Matt Taibbi – HATE INC. - Review

Back in early 2018, at the beginning of the Trump administration, I published a piece on my BLOG titled: “The Purveyors of Propaganda and Divisiveness – Maddow vs. Hannity – two sides of the same Coin?” ( https://sychronicity1.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-purveyors-of-propaganda-and.html .

Interestingly, in just over 500 words, I manage to touch a few of the same themes in Taibi's HATE INC. And that is, generally, news has become a contact sport, “silo'ed” into only two binary clubs. Never offering any real news as such, but speculation, trauma-laden “breaking news” troupes, designed to keep us riveted as consumers, without reporting anything of real value, in terms of our day to day lives.

This cable news phenomenon, first designed by FOX magnate, and sexual predator, Roger Ailes, narrowed the demographic to a very distinct group: white men over 50, conservative, and fearful of any new progressive idea. MSNBC soon caught onto this winning formula of entertainment masking as real journalism, focusing on a uninformed liberal audience, gone feral over the Trump presidency, and hammered conspiracy theory after tall tale about Trump being a traitor and Russian puppet, doing Putin's every bidding. This “Left” leaning target market, these seething Trump haters gobbled these fairy tales up in mouthfuls, pushing Rachel Maddow's ratings through the roof. Making millions for the network, and leaving a wake of un-thinking-Trump hating-conspiracy theorists, that now, even since the Mueller Report revealed otherwise, has remained in the minds of many, who continue to spout Russian nonsense.

Taibbi recalls the neocon push for the Iraqi war, when the NYT's and other mainstream news outlets, rattled the sword for a full-blown invasion. He goes into specifics, how the establishment hacks of MSM, never investigated, but merely acted as stenographers for the military industrial complex. And most of us know how this turned out.

MSM, Taibbi argues, 'You'll find virtually every story checks certain boxes”. (p.41) In chapter 2, “The Ten Rules of Hate”, he lists these rules with a short definition with persuasive examples. As follows:

1. There are only two ideas.
2. The two ideas are in permanent conflict.
3. Hate people not institutions.
4. Everything is someone else's fault.
5. Nothing is everyone's fault.
6. Root, don't think.
7. No switching teams.
8. The other side is literally Hitler.
9. In the fight against Hitler, everything is permitted.
10. Feel superior.

Reading through this list, after three years of watching cable news, I believe you get the idea. The notion here is to instigate a sports fan mindset, my team is absolutely correct, and the other is absolutely wrong. In this limited game of politics, there is no room for nuance, there is no room for thinking outside the box. MSM has moulded us into intellectual imps, waving only blue or red flags, spitting at each other, as we pass each other in the hall. Even more disturbing, any attempt at a bi-partisan idea for, let's say, no more regime change wars, each side would be screaming from their respective silos, that we are all Russian bots or socialist-loving wet blankets – Assadists, Putin puppets or traitors to American exceptionalism. Most of us on social media, for example, has experienced the *hate* first hand.

MSM has turned the news into a contact sport, using superficial, anti-intellectual stances, pushing us into just two camps.

Taibbi writes:

“A political party may be preferable to another. A news channel, though, can't be a vehicle for a political party and be anything but a bad thing.” (p. 272)

At the end of Hate INC., in Appendix 2: An Interview with Noam Chomsky, Taibbi asks Chomsky about his famous text “Manufacturing Consent”, and its relevance to today's toxic binary media. I found this section of the book to be insightful on many levels. A good interview indeed.

For a greater understanding of today's corporate media, it's biases and all-to-easy slip into pure marketing as opposed to real journalism, you would be egregiously remiss, not to crack the covers of, HATE INC.

Edward Rice: Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Life – Review

This is by far one of the best biographies I've read in recent times. Not only is the subject matter astonishing, capturing the life of one of the most exciting figures of the 19th century, the author focuses on the man's profuse writings, thankfully leaving out the once fashionable psychoanalytic approach of interpretation when writing biography. This is the third life history I've read on Richard Burton, and it's certainly the finest written and the most thorough.

