A Proportional Response

Well, if it’s what we do, if it’s what we’ve always done, don’t they know we’re going to do it?

They know we’re going to do that, 

they know we’re going to do that. 

Those areas have been abandoned for four days. 

We know that from the satellites. 

We have the intelligence.

" My fellow Americans, good evening. 

A short while ago I ordered our Armed Forces to  attack and destroy four military targets in Northern Syria, this in response to the  unwarranted, unprovoked... "

BARTLET
Keep your seats. 
[Everyone sits back down.]

FITZWALLACE
Good morning Mr. President.

BARTLET
What have we got?

FITZWALLACE
Three retaliatory strike scenarios.

LEO
When are they operational?

FITZWALLACE
At the President’s command.

LEO
No prep time?

GENERAL
We’re there.

FITZWALLACE
All three scenarios are comprehensive, meet the obligations of proportional response and pose minimal threat to U.S. personal and assets. 
To turn our attention to scenario one, or Pericles One, to use its code name...

BARTLET
What is the virtue of a proportional response?

FITZWALLACE
I’m sorry.

BARTLET
What’s the virtue of a proportional response? 
Why’s it good? 

[beat] 

They hit an airplane, so we hit a transmitter, right? That’s a proportional response.

FITZWALLACE
Sir, in the case of Pericles...

BARTLET
They hit a barracks, so we hit two transmitters?

FITZWALLACE
That’s roughly it, sir.

BARTLET
It’s what we do.
I mean, this is what we do.

LEO
Yes sir, it’s what we do, 
it’s what we’ve always done.

BARTLET
Well, if it’s what we do, if it’s what we’ve always done, don’t they know we’re going to do it?

LEO
Sir, if you would turn your attention to Pericles One.

BARTLET
I have turned my attention to Pericles One, it’s two ammo dumps, an abandoned railroad bridge and a Syrian intelligence agency.

FITZWALLACE
Those are four high rated military targets, sir.

BARTLET
But they know we’re going to do that, 
they know we’re going to do that. 

Those areas have been abandoned for four days. 
We know that from the satellites. 
We have the intelligence.

LEO
Sir.

BARTLET
They did that, so we did this, it’s the cost of doing business, it’s been factored in, right?

LEO
Mr. President...

BARTLET
Am I right or am I missing something here?

FITZWALLACE
No sir, you’re right sir.

BARTLET
Then I ask again, what is the virtue of a proportional response?

FITZWALLACE
It isn’t virtuous Mr. President. 
It’s all there is sir.

BARTLET
It is not all there is.

LEO
Sir, Admiral Fitzwallace...

FITZWALLACE
Excuse me Leo, but pardon me Mr. President, just what else is there?

BARTLET
A disproportional response. 

Let the word ring forth from this time and this place, you kill an American, any American, we don’t come back with a proportional response, we come back 
[bangs fist on table] 
with total disaster!

GENERAL
Are you suggesting we carpet-bomb Damascus?

BARTLET
General, I am suggesting that you and Admiral Fitzwallace and Secretary Hutchinson and the rest of the national security team take the next sixty minutes and put together a U.S. response scenario that doesn’t make me think we are just docking somebody’s damn allowance! 

[gets up and leaves the room. Everyone stands.]

******

FADE IN: INT. THE SITUATION ROOM - DAY
Bartlet walks in and sits down.

BARTLET
Keep your seats. There’s a delegation of cardiologists having their pictures taken in the Blue Room. 

You wouldn’t think you could find a group of people more  arrogant than the fifteen of us, but there they are right upstairs in the Blue Room. You called me?

FITZWALLACE
Yes, sir. Mr. President we put together a scenario by which we attack Hassan airport. Its three main terminals and two runway. 

In addition to the civilian causalities, which could register in the thousands, the strike would temporally cripple the region’s ability to receive medical supplies and bottled water. 

I think  Mr. Cashmen and Secretary Hutchinson would each tell you what I’m sure you already know sir. 

That this strike would be seen at home and abroad as a staggering  overreaction by a first time Commander in Chief. 

That without the support of our allies, without a Western Coalition, without Great Britain and Japan and without Congress, you’ll have doled out a five thousand dollar punishment for a fifty buck crime sir. 

