Archives for March 2016

I know that people get so excited when something seems to agree with their narrow view that they neglect to check the facts. It’s why, and how, the Tea Party thrives. That being said, atheists and rationalists are allegedly the people who live on facts and facts alone. I used to count myself among their number until I realized that if I was the most evolved creature in the universe then the universe was fucked. Therefore, while I subscribe to no particular religion, I do believe in God. I also believe in facts. I understand that making fun of people who believe in God is fun to do and that American Christians and the Taliban, two like minded groups, are easy targets. Still I do expect a little more out of my non-believing friends. If you are going to belittle me please do so based on reality. I can live with that. Anyway, two Easters ago I wrote about the whole Ishtar meme that seems to captivate those people who hate believers and facts with equal verve. Since it’s popping up again I’m tossing this blog up again.

Happy Easter.

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Last year I wrote about the history of Easter. Mostly how it came to get that name since there is no such word in the Bible. Long story short, the holiday got blended with the Pagan celebration of the goddess Ostara a/k/a Eastre. She was, still is I would guess, a fertility goddess so the whole rebirth / resurrection theme fit well with the pagans of the day. And, while odd at its face, the whole eggs, bunnies and resurrection theme has had it’s uses. As I also noted the tradition of handing out eggs replaced human sacrifice. So that was some good news for folks. And, since the traditions were already mangled, Eastern Europeans now celebrate Easter with some fun S&M. Because nothing says “Jesus died for your sins” like a day filled with a few rounds of spank and tickle with a smoking hot brunette. These are the same people who celebrate a child eating demi-god for Christmas, so it all makes sense to them.

Some folks wrote to me to let me know that I had missed the whole Ishtar connection. Since there isn’t one, no, I didn’t. I’ll let Megan Mcardle explain.

My unfavorite new Facebook meme is this bit of sillyness which has apparently been spotted everywhere from the feeds of my college friends to (allegedly) that of Richard Dawkins’ Foundation for Reason and Science:

I immediately knew that this was a bit of nonsense for the simple reason that Easter is an English word. The Greeks and Romans called it Pascha, which is why Easter is Pasqua in Italian, Pascua in Spanish, and Paques in French. How exactly did the name of a Canaanite fertility goddess skip all the way to England from the Middle East without stopping in Rome or Byzantium?

There was (is?) a goddess named Ishatr and she seems to, loosely, be the basis for the goddess Ostara mentioned above but that’s about it. You’re covering about 2,500 years to get from point A to point B just in the names. As to the whole litany of other things allegedly associated with her, they are just wrong. She was noted for killing her lovers, making the animals she had sex with impotent and pissing off Gilgamesh.

That’s not exactly how the story of Jesus’ rebirth goes. Trust me, I’ve read it.

Just because words are homonyms doesn’t mean they mean the same thing. Otherwise anti, ante and auntie would make for interesting families.

“Hi, this is my uncle and antimatter.”

Your great antediluvian.

I digress.

One thing that amazes me is the fact that people seem surprised that Christian holidays have pagan associations. Christianity, for all its many faults, is the most inclusive religion in the world. Initially that inclusion was simply practical. They couldn’t just conquer everyone so they needed to meet them half way if they were going to increase the size of the flock.

And, yes, it is true that Christianity has been the source of some horrid atrocities as well. Just ask a Gnostic if you can find one. People will angrily point that fact out every Christian holiday too.

Face it, Christianity is a roiling dichotomy. It has been since Saul who became Paul donned his sandals on the road to Damascus. That isn’t going to change any time soon.

In the end I look at it this way; there are enough true things associated with religions that I don’t need to make any up. And if you think eggs and bunnies are weird, you just haven’t been to a good penis festival yet.

“Legend Of The Golden Egg Warrior” from CRUSH on Vimeo.

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It wasn’t all that long ago that women’s roles were clearly defined on television. Oh, there were certainly popular, well written, female characters. Often on female oriented shows. But the fully realized female was a rarity. Maybe you’d get a couple in a decade. Then the superhero phenomena hit the screen. In comic books women have played integral, and fascinating, roles for years. There was no way to bring these shows to life without bringing all of those women along. While Agent Carter and Heroes Reborn seem to have bitten the dust it wasn’t because they were bad. The former never seemed to find its footing and the latter never capitalized on the cult status of its predecessor. Even so, that leaves us with eight shows currently running and drawing large audiences. I’m listing them here alphabetically and only listing the female characters who are woven into the regular fabric of the shows. There are some I’ve left out who may become important later, but, for now, this is a good start.

