Shark Bites

MSNBC - For its mayor, Vegas might well be Gin City

2005-03-07T09:42:00.000-06:00

MSNBC - For its mayor, Vegas might well be Gin City

Goodman was at Mackey Elementary on Wednesday as part of Nevada Reading Week when he made the drinking comments during a question-and-answer session.

Principal Kemala Washington later called the comments inappropriate but said the students did not appear to understand.

“It just went over their heads,” Washington said.

Evidently, the "kids are too young for independent thought" crowd have managed to make even 9-year olds think it odd that a mayor of Vegas--the card capital of the world--would want to drink a deck of bicycle cards after playing a hand of gin.

(This blog post dedicated to the great work of the CAVE People - Citizens Against Virtually Everything.)

35 primates toss shit in effort to bop the bishop.

2005-02-26T16:22:00.000-06:00

adn.com | Nation : Anglican leaders ask U.S. to leave council: "Anglican leaders ask U.S. to leave council

By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writer

Published: February 24th, 2005
Last Modified: February 25th, 2005 at 07:52 AM

NEWRY, Northern Ireland (AP) - Anglican leaders struggling to resolve explosive differences over homosexuality have asked the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to withdraw from a key council of their global communion for three years - a move some feared could be the first step toward a permanent split.

'That has no interest for the primates,' he said, referring to the leaders of Anglican national churches who were meeting this week to discuss the crisis. 'The purpose of this is to create some space.'

The Episcopal Church, which is the U.S. province of Anglicanism, precipitated the most serious rift in the communion's history when it consecrated V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in November 2003. Robinson lives with his longtime male partner. Conservatives have also criticized North American dioceses for allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.

There it goes friends...
...progress is met with precambrian behavior by of all things, primates... Isn't that just too rich?

Late Thursday, bishops called on the U.S. and Canadian churches to 'voluntarily withdraw their members from the Anglican Consultative Council for the period leading up to the next Lambeth Conference,' an international Anglican gathering to be held in 2008, according to a statement.

The North Americans were asked not to attend the next meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, which is a body of bishops, priests and lay people from national Anglican churches who meet and consult in between the once-a-decade Lambeth Conferences for the primates.

However, Anglican leaders also recommended a hearing be organized at the council's gathering in June to allow the North American churches to send representatives who could explain their views on homosexuality.

'In the meantime, we ask our fellow primates to use their best influence to persuade their brothers and sisters to exercise a moratorium on public rites of blessing for same-sex unions and on the consecration of any bishop living in a sexual relationship outside Christian marriage,' the statement said.

How typical. They ask for self-censor and shame and then make a 'call' for a hold on progress. Not likely :) Progress is hard to restrain. I sure hope the North Americans refuse the "request" and show up in full force.

Conservatives who lead the Anglican Communion Network, which represents dissenting Episcopal dioceses and churches in the United States, argued that the primates' request meant that the two North American churches 'have been effectively suspended' from the communion.

Another typical ploy. Claim victory...

But James Naughton, a spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., and a supporter of Robinson's, disagreed, calling the report an 'elegant compromise.' He said Episcopalians could easily accept temporary withdrawal from the council, if it would create more time for Anglicans to find ways to remain unified.

The communique issued Thursday by the primates reaffirmed a resolution adopted by all Anglican bishops in 1998 declaring that gay sex was 'incompatible with Scripture' and opposed gay ordinations and same-sex blessings.

Big deal. Most readings are "Scripture" are incompatable with scripture. And equally incompatable with reality. Such as bats being birds, insects having 4 legs, and the various accounts of Noah as world's first Pet Detective.

The communique said many of the 35 primates who met this week were 'deeply alarmed that the standard of Christian teaching on matters of human sexuality' expressed in that 1998 resolution had 'been seriously undermined by the recent developments in North America.'

One would think they would be deeply alarmed at the end of Slavery too seeing as how such Biblical practices have been "seriously undermined" by recent developments in North America.

Chairman's tax ideas astound GOP and pay back buddies

2005-02-12T19:14:00.000-06:00

Chairman's tax ideas astound GOP: "Rep. Bill Thomas of California, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, raised a few eyebrows at a recent Republican retreat at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

Thomas indicated he would marry Social Security with total repeal of the corporate income tax, which would be replaced by a value-added tax.

Bush always intended to pass Social Security reform this year, postponing an unspecified tax reform until an undetermined time in the future. However, Thomas has been suggesting it would be efficient to combine Social Security and tax reform. But Thomas and Bush are on very different wavelengths when it comes to reforming taxes. Bush contemplates an overall simplification of the Internal Revenue Code. Thomas does not.

During the retreat, Thomas revealed some of his cards. While transforming Social Security, he also would repeal the corporate income tax and replace it with a VAT paid by the consumer.

***

Thomas told his colleagues of multiple advantages for the United States in international trade and hinted at a bountiful increase in federal revenue -- money that would be useful in addressing the Social Security shortfall.

Thomas' uncharacteristically buoyant optimism abruptly ended when he challenged the flat tax as a possible simplification of individual taxes.

He posed difficult questions to the assembled House members. Would you and your constituents be willing to give up the home mortgage deduction? The charitable contributions deduction? The deduction for state and local income taxes?

Because the answer to all of these questions is obviously no, Thomas went on, the tax rate would have to rise to recapture revenue. But that rate would be too high for low-income taxpayers, and there would have to be at least two rates. There goes your flat tax, with one low rate and no deductions.

This logical recognition of the flat tax as a non-starter has led many in Congress to a different path to reform based on taxing consumption. The ''fair tax'' -- repealing all income taxes and replacing them with a national sales tax -- has attracted 44 House sponsors and interest from no less than Bush and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert.

At this point, still using the Socratic method, Thomas asked how many of his colleagues' constituents would welcome walking into a store and paying 30 percent of the retail cost with a sales tax. Once again, the answer was no. Thus, he had swiftly ruled out both the flat tax and the national sales tax, and therefore vetoed individual income tax reform.

***

A tax agenda that eliminates the corporate tax but otherwise retains the horrid complexity of the Revenue Code and establishes a VAT will draw huzzahs from the business lobbyists of K Street who normally balk at tax reform. However, the lethal combination of a VAT and the present federal income tax that Thomas proposes always has been unacceptable to conservatives.

House Republicans at the retreat, including even some Ways and Means members, don't like the hand dealt them by the chairman. The speculation on Capitol Hill that the House will play these cards anyway is based on Thomas' legislative mastery the past four years. But that record was forged in partnership with the president and the speaker. He is going it alone this time."

4-year-old SharkBites Reader? drives mom's car to video store - Gotta have his Sharktales?

2005-02-12T12:00:00.000-06:00

Baby Genius III at a video store in Michigan

"Although unable to reach the accelerator, a 4-year old Michigan boy managed to put the car in gear and make his way to the store, a quarter-mile from his home, about 1:30 a.m. Friday. Finding the store closed, the youngster began a slow trip home."

I do hope this young man is not one of my reader trying to rush out and hear Eulogy or naturally to see SharkTails before SharkBites has anything to say about it.

Young fans, please don't try this at home. Or, if you must learn to use Netflix--Home delivery lil' man.

Cheers,

Paulie "Shark" Sabol

Eulogy will rest with Magnolia and Happiness

2005-02-11T12:07:00.000-06:00

Eulogy has the kind of dysfunctional family fun I had hoped of the Faukers. Where the Faukers provided mostly gag and gaff, Eulogy provides a lasting flavor that permeates this dark comedy with delicious results.

The twin boys on a hormone rampage seem to be like the twins from the Rug Rats grown up. They're genius, rude, and definitely seem to wonder were they got their genes

The "four" sibs now all adults, two of each gender, include a lesbian, a chatterbox (Alice), a "child" actor who lost his edge, and the sort of Greg Brady middle child.

There are six grand children, three the "holy utterances" of the chatterbox's "vagina" who, like their father, don't talk--at least not volitionally. The Goofas pair of twins already mentioned and the point of view character, Kate Collins played by Zooey Deschanel.

Kate ends up with a double task. To give a Eulogy of her Grandfather she remembers fondly and the rest of the family doesn't remember all that well or all that fondly AND to complete her Grandfather's final wish.

To package it all up perfectly, Kate finds a true love interest on her quest.

While some have said the plot was conventional, I think the Grandfather's surprise was unique enough and the Widow's behavior--off the charts.

