Archive for February, 2008
Obligatory Oscars Post
Monday, February 25th, 2008Reaction: Meh.
Everyone looked beautiful. Mostly boring, as usual. The only interesting award forced me to wait until the end: the men. They all looked genuinely nervous and desirous. I guess even actors can’t hide their true feelings.
I find it interesting how squirmy the actors get seeing themselves. Kate Blanchett shrunk in her chair when she saw herself yelling to the Spanish Ambassador. Johnny Depp, who I love, looked anxiously at his wife. Even George Clooney seemed somewhat embarrassed. He’s looking good, but older. I wonder how well he’s going to age.
I went over to the Sisters to see what they had to say about the Oscars, but nothin’. I thought they were fashion hounds. What the Danté’s Inferno? The do have a good post about the working mom’s lament: Sick kids. Well, I’ve been a SAHM (stay at home mom) and have sick kids, too. And when they’re sick, and this year its been six weeks straight now, I wonder what in the world I would do if I was working more than I do. A doctor doesn’t get sick days. We’ll find out soon enough. I’ll be getting back in the saddle practicing a couple days a week in a new practice. Sister mentions Sylvia Plath. I can’t remember if she baked her head in the oven or purposefully drowned herself, I get my neurotic writers confused, but either way, with homeschooling I can totally relate. It is time to escape the four walls.
McCain, Obama, The Times and A Civilized Election
Sunday, February 24th, 2008
When John McCain received the typical media treatment that conservatives receive, the conservatives responded with typical conservative outrage, John Hawkins among them. The New York Times may continue to lead the charge to take down the “conservative” candidate, but everyone knows that John McCain is no conservative. The media’s bias shines through. It’s not conservatives they hate. It’s anyone who isn’t a Democrat with socialist tendencies they hate. McCain is Republican, sure, and a “moderate”. Which is to say, he enjoys big-government intervention just like Democrats. He’s not from the Bible-thumping corner of the party. He’s not conservative on immigration, regulation, just about anything. He’s been a staunch defender of the war in Iraq. That’s it. Yet the Times gives him the same disrespectful treatment.
I do believe The New York Times miscalculated. They revealed their paper as the instrument of the Democratic party. They revealed themselves to be in the business of making news not reporting news. And their timing was purposeful. The story could have come out during the primary process where it could have hurt McCain’s chances against other Republicans. But no, the Times waited until the timing most benefited Democrats. Megan McArdle calls her mom The Swing Voter who had this opinion:
As longtime readers of the blog know, I’m related to the Swing Voter, aka my mother. Her vote is an infallible indicator of who will win the general election. We had dinner last night, and somewhat to my surprise, The Swing Voter is completely outraged by the New York Times story–she vows to no longer take the Times, nay, not even for the Sunday crossword. She is also now thinking seriously about voting for McCain just to spite the New York Times.
It seems that the press will have to tread carefully all the way around, with a McCain-Obama election. Hammering McCain (they won’t be able to help themselves, they love the Leftists too much) will further diminish their standing. Harsh pieces on Obama will engender cries of racism.
So will an Obama-McCain election be more civilized? Maybe so.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News.
President Bush in Africa
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008The Anchoress covers President Bush’s triumphant African trip. She says:
In places where freedom is taken for granted, our president and our troops are not received with joy. But in places where liberty is still longed for and prized, the story is quite different.
That does seem to be the case, doesn’t it?
Green Energy Will Be Driven By Green Money
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008For those who want to change the world into a better place, do it with dollars. The world will become environmentally friendly when there’s money in it. For example:
The wind turbines that recently went up on Louis Brooks’s ranch are twice as high as the Statue of Liberty, with blades that span as wide as the wingspan of a jumbo jet. More important from his point of view, he is paid $500 a month apiece to permit 78 of them on his land, with 76 more on the way.“That’s just money you’re hearing,” he said as they hummed in a brisk breeze recently.
Texas, once the oil capital of North America, is rapidly turning into the capital of wind power. After breakneck growth the last three years, Texas has reached the point that more than 3 percent of its electricity, enough to supply power to one million homes, comes from wind turbines.
Texans are even turning tapped-out oil fields into wind farms, and no less an oilman than Boone Pickens is getting into alternative energy.
“I have the same feelings about wind,” Mr. Pickens said in an interview, “as I had about the best oil field I ever found.” He is planning to build the biggest wind farm in the world, a $10 billion behemoth that could power a small city by itself.
And money, more than insipid moralizing, will drive green energy. And that’s the best way. The American Way.
Relationship Warnings
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008I’m not quite sure the point of this, but it’s a nice encapsulation of what can go wrong.
On Death And Dying
Friday, February 22nd, 2008My senior year of High School, a good friend’s father died from a brain tumor after suffering with brain cancer for more than a year. It was absolutely excruciating to watch her suffer, and a lot to handle at 17 for myself. I read the classic by Kubler-Ross On Death and Dying
Life is awfully short. A blink. And no one wants to die, not even those who are desperate and suicidal. Death is a means of escape for some, but it comes at a permanent cost. Well, only permanent in this physical sense.
The father of my friend did some wonderful things for his family. He set them up financially. He fought as hard as he could for as long as he could. And when it became clear that he wouldn’t last, he called each child in, talked to them individually, and told them how much he loved and cared for them. They did not have to doubt as they grew up. They knew love.
Today, a friend of ours died. He had been told a year and half ago that he had three months to live. He had a rare form of cancer. Medicine held no hope. He was a powerful man. He grew up sleeping on dirt floors and grew a formidable business. He had everything, physically, a person could dream of. He got to fulfill his secret hopes–something many people don’t get to do in their life.
