Death

 Lance Reddick died on St. Patrick's Day.  Although he was in many things, I knew him as Charon in the John Wick series of movies.  He didn't get a lot of screen time, but when he was on the screen, he made the most of it.

The report of his death claimed that he died of natural causes.   What exactly constitute natural causes got me wondering.  Did he die of old age, of sickness?  Did he die of a genetic trait that took various family members early (Mr. Reddick was sixty-years-old at the time of his death) which, for his family, would be natural?  

But then I got to thinking about how we describe someone's death.  Some are easy:  He was murdered.  He died in the line of duty.  She died giving birth to her child.  We know how those people died, for the most part.

Yet, there are various ways in the English language that we use to relate how someone died.  For example, she died in her sleep.  OK, that's generally assumed that she went to bed and didn't wake up.  But babies do the same when they die of SIDS.  Was she sick?  Did she swallow something and choke to death?  For the most part, that phrase is understood to mean that she went to bed and didn't wake up, that there was nothing nefarious in her death.

Another oft-used phrase is that he passed away.  Passed where, exactly, and away from what? This is another phrase that's used to denote a non-violent death, but it allows for an illness to have taken the deceased.

Some are more colloquial:  He kicked the bucket, for example.

People can get fidgety when describing death.  Surely, for loved ones it's a hard thing to describe a loved one's death.  There's an attempt to soften the deceased's leaving them behind.  But sometimes, family members try to protect the decedent by couching the death in nebulous language that obscures the death that they view, somehow, as shameful.  Take AIDS, for example.  When the outbreak first occurred, there was a lot of shame for people to admit that they had the disease, so to die of it wasn't something that the remaining family members wanted to trumpet.

It's weird how humans address death.  

(c) 2023 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

What If Hollywood Were Conservative?

 Hollywood is Leftist.  Virtually anyone outside of Hollywood would agree with that assessment.  And it's used its platform to attack conservatives in movies, sitcoms and talk shows.  The First Amendment allows this -- although, were the shoe on the other foot, there would be attempts to ban these as Hate Speech -- as it should.  But consider for a moment all the tales that Hollywood is leaving on the table because of its leanings.  

Imagine, for a moment, that Hollywood were run by conservatives.  The wealth of stories that would rival what the Left has put out over the past forty years is amazing.  Consider the following movies:

-- A movie about how Chinese spies were able to infiltrate the offices of a congressman (Eric Swalwell) and a senator (Diane Feinstein).

-- A film about how Congressmen and -women were able to enrich themselves via insider trading that was allowed by a loophole that the politicians themselves passed.

--  The whole Biden family criminal enterprise.

-- The whole Clinton family criminal enterprise...including all the dead bodies in its wake.

-- The lies that allowed Obamacare to get passed, including:

    -- Nancy Pelosi claiming it had to be passed so people could know what was in it;

    -- Jonathan Gruber, one of the architects of Obamacare, referencing the stupidity of the American                voter;

    -- Obama himself claiming if you want to keep your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

-- The coordinated effort of the MSM to attack a presidential candidate and continue its jihad after he         was elected;

--  The Russian collusion hoax;

--  The Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings;

--  The incompetence of the Biden-Harris administration;

--  The disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan;

--  The East Palestine, Ohio trainwreck;

--  The ongoing idiocy of The View;

--  The double-standard of BLM protests and people not allowed to worship;

--  The mostly peaceful protests during the George Floyd riots;

--  The incestuous relationships between the MSM and the Democratic Party; and

--  The Fetterman senatorial campaign and ultimate election.

There are countless stories put out by the Hollywood Left that attacked conservatives -- sometimes fairly, most of the time unfairly -- so it would be nice were there an opportunity to see both sides of this political coin.  Hollywood is missing out on an huge revenue stream.  Millions of people would flock to these movies if they were only made.  But that's what Hollywood fears:  The truth being revealed to the electorate would sink the hopes of the Left of ever holding power again.

One can dream...

(c) 2023 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles