Film review: National Bird (2016)

[Note: You can stream the film for free until May 15.]

The documentary National Bird directed by Sonia Kennebeck and released by Independent Lens looks at the US drone warfare program from the point of view of three former US Air Force (Heather, Daniel, and Lisa) whose jobs were to identify targets seen in the drone videos, and from the survivors of the infamous attack on February 21, 2010 on a convoy carrying a group of families that resulted in the deaths of 23 people, all civilians, and caused serious injuries to many others. All three of them have since left the Air Force. They all suffer from guilt at what they were part of, with Heather being suicidal and diagnosed with PTSD. Daniel is under threat of charges under the draconian Espionage Act and all three fear that the government will take severe action against them as it has with other whistleblowers.
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Cartoons on religion

Today’s newspaper had not one but two cartoons disparaging religion. The first one touches on a topic that I often raise when I have been invited to be on panels that include representatives from many religions. In such forums, those representatives go strongly into the kumbaya mode, vaguely suggesting that they all believe in the same god and focusing on common elements of morality and ethics that they happen to agree on. Boring!
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The US’s love affair with cruel despots

The chattering classes are all of a doo-dah and reaching for their smelling salts. The reason? Donald Trump’s friendliness with leaders like Egypt’s el Sisi, Turkey’s Erdogan, and the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, inviting them to the US for state visits despite their appalling human rights records. But, as usual, this is being portrayed as exceptional behavior, rather than a continuation of long-standing US policy to support and coddle the worst leaders as long as they serve US interests.
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Going a bit too far?

Pretty much everyone has some relative that they find embarrassing for some reason and on the occasion of getting married may prefer that one’s friends and in-laws not meet them because of the awkwardness that might ensue. The problem that arises during weddings, especially in traditional societies, is that one is obliged to invite relatives and also have less control of who will meet whom.
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Adults behaving badly

At baseball games, spectators seem to be obsessed about catching balls that are hit into the stands or are thrown there by fielders, even to the extent of adults grabbing them away from children. I don’t get it. Why is the appeal of catching a baseball so great that you would deny a child that pleasure? Maybe it’s my background in cricket where the same ball must be used and people in the crowd who catch the ball throw it back onto the field. It would be unthinkable for someone to hold on to the ball.
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The corrosive effect of Darwin

In his 1995 book Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, Daniel C. Dennett invoked a metaphor that I have found quite helpful. He said that the idea of evolution by natural selection is like a ‘universal acid’, something that cannot be contained in any vessel because it eats through everything. It is so potent and corrosive that once created it cannot be contained or restricted in any way but breaks through all barriers until it reaches into every space. Once you accept the theory of evolution by natural selection as applying in any area of life, there is no way to prevent it being used to explain every aspect of life.
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Maybe a wall could have prevented the Civil War

One of the episodes of the radio show This American Life presented the sense of mortification one feels when one says something in the presence of others that reveals that you are suffering under a huge misconception that no one else shares. The broadcast featured such things as thinking that the ‘Nielsen family’ ratings for TV viewership were obtained by only asking families that were named Nielsen or that unicorns really existed.
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