THURSDAY WHATEVER

I’ve been meaning to acknowledge this interesting trio of 2005 winners. Couldn’t be further away on the spiritual spectrum from last year’s choice, who will hopefully be impeached by the time of next year’s choice. I’ve always liked Bill Gates in spite of how gnarly most folks are about Microsoft. He just has that endearing geek look about him and he’s been giving his money away almost faster than he earns it to various wonderful causes. His foundation with his wife concentrates mainly on education and global health and god knows there’s a need in these days when we can’t even come up with vaccine for an impending avian flu epidemic, or money for our local school systems. Bono somehow never really got on my radar screen, though of course I know he’s famous and U2 is one of the most successful rock bands in the world. I’ve known he was an activist but not paid close attention. His foundation is called DATA (debt, AIDS, trade, Africa) and out of it came the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History. He also has the best shades of anybody. Now Melinda Gates is really an unknown to me so I looked up her bio. Aha, she’s a former Microsoft unit manager who married Bill in 1994 when she was 30, so that makes her 41 now. She was valedictorian of her class at private school in Texas. She graduated from Duke in computer science and went on for an MBA there. She and Bill have three kids under 9. Whenever I see them on the news they strike me as folks who don’t spend their time carousing and bribing politicians and partying on yachts like other billionaires seem to do. So I like this year’s choice. It’s called Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is. And they take a great photo, don’t they?

Deep Thought: “I bet a fun thing would be to go way back in time to where there was going to be an eclipse and tell the cave men, “If I have come to destroy you, may the sun be blotted out from the sky.” Just then the eclipse would start, and they’d probably try to kill you or something, but then you could explain about the rotation of the moon and all, and everyone would get a good laugh.”
Today I am grateful for: That I haven’t caught a cold yet this winter
Guess the Movie: “You think you’re God Almighty, but you know what you are? You’re a cheap, lousy, dirty, stinkin’ mug! And I’m glad what I done to you, ya hear that? I’m glad what I done!” Answer: On the Waterfront, 1954. Winner: VaporousVenom.
2006: The Year the Chickenhawks Will Go Home to Roost
by Cindy Sheehan
Since hot, hot Camp Casey in August, some amazing grass roots actions have taken place all over the country. People are starting to speak up and Congress has begun to take action against the criminal and neo-Fascist regime that tried to take over America. (Rest of article here.)

WEDNESDAY MOVIES

For the grown-up Christmas outing to the movies, it was Munich, Spielberg’s take on the follow-up to the 1972 Munich Olympics when 11 Israeli athletes died at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. In the film, Golda Meir, then Israeli Prime Miniister, ordered a Mossad force to track down the masterminds behind the plot and kill them in return for the crime. I still don’t know whether that actually happened in the way the movie relates it, but the bottom line is that as the handful of agents begins to find and kill their targets, they start to morph into the terrorist mentality – never rest, someone will always be returning the favor. Terrorism breeds more terrorism, never peace. Spielberg stays pretty neutral in terms of taking sides (though the lead actor is the Israeli agent who leads the unit). I guess I was a little disappointed. Except for the lead character, none of the other actors are really fleshed out so you never really care about them. The world of Eye for Eye is getting pretty damned old as a movie plot or a real-life place to live and as far as I can see, no end to it is in sight.

For the whole family Xmas fare, we saw The Chronicles of Narnia, which is also about war and peace. Thankfully, it has exquisite visuals – scenery, costumes, technical effects; gorgeous and natural child actors, and a stunning villain. Tilda Swinton is the perfect White Witch, though at moments I swear her enjoyment of torture and killing seemed almost too poisonous. In one scene, she backhands one of the children across the face – a moment I thought could easily have been left out. As for the Christian symbolism everybody’s been talking about, I really couldn’t see anything in-your-face at all. Oh yes, the Lion resurrects by doing a good deed – but that’s pretty standard fairy tale fare. Another moment that didn’t fit for me was at the end when the children now grown are galloping through the forest hunting a stag (after all their history with darling little beavers and foxes and such). But those kvetches aside, I thought it was totally wizard. Who could resist that lamp post gleaming in the snow just beyond the wardrobe door?

