President Obama Sells Out Workers

We all are hypocrites in one way or the other. It's just part of being human. Nobody is consistent across the board on everything. However I am amazed by the fact that the Obama Administration has managed to maintain so much support from labor and many members of the working class when it continues to display that it is not necessarily a big friend of the working class. Its rhetoric doesn't match its actions. One of the critical employee rights which we are supposed to have in this country, whether we are union or non-union, white collar or blue collar, is that if you work for someone else you should be paid for the time you're at work and the tasks you complete. There are a few marginal exceptions to this. The exempt professional worker usually does not automatically get time and a half overtime pay for more than 40 hours of work per week. Such pay might be made but it's much more likely to be compensated (if at all) in additional time off at some later date. Possibly. Maybe. It depends on your company's policy and boss's needs. Obviously in some professions, working 40 hours per week is considered slacking. You don't become partner at a law firm, trading boss at a hedge fund, or head surgeon at the hospital by only working 40 hrs each week. The flip side of that though is that if a salaried professional leaves early one day because they're sick or have a family emergency or just want to see a playoff baseball game, their next paycheck probably won't include a line item for pay docked. So in theory it balances out.

Still whether professional or not, if the company says you must do X as part of your job duties chances are you will do X as part of your job duties, if you want to continue getting paid. And getting paid is the key thing here. The company shouldn't be able to obtain work or time from you for free. Of course companies are amoral and increasingly want to do just that. And for some strange reason the Obama Administration is siding with the companies.
After his 12-hour shifts at an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Jesse Busk says, he and 200 other workers typically waited in line for 25 minutes to undergo a security check to see whether they had stolen any goods. Upset that the temp agency that employed him refused to pay workers for that time, Mr. Busk sued. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about this hotly contested issue. The nation’s retailers are paying close attention because such security checks are common. The Supreme Court is to determine whether the check and related waiting time were part of Mr. Busk’s regular, compensable workday or, as the temp agency argues, were time after his workday and not compensable.

In its brief, the temp agency, Integrity Staffing Solutions, argues that the security check and the related waiting time are part of the “preliminary” or “postliminary” activities that are not compensable under the Portal-to-Portal Act, which Congress passed in 1947.  Mr. Busk’s lawyer, Mark R. Thierman, disagreed. “The antitheft check is integral and indispensable because the company said you have to do it,” he said. “If the company tells you to do it, it doesn’t matter whether it’s related to what else you do on the job.” The Obama administration has filed a brief backing Integrity Staffing. 

Some pro-labor groups voiced surprise that the administration was backing Integrity Staffing. “The administration says it’s time to put more money in the pockets of workers who work long hours with low pay,” said Catherine Ruckelshaus, general counsel for the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for workers. “Their position in this case is contrary to what they’ve been saying.”

LINK

Ok. Let me get this straight. The company pays its workers chump change and then is concerned that some of the workers will make up the difference by "liberating" some company merchandise for resale. It's a reasonable worry. The company could address this problem by raising everyone's pay so that getting busted for stealing some crap from a warehouse wouldn't be worth anyone's trouble. Unrealistic I know. Well. What to do then? Ooh! Ohh! I know! I know!! The company could maintain its security procedures, demeaning and insulting though they are, and PAY the workers for the extra time that they are spending at work being shaken down for possible stolen goods. This search is part of their job. Mr. Busk could not say "No, I'm not going through those searches tonight" and reasonably expect to have a job the next morning. This is not something that was externally imposed by the municipal, federal or state government where the company and/or the subcontractor could argue that they had no responsibility. And no this is not something where the Obama Administration is being forced by those "wascally Rethuglicans" to do something which is against its better nature. The Obama Administration, in the form of the Labor and Justice Department, is siding with the U.S Chamber of Commerce, the Retail Litigation Center and several other pro-business anti-labor groups. If the President didn't want this he could use his celebrated pen and phone to tell Labor Secretary Perez and Attorney General Holder to withdraw Administration support from the company's side of this dispute. This really is a watershed moment. As much as anything else this tells you which side the Obama Administration is on when it comes to conflicts between capital and labor. Hint, not labor's.

As mentioned, under the logic being pushed by Integrity Staffing Solutions and the Obama Administration, a company could order an employee to do ANYTHING after or even during his shift and then refuse to pay the employee by claiming that the task was not integral to work. So a boss could theoretically order someone to go pick up his dry cleaning and then refuse to pay because after all, retrieving your supervisor's laundry is not really a key task. But if you don't you're fired. Right. If the Supreme Court sides with the company you will see many corporations transfer more and more unpaid tasks to workers under the fallacious idea that these tasks aren't integral. Worker income will continue to stagnate or fall. Corporate profits will continue to rise. Under the current Supreme Court who can predict what can happen. But I will bet that Scalia and Thomas will side with the company and with President Obama. 

What do you think the right thing to do here is?

Why has President Obama sided with the company?

