Genius of the Modern World s1e1 Marx

Genius of the Modern World, season 1, episode 1, titled "Marx" clip from about the 41 minute mark.

Bettany Hughes : And then we're told Marx made things worse. Living with the family was a feisty woman called Helene. She helped around the house, she was a fellow radical and friend but, Marx slept with her and fathered an illegitimate son at the same time that Jenny was pregnant again. This was not Marx's finest hour.

Rachel Holmes (Marx Family Biographer) : Jenny was furious. They'd all known each other for a long time. So, clearly, there is some drama and upset that goes on. and it is really heavy going. Marx is sending notes to Engels saying I can't go home because it's an absolute storm and everyone is really upset and Jenny was furious please come have a drink with me at the pub at Russell street.

Bettany Hughes  : You know he has slept with somebody who's not his wife; she's pregnant. This is a terrible stigma at the time. It's tough now it was really really tough in the nineteenth century.

Rachel Holmes (Marx Family Biographer) : Hmmmm...Well, is it? Because they are quite conventionally unconventional. And at that time, illegitimacy, particularly in the circles that they were moving in, politically and socially, isn't such a stigma. But at the same time quite a lot of the evidence points towards the fact that Jenny wanted it covered up.

Bettany Hughes  : so who takes responsibility for all this?

Rachel Holmes (Marx Family Biographer) : Who makes it ok is Engels. He makes it understood that he is the father. And Engels, he takes the rap for his best friend.

Bettany Hughes  : Wow. What do you think this incident tells us about Marx?

Rachel Holmes (Marx Family Biographer) : Marx is a man! And ultimately, also a Victorian Patriarch. A man like any other that needs to be understood in context and all heroes have their flaws.

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The interview with Rachel Holmes ends on that note.

Ah, the familiar Marxist argumentation style of tossing up a variety of arguments up to see what sticks (I call it the Socialist Harangue) :

Oh, poor Marx! He was a victim in this and people were mad at him; he was suffering! Didn't fall for that? OK, then ...An illegitimate kid is no big deal! It was accepted in their social circle. Was his wife part of his social circle? OK, then ... in that case it's no big deal because Engels makes it understood that he is the father. He takes the rap and by rap I mean the thing I just claimed wasn't a big deal a moment ago. Oh, you still think it reflects poorly on Marx? OK, then ... it's because he's just a man! All men have illegitimate kids! We should really blame the Victorians as they controlled the penis of all German emigres! Blame the Patriarchy! It was taken out of context! Don't forget he's a hero! C'mon! You're holding him to too high of a standard! Other than that he's a hero! Nobody's perfect!

I'll note that the subjects of the series "Genius of the Modern World" are Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud.

from episode 2 of the series on Nietzsche :

The host, Bettany Hughes, declares that :
"The Nietzsche of the Nazis was a hideous parody... And yet perhaps the blame for his misuse is not entirely Elizabeth's. Nietzsche would never have advocated Hitler's final solution but, he was naive if he thought his work would not be misunderstood. Evil loves nothing better than a void, and the philosopher's clever, ambiguous aphorisms could easily be put to the service of evil. Even when he was entirely sane, Nietzsche  said that bad would be done in his name. The sister and the brother must share responsibility for the life that his work took on after his death."

It is worth noting that Nietzsche died in 1900 when Hitler was 11 years old and Nietzsche's Will to Power was published posthumously in 1911. Both Marx and Nietzsche wrote about the restructuring of morality and society. Despite Marx's positive view of revolutionary terror (which I don't recall the episode mentioning) there wasn't a comparable measuring of responsibility in the Marx episode.

n.b. I had previously mentioned Stephen Fry's Wagner and Me which had a similar corruption of reputation not through Wagner's own actions but but by other people's behavior.

TV cop incompentence

Clip from Criminal Minds season 10 episode 18 "Rock Creek Park" :

(What's going on : The wife of an increasingly prominent Congressman is kidnapped and so the FBI team tries to figure out who would take her.)

(transcript of the episode clip)
FBI Agent Aaron Hotchner : Is there anyone who would want to hurt her?
Congressman Troy : No, no-no.  Sophie's a wonderful, sweet woman.  I, on the other hand, I'm not very well-liked in this town.
FBI Agent Aaron Hotchner : and who are your enemies?
Congressman Troy : Well, where do we begin? We have the oil lobbies.  Uh, we have the NRA and PETA. You have an equal opportunity offender.

