What we know is that Jimmy is coming back. We don't actually see him get on the train back to Atlantic City, but when Nucky dangles an offer that's too good to refuse in front of his nose, we know he's going to be headed back. He doesn't really fit in Chicago, best shown in a scene where he says nothing, but stands outside the Italian mobsters he's fallen in with, watching as they trade insults in Italian. He's accepted by them (particularly by his friend Al Capone), but he'll never be one of them. Much as he might hate to admit it, much as he hates the way the man ran him out of town, his place will ultimately be at the side of Nucky when the chips are down. Being in Chicago hasn't changed him so much as it has shaped things that were already present in him, making him the ruthless man Nucky will need at his side in his own mob war. So, we expect, he'll jump on the train to Atlantic City (with Richard Harrow in tow, I hope), and when he gets back, everything will explode.
Or maybe it won't. Maybe things won't get a chance to explode because Margaret will have turned on Nucky. Because here's something else that happens in this episode: Eli gets shot in the midst of a casino heist. He's there to collect the payment for Nucky (who's away in Chicago at the Republican National Convention), and he gets ambushed by the Italians who've been making so much trouble for Nucky's operation. While he's in the hospital, Nucky has to make sure that his ledger is protected, so he sends Margaret to go get it and keep it at her place. But the temptation of seeing just what it is her new boyfriend is up to ends up being too great, so she flips the pages open at episode's end to see a bunch of stuff she can't unsee. Nucky, whom she first saw at that Temperance League meeting in the pilot, is the guy who's in charge of bringing liquor into Atlantic City. And with that, all her illusions of the man she's in love with will have to disappear, and she'll be left with the question every mob girlfriend in every mob movie ever has had: Do I stay in comfort, or do I go because it's the right thing to do?
In a way, "Boardwalk Empire" is about evolution. There have been complaints against the series for being slow moving, but that may be because evolution is a slow-moving process. Dinosaurs don't become birds in a day, and a person like Nucky doesn't become a ruthless mobster in a day either. He gets pushed in that direction by circumstance, and the events since the pilot have been relentlessly making sure he heads toward that, whether he wants to or not. The pace of the show can feel glacial because the process of what the show's depicting is glacial. Nucky's still at the place where he thinks everybody can be bought, but with the shooting of his brother, he's begun to realize that some men who would depose him cannot be reasoned with. And those men are going to have to be met with equal violence and equal fire. That's where the man he sent away for being too much of a liability comes back into play, and that's why Jimmy's on his way back (we assume).
It's fun to watch a show like this begin to grandly play cards it's been holding since the very beginning, and in that regard, "Hold Me in Paradise" is a very good episode. I preferred last week's slightly, if only because I enjoy the character-driven hours just a bit more, but "Boardwalk" is at the point where it needs to begin making good on its promises of not just telling us a good series of stories about mobsters and others in their orbit but also a grand story about the foundations of organized crime in the 1920s. This plot-heavy hour begins the process of that, even as it shows us how Nucky's political skills help turn the tide at the Republican convention, that Warren Harding might garner the nomination. History now tells us that Harding was one of the most corrupt presidents in U.S. history, offering cushy government jobs to many of the people who supported him at the convention. And yet that's not really so different from what Nucky does every single day with people in Atlantic City. It's just more acceptable because the office is more acceptable. History condemns Harding as a failed president, but it condemns the basis for Nucky's character as a very evil man.
There's this sense of history and fate passing their judgment throughout "Paradise." Harding's wife is convinced that her husband will die in office because of what a fortune teller told her (again, the theme of soothsaying comes to the fore). The series keeps returning to Rothstein's preparations for the Black Sox scandal trial, even though they, at present, don't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the show. And, of course, we know where the antipathy between the Irish and Italians in both Chicago and Atlantic City is headed. In some ways, all of the characters in "Boardwalk Empire" are ignoring what's right in front of their faces, until there's simply no way to stop doing so. Margaret must have known where most of Nucky's money came from, but she chose to play dumb because it was more fun that way. Nucky must have known that there were very few ways his current game could end without bloodshed, but chose to consolidate power anyway. And Jimmy must have known he would be drawn back to Atlantic City at one point or another. Yet there's an attempt to race away from what both they and we know must happen. We know Harding will die in office; we know the bloodshed that is coming; we know who Al Capone becomes. At the same time, we watch, transfixed, because we see these people trying to escape the trap we know they're doomed to remain snared in.
Some other thoughts:
- --For a very interesting alternate take on the death of Harding, the novel "Carter Beats the Devil" (optioned to become a miniseries or series by AMC at one point) is highly recommended.
