Hateful Protests

I can't recommend enough the blog of Professor Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com. I don't always agree with the guy (quite often, in fact, I don't) but he posts some great stuff, like this article from Dave Barry:

You know what I miss? I miss 1960. Not the part about my face turning overnight into the world’s most productive zit farm. What I miss is the way the grown-ups acted about the Kennedy-Nixon race. Like the McCain-Obama race, that was a big historic deal that aroused strong feelings in the voters. This included my parents and their friends, who were fairly evenly divided, and very passionate. They’d have these major honking arguments at their cocktail parties. But unlike today, when people wear out their upper lips sneering at those who disagree with them, the 1960s grown-ups of my memory, whoever they voted for, continued to respect each other and remain good friends.

...they were capable of understanding a concept that we seem to have lost, which is that people who disagree with you politically are not necessarily evil or stupid...They did not argue by calling each other names, which is pointless and childish, and which constitutes I would estimate 97 percent of what passes for political debate today. (emphasis mine)

I think he's right, hatred won't help anything. The protesters I see on the news are usually just spreading hatred around and I can't imagine what good it does.

But, not all protesting is bad, and sometimes it's funny.

The Stupid Shows I Watch...

Do you understand what it is like to enjoy a show or movie but know that you can't tell anyone, even nerds, that you like it? My friend, Amy, just finished a blog post about her closet shows and I decided to follow suit. Here's my list of shows that I am ashamed to like so much.

Forever Knight - Amy listed this one as well. It's a fantastically corny show about the journey of a Canadian Vampire cop (he works the night shift) who wants to be human, the human woman he loves, and his evil vampire 'father', with whom he has a rather complex relationship (to say the least).



Due South - Yeah, the other show about a pale Canadian cop. This one's about a mounty who gets stationed at the Canadian consulate in Chicago while on the trail of his father's killers and ends up staying in Chicago where his dorkyness is paired with a street smart detective. Very funny show.


Dune - No, not the Dune that the Sci-Fi channel made. This is the one all of the fans hate because it was so different from the book and it doesn't make any sense. I know everyone hates it, but I can't stop watching this strange twisted film. (It does have Patrick Stewart.) One of the weirdest films you will (n)ever see.


1994 Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes Returns! - Yeah, this one is as 'made for TV' as it sounds. I recorded it when I was young and never got tired of its campy adventures. It's fun watching Holmes in modern times, even when it's corny.


Friday the 13th - I'll watch anything with gore and suspense. These films are the best representation of our culture's 'slasher' mythology. (I could go on for hours about the philosophy behind horror movies and the nature of monsters in film and literature, but I won't.)


Breakfast at Tiffany's - The best 'chick flick' ever. It uses romance to open the door to a very deep conversation about the human condition. Here's the best part.

You know what's wrong with you, Miss Whoever-you-are? You're chicken, you've got no guts. You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, "Okay, life's a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness." You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.
[takes out the ring and throws it in Holly's lap]
Here. I've been carrying this thing around for months. I don't want it anymore.

Can you tell me about any films you are ashamed to watch?

Pastor Asks Church Members to Have Sex Every Day for a Week. Expects Low Evening Attendance.

Ed Young made waves this week by asking the married couples in his congregation to have sex every day for a week. (That's peanuts, this guy asked his congregation to do it for 30 days straight.) I don't know why, but these stories always get a lot of press. It didn't make news when my pastor preached on loving gays or when we built homes for the homeless, but asking married people to get it on will, apparently, get your church into the paper.

This request can sound silly to some people, but it's really a great idea for older couples that have gotten out of the habit. Sex, for a married couple, is emotionally intimate and is an extension of the trust and happiness that the two people find in each other, among other things. (I understand that the sex that goes on at college drinking parties is quite different, but we're not talking about that, today.) In order for a married couple to have sex for seven days on end, they must not go to bed angry with one another for that long. If the two are lecturing each other about what they did wrong that day or harboring some unspoken bitterness, you can bet that their evenings will be uneventful.

It isn't completely about the sex. (But, it is mostly about the sex.) In general, a married couple that has regular sex is getting along well, thus the couple is happy and the home is more stable, which is good for the children. (Who are bound to come along if this trend keeps up.)

I'm glad that this sort of thing has caught on in churches and I hope that married couples everywhere can learn to benefit from it. (Here's more on the idea behind this challenge, if you are interested.)

