Ignoring Oaths and Obligations (and Amazon prices)

For the most part, I have to say the year has been a disappointment, but "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai! Across the 8th Dimension" is still pleasantly as bizarre as ever.

While I doubt Ms Collins or Ms Murkowski will do anything to budge #MoscowMitch into, at minimum, giving the appearance of a fair impeachment trial, it is nice that they are willing to pretend to care about impartiality, and maybe they mean it, but both tend to kiss the ring of Trump more than not, so I think it is just noise.  You can argue whether or not there was an impartial investigation, but during the public aspects of it, the Republicans were just complaining about the whole thing, rather than asking questions that might have provided some sort of defense to Trump. It seems they want a reality show and don't want to face the reality that it appears that Trump has involved or attempted to involve foreign governments in US national elections.

While I don't intend to harp on the subject, please beware of Amazon pricing.  Twilight Time Movies has issued a Blu-ray of an earlier cut than is on most public domain prints of "Beat the Devil."  While I appreciate that there was a handy dandy website that gave me that information (It came from the bottom shelf!), the proprietor of the website has a linking deal with Amazon, the movie in question was listed as $42 or so on Amazon and $20 or so at Twilight Time Movies.  True, it was on sale at the latter, but the normal price was only $30, so someone did some major mark-up, and that third party vendor was using Amazon, giving the appearance that Amazon is jacking up prices. I was going to leave a note for him there, but I figure he already knows what I am talking about.  In general though, Amazon is comparable to other movies sites for DVD/Blu-ray, though they aren't always willing to get them, as I do recall ordering directly from Criterion when Amazon advised me they were unable to get the disc, with my guess at the time being that they could not get the disc at a price favorable to them.

The Good News

While I am sure I do not agree with all the former editor's beliefs, I will give him kudos for standing up for what he believes, especially when others are so willing to ignore Christ's teachings while claiming to follow them. The biggest bit of hypocrisy they spout is how it is only illegal immigrants they dislike, but legal ones are fine--as if the Holy Family would have waited for the proper paperwork to legally flee once they learned Herod had issued an extermination order for those under two years old.  As the two thousand year history of the church has revealed over and over again, nit-picking is fun, and even though Jesus encouraged his followers to Love Thy Neighbor, those same followers will continue to find reasons to ignore that particular teaching.

I do hope in the future that those who speak for the religious, speak for following the teaching of their religion in practice, rather than the "do as I say, not as I do" sort of thing that seems to be going on now.  I am not sure which part of Christ's work Trump is doing, but with many evangelicals Trump walks on water, just like Jesus did.  We all know Trump loves his prostitutes, just like Jesus did, with the exception being that Trump pays for their services rather than absolving their sins. Hush many after the fact is exactly the same as paying for their services, the only difference is the fee isn't negotiated prior to the act.

Amazon and other stuff

It is always odd when you see things on Amazon that don't make sense, like an adult romance novel being listed as a children's book, but I couldn't understand what happened in the case above, as it looks like the UP Faith & Family trial version is priced like that to inspire you to subscribe, even though it is cheaper to rent than the other version.  I doubt there is anything different about the movie, it does make one wonder just how connected the various parts of Amazon are.  Regarding the movie, it is a guilty pleasure of mine, as it is a feel good movie, and while there are some religious overtones, it isn't quite as onerously preachy as others.

In other news, the impeachment is proceeding, though I have to honestly wish the republicans would actually take it seriously and present something concrete that mitigates or contradicts what looks like an abuse of power, but so far they have done nothing to argue a defense, preferring instead to attempt to turn the proceedings into a reality show circus that Trump will appreciate, though not too much if it gets good ratings.