True Grit

This fun-filled New Year's weekend will certainly include a trip to ye 'olde moving picture house to partake of Mr. Joel and Mr. Ethan's newest Cinematographe. Speaking of which, today's the anniversary of the first commercial movie screening at the Grand Cafe in Paris (filmed by the brothers Louis and Auguste Lumiere, the screening consisted of a series of short scenes from everyday French life).

David Sedaris' Santaland Diaries (aka, the tale of Crumpet)

David Sedaris' Christmas story--it never gets old...

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/24/132304349/David-Sedaris-Reads-From-Santaland-Diaries

A Pack of Gifts Now

Saskatchewan, shoot I’m still in Saskatchewan…waiting for a mission. For Christmas, they gave me one. And when it was over, I’d never want another…

Santa’s up there surrounded with renegade elves who think he’s a God. And he’s giving away toys for free...We want you to go up there, retrieve his bag of toys, and terminate Santa’s command...with extreme prejudice.

The Ho-ho-horror…

Feeny vs. Keres (12/13/72)

My father, Thomas Michael Feeny, Jr., passed away on November 2, 2010 (May 16, 1935 - November 2, 1010). While going through his effects, I stumbled upon this little gem.  This is the score sheet for a chess match my father played against the great Paul "The Crown Prince of Chess" Keres.  Keres (January 7, 1916 – June 5, 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster who, for nearly thirty years (1936-1965), ranked among the top ten chess players in the world (famous in part for being the greatest player never to have won the World Chess Championship).  In the December 13, 1972 game reflected on this score sheet, Keres playing White, used the Sicilian opening and my Dad played Black. The result? Keres resigned.




The photograph was taken on, I believe, December 13, 1972.  Keres is standing and my father is seated at the back left (glasses, bald, beard and moustache, heavy set, light colored shirt).

 

The Jewish View of Creationism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-adam-jacobs/the-jewish-view-of-creati_b_800257.html

Dylan's Creative Process

Bob Dylan’s (a.k.a., Sergi Petrov’s) creative process never ceases to amaze me:

I was always a singer and maybe no more than that. Sometimes it's not enough to know the meaning of things, sometimes we have to know what things don't mean as well. Like what does it mean to not know what the person you love is capable of? Things fall apart, especially all the neat order of rules and laws. The way we look at the world is the way we really are. See it from a fair garden and everything looks cheerful. Climb to a higher plateau and you'll see plunder and murder. Truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder. I stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago.

(see: http://www.sonyclassics.com/masked/trailer.html).

While I originally believed Dylan was not simply using the title, but also exploring themes invoked in Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel “Things Fall Apart” in the final monologue of his 2003 film “Masked and Anonymous,” (Things fall apart, especially all the neat order of rules and laws—Okonwko’s religion, culture, rules, laws, and traditions fall apart as British missionaries invade his native land); I now believe Dylan’s ideas as well his use of the phrase “Things fall apart” come from William Butler Yeats’ famous 1919 poem “The Second Coming.”

The Second Coming:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

(see: http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html).

Yeats was writing of the chaos gripping post WWI Europe and his poem was the source for the title of Achebe's famous novel.  It is this same chaos that mirrors the Civil War raging throughout Dylan’s film.

Equally impressive, Dylan writes that when we look at the world from "a fair garden…everything looks cheerful. Climb to a higher plateau and you'll see plunder and murder." In the Third Century, C.E., Saint Cyprian, writing to a friend, (Donatus) of being a Christian described his world:

This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide land, you know very well what I would see. Brigands on the highways, pirates on the seas; in the amphitheatres men murdered to please the applauding crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy, which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians…and I am one of them.

(see: http://books.google.com/books?id=wqI3cu3aqUYC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=This+seems+a+cheerful+world,+Donatus&source=bl&ots=CNtMPIdDDk&sig=FnchMs7RAYblYcQmfn7BBZnp1hw&hl=en&ei=Z1V-TJKoEYHGlQe3k53uAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CDcQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=This%20seems%20a%20cheerful%20world%2C%20Donatus&f=false).

Certainly this is where the sentiment of Dylan’s words come from. I’m impressed that Dylan has not only read the writings of a somewhat obscure third century Bishop, but that he appears to empathize, indeed feel what Cyprian was writing about (Cyprian’s vivid description of Christian life in Rome during the third century is an added bonus).

No need to comment on Dylan's use of Plato’s aphorism of how truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder. Suffice to say, Dylan‘s creative process, especially his ability to draw images, thoughts and ideas from a variety of disassociated sources, refashioning them into something solely his own remains (after nearly 50 years) impressive.

Winter Soltice Eclipse

What defines American Exceptionalism? The most interesting debate in the country…

Jesus is coming...look busy!