Deep Thought: “If I was the head of a country that lost a war, and I had to sign a peace treaty, just as I was signing I’d glance over the treaty and then suddenly act surprised. “Wait a minute! I thought we won!”
Today I am grateful for: Castles
Guess the Movie: “Why don’t you pass the time with a game of solitaire?” Answer: The Manchurian Candidate, 1962. Winner: eneventure.
The Most Valuable Progressives of 2005
by John Nichols
It is hard to complain about a year that began with George Bush bragging about spending the “political capital” he felt he had earned with his dubious reelection and ended with the president drowning in the Nixonian depths of public disapproval.
But the circumstance didn’t just get better.
A handful of elected officials, activist groups and courageous citizens bent the arc of history toward justice.
Here are this one columnist’s picks for the Most Valuable Progressives of 2005: (Rest of article here.)

SATURDAY PHOTO

Gift Wrapping – by Anne Geddes
More Christmas photos

Anne Geddes is 49. She was born in Australia and now lives and works in New Zealand. She began to use a camera in her mid-20’s and specializes in photos of babies and motherhood with the intent of protecting and cherishing children. Her books have been published in 50+ countries and she’s sold 11 million+ books and 15 million+ calendars. In 1997 she was awarded a Lifetime Membership in the Professional Photographers of America and an Honorary Fellowship with the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photographers (NZIPP). In 2004, she collaborated with Céline Dion on a project called Miracle, that combines music and photos about new life and babies. Thirteen years ago, Anne combined her interest in creating a calendar of her images with her commitment to ”giving back.” Through sales of her premiere edition 1992 calendar, she raised more than $50,000 toward the prevention of child abuse in New Zealand. Since then, designated funds from the range of Anne Geddes products totaling US $2 million have been donated through the non-profit Geddes Philanthropic Trust to help prevent child abuse in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In early 2005, more than $83,400 of nominated returns from the Anne Geddes Bank of America credit cards was donated to the UNICEF South Asia Tsunami Relief Effort to help children suffering from the devastating earthquake and tsunami. To aid in the relief effort following Hurricane Katrina in the U.S., more than 20,000 items of Anne Geddes Baby clothing were donated to benefit the babies affected by relocation, and in many cases, separation from their parents. Here is her biography.

Deep Thought: “Of all my imaginary friends, I don’t think there was one that I didn’t end up having to kill.”
Today I am grateful for: Low-carb food and drink which I will begin to ingest shortly after the holidays
Guess the Movie: “Your work is ingenious. It’s quality work. But there are simply too many notes, that’s all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.” ”Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?” Answer: Amadeus, 1984. Winner: Eliminate_the_Impossible.
“Peace on Earth” Means “No More War”
by John Dear
The story goes that when the nonviolent Jesus was born into abject poverty to homeless refugees on the outskirts of a brutal empire, angels appeared in the sky to impoverished shepherds singing, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth!” That child grew up to become, in Gandhi’s words, “the greatest nonviolent resister in the history of the world,” and was subsequently executed by the empire for his insistence on justice. (Rest of article here.)

FRIDAY FIVE

Appetizer – Using only 5 words, describe how 2005 went for you.
Kept trying to find Center.
Soup – Name something you did in 2005 that you’ll probably never do again.
Spent three days by the ocean with my two children and two grandchildren. It was a deja vu of doing the same with my own parents when my children were young. Now I’ll have that memory to hold dear for the rest of my life. (And photos to prove it.)
Salad – What did you learn about yourself in 2005?
That semi-retirement won’t kill me. How did I ever keep up with everything when I worked fulltime?!
Main Course – What notable news event from 2005 will stand out most in your memory?
The overall apathy of my fellow countrymen/women towards war, torture, execution, poverty, political corruption, and any other form of abuse you can think of.
Dessert – Name something you purchased in 2005 that you really, really like.
DSL.