Have you ever been in a situation where your employer tried to extract unpaid work?

Book Reviews: Gentlemen of the Road, The Harlem Hellfighters, The Night Eternal

Gentlemen of the Road
by Michael Chabon

If you like adventure tales with a side order of mystery you might enjoy this book. Or if you just like buddy stories then this might be okay. And obviously if you can enjoy self-aware heroes who don't mind engaging in sarcasm or constantly arguing with each other about things that might not appear to be all that important to outsiders then this story could be up your alley.
Chabon dedicated this book to the sci-fi/fantasy author Michael Moorcock but it also pays homage to the fantasy author Fritz Leiber and his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. There is also more than a dash of cop buddy storyline here. I liked this book. I liked it even more because unlike many genre entries the book was short. My hardcover edition clocked in at just under 200 pages.  Imagine that. Someone wrote a good story without rambling on forever. So in yet another way this story is also a throwback to people like Leiber and Moorcook. Much of their best work was done in novellas or short stories instead of sprawling 900 page works, though of course Moorcock proved himself quite adept at that as well. The book's initial working title was Jews with Swords. As Chabon explains in the afterword this was probably a rejoinder and corrective to some people's (including his own) image of Jews as urbanized nebbishes who look and sound as if they stepped out of a Woody Allen movie. Chabon thinks that a people with a history of exile and pogroms, kingdoms won and lost, have just as much raw material for adventure stories as anyone else. I also enjoyed this book because a main character reminded me of Ice Cold from Fear of a Black Hat. I have to empathize with any character who's fussy about his style and accoutrement. After all they come a running just as fast as they can cause every girl is crazy about a sharp dressed man.

In the 10th century two Jewish friends and adventurers make a living as lovable rogues. Amram is a giant Ethiopian and former soldier who can use the business end of an axe to devastating effect. He's a big bad man so of course he names his battle axe "Motherf*****" or as Chabon slyly translates "Defiler of your mother!". Amram's axe is only slightly more deadly than his tongue as he can be verbally cutting with an insult. He has his own rarely discussed loss. His partner is a former physician and generally morose Frankish individual named Zelikman.  One reason he's generally morose is because as a child he saw his mother and sisters raped and murdered in an anti-Jewish pogrom. That will give anyone a different perspective on life. Zelikman likes his hats. He will go through a lot of pain and trouble before he will willingly part with one. And don't touch or otherwise damage his hat. Although not as large as Amram, Zelikman is just as deadly because of his skill with the sword. Zelikman tends to be much wordier than Amram. Alternatively working as con men, bodyguards, mercenaries and thieves (they refuse however to countenance slavery) the duo are in the Caucasus Mountains region when events conspire to throw them across the path of a whiny fugitive who claims to be the rightful heir to the throne of the Khazar Empire. Initially Amram and Zelikman just want back the money and horses that this young man stole. But despite themselves they are fascinated by the idea that there is a state where Jews not only live as free men and women but as rulers. So they wind up going after this desperado to see if he is telling the truth and whether they can profit by doing the right thing and helping him regain his throne.

The book has a lot of sardonic interplay between Zelikman and Amram and for that matter Zelikman and everyone.The duo has a rough sense of decency when pushed but they're not necessarily nice guys. In both prose and style the book very much reminds me of The Arabian Nights. Chabon is very skilled at describing without being wordy. This story, based in reality, is a good reminder that we don't need to look to non-existent worlds to find adventure, humor, perils, last stands and close calls. The book started a little slow but picked up. I only wish I had read it earlier. 




The Harlem Hellfighters
by Max Brooks

This was the third in a group of books featuring black heroes which I recently read. Although it is set in the early 20th century it's not a noir or pulp book. It is based on the very real exploits of Black American WWI soldiers who became known as The Harlem Hellfighters. The 369th Infantry Regiment, described previously in the fictional adventures of King Tremain, was a Black American/Black Puerto Rican US Army Regiment that fought in WW1. 
A recurring theme of American racism, and really racism anywhere is that the outgroup is considered as unmanly/unwomanly. The despised group is constantly in a position where group members must prove that they are just as good as the in-group. Of course racism being flexible even when such proof is offered up the racist just finds another line of argument to support his prejudice. Ironically, the first man to die in a military conflict for what would become America was a black man. Black men have fought and died in every conflict America ever had, even before they had citizenship rights. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, racists did their best to prevent black men from serving in the US military. If someone was man enough to fight and die then racist ideas about manhood, competence and non-citizenship would be proven untrue. And if a black man in segregated America saw that white men could bleed and die like anyone else then that would have dangerous implications for enforced white supremacy. No it was far better from a white supremacist point of view to prevent blacks from serving at all. If that wasn't possible then the idea was to only allow blacks to serve in segregated support units. And certainly the Army refused to allow any black who had somehow made officer to command white troops. This was both formal and informal military policy up until immediately after WW2.  But wars can change plans so occasionally black combat soldiers did manage to cover themselves with glory, generally to the chagrin of the white officer corps.

