Origins

I took the afternoon off on Monday and attended the Origins Symposium at ASU's Gammage Auditorium. This is a great venue that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Not wanting to pay for parking or to worry about traffic, I rode the Light Rail from it's westernmost point near Christown Mall down to Tempe. Some observations:

- For being a huge baseball fan, specifically of the Diamondbacks, I was apparently unaware of the fact that home opener was an afternoon game (12:40). Wisely, everybody and their mother were riding the light rail to the park. Wise for them, not me. I had to put up with a full train until we go to the park and about 80% of the people got off. I did strike up a great conversation with a guy in a wheelchair who was not going to the game. He was from New York and we chatted about the Mets and their new bullpen. Nice guy.

- Everybody needs to ride mass transit more often. And I'm not talking about the obvious, good-for-the-environment blah-blah-blah stuff. The majority of the people that ride trains and buses are not white, are not rich, are not "proper". The world of mass transit may not always be pretty, but it's real. I'll take real over pretty any day.

Before the conference, I picked up a couple of tacos at a new place called Hippie's Cove on Mill Ave in downtown Tempe. Good stuff.

Got to Gammage, which was about a half mile walk from the Light Rail stop on Mill. There was about a half hour until the afternoon session began, so I sat in the hall outside the auditorium with other attendees. Now, I consider myself fairly nerdy, but I'm frickin' the coolest guy in the world compared to this crew. But I meant that in the most positive sense. I wish I hung out with more of these types.

The main point of the conference was to discuss the following questions:

How did the Universe Begin?
How did life arise?
How does life evolve?
What is the Origin of Human Uniqueness?
What is the origin of disease?
How does consciousness arise?
How do human institutions arise and develop?
What will be the technologies of the future?

The conference started and the first speaker was introduced and came out. This was the main person I was coming for, Richard Dawkins. Nowadays, most people know him for his book, The God Delusion, but he was a hugely influential evolutionary biologist and that is what he was speaking on this day. He spoke for about an hour and took some questions at the end. They primarily dealt with evolution but one questioner tried to bring up atheism and was rebuffed by the moderator. This symposium was to deal with the "origins" of the universe, of life, etc. If you opened up the can of worms of religion, you could fill several more symposiums. Dawkins was funny, conversational, intelligent and I'm glad I finally had the chance to see him in person.

The second speaker was Craig Venter. He is generally considered to be the first to map the human genome. There is some controversy on this point, but Venter is very active in genomic research and we haven't heard the last from him. He has a non-profit organization with over 400 scientists that continue to work in this field. His talk was a bit dry for my taste, not as funny as Dawkins. And I wasn't as nearly interested in his subject matter as the other speakers. The questioners at the end of his talk generally seemed to ask about the ethics of genomic research and of patenting of genomes.

Lawrence Krauss, the head of the Origins Initiative at ASU and a world-renowned author and theoretical physicist, was the third speaker. I didn't know a a lot about him going in but was very impressed. He was very charismatic and funny. He organized the symposium and was able to assemble a large number of Nobel winning physicists and chemists plus a collection of some of the most popularly known scientists and intellectuals in the world (Dawkins, Brian Greene, Christopher Hitchens, Venter, Stephen Pinker, etc.) He primarily talked about the origins of the universe, its age, and its expansion. Though it was a scientific conference, he couldn't resist a gentle dig -- Krauss commented that the universe has been measured to be about 13.7 billion years old, except for those people in Texas at the school board he just spoken to the previous week.


The last presentation was a round table of 6 Nobel Prize winning scientists moderated by Ira Flatow of NPR's Science Friday. Flatow led the sometime contentious discussion by the following scientists: Sheldon Glashow, David Gross, John Mather, Frank Wilczek, Walter Gilbert and Baruch Blumberg. Though they were all courteous and generally amusing, you can sense some fundamental differences in how they viewed popular physics subjects such as string theory, supersymmetry, and the Large Hadron Collider. It was all incredibly fascinating and I wish I could listen to people like this all the time.

This presentation again ended with some audience questions and you knew someone would just have to put a fly in the ointment. Flatow had begun the presentation with a comment about how it was nice for science to now be viewed in a more positive sense and for it to have a seat at the table, unlike the last 8 years. This is a point that no rational person could disagree with and I would guess that 99.9% of the audience agreed with. Well, that one person that disagree had to ask a question. A lady came up and said that she had no idea what he was talking about when he said that science has not been appreciated politically or popularly recently. And even before she said it, I knew she was going to somehow dovetail this into a religious question. She brought up Francis Collins as a means of saying that religion and science can coexist. For those who don't know who he is, he is a geneticist very instrumental in the mapping of the human genome, a contemporary of Venter. Christians love him because he is the one scientist in a 1,000 who will admit to being a Christian. It's sad really ... kinda like saying there are Republican actors by bringing up Stephen Baldwin or Angie Harmon. If you have to bring up Stephen Baldwin or Angie Harmon in any discussion, your argument is already lost.


Flatow was polite with the lady but opened up the discussion to the scientists in the panel who, to a man, brought up how science was the search for truth, where ever it may lie. They were all gracious, intelligent and profound and were met with raucous applause ... answer enough to the lady whose intent was to reconcile faith and science, at least in her own mind.

Overall, the conference was very enjoyable. It's encouraging that a show with a bunch of crusty old scientists talking can sell out a 3,000 seat theater in a conservative, largely religious and sometimes distinctly anti-science state. Maybe times are changing.

Opening Day ... my favorite day

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." -- Rogers Hornsby

"I see great things in baseball, it's our game-the American game. It will take our people out of doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us." -- Walt Whitman

12 not-so-angry men (and women)

"We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read" -- Mark Twain

"Jury: A group of 12 people, who, having lied to the judge about their health, hearing, and business engagements, have failed to fool him." -- Henry Louis Mencken

I just got finished serving on a jury (6 total days). It was a case where a guy was riding his bicycle without lights or reflectors, drinking a beer, and going down the middle of Central Ave (a busy street normally) in south Phoenix at 1 in the morning. For those of you that haven't been there, south central Phoenix is not unlike "south central" in any other major city ... a place that you don't want to be at 1 in the morning.

An unmarked Tahoe with 3 gang enforcement police tried to get him off the roadway for his own safety and that of traffic, he ignores them, chucks a beer at their vehicle and continues on. This goes on for awhile, the cops get out, there's a scuffle and a couple of the cops got hurt.

Once they got him in cuffs, he said that they better arrest him because he was going to "fucking kill them" and then he starts saying that he is Sur Trece and a Sereno (Latino gangs). Interesting case. 8 total counts including aggravated assault and resisting arrest but they also tagged on several gang-related charges.

