Top 10 TV characters

Nov. 30 - Updating this, The top 10 Greatest TV Characters have been announced:

10. Tony Soprano
9. Capt. James T. Kirk
8. Mary Richards
7. Lt. Columbo
6. Seinfeld Cast
5. Homer Simpson
4. The Fonz
3. Lucy Ricardo
2. Ralph Kramden
1. Archie Bunker

Some good calls by us commenters, but Daisy Duke, Dr. Who and George & Gracie have been most unaccountably left out.

Looking at it one way, the top five has three cranky men, a dizzy redhead and the Fonz.

Or, the top five has 2 characters from the 50's and one who portrayed someone from the 50's. Archie is a 50's guy living in the 60's, and Homer is A Timeless Man of All Decades. Heh.

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Sorry about my absence ...

Nov. 30 - I got off work Friday morning feeling the symptoms of a cold and spent most of the weekend sleeping, reading, and taking plenty of liquids. I see you carried on without me ...

Is it a definite sign of decreptitude when someone gets sick on weekends? I've always faithfully observed the rule about only being sick on work days but it seems some things have gotten beyond my will power since I turned *ahem*cough* years old.

The weekend wasn't a total loss as I was able to finish my leisurely re-read of The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien as well as Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

TV Ontario had an Austen-fest Saturday night and I was fully prepared with my kleenex, tea and popcorn for the airing of the 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility, a horrible 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice (Greer Garson is horrible as Elizabeth) and a reasonable version of Persuasion. Unfortunately, I fell asleep at around 6:30 p.m. and woke up at around 4:00 a.m. so missed the whole thing.

I brightened up considerably when I saw that the Vancouver CITY station was showing Boondock Saints at 6 a.m. ET, and it wasn't until I was applauding the confessional scene that I considered the oddity of liking both Jane Austen and a movie like Boondock Saints.

There's probably a significant philosophical undercurrent that transforms that seeming weirdness into something deeply profound, but whatever it is, it escapes me and I can only justify my taste with "I like it!"

Oh well, don't cross the road if you can't get out of the kitchen.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov. 25 - Just a quickie to wish Americans back home and abroad - and particularly the wonderful members of our military - a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

There are many things for which we can be grateful, but the one thing that strikes me this day is that we are still a people who fail the global test of world weary cynicism and can cheer wholeheartedly for the Ukrainian people and admire their courage.

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Top 100 TV Characters

Nov. 23 - Newsday has compiled a list of the top 100 TV characters. They only list the top 90 at the link and will reveal the top 10 on Bravo Channel Friday night. (I think they mean USA Bravo.)

Some of the choices are interesting. Bret Maverick placed at #33, and Mulder and Scully placed at #32. Maynard G. Krebs placed at #93 (not that I'm complaining; I'm actually pleased that other people out there have fond memories of TV's first recurring beatnik.)

The top 10 might be deducted in part by who is not on the list thus far, so I'm figuring Archie Bunker, Mary Richards and Ben Cartwright (or one of his "sons") might make the Top10!Greatest!TV Characters.

Any other all time greats that aren't listed yet? I'd like to see Delenn or Capt. John Sheridan of Babylon 5 make it but, hard as it is to believe, that show seems to still be in the "cult favourite" catagory.

Nov. 30: The top 10 are named here. We made some good calls (with a few disappointments.)

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Medicinal Chocolate

Nov. 23 - Got a cough? Try eating some chocolate:

Eating chocolate could be a better way of stopping persistent coughing than anything available from the chemist's, according to new research.

Theobromine, an ingredient of cocoa, was found to be almost a third more effective in preventing coughing than codeine - considered the best available cough medicine.

And it is safe to drive or operate heavy machinery after eating chocolate, too!

