TRULY DIVERSE: The Blog

After having to console my intern who was emotionally assaulted (gangland style) by her Diversity course, I decided to create a blog to combat this sort of abuse of psychology students specifically and all other college students in general. In the course of doing so, I discovered a wonderful website, FORA.tv. This site hosts powerfully intellectual discussions from a diverse group of Libertarian and Conservative thinkers on every subject worthy of debate.

Firstly, I'd like to share my new blog, Truly Diverse, with the Junto Boys.

Secondly, I'd like to share just a taste of the 1000's of hours worth of quality lectures, speeches, and education from FORA.tv. Enjoy!

THE NOBLE SAVAGES

One of South America's few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru.

The Brazilian government says it took the images to prove the tribe exists and help protect its land.

Survival International says that although this particular group is increasing in number, others in the area are at risk from illegal logging.

Isn't the real risk that they are living in the stone age?

They show tribe members outside thatched huts, surrounded by the dense jungle, pointing bows and arrows up at the camera.

"We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist," the group quoted Jose Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior, an official in the Brazilian government's Indian affairs department, as saying.

"This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence."

We're treating them like some rare animal instead of human beings.

He described the threats to such tribes and their land as "a monumental crime against the natural world" and "further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilised' ones, treat the world".

I love the quotes around civilized. We're the strange ones getting the most out of natural resources and curing diseases and such. Ah, if we only had the vision to live naked to the elements with our bows and arrows.

IS THIS THE YEAR OF THE LIBERTARIAN?

Our nations third largest political party may actually have a viable candidate this year. The Libertarian Party recently selected Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr as 2008 presidential nominee. If Bob gets at least 15% of the vote, then Federal election rules mandate that the Libertarian party would get matching dollars next presidential election and a spot in the debates. If there has ever been a Presidential election year that we needed an option, this is it. I for one am voting for Bob.

Denver - The Libertarian Party has nominated former Congressman Bob Barr as its candidate for president for the 2008 election.

"I'm sure we will emerge here with the strongest ticket in the history of the Libertarian Party," Barr stated in his victory speech shortly after being selected as the Party's nominee. "I want everybody to remember that we only have 163 days to win this election. We cannot waste one single day."

More than 650 Libertarian delegates met in Denver from May 22 till the 26 for the 2008 Libertarian National Convention. After six rounds of voting Sunday afternoon, Barr was selected as the Party's presidential nominee.

"We're proud to present to the American voters Bob Barr as our presidential nominee," says Libertarian Party spokesperson Andrew Davis. "While Republicans and Democrats will fight for their own power in November, Libertarians will fight for Americans. Bob Barr is one of the strongest candidates in the Party's 37-year history, and we look for him to have an enormous impact in the 2008 race. Republicans and Democrats have good reason to fear a candidate like Barr, who refuses to accept the 'business-as-usual' attitude of the current political establishment. Americans want and need another choice, and that choice is Bob Barr."

McCAIN'S FOLLY

John Stossel has a great article on McCain's global warming ideas and they get to the heart of why a McCain victory is a debatable victory for free market ideology. Money quote. . .

"Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, ... we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters, and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring. We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge".

This reminds me of the medieval king sending his best knights into the dark woods to sleigh dragons.

Now a sober view.

Roy W. Spencer, a research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and author of "Climate Confusion," says he's "increasingly convinced" that climate change has far more to do with natural phenomena like El Niño and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation than carbon dioxide. "Maybe the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is higher now than it has been in hundreds of thousands of years. So what?" he wrote in a recent article for the National Review.

"Even though there has never been a single scientific paper published that has ruled out natural variability for most of the warming we've seen since 1850, Big Science has managed to convince politicians and much of the public that the science is settled. Apparently, our addition of nine molecules of carbon dioxide to each 100,000 molecules of air over the last 150 years can now be blamed for anything and everything ... Hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves, floods, glaciers flowing toward the sea ... these used to happen naturally, but no more".

Our unlimited faith in the government somehow supposes that the government is full of experts that know best. What if the government were full of hacks that use crisis as a means to spread their influence and gain power? Making that point is the function of the right wing candidate. Our guy seems to be eating lunch on the first supposition.