Deep Thought: “I guess the hard thing for a lot of people to accept is why God would allow me to go running through their yards, yelling and spinning around.”
Today I am grateful for: Christmas candles
Guess the Movie: “Just get up off the ground, that’s all I ask. Get up there with that lady that’s up on top of this Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something. And you won’t just see scenery; you’ll see the whole parade of what Man’s carved out for himself, after centuries of fighting. Fighting for something better than just jungle law, fighting so’s he can stand on his own two feet, free and decent, like he was created, no matter what his race, color, or creed. That’s what you’d see. There’s no place out there for graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties. And, uh, if that’s what the grownups have done with this world that was given to them, then we’d better get those boys’ camps started fast and see what the kids can do. And it’s not too late, because this country is bigger than the Taylors, or you, or me, or anything else. Great principles don’t get lost once they come to light. They’re right here; you just have to see them again!” Answer: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939. Winner: soobee72.
The Top 10 Bitterest Ironies of 2005
by Gary Alan Scott
1. Fiddling While Rome Burns (Black and White Version):
How bitterly ironic was it to see George W. Bush doing everything he could to act like the commander-in-chief who was determined to be all over Hurricane Rita (which struck his home state of Texas) after being non compos mentis and Missing in Action when the residents of New Orleans (mostly poor and black) were awash in suffering after Katrina. Where were those Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard troops hired to defend their states, I wonder? (Rest of article here.)

THURSDAY WHATEVER

They may be losing their habitat to global warming but thanks to something they’ve never heard of – The Filibuster – oil drilling will not be coming to an ice field near them as soon as Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens (R) hoped it would. Cleverly attaching ANWR drilling to the annual defense spending bill that included $453 billion for the Defense Department, plus $29 billion for Hurricane Katrina victims, money to combat avian flu and more than $2 billion to help poor people pay their energy bills, he was sure it would get through. Just for the record, dear bears, you have Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who faces re-election next year, to thank for leading the opposition to Arctic drilling. Senator Ted Stevens is pretty pissed off. He said he was “drawing a line now with a lot of people I’ve worked with before.” And Alaska has a commitment from congressional leaders to consider ANWR again next year (this fight has already been going on for over 20 years). So it’s a temporary reprieve, but if the bears are lucky, the proponents of alternative energy sources (solar, wind power, geothermal, hydroelectric, tides) will make headway in time to save them for good. And all they stand for.

Deep Thought: “Sometimes the beauty of the world is so overwhelming, I just want to throw back my head and gargle. Just gargle and gargle, and I don’t care who hears me, because I am beautiful.”
Today I am grateful for: Calcium + D
Guess the Movie: “Let me say this out loud, ’cause I wanna get it straight in my head. You’re saying that Mr. Blonde was gonna kill you, then when we got back, he was going kill us, take the satchel of diamonds, and scram. I’m right about that, right? That’s correct? That’s your story?” Answer: Reservoir Dogs, 1992. Winner: lostyetlooking.
Here I am, George… Come and Get Me
by Kim Redigan
Far be it from me to ask the government to take money it needs to wage war and enrich the arms industry to track down yet one more peace activist. Therefore, I consider it my civic duty to say, “Here I am, George. Come and get me.” No need to squander cash that could be spent on refining the techniques of torture on costly surveillance projects and electronic wiretaps to track the likes of me.
That overweight middle-aged woman in bifocals standing on the street corner and marching in demonstrations would be me.
Age 48, married, mother of four, high school religion teacher, Catholic, garden-variety activist. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:13 pm
+ = Everything but stuffers wrapped.
- = Still have to clean whole house.

WEDNESDAY MOVIE

Murderball

These are no ordinary wheelchairs and no ordinary gladiators inside them. Given the Audience Award for best documentary of this year’s Sundance Festival, it’s the hellbent, gut-wrenching, tender, and glorious story of members of Team USA who play quadriplegic rugby. The photo shows Mark Zupan, a Texan who was thrown from the back of a truck where he had passed out drunk at age 18 when his buddy crashed, causing him to fly 60 feet into a stream where he clung to a branch for 13 hours before being rescued. Zupan is the captain and driving force behind the team, but the stories of the others are told as well, some of them much more damaged than he. The film takes the team through its preparation for the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece in 2004, highlighting their intense competition with Team Canada, which is coached by a former American teammate. Along the way, we learn how they manage their daily lives – eating, driving, dressing, even sex – and what kind of spirit it has taken them to rise above their terrible disadvantages. Besides creating their own heroism, they bring inspiration to other disabled groups, notably Iraq war survivors, and the story is told of one young former athlete whose bitterness is lifted when he sees what is possible and begins to save the money for his own chair. If you can watch this movie and not be inspired, you haven’t met with any adversity in your life. Mark Zupan is 30 now and still close friends with the boy who drove the truck that night when he broke his neck. He has a girlfriend, drives an SUV, graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in civil engineering – and shines. Bask in the glow.

