Wanton Punishment Part II

I had a good head start in writing the Search Agent script. The head and mid section is running fine. But not the lower-half and the tail section. The program isn't taking in the dynamic variables that I've assigned to. That is why I am taking the chance of trying to do this at home. However, I hit a snag when I could not install this in SQL Server 2005. Once finished installing, there are other things to do including turning on port 1433, installing SP2 for SQL and testing the database. Spent the whole day trying to fine tune the bottom half but without good progress.

I was wondering whether if one of my marketing dept. colleague, Geraldine was trying to snoop people's private business. I mean, trying to ask whoever could not come for the sports club early morning run tomorrow the reason for unable to participate the event. Eventually, almost everyone reluctantly agreed to turn up, except for me in the department. My Technical Director was asking everyone who initially said nay to coming for the run. Geraldine anticipated that the four common reasons of inability to turn up for the run would be: personal appointment, lazy to get up, no shoes and just blankly no. I was under the first reason, but my mandatory personal appointment at 8 a.m. prevented me from participating for the run. I have no intention of saying no, but having a seminar tomorrow morning until 11 a.m. prevented me from this.

My friend from Lahad Datu wanted to visit K.L and me tomorrow. Originally, his plan was to be here for about two weeks. Part of it is to help her younger sister to register for college. Unfortunately, the plan hit a snag. The National Service camp in which his sister was assigned to rejected her request for early leave, claiming that by leaving early means delaying the course. They recommended her to finish the first module until the 7th of May. This means that possibly he would only be coming for about 10 days on the 9th. A sad thing for him though. He had missed numerous occasions including last week's PC fair, and wanted to visit Ipoh end of next week.

Wanton Punishment

As promised, I would be reviewing the next two story arcs of The Punisher Max. The next arc after Kitchen Irish, Mother Russia details the story of former SHIELD director Nick Fury being assigned to send Frank Castle to Russia to retrieve a deadly retrovirus called Barbarossa. I had a feeling that the premise is a combination of Mission Impossible II or Resident Evil: Apocalypse since it involves virus and a child as the McGuffin thing. Note: A McGuffin is a Hitchcock-coined term for a plot device.


What is interesting that is worth exploring is the bureaucracy and the hideous secret plans hatched by a small group of generals. This literally refers to a cell of groups - think P2, Masonists, Illuminati - hatching a plan as part of the greedy policy of global domination at all costs. The recent news of Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank head being under scrutiny is largely due to the fact that he neglected the Bank's main objective in helping nations and also combat poverty in Africa. What he did was serving America's hidden purpose. Remember, Wolfowitz is one of the architects beside Rumsfeld behind the Iraq 2003 invasion, prior to his appointment in 2005. The White House continuously support him even though he admitted that he was behind the mess. The mess is already there, other members wanted him out.

Back to the earlier statement, sometimes an assignment contains a hidden purpose as written in Mother Russia. Unknowingly, when Nick agreed to the assignment, the cabal of generals had a hidden plan in hand. With their extra hand, Rawlins, in the Middle-East, they recruited a number of people to hijack a plane and crash it into Moscow. The purpose was to divert the Russians from paying attention to the mission, should things go wrong. However, not all Russians are totally stupid. Some of them actually can see through what Americans do, like our Man of Stone himself, Nikolai Zakharov. Fury became disillusioned over the fact that America became a greedy nation that is out to achieve their objectives by playing dirty. In fact, while they - on behalf of capitalism - defeated communism at the early 90s fearing of communist subversion, they in the end became the main capitalist subversion in the world. They play dirty - whatever tricks in the sleeve, legal and illegal as to ensure that all nations submit to the will.

Nick Fury was raised with believes before World War 2. During the time before World War 2, there was only the Depression era and the American Dream where everyone thinks of America as a paradise and a migration location. However, things turn ugly after WW2, starting with the Truman administration, the US leaders pursued a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. They wanted to achieve dominance at all costs.

