What's he on about now?

In case the articles, essays and opinions throughtout this site just weren't enough for you, here's my online diary (a.k.a. 'blog'). It's as close as you'll come to the inside of my head, so don't say I didn't warn you
(and remember, you can always e-mail me if you love or loathe anything you're about to read)...


   Wednesday, December 29, 2004

   THE WORLD STOPPED TURNING

I'm back in Toronto after the holiday family visit, still reeling from the news of Sunday's horrifying tsunami disaster. My brother has a friend staying in Thailand and we've yet to hear from him. With all the damage to infrastructure, there's no grounds for panic just yet but we're obviously concerned. Not much else I can say about the situation directly, of course, but there's excellent coverage at World Changing.

I'm debating whether to send a bit of money to Doctors Without Borders or the Red Cross (both are fine organizations and rated highly by the American Institute for Philanthropy). The Red Cross is powerful and more efficient but Doctors Without Borders have a great track record for getting help to more remote areas (like Myanmar in this case). Either way, even my paltry sum will do some good.

All eyes are on George Bush once again as he's decided to stay at his ranch in Texas. According to the Washington Post,

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said the president was confident he could monitor events effectively without returning to Washington or making public statements in Crawford, where he spent part of the day clearing brush and bicycling. Explaining the about-face, a White House official said: "The president wanted to be fully briefed on our efforts. He didn't want to make a symbolic statement about 'We feel your pain'...Some foreign policy specialists said Bush's actions and words both communicated a lack of urgency about an event that will loom as large in the collective memories of several countries as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks do in the United States.

Exactly. What I personally found galling this weekend was the abysmal news coverage, especially from CNN. When we first heard about the tragedy on the phone Sunday morning, we flipped on the news network to find the middle of a one-hour special on People magazine's celebrity year in review (too valuable to pre-empt, apparently). We flipped to CNN Headline News, which yammered for five minutes about sports news before we flipped again to CBC Newsworld, where we found a live feed from the BBC. In a soothing, authoritative British accent, a silver-haired anchorman explained exactly which regions were affected and how badly. A computer animation simulated where the quake had occurred and how the ripple effect had created the devastating waves. We didn't feel better but we felt the slight calm of being better informed.

A glutton for punishment, I gave CNN another chance yesterday. They were interviewing a geologist and I leaned forward to hear him discuss...Hawaii? A hypothetical earthquake off the coast of Hawaii that could possibly devastate California? Was I hearing this correctly? Yes, said the headline reading, "COULD IT HAPPEN HERE?" No Thailand news here because, yes America, it's all about YOU. I suppose it could've been worse: Jeff tells me that the reporter on Fox News could only talk about how bad the smell was.

So today, turn off the TV, stay on the Internet for real news and please click those 'donate' buttons.

Labels: George W Bush, Trawna

...I leave you with one of my favourite holiday pieces:

A Holiday Wish
written by Steve Martin,
performed on Saturday Night Live (1991):

If I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season, it would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.

If I had two wishes I could make this holiday season, the first would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace, and the second would be for 30 million dollars a month to be given to me, tax-free, in a Swiss bank account.

You know, if I had three wishes I could make this holiday season, the first -- of course -- would be for all the children of the world to get together and sing, the second would be for the 30 million dollars every month to me, and the third would be for all-encompassing power over every living being in the entire universe.

And if I had four wishes that I could make this holiday season, the first would be the crap about the kids, definitely, the second would be for the 30 million, the third would be for all the power, and the fourth would be to set aside one month each year to have an extended 31-day orgasm, to be brought out slowly by Rosanna Arquette and that model Paulina...somebody...I can't think of her name. Of course my lovely wife can come too and she's behind me one hundred percent here, I guarantee it.

Wait a minute, maybe the sex thing should be the first wish, so if I made that the first wish, because it could all go boom tomorrow, then what do you got, y'know? No, no, the kids, the kids singing would be great, that would be nice. But wait a minute, who am I kidding? They're not going to be able to get all those kids together. I mean, the logistics of the thing is impossible, more trouble than it's worth!

So -- we reorganize! Here we go. First, the sex thing. We go with that. Second, the money. No, we go with the power second, then the money. And then the kids. Oh wait, oh jeez, I forgot about revenge against my enemies! Okay, I need revenge against all my enemies, they should die like pigs in hell! That would be my fourth wish. And, of course, my fifth wish would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.

Thank you everybody and Merry Christmas.