We ended up convicting him on the assault and resisting arrest charges because they were all evidence-based. But the gang charges just didn't stick for many reasons. The guy was 36 (kinda old for a gang banger) and riding a bicycle. He was certainly a moron and probably was involved with a gang when he was younger but it just seemed like the police were trying to tag on some extra charges because they were gang-enforcement police. There were no witnesses besides the cops to his proclamation. Most of us felt that he did make the threats but he didn't do it until he was already in cuffs. He had a zillion opportunities to flash gang signs or say something before then, but didn't. He was just spouting shit once he got caught. Trying to puff himself up. He had no weapons of any kind and no normal gang paraphernalia or clothing. Gang-enforcement police have a vested interest in making it into a "gang" case.

The guy was definitely not a brain surgeon but these were all serious charges and you really have to make sure. It's a weird feeling having someone's fate in your hands. Someone who has 3 young children. Being on a jury is an experience I'd recommend for anybody that gets the chance. Seeing the court system's workings from the inside definitely paints a different picture than what you see on TV.

As it was, he had some previous convictions on unrelated stuff and the 3 guilty charges that we gave him ended up in a sentence of 25 years on top of whatever else he had. I wonder if he's thinking he should have handled that situation that night a little differently. If he'd have just stopped, he'd have probably been sent home with a warning or, at worst, a charge for an open container. But a series of boneheaded decisions will keep him locked up for a long time, away from his family. Crazy stuff. I now know more about Latino gang culture that I ever did before.

"I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system -- that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up." -- Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird

America, One Nation Under No God?

America, One Nation Under No God?
The number of secular Americans is rising faster than any other religious group. But faith will continue to influence politics
by Michelle Goldberg

In recent years, non-religious Americans have won a modicum of public acknowledgment. Not long ago, politicians insulted them with impunity or at best simply overlooked them. But the heightened public religious fervour of the Bush years led the country's infidels to organise as never before, turning atheist authors like Sam Harris into celebrities and opening lobbying offices in Washington, DC, just like religious interest groups do.

Politicians have responded. In his inaugural address, Barack Obama - doubtlessly realising that secularists constitute a big part of his base - described America as a "nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus ... and non-believers." Even Mitt Romney came to express second thoughts about leaving atheists and agnostics out of his high-profile campaign speech on faith. The United States is not Europe - it will likely be a long time before we have a publicly agnostic president - but it is becoming more tolerant of the godless.

It has to be: no religious group in the United States is growing as fast as those who profess no religion at all. The latest American Religious Identification Survey, which Trinity College published last week, shows that the number of non-religious Americans has nearly doubled since 1990, while the number of people who specifically self-identity as atheists or agnostics has more than tripled. An astonishing 30% of married Americans weren't wed in religious ceremonies, and 27% don't expect to have religious funerals. This suggests whole swaths of the culture are becoming secular, since one can assume that non-believers in religious families often acquiesce to traditional marriage rites and expect to be prayed over when they're dead.

The irony, though, is that even as the country becomes more secular, American politics are likely to remain shot through with aggressive piety. What we're seeing is not a northern European-style mellowing, but an increasing polarisation. In his recent book Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment, the sociologist Phil Zuckerman described the secularised countries of Scandinavia as places where religion is regarded with "benign indifference". There's consensus instead of culture war. That's not what's happening in the United States. Instead, the centre is falling out.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey, Christianity is losing ground in the United States, but evangelical Christianity is not. Just over a third of Americans are still born-again. Meanwhile, the mainline churches, beacons of progressive, rationalistic faith - the kind that could potentially act as a bridge between religious and non-religious Americans - are shrinking. "These trends ... suggest a movement towards more conservative beliefs and particularly to a more 'evangelical' outlook among Christians," write the report's authors.

In some ways, there's a symbiotic relationship between evangelicals and secularists. The religious right emerged in response to a widespread sense of cultural grievance stemming from the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. Today's newly organised atheists and agnostics were mobilised by the theocratic bombast of Bush-era Republicans. More than ever, one's religion is tied up with one's political choices rather than family history.

That means faith won't fade into the background. If European secularism is defined by disinterest in organised religion, American secularism is largely defined by opposition to it. Thus non-believers in the United States are increasingly becoming an organised interest group, demanding their share of civic respect. The more they want to escape organised religion, the less they can ignore it.

"Benign indifference" -- that'd be nice. It really does seem like religion has gotten so tied up with politics in America. You go to any congregation and they are 80% Republicans or Democrats.

If it was more like Europe over here, atheists and agnostics wouldn't feel so compelled to vocalize their angst. You are beat over the head with religion everywhere here -- parents of your child's classmates, at the polls, by your political leaders. If they did that in the UK, I'm guessing it would be viewed rather amusingly.

And, as the article states, it makes rock stars out of people like Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm among that group.

I guess I should be glad that it's not as much of a Scarlet Letter to be an atheist any more. It's nice to have a voice in the discussion. But, personally, I'm hoping for those days where a person's faith, or lack of it, shouldn't matter at all.

"So much blood has been shed by the Church because of an omission from the Gospel: "Ye shall be indifferent as to what your neighbor's religion is." Not merely tolerant of it, but indifferent to it. Divinity is claimed for many religions; but no religion is great enough or divine enough to add that new law to its code." -- Mark Twain

Is This the End of the Age of the Automobile?

Is This the End of the Age of the Automobile?
by Harvey Wasserman

As a dominant form of transportation, the automobile is dead. So is GM, which now stands for Gone Mad.

But the larger picture says that the financial crisis now enveloping the world is grounded in the transition from the automobile---and the fossils that fuel it---to a brave renewable world of reborn mass transit and green power.

If GM lives in any form, it must be owned and operated by its workers and the public.

But the larger transition is epic and global, based on a simple structural reality: the passenger car is obsolete. Auto sales have plummeted not merely because of a bad economy, but because the technology no longer makes sense.

Franklin Roosevelt took GM over in 1943-5 to make the hardware to beat the Nazis. Barack Obama should now do the same to beat climate chaos.

Make streetcars, not passenger cars.

Hybrids are too little, too late, with problems of their own. Solar-powered electric cars will help phase out the gas guzzlers.

But in the long run, the automobile itself needs to be dismantled and re-cycled, not retooled or rebuilt.

Cars still kill 40,000 Americans/year, and thousands more worldwide. No matter how much less gas each may burn, they all consume unsustainable resources to manufacture, operate and terminate.

We need to dig up roads, not build more. We need rails and coaches, bio-diesel buses and self-propelled trolleys, Solartopian super-trains and in-town people movers, not to mention windmills, solar panels, wave generators and geothermal piping.

In America's corporate-conceived “love affair with the automobile,” our first spouse---mass transit---was murdered. Now the unsustainable obsolescence of the private passenger car is collapsing a global financial system built on the illusion of its constant growth.