AMERICAN IDOL 2008

Remember when I posted the odds of the top 24 contestants? Here are the top twelve finalists in their order of finish with their original odds to win:

David Cook 14-1
David Archuleta 6-1
Syesha Mercado 14-1
Jason Castro 16-1
Brooke White 10-1
Carly Smithson 12-1
Kristy Lee Cook 10-1
Michael Johns 8-1
Ramiele Malubay 14-1
Chikezie Eze 10-1
Amanda Overmyer 14-1
David Hernandez 10-1

I never liked Hernandez though I think he could have Broadway success; Overmyer was a one-trick Janis Joplin clone who wore thin after a few songs; Eze was inconsistent but has a nice voice; Malubay has a great voice but horrible song choices, attempting every overblown diva composition; Johns' early exit was the biggest surprise of the season - he could easily be the next Robert Palmer; Kristy Lee Cook got a couple extra weeks due to her hotness but couldn't outlast the better performers; Smithson was one of the finest singers but failed to bring anything special to her songs; White has the southern California good girl vibe down but couldn't successfully stretch her range; Castro is a soft balladeer who just wanted to go home when the pressure set in; Mercado was the opposite, trying harder as she got closer to the goal line - she is a hottie with desire, no question she will be successful; Archuleta is a little muppet who sings for the old ladies and the little girls who don't know any better - sure he has a voice, but I found his interpretations vapid from the start; David Cook was clearly the best performer of this bunch and it is good to see that he won because he deserves it. I might even download his album when it comes out.

POPE IS GETTING US READY FOR INVASION FORCE

Frankly there is only one way to read this story, The Vatican (via the Pope on his recent U.S. Visit) was informed of the pending invasion force by superior alien force. He is attempting to soften the ecclesiastical tempest by preparing us psychologically.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican's chief astronomer says there is no conflict between believing in God and in the possibility of "extraterrestrial brothers" perhaps more evolved than humans. "In my opinion this possibility (of life on other planets) exists," said Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, a 45-year-old Jesuit priest who is head of the Vatican Observatory and a scientific adviser to Pope Benedict.

"How can we exclude that life has developed elsewhere," he told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano in an interview in its Tuesday-Wednesday edition, explaining that the large number of galaxies with their own planets made this possible.

Asked if he was referring to beings similar to humans or even more evolved than humans, he said: "Certainly, in a universe this big you can't exclude this hypothesis."

In the interview headlined "The extraterrestrial is my brother," he said he saw no conflict between belief in such beings and faith in God.

TALK

I have listened to (too) many political speeches over the past months. Most of them sound like somebody reading a speech. McCain especially. He is a terrible, terrible speaker, and that, more than any policy positions, could link him to Bush in the impression-centers of voters. I still wince at the sound of Hillary but, through exposure, no longer so violently. I disagree with almost everything Obama says, used to find him endearing anyway, and now hear mostly populism, self-promotion and condescension. As the frontrunner his content has (again) become safe and remote. The philosopher-king is fueled by his contempt for the ignorant masses.

Neither Obama nor his party seems to understand how incentives motivate human behavior — not force, not coercion, not mockery, not nursery-school regulation, but real possibilities of good fruits up ahead for free and responsible actions. They do not understand the wellsprings of a virtuous, free, and prosperous society. They are still entangled in the fantasies of the European Left of 150 years ago.

Thus, Obama is now the creature and the prisoner of the American far Left, which has learned nothing from the failures of socialist and statist and anti-capitalist ideas during the past hundred years. Many leftists learn nothing, know nothing, and propel themselves not with practical wisdom, but with outrage and contempt and a desire to punish those who do not agree with them.

Obama's content smacks of contempt and a desire to punish. "Windfall profit taxes"?! He and Hill want to punish profitable oil companies rather than free them up to find and deliver more oil. I don't care how much they make if they can get a tank of gas back to $45.00. The more holes they make in Mother Earth, the better I like it. He wants to tax the rich, the dirty bastards. He wants to punish America and Americans for being successful. Uncle Sam will solve all my problems if I will just sit quietly and hand nice Mr. Obama the keys.

My most hopeful moments derive from imagining that Obama, as president, will be dissuaded from acting as he now says that he will. In that way, God will once again take care of those who are drunk on statist illusions, and He will once again take care of the United States, despite itself. It is when I take Obama at his word that pessimism floods over my heart.

