The truth on the ground.

Ironically, today was the first international day commemorating the Holocaust. Yet, it came during a week which saw Hamas gain a majority in the recent Palestinian election.

The question of how to deal with organizations like Hamas is nothing new:

The first is that their stated aims are completely uncompromising. But there have been a number of times in the past when it is clear that there were deep, profound differences between different wings and different leaders and different trends within Hamas over whether to come to terms with the PA, indeed, even whether to comes to terms with Israel, at least in the short-term.

Now that Hamas has won a majority what does this victory portend for the future?

For years, there has been growing discontent among Palestinians with Fatah’s corrupt and ineffective governance. In going to the polls, many voters were expressing their frustration with the ruling party’s failure to deliver peace, implement reforms, improve living conditions or free the Palestinians from their shackles of poverty and unemployment. By casting votes for Hamas, many voters were hitting back at Fatah for its failures, rather than expressing their support for the Islamist party.

Surprisingly enough, comparisons are being drawn between Hamas and Israel’s Likud party:

Ladies and Gentlemen, may we introduce ... Hamas - the new Likud. It’s 1977 all over again, People of Israel. Once again, everything we knew, is wrong.

Hamas has long been an outsider in the peace process but, now with the election win the question becomes whether or not Hamas will soften it’s rhetoric. If it doesn’t, there will be a high price to pay:

Former President Carter said the United States, by law, would have to cut off direct funding to the Palestinian Authority as soon as Hamas takes control, but it should look for other ways to give money to the Palestinians, such as through the United Nations. Hamas has been branded a terrorist group by the U.S. and Europe.

“United States law would require that the money would be cut off if Hamas is in the government, so that’s a foregone conclusion,” Carter told The Associated Press.

Our world is daily becoming a smaller and smaller place. It is easy to recognize Hamas victory and the resultant events spawned by that victory will have repercussions throughout the region. Let’s hope for the best.

There is no doubt that the surprising Hamas victory in the Palestinian Authority elections has created a new reality in the region, which also has international implications. Everyone who has anything to do with the conflict, and every country that is concerned with matters of Islamization, will have to examine what has happened -especially Israel.

Israel will be the crucial factor in determining the international attitude, and even the attitude of the Arab world, with respect to this new development. Everyone will be waiting for Israel's reaction with bated breath. Any mistake it makes in the analysis of the situation and the response it necessitates will determine the nature of the others' reaction.

Another home run.

Erik Larsen manages to hit another one right out of the park in this week’s column:

How many times are you guys going to fall for the whole “Spider-Man’s getting a new costume that sucks and it’s going to replace the old one that rocks” trick? Marvel has been pulling this one off for decades now and every time you guys take the bait—every time.

This is not going to replace the old costume for the long haul. You will not see this costume on Spider-Man in 10, 20, 30 years—by then he’ll be wearing some other shitty costume and you’ll be moaning about that.

Let’s play RISK.

Let’s see now, I’ve got my armies on your western border and your eastern border. I have alliances with the other country on your eastern border. A short hop across the body of water on your west I have a strategic military base. You are surrounded, should you be afraid?

The first embassy bombing [in April 1983] I think they were involved in; the Marine [barracks] bombing in October 1983; September 1984, the second embassy bombing. And you know what? The Americans [then] leave. This is a successful policy for them [the bombers]. And what comes in place [after that]? Hezbollah is found in 1985. It’s an alternative to the Lebanese government; it’s an Islamic party. It mirrors the government in Tehran. ... And then you add on to this that Hezbollah drives Israel out of Lebanon, the first victory against the Israelis ever.

So what we have today, if you want to expand this analysis, [is] Hamas, the Islamic Jihad in Palestine and Gaza carrying out war successfully against Sharon. And the Iranians back in Tehran say, “We’re winning. This is the way you fight a war. This is how you defeat F-16s, this is how you defeat aircraft carriers. We beat the United States, we beat the Israelis in Lebanon, and we're going to beat ’em in Palestine.”

This is a strong message. I don’t care how secular Iran becomes. They still look at the United States, Britain, and France as colonizing powers, and this is the final war ending colonization in the Middle East, using Islam. So for the Iranians, it’s very, very logical. We as Americans say, “Well, it’s not. We were peacekeepers in Lebanon.” They don't look at it that way. Or as Americans, we say, “You can't kidnap innocent people, journalists, priests, people like that. It’s wrong.” They look at it differently. It’s a war of civilizations for them. And it was very successful, frankly, and cheap.

But, are things really that simple?

First of all, Iran was the only country in the region whose people came out in droves (over 40,000) to light candles in support of the U.S. after Sept. 11, and since then they have had many demonstrations in Tehran, Isfahan, and other cities, staged by students, workers, and teachers. The main slogans have consistently been: “Death to Taliban,” “Death to Terrorism,” “Free all political prisoners,” “Khatami, Khatami, Honesty.” There have been demands for freedom of expression and freedom of press, and even a demand for a referendum on the constitution and the Islamic rule. This is why it is of utmost importance to differentiate between the people and the government.

In the coming months, Iran will take center stage in a way North Korea has yet to. American troops are on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is implicit military cooperation between the US and the government of Pakistan and then there is the question of oil. Iran hiccups and the world gets nervous. Still, other noises coming from Iran recently have given many cause for concern:

“For over half a century, those who seek to prove the Holocaust have used every podium to defend their position. Now they should listen to others,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, was quoted as saying Tuesday by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Ahmadinejad already had called the Nazis’ World War II slaughter of 6 million European Jews a “myth” and said the Jewish state should be “wiped off the map.”

Well, should we even pay attention to statements like this?

Jane’s Defence Weekly, the Bible of intelligence and defense industry matters, reported last month that Iran had acquired ballistic missiles from North Korea with a range of at least 2,500 kilometers, or about 1,550 miles, which means they could easily reach Israel.

Its sister publication Jane’s Intelligence Digest said as the New Year began, “We predict that the likelihood of pre-emptive military action by either the U.S. or Israel — or both — will be far higher in 2006.”

The thing is, we are on the outside looking in. There are regional concerns beyond the dynamic between Israel and Iran.

The nuclear crisis is focused on Iran. But the truth is that is not how the conflict should necessarily be seen. Strategically, the crisis should be regarded from a regional perspective. It is not enough to ask if extremist Shi'ite Iran will go nuclear but whether the Middle East will be transformed in its wake into a region with a number of nuclear countries. Not a bipolar nuclear region, but multi-polar, including perhaps terror groups which raises doubts whether it would be possible to prevent the use of nuclear weapons in the region.

These are serious questions facing American foreign policymakers in the coming months. Issues which will undoubtedly be placed in the forefront as midterm elections grow ever closer. What we are going to have to ask ourselves and what the world community will also have to ponder is basically by standing by and allowing Iran to continue to make progress in their nuclear program are we in essence making the same mistake committed in the Munich Agreement?

How can we avoid making the same mistakes Neville Chamberlain made?

Iranian leaders are in no small measure responsible for the changing tide of opinion against them. Their handling of the nuclear issue has changed radically since only a little over a year ago. At the end of 2004, in Paris, they agreed to a voluntary halt in their uranium enrichment activities until an agreement over the issue could be struck with the Troika. Contrary to the claim of current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that move was not a “compromise,” but rather a very astute manoeuvre at the appropriate time. As long as Iran was involved in negotiations with Europe, regardless of how wildly they fluctuated between near success and near failure, Tehran enjoyed a form of international cover, which protected it from the escalating onslaught from Washington and beneath which it could strengthen its hand against the US by consolidating its regional influence and, more importantly, securing allies in positions of power in Iraq.

We are at a crossroads. We need to differentiate between the government of Iran and its people.

...some 4,000 Iranian student activists were arrested after protests in Tehran and other cities in June 2003 and at least 500 remain in prison for their democratic beliefs. Amir Fakhravar, a student movement leader and hero, is among the men and women Kokan will attempt to make contact with while in Iran. Punished for writing a book promoting democracy and free speech, Fakhravar is serving an eight-year prison sentence at Qasr Prison in Tehran.

It will be interesting to see how our current administration handles this conundrum. We cannot simply invade Iran.

Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, is ringed by mountains, is roughly four times the size of Iraq and has almost three times its population. Its military numbers almost 900,000 soldiers and reservists and has long-range missiles that can reach Israel or Europe.