- --Jimmy's really rolling in the dough in Chicago. If he chose to stay with Al and the gang there, I wouldn't blame him.
- --Incidentally, those were the first scenes between Nucky and Jimmy since episode two or three (I think three, from reading my old reviews). It's amazing that the show would make the relationship between the two so central to the pilot, then separate them for so long.
--Todd VanDerWerff (follow me on Twitter at @tvoti)
Photo: It took a while, but Jimmy (Michael Pitt, left) and Nucky (Steve Buscemi) are together again. (Credit: HBO)
Related articles:
'Boardwalk Empire' recap: Iconic characters and memorable images
HBO picks up 'Eastbound & Down' and 'Bored to Death' for a third season
Complete Show Tracker 'Boardwalk Empire' coverage
If you’re living in the United States right now, chances are you’re sick of hearing about elections and politics. That’s why I’m writing this today, instead of last week. I want to ride the coattails of that nausea and make a suggestion for the future of voting. The problem, I think, is that politicians do not care about you. They are ignoring you, and right they should. You don’t matter. Your issues don’t matter. Your concerns don’t matter. Politicians only care about one type of person, and it’s not you, because chances are, you didn’t vote.
[Image credit: Amelia E]
I haven’t seen official estimates on voter turnout this year, but I’m guessing it was embarrassingly low. I know it seems like there was more interest in a mid-term election this year than any year in the past, but that doesn’t mean much, because mid-term elections are very unpopular with voters. The last presidential election, in which record numbers of people voted, only drew 56.8% of the population to the polls, according to this page at infoplease.com. That was the highest percentage in 40 years, since 1968, when Nixon ran against Democrat Hubert Humphrey and segregationist George Wallace at the height of the civil rights movement and the protests against the Vietnam war. Before Nixon’s first election, voter turnout for the presidential election was just a bit more than 60%.
So, my guess is that voter turnout for this mid-term election will be less than 50%. When I make the assumption that you didn’t vote, I’ve got a better chance of being right than I do calling a coin toss.
It was the most expensive mid-term election in history, with candidates dumping millions of dollars into their campaigns. Some of the richest candidates lost, of course, but that doesn’t mean that money can’t help you win an election. Because of these expenditures, you might think that money is the most important thing to a politician. It seems like politicians follow the money interest, and that’s what controls their voting and behavior. But that’s not true.
There is one thing politicians want more than money. They want votes. Votes keep politicians in power, and power is the most addictive drug imaginable. Politicians can have all the money in the world, but that doesn’t guarantee they will win elections. To win an election, they need votes. That is why the only people who matter to politicians are people who vote.
The money is important, sure. But most of that money is spent on television commercials. It’s not used (hopefully) to buy fancy cars and big houses. The money isn’t a luxury, and political donations are not how politicians end up getting rich. The money from political spending pays for TV ads, and those ads exist to convince the voters.
I’m not making a campaign finance reform argument here, though I think the argument practically makes itself when you realize how much money it takes to run continual television ads during the long campaign season in this country. If we could take that incredible expense out of the mix . . . but I digress.
If we can’t fix the money problem in politics, maybe we can fix the voter turnout problem. One of the most annoying trends in this election was the constant bombardment of voting and political messages from all of my friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter. I’m not going to rehash them here, you can imagine the most partisan or the most tenacious of these, and I’m sure you had to deal with them yourself. Clearly, they didn’t work if voter turnout ends up as low as I predict.
One message did catch my eye, however. At first it annoyed me, but then it made me reconsider. Someone on my Twitter feed (I apologize to my readers and my source for not remembering who exactly) retweeted a messages saying something like: “If voting was as easy as signing up for Twitter, I would vote today.”
It makes you nauseous, right? You might argue that voting is as easy as signing up for Twitter, and more secure about privacy. But in fact, it’s not. Voting is an annoying process. It takes a lot of time. It’s a hassle, because too often there is a paperwork problem. I have been voting regularly for the past 16 years, and in the past two presidential elections, my voting eligibility was challenged at the polls by the workers there who could not find me on the voting rolls. I was registered, I had received confirmation, I had my driver’s license on me (once I even had my passport), but they still gave me trouble. In the last election, I had to submit a special ballot, and I was given the promise that if they ever found me on the voter registration logs, my vote would be counted.
Gee, I feel so . . . enfranchised?
Here’s my suggestion: we need to vote electronically over the Internet. Forget about voting booths, electronic voting machines and all the paperwork that accompanies them. We need to vote the same way we do everything else today. Why do we not trust the Internet for voting?
