I take Saturdays off for religious reasons

The weather's finally cooled down enough (a chilly 90 degrees) that one can go hiking without evaporating. We checked out a new trail (new to us) at South Mountain Park (the largest muni park in the country). It was a nice trail with lots of elevation changes and great scenery (see pics here). To see even more pics (taken by my 6 year old son), go to Ladybug Writing. My son Alex has a blog now. It's funny in a Steven Wright ironic sort of way (completely unintentionally).

Heading home from the park, we looked for something to eat. The wife and kid decided on Chick-Fil-A. I picked up something from Baja Fresh. As a matter of principle, I try to avoid eating at restaurants that purposely misspell their name for the sake of cuteness. That and the fact that they are not open on Sundays. I'm thinking of starting a discrimination suit. If I want chicken nuggets on Sunday, I should be able to get them! For some reason, lawyers won't return my calls. I'm thinking it might be something along the lines of Coke suing Coke for taste infringement. But I digress.

I kid. Businesses (especially privately owned ones) have the right to run their ship in a manner they see fit, as long as it is not discriminatory. And I have seen no indication that Chick-Fil-A is doing anything too hokey.

I'm just saying. The Christian music piped in and the Winshape posters (marriage retreats, Christian kids' camps) on the wall might make some people feel they are in the wrong place. By the same token, a Christian might feel out of place in Hot Topic with pentagram jewelry and Lamb of God playing. I guess I'm not really criticizing, just observing. When you are not looking for some things, you might not see them. I only started to notice some of the things because I had wondered why they weren't open on Sundays and delved a bit deeper. Their official line:

Admittedly, closing all of our restaurants every Sunday makes us a rarity in this day and age. But it's a little habit that has always served us well, so we're planning to stick with it.

Our founder, Truett Cathy, wanted to ensure that every Chick-Fil-A employee and restaurant operator had an opportunity to worship, spend time with family and friends or just plain rest from the work week. Made sense then, still makes sense now.

Nothing wrong with that, I guess.


And on a completely unrelated note, Dbacks make the playoffs!! Woo-hoo! And we're going to game one of the Divisional Series on Wednesday. I got on the Internet early this morning when they went on sale and was able to get tickets for us and my folks. This is the first time my dad has ever been able to go to a playoff game of any kind and was thrilled when I told him.

3:10 to Yuma

You know you've probably done a movie right when my wife actually likes a Western ... a violent one, no less. The charisma of one of it's main stars, Russell Crowe, is a big reason why. She actually agreed to go see this movie on a "date" night.

3:10 to Yuma is the story of a down on his luck rancher, Christian Bale as Dan Evans, who agrees to accompany a ruthless killer, Russell Crowe as Ben Wade, to Yuma to get on a train and to stand trial. A road movie of sorts -- both characters go through a sort of transformation through the adventures they experience on the trip.

3:10 certainly owes something to recent so-called "revisionist" Westerns like Unforgiven and The Proposition. They all do a great job of turning the classic Western motifs of good and bad / black and white on their heads. Life is shades of gray. I'm guessing W might not like this movie. He likes his Westerns cut and dried - Bush as John Wayne, terrorists taking the places of Indians. Never mind that we are taking those Indians land or are trying to make them more like us. I probably overuse this quote from Unforgiven, but it's one of my favorites and very apropos to this movie:

Munny: "It's a hell of a thing, killin' a man. You take away all he's got, and all he's ever gonna have."

Kid: "Yeah, well I guess they had it comin'."

Munny: "We all have it coming, kid."

Even if you don't think you like Westerns, go see this movie. It's themes of loyalty, honesty and family transcend the genre. The quality of the acting is consistent. Most notably, Crowe, Bale, Alan Tudyk (of Serenity) and Ben Foster as the light-in-the-loafer sidekick to Crowe's Ben Wade.

3:10 to Yuma's based on an Elmore Leonard story (the same guy that wrote Get Shorty, Jackie Brown and Out of Sight). It has a lot of the same moral ambiguity of those stories.

Crowe's character is so charming, intelligent and confident, you are forced to like him whereas you see Bale's character's faults and failures - as he sees his own. Do these characters ultimately redeem themselves and does the movie do a good job of handling it? I believe so, but you be the judge.

The movie is beautifully shot. I guess the biggest surprise of the movie is the dark humor. Not forced punchline type humor, mind you. But rather humor borne of the strange interaction between the characters. I highly recommend this movie. Grade: A

"Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends" -- Gandalf, Fellowship of the Ring

Crybabies

"And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven." -- Bible

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. - Members of a Christian theater troupe are spreading the word that they're irate about Kathy Griffin's off-color speech in accepting a creative arts Emmy earlier this month.

The Miracle Theater in Pigeon Forge spent $90,440 on a full-page advertisement in USA Today that ran nationally Monday, proclaiming "enough is enough."

In accepting the Emmy for her Bravo reality show, "My Life on the D-List," Griffin said that "a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus."

She went on to hold up her Emmy, make an off-color remark about Christ and proclaim, "This award is my god now!"

"We at The Miracle Theater consider it an honor to stand for Jesus today," the ad said. "We may never win a national award. We may never be household names. We may never be seen in Hollywood. Although others may choose to use their national platform to slander our God, we are honored as professional entertainers to stand for Christ."

... Griffin's comments have also drawn ire from the Catholic League, an anti-defamation group that called on the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to "denounce Griffin's obscene and blasphemous comment" at the Sept. 9 ceremony. The E! channel chose to edit Griffin's speech when it aired the taped event last Saturday night.

