There Be Dragons

Here are Dragons.

The movie starts with a recreation of a medieval map including sea animals and 'Hic sunt Dragones' which I translate above. I appreciate two criticisms here as an opportunity to dialogue. 'It is two hours of preachy, turn the other cheek.' To quote from the movie Josemaria, 'Cervantes said," Our biggest dragons are within us," ' As far as not taking action, my daughter said, 'I thought the fascists were supposed to be bad? That is why I was confused.' Few would prefer the communists after watching this movie. The communists obviously threw out the Cervantian insight along with the other myths of Spanish Catholicism. There is a Jew who plays an insightful and creative role in Josemaria's development though lord knows how he found himself in that Catholic Spain. It has an essential historical accuracy in the words of the communist brigade leader, 'Our leaders argue in Madrid and send us nothing.' Stalin saw that factionalism as the cause of failure and instituted his late 30's purges on that basis. Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of Charlie?, does a great cameo role discussing dragons with the children. The physiognomy of Robert Torres well matches his father. I wonder which side is rushing past Manolo as he surrenders. My favorite abutted scenes are those of the girl who has ?PTSD who tells Josemaria she sees him climbing a mountain and his struggle next over leaving Madrid. The deus ex machina, one a bit too important, plays a role in his leaving.

It doesn't appear that Mr. Kissinger ever read "Wild Swans" or the biography of Mao by the same author, Jung Chang. - comment on the review of On China by H. Kissinger.

British News

Queen Elizabeth went to Ireland last week; this was reported in the Wall Street Journal:

"To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy," she said at a state dinner hosted by Irish President Mary McAleese. "With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all."

It was the only the only public address of her Irish visit, which is seen as a journey of reconciliation to Ireland.

Three plus hours of the Royal Wedding are available here on YouTube. For me it was partially of interest, as I commented at Catholic Analysis because:

Not on my knowledge but on someone from that tradition, the wedding is said to be of the form and have hymns of a very traditional Baptist church service (alteration of the Mass). I believe Baptist practice derives from Free Church practice in England; free being free of Church of England rule but retaining it's liturgy and theology. From an administrative point of view Henry VIII was well prepared to take the role he did. He was the second in line growing up and thus was educated in Church matters, e.g. liturgy and music, while an older heir apparent was raised in military matters.

A nice story of the Obama Mama.

An apparently good book by South Vietnam's generals on the VN war is discussed. I ave read Sorely's history which is good.

HuffPo has a nice interview with Mitch Daniels, first time I hear him speak.

Well that was a short romance. I was inclined to vote for Obama for a week. Started with Abbottabad, the death of Osama bin Laden, and ended with the executive order that all businesses applying for government contracts have to list their political contributions. Why anybody would prefer a USSR system to an open economy like Chile is beyond me. Besides it's dangerous.

In the Interpretation of Dreams , Freud pointed out a mechanism of condensation which meant that an element in a dream could 'condense' disparate ideas or personalities. I guess that our arguing about celebrating Osama's death, a death that has been long imagined, is about a condensation of various issues. I ran across this report that asserts that in the month after 9-11 the Taliban offered to hand over Osama to a court of middle eastern countries; GWB rejected this. Thus Osama was allowed by military default to go into ISI protection. Is that something, the Middle Eastern Court trial, in retrospect we would want to have happened? There have been allegations that Iraqi intelligence was involved in 9-11 and the Bush administration was concerned in any event that this showed Iraq a way to attack the US. Was preemption appropriate and did forcing democracy in Iraq contribute to the Arab Spring? I suppose that opposing celebrating Osama's death reflects opinions on that/those hypotheses.

Thought I'd transfer this from a comment I left on Volokh Conspiracy on the admissibility of illegal alien stau in regards to liability of his employer in regard to 'wrongful death' damages:

Anthony:
As a practical issue, I’m inclined to think that a company that employs illegal immigrants (whether knowingly or otherwise) should be required to pay them the same benefits as legally present employees, including death and disability; thus, he should be granted benefits as if he were legally present (as a disincentive to illegal hiring). As a realistic estimate of lost income, though, it’s hard to see how the risk of deportation (both in general, and with the specifics of the immigration raid) isn’t relevant.
As a side note, there is a realistic chance that the immigration raid was related to the accident, either because accidents always get some official inspection, or because someone at the company figured that the fines would be cheaper than the wrongful death suit and self-reported.

A few years ago I had occasion to go to an outlying judicial office in the south of Dallas County. While waiting, I witnessed a woman discussing with the clerk about bringing an action about a relative not being paid for work performed. For the action to be started there was going to have to be proof of citizenship on the part of the complainant. The woman sought various ways around this to no avail. So Anthony’s hypothetical seems entirely realistic to me. And it seems the missing area in the immigration debate. Providing papers as resident aliens for those here illegally would remove them from surely not a slave situation but something both less and more reprehensible. Immigration status has been a problem but settled without resort to a theological certitude that now seems appropriate. This afternoon I was listening to a Saul L. who emigrated at the age of 12 to this country from East Prussia in the thirties. He was the oldest of 5 Jewish siblings and brought in under a special program ‘for the oldest.’ He was later drafted and began training with a division bound for Europe but then released as an ‘enemy alien.’ The Army then brought him back to train for the Pacific and made him a citizen.

Well, what's your view on the bin Laden take-down. Seems to me it is one case where Obama has gone 'beyond the partisan divide' as promised. TNC has a post which he titles, 'I feel like a black Republican.' Now he's referring to Lincoln in the Civil War ostensibly, and modern Republicans are not in the progressive view moral descendants of Lincoln but the language I think reflects Obama's shift or progression.

Non lawyers following Volokh.