Saturday, April 14th, 2007

One hundred forty-two years ago tonight, Abraham Lincoln was shot. He died the next morning. 
Ninety-five years ago tonight, the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. It sank the next morning.

Fascinating Factoid: Each of the last three elected governors of New Jersey has broken a leg while in office!

"Senator McCain’s insistence that things are getting better, that we are making progress...suggests that he’s more willing to abandon his grip on reality than to give up on this war. That's more "strait jacket" thinking than “straight talk,” if you ask me."
Eric B. Lipps

Friday, April 13th, 2007

Get a reputation for being an early riser, and you can sleep till noon.
Get a reputation for being a liar, and you won't be believed even when you tell the truth. 
But a good reputation is still easier to lose than a bad one and "who has not, at some time or other, sacrificed himself in order to save his?"

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

Today is yesterday’s Pupil.
Creditors have better memories than debtors.
He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.
To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends.
He that does what he should not shall feel what he would not.
If a man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles.
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
'Tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.
The busy man has few idle visitors; to the boiling pot the flies come not.
When knaves betray each other, one can scarce be blamed, nor the other pitied.
Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty.

There is no kind of dishonesty into which good people more easily fall than that of defrauding the government.
Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007

This Don Imus story is boring! Anyone who has ever listened to Imus knows very well what a jerk he is...and that it's never been an act! He has made a career out of simply being who he is! He hires a stable of lickspittles to laugh at his 'humor' and he's funny about as often (and for about the same reason) as a stopped clock displays the right time. But so what?
I used to listen to him (or to Howard Stern) years ago on my way to work. Sometimes he'd have an interesting guest but I stopped listening to him altogether after he repeatedly hosted the likes of  Joe Lieberman and Orrin Hatch, and after he revealed himself to be sympathetic to the election of Bush over Gore. So I came to see Imus as a small-minded, self-important suck-up (as in, the way he used to suck up to JFK, Jr., who was very boring) ...but that's fine. We, most of us, have to make a living and Don Imus (like Howard Stern) found a lucrative niche in playing to the cheap seats! It's not his fault that so many people actually think he has something to say! But I don't think he's 'racist' and the point that many people have made about the demeaning-to-women lyrics by popular black rappers is a good point.
But even so, and for sure, Imus should have been more savvy than to suppose that he, a white guy, could (with impunity) use an adjective like 'nappy' to modify a slang (or, if you prefer, Ebonic) plural noun like 'hos'. His fate was sealed when one of his resident bootlickers actually referred to the Rutgers Team as 'jigaboos'! That was most unwise and even a bit cruel!
But I don't find Imus himself to be nearly so offensive as the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage. And let's give Don Imus his due: he has a beautiful speaking voice and I'll wager that he would be among the first to acknowledge that he's simply a very successful (and lucky) entertainer!
I have digressed. The reason I started this rant is that Imus' unwise comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team have unleashed a torrent of self-righteous, sanctimonious (but most of all boring) comments from athletes. Athletes are boring and it's got nothing to do with ethnicity. Lance Armstrong is boring. Pete Sampras is boring. Cal Ripken is boring. And C. Vivian Stringer is boring.

Tuesday, April 10th, 2007

When you think 'Woody Allen', you think comedy and satire. But Match Point, which he wrote and directed, is neither (comedy nor satire). It is a tense and somber film featuring four libidinous, good-looking twenty-somethings in contemporary London. The title derives from Chris, a (near-champion-but-fed-up-with-the-Tour and yearning-to-retire-and-teach) tennis pro who falls in with Tom & Chloe, the brother & sister progeny of a wealthy businessman and his liquor-loving leisure-bound wife. 
Chloe is, at once, gaga for Chris. He dutifully responds and soon they are mixing it up. Her parents heartily approve of the union and Chris is soon offered a dream job with a real-life salary and lifestyle to match if only he will marry Chloe and 'work' to sire an heir to the family fortune. But life, and this movie's plot, are not so simple.
See...brother Tom is engaged to Nola (artfully portrayed by Scarlett Johanssen): a raspy-voiced, chain smoking, wine-guzzling, man-eating American blonde nymphet who dreams of an acting career. Tom's parents heartily disapprove of their son's choice...for Nola is from the 'other side' of society, without a pot in which to wee-wee and without a drain by which to rinse it down.
Tom is torn between his animal attraction for Nola and his desire to please his parents.
Chris, on the other hand, is torn between his animal attraction to Nola and his material greed. And, I mean, it's not like he doesn't think Chloe is 'OK'. He describes her as 'sweet', but what he feels for Nola causes him to 'act out' quite recklessly. At first Nola resists his bold and inappropriate advances, but soon she withers under her own insecurities and the relentless barbs of her unfriendly mother-in-law-to-be. Nail-biting doth commence.

