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Happy New Year to all our readers. It is almost 2010, the year we make contact. (It is a shame that Arthur C. Clarke didn’t make it to see this year).
Something is terribly wrong with the universe when Northwestern is playing in a New Year’s Day bowl and Michigan is staying at home.
Iranian Supreme National Security Council has ordered a complete check-up of the jet which is on standby to fly Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his family to Russia should the situation in Iran spiral out of control.
The order, to the Pasdaran Revolutionary Guard Corps, was dated on Sunday, 27 December, the second day of recent unrests in Iran.
My Congressman is at it again. Pete Hoekstra, also a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, sent out a fund raising letter in which he uses partisan attacks in response to the attempted bombing in Detroit last week to raise money. (A full copy of the letter is also available here).
I’ve already noted the absurdity of Hoekstra’s attacks considering that the Democrats have a better record in fighting terrorism than the Republicans. In this case, it was the Bush administration which gave the visa to the person who attempted the bombing, and it was the Bush administration which released those who planned the attack from Guantanamo to instead be placed in an art therapy rehab program.
Hoekstra’s argument in the fund raising letter makes even less sense considering that the governor has little to do with fighting terrorism. He also better be careful in distorting the records of Democrats as he does in his letter. Someone might ask him about his vote on June 24 against funding for the TSA, including funding for explosives detection systems and other aviation security measures. In addition to blocking funding for the TSA, a Republican is also responsible for blocking the appointment of a TSA chief.
These acts by Republicans may or may not have contributed to the latest attack, but Republicans such as Pete Hoekstra are in a very weak position to play politics with this as they have been doing. Even one of his Republican opponents, Rick Snyder, has spoken out against Hoekstra for playing politics here:
“It is extremely disappointing that the congressman would us a potentially tragic incident to raise money for his political campaign,” said Snyder spokesman Jake Suski. “In these troubling times, words can’t describe how sad it is to see an attempt to politically capitalize on a failed terrorist attack just three days after it happened.
Perhaps the fact that Hoekstra is trying this, despite such a weak hand, shows how he really lacks any meaningful arguments as to why anyone should vote for him for governor.
In 2004 Karl Rove helped George Bush get reelected by using state amendments opposing gay marriage to get out the vote. The Republicans campaigned as defenders of traditional marriage. Now Karl Rove is doing even more to defend traditional marriage–divorcing his wife after twenty-four years of traditional marriage, freeing himself to enter himself into another traditional marriage.
There is no word as to whether his marriage was destroyed because of the existence of gay marriage.
Karl Rove’s dedication to traditional marriage is even stronger. He was divorced once before (again no word if this was caused by the existence of gay marriage). This means that Karl Rove can now demonstrate his support for traditional marriage by getting married for a third time.
One of the problems with political discourse in recent years is that the right wing prefers to attack straw men they create as opposed to responding to actual liberal views. Generally when a right wing pundit attacks liberals, the views they are attacking have little resemblance to the views I hold. Here is one exception where National Review accurately lists some liberal beliefs (emphasis mine):
Congratulations to Captain Picard! [Mike Potemra]
Palace sources say Patrick Stewart is about to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. It turns out he is an avid supporter of Britain’s Labour party; his support must be especially welcome in this, one of Labour’s darker hours. Coincidentally, I have over the past couple of months been watching DVDs of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a show I missed completely in its run of 1987 to 1994; and I confess myself amazed that so many conservatives are fond of it. Its messages are unabashedly liberal ones of the early post-Cold War era – peace, tolerance, due process, progress (as opposed to skepticism about human perfectibility). I asked an NR colleague about it, and he speculated that the show’s appeal for conservatives lay largely in the toughness of the main character: Jean-Luc Picard was a moral hardass where the Captain Kirk of the earlier show was more of an easygoing, cheerful swashbuckler. I think there’s something to that: Patrick Stewart did indeed create, in that character, a believable and compelling portrait of ethical uprightness.
Potemra realizes that peace, tolerance, due process, and progress are liberal messages. Presumably this means that the opposites of these represent conservative messages. This also demonstrates that, contrary to conservative attempts to portray liberals as weak on national security, a leader can both be a liberal and be tough.
The above photo created a lot of buzz on the internet today. Initially TMZ billed this as a photograph which could have changed history if released, claiming it showed John F. Kennedy on a yacht with naked women. The initially claimed that the photograph was taken in the mid-1950′s.
