OS Has A Change Of Heart: So Does Sony--No Pressure

Well, there does appear to be some blowback about the 10:10 set of videos released this week--you know, the ones featuring a teacher, an exec, and a radio producer pushing a little red button and blowing up children, employees, and a voice-over performer. Because they disagree with the idea that they should change everything about their lives in order to combat 'global warming'.

You know, No Pressure.

Sony has back-pedaled away from this bit of evil as quickly as it can, as evidenced here, and many other places across the planet.

The UK's O2 has decided to stand by their favorite fascists, in the tradition of Tammy Wynette; but Eugenie Harvey, director of 10:10 UK, issued an official (if insincere) apology.

This was not some public relations gaffe--an executive caught being a bit too candid, or even the sort of Tiger-Woods-what-were-you-thinking sort of public meltdown.

This was deliberate.

It takes a lot of time, thought, money and energy to shoot three short films; actors to cast, storyboards and scripts to write and get approved by the people who spend the money to make the films, shot locations to secure, crew to hire, editing, special effects, etc. Video/film runs at thirty frames per second, and every frame included is a deliberate decision.

So, OS has had a change of heart, and is making his own deliberate decision to post the video with all three of these evil short films for his readers to peruse. OS has also made another deliberate decision--he doesn't want to live in a world run by the kind of people who would produce this sort of thing, who would approve of their production, and who may even think this approach to private choice and public dissent is desirable. That's been tried again and again, in Germany, Russia, China, Japan, North Korea and Cambodia, to name a few examples from the past ninety years or so. Tens of millions died horrible deaths as a result. (Eugenie's only sincere regret is that her crew got caught in the act of being themselves, portraying the sort of world they have planned for the rest of us.)

Not here, not now, not ever. So, OS's gonna keep on scribbling and working and praying Providence protects his country from the people who run it. And, he's gonna post that piece of evil on his piece of the digital real estate, as a warning to anyone who may stop by to view it. That's what he can do today.

Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste: The BP Spill And Cap-N-Tax

Rahm Emanuel's famous quote rings in the ears.

An oil well blows up and pollutes the Gulf of Mexico.

The White House has a decision to make: All hands on deck and get this mess cleaned up, or (behind door number 2!) drag our feet, let things really really go to hell on the Gulf Coast (again), blame 'the corporations', 'big oil', Republicans (and any form of conservative), blame-blame-blame, and let the problem fester, rip Alabama's oil boom off for the Louisiana photo-op, and then....


Push for a massive tax increase!

And make damn sure it all gets done by November, cuz' we gonna a lose a lot of House members that first Tuesday. (If you're gonna make war on a culture, you gotta expect a few casualties, you know.) Ain't got no time to read no legislation--it's time to pass this thang!

In the meantime, OS talked with a friend from New Orleans, who said the 143-year old business that supplies oysters to the city has had to close down, due to pollution of the oyster beds.

Didn't have to happen. A timely response would have saved them, but that wasn't the plan.

That business is just another casualty of the Fundamental Transformation of America, and now can be conveniently used as a guilt-club to beat Congress into submission.

Let Me Tell You A Story...

Thus begins the opening of a delightful TV series in the US, Burn Notice.

The protagonist, a spy, finds himself 'burned', made a non-person, and dumped in Miami, where his mother, brother and two friends reside. He has to survive by his wits as he makes his way back to a semblance of a respectable life. Along the way, he does a lot of good for a number of people who need his particular gifts employed in their service--thus the plots of the individual episodes.

There is a certain black humor approach taken, as our protagonist narrates his way through each of the episodes, which at points are truly hilarious. Sooner or later, any viewer who has spent any time in this 'vale of tears' ends up saying, 'You know, I know these people!

It's a wonderfully written and executed piece of entertainment, the kind that lends insight to our lives. Hard to say that about much of anything on TV for the past thirty years or so.

It's also a bit of a 'canary in the coal mine' for the culture: The dark humor resonates with so many people now, as what they see on the tube corresponds with what they experience.

Here's hoping for the day when we won't need this sort of hero to narrate our lives.