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Linky Stuff

Nov. 20 - Sharing some good links:

There's a lot of interesting posts on the startling backlash in Holland to the murder of Theo Van Gogh starting with Jujitsui Generis: A Clash of Civilizations? (link via The Transplanted Texan.) It may well be that there's much more repressed resentment in Europe than we had thought. I don't know how accurate this analysis might be, but if Borders and Glenn Reynolds are right and far too many Dutch have lost faith in the ability of their government to handle this crisis then I worry about Europe in general. Peaktalk is not allaying my worries with his look at the response of the EU and Germans to Dutch proposals on limiting immigration.

Jay takes a hard look at the "mythology of multiculturalism:"

Toleration is not licence, nor is an invitation to relentlessly call for the destruction of the host culture. Muslims - and others - who do not realize this need to be reminded, initially by their own communities but, if they persist, through the criminal and immigration law.

As Jay points out, it's not only Muslims but "others" who have turned their right to expect tolerance upside down by being themselves intolerant. I believe we thought that we could teach by example, which is not an unrealistic belief, and that it seems to have failed in some cases doesn't mean it failed in all cases; perhaps making it clear that there is a responsibility for immigrants to be tolerant can enter the politically correct lexicon.

Steve is uncompromising in A Conservative Country is a Liberal Country That Got Mugged :

The Dutch, on the other hand, responded to a single murder by repudiating the leftist drivel they've been spewing proudly for decades. Holland is one of the most liberal countries on a liberal continent, but now they're putting and end to their touchy-feely, all-embracing, nuanced immigration policies.

Wonder why that is. Could it be because conservatives really believe in their values, while liberals only pretend to believe in theirs? In a word, YES. Everyone is a liberal when the living is easy. But when reality intrudes and bursts your soft utopian bubble, people turn conservative. Fast. Remember how New Yorkers adored President Bush for six months after 9/11? That's the state the Dutch are in right now.

He says a lot more, of course, so read it . And as one of the commenters pointed out, GWB made impressive gains in that historically Democrat-owned city in the last election. (Link via AlphaPatriot.)

Damian Penny is looking at two other incidents in Europe that are disquieting: the shooting death of an Orthodox Jew in Antwerp (Jerusalem Post article here)[Update Nov. 23: Belmont Club links to a JP article which says Belgium police have ruled out anti-Semitism as a motive in Moshe Na'eh's murder] and racist heckling of 2 British soccer players in Spain. From Spain, John goes into more detail including past and ongoing incidents of racism in Spain which seems to find an outlet at soccer games but notes that racism against blacks is something seemingly new. What the hell is going on over there?

The Diplomad carries the BBC story of 3 French fighters who were killed in Iraq ... and notes the spirit of Petain continues. [Nov. 26 More in-depth article in today's Washington Times, Decision to join Iraqi rebels fatal for French teens (two of them were 19 and the third was 20 years old.)]

Over here, Condoleeza Rice has been subjected to levels of racism (link via Kate at this Shotgun post) which I never believed would have been resurrected in in the USA - much less by liberals - and the latest insult has been to be called "Aunt Jemima" by a Milwaukee radio talk show host. The accusations that Bush's re-election would be accompanied by a resurgence of racism seems to be coming true, but the racism is coming from some of those who made that accusation.

He's got an explanation, but it is not just stupid but outrightly not believable. If he wanted to say that he finds her too subservient, why didn't he just say exactly that? One expects someone who is as a radio host to have a vocabulary, and whereas the tendency to disagree with something by hurling insults has become much too much a part of political discourse it is nonetheless disheartening to see how quickly racist epithets and stereotypes have leapt into mouths and on print.

If the Democrats don't disassociate themselves quickly from all this they will lose even more standing from independent members of the electorate.

Before someone says - however subtlely - that Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas and Condoleeza Rice aren't the "right kind" of African-American I'll warn them that I heard that kind of talk 40 years ago and regard it as racist now as then. To allow dignity to African-Americans only so long as they espouse the "correct" political line is racist. Period.

