OK, some things are just too funny not to share: from belongingbaby.com: https://babylonbee.com/news/10-shocking-books-currently-available-in-public-school-libraries
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Very interesting article that could unite climate kooks, Big Oil and libertarians alike:
Why Ted Cruz Wants Bitcoin Miners In The Lone Star State
By Felicity Bradstock - Dec 19, 2021, 12:00 PM CST
Crypto-enthusiasts believe the digital currency could become closely interwoven with the energy industry of the future, improving ageing infrastructure downfalls as well as helping to reduce carbon emissions. So how will the magical virtual money help the fossil fuel and renewables sector in the coming years?
Texas, the home of many crypto start-ups, is seeing several new companies seek partnerships with Big Oil and state energy actors to integrate their operations into energy strategies for the next decade. The Bitcoin mining community believes that adding another electricity consumer to the already oversaturated system could help, maybe somewhat surprisingly.
Right now, the existing grid system – Electric Reliability Council of Texas, aka ERCOT, provides electricity to around 90 percent of the state of Texas. But it is temperamental as it requires a careful equilibrium between supply and demand to function well. It’s for this reason that crypto companies are suggesting that additional buyers in the system, that can take whatever amount of power is delivered to them at any time of day, will help maintain this balance.
Bitcoin miners could benefit from greater access to electricity, and the grid would benefit from the almost immediate responsiveness of the user. This is thanks to the ability of bitcoin machinery to turn on in a matter of seconds. Therefore, energy can be taken from and sent back to the grid as needed.
Senator Ted Cruz explained, “If you have a moment where you have a power shortage or a power crisis, whether it’s a freeze or some other natural disaster where power generation capacity goes down, that creates the capacity to instantaneously shift that energy to put it back on the grid.”
Innovations like these have arisen in response to dramatic failures in ageing U.S. infrastructure. Earlier this year, we saw the Texas electricity grid fail in response to a severe winter storm. At the same time, gas and water supplies were stalled, leading to significant energy shortages and, ultimately, in the loss of several lives. Although President Biden is currently pursuing a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, this will only fix some of the problems and could take years to carry out. So, alternative solutions from start-ups seem increasingly appealing when looking at the alternative.
But this is not the first intervention we have seen from crypto start-ups in the energy sector. Tech companies in Houston, a digital currency hub, are recommending the construction of huge crypto-mines to run on renewable energy. It is estimated that digital currency mining uses around 0.5% of all electricity consumed worldwide or 7 times as much as Google. Therefore, switching away from fossil fuels to renewables would mean a dramatic reduction in the carbon footprint of Bitcoin and other currencies.
Tech company, Lancium, announced plans in November to construct Bitcoin mines in Texas, worth $150 million, to run on wind and solar power. As West Texas is part of the country’s ‘wind belt’ and the state has good sun quality on average, it makes it the perfect location for this type of project. In fact, the region is expecting to double its sun and wind energy output within the next five years, encouraging greater interest in tech and energy partnerships.
Crypto-energy projects are already up and running in some parts of the country. In Wyoming, for example, the company JAI mines Bitcoin for itself and energy investors who want a piece of the action, running power mining rigs from electricity converted from gas flares. Gas that would typically be released into the atmosphere is, instead, captured and reused. The company, like many others, is now hoping to expand operations to Texas and other states.
At present, gas flaring contributes around 1 percent of global carbon emissions. As governments push for net-zero and companies strive to decarbonise their operations, a crypto-energy partnership could be just what the doctor ordered. A by-product of fracked shale, gas is flared because it is seen as unprofitable. But with increasing international pressure for Big Oil to reduce its carbon footprint, digital currency companies quickly came up with a way to reuse this gas to run their mines.
As investment figures in digital currencies are climbing, the worldwide electricity use associated with this mining system will continue to rise. Contributing a significant proportion of the world’s energy use, it seems only logical that crypto companies join forces with oil, gas, and renewables firms.
