One small step...

I've been watching the newscasts and history channel and other channels presenting really cool programming on the this the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. It was really great to watch a re-enactment of the moon launch up through the splash down 5 days later. I remember where I was that day even though I was only 7. My family and I were driving back from my great aunts cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains and so I couldn't see the landing but we were listening to the radio as live broadcasts were going on even on the radio and not just television. I still have several of the newspapers that my father bought for that day and I hope to get some type of plastic protector for them (I think more for sentimental reasons than anything else... I know I'll never part with them until I meet my end). I suppose the only thing I find distressing is that such a phenomenal achievement will get only a day or two of some newscasts and most people will go about there way and then promptly forget all about it while someone like Michael Jackson got weeks of seemingly non-stop coverage after he passed away. People's priorities and sense of history is totally screwed up....

Bon Anniversaire au Le Republic du France!

Just a quick note, but 220 years ago today, the Bastille in Paris fell to a mob of angry Parisian citizens. Oui mes amis cet est Le Jour de Bastille! Happy birthday France! Though we are in the 5th Republic since that day, France is still doing well and the republic is strong.... yup, I'm a Francophile and I freely admit it. Though I'm still working on how to speak well in that most poetic of languages I keep trying and get a little better each attempt I make. So raise a glass of champagne, mes amis, and wish the grand old lady a happy birthday! After all, she gave us Le Marquis de Lafayette and the Statue of Liberty. I think it's the least we can do to say, "Merci beaucoup, France."

Belated Reminder...

So why is the date of June 28th so important to the LGBT community in the United States? I had wondered about this when I heard someone mention the Stonewall Riots. Riots? When? Where? I had heard of the Madeshene Society (spelling) which was an underground organization of homosexual men in the first half of the 20th century... But what were the Stonewall Riots? Here's where Wikipedia comes to the rescue and I spent about an hour reading about the riots in New York on June 28, 1969 in the Greenwhich Village area after a police raid on a gay nightclub and bar (incidentally run by the mafia) where the patrons had had enough and fought back against the police. I ask you to read it as well: Stonewall Riots

I must apologize to my readers for not having written this blog at the appropriate time which would have been yesterday.... my only defense is to say that friends, lack of sleep, and a house in California without central AC has taken my attention other places than writing. I also point out a phrase that my father once told me and it has stuck with me since I was a young man: You can only oppress and marginalize people so much before they fight back. For all my LGBT friends, this is your time and we will gain you the rights that you have been denied since time immemorial.

Brief Blog - "Just How Stupid Are We?"

While doing a bit of quick research on Amazon.com for a friend, I caught sight of a recommendation for a book. Amazon is famous for this... they analyze your previous purchases and make recommendations for purchases based on this data. I usually just take a quick glance at the texts, see the title or author, check to see if it's Kindle available, then move on to other things. After all, I have a wish list that is over 40 web pages long on Amazon.com alone (not to mention other places and my wish lists there) and so most of the time the recommendations don't mean much to me. 

Then a title caught my eye in a serious way: Just How Stupid Are We?  Now with a title like that, well, I decided a second look was warranted. The author is a historian, a New York - Times best selling author of Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of American History and a commentator for MSNBC and CNN and has produced programs on history for TLC. He even has his own blog as well. Having glanced at it and digested a few paragraphs, it seems to be aimed at the need for accuracy in the debate of the body politic and he seems to do a good job. On his blog, he states the following:

Dunce Cap Scorecard: It would be stupid to say that the American people are stupid--as stupid as saying the American people are smart. It's impossible to generalize--and silly. But our politics are often stupid. And there are times when no other word, harsh as it is, seems to capture the essence of the turn politics have taken.

But what do we mean by stupid? To help determine whether a debate is stupid or not I have devised a five-part test. Call it the Dunce Cap Scorecard.

On the blog I rank debates by how stupid they get. One or two Dunce Caps is normal for any debate. Five Dunce Caps and you know you're in a deep pile of stupid.

