Greetings, Glibertarians. I have returned (for a time) from the depths of Discord—
*record scratch*
(Actually, side note first, I posted this as a comment on the links post on Saturday but I know most people won’t have seen it—if you were looking for more Woke Charmed recaps, the problem was that it stopped being woke and thus became difficult to recap in a funny way, and then the series got a soft reboot in season 2 and actually got really good, but then they killed Macy and I am really mad about it so we shall not speak of Woke Charmed.)
Anyway, I have returned (for a time) from the depths of Discord to bring you… A RAGE POST.
You may or may not know (let’s be real, you probably don’t, it hasn’t exactly been well-publicized) that AMC has made a new TV version of Tony Hillerman’s Navajo Mysteries, also known as the Leaphorn and Chee series. This is one of my very favorite book series, and I am pretty well obsessed with it. The series has been adapted a couple times before this. The gold standard, in my opinion, was the PBS version produced for Mystery! in the early 2000s. That version was produced by Robert Redford and featured Wes Studi as Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Adam Beach as Sergeant Jim Chee. The series adapted three of Hillerman’s books: Skinwalkers, Coyote Waits, and A Thief of Time.
The PBS versions were generally very faithful to the books, especially the last two which followed the plots pretty much beat-for-beat. However, even though the series was well-received, it was canceled after three movie-length specials.
Robert Redford continued to try to get Hillerman’s books adapted for the small screen after the PBS series ended, and he was recently joined in these efforts by George R. R. Martin.
Yeah. George R. R. Martin.
You see why I’ve been somewhat dubious about this project.
The way I understand it is: GRRM and Hillerman were friends, and after Hillerman’s death, GRRM wanted to use his TV connections, established thanks to Game of Thrones, to help get his friend’s books the TV treatment they deserved. I mean, that sounds nice. But like. GRRM.
But on the other hand, many of the people involved with the PBS version stayed on board, and they’re here for the AMC adaptation, called Dark Winds. (Despite the title, it is not based on The Dark Wind, which was made into a movie in 1991. The first season of this new series adapts two books, Listening Woman and People of Darkness, books 3 and 4 of the series.) Chris Eyre, who directed two of the three PBS specials, directs four of the six episodes of Dark Winds. Robert Redford is still producing. Other members of the production staff are there as well. So since they did a good job the first time, this new version should be good, right? Right?!
I honestly had been holding out hope. Then I watched the first two episodes, which premiered on Sunday evening.
My trepidation actually began before that, as in the days leading to the premiere early reviews started rolling in. For one thing:
The last several years have taught us what this kind of score means
But worse, I started reading some of the critical praise from sources like Variety and the New York Times, suitably glowing. And that’s really when I started getting concerned.
Now, listen. It’s current year. Of course I expected it to be woke af. And considering the subject matter—namely, mysteries that take place on the Navajo Nation with a full cast of Navajos, Hopis, Zunis, and other Southwest Native American tribes—it’s ripe for it. So if one or two or fourteen stupid/anacrhonistic SJW phrases got dropped in, I wasn’t going to be too shocked. And I was pleasantly surprised that in the first two episodes, the so-called “social justice” that did appear was, frankly, both in line with what was in the book and squared with reality. I’m not going to flinch at the line “when did the government ever care about dead Indians,” because it’s true.
What I’m mad about—what is really, really souring me on this entire series—is what they’ve done to the characters.
What first set me off on this, what inspired me to write this article before I’d even seen the first episode, is a major change they made to Jim Chee’s character, which was teased in the early reviews and the promotional trailer. This change drastically alters who he is. In fact, it makes it so that it’s impossible for this character to ever be Jim Chee. He will never be Jim Chee. He simply can’t be.
Source: Variety
For me, there is a single defining factor in whether I’m going to like an adaptation or not. And it’s whether you have captured the essence of the characters. You can change the details of their stories, you can change the situations and scenarios of the plot. You can make events unfold in completely different ways than they did in the source material, but if the characters are still who they are, who they’ve always been, I will more than likely be on board with it. But if you lose their core identity, you lose me. This is why I walked out of A Wrinkle in Time halfway through the movie after racing to the theater to see it on premiere day.
(P.S. If you want to hear me rant about why I hated that movie, you know, four years late, let me know.)
So let me tell you a little bit about Jim Chee. Chee is a good deal younger than Leaphorn, probably around 20 years. In the books, Leaphorn was forced to attend US government-run boarding schools that focused on assimilating Native Americans to White culture. Because of that, he was largely raised away from the reservation and is somewhat alienated from it. Despite returning to the reservation as an adult and working for the Tribal Police for many years, he views the culture in a more detached and clinical way, and though he respects it, he isn’t entirely immersed in it. Thus, he serves as the more pragmatic detective of the duo.
Chee, on the other hand, coming of age near the end of the boarding school period, was raised on the reservation, fully immersed in Navajo culture. He dreams of becoming a hataalii (shaman/medicine man) and is learning the various rituals and songs from his uncle. He is undergoing that training when he first appears in the series, and the ultimate crux of his character, the very essence of who Jim Chee is, is a traditional Navajo.
