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Reviewed by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News
Feb. 18, 2003
Does anyone else out there watch Judging Amy? It's sappy and silly and insufferably pleased with itself, yet I often watch -- because it's important to know what's going on in the minds of people who hate freedom.
The producers of Judging Amy abhor freedom. That's the subtext, virtually every week.
The show revolves around a juvenile court judge (Amy Brenneman) who's always looking out for the children, and her mother, Maxine (Tyne Daly), a career child-welfare monitor who's also always looking out for the children. Brenneman's the star, but the show's more ominous subplots and Message-with-a-capital-M often revolve around Maxine.
She's *always* nosing around in other people's family matters -- it's her job, and she's really dedicated to doing her job. Charlize Theron got rave reviews for playing a "Monster", but this woman is a much more believable, everyday monster.
Last night, for example, Maxine discovered that married foster parents -- prepare to be shocked -- attended an adult costume party. In our brief glimpse of the party, people were dressed as a 1970s pimp, a chambermaid, and in other mock-fetish wear. It was about as sexually stimulating as a baseball game, but it was scandalous, if you're a mega-prude busybody like Maxine.
Nobody had reported anything suspicious about these foster parents, and the only thing viewers know about them is that they attended an adult costume party -- but Maxine was immediately worried that these foster parents -- because they may have libido -- were abusing the children.
She talked to her boss and co-worker, opened an investigation, somehow got a file full of photos from this party, and called the foster parents into her office for a heavy-handed interview. When the foster dad mildly objected to Maxine's interrogation she lectured them, with a line something like, "It's OK for people to have sex lives, but when you parade your sex life around, I have to open an investigation."
Yessiree, the state has to open an investigation ... of adults who attend a costume party.
Later, Maxine called the foster kids into her office for an interview that itself bordered on child abuse, as the children knew something was up but couldn't guess what. But Maxine eventually seemed to decide that these foster children were NOT being raped or abused or whatever she suspected by their pervo foster parents.
There was, of course, no apology for the investigation, interrogations, or insinuations. There was no indication that Maxine had done anything wrong, no acknowledgment that she's rather obviously off her rocker. There wasn't even any further mention of this subplot for the rest of the episode, so maybe Maxine will still be hounding this foster family next week.
If not, it'll be the first time (to my recollection) that she's ever been wrong in any of her many investigative hunches.
The show's called Judging Amy, but it's much more about judging than about Amy. At their jobs, Amy and Maxine judge people all day long, and their judgments are often about preventing danger, not repairing harm.
What Judging Amy can't acknowledge, though, is that removing more and more "dangers" from our lives means removing more and more freedoms. That ain't necessarily good for kids -- or adults -- when it's carried to such extremes.
I often imagine, watching the show, that this is what TV would be like in the old Soviet Union. I envision a memo from some 'Commiszar of Enderdainment', explaining to the writers that such drama will be tolerated, but only if the point is always hammered home.
And the point, of course, is that we the people are children, and agents of the state are looking out for us -- investigating us -- suspicious of us -- watching us -- always.
© 2003, by the author.
Comments? newsuneed@yahoo.com
Reviewed by Liberez L'Ours, Unknown News Oct. 6, 2003
I downloaded Open Office version 1.1, the long awaited sequel to the popular 1.0 version...
It slices, it dices and it can open Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents — can even save to those formats, I believe, though I have not tested that feature. go to www.openoffice.org to get yours, or better yet tell a friend to download it and then burn a CD for you...
The download file size is obnoxious — 65 meg! and that is the zip (compressed) file!
(Sidenote: Sun contributed to Open Office and of course Java, while AOL was a driving force behind the free www.mozilla.org browser. can it be coincidence that the stock price of these companies is in the toilet? they spent their shareholder money creating free software in an attempt to squash Microsquish...and proved that communism is incompatible with capitalism (just as Herr Busch is busily proving that fascism is incompatible with capitalism...)
© 2003, by the author.
Comments? newsuneed@yahoo.com
Reviewed by Liberez L'Ours, Unknown News Sept. 5, 2003
A quick review of some of the latest open source (free!) software updates:
1. www.mozilla.org: Mozilla 1.4 available (i have been using 1.2.1 exclusively — no Microsquish Internet Explorer!) they're also working on Firebird, a small, lean browser which is at 0.6.1 — and may be good enough already.
