"Mum and Dad's lives could be in jeopardy ... or worse, their marriage!"

In the 2004 movie The Incredibles the elder children of Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl - Violet and Dash - are alone while their parents are off to confront Syndrome, the arch-villain of the piece.

When Dash seems to be letting his boyish side run dangerously free, Violet tries to remind him of what is at stake, when she says these words: "Mum and dad's lives could be in jeopardy ... or worse, their marriage!"

Watching this movie again after several years, having got married and had children since the first time, I understood far better the family life aspect of it and found moving the sharp precision with which the makers many times depicted the values that assert themselves with poignant spontaneity in the the different characters.

The film is about family values and a superhero story in about equal emphasis, but it is not agitprop for the "pro-family movement"*: it is more powerful than deliberate advocacy could ever be. It portrays the emotions, loyalties, and inner resources that arise spontaneously regarding other members of our family. I would go as far as saying that it does so with such unity and elegance as to be a work of genius.

For those who understand the good of the natural family from lived experience, as children or as spouses, it is frustrating and tantalizing to witness the accelerating attacks on marriage from ideologues and other pressure groups who "just don't get it" yet who mystifyingly seem to be carrying the day and may soon succeed even in browbeating an admittedly weak Prime Minister into changing the law of the nation to abolish natural marriage.

This move would trump the majority who know in their very roots why natural marriage is right but quite understandably are unable to articulate it, and so cannot even begin to assert it. Petitions and other initiatives by groups with more foresight and resources have helped to give them a voice, but may not be enough in view of the fact that postmodern "consensus politics" is increasingly replacing traditional play-it-by-the-rules democracy and ready to play dirty while mastering the arts of advertising, PR and spin to dupe and confuse the majority.

Given that the anti-naturals cannot or will not listen to reason and more frighteningly, will not even heed the instinctual and natural sentiments of their own hearts, what other means do we have in what seems already a hopeless battle?

Art cuts through more directly to the heart, but even this is not immune to tendentious interpretations or criticisms.

The unity of Shakespeare can still be undermined in this way by directors with a particular bent. In the recent BBC series of historical dramas The Hollow Crown, Richard II is depicted as a cardboard cutout camp gay (postmodern collage approach is a neat cop-out from historical unity and plausibility - "just bung it in, darling. Whatever!").

Perhaps cinema, anime and graphic novel have a unity and directness that cannot be as easily evaded as even drama can, by cutting out an intermediate reinterpretation. The power of graphic novel is a central theme in the new ironically named dystopic series Utopia; it will be interesting to see how the remaining episodes develop this theme.

What better way to cut short this ramble than by paraphrasing (too tendentiously for comfort!) the words of Violet to Dash: our society could be in jeopardy ... or worse, marriage!  .I did not promise you an answer: I am just trying to unpack some ideas inspired by The Incredibles that seem very relevant to the ethical situation confronting many nations, and - given the nature of the organizations undermining marriage - from which no nation will eventually be able to shelter.

*Who would have ever dreamed not so long ago that such a movement would be necessary? Seen in a sane light, it is about as necessary as a "pro-food movement"; the only time you need to assert the good of food is when there is some serious illness that interferes with the natural instincts, such as anorexia. Convincing somebody who hates natural marriage is as difficult as persuading an anorexic to eat, just as it is is technically and practically impossible to argue for a self-evident truth: it's not just lack of practice, but the impossibility of reducing the issue to more elemental terms.

Symbiosis and win-win: aquaculture watercress under way!

Our modest living room aquarium has just acquired a watercress bed.

A plastic tray with a gravel layer intercepts the flow from the filter pump, channeling the water through the gravel where watercress is rooted. This way, waste from the goldfish becomes manure for the plants, and all are happy:

- the aquarium water is cleaned of nitrates and ammonia: the fish are happier and we don't need to change the water so often;

- the plants are fed and will provide us with a constant supply of fresh watercress.

This is just the very first experiment. I'd like to try growing edible fish instead of merely ornamental goldfish (you can just about see them in the picture) and scale it up: for all the optimism I doubt we'd get frequent harvests of watercress from such a small bed.

Netflix and Lovefilm - false claims about content

Started a free trial for the new UK Netflix, having been frustrated by Lovefilm's exaggerated claims about their content.

Films that have been on my Lovefilm waiting list for years have still not been delivered in spite of their availability being clearly declared in their catalogue. Plus my suspicion is reinforced by the fact that they keep urging me to increase the number of films on the list to assure frequent deliveries. It seems to me that if a film is not available for more than a few months it is not available full stop, and should be removed from their advertised catalogue.

Having signed up for a month's trial with Netflix, I searched for a few well-known films. Apart from the glaring absence of Ghibli titles, the database search seems unhelpful: search term "Totoro" for example, apart from revealing that this very popular film is unknown to Netflix, also shows that the search results comprise all films with "to" in the title (and some with no discernable connection at all with the search term). Of what use is such a stupid search algorithm to anybody except to a business that is trying to create a false impression of breadth of content? Offering utterly unrelated titles in the search results only succeeds in irritating the user even more.

A very bad start. Can anybody recoomend a film rental or streaming service available in the UK that delivers on its content promises?

Graphics fail: chocolate shop "In space no one can hear you scream"

Spotted in London Bridge station underground gallery of "cool" shops, this instantly evoked the poster for the first science fiction horror Alien film, with the catchphrase "In space no one can hear you scream":

Practise what you geek

Nemi on geek snobbery and hypocrisy, by Lise Myhre, spot on as usual:

By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, don't miss the interview (6 minutes) with Ben Stein where Richard Dawkins defends intelligent design. Yes, seriously, his answer describes intelligent design in all but name, and he goes further to posit extra-terrestrials as the intelligent designers. I would have thought that he would classify aliens along with the tooth fairy and Father Christmas, not to mention the despised Judeo-Christian God. Striking irony.  View it here.

Breast cancer campaign fail: it has made no difference because it has not addressed the root causes

The Pink Ribbon campaign, for all its high profile and huge investment, has led to no detectable reduction in breast cancer, for a simple reason: it is not encouraging women to do the three things known to reduce breast cancer risk:

- have children earlier in life
- refrain from artificial contraception
- avoid induced abortions

The likely reason for this failure is that to encourage these things would be to challenge the very foundations of the sexual revolution.

For better words than I can muster and references to useful sources, see Fr Tim's blog.

Eco-Farming Can Double Food Production in 10 Years, says UN Report

Masanobu Fukuoka, pioneer of natural farming

GENEVA- 18 March 2011, the Special Rapporteur presented his new report “Agro-ecology and the right to food” before the UN Human Rights Council. Based on an extensive review of recent scientific literature, the report demonstrates that agroecology, if sufficiently supported, can double food production in entire regions within 10 years while mitigating climate change and alleviating rural poverty.

The report therefore calls States for a fundamental shift towards agro-ecology as a way for countries to feed themselves while addressing climate and poverty challenges.

You can download the document and read related material here.

Art discoveries - illustration - Anthony Vanarsdale

Thanks to the Catholic Illustrators' Guild, St Joseph and the child Jesus:

Fruity computers

Here's my laptop, a special edition Banana EeePC from Asus. I could not resist this cheerful picture so stuck it on to see if it would cheer up anyone else. So far not a flicker from other commuters on the morning train into London (perhaps they're too busy looking at their Blackberries to notice!).

Update: my little daughter Therese took a liking to the picture and tore it off so I let her keep it. I was touched by her appreciation.