2011: Merry Christmas
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke Chapter 2 NIV
Did you hear about?
Did you hear about the German woman that lived in Paris with her Scottish husband?
Wait for it.
Are you positive you want to know?
Last chance.
OK, but I did warn you…
She was a McDonald French Frau.
Cat and Mouse
I recently watched an episode of the (normally) excellent series, Criminal Minds, that ended with a quote that I’ve heard before which expresses a sentiment that is often repeated, but obviously wrong.
“Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself. ” – James Anthony Froude.
The quote may initially sound wise and a bit poignant, but even a little thought reveals it to be nothing but elitist self-hatred. Nothing but a poor attempt to supplant the concept of man’s superiority to animals (due to intelligence and opposable thumbs) with a falsehood meant to reveal animal’s moral superiority to man.
Several years ago, a friend recommended that I read a series of werewolf books by Kelley Armstrong. The book was well-written, but the same anti-human bias expressed in the quote above permeated the novel. The idea that wild animals are somehow noble and merciful is absurd, as is easily proven by watching a few hours of Shark Week on the Discovery channel.
- or by watching a cat play with a mouse.
Frankly, I prefer Lord Tennyson:
Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation’s final law
Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek’d against his creed
Mitch Daniels is no Conservative
I admit it. I voted for Daniels. Then during his first month in office, he pushed for an additional “temporary” 1% on top of the 3.4% state income tax. Yes, a 30% increase in state income taxes. Fortunately, his proposal didn’t succeed.
So what’s Mitch pushing for now?
- A state-wide smoking ban
- On-line sales tax
- Raising taxes for mass transit
I’ve never smoked, but have issues with government bans.
As I said yesterday, an on-line sales tax is NOT a tax on Amazon, but a tax on you.
And as I’ve said before “Just Say NO to Public Transportation“.
Guess Who Thinks That You Should Pay More Taxes?
There are over 260 Indiana merchants (Indianamerchants.com) that want you to pay more taxes.
They call it “leveling the playing field”, but that’s dishonest. What they are calling for is more money taken out of Hoosier pockets in the form of a 7% sales tax for online purchases. Make no mistake, this isn’t a tax on Amazon, this is a tax on you.
Walmart wants you to pay more taxes. Target wants you to pay more taxes. Walgreens wants you to pay more taxes.
In the Indianapolis area alone:
Addendum wants you to pay more taxes.
Aronstam Jewelers wants you to pay more taxes.
Artifacts wants you to pay more taxes.
Avon Antiques wants you to pay more taxes.
Avon Quitery wants you to pay more taxes.
Balloon World wants you to pay more taxes.
BeDazzling Boutique wants you to pay more taxes.
Beech Grove Firearms wants you to pay more taxes.
Bicycle Garage of Indy wants you to pay more taxes.
Big Hat Books wants you to pay more taxes.
The Bike Line wants you to pay more taxes.
Bungalow wants you to pay more taxes.
Caramel Consignment wants you to pay more taxes.
Chas. Brenner & Co wants you to pay more taxes.
Charles Mayer & Company LP wants you to pay more taxes.
Chelsea’s wants you to pay more taxes.
The Cigar Box LLP wants you to pay more taxes.
Cigar Haven wants you to pay more taxes.
The Coffee Shop wants you to pay more taxes.
Creek Jewelers wants you to pay more taxes.
Distinctive Diamonds wants you to pay more taxes.
Ellis Jewelers of Lebanon wants you to pay more taxes.
Favorite Finds Inc wants you to pay more taxes.
Gallery 116 Inc wants you to pay more taxes.
Geist Jewelers wants you to pay more taxes.
The General Store wants you to pay more taxes.
Goodman Shoes wants you to pay more taxes.
Hoskins Interior Designwants you to pay more taxes.
Hupp Jewelers wants you to pay more taxes.
Index Notion Company wants you to pay more taxes.
Kids Ink Bookstore wants you to pay more taxes.
Kirles Jewelers wants you to pay more taxes.
LJI Wealth Management wants you to pay more taxes.
Lucky B Boutique wants you to pay more taxes.
Moyer Fine Jewelers wants you to pay more taxes.
Mudsock Books & Curiosity Shop wants you to pay more taxes.
My Toy Garden wants you to pay more taxes.
Oxford Shop wants you to pay more taxes.
Party Tree wants you to pay more taxes.
Reis Nichols Jewelers wants you to pay more taxes.
Rich’s Furniture wants you to pay more taxes.
The Rusty Star wants you to pay more taxes.
Sassy Butterflies wants you to pay more taxes.
Shadeland Flower Shop wants you to pay more taxes.
4 Kids Books & Toys wants you to pay more taxes.
Dr Who
Andrew at Commentarama Films had a great post and comments about Time Travel movies. As usual, after the discussion had continued long enough, it turned to the BBC series Dr Who.