Those of you, who are not familiar with R.F. Burton, are in for a thrilling reading experience. This man, probably more so than Lord Byron himself, is the archetypal Byronic figure of the age: a linguist, (29 languages and numerous dialects), scholar of eastern literature and religion, particularly the mystical arm of Islam, Sufi; a practising mystic; explorer of Africa (co-discoverer of the source of the Nile); a secret agent working for her majesty during England's acquisition of India's wealth, known to historians as 'The Great Game'. He was also one of the first white men, who made the Pilgrimage to Mecca, and as Rice argues, Burton was and continued to be a practising Muslim, therefore his pilgrimage was deeply religious as well as a journey of danger and adventure. Burton was dashing, an expert swordsman and horseman, and a prolific writer, poet and translator who rank as one of the best of his time.

Burton is known to most as one of the scholars who brought 'The Arabian Nights' to the West...he heard a lot of the tales through the Persian oral tradition; memorised them in their original language, and sat around many a camp fire in the desert, re-telling these wonderful stories to anyone who would listen. Burton was a storyteller in the truest sense. But 'The Arabian Nights' only scratches the surface of his many translations from eastern literature - 'The Kama Sutra of Vatsyaya' and 'The Perfumed Garden' of the Cheikh Nefzaoui: A Manual of Arabian Erotology', to name an infamous few...

What impressed me most about Burton was his alarming intellectual curiosity, his exhaustive industry as a recorder of foreign cultures. While other 'gentleman' of his time would rather murder the wildlife to take back to their drawing rooms, to then hang on their walls, Burton preferred to sketch and write about the places and people he came across in his travels to then share with the rest of us.

Burton was an incessant scribbler. The man's thirst for life was daunting and this magnetic soul ensured he did not waste a minute of it...

Edward Rice's ~Captain Sir Richard Frances Burton~ is the definitive biography.

Michael Bliss - Harvey Cushing: A life in Surgery - Review.

It is a strange mystery why a man of such accomplishments and medical innovation in the history of neurosurgery, the American pioneer in fact, is not more well known in popular culture.

Dr. Harvey Cushing has to be one of the most fascinating, complex and astounding medical personalities in the last century.

He became the first of American medical men to be an international leader in this special field. Harvey was part of a long line of medical men, his great grandfather, grandfather and father were all competent physicians.

A Yale graduate, later attending Harvard Medical and working at John Hopkins, he paved the way, as he called "The Northwest Passage", in the area of brain tumour surgery, his OR innovations, insistence on sterile working conditions, the use of clips to prevent excessive bleeding and the diagnosis of brain tumours, were all devised and applied by him, having operated on over 2000 patients with brain tumour related illnesses during his long career.

This man takes the term "workaholic" and takes it to an entirely new level. A tireless researcher, recorder, bibliophile, surgeon and prolific writer, his drive and obsession for work and life, set the precedent for future surgeons. A truly remarkable individual.

Michael Bliss, however, is a competent biographer, revealing Cushing's genius as well as his many faults. Cushing was an irascible perfectionist with zero tolerance for any incompetence in the OR. His arrogance and caustic tongue became the stuff of legend; interestingly, as Bliss implies, his personality has become almost a stereotype for the brilliant surgeon, egotistic, sarcastic with no patience for mistakes while in surgery. He was a difficult man to work with and for, however, his care for his patients took priority over all other actions.

Ambitious and single-minded with an insatiable appetite for knowledge, Cushing pioneered brain surgery, writing volumes of medical articles and essays, countless lectures, and even a Pulitzer Prize winning two-volume biography on his mentor and world renowned physician, William Osler.

There are numerous anecdotes in this fine biography, but the one that really stands out is Cushing's first experience with a patient who dies in front of his eyes.

A young student at Harvard, he managed to get invited to assist with `etherizing' patients for surgery. Weeks pass and everything is moving along fine until one evening he administers the ether to a young woman under-going an operation for a strangulated hernia, whose chances for survival are next to nil.

The patient dies before the operation commences minutes after Cushing etherizes her. This of course devastated the young medical student, who walked the streets of Boston deciding to quit the profession. When he returned and told his teacher of his intent, he berated the boy, calling him "a damned fool" and to "buck-up", for they had work to do. He continued on, of course, but remembered this incident over thirty years later.

As any good critical biography should be, it is written with erudition, (explaining medical terms and procedures for the laymen) as well as presenting as a riveting narrative- this is an entertaining and inspiring work of an astonishing individual in American medical history.

