Bo's First 100 Days as First Dog

Read Bo's First 100 Days in his own words.

SNL skit with Al Franken

Video: SNL skit with Franken (1993) Funny.

During the Clarence Thomas hearings, I couldn't believe all the people who thought Thomas was innocent. If Thomas got confirmed, I can't see why there should be any problems with Sotomayor.

Burn After Reading

At the library yesterday, I checked out this Coen Brothers' movie on DVD, Burn After Reading, because I couldn't find anything else that remotely might appeal to me. I thought that since ti was a Coen Brothers film that it might not be too bad, but I was wrong. This film was supposedly a black comedy, but it wasn't funny, just terribly annoying. Aren't black comedies suppose to be funny, too? All the characters in this film are idiots, but just showing idiots by themselves isn't funny. The person has to be made funny besides having that quality, and none of the characters in this film were. On the TV sitcom "My Name is Earl," the lead character was an idiot but he was rather lovable and amusing. If he hadn't been, this sitcom would have bombed from day one, like this movie did. Frances McDormand in this film was painful to watch. One needed to be sympathetic with her character, or at minimum like her, but that was impossible. None of the characters in this movie were sympathetic. If any of these actors had added some of their own innate charm to their roles, it would have helped. An idiot who is charming, is not totally unenjoyable to watch, but even Clooney in this film was not charming to watch, as he can be. The movie could have been helped if there had been some witty lines, but there were none. Even in a black comedy, the characters need to have some quality about them that is likeable, unless one is playing a villan, but not all the characters can be villans. If they are, they have to be lovable villans. The only thing about the film that I liked was the Washington D.C. setting.

Sherlock Holmes and Bernie Madoff

While cleaning my house, I came across an old book of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories about Sherlock Holmes called The Return of Sherlock Holmes. I read the first story, which was called The Adventure of the Empty House. There were a few lines in this story that reminded me of Bernie Madoff. The main criminal in this story is an old man who was once a renowned soldier in India, a man famous for being brave and good, but then along the way he turned into a criminal. Watson asks Holmes what made this exemplary person [Colonel Moran] turn into a criminal:

Watson: "The man's career is that of an honourable soldier."

Sherlock Holmes: "Up to a certain point he did well. He was always a man of iron nerve, and the story is still told in India how he crawled down a drain after a wounded man-eating tiger. There are some trees, Watson, which grow to a certain height and then suddenly develop some unsightly eccentricity. You will see it often in humans. I have a theory that the individual represents in his development the whole procession of his ancestors, and that such a sudden turn to good or evil stands for some strong influence which came into the line of his pedigree. The person becomes, as it were, the epitome of the history of his own family."

Watson: "It is surely rather fanciful."

Holmes: "Well, I don't insist upon it. Whatever the cause, Colonel Moran began to go wrong."

Palin Writes in the Washington Post

Photo: (December, 1981) Rainy Day in Paris

Re: The 'Cap And Tax' Dead End

By Sarah Palin

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I didn't think this article by Palin half bad. I've always believed in drilling for oil in a small corner of Alaska, where hardly anyone ever goes or only a handful of people ever see. My main criticism of this article is that it doesn't go deep enough. She says that Obama's Cap and Tax plan is bad, but she never exactly says what this plan is, nor the reasoning behind it, nor the reasoning behind why it's bad. She says that his plan will raise utility rates for the poor, and references Warren Buffet as a backup to her opinion, which is persuasive, but she doesn't explain what about his plan will cause the utility rates to go up for the poorest segment of society.

Palin does have much understanding and knowledge about energy. She should maybe write a book on that topic. Her main problem is that she talks and writes too superficially. She just needs to dig down deeper and develop more intellect and give more reasons. She says what something will do, but she doesn't explain why it will do that.

If I had been writing this article, I wouldn't have started out negative and then attack the press. I think she should have started out positive and objectively. If she had put the first paragraph and the whack at the press down further into her argument, her article would have been more palatable and persuasive. I think she should stop criticizing the press: it doesn't get her anywhere. She isn't going to change how the press functions by anything she says, which just looks like ranting on her part, and that she is using the press as a scapegoat. That only weakens her image. Afterall, the Washington Post did publish her article.