Many in our government though, are increasingly speaking about military intervention as an option:

The Bush administration—and, increasingly, leading Democrats—have been speaking out with growing urgency about preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear threat. What is not stressed enough is that Iran is not just a potential menace -- it is a clear and present danger right now. The radical Islamists in Tehran bankroll the world's deadliest terrorists. They foment violence in Iraq. They lied for 18 years about their nuclear activities.

---

Those concerns were heightened in 2002, when a dissident Iranian group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, helped expose clandestine nuclear facilities at Natanz and Arak.

This exposure forced Iran to declare the facilities to the IAEA, as Tehran is a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It was not just the secrecy that set off alarms in the US, but the nature of the newly revealed sites - and Natanz, in particular.

Confusing Iran with Iraq would be a big mistake.

Islamic fundamentalists believe that the only guarantee to fulfill their so-called Islamic mandate—such as regressive, cruel and inhuman social relations and in particular their well-known misogyny—is the acquisition of unchallenged political power. In their drive for such power they misuse the Muslim masses’ religious sentiments quite skillfully as the Nazis misused the pent-up German desire to make-up for Germany’s defeat in the First World War.

We are also confronting other interests that don’t want to see the US expand their role in the region. I think the challenge we are now facing is simply put whether or not we can show restraint. Will our foreign policy be marked by hamhanded decisions ultimately making matters worse or will we allow the world community to recognize the threat for what it is and find ways to effect change in Iran. How deftly can we handle the coming crisis? This is a watershed moment for George Bush, stay tuned.

The trade.

Baseball season is closing in now, which makes me very happy. Sorry to see Kris Benson go - same goes for Bredon Looper, Mike Piazza, Jose Offerman, Roberto Hernandez, Jae Seo but, that’s baseball these days.

I hope Omar isn’t finished though. One thing I would like to see if he could pull off would be Victor Zambrano to Boston, David Wells to Oakland, John Maine to Oakland and Barry Zito to New York. Zambrano was known as something of a Yankee killer during his days with the Devil Rays - he’s younger than Wells and Well’s wants out of Boston (to play on the West coast). The A’s get Wells (his West Coast team) and Maine who I have heard they were hungry for and have something to show for Zito before he escapes due to free agency.

Funny.

Just a quick short (broadband required) which should garner a laugh or two.

Embracing my inner geek.

Would you believe someone has actually gone out and produced new episodes of Star Trek TOS? They’re available for download here - haven’t watched any of it yet so I can’t speak to the quality but apparently there are many membors of the original production involved. Bandwidth is required.

On the heels of the SPAM entry.

Mike forwarded along a link to me that anyone who hates SPAM will find useful. The next time you get some SPAM you might want to point the originator of said SPAM to the Break The Chain site.

Data mining and you.

If you’ve been asleep lately (and we all hibernate during the winter) maybe, you’ll have missed this jewel:

A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn’t know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military.

But wait, it gets better!

Below are excerpts from search engine's privacy policies regarding the disclosure of information for legal purposes:

Just where is the information about all this coming from?

“I specialized in what’s called special access programs,” Tice said of his job. “We called them ‘black world’ programs and operations.”

But now, Tice tells ABC News that some of those secret “black world” operations run by the NSA were operated in ways that he believes violated the law. He is prepared to tell Congress all he knows about the alleged wrongdoing in these programs run by the Defense Department and the NSA in the post-9/11 efforts to go after terrorists.

So, the question for today is: if we give up the civil liberties making this nation a becon for the world’s oppressed — if, in an attempt to make our lives ‘safe and secure’ we relinquish all those wonderful checks and balances put into place through the years to prevent the abuse of power by our own government — will the terrorists have won?

Today’s DUMBASS Award.

Drumroll please... Today’s winner is!

CHUCK ZUBAK [mailto:czubak@adelphia.net]

Chuck is our winner today for being enough of an idiot as to forward what we called in the days before the internet - a chain letter! Nowadays we have another name for it: SPAM!

Subject: FW:

??
???
Hope the Leprechaun dances his jig for you! I had to forward this, my mom swears it works. The day after she sent it, they got an offer on their land on the Swannee river, they have'nt even seen that land since 1987. It came out of the blue. So you know that I'm going to try it. Love Kim

Not sure if this had anything to do with it but it was shortly after I sent this out - I got a call to say our bond was approved - against all odds.

I don't know if it works but i won a new fridge full of various cool drinks from Beyer And Beyer last week.

I do not know if it works, but I won a microwave yesterday. Seems like it

Hey !! Good luck to everyone! And may all your dreams come true!!

This may sound nuts, but my husband got this the other day and sent it off. About 10 minutes later a really good financial windfall happened for his son Sean who he had sent it too as well. One of the people he sent it to was responsible for the windfall.

AN IRISH FRIENDSHIP WISH

Good Luck!! I hope it works...

May there always be work for your hands to do; May your purse always hold a coin or two; May the sun always shine on your windowpane; May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain; May the hand of a friend always be near you; May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

OK, this is what you have to do... Send this to all of your friends! But - you HAVE to send this within 1 hour from when you open it!

Now.................Make A wish!!!!!!

I hope you made your wish! Now then, if you send to:
1 person — your wish will be granted in 1 year / 3 people — 6 months / 5 people — 3 months / 6 people — 1 month / 7 people — 2 weeks / 8 people — 1 week / 9 people — 5 days / 10 people — 3 days / 12 people — 2 days / 15 people — 1 day / 20 people — 3 hours

If you delete this after you read it. you will have 1 year of bad luck! But... if you send it 2 of your friends you will automatically have 3 years of good luck!!!
:-)

Chuck was the originator of this email that managed to find it’s way to: HAROLD PETERS; ALAN & SUE VAN NESS; Andy Prettyman; Bob (Missy); Frank & Cindy Arico; GREG SCHULTZ; KAREN W.; Kevin & Sherry; Mary Clare Decker; Patrick Mulvoy; RUSS SULLIVAN; SID NIPER; Ted; QUALITY AUTO; John Meyer; JOHN DOTTERWEICH; Jodi C; JIM OWINGS; Jeff Nip; Chris Hull ; Braden Niper; michael; laura weingartner; ccvalentine; TYSMOM4; sid niper; jeanetteg3, parris weingartner; annereck; jaybirdcheryl; christinev; christykota; dpricern36; doug.davis; Lou4Bru; flirtygirty2u2005; mpriori; msptrpan77; mikelang; duets4one; tgalisewski; TDavis; beaverroof; Paul Barnes; Cathy Bomba; Mary & Tommy Damato; Elizabeth Langowsky; John & Eileen Langowsky; Mike Langowsky; Paul Langowsky; aryellowbeetle; yelnif; basketcase1177; tmadamato; jjl5; szymanskik; mckilo5; michelejb; ngarbarino; salena; Andrea Kennedy; Allison Civitella; Kate Plasson; Lisa Yediny; Lynette Capone; Maria Algarra; pudgey; Patsy Matusiak; Melissa Fragale; Vincent Burdelski Burdelski; Bobbe; Justine Brundage; Cathy Contey; Jennie Sama; Kathie Wilson; Anne Mackenzie; shirley Donan; Gerry Kuczynski; Linda Schaefer; Eleanor Hollister; Shari Matusiak; Sarah Redpath; Elizabeth Maykish; Jane Sullivan; Sylvia Watkins; Maureen Esposito; Jean Fryar; shhd; huffmara; rkoeleveld; l.kehn

Speaking for all the aforementioned people, I want to take the time out to thank Chuck who started this by forwarding an email which subsequently was forwarded and forwarded again - each time containing the valid email addresses of the recipients.

Without Chuck’s efforts, poor spammers from around the world would have no livelihood and what a world that would be! Where would we all be without the latest info on the Nigerian money waiting for us, the easy way to buy prescription drugs, the latest developments in the world of porn, or the need to update our security profile with our personal information. What a lonely day it would be to open our email box and find it devoid of all those interesting opportunities and reminders.

Let’s hear it for CHUCK! Yaaaaaayyyyyyyyy Chuck!

Now then, let’s help Chuck receive the second part of his award.

Remember Chuck’s email? Well, if you forgot it, it’s: czubak@adelphia.net

Next time you log onto that porn site, or have to create an account for biz rate or some other phishing site, don’t forget to use Chuck’s email address as the respondent email.

