My kid…

turned into jello, oooing and ahhing, pointing at the TV.

Johnny Depp.

OK, I can understand that.

Course I have been forever traumatized seeing Billy Crystal as Legolas, nooooooooooooo!

Actor in a Supporting Role - Tim Robbins - MYSTIC RIVER how political, remarkably little, only on speaking out on being victim of abuse.

Art Direction - A.J. presented (kid noticed her nipples) - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

Animated Feature Film - Robin Williams presenting “one by Pixar formerly with Disney.” - FINDING NEMO …”extraodinary filmmaking environment of Pixar…. Steve Jobs” mentioned, nice dig at Disney.

Costume Design - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING that’s 2

Actress in a Supporting Role - Renée Zellweger - COLD MOUNTAIN overwhelmed, thanked bunch of folks, yada, yada… Jay didn’t miss anything by muting.

Short Film (Live Action) - TWO SOLDIERS got drowned out at the end dedicating … to soldiers…

Short Film (Animated) - HARVIE KRUMPET Aussie film, he congratulated “my beautiful boyfriend Dan?”

Visual Effects - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING that’s 3

Makeup - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING that’s 4

Sound Mixing - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING that’s 5

Sound Editing - MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD

Julia Roberts on Katherine Hepburn, nother tribute, Blake Edwards was first but I wasn’t paying attention, me bad. Watching her I feel old.

Documentary Short Subject - CHERNOBYL HEART missed that, reading email, ok show is a little long, ok, very long, bout the accident at Chernobyl from what I could figure.

Documentary Feature - THE FOG OF WAR as small as they showed the clips, can’t tell anything, not full screen, ewww “Forty years ago, this country went down a rabbit hole in Vietnam - millions died, I fear we’re going down the rabbit hole once again.”…. political speech…

Billy Crystal… “weapon of mass sleep induction” bout this one guy who is rambling on to honor Gregory Peck… ok lotsa people who died. Sure are a lot of them. Wonder how many were in the Dead Pool?

Music (Score) - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING that’s 6

Film Editing - Pierce Brosnan presenting yum - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING that’s 7

Billy Crystal “You know people are moving to New Zealand just to be thanked.”

Think they are on the last of the songs, finally. Andrew’s blogging it too.

Music (Song) - “This is it, you time is through, you’re boring..” cute, one of the funnier moments - “Into the West” - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING that’s 8 Annie Lennox accepting “and I hope you enjoyed the song when I sang it tonight…”

Foreign Language Film - THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS “We’re so thankful The Lord of the Rings did not qualify in this category.” Hey next year, maybe they can nominate “The Passion.” Aramaic is a foreign language.

Cinematography - MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD

Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING that’s 9

Writing (Original Screenplay) - Tim and Susan, oh oh, dress lookks like it might fall off her boobies - LOST IN TRANSLATION

Directing - Tom Cruise, pretty boy, presenting - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING that’s 10 “You’re giving us an incredible, overwhelming night.”

Billy Crystal “And he’s wearing shoes.”

Actress in a Leading Role - Adrian Brody presenting - Charlize Theron - MONSTER “I can’t believe this…” re manager “You’ve always believed in me..”…”and I’m not going to cry..”

And the moment my kid is waiting for, gee watched the whole thing just for Johnny Depp…

Sorry Johnny.

Actor in a Leading Role - Nicole Kidman presenting “…for women these are the five stages of dating in Hollywood.” - Sean Penn - MYSTIC RIVER “…we know how great all of you were.”

Best Picture - Steven Spielberg presenting “It’s a clean sweep…” - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING that’s 11 tying with Titanic and Ben Hur for most Oscars. “This is just unbelievable…”

Billy Crystal “What happened at the Oscars stays at the Oscars.”

Not a kitty, the rather lazy pet here, mOrn.

And of course Psycho Cat, due March 10 give or take.

Absolutely, totally boring, not one cat. Hopefully Lair will get some pics of Edloe doing the couch potato thing. Just thinking of lardball sitting up like a Teddy Bear, no not that one, sounds so exciting.

Link to gasbag Ted thanks to Resurrection Song - it’s a must read here.

