Smallville Final Episode

Just finished watching the finale of Smallville and, as I suspected, it was fairly anticlimactic.  They setup so many things in the tenth and final season that it became a footrace to cram every loose end into the last two hours of the series. It figures that the same problems that plagued most of the season finales would be present in the final episode.

Far too much time was spent on the wedding in the first hour, which compounded the problem.  There was a heavy overdose of second thoughts, doubts, and generalized wimpiness from Lois and Clark dominating what was supposed to be the big debut of Superman. It also dragged out and didn’t get interesting until the battle that, of course, derailed the wedding at the last moment.   After that, the second hour was much better but things were crammed into that short span that would have benefited greatly from more time.

 

 

SPOILERS AHEAD!

The return of Lex Luthor felt as rushed as could be, but no surprise there as they weren’t sure the actor would be involved.  The death of Tess was no surprise, nor was alternate universe Lionel Luthor becoming the host for Darkseid in an ultimately disappointing appearance as the big bad guy. 

What surprised me was that we never got the iconic Superman pose or a clear full on shot of Tom Welling in the costume.  That is utterly baffling as fans have waited ten years for this.  Yes, he was seen in costume, but blurred, obscured, or CGI’d the entire time.  That and he wasn’t officially called Superman until the seven years later segment really annoyed me.

Smallville was never deep or consistent in quality, but it usually was entertaining.  It was too much to expect a really well done ending, I’m afraid.

Now for some more positive notes. 

Apokolips was very well rendered and the red skies were a nice tribute to Crisis on Infinite Earths. 

The omega symbols being revealed as part of the Anti-life Equation was a nice nod to the comics. 

Jonathon Kent handing the costume to Clark was very nicely done as the two fathers sent their son off to be a man.

Chloe and Ollie apparently having a son in the seven years later bookends was kind of sweet.  Better yet, Chloe didn’t die!

Lex having his memory erased by Tess as she was dying at least explains how he wouldn’t know Clark was Superman in the future.

Jimmy Olson MK II was the surprise cameo at the end in the seven years later bit.  So the little brother at Jimmy’s funeral did replace him in the mythos.

Still, it was a disappointing end to the series and felt more like a setup for something more.  It lacked the emotional impact that Superman’s first public appearance should have given us.  They simply fumbled the ball one yard from the end zone.

A Faux Expert Opines on China’s Stealth Fighter

One of the problems with the modern media is that there are many vaunted “experts” on any given subject who simply don’t know what they are talking about.  The Australian military aviation specialist Carlo Kopp is a prime example of this, which is why you should never quote him in a serious aviation forum – you’ll get laughed off the message board.  Yet here he is, getting the spotlight once again by proclaiming the Chinese J-20 is equal to the F-22A Raptor.

Worse yet, he claims his “analysis” of the prototype shows it is more stealthy than the F-35 Lightning II from certain angles.  This is the same guy who argued for upgrading ancient F-111 Aardvarks with the F-22’s engines!  Another one of his ideas is a F-22 fleet for Australia and he’s still championing that despite the simple fact the country can’t afford them.   Anything that threatens that dream is attacked, so Kopp has savaged the F-35 every chance he can.  Fortunately, the Australian government is more sane and want the JSF as it suits there needs quite well.

Now I’ll admit the J-20 will be a serious threat to our allies in the Pacific, but the F-35 will outclass it in stealth, avionics, and weapons.  That’s my armchair opinion based on the history of competing weapon systems over the years and Lockheed’s proven track record with stealth warplanes.  But don’t accept me as any kind of expert and do the research yourself.  You’ll probably come out more informed than Mr. Kopp.

Osama Bin Laden Really Is Dead Now

Courtesy of the U.S. Navy SEALs.

Good roundup of the events here.

I received an email from a friend about it just before going to bed last night and I was too tired to feel much about it.  At the moment, I feel satisfaction that we finally got the butcher after 18 years from his attacking the United States.  By that, I’m referring to the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.  It has been a very long time coming.

The fact he was living in luxury an hour away from the capitol of Pakistan was no surprise to me.  He always had close ties to their government through the ISI security service and I’ve long thought he was being sheltered there.  Also no surprise that we did this solo without Pakistani cooperation as they cannot be trusted.

What is surprising is how the White House is refusing to give the Pakistani government any kind of political cover on this. For all their vaunted efforts at reaching out to Muslim countries, they have shown themselves to be diplomatically tone deaf.  This operation most likely will make already difficult relations with Pakistan openly hostile in the future.