Mark your calendar for May 21, 2011.  I was going to take the day off but fortunately it falls on a Saturday, so there you go.  Why? Jesus is coming...again.  It's The Second Coming of course!  Or if you’re Jewish or Muslim, will it be the first Act?

I’m not really sure what time He'll show up.  I’ll make a point of not making any plans the entire day.  We were thinking about taking a trip to the Grand Canyon several weeks after that.  Should we nix that whole idea?  Should I put a call-up reminder into Outlook?  What should I wear?  Should we invite Him over for supper?  Would that throw the whole last supper thing out the window?  What would He want for supper?  I think He's partial to Bread and Wine?  What kind of bread?  Unleavened of course, but what about white, brown, wheat, whole grain, rye, sourdough, flatbread?  Hey, is flatbread leavened?  What about sourdough?  What about Wine or would He simply make his own?  Would it be uncool to tell him to BYOW?  So many mundane questions...

While being interviewed for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Allison Warden of the Raleigh-based weCanKNOW.com ministry said:

The Bible teaches that Christ is returning on May 21 and we want to encourage people to go to Scripture and investigate for themselves…God is going to be saving people right up until the last moment.

http://www.ajc.com/lifestyle/billboard-campaign-claims-jesus-771570.html

http://www.wecanknow.com/about.php

I don’t know about all that. What I do know is that if He does show up, I'd like to ask Jesus why He's missed returning 'lo these many hundreds of times He's been prophesied to return over the past 2,000 years?  I also know that if He is coming back, He's going to be seriously pissed at an Arc load of our (living) hypocritical heathen brothers and sisters. My guess is that Fred Phelps and his kin, Terry Jones and his clan, Sarah Palin and company, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Roger Ailes, Sharon Angle, every “Conservative,” all Bankers and Insurance Executives, Lobbysts, most Republicans (without a doubt, every Republican politican) and a fair number of Democrats, without exception every televangelist (especially Benny Hinn), certainly most fundamentalists of every religious denomination especially James Dobson, as well as a multitude of alleged Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, just about every Pastor, Minister, Priest, Bishop, Imam, Monk, a number of Rabbis and a fair number of Shamans, every used car salesman, and without a doubt, every Bible thumpin’, gun toting hypocrite extolling their stupidity and ignorance as though it's a badge of honor. The one thing Jesus really, really-really hated...were hypocrites (see: The Beatitudes). Fortunately, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have any real beef with the Jains…or babies...or kittens...

Fear Itself: New Year's Day

Fear Itself: New Year's Day

A young woman wakes up in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies, and does her best not to become one. Written by Steve Niles ('30 Days of Night'). Directed by Darren Bousman ('Saw II')

Four in 10 Americans Believe in Strict Creationism

Four in 10 Americans Believe in Strict Creationism

The Pogues: March 8 - Washington DC (9:30 Club)

http://www.pogues.com/

Ever wondered how to get that perfect tan in the wintertime, or how to maintain a warm healthy glow? One word: Chernobyl!!!

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2uexvnn

Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: Leonard Cohen

The Bible and American Slavery

Working on uploading documents into a blog.  To that end, the link is to a paper I did on the Bible and American slavery.  While the paper was originally intended to be a historiography, it ended up being much more of a research paper into the role pro-slavery religion played in the belief structures of Southern slaveholders.  How to convert this link into a simple thumbnail?

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B5xHYuu0bkmXMTY3MzlmNTItMzU1Ny00MDY4LTgzMTAtZmU0M2ZjYTY1YzU3&hl=en

Frosty ain't a jolly, happy soul?

So Frosty ain't necessarily a jolly, happy soul?

Frosty the Snowman (or Aryan man?)
Has a hateful racist soul
With a shitty disposition and a button nose
And a heart made out of coal…

Come on, you know the words. Sing along with our Ayran brethren



http://www.kxly.com/news/25975011/detail.html?taf=spo

An Irish take on the economic woes

Spoken like a tru Irish lad--'tho trute be told, Tony Quinn (Jason Calibri) isn't "interviewing" Denis Ryan.

How not to win friends and influence people...

It's a tragic tale involving a Christmas Party, a former Rick Santorum staffer (Pennyslavania Senator, R. '91-'95) and her husband both of whom apparently remain Santorum fans and how they regrettably (and in hindsight, unwisely) insisted that “Rick Santorum is really a nice guy;” and how a surprised and astonished (nameless) someone replied “Are you fu@king kidding me? Words have meaning and all the piece of chit, racist, homophobic m#ther fu@king arse-whole utters is hate speech;” followed by something along the line of how Santorum and his hypocritical ilk are chicken chits who never wore a uniform and how his goose-steppers are a danger to the country. After the couple quickly finished their dinner and somewhat nervously yet politely excused themselves, the nameless someone's spouse was keen to remind him how that was an excellent example of how not to win friends and influence people, gently swooning into his ear how he’s never lost his finely-honed ability…to break a mood, run strangers off, and ruin a party...

