God, I love movies.

There are many reasons for this, but like many people, I have a complete connection with movies.

The best ones get me physically, mentally and spiritually. They fill me with adrenaline from fear or excitement, or they are sensual and erotic, or they are funny and cathartic, or … you get the picture. They challenge my mind or maybe they don’t, some let me put my mind in neutral and just escape. Some are puzzles and some are philosophical. But the best ones touch my soul. They fill me with awe and joy and sadness and compassion and energy and love and anger and rage and disgust … and I feel so much. Often more than what I feel in real life.

Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel talked and wrote about this often. The movie experience is unlike any other. You sit in a dark room, while an image is projected from behind you through the darkness to the screen. A large screen filled with wonder and sound that fills your head. You are immersed in the physical and psychological experience. It works for me.

In fact I crave this experience. I want it when I fork over my money and take the time to go to the theater I want it to be this type of experience. I gladly give myself over to the great directors and cinematographers so they can tell their stories to me, for me. I share that experience with them and with all the people in the theater and with all the people who see the movie all over the world.

The movie theater experience is special, almost religious and definitely magical for me.
I don’t want it interrupted by talking patrons, crying babies, cell phones, uncomfortable seats or temperatures, bad lighting, food odors, unwelcome bathroom runs and stupidity. I respect the movie makers, the actors and the experience. It is like a contract I have with them. And if they and I are lucky, I will take that experience with me forever.

This is something you cannot fully experience at home in front of your TV, even now with these awesome screens and sound systems in the living room. It just isn’t the same. But it is getting closer. Still, I will always choose the movie theater experience for the biggest and the best movies, the ones designed to take full advantage of this experience. Most are action moves, but not all. Some are sweeping romances or period pieces. Some are simply visually stunning achievements that have to be seen to be believed.

I didn’t know too much about the movie Avatar until a month or so before it came out. I saw the big TV commercial preview during a football game and I was hooked. I would definitely be giving this movie priority when it opened on a big screen near me. Then, add in the 3D experience. Would that be good or bad? What more could I learn about this before it opened?

Well, let’s start with James Cameron, one of the best directors of all time. Most of his movies are on my Best of Lists in a number of categories.; starting with Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies, and Titanic. He always takes the effects and the movie-making techniques to new levels. So I read how much work he put in to make sure that Avatar would make those same leaps, especially with the use of 3D.

As I read more about the story, the actors and as reviews began appearing, I knew I wanted to see this movie on a great screen in 3D.

But, as with most movies I see, I didn’t want to have this experience alone. I would ask my family if they would like to attend. I knew that it might not be Sharyn’s cup of tea, but she would give it a try. And I knew she realized how much this meant to me; the possibility of having a magical move experience. [By the way, I also feel this way at plays, concerts and other performances. I want to connect with the performers and let them become real within me, even for a brief moment.]

Of course, there is always the possibility that the hope and hype won’t hold true and the entire experience is a big letdown. This can happen because of the move, the audience or just my frame of mind at the time. Sometimes you aren’t ready for a movie and need to see it again to appreciate it, and conversely, sometime the second time tells you that the first time wasn’t as good as you remembered. Oh well, you pays your ticket and takes yer chances.

Harkin’s IMAX 3D, Christmas eve, chilly night. Rush there after work and picking up the family. Get tickets, doors to open in 20 minutes, almost 45 minutes before the show. Family goes to eat. I know I have to get in line to get in the theater early enough to get good seats. Line is long already. Stand outside for 15 minutes waiting for the doors to open. Young woman in front says she saw the move a few days ago and loved it. Had to see it again in 3D. Doors open, Walk up the steps into the theater as they hand me the big goofy 3D specs. Middle of the theater already full. There! The other side, near the top. I find four seats and spread my arms, stretch my legs to let passersby know that I have these saved for my family. We would have a good perch to experience the film. Not diminished in the front row or way on the side.

20th Century Fox logo looks good in 3D, so there is hope. Sound is awesome. And it begins.
For the next two hours and 40 minutes I was transfixed, in fact, I caught myself mouth wide open, jaw dropped low in gob smacked awe several times. I even had watery eyes a few times because of the beauty and pure genius I was seeing up on screen. I fidgeted with the 3D specs a few times, and the effect took a little getting used to, but that was a minor nuisance.

The bottom line: With Avatar, I have never seen a better, more beautiful, amazing and awe inspiring piece of moviemaking.

Avatar was a great movie on many levels. The visual effects and inspired use of 3D technology made it greater. I can go on and on about specific scenes and characters, and probably will at a later date. But, I loved the story’s characters and politics, didn’t think the dialogue was as clunky as some had reported, and thought the special effects were the best ever. In short, I believed.

I believed, and that is what I want most when I go to the movies. I was rooting for the good guys and angry at the bad guys, scared of the wildlife and thrilled at the plant life, the scenic vistas were realistic, hell, even the Na’vi were sexy beautiful. It was all stunning really.

I will be seeing this again. Alone (except for the other paying customers), I’m sure. But I will find the time very soon to see it again (at a different theater with different 3D technology this time, just to see the differences.)

Avatar is solidly in my Top 10 Films of All-Time right now, another viewing will let me digest it more fully and see where it should end up. Not sure if it can surpass the Lord of the Rings trilogy or Moulin Rouge, but if I could book a spaceship ride to Pandora right now I would.

ruff ruff ruff

One more ...

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Get down on it!

Oh, yes, that's the spot.

It has been a long time ...

Well, I'm going to try to get back to blogging so I have a means of self-expression, even if no one will ever read it.
For now, how about this:


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Give 'em hell, Steve!