Mother Earth can’t sustain the old four-wheeled carry-one-person-around-the-block paradigm, be it hybrid, electric or otherwise.

If the automobile and its attendant freeways continue to metastasize in India, China and Africa as they did in the 20th Century United States, we are doomed.

Our true challenge is to envision, engineer and build a Solartopian transportation system that moves people and things cleanly around a crowded planet with diminishing resources and no margin for ecological error.

For that we need every cent and brain cell devoted to what’s new and works, not what’s failed and could kill us all.

Harvey Wasserman ... is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, and writes regularly for www.freepress.org, where this article first appeared.

"The car has become a secular sanctuary for the individual, his shrine to the self, his mobile Walden Pond" -- Edward McDonagh

Is it any wonder we're disconnected from each other? We spend 2 hours a day in a car ... alone. As we are driving, we listen to mind-numbing talk radio that further panders to the glorification of the one over the many (Beck, Hannity, Rush, etc.). When we get home, we pull into our attached garages and immediately close the garage doors, never to converse with our neighbers. Many of us don't even know our neighbors.

Think of all the money, lives and sanity that would be saved by plowing under all of these bloated highways and parking lots and replacing them with parks. Are cars really adding anything to our lives? They are endless money pits that are wasteful and polluting. They had their time and undoubtedly hastened a lot of the prosperity of the past century, but at what cost ... sprawl, pollution, etc.? And are we really more prosperous? We work more than ever and spend less time with our families. When we replaced one of our cars with a scooter, it was one of the smartest and most satisfying things we have done. If we were to lose our remaining car tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a single tear. I really don't get people's fascination with the automobile. I have an inkling on the male fascination with cars (as would Dr. Freud). But it's time to get over it. For everyone's sake.

Nerd-dom Sacred Cows

This last week I saw Watchmen and finished the book, Dune: The Butlerian Jihad by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. Not really related, you say. You're probably right, I say. But humor me ... I find it amusing to try and link disparate things. It gives me an excuse to do a blog post.

My premise is that there are several sci-fi/comic/fantasy artistic sacred cows out there that other artists have been reluctant to adapt or expand upon because of the anticipated backlash from "fanboys".

The first of those "sacred cows" that I'm going to discuss is the original Dune by Frank Herbert. It is one of the classic sci-fi novels and probably my favorite book of all time. I read that book and the others in the original series when I was in my teens. Loved 'em.


Starting in the late '90's, Frank Herbert's son Brian, along with co-author Kevin Anderson, expanded upon a lot of the back story that is mentioned when you read Dune. A lot of the information was firsthand from Brian's own conversations with his dad before he passed away and from his dad's notes. Since that time, they've written about 10 books, I believe.

While it is not the original Dune, and lacks the artistry of Frank Herbert, it's still quality sci-fi and serves the purpose of illuminating a lot of events and characters mentioned in Dune. These books chronicle events thousands of years before the events of Dune. I don't think it takes away from the original at all. I'm actually looking forward to rereading Dune with the added info.

With this generation of fanboys, Alan Moore's graphic novel, Watchmen, is held in even higher regard than Dune. A movie adaptation has been bouncing around for years with directors as diverse as Terry Gilliam, Darren Arronofsky and Paul Greengrass attached. Much in the same way that the LOTR movies were entertaining, Watchmen adds on to the world of the graphic novel without taking away from it. They are not meant as replacements but more as one fan's interpretation. And Zack Snyder is certainly a respectful, knowledgeable fan in the same way Peter Jackson was. While the Tolkien family viewed the LOTR movies more favorably than Alan Moore views Watchmen, that says more about Moore than it does about the movie. Moore does not even watch the adaptations of his novels and is openly hostile towards them.

I don't think that Snyder changed anything drastically that hurt the movie overall. Some of the flashbacks to the older super heroes were done in the intro. The comic within a comic about the sailor from a couple of hundred years ago is not included. How could it? It really wouldn't make any sense unless you had read the graphic novel. As it is, I'm sure that there are a lot of people that have seen the movie that don't understand everything because they haven't read it.

The casting in the movie is fine with the high points being Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan and Patrick Wilson as the Nite Owl II, but especially Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach. He's fantastic. The low point being Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre II. She may be nice to look at, but she can't act.


The look of the movie is very faithful to the novel ... almost shot for shot. Snyder is the right guy to adapt graphic novels as his previous one, 300, did a great job with the look also.

The ending was changed a bit but there has always been some criticism that that was one of the weaknesses of the original story. I had no problem with the change.

So, overall, for fans of Dune, I recommend the Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson collaborations. And for fans of the Watchman graphic novel, I do recommend the movie. Fans of all types need to lighten up a bit and not hold things quite so sacred. You're missing out on truly entertaining stuff. And just because you may enjoy an updating or reinterpretation of a story, doesn't mean the original is in any way diminished.

"Sacred cows make the best hamburger" -- Mark Twain

Richard Dawkins - Origins symposium

You know you are a nerd when you get as stoked about seeing Richard Dawkins and Craig Venter speak in person as you would a movie star or rock star. I just got tickets for the afternoon session of the Origins symposium at Arizona State University next month. The session that I'm seeing:

Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion, Blind Watchmaker, etc.)
Craig Venter (instrumental in mapping of human genome)
Lawrence Krauss

Noble Panel, moderated by Ira Flatow (from NPR):
Baruch Blumberg
Walter Gilbert
Sheldon Glashow
David Gross
John Mather
Frank Wilczek

The whole day is awesome with about a dozen authors I've read including Steven Pinker (I have his books The Language Instinct and the Blank Slate ...) and Brian Greene (Fabric of the Cosmos ...) in the morning. And in another session in the evening, which I couldn't get tickets for, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Hawking and others. That one would have been sweet.




I'm a scientist groupie. How sad is that?

BTW, Wunelle, posted a link to a great hour show with the Four Horseman of atheism, as it were: Dawkins, Hitchens, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett. Check it out.

Atheism's Four Horseman

Overdue Oscar Musings

A little late, but I'll give a few thoughts on the Oscars and a response to the following comment by Great White Bear:

"okay, I am impatiently waiting to see your Oscar thoughts!

I eventually saw all the best picture nominees except "The Wrestler" My thought.... Clint Eastwood got jobbed! Gran Torino was easily better than any of the nominated films, and Changeling was better than all but Frost/Nixon.

And Frank Langella's Nixon was better than Penn's Milk!"

Best Picture - I saw all the Best Picture nominees except The Reader. We're going to see that tonight for our anniversary (15 years ... yay!!). I did see one of my favorite actresses, Kate Winslet, in her other big movie this year, Revolutionary Road with Leo DiCaprio. That movie was good and very representative of the suburban malaise of that period (and this period, for that matter) but maybe just a tad depressing. It reminded me a bit of the movie The Ice Storm, also set in suburban Connecticut, which hit upon the same subject but was set in the 70's instead of the 40's and 50's.