(later)

FBI Agent Derek Morgan : So the gun lobbyists were dismissive of the congressman saying they don't waste their time with one-termers like Troy. But anyway, even if they were involved I highly doubt they would outsource the job to the Russian mob.
FBI Agent Aaron Hotchner : What about the oil companies
FBI Agent Kate Callahan : Pretty slimey, pun intended. But none of our sources say they were involved.
FBI Agent Derek Morgan : Well, considering how much oil comes out of Russia, they are the most likely candidates to have ties to the mob.
(later it is suggested that the Congressman supported fracking ban would drive Russian oil prices up so the oil companies aren't suspect.)


I've mentioned TV law enforcement incompetence before.

1) The congressman describes himself as "not very well-liked" and an "equal opportunity offender" but they only investigate groups he specifically named.
2) they forgot to look into PETA even though he mentioned them! They didn't even a "pretty slimey" or "pretty stinky", as the case may be,  comment.
3) With the NRA they don't ask "sources" they just asked one of their lobbyists if they did it.  On the bright side, the writers consider NRA lobbyists to be upright and honest citizens who the FBI can take at their word without needing to offer one whit of evidence. On the other hand, the writers really think that a NRA lobbyist would imply that kidnapping the wife of a 2 or more term congressman wouldn't be wasting their time.
4) There is the suggestion that, sure, the NRA might kidnap the wife of a longer serving politician but that they wouldn't outsource the work to the Russian mob. It's unclear if the writers feel the NRA would do it themselves with Wayne LaPierre in a ninja suit or if they would just employ Americans to do it.

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Bonus :
(transcript of the clip)
Penelope Garcia : I found the smoking gun or at least the stuff that goes in to the gun to make it smoke. Credit card receipts from the congressman show he purchased ammo for a handgun and then more smoke he sent that ammo to a PO Box registered in his name in Virginia.
FBI Agent Kate Callahan : And why would he do that?
FBI Agent Aaron Hotchner : Did you have your wife kidnapped?
Congressman Troy : What? No! What? Why are you saying this?
FBI Agent Jennifer Jareau : You purchased ammunition for a handgun last month and you had shipped to a mailbox in Virginia, which means you likely own a handgun although there isn't one registered to your name
Congressman Troy : Yes, I have a handgun.
FBI Agent Jennifer Jareau : That you bought illegally?
Congressman Troy : Uh, well I had to after having been so staunchly pro gun control.

Lucky guy

clip from the TV show Criminal Minds (Season 8 episode 10 The Lesson)

The episode is about a killer who puts his victims on the rack to stretch them and crucifies them.

Transcript :

Dr. Spencer Reid : So far we believe he has spared the one woman that he still has in captivity. She's either witnessing these horrors or being forced to participate in them.
Dr. Alex Blake : Crucifixion is sadistic and watching it is the ultimate torture.

Whew, the guy who got crucified and murdered sure was lucky he didn't get tortured as badly as having to watch it happen to someone else.

losing perspective on Futurama

From the Futurama episode A Taste of Freedom (season 5 episode4) :

Did the Decapodians have a secret anti-perspective weapon or maybe a shrink ray is involved?

In this cross-section, the DOOP's (Democratic Order of Planets) Nimbus appears to have 14 levels.

Here, the same section of the Nimbus as seen just before it crashes to Earth with cloud of smoke after having apparently shrunk to the size of a Central Park tree (well, the size of the canopy of a Central Park tree). All the while, buildings with fewer than 14 stories loom in the background.

Preserve history! No, not that history.

Clip from Secrets of Althorp - The Spencers (2013) :

Narrator : What you see now is an illusion designed to look like grey brick. The exterior is made up of 106,000 thin clay tiles, called mathematical tiles. But centuries of wet English weather wreaked havoc with this outer shell
…
Jan Bialek (Althorp Building Manager) : Originally, the mathematical tiles were fixed on a quite think lime mortar bed. And then iron nails would be fixed through the holes that are in there and the nails went through the lime mortar and into the red brick. The problem with the nails is that they are iron nails and they rust. And there's no secure fixing to the tiles. So the tiles are gradually coming loose and moving away
Narrator : The Earl embarked on a massive renovation project . A new lead roof and secure fixings for every tile on the walls.
Jan Bialek (Althorp Building Manager) : one or two people have asked "well, why didn't you restore it back to its original red brick?" Physically, it couldn't be done because the red brick was damaged behind.
Narrator : And there was another problem. Althorp's historical importance means that the house is protected by England's strict national heritage rules and regulations. The Earl would not have been allowed to strip the unique façade away from the building. …

"We must preserve history! But no, not that history." I suspect it is less about an interest in history and more about a dislike of change or a need for someone to boss people around.