Whether running off waste gas and reducing emissions or contributing to the construction of major green energy projects, it seems that the two sectors will continue to cross paths so long as digital currencies maintain their recent appeal. However, the volatility of these types of currencies could deter energy companies from investing until their future becomes more certain.
By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
Why Ted Cruz Wants Bitcoin Miners In The Lone Star State
By Felicity Bradstock - Dec 19, 2021, 12:00 PM CST
- Crypto-miners are flocking to some of the country’s biggest energy-producing states, but it’s not just the cheap power bringing them there.
- Miners are looking to gas-flaring as a potential energy source, one that could help curb one of Big Oil’s most controversial practices.
- Bitcoin miners are also pleading their case to ERCOT, suggesting they could help the electric provider tackle its supply and demand problems by bringing equilibrium to the grid.
Crypto-enthusiasts believe the digital currency could become closely interwoven with the energy industry of the future, improving ageing infrastructure downfalls as well as helping to reduce carbon emissions. So how will the magical virtual money help the fossil fuel and renewables sector in the coming years?
Texas, the home of many crypto start-ups, is seeing several new companies seek partnerships with Big Oil and state energy actors to integrate their operations into energy strategies for the next decade. The Bitcoin mining community believes that adding another electricity consumer to the already oversaturated system could help, maybe somewhat surprisingly.
Right now, the existing grid system – Electric Reliability Council of Texas, aka ERCOT, provides electricity to around 90 percent of the state of Texas. But it is temperamental as it requires a careful equilibrium between supply and demand to function well. It’s for this reason that crypto companies are suggesting that additional buyers in the system, that can take whatever amount of power is delivered to them at any time of day, will help maintain this balance.
Bitcoin miners could benefit from greater access to electricity, and the grid would benefit from the almost immediate responsiveness of the user. This is thanks to the ability of bitcoin machinery to turn on in a matter of seconds. Therefore, energy can be taken from and sent back to the grid as needed.
Senator Ted Cruz explained, “If you have a moment where you have a power shortage or a power crisis, whether it’s a freeze or some other natural disaster where power generation capacity goes down, that creates the capacity to instantaneously shift that energy to put it back on the grid.”
Innovations like these have arisen in response to dramatic failures in ageing U.S. infrastructure. Earlier this year, we saw the Texas electricity grid fail in response to a severe winter storm. At the same time, gas and water supplies were stalled, leading to significant energy shortages and, ultimately, in the loss of several lives. Although President Biden is currently pursuing a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, this will only fix some of the problems and could take years to carry out. So, alternative solutions from start-ups seem increasingly appealing when looking at the alternative.
But this is not the first intervention we have seen from crypto start-ups in the energy sector. Tech companies in Houston, a digital currency hub, are recommending the construction of huge crypto-mines to run on renewable energy. It is estimated that digital currency mining uses around 0.5% of all electricity consumed worldwide or 7 times as much as Google. Therefore, switching away from fossil fuels to renewables would mean a dramatic reduction in the carbon footprint of Bitcoin and other currencies.
Tech company, Lancium, announced plans in November to construct Bitcoin mines in Texas, worth $150 million, to run on wind and solar power. As West Texas is part of the country’s ‘wind belt’ and the state has good sun quality on average, it makes it the perfect location for this type of project. In fact, the region is expecting to double its sun and wind energy output within the next five years, encouraging greater interest in tech and energy partnerships.
Crypto-energy projects are already up and running in some parts of the country. In Wyoming, for example, the company JAI mines Bitcoin for itself and energy investors who want a piece of the action, running power mining rigs from electricity converted from gas flares. Gas that would typically be released into the atmosphere is, instead, captured and reused. The company, like many others, is now hoping to expand operations to Texas and other states.
At present, gas flaring contributes around 1 percent of global carbon emissions. As governments push for net-zero and companies strive to decarbonise their operations, a crypto-energy partnership could be just what the doctor ordered. A by-product of fracked shale, gas is flared because it is seen as unprofitable. But with increasing international pressure for Big Oil to reduce its carbon footprint, digital currency companies quickly came up with a way to reuse this gas to run their mines.