Best CraigsList Ad Ever

People oftentimes remark how they're mistaken for someone else. I'm oftentimes mistaken as the author of this e-mail.

(It's me Irish peekin' troo... )
________________________________________________

From: "Nick Nuclear" <1245...@transwestairlines.net>
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:58:41 -0700
Local: Fri, Aug 17 2007 4:58 pm
Subject: Best CraigsList Ad Ever

I have approximately 275 to 300 cinder blocks for sale. They are standard 8"x8"x16". They cost about $1.75 plus delivery fees if you buy them somewhere else. I'm asking $1.00 per block.

You pick them up and move them yourself.

Please don't waste my fucking time with endless emails. These are plain old cinderblocks, for fuck sake. You don't need to do an engineering study on the feasibility of using these fucking things as building material. That's what they're for, you fucking idiots. Now listen, we're all busy people here. You want the blocks? Come get the fucking blocks and give me one dollar for every block you take. How fucking hard is that? You don't have to tell me what you're building. I don't give a fuck. I'm not interested in helping you build it either. Why? Because I don't give a fuck. I just want to get these fucking things off my property. So if you want them, get the fuck over here with some money and take them. The next fucking moron that emails me with "I'm building a blah blah blah, and was wondering if..." The answer is NO. Come get the fucking blocks and build it yourself. If I knew how to do masonry, don't you think I'd be using the blocks myself instead of selling them for half fucking price? What the fuck is wrong with you people? The next one of you fucking jackasses that emails me with some sob-story bullshit is getting his email address added to the North American Man/Boy Love Association mailing list.

You want the blocks? Come get the blocks, and don't fuck with me!

Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:03:14 -0700
Local: Fri, Aug 17 2007 5:03 pm
Subject: Re: (hURL) Best CraigsList Ad Ever
On Aug 17, 4:58 pm, "Nick Nuclear" <1245...@transwestairlines.net> wrote:

> You want the blocks? Come get the blocks, and don't fuck with me!

So what you're saying by posting that here is that you want ALL of us
to email this bugger about his blocks, right?

xxx

I can get them for 87 cents per block at the Concret Plant down the street. How they got those plants to grow concrete, I'll never know

xxx

> So what you're saying by posting that here is that you want ALL of us to email this bugger about his blocks, right?

xxx

How big are they? Can I pick them up? I'm building a doghouse.

xxx

> I can get them for 87 cents per block at the Concret Plant down the street. How they got those plants to grow concrete, I'll never know

xxx

Rock-ette science.

xxx

Aww, it was flagged! I wonder why...

xxx

If you really want to f--k with someone who has alot of junk or cars on their property wait till they go away for a few days then list their address in the free stuff category as take-it-away. This method works quite well with OCD type neighborhood pack rats. They come back, their stuff is gome and they go apeshit. Did this to an a-h who had three old cars on blocks in his driveway when he had to go into the hospital for a few days stay. Comes home and his 70's cars are long gone to the scrapyard for shreding an ultimate delivery to the Peoples Republik of China to come back as cheap metal xmas ornaments in dollar stores.

xxx

He didn't have them secured? What a fool. All the junk out here at the Nut Ranch is behind concertina wire.

I love you.

xxx

"Are these bricks useful for staving the head in of some jackass who just put me on the NAMBLA mailing list?"

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.slack/browse_thread/thread/dea6036be3ef5af7/3881529c7610a6e9?lnk=raot&pli=1

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy...search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

Mirroring much more eloquently my characterization and sentiment of today's conservative "I got mine, now screw you" generation was the economist John Kenneth Galbraith who wrote how "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

Must Be Santa

Hey kids! Getting to be that time of year. We know what that means...

"Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen,
Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen,
Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton..."

That's right, it Must Be Santa!

Robin Rogers

You'd do well to take a few minutes and listen to this interview of Robin Rogers:
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/11/131938583/battling-terminal-cancer-robin-rogers-gives-thanks

Michigan / Michigan State 113,411 attendance at Michigan Stadium—destroyed the previous record of 77,803

"The Big Chill at the Big House" — Michigan and Michigan State set the world record for attendance at a hockey game, playing in front of 113,411 at Michigan Stadium—destroyed the previous hockey game attendance record of 77,803 (set earlier this year at the world championship in Germany).
http://hosted2.ap.org/APDefault/Article/Article_2010-12-11/id-fe8424a51f754f9b9589551b5d352b8d/recordType-Game+Story

It's a Wonderful Life

Marx and Lenin are clearly achetypes for George Bailey while Bedford Falls represents the standard godless commie collectivist. Clarence? Obviously a rouse to keep the proletarian masses distracted from Capra's underlying yet not-so-subtle commie “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” theme. The only sanity in the movie? Well clearly it's Mr. Potter, the archetype for the Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Rand Paul, Tom Coburn, Jim DeMint, Mike Huckabee, Ann Coulter, James Dobson, Gary Bauer, John Ashcroft, Laura Schlessinger, Rick Santorum, etc., etc., characters.
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/).