Although the 369th was part of the US Army and thus subject to all US Army regulations and civilian laws (most definitely including segregation), the US Army had no desire to appear to be sanctioning integration. The 369th was thus initially limited to cleaning and support duties. Eventually, via desperation, the 369th was assigned to the French Army. The US wanted nothing to do with them though racist US generals still issued orders reminding the French that social integration should not be practiced nor should the 369th get any ideas about 'liberty, egality and fraternity" that were a bad fit for blacks in the US. 

During their time serving with the French Army the 369th racked up a record for combat endurance and excellence that was unrivaled by any other Allied group. They were deployed in combat longer than any other group in the war.They became known as "The Harlem Hellfighters" by both friend and foe alike. In their most famous exploit, two members of the 369th made a last stand against an entire German platoon. The Hellfighters walked away to tell the tale. The Germans did not.
Brooks, the author of World War Z, tells the story of the 369th in an exciting black-and-white graphic novel format. The artwork is detailed but not overmuch. The book is about 230 pages, not counting the afterword and credits. It's a very quick read. Brooks did a tremendous amount of research at the Schomburg Center and elsewhere. This story is something Brooks was interested in since he was eleven years old. Brooks credits the actor LeVar Burton with encouraging him to keep at it. He also has some interesting stories about Hollywood's idea of what is considered marketable. His college black history professors also helped keep him on track. Obviously some characters and story lines were altered for entertainment purposes but not as many as you might think. In the afterword, which is just as interesting as the book, Brooks explains his creative process. This story has been optioned for a film. I think it would make a good one. The Harlem Hellfighters provided a virtual who's who roll call of 1920's era America. Such men as Benjamin Davis (the first Black general), Vertner Tandy (founder of Apha Phi Alpha), Bojangles Robinson (actor and dancer), Rafael Hernandez Marin (singer,actor and composer) and Noble Sissle (co-founder of Alpha Phi Alpha and jazz composer) all fought and bled with the 369th.




The Night Eternal
by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

This is book 3 of the trilogy upon which the FX series "The Strain" is based. In deference to those who haven't yet watched "The Strain" or haven't read the series I will do my best to avoid specific spoilers. The trilogy started out with much promise but by the end it's really grimly laboring on, much like Setrakian climbing out of the well in the last episode of "The Strain". Although the rebirth and re-imagining of the vampire as monster and virus instead of romance novel protagonist was well done and much needed the trilogy's plotline slowed down to a crawl somewhere in book 2. By book 3 the authors have long since made it quite clear that they are simply retooling Del Toro's storylines from Blade 2. By Book 3 we have a human-vampire hybrid with a special hatred for vampires, a ragtag bunch of vampire hunters who increasingly dislike and distrust one another, human traitors who scurry to do the Master's bidding and a man trying to put his family back together against all the odds. This last is what should be The Night Eternal's emotional center, and perhaps even that of the entire trilogy. However because the man, former CDC doctor Ephraim Goodweather, is such an unlikable, solipsistic, bossy and whiny character the story suffered a lot from making him the primary protagonist. I didn't and still don't care if he succeeded or not. Not everyone from the first book made it alive or unaltered to book three. In this book, as you are no doubt meant to ascertain from the title, the vampires are ascendant. In the US at least, Goodweather and company are one of only a few scattered resistance cells. Most humans are either enslaved, collaborating passively or actively, or have regressed to criminal savagery. Humans have no trust for each other any longer. Money is useless. Food, shelter, violence and sex are the currencies in use.

Humanity's only hope is a legendary tome which describes the origin of the Master vampire and may well hold the key to his destruction. Of course getting the book is only half the problem as it is written in several dead languages. The Night Eternal ran a turgid 500 pages and change. The other issue I had with the story was that some alterations which the vampires made in order to make the world more to their liking would have had the secondary effect of exterminating almost all of humanity. Humans, and almost every other living thing on this planet, simply can't survive for very long without sunlight. So cutting off access to the sun would have sown the seeds for the vampires' eventual doom by slowly removing their food supply. Without sunlight almost all the plants would die which would in turn destroy many animal species. And without plants our atmosphere and environment would be much degraded, further making human life harder to sustain. It doesn't seem well thought out. Stephen King did a better job of imagining such environmental catastrophe dominoes in Under the Dome. It would seem that the Master would have limited new vampire creation from self-interest. We learn the Master's origin story but I found it much too similar to Anne Rice's cosmology, which is ironic as the vampires here are otherwise 180 degrees apart from the languid effete omnisexual vampires which Rice prefers. The book can be read on its own. The authors also made many changes to the television adaptation of their trilogy. This unfortunately doesn't include Dr. Goodweather, who staunchly remains a pompous twit in film or in print.

Pay your auto loan or don't drive!!!