As investment figures in digital currencies are climbing, the worldwide electricity use associated with this mining system will continue to rise. Contributing a significant proportion of the world’s energy use, it seems only logical that crypto companies join forces with oil, gas, and renewables firms.
Whether running off waste gas and reducing emissions or contributing to the construction of major green energy projects, it seems that the two sectors will continue to cross paths so long as digital currencies maintain their recent appeal. However, the volatility of these types of currencies could deter energy companies from investing until their future becomes more certain.
By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
New Hampshire has the best chances for independence.
1. Constitution -- declaration is enough
2. Free State Project -- Group of libertarians got sick of constantly losing. New strategy is geographic concentration in single state.
3. Independence bill - if 60% of House agrees next step will be referendum. If 60% voters say yes independence is automatically proclaimed. Bill is currently in progress.
4. Lawmaking process -- In NH all proposed bills must go in front of House. Not certain about process, but politicians can't just say "Won't consider" (happened in Texas). In NH voting must happen.
1. Constitution -- declaration is enough
2. Free State Project -- Group of libertarians got sick of constantly losing. New strategy is geographic concentration in single state.
3. Independence bill - if 60% of House agrees next step will be referendum. If 60% voters say yes independence is automatically proclaimed. Bill is currently in progress.
4. Lawmaking process -- In NH all proposed bills must go in front of House. Not certain about process, but politicians can't just say "Won't consider" (happened in Texas). In NH voting must happen.
If baptism were always necessary for salvation, then the thief on the cross was not saved as he had no chance to be baptised. So baptism cannot itself be 100% necessary for salvation.
However, we are commanded to be baptised, and if we were to refuse to follow that first command God gives us after we choose to follow His Son, then surely we are rejecting Him as Lord as we won't even obey that? So if you have the opportunity to be baptised (which 99% of us do), and reject it, then we are rejecting salvation. So in practical terms, you need to accept baptism to be saved.
Which explains 1 Peter 3:21
"Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ"
So baptism is not strictly necessary for salvation (as someone who has no opportunity to receive it can still be saved) - but it does save you, the person who has the opportunity to be baptised and takes that opportunity.
Wonderful idea.
I like vision of 100 000 Lichensteins in USA teritority. Then we could all start living in same state, become majority and establish biblical marriage laws.
Amen. Intelligence and Knowledge are two separate things.
*(Picture of George Washington crossing the Delaware in Durham boats, but it wouldn’t post)*
245 years ago on this night.
We did not come from a fearful people with their mandates and orders designed to save people from life itself.
We came from a people who crossed an icy river to crush the enemy.
At night.
On Christmas Eve.
And won.
.
245 years ago on this night.
We did not come from a fearful people with their mandates and orders designed to save people from life itself.
We came from a people who crossed an icy river to crush the enemy.
At night.
On Christmas Eve.
And won.
.
We spent the afternoon and evening at Six Flags Over Texas amusement park yesterday. While Kristin and I were waiting outside of a particular ride with daughter Naomi, daughter Holly Hannah, son Mercer and his wife Hannah saw the following people in line and took photos, including two that for some reason no matter I save them will not upload here that demonstrate no PII, but as this was at a very public park, and they chose to dress this way, I'd say they waived any right to privacy. Anyway, the front of the man's dark blue t-shirt read, 'Husband', with 'My wives are probably looking for me,' on the back. The women's shirts were neon yellow with 'Auntie' on the back of one and 'Sister' on the front, and the other two said, 'Have you seen our husband?' on the back, with 'Wife 1' and 'Wife 2' on the fronts.
When the family emerged from the ride, I went up to the man, shook his hand, introduced myself, applauded them for their bravery, and asked them if they'd ever heard of Biblical Families. Nope, but they said they would look us up.
Very cool.
When the family emerged from the ride, I went up to the man, shook his hand, introduced myself, applauded them for their bravery, and asked them if they'd ever heard of Biblical Families. Nope, but they said they would look us up.