Obama's is the same losing message, but in a year when the deck is stacked mightily against the incumbent party. I hate to think of a President Obama and a 60% override, but I can't see McCain getting out the vote. His message is confused and he sounds like a tired old man. He is trying to be what his advisers are telling him to be, rather than who he is, and that is rarely a recipe for success. The best I can hope for is that we get real about who Obama is and who McCain is, and agree that McCain is less bad than Obama. I have always thought that Obama was a bad candidate, in the same ways that Gore and Kerry were bad candidates, but that only helps if the Republican candidate is good, or at least above average, which this one isn't. I try to tell myself it doesn't matter, who is our next President doesn't matter, but I can't get me to listen.

GUILTY AS CHARGED

Bush speaking in Israel.

ABC News' Ed O'Keefe Reports: The Obama campaign is taking issue with a comment President Bush made while speaking to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's statehood.

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," the President said to the country's legislative body, "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is –- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

I heard this comment on NPR and my first thought was Bush was talking about Europe.

In a statement, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shot across the bow: "It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack.

Only a cheap two-bit politician would use Israel's birth to knock a humble man such as myself, albeit between the lines.

It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel.

So let me use the event of Israel's birth to knock a fellow politician by name.

Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power -- including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy - to pressure countries like Iran and Syria.

Tough talk in no action? That is Bush alright. Saddam still in power after all these years, Khaddafi building a WMD program, and attack after attack on U.S. soil.

George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."

Maybe that is why Bush didn't name you as an appeaser. Maybe he meant someone else. Maybe your own words and actions implicate you instead.

TRUE DIVERSITY

Feel free to make any book suggestions you think would fit into this Amazon List of books from the Right-Libertarian side of the Diversity Debate.

AS THEY SAY, CLARITY, IT'S EXTRA

I get annoyed by misspellings in the news networks' graphics and crawls, but this item in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette yesterday took lack of editorial oversight to a new level.

It's a victory in the sense that I'm here," Clark said after leaving the practice field at the Steelers' South Side facility. "That's the victory. The rest, as they say in Louisiana, is laying you up, it's extra." [emphasis added]

Ok, so I can forgive Pittsburghers for not being familiar with lagniappe (lan-yap). But "laying you up"? They say that in Louisiana? They say that anywhere? What, it must be some black lingo that doesn't have to make any sense? Worse, the error has not been corrected in the online article 24 hours later. I've accepted that we don't care about spelling any more, but do we also not care whether written statements make any sense?

HOUSING CRISIS OVER?

The Wall Street Journal says yes.

What's going to stop the housing decline? Very simply, the same thing that caused the bust: affordability.

The boom made housing unaffordable for many American families, especially first-time home buyers. During the 1990s and early 2000s, it took 19% of average monthly income to service a conforming mortgage on the average home purchased. By 2005 and 2006, it was absorbing 25% of monthly income. For first time buyers, it went from 29% of income to 37%. That just proved to be too much.

Prices got so high that people who intended to actually live in the houses they purchased (as opposed to speculators) stopped buying. This caused the bubble to burst.

Since then, house prices have fallen 10%-15%, while incomes have kept growing (albeit more slowly recently) and mortgage rates have come down 70 basis points from their highs. As a result, it now takes 19% of monthly income for the average home buyer, and 31% of monthly income for the first-time home buyer, to purchase a house. In other words, homes on average are back to being as affordable as during the best of times in the 1990s. Numerous households that had been priced out of the market can now afford to get in.

The logic is simple. New houses became unaffordable for too many people. Now they are affordable again and people will start buying them. How do we know that? Because they always do.

Some argue that prices are still way too high compared to historical averages, and they are high, but people buy mortgages not houses, and the deciding factor is how much of their monthly income will go toward the mortgage. That we are a nation living on credit is a separate issue.

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM MOMENT

I had to return something at Best Buy tonight and I was already in a sour mood of sorts. Sir Saunders called me on the way and he told me about his grandmother’s funeral and it sounded like such beautiful event with much love. It improved my mood just talking to him which is usually the case. We were still on the phone when the Best Buy door guy tags my return with a sticker and I head to the line.