Early in the series, his uncle Hosteen Frank Sam Nakai tells Chee that he believes in order for Chee to progress on his journey to becoming a hataalii, he must actively choose to be a Navajo, and that involves him learning more about White culture, something which Chee knows nothing about. He has to learn about the Whites. And over the course of his journey, he falls in love with three women. The first is a White woman named Mary Landon. They get engaged, but she expects him to leave the reservation, leave his culture, and move to Wisconsin with her. He can’t do this, because he cannot leave his people.
After Mary Landon sends him a Dear John letter, Chee meets Janet Pete, a half-Navajo, half-White defense attorney. They also get engaged and actually make it as far as the wedding planning stage. Janet is extremely ambitious. She has visions of Chee leaving the Tribal Police in order to become an agent at the FBI. She has powerful political connections in Washington, D.C., and she arranges a promotion for Chee that would involve them moving there. Again, Chee is unable to do this because he can’t leave his people. (Also, he hates the FBI. It’s a major plot point in multiple books. He hates their guts and routinely winds up reprimanded because he can’t work with them. Janet and Chee ultimately break up because he crosses the feds and blows the referral she got for him, and he’s unrepentant about it.)
Beyond that, Janet and Chee are completely incompatible. In addition to her ambition, she is materialistic, obsessed with wealth and status. Chee follows the traditional Navajo teaching that accruing wealth for yourself is selfish. He lives in a trailer on the San Juan River, not because he can’t afford to live in a nicer house, but because his beliefs dictate a humble living—he’s got the necessities and that’s all he needs. He wants them to get married in a traditional Navajo ceremony, but Janet ridicules it. Even though she’s half-Navajo, Janet Pete is fully immersed in White culture and is not interested in Navajo ways. She thinks their traditions are quaint, superstitious nonsense, whereas Chee believes in the ways of his people wholeheartedly. She and Chee could never last long-term as a couple, because who she wants Chee to become is someone that he is not.
But in the world of Dark Winds, this is who Jim Chee is. He’s not Chee. He’s who Janet Pete wanted to change him to be.
Chee’s first appearance in Dark Winds was so egregious that I had to actually pause the episode for more than ten minutes to try to calm myself down. (Read: rant on Discord to the other Glibs.) The scene is one that was actually described in one of the later Hillerman books (I want to say it was The First Eagle, but don’t hold me to that). He rolls into town in a brand new sports car, driving fast, wearing a designer suit and listening to loud music. A group of Navajos are stranded on the side of the road with a broken-down car, and they attempt to flag him down to help them. Chee’s response? He smirks and hits the gas, sailing past them.
I wanted to puke.
That scene that was described in the book? It wasn’t Chee who did that. It was one of the bad guys. Chee witnessed it and was furious about it. He can’t stand people who flaunt conspicuous wealth and don’t care about their fellow people. He reflected on the incident multiple times in his narration over the next few chapters, seething about it.
Dark Winds turned Jim Chee into the epitome of everything he hates.
And if all that wasn’t bad enough, that wasn’t all. That introduction was enough to almost make me turn the show off, but I kept going. And it got worse. And I don’t even mean the fact that he can’t speak Diné, or how he can’t relate to elders, or the fact that he scoffs at Bernadette “Bernie” Manuelito (who, in the books, was his soulmate—the third-time’s-the-charm, traditional Navajo woman who helped him actively choose to be Navajo and brought his journey full circle) when she suggests he carry a medicine pouch. Those are all slaps in the face to Chee’s core identity, but they’re not even the worst part.
Because it turns out that Chee isn’t who he says he is when he arrives at the Window Rock substation. It turns out he’s an undercover agent.
With the FBI.
The more I think about it, the more sick I feel. Laenhart recently sent me this monologue from Sargon of Akkad, and it truly encompasses everything I feel. This thing is not your wife. This thing is not Jim Chee. It may look like Jim Chee. But it’s not him, and it can never be him, because they have removed the thing that made him who he is. They took the absolute most integral part of his character and reversed it. This is not Jim Chee, this is the antithesis of Jim Chee.
In this version, Janet Pete won. She doesn’t even exist here, and she still won.
Chee’s entire character is thrown out. His whole story arc, carried out over thirteen books, is discarded. He is replaced with some kind of Star Trek Mirrorverse version of himself, and we are supposed to accept this as the real Jim Chee.
As I live-screeched the first two episodes on Discord, we had a conversation (mostly one-sided, with me screaming) about why modern TV shows are this way. We’ve gotten so accustomed to modern adaptations being pozzed, but what we’re expecting is for them to be filled with wokisms. What do we call it when a Current Year TV series eschews the woke route but still manages to desecrate everything about the original work it’s based on? And more importantly, why are they doing this if it’s not meant as a sacrifice at the altar of Social Justice? What purpose does it serve to take the protagonist of a book series that’s been beloved by millions of readers for fifty years and turn him into everything he stands against?
One plausible theory from thirite on Discord:
At the end of the day, Dark Winds seems on its surface to be an engaging, intriguing and suspenseful mystery. It’s got daring daylight heists, puzzling murders, dazzling vistas, and hints of the supernatural. But when you take a step back, you realize that all the things that are good about it are taken whole cloth out of Hillerman’s books, Listening Woman and People of Darkness. The things that are frustrating and infuriating are the changes that originate with the showrunners. Chee is a doppelganger. Leaphorn has a weirdly violent past. Bernie is a stronk femxle sergeant with years of experience instead of the spunky rookie cop she was introduced as—and what with evil Mirrorverse Chee going on, she’s also having to pull double duty as the traditionalist of the bunch. Yet no one is mentioning any of these things, and critics are disingenuously pretending that the only major change that was made to the series is bringing “Chee” and Bernie into the plot of Listening Woman, a book that only featured Leaphorn.