Griffin, whose standup comedy shows often focus on mocking and dishing on celebrities, issued a statement through her publicist in response to the Catholic League's criticisms, indicating her statements were meant as a joke.

"Am I the only Catholic left with a sense of humor?" she said in the statement.

Russ Hollingsworth, general manager of The Miracle Theater, said members of the theater's cast were tired of celebrities' joking attitudes toward Jesus. The theater is sponsoring a petition on its Web site, Miracle Theater.

"When word reached our cast that a Hollywood celebrity had stood before TV cameras and said such vulgar things about Christ, they were incensed," he said. "It's just not OK anymore to mock Christians and Jesus with impunity."

Griffin was fired in 2005 from her job as an E! Channel red-carpet commentator after joking at the Golden Globe Awards that child actress Dakota Fanning had checked into rehab.

What level of respect should people's religious beliefs be afforded? Is religion fair game for satire or humor? Would atheists be offended by a joke about them? Was what she said actually offensive?

It's nauseating how many athletes and actors thank God for them scoring or winning something. If there was a God, do you think he would really care who won an Oscar or scored the winning touchdown? Griffin, raised Catholic, was playing on the irony of not thanking God. That's funny.

Here's the unedited quote from her:

Upon winning this past Saturday, Kathy said, "Can you believe this shit? I guess hell froze over. ... a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award."

"I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. So, all I can say is, 'suck it, Jesus.' This award is my god now."

I'll grant you that that quote would obviously rile some Christians. But she was trying to be funny ... and I have to personally attest that she succeeded.

Obviously some people would be up in arms if someone said on stage, "suck it, Allah". So, I'm not denying the effect of such statements. But, is there any real reason that people should take it so personally? Like the earlier Danish Muhammad cartoons flap, it's all just a bunch of religious zealots that need to chill a bit. If you are secure in your beliefs, why would you care what Kathy Griffin thought? Don't you think that as Christians, the Miracle Theater could have found a more noble use for $90K than to spend it on an ad condemning Kathy Griffin?

I think I'm asking more questions than answering. But I don't really have an answer for this one. I get why some people might be offended but at the same time wonder why we live in such a screwed-up society where people would be offended by a joke. I get that there needs to be a line. I took offense by the Don Imus comments earlier this year but am not sure he should have been fired. But who's to decide what the line is? And isn't it a moving target? Christians would probably say it wasn't. But discussions of "absolute" morality are for another time.

"Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing - with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for the second and third place." -- Robert A. Heinlein

Blog list cleanup

A cleanup of my blog list is way overdue. I've been reading all of your blogs and like the comments I've see from many of your visitors. Here are the ones that I've added to my blog list. From Laura's blog, Sarchasm:

Stupidity is an Equal Opportunity Employer -- You have to like any web address that starts out "stupidass...". I'm sure that was merely coincidental, Donna.

It's My Life - pop culture musings

From Cyberkitten at Seeking a Little Truth:

Journal Wunelle - Movies, politics, religion. That's basically my world right there.

Our dear friend Sadie has a new blog, so I'm updating my link. She's got some outstanding crafts, so check her out: Craftily Ever After

from James at Genius of Insanity:

An Angry Dakota Democrat - I didn't know there were such things. A truly rare animal.

I'm removing the following blogs:

Liberal Desert - Nice blog, just doesn't speak to me.
The Hungry Blogger - Love you Isabella. I think it was originally through finding your blog that I ended up at GWB and in turn Laura and the rest is history. But, alas, she doesn't update her own blog. If you are still out there, let us know and I'll re-add the link.
A bit of this, a bit of that - Again, just not enough posting.
Vern's Blog - link issues
Minor Ripper - ditto


I'm going to keep the following links but will chastise them endlessly for never posting.

Eric's blog - Wow, he blogs never. I swear he's actually interesting in person. :-)
JT's blog - Probably too busy out being a mac daddy to post anything.
Great White Bear - OK, you've been given a reprieve since you just posted something.
Will Brady Journal - Hello Will ... I know you're out there.


Also, I added a new feature on the side of my blog. I had talked about the online library site that I had found awhile ago, LibraryThing. They have a little add-in for blogs that will generate a random list of a few books from my library. So, you'll get a little glimpse into the crap I read and it will serve as a reminder to me on what I still need to get around to reading.

"Privatized Tyranny"

On his last day of work, Alberto Gonzales, with a straight face, said the following:

"Over the past two and a half years, I have seen tyranny, dishonesty, corruption and depravity of types I never thought possible ... I've seen things I didn't know man was capable of."

And that was just Dick Cheney he was talking about. You should have heard what he said about Bush! Sorry ... I kid. Gonzales did say those words and they hold a lot of truth. But, just not in the way that he intended.


Speaking of tyranny and depravity, check out the great short film, Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and Alfonso Cuaron (of Children of Men fame). It does a good job of showing how some leaders use the period of collective shock after disasters to ramrod through those policies that they could not get passed in peaceful times. It compares that to shock treatment and to torture and the effect those methods have on the subject.

"Only a crisis, real or perceived, produces real change." -- Milton Friedman

Mr. Friedman was an advocate of using those times to push through free market policies that wouldn't stand a chance of passing during peaceful times. Guess who liked Miltie and his concepts of "privatized tyranny"? Yep - Nixon, Reagan, Bush. Milton Friedman -- the guy who once commented that "there is no poverty in America".