His fierce spirit and questioning nature served him well. He turned to medical alternatives, changed his diet and changed his attitude and spirit. He managed to stave off the inevitable over eighteen months. Only weeks ago, we were at a basketball game with him, having dinner together and remarking at his amazing vitality. He had gained weight. He looked better than he had in over a year. It was our last time together in his health. Over the last days, a tumor literally strangled the life out of him. And he died.
It happened quickly, which was a mercy. He wasn’t in pain, which was another mercy. His family was with him and could be there for him. He was loved. And he could share love. He had so many plans and so much to do. He was young, relatively speaking. He’s gone and all that remains is his work and the lives he’s touched.
We get too caught up, I think, in the temporal and immediate. Life can be snatched away in an instant and to not be fully present in it is a waste.
Today, a loved one is having a birthday. Today, babies are born. Today, there is hope for those who have life in them to hope. If nothing else, mortality seems to be the best reason to live.
Stupid Gender Stuff–The Neverending War
Thursday, February 21st, 2008Dr. Helen has another letter from another beat-down man. Bottom line: Life is not fair. Women get the breaks. Men are diminished. Women don’t value men. Dr. Helen concludes:
Finally, you do not have to prove your “worth” to anyone. You mentioned that you are a good husband, worker, and friend. That is indeed, good enough. You are not the catalyst for all of the evil stereotypes that some misinformed people wish to project onto the male gender. Disavow yourself of that, for shouldering that burden would make anyone tired. Live your life in a way that brings you satisfaction and let the naysayers wallow in their inflexible negativity.
Meanwhile, Cassy Fiano has a rejoinder to a stupid article explaining to men how to know if women are into them or not. Let me just add here, that if you’re looking for pupils dilating or the head tilt for reinforcement that you’re on the right track, you might be blogging too much.
Moral of the story? Men and women still bug the shit out of each other. They have a tough time figuring out relationships. And the current social climate complicates what has always been a crazy-making dance. Like I’ve blabbed before, I think that both genders face a situation where they must gender-neutralize to survive.
What is interesting about all this, is that the common differences between men and women, which used to be understood are now discounted. The differences still exist. Men still want to be respected. Women still want to be loved. Relationships are a mystery; indeed, the greatest mystery. And yet, relationships are approached like they are body signals or social science projects.
The advancement of women in the work world should not have to come at the expense at the loss of self for the man. That women or men frame it in this zero-sum way is defeating and self-defeating. If a man defined his worth by a paycheck, then, he’s bound to be intimidated if his wife’s paycheck is bigger. Likewise, if a woman believes a modern man is deficient because he can’t breastfeed, she’s bound to be disappointed.
Some things have changed and needed to change and they were good changes and everyone needs to get used to them, unless we all submit to Sharia law, in which case we’ll all be someone’s bitch. Until that time, women are on an equal footing with men, and that’s great. A lot of resources were ignored when women had one place–in the home.
Some things haven’t changed. For example, women conceive and carry and birth and can feed a baby. A man can’t. A woman is wired differently. This lesson was difficult for me to embrace even though it was physically obvious. While I could hold my own and take care of things under normal circumstances, as a pregnant woman, my body was fragile. This was a bitter pill that I almost, indeed, the first pregnancy did, choke on.
In addition, women nurse babies. It’s not just the milk. It’s the closeness. It’s the relationship. It’s how the woman’s body is made. It’s how the baby survives best (see here and here).
Now, I know a woman doesn’t have to do the mommy things these days. And I also get irritated with the Mom Nazis who try to find meaning and value in life exclusively through mother nature–namely their own pet peeves positioned as righteous wisdom. I can’t help but thinking that the La Leche League and Eco Moms would have been the same ladies at the temperance meetings of yore.
But this proves my point, as much as society has changed, it’s remained the same. Men and women still think about things, namely relationships, but other things as well, differently. Can we just accept this fact? Do women have to make snarky comments about men, deriding them, essentially, to promote themselves? Do men have to reduce women to porn parts or feeling less than because a woman has become more?
Women and men need one another. It would be nice for the weapons to be put away.
Muslim Wannabe Terrorist Nailed in Tampa
Thursday, February 21st, 2008He was trying to “play the part“:
After Baines was read his rights, he said his cousin had cut away the pages to make the hollow section in the book. Later, reports state, he said he had hollowed it out himself to hide money and marijuana from his roommates.Baines told officers he was moving to Las Vegas and forgot the cutter was in the book.
Officers found books in the backpack titled “Muhammad in the Bible,” “The Prophet’s Prayer” and “The Noble Qur’an.” He also had a copy of the Quran and the Bible.
I’m sure he had no intention of using the box cutter. None at all.
President Bush: "Cowboy In Space"
Thursday, February 21st, 2008It sounds kinda cool even if it’s biased pap.
Apocalypse Now? It’s The Gays Fault
Thursday, February 21st, 2008Around the web, commenters shared fears about the apocalypse starting with the Red Moon. And now, an MP in Israel believes that earthquakes around the country are being caused by immoral activity:
Shlomo Benizri, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the tremors had been caused by lawmaking that gave “legitimacy to sodomy”.
Israel decriminalised homosexuality in 1988 and has since passed several laws recognising gay rights.
Two earthquakes shook the region last week and a further four struck in November and December.
It does seem that the Judeo-Christian world is diverging further. There are the ultra-conservatives who see signs everywhere and the increasingly secularized, marginally churched who hold their noses at such archaic notions. I guess we’ll find out who is right soon enough.
