Tag Archives: Politics

Zero Dark Thirty

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Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty

I saw “Zero Dark Thirty” on Saturday and it has taken me this long to write about it. It’s not that I was upset about the film. Maybe I should have been, with all of the controversy that this film has stirred up about torture. No, it was more that I was perplexed. I didn’t know what to think about the movie. It is in a genre that I like, the espionage thriller and it is a well crafted product, but I was left unsatisfied.

“Zero Dark Thirty” is the story of the manhunt for Osama bin Laden. It centers on Maya(Jessica Chastain), a CIA agent. She is recruited out of high school, just before 9/11 and we watch her over a ten-year period never wavering in her quest to find bin Laden. She has the monomaniacal resolve of Captain Ahab, searching for her white whale. She has no social life. Living and working in Pakistan tends to preclude that. She alienates her coworkers and intimidates her bosses. At one point she asks for a ‘drop line’ operation. The new boss assents, but he doesn’t believe in it. He has learned that life is better when he doesn’t disagree with her.

One reviewer characterized the CIA as middle school with clearances. This analogy shows our spy agency’s Wild West approach to the Middle East post 9/11, as portrayed. The movie captures this shoot first, ask questions later and blame the other kid, when the principal asks approach. Maya is able to be the school yard bully, because she has nothing to lose and there really isn’t any adult supervision.

She is introduced to ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques by Dan (Jason Clarke), another agent. Before she goes in the first time, he suggests watching on TV instead, “There is no shame in that.” She eschews both that suggestion and her facemask. She soon transitions from passive observer, to the person in charge. The only concession to her fairer sex that she allows is the burly man beside her at the interrogation table. He throws the punches at the chained man across the table, on her command.

I don’t feel bad about the torture depicted in the film, because I have been doubly inoculated. I’ve previously commented about the dozen violent trailers that were preamble to this movie. That doesn’t begin to count the hundreds of similar films that I have watched in whole. I could try to argue that their ceaseless violence has desensitized me, but that would not be correct. A lifetime of movies and one video have taught me the difference between Hollywood and reality.

Last fall, I was a juror. As evidence, I watched a four and a half hour interrogation for a statutory rape trial. There were no ‘enhancements’ to this interrogation, still it was way harder to watch than any scene in “Zero Dark Thirty”. It was excruciating. I’m still thankful for its fuzzy video and poor sound quality and that I didn’t have to choose the shame of watching TV. The torture scenes in the film are of such short duration that they become surreal compared to what I had to watch of reality.

I do feel that torture is wrong. I just feel that the movie ineptly portrays it. I also think that the director substituted scenes of torture for scenes of painstaking investigation, because of their relative cinematic value.

The torture issue aside, this movie is really the tale of two women. The first is director, Kathryn Bigelow. She won the Academy’s best director award for her last film, “The Hurt Locker”. She was shutout at the Golden Globes on Sunday and had previously been denied a second shot at Best Director by the Academy, even though the film is up for Best Picture. Did this movie direct itself?

The other woman is the real life CIA agent on whose life this movie is based. Subsequent to the events in the movie she was passed over for a promotion that many in the Agency thought that she deserved. This prompted one wag to ask, “Who do you have to kill around here to get a raise?”

Do You Lice Congress?

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Common Lice Ridding Shampoos - Not Effective Against Congress

Common Lice Ridding Shampoos – Not Effective Against Congress

I laughed so hard that I nearly ran off the road when I heard the results of the latest Public Policy Polling (PPP) national survey on the popularity of our US Congress. The lead was that the 112th Congress’s overall approval rating, already the lowest in history, had dropped to single digits. Now only 9% of Americans still approve of Congress, while 85% disapprove of it. The survey goes on to rate people’s opinion of Congress as compared to a long list of odious contenders for public opinion. If you have already heard about this on the news then you know that ‘We the People’, or at least a statistical representation of ourselves, hold head lice in a significantly higher opinion than we do our legislature.

As I said, I laughed when I first heard about this story. It is a great gag, although, I must quibble with a few findings. I find it hard to believe that The Donald outscored Congress, but I would rate him on a par with cockroaches, so maybe I shouldn’t complain. I think Anne would take exception with the rating for Brussel sprouts, that’s just a matter of taste.

The ratings on the following Daily Kos created chart (used with attribution) indicate the percentage of people who hold that item in a higher opinion than Congress for positive numbers/blue bars. Items people hold in lower opinion than Congress have negative numbers/red bars. It should also be noted that Congress denotes both the House and the Senate.

