The Amazing Race 18:Unfinished Business--Episode 5--Stuck in China

It's been a week since the last episode and I have been so busy reading comic books and watching DVDs that I haven't had a chance to blog about it. Here it is Sunday and the next segment will be on tonight. I may as well just blog about the two together, but I have been doing that too often lately. So I'll just give my impressions as best as I can recall. I could watch the episode again on CBS.com, but I have better things to do like read some more comic books and watch DVDs. (I actually watched half of Twelve Monkeys on the train to upstate and the Blu Ray of Alice in Wonderland last night, the best thing about the latter is the employment it provided for so many British actors like Helena Bonham Carter, Frances de la Tour, Lindsay Duncan, Alan Rickman, and Timothy Spall.)

Episode 4 ended in the middle of a leg which is the second time they've pulled that trick this season. I think they are trying to save money by making the racers take trains rather than jets to the next destination. It also avoids multiple non-elimination rounds. Everyone had reached the midway point, thinking it was the finish line, except for Justin and Zev and Kent and Vyxsin (I probably misspelled her name, but what do expect if she gives it an eccentric twist with that y in there?)

The Goths had to go back to the gondola to get their missing fanny pack, then catch up with the others who were all on the same train back to Kunming, where they had just come from the previous night. Zev and Justin had checked in and got to the train station in time to watch the Globetrotters play basketball with the cowboys and the volleyball players.

The Goths were met with icy stares when they joined the others and lied about not being told by Phil they would receive a time penalty for missing the plane from Tokyo. This is another new wrinkle in the race, if you miss a flight--even if it is required--why should you get a time penalty? You've lost all the time, it's not as if they got another earlier flight which put them ahead of everyone. Anyway, they got back to Kunming in the middle of the night and the Goths wisely U-turned the redheads because they were right there! They explained that last time they stupidly u-turned a team that was ahead of them. This way they knew they weren't making the same mistake. It would up costing the redheads the race because they had to go back and play with the dolls and then they had a tough time assembling the dinosaur.

Zev and Justin turned into the Globetrotters by leeching onto another team--Ron and Christina--figuring they wouldn't get lost because they know Chinese. But the ploy backfired on them when the father and daughter's cabdriver took them to the wrong location. Despite the language advantage, Ron and Christine wound up near the bottom and Zev and Justin barely escaped elimination. Gary and Mallory, another victim of the Ron-Christina caravan fiasco, used up their express pass when they got the dinosaur park and saw how difficult the task was. The cowboys still beat them to the number one spot and the Globetrotters survived despited getting the second U-turn from the redheads.

In the previews for next week, now tonight, it looks like Luke will be crying to his mommy because he can't figure out the differences between some Indian tea. Hopefully, it will be a single leg with no cliffhangers. The flight to India will probably put everyone on an equal footing again and it's still anyone's race.

Day 8--Leg continues, teams take train from Lijiang back to Kunming
Day 9--Teams arrive in the middle of the night to perform roadblock,dawn is breaking as they hit Double U-turn, get to park, assemble dinosaur, finish leg

Justin and Zev--two wins, trips to Cancun and Costa Rica
Jet and Cord--one win, $5,000 each
Luke and Margie--one win, trip to Aruba
Mallory and Gary--one win, Express Pass (used)

The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business--Episode 4: PMA or PMS?

Kent and Vyksyn lost their shit literally and figuratively this episode, losing a passport and a fanny pack as well as several hours going the wrong way from Kurihama to Tokyo. Vyksyn had several breakdowns along the way. Maybe she's using too much magenta hair dye. We were led to believe they would get eliminated for sure this time after they nearly got the axe two episodes ago in Australia when Vyksyn went nuts in the shark tank. But surprise--it's another two part leg and everyone is still racing though Team number one (Luke and Margie) won a trip to Aruba. I will admit I was totally taken by surprise when that happened, because we just had two-part leg in episodes one and two. I like this better than non-elimination legs so I'm not complaining.

