Blog Reengagement

My apologies on dropping off planet. I will attempt to be more diligent in posting. Just went through a mild earthquake, which was moderately amusing. Schedule is ridiculous this quarter as I am TAing, grading as a reader for the survey of the Roman Empire course, taking both a Latin course on Tacitus and Greek course on Xenophon, history seminar on Romanization, all while serving as a historical consultant, for which I was anonymously referenced in a recent show promotional tour by the show-runner. For now, I will not allow my name to be formally attached to the project so that I can insulate my future academic reputation from such a stylized/CGI/graphic novel style show. The show will be designed to appeal to a pop culture audience, but I am providing primary sources on a variety of background topics as well as direct suggestions rooted in real historical context. However, the sources themselves are extremely thin in ways that allow them to make up purely dramatic plotlines for their own particular vision. They are making a very concerted effort though. In any case, we'll see how it goes and I hope it does well. This thing will probably be even so raw as to offend those with delicate sensibilities, moreso than HBO because this is the first time this show-runner has been unleashed from the restricitions of his past shows, but you all know I laugh at such weak sensitivity in this mollified society. Strength and Honor!

Snowed in!

Quarter is finally done. Leavenworth went great as I enjoyed excessive Bavarian style food and drink. I'm more in the holiday spirit now, and am presently snowed in with over a foot of powder at the homestead. I'm going to enjoy some Irish mead my brother brought me from his last trip to the land of leprechauns. Mead works well on a cold day. I'm shutting off my brain for a few days. I suggest everyone do the same. Be well!

Paper Done - On to grading - Need to Catch 6am Flight

Quarter is nearly complete as I just turned in my research paper on early Christian identity formation under the domination of the Roman imperial structure. Fun times with violent martyr accounts in the arena and the dynamics of pagan criticism concerning perceptions of weakness and passivity. I argue for a Christian appropriation and redefinition of Roman martial virtues and conceptions of nobility in the face of death; a dynamic which would gradually embolden the early church and facilitate militant Christianity in later years. Essentially, an integration of Roman social violence and an emerging Christian identity. Initial response by Prof seems to be very favorable. Now, I must grade as much as I can until I go to LAX at 4am for a flight back to the NW. I will be spending the weekend in Leavenworth, WA at an early Xmas celebration with my daughter. I was able to escape the studio work for a couple of weeks while they move offices from Beverly Hills to Burbank for production. I should be in NW until Jan 3rd for some much needed mental decompression. Be well!

Return from a Good Thanksgiving Trip

I was able to spend an entire week at the homestead with my daughter. My brother and his wife were up for most of the week for the first collective Thanksgiving in years. All was good and it was a much needed period of relaxation. I'm trying to get this quarter wrapped up in 11 days so I can travel for an early Christmas-themed Bavarian style weekend in Leavenworth, Washington. Quite a bit to get done beforehand, but it should be a good time. I might have to fly back briefly for a meeting with studio-execs, but then I can spend most of a month de-tuning my brain for awhile. Be well!

Schedule Juggling

My new consulting job has kicked off respectably well, but I am worried about the time demands. I went into the first two production meetings with the writers armed with some good stuff. At this point, they are extremely receptive and grateful for the assistance. I am pleased with their own research and their willingness to grapple with the primary sources in trying to provide as much historical context as they can within the constraints of their theatrical vision. My input is being incorporated directly into plotline and script production and they have already structured the scenes of the pilot episode based on many of my direct contextual suggestions. I am also pleased that I will be given scripts to go over as they emerge in hopes of being able to identify potential problems before the script is finalized and sent to the director. So far, the working dynamic has been great and they are adding as much historical context as they feel they can feasibly afford. My main concern at this point is not losing too much time dealing with this because of my other academic commitments. I brought in help to split the workload and it looks like it can be managed. It will still be tough though. My other concern in terms of the show is how the writers vision will be executed during production and the demands of studio execs outside of the project. I am required to remain vague on the nature and specifics of the show at this point, but it has a respectable chance to turn out well based on the collaborative writing and the allotted budget. It still has to be properly captured on film though. We'll see. Other than this business, lots of grading and research in preparation for going home for Thanksgiving for a week. I do get a whole week though due to a scheduling advantage in my courses. It worked out favorably. Be well!

Apparently, I'm a Historical Consultant Now

I was offered the position as a historical consultant on a highly stylized TV show in my field of specialization. As long as I can make my schedule match, it could be a somewhat fun and entertaining way to make additional money. I was able to drag in a colleague of mine, whom I trust, in order to split some of the workload and have a degree of plausible deniability when the storyline deviates from the historical sources for cinematic reasons. We'll see how it goes. In other news, I have a fractured tooth from an old football injury that had to be re-resined in Italy during the dig this last summer. My original resin lasted 10 years then had to be redone 5 years later. I loved Italy, but the Italian dental work lasted 4 months before it broke apart. I also observed problematic medical care given to a couple of injured students in Italy. Despite the medical care issues in this country, reform needs to be done in a careful way that protects the overall quality of care while improving costs and accessibility. From my personal experience and observation, the European medical system is lacking in a variety of things. Believe me, you don't want to be in need of healthcare anywhere overseas.