If you’ve never seen Dr Who, I’ll give a (very) brief overview.
The Doctor, as he’s referred to in the show, is a Time Lord from the planet of Gallifrey. He travels through time and space in his time machine, called a TARDIS, which is bigger inside than outside and appears as an old fashioned British police call box. Whenever the Doctor is fatally injured, he is able to completely regenerate into a new physical body, coincidentally appearing as an entirely new actor takes over the series. He has wonderful adventures, typically while being accompanied by a rather pedestrian sidekick to whom he can explain everything. The show originated in the 1960′s with a very limited budget, but with excellent writing to compensate. The show was eventually cancelled sometime in the 80′s, but was rebooted 6-8 years ago with modern special effects and new actors.
My one problem with Dr Who, which I added to the discussion at Commentarama was this:
Dr Who is a great show, but can also be grating after awhile. It bothers me how he often carries on like Hamlet as he sermonizes about refusing to kill the beast of the week (giant invisible chicken, etc…), but by the end of the episode the dozens of dead humans are long forgotten and no longer matter.
Still the show is entertaining enough to be worthwhile.
My first Doctor was Jon Pertwee, whom I always thought of as an engineering sort.
Tom Baker was wonderful, and more like a brilliant physicist.
The one after Baker left me cold and I quit watching until the US movie, but it was bleh.
The new series are very entertaining, though with the caveat mentioned earlier.
This snobbish pacifism carried over to a spinoff series which I couldn’t stand: Torchwood.
Torchwood is a top secret agency put together by the British government to protect the earth whenever Dr Who isn’t around. The main character was introduced in a two part Dr Who episode as a fellow time traveler, but not a Time Lord. The character was brought back for his own series with his own team of sidekicks. I’d had high hopes for Torchwood, but in the end I was only able to force myself to watch a single episode.
The episode had one of the group hiding a former teammate that was partially converted into a Cyberman (historic Dr Who villains). When everyone else is out of the base, he brings in a Japanese robotics expert to fix her. She promptly kills the expert and a pizza delivery person, and tries very hard to kill the rest of the team.
By the end of the episode (after they do destroy her) Captain Jack just smugly tells the instigator, “I hope you’ve learned your lesson.” or something similar with no further repercussions.
Even though 2 innocent people had died.
The Importance of Illusion
My wife and I never had a “List”, but from early in our marriage we each had one celebrity that the other spouse had granted permission should the occasion present itself. She had Sean Connery.
I had Catherine Zeta Jones.
Neither opportunity occurred.
We update our choices occasionally and sometimes we may have two choices each, but not really a list. She kept Mr Connery as her primary choice until he was well into his sixties and I reluctantly dropped Ms Jones shortly after she became Mrs Douglas.
During the heyday of The X-Files, Gillian Anderson was my choice. At least until I saw her on a late night talk show. I don’t recall that she said anything remotely political, just incredibly stupid. The illusion of Dana Scully was shattered and the fantasy was over.
I loved Catherine Bell as Major Mac MacKenzie. And then she appeared on Howard Stern and revealed great enthusiasm for Scientology. Another illusion gone.
I’ve always been attracted to smart, strong, beautiful women. Unfortunately, most actresses aren’t particularly bright. I’ve developed an aversion to learning too much about my favorite actresses for this reason.
After all, it’s the characters that create our fantasies.
Indiana Jones
I’ll admit it up front. This post is mostly just a comment I made to the post “Defending the Temple of Doom” by Scott over at Commentarama Films (head over and take a look at it), but since I haven’t been posting much I figured that I should take advantage of it.
First off, I am old enough that all saw all 3 films (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade) in the theater when they first came out.
One correction (to another commenter’s opinion that Temple would have been just as successful as Raiders if it had come first, since Harrison Ford was such a big star):
Harrison Ford wasn’t a hot property before Raiders came out. He’d been in American Graffiti, Star Wars and Empire, but was not personally a Big Star. Raiders was The Movie that made his reputation and rightly so.
The night I saw Temple of Doom, I loved it. It was a great roller coaster ride, but my enthusiasm had worn off by the very next day. Yes, it was a prequel, but Indy had changed from a man of integrity that practically worshiped historical treasures to a man that trades an artifact to mobsters for a diamond. Add in the stupid raft-as-parachute scene and the gross-out scenes and you’ve effectively destroyed the emotional connection with Raiders.
As for Crusades, yes, you have Ford and Connery. But even before Ford appears on screen, you have River Phoenix as an excellent young Indy, complete with the integrity and love for history that was so missed in Temple.
I’ve only seen a about 10 minutes of Crystal Skull on television and regret seeing that much.