I generally think that if you take out a loan you should adhere to the legally enforceable terms of the contact. So if you agree to pay X dollars back per month then you really should pay X dollars back per month. It irritates me when people borrow money from me and find all sorts of creative reasons why they should not pay it back. I think this is true regardless of financial status. Pay what you owe. A deal is a deal. That said, depending on what the loan or service was, the creditor can encounter difficulty getting repayment. The Federal government and to a lesser extent state governments have fewer problems getting money owed from you as they have the power to just TAKE money from your account, seize your assets, tell your employer or bank to stop giving you money and put you in prison. That will get your attention. Utility providers can shutoff service for non payment. Customers notice that. Loan officers operating outside the law can send unpleasant people to your home or workplace to threaten physical harm if they don't immediately receive payment. Getting your shins cracked with a baseball bat or having your hands broken can provide financial clarity. Some other creditors, say lenders on auto loans, don't have the ability to immediately and seamlessly compel payment. They loaned money on a quickly depreciating asset. Many people don't give car loans priority over housing or food costs. The debtor can easily move his car to another state. To repossess the asset, depending on state law, the creditor usually has to go to court to obtain a judgment before hiring some semi-reputable people to retrieve the vehicle. This could all be messy and costly. In some zip codes if someone hears or sees someone breaking into their car, they will shoot first and ask questions later. So what's a creditor to do?

Well imagine if instead of having to go through the hassle of sending out multiple dunning letters, taking people to court and spending money on repo men, a creditor could ensure that the debtor was interested in, even eager to pay the creditor on time and in full each and every month for the life of the loan? How would someone do that you ask? Well the creditor would just install a handy dandy gadget which prevents the auto from running if the creditor has not been paid.  

The thermometer showed a 103.5-degree fever, and her 10-year-old’s asthma was flaring up. Mary Bolender, who lives in Las Vegas, needed to get her daughter to an emergency room, but her 2005 Chrysler van would not start. The cause was not a mechanical problem — it was her lender. Ms. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance of Mesa, Ariz., remotely activated a device in her car’s dashboard that prevented her car from starting. Before she could get back on the road, she had to pay more than $389, money she did not have that morning in March. 

“I felt absolutely helpless,” said Ms. Bolender, a single mother who stopped working to care for her daughter. It was not the only time this happened: Her car was shut down that March, once in April and again in June. This new technology is bringing auto loans — and Wall Street’s version of Big Brother — into the lives of people with credit scores battered by the financial downturn. Auto loans to borrowers considered subprime, those with credit scores at or below 640, have spiked in the last five years. The jump has been driven in large part by the demand among investors for securities backed by the loans, which offer high returns at a time of low interest rates. Roughly 25 percent of all new auto loans made last year were subprime, and the volume of subprime auto loans reached more than $145 billion in the first three months of this year. 

Last year, Nevada’s Legislature heard testimony from T. Candice Smith, 31, who said she thought she was going to die when her car suddenly shut down, sending her careening across a three-lane Las Vegas highway. “It was horrifying,” she recalled.
Ms. Smith said that her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance, had remotely activated her ignition interruption device.
“It’s a safety hazard for the driver and for all others on the road,” said her lawyer, Sophia A. Medina, with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.

LINK

This is a good example of how poverty is quite profitable for certain segments of our population. Although these devices are currently only being used on those customers unfortunate enough to be entangled in sketchy subprime loans I would predict it's only a matter of time before usage is expanded to the entire consumer auto loan market. In short you might have a 800 FICO score and be willing to put down 80% of the car's value as a down payment. But a bank might still decide that it can reduce risk by insisting that all of its loans must include shutoff devices. I wouldn't like that. But it's not just enlightened self-interest that would make me oppose these devices. It might be funny from afar if, as described in the article, Joe Sixpack is embarrassed as a deadbeat in front of his lady. It's not so funny when a car shuts off while it's being driven. It's not funny when a car won't start when a police or fire vehicle needs to get in front of it. There's no humor in a a non-working car when someone needs to get to the hospital or there is some other emergency. When I am on the road I try to be as vigilant as possible to protect myself and the lives of others. Part of that protection is a societal interest in ensuring that other drivers are licensed and that their cars work. I don't want to be on the road with other cars that could suddenly shut off. That's an unnecessary risk for us all. The lenders are making unnecessary and dangerous intrusions into our privacy and our safety. I understand their interest in receiving timely payments. But there are other concerns against which those must be balanced. Electronic shutoff devices are a bad idea.

Should electronic shutoff devices be outlawed?

Would you buy a car if your loan included this device as a requirement?

Are these people just examples of poor financial acumen?

Should the Federal government get involved in regulating these devices?

