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ABC News Debates: Great to See Republicans and Democrats on the Stage, Toge
2008-01-06 02:45:00
I'll be back after the Democratic part of the ABC Republican, Democratic debates with an analysis, but, for now, let me just say -Kudos to ABC for having both the Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates on stage together, briefly, at the end of the Republican debate (which was excellent).I've never seen anything like this before, and I applaud ABC's daring and innovation for making this happen. It's good to break with precedent - or, to create new ones - and this one is a very good one: It reminds us that all of the candidates, Democratic and Republican, are part of the same process of democracy.More after 11pm.listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: News , Debates , Democrats , Republicans , Great

Obama, JFK, and the Future of Politics
2008-01-05 20:17:00
I wrote on the day before Christmas about my decision to vote for Barack Obama in the New York State Democratic primary in February. My main reason was the good I think election of an African-American as our President would do for America and the world.I also mentioned that Obama reminded me of JFK. In the aftermath of Obama's victory in Iowa, and his extraordinary speech, the JFK connection seems even more real, prominent, and important.I was all of 13 when John F. Kennedy became President in 1960, but I remember clear as day how good that felt. Because, well, JFK - though he was in his 40s - looked and sounded as if he was part of my generation.It's clear that Obama has that inspiring effect on people in their teens and twenties today. As many media commentators have noted, candidates have called upon and expected big turnouts from college-age voters lots of times in recent history, and were disappointed. They didn't come out for Dean in the 2004 primaries, nor for Kerry...
More About: Politics , John Kerry , Future

Fox News and ABC News: Missing the Lesson of Mike Huckabee
2008-01-05 01:42:00
I'm looking forward to the round of Presidential debates this weekend, but still can't get over the gall - and slap in the face of the American people - of ABC and Fox News not including some of the lower-tier candidates.In ABC's case, the most egregious dis-invitation comes to Dennis Kucinich, who will not partake in Saturday's debate. For Fox, it's been accorded to Ron Paul, who is barred from the Sunday debate.The situations are different. Kucinich is doing much worse in the polls, national and locally, than Ron Paul - who got 10% in the Iowa Republican caucus. But both candidates offer points of view - the most outspoken against the war, to cite one example - that Americans deserve to hear, and these media have no right to exclude from the debates.Are the memories of these media giants so foggy, or are they so unable or unwilling to learn from recent history, that they forgot that Mike Huckabee , winner of the Iowa Republican caucus, was not much ahead of Ron Paul and De...
More About: Fox News , Missing

James Harris' cover of my song, Looking for Sunsets (in the Early Morning)
2008-01-05 01:24:00
Hey ... nice treat for me for the New Year ... James Harris has done a cover of my "Looking for Sunsets (in the Early Morning )" ... you can listen to it here, on James' MySpace music page ... it's in the music player on the right ...And here's the original on my MySpace music page ... The song originally appeared on my Twice Upon a Rhyme album back in 1972 ...More details about my music, including samples of 20 of my songs...Enjoy...listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: Song , Cover

The Iowa Speeches
2008-01-04 05:37:00
I thought I would briefly assess the five speeches given tonight by the major contenders in the Democratic and Republican debates.In order that the speeches were given:Romney: workmanlike, professional, gracious concession speechEdwards: not especially gracious (he didn't congratulation Obama), impassionedClinton: comprehensive, gracious, dignifiedHuckabee: relaxed, homespun, plainspoken and effectiveObama: passionate, inspiring, powerfulSo, I thought all the speeches were good. But Edwards was a little disappointing in his failure to acknowledge Obama, and Obama's was the most inspiring - at least, to me.Obama's speech beautifully captured what was most important about this evening: that American has moved on to a new plane, with a different approach to the challenges that face us. It almost doesn't matter what the specifics of this approach may be. At this point in the campaign, the conveyance of the feeling that change can happen is more important than the specifics. As...
More About: Barack Obama , Mitt Romney , Mike Huckabee , Iowa , Speeches