I didn't get to see The Wrestler, Gran Torino or The Changeling but want to see all of them.

Frost/Nixon was great and it was my pick for Best Picture until I had seen Slumdog Millionaire. Slumdog had everything - setting, music, anguish, redemption, fresh faces. I wholeheartedly agreed with all the awards it took in.

Best Actor - I do agree that Langella was better in Frost/Nixon than Penn in Milk but I cannot fault Penn's performance at all and I think he's owed an Oscar or two. His acting is consistently great and this is such an un-Penn-like role that he pulled off. He got jobbed big time last year for directing and Best Picture with Into the Wild.

Langella truly transcended in that performance and you don't hear a lot of people giving credit, but I thought Michael Sheen as David Frost was fantastic.

Overall, I think it was a great year for Best Actor nominees. I would have had no problem with any of the nominees winning, save Pitt. And that's not a knock on Pitt. I thought he was fine, but the other four nominees gave the performances of their careers.

Best Actress - I saw none of these movies but I'm happy to see Winslet win. I'll let you know what I think of her in the Reader this weekend.

Best Director - I think Danny Boyle had the most complicated job of any of the nominated directors - A couple of countries, iffy working conditions, non-English speaking non-actors, an unconventional narrative. And he pulls it off. Plus I dig him because he directed one of my favorite movies of all time - Trainspotting.


I also like the subtle directing job of Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon.

Music - The Academy consistently fucks up the nominations in this category and slightly redeems itself with the winners. Last year, they didn't nominate any of the songs from the best soundtrack of the year, for Into the Wild, but the winner from the good movie Once slightly made up for it.

This year, Springsteen didn't get nominated for the Wrestler song. I mean, WTF? Why were only 3 songs nominated in this category? All that being said, I liked the noms and win for Slumdog and I always like Peter Gabriel.

Best Supporting Actor - I saw 4 of these performances. I've already ranted about the advanced screening of Tropic Thunder that I saw. I love Robert Downey but did not like this movie. Nuff' said.

I really like Josh Brolin in Milk and felt that Emile Hirsch and James Franco could have easily been nominated also. Brolin is turning into quite the character actor the last few years (No Country, W, Milk) and is at the top of his game. But this category was going to go to Ledger, and rightly so. It takes quite an original performance to make you forget Jack Nickolson's portrayal of the Joker.

Best Supporting Actress - I only saw Henson in Benjamin Button and she was good.

As for the telecast itself, I thought it was fine. I like how they have several former winners present the acting awards. But, I'm a sucker for awards shows, so my threshold for being impressed might be lower than other people.

War on Drugs

artwork courtesy of IPW artist Linda Eddy

I don't often find reason to agree with Ron Paul, but on Bill Maher's HBO show on Friday, I found a big reason:

... Speaking live from Clute, Texas, the libertarian-leaning Republican did what few other members of Congress will and openly called for the United States' War on Drugs to be abolished ...

"I don't like pot," said the congressman. "But I hate the drug war, so I would repeal all of prohibition. But, I wouldn't even bother taxing it. People have the right in a free country to make important decisions on their own lives. If they want to make mistakes, they can. They just can't come crawling to the government to get bailed out or taken care of if they get sick.

"I believe in freedom of choice in all that we do, as long as the individual never hurts anybody else. So that means I would get rid of all the federal laws. I would dispose with the drug war. We're spending tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars on this, then we march into places like California, override state law, arrest sick people and put them in prison."

"It makes no sense whatsoever," he insisted ...

"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced." -- Albert Einstein

The Scourge of Modern Civilization

• they are like Muslim terrorists


• ---------------------------------------------


• "... the greatest threat to America going down."


• ---------------------------------------------


• "They're mean. They want to talk about being nice. They're the meanest buggers I have ever seen."


• ---------------------------------------------


• "What is the morals of a ____ person? You can't answer that because anything goes. So now you're moving toward a society that has no morals"


• ---------------------------------------------


• they are trying to get into our schools and indoctrinate our children

Bar your doors!! Head to the bomb shelters! Be very afraid because they are apparently some pretty bad dudes. Where can you find them? In our schools ... in our workplaces ... in our families. Who are these people? They are us. They are not some fringe group hell-bent on destroying us. They are not any more immoral than the rest of us.

They are gays. And if Utah State Senator Chris Buttars is to be believed, they are a bigger concern than the economy or global terrorism. It would be comforting to say he's just some wack-a-doodle that doesn't represent a larger portion of the population. But that would be a lie. His views are very representative of a large portion of the state of Utah and of the Mormon Church. A chuch that was tacitly encouraging it's members to fund the anti-gay Proposition 8 in California. A church that just recently admitted an even larger role in Proposition 8:

The Mormon church has revealed in a campaign filing that the church spent nearly $190,000 to help pass Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that banned gay marriage in California.

The disclosure comes amid an investigation by the state's campaign watchdog agency into whether the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints violated state laws by not fully disclosing its involvement during the campaign.

While many church members had donated directly to the Yes on 8 campaign – some estimates of Mormon giving range as high as $20 million – the church itself had previously reported little direct campaign activity.

But in the filing made Friday, the Mormon church reported thousands in travel expenses, such as airline tickets, hotel rooms and car rentals for the campaign. The church also reported $96,849.31 worth of "compensated staff time" – hours that church employees spent working to pass the same-sex marriage ban.

I'm sick of the purveyors of intolerance using the crutch of accusing their accusers of religious intolerance. It's akin to the KKK getting upset if we call them on their racism. Ignorance given credibility by a large church is still ignorance. And I'm sick of a federal government that ignores the separation of church and state and that doesn't threaten churches like this with the taking away of their tax-exempt status. They are certainly allowed to have their views, but let's see how freely they would use their money to influence legislation if they had to pay taxes like the rest of us.

"The Bible itself is intolerant, and true followers of God's word should be as well." -- Bob Jones III, president of Bob Jones University

"Don't get so tolerant that you tolerate intolerance." -- Bill Maher, from his one-person show Victory Begins At Home

My haul from the VNSA Used Book Sale

I talk about this sale every year ... because it's awesome!

