BillSaysThis

Never forget! Because the (lack of) thinking behind the horror never goes away.

Interesting, very: XML and democracy at work: The Election Markup Language [via the Big Guy]

John Hickey says, in a Letter to the Editor printed in today’s Times:

“As a Christian, I do not understand why the teaching of evolution frightens so many fundamentalists. I believe that God made man. This is a matter of faith: it cannot be proved according to any scientific paradigm. I also believe that natural selection was the means by which man came into existence.”

I think I understand why some fundamentalists are fighting this recognition so hard and for so long. They realize that evolution as currently constructed requires human conciousness to be an emergent property arising from the complexity of our nervous system. This assertion directly conflicts with the religious concept of an eternal soul and without a soul all Judeo-Christian religions collapse into meaningless jumble. Some of you may have already understood this, some well-known philosopher may have pointed it out years or centuries ago, but its an epiphany for me. Today.

Garret posts a link to Adam Cohen’s opinion piece in today’s NY Times, The Difference Between Politically Incorrect and Historically Wrong, suggesting the books scrutinized by Cohen ought to be considered parodies. I don’t think I can agree, though, because these are some seriously committed people, who aren’t going away so easily. One passage from Cohen clearly expresses, for me, where a problematic gap exists between liberal/Democrat perception and political reality:

These revisionist historians have started meeting pockets of resistance from those who believe they are rewriting reality to suit an ideological agenda. A group called Progress for America recently produced an ad that, incredibly, used Franklin Roosevelt’s picture to support President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security. But Progress for America lost the public relations war when James Roosevelt Jr., F.D.R.’s grandson, announced that his grandfather “would surely oppose the ideas now being promoted by this administration.”

I agree, of course, with the sentiment expressed by Garret and in Cohen’s essay but wonder about the quality of perception with their use of absolutes, exemplified by this paragraph. These whack jobs, as I like to call them in my own pejorative, politcally incorrect way, have far too much wind left in their sails and cash in their bankbooks for anyone to claim this war is over.

To date, people involved in groups such as Progress for America, the Intelligent Design Network and Focus on the Family, which I’m using as examples and not an exhaustive list, have found satisfactory support and success in politics to continue with that strategy. I worry, though, how their more ardent members will behave when the political results peak and recede before reaching the desired goal. I have no doubt that in the long run:

• the 14th Amendment (along with the 13th and all the court decisions and laws springing from them) will never be invalidated;
• relationships between people of the same gender will have the same legal standing and treatment as accorded those between people of different genders; and,
• American educators will teach our children real science and religion will be taught by family members and the clergy of their choosing.

When people who fervently desire the opposite of these things realize their goals are unreachable via political means will they turn to other means? Will they take up arms in ways similar to what John Robb speculates Chechen rebels may do? I think this is nearly inevitable. The tools for the tactics are becoming simpler and more available each month, as is demonstrable proof of their effectiveness. Robb also points to an effort lead by William Lind that’s developing a handbook of effective military responses to 4th Generation Warfare but Lind’s brief summary doesn’t appear to offer a useful strategy if the guerillas are our own citizens and their actions are here in America.

I’m definitely a Tim Roth fan. He generally does interesting, off the main track characters. I’d never seen Little Odessa but remembered reading positive reviews from 1994 when it was in theaters, so chalk up another reasonable plus for Tivo Suggests when I saw the title on my Now Playing list. This is definitely a little film, first one produced from the mind of writer/director James Gray, certainly better than his other effort, a dreary Mark Wahlberg flick called The Yards.

Besides Roth, we have Maximilian Schell as his father, Vanessa Redgrave as his mother, Edward Furlong (still glowing from The Terminator) as his 16 year old brother and Moira Kelly as the lady friend. So pretty good cast. The setting is, as the title suggests, the section of Brooklyn where a community of Russian Jews have settled, a very insular group as immigrant communities very often are.

