Saturday, December 30, 2006

American Justice

The Scapegoat is dead.







Long live the scapegrace.

First, The U.S. sets Hussein up in power and provides him with WMD to fight our Commie and Ayatollah enemies. Then, when the economic interests of the Bush family comes to supercede our true national interests, our scapegrace president declares war a second time on Iraq and leads our former satrap to the gallows.

And don't think bin Laden isn't getting a chuckle out of this.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Contractors

We all have had experiences with the contractors from hell, but sometimes there is a good experience to report. One recent Sunday morning, during an early morning trot, I heard a radio commercial by Dwight Esnard for his Mesa Garage Door company.

When I got home a gave him a call. Tiffany answered and set me up with an early appointment for an estimate. Two days later, Jim came to the house and gave us a sensible seeming presentation of his product and installation procedures. I quickly checked with Home Depot and a couple of other garage door people, but none of them came up to the material, price, service, warranty or comfort zone that Jim and his materials offered.

So we ordered the installation for a few days later. Roberto and his assistant arrived on time last Thursday, quickly installed the door, electric operator and equipment, plus security features that I had not considered, in a very satisfying clean and professional manner.

We also had a good experience with the furnace repair man last week. Maybe we are on a roll.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Black hole is caught tearing a star apart

From Times Staff and Wire Reports
December 9, 2006

"A giant black hole has been spotted guzzling a star in a galaxy 4 billion light-years away in the Bootes constellation, according to scientists using the Galaxy Evolution Explorer orbiting telescope. "Only once every 10,000 years will a star pass close enough to a [galaxy's] central black hole to be ripped apart and swallowed in this manner," said Suvi Gezari of Caltech, lead author of the paper in the Dec. 10 Astrophysical Journal Letters."

What a wonderful story. It starts: Once upon a time... 4 billion light-years away!

Roll that around in your puny little earthling brain. A miraculous, space-floating, GEE telescope is enabling some of us to gaze at least 4 billion light-years away -- not mention how far into the past that must be. How clever is that! God seems to be alive and well at Caltech.

Who else could have enlightened Suvi Gezari that the neolithic era of Stoners were the last known humans to note that same astral phenomenon some 10,000 years ago.


This is how Biblical type fantasies are woven. A vicious black hole guzzling, ripping apart and swallowing a twinkling little star that just happened to be passing by. How can you not believe in a Greater Power? Or Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

Get ready for the wonderful new theologies and fairy tales the high priests of astronomy will bring us in the new millenium.




Russian Spy

I don't get it. Can someone explain to me what this fuss about the probable assassination of a Russian spy is all about? Aren't spies supposed to get killed? What is 007--a license to intimidate?

With all the slaughtering of innocent beings going on in this world how am I supposed to get worked up about the death of a spy? Is this attention just a lot of egregious reportage, or am I just an aging relic of Cold War melodrama?

Monday, December 04, 2006

Award Season

I don't go into movie theaters much any more. Both the product and the audiences leave a lot to be desired. But the Award Season and its Guild and Academy freebies does draw me out a little.

HOLLYWOODLAND was a bit of a pleasant surprise. Not much of a story, but a fairly good mood and some excellent acting by the whole cast. Adrien Brody got some pretty short shrift from the critics, but his is an excellent performance, so much so that I am looking forward to his future work.

FIND ME GUILTY, now on DVD, is good entertaining corn, though based on the actual trial of a large New York, New Jersey "Family." It was especially satisfying to see Vin Diesel return to a human level character performance. His action personna of recent films has overshadowed his previously recognized acting ability and charm.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is a trite, predictable and irritating feel-good fable of a dysfunctional family that becomes an unmotivated love-functioning family during a serious of improbable and uninventive on-the-road experiences. This movie is the only box-office hit of this group, but then Dr. Phil does reign on TV.

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