2. www.openoffice.org: version 1.1 is available as "rc3", meaning Release Candidate 3, and nearly ready for prime time. (i have 1.0.1 which is great, but does have a few minor quirks...) this gives you drawing, spreadsheet, database access (via ODBC), presentation and word processing with publication to HTML, etc.
3. www.mysql.com: version is 4.0.14 and they're closing in fast on 4.1 and 5.0 which promise great things. this product has a learning curve, but you can hook it up to openoffice.org in spreadsheets and do a lot...beats paying Microsquish $300 for Access.
4. www.pgpi.com: version 8.0 is available and fully supports Windows XP. A batch open source version with just a command line is available also — use this for automated encryption jobs. definitely a must have (I've been using versions 7 something.)
5. Yacas: "Yacas" stands for Yet Another Computer Algebra System. Version 1.0.55 is in progress. Looks like Pinkus has some helpers. This system is for people who cannot afford Mathematica and want to get their hands dirty in an open source Computer Algebra System that is a real up and comer for the future. Yacas has its own programming language and some neat features invented by really, really smart people.
6. www.squeak.org: The squeakers are plugging away with quasi-open source Small Talk for the masses. This software is great. Smalltalk itself has a learning curve...and the hours are short, but given that Squeak can talk to the internet (it is really an OS on top of your OS), and that every other program listed here can do TCP/IP too, it should be possible to cobble together some very interesting work.
7. "Winzip" and "Textpad" aren't open source but are definite yesses for people who like indefinitely long free trial periods... and need what they offer. Work, baby, work!!!
© 2003, by the author.
Comments? newsuneed@yahoo.com
Reviewed by Liberez L'Ours, Unknown News
Many people feel more offended than angered by our faux-cowboy President and his all-hat- no-cattle approach to geopolitical diplomacy. Crude humor and righteous bloodletting have their rightful places in American culture and folklore, but the President's pride in his ignorance and dunderheaded lack of nuanced understanding offends, especially in a 21st century "Leader of the Free World".
George W. Bush's grievous ignorance and apathy concerning topics other than killing, preaching and tax cuts would seem to qualify him for few positions other than car salesman, priest, lobbyist or unindicted executive — if not for his backing by powerful persons and organizations affiliated with his father and family.
Bush represents, in short, a walking Conspiracy Theory. Multiple conspiracy theories! He reeks of Massive Conspiracy — plus the associated, inevitable cover-ups. No other explanation for his job title seems plausible, at least in the "real" world (especially in the real world, as no self-respecting author would plot this!)
In the movie, "Conspriacy Theory" Mel Gibson's character plays an paranoid schizophrenic amnesiac assassin who obsessively purchases copies of "Catcher in the Rye", but who has never read the book.
My personal obsessive-compulsive purchase target is "Shibumi" by Trevanian.
I purchase Shibumi whenever I find a copy at the local thrift store, based on the theory that at a price of one dollar for three paperbacks, or one dollar for a hardback, the odds guarantee that sooner or later someone I meet will want a copy, and who can beat that price!
And so I arrived home today after a shopping expedition in town, with twitching fingers eager to carefully open the paper sack containing a first edition Shibumi, with book jacket! Oh baby...my greatest score since purchasing, at that same thrift store, a perfect condition copy of Shibumi, (hardback, no jacket) published in Japan!
Why the obsession with Shibumi? Perhaps "obsession" overstates the case, but the sheer number of ironic ("coincidental") parallels between the book and 9/11, plus the ensuing governmental shenanigans speaks for itself:
1. The CIA and its sister organizations retain a long-standing and well-earned reputation for incompetency and viciousness (contrary to President Bush's naive amazement that oceans provide no protection, that blowback happens, that terrorists exist, and that airliners get hijacked...with or without the CIA's best efforts...)
2. Oil, Mega-Corporations: Middle East. 'Nuff said...
3. The Palestinian/Israeli and Basque/Spain civil wars continue to this day, long after Shibumi was published in 1979, and continue to frustrate the aims of governments and their corporate masters...