"The free market is socialism for the rich - [free] markets for the poor and state protection for the rich." -- Noam Chomsky

Get Your War On

I think that David Rees may just be the funniest political cartoonist out there right now. Of course, to call him a cartoonist may be stretching it because he is using stock black and white images. But, it's the clever and irreverent words that he puts to those images that makes him stand out. In three panels, he is able to get at the heart of the chest-thumping jingoism we call patriotism over here. Here are some of his latest (courtesy of David Rees and Rolling Stone Magazine):







Some of his older stuff is on his site and on Campus Progress.

And for one of the best beat downs of people that are now against the war but originally supported it, check out his blog post at Huffington Post.

Some of those that work forces ...

"Some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses ..." -- "Killing in the Name of" - Rage Against the Machine

From the Arizona Republic:

Mesa police plan to discipline an officer who admitted making an obscene gesture as he drove past pro-immigrant protesters Wednesday in a marked police vehicle.

Sgt. Mike Doherty, a 20-year veteran, admitted he made obscene gestures "due to his general distaste for protesters," according to Holly Hosac, a Mesa police spokeswoman.

Doherty was in uniform when he passed about 30 members of Immigrants Without Borders, an immigrant advocacy group that has protested in the past against crackdowns on undocumented immigrants by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The group was protesting peacefully at Alma School Road and Main Street. Several group members reported an officer displaying an obscene gesture twice as he drove past them. Information from witnesses led police to identify Doherty.

"While Doherty stated that he did not know what the demonstration was about, he acknowledged his actions were inappropriate and unprofessional," Hosac wrote in a press release.

Police Chief George Gascón said the department is required to respect the Constitutional rights of everyone, saying, "there is no justifiable reason for this type of behavior."

Police said disciplinary action against Doherty is pending but did not elaborate. He was working as a school resources officer for the past two weeks, but will be reassigned, police said.

I personally know several policemen and their intentions are noble and they seem to be in law enforcement for the right reasons. But civil service, whether it be police or politics, can also attract those that seek nothing but power. The goal of both should be to be the voice for those that don't have a voice.

This police officer should have been vigorously defending this group's right to protest. Instead, while in a position of authority, he let his inner-racist show.

Going Green - Update

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her. -- Francis Bacon

Our latest attempts at greening up:

Mrs. Myer's Dryer Sheets - which you can get at Sprout's

Shaklee Laundry Soap

both biodegradable.

I'm proud that our earlier attempts are going as strong as ever (cloth napkins, grocery bags). BTW, I highly recommend IKEA's reusable bags for 59 cents. They're huge and sturdy. Several grocery stores (including Fry's here in the Valley) will give you a discount for using your own bags.

If we had any guts, we'd actually hang our clothes to dry instead of using our dryer. But, Noooo! -- we have to justify the money we spent on it in the first place. I know ... that sounds stupid. Kinda like saying that you are not going to read a book because you've paid for that perfectly good TV and cable and you don't want it to go to waste.

The biggest impediment to change is not the technology or even the cost. It's retraining ourselves. It's no wonder that a large part of society doesn't understand this when our own leaders preach consumerism (instead of conservation) in the face of tragedy. God forbid that any of us would ever make a sacrifice for the common good. Oops! I said "common good". I must be a Communist.


Also, go check out Leo's environment documentary, The 11th Hour, soon. I haven't seen it yet but will within the next week. If you've already seen it, post a review here.

"Purity" Ball

Let me preface this by saying that the concept of fathers and daughters building a strong relationship is, in and of itself, a good thing. But surely I'm not alone in thinking several things about the following are just a little weird (and unhealthy):

Girls will have a unique excuse to put on fancy dresses and prepare for a night of ceremony and dancing in Chandler next weekend at the Valley's first Father Daughter Purity Ball.

The First Southern Baptist Church of Scottsdale and New Life Pregnancy Centers are sponsoring the Sept. 7 event at the Castle at Ashley Manor. Girls and young women ages 10 and older who attend make commitments to live a pure life before God and set personal standards for themselves.

According to event's Web site, fathers also read covenants over their daughters and promise they will protect the girls' commitments and serve as positive role models of purity and spirituality. Their dedication is symbolized by commitment cards the girls sign during the ceremony and white roses laid at the foot of a cross.

"The dads or mentors commit before God to be a living example of purity," coordinator Mona McDonald said. "The daughters are going to try to do their best to honor their fathers' involvement in their life."

... The first Father Daughter Purity Ball was held in Colorado in 1998 by a Christian group called Generations of Light, according to Ashley Ellingson, development coordinator for the Arizona Baptist Children's Services.

"A woman who worked at ABCS heard about these Purity Balls and thought they were a really neat idea," Ellingson said.

... Mona McDonald said about 75 people had signed up for the Chandler event as of Aug. 28, although previous balls in Tucson have attracted up to 200 attendees. She said she chose the Castle at Ashley Manor because of its romantic ambience.

"For a girl it's kind of fairytale romantic," she said, describing the reception hall's new castle-themed building on Price Road. "I can't wait to see their eyes when they drive up."

Mitch McDonald said he feels the ball has become an annual way for his daughters to spend a special evening with their father.

"What really makes me feel good is that I know my daughters are going to be going to dances for the rest of their lives, but the first time they were dressed in a formal, their dad was the first one to slow dance with them," he said.