Labels: holidays

I'm not very good with the charity. I don't give to a church (they do know all their stuff is made of gold, right?), I don't give money to people on the street (they always seem to have better shoes than I do) and I'm not currently giving to the United Way (though I have before and will again -- they're a fine group).

But I had to do something so I decided to contribute to the company food drive. According to the Daily Bread Food Bank, these are the most needed items:

* canned fish or meat
* mac and cheese
* rice
* canned stew
* hearty soup
* powdered or canned milk
* baby food and formula
* pasta and sauce
* canned fruit and vegetables
* canned beans
* peanut butter
* cheese spread

So I went to the Loblaws at College and Yonge Wednesday night. "Right downtown?" a friend asked, "wouldn't it have been cheaper to go to No Frills or something?" The thought had occurred to me but the Loblaws a) would definitely have everything, b) is closer to my home for less walking, and c) has Air Miles points! It's a win all around!

I quickly discovered though that the shopping experience is different for the poor. Everything I was buying was packaged drably and shelved awkwardly. I had to get down on my hands and knees to get at the beef stew down on the lowest shelf. Wanting something a bit more fun for kids, I picked up a can of Pokémon pasta in a can, but realized that I was giving some poor mother an edible advertisement for pricey Japanese toys -- literally, a recipe for disaster.

What surprised me most was how expensive all this 'food for the poor' was. Even something as low-grade as Cheez Whiz is $5 a jar (and don't get me started on baby formula)! I can afford to feed myself just fine but shopping for a family seems wildly prohibitive -- 'how do they do it?' I thought.

The next morning found Toronto buried under snow, doused in freezing rain. I couldn't have picked a worse morning to trudge to the subway with four big bags of cans. I felt simultaneously heroic and irritated beyond belief. No one had shoveled any sidewalks by this point so the walking was slow and slippery and no one -- no one! -- made any effort to give me the right of way. They were probably wondering what kind of fool does his grocery shopping at 8 in the morning under freezing rain but I was angry with them nonetheless. "What's wrong with you people!" I wanted to scream, "Don't you see how heavy this is? It's food for the homeless! The homeless!!"

Yeah, charity...not really my thing. But I'll see what I can do.

Labels: Trawna

There's an obvious link between drinking and HIV infection -- you're just not inclined to think about protecting yourself when you're blotto -- but the BBC reports on new research suggesting a direct link between alcohol and susceptibility to HIV infection. Deborah Jack, chief executive of the UK National Aids Trust, said, "particularly at this time of year, we urge people to enjoy the festive season safely."

Toronto is currently losing its collective mind over the bizarre spike in high school stabbings -- three this month. What's especially sad is that, after Columbine, we're just glad they stuck to knives.

This is why I get a rueful laugh over a school in Texas that took action against their own troublesome influence: an 18-year-old honor student at Trinity Christian Academy was a varsity athlete, won a number of citizenship awards, participated in the school theater, was a yearbook editor, and helped younger students with Bible study.

Oh yeah, and he started a website for closeted gay teens to talk with one another, leading to his expulsion for "immoral behavior and supporting an immoral cause."

The student said:
The site to me meant a great deal, as it had probably saved my life; it gave me people who were going through the same thing and we could talk. I could finally come out of my shell. So I created a free service that would give teens an outlet; stray away from drugs, suicide, alcoholism, etc.

The school's policy says:
As a community of Christian families we also believe the Bible provides insight to help us discern God's desire for our conduct. Therefore we demand high biblical standards of behavior from our students both academically and socially. Our families are asked to embrace these standards of conduct by signing a covenant with the school when students are admitted. Within this framework of biblical standards and academic rigor, an atmosphere of enhanced learning, character development, and love are allowed to flourish.

And there's just no room for compromise, is there?

Labels: religion, Trawna

We're still reeling over yesterday's ghastly story from what Jon Stewart calls "Mess O' Potamia":

A National Guardsman who pleaded guilty to killing a 17-year-old Iraqi soldier said he shot the young man after they had consensual sex in a guard tower...Pvt. Federico Daniel Merida, 21, pleaded guilty to murder without premeditation and other charges during a court-martial in Iraq in September.

Merida shot the Iraqi soldier 11 times -- hey there son, save some of that for the enemy! My friend Jeff, straight as a board, had the best reaction -- he was amused at the notion of gay soldiers having sex in the guard tower until I told him about the killing. He was appalled but, like me, loves the gallows humour. "What do you call that?" he asked, "Overly friendly fire?"

