Darwin was Wrong

Posted on January 27, 2005 | Filed Under Depth Charges

Most of you will have heard of this incident by now. I heard about it on the news and on some of the news sites I read.

First off, let me say that my prayers and thoughts go out to the families of the victims. This is senseless tragedy and no doubt conjures up a good deal of frustration and rage with society and it’s inhabitants.

Now, to the heart of the matter, and why Darwin was wrong, I’ll begin by stating that if Darwin had been right, this jackass (and, yes, he’s probably a very sick individual, needing hours of therapy and tax-payer money to help him led a normal and productive life and we should all recognize this and go out of our way to help him) would have been the one to perish. In Darwin’s theory apparently the strong eat the weak. Would anyone like to argue with me that this … um, man, is somehow stronger than the folks who were killed in the accident? If you do, please click your back button and go read something else because, frankly, we won’t be able to have a productive discussion on this subject.

It’s obvious he won’t be charged with first degree murder, that has to be pre-meditated and I doubt this strapping specimen of manhood can think that far ahead. Really. You’re going to kill yourself, (and, yes, again, I realize he’s disturbed and crying out for help but, regardless, he needs to face the consequence – seems in our country today the deal is to figure out how NOT to face consequence by figuring out the right heart-strings to pull) you pick a nice open train track to part your car on and have someone else do the deed for you, (already removing yourself of taking responsibility for your actions) you then chicken out (or, as I’m sure the lawyers will put it “you have a change of heart”) so you get out of your car and leave your vehicle in the path of the train and watch the train explode, killing 11 people in the process. Obviously not the brightest bulb on the planet.

So, second degree murder charges will be most likely. If he gets manslaughter blame the lawyers. If he walks free, blame the jury. If he goes into a nice cushy psych ward for five years and then walks free, blame the psychiatric expert witness.

I feel for the man’s obvious pain (and the restraining order preventing him from seeing his wife and child I’m sure was tantamount to emotional stress that just wasn’t fair) but let’s wake up America. No more excuses. No more screwing around and finding the hidden skeleton in the closet and how we just can’t deal with the fact that when we were in third grade we were picked on relentlessly and therefore developed a serious character flaw undermining or psychological and social growth and leading to all sorts of ridiculous claims when we are adults and should take full responsibility for ourselves.

Children 18 years old or younger are given fortunes in our society to play basketball or make movies. Most of them (and, yes, I’ll avoid the generalization and not state all of them) have no idea how to be responsible, how to deal with something like this because frankly, it’s like handling yourself in combat. You can be prepared all you want, have all the training you need, have the best intentions and still when the caca hits the fan, it’s a whole new ballgame. But most of these kids haven’t had the training (from good parenting and strong mentors) let alone the intentions to see the right thing done. Our society continues to take steps in leaps and bounds away from a fundamental structure of moral strength toward an ambiguous state of “free thinking.” I’m all for the idea that creative and individual merit and thought are foundations for enlightenment and innovation. But without a basis in morals this free thinking is nothing more than an excuse to do what we want, when we want, because we can and feel like it.

Freedom is not free. It must be earned. It must be paid for. It must be respected. And above all we must respect it.

What is going to happen in the case of the train crash is that someone is going to hire lawyers to look at every aspect of this case and try to make excuses for why this man behaved the way he did. Some of these excuses will be idiotic, like trying to blame the train company for the fact that they use trains to push the cars and no longer pull the cars, thus preventing the stronger engines that pull the cars from simply pushing this truck out of the way. Many of those excuses I’m certain will be true and painful, like the fact he was obviously under extreme mental duress. But should this, in anyway shape or form, prevent this man from facing (and accepting) the responsibility for what he did?

In a word, no.

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A New Tool

Posted on January 26, 2005 | Filed Under Life in NC

Since Mindcrime, um, sorry, since C.J., ummm, nope still got that wrong. Since that got that runs Going Crazy is using a new tool for his blogging I thought I’d give a look see to various blog tools myself. The one I landed on is called MacJournal. It should be interesting to see how it works over the next few months.

I thought I™d try editing this to see if it updated the same blog or added a new one. Nothing like working with a new toy, eh? (Answer: No it does not, I got duplicate blogs. Looks like I’ll be canning this little tool. So much for that.)