Oooo, a cat in the webcam, finally (at 14:11).

Good morning, Mr. Simon. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, involves destruction of the nuclear fuel-enrichment plant at Natanz. You may select any two team members but the third team member must be Dr Schoktopus. He is a civilian and has a non Jewish name thus providing perfect cover for your mission. You have 48 hours to recruit Dr Schoktopus and meet me in Tel-Aviv to receive your assignment. As always, should you or any member of your IDF Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions. And Mr. Simon next time you go on the Metro Rail let us know where. This message will self-destruct in five seconds.

[fast forward 48 hours - Tel-Aviv, the team awaits their final instructions pouring over the details in the dossier given them.]

Iran has secretly developed its uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz, which is now considered the linchpin of the nation’s nuclear weapons program, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service.

U.S. officials said that Iran transferred research, development and assembly operations to Natanz in an effort to transform the site into the main facility for the Iranian gas centrifuge program.

Iran has ambitious plans for Natanz. Currently, the site includes centrifuge assembly areas and a pilot fuel-enrichment plant slated to hold 1,000 centrifuges. A production-scale fuel-enrichment plant is being constructed at Natanz to house some 50,000 centrifuges.

Iran has designed its nuclear weapons program so that it could produce enough enriched uranium to construct a warhead within days, official says.

…”It wouldn’t take long to enrich the low-enriched material to weapon grade. For example, if Natanz was operating at full capacity and recycled the end product - low-enriched uranium [5 percent uranium-235] - back into the feed point, the facility could produce enough weapon-grade uranium for a single weapon within days.”

Officials said Iran possesses blueprints for the construction of the advanced P2 gas centrifuge, which can enrich bomb-quality uranium in half the time of first-generation Pakistani-origin centrifuges. Iran has acknowledged possessing hundreds of P1 machines at Natanz. The International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors is scheduled to meet March 8-10 in Vienna to discuss the issue.

U.S. officials and analysts have assessed that the Iranian nuclear facilities the IAEA inspected are part of an infrastructure designed to produce up to 30 nuclear weapons annually.

[final briefing] You are under specific instructions to utterly lay waste to this plant before Iran has the capacity to destroy Israel. And Mr. Simon, Natanz is in Iran, not Saudi Arabia, and no grandstanding.

I was originally going to do something useful today but think I may have overdone in therapy Friday. Mind you, I was not feeling any pain during therapy but yesterday I hurt. In fact, I was up til the wee hours tossing and turning, unable to sleep cause of pain. Not doing as well as I had hoped.

Yes, I do want to be able to go back to work but I expect, if and when I do, I will be spending a fair amount of time laying in bed recovering from the pain of it all. Discouraging.

Sides which, I lack the superhuman ability to suffer endless physical torment, well almost endless, that He suffered. I’ll have to remember that when I’m in pain. It could be lots worse.

The Cranial Mishaps of G-Fry blogs naked, what’s not to love. Definitely BOTD material. Seriously, he’s very articulate and can make sleeping interesting. He even sucks you in to his angst. Oh and he’s a teenager. I do want a pic thou.

And then he goes and posts something deserving of serious thought, no not what you’d expect from someone so young.

Coworker called, chatted about the news at work. They now use Websense, which blocks all IM clients, P2P, software downloading, email, games, flash animations, you name it. Site says spyware but view the flash demo and it is obviously so much more. It can search each computer for unapproved programs like AIM and block them, monitors useage, every computers useage is tracked.

So much for him playing Yahoo Pool. Can only go to sites approved like when employer sends out an email saying go read this wonderful news report about some spiffy thing they did, they allow that. One supervisor got fussy when he just checked the news telling him he is not supposed to be on the net at all. Oh fun. Course, this will stop the supervisors from spending hours playing games too.

Think it’s time he got his own computer cause his social life just got severly curtailed. Ah well, they haven’t confiscated the rubber bands yet.

Not surprised, they used to just block offensive material but, with all the viruses and worms going around, it was only a matter of time before they resorted to more draconian measures.

Is anyone paying attention to this? From Channelnewsasia, there is this disturbing news.