The tension comes out of the family’s total dysfunction. Roth is a hit man, written off as dead by his parents and unable to visit home anyway as one of his first jobs was the son of the top neighborhood gangster. Furlong of course idolizes his absent brother, perhaps even more based on the rumors about him, and has long since stopped going to school. Redgrave is bedridden, near death from brain cancer, and Schell spends what time he can with a mistress.

Gray has an interesting setting, decent characters and conflict between the main ones but in the end the fatal flaw is a lack of connecting story arc. The film mainly seems to be a corkboard connecting bit to bit. Even so…

recommended

Pam’s posted another great tune, Roses are Black, an original tune featuring her piano playing and vocals with very fitting, simple backing on bass and drums (I understand steel pedal is likely to be added in the near future). Check it out!

HBO, BBC and PBS collaborated in producing a 90 minute film depicting the members of an Islamic terrorist group as they develop and explode a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive with some radioactive material above the explosive. Parallelling the fundamentalist, giving Dirty War some human scale, we are also shown a firefighter and his wife, an MP newly named minister for London and her top assistant, and a small police squad who happen onto the plotters–though not in time to stop them.

“The events portrayed in this film are based on extensive factual research.” That sentence, flashed on screen in the opening moments, the words are intentionally flat and emotionless, make the scenes that follow all the more chilling. For the most part, excepting the two scenes where police knock down house doors, director Daniel Percival and his writing partner Lizzie Mickery maintain that sort of everyday ambience for the entire film; even the one big explosion is left to the viewer’s imagination with the screen whiting out with a low key bit of noise.

The sequence of events, you’d usually say the plot, unfolds like the ticks of a clock. Someone in Pakistan has gotten hold of radioactive dust and carefully packs the shielded containers with bubble wrap in wholesale size cooking oil cans, then pours in the cooking oil to fill; the truck arrives in Bulgaria, the pallet transfered to an English driver’s lorrie; the barrels are unloaded in a quiet section of London and then delivered to the house where three bombs are to be made.

Some Muslim woman who owns a corner shop tips off the police and the newest addition to the anti-terror squad, a young Westernized muslim woman, runs the lead through the bureaucracy. All very methodical. Her team manages to identify the two men tipped by the shop owner and arrests them as they’re packing to flee. Despite somewhat aggressive interrogation techniques neither will talk, of course, other than to proclaim the greatness of their God. The Muslim copper finds a lead to another location used by the cell and races there, arriving just before the first bomb is exploded, at 8 a.m. outside a busy Underground station.

The police have identified two other vans that may be carrying addition dirty bombs but to avoid spooking the drivers are not moving in. One of the vans suddenly drives off and an unmarked car darts out in front, shooting quickly enough to kill the terrorists before their bomb is detonated. The remaining 15 minutes or so are used to show the aftermath, a bit of the personal, mostly larger scale, especially the containment of crowds of potentially irradiated people, tens of thousands, who were far enough away to escape a violent death but close enough to the explosion to need decontamination. These people are not happy at the slow pace and lack of comforts.

The final shots are an aerial tour of the huge section of London which has been fenced off and cannot be entered for 30-50 years. Millions of square feet of office space, thousands of shops and homes, cars left to rust in place. No mention of that third bomb either.

The actors are almost unnoticable, though I mean this as a compliment. Koel Purie, Ewan Stewart, Alistair Galbraith and William El-Gardi, thinking back on the performances, were so submerged in their characters they were able to deliver what Percival needed from them. Compared to, for instance, the histrionics seen constantly in 24 the cast allows viewers space and mental energy to consider the real world meaning of what would be a catastrophe dwarfing 9/11 or the Madrid bombings.

highly recommended

Note: This topic has been popular recently with Hollywood types: TNT and the BBC co-produced a miniseries called The Grid, FX had a film called Smallpox, Day 3 of 24 had narco-terrorists attempt to infect LA with a very nasty bug and the current series is going in the direction of Islamic terrorists and nuclear emergency on our soil, and A&E’s (British import) MI-5 has more than one episode on some aspect of the concept; one can even go back a few years to the George Clooney/Nicole Kidman movie The Peacemaker. The excellent PBS series frontline features al qeada’s new front tonight while that network will broadcast Dirty War late next month. Further, John Robb’s latest post to Global Guerillas suggests that despite the absense of any successful attacks on American soil in three years there has not been an absense of planning for them.

