The Founding Fathers did not exist
Tried to watch V for Vendetta again yesterday night. Hum, no, didn't work. Just too tedious, preachy and predictable (regardless of whether I had read the graphic novel or not). Basically stopped right when Finch makes his hypothesis of a government conspiracy. Since it is an American, every misdeed has to be a government conspiracy, even the discovery of AIDS (something overheard at work). Oh, and because it is an American movie, Vox Populi has to overcome the tyranny of radical evil. Because evil can't be banal. Which is a trap the graphic novel escapes, because any option (anarchy vs. totalitarianism vs. democracy) is a failure (democracy fails before the story starts).
On the other hand, Jackie Chan's New Police Story was mildly because of its lack of pretensions. A cop buddy story done by the numbers, with Chan being his righteous self and Nicholas Tse being impish.
I am a bit intrigued at the constant invocation of the Founding Fathers in matters of constitutional law. Only in the United States. I don't remember ever hearing a foreign politician/judiciary invoking Vercingetorix, Clovis, Charlemagne (if they're French or German), the Vikings, Jagellon (if they're Polish) or King Arthur and the Knight of the Round Table (if they're English) on similar matters abroad. Except when we are talking about far-right extremists (like Jean-Marie Le Pen in France) What? King Arthur? Why not? The Founding Fathers are about as mythic as he or Jesus. George Washington walked on water and Ben Franklin turned water into wine. I mean, what passes for a biography of Thomas Jefferson is more hagiography than biography (yes, I mean you, David McCullough!).
Oh, and this is what I read.
On the other hand, Jackie Chan's New Police Story was mildly because of its lack of pretensions. A cop buddy story done by the numbers, with Chan being his righteous self and Nicholas Tse being impish.
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I am a bit intrigued at the constant invocation of the Founding Fathers in matters of constitutional law. Only in the United States. I don't remember ever hearing a foreign politician/judiciary invoking Vercingetorix, Clovis, Charlemagne (if they're French or German), the Vikings, Jagellon (if they're Polish) or King Arthur and the Knight of the Round Table (if they're English) on similar matters abroad. Except when we are talking about far-right extremists (like Jean-Marie Le Pen in France) What? King Arthur? Why not? The Founding Fathers are about as mythic as he or Jesus. George Washington walked on water and Ben Franklin turned water into wine. I mean, what passes for a biography of Thomas Jefferson is more hagiography than biography (yes, I mean you, David McCullough!).
Oh, and this is what I read.
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