Under the Skin

I did not vote for Donald Trump.   I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, either.   But, I was pretty much 100% sure she was going to win. So, on Election Day, I found myself in the same state of shock as most of the country.   In the weeks that have past, we have come to accept it, and the parallels with Nazi Germany are being thrown left and right.   I do think that we’ve had a repeat of history.   But it’s not Nazi Germany. You see, what we really had was a very toned-down version of the French Revolution (and probably the only reason we didn’t have a full-fledged one is because we have a democratically elected government).   When I was young and first learned about the French Revolution, I simply didn’t get it.   How could they have just sat there and let the people starve?   In fact, I sort of felt like the Aristocrats maybe deserved it a bit. Perhaps the Scarlet Pimpernel wasn't doing a good thing. The fact is that Marie Antoinette’s famous, misquoted line is the c

Let me begin by saying that I’m horrified with my countrymen. My ancestors died to make this country possible, and to invest in this Great Experiment. Yesterday, the descendants of those, and the inheritors of their legacy, threw all of that away because they felt like they, as the “underprivileged class” had to rise up against their oppressors—namely the educated. They began to compare themselves, and decided that the reason they weren’t rich or powerful was because they had been robbed of something. And so, they voted for someone who was extremely rich and powerful because he had appealed to their jealousy. Yes, that’s how I summarize Donald Trump. To quote Lady Bracknell, “Which reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution, and we all know what that unfortunate movement led to.”  Really, the problem in this country isn’t the people in power. It’s the belief that they have to stay in power. Last night, I jeopardized my mental health and went on facebook

They always say that the book is better than the book.  But is that always the case? I don't think so.  Today, because I love lists, I will show you 10 times when this is not true. As always, they are in no particular order. Of course, this does not consider any books that are rated R. TV series are not eligible for this list. 1) Stardust   I really liked this movie.  I actually saw this movie before I read the book, because when I saw it I didn't know that there was a book. I thought it was made up for a movie.  There is a book, by Neil Gaiman.  He's a great author, but I don't think he was up to his game on this movie.  I think it was a very weak book.  The movie was well-acted, well-thought, a good story line, with good music and good special effects.  But the book was kind of scattered in where the plot was going, and I thought the pacing was very weird. For example, in the book, Yvaine and Tristran (yeah, in the book he's in TristRan not Trist