Movie Reviews: The Equalizer, Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The Equalizer
directed by Antoine Fuqua

Do not f*** with people you do not know. This goes double if they happen to be Denzel Washington. That's pretty much the only message here. It's a simple enough mantra but one that evidently needed to be hammered home to a few people with leaky brains. Although I enjoyed this film it didn't need to run for over two hours. Washington is effective as McCall. It's hard to believe that the man is almost 60 years old. Given that the original Equalizer hero was also a bit past his prime I guess that's ok. Although this is based on the television series and is in its way an origin story for the McCall character the obvious comparison will be made to Man on Fire. Well in this movie the young lady in peril is not really an angel. She's more of a broken angel while Washington's character is far from despondent, suicidal or alcoholic. Although he may regret some actions he took in a past life they certainly don't force him into self-destructive activities. It is somewhat ironic that Denzel Washington made his debut in Death Wish as an uncredited alley mugger and now all these years later he's playing the secretly dangerous older gentleman with a hidden past. So much of Washington's acting here is wordless. There's a lot that his character lets people know just via his body language, and facial tics or expressions. In the seventies and eighties films it was often the Italian-American Mafia that was portrayed as being the dangerous organized business savvy baddies. Blacks or Hispanics were shown as the street thugs with a surfeit of testosterone and a constant need to show proof of same. In many modern films both roles have been given to the Russian Mafia. In film, these fellows all walk around with muscles on their muscles, slicked back hair, tattoos on just about every conceivable inch of their body and are always looking for a chance to hurt someone. Aggressive masculinity is how they roll. As Charlie Daniels might say they are mean as a snake, sneaky as a cat and belligerent when they speak.

Robert McCall (Washington) is a shift worker/supervisor at a huge hardware box store. Think Home Depot or Lowes. He's circumspect about his past work but is friendly and helpful to everyone he works with, especially Ralphie (Johnny Skourtis) an overweight co-worker who dreams of becoming a security guard. McCall encourages Ralphie to eat less and exercise more. He even works out with him on his time off. McCall is a spartan man who avoids sugar, likes everything organized and does not waste time. He uses his stopwatch religiously.

Alina (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a Russian born Boston area prostitute. She infrequently runs into McCall at an all night diner/coffee shop which they both like. Alina, who goes by the street name of Teri, views the place as a brief respite from her job. McCall, in what is likely a hint of a burdened conscience or simple grief, has trouble sleeping. He reads constantly, usually classic books like "The Old Man and The Sea" or "Invisible Man". McCall does not lust after or judge Alina, who wants to escape whoring and become a singer. Alina appreciates being able to talk to a man without sex or violence being involved. These late night chats are often interrupted by Alina's work. Aline occasionally shows up with bruises or welts. One day, enraged by her attitude, her pimps beat her so badly she winds up in the hospital. Armed only with a business card McCall goes to reason with her pimps. He offers them what he considers a fair amount to let Alina leave the business. Well as the Godfather would say you can't reason with some people.  So the pimps and thugs see the other side of McCall's personality. To paraphrase Wolverine, McCall's the best at what he does. But what he does isn't very nice.

These events attract the attention of the primary Russian Mafia troubleshooter Teddy (Martin Csokas) who was perfect for this role. Teddy must find McCall and deal with him painfully, publicly and permanently. Detective Masters (David Harbour) is a corrupt cop assigned to squire Teddy around as he tries to discover who McCall is and where he might be. This movie was quite heavy on the violence but I don't recall there being much in the way of sex or nudity. Although Washington is slightly showing his age, his character's actions remain believable if only because he's constantly out thinking everybody. Once he's committed to an action that's it. It reminded me of the Liam Neeson character in the first Taken. Washington is ice to Neeson's fire but they would make a hell of a team if anyone ever did a crossover/mashup. Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo play a married couple from McCall's previous life. I thought they were underused. Basically there won't be a lot of surprises for you here but if you like action movies this is a decent one. You will have to ignore the action film cliches though. Does the hero ever RUN away from an explosion he created? Of course not. He walks away because he's a bad motherf- shut your mouth! Although Fuqua tells more than shows Washington can effectively imply menace just by putting a tool back on the shelf.
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier
directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Captain America has a long history. I have relatives who could quote you chapter and verse. I don't know all the backstory. But unfamiliarity with Marvel lore won't hinder film enjoyment. I thought the film was too long at about 136 minutes. It tried to wring some pathos from some betrayals I didn't care about. Nevertheless it was consistently entertaining. One pertinent question was how does Captain America or Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) adapt to a world in which everything he believed in has changed or disappeared. His peers are all dead or dying. This could leave a man a bit disoriented. This is occasionally played for laughs in regard to gender roles or music, but there's a more serious underpinning. The movie has some important things to say about our world. In the film world as in ours, the US military-industrial complex reigns virtually supreme. It can be difficult to tell who is the good guy or bad guy when the "good guys" claim the right to monitor communications across the planet, make war without Congressional or UN sanction, transfer intelligence and military equipment to other states without Congressional or Presidential approval, murder American citizens without warrant or trial and kidnap and torture "terror suspects" without any judicial oversight.