"I've been able to tell both of my daughters how precious they are to me," he said. "Those are moments in time that are very important."

Somehow, I don't think most girls want their first romantic experience to be with their dad. And I doubt that a slow dance with dear old pops outside of their wedding is going to rank as a stellar memory.

But even if you get past the creepiness of it, it's still a bunch of bunk. Anybody that's seen The Education of Shelby Knox knows where I'm coming from here. If you want to solve the problems of teen pregnancy and promiscuity, don't strap on the chastity belt, but rather analyze the underlying reasons.

"It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge." -- Voltaire

Bio-hype

As much as you hear politicians talking about it(both D's and R's), you would think that ethanol is the answer to all of our energy and pollution problems. Well, not so fast. It's more about courting votes in the pivotal Midwest (specifically Iowa). Ethanol, in general, is not necessarily the problem. It's the specific type ... corn. From Sierra Magazine:

In our beautiful biofuel future, cars and trucks are powered by wood chips, prairie grass, wheat straw, fast-food grease, garbage, and even algae--whichever material is most plentiful locally and least damaging environmentally. With cars getting 40 miles a gallon or better, greenhouse-gas emissions plummet. The biofuel revolution sparks an economic boom by keeping U.S. dollars at home instead of sending them to Middle Eastern sheikhs.

Biofuels can be made from nearly any organic material. By essentially recycling carbon from living things (as opposed to the ancient biomass in coal and petroleum), biofuels help fight global warming. But some could also add to our environmental problems: In an equally possible but less rosy future, governments and agribusiness clear rainforests and wetlands for vast plantations of biofuel crops like oil palms. With arable land increasingly devoted to fuel production, food prices push higher. The roads clog with biofuel SUVs that still get lousy mileage. Global warming slows insignificantly, if at all.

... corn is the source of 95 percent of the United States' ethanol. Although politically popular in farm states, corn is a problematic source of fuel: It requires good land and petroleum-intensive cultivation and fertilization, and it can also readily feed both humans and livestock. (Food prices are already increasing because of competition with ethanol.) If the mill processing the corn is powered by coal, ethanol produces more net greenhouse gases than gasoline does ...

... Putting a dent in global warming requires conservation as well as biofuels. A 3 percent increase in fuel-economy standards for vehicles, for example, would save more gas than the entire 2006 production of corn ethanol. Sadly, we've been driving in reverse: For the past five years, U.S. gasoline consumption has increased by 1.4 percent annually, and diesel by 3.6 percent.

The rush to biofuels is putting the squeeze on wildlife. Nearly 40 million acres of farmland are currently idled under the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which seeks to reduce soil erosion, improve water quality, and provide habitat. The Bush administration has proposed that land set aside under the program be converted to fuel production ...

The answer is to think of it more as a global issue and an engineering issue instead of a political one. We need to stop thinking we can just trade kissing the ass of big oil for kissing the ass of companies like ADM and Monsanto. Ethanol can be part of the answer if done in the right way:

The best sources of biomass for fuel are waste products and native perennial grasses, which provide more usable energy per acre than corn ethanol or soybean diesel. In fact, says a report by the University of Minnesota, fuels made from native plants can actually be "carbon negative," because they store excess carbon dioxide in their roots and the surrounding soil, reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

But here's the kicker, and why I am against corn-based ethanol as the whole answer -- It's raising the cost of my beer:

Here's where some get off the biofuel bus: It's raising the price of beer. In Germany, subsidies for corn and rapeseed production are squeezing production of barley--an important ingredient in the national beverage. The effects of higher barley prices are starting to appear at the tap. The price of a liter mug of beer at this year's Oktoberfest, for example, will be up by 5.5 percent.

Loaded Questions

Oh, I long for the day when I don't have to have the kind of exchanges that I had today ...

New client - mom of a chiropractor that's one of my clients. Nice nondescript house. Maybe just a few too many bibles lying around (like maybe 50 too many) but otherwise normal. Then I get into their home office. This is on the wall:



Two cheesy photos with real authentic faux signatures. Nice. Be afraid when someone considers it a point of pride to have given money to George Bush.

Fast-forward about 15 minutes. Everything's going normal. Just fixing their computer. Then the lady comes back in the room and asks me some computer questions. She says that she heard on FOX News that terrorists could bring all the world's computer down at once. Trying not to sound too sarcastic, I comment that that sounds like something that you would hear on FOX. And then I try to soften my disdain by going into an honest discussion of the security of PC's, networks, the Internet, etc.

Next, she talks about some anti-spyware program. She says that it was endorsed by Michael Savage and asked me what I thought about him. I did say, "I'm not a fan" but I wanted to say, "He's a fucking clueless, racist, religiously bigoted hypocrite" who says stupid things like:

"I don't like a woman married to a woman. It makes me want to puke...I want to vomit when I hear it. I think it's child abuse."

... and speculated that Democrats had messed with Supreme Court justice John Roberts' health, causing his seizure.

Some days it's real hard to keep my mouth shut.

Apparently, this is what conservative commentators have been reduced to -- corporate pimps. I'd commented on that very same point back in January, talking about Michael Medved. They must be getting kickbacks.

If I were religious, seeing what so-called "Christians" really value would probably cause me to lose my faith. And if I were a Conservative, seeing how idealism is bought and sold for convenience, I'd give that up too. Kinda makes you wonder if anybody really believes in anything any more.

Arizona Science Center - Global Awareness Day - 500th post!

