"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast"
-Oscar Wilde		 Brilliant at Breakfast title banner "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself."
-- Proverbs 11:25
"...you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?" -- Steve Gilliard, 1964 - 2007

"For straight up monster-stomping goodness, nothing makes smoke shoot out my ears like Brilliant@Breakfast" -- Tata

"...the best bleacher bum since Pete Axthelm" -- Randy K.

"I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum." -- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (1954-2015), They Live
Monday, May 17, 2010

Then bring them home
Posted by Jill | 5:14 AM
Last week Gen. Stanley McChrystal admitted that "nobody is winning" in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai, the Unocal shill that the Bush Administration installed as leader of Afghanistan, has degenerated into no more than "He's a schmuck but he's our schmuck" territory despite the sunny face put on his recent meeting with President Obama in Washington, DC.

Now the Taliban have retaken at least one area that had been held by US troops:
Farmers from the district of Marja, which since February has been the focus of the largest American-led military operation in Afghanistan, are fleeing the area, saying that the Taliban are terrorizing the population and that American troops cannot protect the civilians.

The departure of the farmers is one of the most telling indications that Taliban fighters have found a way to resume their insurgency, three months after thousands of troops invaded this Taliban stronghold in the opening foray of a campaign to take control of southern Afghanistan. Militants have been infiltrating back into the area and the prospect of months of more fighting is undermining public morale, residents and officials said.

As the coalition prepares for the next major offensive in the southern city of Kandahar, the uneasy standoff in Marja, where neither the American Marines nor the Taliban have gained the upper hand and clashes occur daily, provides a stark lesson in the challenges of eliminating a patient and deeply rooted insurgency.

We don't even know what "winning" would look like, let alone how to do it. Squelching the Taliban is a now-nine-year game of whack-a-mole, eating billions of U.S. dollars that could be used for health care and alternative energy research. Instead it's going to prop up an oil puppet and play at righting a "winnable" war.

There's no draft, so this forgotten war isn't at the center of anyone's consciousness. The evening news has forgotten all about it, what with volcanoes and earthquakes and oil slicks and missing white women and American Idol to talk about.

But if this country can only wrap its mind around the important when it's wrapped in the trivial, consider this: Last night at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, Sgt. First Class Marcus Twine was in the audience. He's on his THIRD tour of duty in Afghanistan. He is on a two-week leave so he could attend last night's Survivor finale, in which his wife, Sandra Diaz-Twine won the million dollars for the second time. She's a bank teller in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Sgt. Twine is lucky that his wife was a "colorful character" in her first try on the show, was invited to come back, and was smart enough to win for a second time. For the Twines, the reality show money is a cushion, not a lifestyle. For many military families, multiple deployments is a financial and emotional hardship, often a devastating one. And it looks more and more that the hardship is for nothing, other than so that the U.S. doesn't have to say once again that it got embroiled in an unwinnable war.

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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

One state two state red state blue state
Posted by Jill | 5:47 AM
Would any year on this blog be complete without the obligatory Survivor post?

So-called "reality" television is very much maligned, as much of it should be, with its constant undertone of throwing the proverbial Christians to the proverbial lions. We all now know about Fox' plans to take the Survivor "survival of the fittest" concept and create a show in which employees in real business facing layoffs get to choose who is laid off. It would be easy to think that this is no worse than the original Survivor, except that the people on the latter show CHOOSE to be on the show, they certainly know after 18 seasons know what the deal is, and most of them either go back to their old lives or in some cases, find new careers both in and out of show business.

Survivor is a triumph of editing, as the casting directors and film editors compile characters and narratives to produce heroes and villains; sluts and earth mothers, and other narrative archetypes. Somehow, no matter what the mix of contestants is, these archetypes always seem to emerge. Perhaps this is why they are archetypes; because they are so characteristic of human nature.

The season just completed, which took place in the Brazilian highlands state of Tocantins, had the potential to be about as compelling as the Guatemala season, which featured some of the most loathsome people ever to appear on the show, sweating and scratching bug bites and driving each other crazy over the course of 39 days. But while the faux-warrior Benjamin "Coach" Wade was the darling of the show's producers and host, with his tales of being abducted by tribal natives in the Amazon and singlehandedly managing to get himself untied from the stake to which he was tied, get back to his kayak, and win a world's record, for me the most compelling narrative, given the political focus of this blog, was the strong and immediate bond between the angsty New York Jewish Guy Stephen Fischbach and the aw-shucks cattle rancher from Alabama and eventual shutout winner James "J.T." Thomas, which turned into a bromance not even Judd Apatow could write better. Here the two talk with Entertainment Weekly's Dalton Ross and Josh Wolk after the finale:




We have reached a point in this country in which it often seems as if we are no longer one country. We are the Holy Nation of Jesustan and the Godless Heathen Feminazi Nation of Jewish Homosexual Communists. After last fall's presidential campaign, which saw John McCain, Sarah Palin, and their court fool Joe the Plumber whip their red state minions into frenzies in which crowds were screaming "Kill him!" and "He's a terrorist!" in conjunction with Barack Obama, and what we've seen since from the politicians from the south and elsewhere, which has blue staters like me saying "Go. Secede already," there was something profoundly hopeful about seeing these two unlikely allies create from very early on not just a show alliance but a true friendship. If these two can find common ground, why can't the rest of us?