Enjoy,

Paulie

Virgina, there really is a Santa Clause. He's coming in the form of High Fines for low hanging pants - Feb 9, 2005

2005-02-09T10:19:00.000-06:00

CNN.com - I see London, I see France, We'll fine you for your Underpants - Feb 9, 2005:

Is this really lewd or indecent? My personal tastes find it less lewd than ludicrous, less indecent than independent.

According to the House of Delegates in Virgina it is. They plan to fine saggers $50 for advertising Joe Boxer or 2Xst.

During an extended monologue Monday, Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., a Democrat who opposed the bill, talked about how they dressed or wore their hair in their teens. On Tuesday, he said the measure was an unconstitutional attack on young blacks that would force parents to take off work to accompany their children to court just for making a fashion statement.

'This is a foolish bill, Mr. Speaker, because it will hurt so many,' Spruill said before the measure was approved 60-34. It now goes to the state Senate."

Will the Senate have the sense enough to stop this or will the next Victoria Secretions catalog need to have a warning label or perhaps that famous MTV fuzzy boxes near all the "naughty bits."

PS I'm still sick. But some things are sicker than I and require blogging.

Catwoman takes on the Madonna and Whore archetypes.

2005-02-06T18:51:00.000-06:00

Okay, so sue me. I've been a horrible blogger. Of course, I can only blame the last three days on being close to death with the flu.

And while I've seen a number of films worthy of blogging including Mean Creak, I want to talk about Catwoman.

I wish I had actually read the comics I bought the last year of so when I stopped being a collector because I would be able to say how closely the movie scrip followed the comic.

The theme of Catwoman is the same as Dr. Jeckle. It's about accepting our shadow and realizing there's a distinct need of society to have rule breakers.

Halle Berry plays a character who is the classic mix of the Madonna and Whore female archetypes. At one time frumpy and submissive then fabulous and seductive, the Catwoman has the perfect antagonist--the "beauty" and cosmetics industry.

Of equal interest is a movie that has used some of the effects we first oohed and ahed at from Matrix and Crouching Tiger, in a decidedly unique way and one that simply advances the story rather than impresses us with it's self-awareness.

The movie asks a most interesting question very critical to our time. "There may be good, there may be evil. But there's got to be something in between, right?"

"Repent, the end is near" by Paulie Sabol

2005-02-01T08:10:00.000-06:00

It's interesting how movies can tell us so much about the direction of things.

The renaissance (and I hate to use that word for this case) of "Super Hero" movies is consistent with what we saw during the second world war and its period of economic uncertainty.

Likewise, we're having a return (ah so much easier to type) of "child or childhood as evil" or the "gateway of evil" with movies like bogeyman, Hide and Seek, etc. This return hails as far back as Identity.

Right now, as a culture, we're asking the same ol' question: "How high is high?" (a typically optimistic question) and we're adding an underlying chorus of "How high is too high?"

The economic growth in the stock market which resulted in the "dot-bomb" end time analogy to the current talk of a housing bubble to the critique of some free, but MLM like tools as being saturated.

The sense that the party is over is very present. And so far, I don't see a reduction in the deficit as promise by the perhaps elected president.

My prediction? More "End Times" movies to come.

Touching down for the Salt Lake Inversion

2005-01-23T13:12:00.000-06:00

Basically I had the oddest weather on my trip.

The inversion was in the valley at Salt Lake so I saw grey skies always then when I went to phoenix it RAINED?!?!?!

:)

Gay News From 365Gay.com

2005-01-22T09:00:00.000-06:00

Gay News From 365Gay.com

So now we have it in the censorship tradition of Huck Finn being seen as "racists" or even the Bible as too "sexual" (Oh, that Song-o' Solomon). We now have a gay teen who quotes a line from the recent teen movie Mean Girls as been anti-gay.

It does seem that the censors of this world totally fail to understand irony, doesn't it.

While the students were not given any specific rules from which to construct their shirts (it's not clear if they were even told they might be sent home for "inappropriate shirts").

consistent with the cavalier attitude toward offering guidance so a student can feel safe and/or make an argument upon an objection, rather the administration continues to be cavalier saying, "If a faculty member feels it offends them or is inappropriate ... then they send them home to change," Ty Morris the assistant principal said. "You can't micromanage it."

I wonder if...

I'm too cute to be str8 would be considered offensive to heterosexuals?

Or

I'm not gay but my boyfriend is would be too offensive to closeted queers or maybe bi's (makes them sound a bit selfish after all...not that any teens are egocentric and selfish, huh?)

Or

A picture of John Ashcroft and Senator Rick Santorum doing a 69 as pure political satire?

Will Tinky Winky and Spong Bob getting hitched?

2005-01-21T07:57:00.000-06:00

Conservatives go on a cartoon kick. Giving SpongBob a kick in his queer, square pants:

Let's ignore that not even a club kid would have wore those things.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Christian Conservative groups have issued a gay alert warning over a children's video starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and a host of other cartoon favorites.

The wacky square yellow SpongeBob is one of the stars of a music video due to be sent to 61,000 U.S. schools in March. The makers -- the nonprofit We Are Family Foundation -- say the video is designed to encourage tolerance and diversity.

But at least two Christian activist groups say the innocent cartoon characters are being exploited to promote the acceptance of homosexuality.

Hmmm, when did the acceptance of people becaome exploitative, guilty, or something to avoid promoting?

'A short step beneath the surface reveals that one of the differences being celebrated is homosexuality,' wrote Ed Vitagliano in an article for the American Family Association.

'Their inclusion of the reference to 'sexual identity' within their 'tolerance pledge' is not only unnecessary but it crosses a moral line,' Dr James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said in a statement on Thursday.

Frankly, it is not only necessary (after all it's exclusion would suggest that sexual identity is already fully or adaquitely "celebrated" and that the people with a sexuality different than your own are sufficiently free from bias. Clearly they are not.

In fact, the very way that some of the greatest beneficiaries of the civil rights movement are reluctant to join the cause for full diversity is testiment to this problem. And it's not new. It hails back to when the US liberated the concentration camps freeing the Jewish prisioners but not the homosexuals because "there were legitimate criminals." This accounts to no more than, "But but but, they're GAY!"

Dobson was quoted by the New York Times on Thursday as having singled out the wildly popular SpongeBob during remarks about the video at a Washington D.C. dinner this week.

I guess Dobson has run out of rediculous pro spanking propoganda to write and with the virtual complete regression to the mean of the Promise Keepers movement needs to find some way to get into the media.

It is not the first time that children's TV favorites have come under the critical spotlight of the U.S. Christian right. Tinky Winky, the purse-toting purple Teletubbie, was in 1999 declared a homosexual role model by Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Regarding the Falwell "outting", there was a history of basis from which he drew which the "Right Grrl" points out.

Even still not all evangelicals feel Falwell was a misunderstood yet fully justified victim of a media frenzy from the political correctness police. D. Marty Lasley called it an "evangelica Christian public relations disaster" (if only she had been right! -- or is that left?)

2005-01-18T18:02:00.000-06:00

Fox Blurs Cartoon Rear End on FCC Worries

At PBS, executives said this weekend they will edit out a glimpse of a naked woman in a fictional account of a terrorist "dirty bomb" attack that will air next month after being shown first on HBO.

Now this is just fascinating. A TV show can incite by "depicting" dirty bombs (rather ironically named I think) but must censor for being dirty the naked body?

Where is Larry Flint when you need him?

School want to take off the school house speaker who said "take it off."

2005-01-14T22:17:00.000-06:00

CNN.com - Speaker to students: Stripping can be lucrative - Jan 14, 2005

My annoyance immediately with Willian Fried, who told 8th graders that exotic dancers can bring in a quarter mil a year is he says, "It's sick, but it's true."

If he believes it's sick, then prudently omit it.

The "law student" stripper, cocktail waitress, or similiar worker is a cliche. Is there really any damage in this income illustration? Do middle schoolers, need to be protected from the fact that sex sells?

CNN.com - Evolution ruling gets cheers from scientists - Jan 14, 2005

2005-01-14T21:55:00.000-06:00

CNN.com - Evolution ruling gets cheers from scientists - Jan 14, 2005

This link is an opinion, not a fact!

How do you feel before you click the link? Behing to doubt or wonder? Exactly, and while scientsts are cheering the federal judge's ruling ordering schools to remove subtle anit-science stickers, caution is the better position.