Things long over-due are happening: Annan faces a vote of no-confidence by UN staff, link via Alpha Patriot, who also reports that WaPo has finally dumped Ted Rall. [Update: There was indeed a vote of no-confidence in senior management at the UN, but a spokesperson says it wasn't directed at Annan but at the staff as a whole. The text of the U.N. staff resolution is here.]

Alpha Patriot also Deconstructs the CIA for those (like me) who need their memories refreshed about how the CIA moved from an "intelligence to an anti-intelligence footing." A lot to absorb in that post. Time to put Watergate in the same past to which Vietnam and Mogidushu have been relegated and get back to defending our country by and with whatever means are at our disposal.

And Iran; what indeed of Iran? Kateland has the excellent Question Period: Iran which needs to be read, answered and have an adequate response crafted.

The Diplomad has some constructive ideas for Dr. Rice as she takes on the denizens of Foggy Bottom here and here.

The media is still pushing the story of the US Marine who was filmed allegedly shooting a wounded man. Donald Sensing goes over the rules for treating the wounded (as well as rules regarding religious sites which are used by combatants) but the unfortunate fact is that the decision to booby-trap dead bodies and wounded anti-Iraq fighters in order to kill the Marines tending to them worked to alter the application of those rules.

Greyhawk has a great post on that subject Fish Gotta Swim ... (and has compiled an impressive list of Milblogs.)

PowerLine has some words on the subject in A Message from Baghdad from a reader:

I just got of the phone with my father in Baghdad. I asked him what is the reaction of the Marine killing the injured Iraqi in the Mosque in Felujah. His first words were "Good riddance."

People are not giving it a second thought. Any terrorist who attacks soldiers from Mosques has no sanctuary. Any terrorists who fake death to kill in a mosque deserve no mercy. He says Iraqis (including Sunnis) are fed up with the terrorists and want them eliminated.

There was much uproar about the brutal kidnapping killing of Mrs. Margaret Hassan. Iraqis are upset outraged and disgusted with her brutal abduction & killing. She helped us, helped the poor & needy and this what the terrorist do to her and her family.

That reality, of course, is what has been lost as the media thinks they've got another My Lai Abu Ghraib with which to batter the military - the cold-blooded murder of Margaret Hassan.

Her murder has sparked further concerns for those who would assist Iraqis: Aid agencies fearful for staff operating in Iraq. It goes without saying that far too many aid agencies are contemptuous of the very military which they expect will protect them ... and, of course, you can always count on sometone saying that her death is the fault of the USA. Why is it too hard to blame her death on those who killed her?

Dr. Funk has an ironic account of a CBC interview with someone claiming to be a friend of Margaret Hassan. Refer to question above.

Back to the question of how to deal with bombs masquerading as wounded fighters, there are Canadians who get it, such as Damian who states the reality pithily:

The difference any day right now between a live Marine and a dead Marine in Falluja might be a double-tap into a wounded rebel in a mosque.

So to any Marine, coalition or Iraqi soldier reading this are to hear this CFB: Your mission is to come home alive.

Gotta lighten up some. It's finals at the Greatest Canadian competition at the CBC, at Autonomous Source is entering the finals of The Most Annoying Canadian (vote on the main blog page.) Bruce is very annoyed with Carolyn Parrish for reasons no one else has mentioned and has the word on another contest: The Most Embarassing Canadian. (The biographies are hilarious.)

One very funny link (er, a link to more links, in truth) is Smokin' Good Posts with tips for Dr. Rice for her visits with dignitaries and advice for those lefties who are embarassing themselves with their public woebegone-melodramatics (and, yes, I am being disrespectful. They are in the depths of despair over a lost election but have another chance in '08 -- it really, really isn't the end of the world. We lost Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy so shut up already, m'kay?)

Shannon has word that a list of the 100 top movie quotes is being compiled so has made up her own list. Anyone can play ...