YES! CHUCK LOVES SPAM! and none of us want him to go hungry so be sure to use his email otherwise poor Chuck will be down from the lack of attention and response he got from his efforts!

One more time everyone! Yaaaaaaayyyyyyy CHUCK!

Phoning it in.

So, MC OBL has made a reappearance in the news with the release of his new tape:

The vague offer of a truce — coupled with a threat of another attack on the U.S. — was made in an audiotape released by the Arab television network Al-Jazeera. It brought new attention to the al-Qaida leader after a yearlong lull in his public statements.

It’s been awhile now since MC’s last recording and since he’s had any hits. Take the latest for what it’s worth – I discount anything he says.

Funny thing is, I was thinking about this latest tape today and it occured to me there might be some kind of answering machine set up in Egypt or Oman. You know, very low tech just something you plug into a phone jack. One of those answering machines where as long as you keep talking the tape keeps going until the tape runs out. I had this mental picture of OBL at a phone booth somewhere looking for quarters or using a phone card and calling this number somewhere in Egypt or Oman.

At the beginning of the call or a day before, there would be a message like, “Hey guys, it’s Osama here. Been laying low these days but I wanted to call in and make another tape so if you can have the machine set up tomorrow that would be terrific. I’ll call in with a new message and if you guys can send the tape over to Al-Jazerra that would be cool.”

And then, the next day he just calls in and reads this thing off into the answering machine and a day or two later it’s big news. The only other guy I can remember doing something like that recently was Pat O’Brien after he left those messages on a women’s voicemail with all the sex talk (NSFW - unless you have headphones).

It’s just a funny image of this guy, disguised as a woman somewhere, standing around and talking into a phone for an hour (that’s OBL not Pat O’Brien – although I can see why some might get confused if they heard O’Brien’s comments).

The gates of damnation await!

I find this incredibly funny, which probably means an eternity in a very warm place:

Mrs. McMillan, you have to admit your son Jody is pretty gullible. I’m pretty sure he still thinks Spider-Man is a real guy.

Life’s near misses.

So, I was in the city for various and sundry reasons yesterday. We had a spot of interesting weather, I don’t want to jinx it but, it’s almost the end of January and I am really happy at this point. Yesterday, some kind of freak warm front came sweeping through the area. Of course, it was a dramatic change in temperature and accompanying that were really strong winds and rain. I’ll take strong winds and rain in January over the alternative any day of the week thank you very much.

Maybe though, strong winds isn’t really putting it aptly because these things were gusting up to 70 miles per hour in some spots. Tractor trailers turned over on two bridges in the area causing all sorts of delays, branches were down all over, people lost power.

Me, I drove into the city for an appointment and was walking along 8th Street. It was late afternoon, the rain was gone and the only thing which remained was the occasional gust of wind. As I’m walking up 8th just up from 6th Avenue (and desperately fighting off the compelling aroma wafting from Gray’s Papaya) to my right about a foot or so behind me is a loud crash. Me, I was on the cell at that particular moment so, it was just another thing competing for my attention. I kind of turned around, stared momentarily dumbly not quite registering what had just happened and kept walking as another pedestrian passed me and said, “You’re pretty lucky.”

And, I guess I am.

It wasn’t a big piece of glass but it was a window pane measuring about 12" X 12" which had fallen out of one of the windows of the building I had been walking in front of. I don’t know if it would have done serious damage, it fell from the third or fourth story of the building but, it certainly would have hurt.

Of course, I had nowhere near the kind of day Elayne did because of the storm, she’s lucky too!

Be afraid, be very afraid.

How much of our lives are spent in fear? It’s something I’ve thought a lot about over the past few months.

Fear is a horrible thing. It’s used as justification in really bad decision making, whether on the personal level, a societal level, a species level. The self preservation instinct is based somewhat upon fear and that’s something you’d have a lot of trouble casting aspersions on but, when you get right down to it more often than not being afraid seldom is helpful.

The reason I bring the subject up is because I’ve come to realize I’ve spent a majority of my life being afraid of one thing or another.

I remember there was a friend I use to house sit for two decades back. I loved being able to house sit if only to get out of the crappy space I was living in at the time. The only thing I found very disarming was this painting he had done which hung prominently in the living room. It was a birds’ eye view of a small boy walking alone through an alley. It had very dramatic perspective but, the unsettling thing I found looking at it was the expression on the boy’s face.

It was a combination of sadness and fear.

The funny thing was, the painting always felt to be more an accident than anything else, I never attributed the ability or skill to my friend to capture the particular emotion so vividly. No, it was more a matter about what I brought to the table, emotional baggage. The results of a hard journey through life so, when I looked at the painting, saw the expression upon the boy’s face, it made me uncomfortable because I knew the feelings behind it all too well. The isolation etched in those features, the horror felt so deeply it seemed to ooze from his pores.

Anyway, being in a bit of an introspective phase and having to deal with quite a few crises over the last few months have made me focus on the direction I would like life to take. At least that is part of what goes in in my quieter moments. The thing I realize I want more than anything as I move forward through life is to stop being afraid, to stop allowing fear to consume or paralyze me. To vanquish the fear within me and really enjoy each day to its fullest.

Everybody’s life would be a bit better with a little less fear, case in point:

acarophobia fear of itching or of insects causing itching
acrophobia fear of heights
aerophobia fear of flying or draughts
agoraphobia fear of open spaces
agyiophobia fear of crossing busy streets
aichmophobia fear of sharp or pointed objects
ailurophobia fear of cats
algophobia fear of pain
amathophobia fear of dust
amaxophobia fear of riding in a car
ambulophobia fear of walking
anglophobia fear of England or the English
anthrophobia fear of humans
anuptaphobia fear of staying single
aquaphobia fear of water
arachibutyrophobia fear of peanut butter sticking to roof of mouth
arachnophobia fear of spiders
astraphobia fear of being struck by lightning
astrapophobia fear of thunder and lightning
automysophobia fear of being dirty
autophobia fear of solitude
ballistophobia fear of missiles
bathophobia fear of falling from a high place
batophobia fear of heights or being close to tall buildings
batrachophobia fear of frogs and toads
belonephobia fear of pins and needles
bibliophobia fear of books
blennophobia fear of slime
brontophobia fear of thunder and lightning
cancerophobia fear of cancer
cathisophobia fear of sitting
cenophobia fear of empty spaces
chrematophobia fear of money
cibophobia fear of or distaste for food
claustrophobia fear of closed spaces
climacophobia fear of falling down stairs
clinophobia fear of staying in bed
cremnophobia fear of cliffs and precipices
cyberphobia fear of computers
cynophobia fear of dogs
dromophobia fear of crossing streets
dysmorphophobia fear of physical deformities
ecophobia fear of home
eleutherophobia fear of freedom
eosophobia fear of dawn
ergasiophobia fear of work
ergophobia fear of work
erotophobia fear of sex
erythrophobia fear of red lights or of blushing
euphobia fear of good news
Francophobia fear of France or the French
gallophobia fear of France or the French
gamophobia fear of marriage
geniophobia fear of chins
genophobia fear of sex
gerascophobia fear of growing old
graphophobia fear of writing
gymnophobia fear of nudity
heliophobia fear of sunlight
herpetophobia fear of snakes
hierophobia fear of sacred things
homichlophobia fear of fog
homophobia fear of homosexuals
hydrophobia fear of water
hypsophobia fear of high places
iatrophobia fear of going to the doctor
iconophobia fear or hatred of images
kainotophobia fear of change
kakorrhaphiophobia fear of failure
kenophobia fear of empty spaces
ligyrophobia fear of loud noises
linonophobia fear of string
lygophobia fear of darkness
lyssophobia fear of hydrophobia
macrophobia fear of prolonged waiting
metrophobia fear of poetry
monophobia fear of being alone
muriphobia fear of mice
myophobia fear of mice
mysophobia fear of contamination or dirt
nebulaphobia fear of fog
necrophobia fear of corpses
negrophobia fear of blacks
neophobia fear of novelty
nosophobia fear of disease
novercaphobia fear of one's stepmother
nyctophobia fear of the night or darkness
ochlophobia fear of crowds
oenophobia fear or hatred of wine
ombrophobia fear of rain
onomatophobia fear of hearing a certain word
ophidiophobia fear of snakes
ophthalmophobia fear of being stared at
optophobia fear of opening one’s eyes
ornithophobia fear of birds
paedophobia fear of children; fear of dolls
panophobia melancholia marked by groundless fears
pantophobia fear of everything
parthophobia fear of virgins
pathophobia fear of disease
pediculophobia fear of lice
pentheraphobia fear or hatred of one’s mother-in-law
phagophobia fear of eating
phengophobia fear of daylight
phonophobia fear of noise or of speaking aloud
photophobia fear of light
pogonophobia fear of beards
psychrophobia fear of the cold
pteronophobia fear of being tickled by feathers
pyrophobia fear of fire
Russophobia fear of Russia or Russians
satanophobia fear of the devil
sciaphobia fear of shadows
scopophobia fear of being looked at
scoptophobia fear of being looked at
scotophobia fear of the dark
sitiophobia fear of food
sitophobia fear of food or eating
spectrophobia fear of looking in a mirror
symmetrophobia fear of symmetry
syphilophobia fear of syphilis
taphephobia fear of being buried alive
technophobia fear of technology
thalassophobia fear of the sea
thanatophobia fear of death
theophobia fear of God
tocophobia fear of pregnancy or childbirth
tonitrophobia fear of thunder
topophobia fear of performing; fear of certain places
toxicophobia fear of poisoning
toxiphobia fear of poison or being poisoned
triskaidekaphobia fear of the number thirteen
uranophobia fear of heaven
xenophobia fear of foreigners
zelophobia fear of jealousy
zoophobia fear of animals