Why? Because the religious agenda is incideous and rapcious. The continual remolding and redressing of the Bible as science is testiment to a zealous insistance. What used to be the creation account, because creationism, became creation science, became "Intelligent Design Theory" (Doesn't that sound scientific!)

So, if I were the Georgia chapter of the Christian Coalition, I'd try a different tact. How about a sticker that reads, "Creationism is a theory, it is not YET a fact."

So now the students who don't crack a book can see the idea that there is a scientific theory of creation or inteligent design.

Ironically, reactionary thinkers and neo-cons who have a poor record on consdervation, recycle their arguments with the enthusiasm of an echo-gurella.

But some parents and religious conservatives decried the ruling as another in a string of what opponents call activist judges overruling the wishes of elected officials -- often on matters of religion.

"It's another example of how the bench is dictating to people what symbols they can display, if they can pray or not pray or if they can teach a particular subject," said Sadie Fields, head of the Georgia chapter of the Christian Coalition.

Activist judges?

For now, I'll not get into the relationship between judicial restraint and judicial insight. However, I will point out simply that this is percisely what we have judges for... They are elected officials or are apointed by elected officials. There is already a method to "remove" an ineffective judge.

What I will focus on is this attitude as if things have gotten "bad" all of a "sudden" that the wiley liberal has found

Let's look to one of the most important activist judges related to this issue: Judge John T Raulston!

And when did this activist judge take action? 1925

Bush can't recognize a confession, regret ....or "something."

2005-01-14T09:46:00.000-06:00

CNN.com - Bush: Comments had 'unintended consequence' - Jan 14, 2005: "WASHINGTON (AP) --

In the debates, both candidates were asked to admit a mistake. Bush never answered the question leaving me with the concern that maybe he was such a dry drunk he couldn't see his own faults.

Now, Bush has come to admit a mistake...an unintended one of course...but he's not sure he regrets it.

President Bush says he now sees that tough talk can have an 'unintended
consequence.'

During a round-table interview with reporters from 14
newspapers, the president, who not long ago declined to identify any mistakes
he'd made during his first term, expressed misgivings for two of his most famous
expressions: 'Bring 'em on,' in reference to Iraqis attacking U.S. troops, and
his vow to get Osama bin Laden 'dead or alive.'

I think his much more "famous" expression was when he flew in on an air craft carrier at great expense to the US and the minds of the rest of us because of the obscene media coverage with the words... Mission Accomplished displayed on a banner.

'Sometimes, words have consequences you don't intend them to mean,' Bush said
Thursday. ''Bring 'em on' is the classic example, when I was really trying to
rally the troops and make it clear to them that I fully understood, you know,
what a great job they were doing. And those words had an unintended consequence.
It kind of, some interpreted it to be defiance in the face of danger. That
certainly wasn't the case.'

'I don't know if you'd call it a regret, but
it certainly is a lesson that a president must be mindful of, that the words
that you sometimes say. ... I speak plainly sometimes, but you've got to be
mindful of the consequences of the words. So put that down. I don't know if
you'd call that a confession, a regret, something.'

Well, it's good to know we can expect nothing NEW form the president. This little gem is a perfect example of the short circuit between his central nervous system and his mouth. "It's not regret! ...it's a lesson! Lesson, lesson, I say...not a confession. Forget regret, I have 'something' to say."

'The inauguration is a great festival of democracy,' he said. 'People are going
to come from all over the country who are celebrating democracy and celebrating
my victory, and I'm glad to celebrate with them.'

Mr. Bush, you're just lucky HALF the country isn't coming and that you have you goons in place to make sure no one with a Kerry/Edwards "sign" on their heart can get near the event! You might become a Bush omelet again. Once again with our Attorney General and others, this is not a "threat" it's an observation documented in Fahrenheit 9-11

Oh, and he couldn't take away his little "event" from his Daughter!

CNN.com - Yahoo! It's a boy! - Jan 14, 2005

2005-01-14T09:32:00.000-06:00

CNN.com - Yahoo! It's a boy! - Jan 14, 2005

I've certainly been called worse, but not at birth.

And the best part is they hail from Transylvania. So if the youth ever takes out his name issues by drinking blood... The skeptics of the world when asked about the rumor of some vampire in Transylvania can say... "Yeah, it's just some Yahoo..."

Democratic Singles Network: Dating for Democrats and Progressive Thinkers

2005-01-12T13:57:00.000-06:00

Democratic Singles Network: Dating for Democrats and Progressive Thinkers

Are you looking for the RIGHT person in your life? Well don't be LEFT OUT.

I had a most delightful experience at the above dating website and frankly I was at first skeptical. My friend Tim and I even jested about how liberal the liberals would be in even having a gay search.

Well they did.

Add too that, the best part of the experience was using the communication systems to quickly connect with the kind of person about whom I could say such a cliche as ...I just love his mind.

Now, fair warning, the person was more than just a casual member. However, ...the experience was all the better for it.

Since he is on a dating site, I suppose I can share him :) Visit www.TedPennings.com to meet the treat of the Democratic Single's beat.

FOXBlocker - Keep The Radical Right Out Your Home By Filtering Out FOX News!

2005-01-12T00:20:00.000-06:00

FOXBlocker - Keep The Radical Right Out Your Home By Filtering Out FOX News!

This has to be the best $8.95 that can be spent!

In fact, it's basically a 90-cents email fee to have 10 emails sent on your behalf.

I bought mine.

The "Smash" Hit Parade by Paulie Sabol

2005-01-09T11:32:00.000-06:00

It seems that there's a recent rash of "falling" stars blazing.

Teen Heartthrob almost suffers case of heart burn.

While, Newman's Own hobby became as hot as his career.

What's most intersting is how to power male icons responded to their brush with death.

Newman sounds like a person in shock, just the facts...a slightly thankful posture and claming his fans. Casusal, cool like in Spy Games.

Aaron carter I heard on a TV show say, "I now feel like I have nine-lives." Youthful arrogance. A day or so later, he's a little more humble. "My girlfriend's smarts saved my life."

What I look foward to seeing is how these events play out in the furture. Recently my friend Dr. Richard Rubenstein, Doctor Duplicator, had a car accident and spoke of his amazing survival with reverence. He said, "Maybe this will change my life."

My mentor, Mr. Robert Allen, just over a year and a half ago had his own date with a huge Tree.

Here's the tree, home of a driving danger Dryad who summoned him head on.

Here's th inside of the car where Robert sat, alone at the point of impact.

After the accident, it appeared that Mr. Robert Allen wouldn't make it. He did, and he's most certainly a changed man. It's an honor to know him.

CNN.com - Democrats challenge Ohio electoral votes - Jan 6, 2005

2005-01-06T16:57:00.000-06:00

CNN.com - Democrats challenge Ohio electoral votes - Jan 6, 2005

Those pansey Democrats actually DID something?!

No, they didn't. We did! Way to go team.

Again, this is not expected or even likely to change the election outcome but it does open up the debates on vote machines and other issues.

And who would have thought it... ...could it be magic in the air? Well, I'm not holding my breath ... though I am enjoying a sigh of relief.

Andymatic � Tell Congress to Join Conyers

2005-01-05T23:43:00.000-06:00

Andymatic � Tell Congress to Join Conyers

My first ever blogger buddy has shown the brain-cell quality of blogs by reaching out with his dendrites to his blogger buddy Brad. And the synapes are firing as I connect to Andy.

By the way, while there click on his Andy Banner and take a look at his video blog showing his kitty cat, AstroBoi! I don't think this tool is ready for Video Blogging frankly. But here's what he used (it's ideal for Internet marketing)

And of course, comments must be made to the power of the internet as an easy activism tool. I cannot believe how fast and easy it was to urge my Senators!

What ever happened to turning cheeks? by Paulie Sabol

2005-01-05T23:12:00.000-06:00

Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/10/2004 | Evangelists lose ruling in protest at Outfest

It seems some Christian protesters have taken "laying on of hands" to a riotous level. Rather than get deep into the number of felonies the 11 religion based, anti-gay protestors were charged with and dropped.

Rather than get into the bold statement by the Philadelphia prosecutor who described some Bible quotes as, "Fighting words!"

And rather than get into a "Bible study" to once again uncover how the subject of modern homosexuality is ...no where to be found in the Bible... and the condemnation of homosexuality by religious groups is extremely strange and imbalanced.

I want to talk about the direction of things again.