4. Nicholai Hel is an assassin, formerly a freelancer for the CIA, who specializes in assassinating terrorists, for anyone who can pay his price. Anyone...
5. Hel's martial arts specialty, "Naked/Kill" requires no weapons other than everyday household objects: pencil, credit card, rolled up magazine. Hel could do a terrorist with a nerf ball; anything handy will do, even a box cutter...
These parallels might explain why Shibumi's popularity continues and why it remains in stock, but we need no explanations other than "Damn fine book!"
Persons who love George W. Bush probably won't like Shibumi. I have seen several Customer Reviews on amazon.com that have an eerie resemblance to GOP/RNC internet message board rhetoric. Shibumi offends those people to the core. Who cares if they don't like it — that just leaves more used copies for the rest of us! Heh-heh.
NOTE: I enclose several very brief excerpts from Shibumi. From these you may find that you have an interest in reading the book. If so, I beg you to avoid reading the Customer Reviews at amazon or elsewhere until you finish the book (though I have also enclosed for your amusement part of a review from a GOP/RNC anti-fan of Shibumi.)
* * *
From back cover of the paperback edition: Born in the ravages of World War I China to an aristocratic Russian mother and a mysterious German father, raised in the spiritual gardens of a Japanese Go master, he survives the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world's most artful lover and its most accomplished — and highly paid — assassin. Genius, mystic, master of language and culture, Hel's secret is his determination to attain a rare kind of personal excellence, a state of effortless perfection...shibumi.
Now living in an isolated mountain fortress with his magnificent Eurasian mistress, Hel faces his most sinister enemy — a supermonolith of espionage and monopoly. The battle lines are drawn: ruthless power and corruption on one side and on the other...
SHIBUMI
* * *
Dedication: To the memories of the men who here appear as Kishikawa
Otake
de Lhandes
Le Cagot
All other characters and organizations in this book lack any basis in reality — although some of them do not realize that.
* * *
[p. 62-63] "He sounds as though I shall like him, sir."
"I am sure you will. He is a man who has all my respect. He possesses a quality of ... how to express it? ... of shibumi."
"Shibumi, sir?" Nicholai knew the word, but only as it applied to gardens or architecture, where it connoted an understated beauty. "How are you using the term, sir?"
"Oh, vaguely. And incorrectly, I suspect. A blundering attempt to describe an ineffable quality. As you know, shibumi has to do with great refinement underlying commonplace appearances. It is a statement so correct that it does not have to be bold, so poignant it does not have to be pretty, so true it does not have to be real. Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. In demeanor, it is modesty without pudency. In art, where the spirit of shibumi takes the form of sabi, it is elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. In philosophy, where shibumi emerges as wabi,it is spiritual tranquility that is not passive; it is being without the angst of becoming. And in the personality of a man, it is .. how does one say it? Authority without domination? Something like that."
"Nicholai's imagination was galvanized by the concept of shibumi. No other ideal had ever touched him so. "How does one achieve this shibumi, sir?"
"One does not achieve it, one ... discovers it. And only a few men of infinite refinement ever do that. Men like my friend Otake-san."
"Meaning that one must learn a great deal to arrive at shibumi?"
"Meaning, rather, that one must pass through knowledge and arrive at simplicity."
From that moment, Nicholai's primary goal in life was to become a man of shibumi, a personality of overwhelming calm. It was a vocation open to him while, for reasons of breeding, education, and temperament, most vocations were closed. In pursuit of shibumi he could excel invisibly, without attracting the attention and vengeance of the tyrannical masses.
* * *
[p. 103-106, text copied from book review at http://www.literarymoose.info/ literature/ trevanian.html] "It was the teacher's practice to speak in terms of Gõ whenever he dealt with anything of importance. As general Kishikawa had once said, for Otake-san life was a simplistic metaphor of Gõ.
— Is this a lesson, Teacher?
— Not exactly.
— A chastisement, then?