It's been about 2.5 years of semi-regular blogging and today I've hit my 500th post. A lot of you have been here from very early on. Thanks for continuing to visit even when my posting has gotten a little sporadic or uninspired.

This last weekend saw us visit the Global Awareness Day at the Arizona Science Center. The Arizona Science Center is an interactive science center intended to educate people (mostly kids) about science. We're members there and I had gotten an e-mail flyer advertising the awareness day. I knew it would be a great opportunity for Alex to get exposed to a lot of environmental groups that Michelle and I already knew about but that he wouldn't have. He loved it. We practically had to drag him from each exhibit. The obvious ones like the Sierra Club were there, but smaller groups that I hadn't even heard about like the Southwest Wildlife Rehabilitation and Educational Foundation were also there. There were very nice and have a cool mission:

Southwest Wildlife Rehabilitation and Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization that specializes in rescuing and rehabilitating injured and orphaned wildlife native to the southwest, educating today's youth on the importance of native wildlife and the environment, and encouraging educational career opportunities in environmental science.

There was also some representatives from the Light Rail that is being built in downtown Phoenix. It's set to be operational by the end of '08. It's an idea long overdue in the Valley and I think one that will succeed -- even in a place where idiots are way too in love with cars.



I think the booth that we liked the most was the company, a.k.a Green. It's an eco-friendly building supply center in Scottsdale. Some of the cooler things we saw there were cork and bamboo flooring. But the one we liked the most was countertops made with recycled glass, like these, Enviroglas



I was all trying to show my enviro cred on this day, wearing my Urban Outfitters' global warming ... it's not cool t-shirt and chatting up anybody that would listen (and even those who wouldn't) about going on a Sierra Club service trip. I'm sure all these people who are living a green lifestyle every day of their lives and making a true difference with little fanfare thought I was just some lame yuppie with a guilty conscience. And they'd be right.

But shit's going on and I'm looking to blow up my comfortable, staid little suburban existence. Stay tuned.

Fountain / Pan's Labrynth

In the last couple of weeks I had the chance to watch two very good films, Pan's Labrynth and The Fountain. Alike in many ways, most notably:

- both explore the nature of life and death
- both are like paintings - beautiful and surreal with little dialogue
- both are imaginative -- you are not sure what is real and what isn't
- both have their protagonists escaping into an imaginary world (or is it?) to escape a reality that they have a hard time coping with


To my surprise, I actually liked The Fountain more. That's not to say that Pan's Labrynth wasn't good. It was. But the Fountain just seemed to affect me more.

Without giving to much away, the "fountain" is the Fountain of Youth. The main character Thomas discovers it and either lives a thousand years, or is reincarnated several times or maybe none of the above. Maybe it all is just a metaphor for life and death and what is important in life. It doesn't matter. Through the passage of time, he has to cope with the illness and loss of his wife. It's how he handles this that propels the story.

Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz seem perfectly cast. I always seem to like Weisz in anything she is in. Jackman is incrediby versatile.

The special effects are great but unlike normal sci-fi action pics (Star Wars type movies), it is more for the story than just for the sake of special effects.

If you take it as straight sci-fi, it works. If you take it a romance, it works. If you take it as an artistic representation of the fleeting nature of life, it works.


Pan's Labrynth finds a little girl escaping the grotesque and violent world of World War II era fascist Spain by creating her own fantasy world. This is a world of fantastic creatures and dangerous quests.

Pan's Labrynth succeeds because the transition between fantasy and reality is seemless and not forced. The look of it is is stunning. Del Toro is of the great trio of Mexican directors (Cuaron (Children of Men) and Inarritu (Babel) being the other two). Cuaron is one of the producers of this film.

While being of the world of fantasy films like LOTR and Narnia, it is very much for a different audience. The level and nature of the violence is shocking and this movie is definitely for adults.

I did like Pan's Labrynth but my viewing of it perhaps suffered because I had been told by so many people and critics that it was great. By the same token, I was pleasantly surprised by the Fountain because I hadn't heard a lot about it. Regardless, both of these directors seem to understand that film is an art form and not just a means of making money (a concept lost on a large portion of Hollywood).

I recommend both these films:

Pan's Labrynth Grade: B
The Fountain Grade: A-

"You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone,
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what she'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on." -- British poet David Harkins

Rove

I feel sorry for anyone that had to witness the most disingenuous, the most delusional, the most pathetic resignation speech of all time today by "Turd Blossom", Karl Rove:

"I'm grateful to have been a witness to history. It has been the joy and the honor of a lifetime," said Rove, his voice quivering at times.

Excuse me while I get sick. Infamy may be the more appropriate word. History will mark your time here but not in a good way. Your legacy will be a level of partisanship and divisiveness unlike any in this country's history. A so-called "boy genius" who leaves a lame duck president with an unwinnable war and a Democratic majority in Congress. Have you gotten "joy" out of over 3,500 American deaths and 50,000+ Iraqi civilian deaths?

"But now is the time. ... At month's end," Rove said, "I will join those whom you meet in your travels, the ordinary Americans who tell you they are praying for you."

They are praying for you because they feel you'll need it. You've got a one-way ticket to hell after selling your soul many times over.



Good bye, Karl. Hopefully we'll not have to listen to any more of your brilliant quips:

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing."

"We will f**k him. Do you hear me? We will f**k him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever f**ked him." -to an aide about some political stratagem in some state that had gone awry and a political operative who had displeased him.