Here are the highlights of the books (almost all hardbacks) that I picked up at this year's VNSA Used Book Sale -- 52 years of selling gobs of used books to benefit local charities (AZ Friends of Foster Children, Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa Country, and Toby House:

Sci-Fi

The System of the World by Neal Stephenson
A World Out of Time by Larry Niven
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert


Achlles' Choice by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow (I just read Towing Jehovah by this author ... very good)

Science Non-Fiction

The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene
The Riverkeepers by John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Political

Nickel and Dimed
This Land is Their Land
both by Barbara Ehrenreich
Right is Wrong
Fanatics and Fools
both by Arianna Huffington
Stupid White Men by Michael Moore
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

Misc

Beyond Good & Evil by Nietzsche

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." -- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146

Do the Evolution

Do the Evolution by Pearl Jam
Woo..
I'm ahead, I'm a man
I'm the first mammal to wear pants, yeah
I'm at peace with my lust
I can kill 'cause in God I trust, yeah
It's evolution, baby

I'm at piece, I'm the man
Buying stocks on the day of the crash
On the loose, I'm a truck
All the rolling hills, I'll flatten 'em out, yeah
It's herd behavior, uh huh
It's evolution, baby

Admire me, admire my home
Admire my son, he's my clone
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
This land is mine, this land is free
I'll do what I want but irresponsibly
It's evolution, baby

I'm a thief, I'm a liar
There's my church, I sing in the choir:
(hallelujah, hallelujah)

Admire me, admire my home
Admire my son, admire my clones
'Cause we know, appetite for a nightly feast
Those ignorant Indians got nothin' on me
Nothin', why?
Because... it's evolution, baby!

I am ahead, I am advanced
I am the first mammal to make plans, yeah
I crawled the earth, but now I'm higher
2010, watch it go to fire
It's evolution, baby
Do the evolution
Come on, come on, come on

Happy 200th Birthday Mr. Darwin!

Hard Work

"Hard work is a misleading term. Physical effort and long hours do not constitute hard work. Hard work is when someone pays you to do something you'd rather not be doing. Anytime you'd rather be doing something other than the thing you're doing, you're doing hard work." -- George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

This morning was not "hard work". Getting up each morning to go to clients ... that's hard work. I took part in the restoration, road removal & clean-up of a section of the Sonoran Desert National Monument with the Arizona Wilderness Coalition:

"A significant part of the Sonoran Desert National Monument is currently closed to vehicular access because of the excessive damage it is receiving from illegal off-road vehicle use, trash dumping, etc. The area we are restoring is inside a wilderness. We will be removing a road that has been illegally created inside the wilderness boundary ..."

About an hour drive SW of Glendale, it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. Great scenery, nice weather and a worthy mission. We swung hoes or pick axes to break up the ground hardened by illegal vehicle traffic. The hardened ground does not allow the desert plant life to grow. By breaking it up, grasses will reestablish themselves ... and quickly. We moved dead logs and dug holes to put dead bushes in. This was done to discourage the use of these paths again.

The leader of the restoration showed us a different area that they had worked on last fall and you could barely tell anything had been there. It had been a large parking area that had remnants of fires and rutted paths, and now it looks like normal desert with grasses and creosote bushes.

I guess that's the heartening thing about fixes to our environment -- changes made can make a difference and can allow the earth to recover.

It sucks that this type of work has to be done. Shooting guns, littering, and a complete disregard for designated wilderness areas -- not things that will endear a person to me. And not exactly things that will convince me of your intelligence. But despite my disappointment of a section of our society, I was heartened and encouraged by the selfless effort of a different section of our society - the volunteers.

Large off-road vehicles, recreational gun use, and Budweiser (the most popular litter item) are things either informed by a lack of knowledge of Freud or perhaps by too much knowledge of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh:

"The Earth’s ecosystem is not fragile, and humans are not capable of destroying it" - Rush Limbaugh

One wishes that Rush's influence was more fragile, but people will always look for views that reinforce their prejudices. Our hope should be to rid people of their prejudices and then his idiocy will have nothing to take hold of.

Shock Doctrine at work in AZ

To get an idea what modern conservatism has become, take a look at our little test bed here in Arizona. With the exit of Janet Napolitano to the Obama administration and a looming economic crisis, it was the perfect opportunity for our mouth-breathing Republican state congressmen and a pliant new Republican governor to gut education and social programs in the so-called interest of reducing the state budget deficit. Classic disaster capitalism - use crisis and disasters to push through your free market agenda, reduce government and eliminate social programs. Legislators hide behind the deficit, saying that cuts in all programs are needed. The public is blinded by the crisis and lets it happen. Included are:

• a $300 million cut to education


• $25 million cut to state parks, including at least 5 park closures


• cuts to libraries and museums


• "layoffs and furloughs for state workers, and elimination of a welfare program for disabled people waiting for Social Security benefits"

But not all the news is bad. Some programs didn't get cut ... they even got a boost. Guess which:

"Not everything was red ink: The budget package includes $1.6 million for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to use for immigration enforcement ..."

You fucking hypocrites. It's not about balancing the budget. It's about pushing your agenda. Shit on those not able to defend themselves and prop up xenophobic sociopaths. I guess they have their priorities straight.

We're in hell. Janet! Please come back!

Stuff White People Like

I'd guess that a lot of you have already heard the Stuff White People Like list by blogger/ author Christian Lander . For those that haven't, you might suspect it has stuff like "pick-up trucks", "guns", "NASCAR". Not at all. It's a little more pomo than that. It's more about making fun of guilty-conscience, Facebook-loving, sushi-eating, farmer's market shoppers who judge people by their carbon footprint. People kinda like ... well, me. Here are just a few of my favorites:

• #107 Self Aware Hip Hop References
  
  ... dilemma for white people who had to show both that they loved hip hop but also that they were aware they were white. The brilliant solution they came up with was to appropriate hip hop words and mannerisms and filter them through a white appropriateness system.
  
  For example, white people find it particularly hilarious to take slang and enunciate every word perfectly.
  
  “Homey, that bernaise sauce you made is wack. Do you know what I am saying? For Real.”
  
  “Well, I used a different type of butter. I switched the style up, so let the haters hate and I’ll watch the deliciousness pile up.”
  
  Since the above exchange involves people who are very aware of their whiteness it is hilarious, but if it were to be said by wiggers, it would be tragic. The difference is subtle but essential...



• #64 Recycling
  
  Recycling is a part of a larger theme of stuff white people like: saving the earth without having to do that much.
  
  Recycling is fantastic! You can still buy all the stuff you like (bottled water, beer, wine, organic iced tea, and cans of all varieties) and then when you’re done you just put it in a DIFFERENT bin than where you would throw your other garbage. And boom! Environment saved! Everyone feels great, it’s so easy!
  
  This is important because all white feel guilty about producing waste. It doesn’t stop them from doing it, but they feel guilty about it. Deep down, they believe they should be like the Native Americans and use every part of the product or beast they have consumed. Though for many white people, this simply means putting plastic bags into a special drawer where they will accumulate until they are eventually used to carry some gym clothes or bathing suit. Ultimately this drawer will get full and only be emptied when the person moves to a new house. Advanced white recyclers will uses these grocery bags as garbage bags.
  