Actress to the left, her character to the right.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Ming-Na Wen – Melinda May
Chloe Bennet – Daisy ‘Skye’ Johnson
Elizabeth Henstridge – Jemma Simmons
Adrianne Palicki – Bobbi Morse
Ruth Negga – Raina
Natalia Cordova-Buckley – Elena ‘Yo-Yo’ Rodriguez
Dichen Lachman – Jiaying
Christine Adams – Agent Weaver
Constance Zimmer – Rosalind Price
Maya Stojan – Kara Lynn Palamas

Arrow

Katie Cassidy – Laurel Lance
Willa Holland – Thea Queen
Emily Bett Rickards – Felicity Smoak
Susanna Thompson- Moira Queen
Caity Lotz – Sara Lance
Celina Jade – Shado
Kelly Hu – China White
Keri Adams – Bethany Snow
Annie Ilonzeh – Joanna De La Vega
Jessica De Gouw – Helina Bertinelli
Audrey Marie Anderson – Lyla Michaels
Cynthia Addai-Robinson – Amanda Waller
Katrina Law – Nyssa al Ghul
Elysia Rotaru – Taiana

Daredevil

Deborah Ann Woll – Karen Page
Elodie Yung – Elektra Natchios
Ayelet Zurer – Vanessa Marianna
Rosario Dawson – Claire Temple
Wai Ching Ho – Madame Gao
Susan Varon – Josie

Gotham

Camren Bicondova – Selina Kyle
Erin Richards – Barbara Kean (a/k/a Barbara Gordon, wife of Jim)
Morena Baccarin – Dr. Leslie Thompkins
Zabryna Guevara – Sarah Essen
Victoria Cartagena – Renee Montoya
Jada Pinkett Smith – Fish Mooney
Jessica Lucas – Tabitha Galavan (a/k/a Tigress)
Chelsea Spack – Kristen Kringle
Clare Foley – Ivy Pepper (a/k/a Pamela Isley / Poison Ivy)
Natalie Alyn Lind – Silver St. Cloud

The Flash

Candice Patton – Iris West
Danielle Panabaker – Caitlin Snow
Shantel VanSanten – Patty Spivot
Malese Jow – Linda Park
Michelle Harrison – Nora Allen
Violett Beane – Jesse Wells

Jessica Jones

Krysten Ritter – Jessica Jones
Rachael Taylor – Trish Walker
Carrie-Anne Moss – Jeri Hogarth
Susie Abromeit – Pam
Erin Moriarty – Hope Shlottman
Robin Weigert – Wendy Ross-Hogarth
Colby Minifie – Robyn

Legends of Tomorrow

Caity Lotz – Sara Lance (a/k/a White Canary)
Ciara Renée – Hawkgirl
Amy Pemberton – Gideon
Stephanie Corneliussen – Valentina Vostok

Supergirl

Melissa Benoist – Kara Danvers (a/k/a Supergirl)
Chyler Leigh – Alex Danvers
Calista Flockhart – Cat Grant
Briana Venskus – Agent Vasquez
Jenna Dewan Tatum – Lucy Lane
Laura Benanti – Alura Zor-El
Italia Ricci – Siobhan Smythe (a/k/a Silver Banshee)
Brit Morgan – Leslie Willis (a/k/a Livewire)

That’s eight shows totaling over sixty female characters.

The one thing you’ll note, looking at that list, is how diverse the target audiences are. Daredevil and Jessica Jones are for adults. They don’t pretend to be anything else. Sex and violence are embedded into their genes. The rest, from Gotham at the dark end to Supergirl and the family friendly end, cover an entire spectrum of powerful women. Legends of Tomorrow seems sparse in its depiction of women but it’s a small ensemble cast that travels through time. So a lot of female characters are only in one episode. Also they have a lot of crossover with characters from Arrow and The Flash and I didn’t list any character twice.