(to whoever might be interested , the clip continues and explains how they fixed the mathematical tiles in place)

Out of context fun : Duck breasts

"But you know what? So are my duck breasts."
– Courtney Lapresi on Masterchef Season 5, Episode 19, September 15, 2014

movie notes : Wagner & Me

The original music of Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung bound into book form.

Wagner and Me (2010) is a little movie about Stephen Fry's mixed feelings about the music of Richard Wagner and his distaste for things associated with the music (including the composer). Fry is a professional raconteur so despite the movie at times being centered more on Fry and what he might be thinking at that particular moment than Wagnerian history (to be fair, the title is Wagner & Me as opposed to All About Wagner) it is interesting and entertaining throughout.

Stephen Fry says :

Wagner's Russian adventure was a triumph. He was even sounded out about taking over as artistic director of the Mariinsky. Had he accepted there might never have been a Bayreuth Festival House [The theater designed to Wagner's vision of his ideal theater]. He might never have completed the Ring Cycle.

His story would have had a different and probably less controversial ending.

Hmmm, if his music had become more influential in Russia than Germany… I guess Russian Czars and Russian Communists must have ruled in a boring and completely uncontroversial way.  Interesting isn't it that some mass murdering political leaders are controversial and some aren't.  Note that the controversy is not due to Richard Wagner's antisemitism which was known before his trip to Russia but because several decades after Wagner's death (Feb 13, 1883) someone bad liked his music. 

I confess that despite the movie's attempt at explaining why some people balk at Wagner because Hitler (born 6 years after Wagner's death) liked his music and the Nazi's played it, I do not understand it. I think I'll watch the movie again later to try to determine if it is a lack of understanding on my part or if I don't understand because it isn't rational.

I've heard the dislike of Wagner and of "his relationship with the Nazis" before and for a while I was under the impression that he was, if not a Nazi, then a Nazi sympathizer which must have meant that he lived to be well over 100. What is really meant is the Nazi's relationship to Wagner not Wagner's 

relationship with the Nazis as he was long, long dead. (I can't help but wonder if some people confuse Richard Wagner with another German composer, Richard Strauss, who was alive during the Nazi regime and did deal with the Nazis.)

There is a transgenerational corruption of blood mentioned in the movie, but with a twist. Normally the corruption of blood stains the descendants but Fry has the stain run from descendants' spouses to taint the ancestor and his musical compositions. The movie informs that Wagner's son-in-law Houston Stewart Chamberlain was a racist and early supporter of Hitler and his daughter-in-law Winifred is said "to revere Hitler." The beliefs of the spouse of Wagner's third child is left unmentioned. 

Other than Wagner, would Fry accept someone else claiming music or a bloodline or a family is tainted by the words and actions of ancestors or descendants? 

Hypothetically, if Johann Sebastian Bach's great-great-great-great granddaughter is a inveterate shoplifter will some people chose not to listen to a Bach piece or perhaps with the distance of time they'll simply refuse to listen to it in stereo.

At one interesting point Fry is discussing Wagner with a musician who survived the Auschwitz as to whether his music is tainted and she starts asking him questions : "What happens to you when you sit there for five hours?" "Why do you have to listen to Wagner in Bayreuth?"

Oversized bust of Richard Wagner by Arno Breker at Bayreuth Festspielhaus (note the monumental scale)

Stephen Fry says :

"even this memorial bust was created by Hitler's favorite sculptor"

Considering that the bust was done by Arno Breker in 1939 (Breker was born 27 years after Wagner's death and the work done 56 years after) is it really surprising that it was done by a Nazi approved artist at a time when so-called degenerate art was being discouraged (as in censored). 

I'm not sure what to call this. Instead of sins of the father perhaps call it Sins of the Muse. The implication is that Hitler liked a sculptor and decades after the composer's death that sculptor used Wagner as a subject and therefore through no action by Wagner his music is tainted. 

