It’s roundup time again
(1) RIP actor Donald Sutherland, dead at 88. His career was long and varied; I’m pretty sure the first movie I saw him in was Mash. I see that three of his children are actors.
(2) It’s the 50th anniversary of that Boston travesty – forced busing – as this not very good Boston Globe article reminds us. I previously wrote about forced busing in this post.
(3) Some drugs for enlarged prostate seem to help decrease the risk for Lewy Body dementia. That’s related to Parkinson’s, and I wondered when I clicked on the article whether the same drugs help prevent Parkinson’s. Here’s what it said:
A new study suggests that certain drugs commonly used to treat enlarged prostate may also decrease the risk for dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). This observational finding may seem surprising, but it mirrors previous work by the University of Iowa Health Care team that links the drugs to a protective effect in another neurodegenerative condition—Parkinson’s disease. The new findings were published online on June 19, 2024, in Neurology.
The UI researchers think that a specific side effect of the drugs targets a biological flaw shared by DLB and Parkinson’s disease, as well as other neurodegenerative diseases, raising the possibility that they may have broad potential for treating a wide range of neurodegenerative conditions.
That’s good, but can it slow the progression of the disease once it’s already gotten a hold? That would be wonderful news.
(4) The DA of Alameda County – of which Oakland, California is a part – is facing a recall election in November. Now the mayor of Oakland joins her. The reason is crime and the fallout from crime.
(5) Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, by Melanie Phillips. An excerpt:
Antisemitism is the delusional hatred and fear of Jews, Judaism or the Jewish people. Unlike other prejudices, it has unique characteristics applied to no other group, people or cause. It’s an obsessional and unhinged narrative based entirely on lies about the Jewish people; it accuses them of crimes of which they are not only innocent but the victims; it holds them to impossible standards expected of no-one else; it depicts them as a global conspiracy of unique malice and power; and it invests them with diabolical influence over the entire world in order to serve their own interests at the expense of others.
Anti-Zionism has exactly the same characteristics. While criticism of Israel’s policies is entirely legitimate, anti-Zionism treats Israel and Jewish national self-determination differently from any other country, people or cause. Israel is demonised, dehumanised and delegitimised in order to bring about its destruction. Israelis are accused of crimes of which they are not only innocent but the victims; they are held to impossible standards expected of no other people, country or cause; Zionism is depicted as a global conspiracy of unique malice and power; and Zionists and Israelis are invested with diabolical influence.
Just watched Sutherland in “Eye of Needle.”
He was a good one.
(3) Off label drug use was considered a no-no during the COVID panic, but that was because there was big money for the mRNA shot manufacturers. I hope this pans out.
(5) Since the sole objection to the existence of Israel is that it’s a Jewish state, the vast majority of criticism of Israel is anti-semitic.
It so happens that the FBI raided Mayor Thao’s Oakland home today. No info yet on the reason for the raid.
Speaking of out of control violent crime in Oakland, 15 people were shot during the Juneteenth celebration at Lake Merritt. That violence would occur at a Juneteenth celebration somewhere is so drearily predictable.
Re: Lewy Body dementia
That’s what got Robin Williams:
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Robin Williams and Lewy Body Dementia
Robin Williams brought joy to the lives of so many people through his comedy, acting, and charity work. There is no doubt he will forever be remembered for his comedic genius and heartwarming performances.
Tragically, Robin died by suicide in 2014 at age 63. The event shook the entertainment world and caused millions of fans to grieve for the loss of such a beloved actor and human being who brought so much humor to the world. What many people do not know is that depression was not the underlying cause of Robin’s suicide—rather, it was a little-known brain disease called Lewy body dementia.
In the last year of his life, Robin experienced a startling pattern of behavior. His friends, family, and film colleagues could tell he was not himself as he began exhibiting symptoms like confusion, forgetfulness, paranoia, hallucinations, anxiety, personality changes, and difficulty with movement. Robin could tell something was wrong, too, but he did not know what was happening to him, why it was happening, or how to stop it.
https://www.lbda.org/blog/robin-williams-and-lewy-body-dementia-2/
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Sounds horrible.
Cornhead,
Thanks for reminding me of ‘die Nadel’. I haven’t seen that in quite a while. Quite good, and always liked Kate Nelligan.
Marisa, strange developments in Oakland. FBI and postal inspectors show up and carry out boxes of documents. House does not belong to Oakland Mayor Thao but to waste company owner. Some say she ‘rents’ the house. Mysterious and confusing.
Donald Sutherland could convincingly play amoral evildoers, like in Eye of the Needle, or The Eagle Has Landed, yet he could also be the most truly American soldier in any movie, Sgt Oddball, in Kelly’s Heros.
He will be missed.
SCOTTtheBADGER:
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Always with the negative waves, Moriarty.