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above...

On November 27, 2010, we saw “ICE!” at the Gaylord Resort in National Harbor, Maryland (a series of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" themed ice sculptures created by sculpturers from Harbin, China).

After seeing a number of colorful Dr. Seuss ice carvings, the display ends with several Nativity scenes carved in ice. I was left scratching my head at the ice carvings depicting the birth of Jesus.

Setting aside the whole messiahship debate, the Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th controversy, and even the whole historical Jesus conundrum, I was astonished that there wasn’t a Christian fundamentalist outpouring of protest against ice carvings of the Son of God as well as his mother and step-father.

Let’s see, where does this rank among God's Top Ten? Oh, that's right, #2:

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.

This Commandment is so important that God feels compelled to place it second, just after He tells us that He's our God and that we can't have any others "before" Him (What about after Him? Well, that a different story all together).

In any event, certainly an image carved in ice of the Son of God flies in the face of specific guidanbce that, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above.” Perhaps I’m missing something but I can’t help but wonder what part of the prohibition “You shall not,” is ambiguous or confusing? I don’t see a footnote clarifying that you shall not make a carving unless of course you're doing it while celebrating Christmas. Unless of course the management at the Gaylord Resort believe that the prohibition against graven images simply does not apply because the Son of God or mother and step-father are not in Heaven (but I really don’t wanna go down that road). But wait, the 2nd Commandment also instructs not to make a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is “in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

So where is the outpouring of protests?

Nothing in the 10 Commandments about gays, but clear denunciation of graven images, and yet the Westboro Baptist Church as well as tens of thousands of fundamentalists are willfully ignoring God’s Top 10 list? Sin Incarnate my friends, Sin incarnate I say. Have fun in Hell brothers, have fun in in hell.




P.S., Stay warm 'cause lord knows how you're keepin' it real!

The Walking Dead

At seasons end, we witness Rick driving the Winnebago, leading a caravan of zombie apocalypse survivors into the wild unknown country with Bob Dylan’s “Tomorrow is a Long Time” playing and the audience left with a number of unanswered questions.  Namely:

• who was flying that black helicopter;
• will our intrepid troupe find that Ft. Benning can provide the sanctuary our heroes so desperately seek (after all, it is The Home of the Infantry);
• does Morgan finally find the stones to shoot his un-dead, flesh-eating wife;
• indeed, will Morgan and his son Duane, manage to unite with Rick’s group;
• did Merle, in a fit of insane vengence load zombies onto the back of a panel van and drop them off at the camp for a late night survivor snack;
• does Lori confess her infidelity with Shane to Rick;
• will Lori tell Rick about Shane’s drunken attempted rape;
• will Jim reappear as a walker;
• what was it that Dr. Jenner whispered into Rick’s ear;
• will grandpa "On Golden Pond" Dale put the moves on the much younger Andrea (I think it's more likely that a dejected Shane, thinking he's got something that'll cure Carol's depression, finally calls dibs);
• will Daryl realizing that a pickax-wielding Carol going to town on the skull of her abusive now dead husband is actually kinda sexy, come to the realization that he never really stood a chance with anyone better (even before the dead started nom-nom-nom 'ing on the living) and especially realize that beggars in a post-apocalyptic world can never be choosers, make his moves on the newly minted widow;
• and most importantly, will Merle’s cauterized stump ever be reunited with its hand?

Note how I’ve skillfully managed to avoid any reference to how a young zombie may sound somewhat better than an elderly Bob Dylan?

CPT “we can’t continue to kick the can down the road” Caveman

I see CPT “we can’t continue to kick the can down the road” Caveman has once again demonstrated his keenly adroit negotiating skills. Fortunately we understand how even though it’s really easy to talk about being a man/woman/leader of principle, sometimes…well, ya see, sometimes those principles…well, gosh darn it, sometimes our principles--damn-it, sometimes our principles, well, they just get in the way. It’s as though those annoying principles want to inform, motivate—maybe even govern our actions. I thought everyone knew being a pragmatist meant the only thing principles are good for is filler while pandering (e.g., universal health care, repeal of DADT, meaningful Wall Street reform, repealing Bush’s unfunded tax increase, deficit reduction, and the list continues to grow).

It's appropriate to remember how Bob Dylan reminds us that “people don't do what they believe in they just do what's most convenient then they repent.”

So…“Hang on to me baby and let's hope that the roof stays on.”