  If you are in a situation where a white person produces an empty bottle, watch their actions. They will first say “where’s the recycling?” If you say “we don’t recycle,” prepare for some awkwardness. They will make a move to throw the bottle away, they will hesitate, and then ultimately throw the bottle away. But after they return look in their eyes. All they can see is the bottle lasting forever in a landfill, trapping small animals. It will eat at them for days, at this point you should say “I’m just kidding, the recycling is under the sink. Can you fish out that bottle?” And they will do it 100% of the time!
  
  The best advice is that if you plan to deal with white people on regular basis either start recycling or purchase a large blue bin so that they can believe they are recycling.



• #60 Toyota Prius
  
  Over the years, white people have gone through a number of official cars. In the 1980s it was the Saab and the Volvo. By the 1990s it was the Volkswagen Jetta or a Subaru 4WD station wagon. But these days, there is only one car for white people. One car that defines all that they love: the Toyota Prius.
  
  The Prius might be the most perfect white product ever. It’s expensive, gives the idea that you are helping the environment, and requires no commitment/changes other than money.
  
  The Toyota Prius gets 45 miles per gallon. That’s right, you can drive 45 miles and burn only one gallon of gasoline. So somehow, through marketing or perception, the Prius lets people think that driving their car is GOOD for the environment.
  
  It’s a pretty sweet deal for white people. You can buy a car, continue to drive to work and Barak Obama rallies and feel like you are helping the environment!
  
  Some white people decide to pull the ultimate move. Prius, Apple Sticker on the back, iPod rocking, and Democratic Candidate bumper sticker. Unstoppable!
  
  ... Also, if you see a white person in a Prius you can say “wow, that’s great to see that you’re doing something for the earth.” The white person will feel very good about themselves and offer to drive you home, to Ikea, or drop you off at 80s night.



• #5 Farmer's Markets
  
  ... White people like Farmers Markets for a number of reasons. The first is their undying need to support local economies, and the idea of buying direct from the farmer helps them assuage the fears instilled in them from reading Fast Food Nation (and yes, every white person has read this book).
  
  White people also like Farmer’s Markets because it is outdoors (they love being outdoors), they can bring their dogs and children in expensive strollers, and they get to see other white people. If they are single, this is a good place to meet other single white people who share their passion for sustainability.

Slumdog Millionaire

I had given myself the goal of seeing as many of the Oscar-nominated films (best film and actor/actress) as possible prior to the Oscars. I had already seen 3 of the top movies (Frost/Nixon, Benjamin Button, Milk) prior to seeing Slumdog Millionaire this past weekend. Being a critically acclaimed film, my expectations were high. But something surprising happened, this movie about redemption and new beginnings exceeded them.

From the squalor, poverty and shit of modern day India (yes, shit ... apparently a recurring theme in Danny Boyle movies), came something of unexpected beauty. I was floored by this movie.

Slumdog Millionaire opens up a window into a crowded and dirty world that we as Americans cannot even begin to imagine. Set in Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay) over the last 20 years, Slumdog encompasses the life of it's main characters, Jamil, his brother Samir, and his friend Latika (played by the stunning Frieda Pinto). They are each orphaned by the Bombay riots of 1992 and 1993, in which 900 people died.

Their life on the run is told by flashbacks in a manner which I won't ruin for you here. But you can guess enough from the previews and title that is has something to do with So You Want to be a Millionaire. It's a unique premise and manner of telling the story. And despite the pain and loneliness they endure, the story has remarkable humor and spirit. The music is fantastic, comprised mostly of India dance music.

The adult actors, Dev Patel as the grown-up Jamal, the previously mentioned Pinto, and the famous Indian actor Anil Kapoor as the host of the game show, are universally good. But the child actors that portray the three characters as they are growing up are also good.

I was already a big fan of the director, Danny Boyle, who also directed Trainspotting (one of my all-time top 10) and Shallow Grave. His style of film-making, fast-paced, flashy, dirty, morally ambiguous, plays well to the material.

It's refreshing to see a popular movie with a story not set in New York or London and with characters that are not spoiled, blonde and blue-eyed. I cannot recommend a movie any more than I do this sad and effecting love story. Grade: A+

Week One

Hope and Responsibility

President Barack Obama. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? It seems like it took a lot of work to get to this point and that we should be happy with the result. But we can't be.

Our hopes may or may not be fulfilled with an Obama administration. They surely were dashed with a Bush Administration.

George Bush may have been driving the bus that went off the cliff, but we all had a role. Some of us may have egged him on to drive faster (Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle), saying that the chasm wasn't so deep or wide. Others said there need not be a speed limit -- the free market will save us should we fall off the cliff (Enron, CA energy deregulation, Phil Gramm). A few of us just rewrote history to indicate we never drove off the cliff (Drudge, Bill Kristol, FOX News). But the worst offenders are the people that just sat there, listened to the others without asking questions, or believed that the driver was appointed by God and could do no wrong.

No one person can ruin a country. And no one person can save it. Obama may be the embodiment of our hope but it will not be by him that our world changes. It will be through us. If you want something to change, do it yourself. If something is broken, don't gripe about it -- do something to fix it.

I'm not saying that hope and symbolism are not important or effective. They are. But if they are not followed up with action, they are meaningless. Obama has rightly given us hope. Now let's see what he does with it. Now let's see what WE do with it.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." -- Albert Einstein

Cards are going to the Super Bowl!!

click image for some more pictures

Alex and I went to the Cardinals 32 - 25 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship in Glendale. Had a blast.

Top 10 Movies of 2008

It's time to cut the crap. This is the latest that I've posted my year-end top 10. I guess I was hoping to catch just a few more of the flicks that were released right at the end of '08. So here goes ... in order:

10. Definitely, Maybe - This one surprised me a bit. Taking it for just being another chick flick, I underestimated it. It's funny and heartfelt with nice performances by Ryan Reynolds and Litte Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin. Plus, it has three of the most attractive and talented young actresses in Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks and Isla Fisher. Hubba hubba.

9. Bank Job - British crime caper by the director of In Bruges. It's based on a true story and has the best performance of Jason Statham's career. I know that's not necessarily saying a lot, but it's something.

8. Religulous - It might be a stretching it a bit to call this a documentary. It's more like a live-action, on-location comedy skit by Bill Maher on the ridiculousness of organized religion. But it's very funny. Even people of faith will get a kick out of this one.

7. Milk - Of all the movies that I was this year, probably the best ensemble cast with Sean Penn, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, and Victor Garber. It captures 70's California great and illuminates a period in our history that many have forgotten.

6. Curious Case of Benjamin Button - A nice change of pace by Mr. Gloomy, David Fincher. Nice performances by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett (like she's ever had a bad one) and cool special F/X.

