A Clarification, Two Reviews und Drei Wunschen

One Clarification.
Yesterday after pondering more about my sadness about Hussein's execution, I have decided I know where the bulk of the sadness comes from. And it's entirely selfish. I like warning. I need slightly longer foreshadowing at best. I need the cop to snicker about how he's retiring in a week, so when he gets shot at the top of act one, I'm not surprised. Hussein was convicted and sentenced a month ago, but we only learned of the imminence of his execution 12 hours prior to it. I'm an American. I'm used to people spending years on death row. Maybe that's what I'm umphed about: too short a notice. I couldn't find anything to wear.

Two Reviews. (I'll try to keep both brief.)

Honey and I took in The Holiday, yesterday afternoon. This movie should've been subtitled Where's Franzen's "The Corrections", because at some point I noticed that every scene that included books in the background, included that iconic spine or bookcover subtly placed to tickle the viewer's subconcious. That subliminal commercial aside, this film was a fun, forumulaic jaunt which still managed to seem new-ish. It asked Jack Black to tone his mania down (which he does palatably), Cameron Diaz to play a grown up (something she still needs help with) and Kate Winslet and Jude Law to do what they do best - namely play their default charming characters. Winslet fully invests herself into this performance and brings grace and honesty to a character a lesser actress (Kate Hudson, for instance) would have simply played as a mildly clumsy, less than lovable loser. Diaz plays somewhere between her Charlie's Angels ditz and her catty bride from Very Bad Things. Her performance is overall decent, but there are scenes where you can here the phone ringing when she opens her mouth. It makes me miss the years when she worked harder like she did in Things and The Last Supper. Nonetheless, her character was emotionally repressed enough that even in the few scenes where she checked out, it was believable. Casting Black as a film composer worked well, if for no other reason than we Jack Black fans would love to hear what Black would come up with for an honest-to-goodness film score one of these days. He played at a comfortable pace a la Shallow Hal, but less jokey and we got to see some of his nerdy "tenacity" in the Blockbuster video scene. Scroo-ba-doo-be-doo. Jude Law - sigh. What is there to say? He could play against a box of Cheerios and convince you he was desperately in love with it. His character was total emotional girl-porn: a suave, but slightly dangerous British hottie (hence Law); a book editor; a great father, and he's a widower. Characters like that pass GO and collect $200 from female moviegoers the instant they open their mouthes. I'm not really going to go into the plot because once you know the set up - two broken hearted women from across the Atlantic trade homes at Christmas and find love on the others' shores - you know the plot for the most part. What kept the script refreshing, though was Diaz's character's inability or personal refusal to completely reciprocate and the non-courtship of Black and Winslet. As romantic comedies go, this was one of the best I'd seen in a long time. There are scenes that will continue to replay in my head, so that's good. Honey and I enjoyed it so much, I think we'll buy it and add it to our Christmas Romance Movies list, which right now only includes Love Actually. I guess we'll need to broaden it. We're welcome to any suggestions.

Last night at home, we took in Why We Fight, the 2005 documentary exploration into the fulfillment of the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us against in his departing speech from the Oval Office. It was incredible. Very well crafted. Immensely riveting. These days, I really try to pay attention to crafting of a story as well as to the information in documentaries. The film opens with a NY father describing the events of 9/11 and how they effected his family. We keep going back to him and we learn of his personal loss, his own time spent in VietNam, his support for Johnson and his feeling of betrayal after Tonken. His support for Bush and his feeling of betrayal after Bush admitted Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. He is Joe America. While writing this post, a friend called me and interrupted. We chatted, and without any knowledge that I had even heard of this movie, her husband yelled over from the passenger seat that I should check out a review he had written for this movie on his site. I LOVE little synchronous coincidences like that. Because he is far more eloquent than I am (I'm positive he wrote this in one draft), I'm going to suggest you read his review. It's a great review of a great documentary and the complex structure of war in modern America.

Und Drei Wunschen.
I learned the other day that the Germans have a tradition of stating wunschen, or futile wishes and curses at the end of the year. So here are mine for you:

1. May you forget to pay your bills for the rest of the year!
2. May you receive no mail for the rest of the year.
3. I hope you forget to take your vitamins for the rest of the year.

So that was my blind foray into another tradition. I won't do that for the rest of the year!

Party safely tonight, all! So long, 2006!

la mort d'un tyrant

Yeah, you probably know what I'm going to post about.

Unlike the apathy I feel about President Ford's passing, I feel something about Hussein's execution. I probably feel apathetic about Ford's because he left office when I was 6 months old and I have no memory of his leadership (yes, I have memory of Carter's). That, and the fact that the man has been in and out of the hospital on the brink of death for the last year, leaves me feeling a little more relieved for his own health. I do believe that death is a friend once you reach a certain level of sickness or elderliness. With Hussein, it's different.