And, bonus for women everywhere, not one of them is eye candy. Oh, sure, they’re all beautiful, just like many male stars are hunks, but that’s not why they’re there. There are no slow motion shots of any of them in bikinis. No scenes of them being hyper-emotional and needing a man to save them. Their relationships with their significant others, whether male or female, are played straight (if you’ll pardon the term) and not for titillation.

Great as this all is we all know that if only women were watching these shows they would all have a short shelf life. Or be relegated to daytime TV between soap operas and game shows. But, in a pleasant surprise for TV execs all over the world, they are all drawing a large audience of male viewers too. Supergirl, for example, is pulling about 50/50 female to male.

Now an entire generation is growing up thinking that women are just as good, if not better, than men. Young men, especially, are seeing women not as toys to be played with or ogled, but as people to respect and know.

Don’t get me wrong, there is still a long way to go in many regards. Racial minorities, from an American standpoint anyway, still get short shrift. And the first female led superhero film, Wonder Woman, won’t be out for another year. But things have to begin somewhere and here is a pretty good place.

If you click on the links above you can see full episodes from all but Daredevil and Jessica Jones. For them you’ll need a Netflix account.

TURNCABLE Girl Power 2015 from LR Pho.to on Vimeo.

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Back on March 17, 2011 I posted an often overlooked aspect of St. Patrick’s day. For example, every red headed Latin person you meet is part Irish. There is no exception to that rule. Why that is so is the subject I wrote about then. I mentioned this yesterday to a red headed Latina and she called shenanigans. Well, actually she said a wide variety of disparaging things about my possible heritage and diminished intellect, none of which are acceptable for sharing in public. So, for Rosa, I am re-posting the original story.

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The little, poorly made, nameplate on my desk says World News Center. Since that is so, I feel it is my duty to look beyond the musty confines of my locale and imbue you with knowledge of the greater world around you. I can already hear some of you saying, “Hey Doofus! It’s St. Patrick’s day. We already get that. Wear green, drink beer! What else do you need to know?” Well, ye of little knowledge, you’d be surprised. St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, for example, bears no resemblance to the Bacchanal celebrated in America. It’s a somber, religious, holiday where people pray for enemies to no longer taint their shores and for blessings to be laid upon their homes and families. To be polite, it’s not exactly a wild party.

More importantly to our blog here today, it’s a Catholic holiday. I point this out not to exclude any other religions but to explain something that happened around 150 years ago that is very important to a lot of people.

The Irish in America at that time were trying to fit in. Many joined the military. There they were subjected to abuse, both verbal and physical, by the Protestant leaders who ran things. Even so, they fought and died for their new country. They fought insurrectionists, they fought Indians, they fought anyone they were told to fight until 1848. That was when they were told to fight Mexicans. More specifically, Catholic Mexicans.

Combined with the abuse and torment heaped upon them by Protestant officers, that was too much for them to bear. The Irish, en masse, defected to the Mexican army. While almost none of the soldiers spoke Spanish, that didn’t matter. Since they were Catholic, and had their priests with them, the priests spoke Latin. Just like the Mexican priests did. Just like all priests did back then. All negotiations for land, intermarriages and service in the Mexican army were handled by the priests.

The Irish knew they would be facing a far superior force in the American army and that their future looked to be short. They did it anyway. What happened next is why there’s a Día de San Patricio in Mexico and other Latin countries to this day. Viva San Carlos has the rest of the story.

Dubious about why they were fighting a Catholic country and fed up with mistreatment by their Anglo-Protestant officers, hundreds of Irish, German and other immigrants deserted Taylor’s army and joined forces with Mexico.

Led by Capt. John Riley of Co. Galway, they called themselves the St. Patrick’s Battalion (in Spanish, the San Patricios) and fought against their former comrades in all the major campaigns of the war.

The history of the San Patricios is a woeful tale of angry, bewildered, naive, or calculating young men, from varied backgrounds, who deserted for a myriad of reasons and paid a fearful price.

The San Patricios, in the words of one Mexican general, “deserved the highest praise, because they fought with daring bravery.” But eventually, Mexico surrendered, ceding almost half its territory to the United States.