5. Wall-E - A great synthesis of art and message. The least talky major studio animated movie that I can remember.

4. Iron Man - A great kick-off to the summer blockbuster season. Robert Downey Jr. is really what makes this movie. He was born to play this role. They say you know when an actor has done a good job when you can't imagine anybody else playing the role. That's what we have here. Gwyneth Paltrow is funny and gorgeous.

3. There Will Be Blood - This was released in January and I saw it then but is generally considered to be a 2007 movie. Brilliant Oscar-winning performance by Daniel Day Lewis about the early days of the oil boom in our country. It's epic in scope with great cinematography and a great feel for the period. Also darkly funny.

2. The Dark Knight - This is the comic book movie that might finally get people to think of it as just a movie instead of one based on a comic. Tragic, violent, morally ambiguous ... it can fit right beside a Scorcese gangster movie. You've heard the kudos for Heath Ledger's Joker performance. I had too before seeing it. With those expectations, plus his death, I was bound to be disappointed. Guess what? I wasn't. Ledger was brilliant.

1. Frost/Nixon - My pick for best picture Oscar, though I don't think it will get it. Nixon taught us that it's not necessarily intent or maliciousness that gets our leaders (and our country) in trouble ... it's hubris and lack of self-awareness. This movie is timely because it shows that we probably haven't learned anything in the 30 years hence. "A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it." - Winston Churchill

5 More I really liked:

21
Speed Racer
Burn After Reading
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Bolt

10 More I really wish I had a chance to see and that would have had a good chance of making my top 10:

In Bruges
Gran Torino
The Wrestler
Revolutionary Road
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Changeling
Doubt
The Visitor

Come What (ever) May - Political Song of the Day

We're running out of time to have songs about Bush. Here's a pretty good one by Stone Sour (Slipknot's lead singer's side band):

"Come What(ever) May" -- Stone Sour

Can you take away every single day?
That we have given to another false prophet
Can you give us all a reason not to fall?
Before you take away another broken promise

Show your pretty face
Hide the bitter taste
You're still the rapist of an entire nation
You wanna be the man you gotta be a man
But you were nothing but a sad insinuation
(Oh)
How can we ever live this down?
(Oh)
How can we ever live this down?

Keep your fingers crossed
The truth is at a loss
Big decision for an ordinary coward
The only problem is your fucking rhetoric
We're more in danger than before you took power

Now it's just a game
God you'll never change
You'd sell us out if you could only find a buyer
You don't give a shit
As long as idiots
Are in your corner you could set us all on fire
(Oh)
How can we ever live this down?
(Oh)
How can we ever live this down?

You never wanted to be
They only wanted a parody
You want the world to be free
What the hell is free about it?!

Now we reached the end
Just get it over with
But this is building to an adament conclusion
Come what ever may
There's gonna be a day
When we have figured out a possible solution

Every thing you've done
Is killing everyone
A little smile on a homicidal bastard
You wanna be a man
You gotta have a plan
Another failure is a guaranteed disaster
(Oh)
How can we ever live this down?
(Oh)
How can we ever live this down?

You never wanted to be
They only wanted a parody
You want the world to be free
She only wanted the world
You never wanted to be
They only wanted a parody
You want the world to be free
But what the fuck is free about it?!
What the fuck is free about it?!
What the fuck is free about it?!

Simple Shoes

Ugh. Finally. After hunting at every place that was supposed to carry Simple brand shoes (as advertised on their website) and not find them, I finally found their line of shoes at Whole Foods Supermarkets. Go figure. Look for shoes at a grocery store ... that's logical. Not.

I know I could have ordered the shoes online. But call me goofy ... I'd actually like to try on a pair of shoes before buying them. They looked great, felt great, and I bought the Dark Earth Sno Tire eco-certified leather shoes. Recycled car tire soles and outsoles. Recycled plastic pedbeds, and shoelaces. Washed leather, organic cotton and 100% recycled paper pulp comprise everything else.

It's not always easy to buy green, but worth it in the long run.

Testify

I was watching tonight's national college football championship between Oklahoma and Florida and I couldn't help but be amused and confused by what I saw and heard from Florida's outstanding junior quarterback, Tim Tebow.

Let me preface this by saying from every indication that I have ever seen, Tim Tebow is pretty much the model student-athlete and even more a model citizen -- National Champion, Heisman Award winner, son of missionaries, homeschooled, assists father's missionary work at orphanages in the Phillipines, and by every indication, a nice kid.

What gets me is his need to let us know about his faith at every opportunity. Whenever he speaks he will say "God Bless" or something similar. His eye black said "John 3:16" tonight and has said "Phil 4:13" in the past.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." -- John 3:16

"I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." -- Philippians 4:13

What is with the moral imperative of the Christian to tesify? You don't see atheist athletes thanking Nietzsche or writing "God is dead" on their eye black ... though that would be funny.

I find it ludicrous that even if God existed that he would care about a football game or would favor one side over another. But that doesn't stop pretty much every athlete from thanking God for their exploits.

When I was researching this post, I was dismayed to find that it was not just athletes that feel the need to testify, chapter and verse, as it were. In-N-Out Burger prints several passages on the bottoms of their cups:

In-N-Out prints discreet references to Bible verses on their paper utensils. The print is small and out of the way, and only contains the book, chapter and verse numbers, not the actual text of the passages. The practice began in the 1980s during Rich Snyder's presidency, a reflection of the beliefs held by the Snyder family:

Burger and cheeseburger wrappers -- Revelation 3:20—"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me."

Beverage cups and replicas -- John 3:16—"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Milkshake cups -- Proverbs 3:5—"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."

Double-Double wrapper -- Nahum 1:7—"The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him."

Paper water cups -- John 14:6—"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Of course, my disparaging of open acknowledgement of faith by Christians won't really bother Christians. Perhaps it shouldn't. After all, if they are going to buy into some of the Bible, they might as well buy into the whole damn thing. And Tebow must have at least believed God was in his corner tonight, as Florida won. "Chacun son goût" -- To each his own.

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." -— George Bernard Shaw

Movie Reviews - Oscar hopefuls edition

I've been a movie-watching madman lately, trying to sneak in all the Oscar-worthy ones I can. I'm going to try and review three of them I've seen in the last week all in the same post. Here goes:


Carrying off as suspenseful a TV interview from over 30 years ago is a feat in and of itself. Making it relevant - even more so. Frost/Nixon and the exchange that it chronicles has a lot to say about the hubris and the feeling that they are above the law that modern politicians have. Frank Langella is deservedly getting a lot of accolades and most certainly will get an Oscar best actor nomination. But I believe that Michael Sheen, in the role of David Frost, is every bit as good. He captures the vocal mannerisms of Frost, but more importantly catches the breeziness, the charm and complicated nature of him as well. Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt and Matthew Macfadyen are all outstanding in supporting roles.