I expect the near future to see more calls from both the Left and Right to withdraw from Afghanistan now that Bin Laden is literally sleeping with the fishes. In an era of highly personalized attack politics, we just removed the figurehead for the enemy and so support for the war will evaporate quickly. The Left are anti-military and anti-Bush, while the rising specter of isolationism is firmly entrenched within the Right. 

Meanwhile, I can’t help but contrast how Saddam Hussein was dragged from a hole in the ground to Bin Laden being gunned down in a compound at a luxury resort area. The irony of the guy thought to be hiding out in caves going out that way while the dictator of many palaces was found wallowing in mud is profound.

Maybe now Trump and the Birthers Will Go Away

 

Obama’s long form birth certificate has finally been released and you can download it here.

One of the red herrings that has had conspiracy theorists going nuts has been the lack of a full birth certificate being released.  Foolish dreams of President Biden and a public spectacle of a resigning president have just gone up in smoke. This whole issue has been ridiculous to me from the beginning, since a local newspaper had his birth recorded at the time.

Hopefully, Donald Trump’s ego and celebrity driven candidacy can go up in smoke as well.  He’s no conservative and a constant failure at business, which is precisely what we don’t need.  The only thing he’s been good at is promoting himself and trading in wives for younger models as they get older. That’s cold reality there, much like Obama being a natural born citizen.

Why did the White House wait so long to release it?  Mainly to avoid other records being released as the President made it clear to the media his family was off limits to them.  The suspicion that his grades weren’t great is a valid one given his performance in office so far. But it is his wife’s dealings and family’s dealings in Chicago corruption that are the real issue, in my opinion.  It also has been a great distraction from dealing with the real issues with his presidency and split independents from the Republican party.

In the meantime, the “birther” movement has made themselves look like idiots and that has been to the benefit of President Obama for some time.  With the latest polls showing an increase in people believing he isn’t a citizen and Trump unofficially launching a candidacy, something had to be done to reign it back in. 

By the 2008 election, we entered an era where people can’t tell what the differences between truth, lies, and speculation are. Now demagogues from all facets of the political spectrum are running rampant and things are becoming nuts as a result.  Time to stop being so emotional people!  Coldly focus on what needs to be done or there will be no hope of fixing anything.

What a sad joke our country is becoming.

State of the Blog Statement

or a Redundant Post Title and Some Anime Recommendations

As I’m trying to improve my health and rearranging my priorities, I’ll be posting more reviews rather than politics.  There are many blogs on politics worth reading right now and I’m just static on an already crowded tuner.  So my writing here will be more for exercising my skills than attempting to change the world with my limited energy.  Looking at the long view, things are going to get pretty bleak for the world fairly soon and I have limits to how much complaining I can endure from myself.

So I’ll be reviewing all eleven episodes of the anime Fractale and eventually finishing the review of TRON: Legacy that I started in December. There is an off chance I might write some original fiction and put it up here, but nothing anytime soon.

While I’m not impressed by anime as a genre, I’ve done some exploring of it of late while being hammered by two bouts of bronchitis and have found some ones I deem of merit.  Fractale has already been mentioned.  Others of recent vintage are:

Shinryaku! Ika Musume aka Squid Girl – A humanoid girl with tentacles for hair decides to invade the surface in revenge for ocean pollution.  What follows is a very funny, silly and sweet comedy anime that is utterly charming.  Suitable for most ages; beware of squidding amounts of punning and the most annoying theme in history, degeso.  I can’t wait for season two.

 

The Japanese preview for Season 1

Kimi ni Todoke Seasons 1 & 2 – A letter perfect adaptation of the brilliant manga about the slow moving and heartfelt romance between an ostracized shy, scary looking girl and the most popular guy in her high school class.  While it sounds formulaic, the characters are fully realized and utterly believable which is a true rarity in anime. Sawako and Shouta are one of the best couples in any form of literature and the supporting cast are wonderful in their own right. There is no way I can heap enough superlatives upon Kimi ni Todoke.  The concentrated goodness in it is the perfect antidote for when the poisons of the world get you down. Suitable for 14 and up.

