Sad week

When Israel pulled troops out of Gaza and said that they destroyed all the tunnels, I had hoped that the violence would be over, at least for the time being. When the 72-hour ceasefire began, I didn't want to celebrate it for fear that I would jinx it. But superstition doesn't work, of course. The war has resumed after the expiration of the cease-fire, and now violence is happening in the West Bank too. Still no end in sight, and it seems to be fading from the news, while Iraq comes to the fore again. It's sad and frustrating, especially if empathy is dead in Israel.

At least Wendy Davis has improved in poll numbers. I'll have to send her money when I get my next paycheck. Maybe there's hope for Texas after all.

In the meantime I can only distract myself with watching various DVDs I have bought lately, such as the new Seven-Per-Cent Solution blu-ray, which indeed has an interview with Nicholas Meyer from 2012. No discussion of his new Sigmund Freud project, but hints that he might do another Holmes story if he has time. It's interesting to hear him talk about why his screenplay changed the mystery from the novel, and how he really wanted to cut out parts of the story that dragged, like the tennis match, because he wanted the movie to flow better and be less talky. I didn't know that Meyer's own father was a psychiatrist.

Afterward I also watched the movie A Dangerous Method, about the conflict between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. There's also an unethical affair with Sabina Spielrein, a patient and later colleague, who became a doctor herself. The film is a good antidote to Nicholas Meyer fawning on Freud as a great "detective" with apparently no flaws. Viggo Mortensen portrays Freud's arrogance and his need for other psychoanalysts to become obedient yes-men to his theories.