Comment: Clinton Calls Gabbard a Russian Asset

Yesterday, social media ran hot for many hours over Hillary Clinton's accusations, that the 2 time decorated Iraq vet, 7 year member of congress and presidential 2020 democratic candidate, was being “groomed” by Russia and is an “asset” of the Kremlin. Despite the Hawaiian congresswoman running at only 1% in the polls, both sides of the political spectrum came to her defence, deriding Clinton as a conspiracy theorist, proposing treasonous accusations without a shred of evidence. One of my favourite “tweets” came from the award wining journalist, Glenn Greenwald:

“But whatever else is true, there should be no place in US politics or US discourse for voicing accusations against people with no evidence. And the graver the accusation is (treason, Kremlin asset), the more contemptible it is to do it without evidence. “

The response did not stop there, CNN's Van Jones, the network's only “left” commentator, said, “Hillary Clinton is playing a very dangerous game.” He went onto say, like most journalist's during the twitter storm, that to make accusations like this without evidence hurts the entire nation. Indeed, this did not prevent the Neo- Liberal hacks and establishment tools to join in on the conspiracy; repeating Clinton's accusations like the CIA tools they truly are. Where does this Russia smearing come from?

One would have to be hiding in a cave over the last 3 years not to be aware of *Russiagate*. The DNC and the IC began their accusations against Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign, immediately after Trump's win, to have colluded with Russia in order to win the election. One could not turn on MSNBC without watching Rachel Maddow spewing false theory after theory, how the Russian's are in every facet of American life. These Neo-McCarthy rantings bombarded the planet like we have never seen since the 1950's when so many lives were destroyed as a result of McCarthy's trials. This unrelenting propaganda, we thought, was put to rest after the Mueller report came out. A reminder, Mueller found 0 evidence of Trump collusion with Russia, period. Social media settled down about Russia, (I was called a Russian asset) and the MSM seemed to accept the findings, and never apologised for their baseless lies to the people. It simply disappeared from the 24 hour news cycle. After Clinton's insane accusations against Congresswoman Gabbard, we can see this conspiracy is far from dead.

After 3 years of unyielding propaganda from the DNC and the MSM, it would certainly be surprising to me, (knowing how propaganda works) that these seeds of disinformation has entirely left the minds of ordinary citizens.

I believe Russiagate was intentional and has a two-pronged purpose: One, to distract us from the Neo-liberal policies of Trump. That is, passing the tax law giving billions of tax breaks to the rich at the expense of the 99%. Pushing America's direct and proxy wars over seas. DE-regulating the EPA, permitting more fracking and destruction of the environment. And two, creating a new enemy for the US in the face of Russia. Remember most republican and democrat serving reps in the senate and the House, are financed by the weapon manufactures. War is big business. Now that the War on Terror has subsided, the empire requires a new enemy. Russia.

Russiagate is a political and social scam created by the elites, pushed by the IC, and propagated by the MSM. Tulsi Gabbard's platform is to stop America's regime change wars. And the US warmonger establishment, simply will not tolerate any opposition to their lucrative wars.

Andrew Nicole - Good Kill - Review

This film is a scathing and quite disturbing look into the world of Drone Warfare.

Director and writer, Andrew Nicoll, (Gattaca) (S1m0ne) who also penned the screenplay “The Truman Show”, takes us into the mind of Major Thomas Egan, (Ethan Hawke) an Air Force officer stationed in Las Vegas, Nevada. A former F16 Falcon pilot, currently assigned to “fly” the armed MQ-9 Reaper, a drone that patrols over mainly Afghanistan, destroying suspected terrorist cells, suspicious vehicles, and in some cases, innocent women and children.

Major Egan is an experienced solider, several tours of duty, performing face to face battles in the air, and currently grounded to a little tin trailer in the dessert, sitting in what appears to be a flight simulator, though actually is an elaborate X-Box, pressing a button and killing human beings thousands of miles away.

In fact, drone technology is taken directly from the designs of the X-Box, and many new recruits have been poached from the gaming world – teenagers adept at games like Doom or Ace Combat, having never physically left their respective bedrooms, now murdering “real terrorists” as opposed to the pixel, virtual variety.

After viewing this film, my first thought, aside from a feeling of disgust, was the title should be “Easy Kill” rather than “Good Kill”.

The narrative gains momentum when the CIA steps in ordering dubious targets to be destroyed, “off the record”. Military standard practice for legal reasons and otherwise, is all missions must be recorded for review. Major Egan and his crew have now become “Black Operatives”, engaging in questionable missions, “illegal” missions, and it is here that things begin to fall apart.