At least this race is not predictable. I couldn't even tell if it was day five or day six when we started. I'm guessing it's the sixth day because by the time Jamie and Cara found the lucky frog and came in 10th on day five it was dark out. This leg began at 8:44 PM and teams had to drive several hours from Kurihama to the Tokyo airport. I'm guessing it was the night of the next day. There seems to be more work involved in the travelling and more days covered in the individual legs. They are really making the contestants work for the money this time, as opposed to the easy-peasy challenges of the past couple of seasons (bring some tea to an old guy, sit in a sauna, drink a shot, etc.) This leg they had drive all night, take a plane (evidently there were transfers according to Jamie and Cara in the extra footage in the CBS website), then a train, a shuttle bus, a gondola, then another bus.

Kent and Vyskn started out with PMA (possible mental attitude) which quickly turned to PMS when neither of the Goths could get their car door open. It went downhill from there, and they got lost, missed the flight to Kunming, and wound up in a death struggle with Justin and Zev for last place.

As the teams drove to the Tokyo airport, several reminisced about their last time in China. The Copperhead cheerleaders recalled how much they hate China because nobody speaks English there.

All the teams but the Goths made the flight to Kunming. Ron and Christina used their knowledge of the language to get a train ahead of everyone and arrive first in Lijiang. They even had time for Ron to stop and eat all the food in the country. We're into a whole other day (Day 8) by the time they get to Lijiang for an usually full day of challenges. First they had saddle and ride a yak, find twelve charms with the Chinese Zodiac and arrange them properly, figure out their Zodiac sign (this held up the Globetrotters who named every animal before randomly hitting on theirs--didn't they ever read those paper placemats in Chinese restaurants?), then pound candy or march through the streets while blowing a huge horn. Apart from the drama of Kent and Vyksyn, the high point was Ron and Christine falling off the wrong vehicle and throwing rocks at the right one to get it to stop. Wouldn't you know it, the Globetrotters saved Ron and Christine's bacon by getting the bus to stop. So, after mistakenly taken their fanny pack, they are now even with the father and daughter.

Some on the internet have complained about this episode for springing another double leg on us so soon, but I loved it. Lots of action and unexpected twists.

Day 6--Drive to Tokyo airport from Kurihama
Day 7--9:50 AM Flight from Tokyo to Kunming, China, train to Lijiang, Kent and Vyksyn leave Tokyo at 3:30 PM, arrive in Kunming in the middle of the night
Day 8--Arrive in Lijiang, Kent and Vyksyn catch up, leg doesn't stop

Zev and Justin--two wins, trips to Cancun and Costa Rico
Gary and Malllory--one win, Express Pass (still not used)
Luke and Margie-one win, Trip to Aruba

Reflections on Wisconsin and Japan, Free Markets and Class Wars

The events of the past few days have led to the conclusion that Ayn Rand was an idealistic nut. The thesis of all her novels and philosophical tracts can be summed up thusly--let the rich, smart, and ambitious get all the power they want and don't let the government do anything to restrict or restrain them in any way. No taxes, no regulations, nothing. An entirely free laissez-faire system will take care of all those pesky collusions or unfair trusts. She actually believed a free market would regulate itself and all injustices would even out because the public would stop buying the product of an unfair manufacturer.

What's been happening in Wisconsin demonstrates what happens when the super-rich want to get super-richer and no one has the guts to tell them, hold it a minute, you can't just take everything. Corporate interests like the Koch Brothers are out to diminish the power of public-worker unions so that forces friendly to them will stay in office. If the state doesn't take out the union dues there'll be less money to contribute to Obama and the Dems.

As I understand it, the unions gave in the governor's demands and yet he still insisted on stripping them of their right to collective bargaining. The Fox News crowd played along by painting the unions as corrupt fat cats getting enormous salaries for lazy slobs. Ann Coulter on Sean Hannity cited bus drivers making six-figure salaries. The strategy is clear, Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes are kowtowing to their corporate overlords by selling the Fox audience the idea that the unions are against the unorganized workers at Walmart, etc. See, they say, look at the red bastards stealing your money and giving it to those gold-bricking school teachers who get a whole summer off. Fox and their ilk are the ones waging a class war, pitting the working classes against each other--unions against unskilled, unorganized labor. If the Repubs and their rich cronies really wanted to balance the budget, they'd get the millionaires to pay taxes in proportion to their income.