Additionally, I'll note that Stephen Fry wore pants throughout the entire movie! Just like Hitler! 

movie notes : Jerry Seinfeld in the Bee Movie

This would have been a much better movie if it had been about the travails of Jerry Seinfeld, etc making a B-movie while wearing fluffy bee suits rather than what was finally made.

A Star Trek Christmas

The crew of the starship Enterprise sing "Let It Snow"


and for those who don't celebrate Christmas:

a dishonest gun controller : Robyn Thomas

@10:50

Robyn Thomas of the Legal Community Against Violence (aka LCAV) a group funded by the Joyce Foundation (which has given millions to gun control groups over the years) complains about Oleg Volk's posters in this video.

Robyn Thomas of the Legal Community Against Violence : What I'm noticing more and more is this really scary marketing techniques which implies that women have some sort of moral obligation to own guns to protect their families. So, someone sent me this website which shows some of this marketing, some of this propaganda type ads about this and the actual ad says "Around midnight, she called 911 but by 12:06 the fighting was done. No time to wait for help to arrive, so she used her rifle to stay alive."

Robyn Thomas of the Legal Community Against Violence : Obviously what they are telling us here is as a woman you can't rely on law enforcement to help you if an "intruder" (makes air quotes) comes to your house you have to have a gun available and ready to defend yourself.

Narrator : Based in San Francisco, Robyn Thomas heads a group of lawyers called the Legal Community Against Violence. She's angry about advertising campaigns that urge parents to buy guns for their children 

Robyn Thomas of the Legal Community Against Violence : Here's one that says "Once mature enough to be home alone she's ready to have a gun of her own." To me this looks like a pretty young child (Oleg says the model was 16 at the time). The message is clear, parents should be buying a gun for their young child so they can defend themselves. How sort of ridiculous is it to think that a child is going to get this loaded weapon, is going to use it, be effective with it and what are you saying about the experience of that child in both instances.

Of course, Oleg isn't selling guns so it is dishonest to describe his work as marketing or ads. Few advertisements have no logos, no copyright notices, no mention of the product or no mention of the manufacturer. A gun controller lying to advance their position? I'm sure everyone is suitably flabbergasted. Oleg is a citizen using his First Amendment rights to promote his Second Amendment rights. They don't even show Oleg's web sites like a-human-right.com or olegvolk.net instead the show his images at a Canadian website in French that is critical of his work. 

If she had been honest and had said the posters were not some expensive advertising campaign but images produced by some guy on the internet would the TV producers have included it in the program?

Did you notice at 11:25 she used both hands to make air quotes/scare quotes when she says intruder? One wonders if the Legal Community Against Violence is opposed to shooting intruders while being less concerned about any violence an intruder might commit.

Hi-diddly-ho, neighborino!

"Hi-diddly-ho, neighborino!"
– Ned Flanders' catch phrase (this one from The Simpsons season 7, episode #5 "Lisa the Vegetarian")

It just goes to show that if you do it with a friendly attitude and in a chipper tone of voice then you can call someone a ho.  Calling someone a ho who is high is basically the same as calling them a crack whore.

Dana Scully unarmed

From the 1993 episode of the X-Files season 1 episode 2 (if you count the pilot as episode 1, otherwise it would be season1 episode 1) titled "Deep Throat" FBI Agent Dana Scully meets a man in black with an intense interest in national security who takes her gun and removes the magazine :

Oh, she is sooooo embarrassed as he looks disapprovingly at the empty magazine.
(frame 1 you can see him pull the magazine from the pistol.
frame 2 you can see his skin through the magazine.
frame 3 you can see the greenery through the magazine. Look away, Dana.)

Rule number one of the Rules for a Gunfight is "Bring a gun…" the unmentioned corollary is bring a loaded gun. (although it is mentioned in these modified rules for a gunfight)

The light colored part at the top of the magazine may be the follower or a cartridge so it may not be an unloaded gun but underloaded. Later in the episode, she holds a guy at gunpoint and there is a distinct possibility she might want more bullets in that situation (Rule 2 of the Rules for a Gunfight is "Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice…")

The Internet Movie Firearms Database identifies her pistol as a Bernardelli Mod.60 32 ACP pocket pistol.