“Good Kill” raises several issues on the War on Terror. These issues will not be addressed here, suffice to say, however, my criticism's has always been directed at military imperialism and the murder of innocence in war, on both sides. The latter is addressed poignantly in the film.

For those interested in Drone Warfare, its technology and practice, “Good Kill” is recommended. That said, the film's ending is most certainly worth the price of admission.

Joan Didion – South and West – Review

In 1970, Joan and her husband, John Dunne, set on a trip to America's deep south. This text is a collection of her ”notes” on that trip, with the intent of writing a piece for some publication, that in the end, never eventuated. The last section of the book, are a collection of observations and reflections about her native state of California. Again, intending to write a piece for Rolling Stone magazine about the Patty Hearst kidnapping and trial, this article too, was never written. What we do have are deep insights into America's past, its iconoclasts, arcane attitudes, and people seemingly lost in a 19^th century anomaly of time, a place where the Civil War is in the not-so distant past, where the rest of us know it as some “war” about “emancipation”, some 200 odd years ago.

Since the presidential abnormalcy of Trump 2016, these arcane attitudes, these blatant racist, and feudal mind-sets of many people in the South, once frozen in amber, have now come to life, revealing white supremacy and blatant racism straight into the main stream discourse, like the Raptors of Jurassic Park. It's not as if this antiquated mind-set was not prevalent before Trump, the ice simply melted, and the beast awoke, revealing their Confederate flags and Tiki torches, straight into our living rooms on the 6:00 News.

What struck me in Didion's elegant prose, is the feeling of desolation, poverty and oppressive heat, imprisoning the people throughout the “off the main road South”, where community is based on strict religious values and the second religion, the opiate of the south, Sports. To be fair, there is nothing wrong with a strict religious faith, and the worship of sports, as a way for a community to find common ground. However, what remains there, at least in 1970, (which, I believe, continues in 2019) are the same medieval construct of the 19^th century. White-God-fearing-people are at the top, while the black, brown and poor exist somewhere below. For certain, there was a subtext in a few conversations that Didion had with generational land owners, and that was a reminiscent longing for the 18 and 19^th century slave owner days – the system worked better then, and everyone knew their place.

Despite the inescapable heat and back-looking values in certain areas of the Deep South, Didion manages to capture its other-worldly beauty: Kudzu, a vine the covers everything, and various colourful flowers that grow naturally throughout the land. Apart from the land, in Didion's notes, I found the basic people in these small communities: innocently American, a people that strive for the better aspects of life, though never really wanting to know anything outside their particular province.

In the last 13 pages of the book, we read Didion's notes about her native State of California. On assignment for Rolling Stone magazine, to cover the Patty Hearst story - her notes arise as a reflection of her own childhood, a connection to Hearst, and a connection she really did not want to explore at that time in her life. Although Joan Didion is a genius literary mind, the woman also writes from her heart. I believe during that period in her life, she refused to”go there”, moving on to other projects.

I read this work in one afternoon. There is no doubt that I'll read it again. Didion does a service to her readers, and that is representing the voice of pure observation of a journalist, and the pounding heart of reality, with a subtext of the romantic.

Edward Snowden – Permanent Record – Review

It was only a matter of time before Edward Snowden would publish his account of 2013, when, after several months of agonising soul searching, his inward battle of Right and Wrong, though an American patriot in the fullest sense of this term, decided to whistle-blow about the unconstitutional crimes of his employers, the United States government.

This work is certainly personal. Indeed, not so much a justification for his actions, but a narrative about our once free internet, that since 9/11, has become Orwell's Big Brother, infiltrating all of our lives, listening and watching our private behaviours, all in the name of “National Security”; only to find this pornographic intrusion by the government wasn't about protecting innocent lives, but to acquire information on the people, in order to control us; it's about money and power, and that's what many people seem to miss. Snowden is not a traitor but a patriot for the people, revealing a corrupt and nasty government.