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The last word on Survivor Fiji
Posted by Jill | 8:14 PM
I know it's really frivolous, even for someone who usually includes one or two Survivor contestants on her annual Brilliant list and a few seasons ago did an advance look at the contestants. But the appalling spectacle of the loose cannon Dreamz destroying his reputation for a futile chance at a million dollars, a chance even he must have known he didn't really have, showed graphically the truly ugly side of Survivor. It's not that Dreamz went back on his word, and I don't see it as "stealing a truck from an old man", as some have called it. It IS, after all, a game of outplay, outwit, outlast. It's more that he seemed to be genuinely conflicted about his decision and then said it was all an act. Setting up a black guy to be the villain is practically a trademark on this show, and I'm not sure that a genuinely good-guy winner who is a black male compensates for the appalling spectacle that was Dreamz Herd in the final episode.

Greed is a constant undercurrent in the game of Survivor, and the disingenuousness of the insane Lisi accusing the three finalists of being driven by greed underscored how for someone like Dreamz, it's not a game, but a very real chance at a changed life. The question is how Dreamz' life will change now that he dicked over the most popular and arguably the most deft player in the game's 14 seasons vs. how it would have changed had he settled for fifteen or twenty grand less and the truck, and lived up to his promise.

Perhaps the most interesting commentaries on Dreamz' dilemma comes from Survivor: Cook Islands' arch-villain Jonathan Penner and Survivor: Panama's Bob Mason, who between the two of them make the show's "Survivor Strikes Back" blog worth reading.

Penner:


Yau didn’t think Dreamz was a wild card though. He thought he was a person like him. Because it’s hard to imagine people NOT being like you.

[snip]

I think knowing where our next meal is coming from and where our next night of bed-rest will take place, gives us the time and the security to project ourselves into the future. Where we can see how something immediately gratifying might have long term ramifications. I see that maybe we take for granted the socialization and the education that teaches how a little self-sacrifice can have a tremendous long term benefit. That teaches good will, integrity and a guilt-free conscience are worth A LOT -- to the folks you are dealing with and to one’s self.

Most of us didn’t grow up on the streets. Maybe if we had -- with few long term opportunities, learning to seize the few chances right before our eyes, we might have done what Dreamz did too. He probably earned 20,000 dollars more than Yau in the game. And he got the truck. That ain’t chicken feed. We might have taken the immediate gains too, unaware of (or willing to endure) the hatred and nausea that would follow us.

But the problem for me is, it makes me kind of tired and sad and angry, really. I think his kind of thinking is why, in the real world, so many people find themselves in jail or on the streets. Because of their own short-sightedness. And by extension, the shortsightedness of the system that cannot help them see a long-term future of hope and health. I don’t know how to fix that system. I don’t know anything except personal responsibility. Dreamz was lucky/smart/special enough to get on Survivor – he’s now rich and (in)famous. Most folks from his former situation don’t get that break. He played it as best he could, I guess, but I resent his way of thinking. Or rather, the way of thinking, he is emblematic of. And even if I can understand it objectively, (if I do) I don’t like it.

Honestly, it scares me. Not Dreamz, of course, but what his actions say to me.

[snip]

Yes, all this from a f’ing game show.


Mason:


I had no idea people actually still say out loud stuff like “the Asians are smart” and “the blacks are lazy” and “I’m not racist. I have black friends.” That’s so… 90s. It sounds like something from one of those ‘lesson’ episodes on Diff’rent Strokes...

And for the record, there is nothing child-like about Yau Man. The dude is 50 something and he has a degree from MIT. He is the director of Info Systems at Cal Berkeley. The DIRECTOR. From the neck up Yau Man is one of the most powerful players the game has ever seen. He’s one of the most active thinkers and most cognizant of his surroundings of anyone that’s played. He doesn’t deserve to be patronized as being ‘noble’ and ‘child-like’.

And make no mistake: Yau made the truck offer not out of goodwill but for GAME ADVANTAGE. He was trying to manipulate Dreamz for personal game advantage—which is what you’re supposed to do. He said himself that you can’t take promises seriously in this game.

It was a calculated risk and he got burned. He offered Dre the truck in exchange for immunity. That was a declaration of war and it was apparent to Dre. When is the last time someone voluntarily gave up immunity anyway?!?!? If Dre had done that, I can only imagine the “Dre is dumb and therefore all black people are dumb, except the 3 good blacks that I work with” threads that would be popping up all over the place.

Nothing Dre has done suggests that he’d keep his word, so who’s fault is it that he didn’t do it here? If dog bites you once, shame on dog. If dog bites you twice, shame on you… Yes, it was despicable that Dreamz did what he did but let’s not canonize Yau just yet, they’re 2 separate issues. Yau was making a game move, just like when he made a fake idol. This happened to make him look noble and generous (which I believe he is) while the fake idol thing makes him look devious and cunning (which I believe he is). And Dre lying for personal advantage was bad, real bad. But as ‘noble’ as Colby and Ian’s symbolic gestures were, they were also dumb.


Those of you who watch the show remember Ian Rosenberger taking a dive in the final immunity challenge on Survivor: Palau because his friendship with eventual winner Tom Westman was worth more to him than a chance at a million bucks. Rosenberger was excoriated far and wide for that decision, because it is Missing the Point of Survivor.

Sometimes a season plays out without anything being revealed other than too much flesh during challenges, seasons in which a Yul Kwon or a Tom Westman sails pretty much straight through to the end without a lot of tension. And the fact that all three finalists this season were black may point to a very real effort by Mark Burnett to overcome some of the racist portrayals his show has produced in the past, from the laziness of Sean Rector to Clarence Black "stealing" a can of beans to the preposterously buff Osten Taylor quitting in mid-stream to the cringeworthy Ted-and-Ghandia fracas of Survivor: Thailand. Dreamz Herd's cranium-combusting rants may have made for interesting television, but when Mark Burnett set his trap, he walked right into it.

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