Did somone step on a duck?

And speaking of flatuence (as opposed to smelling it), there’s this jewel from this week’s Savage Love advice column by Dan Savage:

I have a sexual interest in the sounds of men using the toilet. I hide a wireless telephone headset in an inconspicuous place in the bathroom of several restaurants close to my home. I can then record, from my home, the sounds of men farting and defecating. My husband is aware of this and tolerates it...

Just proving yet again one person’s nasty business is another’s guilty pleasure.

Howard Stern is a dirty, rotten crook.

Or, the truth behind Fartman.



I always thought the Fartman thing sounded a bit familar. I’ve been going through a lot of old stuff laying around here and I happened to have a couple of stacks of old National Lampoons when I came across the above photo funny. I can swear I’ve heard Stern speak the very words in all three speech ballons during the dream sequence.

Of course, this saw print in 1979! It’s ironic if only because part of the Stern schtick is him purporting to have reinvented the wheel. I like Stern and watched or listened to him through the years but, I do find it troubling he made such a blatant swipe. Especially since he went as far as to trademark the Fartman name! Got to love someone who swipes a concept and brands it as their own.

Not with a roar but with a whimper. (from 12/30)

Today was an eventful day of sorts. It was the last Howard Stern show broadcast on K-ROCK. After all the years of entertainment, Stern escaped to the haven of pay radio. The last moments of his show were taken up by a loud shouting match between Hank, the angry, drunken dwarf and BeetleJuice.

I’m not one of those people that will follow Stern to the world of satellite radio, I actually don’t think it’s worth the money.

It’s not that I don’t love radio - I really do. Between some things broadcast on NPR and other shows broadcast on regular radio - I have a great love for the medium. This American Life is a huge favorite of mine, I catch Prarie Home Companion when I remember to, Car Talk, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, The Pet Show with Dr. Warren Eckstein, the Joey Reynolds show, Dr. Joy Brown, Mike and the Mad Dog, Bob Grant, Paul Harvey well, you get the idea. Those shows are just the ones still being broadcast! I can go back into the vaults and pull out a great number of radio shows I miss that are no longer on the air - even some stations that have undergone format changes (WCBS FM being the latest loss).

Radio is great because it can provide you with a background and distraction in a way TV never can - TV being a visual medium demands all of your attention, radio is somewhat less demanding in that regard. You can still work, or just putter around and get things done while radio provides you with a soundtrack to your day.

So, while I’ll miss Stern, I won’t be following him.

Stern was part of what I considered to be one of the best station eras in history. WNBC AM in the 80’s had IMUS on from 6-10 am, then the Soupy Sales show from 10 to 2 followed by Stern. I always thought Stern was a better listen in the afternoon than in the morning, you could catch the whole show and somehow the edginess of his show was better placed in the afternoon.

When NBC fired him unceremoniously during a hurricane of all things, I was very disappointed. The Boy Gary and Fred show that followed for a few weeks after Stern left NBC was a dismal failure (although you rarely hear mention of the ill-fated show today) and was a brief comma in the airwaves until Joey Reynolds took over the timeslot before NBC ultimately went out of business and sold it’s spot on the dial to SportsRadio 1050 WFAN.

Yeah, that was a long, long time ago.

Through the years, I would listen to Stern and then sometimes I would find myself going months without listening to the show having had my fill of all the vitriol and bile which seems part and parcel of his world. Choosing to start my days in a queiter and less angry fashion, I would just wander down the dial for a brief time. I just needed a break from all the rawness Stern brings to the table.

Well, he‘s gone for now - even though there was an incredible media barrage in conjunction with his departure. I’ll miss him but I have to say, as much as I liked listening to him, Howard was never as good as his own press.

Finally.

Civil liberties groups filed lawsuits in two cities Tuesday seeking to block President Bush’s domestic eavesdropping program, arguing the electronic surveillance of American citizens was unconstitutional.

The U.S. District Court lawsuits were filed in New York by the Center for Constitutional Rights and in Detroit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Lest we forget.

I have a surname that ends in a vowel but, I can always change my name. I can go and anglicize it, shorten it, or take another name entirely.

Why?

Mainly, because people can (and do) make assumptions about me based around my surname.

It does make a difference.

I know it. But, whatever difference it has made, it hasn’t impacted me much. It’s not like I carry around a big sign or wear a t-shirt with my name prominently displayed on it. I can escape the prejudice inherent in my surname, I am fortunate in I don’t have features clearly putting me into any specific ethnic group or excluding me from the dominant one in this country.

What prompts me to speak about this topic?

Today is a federal holiday - some people taking more notice of it than others. and admittedly, I never placed much import on MLK day but, I was reading something Christopher Priest wrote and it gave me a reason to rethink the significance of the day:

If white people overcame centuries of violent repression, I guarantee you there'd not only BE a day to commemorate that struggle, but that the entire country would shut down to observe it.

And while Priest’s observations on the holiday provided me with some food for thought, reading of his own experiences was a reminder of just how different life can be based solely on skin color:

I was the office mascot. The little black kid. The co-key operator for the Xerox machine (with John Romita, Jr., who enthusiastically relinquished the top slot to me). My how liberal we are. Jim, go grab this, “In a jig.” Staffers, some still in the biz, used to come by and rub my head “for good luck.” One staffer kept little jigaboo figurines on his desk: warped, offensive little gnomes in white face eating watermelon. Denys Cowan stole one off of this guy’s desk and gave it to me as a Christmas present. I keep it on my desk here to remind me some of these people still work there.

Oh sure, our country today is a politically correct society but bigotry and prejudice are still very much a part of some people’s daily lives. I can’t begin to fathom what it is like to be black in America and I have to remind myself there are still serious problems where the issue of race is concerned. When I wrote about my friend Kevin three years ago, it was perhaps the closest I could come to identifying with the issue because it affected somebody who was very important to me, a good friend, a nice person, who felt this weight burdening them, this inescapable reminder which would confront them when they least expected it.

As Kevin described it he had a goal (which he did in fact achieve) which was to make it to the age of 35 without winding up dead or in jail. When I think about it now it makes me really, really sad. Not that Kevin made his goal for which I am infinitely happy but, that our society is such, it made it really clear to him there was only so much he could expect.

Sometimes, I think a lot of what happens in our society today is based around the class of economics. Capitalism in it’s purest form as a way of perpetuating discrimination. If capitalism works, there have to be winners and losers, no? This past year was a reminder of just what is going on in our country - when Americans could be abandoned the way they were in New Orleans after Katrina.

It wasn’t just the abandonment, which was horrible in and of itself, it was more that it was an indictment of our country. Yes, pull back the curtain behind all the go-go economic success, the booming stock market and you come to realize there is some real poverty still out there in this nation. If we were back in the seventies, now is the time I would loudly proclaim, “WE CAN PUT AN AMERICAN ON THE MOON SO WHY CAN’T WE END POVERTY IN THIS COUNTRY?!?!”