 

The opening theme for Yumekui Merry

Yumekui Merry aka Nightmare Merry – Magical girl falls on high school boy and adventures ensue.  I can’t stand this kind of thing and it has been done many times in the genre, but this series is different.  Discordant camera angles, surreal imagery, and a disturbing soundtrack make this a very stylish and attractive anime but it really shines with its likeable and stereotype defying characters. Merry herself is a marvelous character, a rare feminine tomboy instead of a tsundere (look it up).  She also is a lost and amnesiac dream demon trapped in the real world fighting her way to get back home.  The dream world segments are very reminiscent of Tim Burton films. Very talky and slow compared to most fighting animes. Suitable for older teens and up, not aimed at kids.

The Long Hard Road

It has been a hard winter, in regards to weather and health.  So it is my hope that spring finally arriving will herald better times for me, at least in being more productive.  I’ve had to shift priorities to seeing to my health and trying to put my house in order since last year. So far, results have not been good in either case.  Having to face the fact that my health will probably decline, not just stagnate as I get older has been a sobering realization.

One of my major flaws is that I always put others first and don’t care very much about my well being.  A person can get away with that as long as they have resources of health, wealth, and a network of friends and family to rely on.   Since I’m at a deficit compared to normal people on all those things, my reserves are totally shot with no easy or fast replenishment possible.  In the past few years I’ve had to give up a lot of volunteer work because I’m simply unable to do it anymore.  In fact, all my activities have taken large hits.  So my task now is having to learn to be more selfish in order to survive and be able to do anything at all for others.

Galling doesn’t even begin to represent how this makes me feel. It isn’t easy to go against one’s nature, especially when the only comfort in life is found when helping others.

But life isn’t about the way you want things to be, rather it is about dealing with the way things are.  Like having to go to the dentist’s office today for another unpleasant cleaning…

…at least it isn’t root canal.

Fractale 11 Final Episode Thoughts

Or who is Phrynne?

Fractale was an interesting and underrated anime series that finished this past Thursday.  I’m not going to give a comprehensive review, but I am going to write about the final scene because I’ve seen a great many misinterpretations of it on the Net.  So if you don’t want spoilers on this complex and flawed series that fell short of being a masterpiece, don’t read this post!

Series home page on Hulu. Warning, not for kids. Older teens and adults only due to mature themes.

Final episode on Hulu.

SPOILER SPACE

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The last scene is of Phrynne awakening after being in a coma for one year after merging with Nessa, the regressed mind of the original Phrynne who lived 1000 years before.  Her immediate dialogue, tone of voice, and expressions seem to indicate that the Phrynne we followed in the series is dead and her mind replaced with Nessa’s.  Clain’s reaction to her is the same as the viewer’s and while showing relief that he hasn’t lost both Phrynne and Nessa, there is a tinge of disappointment in his face and actions. When he addresses her as Nessa and she responds with something like an affirmative, the boy starts going down the stairs to fix breakfast. 

That’s where downloading the fansub to double check made a huge difference for me, as the clearer audio showed a distinct change in Phrynne’s tone as she urgently calls out to Clain to thank him -- then tells him she loves him too and had from the moment they met. That wasn’t Nessa speaking, folks, that was the poor tortured soul of the girl we met in the first episode finally feeling able to confess her heart to the boy she loved.

Clain’s reaction of dropping his MP3 player and rushing to embrace her was another big indication that he recognized the girl he loved wasn’t gone. The tears that he hadn’t been able to shed as he watched Phrynne sacrifice herself to restart the Fractale system flooded out as he embraced the surprised girl.  Watch how she slowly returns the embrace and a smile crosses her face.  Nessa would have been exuberant and childish in response, but this isn’t what happens.

It took a third viewing and a fansubtitled version for me to clear up what I feel was a bad translation by Funimation.  In it, Phrynne essentially calls Clain a baby in a softly affectionate barb, showing some of the prickliness of the difficult girl we had followed for eleven episodes.  In the streamed translation, it was translated more as an astonished reaction to his crying, but the voice actress’ tone doesn’t correspond. That did not help with such a complicated resolution! As the show ends, Clain is beginning to laugh between sobs as the camera pans over the the group photo while zooming on the two.

To me that clinches that Phrynne is still Phrynne with a heavy dash of Nessa now in her personality.  Instead of Nessa replacing her like she feared so greatly, Phrynne is instead completed by the ten year old’s mind.  All the wounds to her soul have been healed between the fusing with Nessa and the love she had found.  Clain hasn’t lost the love of his life after all and the promise that the three would be together forever was fulfilled.