The stupidest cops in New York City

To be fair, they may not be the stupidest cops in NYC; they might just be ignorant of the law and incompetent.

from Law & Order : Special Victims Unit season 7 episode 6 entitled "Raw" :

Ice T (sic) : What about the weapon Munch found on the roof? Any prints?
Cragen : No, but the serial number's intact.
Cragen : John, where are we with the gun trace?
Munch : on a cross country tour. It was lovingly manufactured in Sturgis, South Dakota, made it's way to a wholesale distributor in Brainerd, Minnesota who then shipped it to a whimsically named little shop called "Gun Ho!" on Staten Island.
Cragen : When?
Munch : Less than a month ago. Gun Ho! sold it last Thursday.
Cragen : We have a legal purchase?
Munch : Complete with loophole. It's a long gun so no background checks are required.

(In New York City, the buyer needs a license to own (pdf link) regardless whether it is a handgun or a long gun. You would think that someone at One Police Plaza would think to check if the applicant is a convicted felon (as the shooter was) before issuing approval and the buyer must register a rifle with the city. That is in addition to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System aka NICS. About the NICS : the Federal Firearm License holder contacts the FBI's "NICS Section via a toll-free telephone number or electronically on the Internet through the NICS E-Check System to request a background check with the descriptive information provided on the ATF Form 4473. NICS is customarily available 17 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays (except for Christmas)."

It seems the SVU cops don't know either Federal law or NYC laws.)

Cragen : Cash sale?
Munch : Of course.
Cragen : Buyer's signature on the affidavit?
Munch : Yeah but it's illegible and I guarantee you it is bogus.
Cragen : Looks like "S. Brockwoll" or "Rockwell"
Stabler : first initial could be "G". Who made the sale?
Munch : The owner of Gun Ho! the name is… Brian Ackerman.
Cragen : Well he did a pretty half ass job. He didn't get a clear signature or a full first name.
Stabler : Let's go talk to Mr. Ackerman.

What else do the SVU cops not know about? Notice any difference in the Law & Order SVU's version of the ATF form 4473 (above) and the real ATF form 4473 (pdf) version shown below?

ATF Form 4473 page1 (click to embiggen)

The investigation would have been so much quicker and easier if they had looked at the top half of the form that Munch didn't post on the board.  Specifically, box one (where the buyer prints his first and last name) and box two (the buyer's address) of the 4473.

Alternatively, they could have called the New York City License Division for the buyer's Rifle / Shotgun Permit (pdf) which includes not only the buyer's name and address but also :  the buyer's fingerprints and a full color photo of the buyer taken within 30 days of the license application. Shame on the NYPD in the Law & Order TV-land who approve gun licenses for convicted felons. Tsk, tsk.

Other things needed to get a license to own a gun in NYC :

• if you were ever arrested for any crime or violation you must submit a certificate of disposition from the court concerned indicating the offense and the final disposition of the charges. You must do this even if the case was dismissed, the record sealed or the case nullified by operation of law
• Four color photographs, (Taken from the chest up, 1½ x 1½), of the applicant must accompany the application. (Taken within last 30 days)
• You must submit proof of your present address. Acceptable forms of proof are utility bills, such as gas, electric or telephone bills, or a notarized lease. 
• If you were born in the United States, you must submit your birth certificate. 
• All persons filing applications must bring their original Social Security cards with them to the Rifle/Shotgun Section when applying for a permit.
• A signed "Affidavit of Co-Habitant" stating the nature of the relationship and swearing "I understand that the applicant has applied for a rifle/shotgun permit or handgun license from the New York City Police Department, and I have no objection to him/her receiving a permit or license and storing firearms in my home."
• The application fee is $140.00.  The fingerprint fee is $94.25. Both fees are nonrefundable.
• But even if you supply all of the items above, they still might turn down your application.

Episodes like this, that lie about the state of gun control in the US, cause some to suspect the media of an anti-gun-rights bias.

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Later, Law and Order SVU Detectives Stabler and Munch go to the gunshop, talk their way in, and at the end of the scene Munch tears an antisemitic pamphlet in two (at 1:55) and shoves a pile of paper to the floor (at 2:19).

I kept waiting for someone to say "Gee, Munch, just because you don't like someone or the despicable things they say doesn't mean you should use your position of power to destroy their property and be a dick by making a mess. Haven't you ever heard of do unto others as you would have them do unto you?" But, disappointingly,  the incident wasn't brought up once in the rest of the episode.