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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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My battles against my digibox are reaching some kind of climax. I thought I had won the war when CNN went subscription and I was saved two hours a day but CNN-deficit (it's a known condition) led me into various animal-inspired thickets so I was back to daily 100% full digibox-tightrope walking.
I used to be able to deal with this by watching programmes until it clicked back to 99% and I could happily go off and do some work but now I have to spend time deleting back-programmes just to get it down to faux-100% (they won't tell you what the real upper limit is) and then watch programmes to get it down to 99%. The strain is beginning to tell but that's a good thing in my stress-free world.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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When reporting on the Number Ten party imbroglio the Newsnight presenter failed to mention that imbroglier-in-chief, Allegra Stratton, used to be a Newsnight presenter. What an ex-Newsnight presenter is doing working for reactionary beasts in the first place was therefore not enquired into either. Television, like sport, should be kept separate from politics.
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Grant
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It surprises me that the leader of the great AE movement (it’s early days) hasn’t realised that there is absolutely nothing reactionary about the Tories, especially Boris.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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So, a power grab. I may be new in the job but young Grant ('Young' Grant as many people call him) should have realised that it wasn't me who thought the Tories, especially Boris, 'reactionary'. It was Newsnight, being used here as shorthand for the British intelligentsia generally.
PS AE does not regard the term 'reactionary' as being derogatory.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Mick Harper wrote: | When reporting on the Number Ten party imbroglio the Newsnight presenter failed to mention that imbroglier-in-chief, Allegra Stratton, used to be a Newsnight presenter. What an ex-Newsnight presenter is doing working for reactionary beasts in the first place was therefore not enquired into either. Television, like sport, should be kept separate from politics. |
Ms Stratton also worked for The Times, The Independent, The New Statesman, on ITV, and is married to the editor of the Spectator. She normally chooses sensible clothes for the job, so fits in unnoticed. Her latest see through outfit has caused a bit of a stir. She had to go.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Partisan (Walter Presents, Channel 4)
This was very good, leastways I stayed to the end, not something I always manage with Scandi-convoluters. The chief problem was a familiar one faced by this particular genre: how to make an organisation so all-powerful that it is a threat to the world, but inefficient enough to be overthrown by one man on a mission. Cue: security gates in charge of lovesick swains, drunken baddies burying a man alive then forgetting to bury him etc etc.
Typical of the Swedes to have the hero die at the end. Quite pointlessly as he could have made good his escape. Sort of noble suicide, I suppose. The sequel will have to be a flashback now.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Vienna Blood (BBC2) embarked on Series 2 last week and a rather dull affair I thought, but a somewhat unreliable source insisted the second episode was worth watching. It did liven up considerably, broadening the plot to remind people of the political clout of the Habsburg Empire, though not sure if the series overall is to be recommended. The not especially sympathetic portrayal of the Jewish family is a contrast to some recent shows dramatising antisemitic attitudes.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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A 'reliable' source (I don't think it was you) commanded me to take another look as well. After five seconds (honestly) the prospect of anything 19th century just repelled me into switching off. I pondered this. Was it something simple, like being made to read Great Expectations aged thirteen? Was it something systemic, like programme makers always going for full on red crimson interiors and dank foggy exteriors? Since I don't mind other periods of history I can only think it has something to do with reality being too close but too alien.
If it is quite removed, I'm all right. I was, for instance, encouraged by your mention of Habsburgs, I can get behind them. I may not like programmes set in Victorian London but I can watch programmes with Queen Victoria prancing about. Presumably in Victorian London. Tell me it's not me, man.
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Grant
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I’ve been amusing myself by reading the reviews of Matrix Resurrections, the latest in the Matrix saga. The director of the movie is Lana Wachowski, who when he was called Larry made the first three movies with his brother Andy, now called Lilly.
First problem is what do you call Lana. Easily answered - “she”, of course. Even though Lana probably still has a penis we must recognise her desire to ignore her trillion XY chromosomes
Second problem is more difficult: what do we call the two siblings when they were making the first movies?
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Grant
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Many reviewers have decided to call them the Wachowski Sisters, as though transgenderism has the power to retrospectively turn people into women.
This wouldn’t matter apart from the fact that the movie is about the choice between the red pill of reality and the blue pill of comfortable illusion. Most critics are very happy to swallow the blue pill.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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It is significant though that two such closely related people should elect to do this. It shows how elective it is.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Unless it's genetic.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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It's autism.
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Grant
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Or it’s autogynophilia, yeah it was new to me as well.
Apparently there is a medical condition where a man finds himself attracted to the idea of himself as a woman. If this condition exists (and let’s face it, most psychology is nonsense) it would tend to affect the most vain individuals.
If you look at those who transition many were handsome, vain and self-centered, cf James Morris or Bruce Jenner. That often applies to gays as well, who often are good-looking.
Maybe homosexuality is just a form of vanity
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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People will suffer quite a lot in the name of vanity but I hardly think going through the incredible rigmaroles of either gender-alteration or a lifetime of having sex with men (ask any woman) would be a price anyone would voluntarily pay. No, we are dealing with a genuine 'condition' though I agree not necessarily the one our current thought-masters think it is.
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