Somehow those goals have been left behind us. We, as a nation are prepared to get wrapped up in the sloganeering of a media driven society. A society where, “No child is left behind” or where we conduct a “War on Evildoers” but, all these slogans lack true substance.

Anyway, I digress.

Priest was right on the money about the holiday, it should be more important to everyone than it is. How can a nation which is supposed to have its precepts based upon the concepts of freedom and liberty treat any such holiday in a diminutive fashion? In doing so, doesn’t it diminish us all?

I think things are better for people in the country today than they were when I was young (in terms of race relations and prejudice) but, they still have a very, very long way to go. I don’t know if a day will come in my lifetime where people stop defining themselves according to the color of their skin - hell, over the last decade and a half there has been more proof to me that people want to focus more on what differentiates them than what brings them together. I imagine though that was the intent behind the holiday to begin with, simply put honoring the birth of a man who embodied hope, hope for a better world. That’s something we all should take note of and respect.

While we’re talking about the subject...

It’s as good a time as any to take a gander over the stir caused by one of the more infamous examples of bad behavior and the dialog it stirred back in 2004 when the Comics Journal ran a certain editors’ obituary.

This guy’s hands are practically crawling up my dress under the table. Jo got up to go to the ladies’ room and he grabbed me and tried to shove his tongue down my throat.

—Colleen Doran

It was just the old hand on the thigh, hand on the shoulder, hand on the arm, not letting go unless you pull yourself away strongly enough to leave bruises.

—Jo Duffy

(When a 17-year-old Jill Thompson tried to shake his hand) he put his hand out and honked my boob.

—Jill Thompson

The only time I ever spoke to the man, he told me in a condescending tone, “You don’t look like a writer,” then attempted to cop a feel.

—Poppy Z. Brite

Synchronicity.

I’ve read a few things regarding an incident that took place recently. In a strange bit of coincidence, I came across this story and thought I would email it to Ronee Garcia but I can’t seem to a way to email the woman without registering on some board so, I figured to just post it here and hope it finds its way to her. Given all the debate the incident has stirred I thought it might just be further validation of her argument.

Beating the Erasers.

Susan Drury tells the story of what happens when one of the most respected men in town gets accused of sexual harassment by one of the most trusted women in town. For a lot of the townspeople it was a difficult decision, but they chose to believe him over her. And some of them didn't change their minds, even when the man was later revealed to be a murderer. (21 minutes)

Clicking on the title will download the RealAudio file and clicking on the body will take you to the synopsis of the This American Life episode.

True tales for a Sunday morning!

You can’t make stories like this up. The guy’s name even adds to the bizarre circumstances surrounding this one:

Jerry Colaitis of Upper Brookville, N.Y., injured his neck while attempting to dodge a piece of hot shrimp playfully tossed at him by a table-side hibachi chef, attorney Andre Ferenzo of Roslyn told the jury.

That neck injury necessitated an operation. An apparent infection forced another procedure.

Months later, Colaitis was dead of a blood-borne infection...

Stupid people?

Last night John Stossel hosted a special broadcast of ABC’s 20/20 titled Stupid in America. At one point, Stossel compared public schools in our country to other monopolies, specifically public utilities such as the phone company or the electric company. His argument encompassed the theory that competition was good and that by allowing for there to be competition in the public education system in the form of tax credits and vouchers, education in this country would undergo a dramatic improvement and reform.

It’s a nice theory, really, it is.

But, I’m not buying it.

I’m still on the fence about the whole deregulation thing and whether or not it’s been good in the long run. Monopolies like the electric company were deregulated out of business and suddenly we had rolling blackouts in California a few years back, the whole manipulation of the energy market by the likes of people such as Enron and also there seems to be a growing lack of investment in the upgrade of power generating facilities and the networks that deliver them - there just isn’t as much of a financial incentive for those old monopolies to upgrade their networks in order to make it easier to deliver power other companies will charge users for.

Same thing goes for the phone company. I agree it’s considerably cheaper to make a long distance phone call these days but, much of what has happened in the telecommunications industry is a result of technological breakthroughs that were well on their way. I don’t think deregulation made any difference in the explosive growth of the internet over the last decade. There are outside forces which came to bear on the telecommunications industry foreseen long before they broke up the Bells.

In each instance of comparison too, Stossel is comparing companies providing a very clear, straightforward service. Your lights are either on or their not. Your phone either works or it doesn’t. There may be variables in the amount the consumer pays or in the areas of coverage (in the instance of phone service) but, these are very concrete services being delivered.

I can’t imagine education being such a clear cut service and I think Stossel has done education in this country a great disservice with his oversimplification of the issue and his poor comparisons. Students have as much to do with their success in the classroom as do educators. Families have an even more important role in the formation and education of children in this country. The breakdown of families, the need for households to have dual incomes where both parents are working, the changing expectations for schools as something more than places where a child will go just to get an education all factor in to the state of education in our country.

One instance on the show cited by the online synopsis, talked about students going into schools in Washington DC (hand-picked by the city’s education people) and videotaping what goes on in school. There, a student apparently took off his shirt and started dancing around the teacher which Stossel used to illustrate the breakdown of education in even what are thought of as the best of schools but, I think it’s here where he totally missed the mark.

What about the parents of that kid? Who is raising a child that believes he can be so bold as to act out in this manner? Why does it become the teachers’ fault? If a child is bought up with a lack of respect for his elders or those in authority, how does it become the educators who have to take on the brunt of the blame? If you put a child in a position where they feel they no longer have to fear the repercussions of their actions how does that becomes the educators fault?

It reminds me of an oft told parable I’ve noted on occasion. I was speaking to a relative with two young girls in school. We were talking about education in this country and I wanted to underline something to him. I asked when he was a child if a teacher ever struck him or if he got in trouble in school what the reaction would be when he got home. His response was much in the way I remember my own experiences in that if you got in trouble in school, you would wind up paying for it when you got home - your parents would be asking the question, What did you do wrong?!”

Then I queried if a teacher dared strike his own little angels what his response would be and it was, “What did the teacher do wrong?!?!”

If kids don’t behave all the time around their parents, where is the logic in assuming that the little dear is going to behave once their out of sight of their parents? I mean, honestly! What planet are we on where children are these perfect little angels who behave politely and respectfully at all times? Within the last few years, the New York City school system ended the practice of “social promotion.” When I first heard about social promotion I was dumbstruck. Little Johnny can’t be left back a grade because it might damage his sense of self! Who came up with that one?

Let’s see how this prepares a child for the real world? MMmmmm, let me get this straight, if you don’t do the work and fail to make the grade they’ll not only keep you at your job but give you a raise as well?

Thankfully, social promotion was ended but, the amazing thing was the incredible uproar it caused parents and others who went out and demonstrated in droves against ending the practice! Teachers are not babysitters, they’re not the ones who can provide a child with an authority figure in their life if a parent is too busy or can’t be bothered to assume that role and certainly they have a tougher time doing their job if the very same parents who relinquish these obligations somehow hamstring them further by refusing to at least support teachers when they do try to correct the problem.

I think education in our country is one of the most important issues facing us as a society. It’s of overwhelming importance to have a well-educated citizenry without question. It’s the thing that will insure our nation’s future as a world leader. There is no question we need to look at ways to improve the educational system in our country but, let’s not forget the role parents have in the education of their children. We can go about enacting all kinds of reform, creating millions of charter schools and revamping the whole system in this country as we know it but, if we don’t look at the whole issue and the factors involved it will be akin to building a house on a bad foundation and we’ll just wind up spinning our wheels into stupidity.

Besides, I’ve got to imagine the monopoly in China isn’t hurting the educational system in that country (If Stossel’s observations are accurate - that wouldn’t be the case but it is). A standardized cirriculum controlled by the central government is still in place despite other reforms but, China stills emphasizes vocational training in a way that has fallen by the wayside in our own country. Schools are not businesses supplying a standardized commodity like phone or electric service, they are delivery method for information. As such, it is equally incumbent on the receiver whether or not the transfer of the information is achieved successfully.

SON OF FCB!

Or, what kitty does with her day:



A quiet moment in the life of Anna who today is having a less than quiet day having already arrived at the vet for her medical exam (a very healthy girl, thank you very much) and now waiting for her shave down (lest her fur become a creature unto itself).

