THURSDAY WHATEVER

A national conservative weekly, Human Events (for whatever reason their website moves like a slug), just came out with a list of “10 most dangerous books of the 19th and 20th centuries”

1. The Communist Manifesto
2. Mein Kampf
3. Quotations from Chairman Mao
4. The Kinsey Report
5. Democracy and Education
6. Das Kapital
7. The Feminine Mystique
8. The Course of Positive Philosophy
9. Beyond Good and Evil
10. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

What can I say? I’ve not read a darn one of them (OK I’ve heard of them all and read bits and pieces) though I see it looks like revolution, both political and sexual, is a hot topic on the list. I think I’ll do a little dipping into them today as I have moments to find out what’s so dangerous about them and how the world could be even more dangerous than it already is.

Deep Thought: “People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.”
Today I am grateful for: Quarters – living and other
Guess the Movie: “ I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.” Answer: Say Anything, 1989. Winner: soobee72.
Downing Street Memo Gets Fresh Attention
by Mark Memmott
A simmering controversy over whether American media have ignored a secret British memo about how President Bush built his case for war with Iraq bubbled over into the White House on Tuesday. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:52 pm
+ = Another pretty darn perfect productive spring day.
- = Military recruitment way down – can the draft be far behind?

TUESDAY POLITICS

Here we go again with this demonizing of terminally ill and suffering medical marijuana smokers. What is it with these people?! When was the last time you heard of a crime wave committed by bedridden dopesmokers? As I recall, “back in the day” you could hardly get a dopesmoker to find the keys to his car, let alone steal yours. What – do they think the patients will become addicted? Anyway, it’s kind of interesting here in Oregon because we’re rambunctious enough to have also a physician-assisted suicide law which has been the target of the Evil Eye of John Ashcroft in the past and now will be watched again as we see what happens with the states rights initiative about medical marijuana. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments over the Oregon physician-assisted suicide law in October after both a federal judge and a federal appeals court ruled against Ashcroft. Two birds with one crapshoot is probably what the alert rightwing legal eagles are thinking. The Oregon Department of Human Services was apparently freaked enough on Monday to suspend issuance of new medical marijuana permit cards until the Oregon attorney general’s office reviews the ruling. However, it seems a national marijuana law reform group has threatened to sue the state unless it resumes issuing medical marijuana permit cards. It’s not even about prescribing I don’t think, as it’s my understanding that you have to grow your own and that marijuana can’t be prescribed until it’s defined clearly as a medicine by the AMA. It can only be recommended by physicians. Other attorneys and legal scholars agreed the Supreme Court ruling would have little practical effect, unless federal prosecutors decided to commit considerable resources to a crackdown, a move that was not expected despite concerns among patients and some doctors. In the past enforcement has been rare. Stay tuned – soon we’ll have a new Reality Show as stoned cancer patients are handcuffed and dragged off to jail for our evening viewing pleasure. Or not.

Deep Thought: “On the other hand, we have different fingers.”
Today I am grateful for: Printers
Guess the Movie: “You start to play it and it’s like somebody’s nightmare. And then this woman comes on, smiling at you, right? Seeing you… through the screen. Then when it’s over, your phone rings, someone knows you watched the tape… and what they say is, “You will die in seven days”.” Answer: The Ring, 2002. Winner: AskDennis.
Supreme Court: Government Can Bar Medical Marijuana Use
by James Vicini
WASHINGTON – The federal government has the power to prevent sick patients from smoking home-grown marijuana that a doctor recommended to relieve chronic pain, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a setback for the medical marijuana movement. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:23 pm
+ = First really pretty afternoon in awhile.
- = Going through hard times at work.

MONDAY BOOK

The 100 Secrets of Happy Families

Checked this out from the library today so of course I don’t yet know all the secrets but I’ll share #1:

Be a Good Friend

Looked at from a distance, a family is infinitely complex. But looked at from the most basic level, a family is a series of personal relationships, and those relationships are like any other close, important relationships in your life. Treat your family members as you would treat a friend–as if you have chosen to be in their company and wish them to choose to be in yours– and you will have taken the most important, most fundamental step toward having a rewarding family life.

Each tiny chapter (I love tiny chapters) has an example and a quote from a research article. Nifty. There are those who say parents should not behave as friends to their children and vice versa. How would the boundaries be different than with a friend not related by birth? Being in each other’s company sounds simple enough unless, like many families, you’re spread all over the map. Hmmm, I’d better read on. I can use all the insights I can get.

Deep Thought: “One of the worst things you can do as an actor, I think, is to forget your lines, and then get so flustered you start stabbing the other actors.”
Today I am grateful for: The pitter-patter of little feet
Guess the Movie: “ Carol Anne – listen to me. Do NOT go into the light. Stop where you are. Turn away from it. Don’t even look at it.” Answer: Poltergeist, 1982. Winner: hereathome.
Despite US Pledges, Fear of Draft Persists
by Christian Davenport
WASHINGTON — Rarely in the more than 30 years since the draft was abolished has the Selective Service triggered such angst. Two years into the Iraq war, concern that the draft will be reinstated to supplement an overextended military persists — no matter how often, or emphatically, President Bush and members of Congress say it won’t.
In this atmosphere of suspicion, the Selective Service System, the agency that conscripted 1.8 million Americans during the Vietnam War and 10 million in World War II, quietly pursues its delicate dual mission: keeping the draft machinery ready, without sparking fear that it is coming back. (Rest of article here.)

