John Adams ... and Speaking Truth to Power
Kathy and I have been watching HBO’s mini-series John Adams lately, and it’s terrific.
I particularly like the plain-spokenness and integrity of those intelligent men who were involved in founding the United States of America.
Paul Giamatti, who plays John Adams, brings a wonderful sensibility to his role. Had Adams been played by someone less geeky — someone more charismatic, like Daniel Day Lewis or Tom Cruise — I believe the story would have been far less meaningful.
Giamatti’s performance makes it clear that Adams was no Obama-style rock-star; he was a more ordinary, though clearly intelligent, man who stood at a crossroads in history and understood the challenge before him, to which he must rise personally.
One week soon, I hope to write a review of this miniseries for the Atlasphere.
On a semi-related note, something about the video below reminds me of the sort of no-bullshit address that could have been delivered, on a completely different subject, to Congress in the late 1700s.
(h/t Jordan Zimmerman for the video)
UPDATE: On the other hand, here’s a pretty good smackdown from commenter “myseed” over at LiveJournal:
If it’s just a rights issue, I understand, but most of his argument seems to be bitching about CFLs themselves...nevermind the fact we’ve been surrounded by fluorescent, mercury-filled bulbs for years with all the same “restrictions” he’s described. We’ve just gotten more terrified of litigation as a society, so this is the first time it’s all being spelled out. He’s acting like the fact that he is seeing the warnings for the first time means they’re new.
And half of the “procedure” he outlined would be the same for regular incandescent bulbs, since it was dealing with how to pick up broken glass and store it such that no one gets injured. And as far as I know, EPA guidelines for disposal of objects are not “laws” and are never enforced — they are just guidelines. No one stops us from throwing out our alkaline batteries, which we shouldn’t do.
And made in China? So what, so is everything else and has been for years. If he really doesn’t like it, why doesn’t he try and get someone to build a factory for the bulbs in Texas? Photo fading? All light fades photos, even incandescents it’s the amount of UV that you need to monitor, and you can get CFLs with different degrees of UV emission. And as for the expense, you pay for the bulb many times over in life span and reduced energy costs — even if they only get to half of their expected lifespan. (As long as you don’t break them...then it is too bad about the mercury.) Then there’s his “pollute the landfill, of all things” comment, which is a whole other discussion.
Kind of a silly argument all around, so narrowly focused on details that he fails to make the legitimate argument he could have about freedom of choice and governmental reach.
Actually, I first saw it from a link by Michael Kelly at http://www.objectivistliving.com.