The U.N. way
I was sick on Monday, so I got to stay home from school and catch up on Sesame Street watching with my daughter.
My fever-soaked brain refused to believe what I saw but I found proof:
That's right Kofi Annan brings that "compromise is best" attitude to Sesame Street. And it's supposedly a good thing!
The gist of the segment was this:
Elmo was arguing with another character about who gets to sing the alphabet song. Historically Elmo always sang the song, but now the other characters are muscling in, wanting a piece of this rich singing pie...
In walks Mr. Annan and dictates that they should solve the problem the "U.N. way" and mandates that they should all sing the alphabet song together- no auditions to see who was the best singer, no digging in to the history of the situation, no exclusion of AWFUL performers - just a compromise solution that rewards the slackers in the group and punishes those that have worked hard and are actually better than average.
So by now you're saying that I've gone off the deep-end. It's just Sesame Street for Pete's sake! Remember though that Sesame Street has cultural icon status in North America. There's probably not one person in their 30's who grew up in North America who hasn't watched it as a child. The "teachings" are lauded by educators everywhere as crucial to forming early child abilities and attitudes. So by espousing "the U.N. way" they are promoting an agenda.
So what's my beef?
I hate compromises. They only work best when there is no optimal solution and you need to move forward with all parties agreeing. They shouldn't be used as your default starting point and catch-all solution.
Many people are just plain wrong. Without vigorous debate and the occasional shoving match the wrongness of some positions wouldn't get exposed. And the right solutions get diluted by crap.
Specific example: In Toronto there was a plan in the 60's for an expressway that would connect the 401 and the Gardiner Expressway along Spadina Avenue. If you've ever been caught in a Toronto rush-hour, an alternate North-south route would come in handy.
It doesn't exist. Because it was an all or nothing proposition. The debaters in favour of their neighbourhoods won and the expressway didn't happen.
The "U.N. Way" would've compromised and created an expensive half-assed expressway that went nowhere and caused more problems than it solved.
But that's bad for the commuters right? Too bad. They lost the debate. Deal with it. There was no optimal solution for everyone and a compromise would've been worse for everyone.
So what's the lesson here re: "the U.N. way?"
- If you're better at something, it doesn't matter. You'll have to carry the shittier performers
- If you're not that good at something, scream loud enough to be included. Instead of trying to get better, those that are better will carry you
- The best solution doesn't matter as long as no one's "wittle feewings" aren't hurt
I could write a lot more on why I think the U.N. has become a modern League of Nations, but I'll be brief.
The U.N. seems to want to punish the successful countries for being successful, because their mindset is that in order to be successful, they must have unfairly "stolen" this success from the sweat of the third-world.
Before the leftist history majors come out of the woodwork: this is not TOTALLY wrong, but has become a crutch every time the shortcomings of the third world are pointed out. The fact that these regimes punish innovation with prohibitive taxes, have no property or individual rights and are rife with corruption never seem to enter the argument as to why they are basket cases...
What I wish they would do is help the "loser" countries (c'mon, we all know they're losers...) do better rather than lay blame and guilt at the feet of the richer countries.
But that would require saying bad things about the weak wittle countwies wouldn't it?
Maybe Mama Stalin didn't hug him enough
Ed Asner thinks Joe Stalin was misunderstood.
Disgust.
I'm getting tired of seeing exceptions being made for this guy:
from IMDB news Oct 13/03
Director Roman Polanski will make British legal history by suing American magazine Vanity Fair via a video link from France. The Oscar-winning filmmaker won the right not to appear in person because he fears extradition to the US - from where he fled in 1977 after being found guilty of statutory rape with a 13-year-old girl. Polanski is suing Vanity Fair after it accused him of propositioning a woman on the way to the funeral of murdered wife Sharon Tate in 1969. The case starts on November 3 at London's High Court. His spokesman says, "Mr. Polanski has permission to give his evidence via a video link. We cannot comment further."
