Meanwhile, back at the ranch
The House version of the upcoming federal budget includes $28 billion in cuts to…wait for it…veterans’ benefits.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you can’t make this stuff up.
Month: April 2003 (Page 7 of 7)
“I Can’t Believe I Just Read That” Mainstream Media Award of the Week
“He’s being hard on himself; he gave up sweets just before the war began.”
–USA Today notes the President’s wartime mood, apparently suffering from blood sugar imbalance
New Scary Daddy Made Old Scary Daddy Go Away
Brilliant common sense from the estimable John Kusch. Common sense is a casualty in this war.
“It really helps a lot when you eat right before bed; a heavy, heavy, cheesy, creamy meal. Lots of Krispy Kreme donuts came in very handy.”
-Charlize Theron on her method acting method
So have you heard that Charlize is gettin’ uglified in order to play serial killer Aileen Wuornos? I guess I understand actors’ impulse to stretch and do new things. But isn’t she just taking a job away from some actress who’s already unattractive? Give someone else a chance, Charlize.
View from the Top
Went to this movie in a similar spirit to “The Core”: I just wanted something light and entertaining to distract me. (Mission accomplished.) Seeing Christina Applegate say “ASS-es the window” on the previews made me laugh, and that was enough for me to buy a ticket.
What I liked about it was that the humor wasn’t the “punchline-pause-badabump” sort of thing, but more a continuing sense of “this is silly and stupid, and thus funny.” Low-key is a refreshing change for a comedy these days. Plus, there seemed to be some nice chemistry between Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Ruffalo as her law student boyfriend, and chemistry is something even some high-powered romantic comedies can’t muster up.
If anything, the movie was just a little too nice. It could have benefited from more of an edge, and certainly from more screen time for Kelly Preston (Mrs. John Travolta) as Paltrow’s blowsy fellow flight attendant. She had a great edge that could have pushed this movie above the “pleasant distraction” category.
Stock in words mean things is now available on Blogshares for the bargain price of 5 cents a share.
It is not my function as a citizen in a participatory democracy to question our leaders.
After 9/11, I worried a little what The Onion would do with the situation. I think most people agreed that they ended up doing some of their most brilliant work as a result. Now that the Iraq stuff is coming out, I’m thankful again that they’re out there.
“America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, ‘You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center-stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.’ You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.”
-Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas), “The American President”
“We must become the change we want to see in the world.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
Watching and thinking about and even writing about this war has been like eating poison. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get past the polarization and the yelling and the name-calling. Finally I decided what I wanted to do was focus on how we could change our society to model the principles we say we love so much – to “become the change.” Here are my initial ideas:
1. Mount a massive get-out-the-vote campaign between now and next fall. Shouldn’t we put as much effort into spreading democracy at home as we do abroad? Voter turnout is pathetic in the U.S. compared to other industrialized countries. Every one of us has a stake in this – let’s act like it. To paraphrase my friend Mr. Kusch, if you don’t vote, you get the government you deserve.
2. Get serious about human rights around the globe. Why not, alongside Tom Ridge’s terror alerts, have human rights alerts? There are a lot of places in the world where people face abuses equal to or worse than the Iraqis. If we truly care about them, we should be doing everything politically and socially possible for a superpower to help those people.
3. Take tough steps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Don’t we agree with the idea of making sacrifices during wartime for the greater good? Shouldn’t we be willing to cut back on our energy use across the board? I’ve written about this before and got royally flamed for it. But I still think this is a crucial way we can turn this crisis into something positive.
Aren’t these things that every American, no matter what political persuasion, can get behind? I’m going to be writing more about the three principles above in the coming months. No, I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know how to magically make all this stuff come true. But I think we need to come up with some common ground pretty quick, or we’re going to tear ourselves apart in the name of “freedom” and “democracy.” I love this country, and I don’t want to see that happen.