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[selenak]

The festival for short films has started in my hometown Bamberg, and I'm in the jury, so, no time for long entries, though I hope to post a report on the films later. (Also, I haven't been in a film festival jury before, so I'm looking forward to finding out the technicality of the process - will we get clipboards, I wonder?)

Meanwhile, things to read:

Politics:

On the interminable long farewell to Bush. It's been four years, and I still don't understand how that man ever got reelected. Eight years since the Supreme Court made him President to begin with. Marx' quote about history first coming as tragedy and then repeating itself as farce would probably be apropos, but to me, W.'s presidency has always been both at the same time, from beginning to end.

Shakespeare:

More than kin, less than kind: ever since watching Branagh's Hamlet film version, one particular idea concerning the ghost, Claudius and Hamlet has been bugging me, and lo and behold, someone wrote an excellent story which uses just that idea. Check it out.

Comics:

Project Wide Awake: the best AUs aren't simple fix-its but those alternate scenarios which really work the "what if X happened" through. This particular story takes on that flawed event still providing so much excellent ground for fanfiction, the Marvelverse Civil War, and asks what would have happened if Captain America and friends had won. It's a Steve Rogers pov, and the resulting story, intense, dark, but ultimately with some hope, carries an incredible punch.

Alias:

Don't stop (thinking about tomorrow): in nine out of ten cases, I stay away from works in progress, finding them frustrating and preferring to wait until they're finished before reading them. There are exceptions. yahtzee63 writing an Alias story always is one of them. (Though we won't have to wait long; the first two parts are up, the next two will follow soon.) It's Sydney two years after the s5 finale, it's Rambaldi madness and time travel, Seventies fashion and First Gen spies in their prime, and it's absolutely impossible to resist!

Comments

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I still don't understand how that man ever got reelected.

He didn't just get reelected; he got elected with a significant majority - 4 million votes, was it?

Europeans who do not get why Bush was reelected do not get American realities. I know it sounds like a blanket judgement - it also applies to lots of East Coast pundits. There were MANY reasons, most to be found in Tocqueville rather than explained away as "oh, Flyover Country is stupid, bitter, clinging to guns and religion, etc."

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

4 million votes sounds impressive, but is actually not a "significant majority" by the standards of American politics. Without even taking into account the nuances of the Electoral College (which meant Kerry only needed about 2 thousand more OH votes to win), Bush's victory over Kerry was by a margin of 2.4%. In American history, most elections have been by a 5% margin of victory or higher. Clinton's victory over Dole, for instance, was 8.5%. Obama beat McCain by about 7%. This U of Virginia site (http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/article.php?id=FRC2008073101) has a good breakdown of the numbers. The 2000 and 2004 elections were extremely close by American standards, and they are outliers.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

You are missing my point. Those were 4 million more votes than in 2000, and there were objective political reasons for it.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

Political reasons, yes. "Objective," I don't agree.

[neuralclone.livejournal.com]

This Australian is also totally bamboozled as to how Bush got re-elected. And her opinion of the American democratic process went down several notches when he scraped into office in the first place.

On a happier note, I've started counting down to the end of his regime reign presidency. Only five more days to go!

Honestly, I think the world would have done better if the Americans had elected Harold Saxon!

[leia-naberrie.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot for that Alias link! I rarely read any Alias fanfiction (otgher than yours) so I never know what to look at. That was a great story. Any hope there'll be a sequel? This AU!Vaughn looks a lot more interesting than the canon.