In fact, all three wishes by the main characters were granted.  The first was Phrynne’s wish that Clain would regain his smile and smile forever. The second was Clain’s wish that he wouldn’t be lonely anymore.  The final one was Nessa’s wish that the three would live together forever.

In the end, Nessa was the catalyst that allowed both Phrynne and Clain to be healed and completed.  The possibility that the original sexually abused sixteen year old Phrynne is finally getting her chance at a life is there too, since Nessa was her regressed mind recorded a millennia ago. 

To my relief, this was a kind and good ending for Phrynne when it was looking like a tragic outcome was guaranteed.  She turned out to be the main character of the series as I had suspected from episode one.  The opening sequence and a translation of the main theme contained major clues to that as the theme is about a prickly and untrusting girl, a hedgehog. 

Unlike most people in online forums discussing the show, I’d picked up that Phrynne had been sexually abused from the very beginning.  Having been around women that had that happen to them, the telltales were obvious in the girl’s behavior and statements.  I found myself worrying over this fictional character a great deal, which is a credit to the makers of this series.  Maybe it was that or the anniversary of my mother’s death which that caused me to shed tears at the ending, but this flawed series will always be a favorite of mine.

While the series wandered a bit in the middle, I loved it, especially after that ending.  I wrote this on the fly, so I hope it is coherent enough for those who watched the series and if you haven’t… 

… Why did you just read this?

The Violent Hypocrisy of the American Left

In the fall out of the shooting of Rep. Giffords and others at her public meeting in Arizona, the politics of demonization of the political right has been quick and ruthless by the political left. Their puppets in the news media have been quick to try to pin blame on the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Republicans. Claims that violent rhetoric from Republicans inspired this has become a chanting point. while the real facts that keep trickling out show that the shooter, Jarod Loughner, was a pot smoking, anti-religion, anti-war left winger with an obsession with Giffords dating back to 2007.

Definition:

1. feigned high principles: the false claim to or pretense of having admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings
It would be sheer hypocrisy for them to turn around and do what they criticize in others.

Warning: NSFW in some cases -- Michelle Malkin has an astounding and very long list of the violence called for and perpetrated by the left in the past ten years.  Read through it and the definition of hypocrisy above is well proven, I think.  As I mentioned, beware foul language and crude imagery at the link.

The desire to vilify the right has trumped anything approaching fairness or rationality on the left. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame has an editorial at the Wall Street Journal that further points out the hypocrisy going on.  I will quote him:

To be clear, if you're using this event to criticize the "rhetoric" of Mrs. Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you're either: (a) asserting a connection between the "rhetoric" and the shooting, which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie; or (b) you're not, in which case you're just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible. Which is it?

Frankly, I don’t expect an honest answer from the left on that one. But I don’t expect honest answers from them on anything these days.

This rant by krakatoa at Ace of Spades pretty sums up how fed up we are with this.  It is horrible that the acts of an extremely mentally ill young man are being used for attempted political gain by the left.  Appalling barely begins to describe it.

I used to defend people on the left as being well intentioned if misguided.  The events of the last several years have taught me otherwise.  Dishonesty, intolerance, and hate is all I’m seeing out of them and it is getting worse.  This trend cannot be good for the country and will lead to real conflict down the road.

Congresswoman Shot in Arizona

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/08/arizona-congresswoman-reportedly-shot-public-event/

I was hoping to post something more light hearted than this, but it is big news.  My prayers go out to Rep. Giffords, her family, and the families of all that were shot or killed. Details are very murky, much like the Fort Hood shooting and there has been a rush to blame the Tea Party, Glen Beck, Republicans, and conservatives on left wing blogs. Given her stance on tightening security on the border with Mexico, she was getting a lot of flack from the left of late so I find such accusations to be very presumptuous.

Rumors are flying that the police are looking for a second suspect, but once again things are too confused to know what is really going on. Previous rumors claimed an Afghan war veteran shot her and the others. My worry is that this might be a spillover from narco-terrorism in Northern Mexico, where shooting politicians is getting to be common. Anyway you look at it, this is a very bad day in Arizona and the United States.

The willingness of people on the political left to paint the Tea Party as responsible is extremely disturbing and polarizes the country even further.  People need to sit down, take a breath, and wait for the facts to come out.

UPDATED:

The shooter is a white male, 22, name is Jared Loughner.  Someone may have fired back at him from the crowd. One gun with an extended clip is being reported, which sounds like a 9mm or 5.7mm to me and explains why so many survived. Rep. Giffords is out of surgery and was responding to verbal commands before despite being shot in the temple. A federal judge appointed by President Bush was also wounded. 18, not 19, shot. One more arrested and a third man is being sought by authorities.

