Recently the President of the United States of America won the Nobel Peace Prize. You probably heard.

I read and saw many responses (Garrison Keilor's, for example) talking of "the republicans" or "conservatives" as if they are a unified group that exists for the sole purpose of hating the current president. They are not. They are individual ( Read more... )

A few facts we could learn from history ( Read more... )

Obama says the only way to make sure everyone is covered by healthcare is a single-payer system ( Read more... )

Dangerous Minds was recorded on DVR so I must say that I didn’t really see the movie properly. I missed the start and there were commercials and all the swear words were dubbed over. Maybe the scenes that were cutout for the commercials would have made a difference, I don’t know ( Read more... )

At Quaker Meeting some weeks ago there was some interesting discussion of good and evil. When you're a pacifist, what is the best way to confront evil? When does inaction become an active stance? Can you slay a monster without becoming a monster yourself ( Read more... )

Whenever my DVR happens to record one I've been watching the new computer animated Clone Wars show on Cartoon Network. I missed the "movie" that premiered the show in theaters last year, and I don't think I've seen every episode, but it's overall a rather enjoyable diversion that sometimes feels a lot like the best of Star Wars. But it makes me ( Read more... )

Just a quick post to share this amazing link.

In 1978 George Lucas had just released Star Wars. Steven Spielberg had released Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws. These two men were Hollywood ( Read more... )

Stunningly beautiful today. Mourning Dove calls in the morning. Woodpecker, Blue Jay, and other friends swarm the feeder ( Read more... )

With Eyes Unclouded
One result of being unemployed for so long and unable to pay the rent is that I don’t spend money to go see movies. I’m woefully behind on the recent (and even not so recent) releases. This does however result in more time to catch up on titles that I do have access to, either on DVD or waiting on the DVR or downloaded or on ( Read more... )

It's come to my attention that tonight is the Academy Awards. In years past this would have been significant. In this year? Not so much. I haven't been able to keep up with movies, so I don't know if they nominated the right ones, and I haven't seen the ones they did nominate. (Except for Wall-E, which they should have had the courage to ( Read more... )