Web Log Archive, May 27th through June 9th, 2007

Saturday, June 9th, 2007                    Happy Birthday, Tom!

"America’s defeat in Iraq occurred the moment we decided on a unilateral invasion based on false information.
There is no 'right way' to do the wrong thing! We’re in a hole, and we have to stop digging. Trying to figure out how we can 'win' will produce nothing but blank stares and a deeper hole."
John Baycich

"Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue."
  François La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)

Friday, June 8th, 2007

"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection."
From the Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, April 16th, 1963

The historic letter is addressed to a group of eight fellow black clergyman in Alabama, who were openly critical of his activism.
"While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities 'unwise and untimely'. Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk...I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms."

The initial draft of the letter was composed on open spaces of newspaper because its author was, at first, not permitted to have a tablet of paper on which to write.
"Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?"

The letter, which takes about twenty minutes to read in its entirety, has many eloquent and moving passages; among them...this one: 
"...when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky...I hope, sirs, you can understand our impatience."

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

Be content to remember that those who can make omelettes properly can do nothing else.

The world is full of double beds
And most delightful maidenheads,
Which being so, there’s no excuse
For sodomy or self-abuse.

When I am dead, I hope it may be said:
'His sins were scarlet, But his books were read'.
Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007              The Sixty-Third Anniversary of the Battle of Normandy

If you accept the Federal government's account of the recent 'terror plot' to 'blow up' JFK International Airport, then maybe we're in more danger than we knew. See, at least one of the four conspirators (designated the 'mastermind'), a Mr. Russell "Mohammed" Defreitas is a virtual indigent, with no more than about $70 to his name. I mean, this guy probably couldn't buy a box of matches (and still eat lunch). So how was he gonna supervise the onsite destruction of millions of gallons of stored jet fuel? OK...maybe he was thinking bad thoughts! According to the FBI's Mark J. Mershon, “the enforcement action we are announcing today was taken to prevent a terrorist plot from maturing into a terrorist act.” But geez! I'd be more worried if one of my acquaintances (some of whom have more than a hundred bucks) was thinking those same bad thoughts! 
And how afraid ought we be of guys (like the four who were gonna attack soldiers at Fort Dix) who would bring a videotape of their 'terrorist practice sessions' to a local Circuit City to have it copied to DVD? “One of the suspects, Serdar Tatar, had delivered pizza on the base and said he knew it like the back of his hand," according to investigative documents. Whew!
It's enough to make you wonder if the FBI doesn't like to work real hard. These last two 'terror plots' represented some low hanging fruit. What they got on this Defreitas character is that he was Google-Earthing  the airport...and flying back and forth to Guyana on somebody else's dime. 
Even New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who at first called the JFK caper a 'wake up call', today said, "There are lots of threats to you in the world. You have a much greater danger of being hit by lightning than being struck by a terrorist! Get a life!"

Tuesday, June 5th, 2007                 The Thirty-Ninth Anniversary of the Shooting of Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles

I just finished watching 'Venus' a recent release on DVD starring the veteran Irish actor, Peter O'Toole. The title gives nothing away. The movie tells the story of the last few weeks in the life of a somewhat-well-known actor.
O'Toole was born in 1932 and, so, was 74 at the time this film was made.
Now I don't watch a lot of flicks. I can go many months without seeing even one and I haven't seen a movie in a theater since 2004 (Fahrenheit 911). But the local video store has a rent-two, get-two-free special from Wednesday through Sunday, so I rented four and proceeded to copy them to VHS so I could watch them (ten minutes at a time) at my leisure.
I did not enjoy this movie. When it wasn't depressing, it was boring. And when it wasn't depressing or boring, it was depressing and boring. Despite O'Toole's innumerable (and insufferable) beatific smiles, I can't imagine that there's anything intrinsically ennobling about being old and infirm while leering at a nubile twenty year-old, played here by Jodi Whittaker with a delicious (if not genuine) Cockney accent. I thought the movie was self-indulgent (on the part of O'Toole...although it can't be doubted that he is a man of considerable talent and grace...his masterful recitation of a Shakespearean sonnet is one of the few uplifting spots in this 95 minute cinematic elegy) and patronizing...straining the patience of the viewer with strident sappiness, served up as 'art'. 
The high point of the movie for me came in its very last scene when (in addition to the relief of its being over) Ms.Whittaker, at last, removed all of her clothing in her 'role' as an artist's model. Yes: 'Venus'!  

Monday, June 4th, 2007                      The 65th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway

"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it."
Robert E. Lee (1807-1870)

Sunday, June 3rd, 2007

About six months ago the 'tabs' (i.e., the tabloid newspapers, like the National Enquirer and The Globe) started running stories that Alfred had gone back on the bottle and that Laura wanted out of the marriage. Oh, I mean, there were follow-up stories about how she was sick of his drunken tirades and how that her mother-in-law (Barbara Butch) had become a Budinski, begging Laura to tough it out at least until January of 2009.
Now...I've never known any of these 'newspapers' to get it wrong (remember where you first learned about Liberace and Rock Hudson?) but now there's proof! And seeing is believing!

Yes Sir. Check it out!  And how about this one!

And this one puts the matter to bed!

Saturday, June 2nd, 2007

"[A lawsuit claiming] discrimination against [people seeking] same-sex partners is comparable to a suit against a Japanese restaurant discriminating against people who like French food.''
Lanny Davis, attorney for eHarmony

Ron Paul is "the only Republican candidate who wants to end U.S. involvement in Iraq and withdraw the U.S. Navy from the waters off the Iranian coast. He wants America to pull out of the United Nations, NATO, the International Criminal Court, and most international trade agreements. He wants to abolish FEMA, end the federal war on drugs, get rid of the Department of Homeland Security, send the U.S. military to guard the Mexican border, stop federal prosecutions of obscenity, eliminate the IRS, end most foreign aid, overturn the Patriot Act, phase out Social Security, revoke public services for illegal immigrants, repeal No Child Left Behind, and reestablish gold and silver as legal tender."

Michael Scherer,  writing in Salon.com

Friday, June 1st, 2007

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
By too much sitting still, the body becomes unhealthy; and soon the mind.
Defeat may be victory in disguise.
Believe me, every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only sad.
Hope has as many lives as a cat or a king.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

PhotoSHop Moment of the day:

My kid:  :-)

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007               Happy Birthday, Ana!

"Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself."  William Shakespeare

John F. Kennedy was born ninety years ago today.

"Though some say that youth rules me, I trust in age to tarry.
God and my right and my duty, from them I shall never vary,
Though some say that youth rules me." Henry VIII  (1491-1547)

"The only really happy folk are married women and single men." H. L. Mencken

Monday, May 28th, 2007

There are three classes of intellect: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others;
 the first is excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.
  There is no way to guard oneself against flattery other than to let men understand that they will not offend you by speaking the truth; but when everyone can tell you the truth, you lose respect.
 If an injury must be done to a man, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
 The majority are influenced by things as they seem rather than by things as they are.
  It is safer to be feared than to be loved. 

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

Sunday, May 27th, 2007

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