Mr. President, the proportional response doesn’t empty the options box for the future, the way an all out assault--

BARTLET
[waves him off] 
Thank you. 
[beat] 
Does anyone have a cigarette?

An officer pulls out a pack and a lighter and slides it towards the President. 
Bartlet pulls out a cigarette and lights it.

BARTLET [cont.]

This other plan...


*****

Bartlet: 

We are doing NOTHING. 

They dest...

Leo: 

We are not doing nothing. 

Four high rated military targets.

Bartlet: 

And this is good?

Leo: 

Of course it's not good, there is no good. 

It's what there is. 
It's how you behave if you're the most powerful nation in the world. 

It's proportional, it's reasonable, it's responsible, it's merciful. 

It's not nothing, four high rated military targets.

Bartlet: 

Which they'll rebuild again in six months.

Leo: 

So we'll blow 'em up again in six months! 

We're getting really good at it. 

(beat) 

It's what our fathers taught us.

BARTLET 

When do we get the BDA? 

[ Battle Damage Assessment ]

TOBY 

Uh. 

SAM 

There’s a problem with that sir.

 BARTLET 

Why!? 

TOBY 

Ordinarily we get help from inside the Syrian Intelligence.

Josh and Charlie enter.

BARTLET 

So what’s the problem? 

TOBY 

We just blew up the Syrian Intelligence. 

BARTLET 

Oh, for crying out loud, will somebody get on the phone to CNN and find out if we 
hit anything! 

 STAFFER 

Mr. President, it’s the BDA sir. 

[hands Bartlet a report]

" We've just fired 59 Missiles - ALL of which hit, by the way."

NONE of them hit ANYTHING (in use) - that was The Point.

That's why those targets were selected (and more than likely pre-approved in dialogue with, and evacuated by The Syrian Government.)

 https://youtu.be/i3tmD5znhh0

Infamia

Did you know that two thousand years ago a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world free of the fear of molestation? 

He could walk across the earth unharmed, cloaked only in the words 

"Civis Romanvs Svm" 

"I am a Citizen of Rome."

So great was the retribution of Rome, universally understood as certain, should any harm befall even one of its citizens. 

In other words :

" DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY...! "

[ SPEAR-THRU-CHEST ]

" ....has just been revoked..! "

Before Hagen and Jack Woltz start talking, Woltz holds a birthday party for a young actress named Janie, and presents her with a pony as a gift. 

Present at the gathering are the girl's mother and several others involved with her current film. 

After Woltz kicks Tom out after dinner, he walks to the exit, looks up, and sees Janie, crying at the top of the staircase, being retrieved by her mother; the implication is that Woltz raped her. 

There is an additional scene of Tom Hagen, Sonny and Vito Corleone discussing the Woltz situation with his vendetta of blocking and blacklisting Johnny Fontane for seducing, stealing and "ruining" one of his studio's most promising Starlets-in-Groiming -"The Best Piece of Ass I've Ever had, and I've had it all over The World."

Vito asks if Woltz is "so tough," to which Tom responds, "You mean is he a Sicilian? Forget about it." 

Don Vito then asks if the story between Woltz and Janie is true, and upon hearing that it is, declares Woltz and his personal behaviour to be "infamia." 

Vito tells Tom to summon Luca Brasi to "see if we can find a way to reason with this Mr. Jack Woltz." 

In ancient Roman culture, infamia (in-, “not,” and fama, “reputation”) was a loss of legal or social standing. As a technical term of Roman law, infamia was an official exclusion from the legal protections enjoyed by a Roman citizen, as imposed by a censor or praetor. 

More generally, especially during the Republic and Principate, infamia was informal damage to one’s esteem or reputation. A person who suffered infamia was an infamis (plural infames).

Infamia was an “inescapable consequence” for certain professionals, including prostitutes and pimps, entertainers such as actors and dancers, and gladiators. 

Infames could not, for instance, provide testimony in a court of law. 

Stripped formally of your reputation, and unable to invoke your family name, noble household or blood lineage, you were rendered to be totally untrustworthy and not held to be reliable - irrespective of how much wealth or ready cash (in the form of Gold) you had to hand.

They were liable to corporal punishment, which was usually reserved for slaves.