Obama Wins in Iowa!
2008-01-04 03:33:00
I'm delighted to see - according to MSNBC and CNN at this moment - that Barack Obama has won the Democratic Iowa caucus!As I wrote here last week, I'd be happy with any of the Democrats getting the nomination, but I'm happiest about Obama. In a state with no huge African-American constituency, an African-American has won the primary caucus. That says a lot about how America is finally getting beyond the racism which has plagued us for so long.On the Republican side, I'm glad that Mitt Romney lost. He comes across programmed, inauthentic - or, as I pointed out months ago, like a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica.Ron Paul had a respectable showing of 10%. Fox News: get your heads out of your posteriors, and put Ron Paul into your Presidential debate this weekend, lest you become even more of a laughing stock in political coverage than you are right now.listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books

Ron Paul Polling 9% (4th Place) in Iowa - Fox Excludes Him from New Hampsh
2008-01-02 20:24:00
Shame on Fox News for diving to a new low in its election coverage. With Ron Paul surging to nine percent or higher in the Iowa polls - putting him in fourth place among the Republican contenders, tied with Fred Thompson, and closing the gap with John McCain, currently in third place - Fox News decides there is no room for Ron Paul in this weekend's New Hampshire debate?In the sad sweepstakes of which mass medium has done the worst to our democracy and its election process in the past year, ABC News has led Fox News, in particular in its denigration of Ron Paul. But Ron Paul will be appearing in this weekend's ABC debates. Leaving Fox in the disgraceful position of the network demonstrating the most contempt for our democracy.This election will be remembered in history for a variety of reasons. Among them will be the way some of the mass media - in particular, Fox News and ABC News - betrayed their crucial role in our society to report the news without bias, to convey the ...
More About: Polling

The Wire's Back! Sneak Preview Preview of Season 5, Episode 1 (no real spo
2008-01-02 01:48:00
Whoah! What a New Year's treat. I just saw the first episode of the new, final Season 5 of The Wire on HBO's On Demand!And I loved it!Here are some of the reasons why ...It's great to hear Steve Earle's rendition of "Down in the Hole". Clear and smooth as a whistle. You can hear it here, if you don't believe me ... And here are more of my thoughts about the now-five versions of this great title song...And the storyline this season looks fine, too. This television season - 2007-2008 - may be remembered as one of the great years for newspapers on television. Journeyman featured a time traveler working out of a newspaper in San Francisco (and I sure hope it continues), and The Wire's finale season will look at the workings of a newspaper in Baltimore.Meldrick from Homicide: Life on the Street - aka Clark Johnson - looks to be playing the main newspaper part, and that's good news. Johnson's a fine actor. And I'm in favor of all possible, deepening connections between ...
More About: Episode , Preview , Back , Season 5

Further Thoughts on the WGA Strike: Avoiding Being Tuned to a Dead Channel
2007-12-30 17:52:00
I was interviewed by Lawrence O'Donnell on KCRW National Public Radio's "To The Point" this past Friday about the continuing WGA strike and its impact. This was a return engagement for me - I was interviewed on KCRW's "Which Way L.A." about the strike by Warren Olney at its outset in the beginning of November.The most significant part of Friday's interview, from my perspective, was an exchange of sorts between me and Shawn Ryan - a member of the WGA negotiating team, and creator, among many other important accomplishments in television, of the critically acclaimed "The Shield".I said, at the conclusion of my interview, that I thought the television viewers were being hurt the most by this strike, and then the writers themselves.Shawn Ryan responded, with more than a bit of derision, that, well, of course it's unfortunate that television viewers are being inconvenienced by not being able to see their favorite shows, but obviously writers who are not getting paid during the stri...
More About: Thoughts , Dead , Channel , Strike

The Silk Code in Top 20 of 2007 Podiobooks!
2007-12-29 22:02:00
I'm usually trumpeting The Plot to Save Socrates when I talk here about my science fiction novels - which is pretty often - but today I'm pleased to announce that the podiobook of my 1999 novel, The Silk Code - as read by my good friend Shaun Farrell - has made the Top 20 Most Popular Podiobooks of 2007.The list is in alphabetic order, so I have no idea how high it placed in the Top 20, but given my ego and imagination...The nice thing about podiobooks is they're free! And Shaun gave this a good reading. You can get all of the chapters right here.The Silk Code won the Locus Award for Best First Science Fiction of 1999, and it was also the first appearance in novel of Dr. Phil D'Amato - my NYPD forensic detective.Phil appeared in the novelettes The Chronology Protection Case, The Copyright Notice Case, and The Mendelian Lamp Case earlier in 1990s, and the novels The Consciousness Plague and The Pixel Eye, published after The Silk Code. See the links below, and/or here for furt...
More About: Daniel Keyes

previously unknown Socratic dialogue
2007-12-27 21:48:00
New York City, 2042 ... Sierra Waters reads a previously unknown Socratic dialogue ... it takes place in the prison of Socrates , on the night before his death,, right after Crito's visit ... Socrates receives another visitor, Andros, who makes him an offer...The Plot to Save Socrates"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good bookmore about The Plot to Save Socrates...Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: Unknown , Dialogue , Dial

