The Book of Daniel

So, I noticed all the controversy about the new NBC series, The Book of Daniel: 

Citing viewer complaints, eight NBC affiliate stations won’t air a new series by the network about an Episcopalian priest with a troubled family in which Jesus Christ is one of the characters.

And, having nothing urgent recorded on the DVR to watch until tonight’s premiere of Battlestar Galactica (see earlier post), I decided to see what all the fuss is about.

So far, 25 minutes in, the following has occured:

• The epynomous Daniel gave a homily in which he suggested that it’s not all that bad to give in to temptation.  His bishop was none too pleased.
• I missed the first few minutes where his daughter was apparently caught selling pot.
• Daniel’s family openly mocks each other about various issues, such as the afore mentioned pot bust, and one son mocking the other for being gay.
• The mother seems awfully quick to self-medicate with alcohol during the family squabble at the dinner table.
• Jesus showed up in Daniel’s car on the way to his golf outing.

As an aside, it seems that the Episcopal church pays their priests pretty well, based on the house that Daniel lives in.

So, I’m thinking to myself, I’m a junior NBC exec.  I’ve been charged with finding a show that will appeal to those foreign red-staters.  You know, the ones that go to church all the time, and have family values, whatever those are.  And I get this script that has Jesus in it!  Remember that Joan of Arcadia show at CBS that got so much attention from the Jesus freaks?  This will be so much better, because instead of having God show up randomly in different bodies each week, this show will have Jesus in it!  Those James Dobson/Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell losers will lap this up!

But… there’s got to be something to appeal to the real people too.  So, let’s see… there’s got to be a conflicted gay character, and a character with an alcohol problem, and lots of casual sexual relationships.

Somehow I think that junior exec is going to be polishing his resume soon…

Wait a minute – it’s 8:45pm and Jesus just showed up again:

Daniel: Why is it so easy to talk to you?

Jesus: Because I’m a good listener and I never burden you with my problems.

Daniel: Tell me what to do…

Jesus: Life is hard, Daniel, for everyone, that’s why there’s such a nice reward at the end.

Daniel: Aren’t you supposed to comfort me?

Jesus: Where did you read that, in “Jesus’ Guide to a Good Life?”

Fade into silly banter and laughing all around.

Ugh.  I don’t think I can continue.  I do have those 2 episodes of Arrested Development on the DVR I haven’t watched yet, so if you want more info on the Book of Daniel, you’ll have to find it elsewhere.

BSG Resumes Tonight

Lest regular readers fear this site focuses too much on politics and the news of the day, I thought I’d point out that Season Two of Battlestar Galactica resumes tonight on the Sci-Fi channel.  Tonight’s episode picks up where the mid-season finale left off, with the Galactica facing off against the Battlestar Pegasus, which is, of course, a reimagining of the classic episode of the original series.

I’m pretty impressed with the show as a whole.  You could easily remove the science fiction elements and make the show a “standard” TV drama with well-written episodes about the relationship between civilian and military aspects of society, family relationships, unintended consequences of scientific advances, and many other thematic elements that are not well represented on network TV.

BSG is one of the best shows on TV that you’re not watching (in fact, Time magazine just rated it the best show on TV), and I can’t wait to see it tonight.

The Judiciary Unhinged

This is outrageous. 

Mark Hulett, 34, of Williston admitted to sexually assaulting a young girl for four years, but was ordered by Judge Edward Cashman to serve only 60 days in prison.

The Burlington Free Press and WCAX-TV reported that prosecutors wanted an eight-year sentence and the state Corrections Department wanted three years. But the judge also was told that Hulett would not get any counseling for the crime until he was released because he was deemed unlikely to offend again.

Vermont state Republicans held a press conference to introduce minimum sentencing guidelines today. 

Republicans held a news conference Friday to introduce a bill that would require judges to impose a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison for aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and second and subsequent offenses for lewd and lascivious conduct with a child younger than 12.

“Republicans are committed to providing a legislative correction to make sure this never happens again,” said House GOP leader David Sunderland.

Instead of working to change the legal system through the political process when he disagreed with the law, Judge Cashman instituted his own judgment by meting out this particular “punishment.” 

Worldnet Daily quotes the judge at length:

 The judge said that when he began 25 years ago, he handed down tough sentences but now believes “it accomplishes nothing of value.”

“It doesn’t make anything better; it costs us a lot of money; we create a lot of expectation, and we feed on anger,” Cashman explained to the people in the court, WCAX reported.

and

“The one message I want to get through is that anger doesn’t solve anything. It just corrodes your soul,” Cashman told a packed Burlington courtroom made up mostly of people related to the victim.

The judge is apparently more concerned with the rehabilitation of the offender than the safety and mental well-being of the victim, and the safety of the community at large. 

 According to the Center for Sex Offender Management, part of the US Justice Department, the 25-year recidivism rate for child molesters is 52% and for rapists is 39%.  I don’t know how Mark Hulett would be categorized in this study (news reports label him a child rapist as opposed to molester), but either way you look at it, he needs to be off the streets, NOT getting treatment.

Al-Qaeda Hails American “Defeat” in Iraq

Powerline’s John Hinderaker comments on Al-Qaeda #2 Zawahiri’s proclamation of victory:

Zawahiri’s latest propaganda effort is consistent with the views of Jack Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and other antiwar Democrats.

Indeed.

European Demographic Shift

My first post on the Jake Files!  An important article by Mark Steyn appeared on Wednesday.  The transcript of a followup interview of Mark Steyn on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show is here (hat tip Instapundit).

 To avoid collapse, European nations will need to take in immigrants at a rate no stable society has ever attempted. The CIA is predicting the EU will collapse by 2020. Given that the CIA’s got pretty much everything wrong for half a century, that would suggest the EU is a shoo-in to be the colossus of the new millennium. But even a flop spook is right twice a generation. If anything, the date of EU collapse is rather a cautious estimate. It seems more likely that within the next couple of European election cycles, the internal contradictions of the EU will manifest themselves in the usual way, and that by 2010 we’ll be watching burning buildings, street riots and assassinations on American network news every night. Even if they avoid that, the idea of a childless Europe ever rivaling America militarily or economically is laughable. Sometime this century there will be 500 million Americans, and  what’s left in Europe will either be very old or very Muslim. (emphasis mine)

Steyn postulates that the declining birthrate in Europe, which is more concerned as a society with the welfare state than with societal self-preservation, combined with exploding Muslim birthrates and immigration, will leave Europe as a changed society.  Essentially, Europe will be a location on a map, with no real Europeans.

My disdain for France and Germany finds delicious irony in all this, but it does not bode well for Western Civilization as a whole.