This video screed may be by him, if so it shows a lot of signs of serious mental illness and hatred of government.  Also, it looks something like a suicide note.  He looks to be one sick puppy.

UPDATED:

Just viewed his YouTube videos and profile and he’s a left wing anarchist with favorite books including the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf.  One of his videos about being a terrorist includes flag burning as he doesn’t recognize the Old Glory as being constitutional. He also claims the Constitution is brainwashing and has another video on how to be a mind controller.  His hatred of religion comes through very strongly as well. 

He also is very clearly deranged.

Being a Disciple of Christ in the Christmas Season

The following is the written version of a sermon I gave earlier today at church and is my personal Christmas message to everyone this year:

I was asked to speak on what it means to be a disciple of Christ during the Christmas season.

As a child, I couldn’t wait for Christmas to come along. It was a time of family gathering together, cookies, games, television specials, and the best thing of all: unwrapping gifts to reveal all the toys I’d be playing with for the next year! It was almost too much to handle – all that waiting for the goodies I’d been coveting. Of course, I had to endure getting things like clothes from mother and hand knit slippers from a grandmother who didn’t understand what Christmas was about. They clearly didn’t have a clue! Oh how the years have gone by since then and oh how much I’d like a pair of new slippers knitted by my grandmother to keep my feet warm – especially during this bitterly cold winter we are having.

Age and the knowledge acquired over those years have changed my perspective mightily. A greater understanding of what is truly important in life makes for a very different feeling about Christmas time. While it is still much about family, the holiday season doesn’t fill me with anticipation the way it once did. Of course, being raised in a secular household that had no spirituality or faith made it more of a material holiday back then. Having found faith in Jesus Christ, it has different meaning to me now. Sadly, many I see are still caught in the material trappings of the season that have little to do with the Savior. We must not forget Him in the midst of all the blinking lights, frenzied shopping, distractions, even decorations and trimmings of a very commercialized and ever more secular holiday.

To be a true disciple of Christ, first one must understand what a disciple is. In the Bible dictionary, a disciple is defined as the following: “A pupil or learner; a name used to denote (1) the twelve, also called apostles, (2) all followers of Jesus Christ.” Most people think of the Apostles when ‘disciple’ is used, but the word applies to all of us who take on the name of Christ and follow in his path. In Acts 11: 26, we read “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” So Christian is another word for disciple. But there is more to it than that.

There are things that followers of Christ must do. In D&C 41: 5, it says “he who does the law is the Lord’s disciple.” We also read, “But my disciples shall stand in holy places, and shall not be moved;” in D&C 45: 32. Moving to section 84 of D&C, the Lord proclaimed, “Whoso receiveth you receiveth me; and the same will feed you, and clothe you, and give you money. And he who feeds you, or clothes you, or gives you money, shall in nowise lose his reward. And he that doeth not these things is not my disciple; by this you may know my disciples.”

Much is asked of those who would be disciples of Jesus Christ. It isn’t meant to be easy and I found the following scripture interesting. When the Lord visited the remnants of Israel in the Americas he set apart apostles there as he had in Israel. “And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he said unto those twelve whom he had chosen: Ye are my disciples; and ye are a blight unto this people, who are a remnant of the house of Joseph.” 3 Ne. 15: 11-12. Being a blight on others sounds harsh, doesn’t it? But those who make a stand for that which is right, good, and holy are something of a pain to those who don’t. It pricks them deeply, but shouldn’t stop us from doing what’s right.

We are asked to be obedient in Matthew 10: 24-25, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.” We are asked to sacrifice in Luke 14: 33, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” Most of all, we are to love others. In John 13:34-35 the Savior declared, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Love. To me, love is at the heart of being a true disciple of Christ.

We live in a materialistic world, where things often have more value than people do. To me, no time of year more embodies this than the holiday season. Perhaps my saying this disturbs you, but I’ve watched the incredible amount commercialization take over Christmas more every year. The constant sales pitches, the people running around and even fighting with each other to buy the latest and greatest time killing toy, for child or adult, seems to me to have nothing to do with the true love of Christ. By that, I am speaking of charity, of course.

