Thousands of Mistakes, or Just One Big One?

In January 2003, Epictetus purchased from a sidewalk vendor an orange button about the size of a silver dollar and inscribed with the words, "No War in Iraq," written in black. Simple, bold, and highly visible from its position of display–pinned to the side of a messenger bag–it expressed all Epictetus wanted to express about the impending invasion of a sovereign country that neither had attacked us nor represented an imminent threat. And in the face of the prevailing attitude of bloodlust at the time, it seemed no timid gesture.

Being firsthand witness to death on a mass scale nearly 14 months earlier hardened rather than weakened a moral opposition to war forged over a lifetime, and affirmed a standing aversion to any ideology of which violence is an explicit or implicit tenet. (Interestingly, many of those who lived through the event itself, rather than viewing it on television, are generally reported to have developed a similar distaste for and distrust in the espousal and stated motives of armed conflict.) Purchasing the orange-and-black button was as natural and necessary as holding the hand of my then six-year-old son so that he wouldn't get lost in the crowds surrounding us on that city sidewalk–a moral choice, and an instinctive one.

Epictetus is moved to reflect on this by the comments today of Secretary of State Rice, who is being quoted as admitting mistakes in Iraq ("thousands," she bravely confesses).

Repeat Viewings

What is it about certain films that not only helps them stand up to but invite obsessive repeated viewings?

The question has taken on fresh urgency for Epictetus since a recent family gathering at which a tipsy aunt confided something more than mere fondness for "Boogie Nights." "Every time it's on," she whispered from behind a just-topped glass of red wine, "I have to watch it. And. I. Mean. Every. Time."

Undiminished

Edith Wharton in The House of Mirth: "It was from [his mother] that Selden inherited his detachment from the sumptuary side of life: the stoic's carelessness of material things, combined with the epicurean's pleasure in them. Life shorn of either feeling appeared to him a diminished thing…." 

Faith-Based Fear–and Loathing

Damon Linker in TNR nicely eviscerates George W. Bush's favorite Catholic adviser, "Father Rich" Neuhas, while also tracing the regression of American faith and politics since the emergence of Falwell and ilk. Not surprisingly, the right's obessive need for "authority" (and consequent rejection of free thought) dovetails nicely with Neuhas's radical repudiation of free thinking, which Linker says promotes

an America in which eschatological panic is deliberately channeled into public life, in which moral and theological absolutists demonize the country's political institutions and make nonnegotiable public demands under the threat of sacralized revolutionary violence, in which citizens flee from the inner obligations of freedom and long to subordinate themselves to ecclesiastical authority, and in which traditionalist Christianity thoroughly dominates the nation's public life. All of which should serve as a potent reminder–as if, in an age marked by the bloody rise of theologically inspired politics in the Islamic world, we needed a reminder–that the strict separation of politics and religion is a rare, precious, and fragile achievement, one of America's most sublime achievements, and we should do everything in our power to preserve it.

Weinberger Dies Before Joining Iran-Contra Convicts in Bush Admin

Cap Weinberger, a central figure in the biggest subversion of Constitutional authority prior to the current Bush administration, has died.

Epictetus loves coincidence, not to mention the opportunity to comment on the mere appearance of impropriety. Other figures central to the Iran Contra scandal include Elliott Abrams, John Negroponte, and John Poindexter, all of whom were appointed to high-level positions in the administration of George W. Bush. Poindexter's conviction on numerous felony counts–including defrauding the federal government–obviously made him uniquely qualified for the position of Bush's Director of the Information Awareness Office. (Epictetus, it must be said, also enjoys sarcasm.)

Dereliction of Duty

LBJ left a legacy of revolutionary policy-making. Reagan re-established in citizens a sense of American exceptionalism, for better or worse. Some presidents (FDR, Lincoln) managed to do both, even while saving the nation.

No one in their right minds ever expected George W. Bush to match those performances (his self-acknowledged incuriosity and lack of imagination cut off expectations early). But was anyone really so prepared for such unequivocal failure? It's hard to think of a single policy initiative in the past five-plus years that hasn't failed. Leave aside the major misadventure in Iraq for now. The prescription drug plan is a disaster. No Child Left Behind has propelled U.S. children to the world lead in test preparation but put them at the back of the pack in science and history (global and U.S.) and curtailed their exposure to art, music, and other creative endeavor. Immigration and Social Security reforms have foundered. By any reasonable standard of governance, this administration basically rates a zero.

But there's the rub. The very concept of "governance" is defined much differently by the current administration and its institutional and corporate backers than by ordinary citizens–or even by Republicans like Nixon. By their definition, government exists mainly to be dismantled–but not before it succeeds in dismantling perceived barriers to business (environmental regulations, consumer protections), to executive authority (congressional oversight as laid out in the Constitution), to the amassing of personal wealth at the uppermost levels (fair and progressive taxing), to the projection of military and economic imperialism (U.N. resolutions, international treaties).

A Roomful of Writers

In addition to the topics addressed in an earlier post, "The Sopranos" is also consistently on the mark in targeting consumerism (almost everyone always has a new car), piety ("with your father in a coma!")–and pretension of the artistic variety. Which was funnier: The nose-pierced aesthetes watching as the character played by Tim Daly is assaulted, or his disbelief that "a roomful of writers" did nothing about it? 

We Don’t Talk Like That Here

Saying that "The Sopranos" traffics heavily in mortality is like saying its subject is gangsters. But the obviousness of that shouldn't obscure just how consistently the show delivers anything but the expected–last night turning what at first seemed an elementary treatment on death and life into a "meditation" on the subject from entirely unexpected angles (litigious Buddhists? A Radisson as purgatory? Steve Buscemi–the cousin Tony B. whom Tony S. himself euthanized by shotgun–as an overeager party host named in the credits simply as "Man"?).

Historians say it's impossible to determine the significance of events until time has passed, and "The Sopranos" is something like that. What last week seemed merely touching and mostly corny–Carmella playing "Smoke on the Water" for her comatose husband ("It's your favorite")–takes on true significance as Tony is lured to the distantly flashing beacon out across the eternally monotonous Orange County burb-scape.

Neil Bush and His Software “Investors”

Wow! Loyal reader Woodstein chides Epictetus for not seeing (or even ignoring?) the wheels within wheels. Yet maybe there is something to this whole "new world order" thing.

Just look at the list of backers for Ignite!, Neil Bush's software company (the exclamation point is part of the front's company's name, not a sign of exuberance on the part of Epictetus).

Aside from the "host of unnamed" "investors" from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the British Virgin Islands, there are loud and proud funders from such, um, disparate locales as Kuwait, Egypt, and Houston-by-way-of-Iran. And Maine: Ma and Pa Bush have apparently dipped into the petty cash jar that rests on the sill of their kitchen window. Neil is brother of U.S. figurehead  President George Bush.

Hollywood to Brokeback Author: Proulx You

Epictetus was never down with Annie Proulx’s post-Oscar sulking (remember, it’s better to make best use of what is in our power, and take the rest as it happens):

http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1727309,00.html

But  the Crash-addled/addicted Hollywood types who deign to create our cultural reality and serve it up at $10.25 a head acquit themselves far worse (as Annie at Maud reports):

“Proulx is just a writer,” said one studio insider with a sniff. “Nobody listens to them anyway.”

To arms?