We trust the Internet for everything else. Voting seems like it demands the least privacy of all the private things we use the Internet to accomplish. I manage all of my finances over the Internet. I have never been to the actual bank where I have a credit card account, a car loan, or student loans. I manage all of those accounts electronically. I’ve received health records electronically. I send the most intimate and personal of correspondence over email without a second thought.
If we can manage our sex lives over the Internet, surely we can create a system for voting.
I don’t believe any of the obstacles to Internet voting are insurmountable. Security concerns about hacking and voter fraud, voter identification, all of the issues that would cause problems in a national election are problems we can tackle and defeat. It’s not like the paper balloting and electronic voting machines have been even close to flawless. How could we make things worse by moving voting online.
If we could vote online, we wouldn’t have to take time off of work to vote. We wouldn’t need to stand in line with our kids in tow, or stand in line behind someone with their screaming children. We wouldn’t have to explain to the stupid person handling the voter registration logs for the third time that our last name is spelled B-E-R-N-E, not B-U-R-N-S. Is that so hard to remember? It’s Berne, like the capital of Switzerland, not Burns. Do I look Scottish?
Again, I digress. I’ve tried to avoid taking partisan sides in this column, but if there is one theme we can all take away from the last election, it is that a great number of voters feel like their elected officials are not representing their interests. I don’t disagree, but it’s not because the politicians don’t care. It’s because you don’t vote.
eric seiger
Cee-Lo Green sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' on 'Colbert Report' - The Dish Rag <b>...</b>
With William Shatner and possibly Gwyneth Paltrow taking a stab at “F*** You,” Cee-Lo Green shows them how it's done.The musician appears on Comedy Central's...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Cee-Lo Sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' Version of 'F--- You' on 'Colbert' (VIDEO)
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger
What we know is that Jimmy is coming back. We don't actually see him get on the train back to Atlantic City, but when Nucky dangles an offer that's too good to refuse in front of his nose, we know he's going to be headed back. He doesn't really fit in Chicago, best shown in a scene where he says nothing, but stands outside the Italian mobsters he's fallen in with, watching as they trade insults in Italian. He's accepted by them (particularly by his friend Al Capone), but he'll never be one of them. Much as he might hate to admit it, much as he hates the way the man ran him out of town, his place will ultimately be at the side of Nucky when the chips are down. Being in Chicago hasn't changed him so much as it has shaped things that were already present in him, making him the ruthless man Nucky will need at his side in his own mob war. So, we expect, he'll jump on the train to Atlantic City (with Richard Harrow in tow, I hope), and when he gets back, everything will explode.
Or maybe it won't. Maybe things won't get a chance to explode because Margaret will have turned on Nucky. Because here's something else that happens in this episode: Eli gets shot in the midst of a casino heist. He's there to collect the payment for Nucky (who's away in Chicago at the Republican National Convention), and he gets ambushed by the Italians who've been making so much trouble for Nucky's operation. While he's in the hospital, Nucky has to make sure that his ledger is protected, so he sends Margaret to go get it and keep it at her place. But the temptation of seeing just what it is her new boyfriend is up to ends up being too great, so she flips the pages open at episode's end to see a bunch of stuff she can't unsee. Nucky, whom she first saw at that Temperance League meeting in the pilot, is the guy who's in charge of bringing liquor into Atlantic City. And with that, all her illusions of the man she's in love with will have to disappear, and she'll be left with the question every mob girlfriend in every mob movie ever has had: Do I stay in comfort, or do I go because it's the right thing to do?
In a way, "Boardwalk Empire" is about evolution. There have been complaints against the series for being slow moving, but that may be because evolution is a slow-moving process. Dinosaurs don't become birds in a day, and a person like Nucky doesn't become a ruthless mobster in a day either. He gets pushed in that direction by circumstance, and the events since the pilot have been relentlessly making sure he heads toward that, whether he wants to or not. The pace of the show can feel glacial because the process of what the show's depicting is glacial. Nucky's still at the place where he thinks everybody can be bought, but with the shooting of his brother, he's begun to realize that some men who would depose him cannot be reasoned with. And those men are going to have to be met with equal violence and equal fire. That's where the man he sent away for being too much of a liability comes back into play, and that's why Jimmy's on his way back (we assume).