Captain America is first and foremost a soldier. He likes order and appreciates a clear chain of command. He favors simple direct solutions. He's not overly fond of complexity, secrecy, or lying for the "greater good". He makes very sharp distinctions between what's good and bad. This moral clarity means that he's having increasing difficulty working for S.H.I.E.L.D. , the intelligence/counterinsurgency/law enforcement organization headed by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Fury has no such qualms about his work and neither does one of his favorite agents Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson). Black Widow and Captain America have a friendship that could have been more were she not already pledged to Hawkeye. Romanoff is amused by Rogers' forties' sensibilities. She shares tips about dealing with modern women. Captain America probably shouldn't be working for an organization such as S.H.I.E.L.D. but as I wrote he's a patriot who's used to following orders. Romanoff also believes in following orders but unlike Rogers is not that concerned with questioning or challenging morality. Although the Black Widow is still sexy (she is after all played by Scarlett Johansson) things are toned down. I don't recall a plethora of downblouse shots. 

Although this film is a superhero movie and features the normal genre conventions of explosions,  feats that defy physics and human biology and so on it's much more centered in reality and the modern day than your run of the mill Marvel film. This is brought home when Nick Fury narrowly escapes assassination in a setpiece reminiscent of Sonny Corleone's murder. He flees to Captain America's apartment where he tells Rogers not to trust anyone, that S.H.I.E.L.D has been compromised and that they're all being monitored. And just like that the film takes a welcome and impressive shift into full blown conspiracy theory mode. Fury has been followed by his would be assassins. They succeed in killing him. Rogers chases the sniper only to find that the unknown assailant's speed and strength seemingly matches his own. The new head of S.H.I.E.L.D. (although I'm unclear as to whether he was the civilian head all along while Fury was operational chief) is Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford). Pierce is cool, calm, and collected. He thinks that Fury was murdered in order to stop a particular project. Pierce intends to see that the project continues and Fury's killers are captured.  Piece is suspicious of Fury's final visit to Rogers. Redford is really smooth. Redford brings a certain charm and gravitas which grounds the movie in realism.

Rogers and Romanoff continue their investigation into Fury's death. They run afoul of the military-industrial complex and more sinister forces behind it. They attract the attention of an operative known only as the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). They must seek help from another former soldier named Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) with his own secrets. This film did a wonderful job of tying up many different conspiracy theories with Rogers' own past. It also walked the fine line between condemning the security state which we increasingly find ourselves living under and conceding that even in a democracy, some secrets must remain. The question is and always has been just how much freedom would you sacrifice in order to maintain your safety and security. I never was much of a Captain America or Superman fan as both characters seemed too impossibly straitlaced but this film showed that even goody two-shoes guys can have internal conflicts and character growth. This film has non-explicit violence. In the movie Kill Bill Volume 2, Pai Mei forces Beatrix Kiddo to learn how to throw a devastating punch from only 2-3 inches away. She doesn't see the point of this technique. Pai Mei dismisses her objections asking her what would she do if her enemy was only a short distance from her. In an elevator scene that IIRC was also in one of the Die Hard films, Captain America illustrates how to fight in close quarters. Other actors featured include Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Hayley Atwell, Gary Shandling, Toby Jones,  Emily Van Camp, Maximiliano Hernandez. Marvel godfather Stan Lee makes his customary cameo.
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Book Reviews: The Scythe, Saint Camber

The Scythe
by Balogun Ojetade

I am continuing my research into modern pulp, especially pulp that seeks to redress or rectify some of classic pulp's shortcomings around race and other hot button topics. So I read this book shortly after finishing the Black Pulp collection reviewed here. Anyway I enjoyed this book but not as much as the Black Pulp collection. The Scythe is a short novel, (novella?) that tells the story of the title character, a black doctor in 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma. Well if you know your history you know that the 1920s saw the Harlem Renaissance and ever so slight halting black progress. However it was also very close to the nadir of American racism. White supremacy was unquestioned in almost every facet of American life. Many whites were only vaguely aware that some black people didn't care for this state of affairs. You can read about the so-called race riots of Tulsa here. I say so-called because a) it was actually a pogrom and b) unlike our modern conception of race riots it was actually whites running amok, killing, shooting, looting, robbing and raping. The interesting thing about the Tulsa attack, if anything can be considered "interesting" when detailing such an atrocity is that it showed that the strain of "do for self" black political thought, that is "run your own businesses", "don't beg for government assistance" and "hire and work for your own people" which was shared and promulgated by people as politically diverse as Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Dr. Claude Anderson, Zora Neale Hurston and some modern black conservatives, had some very real limits and drawbacks. It's good to do for self and be self-sufficient whenever possible. But if racist whites decide that your success is a threat or intolerable insult and you must be literally beaten down into economic dependency or even eliminated, then what do you do? Unless you're ready, willing and able to meet fire with fire you will lose everything you hold dear. Economic success without political progress and the ability and willingness to defend yourself and your property is meaningless.