In 1990 I did a web search with the key words homosexuality bible and pro-homosexual bible. The searches were amazingly positive! The amount of clear, cogent and critical analysis of such things as the Sodom story as well as Romans and the rest of "The Big Eight" was inspiring. Now when I do similar searches, almost all of the links are anti-gay, reactionary Christian fundamentalist sites. Some of them are quite articulate.

That is, I don't mind at all that there's a real dialogue. There is some real debate on The Big Eight. However, what concerns me is that the gay response is being eclipsed. We're loosing the war on Google and I worry that's an indication that we're losing ground global too.

Even this "Philadelphia 11" or "Philadelphia 4" (Christians can count, it's just the number being tried to the full extent of the law has changed) story, something very current, I found a gay news reference on page on 4 of Google with "Philadelphia hate speech" and "Philadelphia Christian hate". No were in the entire search list did I find any pro-gay editorial!

Be sure there was mounds of anti-gay editorial and a fair amount for Christian civil rights concerns (applause). Note: My life mission is to complete the work of the civil rights movement for all.

Political sentiment and web presence has fallen precipitously since Matthew Shepard.

Here's a whole set of issues I urge my blogger buddies to take up and bring up our pro-gay Google ranking.

The Tsunami was sent by G-d to punish gays and their allies.

Colorado communities warn of gays on skis! I didn't know we were a hazard to snow bunnies?

Virginia, a state that helped found our nation, wants you to "honk if you're anit-gay."

Parents of Catholic School kids must be worried about the "sins of the father..."?

Terrorists are anti-gay...

And so on.

Please do all that blogger stuff especially as I get my RSS feeds, blogrolls, link backs etc. Let's move our editorial to the top in 2005.

New Year Goal 100 new Bloggers

2005-01-01T19:41:00.000-06:00

Click Paulie to hear this AudioBlog

I have a new blogger buddy. Visit Elmie's blog at http://winninghousewives.blogspot.com

My goal is to help start 100 new bloggers in 2005 personally.

Cheers,

Paulie

Currently at 7 of 100.

Tsunami Relief, Please Help - By Paulie Sabol

2005-01-01T10:49:00.000-06:00

I'm dedicating my blog right this minute to Tsunami Relief (and likely many other disasters!)

Specifically, I want to relieve you all of more comments about it, more pathos, and in a few rare cases more manipulation to buy products where some/all of the proceeds to go the Tsunami victims.

It's similar to what happened after September 11th in the US. In fact, I suspect there are also some sham Tsunami relief groups too. However, the one difference which does please me and my Tsunami relief plan is West Wing likely won't create a "bonus episode" to cover the reason behind the wave.

So let it begin, my Tsunami Relief plan where I will not again mention the death of 100K+ people by a natural disaster, disease, or the mind numbing sympathy poured out by survivors.

Man Bites Shark by Paulie Sabol

2004-12-29T21:07:00.000-06:00

This is a fantastic little summary of where Paulie got his own Shark Bite from Doctor Duplicator who felt he was playing it too safe.

Originally I was going to move it to my entrepreneurial blog; however, I've decide to keep it here.

Are the rules only for white straight people?

2004-12-26T09:12:00.000-06:00

Rules for living

I first read this bit of wisdom or poem in Chicken Soup for the Soul by Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield.

At the time, I found it to be a compelling set of axioms with some valuable humanist positions to chew on.

This movie does a nice job adding some video commentary.

The idea I most agree with is: You will learn lessons and there are no mistakes only lessons.

The ideas I most disagree with is: A lessons will continue until you learn it then you can go on to the next lesson.

It seems to me you can most certainly go on to the next lesson while continuing to "learn" the lesson you've resisted.

As a final comment, I would like to see more of these kinds of items be inclusive. The photo-documentary of this set of very human and humanistic ideas contains very little diversity. More dramatically, one of the few images showing interpersonal relationships is a wedding picture--what is the lesson you need to learn is your gay, get with it? :)

The chickens come home to roost in the wolves' den?

2004-12-24T07:23:00.000-06:00

CNN.com - Bush the Choice of Terrorists

A French journalist held hostage in Iraq for four months says his captors wanted U.S. President George W. Bush re-elected because it would help promote their cause.

In language reminiscent of Bush's famed, "Bring it on" comment, Iraqi militants also feel Bush is the "Man of the Year" because they "need someone tough against them, it's like boxing."

With the same kind of psychological warfare practiced by another Muslim (the typical peace loving kind) attacked and vilified by Amerikkka (Mohammad Ali), our current enemy harked to the "Thrilla in Manila" or the "Rumble in the Jungle" by seeking "Attacks in Iraq" They said that Bush's re-election "would improve our ability to fight."

"We vote for Bush (Perhaps they voted in Ohio's counties having more votes than residents?) because Bush help us a lot by intervening in Afghanistan. So, from that point we could spread all over the world and we are now in 60 countries," militants said two weeks before the election.

With such eerie prophetic precision (Skeptic note: Is it so strong to bring into question the French Journalist's timeline or facts?) the resistance also said, "...if [Bush] is re-elected, we are sure that American soldiers will remain in Iraq for years."

Which brings us right back to the statement in Bush's State of the Union Address

And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country -- your enemy is ruling your country. (Applause.) And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be the day of your liberation. (Applause.)

Well, Bush got one part right: Our enemy is not surrounding our county; our enemy is ruling our country.

As it turns out, our enemy is ruling our media too. Does anyone remember this ad?

Announcer: In an increasingly dangerous world Even after the first terrorist attack on America John Kerry and the liberals in Congress voted to slash America s intelligence operations. By 6 billion dollars Cuts so deep they would have weakened America s defenses. And weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm..

(On Screen: Several wolves eye the camera, as if preparing to attack.)

Bush: Im George W Bush and I approve this message.

The whole thrust of the ad is fear and like the Boogie Man, used to whip willful child into fearful obedience, the tale is a misleading, manipulative fiction.

To summarize the findings of FactCheck.org, the ad was misleading in the following ways.

1) It implies terrorist attacks on America was relatively new (1993 World Trade Center bombing is a more accurate measure of timing)

2) It ignores the larger trend (Kerry supported consistent increases in intelligence spending for several years prior to 9-11-01. Normally that would be a criticism leveled against a Democrat but we're in the age of Pork-Barrel Replicanism)

3) It uses Fuzzy Mathematics (Kerry didn't propose a $6-billion cut. Rather he sought a $1B budget reduction to carry on from 1994 to 1998 - a measure to end a full five years before Sept 11, 2001)

4) It blames the victim (The cut estimated at about 3.7-percent of the total budget was 75-30 with the majority of the votes against the program (38 votes) being from Democrats.

5) It has cries of the pot to malign the kettle. (Republicans separately and concurrently proposed budget cuts that were much more sweeping including one to reduce CIA employees by 20-percent.) and the biggest one

6) It stirs the pot without seeing if it really got us in the stew. (Of course we can't know if such a cut would have impacted the preservation of our safety on or about 9-11-01--maybe the report given to Bush on terrorist plans could have been on more expensive, neon paper?--but if "would have" had an impact it most certainly did when the Republican-sponsored bill became law.)

"Mission Accomplished," says the president who cried Wolf.

___________________________________________________________

Fun Fact from the Article at Top: France has the largest Muslim population in Europe, estimated at 5 million.

Fun Fact not from the Article: It's interest that GeorgeWBush.com pulled the ad from it's website. Here's the old link (http://www.georgewbush.com/News/MultiMedia/Player.aspx?
ID=1102&T=5&PT)

More on the Wolves ad deception.

Satire--Wolves for Kerry.

What happened to being brave? Boy Scout Blogger become Boy Pout Dodger

2004-12-23T14:48:00.000-06:00

Boy Scout Blogger

There's not much to see at the above link and much less to do, as of December 23, the Boy Scout Blogger removed the ability to reply on his blog. Why? Because I asked him to be consistent...

Travis, showed himself a hypocrit by bragging on the one hand about reading a book on debate and Christian polemics (Dec 19th entry) while dismissing discussion as worthless and evil on the other.

It's too bad he removed the comments because they were very telling.

He supported the Boy Scouts of American ban on gay because being gay would prevent a Scout from being able to keep the scout oath.

On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country

How so? A gay Scout, he suggests, couldn't do a duty to g-d because such a Scout would be in violation of a poorly translated verse about who will enter the kingdom of heaven.