I fail to notice.

“All that is required for evil to prevail
is for good men to do nothing.”

— Edmund Burke

A horrible thing has happened - I come to realize I have become inured to the antics of the current administration. In a sense I imagine it is a victory of sorts for George Jr and Co. and a loss for many of us. Watching, hearing or reading about each new transgression on the civil liberties of our citizens no longer surprises or shocks me in the way it once might have.

I now sit back and await the days for the mid-term election, hoping against hope that some kind of serious push can be made to take the executive branch to task for its wild spending habits, gross mismanagement of resources and waste of public good will.

Whatever opportunity existed in the days following September ’01 to significantly alter and unite or nation are rapidly falling by the wayside. It’s not about Afghanistan, it’s not about Iraq, not anymore for me - it‘s about seeing things like the aftermath of Katrina, a growing trade deficit, rising federal debt, an increasing loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector, chipping away at Social Security, no real tort reform and a lack of any true progress in controlling the costs of medical care, insurance and drugs - don’t even get me going about education.

Like the song goes, I’ve Become Comfortably Numb.

I’m numb yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m asleep though. I’m just waiting. Counting the days until the next election. Tick, tick, tick, tick. All I’m hoping for is that the democrats can get their act together to send a strong, clear message that will resonate not just with their loyal base but, with crossover voters like me. It won’t be such a hard task this time around.

Can anyone tell me?

I got to thinking about this the other day...

So, who won?

I mean for the 18 months or so after Septmber 11th, you would often here, “If we don’t (or can’t what have you) [FILL IN THE BLANK HERE], THE TERRORISTS WILL HAVE WON!”

I don’t know, did we win? Did they? I’m not getting that real big sense of change, any of you getting it maybe?

On a less dicier topic.

It has begun:

Apple introduced two computers, a notebook and an iMac desktop, based on Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - News) microchips, the first to result from its decision to switch from IBM PowerPC chips that it used for years.

“Everybody expected to see the Intel notebook computer at Mac World,” said Ted Schadler, a technology analyst with Forrester Research. “But people did not expect to see the new iMac.”

Objectification.

So, I got a mention on Elanye Riggs blog which really flattered me. I find any kind of attention for the blog a good thing for the most part but admittedly I do operate off in a rather remote part of the internet without a great deal of traffic. I am sure I don’t match the kind of traffic Elanye gets.

I got the mention mainly because there is something of a firestorm brewing in the world of comics over a story making the rounds about harassment of a women by a man (see below). I tried writing something to the issue (unfinished) but still haven’t fleshed out my ideas in a way I would like. In the meantime, I checked back on Elanye’s blog and saw some further comments and then got a bit worried because of a reference that made me think I might be suspect.

See, I have links too around here to half nekkid women and what worried me was I might have offended Elanye in some way.

Now, I happen to like half nekkid women. I am getting older though and the women in question are getting younger, there’s a bigger gap in the ages between me and the women I’m looking at which has an inherent creep factor in it. Truthfully, I don’t want to fall into the creep category. At the same time though, I don’t want to stop looking at half-nekkid women.

I imagine that’s a big part of the problem though.

An issue like this brings out many, much more complicated feelings and factors than are entirely being addressed. Does that mean I would endorse a guy being creepy to a woman? No. As a guy though, I know what guys are like and the truth of the matter is ladies, we are pretty disgusting creatures but, we’re not women. We don’t approach the world with the same outlook or POV that women do and I have to believe as a gender we ever will.

Men pursue, women get to do the picking. Of course, there are exceptions to each and every rule but, it’s pretty much the way things work. So, if a woman is being pursued by a man she finds attractive or interesting or desirable would the behavior displayed be viewed in the same light as the behavior of a man she wanted nothing to do with - in that way?

I am reminded of something that happened this weekend. In the course of my travels, a store I frequent regularly was staffed by a young woman whom I hadn’t remembered seeing before. The establishment in question has a register and sales counter placed a foot or two above the level of the sales floor (no doubt to control shrinkage). In any event, this young women was blessed with very (how shall we put this?) impressive physical attributes on prominent display due to the her choice of garments (not lift and separate here, more of a push together and out). The combination of the lady’s choice of dress along with the construction of the store combined in such a way so when I went to complete my purchase I was eye level, front and center with her assets (a combination of a low cut top underneath some sweater thingee which framed her in a flattering way) with perhaps less than two feet separating us.

I was embarrassed, really. I wanted to look, she was absolutely beautiful. There was no question and it seemed as if the male members of the store’s staff who pointedly fluttered into her orbit in a desperate attempt to gain her attention and approval confirmed that assessment. It didn’t seem as if she was a stranger to the attention.

Now during the course of my purchase, she was involved in movements which, shall we politely put it, made the display all the more obvious. I forcibly made an attempt to look everywhere but her breasts and it’s not I didn’t want to look believe me.

See, I’m a guy, we look. Furthermore, we like looking.

Now, I don’t or won’t justify putting hands on someone’s person in an unwelcome manner. I also won’t abide someone making someone else suffer because they have no interest in having sex. However, when we talk about things like objectification, I think we’re starting to get into a very hazy area here.

Sex sells. There’s just no other way to put it. Am I out there on the street whistling and catcalling at women with a group of construction workers? No, but mainly because I really don’t think most self respecting women are going to fall for that. Recently, I heard a story from someone who met their current beau in a bar. His line? “You are the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.” Now, my first response was, “AND THAT WORKED?!?!”

The woman in question was very flattered by the comment and in no way doubted its sincerity but, every guy I told the story to had the same knowing smile, it was a line. See, if it came from an ugly, balding troll it probably would have been viewed in harsher terms but, the lady in question found the speaker somewhat attractive and there you have it.

Look, I don’t want to get anyone pissed off or hurt anyone to be sure but, when we talk about these kinds of things it isn’t the zero sum game people would have you believe. I am not a proponent of the ‘she was asking for it’ school of excuses - that’s just bullshit but, I have also witnessed a bunch of times when someone cried ‘harassment.’ It’s unfortunate but true. Each and every time I’ve seen it done (and it’s been more than once - thankfully I’ve not been party to it), it just weakens the argument when someone is really being harassed.

This is a subject, I can’t do justice to with the written word either I feel because there is an antiseptic nature to the written word which doesn’t contain the nuance of speech. Also, it’s a damn complicated one, a few paragraphs here can’t do it justice.

But f**k! I’m damned confused by it all because there are some women who like being objectified, who don’t mind it at all and there aren’t any kind of warning labels on women to make things easier. And men are, really, really stupid. Plus if we didn’t think about sex so much there would probably be a cure for cancer, world peace, an end to hunger in our time and a lot of other good things. I’m not excusing obnoxious behavior but, I also think the world would be a much harsher place if we didn’t recognize some of the things that make us different particularly when it comes to gender.

An opinion I can agree with:

When every scene can be tossed out or invalidated by the next creative team, it gets that much more difficult for me to make any kind of emotional investment in these fictional characters. If one creative team can kill a character and the next creative team can say, “No, that character’s really alive” and the one following that can say, “Just kidding, the previous guy’s run was a dream” then I can’t help but saying, “deal me out.”

Erik Larsen’s column One Fan’s Opinion has ruffled many feathers in the short time Erik has been writing it but, I have to say more often than not I’ve been finding myself in agreement with his opinions and the column is rapidly becoming a favorite. This week’s column hits the nail right on the head, continuity isn’t the ogre it’s made out to be but to realize that you have to have a little respect for the work that’s been done before you – something that’s been noticeably absent from many comics for the last few years.

When is a comic convention like a misogynist convention?

Interesting column over on When Fangirls Attack that’s worth a read.

When I was a teenager I worked at my local comics shop. The staff consisted of the kindly and cantankerous older middle-aged comics fan and a cast of lovable zanies. I had a great time. Until my boss asked me if I could stay late at work one day to help him bag some comics. And so I stayed late and started bagging the comics. And my boss took the opportunity to tell me that he found me sexually arousing. And he asked me to have sex with him. And I started to silently cry — pretty babyish of me, huh? Should I have punched him in the nuts? I didn’t — I cried silently. I was 16, he was in his late 50s.

Speaking of movies.

I managed to catch a few things on DVD over the past week or two. I was in a place that had a deal of two DVDs for under $10 so I availed myself of some things I had wanted to see but, didn’t feel like getting to the theater for.

