The Best of Bond

The Best of Bond, Part 1

In reponse to this article by Isaac Chotiner, which I feel is deeply flawed, I’ve compiled my ratings of all the Bond films, starting with Dr. No and ending with Skyfall. I’m not including the TV version of Casino Royale from the 1950s, nor the Peter Sellers send-up of the same story. Haven’t seen the former and the latter is simply of a different genre. I’m not going to rehash all the plots. This is meant for people who’ve seen all the films.

I’m looking to judge these films by a number of criteria:

• Bond – who the actor is, how good he is, and what he brings to the role
• the Villain- starting with Dr. No, I judge the films on how compelling the villain is.
• the Bond Women – some films have few, some have many, but I’m pretty sure all have at least one. The quality ranges from Denise Richards’s absurd nuclear physicist to, of course, Mrs. Bond herself, not to mention Pussy Galore
• the Good Guys – M, Q, Moneypenny, Felix Leiter in his many incarnations and other sidekicks
• the Henchmen on the other side like Jaws, Oddjob, and Nick-Nack.
• the gadgets – not just judging how neat the gadgets are, but whether they were unwisely allowed to take over the film (as often happened with the later Roger Moore filims)
• whatever else I happen to think of

I’m not concerned mainly with ordinal values but rather am going to assign a number between 0.0 and 10.0 to each. By way of calibration, 0.0 is reserved for unwatchable films like The Love Guru, while the 10.0 might only go to The Godfather. and Hot Tub Time Machine. Just seeing if you’re paying attention there.
Anyway, in Part 1 I’ll address the first four Connery films. Part 2 will do the other Connery films through Diamonds are Forever, as well as Lazenby’s sole contribution. Part 3 will cover Roger Moore’s many films. Maybe I’ll split that in half. Part 5 will cover Never Say Never Again and the two Dalton films, Part 6 will cover the four Brosnan films, and Part 7 will look at the three Daniel Craig films

Without further ado, we jump in to

Election time

OK, might as well sum up my thoughts about tomorrow's election. It's no secret by now that I'm deeply disappointed in President Obama, especially his continuation and expansion of the worst of the War On Terror(TM) policies of President Bush. But I have no reason to think Mitt Romney would be any better. And I'm quite sure that he'd be far more beholden to the odious right wing theocrats that seem to have captured control of today's Republican party. So I can't vote for him.

On the other hand, if I vote for a person who is governing with a policy that denies basic rights of due process, I feel that some of that responsibility for this abuse of power would be validated by my vote. So I don't want to do that.

Luckily, as a resident of Maryland, I can vote my conscience without feeling that I'm helping Mitt Romney. I'll probably vote Green, as I think that's the best way of expressing my preferred direction for the country. At least for the Presidential race.

For Congress, I remember a couple years ago telling Chris Van Hollen that if he went with the tax cut deal of the lame duck Congress last time, I would oppose him. He has foiled my intent by redistricting me so I cannot vote against him. Damn you, Chris Van Hollen! My only possible retaliation will be to vote against the re-districting map with the hope that I can vote against him in the future.

On question 7, the motion to allow gambling at the National Harbor, I'm going to vote against it. Why? Because I'm morally opposed to gambling? No, not really. Because I don't care about a new revenue stream for schools? Well, here's my attitude about that. Money is fungible. So, every time the state wants to do something new to please some private special interest, all they need to do is hold education hostage to the promise of more dollars to spend. If the state wants to spend money on schools, they have the power to do so. It's not immediately clear to me that opening casinos will lead to a net gain in tax revenue to the state, or to educational revenue. I really strongly dislike this practice of holding the schools hostage. I suspect the measure will pass easily, even though I haven't seen any polling on it.

Oh wait, just checked. Polling says this is a close call. Also, I'm not saying I would boycott the casino if it opened. I'd be more likely to visit it than I am to go to Charlestown, WV.

Appalachia scares me.

The question about gay marriage rights is a no-brainer for me. I'll always support gay rights on this issue. My Ph.D. advisor is gay man. He and his partner are raising two young boys and are, to all appearances, doing as good as or a better job than most hetero couples that I know. The presumption of hetero superiority has no basis in fact.

Finally, there is the dispute about union powers in the police force. I don't exactly understand the issue. The pro- and anti-sides aren't exactly doing a favor with how they explain it. It seems basically to be this: the union has more power than the county government wants them to have.

