Gregg R Thomas

Sicario is, belatedly, starting to be recognized as a major movie, comparable to Apocalypse Now. It’s fighting the fact that it’s a relatively low-budget project depending on an amazing script and even more amazing acting. No special effects, known but still second-tier actors, and amazing but subtle cinematography.

Nobody wants to discuss it,…[Read more]

Well, Disney in their wisdom has been blocking the videos of TW’s performances on Jimmy Kimmel, but they are easy enough to find on Youtube. Sick and Automatic Sun were the tunes they played.

A bonus is that for the first time I’m aware of since their early TedX performanees, Dany is performing in a skirt.

The new album, Keep Me Fed, has just been released, and here is one more song from it. Six Feet Deep (official video). I wish they’d quit processing their voices. One of the most charming things about their classic Teatro Metropolitan performances is the purity of their unprocessed voices. I hope they don’t die a DBO…[Read more]

The Warning reached a national audience for a second time on the Jimmy Kimmel show last night. Not the song I would have chosen (Hell You Call A Dream, Choke, Money, Animosity, etc.) but at least they got on Jimmy’s show.

Alejandro’s mission explains the title of the movie.

Unseen wrote:
You’re a relativist. Moral values are relative and not permanent over time.

I guess.  But I don’t think “anything goes”, based on my own values, and I can see that’s not the case for other people too.

WTF, the “hero” is actually the villain!

These girls never phone it in, even in a tiny venue like the SOMA club in Osaka, seating no more than 300. While the audience is never shown, they are performing on the club’s floor and not on a stage. Pau’s drum set isn’t even on a riser. Still, they put everything they’ve got into each song. These girls are superstars and yet…they don’t seem…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
There is a multiplicity of values that have some kind of factual status.  The Spartans had their values; we have ours and I have mine.  They don’t always agree with each other.

You’re a relativist. Moral values are relative and not permanent over time. Not the prohibitions on murder or even incest.

Unseen wrote:
And here I thought you were an absolutist who believe right and wrong are real. Turns out you’re a total relativist and have been all along.

There is a multiplicity of values that have some kind of factual status.  The Spartans had their values; we have ours and I have mine.  They don’t always agree with each other.

Simon Paynton wrote:
It doesn’t benefit the baby.  In the case of the African women, it is a form of abortion.  In the Spartans, they didn’t value a baby’s life if the baby was a weakling and therefore no use to the group.

And here I thought you were an absolutist who believe right and wrong are real. Turns out you’re a total relativist and hav…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
And what “mutual benefit” derives from abandoning one’s baby…that benefits the baby? If one (or a social entity) gets to choose who benefits from actions and who doesn’t, that sure looks relativistic to me.

It doesn’t benefit the baby.  In the case of the African women, it is a form of abortion.  In the Spartans, they didn’t valu…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
there are a surprising number of women living in the bush in Africa who will sadly abandon a new born if they think it will not survive.  They do it before bonding with the baby; but they don’t like to talk about it.

However, the goal of the Spartans is familiar: mutual benefit.

And what “mutual benefit” derives from ab…[Read more]

I think morality has the same factual status as do the correct ways to fix a bicycle.  The problems are recurrent, the bike is real, the actions are real.  What factual status do the correct fixing methods have?

Unseen wrote:
The values available for an ancient Spartan to choose from would be far different from those available to a Quaker pacifist.

That’s true, not many people would countenance throwing a baby off a cliff.  However, according to Sarah Bleffer Hrdy in “Mothers and Others”, there are a surprising number of women living in the bush in…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
The thing is, they are somewhat built into the fabric of reality, given the requirements that humans have to live in the way they do (collaboratively).  The multiplicity of values never varies, but how we emphasise them and achieve them varies a lot in time and place.

You are obsessed with collaboration and cooperation, but…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
They are also not built into the fabric of reality so that they were true, like 1+1=2, even before the Big Bang and after the last atom falls apart.

The thing is, they are somewhat built into the fabric of reality, given the requirements that humans have to live in the way they do (collaboratively).  The multiplicity of values…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
There’s no god needed, no ethics of the day. This shit is timeless. Every critter with a brain from a rabbit to a monkey to a child knows when they are getting screwed. Use that as your moral compass. No need to ascribe this to Jesus or Confucius. It comes from the evolution of the social advantage.

“Every critter with a brain f…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

Unseen wrote:
By saying “one way,” out the window goes any pretense of absolutism or universality or objectivity.

Sorry to burst your bubble – but I’m not sure what you’re after. It’s factually correct that people in need, need help. It’s always been the same the world over.

It’s not factually correct, it’s formally corr…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
By saying “one way,” out the window goes any pretense of absolutism or universality or objectivity.

Sorry to burst your bubble – but I’m not sure what you’re after.  It’s factually correct that people in need, need help.  It’s always been the same the world over.