— It may appear to you to be so. It is really a criticism. But not only of you. A criticism... an analysis... of what I perceive to be a volatile and dangerous mixture — you and your future life. Let us begin with the recognition that you are a brilliant player. — Otake-san lifted his hand. — No. Do not bother with formulas of polite denial. I have seen brilliance of play equal to yours, but never in a man of your age, and not in any player now living. But there are other qualities than brilliance in the successful person, so I shall not burden you with unqualified compliments. There is something distressing in your play, Nikko. Something abstract and unkind. Your play is somehow inorganic... unliving. It has the beauty of a crystal, but lacks the beauty of a blossom. — Nicholai's ears were warming, but he gave no outward sign of embarrassment or anger. To chastise and correct is the right, the duty of a teacher. — I am not saying that your play is mechanical and predictable, for it is seldom that. What prevents it from being so is your astonishing... — Otake-san drew a sudden breath and held it, his eyes staring unseeing toward the garden. Nicholai kept his gaze down, not wishing to embarrass his teacher by observing his struggle with pain. Long seconds passed, and still Otake-san did not breathe. Then, with a little gasp, he unhitched his breath from the notch at which he held it and slowly let it out, testing for pain all along the exhalation. The crisis passed, and he took two long, thankful breaths through his open mouth. He blinked several times and... — ... what prevents your play from being mechanical and predictable is your astonishing audacity, but even that flair is tainted with the inhuman. You play only against the situation on the board; you deny the importance — the existence even — of your opponent. Have you not yourself told me that when you are in one of your mystic transports, from which you garner rest and strength, you play without reference to your adversary? There is something devilish in this. Something cruelly superior. Arrogant, even. And at odds with your goal of shibumi. I do not bring this to your attention for your correction and improvement, Nikko. These qualities are in your bones and unchangeable. And I am not even sure I would have you change if you could; for these that are your flaws are also your strengths.
— Do we speak of Gõ only, Teacher?
— We speak in terms of Gõ. — Otake-san slipped his hand into his kimono and pressed the palm against his stomach while he took another mint drop. — For all your brilliance, dear student, you have vulnerabilities. There is your lack of experience, for instance. You waste concentration thinking your way through problems that a more experienced player reacts to by habit and memory. But this is not a significant weakness. You can gain experience, if you are careful to avoid empty redundancy. Do not fall into the error of the artisan who boasts of twenty years experience in his craft while in fact he has had only one year of experience — twenty times. And never resent the advantage of experience your elders have. Recall that they have paid for this experience in the coin of life and have emptied a purse that cannot be refilled. — Otake- san smiled faintly. — Recall also that the old must make much of their experience. It is all they have left. — For a time, Otake-san's eyes were dull with inner focus as he gazed upon the drab garden, its features disintegrating in the mist. With an effort he pulled his mind from eternal things to continue his last lesson. — No, it is not your lack of experience that is your greatest flaw. It is your disdain. Your defeats will not come from those more brilliant than you. They will come from the patient, the plodding, the mediocre. — Nicholai frowned. This was consonant with what Kishikawa-san had told him as they walked along the cherry trees of the Kajikawa. — Your scorn for mediocrity blinds you to its vast primitive power. You stand in the glare of your own brilliance, unable to see into the dim corners of the room, to dilate your eyes and see the potential dangers of the mass, the wad of humanity. Even as I tell you this, dear student, you cannot quite believe that lesser men, in whatever numbers, can really defeat you. He is dull, colorless, boring — but inevitably victorious. The amoeba outlives the tiger because it divides and continues in its immortal monotony. The masses are the final tyrants. See how, in the arts, Kabuki wanes and Nõ withers while popular novels of violence and mindless action swamp the mind of the mass reader. And even in that timid genre, no author dares to produce a genuinely superior man as his hero, for in his rage of shame the mass man will send his yojimbo, the critic, to defend him. The roar of the plodders is inarticulate, but deafening. They have no brain, but they have a thousand arms to grasp and clutch at you, drag you down.
— Do we still speak of Gõ, Teacher?
— Yes. And of its shadow: life.
— What do you advise me to do then?
— Avoid contact with them. Camouflage yourself with politeness. Appear dull and distant. Live apart and study shibumi. Above all, do not let him bait you into anger and aggression. Hide, Nikko."