Now this I can appreciate. I have always looked at the topic of "stupid" in a couple of ways. One - the way I have to deal with 8th graders; keep it simple for them and stick with "The Forrest Gump Rule":  Stupid is as Stupid does ( with 'stupid' capitalized for you English snobs and minutiae creeps because I consider it a proper noun in this context). Then, two, that I don't trust democracy as practiced today in America (or for that matter anywhere else on the Earth). I explain this by realizing that the power and effectiveness of democracy lies in the education and reasonableness of the constituent population - and quite frankly I don't trust any of you with my welfare when it comes to being able to reasonably pick representatives to hold public office (the new mayor of the town I live in is a perfect example - oy vay!!).

Well, time to read the book some more and get back to you later... peace and Good Luck.

Squeaky the Chicago Mouse

While watching the news show Countdown with Keith Olbermann, I was introduced to the news that Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a letter in response to the fummings of Bill O'Reilly of the Fox 'Noise' Channel. Now when you read this it may seem pretty standard fair but be patient and read to the very last paragraph or you'll miss the punch line:

To: Bill O’Reilly
From: Roger Ebert

Dear Bill:

Thanks for including the Chicago Sun-Times on your exclusive list of newspapers in your “Hall of Shame.” To be in an O’Reilly Hall of Fame would be a cruel blow to any newspaper. It would place us in the favor of a man who turns red and starts screaming when anyone disagrees with him. My grade-school teacher, wise Sister Nathan, would have called in your parents and recommended counseling with Father Hogben.

Yes, the Sun-Times is liberal, having recently endorsed our first Democrat for President since LBJ. We were founded by Marshall Field one week before Pearl Harbor to provide a liberal voice in Chicago to counter the Tribune, which opposed an America war against Hitler. I’m sure you would have sided with the Trib at the time.

I understand you believe one of the Sun-times misdemeanors was dropping your syndicated column. My editor informs me that “very few” readers complained about the disappearance of your column, adding, “many more complained about Nancy.” I know I did. That was the famous Ernie Bushmiller comic strip in which Sluggo explained that “wow” was “mom” spelled upside-down.

Your column ran in our paper while it was owned by the right-wing polemicists Conrad Black (Baron Black of Coldharbour) and David Radler. We dropped it to save a little money after they looted the paper of millions. Now you call for an advertising boycott. It is unusual to observe a journalist cheering for a newspaper to fail. At present the Sun-Times has no bad debt, but labors under the weight of millions of dollars in tax penalties incurred by Lord Black, who is serving an eight-year stretch for mail fraud and obstruction of justice. We also had to pay for his legal expenses.

There is a major difference between Conrad Black and you: Lord Black is a much better writer and thinker, and authored a respected biography about Roosevelt, who we were founded to defend. That newspapers continue to run your column is a mystery to me, since it is composed of knee-jerk frothings and ravings. If I were an editor searching for a conservative, I wouldn’t choose a mad dog. My recommendation: The admirable Charles Krauthammer.

Bill, I am concerned that you have been losing touch with reality recently. Did you really say you are more powerful than any politician?

That reminds me of the famous story about Squeaky the Chicago Mouse. It seems that Squeaky was floating on his back along the Chicago River one day. Approaching the Michigan Avenue lift bridge, he called out: Raise the bridge! I have an erection!

     

A Tribute to George Carlin

I remember going to see George Carlin in person, Live at the Universal Amphitheater when I was going to school in Long Beach and studying engineering. I was already starting to come to my current view of things as I had had several close calls when down in the LA area and friends die. I just couldn't handle the absurdity of life and living at the time. Then I saw George who made me realize that the absurdities were something that you had to laugh at to get through.... Thanks George. You will be missed:

A Time for Change

Let me state before hand that I am a skeptic. I don't take much for granted and I don't take many people's words at face value without some type of proof to back up their statements. So, as a result, my politics are very independent and I don't like political parties (I tend to agree with Thomas Jefferson that they are not good for the body politic). But sometimes, just... sometimes, a person comes along who gives me some small hope that perhaps a time of change would come along. And this time, it's a generational change... at least it feels that way. I have never like the generations of politicians who have come before mine. The 'baby-boomers' are a selfish, uninspiring, hipocrytical, bunch of generally uninventive boors that I have never had much time for. It's perfect examples are George W. Bush and both of the Clintons and many others. It's time that they stepped aside and left the conflicts of the 60's and 70's in the past so that the newer generation that doesn't see race as mattering but senses a need for new perspectives as being paramount. Perhaps, just perhaps, now is the beginning:






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