Calling out Republican leaders in the House ...

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To blog or not to blog

Sweet fun.

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Finally! Some Christians with the guts to say "enough"!

Robert Marus & Ken Camp at the Associated Baptist Press write a great piece that is a challenge to Christians and asks them to think about their motives for spreading libelous e-mails:

Fear Not: What does virtual rumor-mongering say about Christians?

Thanks to the Internet, some gullible American Christians can engage in one of their favorite hobbies -- digging up the metaphorical corpse of Madalyn Murray O’Hair and rhetorically flogging it -- more easily than ever before.
Even though the famous atheist’s body was discovered in 1998 and positively identified in Texas -- and even though she apparently has been dead since she disappeared in 1995 -- patently false rumors about her alleged anti-Christian campaigns continue to spread. Credulous Christians who once forwarded these kinds of rumors in mimeographed chain letters or spread them on talk radio now can broadcast them around the world with the mere click of a mouse.
And, of course, O’Hair is not alone in the annals of perceived enemies of Christ about whom some Christians will spread the most ridiculous stories, not bothering to do the merest hint of fact-checking on them.
From the old Procter & Gamble Satanism libel to tales of more recent vintage about President Obama’s faith and citizenship, Internet-fueled rumors seem to run rampant. And, frighteningly, Christians seem at the very least to be as susceptible as the population at large to the habit of spreading false stories.
So, why are Christians so willing to believe unsubstantiated rumors? And more troubling, why are Christians, who should hold the highest standards of truth-telling, so eager to spread such rumors -- and even downright libels?
...
The advent of the Internet only made the rumors easier to spread and harder to correct.
Rumors about what people love to hate
Rumors like the ones tied to O’Hair become more powerful when they tap into the hostility and distrust toward government that is widespread among conservative Christians. It’s easy for the average evangelical to believe any rumor that fits this larger political paradigm.
Factor in a contentious presidential election and the stakes go even higher. During the 2000 campaign -- the first in the age of widespread Internet access -- dutiful Christian culture-warriors worked overtime.
...
Things only got worse in the 2008 election. With one candidate deeply distrusted by the Religious Right having a background unlike any presidential contender before him -- a nominally Muslim father from Kenya, a freethinking American mother who raised him in the United States and, for a time, in Indonesia -- the rumor mills worked overtime.
Many of those e-mails seemed marketed directly to fearful Christians. One frequently forwarded message -- also debunked by Snopes -- identifies Barack Obama as the son of a black Muslim from Kenya and a white atheist from Kansas.
...
Some Christians are so willing to believe rumors that reflect well on their heroes and poorly on their opponents that they abandon even a modest concern for the veracity of the rumors. Yet the Bible clearly prohibits “bearing false witness” and spreading rumors and gossip. Perhaps Christians who spread such rumors think they serve a greater purpose, as if the end justifies the means, some ethicists speculate.
The real truth
Ethicist Tillman called on Christians to examine their biases and prejudices, which he described as “tough exercise,” because it forces Christians to explore the influences that shaped them.
Gullibility may grow out of fear and anxiety, he added. And that directly relates to what people believe.
“I suggest to my students, ‘Tell me something about your fears, and I will tell you something of your theology,’” Tillman said. “Dealing with our fears -- an action usually dismissed or ignored -- may be one of the keys to understanding just which e-mails we forward and those we don’t.”
...
The key to confronting such bad habits among Christians is proper spiritual formation on the ethics of truth-telling, gossip and rumor-spreading, experts said.
...
“If we are gullible, we need some help to sort out the nonsense we should question from the truth that we should spread.... If we are fearful and envious, just too quick to gossip or criticize, we need that deep love that calms our fears and removes the need to impress others. That love comes from God through Christ, but the Holy Spirit often communicates it to us through our good spiritual friends.”
...
“In general, we need to help Christians act like Christians in public life and not just in private life, and not to get sucked into the polarization, partisan idolatry and demonization so common now in media and government,” Gushee said.
...''

Go read this!

A father's love ...

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Kolb Studio at the Grand Canyon

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Grand Canyon Bright Angel Trail

Good mornin' Flagstaff!

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San Francisco Peaks, Flagstaff. Arizona

Deism Ain't Dead

Loved this post and the poll about changes in religious beliefs ... Yes, Andrew Sullivan, Jefferson may be smiling ...

The Return Of American Deism

After this ghastly revival of literalist, self-help fundamentalism, there's a shift in American religion:

The rise of the Nones is usually decried by religious leaders as a sign of secularization or atheism's ascent but get this: 51% say they believe in God.

Now some of those folks might just be religious people in between churches. So the Trinity folks asked them to describe what kind of God they believed in.

24% say they believe in "a higher power but no personal God." That would mean about 3.6% of Americans could be considered Deists, making them more common than Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, or Mormons.

Barry Kosmin, one of the authors of the study, points out that an earlier study that looked at Nones as well as those who did "affiliate" with a religion found that 12% were Deistic. That would make Deists bigger than all of the aforementioned groups combined, and one of the largest spiritual groupings in America.

Somewhere Jefferson is smiling.

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I want to go to Okinawa

Watch this full screen, it is so damn beautiful.

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

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Happy 17th Birthday Hannah!

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Delayed Gratification

We've talked about the "Marshmallow Experiment" a lot in our house over the last few years.
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Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

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Goodbye Mary

So sad.

Mary Travers
Rest In Peace
1936-2009

Sharyn and I celebrated our

Sharyn and I celebrated our 4th anniversary with an awesome dinner at Morton's on 5th Avenue ... walking through NYC on a beautiful night!