I've gone through the depressing, the funny and the fun, and now it's time for some things uplifting: Ghost of a Flea's Winston Review No. 20. (If you're new to the review, it is well worth the time to go through the archives and read the previous entries as well.)

Yesterday was Friday, which to many of us means a new Victor Davis Hanson column:

If someone wonders about the enormous task at hand in democratizing the Middle East, he could do no worse than ponder the last days of Yasser Arafat: the tawdry fight over his stolen millions; the charade of the First Lady of Palestine barking from a Paris salon; the unwillingness to disclose what really killed the "Tiger" of Ramallah; the gauche snub of obsequious Europeans hovering in the skies over Cairo, preening to pay homage to the late prince of peace; and, of course, the usual street theater of machine guns spraying the air and thousands of males crushing each other to touch the bier of the man who robbed them blind. Try bringing a constitution and open and fair elections to a mess like that.

But that is precisely what the United States was trying to do by removing the Taliban, putting Saddam Hussein on trial, and marginalizing Arafat. Such idealism has been caricatured with every type of slur — from both the radical Left and the paleo-Right, ranging from alleged Likud conspiracies and neo-con pipe dreams to secret pipeline deals and plans for a new American imperium in the Middle East shepherded in by the Bush dynasts. In fact, the effort not just to strike back after September 11, but to alter the very landscape in which our enemies operated was the only choice we had if we wished to end the cruise-missile/bomb-'em-for-a-day cycle of the past 20 years, the ultimate logic of which had led to the crater at the World Trade Center.

Oddly, our enemies understand the long-term strategic efforts of the United States far better than do our own dissidents. They know that oil is not under U.S. control but priced at all-time highs, and that America is not propping up despotism anymore, but is now the general foe of both theocracies and dictatorships — and the thorn in the side of "moderate" autocracies. An America that is a force for democratic change is a very dangerous foe indeed.

When he puts it that way, I guess we are crazy (and dangerous.)

Out for now ...

Nov. 22 - 05:52: A commenter points out that the attacks on Dr. Rice have been prompted by her political views. I believe that those who disagree with her views and actions should formulate their arguments on those grounds, but when her race is included as an attack point that is, by definition, racism.

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Nights are days and days are nights

Nov. 18 - Sorry for the light posting. Sometimes the lack of sleep makes it impossible to put thoughts and words together in a coherent fashion, and other times I have sufficient sleep but that translates to having barely enough time to get ready for and travel to work.

I'm not sure I'll ever get this night work thing down pat (although the hours should lighten after New Year's.) There's a fair amount of perpetual confusion in going to work one day, coming home the next, and returning the same day. It's hard to separate one day from another. I'm comfortable with an operational standard of "it's not tomorrow until I wake up" but the newspapers and television don't share my views so I'm always feeling behind.

The worse part is Friday, which is not my Friday until I get home Saturday morning. The second worse part is that Monday is still Monday even if it doesn't actually start until late in the evening.

Sleeping during the day isn't so bad on one like this day, which was overcast and comfortably cool. (Apologies to Torontonians for wishing for non-sunny days!)

Mark Steyn is on hiatus, darn it. Oh sure, he's earned it, but I miss his pith.

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No posting alert

Nov. 15 - I have to prepare for a meeting so won't be posting today (unless something absolutely phenomenal happens.)

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Forget MoveOn, just move!

Nov. 13 - I guess the good news is that Canada is only one of many potential destinations offered by the public-minded folks at Help Them Leave.

The bad news is that, like many children, they often threaten to run away from home but never actually do so.

(Link from Ace of Spades HQ: The Ultimate Buhhh-bye.)

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Remembrance Day and Veterans Day

Nov. 11 - In 1918, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent and World War I ended. That day became known as Armistice Day.

On Nov. 11, 1921, The Unknown Soldier was laid to rest at Arlington and President Warren Harding asked that, at the eleventh hour and on that day, all Americans observe "a period of silent thanks to God" for the valor of those who fought in that war. In 1954, Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day in recognition of all men and women who served their country.