Need to close the door on the last 45 years and Move Forward

I continue to wipe the slimy stain of democratic participation off myself following my act of voting today. Usually, my skepticism leaves me morally opposed to the democratic process because the masses are to malleable and stupid to realize what they are voting for or against. I want to institute a philosopher-king. Sound bites and factional politics designed to exploit general apathy and ignorance have led the electorate for decades. Despite this, I felt the absolute necessity to vote today in hopes of adding to the voice of opposition to the political dynamics that have dominated my entire lifetime. I'm old enough to remember the despair and frustration of the late 70's that enabled the rise of Reagan conservatism for 30 years. The 70's was the backwash of the social changes of the 60's and a decade of depressive disaster as society tried to stabilize itself after years of social turmoil. I'm not a big Reagan fan, he was not intellectually gifted and Reaganomics in combination with the S&L scandal of the 80's destroyed my families farming life. That said, the country required leadership and Reagan provided that in a way that unified the country when nobody else could. Leadership matters, sometimes providing a direction and vision, even if it is not always optimal, is better than the paralyzed stagnation of polarized factionalism. The attitude of the nation improved and the country advanced behind strong leadership - the nation moved out of a psychological despair. Attitudes in the 80's were improved, and it was a better time to live. I do not care about the marginal groups that were left out of this because the country needed to mobilized beyond Carter's ineptitude. He was not a leader; he was viewed as a joke and no recent attempts to rehabilitate his image will change how he was perceived at the time. I remember clearly what it was like. The only thing Reagan offered was manifest leadership, but it was enough. That transformation provided the nation what it needed until it devolved into the present conservative era of fissure politics that have dominated society. Even Clinton was still functioning in a conservative environment. My vote today was placed to try to end this era because it was necessary. Obama can provide dynamic leadership and has a chance to move the country in a time of need like Reagan did. Perhaps he can create a new era, but he must do it in a way that creates unity and not exacerbate factionalism. He can send a death blow to the conservative right if he does things properly. He needs to abandon cronyism and payback politics to eliminate backlash ammunition the far-right can use against him. He needs to incorporate and employ moderate right talent in appropriate areas. He needs to marginalize Pelosi and Reid because they are morons and always have been - they give fuel and fodder to right-wing attacks. He needs to throw them overboard on foreign policy, so that he can figure out a way to restore and project the appearance of military strength while improving European backing during the euphoria of his election. This still means getting out of Iraq, but engagements will continue around the Middle East and redeployment is more messy than the pacifist left will admit. Special operations and surgical strikes around the region will remain critical, but they need to be done properly. I have it on very high authority that the new strategy is to entice the factional leaders with the primary hallmark of civilization : greater access to power, leisure, money, and sex. Competing tribal factions are best pacified with these types of bribes. Nothing else is ever effective. Abstract concepts of democracy sure as hell aren't. It can all be boiled down to this and it is this present strategy that has enabled improvement. I'm not joking - I have it from the highest levels within my old contacts that this was an official policy change recently. These tactics are what has actually been implemented to a greater effect. Obama needs to use the military talent on the right to deal with defense issues. Powell needs to be brought in because he has respect across the board. Gates and Petraeus need to be left in place because they proved effective in the face of Bush's disaster and made the mess more manageable. Gates' PhD on Russian Studies is going to continue to be valuable as Russian nationalism rejuvenates under Putin. Obama needs to allow talented people to do what they specialize in, but incompetent people need to be held accountable. Obama needs to react shrewdly when he is tested on security. This type of test is how I wound up in Iraq during Clinton's first term. It will happen. Obama needs to let Petraeus and Gates craft a strong response that is not a knee-jerk Bush reaction. Allowing capable specialists to shape defense will improve Obama's credibility on defense in a way that will allow him to push for social program changes. If he allows the defense industrial complex to retain face, he can make gains in a variety of other social areas that will inoculate him from attacks from the far right. He needs to sell his middle class tax cut and couple it with infrastructure rebuilding that will provide jobs to build the tax base back up. He needs to tie social programs to public service in an attempt to get the disenfranchised engaged with the nation. Welfare and redistribution can't be unfettered entitlement - it must be tied to specific actions that build pride in accomplishment, self-sufficiency, and personal responsibility. It will defang the far-right attacks while accomplishing a greater cohesion throughout the nation. We must employ an inclusive policy where a wide variety of people can become mobilized to action because it is appealing and financially beneficial. The divisive loudmouth social activist champions of the politically correct left should be marginalized as the worthless whiners they are. They are as evil as the far-right loons - free discourse needs to be encouraged without the incessant fear that someone might say something wrong or offensive. Intent of speech should be the criteria as opposed to listener response. People need to toughen up and be less hyper-sensitive to everything. Speech, even hate-speech, should remain protected in this country. I was raised in the 70's indoctrinated in the old notion "I may hate what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." That concept was killed in the hyper-sensitivity of the 90's and it empowered the far-right nut-jobs on talk radio. It is the hyper-sensitivity that fuels the backlash flight to the far-right. Political correctness empowered the far-right much more than people realize because it took common sense and intent out of the equation. Obama has the leadership skills to close the door on the old divisive politics of Rove, Bush, Cheney, Gingrich, Delay, Pelosi, Reid, Clinton, and all those on both sides who made their living race-baiting. Obama is an exceptional figure with phenomenal leadership qualities and intellectual abilities. He has immense potential to possibly transform a nation. I want to be optimistically hopeful, but it goes against my skeptical nature. However, he is what the nation needed at the right time. I don't even care so much where he leads, as long as he leads everybody. However, if he mucks it up, you'll see the far-right re-energized with a vitriolic vengeance that could descend into a resurgence of fascism. He needs to succeed!