Voici la troisième saison des Borgias, diffusée sur Showtime.
Le pape Alexander charge le Cardinal Sforza d’une inquisition auprès des cardinaux qui complotent contre lui. Avec les preuves récoltées, Alexander bannit tous les cardinaux en qui il n’a pas confiance.
Pendant ce temps, Catherina Sforza ordonne à Rufio de trouver le soutien de mercenaires appartenant aux familles romagnes.
Lucrezia est embêtée par ses futurs beaux-parents et sa situation empire lorsqu’elle réalise que ses sentiments pour Cesare deviennent plus que fraternels…
La saison est sous-titrée “hell bent”… cela promet!
J’ai regardé le premier épisode de la série The Newsroom, actuellement diffusée sur HBO, et – sans avoir réellement accroché aux personnages ou à l’histoire – j’ai tout de même bien apprécié ce petit moment :
La vidéo est constamment retirée de YouTube et ne peut être intégrée sur des sites tiers donc en voici une version kinétique :
What Makes America The Greatest Country In The World
[Jenny] Hi, my name is Jenny, I’m a sophomore and this for all three of you. Can you say in one sentence or less – what – (laughing in background) you know what I mean: “Can you say why America is the greatest country in the world?”
[Emily Kathleen A. Mortimer – As Sharon] Diversity and opportunity.
[Debate Moderator] Louis?
[Louis] Ah freedom and freedom, so let’s keep it that way.
[Debate Moderator] Will?
[Jeffrey Warren “Jeff” Daniels As Will] The New York Jets.
[audience laughs]
[Debate Moderator] No, I’m gonna hold you to an answer on that. What makes America the greatest country in the world?
[Jeff Daniels] Well, Louis and Sharon said it. Diversity and opportunity and freedom and freedom.
(audience member holds notebook) IT’S NOT. BUT IT CAN BE.
[Debate Moderator] I’m not letting you go back to the airport without answering the question.
[Will] Well, our Constitution is a masterpiece. James Madison was a genius. The Declaration of Independence is for me the single greatest piece of American writing.
[Will] You don’t look satisfied.
[Debate Moderator] One’s a set of laws and the other is a declaration of war. I want a human moment from you.
IT’S NOT
[Debate Moderator] What about the people? Why is it?
[Will] It’s NOT the greatest country in the world, Professor. That’s my answer.
[Debate Moderator] You’re saying?
[Will] Yes.
[Debate Moderator] Let’s talk about…
[Will (Speaking to Sharon] Fine. Sharon, the NEA is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny out of our paycheck, but he gets to hit you with it anytime he wants. It doesn’t cost money. It costs votes. It costs airtime. And column inches. You know why people don’t like liberals? Because they lose. If liberals are so fuckin’ smart then how come they lose so goddamn always?
[Sharon] Hey!
[Will (to Lewis] And with a straight face, you’re gonna sit there and tell students that America is so star-spangled awesome that we’re the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom. Japan has freedom. The U.K. France. Italy. Germany. Spain. Australia. BELGIUM has freedom. (laughs) Two hundred and seven sovereign states in the world, like, a hundred and eighty of them have freedom.
[Debate Moderator] All right…
[Will] And you, Sorority Girl, just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there’s some things you should know. One of them is there’s absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world.
We’re seventh in literacy. Twenty-seventh in math. Twenty-second in science. Forty-ninth in life expectancy. A hundred and seventy-eighth in infant mortality. Third in median household income. Number four in labor force and number four in exports.
We lead the world in only three categories: Number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies.
Now none of this is the fault of a twenty-year-old college student, but you nonetheless are without a doubt a member of the worst, period, generation, period, ever, period. So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I dunno what the fuck you’re talkin’ about. Yosemite?
(Audience surprised.)
[Will] Sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws, for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed. We cared about our neighbors. We put our money where our mouths were. And we never beat our chest.
We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy.
[pause]
We reached for the stars. Acted like men.
We aspired to intelligence. We didn’t belittle it—it didn’t make us feel inferior.
We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn’t, oh, we didn’t scare so easy. Ha. We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men. Men who were revered. First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.
[pause]
Enough?
Petite précision pour la sorority girl : America is not a country, the USA is.
Voici la seconde saison des Borgias, diffusée sur Showtime.
Le Pape Alexander VI prend une nouvelle maîtresse et organise une gigantesque fête païenne pour les citoyens de Rome lorsqu’une cache pleine d’anciens artefacts est découverte.
La rivalité entre les deux frères – Cesare et Juan – éclate en plein jour dans les rues. Lucrezia s’occupe de son nouveau-né.
Pour remplacer The Tudors sur sa grille, Showtime récidive et s’intéresse à une autre période de l’Histoire : le Vatican au temps de la Renaissance avec la célèbre famille Borgia.
The Borgias est une création de Neil Jordan qui place Jeremy Irons dans la peau de Rodrigo Borgia, futur Pape Alexandre VI, connu pour avoir été le pape le plus controversé durant la Renaissance. On y retrouve à ses côtés David Oakes (Juan Borgia), François Arnaud (Cesare Borgia ), Holliday Grainger (Lucrezia Borgia) et Aidan Alexander (Joffre Borgia).
Comme promis la semaine dernière, voici un petit sujet de discussion politique. Il y a quelques mois, je vous avez proposé une chanson de soutien à Obama, Yes We Can, écrite par Will.I.Am.
Et bien voici une nouvelle chanson, It’s a New Day, célébrant la victoire et qui annonce des jours meilleurs.
Pas de politique ici mais par contre je trouve cette chanson, Yes We Can par Will.I.Am, plutôt pas mal :
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation. Yes we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom. Yes we can. Yes we can. It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores And pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness. Yes we can. Yes we can. It was the call of workers who organized; Women who reached for the ballots; A President who chose the moon as our new frontier; And a King who took us to the mountain-top and pointed the way to the Promised Land. Yes we can to justice and equality. (yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can…)
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can. Si Se Puede (yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can…)
We know the battle ahead will be long, But always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change. We want change! (We want change! We want change! We want change…)
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. We want change! (We want change! I want change! We want change! I want change…)
The hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; We will remember that there is something happening in America; That we are not as divided as our politics suggests; That we are one people; We are one nation; And together, we will begin the next great chapter in America’s story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; From sea to shining sea – Yes. We. Can. (yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can…)
Jeu : identifiez toutes celles et ceux qui apparaissent dans la vidéo :)
175 years after the arrival of the first English-speaking settlers in North America the Declaration of Independence laid the foundation of a new model of nation.
The distinctive characteristic ideals and contradictions of colonial America shaped the civilization of the United States until very recently.
The Puritans’ Promised Land
Those who migrated to New England for religious reasons after the Pilgrim Fathers believed that they had been called to take part in an event of both historical and spiritual importance.
They thought that God had kept America secret and hidden until the day when it would provide mankind with one last chance for regeneration.
The Puritans insisted on individual effort and morality as the only way of achieving both economic success and personal salvation. They also insisted on saving money and sizing opportunities in what they considered a hostile environment.
Therefore, by providing a refuge from the corruption of Old England, America was to become a New World of opportunities, the last Promised Land for the new people of God who saw their voyage across the Atlantic as a new biblical exodus.
Politically speaking, the Puritans also brought with them the foundations of new institutions: a mixture of democracy and authoritarian theocracy.
Their community was to be organized by contract between responsible individuals but under God’s eyes.