Deep Thought: “Instead of trying to build newer and bigger weapons of destruction, mankind should be thinking about getting more use out of the weapons we already have.”
Today I am grateful for: Buttonholes
Guess the Movie: “Y’all beat the hell out of that woman, but you didn’t kill her. And I put a bullet in her head, but her heart just kept on beatin’. Now, you saw that yourself with your own beautiful blue eye, did you not? We’ve done a lot of things to this lady. And if she ever wakes up, we’ll do a whole lot more. But one thing we won’t do is sneak into her room in the night like a filthy rat and kill her in her sleep. And the reason we won’t do that thing is because… that thing would lower us.” Answer: Kill Bill, Volume I, 2003. Winner: la_chatte_gitane. (Actually she guessed Vol. II, but close enough.)
Raising the Issue of Impeachment
by John Nichols
As President Bush and his aides scramble to explain new revelations regarding Bush’s authorization of spying on the international telephone calls and emails of Americans, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has begun a process that could lead to the censure, and perhaps the impeachment, of the president and vice president.
U.S. Representative John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who was a critical player in the Watergate and Iran-Contra investigations into presidential wrongdoing, has introduced a package of resolutions that would censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney and create a select committee to investigate the Administration’s possible crimes and make recommendations regarding grounds for impeachment. (Rest of article here.)

TUESDAY POLITICS

The Fourth Amendment

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
(Read more of the fine points about warrantless electronic surveillance here. Buy T-shirt here.)

I was riding to work this morning and the legality of Bush’s directive for secret spying on all of us (could be you or me, who knew?) over the past year or more was being discussed on NPR. It sounded like there was no doubt a “major crime” had been committed and furthermore that the New York Times (who broke the story) had been aware of it all that time, as well as various members of the House and Senate. Now here’s what I’d like to know – how does the President get to commit a “major crime” and get away with it? And will it help to dig his hole that he’s being so belligerent about it? Can you spell I-M-P-E-A-C-H? Stay tuned.

Deep Thought: “Many people do not realize that the snowshoe can be used for a great many things besides walking on snow. For instance, it can be used to carry pancakes from the stove to the breakfast table. Also, it can be used to carry uneaten pancakes from the table to the garbage. Finally, it can be used as a kind of strainer, where you force pancakes through the strings to see if a piece of gold got in a pancake somehow.”
Today I am grateful for: Having a fireplace
Guess the Movie: “Look around! You couldn’t find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gangbangers? Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared, it’s us: the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the triggerhappy LAPD. So, why aren’t we scared?” Answer: Crash, 2004. Winner: tearsign.
A Time to Impeach
by Doug Ireland
President Bush may find himself in deep trouble after ordering and defending illegal wiretaps of U.S. citizens — a crime for which Richard Nixon was nearly impeached. (Rest of article here.)

MONDAY READING

In honor of peace, the solstice, and the birth of Christ

Interrelationship
(by Thich Nhat Hanh)

You are me, and I am you.
Isn’t it obvious that we “inter-are”?
You cultivate the flower in yourself,
so that I wil be beautiful.
I transform the garbage in myself,
so that you will not have to suffer.

I support you;
you support me.
I am in this world to offer you peace;
you are in this world to bring me joy.