Very cool.
Attachments
Last edited:
Female Weightlifter Suffers Tragic Testicle Injury Just Weeks Before Tokyo Olympics
Sports
June 21st, 2021 - BelongingBaby.com
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND—100% totally female weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was forced to bid farewell to her Olympic dreams yesterday after a tragic accident left her with a severely lacerated testicle. Hubbard would have been the first transgender woman to compete in the Olympics.
The injury is not life-threatening, but doctors have advised Hubbard that she needs to refrain from heavy lifting for at least six to eight weeks as her injury heals. Obviously, that means Olympic weightlifting is off the table.
Sports
June 21st, 2021 - BelongingBaby.com
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND—100% totally female weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was forced to bid farewell to her Olympic dreams yesterday after a tragic accident left her with a severely lacerated testicle. Hubbard would have been the first transgender woman to compete in the Olympics.
The injury is not life-threatening, but doctors have advised Hubbard that she needs to refrain from heavy lifting for at least six to eight weeks as her injury heals. Obviously, that means Olympic weightlifting is off the table.
I saw the movie last night and loved it (still think it's Red Pill message is stronger than anything related to transgenderism or wokeness, but the following article does make some excellent points):
HOLLYWOOD
Blue Pills Matter
Steve Sailer
December 29, 2021
photo credit: Bigstock
There is no better demonstration of The Matrix’s concept of the blue pill that leaves its victims able to perceive only the simulacrum of reality curated by the powers-that-be than that virtually every review of the sequel The Matrix Resurrections refers to the auteurs of the 1999 science-fiction classic and its depressing follow-ups as the “Wachowski sisters.”
Even more blue-pilled, many critics have convinced themselves not just to say that frauteurs Larry and Andy Wachowski are now Lana and Lilly, Hollywood’s most famous female sci-fi directors, but to believe it.
Bluest of all, more than a few have trained themselves to have faith not only that the Wachowskis are women in 2021, but also that they—due to transcendental gender dogma’s miraculous power to alter not just the present but the past—were female in 1999, and that therefore the original Matrix was made by women. As Orwell might assert, “The Wachowski brothers have always been the Wachowski sisters.”
“Instead of now making great girl movies, all that has happened is that the Wachowskis have gotten worse at making guy movies.”
Sure, a few showbiz figures such as Dave Chappelle and J.K. Rowling dare to be publicly red-pilled. But it’s much safer for one’s career to enthusiastically ingest the blue pill and believe.
Of course, The Matrix was just about the least feminine movie since, oh, say, The Deer Hunter, another film of vaulting masculine ambition from a director, Michael Cimino, who later flirted with declaring himself a woman. Neither The Matrix nor The Deer Hunter (much less Cimino’s bankruptingly grandiose Heaven’s Gate) would have been made by somebody who always felt like a girl on the inside.
As I wrote in 2003, The Matrix perfectly captured the late-adolescent male computer nerd’s mindset:
You can’t trust anyone but your online friends. Maybe you really will save the world. Computer games are more real than what adults, who are zombies or evil mechanical brain controllers, call real life. It would be cool to have a girlfriend who is a butt-kicking videogame character and doesn’t care about dumb girl stuff.
And indeed, the Wachowskis’ boyhoods were awfully boyish. Besides being comic-book aficionados and fanatical Dungeons & Dragons players and videogamers, like so many other Chicago lads they loved Da Bulls. In 2006, these season ticket holders designed a new pregame player introduction light show for their favorite NBA team. The bros announced:
“As lifelong rabid Bulls fans, to have an opportunity to work with an organization that gave us so many fond memories we not only jumped at the chance, we asked, how high??”
While the brothers were trying to break into the movies, they supported themselves by running their own construction company.
In other words, the Wachowski brothers aren’t effeminate drag queens. Instead, they come from that small but influential high-IQ population of heterosexual ex-men who are typically motivated by their cross-dressing fetish.
