Mel Gibson's The Passion

This is a unusually sober entry for this blog.

I've read quite a bit about this movie of late since Mr. Gibson (a devot Roman Catholic) has allowed the media to pre screen a version of the movie. It will be released to the general public Easter 2004. I can't wait. In this commentary from World Net Daily, we learn even more about the purpose - to continue to spread the message of the Gospel - the good news to all the world through one more medium. According to the author, we are witnesses to the suffering of Jesus. And every time I think about it, I cry. I can't imagine how I will react to seeing it on screen.

Break out the tissue

Here is a touching story from a 9/11 widow who visited the troops in Iraq from FrontPage magazine.com.

Kudos to me!

My entry made the You're So Nashville If... edition of the Nashville Scene. My entry:
You're so Nashville if you know the difference between pilates and a paleta.

Read the rest of them at their website.

If you missed it

Shame on you. My birthday was yesterday. Belated gifts, cards, and expressions of regret may be sent to pink_kitty_post@yahoo.com .

A reminder

My birthday is Sunday. I'll be 28. Gifts, cards, expressions of joy may be sent to pink_kitty_post@yahoo.com .

A funny...

Last night, Andrea and I were on our way out of Pirates of the Caribbean (a fine movie.. Orlando Bloom... ). We walked by this one young man and we could hear music coming from his baggy jeans. When we were out of earshot, Andrea turned around and said "My pants got their own soundtrack."

OK - maybe it isn't as funny to you as it was to me. I'm still laughing about it. Think about it: if your pants had a soundtrack, what kind of music would they have?

Busted, old, and tight jeans - country
Baggy, saggy, hang down to your tushie - hip hop
Jeans paired with a white t-shirt - Eminem

"My pants got their own soundtrack.." HILARIOUS!

Operation Iraqi Freedom as Lord of the Rings?

Yep- an excellent analogy from this World Net Daily columnist.

Your daily funny

I love Dave Barry. He's funny, smart, hints at libertarian philosophy... :)

Here's a funny column on a weekend with his 3 year old daughter. Best line.. because it makes the lifestyle that all of my dolls when I was little make sense: "It is not clear who is paying for this lifestyle. Maybe somewhere there are a bunch of licensed taxpayer characters."

hahahahahahahaha

I haven't said it in two days

My birthday is July 27th. Put it on your calendar so you don't forget.

Only government...

This is just stinkin' outrageous! OH MY GOD! Can you believe this? The city of New York must be desperate for cash.

Good news from Iraq

All we hear about on the news are the reports of US soldiers being attacked and dying... ungrateful Iraqis staging riots and protests... and foreign ministers calling for the US to pull out and even for the return of Saddam Hussein. Here's a report from Front Page Magazine of a reporter recently returned and he has a very different picture.

In the "You'll regret that later.." category

I think the tattoo thing has gone too far.

OK so I don't always check for urban legends...

As first posited by posters in the fark.com forum, huntingforbambi.com is a hoax (there are no $10K hunts) and it's just an elaborate set up to sell videos.

See the article on snopes.com.

But regardless of the fact that it's a front for an escort service and selling porn, it does raise the question of what can consenting adults do, again legitmately asked by the US Supreme Court a couple of weeks ago in the Texas sodomy case.

To what extent should the government regulate the private lives of its citizens? What is the age of consent? Rightly argued by those in favor of leaving the Texas law alone: 1) it's a state matter - not a Constitutional/federal matter. 2) will this open a flood gate and give legitmacy/legal presidence to those with very extreme "tastes" (i.e. sleeping with dead people or animals).

In respect to pedophilia (I'm sure I've misspelled that but - hey - get over it), the general feeling is Europe is to lower the age of consent. Some feel the US Supreme Court was playing to European sensibilities and not functioning in its appropriate role. I think in some places, even in the US, it's 13 or 14. I've been of the opinion, and this blog has said many times, if you are of legal age, you are free to make your own decisions. BUT you must also bear the consequences of those decisions no matter what they may be. Now, if you run around with a "bambi" and get caught or get a disease, you got what you deserved for your behavior and failing to take precautions. Is it your significant other's fault if s/he gets ill because of your running around? Yes and no. You lied, therefore they didn't have all the information to say "Eww.. I don't want to be with you." But did they ask the question in the first place? If your "bambi" kills you, then s/he should be locked away for murder and reap that set of consequences.

Point is: you shouldn't run around in the first place!