Rand's philosophy and that of Glenn Beck and his cohorts is if you are smart and hard-working you should make and keep as much money as you possibly can and pay as little tax as you can get away with, forget the rest of society or the common good. If some poor slob who isn't a ballsy entrepeneur and can't get insurance, then goes broke because of one hospital visit, that's his tough luck.

Speaking of the common good, as I was watching the horrible scenes from the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, I was reminded of similar footage from New Orleans and Katrina. The difference was the people in New Orleans were stranded by their government, both in preparedness (faulty levees) and help after the disaster, and the people in Japan seemed to be getting aide right away and there was no looting or panic. The looting in New Orleans can be attributed to taking avantage of a bad situation, BUT they were also people who had no food or medicine and there were no sign state or federal authorities were going to help them. In fact, many conservative commentators said it was the citizens own fault for living near so much water and relying on the government for help.

Batman and the Indians

My friend Lydia pointed out that the Hub has shown just about all of the Batman episodes, except for a handful--the first guest starring appearance of Vincent Price as the Egghead, a villain not from the comics, but created for the show, and a two-part episode from the Batgirl season with Cliff Robertson returning as Shame and Dina Merrill as his sidekick Calamity Jan. Checking a Batman chatboard, a few posters conjectured that these episodes were nixed because of the comical, and possibly offensive, depictions of Native Americans.

In the Egghead episode, Edward Everett Horton, the narrator from Fractured Fairy Tales, plays Chief Screaming Chicken, the last of a tribe which leases Gotham City to the original settlers for some pelts. In the Shame episodes, a dour Indian named Chief Standing Pat is part of the western villain's gang. Are these characters offensive enough to warrant not showing the episodes? I'm not Native American, so I can't say. But by the same token should we not show episodes of old sitcoms with swishy gay characters like Uncle Arthur on Bewitched or Hispanics with thick accents or Gone with the Wind because of the simplistic depiction of Prissy? Chief Screaming Chicken and Chief Standing Pat are comic figures but so was everyone else on Batman.

The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business--Episodes 2 and 3

Episode Two was chiefly exciting because we got to see a lot of bare chests--especially Kris's--and then a lot of kangaroo outfits. Plus Mike cried like a baby with guilt because he felt he was killing his 70-year-old father for a measly $1 million and some much-needed exposure. But things really heated up in Episode Three. Instead of going on the traditional 12-hour rest period after bouncing across the finish line in the mining town of Broken Hill, everyone had to take an overnight train back to Sydney and then take a plane to Tokyo. In our last blog we learn lesson number one of the Amazing Race: never help a stronger team, always help a weaker team. Zev and Justin learned that lesson hard in Episode 3 when the Globetrotters repaid them for giving them a vital clue by giving up a pair of seats on a flight with connections which was supposed to get in 15 minutes earlier than the direct flight.

This leads us to lesson number two: always take a direct flight; a connecting one can have delays. Naturally the connecting flight was delayed and Zev and Justin, along with four other teams, lost about an hour and the Globetrotters now owe them nothing. Flight Time and Big Easy continued to mooch off everyone by following the other cars to the first destination in Tokyo. They didn't even have a map. Then they swiped Christa's fanny pack at the road block. OK, it may have been an honest mistake, but it really wasn't clear what happened. Did they deliberately take it, realize the error and then leave it in the changing room instead of where they found it on the mountain in order to gain time? The editing make it very confusing.

We also learned Christina is engaged to Azaria, half of the brother and sister team from her season. That's interesting. I don't remember them ever relating during the race, maybe they hooked up later. Anyway, Christina whined to Phil and the Globetrotters got a 30-min. penalty. I'll bet this will come up next week and we'll have a confrontation scene. Flight Time and Big Easy seem like fun guys, but I really don't want them to win. Pro athletes have an unfair advantage and they leech off other, smarter teams when they can't figure out clues or directions.