That concept of self-defense permeates the book, primarily expressed via the author's deep knowledge of martial arts. The titular hero is a black doctor named A.C. Jackson, who in keeping with his oath to serve all, regardless of race or status, is murdered during the Tulsa riots. This is no spoiler as it occurs in the first few pages. It's also no spoiler to reveal that the doctor is resurrected, well at least somewhat resurrected, by the spirit Ikukuklu, who is the scythe of the Grim Reaper or Death. Ikukulu is fascinated by how grimly humans cling on to life. He has decided that he would like to experience life for himself, at least for a while. So he offers to bring back Dr. Jackson from death as long as Ikukulu can hitch a ride. The side effect is that Dr. Jackson will have access to many of Ikukulu's abilities, which are extensive and of course paranormal. When Jackson comes back from the dead he starts calling himself The Scythe and of course seeks revenge on those who murdered him. But he doesn't stop there with his do-good actions. Jackson finds himself entangled in conspiracies that include the Klan, vampires, gangsters, ancient African gods and demons and a sexy Haitian femme fatale. This book was ok. I thought that it had a bit too much dialogue. There's very little in The Scythe that's not dialogue. There are some writers who tend to be all about setup and description and atmosphere. That's not an issue here. It's is a pulp novel so I wasn't expecting too much exposition or description but I think I wanted a little bit more. I wanted to feel the era of the twenties more than I did. The large print book is about 150 pages. You also get an additional origin short story of a character in The Scythe as well as some interesting author explanation of why he writes and how he understands his genre.





Saint Camber
by Katherine Kurtz

This is the second book in the Legends of Camber series. This series is a prequel to the Deryni Rising series. It was published after the Deryni Rising series although I read it first. I actually like this series better than the Deryni Rising series because the characters here were a little more, oh what's the word? I wouldn't say well rounded because that certainly wouldn't be the case. There's more of a sense of danger. Additionally I appreciated the various moral dilemmas. There's some serious questions on what makes a person good. If someone enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act asks if you are hiding any slaves what would you answer? Assuming that they are indeed hiding slaves, many "good" people would lie and say no with a clear conscience. That's a pretty easy question. But what if you're an undercover agent somewhere? To keep your cover and save the lives of your countrymen you must engage in activities that are unethical or illegal. How far can you go in breaking the rules before you're no better than whatever evil you're facing? To bring it back to the Fugitive Slave Act example you might well kill the racist law enforcer who discovered that you were hiding slaves in your home. After all he's an adult and signed up for his wicked job. But what if he brings his seven year old daughter along and she's the one who notices the hidden door in the kitchen? What then? Things may not be so clear cut. That's the place where Saint Camber spends most of its time. Just like George R.R.Martin did years later Kurtz brings us the story of what happens after the evil king is overthrown. As it turns out not everyone lives happily ever after.

As discussed in a review of the first book in this series, the Deryni are a race of humans who are visually indistinguishable from normal humans. However they have both inherent paranormal mental powers and a genetic affinity for externalized "magic" powers. They take these abilities for granted the same way a fish doesn't think about its gills. The Deryni are a significant minority. The evil Deryni King Imre ruled the Kingdom of Gwynedd until he was overthrown in a coup led by the powerful Deryni noble Camber of Culdi. Camber got involved in the revolution for both ideological (he's a patriot who hates bullies) and personal reasons (the Deryni King murdered his son). Camber found a scion of the previous human dynasty, a human priest named Cinhil, and placed him on the throne over the man's feeble objections.

Unfortunately Queen Ariella, the dead king's sister (and lover and mother of his child) escaped Camber and fled to a different kingdom, where augmented by her Deryni Gwynedd loyalists, renegade business interests, foreign relatives and mercenaries, she's preparing an invasion of Gwynedd.

To his chagrin Camber finds that humans in general and King Cinhil in particular are not exactly grateful that Deryni rebels overthrew the evil Deryni ruler and handed power back to a human regime. In fact they're not grateful at all. Cinhil profoundly resents Camber for pulling him from his previous career as an ascetic and celibate monk. Cinhil thinks that he's betrayed God by becoming king. Cinhil has little appreciation for the bigger picture or for doing the necessary to produce an heir.  If not quite a bigot Cinhil is well on his way to becoming one. The depressed king vacillates between bitter "why can't you make the decision and leave me alone"  and "oh you Deryni all think you're so f****** smart" moods. Other humans are starting to feel entitled as the newly empowered majority to request more concessions from Deryni. Some requests are more akin to demands. 
When the one Deryni whom Cinhil semi-tolerates is killed in the battle with Ariella, Camber has a choice to make, one which will determine the fate of the kingdoms, the Deryni and his own legacy. Unlike works by Abercrombie and Martin, Kurtz posits a world where religion and the church are extremely powerful. But it's not just religious temporal power which informs the world Kurtz has created. People actually believe in God. People try to do the right thing. Even people who make mistakes or commit evil acts attempt to justify them by appeals to God. Faith matters. So there's a realism here that is occasionally missing in other fantasy novels. Not everyone is a cynical self-interested scoundrel. Anyone remotely familiar with Christian (primarily Catholic) doctrine, ritual and organization will find all of that echoed in this book. Mass is both a religious and political event. There are orders of religious knights. My small print edition was around 375-400 pages.