James was worse when I told him -- he said the Iraqi should've believed the soldier when he said, "Oh man, I'm gonna shoot!" He asked what'll happen to him now.
"Well, a dishonourable discharge, for starters," I said.
"He just had one!" James yelled.
"Stop it!" I laughed, "You're killing me!"
Hey, if you can't laugh at homophobic self-hatred leading to yet another murder, what can you laugh at?

What's truly weird about it all is that everyone agrees how bad this is for the troops -- right-wingers hate Merida for making the US soldiers look bad; left-wingers hate him for making gay soldiers look bad (though his wife and child back in Mexico make me wonder about that). Whether you agree with the war or not, it's clear that the situation in Iraq is getting worse (and stranger) by the day.

Labels: friends

...please reconsider going to Wal-Mart. I know money's tight and, with so many gifts to buy, you need the best deal you can get but please don't. There's a solid summary of the problem at the Nation; here's the money quote:

Al Zack, who until his retirement in 2004 was the United Food and Commercial Workers' vice president for strategic programs, observes that appealing to the poor was "Sam Walton's real genius. He figured out how to make money off of poverty. He located his first stores in poor rural areas and discovered a real market. The only problem with the business model is that it really needs to create more poverty to grow." That problem is cleverly solved by creating more bad jobs worldwide. In a chilling reversal of Henry Ford's strategy, which was to pay his workers amply so they could buy Ford cars, Wal-Mart's stingy compensation policies--workers make, on average, just over $8 an hour, and if they want health insurance, they must pay more than a third of the premium--contribute to an economy in which, increasingly, workers can only afford to shop at Wal-Mart.

Labels: holidays

The Love Shack has burned down!
According to the BBC, B-52's singer Kate Pierson says that "many of the band's early songs - including Rock Lobster, the title track of their first album - were created in the now gutted cabin." Tin roof -- rusted!

On Lou Dobb's "Moneyline" show on CNN, reporter Christine Romans discussed how Macy's Department Store, home of the "Miracle on 34th Street," is attempting to include "all religious and ethnic celebrations":

Macy's says it doesn't ban Christmas -- witness Santa in Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and all of its holiday decorations. But the company says the phrases "Seasons Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" embrace all religious and ethnic celebrations that take place in November and December, and "these expressions of goodwill are more reflective of the multicultural society in which we live today."

Lou Dobbs' response?

Well, they've just excluded everyone who is celebrating Christmas, which is, after all, the foundation of the so-called season in which they make most of their profits...You know, when you think about it, "Happy Holidays" -- what other holidays are we celebrating right now?

After Romans, ever the peacemaker, said, "They say "Happy Holidays" covers it all," Dobbs replied, "They do? Well, they're wrong. And merry Christmas."

I hereby nominate Slate's Timothy Noah for the Nobel Peace Prize!

"Let it be known, this day, that the customer service number for Amazon is:
1-800-201-7575
You're welcome."

I will allow Christmas.

I'm not exactly fond of it -- the insane commercializm, the oppressive jingles, the forced goodwill -- but I know what it means (thanks, Charlie Brown!) and I know what it does for families. Yes, I've decided, Christmas can stay.

I feel the need to announce this because this holiday season has a problem with "the holiday season." Recent attempts at including Chanukah, Kwanzaa and other year-end religious holidays under the red-and-green umbrella have been met with shrieking charges of a secular progressive assault on Christmas (like this letter to Slate entitled "Secular Progressive Assault on Christmas").

Even right-wing windbag Bill O'Reilly took a break from sexually-harrassing interns to stop the insanity. In responding to a Jewish man who confessed that he felt a tad sick of the Christian holiday, O'Reilly told him to "go to Israel then" if he had a problem with it. Oddly, some took exception to this and O'Reilly got defensive:

"You criticize anybody, you challenge anybody, then you are a bigot. And that's the -- that's why nobody does it. That's why nobody sticks up for Christmas except me. Did Peter Jennings stick up for Christmas last night? I don't believe he did. How about Brian Williams, did he? Did Rather stick up for Christmas? How about Jim Lehrer -- did he? Did Larry King -- hello, I love Christmas -- did he? No."

You've inspired me, Bill. Your brave and lonely stance has emboldened me to betray my filthy gay athetist cultleaders and join you in defending poor, endangered Christmas! I mean, if Larry "Hello, I Love Christmas" King won't do it then it's up to us to urge everyone to get out there and shop! Shop! Shop for your lives!