Let's see. He's suing someone for libel, but can't show up in court because the child-raping bastard figures he might get sent back to the States for the hard jail time he deserves.
The Pianist's Roman Polanski was also a surprise winner in the directing category. The controversial director hasn't set foot in the U.S. since 1977 when he fled a statutory rape conviction, and many believed the Academy wouldn't bestow an Oscar upon him in absentia.
Well the Academy proved to me that night that it had no morals to stand on. Hollywood does love its non-extradited child rapists.
I also love how it's always emphasized that it was "statutory" rape. As if she was some young temptress that seduced him and he was some noble victim that got birthdates wrong. Read the Smoking Gun archives on this perv. He isolated his victim, plied her with drugs and alcohol and then victimized her. And this is only the incident that was made public. Roman's got good PR people and lots of lawyers...
Pervs like him don't do this only once. You gotta wonder how many young French girls fall victim to his "charms." But the French are so much more mature in the ways of love, mais oui?
Oh, and he's the victim because he's not allowed on U.S. soil to accept his stupid award. And now the British courts are granting him a "special exception." If I were Vanity Fair I'd fight this tooth and nail and make him show up in court.
And why is it that I believe completely Vanity Fair's assertion that he was propositioning another woman on the way to his murdered wife's funeral?
Bastard.
Ha! I knew it!
I'd thought in this entry in June that Clive Owen would make a great Bond. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so.
DOUBLE OWEN SEVEN
The Daily Record reports that Clive Owen will take over the franchise in Bond 22 to be released in 2007.
It was previously stated in the IMDB that Owen had said some nasty things about the franchise as I wrote in this entry (also from June.) Thankfully that seems to be something a so-called "friend" was shooting his mouth off about.
There were claims earlier this year that Clive didn't think Bond was a 'challenge'', but the quote wasn't his but attributed to a friend. When he's been asked directly, he's always sounded positive.
Interesting to see the other choices the producers are considering as well:
The producers keep screen testing possible replacements for Brosnan. Most recently, it was Jack Davenport and Orlando Bloom. It seems as soon as someone is hot, they get called in.
Jack Davenport (of BBC's Coupling, not the crappy NBC remake. Check it out in it's original British!) is too much the funnyman. I saw him in the British mini-series "Ultraviolet" as a vampire-hunting cop. The show's only weakness, excellent as it was for fans of the genre, was that I couldn't buy Davenport in the serious role. Maybe it's because he was so great in Coupling. NBC should've just bought the English show and ran it as is instead of remaking it with inferior actors. No one's accent in the original was that bad...
Orlando Bloom is too pretty. Without the elven super-powers I can't see him as tough guy.
I still think the series needs something else to make it "pop" more: maybe make it more episodic, with a recurring uber-villain for a couple of movies that's written as more than a "villain of the week" characterisation that seems to be happening in the last couple of films...I don't know. We'll see if they give Pierce Brosnan a good farewell.
via Wizbang!
And I thought I was colder...
You're Brazil!
You're athletic, charming, and probably a good dancer.
Unfortunatley, you don't really mind chopping down the rain forest, and you probably consider homeless people expendable in certain circumstances. Of course, your personality is so diverse that it's hard to track down exactly what you're like. You definitely like Pele, the World Cup, and shouting "gooooal" at the top of your lungs.
Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid
via Rue and the Flea
SARs-stock
Well the big thing is underway at Downsview Park in Toronto...and aside from watching the Stones live tonight on CBC the only thing about this show that will effect me in any way will be traffic-related, as I have to drive by the park on my way home on the 401.
Call me a cynic, but I don't think that this is anything other than a damn-great rock concert.
- This will not undo the ass-kicking that Ontario tourism has received.
- This will not keep marginal businesses hurt by the botched handling of the SARs outbreak from going bankrupt.
- This will not salvage a decimated convention and trade-show season.
That being said, I think this is a cool event that will have people talking for a long time...
Before my daughter can read it...
