2nd Look has a reasonably good discussion of these themes in the movie. Big spoilers ahead!
Overall, I appreciate his analysis, but I do have a quibble. I question his claim, beginning around 6:05, that Porco had planned to marry Gina before the war, but decided not to because she was Austrian. He claims Miyazaki said that, and it may be true, but he doesn't give his sources.
What is stated in the movie is that Gina was married to Porco's best friend Bellini two days before Porco and Bellini were sent to the front together. Also, I haven't seen any hint that Gina is Austrian in the movie, though maybe I've missed something.
Tonight and again on the 23rd are your chances to see Porco Rosso on the big screen. It's about an ex-fighter pilot-turned-bounty hunter, and it takes up the themes of the brotherhood of war, honor vs. loyalty, honor vs. celebrity, Old World vs. New, genius vs. experience, and, of course, love. The early part of the movie is more for kids and is rather comic. For me it is an odd juxtaposition with the more serious themes that emerge later in the film. I guess, then, another theme would be the heart of a child vs. the heart of a combat veteran.
Being able to see it in theaters is due to the efforts of GKIDS, the distributor for some anime in the US. Last year, GKIDS sponsored
Studio Ghibli Fest, which put one Studio Ghibli animated movie in
theaters each month. It was apparently pretty successful, so they are doing it again this year. Studio Ghibli is Hayao Miyazaki's studio, the most famous Japanese anime studio. It created films like Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away.
If you are interested, you can see if any theaters near you are playing it by going to the Studio Ghibli Fest website, scrolling to Porco Rosso, and putting in your zip code.
Andrew McCarthy has written another in a series of articles digging into the bizarre misinformation campaign spinning out of the behavior of the FBI:
If you or I had set up an unauthorized private communications system for official business for the patent purpose of defeating federal record-keeping and disclosure laws; if we had retained and transmitted thousands of classified emails on this non-secure system; if we had destroyed tens of thousands of government records; if we had carried out that destruction while those records were under subpoena; if we had lied to the FBI in our interview — well, we’d be writing this column from the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth. Yet, in a feat of dizzying ratiocination, Director Comey explained that to prosecute Mrs. Clinton would be to hold her to a nitpicking, selective standard of justice not imposed on other Americans.
As we contended in rebuttal on Thursday, the Times’ facts are selective and its narrative theme of disparate treatment is hogwash: Clinton’s bid was saved, not destroyed, by Obama’s law-enforcement agencies, which tanked a criminal case on which she should have been indicted. And the hush-hush approach taken to the counterintelligence case against Donald Trump was not intended to protect the Republican candidate; it was intended to protect the Obama administration from the specter of a Watergate-level scandal had its spying on the opposition party’s presidential campaign been revealed.
But let’s put that aside. Let’s consider the disparate-treatment claim on its own terms.
In a thoughtful exploration of philosophy and technology, Kissinger argues that AI developers should start thinking through the philosophical questions raised by AI and that the government should start seriously thinking about AI and its possible dangers. It's difficult to excerpt because he uses the entire article to make his point, but here is his hook:
As I listened to the speaker celebrate this technical progress, my
experience as a historian and occasional practicing statesman gave me
pause. What would be the impact on history of self-learning
machines—machines that acquired knowledge by processes particular to
themselves, and applied that knowledge to ends for which there may be no
category of human understanding? Would these machines learn to
communicate with one another? How would choices be made among emerging
options? Was it possible that human history might go the way of the
Incas, faced with a Spanish culture incomprehensible and even
awe-inspiring to them? Were we at the edge of a new phase of human
history?
A Seattle councilwoman wants felony charges brought against Amazon for threatening to leave town if the city taxes workers to make a dent in the affordable housing crisis.
Socialists really need to find a solution to this problem of the golden goose walking off. Has anybody thought of putting up guard towers at the borders?
Illinois flirts with the Caracas solution, a/k/a the Cuban (etc.) solution.
Speaking of Caracas, what amazes me if that buyers are still making cash offers on real estate, and even more, that sellers are still holding out for a better price. Let's hope they get one before cholera and cannibalism set in.
Seventy years after Israel had the effrontery to become a nation, seventy-three years after the Allies liberated the few remaining survivors at the concentration camps, a diseased culture still can't get over its antisemitism and do anything productive about refugees from long-lost wars.
I really like the sound of the Old 97's, but the lyrics ...
(Foul language and sexual content warnings apply, not to mention stupid drunkenness, immaturity, and word plays -- but it's Saturday. Best paired with something cheap and tasteless.)
