No Irish Need Apply

I came across this image of the house my family lived in in 1960 when I was a tot. It was on the edge of Pierre, SD, and just visible to the right is empty land that extends for hundreds of miles. As you can see, the driveway isn't paved, and I don't see anyone being forced to pick cotton in the yard. Six people lived in that house and there was one bathroom. But some people tell us that our family is privileged and should pay reparations to them based solely on the color of their skin and what other people who are long dead did to their ancestors. The African people of 200 years ago do not have a monopoly on being victims of mistreatment. As someone with an Irish name, I know what the English did 200 years ago to my ancestors, but I'm not looking for a handout.

Mando bad

I have never been a big fan of Star Wars. I remember wondering after watching the first three movies how the Empire managed to conquer its empire with stormtroopers who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with their blasters. I have watched bits and pieces of the other six movies in the main story line, but they just never held my attention. Recently my cable company, Spectrum, which I truly truly hate, notified us we would henceforth get Disney+ for no additional charge (with commercials). OK, something new for the hundreds of dollars a month I give to this loathsome monopoly.

I decided to check out The Mandalorian and see what all the fuss was about that. I have made it into season 3 (diverting into The Book of Boba Fett which is really season 2.5) and have a few observations:

• Despite the cartoonish stormtroopers still being unable to hit the broad side of a barn, the series is incredibly violent. The Mandalorian gets his ass kicked on a regular basis, but for some reason no one simply shoots him. Or if they do shoot him, the rounds bounce off his armor. Meanwhile the stormtroopers are dropping like flies, one shot one kill. I gave up on the TV series Fargo because of the body count, and there are some episodes of the Mandalorian that rival Fargo's carnage.
• How disgusting is the inside of that helmet if he never takes it off? I wear a CPAP mask every night. It needs to be cleaned regularly.
• I kept wondering why members of this space-faring society lived and dressed like camel herders until the scene shifted first to a Ringworld and later to the New Republic capital. The CGI (or whatever they call it now) is seamless and often quite incredible. The transformation of Mark Hamill into a younger version of himself also is rather dazzling. But I don't understand how young Mark Hamill can look real but Katee Sackhoff looks fake. It is 15 years since Battlestar Galactica ended so maybe I'm influenced by how Starbuck looked back then.
• Once again, we have a spacefaring society that appears ignorant of basic physical security measures. It is harder to get into a basketball arena in our universe than it is to get onto a military starship in their universe.
• As with most action-adventure scifi series (Stargate SG-1 comes to mind), this show has devolved into "someone is held hostage and we have to free him/her/they." And there are fight scenes. The writing is formulaic and faithful to Star Wars canon.

Since I got new eyes in 2018, I've been reading about a hundred books a year, and most of them are scifi. Speaking of Ringworld, in 2019 I re-read the book by that name. (Yes, I keep track.) The best book I have read recently is "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke. (I also read the sequels, but alas, they were co-written by a fellow named Gentry Lee and don't measure up to the original.) I hate to sound like a book snob, but there are hundreds more good scifi books than good scifi movies/TV series. The producers of the visual medium are hostage to special effects. The special effects in Mandalorian are often spectacular, and the writing often sucks.