Chefelf.com Night Life: rogue_scholar - Viewing Profile

What you're talking about is a normal chain of events that cannot be helped, (China, for example, is becoming more and more capitalist) but there's no reason to panic; America's not going to become completely socialist like most conservatives and libertarians like to argue. The economic growth that we saw in the past is precisely that, a thing of the past. Nothing lasts forever, and the good ol' days are gone, this is natural and everyone needs to get over it.

Speaking of the good ol' days, let's not forget that it was classical libertarian economics (aka laissez faire capitalism) that led to the Great Depression. The government has been intervening in the American economy since then because if it didn't the depression would only happen again.

In my experience, most individuals who argue in favor of libertarianism and against government intervention are simply pissed off that American corporations can't just do whatever they want anymore, like in the days before the Depression. Looking back at the living conditions of the average American before the Depression years, as well as American foreign policy (which was nothing more than gunboat diplomacy) I can't really say that governemnt intervention in business is all that bad a thing.

Precisely. The key word here is almost. The Jedi, like everything else in nature, are not perfect nor are they unstoppable (that includes Yoda). So why is it so unbelievable that Palpatine, the equivalent of a Jedi Master, is able to shield himself from them? While I agree that Lucas did not flesh out the idea of the Force well enough to make this point understood, I don't think it's that big a deal, nor do I believe that it is so inconceivable a notion.

We saw the same thing happen in Frank Herbert's Dune series: Paul Muadib, who was a messianic figure with the power to know everything about the past and the present, was unaware of the plot being hatched against him in the second book of the series. The difference between FH and GL, however, is that Herbert bothered to explain the reasons behind this, which did make sense.

If Paul's ability to know everything about the past and present has it's limitations, why can't the abilities of the Jedi also have limitations as well?

Yeah, to be honest with you I couldn't help but wonder if the omission was a mistake; the companion DVD had an interview with John Carpenter and he actually talks about one of the omitted scenes in detail. It doesn't make sense to me that they would include those comments from the interview and then go and omit the scene afterward for whatever reason.

There are actually two scenes I am speaking of in particular btw: the one between Michael's murder of his older sister at the beginning of the film and his escape from the mental institution, where we are shown a pre-teen Michael Myers in a seemingly catatonic state. And also, the scene after he has escaped, where Dr. Loomis investigates Michael's room, and is shown that Michael took the time to carve the word "Sister" into the door of his room before fleeing the hospital. It was the ommission of the second scene that bothered me, because unlike the first one, it was not ommitted in it's entirety- we are still shown the end of that scene where Dr. Loomis is arguing with one of his superiors over the circumstances of Michael's escape. That for me was just too deliberate and smelled of re-editing.

I am thinking that with the newest Halloween films (like H20 and that other one with Busta Rhymes, which I did not bother to go see), that they are retelling the story in a way that builds up more suspense. With the omissions, the way the story is told now, the audience would be totally unaware that Laurie is Michael's sister until part 2, when Laurie has a flashback to her youth and remembers that she had an older brother who was sent away when she was very young. From there she puts 2 and 2 together, and realizes that the mysterious Shape is her long lost brother who has returned to kill her just as he killed their older sister.

. . . You're probably all thinking I need to get a life (I probably do)! But the whole re-editing, rewriting craze that looks like it may have started with Geroge Lucas seems to be spreading (Stephen King has even re-written his Gunslinger series, and I felt the original version was the only good writng he ever put out). The fact that a cult classic like Halloween may have been the victim of this trend defeats the whole idea of it ever having been a cult classic. I mean, doing it to blockbusters is one thing, but c'mon, Halloween? When is it going to stop?

Man, I don't even know what to say to that!

In what way? I don't think I'm going to go see the film (I'll wait till it comes out on DVD), but I'm still curious.