In college I took many philosophy classes, and I'm really glad I did. A background in philosophy helps one, not only in thinking clearly, but in writing clearly, because the clearer and deeper one thinks that will also be how they will write. One of the arguments against drilling for oil in a corner of Alaska, besides the environmental one, is that the cost of getting the oil out of the ground and transporting it to the lower states, would make it economically unfeasible--so goes the argument. I think that Palin needs to counterattack that argument with a stronger argument. Saying it's because it's crucial we become energy independent from foreign sources isn't enough. She should say why becoming energy independent is more important than the obstacles involved in drilling for oil in Alaska. She just needs to dig deeper into herself.

Thoughts About Prayer

Photo: Cat at window (San Francisco 1982)

Prayer does not change God, but changes him who prays.
...Soren Kierkegaard(1813 - 1855)

Often when we pray, we are asking God for something, as though that something God never thought of before to give us nor knew we wanted. How silly is that? We should pray in order to get our minds back on the right track and free from all delusion, which comes from concentrating on something other than our problems. The great benefit of praying comes from getting our mind free from detrimental thoughts. Once our mind is clear and we stop being self-absorbed, then God is able to enter our minds and set things right again. He usually does that by teaching us something that helps the current situation. But what he teaches us, was there all along, we just had to get our mind in the right place to see it. Prayer is how we get our minds in that right place.

Some Old Bird Photos

“God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.”

...Jacques Deval quotes

I came across some old photos I've taken and found these two bird pics that I don't think too terrible. I think I took the peacock at the zoo in Staten Island, and the weird looking feathered guy at the San Francisco zoo, but it's been so long, I can't remember for sure. I know a photogenic face when I see one. Both photos were taken in black and white and then I hand-colored them. I'm so enjoying the old photos I'm finding that were hand-colored that I think I might start doing that again. The peacock picture makes a very nice bookmark.

I have no idea what kind of bird that is who looks like somebody's grandfather. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate you telling me. Since I hand-painted the photo many years ago, I can't know for sure if that is the correct color of his feathers.

Republicans I Like

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I can only think of two: David Brooks and Peggy Noonan, although my admiration for Peggy Noonan has cooled since her comments about how the U.S. should just pass on by all the revealing truths about the "this great country" and torture. (She reminds me of Palin in that she likes to refer to America as "this great country." This seems to be a Republican thing. Just because Democrats don't keep reminding us that America is great, which seems a little insecure to me, doesn't mean they don't think so.) Should countries that engage in torture call themselves great? What gets me is how when it comes to politics, men seem to forget all their Christian pinciples. It's as if Christianity is great, but it's departmentalized. I began reading Peggy Noonan's column in the Wall Street Journal last summer when I was then subscribing to the paper. Noonan's opinions of Sarah Palin all along have completely paralleled my own. Right after Palin gave her vice-president acceptance speech at the RNC, Noonan was enchanted with Palin, as I was also. I rewatched Palin's speech about five times. However, as time went on and Palin didn't quite live up to the level of her speech again, Noonan's opinion of Palin gradually cooled, as did mine, until now her opinion of Palin is entirely unfavorable, as is mine. As I said in a blog I wrote last week, I think Palin quit because of money. I also think Palin probably thinks she isn't accomplishing much any more as governor and doesn't feel appreciated in that job, so why keep the job when it is also holding her back from financial advancement.

David Brooks, whom I consider the perfect example of a compassionate Republican (there are actually very few), and also an intelligent one, and with whom I agree more often than I agree with Peggy Noonan, but I agree with both at least 80% of the time. My only criticism of Brooks, is that he hasn't been as impressed with Obama as I have been, and when someone has a cooler attitude toward Obama than I do, that really annoys me to no end. However, looking at Obama with a little less idealism and a little more reality is probably more intelligent. Brooks does seem to admire Obama despites his criticisms of him. I personally feel that Obama will get smarter and better when he gets more experience under his belt.