On the rare occasions when some spoilsport points out that the Matrix movies, which likely contend with Black Hawk Down for most thousands of rounds of ammunition discharged, are obviously the product of a couple of hyper-male brains with the Wachowski brothers egging each other on to unprecedented heights of spergy fantasy, the response is usually: “Oh, they were just faking how masculine their imaginations are to cover up from society that they don’t fit in the gender binary.”
But no, that’s not how it works. Making memorable movies is hard, competitive work that taxes the filmmaker’s inner resources. Nobody could have faked The Matrix in 1999 if they weren’t really into it.
Nor, now that they are freed from society’s misapprehension of their true genders, have the Wachowskis since turned into the second coming of George Cukor and made insightful women’s pictures.
Instead of now making great girl movies, all that has happened is that the Wachowskis have gotten worse at making guy movies.
My perhaps too-pat explanation for the Wachowskis’ career arc is that the boys used to sublimate their fetishes into their art, but the financial success of The Matrix allowed them to live out their sordid fantasies. It’s a little like James Cameron’s more wholesome path away from making sci-fi movies: The huge amount of cash Cameron has made off Terminator 2, Titanic, and Avatar has enabled him to turn himself into his own sci-fi hero, exploring the depths of the ocean in his custom-designed submarine like Captain Nemo.
In 2001, flush with Matrix money, Larry Wachowski no longer had to merely invent characters like motorcyclist Trinity, a butt-kicking babe in skintight black leather. Instead, he could now afford a full-time dominatrix (professional name Ilsa Strix).
The next year his wife, whom he’d been with since college in 1984, filed for divorce. She had the judge freeze Larry’s half of the huge haul from the 2003 Matrix Reloaded sequel so that he couldn’t blow her upcoming settlement on Ms. Strix. In 2009, Wachowski married Ilsa, although by this point he was wearing dresses and calling himself Lana.
A few years later, Larry’s younger brother Andy followed a path similar to that of his big brother, the idea man of the pair, divorcing his wife and insisting on being called Lilly.
Smart rich guys like the Wachowskis blowing up their marriages to follow their fetishes are one thing, but ex-men not telling the truth about their motivations are another. Granted, the truth in this case is embarrassing, but it’s important. We now have a generation of naive teenage girls who have been fed countless blue pills about the coolness of transgenderism but have never even heard of the icky red-pill reason why many of these famous men announce they are women: autogynephilia.
By 2016, Andy was labeling their 1999 screenplay a giant trans allegory, although the details he gave in evidence for that were handwavingly vague. He admitted he didn’t know “how present my transness was in the background of my brain as we were writing…. But it all came from the same sort of fire that I’m talking about.” For what it’s worth, The Matrix’s venerable star, Keanu Reeves, said the Wachowskis didn’t mention to him in 1999 that their story had anything to do with transgenderism.
Larry Wachowski’s screenplay for his new Matrix Resurrections (in theaters and on HBO Max), the first sequel since 2003 and the first with only the older brother involved, is less annoying than might be expected, with less social messaging. If it’s a trans allegory, it’s not obvious.
Keanu’s Thomas Anderson is no longer a Chicago office drudge. In 2021, he’s a San Francisco game designer legendary for his Matrix videogame. But Warner Bros. is insisting upon a sequel, which inspires the marketing department to enthusiastically debate the true meaning of The Matrix. Surprisingly, the best scenes in the film are amusing satires of Silicon Valley corporate life.
But our mentally unstable hero is reluctant to revisit a game that seems all too real to him. His analyst (Neil Patrick Harris) insists upon renewing his prescription, which, unsurprisingly, comes in blue pills.
This wouldn’t be a bad setup for a small actorly movie in the manner of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker. On the other hand, you don’t hire Keanu to compete with Joaquin for the Oscar, you hire him to look soulful while dispensing extreme violence to the bad guys.
At 57, Keanu still looks good, and judging by the success of his recent John Wick action movies, he can still move. But in these fight scenes, he seems to be pulling his punches, as if his John Wick 4 contract has a clause reading, “Don’t you even think about getting yourself hurt in some Matrix sequel.”
