Wednesday, 11 April 2018

Daughters of The Storm : Honour Thy Mother

 Honour Thy Mother 

(or else.)


Daughters of Ishtar : Serpent-Women and The Dionesiac Menad Dance of the Animus




Some called his mother, Queen Olympias, a sorceress...
and said that Alexander was the child of Zeus.

Others, Dionysus.

But truly, there was not a man in Macedonia who didn't look...
at father and son, side by side, and wonder....


Olympias, The Dionysiac Queen-Mother Serpent-Woman :
If you hesitate, she will strike.

Yes.

They are like people.
You can love them for years. Feed them, nurture them...
but still, they can turn on you.

Don't hurt her.
Good.

Now...

[ Drunken roaring and sounds of debauchery from without ]

He calls me a barbarian...

He makes a mockery of Dionysus every night.

Women are the only ones who know Dionysus.

My little Achilles.

[ ...who was as gay as a window - no interest in girls whatsoever. 
In Fruedian terms, Achillees represents the perfect narcissist, the ideal homosexual type, without group loyalty and absent any patriotism - which is more or less just how Brad Pitt portrays him in Troy, albeit without edge and with a decent amount of finesse and subtlety.
She is grooming him, because no girl will ever be good enough in Her eyes... Except for breeding purposes and political statecraft utility. ]

 Stay, Alexander, down. Down.
What is it you want?

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
Six months. Did you miss me?

Olympias, The Dionysiac Queen-Mother Serpent-Woman :
No. Not here! 

[ Why not here? Because it's a sacred sanctuary, where the snakes are. ]

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:

Proud bitch. I'm still your king.

Olympias, The Dionysiac Queen-Mother Serpent-Woman :
King of what? Sheep-herders?

[ True, at this point. ]

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
I am of Achilles' royal blood. 
The blood of Herakles runs in my veins.

Olympias, The Dionysiac Queen-Mother Serpent-Woman :
You are nothing but a drunken whore. 
Shut your mouth.

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
You 10-titted bitch from Hades!

Olympias, The Dionysiac Queen-Mother Serpent-Woman :
Which god could I curse to have ever laid eyes on you!
Do you think people respect you?
You think they don't know your bastards?

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
Damn your sorceress soul! 
You keep him here like one of your snakes!
I told you not! I told you not.

You'll obey me. 

[ To Love, Honour and Obey - not unreasonable. ]

Olympias, The Dionysiac Queen-Mother Serpent-Woman :
I will not.

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
You'll obey me, or I'll kill you with my own hands.

Alexander DeLarge :
Let her go! No! Stop! Papa!

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
Obey me! 

Lady-in-Waiting :
Your Majesty! No!

Olympias, The Dionysiac Queen-Mother Serpent-Woman :
In the name of the gods.
He will never be yours! Never!
In my womb, I carried my avenger!

[ Don't you have to be dead for that...? Otherwise it's just plain revenge.  ]

So She assumes that he will follow-through and succeed in murdering her or having her done-away-with, which would have to include the sidelining and exclusion of  her son, her 'Barbarian' blood from the order of succcession - to sane thinking anyway, but Philip's actions (while alive) show no sign or indictations in that direction suggestive of his being inclined toward thinking that way, or of that being the case. And any notional offspring or male princes (that's assuming that they get  a male offspring out of the marriage straight away) to Cleopatra Eurydice of Macedon would be 15-20 years behind Alexander in their maturity at best, and as such posed little of a threat or rivalry to any claim of Alexander to be Philip's sole heri. To sane thinking, that is... Huh.]


Yes, she would be a perfect match for you...
but you do nothing.

Three months you've been in Babylon and leave me in Pella...
at the mercy of your enemies, of which you have many.

Antipater, accustomed now to the power that you have given him.

I must watch him grow stronger.

I'm certain that he communicates secretly with Parmenion, who is dangerous.

But beware, most of all, of those closest to you.

They are like snakes...
and can be turned.

General Crateros.
Cassander is Antipater's son.

