Thursday, August 18, 2005

It’s OK to tounge-kiss the purdy bear.



The purdy bear just wants tax cuts...and school vouchers.

I mean, he’d never eat me or nuthin’.

Not Mah Bear Buddy!

I’m going to go see this flick, even though I understand it’s something called a “documentary” and as such lacks even a hint of Lucy Liuability and Rosario Dawsonness.

That's the downside.

On the upside, it appears to provide a really creepy and penetrating insight into people who actually coax primal danger into bed with them, put a cute hat on it, poke it with a stick, and pretend that everything is Just Disney Dandy!

Here's a bit of an online review. See if it sounds...familiar.

Grizzly Man

A Film Review by James Berardinelli

2005 has been an uncommonly a good year for documentaries, and Grizzly Man, the latest from acclaimed German director Werner Herzog, does nothing to weaken the field. Grizzly Man is actually three movies in one: a wildlife film about how grizzly bears behave in their natural habitat, a character study of an eccentric environmentalist, and a chilling, voyeuristic narrative of how death stalks that man.

For those who don't know who Timothy Treadwell is, let me provide an overview. Treadwell was an environmentalist who gained notoriety in the 1990s and early 2000s when his passion for grizzly bears led him to spend 13 consecutive summers (1991 through 2003) on the Alaskan peninsula living amongst them. During his last five years, Treadwell brought a video camera with him to capture images of the bears and himself in their territory. In October 2003, Treadwell and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, were killed by a grizzly. Their remains were discovered the next day and the bear was shot. Left behind by Treadwell was about 100 hours of footage that Herzog has sifted through to produce this fascinating motion picture.

The phrase "hoist by his own petard" applies. Indeed, there is something Shakespearean about Treadwell. Bolstered by hubris that led him to believe he could live among the bears without becoming a meal, his recklessness contributed to his death. The real tragedy is that he wasn't the only one to perish; Huguenard, who was new to Treadwell's Alaskan trips and was frightened of the bears, died with him.


Note this line that just chilled me, also snipped from the review – “He sensed that although [his death or dismemberment] could happen, it wouldn’t. Not to him. He believed only at the end." – and ask yourself if it doesn’t remind you just a litttttle bit of certain “Moderate” members of a certain political party.

A bunch of self-deluded phuquetards who almost-hysterically still refuse to square up and face the true nature of the monsters they have invited into their bed, even as those monsters rip the belly out of every single thing these self-deluded phuquetards swear they believe in.

A true Confederacy of bafflingly and insistently self-blinded Dunces that have allowed a cult to take over their Party who genuinely believe – and will tell you to your face -- that precipitating the end of the World is a part of God’s Plan. That a Great War in the Middle East that draws in all nations into a final Apocalyptic conflict is a terrific idea...and who believe that George Bush is God’s Instrument in advancing the Will of their Deathgod.

These people – these murderous, hate-maddened, homunculi Christopaths – are very clear on this point, and they occupy key positions of leadership and influence throughout the Republican Party. And yet you ask one of these Moderate Simpletons about the rather overwhelming fact that their Party is run by American Taliban, and they’ll wave that whole line of questioning away and actually tell you:

“Aww, they don’t really mean it.”

Which would be fine...except for this point also raised in the review: “The real tragedy is that he wasn't the only one to perish; Huguenard, who was new to Treadwell's Alaskan trips and was frightened of the bears, died with him.”

You wanna play naked mumbly-peg with Jack the Ripper – and give him the first five throws – fine. That’s your nitwit fuckup; and your closed-casket funeral.

But in this case your unbelievably idiotic and immoral dumbassery is taking the rest of us down with you, and it’s our children and treasure and reputation and future that are being fed, one bite at a time, into the maw of your harmless, furry friends.

Fuck that. We are a tolerant bunch, but that we're not going to tolerate

So do your Moderate Republican friends a favor: Take them to this movie.

(I am a great believe in redemptions, and the redemptive power of art. And that art is everywhere. Hell, you can even find in the tea-leaves of a simple movie review an elegant little fractal of the wider American political world.)

Tell ‘em it’s a documentary on the Bright Future of the GOP.

And take the High Road. Break the Exchequer and spring for the Big Popcorn, Milk Duds and large Cokes. Or, if you go to one of the higher-end Gilded Temple’s of Cine-Mah, pop for the pork chops and a nice cabernet.

