A Trick and no Treat

If you come to my house begging for candy dressed up this way, you're getting a can of green beans. This one, however, will get you a 5-pound bag of the candy of your choice.

Announcing 'A Rough Cut'

Click on over to A Rough Cut for movie reviews by yours truly.

Geography Quiz, No. 2

Again, I hate to nitpick, but it's Ma-low(rhymes with cow)- ee, not Mala-weigh

Geography Quiz, No. 1

I hate to nitpick, but it's Jefferson City, not Jefferson and it's a good 100 miles west of where the star is.

The Man, the Genius, the Quotes.

"Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose."

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."

"Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong."

"I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress."

"The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination."

"Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."

"The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program."

"I've laid down the law, though, to everyone from now on about anything that happens: No matter what time it is, wake me, even if it's in the middle of a Cabinet meeting."

"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

"Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book."

"No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."

"If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

"All great change in America begins at the dinner table."

"Before I refuse to answer your questions, I have an opening statement."

"Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States."

"Facts are stubborn things."

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."

"Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver five minutes longer."

"How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."

"Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born."

A Box of Chocolates will keep you awake all night

If it's midnight and you're trying to get drowsy by flipping channels, pray you don't stumble across Forrest Gump. Not only will you have to finish it, but you'll be up until 3:30 a.m. trying to remember Gary Senise's name.

A chip off the old block?

I'm not going to enter the fray about Dr. Brister, but I did find this comparison with Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars Saga to be worth noting...

Say it isn't so!

It’s official. The issue of climate of climate change can be ignored no longer. Why? Because hell has frozen over, that’s why.

It was bad enough that The Academy saw fit to give him an Oscar, but now Al Gore, the patron saint of Global Warming and the Democrat whiners everywhere, is a Nobel Laureate (along with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

Then again, this is only to be expected, considering the committee has given the award to Jimmy “Kill the Wabbit!” Carter and Yasser Arafat. That kind of company does tend to take the sheen off any honor. Do we really want to hold these people up next to the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Doctors Without Borders, The Dalai Lama, Elie Wiesel or Mother Teresa? To quote a Canadian newspaper: "Aung Suu Kyi, who won the peace prize in 1991, is under house arrest in Myanmar (Burma) for daring to ask for democracy in a murderous military state; and now she finds herself in the company of a possible, maybe, potential looming politician who flies around in a jet making presentations to ready-made audiences, then films it and goes to the Academy Awards and hangs out with movie stars."
What about the nominees who actually worked toward peace on this earth? What about the Vietnamese monk, Thich Quang Do? He has spent a lifetime fighting for peace and freedom in Vietnam. He is currently under house arrest for protesting human rights abuses, and has been jailed previously for helping his country’s poor. What about Lida Yusupova,who has devoted her life to human rights? Her work in Chechnya has shed light on human rights abuses committed by both Russian armed forces and Chechen rebels. What about Irena Sendler? She rescued babies during the Holocaust. Screw them and their petty, self-serving little projects, Gore and his movie are obvious choice.

Still, I can deal with Gore being honored. I’m an adult and I will readily admit when the “other guy” wins (something Gore isn’t capable of... you don't see Ms. Sendler or Mr. Do demanding recounts). What really bothers me is that the former VP is being honored for promoting global warming, NOT peace! There is no such thing as the Nobel Global Warming Prize! I’d like to think I would be able to make this obvious distinction, even if I was a fan of Al. Even his mother should be able to admit that it doesn’t make a lick of sense. Call it "an inconvenient truth" if you want, but it's still truth. For the record, the five other awards went something like this:

Medicine: To Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies for producing genetic alterations in mice.

Chemistry: To Gerhard Ertl for opening up the hidden world of surface chemistry to investigation.

Physics: To Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg for discovering the effect underlying data storage on most hard disks.

Literature: To Doris Lessing, whose prolific writing extends from the realistic to the fabulous.

Economics: To Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson for extending the range of tools for economic analysis.

You might notice a pattern here. All of these scholars' accomplishments somehow relate to their award! To quote Alfred Nobel on the Peace Prize bearing his name, the award should go to "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." Re-read this paragraph and tell me Al Gore's victory makes any sense whatsover. I dare you.

If you read the linked article above (or right here), it features “man on the street” reaction quotes. Even of those who are pleased Gore won say nothing of any efforts to promote peace. In fact, one could argue that he has promoted discord by shoving his questionable documentary down the throats of school children across America and the world. (Heck, even the Brits have declared it a political film with significant errors and is "distinctly alarmist. This is what the BRITS are saying!"

Cheers!

The 1:30 chime Saturday morning found me in an unusual place: McGurk's Beer Garten in downtown St. Louis. I was in town to help celebrate the 25th birthday of my best friend, Luis. I was the only one in our group who didn't drink, which was convenient because by last call they were in dire need of a designated driver. Despite my dislike of the overwhelming smell of beer and my personal desire* to abstain from alcohol and the 2.5 hour drive home facing me, I actually had a good time.

Some thoughts:

• A good friend (not party to the birthday shenanigans) tells me that you are your true self when you are drunk. My friends are pretty fun drunks and to a person all slurringly professed their love for me (think, "I love you, man" from the old commercials). I guess in a weird way watching them down Jägerbombs was affirming.
• Before the evening festivities, I watched Luis and his law school intramural softball team play a double header in Forrest Park. Leave it to ingenious law students to turn softball into a drinking game (every time someone throws a ball, catches a ball and/or hits a ball, take a drink). Watching semi-drunk people trying to be athletic is a hoot.
• Don't have your wedding reception at a bar. Even though McGurk's is a comparatively classy joint, just don't do. There's way too high a chance one of your bridesmaids will throw up on your wedding dress.
• I was pleasantly surprised at how seriously most people there took drunk driving. It was obviously that about every fifth or so person was sober and A) was either looking to hook up with an uninhibited blonde or B) was that night's designated driver. I guess I just assume most people left the bar drunk, started up the car and just got lucky when they ended up at home without a death count. That's not to say the four or five cops circling the block didn't have any thing to do early that morning.
• I had a very interesting theological debate on church polity with one of those sober drivers who was also there to shuttle people celebrating with Luis (if you want to get specific, he is the boyfriend of Luis' girlfriend's roommate... which makes us absolutely nothing). He is the son of a pastor at a very large Assembly of God church in Springfield so we had plenty in common as we each avoided the obvious embarrassment that we had met each other in a bar.
• I can see how beer goggles would be a problem. In the low light, I had a very hard time determining hotness and I was wide awake and sober.

* I do not believe consuming alcohol is a sin, as is the perception of many of my denomination. That said, I don't see how it can lead to any good** so I avoid consuming it (that, and it's pricey). However, I do believe there is very strong biblical condemnation of getting drunk. I of course realize that by being complicit in my friends' behavior, I am exposing myself as a hypocrite. I assuage my guilty conscience by telling myself it's better than a group of inebriated law students getting first hand experience on how to deal with DUIs.

** OK, so there is SOME good that comes from alcohol.