Those who haven’t read the books won’t notice these changes or likely care, but it spits in the faces of the fans who have loved these characters for decades. Those who haven’t read the books could have just as easily fallen in love with the characters the way they were written, the way Tony Hillerman intended them to be.
But then again, I don’t think the showrunners care all that much about Tony Hillerman. Because on the opening credits? George R. R. Martin and Robert Redford’s names are large, front and center. When does Tony Hillerman’s name appear? After the theme music has ended, in small letters over the beginning of the episode. Sandwiched between the director of photography and the screenwriter. If you’re not looking for it, you more than likely won’t see it at all.
This is what it says on the AMC+ homepage
Makes you wonder how much GRRM cared about his friend’s books after all.
I should drop by the Discord more often.
Is it a Glibz Discord?
It is indeed.
I had to figure out how to use that thing for the Mises Caucus, can I get an invite?
Not real clear on how to do that; see if this link works:
https://discord.gg/ATzjaBdc
It worked. Wow, haven’t seen some of those names in years.
Thank you.
OK, I joined Discord with your link, too. Never used it, it looks like it has multiple channels (topics) — doesn’t that make it disjoint (as oppose to Discord)? What’s the appeal over Glibs.com?
Real time chat with folks, sharing of meme, links, etc. Potential for voice chat also.
I usually use it on my phone so that makes it easier for me than loading the mobile version of the site and then repeatedly refreshing to see new comments. Also, because of time zones more people tend to be online when I’m around and so I can actually talk to people rather than being late to the party like I usually am on the site.
What’s the appeal over Glibs.com?
It appears to come down to communication style. In my mind, Discord is what resulted when Twitter hooked up with Reddit.
My communication style is very much not aligned with Discord.
And more on-topic – my Mom was a Hillerman fan. She had read the books, and enjoyed the PBS series. It’s probably just as well she didn’t see this one; she was a stickler for detail, and the same things you describe here would have pissed her off as well.
An excellent rant. EGG-SELLENT!
Yes, let the Hate flow through you, Feel the Dark Side…
Yay hi guys
Couple things of note: I wrote this a week ago so when I say “Sunday” I mean the 12th rather than the 19th. The third episode is out now but I only had a chance to watch a couple minutes so I can’t tell you about it yet.
Something that wasn’t relevant to the article but I figured you’d be interested in: you will be unsurprised to know that every White person in the show thus far is evil. A character from the books, Shorty McGinnis, who was the somewhat shady but lovable owner of the Short Mountain Trading Post, has been racebent to be a Black man named Lester. Being Black, he is now no longer somewhat shady, but is clean as a whistle and practically perfect in every way. That probably goes without saying.
Color me unsurprised.
Solid rant.
10/10 would rant again.
Yep, great criticism and makes me want to read the books.
Highly recommend them!
Those who haven’t read the books won’t notice these changes or likely care, but it spits in the faces of the fans who have loved these characters for decades. Those who haven’t read the books could have just as easily fallen in love with the characters the way they were written, the way Tony Hillerman intended them to be.
I suspect some of the folks behind adaptations like this see changing the book and shitting all over the original see this as a feature. Destroying what was there is easier than creating something new.
THIS is one reason authors I really like never make it to series to movies.
Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, David Drake, Larry Correia…
I would love to see a true to the story and characters version of some of their works – but I know it will never happen. These guys seem smart enough to not let a showrunner make a disaster out of their work.
They got the rights to “Starship Troopers” from Heinlein’s family and made a mess of it. On the other hand, there are assholes who hate their readers and don’t give a shit – looking at you GRRM.
Yeah, Hillerman was still alive when they made the PBS version and I think he executive produced? They did some interviews with him on the DVDs about the process of adapting the books. And like I said, those versions were very faithful, probably because of his involvement. Now he’s dead and this is what they do to it. And he doesn’t even get a mention on the opening credits, but GRRM does! Pisses me off.
I would love to see Ringworld get a limited series, ala The Expanse.
I was also relatively satisfied with the Halo series based on a videogame of the same name. It wasn’t amazing, but true enough to the subject matter to not get my panties in a bunch.
/looks at Pterry’s works
At least we got some decent movies made from pieces of it. I’m also somewhat cautious about the upcoming Sandman series… after what happened with American Gods.
Well, remember the joke about the dumb Hollywood starlet. How dumb was she? She was so dumb, that to advance her career, she slept with the writer…
Did you ever see Bowfinger? They played that joke to the hilt – she slept with everyone in the production (it was a small team).
Bowfinger was very nearly a perfect movie.
I was pleasantly surprised that Amazon’s version of Reacher didn’t get too woke.
WTF? WP eating comments again? I’ll try again:
When you teased this I went back and re read Coyote Waits and The Shape Shifter. Both excellent.
Changing the characters as they have done is retarded. One of my favorite things about the series is the tension between modern and traditional Navah – the kicker being the age reversal. Leaphorn couldn’t understand how Chee could believe in the supernatural and Chee couldn’t understand how Leaphorn couldn’t. It made for some interesting conflicts and made theor relationship way more interesting.