Just saw FSW’s Bundesliga highlights show for last weekend, the first games after a month+ winter break, to find out how the two new American signings made out. Kasey Keller, currently Coach Arena’s choice for the US team, threw a shutout in his first start for Borussia Monchengladbach, two nice saves making the highlight show. Landon Donovan, reportedly just recovered from a weeklong bout with the flu, and so he only came on in the 84th minute, long after the scoring ended, as his Bayer Leverkusen mates scored all three goals to beat Hannover 96 (which is captained by USA defender Steve Cherundolo); with luck he’ll be healthy and on from the opening whistle against Bochum Saturday.

Looking at the Academy Awards nominations announced today, I’m surprised to find that from the major categories I ‘ve seen only one of the live action nominated films plus two of the three animations. Though I expect to see quite a few more even if I have to wait for them to hit premium cable.

Lucky for us here in JesusLandAmerica we have a man as wise and insightful as Antonin Scalia sitting on the highest court in the land! In a speech Saturday addressing a Baton Rouge Knights of Columbus chapter, the man some idiotspundits are talking up as the best choice to replace Reinquist as Chief Justice, said “God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools … and he has not been disappointed.”

Now just because I (completely) agree with Scalia on this and many other topics, I don’t confuse that with underestimating his intelligence; he is, no doubt, a very smart man who has decided to accept what’s in his heart (i.e., faith) over his head. So I expect better from him than the kind of victim-based logic as expressed in the cited sentence. And God, per Scalia’s belief system, created all humans and loves all of his creatures yet he made some of us in such a way that we would be such otherwise good people but with no choice but to disappoint him? Free will is one thing but this assertion just boggles me.

[To my friends who are true people of faith, no disrespect intended, but such words from this man cannot go unanswered.]

The Justice also said that “intellect and reason need not be laid aside for religion. It is not irrational to accept the testimony of eyewitnesses who had nothing to gain. There is something wrong with rejecting a priori (deductively) the existence of miracles.”

Again, Scalia makes glaring errors. The first claim contradicts the fundamental nature of faith as defined by Christians: the need to leap across the lack of direct, unsubtle evidence of God. What is faith if not the rejection of reason to embrace the ineffable nature of Him?

None of the books of the Bible, per the best information I’ve seen recently, were written less than 40 years after the death of Jesus and most much later than that, so his assertion of “eyewitness testimony” seems questionable at best and certainly nowhere near the definition used in American legal standards.

Finally, most reasonable (that is, non-extremist) people who reject religion would say their rejection of miracles doesn’t come via deductive reasoning. Not to speak for other than myself but my explanation is that since the claimed miraculous events are so extraordinary and conflict so seriously with my understanding of nature that to believe in their occurence I need more than words written down so many years ago. Catholicism, explicitly referred to by Scalia, instead goes in the opposite direction by using trumped up, nearly ridiculous assertions of miracles to justify the beatification of modern individuals (for example, see the claims for Mother Teresa).

And this is the man we should accept as the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States? I have my own faith, and it tells me that we are wiser–despite all evidence to the contrary–than the re-election of George W. Bush and the overwhelming approval of anti-homosexual marriage might evince, wise enough not to put this man in that job.

Matt questions the year in films (Oscar, schmoscar), especially the critical response to Sideways but I think he’s overlooking just how strongly critics self-identify with Paul Giamatti’s character.

I asked Slashdot: How Do You Manage Your Job-Search Info?

Awfully true!

Blazars!

The Rock is starting to show real acting ability, first in The Scorpion King and now in 2003’s The Rundown, with more than just action chops; I’m looking forward to his performance as a gay bodyguard/aspiring singer in the upcoming Get Shorty sequel Be Cool. For my money, the ex-WWE wrestler has emerged with Vin Diesel and Matt Damon as the newest class of American stars capable of delivering successfully in action and comedy (the Governator even makes a passing the torch cameo in this movie’s opening scene); he’s apparently attached to play the title character in a live action version of Cartoon Network’s Johnny Bravo which might be an interesting indicator of how far Dwayne Johnson can move from his action base.