That same day and hour is marked in Canada as Remembrance Day. The poem In Flander's Field by Canadian Lt-Col. John McCrae (background and text here) is recited in schools and at cenotaphs, and, as the words of the poem suggests, it is a day dedicated to remembering those who died in the cause of freedom.

But today I'm more mindful of those veterans who survived their wars: those who, without fuss, caught that torch from the failing hands of the ghostly narrator and indeed held it highly - and then returned to their civilian lives.

I think it's because we are at war, and today we are engaged in action in Fallujah and it is vital that we believe that our warriors - Iraqi and American - prevail and return to their familes. Our enduring optimism is our biggest strength, and today it is one to which we must adhere and embrace. We give reverent thanks to both the dead and the living, and to that inner prompting that leads men and women to dedicate their lives in the service of their country.

Back to speechifying (never absent on national occasions!) The Gettysburg Address is more to my taste because it views the legacy of the dead as a stern injunction to the living:

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract... It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

Or, as Robert Heinlein would have put it, Tanstaafl: there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

But the Muse of Serendipity provided the right classic for this day, as on a completely unrelated topic I was reminded of Shakespeare's Henry V and the inspiring St. Crispian's Day Speech:

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors.
And say, "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forget,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

May all our warriors return safely, and may a nation never forget or be indifferent to the mighty deeds of our fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.

10:45: CBC celebrates Remembrance Day in its own special way with this article: Solve problems without war: veterans.

George Orwell had a harsh view of pacifists.

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Farenheit 911 labeled a documentary

Nov. 9 - I know you've been waiting breathlessly for this: 'Passion,' 'Fahrenheit' hit Globe snags (the awards, not the planet.)

"Fahrenheit" (Lions Gate/IFC/Fellowship Adventure Group) will not be eligible in any Globes categories because it is a documentary. The rules of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which administers the Globes, state that docus are ineligible for consideration in the top film award categories; there is not a separate documentary category.

Calling Farenheit 911 a documentary is like expecting a cat named Einstein to understand relativity. Just because you call him that don't make him a great theorist.

They duck the second bullet too:

"Passion" (Newmarket) cannot compete for best drama because it is considered a foreign-language film. The HFPA considers any feature with a non-English dialogue track to be a foreign film. The organization's rules reserve the best picture awards for movies in English.

"Passion," in which much of the dialogue is spoken in Aramaic, can be considered for best foreign film and under the rules can compete in all other categories.

Well, Mel Gibson is rumoured to be an Australian ...

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Additions to blogroll

Nov. 7 - One of the great things about blogger bashes is learning about newish Canadian blogs to add to the roll:

The Tiger in Winter
Babbling Brooks
Free Advice
Quotulatiousness
Political Staples
Radio Weisblogg
Brock on the Attack (who I thought I had already put on)
David Artemiw (who I knew I put on before - maybe these last two were lost when everything crashed as.per.usual whenever I added to the blogroll on blogger?)

Long-time astute commenter Keith has finally opened his own blog: Minority of One!

And two more milblogs: The Green Side and
The Adventures of Chester.

I'd say the fact that I can't keep up is a good thing in a healthy blogosphere, hmm?

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To sleep, perchance to ... sleep

Nov. 4 - I've just realized that I've only slept a total of 3 hours since Monday afternoon. A part of me feels like an 18-year old who itches to find a party but the other part is faintly aware that I am not 18 any more. I have, you know, responsibilities. I must be mature. (If only I didn't have this silly grin on my face which totally ruins that image.)

But I'm going to try to sleep. It's the mature thing to do. Right? Right?

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Lawyer shoots lawyer

Nov. 4 - I know, I'm seriously twisted, but I find this funny: Lawyer shoots lawyer. Money quote:

It was not immediately known whether Joice [the shootist lawyer] was represented by a lawyer.

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