Oh, and apparently to have comments work you must set your main blogger preferences to have comments always included with a journal. I originally had mine set to automatically not include them and if I wanted an entry to have comments I™d have to remember to activate it for that specific comment. With MacJournal, it doesn™t give you that option so you have to have it on automatic.

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Old Idea, New Look

Posted on January 19, 2005 | Filed Under Giggles and Grins, Life in NC

All right. I admit it. For once Mindcr…ummm C.J., the artist formerly know as Mindcrime ummm, Going Postal man, whatever the heck he’s going by this week, is right.

Battlestar Galactica, the new series, is one of the best sci-fi shows ever. Heck, it’s actually a darn good series even without the sci-fi.

I’ve watched the mini-series and the first two episodes (“33″ and “Water”) of the on-going series and despite only a few small quirks I’m seriously impressed.

Let’s start with the good.

First, many of the characters – both Adama’s, Boomer, Baltar, the Chief, Madame President and especially the XO – are very well done. The actors are all good, even for the two characters I don’t like (see below.)

The writing is terrific. The first two episodes of the on-going series were so good I was riveted. They are smart, funny, powerful, and the tone they set is one of a cornered animal, you can feel the desperation of the humans as they make efforts to survive.

The production values are nice as well. Everything looks like it is something that could exist not to far in the future. You can buy into everything, no super-science, no mystic-science it’s all very grounded in reality.

Now, here comes the sacrilege. I hated the original series. I always have, even when it first came out. A good friend of mine (no, not Mindcr..man of a thousand names) loved it. We argued all the time. I thought the original series was boring, stupid and nonsense. Couldn’t stand any of the characters, couldn’t stand the stories and hated the way it all looked. But this BG rocks all around.

Now for the bad.

Biggest and most personally irritating aspect of the whole show is the sex pot cylon character. I’ve gotten seriously fed up with the need to throw in a phenomenally hot chick (and I must admit this one is supremely hot) just to boost ratings. The did it in Voyager (7 of 9) they did it in Enterprise (the Vulcan) and they do it in just about every show on the WB. It’s insulting, irritating and entirely unnecessary. It’s an uninteresting subplot, it’s boring, it’s old and I wish it would disappear. But sex sells, unfortunately, and it’s not likely to end anytime soon.

Next, the Starbuck character. I have no problems with the character being a woman, that isn’t my gripe at all (I like the character of Boomer and she was originally a he in the old series as well.) My problem is that like many characters that are written originally as men and changed to women the actress feels the need to try to hard to make sure the character is a ‘tough’ guy. It doesn’t read as settled. A guy, (or gal for that matter) who has lived life like you’re supposed to believe Starbuck has (i.e. gambling, tough, foul-mouthed, hot-headed maverick) is comfortable in their own skin and breathes it. This actress doesn’t have that yet. But, I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt becuase she may just need some time.

Last but not least, you MUST, above all get throught the first hour of the mini-series and just deal with it. I don’t know how they managed it but the first hour of the mini-series is so dang boring, it’s such a mass of bad writing and cliches, that I very nearly gave up on watching it. But the moment the cylons attack it turns on a dime and gets real good. And the on-going series itself keeps getting better. Both of the first two episodes are probably two of the best first season episodes of any series I’ve ever seen.

My negatives are small, simple fixes that I can ignore. The pros far outweigh the negatives. I can think of a dozen things on the tip of the tongue that brush the bad under the rock of awesomeness.

So watch it. Enjoy it. And if you were a fan of the old series, give it a chance.

[UPDATE] – One thing I forgot to add. This is an ENSEMBLE story. There are no main characters. If one were going to quanitfy the main characters you’d have to say it’s the human race, not just individuals. I like that. A lot. Anyone who knows anything about my directing style from the theatre knows I prefer ensembles to movies with ‘lead actors.’ I hate that term, always will. In BG, everyone gets a chance to shine. Unlike Star Trek, so far you can’t get sick of seeing every other storyline being about Data having some new and subtle emotion of the week or 7 or 9 missing her long last sex pot status. This is just a good, strong, ensemble character driven storyline. That’s a HUGE plus in my book.

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