Labels: religion

Why, on a Monday morning, am I taking a Personality Disorder Test? Curiosity killed the cat, I guess, as I'm not pleased with the results:

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Moderate
Schizoid:	Low
Schizotypal:	Moderate
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Low
Histrionic:	High
Narcissistic:	Moderate
Avoidant:	Very High
Dependent:	Moderate
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Low
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! --

Histrionic? Fuck you, test!!

In wrapping up 'Right-Wing Quote Day,' I've saved the best for last.

Remember the steamy "Desperate Housewives" Monday Night Football ad that got some people so upset a couple weeks back? Well, the fine people at 'American Renaissance' got TOO upset -- this response is outrageous!

...although that American teaser poster for "Batman Begins" is gorgeous, this international one released today is even better. That wind-chime noise you hear is geeks worldwide tinging with anticipation.

Labels: comic books, movies

A priest, a rabbi and a feminist get into the worst argument ever about "The Passion of the Christ." Here's the money quote from president of the Catholic League, Bill Donahue:

Who really cares what Hollywood thinks? All these hacks come out there. Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It‘s not a secret, OK? And I‘m not afraid to say it. That‘s why they hate this movie. It‘s about Jesus Christ, and it‘s about truth. It‘s about the messiah. Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism. We have nothing in common. But you know what? The culture war has been ongoing for a long time. Their side has lost.

But what you like families and children AND anal sex and libertinism? It's confusing these days...
(but on a glib-free note, someone should tell this frigging idiot that absolutely no one "likes" abortions. Freak.)

I'm worried about Lindsay Lohan.

Seriously. She seems like a bright young actress (likeable and funny in "Mean Girls" and "Freaky Friday"), but the hype surrounding the 18-year-old has built to unmanageable levels. The jailbait Maxim photos were eyebrow-raising but her new career as Britney-esque pop star is frankly disheartening. I'd rather see her emulate Natalie Portman than Ashlee Simpson.

Factor in the rumours of wild nights of drinking, a ridiculous longtime feud with fellow pop-tart Hillary Duff and the ongoing embarrassment of her father constantly spouting the family's dirty laundry to the press and you have the image of a young girl with a life gone out of control.

A big puff-piece in USA Today aims to set the record straight. I hope it's solid but it reeks of spin. I guess we'll see what happens next, which is the whole appeal of celebrities. We secretly hope their lives go down the pan so we can feel better about our own state. In eras past, we had the myth of Icarus; now we have Michael Jackson.

Conservative pundits are wringing their hands over yesterday's Supreme Court opinion (not decision, opinion -- nothing's happening yet!) with the usual doomsaying:

Robert Knight, head of the Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America:
"Americans are nervously looking north, hoping their Canadian cousins will get a grip on their sanity."

editorial from our own beloved National Post:
"The same-sex marriage revolution is upon us with a vengeance..." (Vengeance?)

Focus on the Family press release:
"Public policy decisions should be based on what is in the best interests of society and we know that marriage provides a unique benefit to Canadians that should be protected."

Of course it should. That's our whole point. Denying certain Canadians the right to marriage and forcing them to create alternative (some say better) partnerships is hardly a way to promote and protect the institution, no? But then it's hard to have a reasonable argument with this:

Ann Coulter, author of "Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism":
"Canada has become trouble recently...they'd better hope the United States doesn't roll over one night and crush them. They are lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent." (Yes, that is a direct quote -- here's the clip)

Labels: Canada

After thoroughly enjoying the sublime "Kinsey" bio, I just had to tempt fate and check out Oliver Stone's "Alexander" biography. Other critics have been happily savaging the camp excesses of Stone's folly but I'm even denied the pleasure of joining in, as "Alexander" is not a disaster. No, it's worse than awful, it's mediocre:

The acting is dynamic but not powerful.
The look of the film is grand but not spectacular.
The battle scenes are bloody but not thrilling.
The love story is heartfelt but not inspiring.
The overall story is long but not entirely coherent.

So, what you get is a movie that's not bad enough to enjoy hating but not good enough to engage. You just sit there, looking at the screen for three hours. I knew things were bad when Alexander, mortally wounded, survives to rally the troops once again. I actually groaned when I saw him enter, thinking the movie was almost over. No such luck.

Three long hours later, I realize that the tiny story of Alfred Kinsey felt epic while the epic story of Alexander the Great felt tiny.