"The human capacity for self-delusion is boundless, and the effects of belief are overpowering." -- Michael Shermer

Wal-Mart

Just in case you needed another reason to hate Wal-Mart (I already had plenty), check out Shrimplate's post on abandoned Wal-Mart stores:

Flip That Box

Movie Reviews

Bourne Ultimatum - Don't go into a Paul Greengrass movie if you just ate. I heard Matt Damon quip on the Daily Show that apparently the director has never heard of a steady-cam. I can attest to that. This is two hours of full-bore, globe-hopping, hand-held camera, little dialogue, action. And it's all glued together with a script that they made up as they went along. Most would think that was probably a recipe for a disaster of a movie. But it's anything but.

Jason Bourne continues his trek to discover who he really is and it leads him to America and the CIA. Continuing with the great character actors of the previous movies (Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Joan Allen), David Strathairn, Scott Glenn and Albert Finney are added to the mix. Julia Stiles has a larger role and has a scene that evokes the memory of his lost love from the first two movies (Franka Potente) ... and believe me, that's a good thing. I wish I could see Franka in more stuff. Run Lola Run is fantastic.

The scenery, the chase scenes, and fighting action are all first-rate and the snapshot of the inner workings of espionage are very interesting.

This movie "supposedly" ties up the trilogy and there are no plans for more movies, but without giving too much away, it definitely leaves the door open should they change their minds. Considering how much money this is making, I'm sure they will. Grade: B+

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Despite my accelerated reading schedule so as to read this book by the time the movie came out, I didn't catch up. I read books 2 through 4 in a couple of weeks but had just started Order of the Phoenix when we saw the movie. I had heard indications that this was the shortest movie from the longest book. But, as I said, I hadn't read it yet, so I couldn't be upset by where the biggest cuts were made. My feeling is that there were probably cuts for a good reason. Order of the Phoenix is usually rated as Rowling's poorest (just in comparison) and it's length certainly would make for an unwieldy movie. But the movie that was made certainly doesn't drag. It's dark and it movies fairly quickly. Not a lot of the cutesy, joking around banter of the previous movies. Now that I'm almost done with the book, I can see why. It's pretty dark and Harry Potter is pretty tortured throughout.

If you are not a Harry Potter movie fan or haven't read the books, this movie will probably not be your cup of tea. But, that's OK. You can't reintroduce every character and recap the entire previous movies every time you make one of these. These are movies made for fans. And by the box office of each, that's good enough. The movie (as does the book) does a good job of setting up the books and movies that follow. It's not about your mid-term exams and Hogwarts any more. It's about the end of the free world!

The great British acting talent of these movies (Rickman, Emma Thompson, Gambon, Maggie Smith, Oldman, Gleeson, etc.) is augmented by Helena Bonham Carter. One minor quibble, and this is probably more a criticism of Rowling, is that it seems silly that every book is really about a fight with Voldermort. It's done 7 times and all of us fans keep coming back to drink at the trough. That's like Luke Skywalker fighting Darth Vader in 7 straight movies. Grade: B

Transformers - I find it odd to say so, but those things which are most annoying about Michael Bay's other films -- stylized action, overwrought dialog, corniness, and just a general over-the-top quality -- actually work in this film. Despite my better judgement, I liked Transformers. Shia Lebouf is very likable. And you'll have to forgive my being a male for a second, but the females in this one are very pleasing to the eye. And they're not helpless victim types.

There is very little plot and various holes in the plot there is. But the action and special effects are great and the dialogue is just silly and funny enough to keep you interested in a Terminator-corny-lines sorta way.

I wasn't a huge Transformers fan when I was growing up but I do remember my brother and myself watching most of the episodes. This movie isn't as lame as they were. It's a popcorn movie and I'm OK with that. I certainly wasn't bored. Grade: B-

Arkansas couple welcome their 17th child

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- It's a girl -- again -- for Jim Bob and Michelle Duggars, the proud parents of 17 children.

And after Jennifer Danielle was born Thursday morning, her parents already were talking about having more children.

"We'd love to have more," Michelle Duggar said, adding that the girls are outnumbered seven to 10 in the family. "We love the ruffles and lace."

The family's home in the northwest Arkansas town of Tontitown includes dormitory-style bedrooms for the boys and girls, nine bathrooms, a commercial kitchen, four washing machines and four dryers.

The children are home-schooled by Michelle Duggar, 40. The oldest is 19 and the youngest, before Jennifer, is almost 2 years old. The family includes two sets of twins.

"We are just so grateful to God for another gift from him," said Jim Bob Duggar, 42, a former state representative who sells real estate. "We are just so thankful to him that everything went just very well."

All of Jennifer's siblings also have names that start with J. They are: Joshua, 19; John David, 17; Janna, 17; Jill, 16; Jessa, 14; Jinger, 13; Joseph, 12; Josiah, 11; Joy-Anna, 9; Jedidiah, 8; Jeremiah, 8; Jason 7; James 6; Justin, 4; Jackson, 3; Johannah, almost 2.

The Duggars have been featured on several programs on cable's Discovery Health Network.

Among the "fun facts" listed on Discovery Health's Web page devoted to the Duggars: A baby has been born in every month except June; the family has gone through about 90,000 diapers, and Michelle Duggar has been pregnant for 126 months -- or 10.5 years -- of her life.

