...john crichton where are you?

what sci-fi crew would you best fit in?

Thanks to John Cole's Balloon Juice for the heads-up on this esoteric little quiz. The link is at the end of the post.

I was pleasantly surprised by my result. Farscape was not what I had in mind, but as I think about it, it fits me, and Moya always intrigued me.


Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

Moya (Farscape) 100% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 88% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 81% SG-1 (Stargate) 81% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 81% Serenity (Firefly) 75% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 63% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 50% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 50% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 50% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 50% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 38% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

now if I could only find John Crichton...

be careful what you wish for...

It seems that a 31-year old Danish man of Lebanese descent, Ahmed Akkari, is responsible for the fiasco of the cartoons. He brought a book of cartoons to a number of clerics in the Middle East since the Prime Minister of Denmark failed to take action over the cartoon. What did he expect the prime minister of a democracy to do about something dealing with free speech. Slap wrists? Change the law to destroy freedom of the press? Turn Denmark into a theocratic country? Destroy multiculturalism?

And he's surprise at the reaction around the globe!

"Yeah, it has been more violent than I expected," he said. "I had no interest in any violence. ... It is bad for our case because it's turning the picture completely from what this should be about, to something else _ and this is a dangerous change now."

Well, what did he really expect? The entire Islamic world seemed to be aflame before the cartoon, and when you add more kindling to the fire it gets hotter, brighter and larger. He fell right into someone's hands.

...isn't hindsight wonderful?

The full story here:

'It is not what I want to happen', Scripps Howard News Service.

a real start...

Andrew Sullivan.com found a great website that has a lot of cartoons about the Islamic brouhaha over in Europe regarding the Danish cartoon. I didn't see the original cartoon but there many, many others and I didn't go through all of the pages.

You can find them here - Darryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index

This is my personal favorite. It's by Vince O'Farrell, Wallongong, Australia in The Illawarra Mercury & The Melbourne Express.



Is it offense? Maybe. Is it freedom of speech? Absolutely! Is it able to bring different sides to the story? You betcha. Is it cause to riot, kill, mame, burn, spit on other's beliefs? No freakin' way!

I look at it this way. If it offends me, I ignore it. If it stops my freedom of speech, I'll fight it. If it teaches me something about others, I'll embrace it. If it causes me to go out and rape & pillage, I have to realize that I'm not the only person in the world and I have no right to demand that others do or belief as I say.

...what to you think?

...more of a start?

Andrew Sullivan got wind of this from an emailer who saw it on The Stranger. It's was posted on telephone poles on Capitol Hill in Seattle.



[The bottom is difficult to read. It says, "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. Wendell Phillips."]

This still isn't from the press with the exception of the Stranger Website. When is the legitimate press going to join the fray?

...just asking.

...a start?

NY Press Kills Cartoons; Staff Walks Out

The editorial staff of the alternative weekly New York Press walked out today, en masse, after the paper's publishers backed down from printing the Danish cartoons that have become the center of a global free-speech fight.

Editor-in-Chief Harry Siegel emails, on behalf of the editorial staff:

New York Press, like so many other publications, has suborned its own professed principles. For all the talk of freedom of speech, only the New York Sun locally and two other papers nationally have mustered the minimal courage needed to print simple and not especially offensive editorial cartoons that have been used as a pretext for great and greatly menacing violence directed against journalists, cartoonists, humanitarian aid workers, diplomats and others who represent the basic values and obligations of Western civilization. Having been ordered at the 11th hour to pull the now-infamous Danish cartoons from an issue dedicated to them, the editorial group—consisting of myself, managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editorJonathan Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah, chose instead to resign our positions.

We have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running, cartoons that however absurdly have inspired arson, kidnapping and murder and forced cartoonists in at least two continents to go into hiding. Editors have already been forced to leave papers in Jordan and France for having run these cartoons. We have no illusions about the power of the Press (NY Press, we mean), but even on the far margins of the world-historical stage, we are not willing to side with the enemies of the values we hold dear, a free press not least among them.

This was not an easy decision. I've been reading the Press since 1988 and have dreamed of running it for nearly as long. The paper's editorial staff has worked impossibly hard hours and has come quite a ways in only a few months towards restoring the paper's tarnished editorial reputation and credibility. I'm proud of the work we've done, and wish we'd had time to finish the job. I wish the Press all the best, and hope that under new ownership and leadership it can again be an invaluable read for all good Gothamites.