I hated Mary and Janet, so them not being in the show doesn’t mean much, but Bernie was great in the books. Too bad they missed the whole point of her and Chee’s relationship.
I was considering watching these, but your tremendous rant has dissuaded me. I’ve got limited time on this rock and I’m not gonna waste it on people who shot on characters I’ve loved for decades.
Thanks for this, MLW! It’s nice to see you back.
Yay, fellow Hillerman fan!
You hit the nail on the head about Leaphorn and Chee’s relationship, and it made an interesting twist that the “typical” expectation (old = traditional, young = modernized) was subverted in them. And the why would have made a slam-dunk woke talking point for them, namely that the government boarding schools were to blame. So I don’t understand why they chose to reject that, other than just out of spite.
In the PBS version, that element was not only kept, it was emphasized by having Leaphorn transfer into the Navajo Tribal Police from a big city PD. So they were able to do the fish-out-of-water dynamic, but kept it more faithful to the books by having Leaphorn being the fish out of water. But I’m starting to think that just having a straightforward mystery series where the two leads have relatively tame drama in their lives (ie, two straightforwardly nice guys, but Leaphorn’s got his worries about Emma’s brain tumor and Chee’s got his love interest drama and his hataali stuff) is not juicy enough for AMC. Having Chee be a secret fed and Leaphorn have a murdered son makes it more “interesting,” but it shits on the fans of a series that’s been running for 50 years now.
the government boarding schools were to blame
The Woke won’t blame govt – ever. They might blame some people that you know, ran the govt, but that was just bad people, not bad govt.
^This right here. Can’t ever admit that big daddy government might not know what’s best for us all, and might even cause more harm than good.
Holy shit, that really might explain it. In which case they’re actively downplaying evil.
Woke Chee couldn’t love Janet because he’s gay and in love with Leaphorn.
(NB: I’ve never read the books, and haven’t seen any of the TV adaptations.)
I laughed
I’ve been through more than one case of a TV show-runner shitting all over the source material so I feel your pain. I saw one where a scientist was turned into a FBI agent (!).
I suspect – without having any familiarity with these stories – they think this will attract more viewers for some reason. That’s more important to whoever’s paying the bills than staying true to the original story.
It’s a little worse than you imagine. These people believe they are bigger creative geniuses than the author that provided them the material – so they have to improve it.
I have hooked on these guys
It’s even worse when the original author goes along with it.
Oh, you mean like how Anne Rice went along with Tom Cruise’s casting as Lestat? She was VERY vocal about how much she HATED him for the part. She shouted it from the rooftops and she was PISSED.
Then one day she wasn’t. She was totes on board.
Still waiting for the Anne Rice/Blade crossover.
I read the first Rice book – and by “read” mean “got about half-way through it.” The movie was worse. The vampires seemed like whiny little bitches.
Forget Blade. I’d like to see how they’d fare against Brian Lumley’s Wamphyri, especially the Ferenczys – or any number of less whiny fictional vampires.
How much money did Tom Cruise give her and/or did he sleep with her
Yes, but he thought of David Miscavige the entire time.
LOL
Wonderful rant.
Reminds me of how the BBC destroyed The Watch. Turned every character inside-out and ruined the legacy of Sir Terry Pratchett.
but I kept going. And it got worse.
So I totally read that in a drunken Scottish woman voice, you know, Critical Drinker in drag. [runs from room cackling]
Daily Quordle 148
7️⃣4️⃣
8️⃣5️⃣
And thine name is Mediocrates.
#waffle151 5/5
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🔥 streak: 6
wafflegame.net
🌎 Jun 21, 2022 🌍
🔥 34 | Avg. Guesses: 5.44
🟥🟥🟥🟩 = 4
#globle
Rant about Wrinkle in Time, please! PLEASE PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE
Good rant. I don’t read mysteries, so I likely would never come across this anyway, but things like this is why I don’t like watching movies based on books I read. I got burned by Bonfire of the Vanities. Third-degree burns, man.
Also, the Atlas Shrugged movies were
execrablepure shit.I find that if I’ve already read the book, then I have to watch the movie twice to really appreciate it. Even if it’s a great adaptation, I can’t fully appreciate it because my mind is too busy making comparisons. It’s annoying, really. What’s weird is that this doesn’t happen in reverse, reading a book after watching the movie is never a problem.
SO! MUCH! THIS!!!
OR TV shows. I’ve felt this way pretty much my entire life. And as I always say, I blame Michael Landon. ::fumes and mutters about Pa Ingalls’s beard:: Still have never watched an entire dramatization of Little Women. I DID love the LOTR films because I simply can’t plod my way through the books.
LOL I just posted below my mom wouldn’t allow Little House on the Prairie to be aired in the house. I have never seen one episode.
My mom haaaated that show, I wasn’t allowed to watch it 😂
MLW and Mojeaux, both of your mothers were wise women!
Yes. Yes, she is. I’m grateful our relationship was able to morph from practically nonexistent to adversarial to good friends. (She will TELL you I won’t allow her to drive on our roadtrips, but she doesn’t protest when I take over after the first pit stop.)