GiGi and Clio gazing out the secong floor window.

Times Square on a beautiful saturday evening.

Niagara Falls

The view from our room at Niagara Falls ... awesome!

Procrastination

Thanks, Andrew Sullivan for this Mental Health Break:


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Ding dong the witch is dead ...

What a load of crap Sarah Palin is pushing ...
Why say you aren't running for reelection so you are going to resign now (or in three weeks)? Her press conference was a manic, absolutely disjointed performance ... and I don't believe a word she says. Because she lies!
I think there is something coming, some expose or criminal probe that will touch too close to her or Todd. But that doesn't matter as much as her leaving the people of Alaska before her first term is even up so she can pursue her own fame and political ambitions. I hold no illusions that she will simply fade away. There is no doubt that we are stuck with her for quite some time. God help us.

• Stephen Stromberg at the Washington Post writes: "in one stroke, she reconfirms many of the reasons she will never be president"
• At HuffingtonPost.com Paul Begala writes: "It was an almost impossible mission, but in resigning from office with 17 months to go in her first term, Sarah Palin has made herself the bull goose loony of the GOP."
• Shannyn Moore at HuffPo writes: "I have said Sarah Palin's political ambition combined with her intellect is like putting a jet engine on a golf cart; lots of horse power and no steering capabilities. Today she proved it."
• Gail Collins at the NY Times writes: "Truly, Sarah Palin has come a long way. When she ran for vice president, she frequently became disjointed and garbled when she departed from her prepared remarks. Now the prepared remarks are incoherent, too."

And never forget that John McCain picked this trainwreck as his running mate ... a heartbeat away ...
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Family Gatherings

We just came back from a big family event. Today was Warden Williams' 80th Birthday Celebration (his b-day was actually June 1, but the party was delayed). My mom, Lynn Younger and Warden have been living together for more than 27 years. My mom always hoped they would marry, but Warden just wasn't interested in marrying again (he had two previous marriages). And we told my mom to not worry about it, since she had already been married three times and this live-in relationship was the best she has ever had. Why ruin a good thing.

Anyway, Warden is a great guy, a true gentleman, with tremendous character and he has touched many lives over the years as a teacher, father, friend and more. So my mom organized this big party and many family members and friends flew in from Tennessee and California, to celebrate with us. There were many heartfelt speeches and testimonials praising the guest of honor. And then Warden took the microphone and after thanking everyone and sharing some of his thoughts, he dropped a bombshell on us.

Turns out Warden and my mom got married in Mesa on May 1.

Shocked and pleased everyone. Tears all around. Wow!!!

I never thought my mom could keep a secret, but she did this time.

Congratulations to Warden and Lynn Williams. May you have many more happy years together.


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Amazing

God, I love this.

Damn.

UPDATE
Here is the original Motown 25 performance for comparison.


And this from Andrew Sullivan is spot on:

There are two things to say about him. He was a musical genius; and he was an abused child. By abuse, I do not mean sexual abuse; I mean he was used brutally and callously for money, and clearly imprisoned by a tyrannical father. He had no real childhood and spent much of his later life struggling to get one. He was spiritually and psychologically raped at a very early age - and never recovered. Watching him change his race, his age, and almost his gender, you saw a tortured soul seeking what the rest of us take for granted: a normal life.

But he had no compass to find one; no real friends to support and advise him; and money and fame imprisoned him in the delusions of narcissism and self-indulgence. Of course, he bears responsibility for his bizarre life. But the damage done to him by his own family and then by all those motivated more by money and power than by faith and love was irreparable in the end. He died a while ago. He remained for so long a walking human shell.

I loved his music. His young voice was almost a miracle, his poise in retrospect eery, his joy, tempered by pain, often unbearably uplifting. He made the greatest music video of all time; and he made some of the greatest records of all time. He was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.

I grieve for him; but I also grieve for the culture that created and destroyed him. That culture is ours' and it is a lethal and brutal one: with fame and celebrity as its core values, with money as its sole motive, it chewed this child up and spat him out.

I hope he has the peace now he never had in his life. And I pray that such genius will not be so abused again.

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The King of Pop

Weird. Yes. Strange. Yes. Self-Indulgent. Yes. Creepy. Yes. Sad. Terribly.

But never forget the music, the performances, and the groundbreaking videos. Michael Jackson was the musical powerhouse of my generation.

My sister and I used to play Jackson 5 45s over and over and sing them together. I loved all of his early solo albums, and saw Michael and his brothers in concert once. I'll always love his music. And I still get a thrill watching his videos.

My wife and stepchildren don't get what all the fuss is about today. But I am mourning him and appreciating what his music and personality meant to me.

• Ten songs by which to remember Michael Jackson
• Can't stop crying over Michael Jackson
• Michael, Farrah and David's Passing a Death of Our Childhood
• Michael Jackson videos: The Best of the Best
  

Here are my Top 12 (couldn't stop at 10) Michael Jackson songs (post Jackson 5 but including the Jacksons):
1. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
2. Billie Jean
3. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
4. Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)
5. Can You Feel It (The Jacksons)
6. Do You Remember the Time
7. The Way You Make Me Feel
8. This Place Hotel (The Jacksons)
9. Rock with You
10. Human Nature
11. Smooth Criminal
12. Scream (with Janet Jackson ... and the most expensive video ever made)
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Lets's dance ... Let's shout

Lets's dance ... Let's shout ... Shake your body down to the ground ...

Thou shalt not ...