There are so many who need love and help, especially in this often lonely time of year. While we need to strive to be true disciples every day of the year, the expectations and stresses of this increasingly frenetic holiday season are a sore trial for those who have little and even those who have much. No matter what part of society we inhabit, we should remember that all people are our brothers and sisters, all children of God. That includes our family members, a known source of stress – well, at least in my experience.

Charity takes many forms and while we are often mindful of the physical needs of others around Christmas time, there are other ways to show Christ like love. My words are utterly inadequate, so I will quote from President Thomas S. Monson’s address to the General Relief Society Meeting earlier this year. The sisters will be familiar with it but I think it applies to the brethren as well:

“I consider charity--or "the pure love of Christ"--to be the opposite of criticism and judging. In speaking of charity, I do not at this moment have in mind the relief of the suffering through the giving of our substance. That, of course, is necessary and proper. Tonight, however, I have in mind the charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions, the kind of charity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient.

I have in mind the charity that impels us to be sympathetic, compassionate, and merciful, not only in times of sickness and affliction and distress but also in times of weakness or error on the part of others.

There is a serious need for the charity that gives attention to those who are unnoticed, hope to those who are discouraged, aid to those who are afflicted. True charity is love in action. The need for charity is everywhere.

Needed is the charity which refuses to find satisfaction in hearing or in repeating the reports of misfortunes that come to others, unless by so doing, the unfortunate one may be benefited. The American educator and politician Horace Mann once said, "To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is godlike."

Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others.

In a hundred small ways, all of you wear the mantle of charity. Life is perfect for none of us. Rather than being judgmental and critical of each other, may we have the pure love of Christ for our fellow travelers in this journey through life. May we recognize that each one is doing her best to deal with the challenges which come her way, and may we strive to do our best to help out.

Charity has been defined as "the highest, noblest, strongest kind of love," the "pure love of Christ . . . ; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with [her]."

"Charity never faileth." May this long-enduring Relief Society motto, this timeless truth, guide you in everything you do. May it permeate your very souls and find expression in all your thoughts and actions.”

It is my hope that we will find ways to show charity to others this season and to also find ways to be better disciples of Christ during it – and beyond. As we go forth into this final week leading to Christmas, may we remember to love one another and express it often. Let us never forget the love of the Savior and what Christmas is truly about during the whirling madness going on about us.

Christ loved us so much He went through the unimaginable pain of performing the Atonement. Our Father in Heaven loved us so much He sent His most beloved son to be sacrificed so that we would be able to come back home to Him. We should remember this charity shown us during the season celebrating the birth of the Savior. I testify of this love and end this talk in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

Time to review the movie as I promised to earlier. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was a large book packed with far too many events to wedge into one movie, which was a problem with some of the previous films. Thankfully, Warner Bros decided to split the book into two movies and even then there is barely room for most of the story.  Interestingly, I’ve been reading reviews claiming that the magic has gone out of the Harry Potter movies.  I disagree and the review will explain why.

First, The Deathly Hallows is about Harry and his friends being forced to grow up.  They end up alone in a bleak, frightening, and apparently hopeless world where Voldemort has taken over the Ministry of Magic and is terrorizing the magical world.  Keep an eye out for propaganda that resembles that of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union; the movie isn’t subtle about those references.  This isn’t a kiddie story anymore, instead it is about the beginnings of a war that doesn’t look winnable.

Deaths occur from the very beginning of the movie, which gets to fast start depicting the preparations by Harry and Hermione for the coming war.  Emma Watson has really grown as an actress and her scene with Hermione erasing herself from the memories of her muggle parents is well played.   Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry seems more uncertain and stubborn than ever, even as events start spiraling out of his control.  His wandering through the now vacated Dursely home is as symbolic as Hermione’s of having to leave home and become an adult.

There are moments of the humor so present in the previous movies, but it is clear this is a grimmer affair as the ending to the first action piece demonstrates. Blood is shed, characters die, and a momentary lull for a wedding doesn’t last long.  Quickly, Harry, Hermione, and Ron Weasely are on the run for their lives while trying to finish the late Dumbledore’s quest to find and destroy fragments of Lord Voldemort’s soul – the horcruxes.

One complaint will be made by many and that is the extended time in the wilderness being boring. Once again, I’ll disagree as this gave the young trio of actors wonderful character moments and conveys that they can’t count on older people to bail them out of trouble.  Rupert Grint as Ron shines brightest during these events as he has the greatest trouble adapting to the hardship. Ron always did lag behind the other two in maturity and it becomes painfully apparent that he has the most growing up to do.  This leads to conflict and a splitting of the trio as jealousies explode into the open. 