Congress’s overall approval rating has been a polling question for some time, but I suspect that comparing Congress to a list of items that are generally disliked only serves to elicit the expected outcome. Public Policy is a reputable polling outfit, albeit a left leaning one. It did garner the honor of most accurately predicting last year’s elections of all the polling outfits, Nate Silver’s aggregation aside. Public Policy offered no explanation for this poll in their press release, except for the following brief quote:

“We all know Congress is unpopular,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But the fact that voters like it even less than cockroaches, lice, and Genghis Khan really shows how far its esteem has fallen with the American public over the last few weeks.”

Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is the worse form of government, until you compare it with all of the rest.” The PPP survey seems to bear this out. Only beating out Meth labs is Communism and North Korea. Wait, wasn’t Genghis Khan a form of government?

Things that People Like More and Less than Congress - attribution Daily Kos (PPP data)

Things that People Like More and Less than Congress – attribution Daily Kos (PPP data)

Anne’s Explorers

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Today, Anne led Rey, Dave and I down to the Arch to view the Maplewood Richmond Heights Elementary School’s exhibit that is now on display there, School as Museum. For those not familiar with the place, underneath the Arch is the Museum of Westward Expansion. In cooperation with the National Park Service, MRH Elementary has taken over one of the galleries there.

The Arch Grounds Under a Dusting of Snow

The Arch Grounds Under a Dusting of Snow

The overall purpose of this project is to give the students an opportunity to explore museum functions and practices. Students in grades 2nd through 6th worked with National Park Service staff to learn more about museum functions and practices. The following three questions were posed as guidelines for this exploration:

  • How does a museum collect and protect artifacts?
  • How are museum exhibits designed?
  • What does a museum curator do?

Through a series of visits to both the Arch and the Old Courthouse, students learned about the roles and functions of museum personnel and how they preserve, exhibit, collect, interpret and document museum artifacts. These experiences tied into the actual design and development of an exhibit by each grade on a topic of their choice.

This fall Anne worked with the fourth graders. They chose to study European exploration. In this unit the students learned about European exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries. They examined artifacts, read secondary sources about different explorers and analyzed the dominate motives for European exploration.

The display they choose to share is of the inside of an explorer’s ship. This portion of the overall exhibit is intended to be walked through, as though you are actually on a ship. Once aboard this vessel, you are introduced to five explorers; you can stop and admire their portraits or stop and listen as their bust comes alive to tell you their tale. Anne is seen below, posing before the 4th grade exhibit.

Anne In Front of the 4th Grade Exhibit

Anne In Front of the 4th Grade Exhibit

After the Arch, we walked over to Laclede’s Landing. Once, a warehouse district, it is situated along the Mississippi, just north of the Arch grounds. It is now a restaurant and entertainment district and we headed to one of the older establishments there, Hannegan’s. Named for Robert Hannegan, a Saint Louis politician, Hannegan’s interior decor is modeled after the US Senate’s dining room.

I don’t know what the connection between Hannegan’s the restaurant and Hannegan the politician is, except that there are some of Bob Hannegan’s artifacts on display in the restaurant. The most interesting one that I saw was a letter to Hannegan from FDR saying that he would be happy to run with Hannegan’s suggested running mate, Harry S Truman. Hannegan was the Democratic chairman in 1944. Then we sent Rey on his way back to Tennessee.

‘Tis the Season

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Winter Stars, by June Winter, wildflowers

Winter Stars, by June Winter, wildflowers

Work this week was in turmoil. There was the usual program politics, which level set the workplace angst. On top of all of this, was Friday, the final day in our open enrollment period for next year’s benefits. There’s no minute like the last minute. The angst can be fairly placed at the feet of Obamacare. As a Democrat I am entitled to say this. This year, we had a Cadillac healthcare program, or so it would have been judged, if the company hadn’t jacked-up our rates for next year. Like I said, there was a lot of angst this week at work.

A month ago, the previous paragraph would have been preamble to a mighty political rant. Today, I don’t really have the heart for it. I guess that the furor of this year’s election season has tamped down. All of our elected servants are back at work, doing what they do best, bickering. We’ve heard it all before and we will certainly hear it again, and again, and again, before it is finally all over. As we careen every closer to the looming fiscal cliff, I say let Toonces drive.

Although it was a little grayer than I had hoped, Saturday was way too unseasonably warm to spend all day railing against the Republican’ts. “Holy climate change Batman, to the bike cave!” Anne is still on the disabled list. She started PT for her injured knee this week. So, I’m riding solo today.