Worse, the chaotic fight choreography in the new movie is a disappointment compared with the superb lucidity of the best set-piece battles in the first two films. In general, Resurrections lacks the visual and explicatory clarity that distinguished the original. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s not a terribly good one, either.
The plot has something to do with the undying Larry-and-Ilsa-like love affair between Neo (Keanu) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). They are now a Bill-and-Hillary-type power couple for whom no effort can be spared to make the distaff member equal in power to her mate. No longer is Neo the One: Instead, the pair are the One plus the One.
HOLLYWOOD
Blue Pills Matter
Steve Sailer
December 29, 2021
photo credit: Bigstock
There is no better demonstration of The Matrix’s concept of the blue pill that leaves its victims able to perceive only the simulacrum of reality curated by the powers-that-be than that virtually every review of the sequel The Matrix Resurrections refers to the auteurs of the 1999 science-fiction classic and its depressing follow-ups as the “Wachowski sisters.”
Even more blue-pilled, many critics have convinced themselves not just to say that frauteurs Larry and Andy Wachowski are now Lana and Lilly, Hollywood’s most famous female sci-fi directors, but to believe it.
Bluest of all, more than a few have trained themselves to have faith not only that the Wachowskis are women in 2021, but also that they—due to transcendental gender dogma’s miraculous power to alter not just the present but the past—were female in 1999, and that therefore the original Matrix was made by women. As Orwell might assert, “The Wachowski brothers have always been the Wachowski sisters.”
“Instead of now making great girl movies, all that has happened is that the Wachowskis have gotten worse at making guy movies.”
Sure, a few showbiz figures such as Dave Chappelle and J.K. Rowling dare to be publicly red-pilled. But it’s much safer for one’s career to enthusiastically ingest the blue pill and believe.
Of course, The Matrix was just about the least feminine movie since, oh, say, The Deer Hunter, another film of vaulting masculine ambition from a director, Michael Cimino, who later flirted with declaring himself a woman. Neither The Matrix nor The Deer Hunter (much less Cimino’s bankruptingly grandiose Heaven’s Gate) would have been made by somebody who always felt like a girl on the inside.
As I wrote in 2003, The Matrix perfectly captured the late-adolescent male computer nerd’s mindset:
You can’t trust anyone but your online friends. Maybe you really will save the world. Computer games are more real than what adults, who are zombies or evil mechanical brain controllers, call real life. It would be cool to have a girlfriend who is a butt-kicking videogame character and doesn’t care about dumb girl stuff.
And indeed, the Wachowskis’ boyhoods were awfully boyish. Besides being comic-book aficionados and fanatical Dungeons & Dragons players and videogamers, like so many other Chicago lads they loved Da Bulls. In 2006, these season ticket holders designed a new pregame player introduction light show for their favorite NBA team. The bros announced:
“As lifelong rabid Bulls fans, to have an opportunity to work with an organization that gave us so many fond memories we not only jumped at the chance, we asked, how high??”
While the brothers were trying to break into the movies, they supported themselves by running their own construction company.
In other words, the Wachowski brothers aren’t effeminate drag queens. Instead, they come from that small but influential high-IQ population of heterosexual ex-men who are typically motivated by their cross-dressing fetish.
On the rare occasions when some spoilsport points out that the Matrix movies, which likely contend with Black Hawk Down for most thousands of rounds of ammunition discharged, are obviously the product of a couple of hyper-male brains with the Wachowski brothers egging each other on to unprecedented heights of spergy fantasy, the response is usually: “Oh, they were just faking how masculine their imaginations are to cover up from society that they don’t fit in the gender binary.”
But no, that’s not how it works. Making memorable movies is hard, competitive work that taxes the filmmaker’s inner resources. Nobody could have faked The Matrix in 1999 if they weren’t really into it.