Gays Attack Rick Warren's Church (It Sounds Like Something From The Onion...)

While Obama was being elected as the next President of the United States, California quietly passed the now infamous proposition 8, which has effectively banned gay marriage in that state. An angry group of homosexuals have been rioting ever since and their protests have become so violent that an old lady who was being interviewed by a news outlet was harassed by a crowd who pulled a cross out of her hands and stomped on it. (The blogger over at the Gay Patriot is asking if any grown ups are there.)

Glenn Reynolds (who certainly doesn't consider himself to be a Christian) has been defending the Christians involved, which is probably the first time he has done that since I started reading his blog. He wonders why these angry gay activists are not taking out their anger on Mosques, of course, that would be a hate crime.

There is a terrible rift between America's Christians and America's homosexuals and this doesn't have to be the case. We can blame some of this on foolish Christians who have blamed gays for hurricane Katrina or insisted that every gay person is a child molester. This is not the view of most Christians, only of a small few, but as always that vocal minority has made the rest of us look bad. (Rick Warren is not a gay basher, so it is unfair that his high profile church is under attack.)

Let's take this opportunity to get rid of the "us vs. them" attitude between Christians and gays and not add to the clamor. Let's show the homosexuals in our families and at our jobs that we not interesting in fighting them, but in showing true Christian love to them.

I watched Moulin Rouge for the first time...

Recently, my wife decided that it was time for me to watch Moulin Rouge!. (She had recently suffered through the Mystery Science Theater version of Werewolf for me, so it was only fair that I watch a sissy musical with her.)

In case you don't know, Ewan McGregor has got an incredible voice, I've never heard anything like it. Also there is some cool cinematography, but my praise of this picture ends there.

The only thing Hollywood loves more than Jennifer Aniston is pretending that they are part of a struggling theater act. I don't know why, but the subject matter of top plays and films is often a theater production, like Chicago, or something that goes behind the stage of a show, like Dreamgirls. This is every actor's favorite storyline but I don't know why.

The second favorite storyline is the Cinderella one, where a poor person marries a rich one. Again, I don't know why elite socialite actors think that they can relate to this one.

In the Moulin Rouge! story, a Bohemian wants to marry a rich whore. Sorry, I mean lounge dancer. No, I meant to say whore. Anyway, The audience wonders (1) if the struggling theater act will open to a large audience (and if they will get shut down by 'the man') and (2) whether the girl (whore) will choose to fall in love with the Bohemian writer or the rich guy (who, conveniently, happens to be 'the man' in this story, as well).

Does Hollywood expect me to believe that they can relate to these struggles? How many A-List actors have ever met and married a commoner who saw them at a show and fell in love with them? Am I expected to believe that these socialites really idealize a Bohemian lifestyle when their bodygaurds escort them to their mansions at the end of the day? These actors, who are adored by all and have everything they want, can only pretend to know what it is like to worry about their next paycheck or to love someone who seems to be out of their league. If Hollywood types really cared about the things they portray in these films they would date ordinary people and fund local theaters. Are any of them doing that?

These films always seem empty to me because I don't believe that the actors involved really understand the struggles they portray. I believed it when it was Jimmy Stewart, but not anymore.

Michael Crichton has Died

Michael Crichton has died of cancer, today. He is most known for his work Jurassic Park and the creation of the show E.R., but he is the author of numerous books and I have never stopped reading some of them. In middle school/high school I read Jurassic Park nearly ten times. Since then, I have read Congo and Sphere about once every two years. Crichton and King have dominated bookstore shelves for as long as I can remember.

As a Harvard Grad (M.D.) his views on science have been taken very seriously, but his statement that 'Environmentalism is a religion' earned him a great deal of criticism. He has often pointed his finger at poorly constructed scientific ideals like man-man global warming and the idea of nuclear winter. Not everyone agreed with him, but he did a brave thing by standing up to scientific paradigms. (And he sold a lot of books doing so.)

As a Medieval historian, I can tell you that in his book Timeline, a story of scientists who travel to the middle ages, he does a fantastic job of quoting his sources and explaining his research. (The movie sucks.) I wish every paper I read could be as thoroughly notated as that work of fiction.

Crichton introduced me to quantum physics, historical snobbery, the physics of space travel, the Congo, and a working knowledge of DNA. My point of view would be very different if he had not published books. He will be missed.