Afterwards, Anne and I returned to the park and went to the Missouri History Museum to view the Discover the Real George Washington exhibit. I’ll write about this show later, except to say that they had a pair of Washington’s false teeth on display and they weren’t wooden. The other main exhibit currently at the history museum is Missouri in the Civil War. We’ve already seen this show, but in the MacDermott Grand Hall separating these two shows, a museum intern put on a one woman dramatization of African-American history in Saint Louis, during the Civil War. After the show she took questions, but was quickly overwhelmed. Her boss stepped in and answered this question so thoroughly that no further questions were asked.

Except I saw the boss later and asked her about the Spirit of Saint Louis airplane that hangs in MacDermott Hall. She said that this replica of Lindbergh’s plane was built in 1928, the year after the famous transatlantic flight. It was built by Ryan Airlines, the same company that built the original plane. Our replica is quite special itself, having been featured in the movie “The Spirit of Saint Louis”, starring Jimmy Stewart. Both Stewart and his consultant, Charles Lindbergh, flew this iconic replica.

Jane Winter’s “Winter Stars” wreath is part of the collection on wreaths on display this Christmas season in the Ridgeway center at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I like this wreath, but I really like the juxtaposition between the work’s tittle and its designer’s name. There are many other wreaths in this show and I’ll be doling them out, in this year’s run-up to Christmas.

Condi Rice

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Powell Symphony Hall

On Tuesday last, I heard former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speak at Powell Symphony Hall. She came to town as part of the Saint Louis Speaker Series. This series has been around for many years, but I had never attended any of their events until this week. I went as Joanie’s guest, who is a regular patron of this series. Also in our party were two of Joanie’s nurse friends, Vicky and Becky. Before Dr. Rice’s talk, we had dinner at Dooley’s Beef N Brew House. This restaurant is located across Grand from Powell.

Powell is a beautiful hall, home of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and whose ornate entrance hall is pictured above. I’ve only been to Powell a few times, but once I was again visiting at Joanie’s behest and at intermission, she pointed out Stan ‘the man’ Musial to me. I would have never noticed Musial, unless she had pointed him out. I’ve long contended that Joanie knows everyone who lives in Saint Louis. She always demurs at this claim, so let me revise it to that she knows everybody worth knowing in Saint Louis and I am pleased to know her and be known by her.

Rice spoke for an hour and followed that up by taking questions for half-an-hour. I was way up in the cheap seat, the nose bleed section, but a big screen TV projection of the speaker helped to overcome the separation. Her talk covered three main themes, her personal history, and her history in the Whitehouse and finally, her reading of the current national and international situations. She wandered back and forth among these subjects and at times her lecture seemed disjointed, as she jumped in both time and space from one topic to another. I’ll spare you my recounting of the more political aspects of her talk. I doubt that I could do her justice. Her personal anecdotes were the most enjoyable aspect of her talk anyway.

She described her grandfather as a “Utah sharecropper”. She explained that his Alabama County, spelled Etowah, is pronounced Utah. Being a sharecropper, but wanting to better himself, he saved his money for college. He attended school, but after one year, his money had run out. Looking around, he noticed that some of the other students were getting money to go to school, scholarships. He asked the dean about these scholarships and was told that there was one left for any student who wanted to become a Presbyterian minister. To which he answered, “I always wanted to be a Presbyterian.” The Rice family is Presbyterian to this day.

Rice went to the University of Denver herself. Initially, she wanted to be a pianist, but soon discovered that she was way out classed by the more gifted students. She next tried Literature, but found it horribly dull. Next she tried local government and civil affairs. She interviewed the Denver city water manager, whom she described as the most boring man who I have ever met. A junior now and still floundering, she received a letter from her parents stating that it may be her life, but it was their money too. Finally, she took an international relations course taught by Josef Korbel, father to the first woman Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. He always referred to Rice as his star pupil.

In the weeks and months after 9/11, the White House was a chaotic mess. Every day brought new threats, both real and imagined. The unending tension began to wear on everyone. Then the anthrax scare hit the White House, while Rice was in China with President Bush. An ashen gray Dick Cheney appeared via telecom . A suspicious powder had already been forwarded to the CDC for analysis, but there would be no word for a day. Someone thought of using the mice that infest the Whitehouse as the proverbial canary in the coal mine. If the mice remained feet down, then everything was still alright, but if mice were found feet up that meant trouble. Later that night, Rice delivered the news during the middle of a state banquet, “Mr. President, the mice are feet down.” This was promptly translated for the Chinese Premier, who was seated next to Bush.

I didn’t have a question for her that night. So, I didn’t bother to fill out my card. The next day, a co-worker suggested a great one, “Dr. Rice, what progress have you made on your life’s greatest ambition? Are you any closer to becoming the next baseball commissioner?”