Beck (The Rock) dreams of opening his own restaurant, keeping a small notebook for recipe ideas, but is stuck–reason unspecified–working for an LA crime boss (veteran character actor William Lucking) as a retrieval specialist. One more job will fulfill his obligation but his assignment is a real doozy: head down to the Amazon, find the gangster’s wayward son Travis and bring him home.

American Pie vet Sean William Scott is the son, a college dropout and modern day Indiana Jones wannabe, on the trail of El Gato de Diablo (the Devil’s Cat), a mythical pre-Columbian statue made of pure gold. Director Peter Berg (most recently in theaters with the semi-hit Friday Night Lights) wisely wastes no time getting Beck and Travis together: one minute Beck has his orders, the next he’s on a tiny plane avoiding herd of steers on the dusty landing strip, and the next at Rosario Dawson’s bar, Scott sneaking out but betrayed by the bar’s mirror.

Two obstacles stand in between Beck and a simple success: Hatcher (Christopher Walken), an American running an illicit goldmine on whose territory the statue is hidden, and Mariana ( the lovely Dawson), providing Scott with material support for her own ulterior motives.

Given a role that other actors might have walked through for the paycheck, Walken takes too much pleasure from his performances and takes the part of a greedy, arrogant sociopath to the next level; in my mind’s eye I saw Hatcher twirling the ends of his waxed mustache as his eyes lit up when Beck appeared on (security) camera to initiate the climactic battle. Dawson, too, was given a substantive, interesting character rather than the stereotypical bimbo so often used to add salaciousness for the teen male demographic.

Ernie Reyes Jr. has a great supporting part as leader of a band of Amazonian natives that capture Beck and Travis. Reyes is not much more than half the size of The Rock but he and his crew use some amazing martial arts skills and aerobatics to nearly win a fight that Travis provokes to escape from the no-nonsense Beck. This was one of the most original, enjoyable movie fight scenes I’ve seen since Hollywood imported Jackie Chan, John Woo and associates from Hong Kong.

Writers RJ Stewart (breaking back into film after writing many scripts for Xena: Warrior Princess) and James Vanderbilt (Darkness Falls) also give Beck a very memorable recurring standard bit. To open each confrontion with another character–such as the meeting with Travis, to explain that the two will be returning to his father in LA–Beck offers Option A and Option B. The former is to go easy, the latter to go hard and, in answer to Travis, there’s never an Option C even if Travis and later Hatcher, to their detriment, believe otherwise. These bits provide The Rock good material which he uses to show that acting ability I mentioned.

Berg keeps the action moving at a very good pace and wastes very few of his 100 minutes on scenes that don’t serve both plot and character development. One could easily imagine a version by a different director who added, for instance, scenes to establish the relationship between Scott, Dawson and Walken or, strengthening the mirroring between protagonist and antagonist, how Walken came to be running the mines. Good job.

recommended

Bonus note: Scott will make a brief cameo as Stiffler in the upcoming straight to DVD attempt to capitalize on a cash cow American Pie: Band Camp, with the plot focusing on his character’s younger brother and his plan to make a Girls Gone Wild-style video. Yes, Jennifer Coolidge will reprise her role as America’s favorite MILF.

Only days after news came out that he was keeping his hand in by sending the occasional joke to David Letterman, Johnny Carson has died from emphysema at 79. I was never too big a fan of The Tonight Show because of the timeslot and inconsistency of the material but when he was on, in the monologue or with a guest, he could be as funny as anyone within the constraints of the form. I also admired the way he lived his life after retiring–he actually retired and didn’t wage a campaign to keep his ego inflated. As Karnac might say, “A model of class, humor and simplicity with a side serving of whacky.”