You couldn't beat a Roman, even if you were a Roman yourself, and he was one of your peers and social equals/ 

The infamia of entertainers did not exclude them from socializing among the Roman elite, and entertainers who were “stars”, both men and women, sometimes became the lovers of such high-profile figures as the dictator Sulla and Mark Antony.

A passive homosexual who was “outed” might also be subject to social infamia, though if he was a citizen he might retain his legal standing - exactly as happened with Julius Ceasar when Rome was scandalised with the rumour that he had consented to play Bottom-Sub to the appetites of King Mithradates' Top-Dom in the bedroom

The modern Roman Catholic Church has a similar concept of infamy. 

Infamy - They've all got it in

A Wife

Perfect-10: 

And The Master - Oh, he just showed up again, same as ever. 

The Chorister : 

Oh no, really? Does he still have that rubbish beard? 

Perfect-10:  

No, no beard this time. 

Well, a wife. 

Captain Jack Harkness: 

[Introducing the team] 

Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, meet...

Captain John Hart: 

Captain John Hart.

Captain Jack Harkness: 

We go back.

Captain John Hart: 

Excuse me, we more than go back - we were partners.

Ianto Jones: 

[Softly] 

In what way?

Captain John Hart: 

In every way, and then some.

Captain Jack Harkness: 

It was two weeks.

Captain John Hart: 

Except that two weeks was trapped in a time loop, so we were together for five years. 

It was like having a wife.

Captain Jack Harkness: 

You were the wife.

Captain John Hart: 

You were the wife.

Captain Jack Harkness:

 No, you were the wife.

Captain John Hart: 

Oh, but I was a good wife!

*******

LISTER: 
Why are you here?  
Where's your wife?

RIMMER #2:
 Don't ask me.  He's nothing to do with me, anymore.  
Last time  I saw him, he was redoing my paint work. 
 Changing it from Military Gray back to Ocean Gray.
  
He's quite, quite mad!

RIMMER: 
(Walking in) 
Lister.  Cat.  
(Sits directly in front of RIMMER #2) 

RIMMER #2: 
(To RIMMER) 
Excuse me, I can't see.

RIMMER: 
(To RIMMER #2) 
Shhh.

RIMMER #2: 
(To RIMMER) 
Excuse me, I can't see through the back of your stupid, curly-haired, sticky-outy-eared head.

LISTER: 
I'm trying to watch the film!

CAT: 
Yeah!

RIMMER #2: 
(To RIMMER) 
Move!

RIMMER: 
Look, I just happened to choose a seat at random.  
If you're unhappy with your seat, I suggest you move.

RIMMER #2: 
Right.  

(Stands up.) 

Now, where shall I sit?  Over here or
  over there?  Ummmm... no, that's a nice seat!  

(Sits directly in front   of RIMMER #2.)
  

Found Your Own Tradition

FADE IN: EXT. THE WHITE HOUSE - DAY

JOSH [VO]

It's a good speech.

LEO [VO]

The Andrew Jackson speech?

CUT TO: INT. JOSH'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS

JOSH

Yeah.

LEO

It is a good speech.

JOSH

And it gets better every year. But...

LEO

What?

JOSH

You're not going to give it, right?

LEO

Sure.

JOSH

Why?

LEO

Because it's Big Block of Cheese Day, Josh.

They exit office, walk through JOSH'S BULLPEN AREA.

JOSH

Yeah, see, but we know it's Big Block of Cheese Day. 

And we know why it's called Big Block of Cheese Day. 

So, there's really no need for the speech.

LEO

Except it wouldn't be Big Block of Cheese Day without the speech, now, would it?

JOSH

Well, let's find out. Maybe it would.

LEO

How did you get to work this morning?

JOSH

I walked.

LEO

Ah.

JOSH

Yeah.

LEO

How is it out there?

JOSH

Uh, it's pretty loud.

LEO

World Policy Studies is holding a forum this morning. 

I'm going to send Toby.

JOSH

That's a good idea.

LEO

Why?

JOSH

Well, 'cause you're not sending me.

LEO

Look, I...

JOSH

Leo, the World Bank and the WTO are international organizations of which the U.S. is one member. 

Why isn't Switzerland the one?

LEO

'Cause they're not protesting in Switzerland... 

they're protesting on 18th street, and 

I don't want to be asked how come no one from the White House ever met with them.

JOSH

Well, that seems reasonable.