Republicans are hypocrites:

From WashingtonMonthly via BalloonJuice:

And Another for the Family Values File
by John Cole
I knew Sen. Ensign was a hypocrite, but it wasn’t until I was got through this exhaustive list at Benen’s joint that I realized how much of a hypocrite he is:

"When Bill Clinton’s adultery came to public light, Ensign not only voted to remove the president from office, but insisted the president should resign as a result of the personal scandal. When former Sen. Larry Craig was caught up in a sex scandal, Ensign not only called for Craig’s ouster, but led the charge against him.
Ensign has also been a fierce opponent of marriage equality, and supported a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. In 2004, the Nevada Republican lectured his colleagues, “Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded. For those who say that the Constitution is so sacred that we cannot or should not adopt the Federal Marriage Amendment, I would simply point out that marriage, and the sanctity of that institution, predates the American Constitution and the founding of our nation.”
And did I mention that Ensign is a longtime member of the Promise Keepers, a conservative evangelical group that promotes strong families and marriages?

This shit never surprises.
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Tweets for Dummies

Republican Congressmen are idiots:

From Josh Marshall
The Hoekstra Pile On Continues
Yesterday, you'll remember, clinically unselfaware Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) tweeted that the struggle of Iranian reformists was similar to the oppression faced by House Republicans when Nancy Pelosi won't let them bring enough amendments to the floor. That tweet triggered a wave of tweet heckling, as others mocked Hoekstra's unique mix of grandiosity and cluelessness. Eric Kleefeld rounded up some of the best of these counter-tweets in a post at TPMDC.
But I hadn't realized until just now that folks were keeping up the ridicule in the comments section of the post.
This one was funny: "My mom made me carry the trash out to the alley. Now I know what the Bataan Death March was like."
It's almost developing into a niche Hoekstra-mocking art form. Kind of like a Haiku.
This one, this one and this one were pretty good too.

Let me try one:
"I just got stopped on the street for directions. Now I know what the Spanish Inquisition was like."
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The magic dog ...

Talk about a horrible travesty of justice ... via BalloonJuice:

Canine Justice by John Cole

This sounds like something out of a bad movie, but apparently a load of people in Florida were convicted of crimes and jailed for years on end based on the supernatural powers of a dog and its handler. You know where this is going, don’t you? It was a load of nonsense, and now many of the men are being released three decades later after DNA tests clear them.

You have got to read this.

Hate and Ingnorance

Shine the light on them ... and watch them scurry ...

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What a wonderful world ...

I love unbridled creativity! We need more joy in our lives. This helps.


And what a genius Dick Van Dyke was and is. Fun.
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Project Runway ...

The island of St. Barthelemy in the Caribbean is near the top of the list for my favorite places visited. While on a Windjammer Cruise on the Fantome in 1994 I visited the island with my friends Andy and Karen. I'm sure that everyone who visits St. Barts remembers the airport. It is listed as one of the most dangerous airports in the world because of the tricky approach that challenges even the most experience pilots. We were told there were more than a few taxi cabs on the island that had airplane tire tracks on their roofs, since the main road crosses with the aircraft approach at the top of a hill. See what I mean here:
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On Venice Beach watching a

On Venice Beach watching a young longhaired Jesus-like guy on a skateboard with a staff who's bartering to buy things with pretty stones

Just for fun ...

This is just wild ...

17 years old ... cool.

I brought Hannah to ASU

I brought Hannah to ASU graduation ... we made it through security and the big crowd ... so hot! Waiting on Obama.

Spending a hot morning waiting

Spending a hot morning waiting around at Rawhide for a video shoot with a clown and a prima dona director... life is good!

Be afraid!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Nailed it!

Marcos hits one out of the park ... the GOP's new logo ... the Goposaur!

Their brains are the size of peanuts, after all.

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Must Reads

Check out these smart posts about the politics of torture:

The Case for More Waterboarding by Matthew Yglesias
and
Some Behavior Is Beyond The Legal System by Digby

But this story is amazing, and I hope we hear more from FBI Agent Ali Soufan.
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Cat Fun

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Be afraid! And buy an umbrella.

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A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

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And don't get me started on hemp farming ...

I beleive it is long past time for our nation to take a realistic and thoughtful look at our drug laws. Here is an interesting article from a former Seattel Police Chief Norm Stamper,

"...with April 20 approaching and Waldos of the world gearing up to celebrate their favorite day of the year, it's not a bad time to consider, yet again, the pluses and minuses of alcohol vs. cannabis.

First, a disclaimer: I am a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, but I don't officially represent the organization in this forum. ... We at LEAP are current and former cops and other criminal justice practitioners who have witnessed firsthand the futility and manifold injustices of the drug war. Our professional experiences have led us to conclude that the more dangerous an illicit substance--from crack to krank--the greater the justification for its legalization, regulation, and control. It is the prohibition of drugs that leads inexorably to high rates of death, disease, crime, and addiction.

Back to booze vs. pot. How do the effects of these two drugs stack up against specific health and public safety factors?

Alcohol-related traffic accidents claim approximately 14,000 lives each year, down significantly from 20 or 30 years ago (attributed to improved education and enforcement). ... evidence from studies, including laboratory simulations, feeds the stereotype that those under the influence of canniboids tend to (1) be more aware of their impaired psychomotor skills, and (2) drive well below the speed limit. Those under the influence of alcohol are much more likely to be clueless or defiant about their condition, and to speed up and drive recklessly.

Hundreds of alcohol overdose deaths occur annually. There has never been a single recorded marijuana OD fatality.

According to the American Public Health Association, excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of death in this country. APHA pegs the negative economic impact of extreme drinking at $150 billion a year.