As I get closer to customer service I see that no one is at any register, then coming up on my right is a guy with a big Bose box. As we both get closer he speeds up to try and beat me there. Now I’m on the phone and only half take in what’s happening. Steve and I are discussing whether we can go biking Saturday and still make niece Maddie’s first birthday party. So as this guy tries to beat me to the line, by instinct I speed up to and beat the guy to the register.

He says to me, “I need to sit this on the counter” so I move up a few feet and continue with Saunders. Not long after a girl comes to the register and helps him. He doesn’t say anything. Saunders, I think, can tell that I’m distracted and we end the phone conversation.

I'm sure most people would have said nothing, but you know me. So I said, “Hey, why did you cut in front of me. You said you wanted to sit your box on the counter?”

He said, “I was here first.”

I said, “You were behind me.”

He said, “She already had my paperwork.”

The cashier said not a thing during the exchange. And even though he was a bigger guy than me, he sheepishly left on the paperwork line and hustled to the door.

Looking back, the way he tried to get ahead of me makes sense if he was worried about being in an awkward position, because he was mid-transaction, and no authority figure was present to vouch for him.

I’ve been in similar situations before. I wait my turn in line and when the customer service person returns he/she decides whether to bring me to the front of the line. I don’t take it for granted that I am next when the only other person in line has never seen me. He could have set his box on the floor and waited for her to return.

More importantly, if you ask a person to let you sit something on the counter and then it looks like you took that opportunity to jump the line, the answer isn’t I was here first, but you apologize for the misunderstanding and then explain. And I think that was the uncomfortable part, his having to explain the situation to a scary stranger. This wasn’t some kid, but a guy around 40 years old and he looked successful.

That's what makes this story interesting to me. He's too proud for a humble explanation and yet a part of him acts like he did something wrong and he needs to defend himself. He's lost without an authority figure.

ALONE AT THE TOP

This is very insightful. Obvious when he points it out, but he's the only one to have pointed it out.

This week we learned the limit of a dream in American politics. At Barack Obama's darkest hour, not one prominent ally came forward to support him. Everyone abandoned Everyman.

No prominent black clergyman came forth to make even the simple point that Jeremiah Wright's notion of the "black church" is but one point on a spectrum of faith. Rev. Wright, now written off as a virtual nut case, got more support from black clergymen than did Obama.

Barack Obama was bleeding by Monday and needed cover. Where, when he could have used them, were Obama's oh-so-famous endorsers: Jesse Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Oprah, John Kerry, Chris Dodd, Patrick Leahy, Tom Daschle, Amy Klobuchar, Claire McCaskill, Jay Rockefeller, John Lewis, Toni Morrison, Roger Wilkins, Eric Holder, Robert Reich, Ted Sorenson, Alice Walker, David Wilhelm, Cornel West, Clifford Alexander, Donald McHenry, Patricia Wald, Newton Minow?

Where were all the big-city mayors who went over to the Obama camp: Chicago's Richard Daley, Cleveland's Frank Jackson, Atlanta's Shirley Franklin, Washington's Adrian Fenty, Newark's Cory Booker, Baltimore's Sheila Dixon?

It isn't hard for big names to get on talk TV to make a point. Any major op-ed page would have stopped the presses to print a statement of support from Ted Kennedy or such for the senator. None appeared. Call it profiles in gopher-holing.

Operation Chaos is working to perfection.

The list is long this week of supporters who let Barack Obama hang out to dry. More than a few were last seen running out on Hillary Clinton. Perhaps the solution here is for the two soloists to meet, flip a coin, and spend the next six months as a pair running against John McCain. It looks like they're the only friends they've got.

SOME STEREOTYPES ARE ROOTED IN HARD DATA

Hillary expects to do well in West Virginia and Kentucky but Obama has done well in other toothless states.

Rooted, get it?

Do you know what day and time is the best time to go to the dentist?

Toothday at tooth-hurty.

OOPS

The UK's Office of Goverment Commerce introduced their new logo

and then promptly withdrew it after somebody turned their mouse pad sideways.

Other logo gaffes via link in the article.

BUCS LOSE

I don't know why I bother, but maybe Dude cares. The Pirates released pitcher Matt Morris over the weekend after his 0-4 start and another pounding. It was clear last year, and more so in spring training this year, that the guy had nothing left.