This is an excellent film! There is no (graphic) violence. The director patiently teases the story along to a surprising conclusion with an unsettlingly scratchy selection of arias from Verdi's La Traviata ("The Woman Who Strayed").

Monday, April 9th, 2007

"We got rid of a tyrant and tyranny. But we were surprised that after one thief had left, another 40 replaced him. Now, we regret that Saddam Hussein is gone, no matter how much we hated him."
Khadim al-Jubouri

Easter Sunday, April 8th, 2007                       KC Kat is Eight Years Old!

"Take care not to casually discuss matters that are of great importance to you. Your affairs will become drained of preciousness. This is especially dangerous when you are in the early stages of an undertaking. Other people may take it upon themselves to interpret, judge, and twist what matters most to you. Practice self-containment so that your enthusiasm won't be frittered away."
Epictetus, (55-135)

Holy Saturday, April 7th, 2007

Yeah!

What are we waiting for?

A miracle?

Good Friday, April 6th, 2007

“I’m not an alcoholic. I can quit. I just love the taste of it.”
 Joseph Frank Ross

Having heard lotsa hype and having seen lotsa segments and previews, I finally decided to rent and watch the 'Best Picture' Oscar winner, 'The Departed'. At about two and a half hours, it feels like a long movie. There is no doubt but that it is beautifully made and by someone, Martin Scorsese, who knows how to make a movie. But it is unremittingly (and often gratuitously) violent. The dialogue is laden (and often leaden) with obscenities. The plot, for me at least, was at first difficult to follow although I did eventually gather that it is a Cops vs. the Mob story with both the Cops and the Mob having to deal with spies ('moles') within their ranks. And dunno if it's just me, but I had a tough time distinguishing (visually...facially) Leonardo DiCaprio from Matt Damon from Mark Wahlberg! I think this muddle has at least a little to do with the fact that all three actors are about the same age and each is affecting a Boston accent. [To be fair, both Damon and Wahlberg are actually from Massachusetts and I'm not, so whadoo I know?] Jack Nicholson plays the bad-est of the bad guys and he does not disappoint. 
I think the movie, while mildly entertaining, is weak. It might have meant more had it not been stuffed with well-known actors, including Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin. There are no substantive plot twists, no memorable lines, only one lead actress and whatever suspense there might have been was effectively muted by the violence that was offered up within the film's first twenty minutes! 

Holy Thursday, April 5th, 2007                 Happy Birthday, Vincent!        Happy Birthday, Alice!

When a couple ends a relationship, it's rarely true that both parties are equally desirous of the separation. But it's also rarely true that one party simply refuses to accept the split.
The MSM focuses on the exceptional. For example, take this morning's scare headlines from ABC News. It's enough to make you wanna stay single!

Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment: 
Chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

The pleasure of love lasts but a moment:
The pain of love lasts throughout life.

Jean Pierre Claris de Florian (1755-1794)

Spy Wednesday, April 4th, 2007    It's Four Four!

There is a rumor making the rounds that the Untied States will attack Iran this (Good) Friday. Let's hope that it is, simply, a rumor. 

Remember when you used to get a free crappy meal and a free dumb movie with your airline ticket? No more, of course! And now, there's a rumor that, except for First Class travelers: beginning June 1st, on all flights lasting one hour or more, airborne restrooms will be 'Pay-As-You-Go'. That's right! To empty your bladder or large bowel in flight, you'll need to purchase a token (at a dollar a crack) from the stewardess or steward (or is it 'Hostess'...or 'Host'?). This token will permit you to occupy the facility for up to eight minutes, after which a buzzer will sound to alert you that, within 25 seconds (a 'grace period'), the door will open and you will be ejected into the aisle to make way for the next token-bearer. As a courtesy to passengers with special needs, some airlines, including United, will be offering so-called 'Premium Tokens', at a cost of two dollars apiece. These will entitle the bearer to occupy the restroom for up to twenty minutes per sitting with a one minute grace period following the sounding of the buzzer. 

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007

"...the solution to Iraq, an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself, is more than a military mission -- precisely the reason why I sent more troops into Baghdad."

Monday, April 2nd, 2007

No Wonder Bush Is President

"Ninety-one percent of American adults say they believe in God. Forty-eight percent of the public rejects the theory of evolution. Thirty-four percent of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact. Seventy-three percent of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. Thirty-nine percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and forty-one percent of Catholics agree with that view." Newsweek

Sunday, April 1st, 2007                     There is NO fool like an April Fool!

"It happens once every few months. Like a periodic visit by an especially annoying relative from overseas, Condoleezza Rice was here again. The same declarations, the same texts devoid of content, the same sycophancy, the same official aircraft heading back to where it came from."
Gordon Levy, Israeli Columnist

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