I don't mourn his passing. He was a bloody tyrant, so I can't be sad that this human is off the planet. I am sad, though. What I mourn is the incompletion of justice. He still had at least one more trial coming. Why should the victims and surviving family members for whom that trial was to be held be denied the justice of a trial? Why should a trial be deliberately shoved aside like that? Even if he would've been found innocent at the second trial - which I sincerely doubt would've happened - he still would've been hanged for this one, so he'd be no less dead for his transgressions. (Though let's say that scenario had occurred: would the surviving families have felt justice was served by his death, even though he'd been found innocent at the second trial? Perhaps a topic for another post altogether: what is the nature of justice?) That Hussein was going to be executed was certain the moment he was discovered hiding in a pit three years ago. I trust though that Iraqis really wanted justice this time and not just revenge. Frankly, if his trial had been held in America, the case may be made that it was not a fair one, what with all the interruptions and lawyer shuffling. But it was probably far fairer than anything Iraqis had seen in a long damn time. I am sad because the second trial didn't go forward. I'm sad that those who'd weathered so much agony under his spiky fist didn't get to tell their stories in court.

Truthbeknown, I'm also sad because I really feel like he should've been tried at the Hague. He was a war criminal and a had committed crimes against humanity in between wars. If the West who started this current war and supposedly liberated Iraq (whatever the hell that means in their current mayhem) really wanted to hold him to the same standard as other war criminals, he should've been tried at the Hague. ... hmm. That reminds me: I was also sad when Milosevic died. Again, not because I doubt his guilt, but because his trial was never completed; human justice was never served. Though in his case, I gratified myself with the thought that "what goes around comes around." Kind of like with Kenneth Lay. ... yet another person for whom human justice was not carried through. He was found guilty, but it's my understanding that because he died before he went to jail, not only is he sort of expunged, his estate isn't subject to paying any recompense. (Which is barbecued bullshit in my opinion, but I should really read up on all the details of that kind of decision before I blow a gasket.) Maybe that's what irritates me most about Hussein's death: it came before full human justice was decided and if it had to be premature, it wasn't a case of karma taking him out.

I lost no one to his hand. Those who suffered under him are elated and for the relief they feel today, I am satisfied. I am not a fan of the death penalty but am overall generally ambivalent about it as a concept. If Saddam Hussein's death brings closure to a lot of people in Iraq, as proponents of the penalty claim it does (topic for another post, I'm sure), then I am glad for them. For those for whom his execution is justice denied, I am sad for them.

I guess the one good thing is this: An evil man is dead.

Faithful till the end

That is my goal for the last three days of the year: to faithfully post and browse each day. How's that for a resolution?

Christmas at my in-laws' was pretty good. To the left there is a picture of Babydog and her Pug cousin playing. They played in the middle of the living room, in front of the Christmas Tree the whole time we were unwrapping presents. Occasionally, they'd take it to the foyer or the kitchen, but mostly they enjoyed tussling in the center of everything. It irritated my brother-in-law who kept trying to break it up, but Honey and I quite liked it. They know where the pack is and where the fun is, so why should they not get their party on where we were getting our party on? Later they tussled under the dining room table where we were playing Texas Hold 'Em. It's hard to keep a poker face with grumbling fur tickling your feet.

In the meantime, I had a job interview yesterday afternoon. I was ambivalent going in and only slightly less so coming out.
THE PROS: seems like a relaxed environment; they prefer to pay freelance; it would be a slight raise with the prospect of more raises more quickly than with my current employer; though I'd start off in yet another admin-ish position (howl of pain), it seems they prefer to promote people on quickly to bigger and better things according tor their talents; as it is in my part of the city, my commute would probably be cut by 2/3 meaning I might actually be able to get home before 7PM on weeknights.
THE CONS: the position is kind of vaguely defined right now, though Honey thinks that's actually a pro; I know someone who freelanced with this company briefly and had a very negative taste in his mouth afterward, specifically because of the hostile attitude of one of the superiors - though I don't think I'd report to him; it's not the exact direction I want to go with my career - it's more of a side-exploration into another more bread-and-butter part of this industry for me; there may be no contract, the position would be indefinite and Molly, after three months in any position begins to get too comfortable.

I guess my two big concerns are: is that one guy really a hostile guy and can I really promote pretty quickly? And the latter is as dependent on me as it is on them. I could make a point to make sure to make myself available to someone each day or week until someone put me in a position I'm wanting more. As well, I could accept the job on a 3 month basis, say, as a test run. As for the hostile guy, I've dealt with hostility before and there's always the possibility that he's just a jerk who feels the need to do some piss-testing and all I'd need to do is learn when to appease him and when to stand him down.

My current job ends in a couple of weeks. I guess I'm also holding out hope that some really great project will pop up with my current employer in the next few weeks for which they'd like to give me a new contract with a different position. My current employer is less on the bread-and-butter end of the business, but they're on the end I'm more personally interested in. When I get back to work Tuesday, I'll feel them out and let them know I have an offer I need to move one way or another on by Thursday.

Sorry to ramble on about my employment woes. ... If you've made it this far, why don't you ponder this? President Ford died Tuesday. I'm as apathetic to his passing as I was to his life. Does that make me a bad person, an unconcerned citizen? Talk amongst yourselves!