Should the UNSG also have said nothing?

I’ll print more legibly in the future.

That’s just how I process information. Pencil in hand and post-its are easy to find in my house. They end up in notebooks with more writing. Better, by far, than on back of some envelope or on my kids’ school work like my parents used to do.

Also, made you look.

Ding ding. Correct.

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Qatsi films

Solaris (2002)

If it’s alive and not a plant, not a fungus, and not a single-celled organism, it is probably an animal.

Operation Gideon (2020)

"… Two boats were launched from eastern Colombia toward the Caribbean coast of Venezuela north of Caracas, carrying approximately 60 Venezuelan dissidents and two American former Green Berets employed as mercenaries by Silvercorp. Both boats were intercepted before they reached land. At least six Venezuelan dissidents in the first boat were killed, and all but four of the invaders were captured during the attempted landing or subsequent search operations, including the two Americans from the second boat, whose interrogations were broadcast on state television.

Venezuelan intelligence agencies and the Associated Press (AP) had prior knowledge of the operation. Commentators and observers described the operation as amateurish, underfunded, poorly organized, impossible, and a suicide mission, and divergent narratives led to questions about how the plot unfolded. Sources criticized the poor planning and execution, alternating between characterizing Operation Gideon as an attempted invasion, infiltration, raid, ambush, assassination or coup.

Thanks for bringing Wiley Miller back into my life today. It’s been too long.

My preferred quote on this line:

“Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.” ~ Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune

It takes the will of a saint to be incorruptible — to not become addicted to the exercise of power. Those who do not desire power, like saints, may have it thrust upon them.

Even when left to own devices, a person can only exercise power within a society that has desires, wants, and fears. The whole society would need to be incorruptible. This is improbable. In the unlikely case of such a pure society, it would also need to be incorruptible when in contact with “the other” — peoples, species, events, and ideas. This is exceedingly improbable. So, the whole of existence would need to be incorruptible.

Power corrupts.

QED (using the slippery slope, I know)

So, Jumper.

Lucy (2018) - some mild insanity, remorselessness

Genie from Aladdin (1992) ‐ everything is a joke

Bruce Almighty (2003) - can’t actually control himself

I’m going to go off on a comic-book tangent here:

Wielder of Infinity Gauntlet (1991, 2018) - potential insanity, later radiation scarring

Phoenix Force (1976) ‐ heavy insanity, desire to consume planets (see: Dark Phoenix Saga (1980), (X-Men '92, S03E11), Avengers vs. X-men (2012))

Omega-Level mutants - tendency toward megalomania (see: Jean Grey, Magneto, Kid Omega, 4 horsemen of Apocalypse… even Ororo Munroe (goddess), though Iceman seems well-adjusted)

Beyond - remorselessness, destruction of universes (see: Secret Wars (1984), Time Runs Out Event (2014))

Trigonometry

Yeah, I don’t mind it. Thor is a name and a title/power. God (presumably) is a name, and Thor has the power of a god.

Prince is a title. It’s also a name. And, to some musicians, Prince is a god.

It’d be rare to win an argument by invoking Prince, but there you go.

Going forward is the worst of corporate-speak. I refuse to use this phrase.

I almost couldn’t finish Irreversible.

I saw Baise Moi (Kiss/Rape Me) in a theatre just before it was banned. I was not expecting that

This is about the same time that Kids, Gummo, Happiness, and the Brown Bunny were all released.

Each film is fucked up for its own reasons. Though, I understand, Salo and A Serbian Film are next level fucked up.

I saw Being There about 10 years ago, and it was made 35 years before that. It is a masterwork.

I have nostalgia for my late-teens early 20s cartoon consumption. I was still watching Batman:TAS and the 90s Spider-Man series. There were flashes of high-intensity (if not well told) brilliance from the 90s Real Adventures of Jonny Quest series. I have to admit, the CGI they used was not as well executed as Reboot. Darkwing Duck, Peter Pan and the Pirates, and Gargoyles were shows what I looked back on fondly.

Daria, Clone High, and Ren and Stimpy all made an impact on me as a young adult. Daria, for its sardonic, anti-establishment stance. Clone High for its mockery of sitcoms and rom-coms and teen angst. Ren and Stimpy for pushing everything past its limit.

In the end, though, it was Samurai Jack and 90s X-Men that stood head and shoulders above them all. X-Men because it was what I collected and knew the best. Samurai Jack because it was cinematic, well- paced, and offered me something that no other TV show, movie, cartoon series, or comic book did or could: “… [a] fool [who] seeks to return to the past to undo the future that is Aku!”

Marina. And, I feel you on the Gargoyles.

My favourite trope is the Xanatos Gambit.

US society sees a woman exercising self-empowerment as a reason to cancel her.

It’s not necessarily about being sexual,l. It’s about subverting misogynistic, capitalistic patriarchy with the only totally exclusive resource she has.

She’d have been shamed, imprisoned, ostracized, and burned as a witch in 1624.

She’d have been shamed, imprisoned, and ostracized in 1724, 1824, and 1924.

So, her being shamed and ostracized and her job loss in 2024 is viewed as “progress” in America.

e: Yes, I admit, OF is another element of the patriarchy, servicing the male gaze and devaluing women to the level of exploiting women’s bodies. The system is what it is until it isn’t. America should be paying teachers more and celebrities — of all categories — less. Until then, this is the world we live in. The best that some of us can do is subvert the system.