Even Cleitus, your father's favorite...
and Ptolemy, your friend, yes.

But beware of men who think too much.
They blind themselves.

Only  Hephaistion do I leave out.

[ Why? Because he's his lover, and She recognises that if She attacks his lover arbitrarily, and forces the boy to choose between his Mother and his Lover, She will lose - She must lose. And so She defaults to a strategic policy of Love-Bombing The Lover with flattery and praise. For now. ]  

But all of them you make rich...
while Your Mother and Your Self, you leave in generous poverty.

Why won't you ever believe me?

It is only a dark mind like mine that can know these secrets of the heart.

For they are dark, Alexander.
So dark.

But in you, the son of Zeus...
lies The Light of The World.


Your companions will be shadows in the underworld...
when you are a name living forever in history as the most glorious...
shining light of youth, forever young, forever inspiring.


Never will there be an Alexander like you.

Alexander the Great.

Remember, bring me to Babylon as you promised.

[ I think that you're already there - and have been for a very long time.... ]




I can only help you, for They know if They harm you...
They will face my wrath, as Queen of Babylon.

Alexander DeLarge :
It's a high ransom she charges for nine months' lodging in the womb.

Hephaistion :
Bring her, Alexander.
It'll give her such joy. 

Alexander DeLarge :
Joy?


When I'm the cracked mirror of her dreams?

*****
Roxanne, 
She Who Puts on The Red Light 
(She's a Whore) :
You have no fear.
It's fitting.
A man searches for a woman at Earth's top...
and finds her.
The myth becomes real.

Roxanne, 
She Who Puts on The Red Light 
(She's a Whore) :
Great man, Sikander...
you I kill now.

[ He Tames Her. ]

Roxanne, 
She Who Puts on The Red Light 
(She's a Whore) :
Do it.
End it. I would do the...
I would do the same. 

Alexander DeLarge :
I'll die a fool...
for this love.


Roxanne, 
She Who Puts on The Red Light 
(She's a Whore) :
My life is now yours.

Alexander DeLarge :
You will have my son.

[ Pimps refer to this as the act of "Turning Out" a girl they have just tamed. ]

Olympias, 
The Dionysiac Queen-Mother Serpent-Woman :
Who is this woman you call your queen, Alexander? A hill girl?

You with your breeding.

Already she makes enemies with her strong, clumsy nature.

Do not confuse us.

I was never a barbarian as Philip said.

[ That's a matter of opinion... ]

We are of Achilles' royal blood.

Zeus is your father.

Oh, I understand she brings you some happiness...
but how can she help you?

[ Eve was created to be a help-mate to Adam - not merely a mate (which is the business and domain of the animals) ]

You must know that she does not speak In Your Name...
which is yours and yours alone.

[ So how can he ever sire a Son & Heir...? If he is semi-divine, and that means that his son won't be (the son of a demigod can only be a Hero, - at best- and never a God or a Demigod), then how... what hope is there for The Future then, if that's to be the case...? 

He must still die, just as even the Biblical Patriarchs did  (except for Enoch....), even though they lived for far longer than most, longer than might even seem possible to lesser men of some far distant, future age - but even Noah had three sons. 

As did Adam himself, although the true fate and nature of The Sethians remains mysterious at best. 

So - what is the point in breeding, in a non-patrilinial system of succession not established upon primogeniture, where you cannot pass along even your name? (as was the practice of the Caesers) ]

Preserve it, secret it...

[ Where, exactly..? ]

 and hear me when I tell you, act...
and act soon.

After seven years, people wonder:

"Who is this King Alexander?"

I have given you ample proof. Antipater daily undermines your authority.

[ Does he? What is this proof..? ]

Return to Babylon and strengthen your center.
Or come home to Macedonia and reorganize.

But do not chase your dream...
further east.

Your life and mine depend on it.

Remember...
my only thoughts are of you.

As you, too, must face your glorious destiny.

Think kindly of your mother.

Provide for me.
Protect me from your enemies when you are gone.

[ Hang on - why is she expecting him to die before she does? ]

And remember always...