Each San Patricio who deserted from the US side was interned after the war in Mexico and subsequently given an individual court-martial trial. Many of the Irish were set free, but some paid the ultimate price. Roughly half of the San Patricio defectors who were executed by the US for desertion were Irish.

There are ceremonies there twice a year, on September 12 which is the anniversary of the executions, and on Saint Patrick’s Day.

It also clarifies the reasons for the war, and the active participation of immigrant people (most notably Irish but also Scots and Germans) who joined the Mexican side and paid for that decision with their lives.

Heroes
The Saint Patrick’s Battalion in the US-Mexican War, has placed the Irish as a revered race in Mexico; even to this day, an Irish person in Mexico will be told a countless number of times about the famous ‘Irish Martyrs’ who defected from the US Army and gave their lives trying to save Mexico from US aggression from 1846-1848.

A main reason for their hero status in Mexico is derived from their exemplary performance in the battlefield. The San Patricios ultimately suffered severe casualties at the famous battle at Churubusco, which is considered the Waterloo for the Mexican Army in this war. Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who also commanded the armed forces, stated afterwards that if he had commanded a few hundred more men like the San Patricios, Mexico would have won that ill-famed battle.

The importance of these Irish renegades has not waned in Mexico over the years. In 1959, the Mexican government dedicated a commemorative plaque to the San Patricios across from San Jacinto Plaza in the Mexico City suburb of San Angel; it lists the names of all members of the battalion who lost their lives fighting for Mexico, either in battle or by execution.

A major celebration was held there in 1983, when the Mexican government authorized a special commemorative medallion honouring the San Patricios. First there was a special mass at a nearby parish, then school children placed floral wreaths at the plaque; the Mexico City Symphony played the national anthems of both Mexico and Ireland; Mexican officials eulogized the Irish Martyrs, and a few words were spoken by Irish Ambassador Tadgh O’Sullivan.

Beginning in 1993, the Irish began their own annual ceremony in Clifden, Co. Galway, John Riley’s hometown.

While the brave soldiers of Saint Patrick’s Battalion are not particularly well-known outside Mexico, it is clear that their god-like status in Mexico is enough to compensate for the attention they failed to receive in other countries. There is still a fond memory of “Los Colorados” the red-headed Irishmen who gave their lives in the struggle for Mexican sovereignty.

There are Irish names in prominent places – if you can recognize them. There’s “O’Brien City,” for instance, better known as Ciudad Obregon in the northern state of Sonora. Alvaro Obregon (1880-1928) was a famous and admired Mexican soldier and statesman.

Today few towns in Mexico are without a street by the name. O’Brien became the Spanish “Obregon,” just like O’Dunn and McMurphy are changed to American-English “Dunn” and “Murphy.” Sainte mait cuzat! (Irish for “Good health to you.”)

The story of the San Patricios has already been given the film treatment by Mark Day of California and it was shown on RTE earlier this year.

However it has also attracted the attention of Bill McDonald, producer of Silver, and he has shot a new version in Durango in Mexico, with Tom Berenger in the lead role as Sergeant Riley from Clifden!

More extraordinary again is that Prince Albert de Monaco, son of Princess Grace, appears as a member of the San Patricios’ famed artillery crew, “James Kelly”. Actor Mark Thomas, close friend of Prince Albert’s, had a role and involved the prince in the production since he was interested in the San Patricio story and in trying his hand at acting.

“One Man’s Hero” a film of the San Patricio Battalion (a Paramount Release) can now be rented at Blockbuster. It white washes the injustices of the US army against the Mexican civilian population and the burning of churches but at least acknowledges the event in history.

Finally Hollywood tackles the US-Mexican War with dignity.

Many of the Irish who did survive stayed in Mexico, raising families, building churches and becoming a part of the everyday fabric of Mexican life. Other Irish refugees settled in Puerto Rico. Again the priests handled all negotiations and, to this day, there is a San Patricio mall in Guaynabo.

It is also why there are many red headed Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in the world today.

As you can tell from the video below, the Irish have had a profound influence on the world’s gene pool. So, before you go out and dye the city green, take a moment to reflect on the meaning of the day and the many people who died so that you might celebrate it.

DJ Papito Red – Shake It – (Fast and the Furious 4 Internet Promo)

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