So I asked him if he was in favor of a ban on gluttonous boys from scouting or, since that verse also mentioned "sissy boys" if he felt there should be a masculinity test for Scouting. Most importantly, and most clearly biased, the verses he used spoke a great deal about adultery and fornication. If he was correct in his position regarding Scouting policy, why is it the Boy Scouts of American don't have a ban on sexually active st8 boys?

No, he is clearly wrong. And the policy, while supportable ...seemingly... by law, is also wrong and again hypocritical. Why?

The next the line in the scout oath are:

and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;

And what is the 10th of the 12 elements of the Scout Law? A Scout is Brave. Well, Travis, I hope they don't kick you out of scouts for being a closed minded chicken... (And here I thought he was an Eagle).

Asian Image Improvement

2004-12-21T20:04:00.000-06:00

I'm totally excited about the movies being generated with an Asian flavor. My personal mission in life is to complete the work began by the Civil Rights Movement, thus everywhere I see improvement I celebrate.

Farah Mahdzan and Norlinda Ziegler did a rather extensive analysis of the negative stereotypes of Asians in their web articles titled: Asian Americans: An analysis of negative stereotypical characters in popular media.

Time to rethink things...by Paulie Sabol

2004-12-21T16:33:00.000-06:00

The Joys of Doing Nothing--MSN Family/Learning

I've often been impressed by a trend I've seen in great minds and the environment in which they come up with great ideas.

Great minds and great ideas seem to spring from periods of great solitude.

Einstein was a patent clerk with not much to do be be surrounded and isolated with ideas.
Newton was cloistered during the plague.
Galileo was imprisoned.
Many religious leaders were imprisoned or isolated for ceremonial/vision purposes.
Oscar Wilde was imprisoned and largely in solitary (though some of his mind was lost and most certainly his body was harmed leading to a premature death).
Many authors have retreats they go into in order to complete a work.
Madam Curie spent countless hours alone in a lab.

Likewise, Einstein wasn't being externally entertained while as a child he played with a compass for hours or thought about what it would be like to be traveling though space on a beam of light.

Newton, who discovered how many great advances while doing his secret, arcane astrological and alchemical heresies? How exciting is it to watch the sun until you go nearly blind? (Okay maybe it's a little more exciting than a soccer match!)

Galileo isn't getting the girls looking though a telescope and plotting every star, planet position, or moon phase day and and day out.

Now, my hope is new "great" ideas will form in new "environments."

What kind of social intelligence will arrive from youth who not only play video games, but do so with the X-box and play though broadband with new "friends" around the world?

What kind of entertainment will proliferate when interactivity v passivity rule the day?

What kind of ideas will need to be activated to bend time itself to make the "time crunch" the way in which we accomplish time travel?

I most certainly have hope, and I believe I'll stop, go take a break, and take some time to think this over.

Life, art, imitation...It boils down to hurt kids.

2004-12-19T23:18:00.000-06:00

Trinity Christian Academy may have to answer to FERPA: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy over outing James Barnet.

Why is that? Well it seems the school found his web site devoted to helping young gays connect with support and each other to be offensive or maybe they just found that he prefers to love other boys offensive. In either case he was expelled.

That's not where it ends. Rather than allow an 18-year old boy his privacy, a school administrator decided to tell the boy's parents he is gay. This kind of undesired outing of a person living in a potentially dangerous, unsupported situation is outrageous and reminds me of a movie I saw today: Chasing Holden.

While thematically and dramatically the movie was ironically phony given the connected to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye there was another one of those interesting cases of a gay character referenced but never presented. This time, the gay character is absent because he's dead.

And why is the "faerie" dead?

He's dead because after being outed as his prestigious, co-ed boarding school and after his father was informed, his father who is Govern of New York expresses his disgust saying, "Having a faerie son is going to be a dampener on my political career."

Now evidently the gay boy named Peter (Perhaps they could have named him Richard and called him Dick?) kills himself because he cannot deal with the pressures and the lack of love and support form his father.

Thankfully, the movie shows the impact doesn't stop there. The little brother, who does support and love his big, gay brother, goes to the same school having just turned 19 and being released from the mental hospital for attempting suicide himself. Arriving at the school, the headmaster makes some comment about a clean slate and that no one would be talking about his brother's behavior.

However, before he goes to his first class a bully approaches him and teases him saying, "Maybe this one is gay too." With vigilante flair, he grabs the kid by the balls and says, "Anytime you wanna find out you just come a callin' suggah."

Now, I don't know at all the family life of young James Barnett, the gay youth leader. For all I know he may have those rare parents who would both send a child to a Christian school in Texas and fully support their child as a gay person and activist.

I think it's unlikely.

And who knows, maybe the school's behavior will actually lead the students to ponder the impact of marganalization and bias.

And, I'll even say. When it's all said and done. Maybe as soon as two or three years from now, I bet James will be happier all this happened than that he stayed in the closet any longer. However, his process was not business of the administrations.

While I don't know if they will or should lose a lawsuit for invasion of privacy. I do know that sites like http://www.my-boi.com will continue to help young people in the toughest of places because the angst and challenges of growing up in a phony world with absent ethics is just as much the case today as it was when Catcher in the Rye, ironically a book often banned from schools just like their gay students, was written.

Disney gets it right? A dream come true...

2004-12-18T13:05:00.000-06:00

Just when I though it wasn't safe to go to the movies for fear of seeing only negative images of gay people, Disney (the company that seems nervous about formalizing the Disney Gay Day) puts out The Princess Diaries II: The Royal Engagement a flick that is wonderfully constructed and offers a pro-gay image.

Now, as a civil rights activist you can likely guess I'm going to have my ...but it wasn't enough or my ...too little, too late counter point. And you're right.

While the pro-gay message and character were refreshing, it was a character reduced to only an image. In a scene where the young princess and her friends/advisors are looking at eligible royal bachelors, one is included named Antoine Susson a French royal.

When the debriefer mentions he has no title, the friend character say, "How about the title Husband." The princess, who is being forced to enter into an arranged marriage in order to meet the requirements of Genovia's law that no queen will rule unwed, say that he is very cute. The other's agree. Then Joe, the body guard says, "His boyfriend also thinks that he's quite handsome."

Now while this could have turned ugly. Rather, the girls pump their arms into the air like a cheer in unison and cry, "Right on!" That's it, no joke, not "what a waste" line, just a Power to the People gesture.

So overall I'm pleased. I still find it stereotypical to have made him French (also still a group looked upon poorly by Americans) and artistic. However, the treatment of his sexual orientation was splendid.

However, what really makes this a fairly moving story is that it doesn't have the faerie tale ending. No, the "princess" isn't impotent. She doesn't need to marry to have access to a staff of rulership. And while the movie seems determined to give her a clear romantic interest, when it comes time for the wedding, she asks the people of Genovia to take her as she is.

And lest a good wedding party go to waste, like in the ending of another gay-positive film In and Out, the wedding commences with the right people who really deserve and want it.

Beyond the modern retelling of every girls dream to be a princess, the other sociological comment I desire to make on this movie is... Democracy and Socialism.

Democracy isn't a dream contrary to political speeches. Socialism isn't the will of the people. No, when we dream, we still dream of Kings (Queens), Princes (Princesses), and Knaves (as occurs in this film) and we dream of autonomies with political freedoms unexplored. We dream of deserted islands and spots on the map with no placename. Some may turn into unbridled displaces under the Lord of the Flys. Other's may forge our cherished relationships like the Swiss Faimly Robinson or the relationship with self of Robinson Caruso.

This is the magic of movies. We can, at least for 90 minutes, go somewhere where we are served like royalty and have no imposed limits like a Charles Fourier anarchy.

Blockbuster no longer wallet buster.

2004-12-15T18:06:00.000-06:00

Blockbuster Says No Late Fees Means More Traffic - Dec. 14, 2004

I'm so impressed with bloggers. They saw this coming down the pike before anyone else. (It seems that way with most things, doesn't it?)

As a huge DVD watcher, the staff at my Blockbuster looks forward to my trips and recently my manager friend gave me the low down. Today I found confirmation online. Ding Dong, late fees are gone--at least in name.

Despite the debate over the semantics (there are no late fees; however, if you're past the due date significantly, you'll be charged the full amount and have up to 30 days to return the item for a "restocking fee" -- which admittedly is a late fee by another name); what's more interesting is this is the ideal kind of business move.