It's fun to watch a show like this begin to grandly play cards it's been holding since the very beginning, and in that regard, "Hold Me in Paradise" is a very good episode. I preferred last week's slightly, if only because I enjoy the character-driven hours just a bit more, but "Boardwalk" is at the point where it needs to begin making good on its promises of not just telling us a good series of stories about mobsters and others in their orbit but also a grand story about the foundations of organized crime in the 1920s. This plot-heavy hour begins the process of that, even as it shows us how Nucky's political skills help turn the tide at the Republican convention, that Warren Harding might garner the nomination. History now tells us that Harding was one of the most corrupt presidents in U.S. history, offering cushy government jobs to many of the people who supported him at the convention. And yet that's not really so different from what Nucky does every single day with people in Atlantic City. It's just more acceptable because the office is more acceptable. History condemns Harding as a failed president, but it condemns the basis for Nucky's character as a very evil man.
There's this sense of history and fate passing their judgment throughout "Paradise." Harding's wife is convinced that her husband will die in office because of what a fortune teller told her (again, the theme of soothsaying comes to the fore). The series keeps returning to Rothstein's preparations for the Black Sox scandal trial, even though they, at present, don't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the show. And, of course, we know where the antipathy between the Irish and Italians in both Chicago and Atlantic City is headed. In some ways, all of the characters in "Boardwalk Empire" are ignoring what's right in front of their faces, until there's simply no way to stop doing so. Margaret must have known where most of Nucky's money came from, but she chose to play dumb because it was more fun that way. Nucky must have known that there were very few ways his current game could end without bloodshed, but chose to consolidate power anyway. And Jimmy must have known he would be drawn back to Atlantic City at one point or another. Yet there's an attempt to race away from what both they and we know must happen. We know Harding will die in office; we know the bloodshed that is coming; we know who Al Capone becomes. At the same time, we watch, transfixed, because we see these people trying to escape the trap we know they're doomed to remain snared in.
Some other thoughts:
- --For a very interesting alternate take on the death of Harding, the novel "Carter Beats the Devil" (optioned to become a miniseries or series by AMC at one point) is highly recommended.
- --Jimmy's really rolling in the dough in Chicago. If he chose to stay with Al and the gang there, I wouldn't blame him.
- --Incidentally, those were the first scenes between Nucky and Jimmy since episode two or three (I think three, from reading my old reviews). It's amazing that the show would make the relationship between the two so central to the pilot, then separate them for so long.
--Todd VanDerWerff (follow me on Twitter at @tvoti)
Photo: It took a while, but Jimmy (Michael Pitt, left) and Nucky (Steve Buscemi) are together again. (Credit: HBO)
Related articles:
'Boardwalk Empire' recap: Iconic characters and memorable images
HBO picks up 'Eastbound & Down' and 'Bored to Death' for a third season
Complete Show Tracker 'Boardwalk Empire' coverage
If you’re living in the United States right now, chances are you’re sick of hearing about elections and politics. That’s why I’m writing this today, instead of last week. I want to ride the coattails of that nausea and make a suggestion for the future of voting. The problem, I think, is that politicians do not care about you. They are ignoring you, and right they should. You don’t matter. Your issues don’t matter. Your concerns don’t matter. Politicians only care about one type of person, and it’s not you, because chances are, you didn’t vote.
[Image credit: Amelia E]
I haven’t seen official estimates on voter turnout this year, but I’m guessing it was embarrassingly low. I know it seems like there was more interest in a mid-term election this year than any year in the past, but that doesn’t mean much, because mid-term elections are very unpopular with voters. The last presidential election, in which record numbers of people voted, only drew 56.8% of the population to the polls, according to this page at infoplease.com. That was the highest percentage in 40 years, since 1968, when Nixon ran against Democrat Hubert Humphrey and segregationist George Wallace at the height of the civil rights movement and the protests against the Vietnam war. Before Nixon’s first election, voter turnout for the presidential election was just a bit more than 60%.
So, my guess is that voter turnout for this mid-term election will be less than 50%. When I make the assumption that you didn’t vote, I’ve got a better chance of being right than I do calling a coin toss.
It was the most expensive mid-term election in history, with candidates dumping millions of dollars into their campaigns. Some of the richest candidates lost, of course, but that doesn’t mean that money can’t help you win an election. Because of these expenditures, you might think that money is the most important thing to a politician. It seems like politicians follow the money interest, and that’s what controls their voting and behavior. But that’s not true.
There is one thing politicians want more than money. They want votes. Votes keep politicians in power, and power is the most addictive drug imaginable. Politicians can have all the money in the world, but that doesn’t guarantee they will win elections. To win an election, they need votes. That is why the only people who matter to politicians are people who vote.
The money is important, sure. But most of that money is spent on television commercials. It’s not used (hopefully) to buy fancy cars and big houses. The money isn’t a luxury, and political donations are not how politicians end up getting rich. The money from political spending pays for TV ads, and those ads exist to convince the voters.
