February 1, 2005
NEW MODEL AWE ME:
New kind of awe in the Mideast (Youssef M. Ibrahim, 1/31/05, USA Today)
Regardless of its flaws and how it came about, Iraq's first free election in half a century is a historic event. Among other things, it has given quite a boost to a liberation process underway in the greater Middle East, sending tremors through both ruled and rulers.Strange how one day's event can touch so many, even those outside Iraq. But it did not come from nowhere. To autocratic regional despots, the rush to vote by millions of trapped, terrorized and occupied Iraqis was a closure to tired arguments. The despots have never held an honest-to-God election, and now this embarrassing model sits there, across the border, in a major Arab nation.
In one fell swoop, this upset has brought to a halt years of despots' arrogant posturing toward Iraqis or hiding of domestic shortcomings behind missteps of the Americans and Israelis in Iraq and Palestine. Iraqis today stand like a phoenix amid the rubble of mediocre governance and corrupt autocracies.
Mediocre? The hope for a democratic Iraq is that it become the first government in the region to achieve mediocrity. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 1, 2005 2:54 PM
What's wrong with mediocrity? WIthout it, we wouldn't have William Shatner and Canada and most Major League relief staffs and Gerald Ford and Roman Hruska and people who find things with metal detectors and Microsoft and Safeway Diet Sodas.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at February 1, 2005 3:41 PMSince when is William Shatner mediocre?
Posted by: Ali Choudhury at February 1, 2005 4:57 PMHey - Ford vetoed more bills in 2 years than others in 4 (ahem and that was before the current resident.)
IIRC
Posted by: Sandy P at February 1, 2005 6:19 PMI am irresistably drawn to point out the acme of American pop culture.
Posted by: David Cohen at February 1, 2005 7:23 PMDavid:
Close, but not quite. hooker was especially remarkable for the fact that the talentless Heather Locklear was in not just it but also Dynasty at the same time. However, even this is topped by the fact that in the 60s such unrelieved drek as Batman was popular enough that there were two episodes a week.
Posted by: oj at February 1, 2005 7:47 PMSeriously. This election nukes every argument of every dictator and every dictator's mouthpiece that "you can't have democracy in the Middle East because..." Now no one will even listen to what comes after the "because."
Posted by: Tom at February 1, 2005 7:50 PMOJ,
Before she turned 30, there was no such thing as 'too much Heather Locklear' on TV. Sure, she couldn't act but neither can Salma Hayek, Roselyn Sanchez or Teri Hatcher. Does anyone other than you either care or even notice?
The Batman TV show was terrible but it did have one of the single funniest moments I ever saw on TV. There was an episode with a criminal named Colonel Gumm, played by Roger C Carmel. He was eating alphabet soup and complained to one of his henchmen that the soup didn't have enough consonants in it. The henchman brought over a box labelled 'Extra Consonants' and poured some raw into the soup. I can't even think about it without laughing uncontrollably. When they brought Bubble Butt to play Batgirl, the show just died.
Shatner is so bad that he is genuinely funny. I don't know how real actors like Leonard Nimoy and Walter Koenig could keep a straight face around him.
The best approach with the election is cautious optimism.
This might be OJ's best title to a post. Ever.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at February 1, 2005 9:41 PMOJ --
Batman succeeded in great part because it arrived in January of 1966, just at the time color television sets were becomming commonplace in the market, and the cartoon-like images were made-to-order to show off the new video receivers for people who had just graduated from the world of black & white (in hindsight, it's also part of the reason why the flower-power movement and TV went hand-in-hand with each other -- the medium wanted to flaunt colorful images in the mid-1960s, and the tie-dyed clothing, lava lamps, rainbow-painted VW vans and other clashing-but-vivid color schemes attracted the cameras like a flame attracts a moth). Of course, it only lasted two nights a week for 1 1/2 seasons, and then for less than a season after that one night a week, because the bright colors got to be old hat and the assinine plots finally did the show in.
(And Shatner was OK for the first season or so of Star Trek, but once they started hooking him up with the guest Hot Babe of the Week in minimal costume in Season 2, he started moving around like a bad imitation of Orson Wells' mannerisms in the early part of Citizen Kane.)
Posted by: John at February 1, 2005 9:49 PM
This is perilously close to OT, but I always thought the last scene of the last episode of T.J. Hooker should have gone something like this: Hooker is trapped in a blind alley, his .38 Police Special clicking on an empty cylinder. As he's about to be gunned down by the Guest Goon of the Week, he pulls the communicator out of his back pocket, flips it open, and yells, "Scotty, energize!" As the villan looks on in befuddlement, Hooker dissolves into optically-matted sparkles.
Posted by: Mike Morley at February 2, 2005 6:36 AMJohn,
What really killed Star Trek was when it became obvious that they were working on the cheap. The Nazi planet, the Roman planet with Miguelito Loveless, the Roman planet without Miguelito Loveless, the Chicago Gangster planet, the Wild West planet with the obvious movie sets, the 'time travel' episodes to 1960s America, etc.
At least they didn't do a Farscape and film an entire episode in a multi-story parking garage.
Posted by: Bart at February 2, 2005 8:44 AMAnyone who doesn't think Shatner can be amazing, hasn't seen near enough of him. He gets lazy a lot, that's all.
Posted by: RC at February 2, 2005 11:05 AM