1) It's elegant.
2) It's win-win-win
3) It's tested and
4) It's unconventional

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Albert Einstein

The no late fee program is elegant because it removes an area of heavy contention and crisis for Blockbuster. Specifically, Blockbuster has been sued over it's late fee policy. A Forbes articles described the settlement of the Blockbuster suit as a win-win, a win for Blockbuster and a win for the lawyers suing blockbuster. But a lose for everyone else.

Further it's elegant because it provides a method for Blockbuster to generate fee good will without exposing itself to bad fiscal policy. I never liked paying a late, even when I had it coming. I especially didn't like it when the 2 days required some return by noon on that last day rather than anytime before the next day.

The old policy irritated me and I'm a good customer. The new policy will not upset me because the greatest frustration I would face is having a credit on my account to purchase a movie.

(Note, since I have the Freedom Pass, I'm unaffected by the policy anyway).

Finally, the policy is elegant because it considers human nature and business needs as you'll see in the next bit of analysis. (Well done, Blockbuster.)

What we need to do is learn to work in the system, by which I mean that everybody, every team, every platform, every division, every component is there not for individual competitive profit or recognition, but for contribution to the system as a whole on a win-win basis.
W. Edward Deming

The policy is also win-win-win. Everyone wins. We've already seen how the consumer wins. However, for the consumer to have no late fees, Blockbuster and has to make up some $250-300M in revenue.

This is critical. If Blockbuster fails to make policy which makes up the difference their shareholders suffer. However, because they selected a system that turns Non-action into a positive revenue generating action the share price should be stable. You see, Blockbuster will be able to increase it's movie sales throughput making up the potential financial loss in penalty fees. Basically, since all it takes now is to do nothing to buy a movie, more people will allow apathy to select their home movie collection.

It is my additional home as a fourth win the most forgetful of renters will keep more films raising the overall condition of the DVDs on the shelves.

Let's just say I was testing the bound os society. I was just curious.
Jim "Lizard King" Morrison.

Blockbuster knows that once you eliminate late fees you're not going to be able to bring them back! Consequently, they tested the program and modeled the impact to the revenue.

They took specific geographic markets and only offered the program on a limited basis.

Note: Blockbuster did the same with the Freedom Pass and at the time I was investing in real estate in Phoenix AZ for the winter (one of the locations where the program was being tested and). I loved the program and hated returning to Chicago without it in place.

Just like with the Freedom Pass, the no-late fee program worked in the marketplace regardless of the critics. With the confidence of meaningful data, Blockbuster made it's public announcement to roll the program out nationwide.

Conventional is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.
Ellen DeGeneres

Finally, what makes the move a real joy is it's unconventional.

Late fees are one of those things you just assume in life. You have them with credit card payments, library books, hotel rooms if you check out after 10 AM, and certainly you have them with movie rentals.

To look at the problem of late fees and innovate a solution creating home movie sales is charming and unexpected.

They definitely deserve the "buster" part of the Blockbuster name because they're breaking outside "the box" of conventional business thinking.

I Robot and AI -- What's the message?

2004-12-15T01:37:00.000-06:00

Two robot movies bring up very similar themes.

A.I. and I Robot are the postmodern equivalence of The Velveteen Rabbit, a children's story subtitled How Toys Become Real.

In I Robot a robot unique in all the world, Sonny, is constructed without the three laws used to govern and control the robots.

Sonny, who seems strangely complaint with these laws despite his free programming, is the key suspect in the death of his designer, Dr. Alford Lanning. Sonny is aptly named because he doesn't see himself as having a designer. No, he sees the scientist as his "father."

Lanning, played by James Cromwell of Revenge of the Nerds fame, leaves a series of clues for the detective to follow starting with a children's storybook of Hansel and Gretel.

Well, the ethical questions of the film come out during the execution of Sonny. He gets support from Dr. Clark, his executioner, that he is indeed unique. He asks the doctor if the procedure will hurt. And they even share a supportive embrace that is the graphical symbol of the high tech and high touch social interface. (This is even made more manifest since Detective Spooner sports a cybernetic arm -- wetwear.)

A.I. which is a much maligned movie (originally I too criticized it greatly as three generally disconnected movies none of which knew when or how to end) that makes the ethical questions even clearer.

In AI we're asked about our responsibilities to a machine which loves us. Where as in I Robot we discover Sonny is unique in all the world and believes he has a purpose and reason for being, in AI we learn that David, played magnificently by Haley Joel Osmit, is one of many and in fact is himself a simulacrum of his designers real child who died.

AI also takes us into a story book. In this case Pinocchio (a natural since this is a question about a boy who wants to become real). And once again, we're on a quest.

Where Sonny was programed to grow and evolve, he does.

Where David was programmed only to love and do so unconditionally, he does.

Sonny's flexibility allows him great latitude and high levels of survival value. Davids prime directive leads him to a chilling, "just out of success/disappointment's reach" under leagues of melted polar icecaps in a humanless future planet. David's heart still aches to love and connect with his mother for eons.

Sonny, on the other hand, seems to find real love and is able to do what any lover would--sacrifice it all. Rather than deal the death blow to the robotic villain, he "chooses" to save Dr. Clark. This also heals and offers penance for Del who believed a robot once made the wrong choice between he and a young girl who were drowning.

Also interesting in the movies is the different views of human kind. In AI the view is humans are rather small minded, bigoted, and cruel. From the dregs to the upper class (even his back from the medically dead brother who abuses him, taunts him and jealously resists him), humanity is selfish, brutish and unenlightened.

In I Robot, humanity is a more complete puzzle rather than a painful caricature. In I Robert we are neither zero nor hero. In fact, the three rules lead to the singular conflict between the robots and the humans because humans are to complex to make the robot's fulfillment of their directives simple.

Where the ethical question in AI was ...do we have a responsibility to a machine which is dependent up us and loves us. I Robot asks the question, "Is it okay for a machine, free of a human perspective, to cull the few to benefit of the many?"

From the perspective of the movie, and I have not read the book, I Robot seems to conclude...No without much support for the position.

I Robot questions the Neo-con perspective that Iraq is in a better place because a dictator has been ousted regardless of the lack of threat posed or the deception in the reasons for going to war. But doesn't tell us why the moral question of the suffering of the individual is not okay if it brings about the benefit of the larger group.

To aid us in our own evolution, I propose three laws of living together I learned from my mentors

First, do no harm.
Second, do much good.
Three, read a children's book and live your life like a quest.

I'm from Gen-X and I'm an entrepreneur. That makes me a GenXtrapreneur

2004-12-14T01:09:00.000-06:00

Today I started my business/entrepreneurship blog. You can read the inaugural article can be read at http://genxtrapreneur.blogspot.com/

Enjoy. If you're disappointed there's no reference to movies. I can suggest you see the movie ∏ as it will most certainly help with getting your mind around Cracking the Wealth Code! :)

Pi is a movie about subjectivity and it asks one of the great thematic questions: Can you trust the point-of-view perceptions of a crazy person. It also asks fundamental questions about the universe...is there order? Are the patterns to chaos? Can you discover hidden connections between one seeming random process and another?

While I offer no answers to these questions, you'll be happy I don't advocate the final solution of the mathematician in Pi.

My new answer to a nagging question...

2004-12-12T23:57:00.000-06:00

I'm often asked by people, "How did you come to know so much? Have you had formal training in such-and-such? Or, Did you learn all this from books or did you learn it some other way?"

I've even had one person say, "Are you a genius or are you just an old soul?"

Being that I'm not a fan of corporate dress (One of my favorite lines is the only time you'll see me in a suit is...well...over my dead body at the funeral.), I used to use the line borrowed from Oscar Wilde. "I make up for being occasionally overdressed by being always over educated."

However, I have a new line.

"I watch a lot of movies on TV."

I think it will have exactly the desired effect.

And I mean it actually. When watching the movie Blade Trinity (see my first blog post), I was anticipating the dialog and expressing to my mum what would be happening next. She made a comment about, "It must be rare that a movie surprises you." I nodded and thought about this.

It occurred to me some of my favorite moments is exactly when I am surprised. But more interesting, I've learned a ton from movies. Movies are more than the social barometer (a theme I'm likely to blog on several times). They're most certainly more than entertainment. Movies are visual storytelling and as such they have rules much more clear than the real world.

You learn to profile people, things, clues, situations. You get to know characters, motivations, points-of-view, and symbolic imagery and ironic speech.

Movies are smart. And smart movies show us images of smart people.

Let's take a few recent examples that touched me.