And then, about halfway though the second reel, when he or she is starting to wonder WTF is going on, be a pal, lean over and whisper:

“Here’s a hint: You’re. Not. The. Bear.”

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

Drift, interesting that you use Timothy...

He was a well-meaning dingbat egotist, who thought that he could help the bears, by playing a kind of ursine Russian Roulette with them.

You can google in "Bear Attacks", and rummage around on the various links, and find several that discuss he and Huguenard's demise.

There are some heated posts on the subject. The "Bear People" are deeply offended that no small number of Alaskans were dryly commenting on the degree of "intimacy" which Treadwell had finally achieved with Ursus Horribilis.
There were even some rather literary comments about Treadwell; using Dylan Thomas' phrase from "A Child's Christmas in Wales", about Timothy "romping the daft and happy hills"...that is, until the bear shat him out.

You may know, that when he and Huguenard were converted into protein, there was a camcorder on for several minutes (audio only; the lens cap was on.) The tape was finally given to the organization that Timothy (I think) started, to support the bears. But first, the rangers listened to it, and it must have been pretty horrific.

Huguenard was inside the tent, a few feet away, when the bear attacked Treadwell, and he's heard (sounding remarkably like some terrified tourist, instead of the warmly affectionate "animal behaviorist" that had become famous) as he begs her to come outside and hit the bear with a frying pan. (Treadwell, ever the purist, had "graduated" to refusing to carry bear spray on his expeditions. Wonder if he would like to have tainted his "studies" with a can that day?)

Evidently, Huguenard thought better of going after an adult speciman of the world's 2nd largest (I think U. Arctos gets a tad bigger.) land predator with a cooking implement. Hard to blame her.
Of course, in short order, the bear made a thorough job of it, and took her, too.
I hope I don't sound too callous, but, as you point out, sooner or later, schmoozing with large, wild, carnivores, is likely to get you negatively involved in the food chain.

As a lifelong treehugger, I sympathize with Treadwell's concerns for the bears. I just think he could have done a better job of helping them by keeping a bit more distance from them, and by being cynical enough to carry some of the heavy-duty bear repellents that are available today.

None of which, as I understand it, do permanent hear to the bears.

Anonymous said...

Drifty--why can't your site remember my webname and e-mail address so I don't have to type the damn things every time I want to post a comment? Many other sites do that.

As for what's wrong with the "moderate" Elephascists, I've explained that several times, including back on the "ugly dog" thread. They enable fascism because they think a truly democratic government will make them pay more taxes, and they childishly prefer tyranny to paying taxes like responsible adults.

Repetitiously yours, Monster from the Id

driftglass said...

Tanbark,
schmoozing with large, wild, carnivores, is likely to get you negatively involved in the food chain.

OK, now that's just plain funny :-)

monster from the id,
I have the same problem when I work on a Mac, but not on Wintel...or when I vacuum out the cookies/spyware, which is often.

Anonymous said...

I swear to jeebus, the three of you have tears streaming down my face. I gave up any type of liquid consumption while reading you, Drifty, some time ago. Got tired of it spewing from the nostrils. Carry on, my brothers.

Anonymous said...

Drifty, I read many, many blogs each day. I am a virtual hit machine (Hey, each of us has a role to play on this mortal coil, no?).

I come here for dessert, after a fine meal of many others.

I am no fanboy, just jealous of your word smithing skills.

Over and out.

Anonymous said...

i did no such thing!

How do we know this is you and not the bear?

Anonymous said...

There was a fascinated interview with Herzog on NPR's Fresh Air. When Treadwell was attacked and killed, he had a video camera on, but no video was captured, just audio. Talk about creepy. How about listening to a bear attack and kill two people.

I doubt I'll see it (I'm far too much of a recluse to go to a theater) but it sounds interesting enough.

Mentis Fugit said...

We're all invincible at one time. We can drive as fast as we want and never crash. We can fuck like bunnies and never get(XX) someone(XY) pregnant. Most of us grow out of it some time in our twenties, but some never do. Then they get to send the invincible ones off to die in their stead.

driftglass said...

iceweasel,

Not to worry. If it does big box office, I'm sure Fox will make it into a reality TV show by the Fall of '06.

Anonymous said...

Not that it matters, but upon further review, I think the Latin name for the Polar Bear is Ursus Maritimus, or something like that.