Like most memoirs, it begins with the subjects family heritage, moving towards family and his upbringing as a child. We read that Snowden was really of a new generation, a tech generation, that has changed all our lives. Ed's father worked for the military as an engineer, and would bring home the latest gadgets, and little Ed was smitten with the whys of the technology. In a word, he became a tech- geek like so many others his age had in developed countries during this time in history. After 9/11, this gave him an edge. Like many of us, after 9/11, he wanted to serve his country to combat the enemy. After an unlucky stint in the army, breaking a leg, he was discharged .Because of his interest and self taught know how of the computer, he moved through the ranks of the IC (Intelligence Community) and he writes about those experiences as a man on a mission for his country, only to find later, working for the CIA, he was a tech-spook (my term), finding those people deemed the enemy, weaknesses, faults or black-mailing actions to to turn them into CIA assets. To be sure, this was not Snowden's cup of tea. Snowden is a tech man.

Rather than summarise this well-written memoir, let me get to the point of why Ed Snowden decided to throw away a promising career, family and home, in order to expose the crimes of his government.

Let me quote from the last chapter, that truly encapsulates why Snowden whistle-blowed on the crimes of his country:

If at any point during your journey through this book you paused for a moment over a term you wanted to clarify or investigate further and typed it into a search engine – and if that term happened to be in some way suspicious, a term like ZKEYSCORE, for example – congrats: you're in the system, a victim of your own curiosity.

During this time, the NSA and the UK had the capability to enter your device, laptop, Phone, etc, track your movement, and by way of ZKEYSCORE, view and listen to your personal life in the most intimate ways. If by chance the algorithm indicates you might be a threat: Your entire life is on audio and video, capturing your every action, keystroke, photo-taken, phone call, most intimate connections – everything. And this information is stored in a cloud for evermore. Truly, forever. And can be used against you at any time.

If you do not care about this intrusion by our governments, than you must be part of the plan, or simply stupid, not understanding a citizens freedom, liberty and privacy Rights as a individual living in a :democracy.

Of course in 2013, this information turned into Right wing talking points. The Military Industrial Complex went into panic mode. “Snowden is a traitor.” “Snowden has put our soldiers in harms way.” Even Obama stated, Snowden should have followed proper lines. Rubbish! Because of the antiquated Espionage Act, used wrongly to prosecute whistle blowers, is a one way ticked to Maxim Security. In fact Snowden attempted to go on proper lines and was told he was crazy to attempt whistle-blowing on his superiors. Never a good career move, indeed.

Snowden lists some of the changes in legislation regarding massive surveillance on Americans and people around the world. To my way of thinking, writing this review in 2019, I believe nothing has changed. Our governments are rogue, including the corporations that bribe them. I believe these invasive and pornographic infiltration of our lives continues. These people, IC, government and corporate media have quashed it. Pulling our attention to pulp scandals and Trump's big mouth.

We can encrypt our lives against Big Brother. After reading Ed Snowden's book, I know we can. But the technology, like all issues in the realm of ethics, has surpassed our time to pull back, and analyse, debate and finally decide, as a people, what is the good for all of us.

Ira Levin - A Kiss before Dying - Review

This is Levin’s first novel, published at the age of only 23, comparably a child when held up to the emotional maturity of most males of the same age today. Otto Penzler, the writer of the novel’s introduction, calls the work genius, naming such luminaries as Shelly and Mozart who too, revealed uncanny ability at such a young age. Unlike Shelly and Mozart, these men and women did not live much past the age of 30, whereas Levin lived on to write more novels, screenplays and write for publications and later television.

Those that have studied the genre of the *thriller* or the so-called “detective” story understand that some, if not all, follow a particular structure, an artifice of revealing only so much information at a time, enticing the reader to then reveal all, and twisting the narrative, and in some cases twisting the plot again at the tales ends. For many, including myself, this is the genre’s attraction and general world-wide popularity.

The antagonist mentioned in the first paragraph of the novel is clever, tall, speaks well and attracts the opposite sex like a rock star. We learn about his youth at elementary school. Because his mother adores her little boy, over dresses him, and therefore he becomes a target of the school bully. The calculated method in which he handles his play ground persecution is the reader’s first real clue as to what type of person the main character truly is – yes, smart, though with a streak of cruelty.

After a stint in the Army during WW2, our antagonist is stationed in the pacific fighting the Japanese. Separated from his Unit, he is confronted by a single enemy solider, both as frightened as the other. He makes his first kill, described in emotional and graphic detail. Here is another clue into his personality.

As a reader of the thriller for many years, perhaps like most, attempt to guess the twist in the story. To be fair, at least 70% of the time my guess is correct; not so with this novel. The reader will never see it coming, forcing you to scan the previous pages for the clue. Once you find it, honestly, like me, you’ll feel duped – in a good way.