The Time-Travel Blind and Journeyman: My Response to TV Guide's Adam Schuba
2007-12-27 02:53:00
Journeyman was included in TV Guide's Worst TV of 2007. Writes TV Guide's Adam Schubak, "The major problem with this show is not so much the time traveling as it is the two completely unnecessary love triangles . . . . Week after week, the show spends half the episode dealing with the family drama while the rest is spent in the past trying to help random strangers whose fate has them going on to do something great in the future."Wow, talk about clueless. The great strength of Journeyman is its powerful mix of family/love triangles on the one hand, and the societal issues on the other, and this mix was brought to a near-perfect pitch in the last two episodes.But beyond the fact that Schubak just didn't get Journeyman - and was by no means alone among TV critics - I think there is a more serious, and therefore more interesting, factor at work here.I realized a long time ago, when I was just a kid, and I'd spend hours holed away reading science fiction, and my mother would chide ...
More About: Travel , Time , Time Travel , Blind

NBC's Journeyman in Second Life: Media Within Media Within Media...
2007-12-26 20:54:00
And here I am, plugging NBC's Journeyman, in Adele Ward's Meet the Author interview with me...Or, more precisely, it's my avatar plugging Journeyman, on Adele Ward's Meet the Author show in Second Life , as broadcast on the web via SLCN.tv ...You gotta love this: a shout-out for a network television series, via webcast of an interview in a virtual world...A good example of an observation I first made in Digital McLuhan. The distinction we often make between medium (say, television) and content (Journeyman) is too simple. What we really have are media within media within media, almost ad infinitum ... Also a good example of how Second Life is increasingly spilling over and into real life - as I pointed out in my Second Life Meets Real Life piece on Internet Evolution a few weeks ago.So, when you look at the above ad, you're seeing the medium of this blog, which contains the medium of a YouTube video, which contains my plug for Journeyman, which is itself a clip from SLCN.tv'...
More About: Media , Weeds

Jerry Edling's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas in L.A.
2007-12-24 05:23:00
Well, with no television to review tonight - not because of the WGA strike, but the time of year - I thought I would share this poem with you. It was written by Jerry Edling - producer of my weekly media interview on KNX 1070 all-news radio out of Los Angeles. A shorter broadcast version was nominated for a Writer s Guild Award in 2006.Enjoy ... and have a wonderful holiday, everyone!Jerry Edling's ?Twas the Night Before Christmas in L.A.?Twas the night before Christmas, and all through L.A.The Starbucks served scones and cafe au lait;The stockings were hung by the mailbox with careIn hopes that residual checks soon would be there. The actors were nestled all snug in their bedsWhile visions of callbacks danced in their headsMamma in her bikini and I in my SpeedosHad just left the jacuzzi and were munching Doritos. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,I put down my cell phone to see what was the matter.Someone had breached the property?s borderIn violation of my latest r...
More About: Twas the Night before Christmas

I'm Voting for Barack Obama in the Democratic Primary
2007-12-23 23:23:00
I'm voting for Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries. Since I live in New York, that won't happen until February 5, 2008. But with the Iowa caucuses and other primaries coming right after New Year's, I figured I might as well come to a decision and announce it now.It wasn't easy.First, as I wrote back in March, I think Americans should work for the best candidates in both parties, so as to have the best possible choice on general election day. In the Republican party, there has been and is only one candidate I could ever support - Ron Paul. His respect for the Constitution and the First Amendment, his opposition to the war, make him far and away the best Republican, and in many ways the best candidate, period, running for President in this election.In contrast, I would be happy with any of the Democrats. In comparison to any of the Republicans other than Ron Paul, any of the Democrats would make a far better President.So the choice of whom to support among the Democrats...
More About: Hillary Clinton , Bill Clinton , John Edwards