LEO

I can't tell you how relieved I am to have your approval on that.

JOSH

But you're still going to do the speech.

They stop outside the Roosevelt Room.

LEO

Got to. Little thing called team morale, Josh. 

You gotta make people feel good about themselves.

Leo and Josh enter THE ROOSEVELT ROOM. 

Approximately 35 staffers are standing or sitting at the table.

LEO

All right, shut the hell up, everybody. 

I've fired more people than you before breakfast.

Complete silence ensues. Leo goes to stand at the head of the table.

LEO

Andrew Jackson,... 

[staffers groan]

...in the main foyer of the White House had a Big Block of Cheese. 

The block of cheese was huge...

C.J.

Leo, who made these assignments?

LEO

I think this will go faster if I'm not interrupted, don't you?

C.J.

I'm meeting with the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality?

MARGARET

Yes.

C.J.

What do mapmakers have to do with social equality?

LEO

I guess you're about to find out.

C.J.

Well, probably not, because I won't really be listening to them.

LEO

The block of cheese was huge...

LARRY

Excuse me, Leo. C.J., I got NIH research funding for cancer treatment using shark cartilage, if you want to trade.

ED

I'll take that.

LARRY

What do you got?

ED

Citizens for D.C. Statehood.

LARRY

Forget it.

DONNA

I've got the Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle Society, but I'm keeping it.

LEO

You're all keeping it. I'm sure Margaret worked long and hard to make sure that the appropriate petitioner went to the appropriate staffer.

Margaret shakes head 'no', Leo turns to look at her and she nods 'yes'.

LEO

The block of cheese was two-tons, and was there for any and all who might be hungry...

TOBY

[enters] 

Excuse me. I was waylaid.

C.J.

By what?

TOBY

30,000 tourists.

LARRY

You know, the protesters.

TOBY

No, don't call them protesters, I've seen better organized crowds at the DMV.

LEO

Two tons this block of cheese weighed...

TOBY

[still muttering] 

In my day, we knew how to protest.

C.J.

What day was that?

TOBY

1968.

JOSH

How the hell old were you when you were protesting?

TOBY

My sisters took me. [staffers chuckle] Anybody have a problem with that?

LEO

No one has a problem with that.

TOBY

The police are always seven steps ahead of them. 

The cops know exactly where they're going to be and what's going to happen. 

You know how they know? 

By logging onto their website. 

We had the underground. We had rapid response.

C.J.

And by God, you were home by supper on a school night.

TOBY

These people are amateurs. What's my assignment?

LEO

Meeting with the amateurs.

TOBY

Huh?

LEO

World Policy Studies is having a forum... there'll be about a hundred of them.

TOBY

Doing what?

LEO

Listening to you conduct a free exchange of ideas.

TOBY

Really?

LEO

Josh thinks it's a good idea.

TOBY

Oh well, if Josh thinks it's a good idea, then you bet, I'll do it.

LEO

Look...

TOBY

What else is there?

C.J.

I've got Cartographers for Social Equality.

JOSH

So, now you have two choices... meeting with an unruly mob or meeting with lunatic mapmakers.

TOBY

Or getting paid a lot more money working almost anywhere else I want.

LEO

Seriously, Toby, there'll be security there. But still...

TOBY

What about press?

C.J.

Just wires.

TOBY

No, I mean TV.

C.J.

No cameras.

TOBY

You negotiated that?

C.J.

Yeah.

TOBY

They agreed to it?

C.J.

You want to make out with me right now, don't you?

TOBY

Well, when don't I? [to Margaret] Give me the thing.

LEO

Okay, then. Andrew Jackson in the main foyer of the White House had a two-ton block of cheese.

JOSH

And a wheat thin the size of Lake Tahoe.

The staffers giggle. An aide hands Donna a note.

LEO

It was there for any and all who were hungry. 

It was there for the voiceless, the faceless...

Donna leaves.

CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS

Donna exits to the hallway, where STEPHANIE GAULT is waiting.

DONNA

Stephanie.

STEPHANIE GAULT

[whispering] Hi. You look great.

DONNA

Thank you. Why are you talking like that?

STEPHANIE

I don't want to shout.

DONNA

But we can use our normal voices though, right?

STEPHANIE

Never been in the White House.