TAIPEI : More than 2.5 million people joined hands to form a 500-kilometre (310-mile) human chain stretching the length of Taiwan in a huge anti-China protest ahead of the island’s presidential elections next month, according to organisers.

The high turnout for the government-backed protest highlighting the threat posed to the island from Chinese missiles was likely to boost the re-election chances of President Chen Shui-bian, analysts said.

…Chen has called the island’s first referendum to run alongside the presidential poll and an estimated 15 million voters will be asked whether the island should arm itself with more missiles and hold peace talks with Beijing.

Nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949 after communists won the civil war in mainland China and the island has since been governed separately. Beijing insists the island be reunified with China, by force if necessary.

Missiles pointed at Taiwan. I do believe China is a nuclear power too. And this from the Taipei Times gives a hint how the U.S. is approaching it.

A leading Democratic supporter of Taiwan in Congress Thursday blamed intense opposition by the Bush administration for scuttling any chance of a congressional resolution endorsing President Chen Shui-bian’s planned election day referendum. But the congressman endorsed a suggestion that Congress pursue an alternative method to publicize congressional support through unofficial means.

An alternative such as a public letter, petition or advertisement in major US newspapers would garner support from a majority of members of Congress, despite the administration’s objections, said Florida Representative Peter Deutsch.

Such a public display of support for the referendum would be signed by a number in the “high 300s” of members of Congress, he said during an appearance at a seminar sponsored by the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

…President Bush has “weighed in extraordinarily heavily to prevent the resolution from being adopted,” Deutsch said.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, normally Congress’ most powerful and ardent supporter of Taiwan, has decided against allowing a pro-referendum congressional resolution in deference to Bush’s opposition, Deutsch said.

Apparently the Bush administration is in favor of the one China policy even if it is accomplished by the use of missiles? There is money in China, lots of it and they want that money. Unfortunate for the freedom of the people of Taiwan.

And then there’s the Haiti mess.

Psycho Cat is up to nine pounds now, and can feel the babies/kittens move when touching her fat preggy belly. Pic on left was taken 1/31. one on right today.

Bryan brings us this fun time waster, a list of things about him. To continue the meme, in bold are the things we have in common. Not bold, the things unique to me. It’s rather long so… (more…)

My screen went all pale, I could still type but when I pointed the mouse, there was a gray square where it was. Closing the iBook and reopening it, the color came back but totally freaked me out.

This not long after rebooting cause my sound disappeared. Mind you, this is a new iBook that is acting wacky.

Got this from Whimsical Chaos a new quiz. Cute too, like my choice. Course, like rubbing salt in a wound, all the guys I meet are gay. No help at all.

Kyan: Grooming Guru

Which Member from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is your type?
brought to you by Quizilla

Was reading about the flak over a school field trip to a mosque when I came across this

As WND reported in July 2002, a suit was filed against the Byron Union School District in California to stop the use of “Islam simulation” materials and methods in class.

Last December, a federal judge dismissed the suit, ruling California public schools can require seventh-grade students to pretend they’re Muslims, wear Islamic garb, memorize verses from the Quran, pray to Allah and even to play “jihad games.”

I must have missed the original, er wasn’t blogging on it either way back then. I do find it unnerving that in a day when Jesus is banned from Christmas, the Bible can’t be brought to school, that students can be indoctrinated into Islam under the guise of teaching comparative religion. What does this teach out kids when they can’t pray to God yet are forced to pray to Allah?

One has to wonder too what the sex education courses are like. Do they simulate that? Practice putting on condoms? Play… no I’m not going there. Point is, no one should be forced to submit to the religious practices of any religion under the guise of education.

What’s next? Simulated flight training? Bomb making? Creative use of box cutters? I know, they can have the kids strap on a bomb, get on a bus and simulate being a Palestinian suicide bomber. That would really go over with a bang. Idiots.

Some more reading brought further enlightenment, specifically with regard to role play.

In the Islam section, our children are asked to assume they are Muslim soldiers, being on a Mecca pilgrimage (act of worship), to research and build Mosques. Many California schools have asked children to get on their hands and knees and repeat words of prayer to Allah. I was anxious to see what the Jewish and Christian sections told children to imagine. 