There have been no documented cases of lung cancer in a marijuana-only smoker, nor has pot been scientifically linked to any type of cancer. ... Alcohol abuse contributes to a multitude of long-term negative health consequences, notably cirrhosis of the liver and a variety of cancers.

... alcohol is one of the worst drugs one can take for pain management, marijuana one of the best.

Alcohol contributes to acts of violence; marijuana reduces aggression. In approximately three million cases of reported violent crimes last year, the offender had been drinking. This is particularly true in cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, and date rape. Marijuana use, in and of itself, is absent from both crime reports and the scientific literature. There is simply no link to be made.

Over the past four years I've asked police officers throughout the U.S. (and in Canada) two questions. When's the last time you had to fight someone under the influence of marijuana? (I'm talking marijuana only, not pot plus a six-pack or a fifth of tequila.) My colleagues pause, they reflect. Their eyes widen as they realize that in their five or fifteen or thirty years on the job they have never had to fight a marijuana user. I then ask: When's the last time you had to fight a drunk? They look at their watches.

All of which begs the question. If one of these two drugs is implicated in dire health effects, high mortality rates, and physical violence--and the other is not--what are we to make of our nation's marijuana laws? Or alcohol laws, for that matter.

Anybody out there want to launch a campaign for the re-prohibition of alcohol? Didn't think so. The answer, of course, is responsible drinking. Marijuana smokers, for their part, have already shown (apart from that little matter known as the law) greater responsibility in their choice of drugs than those of us who choose alcohol."

Perhaps widespread legalization isn't the answer, but decriminalization of the personal use of marijuana is feasible. The public opinion is slowly shifting that way, too.
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Joe Klein has a great piece at Swampland:

"I've gotten the clear sense that the bankers still haven't quite realized (a) how much and why the country is so infuriated with them and (b) how much of a haircut they're going to have take on their toxic assets. ...

On late Friday afternoon, a senior Obama Administration official met with a group of Time-Warner journalists in New York and shocked the group of us by saying, "I don't understand bankers," even though he'd spent his adult life working with them. And then added that "they don't understand the scale of damage that they've done."

I suspect the next stage of this is going to be either a tug-of-war, or a flame war, between the Administration and the bankers, who don't seem to realize yet that the
economy they thrived and robbed in--the economy built on making paper profits at the rest of the country's expense--is over. That was the house built on sand Obama was speaking about in his excellent Georgetown University speech last week.

A new economy, built on rock--that is, real products not paper profits--is where the Administration is trying to point us. This will be the historic work of the Obama Administration. The bankers, and their snake-oil selling allies at CNBC and elsewhere, will claim unwarranted government intrusion, the onset of socialiam, the end of the world and prosperity and private jets."

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Via Kos:

Chris Hayes tweets:
"If a US soldier was captured and water boarded 183 times in one month, something tells me Fox News would say he was tortured."

Ya think?
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Welcome to Texas I, Texas II, Texas III, Texas Iv and Texas V

With all the secession crazytalk coming out of Texas, it has come to light that Texas can actually split itself into five different states if it wants to. Hmmm.

The great guys over at AmericaBlog decided to ask for suggestions on what these new states should be named. Funny stuff!

My favorites?

• Jesusistan
• Cleetus
• Alabubba
• Soreloserville
• and Dumbfuckistan!

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Tax Whacks

Here is another good article, this time by Robert Reich, on paying taxes and the myths perpetuated by the Rightwing demagogues:

A Short Citizen's Guide to Kooks, Demagogues, and Right-Wingers On Tax Day

No one likes to pay taxes, so tax day typically attracts a range of right-wing Republicans, kooks, and demagogues, all of whom tell us how awful we have it. Herewith a short citizen's guide (that is, a citizen's guide that's short rather than a guide for short citizens) responding to the predictable charges:

Read it!

Texas Insanity

We already fought the battle of the States ...


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Keeping up with the Googles ...

Went to a lecture on Social Media today and saw this video which has been around for awhile ... fascinating:



Cool music, too!
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Lying for laughs

You can't believe everything you read. But you can have fun at the expense of those gullible idiots who do:

I was amazed at how easily conservatives were willing to accept and repeat lies about spending in the stimulus package, even after those provisions had been debunked as fabrications. The $30 million for the salt marsh mouse is a perfect example ...

To test the limits of this phenomenon, I started a parody Twitter account last Thursday, which I called "InTheStimulus", where all the tweets took the format "InTheStimulus is $x million for ______"... I was able to get 500 followers in less than a day, and 1000 by Sunday morning.

You can read through all the retweets and responses by looking at the Twitter search for "InTheStimulus".

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April 15th ... Happy Patriots' Day!

Paul Begala states the bitter truth about our taxes ... they actually do things for us!

Happy Patriots' Day. April 15 is the one day a year when our country asks something of us -- or at least the vast majority of us. For those who wear a military uniform, those who serve the rest of us as policemen and firefighters and teachers and other public servants, every day is patriots' day. They work hard for our country; many risk their lives -- and some lose their lives. But for the rest of us, the civilian majority, our government asks very little. Except for April 15. On this day, our government asks that we pay our fair share of taxes to keep our beloved country strong and safe.

This country has showered me with the blessings of liberty. So what do I owe my country in return? Paying my fair share of taxes, it seems, is the least I can do. Thanks to President Obama and the Democratic Congress, 95 percent of Americans will get a tax cut this year. No one -- not even the wealthiest 1 percent -- will have to pay higher income taxes until 2011.