 It is I who love you more than any.

Alexander DeLarge :
If only you were not a pale reflection...

of my mother's heart.



Inanna/Ishtar (Isis)




Isis in Egypt. Astaroth. Father EnkiInanna came first, the goddess of the Sumerians.  Ishtar came after, the goddess of the Babylonians and Assyrians.

Quotes: Astaroth (also Ashtaroth, Astarot, and Asteroth), in demonology, is a Crowned Prince of Hell. He is a male figure named after the Canaanite goddess Ashtoreth.  The name Astaroth was ultimately derived from that of 2nd millennium BC Phoenician goddess Astarte,[1] an equivalent of the Babylonian Ishtar, and the earlier Sumerian Inanna



The name Ishtar is Semitic for the goddess Inanna of Sumeria.  

Sumerian, Not Babylonian
Sacred “prostitution” was part of the religion as Ishtar was the courtesan of the gods”

...Ishtar possessed a litany of weapons and one of her totems was the lion...Ishtar was called the Lady of Battles, the Queen of Attack, The Lady of Victory, Queen of Hand-to-Hand Fighting and the Guardian of Law and Order; all linking her to the planet Mars.


    Again, in her aspect of Warrior Queen, Ishtar held a labrys, scepter or a staff with either one or two snakes coiled around it.  In this aspect, the snake stood for the ability to take a life. It seems that this staff/scepter started out with only one snake and then ended up with two.  The healing god Ningishzide, who goes back to Mesopotamia, was a lover of Inanna/Ishtar.  He carried a single-serpent wand, but this snake had two heads and both male and female sex organs in the one body.  This kind of Mesopotamian snake was called a Sachan, and was Ningishzide’s symbol. Regardless as to how many snakes, there were, the staff, which became the healing caduceus of Hermes, was a symbol of Inanna/Ishtar’s power to grant life, to heal, or to take life away.  Before it became the Greek caduceus, this staff had a solar disc on top with two snakes that looked like horns (see below for “cow”).  Later, Hermes came to own the staff, by this time it had two snakes intertwined around it, and this was his symbol as the Psychopomp, the Conductor of Souls.



    Inanna/Ishtar was known as the Eye Goddess and she had Eye Temples.  One of the oldest of these Eye Temples, dating back to about 3000 BCE, is at Tell Brak in eastern Syria.  Found inside were thousands of figurines of the Eye Goddess, each with staring, wide, owl-like eyes which are coiled like snakes.  It is thought that these eyes that stare are eyes that see justice.


    A larger version of the serpent, Ishtar was shown with dragons by her sides when she was in her aspect of the Goddess of War or when protecting her people.  Inanna was one of the three main deities involved with a major battle between good and evil.  The evil was known as he dragon Kur.

    COWS Like Isis and Hathor of Egypt and Io and Ionia, Inanna/Ishtar was a Cow Mother Goddess.  She, like Kybele/Cybele, was pictured with bovine horns or as cows with lunar horns.  Inanna/Ishtar, because of her association with the Moon, is also linked to the horns of a bull.  These bull horns also link her to fertility, due to their similarity in shape to the fallopian tubes.  Some myths have Inanna/Ishtar giving birth to bulls or golden calves. 


Ishtar (a.k.a. Inanna in Babylon, Isis in Eygypt, Astarte or Aphrodite in Greece and Libertas/Venus in Rome to name just a few)



The destructive nature of the Canaanites upon other nations in which they settled is nowhere more strongly demonstrated than in Egypt, the first land to be corrupted by their barbaric practices. 

Originally, "Baal" simply meant Lord in the Canaanite language. The obscenity of the rites soon developed a popular image of Baal which had three heads, the head of a cat, the head of a man, and the head of a toad

His wife, Ashtoreth, also known as Astarte and Ishtar, was the principal goddess of the Canaanites. She also represented the reproductive principle in nature, and in case anyone might overlook it, all of her rites were sexual observances. In Babylon, the temples of Baal and Ashtoreth were usually together. 

