I could write a really long review, but I won't

I just can't do it justice. Do what justice, you ask? Sidra saw LOTR: The Two Towers on Sunday.

My mind still isn't sitting right inside my head.

There is, however, one moment that I'll share, that shored up my faith for a while in the basic goodness of humanity. Everyone in the movie theater held their breath -- every single one of us -- when Treebeard stepped out of the forest, carrying Merry and Pippin, and saw what Isengard had become.

That was a truly visceral and personal condemnation of blind progress for progress's sake, and one that completely stopped the audience in its tracks.

USA Patriot A*r*t

FREEDOM ILLUSTRATED -- The Art of Civil Liberties

"Artists have always been at the forefront of the global fight for free expression. Recently, they have pricked the nation's conscience in the face of Government assaults on individual rights in the name of national security."

"Beginning this month, the ACLU will present civil liberties issues online through the eyes of political cartoonists and other artists. This rotating feature will change periodically, and will cover breaking news on the full gamut of civil liberties issues. "

Go and look.

This is Sick

You sick, trigger-happy, pieces of shit. I hope you never enjoy a moment's peace. Tennessee police shoot family dog during erroneous pullover of North Carolina family. Idiots, idiots, idiots.

I am serious about my patriotism, which is why I get so angry, so worried about what's happening in my country right now. It's stories like this, and those of pregnant woman getting manhandled in airport security, of more and more mid-level authority figures over-the-fuck-reacting, as well as the Big-Time Fears™ of the US Constitution being fucking trampled on, that make me want to turn and RUN for the nearest border. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200. Just get out.

I am worse than appalled. I am flabbergasted and sickened.

Speaking of...

Lathe of Heaven films -- now on DVD, even the 1980 PBS one! Yes!

*click* *click*

Ordered. Ain't Amazon grand?

Define "wartime president"

Court Rules U.S. Can Hold Citizens as 'Enemy Combatants'

How Appealling scooped 'em all.

Grass-Roots v. National-Level Activism and the "Younger Generation(s)"

I was listening to NPR yesterday to a report on the students of a high school (either in Trenton NJ, or University City -- Philadelphia) who were participating in community service as part of their junior high/high school education. (Apparently it's the norm these days to require community service. I'm not so sure I'm happy with the mandatory nature of this, but that's not what I'm here to talk about.)

So, these kids are off developing great habits of helping members of their community, directly, individually, personally, and you know what the program is complaining about? That the kids aren't pursuing their activism at a national level.

Well, you can just cry me a river.

Honestly, I listened to this and said to myself, no matter what we "young people" do, the Boomer generation is always going to bitch about it.

Participating in grass-roots activism? Well, then why aren't you working at a national level?

Working at a national level? Well, then why aren't you serving your immediate community? There are soup kitchens that need staffing, dammit! (Be sure to accompany this with an outraged fist-on-the-table pounding.)

Why is individual activism attractive to people of my generation and younger? The post-Boomer era? I'll tell you why:

1. I can see the impact I have, right up front, and know that I'm truly affecting my community.
2. I've spent my entire life being yelled at by large blocs that my individual view isn't important, but hand over the money.
3. If I join a national organization, I'm furthering your agenda. If I lay my hands, money, and mind directly on the line, I'm furthering MY agenda. Given the ease of immediate, personal and direct speech, a la the Internet, why would I want 80% of my dollar to go to your ends? Sure, if I didn't have a closer, more direct outlet, I'd be pouring my heart and soul into NOW or the ACLU, trying to have an impact through that organization, and rightly so. But I don't need to.

Oh, poor you, big national structure suddenly abandoned. Gee.

So what. Who cares if we're the "Quieter Generations"? The ones who go volunteer in soup kitchens. Who fund scholarships at our local high school. Who buy books for the library one block over. Who give money to save the county animal shelter.

These are all things that need to be done, and they don't conflict with national activism. These high schoolers aren't going to skip voting because they're active on the local level. (No, they'll skip voting because they feel it has no impact. Recent presidential election a case in point). And as they get older, their idea of community, of local, will get much, much bigger.

So, be happy to see local activism. Because building a good world, and being a decent person is not just about federal legislation, about activism at the national level. Not just? More like hardly ever.

If you want to read an interesting book on the political activism of the "younger set", check out A New Kind Of Party Animal, by Michele Mitchell. The next time I hear someone lament about my slacker generation, I'm going to smack them in the face with a copy of it.

Go, Apple!

Apple's Keynote gearing up to go toe-to-toe against Microsoft Powerpoint.

"In August, the two companies let lapse a five-year deal that required Microsoft to develop software for the Mac platform. "

Interesting, interesting.

Big Truth Never Gets Obsolete

Really big, important truths never die, ever notice that?

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

via Dollmont, thanks!


"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." -- Ben Franklin


Biblio

• Dollmont
• Patterson For Land Commissioner Amazingly, this is a political site with actual, y'know, issues. I'm stunned. I'm not even from Texas and I'm reading this site. Running for office? Take notes.
• Conservative Forum

All-Time Cute Award

Cutest. Thing. Of. All. Time. I shit you not.