"I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. " Jack D. Ripper - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb

Mother Russia's main theme is actually the examination of the Russians, being disillusioned following the fall of Communism in 1989. As I have mentioned in the previous post, Francis Fukuyama famously declared that the greatest achievement in history would be the fall of Communism. With that comes the end of the Cold War. Of course, the Russians are the ones that were on the losing side. When that happened, they crawled back to the shadows and sob themselves away in sorrow. Most began to question of their roles in the post-war. The Man of Stone himself knows how the Americans act and think. Going back to the first part of Mother Russia, the old man Formichenko thinks that the Russians had lost the respect after the Cold War. In the past they were heroes, soldiers, having fought against the Nazis in Stalingrad. Now most people perceive Russians as gangsters and cutthroats, not those who make the reputation and being respected by other people.

Alexei Pajitnov, the man behind the Tetris games, remains one of the few from the Eastern Bloc who is respected by people around the world disregarding the creed. The Tetris game remains the longest selling electronic game ever. The game lasts days, hours non stop until you can't go on anymore.

With Communism out of the way, the Capitalist began to spread their influence towards the world. As the saying goes, while you try to fight something you hate, you eventually become the thing that you once hate. But smartly, Zakharov knows how they think:

1. They do not start a nuclear war. That's their policy
2. If there is something happens perpetrated by them, they will not respond to a call. Because they have people listening to Russians response in Moscow!
3. Most of them are Caucasians
4. The Russians today will start to panic and makes things worst if an ominous rumor reaches to Moscow - "Moscow is full of mental pygmies, like the kind they send to run the missile silos"
5. They are clever, imaginative and tenacious.

But an opinion by Zakharov is worth considering. Maybe Communism is the solution to the current problems the world is facing. Maybe it should not have fallen, maybe there is still the Cold War around. Like Iraq, the Americans chose to attack places they wish to eradicate and build places over it and using the resources in the enemy nation as their own. Being a parasite that is.

In the climax, Frank decided to play chicken on him by launching missiles all over Russia. It's like playing a bluff in poker. Maybe that's how he got the reputation as The Man of Stone. He just knows that there is no nuclear going to happen and leave it there. In the end, he thinks him as a "Russian born here by mistake."

Up Is Down, Black Is White is by far the most cohesive and the best story line ever written in the Punisher. It is actually a back to the basics story of a man's seeking out to punish the sacrilege committed by a grim hollow man. Nick Cavella, whom managed to escaped Castle at the end of In The Beginning is back but this time he had a plan of how throw Frank off the edge by committing the sacrilege of digging the grave of his family and desecrate it. The video footage broadcasted on TV provoked him and Castle went on the killing spree of 70 people in one night, unlike anything before.


Note: The title was taken from the tagline of Miller's Crossing starring Gabriel Byrne.

What makes Nick a hollow man? Bad influence from her Aunt? How he handles his assignment that goes over the edge and puts the Mafia and the Chinese gang in war? He is also meaningless, he relies on his subordinates as his cannon fodder. A leader is supposed to show his leadership by setting himself as a role model, not being bailed out by Carmine Gazzera's sister. He thinks he is above all by committing the murders. The truth, as Frank revealed at the end, is that he doesn't do it. The reputation that he has will carry to one point where he cannot go on.

The other thing sub-themes in here is perhaps about the little cabal of generals as in Mother Russia are desperate to cover their secret by hiring Rawlins - their instrument man and O'Brien's ex-husband to kill Castle. As the teaser said, "Cavella's scheme unleashes a wave of violence that rocks New York to the core, other predators start to come out from the darkness. Scores to be settled, blood to be spilled." Being an instrument man means that he is trained to do whatever he is ordered to do so. That means that Frank had an upper hand and can use the hand to blackmail them.

Kathryn had gained the respect of Castle through her admission. After being sent back to jail, it was admitted that he was not supposed to be a trained animal to be set loose on the enemies of the state. Her role is clearly augmented and expanded well here. Her motivation of saving Castle was clearly the spark of conscience seeing that he was once a family man, thrown into the mess. As for her, she was thrown into the mess with five failed marriages and being recruited at Princeton, senior year. This clearly implies that the Bush Sr. administration had subverted her and turned her into what she is now...to be used in the Gulf War - Desert Storm. After that, what can she do?

Nothing can bring back the dead. Not even the power on earth can do that. But the massive murder as the result of the sacrilege this time struck fear on thugs alike. They fear that little crimes means big punishment on them. That's a big domino effect caused by this little act. But the main thing is that there is more characterization here than any other story arcs. Not even Mother Russia can beat this thing.