Along the way to the tragic ending of the movie, we are treated to an animated sequence that recounts what the Deathly Hallows are.  That part is pure magic, no pun intended.  It is a brief respite before the darkness comes and heroism fails.  The magic isn’t gone, but it has grown up.

The ending I liked, because it was a perfect place to split the material and because it reminds me a little of how Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back ended – except with less hope.  It left the audience I was with wanting more.

Was this the best of the films? No, but it was one of the best.  Seeing the change from school days to early adulthood in the main characters is something that added depth to the Harry Potter series and I appreciated seeing that greatly.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione are now having to make adult decisions and fend for themselves and in the end, that is what this movie is about.  Of course it is all set up for Part 2 as well.

There is blood, gore, and one “romance” scene that definitely makes this movie not for young kids.  The pervasive gloom of the story is punctuated by frightening battles and attacks, so expect lots of tears for nights to come if you make the mistake of taking a young child to it.

As a footnote, I have to say the special effects are the best by far in the series.  Watching it in digital HD, I was stunned by the effects involving a certain house elf.  The CGI masters have come a long way since Gollum!

If you are a Harry Potter fan, this is a must see film. 

Harry Potter Midnight Screening

The last thing I expected to be doing today was going to the midnight opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.  Okay, it was the second to last thing I expected.  The last thing would have to be going to it in the small town of Spring Grove, Minnesota. 

But this, in fact, is how my day ended.  Assisting my father in an aborted microwave installation in the afore mentioned town resulted in our passing the local state of the art movie theater several times. The first time I did a double take at what was on the marquee – after all, they don’t show first run movies, much less something this popular.  Upon returning home, a check on the Spring Grove Cinema’s home page verified that I hadn’t been hallucinating and that they would be showing it every night for two weeks.  An email reservation was required and on a lark I sent it in, the catch being that you have to show up fifteen minutes before show time or your seats might be sold.

The crowd wasn’t huge but along the numbers I’d seen at The Lord of the Rings midnight showings in a much larger city of La Crosse, Wisconsin.  It was a cheerful crowd that skewed young and the mood was good.  At six dollars a ticket it was more than a bargain.

So how was the movie, you wonder? 

A full review will wait until I’ve had some sleep, but this was one of the best entries in the series.  Fans of the book should be pleased at how faithful it was.  The performances were the best yet from the cast and there was a palpable feeling of dread throughout the film.  Also, it is not for small kids as there are deaths and gory maiming's in it, so please don’t think about taking them to it.

Somewhat off topic:

Two trailers stood out for me and they were for Tron: Legacy and Green Lantern.  Having seen both on the Web, only Tron had impressed me and Green Lantern disappointed on the small screen.  I’ve changed my mind about the latter after seeing it on the big screen and it looks dazzling.  Still not happy with the humorous bits that ring hollow, but the more serious parts look very good indeed.

A Memorable and Unpredictable Election

Since I was up until 3:00 A.M., I’m hoping I have some semblance of coherency writing this post.  My father and I spent the evening with our State Representative Greg Davids with other supporters of his (kudos to Bonnie for being such a great hostess).  We’ve been doing this since election night in 2006, which unfolded like a horror movie  as the Democratic tsunami took Greg and most of the other state Republicans out of office.   I imagine that was the feeling in many a DFL victory party last night that turned into funerals when both the state house and senate went from veto proof majorities for them to Republican majorities.

I refused to make any solid predictions this year when asked by friends and political activists because at some point I realized none of the data coming in fit anything I’d seen before.  Combined that with a very strange atmosphere of smoldering resentment toward all politicians that I found amongst the average citizen of the area and I concluded this was going to be a strange election.  Even the political activists didn’t have much passion, aside from some of the Tea Partiers.   I knew the Republicans would win and win big nationally, but Minnesota looked bad.

Thanks to Mark Ritchie’s incompetence (or is it something more sinister?)  at managing the Secretary of State office, results for our local counties of Fillmore and Houston trickled in very slowly if at all on the SoS website.  That meant phone calls and trips to the local county courthouses to find out what was going on.  Houston County was forced to email results in because the line for the counting machines to the state capitol was dead.  That made for a long evening watching national and statewide races seesaw back and forth.