The Pirates acquired Morris -- and his contract -- from the San Francisco Giants July 31 for outfielder Rajai Davis and minor league pitcher Stephen MacFarland. That move, Coonelly said yesterday, "did not turn out to be a sound baseball judgment."

You think?

Morris' . . . numbers began to fall off prior to the trade. Those numbers continued to track downward after he came to the Pirates. He was 3-4 with 6.10 earned run average in his 11 starts for them last season.

He struggled in spring training and struggled through most of his 22 1/3 innings this season. "I could feel it all coming to an end," Morris said.

And so could every fan and every opposing batter.

Only a losing club could miss this guy.

"One of the best in the game," first baseman Adam LaRoche said a few minutes after the Pirates officially released the right-hander. "That's what everybody who played with him and everybody who played against him say.

LaRoche, acquired from the Braves who tend to trade up, is hitting .165.

Morris' last appearance will be memorable for all the wrong reasons. He threw 49 pitches in the first inning and was lifted after recording five outs and surrendering six runs. His 2008 ERA was 9.67.

But he still gets paid.

The Pirates owe Morris, 33, a little more than $10 million, which includes the rest of his 2008 salary and the $1 million contract buyout he had for 2009.

At 10-15 (.400), the Pirates are on pace to lose 100 games. And like every year, they realize they can lose 100 games with sucky veterans or mediocre young players, and at least with mediocre young players you can try to sell hope. They announced a paid attendance of 17,588 on Sunday, fielding a 9-15 team that rested comfortably in the basement of their division, with no real chance of competing, and as long as they can draw middling crowds that enjoy a nice day out at the ballpark, they have neither the incentive to staff up with good players nor the means to do so. It's a picture of chronic mediocrity.

Full disclosure: I am part of the problem. I will probably take in four games at PNC Park this year. I enjoy a day out at the ballpark, I won't expect great baseball, I'll be pleasantly surprised if I get some and not too disappointed if I don't.

MUTINY ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Republican U.S. presidential candidate John McCain accused North Carolina's Republican Party of being "out of touch with reality" over its refusal to pull an advertisement criticizing Democrat Barack Obama.

"They're not listening to me because they're out of touch with reality and the Republican Party. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and this kind of campaigning is unacceptable," McCain told NBC's "Today" Show.

This is a Democrat year. McCain can only win if the Democrat is perceived as radical or out of touch. They seem to understand this in North Carolina. Why would a guy who wanted to win speak out against this ad? Obama is friends with terrorists (The Weathermen) and racial agitators (Wright). How can the company you keep not be relevant? McCain is beginning to look like a protest candidate ala Perot.

McCain flirted with party swapping a few years ago. Maybe he decided to stay and hand it to the Democrats?

Asked if the state party's unwillingness to heed his call raised questions about his leadership, McCain replied: "I don't know exactly how to respond to that."

McCain runs the mechanism of the Republican Party but not the Republicans. It's sort of the way that Captain Bligh did it.

MOVIE REVIEWS LATE 2007 Part 2

I’m way behind. Dude's recent post got me going.

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BLACK SNAKE MOAN (2007) Christina Ricci is a nymphomaniac whose boyfriend is shipping out in the service. Not a good combination we can guess. The first plot point is nympho girl refusing her boyfriend’s best friend. He gets angry and beats her up and leaves her for dead on the side of the road. Along comes Sam Jackson who nurses her to health and then ties her up to heal her of her other affliction. And somehow it all has a happy ending. It’s recommended for those who like seeing Ricci scantily clad and like feeling guilty about it even more.

RED ROAD (2006) A Scottish film where the DVD gives you English subtitles by default and you’ll appreciate it about 1/3 of the time. Our hero Jackie monitors security cameras in a high crime area of Glasgow. She’s suffering from the death her husband and child and early on in the movie she discovers the dude who is responsible. Using her power with the cameras and some cleverness, she tries to get even. I can’t say much more without ruining it, but it’s a nice change of pace overall and worth the time.

