Now that the immediate shock of the massacres by ISIS in Paris and Beirut, plus the bringing down of the Russian airliner, is easing somewhat, it may be possible to step back and ask oneself: Why now? Why were these horrific attacks unleashed at this point in time?
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Saturday Night Live premiered a new TV series titled The Adventures of Young Ben Carson based on his autobiographical stories that looks like it will never run out of material since they emerge from one of the most fertile and imaginative brains of our time.
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With all the depressing stories about the brutal attacks on people in Paris and Beirut by ISIS dominating the news, I wanted to pass on a bit of good news that might have got buried and that is that same-sex marriage is legal as of today in Ireland. This was a consequence of the referendum that was passed in May.
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I enjoy comedies so I was interested in this list of the 101 funniest screenplays of all time. The list ranks them in order but while such rank ordering is good for getting people to click and argue about which films are better than others, I tend to ignore the rankings and use such lists merely as general guides to identify good films that I might have missed.
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In elections, in addition to hoping that your party ends up with the candidate whom you think has the best ideas and also the best chance of winning, you also hope that the other side ends up with the candidate with the best chance of losing. Hence each side has an incentive to boost the other side’s weaker candidate and cheer on the decline of the candidate that may be the strongest. Some people go beyond that and actually try to bring about the worst result for the opponents. But is such negative strategizing wise?
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This would be a good time to show clips making fun of the Republican debate that took place earlier in the week to see the huge contrast between that and yesterday’s Democratic debate.
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One of the self-driving cars being tested by Google was pulled over by a police officer for driving too slow, 25 mph in a 35 mph zone. I had not been aware that driving below the speed limit was a primary offense but apparently it is if you are causing a traffic backup behind you. Or maybe not, because the news report is a bit confused about whether it is an offense or not.
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The second Democratic debate yesterday, this time involving only Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Martin O’Malley, was once again spirited and substantive. Given that it occurred in the immediate aftermath of the horrendous events in Paris, it was not surprising that the first quarter or so was devoted to the whole issue of ISIS and terrorism. To their credit, none of the candidates used the occasion to indulge in excessive saber rattling or xenophobia against Muslims or call for the shutting down of moves to take in refugees fleeing the chaos in the Middle East. One can only shudder at what the Republican candidates would have said if it had been their debate last night. We would have seen a competition to see who could take the most extreme anti-Muslim position and they would have tied it to anti-Mexican immigrant bashing.
Anyone who has been to any art museum, especially those featuring traditional works, will know that they contain rampant full frontal nudity. This is a problem for the media in the US when they have to report on record-breaking auction sales of art works like Modigliani’s Reclining Nude because they have to deal with readers and viewers who are offended by the sight of naked humans even in paintings and sculptures. Should they show the work as is or cover up the naughty bits?
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Cricket fans will immediately recognize the name Sachin Tendulkar. Most of them would concede that he is one of the best cricketers of all time but among many Indians the admiration goes much further and he is venerated almost as a god, with even some Hindu temples being dedicated to him and some even referring to him as ‘god’.
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