Why Fall Is My Favorite Season!

What does fall or autumn mean to you? Fall is my favorite season. I think this could be some ancient preference encoded in my DNA. Fall means that another year's harvest has been successfully gathered. It's time to reap in the bounty and get ready for winter. Fall means that I no longer have to mow the lawn every four or five days. That's great because I can save some time on the weekends or weekday evenings for more important things. The cooler weather means I can stop running the home air conditioning. I don't usually turn the heat on until sometime in mid November. So there is a two to three month period where my electric and heating bills are extremely low. Money saved always makes me happy. Fall means gray skies, rain and overcast days but it can also provide sunny days which lack summer's overwhelming heat and humidity. There's nothing worse than working in a building during the summer when the central air fails and you swiftly become aware of the unpleasant aromas arising from your fellow human beings. And they would likely say the same about you. Summer can be just sort of a stinky season all day every day, particularly if you have to work outside, work with people who don't believe in deodorant or your job requires constant movement. Fall stops that from happening. In fall you no longer have the irritating experience of running your home AC all day long only to see the inside temperature stubbornly remain around 74 degrees. 

While even someone like myself who generally dislikes summer must admit there is something comforting about walking thru the neighborhood on a summer night and hearing the low hum of crickets chattering to each other I find it is even more enjoyable to walk thru that same neighborhood on a fall night and hear silence. The days get shorter. Things get cooler. You can actually think. I get more energized in both my work life and personal life. It's easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. There's something special about getting the house ready for winter. You must make sure that you, your home and loved ones are all prepared for the approaching ice, snow and cold. Did you replace that warped door? Will that window frame make it through the winter? Fall means trips to apple orchards for apple fritters, various fruit pies, hayrides, syrup, apple cider, apple juice, applesauce, hard candies, brownies and of course apples! There's very little you can't make with apples. You can learn a lot about the food chain by taking some trips to farms and farmer's markets. Although I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have accompanying my father on Saturday morning trips to Eastern Market was fun. I think it's important to see where our food comes from. Unfortunately no matter where you live it has become more difficult to do this but the fall apple harvest makes me feel more connected to the food chain, even if this is an illusion sold by corporate agribusiness. Fall means football. Whether it's going to see your nephew or cousin play in a high school game, hearing people pound the drums on Friday night for the upcoming college game on Saturday or settling in to watch the NFL games on Sunday, watching football remains an exciting activity for me. Football is my favorite sport. 

I think that the greatest benefit of fall, particularly if you live in a continental climate such as any part of the Midwest or most of the northern US, is the changing colors of the trees. Just like humans and other animals, the trees are shutting down food production and storing energy for the winter ahead. We benefit from seeing all the crazy colors produced during this process. Although I am not a photographer sometimes I can't help but stop to take pictures of the wondrous changes occurring all around us. Eventually there is a bleakness to fall, a time when all the leaves have fallen off the trees but the snow has yet to arrive. Everything is just gray. Nevertheless, I even like that time. I have never understood why anyone needs mood altering substances, legal or otherwise, when there is just so much natural beauty out there. If you are a busy person climbing the corporate ladder and working 80 hours a week or if you are someone who works 100 hours a week but already has the corner office, fancy title and income because you're the smartest or biggest wolf in the pack I still hope that you take time out from your busy day as Master/Mistress of the universe to marvel at the elegance and artistry that is nature. Because one day sooner than you might think you won't be able to do that. So what are you waiting for? Get off the computer, go out and enjoy the world already!

Scottish Vote For Independence Fails

In a vote that was watched closely by independence movements in Europe and throughout the world, the people of Scotland decided to remain as part of the United Kingdom instead of breaking away to become an independent state. The final vote in favor of remaining British was a decisive 55-44. There were plenty of good economic arguments for staying together and obviously a strong nationalist interest in forging ahead separately. I think that not only did the economics not make sense but that also there wasn't quite the fierce level of simmering hostility or just "difference"  which is normally required to break apart a state. Unlike, say multi-ethnic states in Eastern Europe, Eastern Africa or the Middle East, the Union of Scotland and England dating back to 1707 has been pretty stable. I didn't think there was enough fire in the belly on the parts of the Scots to separate from England. I have a few friends who are Scottish residents as well as a few acquaintances descended from recent Scottish immigrants. It will be interesting over the next few days to see what they thought of this vote and of course how they voted, if eligible. Although every independence movement is different, with its own peculiar set of real or imagined historical grievances, ethnic, racial, religious or geographical identities and planned goals for the future, just about every separatist movement would have gotten a real boost if Scotland's independence had become something real in 2014 instead of remaining a memory. Nevertheless this is another example of the power of nationalism and memory in the modern world.
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