I love that Zev and Justin roared ahead of the other teams who were stuck in traffic and conferring with each other on directions. They just took charge and wound up in first place again. I think it's going to come down to Zev and Justin and Gary and Mallory who have come out ahead so far. I cracked up when Zev said, "Don't touch me" to Justin.

After taking off a Japanese guy's side view mirror and trying to bribe him, Jaime and Cara narrowly escaped elimination because 70-year-old Mel was nearly frozen to death in the mud looking for a frog. My favorite line: Mel to his son Mike: "I'd rather die here with you, than at home in bed." That conjures up some pleasant images.

Day 2--Sydney (Still part of first leg, though into the second episode)
Day 3--charter flight to Broken Hill; overnight train back to Sydney
Day 4--arrive in Syndey, book flight to Tokyo
Day 5--arrive in Tokyo, drive all over the place

Gary and Mallory--Express pass--which they haven't used yet
Zev and Justin--two wins, trips to Cancun and Costa Rico

Hucka-Bite-Me

Mike Huckabee seemed like such a nice guy--for a rabid right-wing Republican that is. I was taken in by his gentle demeanor, I guess. Compared to other conservatives he appeared actually sane. And he defended Michele Obama for campaigning against obesity which was at least decent. But this week, he's totally lost it with his crazy talk about Natalie Portman's pregnancy and his inaccurate criticism of Obama's life history.

Let's take Portman first. First of all, she is getting married to the father of her child, the guy who choreographed Black Swan. Secondly, she's not holding herself up as a model to all young girls or saying hey, I'm having a baby and you can to. Thirdly, where was his righteous indignation when Bristol Palin got preggers--and that skank's STILL not married! Why didn't Mikie make some noise about Sarah and Todd being awful parents and how they should force Levi to do the right thing and get hitched to their little filly? Why pick on Natalie? I'll tell you why--because she just won an Oscar and Huck saw a chance to throw his base some red meat in the form of Hollywood-bashing. Natalie can support her child, what has that got to do with offering a bad example? He later said he never meant to criticize her and he really enjoyed that ballet movie. Right.

Then Huck went on some crazy radio show and said the Prez couldn't relate to average Americans because he was raised in Kenya where they don't have Boy Scouts and Little League. It also explained why he removed the bust of Winston Churchill because granddad Obama was part of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya which occured when Winnie was Prime Minister. WHAT? A spokesperson later clarified the remark by saying Mike has misspoke and meant Indonesia where Barack did spent five years of his youth--incidentally sources say young Barry was a Boy Scout in Jakarta, so there.

The "misspoke" gambit doesn't make sense because Huckabee said some very specific things about Obama's supposed Kenyan upbringing like being instilled with an anti-British anti-colonial mindset by his evil Kenyan rebellious relatives. Indonesia was a Dutch colony and had nothing to do with the Mau-Maus. And anyway, weren't George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams rebels like Obama's paternal grandfather? Didn't we rebel against British imperialism like the Kenyans? And do we know that the grandfather was involved in the uprising, that's not even clear.

I read that there were other lies and exaggerations in Huck's talking points. Like the fact that the Winston Churchill bust was not returned to the British but moved to another part of the White House to be replaced by a bust of Abraham Lincoln. Is Huckabee coming out against Lincoln now? I am appalled!

And speaking of Boy Scouts, did you know that Huckabee's son David was fired as a Boy Scouts camp counselor for torturing and killing a dog? And that Huckabee who was governor of Arkansas at the time hushed up the investigation? This was about 10 years ago, but the son was 18 at the time which is pretty old for excusing cruelty to animals as a youthful prank. Why doesn't someone ask Huckabee about his family values if he can raise an animal torturer? If any of Obama's kids did something like that, we'd never hear the end of it from Fox and Friends.

Huckabee seems to be testing the waters for a presidential run, but I doubt if he'll do it. He wants to finish building that house in Florida and his Fox salary is too high for him to give it up. But look for more lies and distortions and "misstatements" about Obama from Huck and his pals.