DONNA

If you wait till later tonight, I'll give you a tour.

STEPHANIE

Did I get you out of something?

DONNA

No, I meant we're not allowed to give tours until after 10:00 when the

President's out

of the west wing.

STEPHANIE

Oh.

DONNA

Come with me.

STEPHANIE

The President works until 10:00?

DONNA

He usually works until after that, but he leaves the Oval at 10. We'll go

in Josh's office.

CUT TO: INT. JOSH'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS

STEPHANIE

Donna, I am getting you out of something though, right?

DONNA

Nothing, you got me out of the Big Block of Cheese Day meeting.

STEPHANIE

What's...

DONNA

I had the worst feeling you were going to ask. Andrew Jackson, while he was

President,

had in the main foyer of the White House - I can't believe I'm giving this

speech -

a two-ton block of cheese. In that spirit, Leo McGarry designates one day

for certain

senior staff members to take appointments with people or groups that wouldn't

ordinarily

be able to get the ear of the White House.

STEPHANIE

Sounds amazing.

DONNA

We make a lot of fun of it but truth is, I think it is.

STEPHANIE

Um, I'm sorry to, uh...

DONNA

Oh, yeah.

Donna closes the door, comes back and sits across from Stephanie.

STEPHANIE

Were you able to mention me to Sam Seaborn?

DONNA

I wasn't... I haven't yet and I apologize.

STEPHANIE

No, that's okay.

DONNA

Sam's just... it's been a bad week for Sam.

STEPHANIE

It's just that from everything I've been told, the President listens to Sam

Seaborn when

it comes to...

DONNA

Yeah.

DONNA

I should have said this on the phone. I'm not that comfortable with...

STEPHANIE

That's....

DONNA

It puts him in an awkward position if he has to say "no," and something like

this, if it

seems like a favor.... [beat] Steph, is your dad dying?

Stephanie nods softly.

DONNA

Okay, listen. When we're in with Sam, mention what you've just said before,

that from

everything you've heard, he's the man. He'll want to impress you and show

you that he's

got access to the President.

STEPHANIE

Wait a minute. You're really getting me in to see him? It's really all right?

DONNA

Yeah, it's Big Block of Cheese Day. [picks up phone] It's me. I need some

time with Sam.

The Art of Study is Not a Voluntary Gulag

Because it's unnatural.

Why would you even want to..?

What are you, Asian..?

...'cause if you don't practice, then you might as well give The Clarinet to a kid who'll use it.

Kim's mother called me just after he left her. 

Delightful woman. He's her only son. 

He'd left his clarinet behind. 

She wanted to know if she had time to send it. 

I had to tell her no. 

I think (1) you can't do it and (2) you shouldn't try. No one can actually study that much. It is very rare for people to be able to concentrate  hard for more than three hours a day.

However, if you absolutely must....

1. Don't study more than 7.5 hours a day. You will just wear yourself out. More won't help. You can't learn when you are exhausted.
2. Take a day off per week. Do something you like on that day. You are in this for the long haul, so you can't wear yourself out. That would be counter-productive. Your job is to learn, not to prematurely die trying.
3. Make a plan. What knowledge is most critical in each of the subjects? First, concentrate only on that. Imagine that you are first planning to obtain the easiest 50% in each study area.
4. Study from low to high resolution. Familiarize yourself with the central ideas of the study areas. Then, and only then, concentrate on the details. This means that you have to broadly outline the study domain, as if you were summarizing it in essay format. I have produced a guide to such an outlining process here: http://jordanbpeterson.com/Psy43...
5. Nap. A lot. Study for 2.5 hours. Take a break. Eat something. Do something mindless, like watching a Simpson's episode. Then have a nap. That will refresh you, and also increase the probability that you will remember what you have studied. Sleeping helps consolidate memory.
6. Study one topic for 2.5 hours. Then switch to another. Continue.
7. Read. Then put down the book. Then summarize what you have read. Don't look at what you were reading when you summarize. You have to practice recall, not repeatedly expose yourself to the same material. You are practicing remembering. That's what makes you good at remembering. Going over the material ad nauseum won't work. It just feels like work, without any of the actual difficulty of work (or the benefits). Don't highlight or underline or anything useless and self-deceptive like that.

Meme-Smiths of The Ideal