If the whiners at Fox News want to advertise their selfishness, they are free to do so. But please don't dress it up as patriotism. Patriotism is putting your country ahead of yourself -- which is the precise opposite of what the tea party plutocrats are doing.

Damn straight!
I like my nice roads, trash service, public transportation, clean and safe water, electricity and so much more that my taxes pay for. I like my fire and police protection, I like my military, I like the FAA keeping the sky traffic flowing smoothly.
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Wow. Just wow!

Watch this vid from Britains Got Talent, which I like so much better than American Idol because of the constant surprises. Here is some background:

Across the pond, "Britain's Got Talent" scored a huge boost in the Buzz after an unassuming contestant gave an amazing performance.Susan Boyle (remember that name) became a Web phenomenon after singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. The performance brought the audience to its feet and left the judges (including Simon Cowell) either speechless or in tears.Before going on stage, Ms. Boyle admitted some self-deprecating facts about herself (she's never been kissed and lives alone with her cat, Pebbles). For those reasons and more, audiences were expecting the female William Hung. They were wrong. ... while Ms. Boyle thought she "looked like a garage" on TV, she received a standing ovation when she showed up at her local church. Other sources write that as a child, Ms. Boyle was the target of bullies because of a disability. But, with her newfound fame, she is getting the last laugh.

Stick with this long video, you will be glad you did.
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The sound on this embed isn't too great, so go here for better versions.

Glenn Beck is batshit crazy!

OK, the derangement at Fox News continues.

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Mob Rule

More fun!

A video of almost 200 people taking over Antwerpen's Centraal Station in Belgium and doing a carefully choreographed dance to the Do Re Mi song (aka Maria's Dance aka Maria's Song) from "Sound of Music" has garnered almost a million views on YouTube, and continues to grow, sprouting a new round of google trends today.
It's a publicity stunt for a reality show, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone, they just like it for what it is: a really cool, well shot video, that lets average people express their joy and talent and make those around them happy for a brief period. The producers chose the exact right song: one that harkens back to our childhoods, but also recalls Maria's unabashed upbeatness in the face of evil.

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A slap in the face ...

Comments below from a reader at Americablog whose mother watched this:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Oh, GREAT. Thanks, Rachel.

Actual conversation with my 74 year old mother, a fightin' liberal from way back, and HUGE fan of KO, Rachel, Jon Stewart and Colbert:

Mom: "Honey, what does 'teabagging' mean?"

Me: Spews last sip of cocktail all over room.

Mom: "I was watching Rachel last night and they were talking about these asshole teabag parties and it was clear that it is a double entendre for something else."

Me: "Jesus Christ, you're 74; aren't you supposed to be getting a little fuzzy?"

So I explained teabagging and the resulting howls of laughter sent her into an asthmatic coughing binge. Now this (the post about 2M4M). I'm hoping she can figure it out on her own.

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Big Babies Throwing Tantrums

Fantastic insight by Andrew Sullivan into the TeaParty "movement" that is being orchestrated by Fox News and other conservative groups.

These are not tea-parties. They are tea-tantrums. And the adolescent, unserious hysteria is a function not of a movement regrouping and refinding itself. It's a function of a movement's intellectual collapse and a party's fast-accelerating nervous breakdown.

Here are the questions Sullivan asks:

I spent the better part of an hour earlier today scanning the various sites and blogs to try and understand what specifically the Fox-Pajamas tea parties are about. Having absorbed about as much of the literature as I can, I have to say I'm still befuddled.

Option 1: It's a protest of the bank bailouts orchestrated by Bush and now Obama. But surely these tea-partiers understand what would happen if we didn't bail the banks out. Are they advocating letting major banks fail? Or are they advocating a Krugman-style government take-over? No idea.

Option 2: It's a protest against tax hikes. But there have barely been any! Are they arguing that the planned return to Clinton era marginal rates is an outrage worthy of the colonists ... only months after an election in which the winning candidate ran on exactly that platform? Is that postponed future increase so radical that it demands a protest modeled on one in which people were taxed with no representation at all? Truly bizarre. And when you consider that we have gone through a very long period of relatively low taxation for the very successful, and a very long period in which their wealth has soared, and after an election where a majority of such people voted for Obama, the extremism seems unrelated to anything substantive underneath it.

Option 3: It's a protest against illegal immigration. Ok, so why the tea? Weren't all the original tea-partiers illegal immigrants?

Option 4: It's a protest against government debt. Yay! I will leave aside the somewhat awkward fact that Fox News and Pajamas Media barely covered the massive debt racked up by the Republicans during a period of economic growth. Instead, I'll proffer a simple point: If the tea-partiers are concerned about debt and concerned about taxes, one presumes they favor drastic spending cuts. But what are the tea-partiers proposing to do to Medicare, Medicaid, and social security?

UPDATE:
Well, well, well. As we dig a bit deeper we find our more about who is promoting and organizing these "spontaneous" protests of "average Americans." Are you familiar with the term "astroturfing"?
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A round of teabags for everyone!

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If by "polarizing" you mean "popular" ...

There is a meme being pushed by the GOP and the Right that President Barack Obama is "the most polarizing president" we've had in a long time.

Really?

To the polls we go ...

So, let’s add it all up.

• Over 60% of the American people currently approve of Obama – 10% more than approved of either Bush I or Bush II at this point.

• Republican Party identification has shrunk substantially and the Party’s remaining supporters have become more intensely partisan. Nonetheless, even so, over one-quarter – 27% of these hard-core Republicans still approve of Obama.

• And 57-60% - a solid, commanding majority -- of independents approve of him.