Video: The First Pages of The Plot to Save Socrates...
2007-12-21 10:56:00
my avatar reads from the very beginning of The Plot to Save Socrates ... in Second Life ... it starts "Athens, 2042... Sierra Waters had always done everything for the thrill..."listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: Video , Pages , Crate

Journeyman Lucky 13//Contest Winner!
2007-12-20 05:20:00
It feels really good, exhilarating to be reviewing a great new episode of Journeyman just two days after the last one - two days after the Episode 12 masterpiece - but it also feels a little bitter sweet, and it makes me sad. Because tonight's wonderful Episode 13 may be Journeyman's last.The show tonight pulled out a lot of the best time travel stops. Running into yourself in the past is the arch danger that every time traveler must avoid, lest he or she cause his or her mind to unravel - into infinite regress. I spent a lot of time tweezing the timelines in The Plot to Save Socrates so this didn't happen, and in the sequel, well...But future Dan manages to just stay out of sight of past Dan in this episode, which is good, and exquisite, since Dan's past in this show is September 2007 - or, the beginning of Journeyman in our and Dan's time.That little dance between the present and the beginning of the series will make this episode a classic, too - but I still like that fi...
More About: Contest , Winner , Lucky , Kidd

FCC Ends Longstanding Ban on Cross-Ownership: Good!
2007-12-19 00:31:00
Well, the FCC overturned a 32-year-old ban on broadcasters owning newspapers in the same market - at least, overturned the ban in the top 20 markets. I was interviewed by Richard Dalton for Newsday about this important development, and that appears in Wednesday's editions.The gist of what I told him: good!Here's a little more context and explanation.First, I don't like media concentration at all. The fewer the hands and minds that control our media, the easier it is for the government to push them around. More diversity in voices means that differences in opinion and perspective are likely be heard, and that's a good thing for democracy.So why am I applauding the 3-2 FCC ruling - a great example of even a broken clock being right twice a day?Two reasons:2. Media concentration is becoming less of a threat to diversity of communication in the age of the Internet. Plainly, there are many more voices on YouTube and countless other web sites than a decade ago, and the net resul...
More About: Political , Ron Paul , Cross , Good , First Amendment

Journeyman Continues: 12: The Perfect Time Travel Story//Contest Winner!
2007-12-18 05:16:00
Tonight's Episode 12 of Journeyman was one of the best hours of time travel ever on television. I expect it will become a classic-But first, we have a new winner for tonight's contest. Like last week, I was emailed the correct answer for Dan's last word in tonight's episode within a minute of it being said-No, I'll get back with the name of the winner, and some consolation prizes, at the end of this review...Let's talk about this splendid show, first:We had a perfect time travel story on Journeyman tonight, and I predict it will become an all-time travel television classic, along with "City on the Edge of Forever" in Star Trek : The Original Series and "Yesterday's Enterprise" in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and that's about it.Even the beginning was perfect: Dan goes eight years back in time to save a mother and son, sitting in the front of an RV, perched half over a cliff. Dan's sheer weight, when he materializes at the back of the vehicle, prevents it from tipping ov...
More About: Contest , Travel , Story , Time

And the Winners in the Dexter Poster Contest Are....
2007-12-17 19:46:00
As I announced here yesterday, Showtime gave me three cool, posters of Dexter that I'm just dying to give away. I received lots of email in response to the following question - which you had to answer correctly, to win one of three copies of the poster -What 2007 motion picture bears a striking resemblance to Dexter - featuring a serial killer who is capable of powerful love for his family, attends AA meetings to keep his "addiction" at bay, and has a sarcastically commenting inner voice?And most of the emails made good tries, but gave wrong answers, ranging from Sweeney Todd to Hannibal Lecter to Suspect Zero (the last not really a good guess at all, since that movie was in theaters in 2004).But three readers did get the right answer. In order of my receipt of their response, they are:1. Davin and Denise Ledbetter from Texas2. Michele Hettel from Florida3. Russ Glenn from Cambridge, EnglandA nice cross-section of erudite readers! Congratulations, all!-oh - and the correct answe...
More About: Contest , Poster , Winners , Kevin Costner , Brooks