Bonfire of the Vanities was almost a spoof of the book, largely because it was so spectacularly miscast.
Tom Hanks…
OTH, American Pyscho was well cast.
The movie fixed the book, IMO.
Yeah, there wasn’t a single proper casting – Hanks wasn’t even the most egregious. Bruce Willis in a role that Michael Caine would’ve torn to pieces?
I refuse to believe it may have been a deliberate spoof, tho.
“Just imagine that a bond is a slice of cake, and you didn’t bake the cake, but every time you hand somebody a slice of the cake a tiny little bit comes off, like a little crumb, and you can keep that. […] If you pass around enough slices of cake, then pretty soon you have enough crumbs to make a gigantic cake a golden cake. And Pierce and Pierce collects millions of marvelous- golden crumbs.”
A book that could not be written today.
Agreed. Wrinkle in Time rant, please.
I have movie idea that takes this trope of the buddy cop genre and toys with it. It takes place out in the sticks like this, but instead of the old grizzled vet being the one with all the knowledge its the younger guy from the sticks, the ‘just a week til retirement’ vet worked in the city his whole life and is the one who doesn’t know whats going on. Also, they aren’t cops, but DNR rangers. Instead of tracking a murderer they are tracking a poacher…and it’s a comedy, but played straight.
https://slate.com/technology/2022/06/bridle-ways-of-being-excerpt-computer-randomness.html
Reading an article on Slate about random number generation and computers. Pretty decent explanation actually. Nearly done with the article, and I was thinking how totally out of character it was for Slate. But never, it still closes with WOKE.
On the other hand, they are confirming something beautiful. In order to be full and useful participants in the world, computers need to have relations with it. They need to touch and be in touch with the world. This stands in stark opposition to the way we build most of them today: systems of inscrutable, inhuman logic, comprehensible only partly by a narrow cadre of highly trained, and highly privileged engineers, and based on systems of extraction, manufacture, and use that damage the planet in multiple ways, from large-scale mineral mining, through the heat and greenhouse gases produced by server farms, to vast fields of electronic waste.
But the use of randomness, both the processes it invokes, and the radical equality it makes possible, suggests it doesn’t have to be this way. We can reimagine our technologies—and our political systems—in ways which are less extractive, more generative, and ultimately more just. We might just have to get random to do it
fuck em
But of course. The reason why the article acutally seem rational is because he likely had a clue. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have to posture, however.
https://jamesbridle.com/about
“I hold a Master’s Degree in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from University College, London, and wrote my dissertation on creative applications of Artificial Intelligence.”
the radical equality it makes possible
Uh, what?
Looking through the article, as far as I can tell, this means that he wants computer RNGs to choose who holds public office, instead of elections or other mechanisms. WTF?
Wasn’t that a common thing in Arthur C. Clarke novels? Constitutions were basically computer programs, and representatives were randomly selected from the general population.
I get it. The tired old “white jerk comes to the rez and learns to appreciate the wise ways of the natives” AKA “going native” plot is what they understand, so they just made Chee the honorary white guy in that scenario. Much easier than trying to understand the subtleties of the characters in the books.
Yes! They really blundered pretty much all the book subtleties. Case in point, my comment above about Shorty McGinnis. He’s a little crooked, but also a friend of Leaphorn. He’ll help Leaphorn, but only if he’s not simultaneously hurting himself. He’s both a thorn in Leaphorn’s side and his friend. But they’ve racebent him into Lester, and Lester isn’t allowed to have those complexities because that might be implying that Black people are bad. But it’s simultaneously dehumanizing to portray Black people as pure good. But here we are in 2022.
Likewise, in the books you’ll have the nice White people, the jerk White people, and the in-between. Same for the Navajos and every other race. But every White in this show thus far (except I guess the Mormons that I assume got murdered in ep 2) are completely amoral and corrupt. In the books, Shorty was a White man who lived on the reservation and was accepted by the people as one of them. So they gave that role to Lester instead.
Cry about it.
CNN masturbation expert Jeffrey Toobin hates that the Supreme Court would protect religious liberty and end state-sponsored discrimination against religious schools.
He claims this violates the establishment clause. “That idea is breaking down under the conservative majority.”
Legal Analyst Jennifer Rodgers claims the conservative justices are tearing down free speech by siding with religious liberty.”[T]his court is elevating the religious aspects of the First Amendment above others,” she whines. “It’s all breaking down.”
Toobin pipes up again to decry the idea of funding students and not systems.
“That would be, many public school advocates say, a death sentence to public schools in this country,” he frets.
We should be so lucky.
The schools are already dead, it would allow for a decent burial.
“That would be, many public school advocates say, a death sentence to public schools in this country,”
If they’re really that bad, then they deserve to die.
“That would be, many public school advocates say, a death sentence to public schools in this country,”
We can only hope.
“What would that say about the public schools?” would be the right at to look at it.
*carefully googles Jeffrey Toobin*
Yes, he attended private school.
LMAO – Toobin and schoolboy could probably deliver some really horrifying search results.
CNN masturbation expert Jeffrey Toobin
ROFL.
What is “pozzing?”
Closest definition I can find to how I’ve seen it used is “Description for a group/entity that has been infected with postmodern identity politics that erodes its ability to carry out the original mission.”
Basically, wokified.