I’m not making a campaign finance reform argument here, though I think the argument practically makes itself when you realize how much money it takes to run continual television ads during the long campaign season in this country. If we could take that incredible expense out of the mix . . . but I digress.
If we can’t fix the money problem in politics, maybe we can fix the voter turnout problem. One of the most annoying trends in this election was the constant bombardment of voting and political messages from all of my friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter. I’m not going to rehash them here, you can imagine the most partisan or the most tenacious of these, and I’m sure you had to deal with them yourself. Clearly, they didn’t work if voter turnout ends up as low as I predict.
One message did catch my eye, however. At first it annoyed me, but then it made me reconsider. Someone on my Twitter feed (I apologize to my readers and my source for not remembering who exactly) retweeted a messages saying something like: “If voting was as easy as signing up for Twitter, I would vote today.”
It makes you nauseous, right? You might argue that voting is as easy as signing up for Twitter, and more secure about privacy. But in fact, it’s not. Voting is an annoying process. It takes a lot of time. It’s a hassle, because too often there is a paperwork problem. I have been voting regularly for the past 16 years, and in the past two presidential elections, my voting eligibility was challenged at the polls by the workers there who could not find me on the voting rolls. I was registered, I had received confirmation, I had my driver’s license on me (once I even had my passport), but they still gave me trouble. In the last election, I had to submit a special ballot, and I was given the promise that if they ever found me on the voter registration logs, my vote would be counted.
Gee, I feel so . . . enfranchised?
Here’s my suggestion: we need to vote electronically over the Internet. Forget about voting booths, electronic voting machines and all the paperwork that accompanies them. We need to vote the same way we do everything else today. Why do we not trust the Internet for voting?
We trust the Internet for everything else. Voting seems like it demands the least privacy of all the private things we use the Internet to accomplish. I manage all of my finances over the Internet. I have never been to the actual bank where I have a credit card account, a car loan, or student loans. I manage all of those accounts electronically. I’ve received health records electronically. I send the most intimate and personal of correspondence over email without a second thought.
If we can manage our sex lives over the Internet, surely we can create a system for voting.
I don’t believe any of the obstacles to Internet voting are insurmountable. Security concerns about hacking and voter fraud, voter identification, all of the issues that would cause problems in a national election are problems we can tackle and defeat. It’s not like the paper balloting and electronic voting machines have been even close to flawless. How could we make things worse by moving voting online.
If we could vote online, we wouldn’t have to take time off of work to vote. We wouldn’t need to stand in line with our kids in tow, or stand in line behind someone with their screaming children. We wouldn’t have to explain to the stupid person handling the voter registration logs for the third time that our last name is spelled B-E-R-N-E, not B-U-R-N-S. Is that so hard to remember? It’s Berne, like the capital of Switzerland, not Burns. Do I look Scottish?
Again, I digress. I’ve tried to avoid taking partisan sides in this column, but if there is one theme we can all take away from the last election, it is that a great number of voters feel like their elected officials are not representing their interests. I don’t disagree, but it’s not because the politicians don’t care. It’s because you don’t vote.
eric seiger
Cee-Lo Green sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' on 'Colbert Report' - The Dish Rag <b>...</b>
With William Shatner and possibly Gwyneth Paltrow taking a stab at “F*** You,” Cee-Lo Green shows them how it's done.The musician appears on Comedy Central's...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Cee-Lo Sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' Version of 'F--- You' on 'Colbert' (VIDEO)
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
Cee-Lo Green sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' on 'Colbert Report' - The Dish Rag <b>...</b>
With William Shatner and possibly Gwyneth Paltrow taking a stab at “F*** You,” Cee-Lo Green shows them how it's done.The musician appears on Comedy Central's...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Cee-Lo Sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' Version of 'F--- You' on 'Colbert' (VIDEO)
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger
What we know is that Jimmy is coming back. We don't actually see him get on the train back to Atlantic City, but when Nucky dangles an offer that's too good to refuse in front of his nose, we know he's going to be headed back. He doesn't really fit in Chicago, best shown in a scene where he says nothing, but stands outside the Italian mobsters he's fallen in with, watching as they trade insults in Italian. He's accepted by them (particularly by his friend Al Capone), but he'll never be one of them. Much as he might hate to admit it, much as he hates the way the man ran him out of town, his place will ultimately be at the side of Nucky when the chips are down. Being in Chicago hasn't changed him so much as it has shaped things that were already present in him, making him the ruthless man Nucky will need at his side in his own mob war. So, we expect, he'll jump on the train to Atlantic City (with Richard Harrow in tow, I hope), and when he gets back, everything will explode.
