Funerals to Serial Killers

So this how normal people do it.
No hefty bags
No diesel fumes

Dexter, Dexter S05E01

Dead Thoughts

Nothing like walking up on a crime scene. I'm going to miss that when I retire.

Sgt Jesse Longford
Detroit 187 S01E01

Some other thoughts on Detroit 187

• Language and odd American TV laws: I have been watching so many cable show lately that actual bleeping of "bad" words is more than a little juvenile. It is difficult for a crime drama to avoid the F word because ill bred criminals swear. The Law & Orders do so with middle class preps. The CSIs do so by focusing on the messy aftermath of death and the nerdy lab geeks. At this point it hard to take seriously a non-cable drama from the US.
  
• CNN effect: Each murder is given a cute name. Locations and characters are named. Subtitles have often been described as being too onerous for average movie goers however descriptive captions can work as a dramatic device.
• Isolating with technology: Fitch, the Michael Imperioli character, mainly talks with his partner by cellphone.
• Detroit the New Beirut: the show is filmed on location in such a way to make Detroit both empty and decaying, the end result of bad government, incompetent capitalism, population decline and malign neglect.
• The Ironic Death, retirony, look it up on TV Tropes.
  

City of Narrowing Horizons

Detroit Michigan
Birthplace of Motown
And once the heart of the automobile industry
Now It has one of the highest murder rates in the country
For The Men and Women
Of Detroit's Homicide unit
Every Life Counts
Every Murder tells a story

Intro to Detroit 187 S01E01

Quotes from Terriers S01E02

As a rule I don't like getting my ass kicked for free.

Hank Dolworth
expressing the motto for all unlicensed PIs,
bounty hunters and other semi-professional semi-legitimate
law enforcement hangersons.

This thing itches

Britt Pollack

That because it belongs to a rich person

Hank Dolworth

Walking around at the nice part of track
in borrowed clothes from a friendly drycleaner

Terriers S01E02

A Different Space Race

Board Walk Empire: 1st Impressions

Opening Credits: someone is channeling Magritte.

The evil organization The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the one group more responsible for more organized crime in the 20's then any other.

"And he he took the loaves and fishes, looked at his disciples and said: fuck it we're going into the whisky business."

L. McCoy front line bootlegger
mangling Matthew15:36
in Boardwalk Empire S01E01

"You know who dies for their country, fucking rubes that's who."

Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, Patriot

False Comeback to all Dissidents

You could have lived a perfectly normal life if you were just willing to live a perfectly normal life.

Q to Dissident Q Star Trek Voyager

Odd Definition of Loyalty / Treason Among America's "Civil Rights Community"

I was listening to NPR when the when the subject of Ernest Withers, a photographer who helped the police with their inquiries, came up. Julian Bond has these varied reactions on today's Talk of the Nation.

When I first heard about this, of course I was horrified. I spent my younger years in a political culture that thought informers were the lowest form of life, and to hear that this man who is so respected for his photography...

...So he was so well-known and so honored. This is a blot on his reputation if true. And I have no doubt it's true.

There is a world of difference between helping an arm of your government for a couple of years and being a communist in the time of Stalin. Paul Robeson was life long communist. The Wikipedia page on Robeson and Communism has this chilling passage.

Historical Context

Robeson adored Stalin, even though Stalin had countless people murdered, including some who Robeson had considered friends. That's the context. The end.

War By Youth

Most armies most of the time grow old in peace and young in war.

Sport as Life

Most players don't get the perfect ending. They spend their last couple of years hurt, injured.

Former pro prospect
now gigolo Ray Decker
Hung S02E08

Sport is like life, tragedy.

Don't Bother The Angry

screen capture from Men in Black II

Steam Punk Photography

slashdot's recent poll, My Camera is..., is a little dismissive about non pixel based photography.

Thought Free Job

As you like remind me all the time, I'm not paid to think.

Britt Pollack

Terriers S01E01

Expanding Your Vocabulary Causes Questions

Since when did you get so jaundiced?

Hank Dolworth.

Since when did you start using the words jaundice?

Britt Pollack

Terriers S01E01

Man's Best Friend

Hey, hey, what are doing with him.

Britt Pollack.

I need a partner who can keep up mentally

Hank Dolworth.

Unlicensed private investigators talking
about an abducted dog on Terriers S01E01

Gold Rush Town

A gold rush ghost town is a place that was drunk for 5 years a century long hangover ago.

Character in a recent dream

Haikuized

Gold rush ghost town a
Place 5 years drunk, a century
Long hangover Ago

Character in a recent dream

The Kitchen as Workshop

The Tool Cabinet

The Work Bench

This is from a German kitchen equipment company bulthaup (sic). On Dwell, a design blog, one of their kitchens is referred as costing as much as a small house. Still it is in interesting concept may be picked up by others in the future.

Freight Elevator To a View

"Family" Television

"I think God gives us children so death won't be quite a disappointment."

Evelyn Harper, Two and a Half Men S03E07

"I'm a Doctor, not..." Blog Fodder

On Memory Alpha is an article on I'm a doctor, not a.... This video is an edited together sequence of this same catch used over and over again. This is an appropriate video from some one called SuperTrekNerd.

Patents, Copyrights and Technological Stagnation

Here, James Watt: Monopolist, is an interesting account of James Watt's legal fight to prevent the use and technological advancement of steam engines. It is on a website devoted to the "Austrian School" of economics. It points out that a patent give to James Watt leading to him focusing more on remunerative patent lawsuits that actual construction and sale of steam engines.

The article was cited in a discussion on slashdot on the British intending to focus more selling music then pointless legal wrangling, UK Music Industry Calls For Truce With Technology.

Law Enforcement Catch and Release

From Texas there is a story of immigration enforcement (ICE) being loath to arrest employers, Audits: ICE isn't cracking down on illegal immigrant employers. This is odd because the Americans already have that deal corporations who re-offend as corporations with more one employee in more than office committing the same range of crimes. The companies could be charged under RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Unfortunately this law is primarily applied against criminal owned corporations instead of also criminal corporations. There seems to be a difficulty in recognizing corrupt organizations when they're not racketeer influenced.

This piece of news reinforces my belief that illegal immigration is a subsidy for bad employers. That there are also criminal employers who skate by makes them worse not better.

As an aside in The Sopranos the character Dr Melfi commented she thought RICO was a real person from the way Tony was constantly complaining about it/him.