* * *
Excerpt from a review of Shibumi:
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1 out of 5 stars
Extremely trite philosophy, and not very interesting,
August 13, 2002
Reviewer: (xxxx - name removed for obvious reasons) from San Mateo, CA United States
This book is written by someone who mistakes being opinionated with being wise. Trevanian's insights into life may be insightful for adolescents, but to me they seemed trite and sometimes ridiculous.[...]
The storyline is fairly routine. Assassination, CIA, etc. Most of the book is taken up with Hel's backstory, some of which feels unnecessary. I can't speak to the ending, because after I was 1/3 of the way through, I realized this book was a complete waste of time, and I stopped reading it at about 2/3 of the way through. [...]
I recommend that people stay away from this book, unless they enjoy stupidity.
© 2003, by the author.
Comments? newsuneed@yahoo.com
Reviewed by Doug Holland, Unknown News Jan 30, 2003
In the "dialogue" section in recent days, several contributors have mentioned Doritos. Since chips are of interest to all of us except the hoity toity health food nuts, I feel I must report a sad truth about Doritos.
Hey, I used to love Doritos. Of all America's manufactured crap foods, they're one of the tastiest and probably one of the worst for you. You can keep a bag on the shelf unopened for a year and the salty snacks inside will be as good as the day they were stamped out of whatever petroleum-based or animal by-products the Frito people made them out of. I used to eat a big bag full of Doritos in one sitting, followed by an hour or so of mild nausea. And the yumminess was always worth the nausea.
No more, no sir, no Doritos for me. I stopped buying 'em years ago, but over time I'd completely forgotten why. So when I was hanging out with one of my few friends yesserdee and he was munching on Doritos, I crunched a few … and the reason I don't do Doritos came right back to me, painfully:
They're triangular. I've lost a lot of teeth over the years, so as I chew Doritos the sharp corners unexpectedly but unavoidably find the gaps between my teeth. They poke into the open, exposed gum wounds, and my next chew drives that sharp point into the soft fleshy folds where a tooth used to be, years ago. Wedging something sharp and hard into your gums, let me mention, hurts.
Doritos are really good, though, so I carefully ate about half my buddy's big bag, and I probably would've eaten all of them if he hadn't objected. And like old times, I was nauseous afterward. Swigged a tall glass of milk for my stomach and wondered about the rat bastards running the Frito-Lay Corporation.
Rat bastards run all the corporations across America, and they've eliminated health and dental care for almost everyone but "management" (i.e., themselves). So more and more working Americans like me are opting to have teeth pulled instead of filled when they ache. Repairing a tooth can cost hundreds of dollars more than a good swift yank at the roots.
So the rat bastards running Frito-Lay need to do a little more of the market research they live and die by. They should capitalize on America's increased trend toward missing teeth by making round Doritos for America's biggest growth market: Consumers with missing teeth.
© 2003, by the author.
Comments? newsuneed@yahoo.com
Reviewed by Angry Annie, Unknown News Jan 3, 2003
OK, it's a big fat Hollywood romantic comedy, as predictable as winter snow in Wisconsin, with all the elements you've seen a hundred times before: They meet cute. They have nothing in common. They can't stand each other. They fall in love. They kiss. The end.
On that framework, though, some refreshing flourishes have been added: She's got some actual ideals, she's fighting a corporate oligarchy, and she's at least recognizable as a person with some political beliefs. This movie is miles from anything actually real or radical, but it has a hint of a political perspective, and if you look past the systematic surface it might actually have a little something to say.
I was expecting romantic fluff, and that's what this is. But it's romantic fluff with its heart in the right place. If you can't find anyone to see 'Bowling for Colombine' with you, 'Two Weeks Notice' is kinda fun.
© 2003, by the author.
Comments? newsuneed@yahoo.com
Reviewed by Helen Highwater, Unknown News
My sister spent several years on the roller-coaster of drug addiction, withdrawal, relapse, and addiction again. From watching her life shatter and mend, I know a little about the hell addiction can be, the hell of withdrawal, and the whole different hell of dealing with the medical establishment when you're high or desperately wish you were.
If you're on opiates (heroin, oxycontin, morphine, codeine, or related drugs) or you know someone who is, this potent paperback has the answers you're looking for. They're not easy answers, but they're genuine.
