Kick 'Em When They're Down

Conditions: Hot, Tired.

Deal Me Out

After spending years crushing Iran under the boot of oppressive economic sanctions for the crime of wanting to develop nuclear technology for themselves, it seems the world is now prepared to entertain Iranian treaties for mercy. A new deal may soon be struck that will allow Iran to maybe lift itself out of the economic quagmire. So what of this deal?

The deal does not roll back the vast majority of the advances Iran has made in the past five years, which have drastically shortened what nuclear experts call its “dash time” to a bomb — the minimum time it would take to build a weapon if Iran’s supreme leader or military decided to pursue that path.

Lengthening that period, so that the United States and its allies would have time to react, is the ultimate goal of President Obama’s negotiating team. It is also a major source of friction between the White House and two allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, which have made no secret of their belief that they are being sold down the river.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has described the terms of the accord announced early Sunday as a “bad deal” that does not require Iran “to take apart even one centrifuge.” That bitter assessment reflects the deep suspicion inside Mr. Netanyahu’s government that Mr. Obama will settle for a final agreement that leaves Iran a few screwdriver turns short of a weapon. [...]

On the Iranian side, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which American intelligence agencies have accused of running a secret weapons-design program, may try to chip away at the accord as well, arguing that the sanctions relief is puny and that even the caps on enrichment will slow Iran’s efforts to build its nuclear capabilities.

Mr. Kerry and his chief negotiator, Wendy Sherman, say they have no illusions that the interim agreement solves the Iranian nuclear problem. It simply creates time and space for the real negotiations, they say, where the goal will be to convince Iranian leaders that the only way to get the most crippling sanctions — those that have cut the country’s oil revenue in half — lifted is to dismantle large parts of a program on which they have spent billions of dollars and staked national pride.

- nytimes.com/

So I guess it’s the perfect deal, then: one that no-one is actually happy with, but all may be willing to endure. And this is how we approach peace, through gritted teeth and grave doubts. I’d say this whole thing is bullshit, but that may be an insult to bulls. If this is the only way people think they can force nations in our brave new world to do their bidding, then this isn’t really a brave new world after all.



Film Review: Bullet to the Head

It’s a strange world we live in, and the stories we tell can reflect back on that strangeness. Sylvester Stallone has played a wide range of characters in his career, but very rarely has he played what I would term a bad guy. Here I think he’s chosen a character that is too close to that line for comfort. He plays a career assassin, who carries out his latest job where he kills an ex-cop, then gets setup in return by his employer in order to keep things quiet. Of course he survives but his partner is killed, so he’s out for justice. For his dead assassin partner. After a job where he killed some ex-cop. And we’re supposed to care about this ...why? Perhaps that’s why he’s saddled with another cop – the ex-partner of the dead ex-cop who’s decided to come to town to find out what happened, played by Sung Kang from parts of the Fast and Furious franchise.

The background reasons have to do with a crooked real estate deal being put together that will destroy a lot of historical houses. Senators have been bribed and there’s a flash drive with all the incriminating details on it. But it doesn’t really matter. This film is really about multiple scenes of Stallone and Kang driving around bickering with each other as they go from one lead to another, of which some interrogation is attempted and then Stallone gets to kill. A daughter is finally dragged into the equation so we can have a big fight sequence to finish things out. And so there it is. A fairly ordinary paint by numbers affair with Stallone grumbling his way from one kill to another. And in the end he mumbles something to the cop about him and his daughter and he drives off in his Ferrari.

The main problems with this movie, other than the annoying shaky cam being used in fight sequences, come from Stallone’s character being utterly unlikeable and the dynamic between him and the cop is just really odd and stiff and weird. I mean, Kang is in trouble because the various cops he reports to are actually in on the plan, so he’s stuck with Stallone, but still there must have been someone else he could call rather than just ride around with an assassin while he kills his way up the ladder? Sly seems totally uninterested in this film, too. Not only is it a bit of a chore to sit through, it seems like it was a bit of a chore to make as well. Still, Sly seems in great shape, just a shame he can’t burst out of the mumbly grumbly downtrodden rut he seems to have gotten stuck in. Come back Sly, we miss you! Two bombs out of five.



- Peace out