Thanks for the clarification. From the context, I expected something like that but didn’t expect the association with “postmodern” in the etymology.
I think it is derived from gays who intentional get HIV/AIDS.
Over time, I have simply given up on expecting to enjoy film/TV adaptations of favorite books, and film and TV in general. I find I have little time for the video medium. I can sit down and take time to read–hours at a time! But when watching video, I get distracted easily. I continually think about what I’d rather be doing than watching this video. Then I go do that thing. At best, video is a background thing to make some noise while I do some other work. It doesn’t catch or hold my attention anymore.
Yes, going by the trailer the new Netflix adaptation of Persuasion did this too. Now Anne is a snarky modern woman who don’t take no shit. I have no idea how they’re going to make it even slightly plausible that this girl didn’t tell everyone to go screw themselves and marry Wentworth originally rather than, y’know, get persuaded to reject him.
I have to hide all Austen adaptations from my mom because she will go nuclear.
My mom never let me watch the Little House on the Prairie TV show. She found it an “abomination.”
My mom too, haha
I’ve never seen any of the TV show, but read the books when I was a little kid. I enjoyed them then, but on reflection, I come away with those stories with one conclusion:
Charles Ingalls was not a responsible parent.
Granted Laura Ingalls loved her father and wrote about him fondly. And he wasn’t abusive, he wasn’t a bad man or a bad parent, just irresponsible. He took his wife and two (or was it three by then?) little girls illegally into the Indian Nation, where he just squatted on a piece of land until the Army evicted him as a trespasser. He was a drifter, and never settled until (as I recall) Laura was a teenager – at which point, during a particularly bad winter, he forced his way into a neighbor’s house and stole seed grain.
I probably didn’t arrive at those reflections until I was a father myself. The books are still entertaining and a neat look at American culture at the time. But every man has flaws, and Charles Ingalls had some that could have resulted in several really bad outcomes had his luck turned sour at the wrong moment.
He was very often running away from debt.
I like the 6-hour BBC Pride and Prejudice. It doesn’t follow the book exactly, but pretty close, and it captures the characters well.
Tulip posted the following earlier today:
See: Dr. John Watson; white, male, British military doctor being changed to Dr. Joan Watson; Asian, female, American surgeon in Elementary (CBS). While a decent show, the complete change of a central character for woke’s sake always ate at me. (her being Lucy Liu probably helped me tough it out)
Great rant, MLW. Glad you’re back and I hope it isn’t temporary. We lost some good people to that stupid Discord thing. *shakes fist at cloud*
I bounced off that show pretty quickly. I much preferred the BBC Sherlock.
BBC’s Sherlock is wonderful and better than Elementary in every way. Too bad Cumberbatch got too big to keep doing them (my guess, I have no facts to back this up). Hopefully they can get them going again at some point.
I read all the Sherlock Holmes short stories around the time I watched the series. It seems the writers were fans and the titles and many plot points were references to the stories. That made it even more fun to watch.
For sure. They were never “true” to one story, but they always used elements from the cannon. As you say, it was obvious the writers were fans. The actor who plays Mycroft (and is also a big shot on the creation/production team) said as much in an interview I saw.
It’s been a while…it’s time to re-watch them all. And I’m overdue for a re-read of the source material.
What about Holmes’ younger brother? Sigerson?
You mean younger sister! Now that was a terrible woke fest
I eventually got bored after a few seasons, probably watched one more than I should have out of inertia. It started out interesting, but seemed to get more and more “TV” as it went along. Happens to almost any show on network TV, unfortunately. They run out of ideas, and start using lots of filler and ancient TV tropes.
Agree about BBC Sherlock, I think it’s brilliant. I wouldn’t put Elementary anywhere near that level.
That was me, too.
Me too.
Same basic formula every week.
Fun fact. Lucy Liu’s Japanese pronunciation in “Kill Bill” is horrific. OTH, Uma Thurman’s was quite good.
Which is kind of funny given how they were trying to cast…
I don’t think Lucy Liu is very Japanese-looking.
Also, I fluv that movie.
Funny, I don’t even speak Japanese, but I noticed that Thurman’s accent was better than Liu’s.
I have spent a small amount of time in Japan, and have a number of Japanese colleagues, but I’m not sure that’s a factor.
I love Uma. We watched Be Cool the other night and I really, really miss her.
Elmore Leonard would be another one to discuss. Lots of argument over the adaptations of his (including BC).
Out of Sight. Good book. Good movie.
There were lots. Get Shorty, Hombre, 3:10 to Yuma.
Jacki Brown was terrific, too. It may be time to go on a Leonard binge.
And Justified although they changed Rayland’s character so you nit pickers probably hated it.
Nope. Loved it.
But it was different from the book!!
Was it a lot different? I haven’t read the novels, but the show seemed pretty close to “Fire in the Hole” in tone.
It’s been a long time but I think in the books Raylan is older and pudgy. Maybe I’m thinking of a different book series. That said I do recall that they followed the plot of one of the stories for one of the seasons, and they used some elements of the other books but didn’t follow the plots entirely.
Loved all those movies. Loved Justified.
Nope. Lean and mean. Early 40s IIRC.
Carried a Colt Python.
Justified didn’t wreck anything. And Boyd was a phenomenal character in the series.
Okay, must have been another book I’m thinking of.