It turned out that the photograph was really from a Playboy photo spread from 1967–four years after JFK was assassinated. Here is a portion of the page (click on image for a larger version) via The Smoking Gun:
Either that is not John Kennedy sitting in the chair, Kennedy was not really killed in Dallas, or he was a time traveler. We report, you decide.
Doctor Who: The End of Time Part I aired on the BBC on December 25 and the following day on December 26–a far wiser policy than having large differences in air dates between the two countries. Warning, this review contains major spoilers.
As this is the first of a two part episode designed to set up the regeneration in the final episode for both David Tennant and Russel T. Davies, it is difficult to judge all aspects of it. While it ends with a cliff hanger, it does stand up on its own with a major change in the mythology for the renewed series.
While every fan probably is aware that this is to set up a regeneration story, the show suggests the danger of even more ominous outcomes ranging from the final death of The Doctor to the end of time itself. Some of these warnings occur as part of the story while others come from a narrator played by Timothy Dalton. Early in the episode we find that The Master had left behind a cult determined to save him. The last thing they needed was his DNA, taken from the lips of an imprisoned Mrs. Saxon. The revival doesn’t work out correctly, resulting in The Master being even more insane than previously, but with new powers.
Besides the return of The Master, the episode ties into previous Davies stories in additional ways. Donna Noble’s grandfather, Willfred Mott, is the equivalent of The Doctor’s companion in this episode. Adding further continuity, a major portion of the show centers around technology which was recovered with the destruction of Torchwood.
This leads to three key aspects of the cliff hanger. The alien device was intended to cure the ill–on a planet-wide level. The last time we saw The Master he tried to conquer the entire Earth. This time he goes even further. The Master alters the alien device to turn everyone on earth into a copy of himself.
Russel T. Davis has tried to present big endings in recent seasons, including The Master conquering Earth and the movement of the entire planet during recent seasons. This cliff hanger is rather silly, but did present amusing scenes at the end with everyone on the planet being The Master. Before judging the idea, it will be necessary to see what is done with it in the conclusion. While a product of The Master’s insanity, it is difficult to see how this really serves his ends. A planet full of equals is not the same as a planet of humans who serve him.
The second part of the cliff hanger is that Donna begins to remember her past with The Doctor. At the conclusion of the fourth season, Donna acquired the mind of a Timelord. This necessitated the wiping of all her memories of her time with The Doctor with warnings that her mind would burn itself out should she regain her memory.
It is easy to imagine solutions for each of these cliff hangers, however the third cliff hanger has the potential to change the series for the Steven Moffatt era. At the end, the narrator played by Timothy Dalton, is revealed to be a Time Lord. The Time Lords of Gallifrey have returned, in a scene reminiscent of the Imperial Senate in Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith.
It is fitting that the story of the time war and apparent end of the Time Lords takes place in Davies’ final episode as this was a change to the mythology which he brought with the return of the series. I have always questioned the end of the Time Lords, questioning the possibility of destroying a race which can travel anywhere in both space and time. While dealing with time has been inconsistent throughout the series, it also doesn’t make sense that the paths will never cross between either the other Time Lords and The Doctor when both can appear at different points in time.
Although the stories are about a time traveler, Russell T. Davies primarily used the Tardis as a device to place The Doctor at different places in space and time while avoiding dealing with the concept of time travel within most stories. Previous interviews have revealed that Davies has been working with Steven Moffatt to leave the Doctor Who universe as he desires it when he takes over as show runner. In contrast to Davies, when Moffatt has written individual episodes time travel has been more important. This has included Blink which involved aspects of the story at different points in time. The Girl in the Fireplace took place over a large time span. Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead involved a character who knew The Doctor from a point in The Doctor’s future time line.
It is possible that Steven Moffatt wanted the Time Lords and Gallifrey to return for use in future episodes. I do hope this is not a one-episode event. It also remains to be seen how their return will affect The Doctor and the universe. It was never clear to what degree The Doctor voluntarily fled from Gallifrey or was exiled by the Time Lords. They have placed him on trial twice, and have even forced a regeneration. This scene from Part II gives a clue about the nature of the Time Lords:
The above scene is from early in the episode. Following is an actual trailer from the episode, which will air on New Year’s Day on the BBC and the following day on BBC America:
Update: The End of Time, Part II
