Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Movie Monday - Adopt A Sailor review, well, sort of and the SOTU
My mother hates cursing Not the "damn" type so much but the line starts with "bitch" and, of course, all the juicy ones on the Legion of Decency's condemned list (does that even exist?) are verboten. I'm not a rabid fan of cursing. Most of the ones used by kid are either expletives of frustration or place savers, like used instead of "You know" or "and."
I get the expletives of frustration because I used to do deadline work. The "fucks" didn't speed the job to completion but they seemed to work like a steam-release valve.
This one night we were all sitting in the dining room at someone's birthday and the girl exclaimed "bitch" which I thought was a rather apt description of the person being described in the story being told. But immediately, mom went into her anti-expletive campaign (I know that mom needs to get out more if she thinks "bitch" qualifies) throwing in her usual canard: Cursing demeans you.
Now, almost-teen girls especially don't like beration (I think I made up a new word) but I don't believe in taking an issue to the mat in front of kids unless absolutely live-threatening. So when I got the girl aside later I told her, again: Words are just words. You'll find there are inappropriate places to say some of them but they're only words; not guns.
Which brings me to Obama's SOTU tomorrow night. I've read in so many places that's he going to stress civility. Civility! That's the best you can do after the gun packing no-necks and monkey-bearing Americans which appeared so frequently in your campaign; after the vicious allusions from political hacks that if someone is displeasing you just "lock and load'; after people were killed because they were in the wrong place when a deranged man was able to buy a massively destructive weapon and act out his killing fantasies? This is the best you can do? Civility!
That's when it struck me, remembering my mom's antithesis to cursing: Barack Obama is really just pining for the good, old days. When everyone was polite. I'm thinking this must be the 1950s, that decade when "In God We Trust" got on monies, when women, minorities, "others" had no control and communists, not other Americans, were our selected object of all hatred.
The world was on fire, even then but we didn't see the flames, we only caused them in far off countries.
Which brings me to Adopt A Sailor. I haven't checked but I'm assuming that this static movie started off as a play. It's really a one-set drama gussied up movie-style with some scenes of a ship, New York City, and falling from the sky (it fits.)
Simply, a New York liberal couple participate in an Adopt A Sailor program where you "adopt" a sailor ready to ship out and show him/her the town. This sailor turns out to be a polite, devoutly religious guy from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas. However, in typical crises and denouement which are essential in plays, he is really no more than the catalyst which provides the mirror to this crumbling marriage.
It's a trifle in its brevity but it's also a thinker and worth listening to and watching; notice watching came second. It's the dialogue between the wife and the sailor (when the husband is out buying dinner) which ties back into what I've said before.
She, politely, tells the sailor that New Yorkers from her crowd would consider him provincial. And he, just as politely, says that's the word he would use for her. Wisely, the screenwriter continues the dialogue to have them both define "provincial" and for her to discover, yes, this country boy knows exactly what it means.
Wow! Religious people look askance at liberals, not for their sophistication but their provincialism! Who would have thunk?
We are separate worlds in this country. We're thinkers; we're fools; we're loud-mouths; we're greedy; we're altruistic; we're peaceful; we're violent. Making us civil should be way down on the list of "Barry's List of What To Do Next."
Tomorrow night, tell us guns kill. And tell us greed kills. And tell us that obscene profit for the few is not goal of this country. Tell us providing for the general welfare does include caring for our health, caring for our jobs, caring for our quality of life.
We can have common goals. Bring us together.
I get the expletives of frustration because I used to do deadline work. The "fucks" didn't speed the job to completion but they seemed to work like a steam-release valve.
This one night we were all sitting in the dining room at someone's birthday and the girl exclaimed "bitch" which I thought was a rather apt description of the person being described in the story being told. But immediately, mom went into her anti-expletive campaign (I know that mom needs to get out more if she thinks "bitch" qualifies) throwing in her usual canard: Cursing demeans you.
Now, almost-teen girls especially don't like beration (I think I made up a new word) but I don't believe in taking an issue to the mat in front of kids unless absolutely live-threatening. So when I got the girl aside later I told her, again: Words are just words. You'll find there are inappropriate places to say some of them but they're only words; not guns.
Which brings me to Obama's SOTU tomorrow night. I've read in so many places that's he going to stress civility. Civility! That's the best you can do after the gun packing no-necks and monkey-bearing Americans which appeared so frequently in your campaign; after the vicious allusions from political hacks that if someone is displeasing you just "lock and load'; after people were killed because they were in the wrong place when a deranged man was able to buy a massively destructive weapon and act out his killing fantasies? This is the best you can do? Civility!
That's when it struck me, remembering my mom's antithesis to cursing: Barack Obama is really just pining for the good, old days. When everyone was polite. I'm thinking this must be the 1950s, that decade when "In God We Trust" got on monies, when women, minorities, "others" had no control and communists, not other Americans, were our selected object of all hatred.
The world was on fire, even then but we didn't see the flames, we only caused them in far off countries.
Which brings me to Adopt A Sailor. I haven't checked but I'm assuming that this static movie started off as a play. It's really a one-set drama gussied up movie-style with some scenes of a ship, New York City, and falling from the sky (it fits.)
Simply, a New York liberal couple participate in an Adopt A Sailor program where you "adopt" a sailor ready to ship out and show him/her the town. This sailor turns out to be a polite, devoutly religious guy from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas. However, in typical crises and denouement which are essential in plays, he is really no more than the catalyst which provides the mirror to this crumbling marriage.
It's a trifle in its brevity but it's also a thinker and worth listening to and watching; notice watching came second. It's the dialogue between the wife and the sailor (when the husband is out buying dinner) which ties back into what I've said before.
She, politely, tells the sailor that New Yorkers from her crowd would consider him provincial. And he, just as politely, says that's the word he would use for her. Wisely, the screenwriter continues the dialogue to have them both define "provincial" and for her to discover, yes, this country boy knows exactly what it means.
Wow! Religious people look askance at liberals, not for their sophistication but their provincialism! Who would have thunk?
We are separate worlds in this country. We're thinkers; we're fools; we're loud-mouths; we're greedy; we're altruistic; we're peaceful; we're violent. Making us civil should be way down on the list of "Barry's List of What To Do Next."
Tomorrow night, tell us guns kill. And tell us greed kills. And tell us that obscene profit for the few is not goal of this country. Tell us providing for the general welfare does include caring for our health, caring for our jobs, caring for our quality of life.
We can have common goals. Bring us together.
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