Two important tidbits:

- home-schooled

- this quote: "We are just so grateful to God for another gift from him"

See, the Duggars are "conservative fundamentalist Christians" and adherents to the Quiverfull movement whose "distinguishing viewpoint is to eagerly receive children as blessings from God, eschewing all forms of contraception, including natural family planning and sterilization." (from Wikipedia).

Apparently, if you cannot create an evangelical Republican majority in America by the strength of your beliefs and the power of persuasion, you can just breed yourself one. It's an unfortunate fact of life - progressives, because of their understanding of the strain we are putting on our planet, are less likely to have a lot of children than are those on the Right. We are shooting ourselves in the foot. Of course, just because children are born into a fundamentalist (or progressive) family doesn't mean that they will always grow up to have their parents' beliefs. But, there is a high probability.

Just as I said in yesterday's post, sometimes the absurdity of your beliefs is the single best argument against their widespread adoption. All hail the Duggars, poster family for sterilization (I'm only half-kidding)!

"Those who in principle oppose birth control are either incapable of arithmetic or else in favor of war, pestilence and famine as permanent features of human life." -- Bertrand Russell

N.H. Republican fundraiser to feature machine guns

"I don't have to be careful, I've got a gun." -- Homer Simpson

"The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun." -- Richard Buckminster Fuller

From Reuters:

BOSTON (Reuters) - A planned Republican fundraiser in New Hampshire aims to promote gun ownership in America by letting supporters fire powerful military-style weapons -- from Uzi submachine guns to M-16 rifles.

The Manchester Republican Committee is inviting party members and their families to a "Machine Gun Shoot" where, for $25, supporters can spend a day trying out automatic weapons, said organizer Jerry Thibodeau.

"It's a fun day. It's a family day," said Thibodeau of the August 5 event. "It's quite exciting."

Local Democrats say the event is in poor taste amid a spike in violent crime in Manchester and seeks to glorify the use of machine guns for political gain. The right to own guns has come under heightened scrutiny since the April shooting at Virginia Tech where a gunman killed 32 people.

"It is downright offensive," Chris Pappas, the Manchester Democratic party chairman, told the Union Leader newspaper.

Thibodeau said he invited all the Republican candidates in the 2008 presidential race to the event at Pelham Fish and Game Club outside of Manchester, the state's largest city, but he said they declined. He said all shooters would undergo training.

Buying a gun in New Hampshire, whose official motto is "Live Free or Die," is relatively easy.

The state does not require buyers to obtain a handgun license or undergo safety training before buying a handgun, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control lobby group.

Nothing says family fun quite like shooting a machine gun.

It's fairly redundant to even criticize these organizers (or attendees). They are their own worst advocates. They're practically walking billboards for gun control.

And don't tell me it's about liberty. It's about power and politics.

"Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins." -- Ayn Rand

"People are bringing shotguns to UFO sightings in Fife, Alabama. I asked a guy, "Why do you bring a gun to a UFO sighting?" Guy said, "Way-ul, we didn' wanna be ab-duc-ted." If I lived in Fife, Alabama, I would be on my hands and knees every night praying for abduction." -- Bill Hicks

Copters collide

I meant to write about this the day it happened, but Blogger, in all it's infinite wisdom, chose that day to lock me out of my own blog. Apparently, my site had somehow been tagged as a Spam blog by Blogger's spam-sniffing robots. Obviously, there must be some bugs in their robots, which Blogger eventually sorted out. But it's still a little irritating. After all, I pay good money for this site. Oh, wait ... it's free. Well, I can still bitch if I want to.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to try and sort out something much more important, much more surreal. Something that I still haven't quite sorted out yet. Some of you may or may not have heard about the fatal collision of 2 news helicopters in downtown Phoenix this last Friday. From every report that I've heard, it's the first ever collision of news helicopters. There have been a handful of single aircraft crashes, but none involving two.

It's obviously a tragic accident, but tragic accidents happen all the time. Deaths like these, especially under strange circumstances, involving radio or TV personalities, and witnessed by a lot of people, bring about even a greater focus. A lot of people feel they "know" the people involved and therefore are affected more. But, still, that's not what I'm here to talk about.

This accident is still on my mind because it's not some abstraction. It's not just something that I heard about on the news. I was in downtown Phoenix that day. And if the events involving me had turned out differently, the accident may never have happened.

It's Friday afternoon, a little after noon, and I'm heading to my last client, a single lawyer firm at Thomas & Central. I'm heading down 7th Street, absently planning out the weekend in my head, without any big concerns. I'm in the far right hand lane, about a mile from my client. Checking my rear-view mirror, I see a service truck of some kind coming up fast and, I fear, in danger of rear-ending me. I'm bracing for the collision, but at the last moment he veers into the passing lane. But just barely. He does this at the last moment, nearly clipping me, and passing me by the narrowest of margins (about a foot). But that's not even the weirdest part. As he passes, I notice sparks flying up from the side of the truck. As he makes it past me, the truck, a construction or pest control truck of some kind (with a tank in the back), is driving on rims. I've seen people do this before, but they are usually driving very slowly, have only one tire on rims, and they are just trying to make it to a service station. This guy was going 50 mph and swerving madly. Shortly after he passes me, he immediately take a turn on Indian School Rd, towards downtown and continues driving fast. I look in my rear-view again, because even as thick as I am sometimes, I was beginning to think something was up. Sure enough, I saw about a dozen police cruisers in a cautious pursuit.