V FOR VENDETTA (2006) –The basic plot has our masked hero blowing up things and creating general havoc in London set in the not too distant future. It takes a while for us to learn that he is a revolutionary fighting against a fascist English government. It seems that the current dictator and some pals took over Britain after a series of terrorist activities that they themselves orchestrated. That could have actually worked as satire, but this movie takes itself seriously. A little research revealed that the original story was written in the 1980s and it was a nuclear attack and not terrorism that brought about the events our hero fights against. So it was really a reaction to Thatcherism, they just updated the bugaboo post 2001. The big ending that I don’t mind spoiling is V blowing up Parliament, the oldest house of representative government on the planet. For a movie like this to work, it has to have a measure of plausibility. You have to imagine that a country could actually take such a turn. Fascism will never return in the form of militarism. That card was played and defeated by the very same England. Fascism can only return in the crisis of health care and the environment, things that are hard to oppose. In this form it’s no more viable than medieval serfdom. Now forget the politics and the film is stylish and Natalie Portman’s prison sequence was pretty inventive and quite effective. It really had a lot of things going for it except believability.

PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928) Carl Dreyer’s Joan film was thought lost until the early 1980s where a copy turned up in a mental institution. This is not a life of Joan, but her trial and execution. If I had not acted in that Joan of Arc play back in college, I think I would have been lost on the background and characters, because none of that is explained. The politics behind Joan’s trial are not discussed either. I think the story works better in the context of her whole life because it’s more of a tragedy after you’ve seen her heroism. I have to suppose any Frenchman in the 1920s already knew the story and must have understood the tragedy without the prologue. As I have said before, I prefer silent comedies over silent dramas where the broad acting brings intentional laughs. This might be one of the few times where that level of intensity works in a silent drama. There is nothing entertaining here although you can appreciate technique and it will only cost you 80 minutes.

THE LEOPARD (1963) – This is my first Visconti movie and many consider it his masterpiece. I didn’t read anything going in and I was surprised that it’s a costume drama, sort of an Italian Gone with the Wind. Both GWTW and LEOPARD are set in the 1860s, both movies are about a way of life ending, and both movies are epic length. I guess I was expecting all Italian directors of this time period to be practicing neo-realism. What is weird about this movie is that it stars Burt Lancaster of all people and he’s dubbed in Italian. If I’m from Italy I probably don’t notice, but it’s Burt Lancaster and I know too well what his voice sounds like and when he opens up and I hear a husky Italian voice come out of his mouth it feels weird. There is an official release English language dubbed version and I would rent it and see the whole three hours again if I knew it was Burt Lancaster’s voice. I’m interested to see some other Visconti movies to know whether or not this is typical, because this one didn’t really rock me as I had expected, though any guy will appreciate Claudia Cardinale’s presence.

TALK TO ME (2007) – Don Cheadle plays an ex-con who lips his way into a job as a radio DJ in 1960s Washington D.C. The movie is based on the true story of Petey Greene, but rather than a pure biopic, the film tries to be a panorama of politics and race relations in the late 60s. Near the end it changes focus entirely and follows Petey’s manager played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. Cheadle proves capable again and Eijofor is every bit his equal. Like most biopics they have plenty to say up front about the rise of a person, but no easy resolution. Sometimes historical figures have not the decency to die a hero or martyr for the screenwriter. Watch it if you’re in the mood for the material or skip it with little regret.

SPIDERMAN 3 (2007) – The first movie in the series was alright. The second movie was an improvement focusing on the conflict between being a hero and leading a normal life. This third film comes out of nowhere as an “everything but the kitchen sink” fiasco with too many villains, too many love interests and too many subplots. They even re-write history a little by having someone else kill Uncle Ben. The Spiderman stories are interesting for their more complex villains, but after three films, that becomes a liability. All the back stories become redundant and you long for one guy to be pure evil just for variety. The character of Spiderman ends the trilogy as more of a psychologist than a super hero. And that could have been fine had they focused on Peter Parker’s complex relationship with the new Goblin. I suppose that was too cerebral for the producers who wanted action scenes that would play better overseas. So we’re introduced to the Sandman and Venom two more bad guys that don’t mean it. They really set themselves up for a great third movie and didn’t deliver.