From Wiki-
Leonard considers the show’s portrayal of Givens to be perfect.
Pretty sure he was around 40 and skinny, at least in the story. I don’t know about the novels, if they take place later than the story then that could be the case.
Raylan is older and pudgy.
There is a Justified sequel with Olyphant reprising the role.
It is based on a Leonard story that the main character (An acquaintance of Raylan’s) that met that description.
The FX version will have Raylan playing that part in Detroit.
Clooney and Lopez had insane chemistry in that movie. I’m still surprised they never made another movie together. In the old studio system days, they would have been stuck with each other for the rest of their movie careers.
I didn’t care too much for Be Cool (but still have watched it multiple times), but I love Get Shorty.
Elmore Leonard was just that talented a writer. Even the lousy adaptations of his works were all still pretty good (anyone seen Freaky Deaky or 52 Pick-Up?)
I loved the Get Shorty TV show. While it didn’t follow the book closely at all it was wonderful and I’m a sucker for Chris O’Dowd. Too bad it seems to have been killed by Covid.
Never screamed for woke reasons and more modern adaptation of it. Didn’t mind the change though perfer other modern adaptations of Sherlock to it.
Changing the sex, ethnicity, and life history of one of two central characters is more than a modern adaption. Create new characters if the old ones aren’t whatever-enough.
Fair enough, just didn’t see the woke. Bad adaptation would be better description.
I stole a base by assuming Watson being made into an Asian female was done for woke reasons. The show itself was not overtly woke, no.
I never called the show woke, my woke criticism was pointed squarely at the Watson makeover.
Is Elementary the adaptation that turned Irene Adler into Moriarty? Fuck that.
Yes. I forgot about that bullshit.
I’m so glad I didn’t start that one.
(P.S. If you want to hear me rant about why I hated that movie, you know, four years late, let me know.)
Why yes, yes we do!
Ok, groomer.
There should be kink at pride for kids. Kink and kids should coexist with eachother.
Not even groomer. This is the mind of a cultural subset that wants to fuck kids with impunity
There’s something to be said for them outing themselves but I really wish they’d slink back into the shadows. This shit’s just getting more and more fucked.
Kids are vulnerable, so let’s fill their heads with smut as soon as possible.
Maybe Cotton Mather had a point.
What’s wrong with exposing kids to one of the most important rock bands of all time?
Kink(s)
You ruin them on the modern stuff.
Test, test, test.
I haven’t read the entire rant because while we watched the first episode (the old-fashioned way – on cable rather than streaming,) we had planned to record the second, but a friend was over Sunday evening to install a GFCI outlet in our early ’50s era basement. The circuit breakers are not well-marked, so the power was off in most of the house while the show was on. Undecided now as to whether I’ll try to watch Ep 2 on AMC’s website.
I think the only spoiler I mentioned was the one from the end of the first episode. So you shouldn’t have to worry about being spoiled by the rant. I’m still planning on watching the rest of the series even though I’m salty about it 😅 They’ve changed quite a bit of the mystery from the books, and not just by combining two novels into one. They also changed the circumstances of the Tso murder and have either added a new character or radically altered someone in such a way that I can’t figure out who he is. So tl;dr the only way I can find out the solution to the mystery is if I watch it, haha.
O/T dilemma: Big Boss hosted a meeting here that most attendees ended up joining remotely, so there were nine leftover Jimmy John’s box lunches. So… should I have one of those or my Atkins turkey and mashed cauliflower?
The correct answer to Jimmy John’s is always “yes.”
Cheat day worthy. Quick easy no nonsense sandwich
The Jimmy John’s unwich is Keto Gold.
None near me. Jersey Mike’s does a sub in a tub though, and we got one of those.
Well, who am I to argue with a very large bear? 🐻
Well, quite.
Sandwich followed by a ten minute walk. Perfection.
Only problem is that it’s 94 degrees outside. But I AM going to the Y after work!
JJ BLT, pickle spear, bag o’ chips (which I have not yet eaten,) and oatmeal raisin cookie (which is healthy because oatmeal, but which I have also not yet eaten.) I regret nothing!
It’s things like this that have moved me from “I hope they make a TV show or movie out of this great series!” to “I hope they never make a TV show or movie out of this great series!”
100%
See, I found the trick. You just never read anything and the show can’t ruin the book for you.
Not to step on the Pontiff, but here’s another Daily Ray of Sunshine.
Solid young man. The fuckers standing on the dock were very Ted Kennedy-ish.
I likely would have been one of those fuckers. I can barely swim good enough to save myself. Trying to save someone else would likely be a death sentence for the both of us.
Fine, you get a pass. But there were a lot if people on that dock.
Seems legit.
In unannounced trip, Attorney General Merrick Garland Visits Ukraine, Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to Help Identify, Apprehend, and Prosecute Individuals Involved in War Crimes and Atrocities
What an asshole. Here are some war crimes you can investigate.
https://youtu.be/n82hgiQN97o
Just like here in the U.S., he and his minions will decide what is a crime based on ideology.
WTF does the DOJ have to do with war crimes in Ukraine unless it’s American citizens participating in them?
Is stealing and laundering $50 Billion in American funds a war crime?
No, that’s not even petty larceny; we dumped a lot more in Afghanistan.