In the end, we saw the voters of the United States punish the Democratic Party for their ignoring the will of the people and following an extreme left wing agenda. That agenda is over, even though Republicans only took the U.S. House.  The gains in the U.S. Senate were large enough to make things very difficult for certain Democrat Senators to toe the party line when they are looking to get re-elected in 2012. 

The bigger news is that many state legislatures and governorships flipped to the GOP.  Why is this bigger news?  2010 is a census year and that means federal and state redistricting of voting districts.  With their penchant for gerrymandering, the Democrats had to hold on to everything they had to keep those districts or tamper with Republican dominated ones. Now Republican dominated legislatures will control the redistricting in many critical states and Minnesota.  Never thought I’d see that!

I’m pleased to say Houston County went completely red this election.

On to some specific races:

Greg Davids won HD-31B outright despite having two opponents. Steve Kemp (DFL) and Al Hein (Ind) split the liberal vote but even that didn’t matter as Greg won 53% of the vote for a clear knock out.  Surprising, I thought it would be tighter.

Rhett Zenke put up a good fight but Gene Pelowski HD-31A will never be knocked out as he is the last of the conservative Democrat breed.  At least Rhett won in Houston County and I hope he sticks around after redistricting.

Jeremy Miller upset Sharon Ropes in SD-31 which surprised many. This one didn’t surprise me, I knew Miller would win a close race and it was very close.  Congratulations on winning and securing the state senate for us, Jeremy!

Randy Demmer made it close against Tim Walz in CD-1, but enough people buy into Walz’s phony moderate act to keep him in office.  There was a poisoned atmosphere the unfairly hurt Randy that originated in the 2006 endorsement campaign that I think affected things. But the biggest problem is that unless we find a multimillionaire to self finance, Walz will always have a ridiculous money advantage. The union money borders on the infinite there.

The governor’s race is going into automatic recount with Emmer trailing Dayton by half a percent.  This race went bad because “moderate” Republicans decided to go out and get Horner elected.  His 12 % didn’t come from Dayton like some activists insisted, but mostly from Emmer.  But this gets uglier.  Hennepin County managed to have 180,000 more ballots cast than there are registered voters when there was only 58% turnout statewide.  This stinks of voter fraud and I predict the recounts will get ugly.

Those 180,000 votes would be enough to change the outcomes of the state constitutional offices as well.   As it stands, they all remain in the hands of the DFL.

That leads me to point out a problem that Minnesota has – we don’t have clean elections and haven’t for some time. The corruption and fraud in the Twin Cities has spilled out to affect smaller cities in the state as well.  Voter fraud is extremely hard to prove because there are very few safeguards against it in the system.  Voter ID is desperately needed here and would prevent it up front.

Finally, a comment on two races that gained national attention.  In Nevada, Harry Reid won when he shouldn’t have.  In Delaware, Coons destroyed O’Donnell easily.  Both those candidates were poor choices and in O’Donnell’s case, became a litmus test for purity amongst some conservatives.  Those who pointed out her Grand Canyon sized flaws were shouted down and accused of being RINO’s.  Quality of character matters and should matter to those of use who are conservatives.  Just because someone says things we want to hear doesn’t make them a good candidate or trustworthy.  That lesson needs to be driven home before November 2012 comes around.

Why?  Because the American public hates Republicans almost as much as they hate Democrats.  Republicans have to come through on fiscal issues or else they will be dumped out of office too. I expect the electorate to fragment over the next few years and there will be growing instability if the GOP screws up again.   Hostility toward the federal government is growing in proportion to the expansion of it.  Big government has been rejected along with Barack Obama’s radical agenda.  All newly elected Republicans better keep that in mind because the public is watching.

Good Guidance

Last weekend, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held one of its twice a year General Conference’s. These are weekend long multiple session events where our leaders speak to us and give us spiritual guidance.  The wonderful sermons cover a wide assortment of topics and the wisdom is given humbly, but profoundly in many cases.

This October’s General Conference was no different, but I will steer everyone toward the incredible Priesthood Session.  The talks there were fantastic, especially the ones by Elder Juan A. Uceda and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.  The newly revamped General Conference section has all of the proceedings in video and audio formats to watch or download.

I challenged two of my home teaching families to watch and take notes then select the one talk that spoke to each of them directly.  Because of that, I had to do the same.  That’s what I get for making a challenge.  It turned out to be much harder than usual this time.  That’s how good the talks were.  But in the end, President Uchtdorf’s Pride and the Priesthood stood out by a hair.  I can’t wait to find out what my home teachee’s are.