I AM LEGEND (2007) I would usually skip this at the theatre, but Sir Saunders and the boys were going to see it so why not. I thought the trailer looked interesting and the reviews were decent too. It based on the same source material as THE OMEGA MAN, and this one has better production values. Just a character with the whole of Manhattan to himself gives the movie an intriguing pull. It also has Will Smith going for it, a real movie star in a time of few. The plot has Smith as last man on earth fighting a gang of vampires that only come out at night. The movie grabs you in many kinds of ways. I especially fell soft for the dog, having lost my own this past year. I AM LEGEND is a vehicle movie in the best possible way.

CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938) – Gene Lockhart seems a bit too old to play Bob Cratchet and the translation isn’t nearly as grim as later ones. I guess that a plus after seeing ignorance and want between the legs of that second spirit in so many films. Lionel Barrymore was supposed to star as Scrooge, but the arthritis that would later render him to a wheelchair prevented it. If you can find a copy you have to hear the Barrymore radio interpretation of this material. Reginald Owen steps in and does a decent enough job as Scrooge. The 1951 version outdid this.

CHRISTMAS CAROL (1999) Patrick Stewart as Scrooge this time. He’s got the accent down from birth. The rest of the film follows as expected. I kept thinking that this could be a signature take on the tale, but despite Alistair Sim’s 1951 version, I still think the best telling of this material is yet to come.

A TRIBUTE TO MY "ONE-OF-A-KIND" GRANDMOTHER

My Grandmother Syble is 93 years old. She still has her cognitive faculties and is very aware. I had the wonderful privilege to live in the same town with both sets of grandparents (maternal and paternal) . My Grandmother Saunders had a profound effect on my life. She was always the happiest person I knew. She has a wonderfully optimistic attitude about life, even to this point. At this writing, she is in the hospital in the cardiac wing and denying any "extraordinary" interventions. My father says that she has a smile, even through the pain. She faces the spectre of death with the same courage as she has faced life. The family is waiting and watching.

UPDATE:
Syble Saunders passed away peacefully in her sleep early morning on April 24, 2008.

Syble was born in 1914 to a privileged southern family. She grew up, upper middle class for the time, and attended college (unheard of for her generation of women). Her father was the first to have an airplane in the county and her grandfather opened the first peanut oil mill in the State of Georgia. Her father was a traveling salesman most of his life. Her mother also worked at the local Jewelry store. The great depression hit her family very hard. Her Grandfather spent most of his fortune helping the town stay afloat and he even underwrote the local bank so it would stay solvent. While many small town banks went belly up, no one in town lost their money thanks to the goodwill of Syble's family. She married my Grandfather Bartow in 1934 and moved to Bonifay, where she resides to this day. She was certainly the power behind the throne and even managed my Grandfathers companies (which included a small-town Bank) for a number of years until she retired at 85. She taught me to play golf, to paint pictures with oils, to cook, and was the most progressive Grandmother in the universe. When I was a young teen of 16, she gave me the key to their beach cottage because, "A hotel was no place to take a young lady, so you all go to the cottage and have a nice visit there instead." But more than anything, she gave me the courage and strength to believe I could make the most of myself; believing in me when I didn't know if I could even believe in myself.

Some of the Things That Make Me Happy
by Syble Saunders
written on February 11, 2004 in response to a letter I sent her asking "Why have you remained so happy all these years?"

1. Joy and peace that Jesus gives me that passes all understanding.
2. Happiness from being loved by all my family and friends.
3. Happy Memories of my life with Bartow.
4. Happiness my grandchildren have always brought me. To watch them grow up and have children of their own. My great grandchildren, now this is Happiness that is indescribable.
5. I have a happy attitude toward life. I guess my mother taught me this, she was always happy. I can remember her singing as she dusted the house!
6. Happiness means being contented in whatever you do----no matter what it is.
7. Happiness is believing in myself and what I can do----with the good Lord's help.
8. Enjoy each day of life, and live by the golden rule–Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
9. I live by the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:16-23), Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, and Gentleness, and Self Control.
10. Ephesians 6:10-18. Every morning it makes me happy all day to have a quiet time in which I can put on the Whole armor of God. I also set this time to read my devotional, clear my mind of Earthly things and pray. Paul says in Chapter six of Ephesians, to put this on so you can fight off the schemes or on slaught of the devil and stand firm against him.

These are a few of the many things that made me happy. I feel so blessed. I never feel lonely, I never feel alone. Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. I hold each day's gifts in my heart with Joy. Realizing the shortness of life, and Joy brings peace, and Peace brings Happiness.

