Issue 140

News: Barack and Beethoven?
Recently, around last week, I got two things that I've wanted for a long time: One of them is a copy of Herbert von Karajan's 1963 cycle of Beethoven's symphonies (as heard in A Clockwork Orange), which I've only wanted for about a year or two, and something I've wanted ever since George W. Bush took power (I will not say "got elected," because that implies he achieved power from a mandate of the masses, which his first election clearly wasn't), and that is a president who intends to keep America from going on the same path to ruin it has been taking since 2001. In the latter case, I am, of course, talking about Barack Obama. For as long as I've known that he actually had some sort of chance, I have supported him. I may not have mentioned him much in the past 24 months, but I can only state that I have supported him all the way. I can't quite say that I agree with him so much that my only disagreements with him are in what car to drive (to paraphrase Ted "the Elephant Preacher" Haggard), but still I am sure that there is no way whatsoever that he can do as bad as Bush has, even if it turned out that he was really "The Smiler" from Transmetropolitan, which is, of course, impossible. So what if some people still think he's a muslim? What would even make a muslim less qualified to run this country than somebody who seems to run the world based around the idea that Jesus is coming soon, so we should immanetize the eschaton and make the world worse to ensure he comes back? This is supposed to be a happy occasion, one marked by a day when we can finally celebrate the day when 55% of us decided that the way things were happening in 2008 shouldn't go on any longer, and, for the first time in a long time, Americans can finally actually hear the words to Beethoven's Ode To Joy (at least in Translation), and upon reading the lyrics in translation, can actually appreciate them as freedom actually isn't in Jeopardy. Of course, I'm probably romanticising this too much, but this is certainly very good news, to say the least.

Band Name of the Day: Bam Bam Aram. From the parody of The Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann" contained in the movie Surf Ninjas, reviewed in the link below.

Film Idea of the Day: I am seriously considering ways that Nabokov's seemingly unfilmable novel "Pale Fire" can be made into a film. Here's my idea for the film: the movie is done as a mockumentary about the poet John Shade, who will be played by the same person who plays Charles Kinbote. As the annotations in the original book end up turning away from the poem, the film should end up focusing less on Shade and more on Kinbote's claims.

Film Review of the Day: The Brave One. Simply put, Jodie Foster ends up becoming Bernie Goetz and actually gets away with it. As simplistic as my description was, I still must say that the movie was pretty well done. Considering that I like both the star (Foster) and the director (Neil Jordan), this is much what I expected.

Quote of the Day:
"A conservative and a liberal are walking along the beach when they see a man drowning a hundred feet off shore. The conservative throws him a 50 foot rope and shouts to the victim "You provide the other fifty feet." The liberal throws the man a 200 foot rope...and lets go of both ends."
__________Anonymous. Why Andrew Schlafy decided that this would be a good "Conservative Parable" when it denigrates both liberals and conservatives is beyond me.

Link Of the Day: That Guy With The Glasses. He reviews bad movies, and condenses good movies, with a little help from his friends.

Issue 139

News/Review: Expelled: There's a reason it is.
In the last entry, I mentioned that I had wanted to see Expelled, mainly to write a column here to see how much bull it was, but my usual channels failed me. Finally, I looked on YouTube, and it was there, and so, I finally saw it. I was right, and even though I finally watched it, it was very much what I had expected it to be: a movie about Ben Stein griping about how Intelligent Design is "persecuted." What I didn't expect was that he would actually fail to try and give any real argument about why it should be considered at all more valid. The closest thing he comes to creating an argument was when he claims that the odds of the first life forming are somewhere in the area of 1 in 10^72, (of course, the "scientist" quoted does only say the word trillion six times). However, even if the odds of this happening were so small, this does not necessarily mean that this is impossible. I will show you exactly how this argument is flawed. Imagine a raffle at a high school with 1000 students in the raffle, and one student wins. Another student protests that the odds of the winner winning are 1000:1, and that the winner must have cheated, failing to account for the fact that the odds of anybody else winning are about the same. The only other argument that Stein attempts to make, that evolutionary ideas were a major influence on Hitler, is very flawed, because even if science hadn't long since repudiated eugenical ideas such as Hitler's, even if there was any evidence that Hitler was more influenced by evolution than his interpretation of religion, as much as it perverted the message of (or at least the message we attribute to) Jesus, even if not for the fact that a lot of ideologies actually used and abused Darwinian ideas, even if there weren't genocides long before Darwin's theories came onto the scene (many of which were doubtlessly inspired by religion), even if not for the fact that even if he was influenced, the idea that he would have to do anything would show a gross misinterpretation of Darwin on his part, and even if there weren't more "even ifs" I could write, this argument doesn't hold water because the argument holds no real value on its scientific truth. In the end, it should be noted that THERE IS A GOOD REASON PEOPLE DON'T TEACH INTELLIGENT DESIGN IN SCHOOLS, and it's for the same exact reason we don't teach psychologists to study the irregularities in people's skulls, or that very small solutions that often for all intents and purposes add up to little more than overpriced water is good pharmacology, it's because it's been thoroughly debunked. There's my review.