I continue south on 7th Street, anxious to stay as far away from that guy as possible. But I still don't think a lot about it. Probably some teenager on a joy-ride in a stolen work vehicle. I turn on Thomas (a mile south of Indian School) and head towards Central. I go to my client, on the 11th floor, and do my work. While there, I hear some fire engines and more police cars below and comment to my client about the weird episode that I'd had. We chuckle about it and don't think much more about it.

I get in my car. I'm done with clients, ready to go home and relax. I turn on the radio, which happens to be on our local NPR station. The newscasters are frantically discussing the events of about a half an hour ago, a mid-air collision of 2 news helicopters in downtown Phoenix. The news helicopters were covering a police chase of a stolen construction truck (with a tank in back) driving on it's rims. At this point, I almost pull over to the side of the road to throw up. I'm literally numb.

After watching a lot of coverage, reading a lot of articles and getting details of the whole thing, I am able to gather that within a minute of passing me, the guy ditches the service truck, jacks another vehicle and right at this time, the helicopters collide over Steele Park. I'm a mile south at that time, with several skyscrapers in between me and the collision and with me with music blaring in my truck, I don't hear the noise of the it. At my client, no one was listening to the radio, so everyone there is blissfully unaware.

Over the last few days, I keep going through scenarios in my head. I actually find myself wishing that the guy had hit me. It would have been a glancing collision. I think I would have been OK, but it would probably have stopped him so that the police could apprehend him. No long chase. No mid-air collision. Or maybe it would have still happened. It can screw with your head thinking about causality and fate (which I don't believe in) in a Sliding Doors sort of way. Regardless, I'm sick and sorry and confused at the same time.

I'm not even going to get into the justifiable questions of why society and news feel they have to see these police chases on TV. That's a question for a different time. It doesn't give comfort to the families of the men who died.

Here are a couple of videos from the helicopters. While they don't show the collision, they are still grisly. The first is from 15 (one of the copters in the collision). The truck you see at the beginning of the video is the one that nearly hit me.

News 15

The second is from 10, I believe, one of the copters not involved directly, but who is immensely affected by the collision. It is hard to listen to.

News 10

I'm pretty sure that the news copters were following the chase even before he went into the residential area and that there is footage of the guy passing me, but I have yet to find it.

I wouldn't wish the above situation on anyone, but I know some of you have had close brushes like this. It's sad that it takes something like this to make one appreciate that every tragic death is important. Everyone that dies has a family and friends that grieve. No deaths are unimportant.

Sports

"Sports do not build character. They reveal it." -- John Wooden

Or perhaps the lack of character. I don't talk about sports very much here but I'm pretty much a sports nut ... especially baseball. Lately, it seems like the sports world is in some kind of bizarro universe and I'm not at all happy about it. My takes:


Michael Vick -- If the allegations that Vick participated in and approved of the activities that he has been accused of (and the preponderance of evidence seems to indicate this), you cannot kick him out of the league fast enough, in my opinion. Vick's black, but his tastes in the use of dogs is straight-up white trash. Anyone that will torture a defenseless animal and call it sport is the lowest sort of human being. And it is usually a pretty good indicator of how they will treat other humans.

About the only time that I wished I believed in God was when it comes to figuring out what circle of hell would be most appropriate for the type of people that torture any other living thing.

To make it worse are other retarded NFL players who seems to think it's no big deal. Clinton Portis when asked about it:

"I don't know if he was fighting dogs or not," Portis said in the interview. "But it's his property; it's his dogs. If that's what he wants to do, do it."

Portis, a native of Laurel, Miss., added: "I know a lot of back roads that got a dog fight if you want to go see it. But they're not bothering those people because those people are not big names. I'm sure there's some police got some dogs that are fighting them, some judges got dogs and everything else."

And someone else who should really know better, Emmitt Smith:

" ... Now, granted he might have been to a dogfight a time or two, maybe five times, maybe 20 times, may have bet some money, but he's not the one you're after. He's just the one who's going to take the fall -- publicly."

Tim Donaghy (NBA ref) - Anyone that watched the Spurs-Suns (MY Suns!) series this last year know that the Suns absolutely got jobbed by the refs in how fouls and technicals were called and how players were suspended. But after the series, there wasn't a whole lot that you could do about it. Just lick your wounds and go on and that would be the end of it. Try again next year.

Well ... not so quick. Turns out that one of the refs that worked that series is the very same Tim Donaghy, who was revealed this week to have been betting on games that he was officiating and to be associating with the mob. This is an ugly, ugly situation - probably the ugliest the NBA has seen. Even if it turns out that Donaghy was the only ref involved, it calls into question every game that he was involved in and ultimately the outcome of the playoffs.


Barry Bonds - Barry's about to break one of those records that most people thought was unbreakable, the career home run record, held by Hank Aaron. It should be a time for celebration, for remembering the sluggers of the past and to pass on the mantle to the new one.

But it's not. You know why? Because this man doesn't seem to understand that achievements done through cheating, through circumventing rules, through permanently damaging your body are not really achievements. Or, at least not ones to brag about. Bonds had all the talent in the world. He had proven that he was going to go into the Hall of Fame even before he started using steroids. But that wasn't enough. Hubris born of stupidity and arrogance (hmm ... where else have I seen that?) blinded him and started him down the path that will eventually strip him of everything that he has worked for and perhaps even his life. Congratulations Barry.


I could get into yet another biking doping scandal or the ridiculous circus that is Beckam, but I've grown weary. Is it wrong to long for the days where the worst that players would do was maybe play drunk?