Or maybe it won't. Maybe things won't get a chance to explode because Margaret will have turned on Nucky. Because here's something else that happens in this episode: Eli gets shot in the midst of a casino heist. He's there to collect the payment for Nucky (who's away in Chicago at the Republican National Convention), and he gets ambushed by the Italians who've been making so much trouble for Nucky's operation. While he's in the hospital, Nucky has to make sure that his ledger is protected, so he sends Margaret to go get it and keep it at her place. But the temptation of seeing just what it is her new boyfriend is up to ends up being too great, so she flips the pages open at episode's end to see a bunch of stuff she can't unsee. Nucky, whom she first saw at that Temperance League meeting in the pilot, is the guy who's in charge of bringing liquor into Atlantic City. And with that, all her illusions of the man she's in love with will have to disappear, and she'll be left with the question every mob girlfriend in every mob movie ever has had: Do I stay in comfort, or do I go because it's the right thing to do?
In a way, "Boardwalk Empire" is about evolution. There have been complaints against the series for being slow moving, but that may be because evolution is a slow-moving process. Dinosaurs don't become birds in a day, and a person like Nucky doesn't become a ruthless mobster in a day either. He gets pushed in that direction by circumstance, and the events since the pilot have been relentlessly making sure he heads toward that, whether he wants to or not. The pace of the show can feel glacial because the process of what the show's depicting is glacial. Nucky's still at the place where he thinks everybody can be bought, but with the shooting of his brother, he's begun to realize that some men who would depose him cannot be reasoned with. And those men are going to have to be met with equal violence and equal fire. That's where the man he sent away for being too much of a liability comes back into play, and that's why Jimmy's on his way back (we assume).
It's fun to watch a show like this begin to grandly play cards it's been holding since the very beginning, and in that regard, "Hold Me in Paradise" is a very good episode. I preferred last week's slightly, if only because I enjoy the character-driven hours just a bit more, but "Boardwalk" is at the point where it needs to begin making good on its promises of not just telling us a good series of stories about mobsters and others in their orbit but also a grand story about the foundations of organized crime in the 1920s. This plot-heavy hour begins the process of that, even as it shows us how Nucky's political skills help turn the tide at the Republican convention, that Warren Harding might garner the nomination. History now tells us that Harding was one of the most corrupt presidents in U.S. history, offering cushy government jobs to many of the people who supported him at the convention. And yet that's not really so different from what Nucky does every single day with people in Atlantic City. It's just more acceptable because the office is more acceptable. History condemns Harding as a failed president, but it condemns the basis for Nucky's character as a very evil man.
There's this sense of history and fate passing their judgment throughout "Paradise." Harding's wife is convinced that her husband will die in office because of what a fortune teller told her (again, the theme of soothsaying comes to the fore). The series keeps returning to Rothstein's preparations for the Black Sox scandal trial, even though they, at present, don't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the show. And, of course, we know where the antipathy between the Irish and Italians in both Chicago and Atlantic City is headed. In some ways, all of the characters in "Boardwalk Empire" are ignoring what's right in front of their faces, until there's simply no way to stop doing so. Margaret must have known where most of Nucky's money came from, but she chose to play dumb because it was more fun that way. Nucky must have known that there were very few ways his current game could end without bloodshed, but chose to consolidate power anyway. And Jimmy must have known he would be drawn back to Atlantic City at one point or another. Yet there's an attempt to race away from what both they and we know must happen. We know Harding will die in office; we know the bloodshed that is coming; we know who Al Capone becomes. At the same time, we watch, transfixed, because we see these people trying to escape the trap we know they're doomed to remain snared in.
Some other thoughts:
- --For a very interesting alternate take on the death of Harding, the novel "Carter Beats the Devil" (optioned to become a miniseries or series by AMC at one point) is highly recommended.
- --Jimmy's really rolling in the dough in Chicago. If he chose to stay with Al and the gang there, I wouldn't blame him.
- --Incidentally, those were the first scenes between Nucky and Jimmy since episode two or three (I think three, from reading my old reviews). It's amazing that the show would make the relationship between the two so central to the pilot, then separate them for so long.
--Todd VanDerWerff (follow me on Twitter at @tvoti)
Photo: It took a while, but Jimmy (Michael Pitt, left) and Nucky (Steve Buscemi) are together again. (Credit: HBO)
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If you’re living in the United States right now, chances are you’re sick of hearing about elections and politics. That’s why I’m writing this today, instead of last week. I want to ride the coattails of that nausea and make a suggestion for the future of voting. The problem, I think, is that politicians do not care about you. They are ignoring you, and right they should. You don’t matter. Your issues don’t matter. Your concerns don’t matter. Politicians only care about one type of person, and it’s not you, because chances are, you didn’t vote.