In the Jewish section, the ONLY imagination practice I could find was to imagine they are with the Jews when they were conquered and forced to live away from their homeland. (pg 314)

In the Christian section, the ONLY imagination practice was to imagine being in the buried catacombs of the dead Christians. (pg 469) 

What religion would rejoice if these imagination exercises came true?  Jews conquered and forced from their homeland and Christians in tombs of dead Christians?

Gee, I know the answer to that - Islam. And they criticize Mel. Think people need to be more worried about what’s being taught in schools. Why worry about whether militant Islam is taught in mosques when we’re raising a nation of Jihadis in our schools?

To answer your question, Kathy, as to why Charles is in such a snit over the Saudis, The Guardian explains why this is news. It’s not that the Saudis have been the paragons of tolerance we’ve all known but that, now, they are encouraging tourism.

Saudi Arabia, normally a byword for stern and puritanical sobriety, is preparing to show the world its jollier side by issuing visas to tourists. At present they are issued only for employment, pilgrimages and other approved visits, and can be difficult to obtain.

Tourist visas will be introduced within a few weeks, officials quoted by the daily Arab News in Jeddah said.

The supreme commission for tourism’s website lists those who will not be allowed in: Jews; people with Israeli stamps in their passport; “those who don’t abide by the Saudi traditions concerning appearance and behaviour”, and “those under the influence of alcohol”.

Tourists in Saudi Arabia are new. Still, if one isn’t Muslim, can’t go to Mecca. And almost as vexing, this from WND pertaining to women.

The website also says if a woman arrives in the country alone, “the sponsor or her husband must receive her at the airport.”

“Every woman must have confirmed accommodation for the duration of her stay in the Kingdom,” the rules say.

Also, “A woman is not allowed to drive a car and can therefore only travel by car if she is accompanied by her husband, a male relative or a driver.”

And musn’t forget, dressing appropriately, meaning the hijab for the ladies as well as being completely covered. Course, any American actually visiting Saudi Arabia is taking their life in their hands.

Guardian link thanks to Andy. I can see him visiting too… not.

Allah had this interesting article linked. And since it’s not Scrappleface, maybe there’s some truth to it, maybe not. To wit:

NEW YORK: Pop sensation Britney Spears has pledged to remain celibate as she renews her relationship with Christianity.

After all the other gimmicks, who’s going to buy this one?

According to British magazine Star, the singer has given up sex after a string of disastrous relationships and dates with Justin Timberlake, Colin Farrell, Fred Durst and her choreographer Columbus Short.

Guessing getting naked, down and dirty, didn’t do anything for her CD sales.

“She has now decided to stay celibate for a while and to start going to church regularly. She is also seeing two counsellors. She knows she had to do this to get her life back in order”, the friend stated.

So who’s going to hold the stopwatch? Must check out the rest of Allah’s links which usually prove interesting.

I’ve seen it in Yahoo Clubs and Groups, but I’m not sure I’ve seen such an outpouring of love and support as I’ve seen in the blogosphere, maybe we should call it the sobosphere. Thanks to Lair, their tip jar is a little fuller. Thanks to a lot of support, Dean (not thumb powered Howard although he needs money too) will make it. People, when you come right down to it, can be pretty decent, yeah, even Lair (sorry to spoil his rep).

Got this from Kevin, welcome to the world of double standards. Quoting OutSmart:

A governor criminalizes gay sex, yet gay leaders say nothing. An elected official backs antigay marriage legislation, yet a gay group says he’s blameless. Another governor vetoes legislation giving gay employees the right to take time off from work to care for a sick lover, yet the state’s gay lobbying organization yawns.

Welcome, my friends, to the world of the Democratic double standard.

Under it, a Republican who even hints at doing something that might adversely affect a gay person somewhere is instantly denounced as a homophobic hate-monger. When a Democrat does much the same thing? Well, nobody’s perfect.