When it comes to thoughtful, intelligent characters, The Perfect Score gets just that from me (And I'm mostly alone. It has a 15% fresh rating on Rotten Tomato).

The story is a group of teens who for various reasons feel a pull to break into the testing company and steal the SAT to get a prefect score. It's sort of The Breakfast Club meets Quiz Show.

After a number of perils, the kids almost achieve their initial mission. At the point that they're inside and looking at the test on a computer, it becomes a teamwork movie. Rather than find the key code, they actually work out the problems--together.

The next day, there's the moral message as each of the teens decide to use or not use the materials.

However, the two best lines in the movie are in reverse order.

1) It probably sounds really trite story. Rich girl upset with her busy father, huh?
and the leading man say, "Not when it's your story it doesn't."

What a delightful message for college bound people. What a delightful message for us all. When I (or you for that matter) am privileged enough to have someone share their story, it's not the same-oh-same-old. At least not for them.

While a good line with a good message... The real winner for me is a line delivered by the genius druggie character when he says of the SAT mathematics problems.

"Piece of cake, these aren't hard problems at all. They all have right answers. The real challenging questions are the ones with no right answers."

Like a zen monk he delivers the greatest truth. Interestingly, the same idea is encapsulated in another Oscar Wilde quote. "Education is an admirable things, but it well to remember form time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught."

Another example of one of these smart films is Foolproof here's another caper type movie; however, this time what we think we see is not at all what we see. That is, until their foolproof plan falls into the wrong hands.

Foolproof is the hacker ethic meets Gen-Xcellence. That is, it's the idea that information wants to be free. That systems desire to be cracked. Why? Because like the mountains--they're there. It's almost as if humans still have a place as long as they can beat the system. Yet again, we have a high ethical group of youth who excel and make the most pro-social choices.

You can learn a lot from a movie.

While I can't say yet how people will react to my new answer. I will report back the results. For now, I'll leave you with one of my fall time favorite films that hits on the same themes of academia, excellence, ethics, and the greatest question to be faced by anyone who wishes to achieve. The Emperor's Club

The Emperor's Club is one of the few movies I've described as PERFECT.

"Great Ambition and Conquest without Contribution is without Significance." says the teacher played wonderfully by Kevin Kline. "What will your contribution be."

It's a truly enlightened question.

It is NOT enough to know something.
It is NOT enough to have something.
It is NOT enough to gain something... Unless in doing so you grow, share, and enrich others.

No cut downs in class, now kiss and make up because zero tolerance makes zero sense.

2004-12-12T01:47:00.000-06:00

In my first blog post I spoke at length about my three point argument (expanded to four points) for my opposition to bias crime legislation.

Today, I'm going to show a few more examples of laws or rules gone wild.

WPVI.com: Girl Arrested for Bringing Scissors to School

Philadelphia my be the city of brotherly love, however, for one 10-year old girl it was anything but over school supplies.

Imagine it. You're 10-years of age. And you're arrested and taken away in handcuffs.

Please keep in mind, the fourth grader didn't threaten anyone or even draw the scissors (they were 'discovered' while searching the girl's property because the teacher may have misplaced something). So what was the problem? Oh, it's those zero-tolerance rules. Yes, like trying to board a plane these days, scissors could be potential weapons.

So is this just a school rule gone wrong? I wish.

The article indicates school workers believe they were required to act according to state law. And like a Dr. Seuss book with a familiar pace...or perhaps a repetitive transcript from the Nuremberg Trials...the police just followed the rules too when they cuffed the criminal.

Actually, she wasn't a criminal after all. "Police officers decided the girl hadn't committed a crime and let her go." However that wasn't enough, the school takes their sheers very seriously. First a five day suspension to be followed by "hearings" where she may be expelled of face other disciplinary action.

Perhaps everyone can get back to the business of education and kiss and make up?

Well...no to that one also. Check these links out.

Even in my home town we have 9-year old kissing culprates

Evidently even consensual kissing is grounds for suspension when it's gay kissing or political acts (So much for Tinker v DesMoins) when two girls kiss.

While it may be low-brow, is a hickey really assault? A judge gives the kid homework.
Google cashe so you don't have to subcribe for this apology to end assault charge story.
We even have perverts in first grade. Obviously Jonathan Privett's name was a clue to his perversion. And the biggest evidence he was a pervert is that he somehow managed to get another first grade girl to ask him to kiss her as evidence they were friends.

Of course that doesn't matter because, "A six-year old kissing a six-year old is inappropriate behavior, no matter how old they are," explains Jane Martin, spokesperson for the Lexington, N.C school.

Experts generally agree the schools are overreacting and creating more trouble then they help.

Amerikkka's most wanted!

Actually this is the most accurate pictures since most of your juvenile delinquents were only kissing on the cheeks.

Boy, girls...your attention please. Here's the rules. No weapons in school. No scissors, no nail files, no letter openers, no toy weapons. From now on, even you wits should be dull (if you're a public school student it likely already is) and your tongues blunt.

Speaking of tongues there will be no kissing on the play ground.

Oh yes, we've Tinkered with Tinker about as much as we can when symbolic love is given an out of school suspension.

Where's the beef, what the bleep?

2004-12-11T15:57:00.000-06:00

If you know much science, don't bother seeing What the Bleep Do We Know? (D- as a documentary B- as a good example of visual manipulation and storytelling)

Scientifically, the movie is a vast disappointment. The attempt to support metaphysical claims with talking head scientists was unconvincing.

Frankly, there was no scientific rigor in the film.

Specifically, I would describe the movie as as an irresponsible presentation of pseudo-science under the guise of being a documentary.

The movie uses visuals to forward it's agenda. So, if it is propaganda, the question remains: Propaganda for what cause?

A blogger friend at http://andymatic.com/ proposes the beneficiary may be an old school, New Age channeler of "Ramtha" the Ramtha School of Enlightenment.

Here are my two main critiques of the film.

One: Your Ship is Coming in...If we could only See it.

The movie claims the Native Americans were unable to physically see the ships of the arriving Europeans.

They offer no support for the claim absent a visual trick. They simply film the "natives" not seeing the ships. They then show the Shaman seeing the ripples and eventually the ship (it appears on the movie screen thanks to movie magic). Naturally, the Shaman could also boink you on the head, and you'd see it too.

It seems unlikely this story is true.

First, I'd imagine the native cultures had myths of sea creatures. Thus the "ship" could have been perceived in many other ways rather than "invisible."

Second, it seems unlikely the Europeans would have been able to communicate such a nuance of perception with the natives .

Last, it's unlikely the story would be carried to the present effectively.

In fact, I could find no outside support of this claim. A quick web search yielded no collaboration. I'd love a comment if someone can find any account to suggest this story isn't wholly apocryphal.

Two: The water crystals don't wash.

I was flooded with urgings from my friends to see this movie because of the "water experiments."

Okay, now that I've seen it, I can report strongly I find the idea absurd.

Take a look and learn from the use of visual manipulation then we can talk about his scientific procedure.

What would happen if you play some music for your water and then freeze it?

Answer...it gets cold. Look!

This is the cold water after a bit of Mozart

This is cold water under the pressure of some heavy metal music.

Curiously, water has the same musical bias of most adults!

What if you were to "write" on a bottle of water the message, "I hate you, you make me sick"?

Answer: You'd be able to find it easily in a room of water bottles?

That's not what Dr. Emoto concludes (A delightfully ironic name for someone studying the effects of "emotion words" on water crystallization.)

He has pictures to prove it.

Of course, if you say nice things like Mum taught you, you get a pretty snowflakes no longer shot with a brown filter!

Now let's consider this flaky argument.

First, the presupposition displayed in these pictures aren't analyzed.

Are we supposed to conclude because one image appears chaotic and out of symmetry while another picture appears orderly and balanced that the 'words' cause this. And further, because one set of words are pro-social and another antisocial that the difference is meaningful?

Remember, this experiment merely had the words WRITTEN on the bottles of water.

The scientific question here is why do we judge an image with symmetry as "nice" and "beautiful" while one with a more open form is seen as negative, contaminated or harmed.

The movie tries the great pseudo-scientific approach of "analogy" by provocatively announcing that your body is made of 90% water. A character says, "It makes you think..."

Not me. I don't think I'll be freezing myself to be examined under a microscope. I find the fascination a bit chilling.