Here.

courtesy of Escribitionist, a most witty and erudite person.

Insert Severe Eye-Rolling Here

Pakistani Jeweler's photo distributed by US's FBI.

'Cept, the poor guy's never been to the US. He tried to get into Britain using falisified papers, the photo from which may have been used by the person really being sought, under a different name.

Pres. Bush's response?

"Kind of curious to know why he needs a false passport," Bush told reporters during a tour of his Crawford, Texas ranch Thursday. "We like things above board here in America."

"We need to follow up on forged passports and people trying to come into our country illegally," Bush said.

That's lovely, except this fellow was going to Britain, not the US, and courtesy of this whole Revolution thing a bunch of colonies staged around the late 1700's after feeling their rights as subjects of the Crown weren't being recognized, which resulted in their ceasing to be subjects of said Crown, the US is not part of Britain. (Yes, I heard your sigh of relief from here.)

Spiff!

Twilight Zone collections on DVD, in a decent bundle. At last, at last, at last...

Not Good At All

Various species are demonstrably responding to the current 1-degree-so-far (Fahrenheit) temperature change in Earth's climate.

would FOTR, by any other author, smell as sweet?

I think not. See for yourself. I'm exceptionally fond of the George Orwell version.

Kudos to BoLS, for the tip!

Appellete Blog

If you have a fondness for the law in the US, you might like to check out How Appealling, "The Web's first blog devoted to appellate litigation". Very interesting stuff, and a good sense of humour.

Trip Report

I like Philadelphia, and the suburb where I spent most of the past week. I like Janis' family, and I adore S's gun collection, or, I should say, the portion of it I saw. Wow.

I like The City, what I saw of it:

• Various train terminals (I love traveling by train, so this is a plus)


• City Hall (from the outside)


• Reading Terminal Market


• Devon Seafood Grill (Atlantic salmon, yum)


• The Curtis Bldg and the Maxfield Parrish/Tiffany "Dream Garden" mosaic inside it


• The Bishop White House (from the outside)


• The City Tavern (good food, good beer!)


• Independence Hall


• Magna Carta ca 1297, signed by King Edward I. I had no idea parts of the US Constitution were lifted, wording and all, from Magna Carta. Ideas, yes, complete phrases, I didn't know that. That's so darn cool.


• Statues of various dead white guys that'll be going in the under-construction Constitution Hall: Thomas Fitzsimmons, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Hamilton. (Oh, here, cool: bios of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the US Constitution)


• The Liberty Bell


• Congress Hall (part of the Independence Hall 'complex', as is much of what I list here, or in its immediate environs)


• Strawbridge's, a department store


• Philadelphia Exchange (from the outside)


• Polish American Center (from the outside)


• The Center for Judaic Studies (from the outside), which prompted commentary primarily due to the name of the larger building it resides in: General Accident. Oh, wait! We were supposed to put the building over here! Oops.


• The Bourse (from the outside)

I bought a few maps. Got the City Tavern cookbook from Janis. Good food from everywhere. It was too cold for everyone I was with (skinny, uninsulated people all of them -- just remember they all get to laugh at me when it's hot) so a lot of the outdoors walking was at a cramp-inducing scurry (20 minutes of excruciating pain is not too high a price for pay, though...at least everything loosens up afterwards). Didn't get to gawk at the buildings as much as I would have liked as a result.

One thing I commented on at the time and will comment on here: having a physical context to provide a sense of immediacy and realness to the study of history makes such a big difference I must make the following observation: You can read books about history. And you can stand where the history happened and see it with your own eyes.

If I had a zillion dollars, I would spend a chunk of it sending junior high and high schoolers to Philadelphia for 2 weeks of hands-on history. Of, course, if I had a zillion dollars, I'd be doing quite a few other things as well.

Being such a young nation, the US really falters where history is concerned, in part, I think, because it is so hard to get that real feel from a textbook. If there are few historical centers associated with the birth of my nation, there is next to nothing associated with anyone else's country, be it birth, growing pain, or demise.

I come from the second-youngest state in this Union. (Oh, spiff, the Alaska State Constitution. Neat.) There's a whole lot of nothing as far as history is concerned where I come from. It was a frontier. The land was purchased in 1867, became a US territory in 1912, and a state in 1959. Pennsylvania was one of the founding colonies, its charter was signed in 1681 -- it predates the US itself. There's thousands of miles, a couple centuries and a wealth of experience between those two sentences. It amazes me we're in the same nation.

(oh, and since someone asked:

Eight stars of gold on a field of blue,
Alaska’s flag, may it mean to you,
The blue of the sea, the evening sky,
The mountain lakes and the flowers nearby,
The gold of the early sourdough’s dreams,
The precious gold of the hills and streams,
The brilliant stars in the northern sky,
The "Bear," the "Dipper," and shining high,
The great North Star with its steady light,
O’er land and sea a beacon bright,
Alaska’s flag to Alaskans dear,
The simple flag of a last frontier.

Now you know the Alaska state song.)