I'm inclined to go pro-union here, for a number of reasons

1. in general, I support public sector unions
2. I strongly dislike Ike Leggett's usage of county funds to support a ballot measure
3. PoD lobbies for the union involved.

Aside from that, on other races I'll look for the Apple Ballot and go with that. #mindlessdrone

Debacle

Really?

This is what the NFL is putting out as their product to save a few million dollars annually of pension fund contributions?

Today's American executive justifies his existence by finding ways to cut corners. And the class warfare approach of demonizing unions and demanding concessions is one of the most popular ways to go. Why? Why do this? The league office is attacking the integrity of its product for pocket change.

What really gets me are the libertarians who show up at all the chat rooms and bulletin boards muttering their inane anti-union diatribes. "Why isn't anybody blaming the refs?" Well, the refs are willing to work under the prior conditions, that's why. Management locked them out.

Reminds me a lot of the teacher strike in Chicago. It's sad that class warfare is a growth industry.

For the edification of future generations, the picture above shows two officials in the end zone at the very end of last night's Seahawks-Packers game. One is signalling touchdown, the other is signalling an interception and touchback. The referee/crew chief didn't consult with both of these guys, but simply walked away to do a video replay. For some reason (inexplicable to anybody who saw a replay), the ruling that this crew settled upon was touchdown.

Another complaint: for some reason, Blogger has degraded the quality of its WYSIWYG editor. It no longer makes proper paragraph breaks. Now I have to do the HTML myself. :(

Phylogeny cross-posting

New post on phylogeny research. Basics of Phylogeny Estimation Enjoy.

Coming attractions: more posting

- Is it possible that a ball that could fly over the Green Monster wouldn't make it out of Dodger Stadium? This mathematician says no!

- What is left of the Republican Party? Their entire campaign is based on a willful distortion of "You didn't build that!" I explore the pathology

- A new post at my science blog, Pineapples in Alaska, as I try my hand at a bit of science writing.

I seem to have decided to not review Prometheus as it would probably become embarrassing.

So much fear in America

Maybe I shouldn't pay so much attention to what the government and media do. Probably I would be a happier person if I did.

This may seem apropos of nothing, but it's a general reaction to how this country has been going over the past decade or so.

Our policies are predicated on a few things

- We are the good guys

- Terrorists hate us because they are bad guys

- The best approach is to take the fight to them

It's just so hard to hear all sorts of things motivated in the name of "fighting terror". We're engaged in a shooting war in Yemen (without any Congressional vote on it, naturally) and it's really hard to know what the reason is supposed to be. And since we don't really know what the goal is, there's no possible way the process can resolve itself.

I think our processes have completely detached from any plausible rationales. Why is the US fighting in Yemen? Because continued war is good for the people pursuing the war.

Anyway, the war thing is just one of many things that make me feel like I cannot vote for Obama come November. There's just way too much abuse of power going on. Maybe I cannot stop it. But I don't have to act like I approve of it. And given that Obama deceived people like me to get his vote in 2008, I'd feel like a jerk to go along with him regardless of his many broken promises.

Many posting ideas this week:

- the imminent end of the Garnett/Allen/Pierce era for the Celtics

- Prometheus: Noomi Rapace as an academic. My reaction is predictable

- time to play with some science policy posts

But back to the topic. I am tired of being flooded with negativity and fear. I feel like I resist the propaganda, but I'm suspecting that's not entirely true. Not that I'm living in fear, but it's a bummer when so many people are so frightened about everything.

p.s. I wonder what happened to the paragraphs? Apparently I have to do my own HTML now?

bad journalism, example #145356

Dear SI and AP,

About this story:
http://bit.ly/xV0spX

On the one hand, the guy who collected Ryan Braun's urine sample said that there were no locations "within 50 miles of Miller Park that would ship the sample" on the Saturday it was collected or on the day after.

Ryan Braun's camp contends that there are plenty of FedEx locations, at least one of which was open 24 hours.

Two competing claims, only one of which is true, right? So the job of a reporter is to report both claims and let the reader sort it out?

WRONG!!!
So here's what an actual reporter could do.

Get on the damned phone and call FedEx. There is an objective answer to this question and the truth should be easily obtained. If, in fact, the drug collector is full of shit, that's something the readers should be told. If, on the other hand, Ryan Braun is full of shit, that's something the readers should be told. Leaving the question unanswered? That's not journalism.