Lessons in Civility: what liberals can learn from the right

I hoped Carnivale would be Lynch-like, but found it to be Lynch-derivative without the intelligence, visual interest, and depth. My hooker at the moment is The Wire. And I like HBO for trying things out even when I don't like the results. But there is something else: the less TV you watch, the less you watch. I only have the premium channels (no advertising, no sit-coms, no US-versions of newstainment!) and only watch now when something really, really good is on. The rest of the former satellite bill goes to buying films on tape/DVD. This wouldn't work for water cooler socialites, mainstreamers!

I think "Carnivale" is setting up something that hopefully will knock our socks off. To put the benchmark of Lynch's finest is fair enough.

I'm with LW on the wait for Carnivale. It does seem something worthwhile is brewing. My daughter is now watching with me--

The Black Blizzard episode increased my stakes in the show.

The fire at Chin's made me sad. Justin's brand of Christianity (not counting the freaky supernatural stuff) is compelling. His 'speech' to Madigan about the horrors suffered by the children he housed at Chin's was powerful.

Somebody's in trouble. I wonder what God and Justin have in store for the arsonist?

LW-- I feel like I missed something. What was the Black Blizzard metaphor for? Injustice as felt by Justin? A precourser to what would happen in Babylon? It was alluded to by a few characters--but I felt like I missed the writer's intent... What would you say?

I can't quite figure out the Black Blizzard metaphor yet -- it could be the overwhelming effect of the social strife of the depression. There's a lot of Lynchian dream like metaphors injected into the series. Hey, maybe we should move this over to the thread I started on "Carnivale?"

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12239

I reposted some of the appropriate replies over there.

BumbleBeeBoogie, sorry! What was that last paragraph, that Bush has left the country weakened and divided?

Um, no.
The last thing was me saying that is a big lie.

(Thanks for the Carnivale link, LW.)

Yes, and you got no retort.

Where do you think the country has been strengthened? I'm concerned that we haven't found Bin Laden or Hussein and that terrorism as guerilla warfare is alive an well in Iraq even if it hasn't take place again on our shores. But it hadn't taken place on our shores for many years after the first attack on the World Trade Center. What changed?

The economy is showing signs of strenghtening by dribble and drops but no clear surge upward. This may take years and the huge deficit is not helping. I haven't checked recently on the rate of bankruptcies but I know it can't be encouraging.

I do not think a President can initiate programs other than a lot of government spending on infrastructure that creates jobs and helps independent business in search of government contracts. In this case, deficit spending doesn't look so bad.

Californians just voted down a bill to spend a lot of money on infrastructure. Private enterprise isn't going to initiate these improvements unless Ahnold can strong arm them into doing it. They just voted down an enourmous amount of job creative projects that would bring money into the pocket of businesses and employees who in turn pay taxes, buy goods which creates sales tax, et al.

Not too smart.


Tax cuts, BTW, I consider a placebo -- they don't seem to have any long lasting effect.

As to being divided -- that's a simple platitude. There's 30% devoutly right wing and 30% devoutly left wing. Likely 10% of each of those are extremely radical. In between are the moderates. That's perhaps oversimplifying the pie but it's what I've observed.

I was taking issue with that last few sentences--

Sofia
Sofia, please tell me where you buy your rose-colored glasses so I can buy some so I, too, can have an optomistic vision for our country under the Bushies.

BBB

I still cannot agree about the use of the word "strengthened." It's an untenable opinion at best because as far as terrorist are concerned, there's always more where they came from. They are being encouraged to recruit and where does the incentive come from? Who does anyone think is killing Americans in Iraq? Housewives maybe? As far as the economy returning, I can't give Bush the credit for that. He does not have the communication skills nor the charisma to inspire -- he's like listening to a dead log with an knot hole where sets of scripted words appear. When he's ad libing, he trips over his line like a first time auditioning actor. If this is what is meant by strengthening, it's a very loose definition. I maintain that through conventional means without all these alerts and new laws, we would have been able to stave off terrorism. Homeland Security is just another government agency in which to throw money into a black hole.