Look, we’ve invested a lot of money into this war, he’s just there to help protect our investment. You wouldn’t want the wrong people being accused of war crimes, such as the ones we’re funding, would you?
We are willing to fight this thing to the last Ukrainian.
These people exist.
Proper response to that is “anything to ensure our money laundering operations don’t get exposed” Just as insane and just as plausible
Maybe. There’s a LOT of bots on that platform.
Always good to remember that, while our problem with Merrick Garland is that he’s a petty hack, their problem with him is that he doesn’t go far left enough.
If Ted Kennedy was right about keeping Bork off the court, no less so was McConnell regarding Garland.
That fucker should be kidnapped just like we are doing to Assange.
Lazy lulz.
hahahaha
Excellent.
Totally normal
https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/young-people-dying-in-their-sleep
I’m fully prepared to be let down.
When the Supreme Court rules on NY gun laws, how will NJ’s strict laws be affected?
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2022/06/21/nj-strict-gun-laws-affected-expected-supreme-court-ruling/7560550001/
Evan Nappen has waited for this moment for four decades.
A gun rights attorney from Eatontown, Nappen literally wrote the book — a tome of more than 500 pages — on New Jersey’s Byzantine firearms laws.
But his next book might be much shorter, as a looming U.S. Supreme Court decision on New York’s concealed carry laws threatens to eviscerate New Jersey’s similarly strict rules on who can carry a handgun in public. And it may open the door for further challenges to the state’s firearms statutes, some of the toughest in the nation.
I can’t imagine what ridiculous hoops they’ll setup if shall issue becomes the law of the land.
Same as California, a proper donation to the sheriff’s re-election fund.
I’m thinking: 40+ hours training, finger printing, insurance, harsh penalties for ignoring no gun signs, live fire tests, frequent renewals with re-certs for starters.
So, not much more than they require now?
https://nj2as.org/resources/how-to-buy-a-gun-in-nj/
It would be a big step up, in an already shitty state. It looks like they already require the fingerprints though.
It’s all permits, all the time.
NJ set to effectively ban body armor.
I have a certain nostalgic fondness for TOC, since it was part of bringing us all together, but they just can’t stop stepping on that rake.
Sad.
If the taxes actually went to the roads they would have a leg to stand on.
If they had a leg to stand on maybe they’d stop stepping on the rake?
Holy Moley, WTF Reason. It’s a basic consumption tax, better than an income based tax as it progresses based on usage, however is taxation is theft even a philosophical argument with them now.
They’re obviously looking to compete with Niskanen
People like this just solves the problem she laments about. The sane voices on abortion really need to catch the tiger they let loose.
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/keep-your-religion-out-of-my-vagina/
Who knew basic biology was religion?
Knock yourself out.
Or you could, you know, move to one of the many states where abortion will still be legal.
Now why would you give her hints like that?
Let Darwin have his way with her.
That was my point…it’s a problem that solves itself.
More domestic terror.
Still up on Twitter. Go figure.
How does this not end badly? Is there any sane path forward?
When the levee holding back civil violence on the right breaks, those Antifa twats are going to be crying for their mommies. They are not the majority, nor are they large enough in number to win.
But they’ll be well funded and well armed
The friendly fire videos will be funny AF though.
I’m just laughing at the headline.
Politics.
Lol…that is masterclass American politics
The whole thing is a perfect summary of politics.
MUH ABORTIONS
“Look, if you’re not gonna let us fuck it underage, we’d like to kill it instead.”
The photo is like a thought-bubble floating over their heads.
https://i.imgflip.com/6kezui.jpg
EvilSheldon:
Any chance you saw my forum post about Taco spyware and whether it can be disabled?
https://apnews.com/article/shootings-violence-pennsylvania-united-states-gun-politics-7b3d9440bab4bdd96cf72c087ed2eb8a
This is how you do it.
The old bait and switch…..good….good.
Lies. There is no fucking way that 70%-80% of Pennsylvanians support those measures. People from outside PA often think that because we are in the northeast of the country that we somehow share the general anti-gun opinions of New England and NY and New Jersey, and Maryland. Nothing could be further from the truth, which is that PA is one of the most gun-friendly states in the entire country, and Pennsylvanians are armed and participate in shooting sports to a high degree.
In addition, those stereotypical opinions are really mostly concentrated in the non-rural areas of those other states, it’s only that the highly concentrated nature of their populations in liberal/left strongholds gives them outsized sway over their fellow citizens.
FFLs, just in my town.
Meanwhile, here in Ohio, concealed carry licenses are now optional – but I’m inclined to keep renewing mine anyway, if for no other reason than for any legal protection it may provide in other states. (I know I shouldn’t need a license at all.)
Come to Ohio, oh oppressed gun-owning Glibs!
(Meant to link this: https://www.limaohio.com/news/512183/what-changes-with-ohios-new-concealed-carry-laws )
I’ve noticed it is very handy when buying a firearm too.
“My trepidation actually began before that, as in the days leading to the premiere early reviews started rolling in.”
The evil, transphobic Ricky Gervais special is running at 33 percent for critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with the public rating it at 91 percent…
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ricky_gervais_supernature
When it first dropped those numbers were 13 percent and 100 percent. No safe spaces is at 47 percent and 99 percent…
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_safe_spaces
It’s a pretty good barometer of what’s good vs what sucks