Author: Adam (Page 136 of 224)

Well, our pal William Bennett is at it again, preaching about “moral clarity” in this new war on terror. But I found the questions asked in an interview of him on the National Review web site even more repulsive than his responses:

Q: What is it that needs to be drilled into Americans so they can be behind this war effort for the long-term? Is there some kind of mantra we can teach schoolchildren?

This is scary stuff, especially because there’s such a market for it these days. As they said, after all, Mussolini made the trains run on time.

I won’t bother you with my usual rant against Daylight Saving Time this year. I’ll just ask: is there any truly good reason to continue this arcane practice? I mean, a serious, societal reason that justifies this strange group hypnosis? If there is, I want to hear it.

The limits of free speech.

Went to see “The Royal Tenenbaums” at the cheap theater last week with my friend Mike. This was my third viewing of the movie – his first. He loved it, which pleased me. I sat there, drinking in every frame, and being amazed that this film didn’t even get nominated for Best Picture. I guess I should just give up the idea that the Academy would ever recognize a film like this. The script, art direction, performances, everything is packed with good stuff, and it gets richer with repeated viewings. I guess if you didn’t like “Rushmore” (unlikely if you’re reading this page), you won’t like “Tenenbaums,” either. But for the rest of us, it’s a wonderful treat. I’m even listening to the soundtrack as I write this.

I can’t remember wanting a DVD release this badly – especially considering how great the “Rushmore” DVD materials were. Highly, highly recommended.

Learning religious conundrums with The Simpsons:

“Could Jesus microwave a burrito that would be too hot for even Him to eat?”
-Homer, quizzing the pious Ned Flanders

Jodie Foster said on an interview on the TechTV show The Screen Savers last week that “when you have a really full life, you don’t have time for stuff like [surfing the web].”

I hope someday to have the rich, full life Jodie spoke so confidently about. No, just make that rich.

Watched a documentary on Noam Chomsky called “Manufacturing Consent” this afternoon. Chomsky was a well-known linguist before he decided to take on an additional career as a social provocateur starting in the 60s. While I may not agree with all of his ideas, I do agree with his premise that issues and debate over those issues are incredibly narrow in American society. Look at what happened post-9/11. If you were at all critical of anything the government or the administration were doing, you were anti-American. The “acceptable” points of debate were (and still are) few.

Having been one of the media, in an admittedly small way, I have a hard time believing Chomsky’s idea that the mainstream media have some sort of master plan to keep the masses down. But I do think that people need to look at media, and all things, much more critically.

“America is advanced citizenship. You have to want it bad.”
-Michael Douglas, The American President

Above all, I think voices like Chomsky’s should be celebrated, even if we vehemently disagree with them. That’s what a democracy means.

My friend Becky sent along to me an urban legend chain e-mail she received recently. She does it because she knows I’m fascinated with them. This one was about women who died after inhaling tampered perfume samples they received in the mail. Of course, the e-mail (which had been forwarded so many times I had to open about six levels of attachments in order to read it) claimed that the government was hushing this up for fear of creating a panic.

Yeah, they’ve really been reassuring us up to now.

Again of course, the e-mail ended with a plea to “send this to all your friends and family members.” It also had someone’s official-sounding name and title below it, just for that added touch of authenticity. (It’s fun to e-mail and call these people, if only to hear the weary-voiced “if you’re calling about the e-mail….” phone message.) As you can tell, I have absolutely no sympathy for people whose names get attached to these e-mails, even if it’s just because their e-mail signature line got attached to it when they sent it on.

My question is, just how stupid are people who forward these things? Do they really believe this crap, or are they just interested in plugging up as many e-mail boxes as possible? When the “KFC is raising headless legless chicken blobs” e-mail went around a year or so ago, people actually argued with me, saying it was true.

Lack of common sense has reached epic proportions in America. What can we do to fix this problem?

Tonight on West Wing, Donna Moss tries to get the President to sign a proclamation honoring her favorite teacher, who was retiring after 40 years. I got a little bit emotional when Donna called her teacher and said, “I’m standing in the Oval Office with the President, and it’s because of you.”

The plotline made me think of Pat Lehman. I transferred out of Spanish class into her Linguistics class (they taught linguistics at West High – amazing), and she changed my life. She got me interested in journalism. She taught me a love of words that continues to this day. She encouraged me to apply to Northwestern, rather than UW-Madison, where most of my friends were going. She tried to teach me not to take everything so seriously – no matter how much I resisted, since in high school I was a grumpy old man before my time. She treated her students like adults, with opinions and ideas that mattered. She had a humor and an intelligence that changed the way I look at the world.

And people say teachers are overpaid.

Hats off to Doyce for having my current favorite weblog tagline:

Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?

I repeat it here rather than just let you experience it yourself because he has a randomly-rotating tagline in his page title, so you probably won’t see it when you hit the site.

What’s your favorite weblog tagline?