I'm really, really happy with everything they did. Everything made perfect sense, fit well with the story, and finished it all in a satisfactory fashion.
There are a few things remaining which weren't completely explained, but they gave us just enough information to fill in the blanks.
I like it.
* * *
So Congress approved the ex post facto tax on the AIG bonuses. Though everyone involved will defend their actions by saying that this wasn't an ex post facto law or a bill of attainder, that is exactly what this tax is: it is a tax aimed squarely at a select few designed to punish them for having the gall to get big bonuses.
Apparently the actual machinery of taxing these bonuses is problematic. That's okay, because there will be a hell of a lot of legal wrangling to deal with before the IRS can collect one cent. I know that if I was the recipient of one of these bonuses I would lawyer up immediately. I mean, just one legal theory--ignoring, for the moment, the ex post facto and bill of attainder issues--is the doctrine of "equality under the law".
The entire theory of republican government is predicated on the idea that no one is above the law, ever, and that all laws apply equally to all people. Laws designed specifically to target certain individuals are supposed to be unconstitutional (see "bill of attainder") and this particular law is meant to do nothing but target specific individuals. The law is unconstitutional, and I'm sure there are plenty of lawyers out there who'd be eager to take the case.
In the meantime I wonder if Congress will tax away the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonuses? They're the exact same kind of bonuses, given for the same reasons, and these two organizations got just as much of a bailout (if not a bigger one) as AIG did.
* * *
Is there dirty work afoot in the Obama eligibility case? I don't know how much is paranoid delusion and how much is real any longer.
I do know that if Obama's election were overturned at this point, it would be a long time before the riots were quelled.
That doesn't mean that, if it were to turn out that Obama was not eligible to be President, we should just let him stay. It's in the Constitution: you must be a native-born citizen to be President. If Obama's not a native-born citizen, he can't be President, and McCain is our proper President. (And Sarah Palin our proper VP.)
McCain would be assassinated. Count on it. And Ms. Palin would be in the crosshairs, too. But that would pale in comparison to the mass violence and destruction that would happen when Obama was turned out of office. It would be, to understate the case a bit, messy.
I find troubling the fact that Obama has never released a real birth certificate. None of this would matter if he just proved, once and for all, that he was born within the USA--and if he was, producing the documentation ought to be easy-peasy. (In fact, given his position, producing documentation proving his status ought to be easy-peasy regardless of the truth.)
It is just possible that the real reason this woman's case fell into the abyss was that Obama sat down with the justices and said, "Look, I'm really not eligible...but if you hear the case and toss me out, what do you think will happen? Y'all will end up hanging from lampposts, and it'll tear the country apart, don't you think? Want that on your consciences?"
* * *
"'She immediately realized something peculiar,' officer says of victim." The victim in question was assaulted by a naked 14-year-old boy with a poodle.
What impressive acumen this woman has.
I'm pretty sure that "naked boy with poodle" is one of several international symbols for "run away".
* * *
In Colorado, water that falls on your property is not yours. Awesome.
The law is an ass.
* * *
If "Heather has two mommies" she is twice as likely to live in poverty as a kid with heterosexual parents.
* * *
...that ending, dayum. I mean, they hit all the notes they needed to hit. The denouement was perfectly accomplished.
I suppose it's impossible to get away from the "technology is bad" meme in a series which is about humanity almost being wiped out by killer robots, so I am giving them a pass on that point, but I am having to work for it. In general I don't like "technology is bad" as a message in any story.
Technology is tools, and tools are things that do what you tell them to, regardless of purpose. When the tools start doing things on their own--like hacking into your defense system and nuking your civilization--they're not tools any longer. I'd say that once your tools get to the point of plotting your demise they're no longer "technology" but an "antagonistic race", and they deserve it if you blow them up.
Technology isn't the thing that's good or bad--people are good or bad.
Still, I liked the story, and they brought it to a good--an excellent--conclusion. It's an ending I can not only live with, but approve of wholeheartedly.
A few weeks ago I couldn't see how they could get here from there, but they got here, and I'm glad of it.