Saw Constantine which was passable and a bit of a popcorn film. Good casting even if the script was a little weak and strayed a bit far from the original concepts (Los Angeles can never match London in my book)

The Aviator was very interesting even if it did seem to end a bit abruptly (before Hughes got to Vegas). A visual treat for the viewer.

Miss Congeniality 2 - what?!?!? Yes, I enjoyed it. It was funny. I don’t want to hear any guff for it.

Catwoman, not as insipid as expected given the reviews but, certainly could’ve been much, much better. Again it was a matter of just having a bad script and not really being sure of who you were trying to get into the theater. It wanted to be everything to everybody and managed to fail miserably because of it. I don’t know if it was supposed to appeal to preteen girls, women or men. It didn’t seem the filmmakers knew either.

Alexander was just horrid - I‘ve never been a big Oliver Stone fan and he just confirms my distaste for his movies.



Finally, there was Million Dollar Baby. I wasn’t surprised by any of the movies’ “twists” or “turns,” finding the story direction heavily telegraphed and having been told it was a sad movie in advance without knowing the ending. I must admit though, it still got to me even with the foreknowledge where it was going to wind up so, saying something of the power of the film. It truly is one of those “must sees” but, I was thinking after watching it, it was the kind of movie that at one time was the rule as opposed to the exception. It had a quietness about it that reminded me of another movie I saw long ago, The Shootist.



Movies nowadays are all about quick cuts, lots of camera movement and visual clutter in the frame. Eastwood’s career and experience seem to have proven to him the strong power of the stark image and it shows in his work. There is a minimalism going on, a very straightforward way of shooting without all the cacophony prevalent today. The camera looks at the actors the way you would look upon art in a museum, lovingly with a strong unblinking gaze. Light and shadow are as important as the actors themselves in conveying the emotion and thrust of the story. Really classic work and not surprising it received the awards it did. See it if you haven’t.

The unfinished year.

’06 is rapidly turning into the year of unfinished entries. Everything has been so busy of late or rather, I’ve been so busy of late whenever I do get started on putting keystrokes to html, I find myself either distracted, preoccupied with something else or just out of steam.

This year started on a weird footing in that I came into the year fighting an ear infetion, having EYOC back in the hospital and just managing a full plate otherwise thank you very much.

I did manage to squeeze in seeing a movie the other day. Caught Spielberg‘s latest, Munich.

Enjoyable flick, Eric Bana does quite the turn. I find myself growing to be a bigger fan of Geoffrey Rush with each thing I see him in. Outside of a sequence of cross cutting in the third act (between a love making scene and an act of violence) which seemed a bad choice, I liked the film overall. It’s not a true depiction of history but interesting nonetheless and manages to be thought provoking entertainment.

There is a sequence towards the end where two characters are having a running dialog with the skyline of New York as a backdrop. Seeing as it is supposed to be the early 70s when the conversation is taking place, it was interesting to notice all the buildings in the shot (a couple of new apartment buildings over on the east side along 1st avenue, the new Trump building on 49th and the CitiCorp Center) that weren’t in existence back at that time.

Sounds like I’m being a bit of a stickler but the last shot in the movie as the ending titles run is a digital composite of the skyline of lower Manhattan with the WTC smack dab in the middle of the shot. WTC of course, long gone by the time the movie was filmed but digitally inserted by the filmmaker to make some kind of final point to the movie. A little heavy handed for me though. If the decision was made to put the WTC in they certainly could have digitally removed the newer buildings from the background in the other sequence.

There are some other plot twists which I found very transparent but, my fellow viewer didn’t pick up on them and I won’t go into detail here for fear of spoiling the film, it is worth seeing.

Now, that’s art!

Finally, graffiti I can enjoy.

The sadist in me.

I read this an had to surpress a chuckle (which I think says something about me). Maybe it’s that I look upon birds the way a cat does. I’m not sure - it’s either that or the fact I have found my car bombarded by rather disgusting, large bird crap on occasion or maybe I let my opinion of pigeons color my view of this particular fauna.

Klem, a professor at Mulhenberg college in Allentown, Pa., first learned about the “window hit” problem 30 years ago from a teacher.

Klem responded by marching into a forest and hanging a bunch of windows from the branches of the trees. Then he sat down and watched what he calls an “appalling” number of collisions. Some birds lived. Many did not.

There was this image bought to mind of many Monty Python moments.

Some notes from the land of the manufacturing employee

Habermehl says future wages at Toyota depend on the UAW, whether plant employees realize it or not. When wages rise at the Big Three, they’re also likely to rise at Toyota. And when they fall in Detroit’s plants, Toyota could reduce them as well.

and...

The hard facts about GM's predicament are by now well known. The company says health care makes up $1,500 of the cost of each vehicle produced. GM is the largest private purchaser of health insurance in the country, footing the bill for 1.1 million workers, retirees and family members. Most are retirees, the very people with the highest health care expenses.

and...

For decades building American cars was a family affair. Children followed their parents into the auto plants, where generous union-negotiated wages lifted them into the middle class.

But the days of the industry’s blue-collar aristocracy are numbered.

South Park meets the Superfriends

Excellent short promo worth checking out!

UPDATE: If you clicked through and wondered “Wha the fu?!” Let me add above the spotlight and below the headline “ZOOM SIGNAL” you’ll see a helmet-like icon which you need to click through to get to the animation in question.

The disappearing middle class?

Often during the transit strike of a few weeks back, I heard grumblings from people commenting on the audacity of transit workers who would dare go out on strike considering the benefit package they have. More often than not, these complaints masked a certain amount of jealousy on the part of the speaker. Any complaint about the transit workers was usually accompanied by the statement: “I don’t get a pension!, or I can’t retire at 55! or I have to pay for my medical benefits!

Whenever I heard these comments, my first thought was, “so, because you don’t have a decent benefit package, no one should?”

Instead of working people holding this (the transit workers’ benefit package) out as an example of the way things should be - they just buy into the histrionics of people like Mikey B who compared the transit workers to thugs. Of course, the interesting thing about Mikey B is that he makes more than enough money to pay for his own medical benefits, he’ll never have to worry about his retirement with all the wealth he has managed to amass during the course of his lifetime and hey, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing the guy has managed to make a fortune, good for him.

At the same time though, can we get the people of this country to acknowledge that a higher standard is needed as the low water mark for our citizens? Things like affordable health care, retirement benefits and pensions are not the evils of society they are portrayed to be?

We had a savings and loan failure back in the early nineties, anyone remember that? You should as the cost to American taxpayers was staggering even by today’s standards:

Estimates of a clean-up bill of around $30 to $50 billion shocked US taxpayers at the time, but turned out to be optimistic. Today we know that between 1986 and 1995, when the storm abated, the underwriting of US thrifts by the financial industry and the US taxpayer cost an extraordinary $153 billion.1 The extent of the disaster turned it into a major threat to the US financial system, and one of the most expensive financial sector crises the world has seen.

Yeah, it’s those goddamn workers making $50k and upward a year which are driving our country into the toilet! Puhhllleeeeeezzze!

How about this one for you a running total of the U.S. taxpayer cost of the Iraq War. The number is based on Congressional appropriations.

So, when I read the story linked to below, I shudder.

“They’re destroying the working class. Why can’t people see this?” asked the 38-year veteran. “Anybody who works in manufacturing has no future in this country, unless you want to work for wages they get in China.”

Abby Abdo, 52, of Weirton, said workers once believed that if they accepted pay cuts and shunned strikes, they would keep their jobs. Not anymore.

“Once they get what they want, they kick us to the curb,” he said. “There’s no guarantee anymore. No pensions. No health care. No job security. We have none of those things anymore.”

My point is this, whenever you hear people trying to blame the working class of our country for society’s ills, it’s time to take a step back and point out the skewed priority’s we seem to have as a nation. Affordable health care, pensions, social security, these are not bad things, these are not the evils they are made out to be. A social safety net isn’t something to be ashamed of (as a nation), it’s something to be proud of. Maybe it’s time the people of this country start to sit up and take notice of that and remind there fellow citizens, their elected leaders and the media of that very fact every opportunity we get.

A package of happiness?

Ingredients: mischief, curiosity, grace, stealthiness, happiness, love, contentment and lots and lots of fur.