Mainly, they served as houses of  prostitution, in which the priestesses were prostitutes, and the male priests were Sodomites who were available for the worshippers who were of that persuasion. The worship of the Canaanite gods consisted of orgies, and all their temples were known as centers of vice. They also originated voodoo ceremonies, which became the rites of observance in Ethiopia through the Ethiopian Jethro, the tutor of Moses. 

These same rites now enthrall tourists in the Caribbean.


    It was not long before the simple ceremonies of vice began to pall on the worshippers of Baal. They sought greater excitement in rites of human sacrifice and cannibalism, in which the torture and murder of small children were featured. To consolidate their power over the people, the priests of the Canaanites claimed that all firstborn children were owed to their demon gods, and they were given over for sacrifice. 



This lewd and barbaric practice was noted in Isaiah 57:3-5:"But you, draw near hither, sons of the sorceress, offspring of the adulterer and the harlot. Of whom 'are you making sport? Against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood? Inflaming yourself with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the cleft of the rocks?" 




Ishtar held a labrys, scepter or a staff with either one or two snakes coiled around it




One version of the star symbol of Inanna/Ishtar


Shen-ropes We have in the Burney relief an amalgamation of symbols and images that depict both Innana (the rod and ring, the shugurra crown, the lions, the owls, the beads and bracelets) and Lilith. 

Lilith's symbols are the draped wings, her frontal nakedness, owl-feet, and also the horned crown

Clearly, the figure is that of Lilith, but some of the symbols are associated with Innana/Ishtar. 

The Babylonian Ishtar usually has wings, but they are always outstretched, never folded as Lilith's. 

The overall message is one of active sexuality, fertility, and dominion over nature with all its inherent oppositions 

Birth + Death, 
Peace + Violence 
Animal + Human





Obelisk So in St. Peter's square, the symbol of Baal is within the symbol of Ishtar, and at the center is an Egyptian obelisk, all representing pagan sun worship.




Here is an old photo of the center of St. Peter's square, and note that around the obelisk, at the center of the huge eight-point sun wheel, is a smaller four-pointed sun wheel, the same symbol as found on the altar stone in the temple of Baal in Hatzor! 







A decorative wheel found on the altar of a Roman Catholic  church. 








Triumphant Inanna-Ishtar, winged, with foot on her roaring lion and star symbol, being worshipped by a lesser goddess. Black-stone cylinder seal. Akkadian, ca. 2334-2154 BCE.

S. Beaulieu, after Wolkstein & Kramer 1983:92





Istanbul, Turkey: Museum of the Ancient Orient: Ishtar Gate, dragon 'Mushushu' panel (reconstructed, original was c 575 BC) 

Carelessly Disrespecting Your Culture - Honour Thy Father


Alexander De Large :
Why, drunken man, must you think
everything I Do and Say 
comes from My Mother?

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon: 

Because I know Her Heart, by Hera...
and I see her in your eyes.

You come at This Throne too much...

Yeah, Good Luck with That...



King Philip II 
"The One-Eye"of Macedon:
You go, boy!

You ride that horse, 
and by Zeus I Say, 
You can Rule The World.

Alexander DeLarge :
Bucephalus.
That's what I'll call you. 
Strong and stubborn.
Bucephalus and Alexander.
Come now, let's ride together.

Cleitus, The Royal Retainer
He's got some Titan in him yet.

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
Attalus! Cleitus! 
For Zeus' sake, 
he beat you, man!

Alexander :
Now, Bucephalus, show them --

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
My Son.
My Son!

*****

A Cave at Pella, Macedonia :
[ Because There's always A Cave... ]


King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
You remember Prometheus...
 who stole the secret of fire and gave it to Man.

It made Zeus so angry...
 he chained Prometheus 
to a rock in the great Caucasus...
and each day, his eagle 
pecked out the poor man's liver.

[ He wasn't 'a Man', he was a turncoat rebel Titan who sided with the Olympians in the War to overthrow Cronus and the Titanocracy ]

 Each night, it grew back again 
so that it could be eaten 
the next day.