15 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE BUCS

- Professional baseball began near Pittsburgh in 1876 with independent teams barnstorming the area. The strongest of these organizations joined the American Association as a founding member in 1882. This early team played across the Allegheny River in what was at the time a different city, named Allegheny.

- After five mediocre seasons, the Alleghenys became the first AA team to switch associations to the older National League in 1887. Upon joining the NL, the team renamed itself the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, although Allegheny remained a separate city until it was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907. First calling themselves "Pittsburgh" in 1887, the team did not play it's first game in Pittsburgh until 1908.

- In 1890, upon the collapse of the Players' League, the Alleghenys inherited several local players. Due to a procedure mishap, they also acquired a highly-regarded player from Philadelphia, which upset the Philadelphia Athletics of the AA, leading to cries of piracy. Although the club was cleared of any wrongdoing, the Alleghenys sportingly renamed themselves the "Pirates" for the next season.

- The Pirates lost the first modern World Series in 1903 to the Boston Pilgrims. In 1909, the Pirates won the first World Series to go all seven games, over the Detroit Tigers. In 1960, the Pirates became the first team to win a World Series on a walkoff home run and are still the only team to have done so in the seventh game of the series.

- The Pirates have never developed a Hall of Fame pitcher. There are HOF pitchers who have pitched with the club but the closest they have ever come to developing one was Burleigh Grimes, who came up with the club then spent his best years in Brooklyn before reprising his career in Pittsburgh for a few years towards the end. He won 48 of 270 career victories while with the Pirates.

- The first ever MLB game broadcast on the radio was a contest between the Pirates and the host Philadelphia Phillies on August 5, 1921, carried on KDKA-AM Pittsburgh. The longest relationship between a sports team and a radio station was ended when the Pirates moved to an FM talk station for the 2007 season.

- In 1948, the Pirates completely overhauled their team colors from red, white, and blue, to black and gold. Red returned as an accent color in 1997. In the late 1950's, the Pirates popularized the sleeveless jersey look. In 1970, the team introduced pullover spandex uniforms, which were adopted by most other teams by the end of the decade. They were then one of the last teams to switch back to the traditional button-down style in 1991. The club also were innovators of the alternate jerseys during the late '70s when they would mix and match from four different looks.

- Slugger, Ralph Kiner, led the NL in home runs for seven consecutive seasons (1946-52), despite the club being one of the worst teams in the league during that span.

- The foundations of the franchise's renaissance of the 1960s-70s was built by GM Branch Rickey. Rickey put into place one of baseball's most successful farm and scouting systems and made baseball fans of Latinos with Roberto Clemente in Pittsburgh as he had done with African-Americans a decade prior with Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn.

- Manager, Danny Murtaugh, is widely credited with inventing the concept of the closer by frequently playing pitcher Elroy Face late in close games.

- On September 1, 1972, the Pirates became the first MLB team to field an all-black starting lineup: Rennie Stennett, Gene Clines, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Manny Sanguillen, Dave Cash, Al Oliver, Jackie Hernandez, and Dock Ellis.

- During the 1979 championship season, a Pirate player was designated as MVP in every available category: All-Star Game MVP (Dave Parker), NLCS MVP (Willie Stargell), World Series MVP (Stargell) and NL MVP (Stargell, shared with Keith Hernandez of the Cardinals).

- On June 8, 1989, the Pirates became the first team in MLB history to lose a game in which they scored ten runs in the first inning. Broadcaster, Jim Rooker famously proclaimed after the inning that he would walk home (from Philadelphia) if the Pirates blew the lead. He fulfilled the vow after the season by organizing a charity walk between the two cities.

- The first combined extra inning no-hitter in MLB history took place at Three Rivers Stadium on July, 12, 1997, with Francisco Cordova pitching the first nine innings and Ricardo Rincon pitching the tenth. Pinch-hitter, Mark Smith, ended the contest against the Houston Astros with a three-run walkoff home run in the bottom of the tenth to preserve the no-no.

- The Pirates have not had a winning season since Sid Bream crossed the plate in the 1992 NLCS. With an expected sub-.500 season this year, they will tie the all-time record for futility set by the Philadelphia Philles from 1933-1948. They are a favorite to break the record in 2009.