Ah, There Still Are Heros

LLOYD AXWORTHY's open letter to Condoleeza Rice "As our erstwhile Prairie-born and bred (and therefore prudent) finance minister pointed out in presenting his recent budget, we've had eight years of balanced or surplus financial accounts. If we're going to spend money, Mr. Goodale added, it will be on day-care and health programs, and even on more foreign aid and improved defence."

Thanks to Boing Boing!

The Writer As hero

Hedwig pointed me to this: He was blacklisted in a national witch hunt. Yet writer Dalton Trumbo never lost his integrity.

We live in an age where it is said, "there are no heros and perhaps there never were." And yet, look at this man, Dalton Trumbo. Here's a man that stood up to tyranny, suffered the loss of his profession, even went to prison. And then he continued to work, hidden, behind the scenes. Here's your hero.

We need more Trumbos now. We need individuals that will stand up to the FCC and say, "Fuck you." We need heros that will tell the truth to power and not back down. We need a real press, unafraid to lose their White House credentials. We need quiet, powerful men and women that won't be shouted down, won't be silenced, won't go away.

We need people to proudly reclaim the title "liberal".

I'd love to see Dennehy's performance. I hope it finds its way to New York and the recognition that it needs.

Haunted by a bluegrass band

Last night I met the UPS man at the door to collect my new 60 gig iPod Photo. I hooked it up last night and now can carry my entire music collection, all of my digital photos, and all of my documents and STILL have 20 gigabytes left. I’m sure I’ll figure out how to fill it up soon.

And what’s the first thing I’m listening to this morning? Del McCoury And The Boys

I don’t really listen to that much bluegrass or frankly, know anything about it, but there’s something fascinating about it. A couple of years back at the height of the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” craze I took the girls to the “Down From the Mountain” concert. Dell and the Boys played as one of the many terrific acts and sang, “All Aboard”. The song is a ghost story, gospel religious experience, and downright frightening and thrilling. It’s not available on iTunes, but go look for this album. There’s a wide mix of stuff there, all with a bluegrass treatment.

See more progress on: organize my music collection

Part I Henry VI

It begins. Yesterday at lunch I found myself alone, my lunch meeting canceled. Luckily, I try to keep one rule in my life: never leave the house without something to read. I had place the new, portable “Complete Works of William Shakespeare” in the side pocket of the door of my car – couldn’t do that with my well worn, but gigantic Riverside Shakespeare.

So, sitting at Bob Evans, eating a bowl of potato soup, I read Act I of Henry VI, Part I. Sword fights, sieges, cannon fire, funerals of kings, even Joan of Arc! Will sure knew how to kick off a show!

See more progress on: read all of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets in chronological order

Not enough time

That's the answer to the question below.

"Why haven't other rodents evolved the ability to aviate?"

Just not enough time. Look at the time frames for the evolution of birds. Took a hell of a long time, a long, long time ago. Mammals are much more recent. They just haven't had time. Our (Homo Sapien's) ability to observe such a change is pitifully short.

Here's my thesis: more mammals will develop flying abilities. Let's leave the planet - everyone. OK, come back in, let's say 100 million years. My bet is that you'll find plenty of flying mammals. Lot's of little annoying ones. And a few, big, scary ones.

First, flying squirrels develop from gliding to true flight. If they're successful, they'd multiply greatly. Next, you'd have a predator that would take to the air after them, let's say a fox variety. Other, fast breeding species like rabbits might find it useful to get off the ground, which would bring bigger predators along with them, say bobcats or coyotes. But the birds won't give up their dominion very easily. There are a bunch of very effective preditor birds that would just love to find the air full of flying furballs.

But you know what might be more likely? If humanity abandoned the planet for that long, I'm betting another hominid species might just step up and take our place.

On second thought, at the end of the 100 million years, let's send Charlton Heston back first to check and see how things are going.

I'd like to thank the Academy . . .

I saw a bit of the Academy Awards presentation last night - I didn't get back from Jennifer's skating lesson till nearly a quarter to 10 (Sunday night skating lessons suck, BTW). I quickly caught up with the award count and have the following observations:

Someone has finally gotten control of the excesses and really worked out some fair and efficient means of moving things along. I thought having nominees for many of the awards already on stage really helped. I liked less the "give it to them in their seats" bit. Should for any bizarre reason I find myself nominated for such an award, I want up on the stage.

I also noted that I have seen less of the movies nominated for this past year than seems in years past, and more than a couple I saw only because they were already released on DVD. I only saw "Million Dollar Baby" Saturday night. It was an excellent film, but I've yet to see "The Aviator" or "Vera Drake" or "Finding Neverland" or "Being Julia". Haven't seen "Hotel Rwanda", "Motorcycle Diaries", "The Very Long Engagement". I haven't seen the Lemony Snicket mess of a movie and hope not to. And you'd have to pay me and pay me well to see "The Passion of the Christ."

I did see "Ray" and it's a fine biopic with and excellent performance by Foxx.

And my favorite movie of the year? "The Incredibles."