Miserable fate.

[ The sentence was commuted by Zeus - eventually.  It wasn't an eternal punishment. ]

Oedipus -  tore out his eyes 
when he found out...
he'd murdered his father...
and married his mother. 

Knowledge that came too late.

Jason...
He went East and brought back 
The Golden Fleece...
and married A Barbarian Wife, Medea.



Later, when he left her for a younger wife...

Medea slaughtered their two children in vengeance.

Alexander :
My Mother would never hurt me.

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
It's never easy to escape Our Mothers, Alexander.

All your life, Beware of Women. 
They're far more dangerous than Men.

I'm sure you remember Achilles from Tales of Troy.

Alexander :
He's my favorite. 

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
Why?

Alexander :
Because he loved Patroclus and avenged his death.
 Because he lived without fear, and slew Hector.

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
 Some say he was a hotheaded fool...
who fought for himself and not the Greeks.

Alexander :
 But he was a hero, the greatest at Troy.

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
And his fate?

Alexander :
That he must die young but with great glory.

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
Did he have a choice?

Alexander :
Oh, yes. He could have a long life, but there would be no glory.

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
You dream of glory, Alexander. 
Your Mother Encourages you.

There's no Glory without Suffering, 
and this she will not allow.

She makes you weak.

The gods have never made it easy for man.

Look, Herakles.
Even after he accomplished his 12 labors...
he was punished with madness, slaughtered his three children.

[ actually, Hera afflicted him with the fit of madness before he embarked upon his 12 Labours, with the idea being that they were to be his pennance for murdering his wife and family (for which Greek Culture regarded him as being responsible for and bearing the burden of guilt for, in spite of his insensibility and derrangement - what came after the completion of the Twelve Labours was almost worse, Hera this time tricked his new wife into presenting him with a deadly and irremovable poisoned shirt which caused him to suffer ever-increasingly extruciating pain until he was forced to place himself in the midst of a funeral pyre to release himself from the pain - and that is the point at which Zeus finally stepped in to over-rule his wife, separated his divine spirtual essence from his earthly form (being born a demigod, by his nature), and elevated him to full godhood, having earned his place on Mount Olympus, seated by the throne of his divine Father (which his divine Step-Mother and Animus liked it or not). ] 

Poor Herakles.

Great Herakles.

All greatness comes from loss.

Even you, the gods will one day judge harshly.

Alexander: 
When I'm king like you, Father?


King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
 Don't rush the day, boy. 
You risk all.

My father threw me into battle before I knew how to fight.

When I killed my first man, he said:

"Now you know. "

I hated him then, but I understand why now.

A king isn't born, Alexander.

He's made by Steel and by Suffering.

A King must know how to hurt those he loves.

It's lonely. Ask Herakles.

Ask any of them. Fate is cruel.

No man or woman can be too powerful or too beautiful without disaster befalling.

They laugh when you rise too high and crush everything you've built with a whim.
What glory they give, in the end, they take away.

They make of us slaves.

Truth is in our hearts, 
and none will tell you this but Your Father :

Men Hate The Gods.

The only reason we worship any of them is because we fear worse.

Alexander:
What's worse?

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:

The Titans.

If they were ever to be set free...
it would be a Darkness 
such as we have 
never seen before.

Alexander :
Could They ever come back?
Can Zeus imprison he Titans forever 
under Mount Olympus?

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
It's said that when Zeus 
burned Them to dust 
with his lightning bolt...
They took the Titans' ashes 
and, in a cold revenge...
Mixed it with those of mortal Men.

Alexander :
Why?

King Philip "The One-Eye" II of Macedon:
Who knows these things?

One day, things will change.
Men will change.
But first, The Gods must change.

But all this you'll forget, Alexander.
That's why we call them 'Myths'.

....We can't bear to remember them.

Alexander :
I'll remember.
And one day, I'll be on 
walls like these.....

*****

Ptolomy the Historian :
Alexander once said to me :
" We are most alone when we are with the myths. "

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


Tuesday, 10 April 2018

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.)