Consider former Texas Governor Ann Richards. To the gay political establishment in Texas, the colorful Democrat is a saint. Yet despite Richards’ ability to wow gay audiences at black-tie dinners with her winning smile and folksy accent, her legislative legacy is darkly antigay. It’s her signature you’ll find on the state’s antigay sodomy law, after all, one of only a handful in the entire country that specifically targets gay sex. Two men in Houston were recently prosecuted for violating Richards’ law in a private home. (Note: a state appeals court has held the law unconstitutional.)

If George W. Bush had signed such a hideous law, gay activists would have blockaded every road between the Alamo and the Astrodome in protest. Yet the excuse factory rolls into production for Richards. Despite the fact that she did nothing to lobby the Legislature to defeat it, gay advocates explain she was forced to sign the law because it was part of a larger overhaul of the criminal code. Despite the fact that Democrats controlled both houses of the Texas Legislature at the time, they complain it was really the Republicans’ fault.

There are many more examples (read the whole thing), point being Republicans get blamed irregardless, Democrats get a free pass. Why? Guess if one wants to oppose gay marriage, they should be a Democrat. Double standard if you ask me. And check out Kevin’s take. He has some other really good quotes. Insults Unpunished has lots more goodies plus a veritable linkfest worth reading.

Rush spoke in behalf of Howard Stern. That’s right, right wingbat Rush Limbaugh spoke up in behalf of the shock jock who everyone knows is offensive. Quoting WND

Responding to Clear Channel Radio’s decision to drop the Howard Stern Show from its stations, talk-radio superstar Rush Limbaugh warned today of growing federal government intervention in broadcasting content.

“I’ve never heard Howard Stern, but when the federal government gets involved in this, I get a little frightened,” Limbaugh said on his program, according to the Drudge Report.

Clear Channel isn’t the government. And anyone who has listened to Howard Stern knows he offends, really offends. He excels at it.

Limbaugh asked: “If we are going to sit by and let the federal government .. get involved in this, if the government is going to ‘censor’ what they think is decent and indecent … what happens if a whole bunch of John Kerry, John Edwards, Bill Clinton, Terry McAulliffe types end up running this country someday again and decide that conservative opinion is indecent, decide that that causes violence?”

Clear Channel isn’t the government. When you are paid to say something, those holding the money get to decide what you are allowed to say.

“I am in the free speech business, my friends. I couldn’t survive without it,” he said. “It’s one thing for a company to determine if they are going to be party to it. It’s another thing for the government to do it.

“The government doesn’t regulate movies, and you find more smut in movies than you’ll ever find in radio today. The government doesn’t regulate cable TV; the government doesn’t regulate video cassettes. ? When we sit back and say, ‘OK, you the federal government, you can sit in judgment over who can say what,’ then at some point you can rest assured that your day is coming too, when the federal government tells you what you can and can’t say.”

Clear Channel isn’t the government. If they don’t want to pay the fines cause someone who is paid to say something says something offensive, they will drop the show, plain and simple. And Howard Stern is offensive. Quoting Joseph Farah:

Howard Stern is a filthy, profane, vulgar, obscene disgusting pig.

…In good conscience, I can’t even describe adequately what Stern said on his program that got him suspended. All I will say is it had to to with the “n” word, anal sex, the size of certain parts of the male anatomy, etc. You get the idea - the usual Howard Stern, over-the-top, shock-jock antics.

…Let me make something very clear: Howard Stern was pulled from Clear Channel stations and warned to clean up his act by one broadcasting company. He wasn’t kicked off radio by the Federal Communications Commission.

One company folks, not the government. Geesh, it’s no different from journalists who blog. They are beholden to their employer and can’t blog what they like. This is nothing new, just after the boobie incident, companies are getting more cautious.

Now, repeat this and remember - Clear Channel isn’t the government.

Blogrolling has been sold to Tucows. I got the email a few minutes ago. For more, check Jason’s announcement.

I’ll still use WordPress.

Wednesday did 15 min/5.5 miles on the bike and added the 4 min on the UBE. Today, I did 20min/7.2 miles on the bike and 5 min on the UBE, more exercises too. When I asked on one how many I was supposed to do, they said 10, oops I did 3 sets of 10. Therapy is progressing. One of my goals was to make 20 min on the bike, ok, got there rather quickly.

