I am gonna try to resist the urge to go on a tirade, but we all saw the same thing today, so what did you think? I am disgusted of course. I think this guy is a loudmouth punk; pure scum. I don't care if he coaches his daughters' basketball team or whatever else. He's an a-hole of the first order. Yesterday I called him a liar, and he is that - in spades - but he's also far worse. As you saw, he has a belligerent temperament, often a characteristic of an abusive drunk, as demonstrated when he sarcastically asked the female Senator if she ever blacked-out on alcohol.
We talked about body language last night. What did you think of all the tongue pushes he made into his cheek? It was similar to when a person blinks rapidly when they are obfuscating. This guy lies through his teeth; he has Senators like Lindsey Graham - pure rotten scum - who back him up even though they know for certain he is lying.
Even though they know for certain he is lying.
Because though Lindsey Graham may be a rotten politician, he isn't stupid. None of those Republican Senators are stupid, and they know exactly what they are doing. They are gonna put this bastard on the court, no matter what kind of guy he is, because he is 1000% on their team, as evidenced by the preamble he gave in which he outed his partisanship by blaming his troubles on, among other things, "revenge of the Clintons".
Hey ladies and gentlemen, should we have a Supreme Court Judge who shouts and blames and loses his formidable temper, who won't answer questions about an FBI investigation, who clearly has a history of alcohol abuse?
I will end my tirade here, but I have one final thing to say. Brett Kavanaugh went to Georgetown Prep and has been a Catholic all his life. Despite the fact that the horrible pedophile scandals and crimes of certain Priests and the resultant coverup by the Catholic hierarchy at the turn of the millenium destroyed the image of the Church in many people's eyes, I have a lot of respect for Catholicism even though I am not a member of the Catholic Church. My Mom was, however, and over the years I have studied the works, positions and foundations of the church throughout it's near 2000 year history, and the good works outweigh the misdeeds by an enormous margin. And it's not just that, because the church is a body, founded in the beginning by the Disciples when it was still One Body, united with the Eastern Orthodox Church. The church was and is a body, based on the teachings and instructions of Christ. The scandals that have plagued it recently, that have destroyed lives, have been instigated and committed by individuals. Individual priests, and the bishops who engaged in the coverup. Not the Church itself, which is made up of millions of worldwide members of good faith.
So I just wanted to clear that up, because Brett Kavanaugh today declared his faith, which under ordinary circumstances would be a wonderful thing. But then he swore, not just to the Senators and to our country, but also to God, that he did not commit these crimes.
He is a lifelong Catholic, and he swore, on worldwide television, he swore before God that he is innocent.
Man, that is some serious business to do that, to declare your faith in Christ and then to swear to Him that you are telling the truth, that you are innocent of the accusations against you.
That is not a situation in which you should be lying.
So what do you think? Should we put this bad tempered man on the Supreme Court, to decide cases of the highest importance? And what are we to do with these unrepentant Republican politicians who support him?
I know what I think, but I wanna know what you think. And please say a prayer for the United States of America if you are so inclined, and even if you are not religious, because we need all the help we can get. That's all I have to say on the subject for tonight. /////
I watched another Mizoguchi film this evening, in my continuing but informal Cinematheque At The Tiny Apartment. Tonight's movie was called "Street Of Shame" (1956), and was the director's final picture. His themes were often about women in distress, and many times he turned to stories of geishas or prostitutes to convey his message about the subjugation of women in Japan. "Street Of Shame" is in the same vein as his earlier film "Sisters Of The Gion" in that it is a story of the lives of prostitutes working in a brothel in Tokyo in the aftermath of WW2, when the country was devastated and it's economy in a shambles. In "Sisters of The Gion", the story was about Geishas, and in my review I had pondered the difference between geishas and prostitutes. Geishas, as far as I can see, are more like "paid" or "substitute" wives, and prostitutes are as you would think. But really, as Mizoguchi depicts, there is little difference in the end result.
The prostitute is under no illusions, however. In this group, they are all in it to make money so that they can get out. They support each other to an extent, though the older ones resent the young ones, and the brothel owner and his wife tell the women that prostitution is their only hope for support, because the government doesn't care about them. He buys them lavish dinners, loans them money and tells them that they'd be on the street if not for him and his wife. The owners are not bad people, they treat the women as family, but they want to keep them as prostitutes if possible.
Some of the women want to break out. One has a son she wants to live with, but he is ashamed of her. Another plans to get married, but when she does it falls apart because the man didn't respect her as a person. Only the youngest and most popular girl is successful in getting away, because she has the most customers. Therefore, she is able to save money and even swindle enough in loans from wealthy johns to finally leave the whole ugly enterprise behind. At the end of the film she has bought up a clothing and fabric shop next door, with her savings, and has set an example for the other women, an example of escape and independence.
The ending of the film suggests otherwise, not for the successful young woman but for the future of her former profession. I'll not describe it, but I am discovering that Kenji Mizoguchi is a director on the same level as Ozu. Mizoguchi tackles his topics in a more open fashion, head on and with less dramatic style and more blunt force, as if you were watching reality, but he is every bit as great as the legendary and poetic Ozu, who told his tales with understated flair.
Like all of the Mizoguchi films we have seen so far, I give "Street Of Shame" my highest recommendation and urge you to see it. Take a chance and watch some foreign films, watch older movies instead of just going to see the latest flick that everyone is talking about.
I can promise you will be rewarded, if you are a person who likes to think about things, and who appreciates great art.
Two Huge Thumbs Up. See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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