Not that I can blame them, in this case

Have a look at this Toronto Star piece on Arizona and Utah's race to be the first states to designate Official guns.

What’s next? Will crime-ridden Louisiana adopt the MAC-10 machine pistol, firing 1,000 rounds a minute? And how about Sarah Palin’s beloved Alaska, with its 1,500-pound coastal brown bears? The Marine Corps M72A7 anti-tank rocket, perhaps?

You know, I'm not sure, but I think the Canadlians just might be mocking us.

Stay well, Roger. We need you.

Roger Ebert reviews Hall Pass, a movie I had no intention of seeing, and have no intention of seeing, but may be worth existing just for inspiring his review:

It is perhaps hard-wired into men that their eyes should be constantly on the prowl. Maybe it's an evolutionary trait, and our species has developed it to encourage the sowing of human seed in many fields. Women, by contrast, have evolved to be sure their mates gaze in admiration at them alone and nobody else. There's a famous story by Irwin Shaw, “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses,” about an estranged couple who decide to make up. They go for a stroll down Fifth Avenue, but break up all over again because the man can't prevent his eyes from straying. He loves his mate — yes, he really does — but you see the girls are so pretty in their summer dresses.

WTF else do you know who makes literary references in the middle of a review of a movie by the same makers as the Goodbye Girl remake?

The plot of the movie is meh. It involves the lads and their posse being cycled through several unsuccessful and quasi-slapstick situations showing their cluelessness, immaturity and how women easily see straight through them. Meanwhile, the wives and their posses have a great time on a getaway retreat. Women seem to get along perfectly well when set free from men, but men seem uncomfortable without women. It probably all involves which gender has the greater need to be reassured.

God bless you, Tennessee.

I take back everything I ever said about you. No really, I do. I know, you think I'm being ironic because of that whole Tennessee Stage Company/my play, "The Girl in the Boat" thing, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

I take it all back: You know, about Tennessee being insane and all. I have decided to take this step because I've realized how much I should really appreciate you. You're always there for me whenever I want illustration of how republicans are, by definition, big flaming hypocrites.

Case in point:

Tennessee Jumps on the Anti-Sharia Bandwagon

While a number of other states have filed legislation seeking to keep Sharia out of the courts, Tennessee is going one giant step further by attempting to outlaw it entirely.

(emphasis mine-BV)

Senate Bill 1028, introduced by State Sen. Bill Ketron, gives the state Attorney General authority to designate "Sharia organizations," defined as "two (2) or more persons conspiring to support, or acting in concert in support of, sharia or in furtherance of the imposition of sharia within any state or territory of the United States."

Hm. That seems un....something. Oh darn, what is it, it's on the tip of my tongue...oh yes: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." (again, emphasis mine)

The bill states its intent is not to outlaw free religion, or the practice of Islam. It claims that Sharia presents a real threat to Tennessee.

Trust me on this one: I pose a more real threat to Tennessee.

Tennessee is just the latest in a string of states to consider anti-Sharia legislation. But unlike in some other states, where the language in the legislation avoids explicitly mentioning Sharia by name, Tennessee's bill goes so far as to call Sharia "treasonous" and incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.

"...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" (Once again...ok, you get it).

This may be the part of this I most dearly love. They've devised an excuse to violate the Constitution on the grounds that this thing they've invented is incompatible with the Constitution. Beautiful.

Tennessee....I really just have to just stand back in awe. Thank you, Tennessee. For the love...for the laughter...For the Boys.

There's an AP story going around today about "Obama's Shifting Stance on gay marriage."

A couple things I feel compelled to comment upon.

You likely know how I feel about the overarching issue. In a few words: Full legal rights. Now. This is a position that has the dual advantages of being one, right, and two, growing in popularity.

Opinion polls show a steady rise in Americans' embrace of gay rights, and young voters solidly back positions their grandparents opposed, including gay marriage.

But as ever, I am left speechless (well, almost) by the statements of the anti-gay marriage politicians...although I suppose the larger point is that there are fewer of them:

Five or so years ago, Obama's decision might have touched off fierce Republican criticisms. But reaction Wednesday was comparatively sparse and muted from mainstream GOP groups and individuals.

Still:

One exception was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an evangelical minister who is considering a second try for the presidency.

"I think it was an absolutely boneheaded political move, and I think it was a boneheaded policy move," Huckabee said in an interview. He said Obama seems to say, "I don't answer to the voters."

Read the very first quoted paragraph in this post again, and then read that Huckabee quote again. See the first problem? Second problem is, last time I looked, we don't elect politicians to do exactly what the majority wants on every issue.

We can discuss whether that's good or bad, but we don't. We choose who we think is the best person (ideally), and if we don't like how they do the job, we fire them. That's how they answer to us. Not by being passive instruments of our will.

Incidentally, here are a couple of things in which Mike Huckabee believes with which a majority of Americans disagree:

Evolution. Huckabee doesn't believe in it. As of last year only 40% of us agree with him.

The Bible. Huckabee believes it is literally true. Not only is that belief shared by only one-third of us, but more of us could name the ingredients in a Big Mac than could name all 10 commandments. (Personally, I couldn't do either. I'm a Buddhism-influenced person, and I prefer Burger King).

I'm sure if Huckabee were to be elected president (a scary but unlikely thought) we could count on him to set policies which "answered to the voters" on those issues, aren't you?

The AP piece continues:

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said Obama cares little about the Constitution...

Except for the 12 years he spent teaching and lecturing about it, of course.

Again: Though surely we can disagree about how he interprets it, to just blithely assert that he doesn't care about it? The President?

This is the sort of thing that makes me think Republicans show up to a battle of wits half-prepared.

This is turning out to be a more popular feature than I imagined.

That's right kids, it's time once again for another episode of...

"Who's searching for me now?"

Tonight's contestant comes to us from an IP Address for something called Optimum Online (Cablevision Systems) in Brooklyn, New York, here in the great USA. To my knowledge, I do not know anyone in Brooklyn, New York.

But whoever this is, he, she or undecided (and with some of my friends past and present it's hard to tell) found this blog by Googling my name; stayed around for almost eight minutes and did at least some searching of my posts from the last few years, finally leaving after looking at this open letter to Elizabeth Hurley .

Do you suppose it was Miss Hurley, her cleavage, or my usual sort of useless witty remarks that drove them away?

Good ole "man on dog," always associating himself and his party with honor...

This just needs to go viral as widely and as fast as possible.

One for the '80s electronica lovers out there

It was John Hughes & Molly Ringwald's birthday recently, and I should've taken note, (among other reasons) because their movie Pretty in Pink brought me OMD.



Who remain one of my favorite groups; I love this song from their recent reunion LP. The video's really fun, too; full of "souvenirs"...how many can you spot?