Thursday, May 19, 2005

Impressive. Most impressive. Out of respect to those who want to know nothing else, I'll just say that Jar-Jar doesn't speak and it was worth watching. Might write more next week - if ya don't see it the first four days, protecting you from spoilers is not my responsibility.

Anyone else watching the Senate (US, not Galactic) implode? I always thought the Republicans/conservatives liked measures that slowed down government action as a means to less (ie, better) government. The view changes from the top, I suppose. I really hope they don't overturn the filibuster, one of few longstanding traditions that actually serves a purpose, protecting the minority view. Especially when they've gotten 215 of 218 nominated judges approved (or would under the most recent deal I read about). According to this (admittedly not completely impartial but unlikely to use completely unsupported numbers), Republicans held up 50 of Clinton's appointments. I'm just saying.

(btw I love the phrase "I'm just saying" - it's utterly meaningless, ungrammatical, and useless, but it seems to enhance backhanded insults like no other. yea English, the most difficult language to learn!)

Still reading Rabelais. Admittedly it's going slowly as the style is vastly unfamiliar to me. One of the folks in a Yahoo! group reading the Great Books defended its inclusion as: 1) a satire of the overembellished one-sided "histories" of the time, 2) representative of the beginning of fiction for a story's sake without a need to investigate higher truths, and 3) a thumb of the nose to the Church, as this "natural man" (unchurched) is still an unequivocally good man who enjoys his body as well as his soul. Interesting points, and the book now makes more sense in its historical/cultural context.
posted by Unknown 11:15 AM | 0 comments