Deep Thought: “I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I don’t pretend to even know what the questions are. Hey, where am I?”
Today I am grateful for: Brushes of all kinds
Guess the Movie: “Mo cuishle. It means my darling. My blood.” Answer: Million Dollar Baby, 2004. Winner: Eliminate_the_Impossible.
Once-Lone Foe of Patriot Act Has Company
by Sheryl Gay Stolberg
WASHINGTON – When Congress passed the antiterrorism bill known as the USA Patriot Act in the fall of 2001, greatly expanding the government’s investigative powers, a single senator, Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, voted against it. With the nation reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks, opposing the bill seemed an act of political suicide, especially for a Democrat.
Today, more than 40 Democrats and four Republicans stand with Mr. Feingold as he helps lead a filibuster blocking the act’s renewal. They are betting that the politics of terrorism have shifted from fear of another attack to wariness of “Big Brother” intrusions on personal privacy. (Rest of article here.)

FRIDAY FIVE

By coincidence, I finally got tagged to write the Five Weird Things About Me by lefthanded, so what better day than today:

1. My parents (no, that’s not them in the photo) were communists during my childhood until high school when they gave it up out of fear that it would cause me harm. They could have been arrested during some of those years.
2. I cannot whistle or snap my fingers, but that hasn’t seemed to have made me more or less popular over time.
3. I discovered that my number of pets (5 cats until one of them was killed last month) verges on pet hording, a term I only learned this year. I wonder what it means that I try to feed all the squirrels and birds on my block too.
4. I once turned mysef in to Bellevue Psychiatric Ward in New York City just before Christmas because I was homesick and bummed out. I got myself back out before the mandatory 48 hours when I discovered what a mistake THAT was.
5. I’ve been to the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow, Russia when Khrushchev and his wife were there.
I never pass on these things OR those email messages that are supposed to be passed on. Please forgive me, Santa.

Deep Thought: “If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.”
Today I am grateful for: Breadwinners
Guess the Movie: “What we were after now was the old surprise visit. That was a real kick and good for laughs and lashings of the old ultraviolence.” Answer: A Clockwork Orange, 1971. Winner: soobee72.
House Backs McCain on Detainees, Defying Bush
by Eric Schmitt
WASHINGTON – In an unusual bipartisan rebuke to the Bush administration, the House on Wednesday overwhelmingly endorsed Senator John McCain’s measure to bar cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners in American custody anywhere in the world. (Rest of article here.)

THURSDAY WHATEVER

Aslan = Jesus??!!! What the heckins is going on? Who knew? I guess I didn’t read The Chronicles of Narnia as a child because they weren’t published until 1950, but I did read them to my children and what I remember is the awesome idea of the back wall of the wardrobe opening into a world of snow and magic and queens and lions and other odd little creatures. I don’t think it ever crossed my mind that it had Christian overtones. And being a spiritual/not religious person, it seems like I would have noticed. Maybe I was just too darn spiritual. Well, I looked up C.S. Lewis for a few facts:

1. C.S. stands for Clive Staples – good lord.
2. 1898-1963 (that makes him dead at 65)
3. Sickly boy who wrote stories about animals.
4. Mom died of cancer at 46 and Dad drank heavily.
5. Went to Oxford and then to war where he made an agreement with another solider to care for his mother if the man died, which he did.
6. At 21 began a relationship with Janie, 46, (the mother) which lasted 30 years and was a mystery.
7. Was a big friend of Tolkien.
8. Didn’t really like children but adored his fictional children.
9. Had a real marriage after Janie died to Joy Gresham who died of cancer four years later in 1960 leaving him broken.

So apparently the dude was a Christian and now Disney is marketing the film heavily to Passion of the Christ folks who will be showing it at church like they did Mel Gibson’s movie. It’s all so bizarre. Has anyone seen it and would care to comment?

Deep Thought: “If you want to sue somebody, just get a little plastic skeleton and lay it in their yard. Then tell them their ants ate your baby.”
Today I am grateful for: Brains
Guess the Movie: “How ridiculous. They were just teasing you! There are wood ovens, but there are no people ovens. Putting people in ovens creates too much smoke.” Answer: Life is Beautiful, 1997.
Would C.S. Lewis Have Risked a Disney ‘Nightmare’?
by Jordan Ballor, Associate Editor
A newly published letter by C.S. Lewis shows how clearly he would have objected to a live-action version of his Chronicles of Narnia story, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Lewis writes in the letter dated Dec. 18, 1959, “I am absolutely opposed … to a TV version. Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare.” (Rest of article here.)