One person, another patient, even knew I was listening to music. Finally, someone intelligent. She wanted music too, place doesn’t provide any. The iPod sure makes therapy bearable. Massage is nice too but not quite as nice as the one hour ones I get from my massage therapist.

Now to work on other stuff, like making this blog interesting cause looking at the stats, I must be a bloody bore or Dreamhost had a meltdown - 25 visits Monday when their cron job failed. Didn’t get any results til today when they fixed it. Still, not up to snuff.

This is incomprehensible, here a guy writes a rethorical letter clearly intended to show that the city of San Francisco is engaging in unlawful activity, challenging their hypocrisy, and they send the cops after him. Obviously, they didn’t get it. Guess San Francisco’s Mayor and police are selective about which laws they enforce. Got the link from Eric. The rest of Eric’s post is a must read too. The writer of the piece was sent a death threat and when he traced it and responded, the person that made the threat sicced the FBI on him.

There’s more too, stuff that gets into homosexuality. Some of the quotes floor me as the gay guys I know have been the nicest, kindest men I’ve ever known. All has to do with freedom and privacy, something that has come under fire especially the freedom of speech. Think about it. I’ll leave that for another stern post.

Thanks to GDay Mate, we can learn a little geography, California style.

Warning: DRINK ALERT!

I had to check out this article of Glenn’s on where the jobs are. Specifically, he mentions massage therapists. A quote:

When I was practicing law in Washington back in the 1980s, I developed all the usual computer problems: Numbness and shooting pains in my wrists and hands, backache, neckache, headache, etc. My health plan then was the George Washington University HMO. That meant I got great care at a fancy teaching hospital, which did me no good at all. I was examined by neurologists, immunologists, occupational medicine specialists, and orthopedists. I had nerve conduction studies and electromyelograms. I was given powerful NSAIDs that upset my stomach but provided little relief. I was tested for lupus, myasthenia gravis, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Then I went to a massage therapist, who dug her thumb into my back just inside a shoulderblade and asked “does this trigger your symptoms?” It did. She prescribed some stretches and exercises, and I got much better.

I can attest to the value of massage therapists as the massages I got was about the only thing that helped my pain prior to surgery. Massage isn’t an easy, piece of cake job either, it’s hard work. Pays well too, my kid will make more than I do when she’s done. And yes, service jobs can’t be exported overseas, very nice.

Now, excuse me while I read this linked article about Glenn’s messy house. Hey, I can relate.

Interesting gee I didn’t know that news, from Boi from Troy, apparently California has issued marriage licences to gays before. Back in the seventies, quite some time ago, wonder whether this will impact the debate on gay marriage? Quoting Sacbee:

When the Rev. Freda Smith took over the Sacramento congregation in 1972, she took out confidential licenses for at least a dozen gay couples in the 1970s - again, without challenge. But she also knew that California law was invitingly ambiguous, having been changed in the early 1970s to read that marriage was a civil contract between “two persons,” with no reference to gender.

This was something California politicians would eventually pounce on, passing a law in 1977 that effectively banned gay marriages by closing this loophole for gay couples. County clerks reportedly asked for clarification, and Assemblyman Bruce Nestande, R-Orange, was happy to oblige.

Wonder how many took advantage of the loophole? Wonder if any will come forward? Interesting, and the marriages continue, Rosie is getting married today. Despite religious differences, it is hard not to be touched by people (excepting her) wanting to seal their love. Except for Lair who has a challenge, find something more vile and hateful than what Rosie said about Bush.

Zygote has a few observations too about Rosie. Now excuse me, I have a keyboard to clean.

Kelley has some worthwhile comments here regarding said movie. Note, she hasn’t seen it. I have. I can only state it was like being transported back in time, actually watching Christ suffer, being totally unable to do anything to stop it, to relieve his suffering, to comfort him, to say enough, He’s had enough, no more. Totally helpless and then to realize I contributed to it. Every sin I commit, he suffered for that I wouldn’t have to. And that’s the point.

The film will be a success if but one person looks inward, examines their own beliefs, and makes a change to live a more loving, Christlike life despite it taking in $23.6 million on opening day. Hmmm may be a success financially too.