Band Name of the Day: The Casino of Life. From the Expelled movie, where they decide to put the odds at the first life forming.

Film Idea: Not an idea per se, but a list of some of the parallels that brought me to see how similar the movies Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Roman Holiday really were.
*Surprisingly, they are both 118 minutes long. This is, of course, a coincidence.
*In both films, the male lead is a journalist who is covering a story with an associate (in RH, a photographer, and in FLILV, his attourney.)
*These reporters end up traveling the city with their companions.
*Both of these reporters end up failing to publish the stories they were sent to write.
*Both of them end up spending much of the time pursuing their desires, in Peck's case, Audrey Hepburn, and in Thompson's case, "Every drug known to Civilized Man since 1544 AD."

Quote of the Day: "What Gods Don't You Believe in?"
_______________Ben Stein, Expelled. I hope that he was kidding when he asked this to Richard Dawkins, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't.

Link of the Day: Two entries ago, I forgot to link to this comic.

Tract Review: Papa. After watching the Pope's funeral, a man talks with his neighbor, who informs him about how Catholicism is somehow a continuation of the ancient Roman religion.

Issue 138

News: Scientology: Another
I avoid celebrity gossip like the plague. I find no point in listening to or reading people gossiping about famous people and the things that photographers catch them doing, and for more on this view, watch the South Park episode "Britney's New Look." However, the recent death of John Travolta's son Jett has raised some particular interest in me. Apparently, Jett Travolta had a long history of seizures and eventually died of them. In many cases, medication would help them, but Scientology basically forbids its followers from taking medication when it treats any sort of mental illness, even if not taking it could mean their death. As it turns out, Scientology is probably one of the most messed up religions in America today, and this includes fundamentalist Christianity. If it actually held any real political power, or any power outside of Hollywood, I would have to say it is the most messed up. Basically, what you have is a church created by an unsuccessful Sci-Fi writer who decided that he could probably get more success as the founder of a religion. Why couldn't a better Sci-fi writer, like Robert Heinlein, have created his own religion? At least, if the viewpoints in Stranger in a Strange Land, and Job : A Comedy of Justice, are any indication, I would probably be more sympathetic (especially if we disregarded the militaristic propaganda that is Starship Troopers.) One last thing about Scientology that I'll tell you about that I find very fundamentally wrong is the Church's insistence on spoon-feeding the doctrine in small steps, and discouraging people from actually going over it themselves. Any organization which does not support independent research into it, I say is not worthy of trust, and certainly not the devotion that religion tends to demand.

Band Name of the Day: Eggo/Preggo. From Juno. Of course, the owners of the Eggo name might sue, but it's worth a try.

Film Idea of the Day: Ashley. The story is basically a very dark modern-day version of Cinderella. Some aspects I might share with you about how I will change it: It takes place in Wilmette, The protagonist's Fairy godmother is a large drug dealer with butterfly-style wings, and the ending, while good for her, does not end so happily ever after for her step-family.

Film Review of the Day: Valkyrie. In my last entry, I mentioned this film as a movie I wished I had seen in the last year. Fortunately, I saw the movie last week, and I am quite impressed. It was certainly quite an accurate depiction of the plot to kill Hitler, at least from what I've heard.

Quote of the Day: "You can serve Germany, or the Fuehrer. Not both!"
_______________Claus von Stauffenberg, Valkyrie.

Link of the Day: Just one of many websites devoted to criticism of Scientology.