Muslims as it mostly centered around their propensities for violence and intolerance.  Again, it’s hard to imagine a discussion of Islam that doesn’t include a mention of Saudi Arabia (and Wahhabism) and barely touches on misogyny. The burqa is probably one of the top 5 most infuriating and offensive things in the world to me.  In a movie packed end to end with interesting questions, the ones I most want to hear concern the relationship of violence to repression of women.  Islam is undoubtedly the worst on both subjects.

Regardless, it was pretty fascinating and morbidly funny to see how bad people can be at defending something they consider so important.  Religion is one of the fundamental ways in which many folks define themselves yet they can’t articulate anything convincing in support of it.

the high life

many of us speak wistfully about childhood and how inherently entertaining everything was, how easy it was to have the time of your life.  the naivety of youth lends newness to so many things, perhaps moreso in an affluent country like this, and i can’t deny that i was better at passing the time 20 years ago.

now we lament the crutch of drugs and alcohol as a means to having comparable experiences.  sober time is usually spent during the work week or in transition to being not sober.  whither the fun?

i don’t doubt that the bright-eyed exuberance of adolescence (and the absence of libido) is a factor in this cruelish situation.  i do think most of us overstate it though.

i went everywhere as fast as possible as a kid.  my body is a monument to how recklessly impatient i was to get wherever i was going and satisfy whatever itch a semi-spoiled nerd needs to scratch.  as such, i’m now too self-conscious to shave my head because i’ve no idea what scars and lumps lie beneath.

we talk about being high on life while glossing over the possibility that we literally were high on life.  endorphins are as powerful and addictive as anything i ingest on a regular basis.  the problem is i’m a large person now.  if every activity among friends involved sprinting through the woods with a BB gun or biking up and down huge hills, i’d have to sleep 14 hours a day.  i’d get fired.

if you feel the same twinge of nostalgia i do when thinking about just “playing,” find a huge hill and run up it.  find a mountain bike and try to hurt yourself.  go skiing, for fuck’s sake.  fuck someone.  childish enthusiasm is only accessible by such means for us.  suck it up.

the choir knows

Dear Fellow Left-leaners:

I get it.  Palin is not qualified, makes no distinctions between personal & political, and is a batshit crazy fundamentalist.

Spare me the daily show videos, nytimes editorials and unfunny photoshop jobs.  This circle jerk among lefties will not sway a single vote because it ignores the very reasons for her selection.  It’s unequivocally a religious matter.

Ridiculing religious people does little to unhook their tendrils from our culture.  Mocking someone in order to open their eyes is like trying to thwart a genuine referendum with military power.  No matter how amazing your army is, you’ll get more accomplished rubbing one out in your fancy tank.

Dogma is a crafty, slick enterprise.  Blunt tools like scorn are too predictable and easily countered.  Crafty needs crafty.

I’m tired of seeing intelligent people rise to the bait of irrelevant stories about airplanes and librarians.  This lets the scumbags define the debate, as always, meaning we spend the whole time listening to the lunatics shout over the heads of those of us in the center.

The Middle.  Remember us?  The ones who haven’t been inspired by a Democrat in decades?

Discuss whether an 80 year old man and a housewife are capable of leading in the most difficult, unpredictable times and you’ll run in circles.  Talk about the mind-bending results of 8 years of incompetence, cronyism and genocide and there’s no debate to be had.  You cannot lose.