Precious Moments Crucifixion

It took me too long to find this picture. It's of a cartoon crucifixion, of the cutest dead Jesus ever.

Propaganda

I'm not the first person to think of this, but if President W. Bush is going to refer to the "Democrat" party, I'd like to start talking about the Republican't party. They can't protect us from disease, poisoned toys or hurricanes. They can't stop terrorists without listening to our phone calls and reading our mail.

I contemplated "Reprivatean", but it's not necessarily an attack. They'd like the sound of it. That's why it only has 1 hit on Google, vs the 42,000 for Republican't.

Modern Discrimination

In reading various defenses of Senator Clinton's campaign for president, I have become aware of some particularly disgusting attacks on her, suggesting she should be barefoot and pregnant, etc.

It occurs to me that today it is more acceptable to be sexist than racist. Any hint of a suggestion that a black person should go play basketball instead of be a senator would be shouted down from all corners. Liberals and conservatives across the spectrum would agree that the color of your skin should not determine your destiny.

But it is still a mainstream, politically tenable position to believe that women should be mothers and not leaders, homebound and nurturing, not workers who change the world. You can claim with a straight face that the topology of your genitals affects your talents.

Others have pointed out that there may BE more racism than sexism, even while racism is less acceptable. And this may be true. The racism today may be covert, hiding beneath other stories, while the sexism is explicit.

It's fascinating that the idea that women are human beings is still controversial. I think there are differences between men and women; I think they learn differently, are motivated differently, and there are real medical differences. But those facts, to me, support integration not segregation. That most women aren't interested in computers means we need women designing computers so that they are useful to women.

In related news, should you call Senator Clinton "Hillary", or Mrs. Clinton, or what?

Immigrant Children

Mike Huckabee recently suggested we shouldn't criminalize the children of illegal immigrants, saying "We're a better country than to punish children for what their parents did."

I think he has an excellent point. It seems unfair to penalize a child for being carried on their father's back into a new country. Denying them the same opportunities other children who grow up here and make good choices is unjust to the children.

And yet, I can see that giving subsidized college tuition, healthcare and schooling to all the kids involved is very expensive to the states burdened with that. And it would be foolish to create an incentive for more people to smuggle their children into the country.

The only solution I can see is to somehow create vast prosperity in Mexico. Which isn't exactly our responsibility.

I also believe that if we're going to crack down on immigration, we should be penalizing employers who violate the law by hiring people, more than we punish the people who come here to work. If we eliminate the demand for immigrants who work for sub-minimum wage and without benefits, the supply of people crossing the border should abate.

Bourne Ultimatum

This movie is awesome. So well done. Tightly directed and edited, well acted, subtly written. Better written than the book, which would have made a good movie, but didn't resonate with all our issues in politics today.

The act 5 car chase is terrifying, with cars shedding shards of red reflectors like people shed blood.

I wonder how long this movie will last, and how much greater Matt Damon will become.

Twelve Days of Christmas

I enjoy the first 2 minutes of this more than the ending, but that's style preference, not skill or talent.

Harry Potter and Spiderman

I really enjoyed this year's sequels really quite a bit. I thought I would appreciate Harry Potter, and I was right. Each book got better, and the movies seem to continually improve as well.

I was pleasantly surprised with Spiderman 3. The acting and directing were really quite excellent. I thought Thomas Haden Church did an excellent job making his villain morally ambiguous and helping us empathize with him. I thought the writing was a bit shallow, and elements were ocassionally forced, but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.