Nor, now that they are freed from society’s misapprehension of their true genders, have the Wachowskis since turned into the second coming of George Cukor and made insightful women’s pictures.
Instead of now making great girl movies, all that has happened is that the Wachowskis have gotten worse at making guy movies.
My perhaps too-pat explanation for the Wachowskis’ career arc is that the boys used to sublimate their fetishes into their art, but the financial success of The Matrix allowed them to live out their sordid fantasies. It’s a little like James Cameron’s more wholesome path away from making sci-fi movies: The huge amount of cash Cameron has made off Terminator 2, Titanic, and Avatar has enabled him to turn himself into his own sci-fi hero, exploring the depths of the ocean in his custom-designed submarine like Captain Nemo.
In 2001, flush with Matrix money, Larry Wachowski no longer had to merely invent characters like motorcyclist Trinity, a butt-kicking babe in skintight black leather. Instead, he could now afford a full-time dominatrix (professional name Ilsa Strix).
The next year his wife, whom he’d been with since college in 1984, filed for divorce. She had the judge freeze Larry’s half of the huge haul from the 2003 Matrix Reloaded sequel so that he couldn’t blow her upcoming settlement on Ms. Strix. In 2009, Wachowski married Ilsa, although by this point he was wearing dresses and calling himself Lana.
A few years later, Larry’s younger brother Andy followed a path similar to that of his big brother, the idea man of the pair, divorcing his wife and insisting on being called Lilly.
Smart rich guys like the Wachowskis blowing up their marriages to follow their fetishes are one thing, but ex-men not telling the truth about their motivations are another. Granted, the truth in this case is embarrassing, but it’s important. We now have a generation of naive teenage girls who have been fed countless blue pills about the coolness of transgenderism but have never even heard of the icky red-pill reason why many of these famous men announce they are women: autogynephilia.
By 2016, Andy was labeling their 1999 screenplay a giant trans allegory, although the details he gave in evidence for that were handwavingly vague. He admitted he didn’t know “how present my transness was in the background of my brain as we were writing…. But it all came from the same sort of fire that I’m talking about.” For what it’s worth, The Matrix’s venerable star, Keanu Reeves, said the Wachowskis didn’t mention to him in 1999 that their story had anything to do with transgenderism.
Larry Wachowski’s screenplay for his new Matrix Resurrections (in theaters and on HBO Max), the first sequel since 2003 and the first with only the older brother involved, is less annoying than might be expected, with less social messaging. If it’s a trans allegory, it’s not obvious.
Keanu’s Thomas Anderson is no longer a Chicago office drudge. In 2021, he’s a San Francisco game designer legendary for his Matrix videogame. But Warner Bros. is insisting upon a sequel, which inspires the marketing department to enthusiastically debate the true meaning of The Matrix. Surprisingly, the best scenes in the film are amusing satires of Silicon Valley corporate life.
But our mentally unstable hero is reluctant to revisit a game that seems all too real to him. His analyst (Neil Patrick Harris) insists upon renewing his prescription, which, unsurprisingly, comes in blue pills.
This wouldn’t be a bad setup for a small actorly movie in the manner of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker. On the other hand, you don’t hire Keanu to compete with Joaquin for the Oscar, you hire him to look soulful while dispensing extreme violence to the bad guys.
At 57, Keanu still looks good, and judging by the success of his recent John Wick action movies, he can still move. But in these fight scenes, he seems to be pulling his punches, as if his John Wick 4 contract has a clause reading, “Don’t you even think about getting yourself hurt in some Matrix sequel.”
Worse, the chaotic fight choreography in the new movie is a disappointment compared with the superb lucidity of the best set-piece battles in the first two films. In general, Resurrections lacks the visual and explicatory clarity that distinguished the original. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s not a terribly good one, either.
The plot has something to do with the undying Larry-and-Ilsa-like love affair between Neo (Keanu) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). They are now a Bill-and-Hillary-type power couple for whom no effort can be spared to make the distaff member equal in power to her mate. No longer is Neo the One: Instead, the pair are the One plus the One.