But what about 13 year olds? Can they make the same moral judgements as an 18 year old? Or a 25 year old? From my own experience, my thought pattern, my reasoning capability as a 27 year old (soon to be 28 - don't forget, my birthday is coming up) is VASTLY different than when I was 13. Thank God in Heaven for that! At 13, I was driven by impulse and emotion and generally didn't have a stinkin' clue as to what was going on around me. I was pretty much that way for years. I never stopped to consider "If I do A, what will happen?" The unfortunate thing is that many people no longer stop to consider the consequences of their behavior on themselves or the others they meet.

In the world of insane lawsuits

We can all be highly amused by the court system. A woman spills hot coffee on herself in the parking lot and sues McDonalds because the coffee was hot. Well, imagine that... hot coffee! Next time, order it iced for safety's sake.

But this one takes the cake. In Australia, a doctor has been successfully sued to pay for a child that was born after a tubal ligation was performed. My questions for the plantiffs:

1) Didn't you know that tubal ligation isn't nearly as effective as a vascetomy?

2) Why is it the woman's responsiblity for pregnancy prevention? Didn't her husband consider having his parts nipped and tucked? It would have been a double shot and ensured extra protection.

3) Don't you know that sex=possiblity of getting pregnant? You must since you have 2 other children and I doubt they were immaculate conceptions.

4) Have you EVER heard of the concept of personal responsiblity??? Would you sue the condom manufacturers if that was your method of choice and you still got prenant? I bet you would.

They are just proof positive that the gene pool needs to be cleansed.. much like the partcipants of huntingforbambi.com.

I read a reply on a board about the huntingforbambi thing that said "don't these ----- know that bambi in the movie was a boy?"

Heh.

Hunting for Bambi

I only hate a couple of Disney movies. Pocahontas is one. It's heavy self-righteous tree hugger tone that somehow native peoples were more environmentally senstive than the explorers was just sick. Stupid revisionist history.

I also hate Ol' Yeller. I love dogs. I had a dog 6 weeks before I was born and have one ever since. The poor old dog getting shot at the end hurts.

And I hate Bambi. Thumper is cute and all but, you know.. weeping forest animals and a fawn yelling "mama!" shoots off the cuteness scale to the point of being nausiating. It IS too much for any one person to watch.

But, this really isn't about Disney movies. It's about a website called huntingforbambi.com. You can read about here on the safe-for-work version at foxnews.com. The premise is that guys pay $10K to hunt naked women in the Las Vegas desert for 3 days and shoot at them with paint guns.

Right or wrong is a matter of personal opinion. I feel that consenting adults are responsible for the consequences of their own actions. I was bothered by a video I saw a couple of days ago on this story where the guy after bringing down a 'bambi' groped her for oh... probably 15 seconds and discussed mounting her. And I think we both know what 'mounting' means. And the woman just has to lay there and play dead. I don't know any guy who's gone hunting and fondled the deer after killing it.

This is just twisted. It plays into wierd fantasies on both sides. Men: cave man instincts of hunting and possibly taking their aggression out on women. I wonder if any have pulled them across the dirt by their hair a la cartoon style. Women: fantasies of the chase, being the object of a man's single focus (as we all know most men have one track minds and don't multi-task too well), and of being completely dominated.

And one of the bambi's said that s/he liked to be pampered - at the guys expense. Well duh! Who doesn't! That has about as much sense to me as "I don't like getting my foot run over with a car." It's just a fact of life. We all like to be pampered now and again.

Speaking of - my birthday is coming up in 11 days... I'm in need of some pampering :) Any takers?

Tennessee has a good tax system

Of course we do: we don't have an income tax. Taxes are evil... they make goverment even bigger, more dominant, and more pervasive in our lives. In this wonderful article by Allan Reynolds, you can read about which states are screwing up when it comes to taxes (*cough cough* California) and which are doing the right thing (Texas - it's cutting its budget this year! SHOCK!)

Remember: taxes started the Revolutionary war in 1776.. and they started the Star Wars trilogy in Episode 1.

What did he know and when did he know it?

To borrow a bit from Watergate. It looks like - if the Democratic Presidential candidates have their way - there will be Uranium-gate for President Bush. OK - so the President said that Iraq attempted to buy uranium in Africa based on British intelligence. The Brits are standing by their intel. Just because Saddam went looking doesn't mean that he bought anything. I go to the store and look for shoes... but I may not buy any. Duh.

