Democratic Debate

Well, the first debate was last night, and I saw it with a crowd of enthusiastic viewers. (We clapped a lot.) Nationally, 15.3 million people watched, which is not as much as the viewers of the recent Republican debates, but I think it's still pretty respectable for cable. Due to technical difficulties and speeches from the local party leaders, we missed the national anthem and the first two speeches by Chafee and Webb, but I don't think it mattered much.

I did not appreciate how CNN tried to hype a possible appearance by Joe Biden (so glad he didn't take the bait) and to criticize Hillary about those damn emails. Bernie was totally right that we don't want to hear any more about those emails. I can't believe Anderson Cooper had the nerve to scoff at Hillary, "How can you call it political?" when she just brought up Kevin McCarthy. He fucking admitted that the committee was purely political! Shame on you, Anderson, for that, and the disgraceful question about conscientious objector status somehow being a disqualifier for being commander in chief. "Commander in chief" does not require military experience; it is a civilian status, just saying that the POTUS has supreme authority over the armed forces. I'm glad that Jim Webb didn't take the bait, but otherwise, I didn't like his performance. He gave very bad, Republican-ish answers about the Iran deal, and kept bringing up China. CNN also irrelevantly brought up whether Bernie had smoked pot; what the fuck does that matter? Just ask about their policy on legalizing marijuana, Anderson, not juvenile shit for soundbites!

More TV

Well, Fox cut Minority Report to 10 episodes instead of 13. At least they didn't pull it off the air, and are promising a satisfying conclusion when it ends. I'm sad, but I'm getting used to all the shows I like getting cancelled (or turning horrendously awful like The Good Wife and Castle). I would have preferred to keep this show instead of Rosewood. Not only is Minority Report's cast diversity cool, but they fixed the racist Washington NFL team by renaming them Red Clouds after Lakota chief Red Cloud.

My local PBS station has started airing old Miss Marple episodes (the ones starring Joan Hickson) so at least I can turn to that for light cozy mysteries. Nobody makes detective shows like they used to. It seems that Hollywood thinks that "mystery show" means "police procedural" with lots of crime scene gore and arrogant leads who defy rules and brutalize suspects for no reason. I'd take even a revival of the short-lived Andy Barker, P.I. about now.

I read recently that NBC is developing a pilot loosely based on Wendy Davis, and modeled after The Good Wife. I don't know if I'll watch, as it might make me depressed about Davis not becoming governor, but then again, so few shows are set in Texas. Also The Good Wife turned into such repetitive crap that it would be nice to have somebody do it better. Have to wait and see how that turns out, I guess.

Meh TV

I think I've had it with Rosewood. It's not getting any better, and the detective Villa is just too abrasive and unsympathetic for no reason. Her arguments with Rosewood, and his arguments with his mother, are so repetitive. Nothing is accomplished by them. I don't feel sorry for Villa, and I don't even know what the point was of her therapy session. The show keeps trying to tug our heartstrings about Rosie's health problems too, but I find it manipulative and jarring to toss in serious drama in what was advertised just to be a fun and light show. This isn't what I was promised. This is just CSI with arrogant jerks for leads. What happened to light mystery shows like Monk? There's been news that a new Nancy Drew show is in development, but it'll probably just be a boring police procedural; or worse, its brand of feminism will be along the lines of the soul-killing Agent Carter. No thanks.

Sadly, the show that is getting better--Minority Report--is dropping rapidly in ratings. I'm afraid it won't be able to finish its run. Almost Human was similar, but way too slow in making progress on its story arc; it became a boring procedural. If only Minority Report could trade ratings with Rosewood, but that would mean they'd have to switch timeslots. I guess I should just enjoy it while it lasts.

I'm frustrated by Empire too. I don't like Jamal being whiny and led around by Lucious. I don't like Andre begging futilely for forgiveness, or Lucious not even telling him that his own mother had mental issues. The plot seems to be treading water like an ordinary soap, which makes me apathetic. The previews for next week imply that the show will finally address Vernon's murder, so I'll stick around for that. But if something doesn't change soon, I'll give up. Maybe only check in for the season finale.

Church and State

I'm really annoyed by how people keep violating the separation of church and state. A public elementary school in Georgia kept leading students in Christian prayer, and harassed students for not praying. It's really horrible that they keep perpetuating this mistaken belief that America is a Christian nation. It is not. There are Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, atheists, etc. who have religious rights too. The 1st Amendment is about freedom from religion, as much as freedom of religion. The government is not supposed to allow teachers to proselytize to students like this. If you want to teach your kids Christianity, then send them to Bible school or a private religious school; keep your faith out of our public institutions, which are supposed to be for everyone!

I personally am agnostic and went through a Texas public school education. They didn't do daily prayers at my schools, though they did have "invocations" at the graduation ceremony, and I was outraged and appalled to be expected to bow my head and listen to somebody talk about "our Lord and savior." He's YOUR Lord and savior, not mine, and this isn't a freaking church, you asshole!

Meanwhile on TV

Sleepy Hollow seems to be better now, with Pandora putting the Headless Horseman on ice in her magic box. We can move on from all that Moloch mess, I guess. I miss Irving, but was at least glad that Jenny got to shine. I was really worried about her when she got knocked out; I kept saying, "Go check on Jenny" while Ichabod and Abbie were hugging. I'm not sure about Betsy Ross (and where she'd fit into the previous story about Crane, Abraham, and Katrina) yet, but since she's in the credits too, I guess we'll get more development later. It is kind of fun that the show has lots more female characters now.

On Wednesday I had a blackout in the middle of primetime, so I missed half of Empire. What I saw seemed okay, though the flashback with Lucious's mother was too confusing. I guess I'll stick with the show for now, as long as they don't do that crap about pretending Lucious is innocent; maybe his sleazy lawyer can work that angle, but I don't want anyone else participating in stuff like that shitty concert in the premiere. That was really fucking offensive to use Black Lives Matter that way. I liked Black-ish more, with its tackling of gun control.

Not Shiny and New

So apparently everybody's talking about the Pope's meeting with Kim Davis. Progressives and other apologists want to believe that the Pope was tricked into the meeting, does not support Davis, and is not homophobic; I mean, he met with an old gay friend and his family, so he's totally tolerant! Well, whoop-de-doo. Pope Francis might just be a "hate the sin, love the sinner" kind of guy; I don't buy this stupid PR back-pedaling, when they could have come out with a stronger statement to begin with.

Just yesterday people were saying that the Pope meeting her was not surprising, and people deluded themselves into thinking he was cool. No one's investigating the discrepancies between Kim Davis claiming she got 15 minutes in private, with a blessing and rosaries, and the Vatican's new claim that it was just a few seconds with tons of other people visiting. I don't give a crap about which version's more accurate. The Pope's still Catholic no matter what, and he did meet with some nuns to support them resisting Obamacare's birth control mandate; he also made Junipero Serra a saint despite objections from Native Americans. He's still tarnished, and his church is still problematic. Sure he's better than previous popes, but let's not get blinded and give him more credit than he deserves. Kudos to Pope Francis for focusing on climate change, immigration, and the poor. Boo on the shitty hypocritical stuff. If he helps in some areas, fine, but I'm not going to idolize him or Bernie Sanders 'cause people want them to be cool. I want fucking results, not promises of change.

I'd rather focus on the Palestinian president giving up on the peace accords because Israel has sabotaged the peace process every step of the way. I'd rather that we get new Republican leadership in Congress that's not crazy and intransigent. I'd rather we take Obama's speech to heart and actually work on gun control this time instead of speculating about the shooter in Oregon. But no, nothing ever changes in politics. It's so frustrating.