I wrote here about my 20-month old daughter thinking she was slaying vampires (actually she was chasing our "fraidy-cat" of a watchdog with a broom-handle) so as a responsible parent I better bone-up on the language before she kills us all for being out-of-touch (ie. We must be vampires to be so square!)
Honestly though: Buffyitis is becoming a serious addiction in the Kraut household!
So Dense...
#2 on Daypop today (that's the ranking engine for things popular in the Weblog world for those of you that aren't immersed in all things bloggy!) is the story about how big bad Metallica is suing poor Montreal band Unfaith over their use of the E F chord progression...
Of course this is all just malarky and is an illustration to those that treat internet news as gospel of the dangers of appearing a horse's ass when said hoax is revealed.
What's hilarious is the sheer amount of hatred being poured out towards Metallica on the internet.
The band's problem is not that it's been pranked: this kind of thing happens all the time on the net. The problem is that everyone is still doing a slow boil over Napster and Metallica's presumed part (ie. Greed: MINE MINE MINE! Stay away from our copyright songs! AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!) in Napster's downfall.
Even though most of us will claim that file-sharing without buying the CD is wrong **wink wink** and that we'd never ever do such a thing again, Metallica came out of the whole thing looking like a bunch of selfish money-grubbing lawyer-associating numbered-account obsessing a**holes who wanted to squash the fun of their "fans" -you know, the ones rich enough to have a computer with broad-band access, but too poor to buy a CD.
Enough people are ready to believe that Metallica would be so greedy to attempt this: how's that for a future legacy?
Boo Boo the Vampire Slayer
Now that it's over, we've actually started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer...
It's on every night, and the local channel has started running the series right from season one episode one. It's caused some strange happenings...
Cue the music: Nerf Herders "Buffy" main title.
Boo Boo, the 20 month-old Kraut-ling starts shaking and dancing to the beat.
I go back to looking at the computer screen. Suddenly I hear a shuffling noise behind me. There is Boo-Boo, holding a 3-foot long wooden broom handle...
"KEEL VAMP, DADA!" she screams at the top of her lungs. Then she turns around and notices the dog sneaking up behind her for a lick...
"KEEL VAMP, RUBY!" she screams at the dog and begins to give chase. The dog, all 85 lbs of frightened shepherd-doberman runs behind me for safety.
"KEEL VAMP, DADA!" she sobs as I take away her improvised Buffy-esque weaponry...
She could be the chosen one...
I was just talking about this earlier!
from the IMDB:
James Bond contender Clive Owen has snubbed the legendary franchise - by dismissing it as unchallenging. The British hunk is reported to be a frontrunner to replace departing 007 Pierce Brosnan when he hands over the superspy role after the next film. However, Gosford Park star Owen is nonplussed about the prospect of being the world's most famous hero - in fact, he doesn't want the job. According to British tabloid The Daily Express, he told a pal, "I think it's too formulaic, too tried and tested and a little past it's sell by date. I would not consider it to be a challenge. I've just come back from Los Angeles where I had a meeting with Francis Ford Coppola who wants to cast me in an exciting new project, which will be Bond-like but more challenging and relevant today. I'm really excited about it."
Now if this were thirty years ago and he were snubbing the franchise that Sean Connery built I would say that Mr. Owen's getting a bit too big for his britches...but, in retrospect, the Bond franchise is not what it once was.
After a good start to the Brosnan era with Goldeneye (one of my favourites of "new-era" Bond. Sean Bean uber-cool as the villian and Famke Jannsen killing guys with her thighs; HER THIGHS!) the last ones have been rather stupid (Denise Richards as a nukular scientist for crying out loud!) and I haven't even bothered to go to the theatres for the last two outings: I even passed it by at the rental counter, opting for The Transporter instead...
Come to think of it. Why are there more Bond movies? Aside from the commercial product placement opportunities hasn't every possible permutation of the Bond film been made by now?
I think for me the franchise ended as soon as the super-ENGLISH spy began driving a German car and drinking pseudo-vodka in his martinis...
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