This book was written by a recovering oxycontin addict, not a doctor but a patient who's been there and done all that. So the bullshit surrounding drug addiction is shoved aside, and the author makes suggestions no doctor can make. There's inside information here that will really help, and it's all written in an easy-to-take conversational style, with an unexpected sense of humor when the subject matter might otherwise seem depressing. The list of recommended detox facilities, with patients' perspectives on what's right and wrong at each, would've saved my sister a few years of her assorted hells.
Disclaimer: I typed and edited the manuscript for this book. That's one of the things I do for a living, and I prepped about a dozen books in the past year — but you'll notice this is the only one I'm recommending. And I'm recommending it wholeheartedly.
It's $26.00 postpaid, from First Resource Publishing, PO Box 1641, Bluffton SC 29910. Or you can order on-line (and get more information) at www.oxyhelp.com.
© 2003, by the author.
Comments? newsuneed@yahoo.com
Reviewed by Helen Highwater, Unknown News
Set in America against the backdrop of 1991's Gulf War, this is a pageturner that kept me up all night. It's rather unlike most of the books on the shelves at Barnes and Noble, and it doesn't fit neatly into any particular genre, but hey, I hate genre crap and I hate Barnes and Noble.
Rumors of War tells a story that's dang well worth being told, and it has an intriguingly out-of-the-in-crowd political perspective (but doesn't hammer you over the head with it).
So what's it about? Well, there's this woman, see, and her husband's been called into the Reserves to go kill Arabs. Meanwhile, they're building a house, and her overbearing mother-in-law stops by, and then — whoa, you didn't see that coming, and I'm not about to give it away, either. After about twenty pages I was hooked, and if you like what I like, hey, you'll like this lots ! Suffice to say:
This is a very well-written and thoroughly engrossing novel, which I read front to back in one sitting, only setting it down to applaud at the end. Enthusiastically recommended for anyone who's still reading, especially anyone who gives a damn about what America's become.
It's $22 postpaid from the author: Peggy Tibbetts, PO Box 129, Silt CO 81652. Or $9.95 as an ebook online.
PS: The book's typeface is a little larger than usual, which my aging eyes appreciated.
And for anyone who's not convinced, there's a website for the book, right here.
© 2003, by the author.
Comments? newsuneed@yahoo.com
Reviewed by Helen Highwater, Unknown News
We've got a bigger problem now, says the oddly-named There He Is in a thoughtful, frightening new zine examining the aftershocks of September 11. As civil liberties vanish and a zieg heil zeitgeist sweeps the country, it's refreshing and downright invigorating to see someone say things that need to be said — plainly, but eloquently, with a touch of humor to keep you chuckling through the long litany of outrages.
An excerpt: "The temerity of members of government and big business in using these tragic attacks as an excuse to grub more power and money is truly breathtaking. Does the Department of Justice really think that gutting the Bill of Rights will help keep the public safe from future terrorist attacks? Do the leaders of big business really think that corporate bailouts and sweetheart legislation will really put al Qaeda out of business? Of course not — the war on terrorism is just a very convenient smokescreen behind which they think they can conceal their greed and opportunism."
Not just "food for thought,"this li'l photocopied (but polished) booklet is a smorgasbord, an all-you-can-eat banquet of brilliance. It's the biggest and best amateur response I've seen (amateur, meaning, something done for pride and purpose, not payment or profit), and I recommend it for anyone who's depressed by the pathetic piffle that passes for journalism, commentary and public discourse since"the world changed."It's yours for a self-addressed stamped envelope and a buck — one lousy dollar bill — which can't come close to covering the cost of producing this fine work.
Don't just think about it; send for it, now. The address is There He Is!, PO Box 30015, Tucson AZ 85751.
© 2003, by the author.
Comments? newsuneed@yahoo.com
There's much more than this at Unknown News.
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MORE RECENT REVIEWS
REVIEWS ON THIS PAGE:
. DORITOS
. FREE SOFTWARE
. GET READY GET SET GET WELL
. JUDGING AMY
. OPEN OFFICE
. RUMORS OF WAR
. SHIBUMI
. TWO WEEKS NOTICE
. WE'VE GOT A BIGGER PROBLEM NOW
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