The Supreme Court of Canada has just handed down a verdict on same-sex marriage, announcing that the federal government's proposed bill to change the definition of marriage is constitutional. It will now go to a vote in the House of Commons. I should be happier.

It's not that I'm not happy -- I'm quite pleased, for obvious reasons, but nevertheless I've found the entire debate irritating right from the start. Those opposed to gay marriage keep bleating that it's 'too radical' a change for society, that we poor dears can't handle the notion of two men or two women choosing to live together in fidelity. This is beyond silly when one recognizes that this 'radical' development a) has already been happening for decades now, and b) pales in comparison to technological changes like the Internet that are rapidly reshaping our culture. Gay marriage seems, well, conservative.

In Massachusetts, the first US state to legalize gay marriage, single gay people are now losing the health benefits they once had. Now that we can get married, the argument goes, single gay people should not have any special benefits that single straight people don't. This is entirely reasonable, seems completely fair, will save the state a lot of money and ought to quiet the 'no-special-rights-for-gays' crowd (though of course it won't).

I heard a man on the radio this morning say that a positive verdict from the Supreme Court would make him "feel recognized as human." I shuddered in disgust at the notion that a grown man would need such a basic validation. Same-sex couples will continue to form, with or without the approval of courts or government or anyone else. The only difference is that maybe now they'll have support when one of them is denied hospital visits, survivor benefits, custody of children or possession of their home because they're 'not family.'

So I'm cautiously optimistic. The Conservative party is no doubt sending out press releases right this moment denouncing 'activist judges' and announcing the imminent fall of Canada as a sexually-depraved pot-smoking welfare-cheating Sodom unless the bill is voted down. It's nothing we haven't heard before but, if they stop and listen for once in their lives, they just might see that promoting faithful, long-term marriages amoung gay people will strengthen the very values they claim to champion.

Labels: Canada

Two of my childhood heroes return next year and I am geeking out over the first glimpses:

First, the teaser poster is out for next summer's "Batman Begins" with Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.

Second, the first-ever 'trailer' (in RealPlayer format) for the BBC's new "Doctor Who" series with Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper and Simon Callow.

Sad, I know, but the heart wants what it wants...

Labels: comic books, Doctor Who, homo-a-go-go, movies

The New Yorker's George Saunders does the math, solving the problems in the Middle East and ending the war in Iraq. And we get a vacation on the West Bank, to boot!

I can never understand how right-wing protesters keep getting in their own way. There were howls of protest surrounding "The Last Temptation of Christ" back in 1988 and the movie turned out to be a deeply-felt exploration of Christ's life and meaning. They should want people to see and talk about this film, I felt.

Now, they're all a-twitter over "Kinsey," blaming the famed sex researcher for all the social ills of the last five decades, and the result has been a disappointing box-office gross of under $4 million. Quite a victory, except that -- once again -- the movie could actually help their cause.

Let's get the review out of the way first -- the movie is utterly wonderful, with three outstanding performances from Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and Peter Sarsgaard. Neeson in particular outstrips his remarkable work in "Schindler's List" by a mile here, creating a character both charming and unpleasant, wise and naive. He's just fantastic and the rest of the cast aims for his level (especially in a gorgeous cameo from Lynn Redgrave and a sly turn from Tim Curry).

Here's the interesting part, though -- while the movie scores with alarmed laughter at the sexually-unenlightened 1940's (Curry's 'hygiene' class is a scream), it doesn't shy away from the darker implications of a completely-unbridled sexual culture. Later sequences featuring grainy, black-and-white footage of 'field study' are almost nightmarish, like Bela Lugosi at the Playboy mansion, and there's a harrowing scene involving a sexual predator who's proudly catalogued his various conquests of women, men, children and animals, but is disappointed when Kinsey doesn't agree. "That's not what my work is about," the professor tells him, "No one should ever be harmed," but there's the unpleasant sense that Pandora's box is already open.

Those protesting this film or otherwise merely avoiding it for any awkward subject matter are doing themselves and others a disservice. This is one of those rare movies that's stuffed with ideas that need discussion. "Kinsey" is a rare biography film that celebrates the man and his work while exposing the flaws in both. When Neeson as Kinsey rails against oppressive social conventions, Linney as his long-suffering spouse angrily replies, "Social conventions are there to keep people from hurting each other!" The scene feels painful and real because they're both right.

Being the cheery fellow I am, I've spent a chunk of this past week mulling over martyrdom. Not my own, thank goodness, but the strange way we're dealing with the concept in a media age (more on this later).