Inmate Online Personals

This is the second article I've read in two days about various inmates placing ads for pen pals and more on a couple of different internet sites. The first was about a man who was convicted of murdering a 13 year old he met online and several years later posted another personal ad seeking pen pals. Sick sick sick. The article did say that inmates.com pulled the ad without hesitation once contacted by prison authorities.

This one is about Susan Smith. Remember her? Almost 10 years ago, she pushed her car into John D. Long lake in South Carolina with her two babies, Michael and Alex, strapped in the back seat in cold-blooded murder. Even her picture is posted there. OK - maybe I should show her some compassion - I will do that by not writing her. But here, she deserves to be in prison for the rest of her natural life. I hope that she has met God, because He can forgive anything.. His grace is much more expansive than mine.

A Pair of articles on the 'decent' of man

Hey - guess what! I like men. Yay for men! Whoo-hoo! Men make up the other half the gene pool and I'm in desperate need of one if I ever get married or want to have children. Being a lesbian or in vitro fertilization just.. don't do it for me.

So, I was a bit amused to see 2 articles today on the topic of the decline of men and again how it sucks to be a man in today's society. (Bet the feminists would be surprised.. it must just suck to be alive today no matter what gender!!!!)

The first: by Maureen Dowd says this is a good thing. Then again, she is a liberal feminist.

The second: largely a carbon of the first isn't nearly as ugly... and right now I can't find the link. If I find it, I will edit the post. But there were two!

"Give Me Doubleplusgoodness or Give Me Death!"

In this article by Wendy McElroy, see how Newspeak is slowly taking over the English language... and how much closer to the Orwellian world than we really think.

Star Wars Episode III gossip

I'm trying to decide how much I want to see Episode III given that Episodes I and II rank up there with some of the worst movies ever made. On poster in a thread on this topic said that we in our late 20's and 30's remember the original movies with nostalgia because we were kids when they came out.. and George Lucas was marketing to kids (you had the toys, didn't you! Me too!!!). I disagree. The movies were just plain bad. The writing sucked. The acting was stilted and un-natural. One of the seminal scenes of Episode II where Anakin kneels at the foot of his mother's grave was so unreal - the psychology of grief and anger was not there. It was Hayden Christensen acting poorly. And as much as I love Ewan McGregor, even he wasn't that good.

I digress - here's the link to the gossip. Don't read it if you don't want what could be a spoiler.

America the not-so brave

Vox Day is one of my favorite columnists. He ranks right up there with John Leo and Wendy McElroy among those that I just have to read every week. You should read it too if you knew what's good for you. Here's this week's column about how America is just fat and lazy.. and fearful of its own government. Sounds like 1984 to me.

My hero

This man took revenge on the telemarketers... and won! Ha Ha!

From my best friend Andrea

An excellent thought on how to handle immigration:

THE # 1 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: You read about all these terrorists -- most of them came here legally, but they hung around on these expired visas, some for as long as 10 -15 years. Now, compare that to Blockbuster;
you are two days late with a video and those people are all over you. Let's put Blockbuster in charge of immigration.

Why I'm not a Democrat

Or at the least, why I'm glad I'm not a Democrat. Here's a good example of why... all of the current Democratic Presidential candidates want to repeal the Bush Tax cuts and raise them back to what Clinton had during the boom '90s.

Think about it this way: the citizenry is NOT some bottomless pit that government can continue to draw from and expect growth in the overall economy. The more they suck away in taxes, the less people will have to spend on goods such as homes, cars, washing machines, and DVD's. Because they have less money to spend on goods, production has to be decreased. People lose their jobs and are forced to go onto government assistance. And because more people are now asking for help from the government, the government turns around and says to the few people still working for a living "We need to raise taxes..." and they do it, starting the nasty cycle all over again.

Taxes are evil.

Do you like low fat Oreos?

I didn't think so. I think this is just stupid. Kraft has announced that it will make smaller portions and lower fat versions of all its products.

And you know McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, et al. now have salads? It's stave off the impending lawsuits that says it's McDonalds that makes people eat 3 Big Macs.. and not the individual chewing on them. I don't think any of these companies have marketed themselves as health food stores... ever and it's been years since they talked about health benefits of hamburgers (unless you are on the Atkins plan). COME ON! It's not Ronald McDonald's fault. He didn't hold a gun to your head and make you eat at his place.

SHOW SOME FREAKIN' PERSONAL RESPONSBILITY and move your tushie off the couch and NOT to the courtroom.