NY Press Kills Cartoons; Staff Walks Out from The Politicker.com

All right, it's a start. But where are all of the others? Where is the outrage from free journalists? Where is the investigation about why this is all happening? Where are the counter demonstrations? Why aren't the mosques and Islamic embassies being burnt down in western democracies? Where is the indignation by Mr. Bush in his push for democracy in the Middle East? Is there more than one kind of democracy for the White House? Is the official position of the West to placate terrorists? Isn't that what these people are doing? Terrorizing?

And why, why, if the cartoon was originally published in September are these fools reacting now?

just asking...

this says it all...

... about my take on the cartoon melee going on in the world:

Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

from Bette Midler's View From a Broad




...always philosophical, she is.

an event that has unfortunate consequences...

I was recently asked what I thought the biggest disaster in history was. I had to think for a moment.

I don't think that there is one. I think there is a pair. Both are connected and unconnected at the same time.

1. The alleged crucifixion of Jesus.

2. The birth of Mohammed.

Both of these events have brought about the deaths of millions of people over hundreds of years, in spite of the messages of these two men. It is through no fault of them. Segments of their followers have taken their own interpretations instead of listening to the true essence of their meaning.

Pity.

Islamists have broken their own belief against idolatry. One doesn't need an image to make an idol. Only a fanatic!

I suppose this holds true for Jesus also...

my word...

My friend, Floyd emailed this to me. Thought you'd all enjoy it. I loved Abbot & Costello. Thanks, Floyd.


*COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT*


ABBOTT: Super Duper Computer Store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.

ABBOTT: Your computer?

COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.

ABBOTT: What about Windows?

COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?

ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?

ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.

ABBOTT: Software for Windows?

COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals track expenses and run my business. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?

ABBOTT: I just did.

COSTELLO: You just did what?

ABBOTT: Recommend something.

COSTELLO: You recommended something?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: For my office?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!

ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.

COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! Okaaayy, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: Word in Office.

COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?

ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W".

COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "w" if you don't start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.

COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?

ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.

COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?

ABBOTT: One copy.

COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?

ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.

COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

(A few days later)

ABBOTT: Super Duper Computer Store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?

ABBOTT: Click on "START".......



...and you're almost finished.

He should have stopped when he heard the word Mac...

the dark side...

the farce be with you: Darth Squirrel...

beside myself...

This Alito business has got me going. I didn't have any doubt he'd get confirmed. What's got me going is the hopeless Democrats who have now let the entire country know they have no plan, no agenda and NO spine.

For the entire vehement retorts to start see:

ameriblog.com

Daily Kos

BlogActive.com

Their "comments" are all numbering in the hundreds tonight. I'm not the only one peeved.

At least Durbin and Obama, my senators, voted against cloture. Obama actually pulled himself up out of the fire with me. Yesterday, he said he wasn't going to vote no.

Now, why can't ALL of the Democrats, during the actual vote on confirmation, start the unity of the party back on the right track?

just asking...

Brokeback Mountain II...

I still haven't gotten to see Brokeback Mountain with a straight suburban audience yet because of a couple of reasons beyond my control. I still want to do this.

The photos below are from the scene that haunts me the most.






The scene haunts me for its sensitivity, its softness, its intimacy but most of all for its normalcy. Ennis and Jack wanted normalcy but couldn't have it. A quiet moment holding and being held by someone you love can't be much more normal. Everyone wants to love and be loved, to have a connection to another person, to feel safe....

this is the real & only agenda>...

serge...

While on vacation last week I made several art purchases at an auction. I expressly went for this piece.




It is an intaglio on paper by Tomasz Rut entitled "Serge." The minute I saw it, it spoke to me. I wish that all of its emotion and intensity could come across through posting it here, but you have to see it in person to fully appreciate it.

You can see more of Rut's work here: Tomasz Rut Fine Art

There is always something ethereal about art work that speaks to some people and misses for others. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The auction also had Peter Max's, Dali's, Picasso's, & Rembrandt's, and a number of others. This is a range of works - from classical to pop.

Though I can appreciate Peter Max, I wouldn't say his work is something of which I'm fond. Overly colorful. Exaggerated.