So, Let’s all send Gerson a message: “Hey, Mike, cut out the histrionics. Blow your nose, put away the silly polka-dot hanky and stop the sanctimonious blubbering about Obama causing partisan division. The Oscars are over.

America isn’t divided – it’s solidly behind Obama.

And Chuck Todd and the others over at FirstRead chime in:

Polar opposites:

A lot has been made recently about that new Pew poll showing Obama to have the largest gap in partisan approval among recent presidents in their first year in office: 88% of Democrats approve of Obama's job, while just 27% of Republicans say the same thing. But here are a couple of things to consider:

One, the Republican Party is more conservative now, and its moderates are now sitting in the independent category now (the Pew poll has Obama’s approval among independents at 57%).

Two, Obama is still approved by one in four Republicans.

When that number gets into the teens or single digits, then the "P" word -- polarization -- can fairly be used.

For example, in our January 2009 NBC/WSJ poll, right before he left office, just 6%
of Democrats approved of George W. Bush’s job.

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Sick & Twisted

Marcos gets e-mail:

It's been a while since I've posted hate mail. Here's a particularly illustrative one that came in this morning:

I read your pathetic Oboma ass kissing site and you people are fucking morons. I saw you on TV and you look like a little smug faggot. I think all liberals should paint themselves black and find some black ass to have gay sex with. You people are a disgrace to the white race and to America. Your bastard president and he is a bastard cuz his white mom was a single whore when she got knocked up with him. He is a one termer, he lied, he duped, he brainwashed Americans and now they are GETTING it.

You live by your whacked out biased polls, I dont need fucking numbers to see what Americans minus the liberals think of this disgusting person and his dog face bucked teeth wife.

THEY ARE HATED. I CAN ONLY HOPE HE DROPS FUCKING DEAD."

The only question is which of the right's blowhards is his favorite? Is it Hannity, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, or Beck. This guy is their audience.

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Fearmongers Among Us

Haven't you heard?
Obama is going to take away your guns!
Apparently, that's the big fear for a lot of people in this country who have limited cognitive abilities. And the fear is being exploited by people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.
DevilsTower at DailyKos has a great post that notes "to be a successful fearmonger ... you need people who are easily scared" and there are a lot of them buying guns and ammo right now:

"People are buying guns to protect themselves. Because the government is bailing out banks? Wait, that doesn't make sense. People are buying guns because someone
-- certainly not the president -- is talking about taking over oil companies.

And having a gun at your house helps with that... how? Hmm. Let's go on. People are buying guns because the government is going socialist and giving things to people without jobs who aren't working hard enough and if criminals know you're unarmed, they'll get you.

Oh! You're buying guns because you believe that President Obama is going to take away your stuff and give it to shiftless Negroes. Well hells bells, Billy Bob, why didn't you just say so?

You know, the NRA, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and all their kind can spread fear, but only if they have a ready supply of the kind of ammo they all fire: people stupid enough to believe them and cowardly enough to jump when they shout 'boo.'

Hoarding weapons because the outcome of an election didn't go your way doesn't make you tough. It only proves that your belief in America is no bigger than a gnat's ass. That your faith in democracy is as transient as a mud puddle on a hot day. That your love for country goes about as far as you could throw your lifetime supply of AK-47 ammo.

NPR: How's business today?
DURY (gun dealer): Today's an average post-Obama day.

You know, it's just another post-Obama day for me, too. Another day when the will of the American people gets done by duly elected representatives. A day when we try to clean up the mess created during the eight years while the wingnuts took off their camo and picked up pom-poms.

You guys with the cleaning out the shelves of ammo? Better stay home and guard that collection of Father Coughlin commemorative plates. Mean old Obama will be sending in the urban hordes any day now. Any day. Any... hey, what's that over there?

Boo!

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100 percent moral, legal and actual certainty ...

Another reason to abolish or severely restrict the death penalty:

"AUSTIN — Twenty-two years ago, Ruby Session listened in disbelief as a Lubbock jury convicted her son, Timothy Cole, of rape. She promised herself that one day she would make sure this injustice was corrected.
"I always had faith and I just believed that it would one day happen," Session said.
That day finally came Tuesday when, after years of efforts by Cole’s family and a relentless group of supporters, state District Judge Charles Baird issued the first posthumous DNA exoneration in Texas history.
"The evidence is crystal clear that Timothy Cole died in prison an innocent man and I find to 100 percent moral, legal and actual certainty that he did not commit the crime that he was convicted of," Baird said.
Cole was convicted of aggravated sexual assault in 1986, after Michele Mallin identified him as the man who attacked her near Texas Tech University. Cole had always maintained his innocence.
In 1995, Jerry Wayne Johnson, who was serving two consecutive life sentences in prison for sexual assaults in Lubbock, admitted raping Mallin. Authorities ignored his confession until the Innocence Project of Texas took up the case in 2007. DNA tests in 2008 confirmed that Johnson was Mallin’s attacker.
Cole died in prison in 1999 at age 38 from complications of asthma."

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You've already lost ...

From Jed Lewison at DailyKos:
The Majority Leader of the Iowa State Senate, Mike Gronstal, explains why he will not co-sponsor a bill to amend Iowa’s constitution to ban gay marriage.


"You guys don't understand. You've already lost. My generation doesn't care."
Hallelujah!
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Hiking in Torrey Pines State Park at sunset.

The Midway carrier deck ..on a chilly cloudy day.

On the flight deck of the USS Midway museum in San Diego

No Means No for the GOP

Absolutely amazing and wonderful creatures

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at the movie theater watching

at the movie theater watching a satellite broadcast of the Metropolitam Opera ... Madame Butterfly ... beautiful!