Trying to get back into the habit of Friday Cat Blogging - Anna shows her continued fascination with boxes of all sizes and shapes.

Season’s Greetings.

Christmas Eve is upon us - I find my way over to my cousins’ to spend time with him and his family, happy that the holiday is here (meaning an end to the whole Christmas season) and thankful to have a place to go. The last few days have passed like a whirlwind and even though there is plenty of traffic on the way down to his house, I am surprisingly calm just enjoying the drive without the radio or sound of any kind.

Beautifully warm as the day was, it somehow takes the edge off of the holiday. I’ve never been a big fan of the cold weather and getting days where the temperature climbs towards 50° at this point in December is the best present I could imagine.

So, during my meandering drive, I take a somewhat different route choosing to go down the Sprain as opposed to the Bronx River just opting for a wider road that will more likely be easier to navigate than the winding curves of the BRP (especially when clogged with those who don’t drive much of the rest of the year).

This route takes me across Central Avenue, a shopping hub where the stores are still jam packed as people try to get that last minute shopping finished.

After I cross the Avenue, I wind up entering this very beautiful part of Yonkers, hidden away the BRP bordering it on the east and a ridge separating it from Central Avenue on the west. One stretch of the area has these wonderful wide tree-lined boulevards, with very quaint and stylish houses standing regally beside the road.

Every year at this time, some people are compelled to make a spectacle, adorning there house with the Las Vegas equivalent of home decoration and this neighborhood is no different with the occasional nod to garishness. However, the thing that is so striking, the thing that seems to embody some of the solemnness of the holiday and the quiet beauty which has diminished over time is the very simple decoration I come upon while driving through the area.

House after house festooned with a series of paper bags at curbside. Plain brown paper bags which contain nothing more than candles fluttering in the slight breeze of the evening. A sight which is both magical and wonderful to behold. I had never seen anything like it before - after doing some digging around I found it is called Luminaria. If there is one custom I would like to see more of during the holidays, this is it — it beats any light show I’ve ever seen hands down and the pictures don’t do it justice.

Manga as propoganda?

I’m a comicbook fan, unapologetically so but, I never caught the Manga bug. Some of tha Manga drawing style has seeped into mainstream comics and I don’t have a problem with it as some of the old guard do. However, Manga is something that mainstream comics is not, it’s more popular, reaches a broader audience and manages to embody more than the comics themselves.

So, is it any kind of surprise when an art form is used for the purposes of propoganda?

The reality that South Korea had emerged as a rival hit many Japanese with full force in 2002, when the countries were co-hosts of soccer’s World Cup, and South Korea advanced further than Japan. At the same time, the so-called Korean Wave — television dramas, movies and music from South Korea — swept Japan and the rest of Asia, often displacing Japanese pop cultural exports.

Here are two panels from a very popular and recently released Manga book in Japan (I’m just putting the images up, it’s in no way an endorsement of the views expressed):



The two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and advocating confrontation with them, have become runaway best sellers in Japan in the last four months.

Many of the same influences are at work in the other new comic book, “An Introduction to China,” which depicts the Chinese as obsessed with cannibalism and prostitution, and has sold 180,000 copies.

The book describes China as the “world’s prostitution superpower” and says, without offering evidence, that prostitution accounts for 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product. It describes China as a source of disease and depicts Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi saying, “I hear that most of the epidemics that broke out in Japan on a large scale are from China.”



In one book, crazed Chinese communist guerrillas spray benevolent Japanese troops with cyanide. In another, savage Korean immigrants massacre innocent Tokyo residents in the wake of World War II...

“These books finally depict history from a Japanese perspective, and there is nothing wrong with that,” says Atsushi Iwata, 22, student at Tokyo’s prestigious Waseda University who attends a weekly seminar by a co-author of “Introduction to China.”

“It’s the right of any nation to interpret history as it feels it should,” he said.

Yes, proof once again that a-holes come in all sizes, shapes and colors - well, they say you can’t argue with an idiot.

When the subways stop.

Before the workers are cursed, take a moment to read this editorial in the Daily News:

The great and growing disconnect between white-collar and blue-collar workers in our town makes it hard for office workers to see, understand or respect what is at stake in this labor standoff. Few riders know, for instance, that transit workers have to ask for a day off 30 days in advance. Back in October, in an annual ritual, some MTA workers slept on cots in bus depots so they could be first on line the next morning to ask for permission to take Thanksgiving off.

Nosing around.

Tonight I was nosing around the local 100 website, while I was doing it I found this little tidbit on the calendar about an event scheduled:

Dec. 20: Citywide Bus and Subway Strike

Submitted by eddie on Mon, 2005-12-19 05:39.
Start: 2005-12-20 06:01

So, I called channel 7 which was on the air to let them know. Seems like it could be nothing or it could be something. If channel 7 does wind up being the first to break the story, you’ll know where they got the tip.

...’tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la laa...

“They came in, said ‘Merry Christmas’ and then helped themselves,” store owner Changa Manakynda said.

A group of 40 people dressed in Santa Claus costumes, many of them drunk, rampaged through New Zealand’s largest city, robbing stores and assaulting security guards, police said Sunday.

The horror... the horror... (LOL)

Priceless.



I was looking around for material for another post when I came across the image above. It’s just struck me as a very funny image. I thought maybe about having a contest for the best caption.

The end is near?

I imagine, since we’re only a week or two away from the New Year.

Sounds rather dramatic though doesn’t it?

(Cue foreboding music) THE END IS NEAR!

What does a New Year mean anyway outside of the changing of the calendar, the marking of days? Do we wake up New Years Day to a new and suddenly different world?

I think not.

Depending on what we did the night before, we wake up either at the start of another day or with a terrific hangover if we’ve overdone it. Not much else happens really on New Years Day when you think about it. People are just bracing themselves to get back to work, having made it through another holiday season.

Oh, I guess it means stores will be putting up decorations in the next week or so for Valentines Day but outside of that, what else?

Over the next week or so, they’ll be lots of retrospectives about the year just passed on TV and in Newspapers. Lists of events that happened, people who died, those kind of things. It’s this onus that we burden ourselves with, a forced reflection due to a change in the calendar. In the coming weeks they’ll be talk about whether or not it was a good shopping season for retailers and then we’ll quickly move on.

I don’t like the calendar, never have. Calendars, clocks, all these human inventions to try and enforce a rigid structure to the world around us, are just off-putting. They force us to approach life in a very different way and I don’t know if it’s a good way. For example, did you know that:

On November 18, 1883, four standard time zones for the continental U.S.A. were introduced at the instigation of the railroads. At noon on this day the U.S. Naval Observatory changed its telegraphic signals to correspond to the change. Until the invention of the railway, it took such a long time to get from one place to another that local “sun time” could be used. When traveling to the east or to the west, a person would have to change his or her watch by one minute every twelve miles.

When people began traveling by train, sometimes hundreds of miles in a day, the calculation of time became a serious problem. Operators of the new railroad lines realized that a new time plan was needed in order to offer a uniform train schedule for departures and arrivals.

Since every city was using a different time standard, there were over 300 local sun times to choose from. The railroad managers tried to address the problem by establishing 100 railroad time zones, but this was only a partial solution to the problem.

Imagine that!

Sun time. Can you think of how different life would be if based around Sun time? All those late nights at the job - do they still happen when you’re on Sun time? Thing is, we’re not talking about such a long time ago, a mere 122 years. This is the world my grandparents were born into. A world were Sun time was becoming a thing of the past and the world was entering the brave new frontier of “Time Zones.”

The pace of life is speeding up, getting faster and faster as the world becomes a smaller and smaller place. Does this mean one day, instead of the four time zones our country straddles, it will become sixteen time zones because having time zones of an hour will be a value far too large to use as a measure in such a fast-paced world.

I shudder at the thought.

If you focus so much energy on measuring something, of keeping track of it, are you able to enjoy it?

So, as the calendar turns over once again like an odometer on our lives, let’s take a moment to try and downplay its significance. Not that I don't think everyone shouldn't have the most wonderful holiday imaginable, just let’s try to move the focus away from the structure we try to impose on the world. We might all be a bit better for it.

More on time and its history can be found here.

Speaking of They Might Be Giants.

It really is worth it to go over and check out their site. Currently, they have a series up called Venue Songs with some wonderful listening.

Click here to check it out.