And if anyone on here gets offended because they think I'm making light of how two juicy, hairless, succulent, denizens of the planet, were reminded (however briefly) that their position in the food chain was not fixed at the top, then don't go hunting for that little posting war I mentioned. Some of the Alaskans, and others, are downright clever in their discussions of Timothy more or less advertently offering the bears a happily accepted late season protein source.

And, Mac, I hear you. I think it IS too horrific for them. The HUGE difference between Iraq and Vietnam, as anyone with half a brain knows, is that with Vietnam, we could leave, and that would pretty much be the end of it. Chalk up one agrarian marxist country.

With Iraq, I think it's gonna be:

"Where are the Viet Cong when we need them?"

I mean, as shitty as it already has been, and is continuing to be, the problems that junior and the petros have created for us with their Mesopotamian Merit Badge hunt, are just getting started.

When I tell conservative friends, and some liberals, too, that there is no way out; no "plan" will work; it's all downhill now; they look at me like I told them that I've got a video of Mother Teresa pulling a train for the Oakland, California chapter of the Hell's Angels.

And I think that our democratic leaders are just about that shocked, when they start looking around for the "exit" sign in Iraq, and can't find it.

The ramifications for some or our most cherished dreams, are monstrous.

Globalization? Anything could happen. What if the Chinese decide that it's a good time to "do" Taiwan?

Now that bushCo has made the largest campaign assist to the Iranian hard-asses, in the history of the universe, as well as boosting the numbers of fanatical Arabs who want a piece of us by some exponential factor, some situations which were more or less manageable, have become dicier than Bill Bennett at an Atlantic City Casino.

Once oil hits $4 or $5 dollars a gallon, does anyone on here think that it'll EVER go back down to $2?

The one act of penance that the Bush administration and it's supporters could perform at atonement for what they've done, is to quietly but clearly say:

"Boy did we fuck up..." and then eat the consequences of that; Loss of both houses of congress; Discrediting of practically all of the batshit crazy, anti-american conservative philosophy; and the ending of the political careers of anyone who even helped crank up this insanity, including the democrats who STILL are parroting the bushCo line.

But of course, this aint gonna happen. What's most likely, is that we may get hit again, and that will be just what the assholes want. It's their one way out. They can't arbitrarily open up a "second front" on Iran or Syria (I don't THINK), but if we have another serious attack on us, it will be Katie bar the door.

Time to start that Victory Garden.

Anonymous said...

>Evidently, Huguenard thought better of going after an adult speciman of the world's 2nd largest (I think U. Arctos gets a tad bigger.) land predator with a cooking implement. Hard to blame her.<


I'm surprised the bears accepted Treadwell at all--especially around breeding season. God. Sitting in a tent hearing your boyfriend get eaten alive--and knowing you're next...

Anonymous said...

As tanbark (I think) notes, it's not only conservatives or "moderate" Rethuglicans who have vastly overdrawn their clue bank, it's the Democratic apparachiks too -- nobody in the top part of the Dem pyramid can oppose the war, despite 60% of the population opposing it, because they can't break their addiction to lucrative bullshit. H'mm... maybe if Biden and H. Clinton got eaten by bears....

-F

Anonymous said...

Re: the subject matter of "Grizzly Man" itself: the best advice I ever saw on the subject of how we will be treated in the wild was posted on a sign at the main trailhead at Mineral King: "Nature is indifferent to your survival."

Re: the analogy to the "centrist" Republicans -- that would be the Christie Todd Whitman wing of the party no doubt? Forget it. They're where us Dems were three years ago -- just touching bottom. They've been purged and marginalized for the last 20 years; they will only have juice when the conspiracy currently running the Repubs sustains a total collapse, which shouldn't be too terribly long now (pace today's Paul Krugman column).

Re: Iraq -- as has been said elsewhere, it's not Vietnam, it's Vietnam on speed. We've zipped from 1964 to post-Cambodia incursion/meltdown 1970 in just two short (except for the GIs and Marines in Iraq) years. The big difference of course is that, unlike Vietnam, Iraq matters in a geopolitical sense.

However, we've lost in Iraq, so now what? A thought: we're also losing in Afghanistan, just on a smaller and, thanks to the MSM, quieter scale. Why lose two wars?