–Oddball, “Kelly’s Heroes”
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I used to quote that to Art Deco. I don’t think he ever got it.
Great movie. The problem with Sutherland films is “Bet you can’t mention just one.”
I recall a story about “MASH.” Donald Sutherland and co-star Elliot Gould were worried about Robert Altman’s unconventional direction, lest it affect their careers, so they went to the producers and asked that Altman be replaced.
The producers didn’t and Altman didn’t find out until later. However, “MASH” turned out a smash hit.
“The pros from Dover” did just fine.
–“The Pros From Dover, MASH (1970) ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpH4Fblhang
That scene couldn’t be filmed today. Male privilege.
}}} (1) RIP actor Donald Sutherland, dead at 88. His career was long and varied; I’m pretty sure the first movie I saw him in was Mash. I see that three of his children are actors.
The first movie I almost certainly saw him in would have been The Dirty Dozen. The first movie I recall seeing him in was Kelly’s Heroes, where he pretty much stole the show as “Oddball”, a tank commander, as Scott has noted. A very anachronistic, rather 60s-ish “hippy” type role, but fun, regardless. M*A*S*H came out about 4 months before KH, FWIW.
Sutherland also played “The Old Man” in the 1994 adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters. Not a spectacular film, it’s an at least decent one, and probably the best adaptation of any of RAH’s works to date (which is a fairly low bar).
It feels mildly derivative these days (and even when it was released), given the two film versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Day of the Triffids, which preceded its release on film, but, the fact is, RAH wrote and published The Puppet Masters a couple years before either of the other two novels, which were a basis for those films, were published. They just made it to the screen far sooner.
I saw M*A*S*H in the seventies in college with two of my buddies – roommates who I dated somewhat alternately, but we all wanted to see the show.
My favorite Sullivan role is in Space Cowboys.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0186566/
Re: The Puppet Masters
ObloodyHell:
I was a big RAH fan so I loved the novel as a kid. After the movie came out I looked up its relationship to “Body Snatchers” and discovered, as you note, that “Puppet Masters” preceded “Body Snatchers” the film and Jack Finney’s original novel (1954).
However, it wasn’t Heinlein who invented that creepy sci-fi subgenre. John Campbell, arguably, got there first with “Who Goes There?” (1938) which one can see in John Carpenter’s loose adaptation, “The Thing” (1982).
Oddly enough, there is a real mental disorder, Capgras delusion, which was first identified in 1928:
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Capgras delusion or Capgras syndrome is a psychiatric disorder in which a person holds a delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, another close family member, or pet has been replaced by an identical impostor. It is named after Joseph Capgras (1873–1950), the French psychiatrist who first described the disorder.
The delusion most commonly occurs in individuals diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, usually schizophrenia, but has also been seen in brain injury, dementia with Lewy bodies, and other forms of dementia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgras_delusion
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So, alley-oop, we’re back to Lewy bodies.
Marisa, Bob W — “Her Honor” listed the home searched as her residence on election filings; another home searched was that of a family member and part owner of the recycling company, it also searched. I will not be surprised to see information leaked or released that the recycling company has contracts with the city, or seeks contracts with it, and that money may have changed hands. There is also info floating that the mayor “owns” four homes…. that could be just sloppy reporting, however.
Juneteenth? What better way to celebrate the abolition of slavery than to shoot up a celebration of that. Oakland festivities tend to devolve into shootings on a regular basis. Slavery may be abolished, but civilization continues to elude.
No one has mentioned “Start the Revolution without Me,” with Gene Wilder. I thought it was a pretty funny sort of spoof on Tale of Two Cities, though it was some 30 years ago so not sure if I’d still find it as good.
he was also in ordinary people, yech, and six degrees of separation if memory serves, that was in the 80s, or perhaps early 90s,
I must say Sutherland aged well with his mane of silver-white hair and hawk-like features. He radiated power.
He was a natural for playing generals, politicians and villains.
Garrity was an example of a judge who had earned contempt and hostility.
Another+Mike on June 21, 2024 at 12:34 pm said:
Juneteenth? … Slavery may be abolished, but civilization continues to elude.
So perhaps we can establish June 32nd as the holiday to celebrate when civilization was finally established across the whole globe [or maybe even just within our major Democrat controlled cities?] 🙂
}}} However, it wasn’t Heinlein who invented that creepy sci-fi subgenre. John Campbell, arguably, got there first with “Who Goes There?” (1938) which one can see in John Carpenter’s loose adaptation, “The Thing” (1982).
The difference is, however, in the distinction of single replacement vs. wholesale replacement/control (Puppet Masters is more about direct control — turning the people into… duh, “Puppets”, rather than replacing them).
While the example of WGT?/The Thing is unsettling, the notion that everyone around you is a zombie not under their own self-control is much more disturbing to people I think. I may be wrong on that, I grant — particularly when it comes to the PostModern Left. 😛