In searching for the "Dr.'s" methodology, I found no evidence of his using a double blind. Nor did I find any analysis between the total number of water crystals or between the crystals of different water sources with difference messages.

Could he in fact be suffering from selectivity bias?

Might he "look for" nice images to go with nice words and ugly one to go with "ugly" words?

But why would he do that?

Well, he happened to have sold 400,000 copies of two books with pictures of water crystals at a $35.00 retail price. You do the math.

He's sold a cool $14-million in Frosty the Snowman pictures books.

As a Purdue University grad with a degree in physics, I learned nothing new on the science front. This disappointed me because I know there have been great advances since I graduated in '93.

The movie present the ideas of quantum mechanics as if it's the science of "anything goes."

It is not. Though the "wave-equations" of quantum mechanics do describe probabilities and possibilities (within limits), the existence of these mathematical equations do not suggest that objects with HIGH quantum numbers and/or at very LOW speed relative to the speed of light (like our reality) express noticeable quantum phenomena.

The real disappointment is, Quantum physics is interesting. The implications are staggering. The social and spiritual ripples are however totally human and not at all intrinsic in the science.

This is one movie where I wish I could be writing from an "alternative reality" where I didn't see it. Somewhere out there is a lucky me. Perhaps though you can be the beneficiary and avoid it yourself.

Move over Crouching Tiger there's a new HERO.

2004-12-10T20:05:00.000-06:00

Art and life are odd courtesans. Consider the match between the movie Hero and our current US leadership.

Sure to win fewer awards than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, HERO is a movie with a more engaging plot, more fulfilling love story, and lacking only the intergenerational quality of CT, HD.

What's interesting is the theme of the film is a ruthless. invading warlord who seems to think that successive destruction of one people after another in a land that has...for years...been a place of war, will bring about a great peace. A peace born out of the blood of many.

Resisting the tyrant are 3 amazing assassins... Broken Sword, Falling Snow, and Sky. A hero, named Nameless, rises up to to vanquish these assassins. The story is told from the perspective of the deed being finished.

The fight scenes and the panoramas are unparalleled. However, it's the message in the movie that is it's true art.

Spoiler Warning***

You see, the Hero is really an assassin who has such skill and ability he enlisted the aid and life of the other three to complete the deed. However, Broken Sword, aptly named because he had already broken from the sword found inner peace in the art of calligraphy. Uniquely, he, the one most rootless and lacking a home saw the value of the leader in that he would unite the people.

The bitter sweet ending, which might be intolerable in other cases fits and brings an epic feel to an epic tale. For the last assassin does indeed assassinate the tyrant...but he leaves the real ruler to serve his people.

Now, this movie was launch on DVD at the same time another happened/not happened assassination attempt was reported.

The current warlord and sitting president got word of his standing with our southern neighbors when he planned a 4-hour layover in Colombia. Hopefully the message of the assassins will have as life changing impact on Bush.

You see, unlike Hero... We already have a united nation. There is no honor to our imperialism. And the blood being shed will not result in a new world peace though it might result in a new price per gallon of gasoline.

However, like the visionary Broken Sword and eventually Nameless, I'm reminded just how short 4 years really is. And the upside? He can never fool us about his leadership again. He can never take leadership he hasn't earned. And...his "mandate" if it can be called that is a swing of hate sure to correct.

In the mean time, the progressives need to find their own Hero. Because for now...that person is still nameless.

It's just not funny...

2004-12-09T22:54:00.000-06:00

In the wake of Focus on the Family's attempt to put NBC in their cross hairs because of a 20/20 report by ABC alleging that Matt Shepard's murder wasn't a hate crime...

Before I move my focus to the films I've seen today which are rife with gay baiting humor let me have link to GLAAD's response to 20/20's revisionist history of the Matthew Shepard murder.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of GLAAD which I often call Gays and Lesbians After Additional Dinners because they seem to be more into "fitting in" than "fighting back."

So here we have it. Another reason to be very cautious about a focus on Federal "Hate Crimes" legislation. On several occasions I've made my three pronged argument against this kind of civil action.

1) We don't want judges telling us what was a bias crime against gay people.
2) We don't need the additional law especially if it's largely ornamental.
3) It approaches turning thoughts into crimes.

1) Do we really want to empower a court to say the death of Matthew Shepard or any violence against gay people wasn't motivated by hate? I still say, "No." And now we see it being played out in the media even after the legal decisions.

2) Isn't it really legislatively duplicative? I still say, "Yes." The actions which most prudent people would want prosecuted are already unlawful. Furthermore, motive and motivation is already included in decisions about punishment. Thus, the need is questionable as both legal scope and legal consideration already exists. (Those who know me understand I think there are already too many laws... We hardly need more!)

3) Do we ever want thought to be a crime? I still say, "No." To have a crime which enhances punishment for an already unlawful crime behind the impact of motivation at the time of sentencing suggest a kind of illegal thinking. At this point, the one thing preventing it from being the case is in order to be a bias crime, there must be a crime. Which brings us back firmly to criticism two. And if we ever stop requiring an actual crime be committed in order to seek a conviction for hate...then we will be well on our way to the word of Tom Cruse's Minority Report.

That offers an ideal segue into movies.

Keep out of the way of DodgeBall (C)

There are no fewer than 8 cheep shots about sexual orientation and twice the number of stereotypes regarding gender rolls and identity.

The only actual character with an alternative sexuality is the seeming romantic lead of Kate Veatch played by Christine Taylor (Wedding Singer and Calendar Girl) who was called a Dyke and other such names and was defended by male lead Vince Vaughn (Rudy and Psycho) playing Peter LaFleur.

It comes out in the end, she's not a Dyke. No, she's bi-sexual! Creating the ultimate in hetro-normative dreams two girls and one guy.

Beyond the GLAAD like objections to the movie, I think the end of the movie wasn't fairly suggested. Specifically, gambling is used as a Deus ex Machina to provide the table turning finale. However, the bet would seem to have needed to have been placed at a time when the main character was clearly not planning to play the game until after his visit with the testicular cancer survivor, Lance Armstrong. That is, it seems the only time to have made a bet was when it would have been believed to be a losing bet. (In fairness, the gambling may have been what Peter meant when he said, "I have a plan.")

Further, if it wasn't made earlier, the bet was extremely risky. Why? Because he was only allowed in the game by the Thumbs up of another celebrity cameo Chuck Noris.

I'm a little disappointed to see Noris, who wouldn't take the part of the head of the Cobra Kai dojo in Karate Kid (B+) (and its sequels (B-) because of the negativeness of the character...YET...he appears in a movie with a dehumanizing image of sexual heterogeneity.

Cut out the gay baiting, BLADE Trinity (D-)

First off, this movie is some kind of total Matrix Trilogy ripoff. However, the point of this blog post is the gay baiting. Again, the same kind of crap. Cheap laughs and even the occasional cheap thrill by making foul characterizations of gay people.

One of the most homophobic comments is from the "evil" vampire crew when they just endured a Wesley Snipes styled butt kicking and one vampire first says, "We got caught with our pants down." Then another says, "Pants down, we got ass fucked." Then the dominatrix like vampire says, "Oh, admit it you liked it."

Additionally, there's a character like a total ripoff of Marshall J. Flinkman in the hit TV show Alias who is at one point asked if he's ever been laid. He says, "Many times..." and pauses then delivers, "Even by girls."

The movie is just full of it.

I'm a firm believer that the movies gives us a socio-political topology. Before Karl Rove took up the anti-gay Constitutional amendment agenda days after what appeared to be the first legitimate Bush election (and is looking less that way every day), there were great strides in civil rights. The Supreme Court of the United States upheld the rights to privacy of men and woman in their own homes by declaring "Sodomy" laws unconstitutional. There was serious judicial review being conducted and state leadership with regards to marriage and "civil unions."

Before all that, the images in movies, even comedies, were original, challenging, even progressive.

I think of the treatment of youth sexuality in movies like Marcy X, School of Rock, and even a very young boy cross dressing in either The Hot Chick or Billy Elliot (A)

You may recall before I took this trip to the cinema... I said this adds to my original three reasons yet another to be very cautious about bias crimes legislation.

What's four?

4) Do we want the media to come back after the fact and do weak journalism as an expose to report the anti-gay murder of Matthew Shepard was really all just a robbery gone bad of a tweaker, drug-dealing kid who happened to be gay? (Please note, the Matt Shepard was a user/dealer theory isn't new but it's still without any credibility.)

I say, "No!"