The asteroid, better luck next time.

Tackling extremists and their bigoted stance against gay marriage, this quote from Kate.

Isn’t it interesting that as America as a nation is at war with Muslim extremists, the nation is internally at war over Christian extremism at the same time?

So now Christians that don’t support gay marriage are extremists. Forgive my ignorance for being so misinformed, but I had thought the three major monotheistic beliefs, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have held that marriage was between man and women, maybe not just one woman (Old Testament and Islam practicing polygamy), but never man and man or woman and woman. Please enlighten me how I was wrong. And quote the Torah, Bible, and Koran while doing so. If, as you say, Christians who believe marriage is only between man and woman are extremist, then all Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are by definition extremist as it is central to the tenants of all three faiths. Quoting further:

This election is about extremism, plain and simple. And, come to think of it, if President Bush wants to condemn Muslim extremists while torturing America’s constitution into line with the values of their Christian counterparts, maybe he’s not the man of integrity I believed him to be after all.

This country was founded on Judeo Christian values, are we now to turn our back on said values and instead declare war on them? Rather than being a war on Christian extremism, it would be more proper to say it is a war on all three of these monotheistic beliefs in their totality. So be it.

If this is a war against religious extremists, this should prove an interesting election indeed. The outcome could be very French indeed. Is it troubling to anyone that freedom to worship may become a thing of the past and that our government may indeed choose freedom from religion - totally, absolutely, eradicated from our society in any form - all in the name of fairness, equality, decency, whatever word you want to use to paint the religious as lacking, intolerant, and extremist. Is this where we want to head? Is religion such a threat to the secularists? Apparently yes. In a world where everything goes and people are tolerant of everything, said tolerance does not and can not include belief in God. For belief in God presupposes values, morals, laws we are to follow and the concept that we could be doing something wrong by violating His laws.

Matt Margolis has an excellent post covering a speech Bush made Monday. Read it. There are a few things I feel need to be pointed out.

Great events will turn on this election. The man who sits in the Oval Office will set the course of the war on terror, and the direction of our economy. The security and prosperity of America are at stake. Our course is clear.

And the fate of the world hangs in the balance, democracy, freedom, or terrorism.

We also know that the greatest strength of this country lies in the hearts and souls of our citizens. We’re strong because of the values we try to live by — courage and compassion, reverence and integrity. We’re strong because of the institutions that help to give us direction and purpose — families, and schools, and religious congregations. These values and institutions are fundamental to our lives, and they deserve the respect of our government.

…And we stand for a culture of responsibility in America. We’re changing the culture of America from one that said, “if it feels good, do it,” and “if you’ve got a problem, blame someone else,” to a culture in which each of us understands we’re responsible for the decisions we make. If you’re fortunate enough to be a mother or a father, you’re responsible for loving your child with all your heart. If you’re concerned about the quality of the education in your community in which you live, you’re responsible for doing something about it. If you’re a CEO in America, you’re responsible for telling the truth to your shareholders and your employees. And in this new responsibility society, each of us is responsible for loving our neighbor just like we’d like to be loved ourselves.

Bout time too, it needed to be said and he said it. That is the culture I want to live in, free, responsible. We must all seriously consider the direction we want this country to move in and if freedom and individual responsibility matter, consider volunteering and/or donating to the Bush campaign.

Having just come back from seeing it, a brief review, yes it was bloody, violent, extremely moving, and I imagine pretty close to what actually happened as it faithfully followed the Gospels, although I doubt it could convey the depth of Jesus suffering for us. And I need to correct Aaron as he hadn’t. Big Spoiler… (more…)

Ok, this one could be excused cause she was an aide, but still, asking, “Is that a hearing aid?” was a bit dumb. Yeah, crank up the volume and I hear Shania real good. So, the usual explanation, showing her the iPod where if she would just read the menu, it would be obvious I was listening to music.

Chalk up to three thinking it was a TENS unit, one a hearing aid. You’d think no one knew what an iPod was.

I did look at the minis on the way home. Cute, little, too little thou to back up an iBook.