Media smackdown courtesy of a comedian

Wednesday night's Daily Show was one of the all-time best. You have to check out the total destruction of the a**holes at CNBC:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

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The Goldfish Party

Hunter at DailyKos.com nails it

• Now Pretend Everything In The Last Eight Years Never Happened

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We're gonna need a bigger boat ...

An old friend wrote on Facebook last night that he thought the economy had hit bottom and things were going to start heading back up, up, up. I just can't be that optimistic. Primarily, because of all the Zombie Banks out there, looking alive, but very much dead (and insolvent) inside.

Here's Thomas Friedman at the NY Times:

I’m worried. We’ve just elected a talented young president with many good instincts about how to propel our country forward, extend health care to more people, make our tax code fairer and launch a green industrial revolution. But do you know what I fear? I fear that his whole first term could be eaten by Citigroup, A.I.G., Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and the whole housing/subprime credit bubble we inflated these past 20 years.

I hope my fears are exaggerated. But ask yourself this: Why couldn’t former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson solve this problem? And why does it seem as though his successor, Tim Geithner, won’t even look us in the eye and spell out his strategy? Is it because they don’t get it? No. It is because they know — like Roy Scheider in the movie “Jaws,” when he first saw the great white shark — that “we’re gonna need a bigger boat,” and they’re too afraid to tell us just how big.

But, while I'm down on the short term economic future of the country, I am still glad to have the right man and administration in charge of this crisis and everything else.
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What a hoot!

This is great performance art in the name of advertising ...




But I think they got the idea from these guys:



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What a wonderful world ...

Beautiful pictures here... I especially like the Comet McNaught shot (no. 4) ...

• Top 10 images of the world at night
• And here is the site ... The World at Night

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Punch 'em in the nose

It really is nice to see Democrats fighting back in little and big ways. Here is Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) ripping on a colleague for his disrespect to the DEMOCRATIC Party.


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No, No, No ...

I'm sitting home missing work while waiting for the AC repair technician to tell me how much my pocketbook is going to get hit. So, here is a great ad that sums up what the Republican Party is about today and who their real leader is:


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Thanks, Rachel!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The party of Beavis and Butthead

I just can't help myself ... must ... stop ... piling on ...

Thank you, Paul Krugman:

What should government do? A Jindal meditation

What is the appropriate role of government?

Traditionally, the division between conservatives and liberals has been over the role and size of the welfare state: liberals think that the government should play a large role in sanding off the market economy’s rough edges, conservatives believe that time and chance happen to us all, and that’s that.

But both sides, I thought, agreed that the government should provide public goods — goods that are nonrival (they benefit everyone) and nonexcludable (there’s no way to restrict the benefits to people who pay.) The classic examples are things like lighthouses and national defense, but there are many others. For example, knowing when a volcano is likely to erupt can save many lives; but there’s no private incentive to spend money on monitoring, since even people who didn’t contribute to maintaining the monitoring system can still benefit from the warning. So that’s the sort of activity that should be undertaken by government.

So what did Bobby Jindal choose to ridicule in this response to Obama last night? Volcano monitoring, of course.

And leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party’s governance as proof that government can’t work, does he really think that the response to natural disasters like Katrina is best undertaken by uncoordinated private action? Hey, why bother having an army? Let’s just rely on self-defense by armed citizens.

The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.

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Cannon Fodder

Oh, how I want to blog less about politics, but when the Know Nothing Party gives you so much to work with ...

The reviews for Gov. Bobby Jindal are not good, and as I wrote last night, he said some really stupid stuff.

Here is Matthew Yglesias:

What’s with the attack on “something called ‘volcano monitoring’”? Volcano monitoring is where they monitor volcanos. So as to better understand, better predict, and better prepare for natural disasters. Is that so complicated? Are only hurricanes worth responding to?

And Atrios:

Volcanoes Are Kinda Scary
What struck me about Jindal's complaint about spending money monitoring volcanoes was that it was really the best they can come up with. As he was.

And John Cole at BalloonJuice:

"I’m not sure what is selling lower this morning- Citibank or Jindal 2012 stock, but it really is hard to state accurately just how bad it was...

However, there was something just especially awful this year, and already the comparison to Kenneth from 30 Rock is sweeping across the intertubes...

And speaking of volcanoes, Jindal’s response was just nonsense on wheels...

And for the life of me, I have no idea why Republicans hate replacing the federal fleet of cars with fuel-efficient vehicles or monitoring volcanoes to avoid disasters. It seems to me that the latter, making sure volcanoes do not blow up on your citizenry, would be something that even Ron Paul would think is a government job.

These guys have nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, they do have Fred Hiatt’s editorial page, where Michael Gerson does the deed this morning, but other than that, the Republican party is just a pathetic joke."

And here is the real meat of the matter from David Brooks:

LEHRER: Now that, of course, was Gov. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, making the Republican response. David, how well do you think he did?

DAVID BROOKS: Uh, not so well... I oppose the stimulus package because I thought it was poorly drafted but to come up at this moment in history with a stale government is the problem, we can't trust the federal government,' it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic now. They may not like the way the Democrats have passed the stimulus bill. But the idea that we're just going to... That government will have no role, the federal government has no role in this, that in a moment when only the federal government is big enough to actually do stuff- to just ignore all that and just say 'government is the problem, corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending,' it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where country is it's not where the future of the country is. ... I think it's insane. I just think it's a disaster for the [Republican] Party. I just think it's unfortunate right now.

As you can imagine, if you saw and heard the speech, the reviews for President Obama are much, much kinder.
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