[Image credit: Amelia E]
I haven’t seen official estimates on voter turnout this year, but I’m guessing it was embarrassingly low. I know it seems like there was more interest in a mid-term election this year than any year in the past, but that doesn’t mean much, because mid-term elections are very unpopular with voters. The last presidential election, in which record numbers of people voted, only drew 56.8% of the population to the polls, according to this page at infoplease.com. That was the highest percentage in 40 years, since 1968, when Nixon ran against Democrat Hubert Humphrey and segregationist George Wallace at the height of the civil rights movement and the protests against the Vietnam war. Before Nixon’s first election, voter turnout for the presidential election was just a bit more than 60%.
So, my guess is that voter turnout for this mid-term election will be less than 50%. When I make the assumption that you didn’t vote, I’ve got a better chance of being right than I do calling a coin toss.
It was the most expensive mid-term election in history, with candidates dumping millions of dollars into their campaigns. Some of the richest candidates lost, of course, but that doesn’t mean that money can’t help you win an election. Because of these expenditures, you might think that money is the most important thing to a politician. It seems like politicians follow the money interest, and that’s what controls their voting and behavior. But that’s not true.
There is one thing politicians want more than money. They want votes. Votes keep politicians in power, and power is the most addictive drug imaginable. Politicians can have all the money in the world, but that doesn’t guarantee they will win elections. To win an election, they need votes. That is why the only people who matter to politicians are people who vote.
The money is important, sure. But most of that money is spent on television commercials. It’s not used (hopefully) to buy fancy cars and big houses. The money isn’t a luxury, and political donations are not how politicians end up getting rich. The money from political spending pays for TV ads, and those ads exist to convince the voters.
I’m not making a campaign finance reform argument here, though I think the argument practically makes itself when you realize how much money it takes to run continual television ads during the long campaign season in this country. If we could take that incredible expense out of the mix . . . but I digress.
If we can’t fix the money problem in politics, maybe we can fix the voter turnout problem. One of the most annoying trends in this election was the constant bombardment of voting and political messages from all of my friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter. I’m not going to rehash them here, you can imagine the most partisan or the most tenacious of these, and I’m sure you had to deal with them yourself. Clearly, they didn’t work if voter turnout ends up as low as I predict.
One message did catch my eye, however. At first it annoyed me, but then it made me reconsider. Someone on my Twitter feed (I apologize to my readers and my source for not remembering who exactly) retweeted a messages saying something like: “If voting was as easy as signing up for Twitter, I would vote today.”
It makes you nauseous, right? You might argue that voting is as easy as signing up for Twitter, and more secure about privacy. But in fact, it’s not. Voting is an annoying process. It takes a lot of time. It’s a hassle, because too often there is a paperwork problem. I have been voting regularly for the past 16 years, and in the past two presidential elections, my voting eligibility was challenged at the polls by the workers there who could not find me on the voting rolls. I was registered, I had received confirmation, I had my driver’s license on me (once I even had my passport), but they still gave me trouble. In the last election, I had to submit a special ballot, and I was given the promise that if they ever found me on the voter registration logs, my vote would be counted.
Gee, I feel so . . . enfranchised?
Here’s my suggestion: we need to vote electronically over the Internet. Forget about voting booths, electronic voting machines and all the paperwork that accompanies them. We need to vote the same way we do everything else today. Why do we not trust the Internet for voting?
We trust the Internet for everything else. Voting seems like it demands the least privacy of all the private things we use the Internet to accomplish. I manage all of my finances over the Internet. I have never been to the actual bank where I have a credit card account, a car loan, or student loans. I manage all of those accounts electronically. I’ve received health records electronically. I send the most intimate and personal of correspondence over email without a second thought.
If we can manage our sex lives over the Internet, surely we can create a system for voting.
I don’t believe any of the obstacles to Internet voting are insurmountable. Security concerns about hacking and voter fraud, voter identification, all of the issues that would cause problems in a national election are problems we can tackle and defeat. It’s not like the paper balloting and electronic voting machines have been even close to flawless. How could we make things worse by moving voting online.
If we could vote online, we wouldn’t have to take time off of work to vote. We wouldn’t need to stand in line with our kids in tow, or stand in line behind someone with their screaming children. We wouldn’t have to explain to the stupid person handling the voter registration logs for the third time that our last name is spelled B-E-R-N-E, not B-U-R-N-S. Is that so hard to remember? It’s Berne, like the capital of Switzerland, not Burns. Do I look Scottish?