The Dali's, of course, make one think deeply because of their seeming absurdity. Melting. Floating. Unreal.

Picasso reinvented art into a new direction, not once but a number of times - cubism, line drawing, his blue period. Simplicity. Complexity. Thought provoking.

Rembrandt is the classical realist in portraiture. What I find interesting in his works are the stories behind each one. A soul. A person. His grandmother.

There is an entire realm of possibilities in art that can make us laugh, cry, retch, yawn.... All responses are accurate.

"Serge" will be delivered in a few weeks. I haven't decided where exactly he is going to go. I have a number of nudes, mostly female bronzes, and he will be a beautiful addition. He will have a good home.


... I wouldn't mind meeting the real Serge either!

Book Game...

Borrowed from Naked Boy Chronicles:

Here are the rules:
1. Grab the nearest book
2. Open the book to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences (#5,6,7) on your blog, along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it. Just grab what is closest. No cheating.

But classical Islam, developed in the seventh and eighth centuries, contains few of the ideas that we associate with democracy today. Elie Kedourie, an eminent student of Arab politics, wrote "The idea of representation, of elections, of popular suffrage, of political institutions being regulated by laws laid down by a parliamentary assembly, of these laws being guarded and upheld by an independent judiciary, the ideas of the secularity of the state... all these are profoundly alien to the Muslim political tradition."

Certainly the Quranic model of leadership is authoritarian.

from The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria

a little farther away...

here is the reason no one has heard from me lately....


off the coast of Cuba in the Caribbean...


oh, by the way, I'm posting this from the middle of the Caribbean Sea right now. Unbelievable...

Point Foundation Announces 2006 Scholarship Applications Available...

The Point Foundation Press Release announced two very important things: the Scholarship Application process for 2006 is now open and a new collaboration with the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

This year, the Point Foundation will partner with the Matthew Shepard Foundation to offer a slate of new named scholarships, awarding $10,000 to three Matthew Shepard-Point Foundation Scholars. The Matthew Shepard Foundation was founded by Dennis and Judy Shepard in memory of their 21-year old son, Matthew, who was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime in Wyoming in October 1998.

You can find the entire press release and other information on the Point Foundation website: The Point Foundation.



I had the pleasure of meeting a few of the scholars at an event the Point Foundation sponsored in Chicago recently.


Christopher Kawasaki
Harvard University,
Kennedy School of Government


Tanene Allison
Uncommon Legacy Point Scholar;
Harvard University,
Kennedy School of Government

Both Christopher and Tanene graduated from Harvard in December on a Point Foundation Scholarship. If these scholarships had not been available to them, who knows what would have happened. All Point scholars have very high standards to meet. The two most important are to maintain a 3.5 GPA and to design and complete a project that will serve and contribute to the community.

Tanene left her desolate unaccepting home in the Southwest and went to San Francisco . She worked for the city government in San Francisco while working another job and going to school - all while being homeless. She received no support of any kind from her family. She attended graduate school at Harvard with the Point scholarship.

For her project, Tanene right now is crossing the US with a film crew gathering information directly from people all over the US and their views of the LGBT community with the intent of not only gathering data but producing a documentary. Her thoughts and ideas impressed me beyond belief.

Most, if not all, Point Scholars are throw away kids! Their families have abandoned them, in some cases depriving them of their college funding and withdrawing not only the financial support but also emotional and spiritual backing. These young people are resilient in their advocacy for themselves and the community. They each can tell you a personal story that will tug at your heart, but the thing you notice the most is their irrepressible hope and positive outlook on the future. They are accepted for who they are and what they are capable of doing, not what they are.

If you know of a young person who might qualify for a scholarship invite them to explore the website or download the application and give it to them. [Application deadline is March 1st.] If your are involved with a local LGBT center that supports young people, become familiar with the Foundation and make others aware of it.

I strongly urge everyone to explore the Point Foundation website and to open up your hearts and pockets to this phenomenal foundation. They are not only in need of funding but each has a mentor from the foundation to support them personally. There is information on the website about mentoring.

A you can tell, I am really a supporter of The Point Foundation. I think it is one of the most important areas that the LGBT community can support. In the very short time of its existence the Foundation has grown by leaps, but the people behind it have a high goal. A college education is expensive. Within the next few years they would like to be able to support hundreds of scholars. With our help, they can do it.

These young people are our future and our children.