A word used in the UK to describe an absolutely terrible performance by an overwhelming favorite, shambolic perfectly describes Liverpool’s play as they’ve lost 0-1 to Manchester United, 1-0 to Burnley to crash out of the FA Cup, and 2-0 to Southampton in the last week, after barely hanging on for a 1-0 win over Watford a few days earlier in the first leg of their Carling Cup semifinal.

These results are especially disheartening after the Reds did as well as could be expected in their four previous matches, taking three wins and nine points out of four holiday week outings with the only loss 0-1 to league leaders Chelsea on a late, lucky goal by Joe Cole. The team had driven up from middle of the pack to fifth place after that stretch and with Everton’s recent poor form and their sale of team leader Thomas Graveson to Real Madrid one could see some light ahead in the reaching a Champions League spot tunnel.

One could look at the loss to ManU and not be too upset (other than at Jerzy Dudek) because of the decent overall form and effort added to a questionable call or two from the referee. Losing to lower division Burnley was not so easily dismissed, the only score was the own goal by Traore playing out of position at center back; Benitez’s stated need to rest some starters that day can be argued with as he should have waited until the Carling Cup return leg this Tuesday at Watford to do it.

Today our manager had little in the way of excuses. Especially questionable was his selection of new signing Mauricio Pellegrino in central defense over Jamie Carragher, whose partnership with Sami Hyypia has really blossomed in the last two months. Pellegrino clearly lacked the necessary fitness and understanding of the differences between La Liga and EPL play and he left a huge whole in our back line that botttom dwellers Saints exploited for their first win in ten league matches. After a terrible clearance attempt, Southampton’s David Prutton beat Dudek just inside the near post in the 5th minute and we never recovered–I’m hard pressed to recall one single difficult save we forced Antti Niemi to make before halftime (though looking at the match report there were a couple). Another breakdown, in the 22nd minute, gave the Saints their 2-0 lead.

Our pace and execution improved in the second half but even the addition of recent hot scorer Florent Sinama-Pongolle out to the right in place of the less adventurous Stephen Warnock couldn’t help us get past their keeper. A number of good chances by Morientes, Riise and Baros were wasted. Steven Gerrard, so often the hero when no one else gets motoring, had nothing until very late and wasn’t able to take the team on his back.

Making matters worse, Hyypia had to leave in the 67th minute after suffering a twisted hip; five first team regulars (plus often-featured Valdimir Smicer) are already on the longterm injury list but losing the former captain for any substantial number of matches could put paid to the chances of ending in the Top Four. Giving hope despite this is the generally poor form by most of the competing squads. Two surely dangling questions lingering: After today’s two goals is how long Benitez will wait to give Scott Carson, the young keeper signed two days ago from Leeds, a chance? And, is the club done for January or will they take further action before the transfer window closes?

Depressing [via]

Darn it, Matt, farts.blogspot.com is taken!

A bunch of the old crew met up tonight at Blue Chalk in Palo Alto and three hours passed for me like 20 minutes. I really enjoyed seeing so many people I enjoyed working with for the first time in a long time. Also terrific to find out how well many of them are doing with careers (I was about the only person unemployed), with family and kids.

Peter Yared, who recently founded ActiveGrid, is the only other person with a blog. Several other ex-ND folks have founded companies as well: Zack Rinat, Olivia Dillon and Yarden Malka co-founded ModelN; Diana Jovin, Dave Brewster and Todd Greene started CascadeWorks, which they sold to Elance, and Diana and Dave produced a very cute little daughter (they got married before she left Sun); Doron Sherman was very active, co-founding Collaxa and selling it to Oracle and more recently starting UAppoint; Ofer Ben Shachar founded Noosh (he’s still Chairman) and is in the early days of a venture that’s taking a very innovative approach to search technology; and, Jim DiSanto is Chairman and CEO at KonaWare (not sure if he was a founder, but he has been in at the start of several other companies). I probably have missed a couple, and there are definitely a couple of projects in the works from others.

But the most part is that I had a fun night out–and someone else paid the tab! Big thanks to Maureen Dubois very organizing the party.