Again, I digress. I’ve tried to avoid taking partisan sides in this column, but if there is one theme we can all take away from the last election, it is that a great number of voters feel like their elected officials are not representing their interests. I don’t disagree, but it’s not because the politicians don’t care. It’s because you don’t vote.
eric seiger
eric seiger
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Cee-Lo Sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' Version of 'F--- You' on 'Colbert' (VIDEO)
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger
eric seiger
Cee-Lo Green sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' on 'Colbert Report' - The Dish Rag <b>...</b>
With William Shatner and possibly Gwyneth Paltrow taking a stab at “F*** You,” Cee-Lo Green shows them how it's done.The musician appears on Comedy Central's...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Cee-Lo Sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' Version of 'F--- You' on 'Colbert' (VIDEO)
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger
Cee-Lo Green sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' on 'Colbert Report' - The Dish Rag <b>...</b>
With William Shatner and possibly Gwyneth Paltrow taking a stab at “F*** You,” Cee-Lo Green shows them how it's done.The musician appears on Comedy Central's...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Cee-Lo Sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' Version of 'F--- You' on 'Colbert' (VIDEO)
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger
Cee-Lo Green sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' on 'Colbert Report' - The Dish Rag <b>...</b>
With William Shatner and possibly Gwyneth Paltrow taking a stab at “F*** You,” Cee-Lo Green shows them how it's done.The musician appears on Comedy Central's...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Cee-Lo Sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' Version of 'F--- You' on 'Colbert' (VIDEO)
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
Cee-Lo Green sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' on 'Colbert Report' - The Dish Rag <b>...</b>
With William Shatner and possibly Gwyneth Paltrow taking a stab at “F*** You,” Cee-Lo Green shows them how it's done.The musician appears on Comedy Central's...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Cee-Lo Sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' Version of 'F--- You' on 'Colbert' (VIDEO)
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
How many times have you heard that money is the root of all evil? Whether you are a Christian or not a Christian, you have probably heard this said over and over. Unfortunately, this saying is a misquotation of the Bible. The actual verse says, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."(New International Version 1st Timothy 6:10)
Money is just a thing. It is not alive and can not do anything by itself. It is the love of money and not money itself that causes problems. Do not be fooled into thinking that rich people are the only ones being discussed in this verse. The amount of money possessed by someone does not determine the attitude of the person. People of middle or low economic status can actually love money whereas a rich person may not love money at all.
No matter the economic status, people are responsible for their own attitudes about money and their own stewardship of it. If a person loves money, their actions will show it even if their words do not agree with their actions. For example, they may say "money isn't everything" but cheat on their taxes and then, lie to their boss about the amount of overtime they worked. Next, they steal office supplies or use the company credit card to fuel their personal car. Sexual favors are traded for a promotion or a co-worker is killed to eliminate competition.
On a daily basis, the news is filled with such tragedies rooted in greed. In the preceding paragraph, one sin lead to another and five of the Ten Commandments were broken, however this all began when the first one was broken. The first commandment says, "You shall have no other gods before me." When money becomes the god you worship, the desire for it compels you to possess more of it. To keep a right attitude toward money, people must examine their hearts according to God's word and set standards regarding money.
A simple set of questions can help you adhere to biblical standards when you are making a decision about money. If at any time the honest answer to one of these questions is the same as the one in parentheses, biblical standards are not present.
Question #1: Can you afford it? (No)
Question #2: Will it hurt anyone? (Yes)
Question #3: Will your decision glorify God? (No)
Answering these three questions can save you three things. First, you will save time in your decision making process and time is a much more precious commodity than money. Next, you will of course save money. Lastly, you will save the most valuable thing of all. You will preserve your relationship with other people and God. "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul"?(New International Version Mark 8:36)
eric seiger
Cee-Lo Green sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' on 'Colbert Report' - The Dish Rag <b>...</b>
With William Shatner and possibly Gwyneth Paltrow taking a stab at “F*** You,” Cee-Lo Green shows them how it's done.The musician appears on Comedy Central's...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Cee-Lo Sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' Version of 'F--- You' on 'Colbert' (VIDEO)
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger
Cee-Lo Green sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' on 'Colbert Report' - The Dish Rag <b>...</b>
With William Shatner and possibly Gwyneth Paltrow taking a stab at “F*** You,” Cee-Lo Green shows them how it's done.The musician appears on Comedy Central's...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Cee-Lo Sings 'Fox <b>News</b>' Version of 'F--- You' on 'Colbert' (VIDEO)
Cee-Lo Green was forced to revise his popular 'F**k You' single when he appeared on 'The Colbert Report' (weeknights, 11:30PM ET on COM). 'As this.
eric seiger
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