Dexter 2 Superb Finale: All's ... Well//Deb's Great Line About D's D//Free
2007-12-17 04:19:00
A powerful, tough, believable finale to this great second season of Dexter on Showtime tonight, which wrapped all the bloody and singed loose ends convincingly.I say singed - as well as bloody - because this was Lila's finale as much as it was Dexter's, even more so.First, she brilliantly incinerates Doakes after she finds him in the cell in Dexter's cabin, and Daokes tells her Dexter is the Bay Harbor Butcher. This shocks and inspires her - makes her love Dexter more than ever before - and in a split second she rises to the moment, and figures out a way to get Doakes out his cell and blown to death in the fiery explosion she sets in the cabin. (I had always admired her intensity and devilish genius and devotion to Dexter.) Had Daokes died in his cell, this would have tipped off the authorities that Daokes was not the killer.So Dexter's home free from Doakes, and enjoying it ... until he finds out he's not home free from Lila. Dexter plans on luring Lila to her death - even ...
More About: Free , Great , Finale , Hall

Four Gems from Showtime Get Nominated for Golden Globes//Dexter Contest Rig
2007-12-14 02:57:00
I was delighted to find out the following today, in the Golden Globe Nominations announced for television ...Best Television Series - DramaThe TudorsBest Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - DramaMichael C Hall, Dexter Johnathan Rhys Meyers, The TudorsBest Television Series - Comedy or MusicalCalifornicationBest Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or MusicalDavid Duchovny, CalifornicationBest Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or MusicalMary-Louise Parker, WeedsNow, there are worthy and wonderful shows and acting talent from venues other than Showtime in the nominations - including some Infinite Regress favorites like Mad Men and Big Love - but I am especially pleased that Infinite Regress reviewed almost every episode of the four Showtime series, and gave them pretty much rave reviews at the time. You can see the Infinite Regress reviews by clicking on the titles, which will bring you to my review of the first episode of each o...
More About: Contest , Golden Globes

And the Pre-Primary Presidential Debates Ends With ... Almost a Snore, But
2007-12-14 01:36:00
The Republicans put on their last debate before the January 3, 2008 Iowa Caucuses yesterday - in Iowa - and the Democrats followed suit today.I had trouble keeping my eyes open for the Republican debate, which is saying a lot, since the debate was on in the afternoon, I don't usually take siestas, and I had gotten a good night's sleep the night before.But I can't think of anything new I heard from any of the candidates, except maybe Alan Keyes, who is an elegant speaker but somewhat out of his league (if not his mind). Huckabee seemed less exuberant than usual, Guiliani seemed tired, and I still can't help thinking that Mitt Romney may be a Cylon, quietly prepped in some Battlestar Galactica back room. I thought at the beginning of this crucially important election process that Ron Paul and his respect for the Constitution made him far and away the best Republican candidate, and the only one I could ever vote for, and I feel absolutely the same right now.Meanwhile, I like just...
More About: Debates , Barack Obama , Presidential , Hillary Clinton

Meet the Author: Talking and Reading My Science Fiction in Second Life
2007-12-13 03:51:00
Click To PlayI'm interviewed, in my Second Life avatar identity, by Adele Ward on her Second Life Meet the Author show on December 9, 2007. Videotaped by SLCN.tv - Second Life Cable Network.I talk about how I came to write The Plot to Save Socrates, my love of time travel and Journeyman, my nonfiction books (ranging from The Soft Edge to Cellphone to In Pursuit of Truth), and other goodies. I give advice to new writers and discuss how to work with your editor. And ... I read the first two sections of The Plot to Save Socrates...Sixty minutes in all ... enjoy.The Plot to Save Socrates"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good bookmore about The Plot to Save Socrates...Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: Science , Reading , Fiction

ABC News Good to the Last Drop in its Dissing of Ron Paul
2007-12-13 01:27:00
Several people emailed me about this - but Jason Gordon was the first, early yesterday, and he gets the credit. (Two other early correspondents were Matt Caverhill, and Lee on MySpace.) The world at large - all of you, via your Internet connections - are the eyes and ears and witnesses of the mass media doing right and wrong. Our democracy depends upon you.This is not the worst thing that ABC has done to Ron Paul , his supporters, and thereby our democratic process - no closing down online boards in the middle of discussions, no leaving Ron Paul out of post-debate analyses, as ABC did earlier this year - but it's bad enough to warrant taking permanent note.As Matt Simon writes about in detail in the Huffington Post, ABC shunted John Stossel's interview with Ron Paul, intended for television broadcast, to its Internet site.Now, there's nothing wrong with the Internet, and ABC is of course entitled to decide where and how to publish its interviews ... but, who is ABC kidding here? ...
More About: News , Mike Huckabee , C News

