How The World Should End On E.R.
So (and forgive me for knowing this) People Magazine is reporting that George Clooney is coming back to ER. Okay, it was on the WordPress home page and I saw it, so sue me.
Anyway, I clearly remember the last episode of ER that I watched. It was when the helicopter landed on Romano, killing him. I didn’t think sharks that big could be jumped. One of the problems with any drama series is that you have to keep raising the stakes. Eventually what happens is the show devolves into farce. Anyone remember the lawyer going down the elevator in L.A. Law?
So, my theory for the last couple of years is that the only one good way for ER to end is nuclear holocaust. Here’s how it should be scripted:
Some wacked out pay-for-play reject attempts to blackmail Blago with a MIRV cone that he stole from somewhere in the Nevada desert and hides it in the Loop. Clooney, having spent the last five years as an on-call doctor for the NEST guys in Las Vegas, is deciding whether to cut the red wire or the blue wire. Fade out to a mushroom cloud and Anthony Edwards welcoming the entire cast to heaven.
Now that’s drama.
Undamped Oscillators and the Free Market
I was listening to an NPR report today on the options for economic stimulus. As usual, there was a free market type arguing that government should stay out of things and let the market take care of it.
Let’s ignore the fact that letting the market take care of it is what got us swirling around this toilet to begin with. I took way too many math classes in college and what I see when people talk about the unfettered market is an undamped oscillator. A system that swings from high to low uncontrollably until disaster strikes and the system collapses. For the canonical example of the problems with undamped oscillation, see this:
That’s what I see the role of the government as. Yes, people will not be able to make as much money as they could without the government putting the brakes on. But neither will the system fall through the floor as it has in the last year.
I am tired of hearing about how smart the market is, how efficiently it operates. Someone is going to have to explain to me how being in the free market makes you a smarter person. As near as I can tell, smart people are in every field (well, maybe not GOP political consultants) and having forces in opposition to each other leads to equilibrium.
Okay, This is Far Too Cute
From this article on President Obama’s first day.
A FIRST SLEEPOVER
On Tuesday night, their first at the White House, the Obama girls had a party of their own.
Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, had a sleepover party with classmates from Sidwell Friends School. They watched two movies — “High School Musical 3” and “Bolt” — and romped around the house in a scavenger hunt arranged by the White House staff.
Perhaps the highlight? At the end of the hunt, the girls opened a door to find their favorite musical act: the Jonas Brothers. Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas were waiting inside. Surprise!
Reverend Lowery, 36 Hours Later
Ever since I opened the Costco sized can of worms regarding Reverend Lowery’s benediction, I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I felt and more importantly, what I should do in the future.
But I wasn’t the only one thinking on things, it seems the Ta-Nehisi (a Chaotic Good if ever I have seen one) also spent the evening thinking about what I said. One of the reasons I like hanging at his blog is it like a conversation. So let’s talk a little bit more.
There is a strong temptation to simply say, “Tough. Get over it.” Or some such.
I get this completely. And part of the reason I get it is that I have told others to do just that, that it was only a joke, don’t take it so seriously. An earlier commenter took me to task for not being offended by “yellow” or “red”, but that misses the point. Up until that last line, the joke wasn’t on me. Now I was in with the unwashed masses and I have to tell you, I didn’t like it at all.
Part of the reason this hit me hard is because of who Rev. Lowery is. He is not one of my top-ten life heroes, but I damn sure know who he is and what he has done. And it would have so easy for him to say things differently. There have been many, many people on TNC’s blog who say that he should be given a complete pass because of who he is and what he has done. Nowhere have I suggested wholesale condemnation for the man, but I would say that who he is gives him the obligation to be more mindful of what others think of what he says, not less. Let everyone cast their minds back to Joe Biden’s description of Barack Obama as “clean” for just a minute and recall their own reactions. Anyone who said that Logorheaa Joe should have watched his phrasing has to step back and leave me alone.
Okay, for the rest of you still with me. Here’s the dead-on money quote from TNC:
Certainly, there is a sector of white folks who just want the niggers to get over it. But there is also a section of white folks who, themselves, want to be over it.
For the last ten years I’ve been trying to put things as succinctly as that. Damn you, Coates.
Yes, that is it exactly. I am tired of being, as TNC says, the stock villain. I want specific villains, like the moron who named his child Adolph Hitler, the jackasses behind the Ledbetter lawsuit defense, and assholes who drag people behind trucks. These people are no more representative of being White than bangers selling crack on the corner in Baltimore are of being Black.
I can’t find the exact comment on TNC’s blog, but someone asked why I was picking on Lowery and not Warren. This is something that hadn’t occurred to me until that point, but in retrospect is stunningly obvious: what Warren thinks doesn’t matter to me. Warren is on the wrong side of history and a religious bigot to boot. None of those things can be said of Lowery and so his opinion matters more to me. I absolutely believe that Reverend Lowery meant no harm and that he was only joking. I really do. But the joke fell flat for me.
Back what when I was in theatre, Davey Marlin-Jones was my directing mentor and one of the things he told me was that once you discover something true about yourself, you have a moral duty to change your behavior in response. So, as Craig Ferguson would say “What have you learned today, KevDog?”
I learned that while it is easy to tell someone to “get over it”, avoid the temptation. I don’t get to choose what other people are offended by and I can and will make a better attempt at understanding what hurt them.
I Never Knew The Man’s Name
But He Once Had A Very Cool Gig.
Give Me Some Time Here
I’ve been thinking a lot about the end of the Inauguration yesterday, but I am completely jammed to the wall at work today and can’t slack off by writing it all down. I’ll be on it tonight.
The Only False Note On A Brilliant Day
Reverend Lowery ended things on a bit of a downer for me. On this, of all days, to lament the fact that White has yet to embrace right was uncalled for. A little petty too, I think. Up until that last line, he had me in the palm of his hand.
Look, everyone knows that we fucked things up in the past. We also know that we can do better. But for crying out loud, all we want is credit for trying. Would that have been too much to ask? This was our day too. This was the country’s day.
Every Now and Then, Things Work Out
My son is home sick today, so I get to watch the inauguration. I’m gobsmacked at how many people are already on the Mall. Holy crowd control, Batman.
Roosevelt Had The Fireside Chat
So let me be the first to attempt to coin a phrase and call the internet speeches that Obama is giving TubeSide Chats.
Hey, there are worse terms.
Update on the Steve Jobs Dead Pool
Back in this post I said that I thought the speculation around Steve Jobs health was his own fault, and that of Apple as well. Pancreatic cancer is not something that fucks around with you, it ends you, and gossip abhors a vacuum.
Given what Joe Nocera writes about, things are even worse than the well publicized “hormonal imbalance”.
So it’s time to go live with this, even for a Mac fanboy like me. Everyone sign up for their ticket to purgatory.
My date: May 27th.