Moreover, add this to the fact that it was the author's first novel, written at the age of 23, only makes it that much more special. 

Ira Levin had an uncanny insight into the latent psychopath.

A wonderful novel. 

Gary Webb - Kill the Messenger - Review

Prize winning journalist, Gary Webb, (Jeremy Renner) falls into a story of absolute corruption, reaching as far as the inner halls of the White House, involving Nicaraguan drug kings, agency spooks, following and ending in the cocaine drenched streets of LA Central. This is the story of the alleged CIA involvement in smuggling tons of the cocaine into the United States. The cocaine is sold on the streets in major cities across the nation, and the profits used to buy weapons for the Contra-rebel soldiers in Nicaragua in their attempt to bring down the Sandinista left-wing government.

What is most disturbing about this recent period in history, is the Nixon and Reagan Administration's formal declaration on their War on Drugs, when it turns out, that, they are allegedly the prime suppliers of the drugs, creating a nation-wide Crack Cocaine epidemic that continues to this day. If true, the hypocrisy transcends all rational thought, a trust in the government, and a deep psychopathy that knows no bounds.

“Kill the Messenger” is a true “David and Goliath” tale, however, in this sad case, David loses the battle and expires, while the giant walks free, and able to continue his covert criminal activities.

This story continues to be controversial. It did not make big “news” at the time because Bill Clinton was under investigation for his sexual escapades in the Oval office. Beginning with the Reagan Administration, it has been formally acknowledged that monies from cocaine smuggling helped fund the Contra rebels, however, it was not authorised by the U.S. Government. This begs the question: Who authorised it, then?

In an internal CIA investigation, agents were found to have worked with drug traffickers to support the Contra program. In the same breath, the report found no evidence of a conspiracy of the CIA to purchase drugs and bring them into the U.S. To be certain, this is your standard “double-speak”, designed to confuse, and deny responsibility.

Gary Webb experienced character assassination as a result of his published stories. The most blatant and criticised came from the LA Times. Rather than attack Webb's work, they attacked the man.

Gary Webb committed suicide in 2008 from two gunshot wounds. The fact that he died from two gun shot wounds is highly unusual. Conspiracy theories suggest he was killed for his expose' of government corruption. The coroners report on Webb's death stands – suicide.

This is an excellent film, shedding light on the corruption of government, the rogue nature of the CIA, and dubious media institutions ready to defend power with transparent bias...

Ira Levin -The Stepford Wives - Review

It is said that a predominate adolescent male fantasy is a large-breasted, sexually compliant haus frau, maintaining a spotless home, an efficient mother, and has the non-combative demeanour of a saint. This fantasy exceeds the imaginings of the post-pubescent, lingering unconsciously or otherwise in the mind-set of middle aged men across the world. In Levin's novella, this wish becomes fulfilment, where groin and brain unite in the creation of the “perfect woman”.

Upon the novella's publication in 1972, the height of the feminist movement, critics believed its focus was the “oppressed woman”, as mere concubine and maid. On closer examination, the book is satirizing the advertising industry, and their manufactured image of the “ideal” housewife or woman, ensuring immaculate, and clean households consuming the products they sell. Even today we can view two home-makers arguing the features and benefits of one toilet bowl cleaner over another. And these women are portrayed as super-housewives, juggling several duties, including child rearing, while driving a Toyota Land Cruiser, and all looking damn beautiful in the process.

Levin's second satirical focus is on the Stepford husbands. Now these thirty to forty something suburban males are hilarious to the point of absurdity. All Stepford husbands belong to the town's “men's association”, a no-girls allowed, cubby house type set-up, to discuss and plan all things “male”. One is reminded of neighbourhood gatherings, barbecues, where the women are grouped together on one side of the yard and the men on the other, only talking amongst each other like clueless boys.

Indeed, The Stepford wives is a direct hit on the media/advertising generated images of consumerist based societies, relentlessly flogging normative middle-class values in what constitutes a perfect world, in their dogged pursuit of the bottom line.

The town of Stepford is decorated in Colonial shop fronts, manicured lawns and white picket fences, maintained by big-breasted, robotic house wives, living the dream, and pushing the benefits of the latest dish washing liquid, docile, sexy and happy.