For the Very First Time: Reading from the Plot To Save Socrates Sequel, in
2007-12-12 06:26:00
You don't want to miss this.For the very first time, anywhere, I'll be reading from Unburning Alexandria - the sequel to The Plot to Save Socrates - Second Life , this Sunday, at 3pm Eastern (12 Noon Second Life and Pacific Time ).Here are the details:You do need a Second Life account to attend. You can get one, free of charge, at SecondLife.comYou can "teleport" to the site of the event - even before the event - any time, via this linkMy Second Life name, again, is PaulLevinson Freenote. Make sure you wave at me, or say hello.Thanks to everyone who came to my reading this past Sunday. All told, we had more than 50 people (avatars) in attendance. If you missed it, or would like to see yourself on television, there's a good link at http://slcn.tv/meet-author-paul-levinson - and I'll embedding the video right here, in the next day or day.Another place you might want to visit in Second Life is my Soft Edge book shop - just down the street from Sunday's reading - and pictured below. ...
More About: Reading

Jean-Baptiste Régnault and The Plot to Save Socrates
2007-12-11 19:41:00
painting by Jean -Baptiste Régnault, 1785Socrates dragging Alcibiades from the Embrace of S.So, who is this mysterious "S." in this real painting by Régnault from 1785....Sierra Waters?See also: Letter from Sierra Waters...The Plot to Save Socrates"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good bookmore about The Plot to Save Socrates...Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: Crate

Journeyman Continues: 11: Livia's Beau//Save the Paper Save the World!// Co
2007-12-11 05:19:00
And we have a new winner for tonight's contest - like last week, I was emailed the correct answer for Dan's last word in tonight's superb episode within seconds after it was said. Look for the name of the winner, and some consolation prizes, at the end of this review...And what a wonderful holiday episode it was. Tonight's Episode 11 of Journeyman was about family, and deepened and developed the relationships of all the major characters.The chapter began and ended with Livia in 1948. She's proposed to, and accepts. Now she and Dan are equal. Both are married, both are caught up in the time travel and the feelings they have for each other. (Livia has a picture of Dan and her on her table.) At this point, Katie knows much more than Livia's fiance, and it would be nice to see how he plays out in the late 1940s and after.Jack and Theresa (played by beautiful Lisa Sheridan) are getting much closer, too. Theresa tells him she's pregnant with their child... And Dan's assign...
More About: World , The Paper , Charles Dickens , The World , Paper

Dexter 2 Episode 11: Deb's Belief Saves Dexter
2007-12-10 04:06:00
Well, I was wrong last week about Captain Matthews and what he told Dexter about Harry's suicide. If tonight's superb Episode 11 is to be believed - and I can't see why it should not, on this issue - Harry indeed took his own life, and Dexter's feeling that the suicide came from his father's incapacity to accept Dexter for what he really is seems warranted.This was the major spur of tonight's show, in which Dexter comes this close to confessing. He let down his father, he let down everyone. He might as well give it up.Except, Dexter realizes that he didn't really let down Deb, and his confessing would be the thing that would let her down. Deb is standing up for yourself and her man Lundy, and has even revealed Lila's true identity, and run her (or so Deb thinks) out of town. Deb is happier than she's ever been before, and Dex doesn't want to take that away from her. In a telling interior voice, he says to himself and us that Deb's belief in him can sustain him - h...
More About: Belief , Aves

Remembering John Lennon
2007-12-09 00:00:00
I just heard John Lennon 's "Woman" on the radio, and, as always, it brought a tear to my eyes and soul.It's impossible, on one level, to compare assassinations, the murders of public figures. They are all horrendous. But the murder of John Lennon on this date in 1980 is in some ways the worst for me, and I can't speak for my generation.John was a singer, a songwriter, for God's sake, not a President or someone running for office. His murder was fueled by a sick thirst for fame, pure and simple. That's why I never mention the sicko monster's name.But this day - and public murders in the quest for fame - also makes me think about gun control. The killer in Omaha this week was looking for fame, too.I know about the Second Amendment . And as an absolutist on the First Amendment, which I think should be followed literally, with no government restrictions on speech or press, all of the time, I want to do the same for Second Amendment.But I can't help thinking that John Lennon...
More About: The Beatles , Remembering