The Scene: On to politics. The recent Democratic Party caucuses and votes and debates have been very entertaining, and every so often amusing. All the candidates have a common goal: winning the Presidency. How they do it, however, is another matter and led to all sorts of squabbling and picking of nits and accusations and fighting. I've always found group-dynamics interesting with how everybody may meet for a common goal, but, then it breaks down to specific issues and if compromises are made, well, then, babies get thrown out with bath-water... And the goal gets drowned in the process. Everybody has their pet-peeves. Everybody has their "cause." But, the main source of the assembly become as lost as forest for the many trees. Happens all the time, and—as someone who sits and watches and listens—it becomes frustrating. And just a little funny. Mirth can come out of any sort of dysfunction. The Set-Up: Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman) is born in a stable, just down the road from another more well-lit stable, and grows up to be not much of anything, really. Until he becomes involved with the People's Front of Judea (not to be confused with the Judean People's Front...), one of the many groups dedicated to the purpose of overthrowing the Roman Empire. Before he gets there, the details of the PFJ's latest plot is being discussed by the group's leaders (Michael Palin, John Cleese, Eric Idle) Action.
FRANCIS: We're gettin' in through the underground heating system here, up through into the main audience chamber here, and Pilate's wife's bedroom is here.
FRANCIS: Having grabbed his wife, we inform Pilate that she is in our custody...
FRANCIS: ...and forthwith issue our demands.
FRANCIS: Any questions?
COMMANDO XERXES: What exactly are the demands?
REG: We're giving Pilate two days to dismantle the entire apparatus of the Roman Imperialist State, and if he doesn't agree immediately, we execute her.
MATTHIAS: Cut her head off?
FRANCIS: Cut all her bits off. Send 'em back on the hour every hour. Show them we're not to be trifled with. REG: Also, we're demanding a ten foot mahogany statue of the Emperor Julius Caesar with his dock hangin' out. P.F.J.: laughing STAN: What? They'll never agree to that, Reg. REG: That's just a bar-- a bargaining counter.
REG: And of course, we point out that they bear full responsibility when we chop her up,
REG: ...and that we shall not submit to blackmail!
COMMANDOS: No blackmail!
REG: They've bled us white, the bastards. They've taken everything we had,
REG: ...and not just from us, from our fathers, and from our fathers' fathers.
STAN: And from our fathers' fathers' fathers. REG: Yeah.
STAN: And from our fathers' fathers' fathers' fathers.
REG: Yeah. All right, Stan. Don't labour the point.
REG: And what have they ever given us in return?!
XERXES: The aqueduct?
REG: What?
XERXES: The aqueduct.
REG: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that.
REG: Uh, that's true. Yeah.
COMMANDO #3: And the sanitation.
STAN: Oh, yeah, the sanitation, Reg. Remember what the city used to be like?
REG: Yeah. All right. I'll grant you the aqueduct and the sanitation are two things that the Romans have done.
MATTHIAS: And the roads.
REG: Well, yeah. Obviously the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don't they?
REG: But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads--
REG: All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health,
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