JMS on CompuServe (Oct 16, 1997) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

[bbarrett at speedlink.com]

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 [ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
    Sb: #1386-#<Darkness>
    Sb: #1399-<D&L: Sheridan=Christ?>


 #: 1386 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
    14-Oct-97  14:18:00
Sb: #1150-<Darkness>
Fm: PHILIP HORNSEY

My favorite line of the whole damn show was,

"God sent me."

Of course, that line required 4 years of prep. We had to see the EA first as a 
fine upstanding democratic goverment with one black mark, the slavery of Psi 
Corps (nice parallel to pre Civil War America). Then we see the powers of 
darkness, manifest in one slimy little man who thinks his own ego is more 
important than 484 years of shining sanity, pull it all apart thread by 
thread.

In the end there is not even a *fiction* that a free society exists. There is 
no Senate to impeach the President, and he himself is in unconditional breach 
of his oath of office. There can be no happy legal accomodation. No "real 
President" can stand up and order the good guys to put things right, the 
pathologically loyal military has to choke down the bitter pill of rebellion 
and *kill* everyone who stands with the guy the population elected (at least 
as VP) a couple of years before.

No question, the constitution is is tatters, it never contemplated an elected 
official of Executive status attempting a coup (after near 5 centuries of that 
being just *unthinkable*, who would?). Now the whole damn EA is in ruins, and 
some uniformed robot, wrapped in the flag, without the guts to look around and 
just say "sh!t, this is wrong", asks Ivonnova who she is.

Basically he says, "who the hell gave you the right to act against the supreme 
temporal authority, on whose behalf do you bring a fleet against me", and she 
replies,

"God sent me."

There is a school of thought among some libertarians that suggests that even 
if God doesn't exist, we *need* him to place some elements of natural law 
beyond the reach of the State. In the end, when we have to rise and slay a 
tyrant, we can answer him when he asks "How dare you rise, by what authority 
do you act against "civilization"". So we say...

"God sent me."

It is interesting that an athiest just made what is probably the best single 
argument for a general "official" belief in God.

It is nearly as interesting that another athiest then put forth the 
argument...

Phil^^^^
FREE EARTH! 


 #: 1573 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
    16-Oct-97  01:40:14
Sb: #1386-#<Darkness>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      I think you just paraphrased most of the Book of Job....

                                                                    jms


 [ Summary: (See below.) ]

 #: 1574 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
    16-Oct-97  01:41:00
Sb: #1399-<D&L: Sheridan=Christ?>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

"...as I am a visual artist, I tend to notice lighting and structure,etc., 
especially on the second (or 3rd) viewing, and the thorny crown was striking 
to  my eyes, as was the sad, dark-circles-under-the-eyes, immensely tired look 
on his face, which lent to the illusion."

      It's interesting when that happens.  There's a halo around Sheridan's 
head at one point when he's yelling at Delenn in the big room in "Z'ha'dum," 
and, just as a pointer to something you won't see for another year....

      When I was directing "Sleeping in Light," there's a scene with Sheridan 
and a mirror.  (That's all I'll say about it, so there's no spoiler info 
there.)  As John Flinn lit the shot, and angled the mirror...I froze at what I 
was seeing on the monitor.  I called John over, and pointed to it.  "Do you 
see what I see?"  It took him a moment, but then his eyes went wide, and by 
his own reckoning, "the skin on my arms crawled."  He turned to the guys 
dressing the set and said, in a very loud, clear voice, "NOBODY TOUCHES THAT 
MIRROR!  YOU HEAR ME!?  NOBODY!"

      It's not a big...but it's a pretty cool unintended illusion (though once 
we saw it, we kept it).

                                                                    jms


[END]

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