And while this is going on, I look up to see that it's December 6th and 15 years have passed since the Montreal Massacre, when 14 female engineers were gunned down by an 'anti-feminist' nut-job. Reading articles on the anniversary online, I began to realize that none of the sites were referring to any of the women by name.

While I rapidly grew tired of reading the name Marc Lepine, I could find only one reference to only one of the young women on only one site. As usual, the killer goes down in history while the victims are forgotten so, as a tiny refusal of this state, I might as well add this page to a too-small list:

Victims of the 'Montreal Massacre' at l'École Polytechnique on December 6, 1989

Geneviève Bergeron
Hélène Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Edward
Maud Haviernick
Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz
Maryse Laganière
Maryse Leclair
Anne-Marie Lemay
Sonia Pelletier
Michèle Richard
Annie St-Arneault
Annie Turcotte

A solid entry from Andrew Sullivan's blog today, responding to an e-mail saying that homosexual people are actually treated well in the US South: "I understand this a big deal for you, being gay, but you've already won and you should realize this."

Andrew disagrees, noting that this is a common conservative opinion:

Essentially, the position of the Republican right is..."We are not homophobes; we are happy to live alongside gay people, as long as they recognize that they can never have the same civil rights as we do. Accept your own inferiority, and we will accept you." That's why this is so hard to compromise on. Because it cuts to the core of a human being's self-worth. On this, we cannot compromise. The simple truth is that there isn't a single civil right I would deny to an evangelical Christian. I've defended their freedom of religion, of association, of disassociation, and believe they should be treated with respect. I wouldn't dream of drumming them out of the military, firing them for their faith, tearing up their relationships, or taking their children away from them. The favor, alas, is not returned.

And, yeah, that's about it, really.

Labels: religion

A few random comments for the end of the week:

~ a parallel-universe CNN reports on what I would've rather seen when Paul Martin welcomed the US president this past week

~ in the same time-warped vein, I picked up the new venture from the gang at McSweeney's: "The Future Dictionary of America" features many of my favourite authors and a bonus CD with many of my favourite bands. The whole package is clever, funny, angry and optimistic, with the money going to various advocacy groups and one truly gorgeous definition:
"Homeless [adj. archaic term] lacking a home."

~ after "Mean Girls," more evidence that Tina Fey is God: "The woman suing Bill O'Reilly for unwanted phone sex is allegedly asking for $60 million in damages. That sounds like a lot, until you figure it works out to about $2.99 a minute."

~ in a fit of racist generalizing, I've long believed that the Japanese are...well...insane. Unfair, but things like this aren't exactly proving me wrong.

Labels: George W Bush

Gore Vidal recently responsed to charges that he criticizes the government because he 'hates America'. "How could I hate America?" he said, "I've been its official biographer for fifty years."

In the same vein, Pierre Berton loved Canada and, with his death reported today, we have lost a giant (#31 on the CBC's "Greatest Canadian" poll, by the way).

Whether he was detailing the incredible construction of our national railways, lobbying for reform in the Anglican Church or teaching Rick Mercer how to roll a joint, Berton was always an enthusiastic champion of Canadian values.

Labels: Canada

The theme of this year's World AIDS Day is "Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS" -- a stark reminder that women comprise nearly half of the people living with AIDS around the world. In Southeast Asia alone, there are over two million HIV-positive women and, of course, nearly seven times that number in Africa.

All we can do is stay informed, give whatever time or money we can and, as always, keep using that plastic!

My friend Tara has joked that, if I had a religion, it would be Media. I was too busy watching the news to refute that. If a disagreement sprang up between the television networks and the churches, I would of course be expected to side with the newsmen but life these days is never that simple.

In this press release, the United Church of Christ has announced that its new TV campaign designed to lure people back to mass has been rejected by CBS, NBC and UPN as "too controversial."

Watch the ad here and you'll find a truly warm and clever message from a church that's politically risky because its flock happily includes (gasp!) homosexuals.

After one of the ugliest political campaign seasons in memory, it astonishes me that this is the ad that the networks consider upsetting. It's especially interesting when you consider that, last week, the Washington Post had no problem inserting a 16-page religious magazine announcing, among other leaps, that "the median age of death for a homosexual man without AIDS and with a longterm sexual partner is only 41 years of age." No controversy there.

Yes, I can see how 42-year-old gay men going to church would be upsetting for the networks. Now, back to people eating centipedes on "Fear Factor"!

Labels: friends