I'd hold off a few more years, but I tend to be cautious. (TINY SPOILER) The main character abuses his power, even acquiring a mistress who worships his godlike power. Nothing is explicit but watching the power corrupt this barely-adult young man is uncomfortable.

Yes! My wife has no desire to watch anime, but I talked her into checking out Death Note and we both found it spellbinding. It was a fortuitous choice on my part, and I think that's the one I'd recommend to any newcomer.

More "political discourse" in our sex scenes? Oh, yeah, thaaaaat will fix everything!

(Oh, and nice projection of the modern left's prima donnas onto the opera stage. Artifice, a disconnect from reality, and vanity: yep, we've seen it all before. But who is the Papageno? Biden, I suppose.)

Funny you should post this, Jim. I sat down just tonight and played something by Mozart that I learned in high school and have only revisited a few times in my adulthood. I noticed my ability to appreciate Mozart has grown with maturity. His facility with deceptively simple melodies is unparalleled. Mozart is music's most grace-filled composer (Amadeus, indeed!).

But.

Mozart was contaminated with the imbalance of his time (as was Haydn and early Beethoven): a cloying preciousness, and a void where the masculinity ought to be. I find the music of that period, with a few exceptions, disgusting.

Among the Baroque musicians, Bach is the more authoritative composer (indeed, he is music's one-man magisterium) but Handel is the more comprehensive artist, entertainer, entrepreneur, and man. His command of counterpoint is almost the equal of Bach's, but rather than an obsessive component, it is but one tool in his box. He deploys it lightly. He is the master manipulator, toying with our emotions even while engaging our intellect and even amusing us on a shallow level. He is to music what Highland Park 12-year is to single malt scotch: the best all-arounder.

And finally, isn't anyone here going to celebrate the fact that a very progressive government has fallen flat on its face and is hated by the voters? And that the alternative is a real alternative?

Okay, thanks Stephen. That's more clear.

The other thing to keep in mind was that I was joking about "fleeing" which was meant to conjure a vision of panic and disaster that is very unlikely. I expect they'll destroy our country drip by drip, not by tsunami.

Stephen, you described a land of high taxes and statism. Australia scores above average, but not great, in Limited Government according to the Index (which relates to your statement about high taxes) and scores very high in Regulatory Freedom and Open Markets, which I understand to contradict your claim about statism, i.e., "the principle or policy of concentrating extensive economic, political, and related controls in the state at the cost of individual liberty" (Dictionary.com). Do you mean statism another way?

Ultimately, every statement of value needs to be in the context of a "compared to what?" question. If Australia is a particularly bad destination to flee to, where would you go? The Asteroid Belt?

Okay. . .but can you reconcile that with Australia's third-place ranking in the 2013 Index of Economic Freedom?

We dare not let this topic end without somebody linking to the notorious case of History's Greatest Monster, John Nestor.

Higher limits and the right to deploy RPGs against anyone in the left lane blocking those who want to pass. Now that's an agenda I can get behind.

Or, not, wait, I don't want to get stuck behind anything. . . okay, now I'm confused . . . .

"Parchment lasts longer" -- ? As Choi En Lai said of the French Revolution, it's too soon to tell.

I question this premise: were there really any people praising Avatar as being great, outside of its creator? It was popular, yes, but "rated" implies critics and comments more than box office. That's why I agree  it wasn't "overrated."

I'm tempted to agree that the earlier Solyaris was bad, with its unwatchable 20-minute sequence of a car driving on a freeway (yes, really, that's what it is: a car. Driving. On a freeway) but to be fair, it was filmed in a country (the USSR) with few paved roads outside the capitol so a freeway probably seemed really cool and futuristic to its intended audience. But....

I think I'd have to put my money down on 2001: A Space Oddesey, which would be a great film if only Kubrick had cut 1 hour of fat out of it. Oh, and given it a comprehensible ending. (Even so, I agree it's a fascinating, must-see film, although deeply flawed.)

Now I'm imagining you with a magn growing out of your chest and a mind-reading breve on your forehead like those people in Voyage to Arcturus.

Pope is a verb.