This may very well be Ron Howard's best directing yet. Instead of the expansive and exotic sets of Europe (Da Vinci Code), he has the interior of a mid-century modern LA house. Instead of a cast of hundreds, it's pretty much just a battle of two people. But he makes it interesting.

It's got a surprising amount of dynamics and one of those A Few Good Men-type ego-driven moments by the main character ("You're goddamned right I ordered the Code Red!"), except it this instance, it was:

David Frost: Are you really saying the President can do something illegal?

Richard Nixon: I'm saying that when the President does it, that means it's *not* illegal!

David Frost: ...I'm sorry?

Ironically, Kevin Bacon is in both of those films, in a similar role. But, I guess that's why the game is Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

You don't have to know a lot about these interviews, or even Watergate, to enjoy this movie. The back and forth between the actors playing Frost and Nixon create a battle of wills that keeps the viewer interested. I loved this movie and it will definitely be in my year-end top 10 (which I'm wrapping up right now).

"I was born under unusual circumstances." And so begins 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story, set in New Orleans from the end of World War I in 1918 to the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any man's life can be. ... tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.

I don't mind a sentimental movie occasionally, as long as the director puts the work in first. Don't cut straight to that tearjerker moment without first working your ass off on characterization and a good story. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button seems to be getting a lot of flack for being too like Forrest Gump. You have a simple-minded protagonist who is the mostly-detached observer of a rapidly changing 20th Century. It's a plot device that allows the story to encompass disparate elements such as racism, war, and cultural changes without going too far off the tracks.

I liked Forrest Gump. I liked It's a Wonderful Life. So sue me. I'm as dark as the next guy but I like a movie that has its heart in the right place without being maudlin. And ... Benjamin Button certainly has its heart in the right place.

This is among Brad Pitt's best work and will surely get him an Oscar nomination. It's not garish or overdone. The strength of his performance is in his face and not necessarily in what he says. When he looks at his mom Queenie, or his friend Daisy, you can see what's going on behind those eyes. Cate Blanchett (his co-star in Babel), in the role of Daisy, is great as always.

... Benjamin Button makes you think about how we spend each day and who we spend it with and that it's never too late to change.

The special effects are subtle, only there to help the story. That's a lesson to you, Mr. George Lucas --- special effects shouldn't be the point of the movie ... they should just be a tool for telling a story. It's a bit of a shock that a movie of such grace and subtlety comes from David Fincher. Now, I love David Fincher movies, most notably Se7en, Fight Club and Zodiac, but one would definitely not suspect a movie like Button from the director who has pretty much defined "dark" over the last decade.


Not all people know the story of Harvey Milk, but it's relevance cannot be overstated in the wake of the current Prop 8 controversy (and similar propositions across the country). Our country has been there before. In the 70's, it was Proposition 6, or the Briggs Initiative, that sought to ban gays from working in California public schools.

Harvey Milk was the "first openly gay non-incumbent man in the United States to win an election for public office". After serving for less than a year, he and San Francisco mayor George Moscone, were assassinated by fellow supervisor Dan White. Milk not only championed gay rights, but those of the elderly, small businesses, unions, etc. and his loss hit the city and the state hard. 40,000 San Franciscans marched in a candlelight vigil the night the mayor and Milk were killed.

In the role of an openly gay man, you would think most actors would make the choice of a flashy and showy performance. Sean Penn, in one of his most understated roles, does not. And that's to his credit. And director Gus Van Zant, who tends towards the artsy end of film generally, goes fairly straightforward with the movie. It's a not very stylized biopic of the last 8 or so years of Harvey Milk's life. It's a great ensemble cast with the highlights being fellow Into the Wild alum, Emile Hirsch, and Josh Brolin in the role of Dan White.

I think all three of these films will get nominations for best picture, best actor and best director. There's a very good chance that a lot of the supporting actors, including Sheen in Frost, Blanchett in Button, and Brolin and Hirsch in Milk, will get nominations also. I liked all three films immensely and recommend them.

Frost/Nixon: Grade: A

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Grade: A

Milk: Grade: A-

"Hope will never be silent." -- Harvey Milk

Movie Review - The Day the Earth Stood Still

I've always said that the best thing about sci-fi is that I even enjoy the bad films because even they aspire to be something more and in the process they are entertaining. The Day the Earth Stood Still is not a bad film. I'm not saying that at all. It's certainly not high art either. It falls somewhere in between.

The movie is a remake of a 1951 sci-fi classic. It sticks pretty close to that original with the main difference being our choice for tool of our own destruction. In the original, the obvious criticism was of the arms race, the military and nuclear weaponry. While still showing those elements, the remake concentrates on how we are destroying our environment. A lot of the lines by Klaatu could just as easily be coming from Al Gore or the World Without Us, using phrases such as "tipping point" and:

Klaatu: "If the Earth dies, you die. If the human race dies, the Earth survives."

Knowing his own strengths (and weaknesses), Keanu Reeves has picked a role that doesn't show a lot of emotion. Reeves plays Klaatu, an emissary from another planet, who is sent to analyze whether we are a race worth saving. Our response to his arrival on the planet pretty much sums up our violent tendencies and makes the aliens immediately doubtful of our worth.

There has been some merciless criticism of this film, mostly by fans of the original. I hate to break it to you, but most people have not seen the original and if they have, a lot consider it very dated. I've seen the original, rightly view it as a seminal film, but I don't consider it so untouchable that it couldn't be re-imagined for a modern audience. After all, Citizen Kane, it is not. It was a glorified 50's B-movie with a message. And that is all the new one is doing also. M Night Shyamalan's The Happening tried to do much the same this year, but I believe this film is better, more entertaining, and more effective in it's message.

Other people criticize the movie because it has a message at all. I hate that excuse. What is the point of making something, whether it be a painting, a book, a movie, a song, whatever, if you are not trying to say something? Is our goal to have a bunch of faceless, vacuous crap that people will eat up like candy and forget about as soon as they step out of the theater? No, thank you.

Reeves is serviceable. Connelly really doesn't have to use any of her acting chops here but is fine. Kathy Bates probably has the meatiest role as a government official.

The special effects are good and the movie is not too long. Overall, the movie is good, not great. I was entertained and I appreciated the sentiment. Grade: B-

Going Green Update

This time, instead of us personally doing something good for the environment, it's my city. The long awaited Phoenix Metro Rail started up last week and we braved long lines to be among the first to ride on opening day. The light rail run goes from just a bit north of central Phoenix east to Mesa, a run of about 20 miles. All of the major museums, Chase Field (home of the Dbacks) US Airways Center (home of the Suns), and numerous concert venues, restaurants, art galleries are all along the route.



We live nowhere near this route, but it's a beginning. A step in the right direction. If a car-happy, conservative state can put in a light rail, there is yet hope.