Thursday, June 27, 2002

Before he got old

John Entwistle died. Looking at the bands who populate the canon of Classic Rock, I'd have to say I respect The Who the most (yes, possibly more than the Beatles, but don't make me defend that assertion. And Entwistle was always vastly underrated as a member of the Who. So that sucks. Would suck more if I had tickets to their upcoming tour.



Also, via Craig I learn that Jay Berwanger died. Which means only that I'm sucking wind in my Dead Pool. I need the people that only I picked -- Leni Reifenstahl, Ingmar Bergman, and Ernie Harwell among them -- to die, pronto! RE: Harwell: looks like I picked the wrong baseball announcer.
Obligatory pledge post



Though it will most certainly get overturned, and it will deflect national attention from the important things -- namely our overreaching president and more shadiness from corporate America -- I salute the 9th Circuit Court ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional, for these reasons:



1. Rote recitation of anything diminishes its meaning. Think of your favorite song, or a poem that particularly moves you. Read its words aloud. Do this again. And again. And over and over until all you hear are syllables. Then some more until the syllables become phonemes.

An aside -- This is something I never understood about Catholicism, either; the idea of penance through repeating a prayer over and over. Other than occupying time the penitent would certainly rather spend doing something else, how is this a sin deterrent?



2. The inherent contradiction. "Under God/Indivisible." What's more divisive than religion?



3. A truly free society would not demand a loyalty oath. For that matter, the only flag worth pledging to is one that its citizens can burn, but that's another argument entirely. Conservatives would argue there's no sense in messing with something that's been in its present form for 50 years. But I'd point out that the nation existed for over 100 years -- including its darkest period -- without a Pledge to its flag. Good enough for the Founders not to worry about, then that's good enough for me.



Monday, June 17, 2002

Newly added to the links: God's Blog. I also need to add Craig and JQ at some point, but hey, first things first.

Tuesday, June 11, 2002

The time of day I'd usually be online (before going to work) has of late been occupied with World Cup viewing or recovering from same, hence no updates. And in the evenings, we've generally been watching films. Here's what's been on the schedule in the past seven days:



Love's Labour's Lost - The Shakespeare play made into a musical with Ken Branagh, Alicia Silverstone and Matthew Lillard. Kinda cute.

The Believer -Excellent movie about a Jewish neo-Nazi. Not as brutal as American History X, but had more to say.

Attack of the Clones - sucked. K. liked it less than Phantom Menace; I thought it was better than that, bit still lousy. Dee got to see Wet Ewan, so she was happy.

Ocean's 11 - VERY entertaining. We're keeping it for a while to listen to the actor commentary.

Osmosis Jones - Not so good.

Lagaan - This was great! This is the Oscar-nominted 4-hour Indian musical largely about cricket. A lot of fun; moved by quickly, and the cricket was easy to follow, for the most part.

About A Boy - Really good. Hugh Grant, whom I usually despise, was perfect, the kid was great, and Toni Collette was almost unrecognizable.