FRIDAY FIVE

So I got tagged a little over a week ago by baldmike2004 and discovered it just too late to do a Friday Five last week, so here it is today.

1. Total number of films I own on dvd/video.
Long an advocate of voluntary simplicity and being short on space, I own very few films and books though I devour both on a regular basis. So my films include: 5 kids films on my grandchildren’s shelves – The Wizard of Oz, Linnea in Monet’s Garden, The Rainbow Fish, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, and a recorded bunch of old Sesame Streets. They sit there like sweet reminders of earlier childhood days when we watched them often together. 6 videos I just felt I had to own at the time – Strangers in Good Company, Ruby in Paradise, Rudy, A Family Thing, Smoke Signals, and Hoosiers, plus a DVD set of Angels in America. 2 exercise videos (one stretching and one yoga) and one meditation video (Shirley Maclaine’s Inner Workout), and 6 home movie videos of family moments. I joined Netflix recently so I get lots of great documentaries and foreign films I can’t find at my local video store from them, plus I learned to use my local library via the internet to order up what they have that I want (and they have a lot).
2. The last film I bought.
Was actually the exercise video, Exercise: A Video from the National Institute on Aging – $7 for book and DVD. Check out their site. Even if you’re not aging (and that would make you a miracle), you’ll find all kinds of stuff cheap or free about health there. A neighbor turned me on to it.
3. The last film I watched.
The last film that I watched the whole thing was The Longest Yard out at the movies yesterday with 2 of my women friends who just wanted to go to a movie bad enough to settle for it. I LOVED the original (wasn’t it just for TV?) film with Burt Reynolds years ago but this one was a far cry – even though BR made an appearance in it cosmetic surgery and all. Too loud, too cheesy, too embarassing on many levels. I’d give it a C, I guess. I wasn’t expecting better though so I’m not complaining.
4. Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me.
I don’t watch ANY films a lot, though over the years these five come to mind as ones I’ve watched more than once because I love them so much: The Great Escape, Hoosiers, The Last Waltz, The Wizard of Oz, and Bull Durham.
5. People to tag.
I’ve learned that xangans are sensitive folks, so I’d rather leave this open. Whew, that wasn’t so hard.

Deep Thought: “Someday I would like to make a movie that makes people laugh and makes people cry, and then makes them leave the theater in a quick and orderly manner so that others may come in.”
Today I am grateful for: Pioneers
Guess the Movie: “ Which one of you nuts has got any guts?” Answer: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975. Winner: eneventure.
Amnesty Defends ‘Gulag,’ Urges Guantanamo Access
TOKYO — Human rights group Amnesty defended its description of Guantanamo prison as a “gulag” Thursday and urged the United States to allow independent investigations of allegations of torture at its detention centers for terrorism suspects.
A verbal feud between Amnesty International and Washington has escalated since Amnesty last week compared the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the brutal Soviet system of forced labor camps where millions of prisoners died. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 9:10 pm
+ = Got started getting my living room ceiling painted.
- = Painter broke up with his girlfriend today so god knows when it will get finished.

WEDNESDAY MOVIE

Crash

Ordinarily I wouldn’t blog about a film that made me so tense. You’d think that since “intelligent” serial killer films are my favorite genre, that’s an absurd statement. But this is different – this was too much like real life at its most nonstop desperate. Set in LA, it’s one of those “intersection” films (kind of like an early Stephen King novel) where various characters come from divergent corners of the plot to meet by amazing coincidence in the middle. Let’s see, we have: a Brentwood housewife and her DA husband. A Persian store owner. Two police detectives who are also lovers. A black television director and his wife. A Mexican locksmith. Two car-jackers. A rookie cop. A racist cop. A middle-aged Korean couple… pretty much a token urban everybody. And that was part of the downfall for me – just a bit too much of every possible kind of situation that might produce fear and rage with little sparkles of epiphany thrown in here and there to make you think there might be hope – i.e., the racist cop roughs up the handsome middle-class black couple but wait he loves his very ill dad but wait he’s a bully but wait he’s also a hero who dives into a burning car to rescue can it be the very same exquisitely beautiful black woman he just abused a few frames ago. Epiphany! It probably didn’t help that the theater was fahreezing and the cinematography grainy. To give credit, the cast were some of my favorite folks, including Don Cheadle who was one of the film’s producers, and the acting was just fine – well maybe a little melodramatic (how many ways can you freeze frame a scream) – but overall it seemed to me like the message was Everybody Will Try To Kill You If You Just Push Their Particular Emotional Buttons Hard Enough. Unfortunately, that’s just a little bit too close to where our world seems to be headed for me to want to cogitate on for very long. So if you’re heading out to see it, bring a warm coat and some tranquilizers and hope if you don’t live in LA you’ll be safe.

Deep Thought: “I think it should be a law that if you ever get sucked up into a tornado, whatever you can grab with your hands while you’re swirling around up there, you get to keep.”
Today I am grateful for: Pillows
Guess the Movie: “Forget it! I’m stayin’ right where I am. It’s gonna take you and the police department and the fire department and the National Guard to get me outta here!” Answer: Norma Rae, 1979.
Bush, Cheney Attack Amnesty International
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON – Stung by Amnesty International’s condemnation of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq and elsewhere overseas, the administration of President George W. Bush is reacting with indignation and even suggestions that terrorists are using the world’s largest human rights organization. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: Once again, too tired to check out.