Why not reposition the light infantry soldiers in Iraq to the Afghan - Pakistan border, while sending the rest of the soldiers and Marines in Iraq (including all the Reserve and NG units)home over the next year? While waiting to go home, this latter group could be relocated to Kuwait and Jordan, and could continue to train the Iraqi forces/act as a Quick Reaction Force if/when the Bandini well and truly hits the air supply.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan we'd be killing/capturing al Qaeda and giving to Afghanistan what we could never give to Iraq -- enough security to establish a reasonably democratic government. When it tells us to leave, we leave. After all, no oil there.

Anonymous said...

Fingal, you nailed it.

We HAVE no "leaders".

I haven't heard a single democrat talk about what the REAL fall-out from this fucking mid-east Chernobyl, is gonna be. Not one.

We haven't BEGUN to pay the dues for this shit.

One small card that bushCo has left to play, in the attempt to snuff the insurgents, is that next year, a lot more NATO troops will be heading to Afghanistan, to take over from us. I don't know just how many troops we have there, but it's probably at least, 20-30 thousand.
And they're experienced at hanging on in a Muslim country.

Guess where they'll be going?

Anonymous said...

Of course, THAT move assumes that Afghanistan stays "quiet" enough (Read: the Bush administration still has the money to bribe the warlords to lie doggo.) for the NATO countries to be WILLING to send their troops there.

That's not a given.

Anonymous said...

FBG, the problem is, that if we pull the troops out of Iraq, it's highly likely that a bloodbath will instantly start. I mean, one that will make what's happening there now look like a picnic fistfight.

BushCo, of course, gives not a shit about the bodies, but it would be some bad "pub", and ammo for all us "we told you so'rs", for Iraq to turn into a full-on slaughter pen.

That's why I say there is no "good" way out.

The "Plan" was for the shistheads to not have done it, in the first place.

Now that the demons are out of the closet, I think the best we can do, is a formal partition of the country, as we try to lock in some equal distribution of the oil, etc. And, I'm not talking the "federalism" bullshit; I mean 3 different countries.

Of course, this will create ANOTHER whole set of nearly insoluble problems...the Kurd/Turk thingy; what will Al Sadr do; etc, etc....

Like I've been saying for 32 months: no way out.

Anonymous said...

Tanbark:

Believe me, I hear what you're saying. But the problem is: a) we've lost and b) we're leaving Iraq, and when we leave, we're not going to be leaving anybody behind in country.

Reason: Because any force smaller than what's there now will be attacked/overrun by the insurgency. (All those who want to be in the last battalion/brigade/division in Iraq take one step forward. Funny, nobody's stepping forward.)

The only way around this is a draft, and that's just not going to happen -- to much explaining to do by Dear Leader re: why it's needed.

And without a draft the Army and the USMC are broken in another year (and that's not me talkling, that's people on the inside of both branches).

So they've got to start lowering troop levels fairly quickly to take the strain off those two branches/the Reserves and the NG as well as to do something about the plummeting enlistment/re-up rates.

The only thing they can do is bail by declaring victory while simultaneously branding us as "Backstabbers", "Cut and Runners", etc., for suggesting we bring the troops home right away.

Politically and militarily, the response to that can be that we're not "cutting and running", rather, we're returning to Afghanistan where the actual enemy is to finish something we started and then abandoned for our little imperial adventure along the Euphrates -- our bumper sticker response to their bumper sticker charge of "Backstabbers" would be "Remember 9/11: Get Osama Been Forgotten".

Anonymous said...

FBG, I think you're as right as a snake, in all that.

But I just read that NATO is planning on sending a BIG troop contingent to Afghanistan, to, basically, take over whatever-the-fuck-it-is that we're doing there, in 2006.

(Keeping the warlords from converting Hamid Kharzai into Hummus, comes to mind pretty quickly...)

And if they do that, it will free up a few tens of thousands of american troops, who are now vets of pretty much the same kind of shit that is going on in Iraq.

Does anyone on here think they'll be rewarded for their labors by going home?

I guaranTEE you that bushCo is counting on this contingent to tip the balance in Iraq back into their favor. I think it will only buy them time, but it may dilute the disillusionment of american voters some, as the mid-terms come up.

And, as we all know, one house lost, is one house with committee hearings into all the bullshit, ginning up to go after junior.

Gonna be an eventful fall.

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