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Ha-ha, you fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'…

We saw the movie Catch Me If You Can over the weekend.  We both thought this movie was much better than it seemed most people did.  For some reason, it seems as though no one saw this film and it quickly left the theaters.  However, the movie is engaging enough that we were both able to forget that Leonardo DiCaprio has the starring role.  Christopher Walken also plays a part in this movie that isn’t flat-out evil, which is unusual for him.

From a newletter I get periodically, written by Todd Pinsky:

Seems to me, it was the anti-war folks who were warning that a war would not be quick and that innocents would die. Was I dreaming that part? Now Rumsfeld is basically saying, I tried to tell you this was going to be a mess, if you had ever let me get a word in edgewise?

People around the world are hating Americans like never before. We could become the Germans of the 21st century, with a national guilt trip nearly the size of our debt. North Korea is kicking up dust. Yesterday, both India and Pakistan tested missiles capable of delivering nookyaler warheads, and even traded insults just to impress the chicks. The UN? It could wind up as one of the choices on the back of a Trivial Pursuits card.

But don’t worry, because yesterday John Ashcroft tripled the number of domestic spying warrants. Domestic, as in, spying on American citizens. For your own safety.

I am told by many that I am an alarmist, but some of these same people, two weeks ago, thought we’d never launch this war. I am not making predictions, but I’ll be damned if anyone is going to tell me not to worry. If you’re not worried, you are obviously from another planet, or else you have a lenient pharmacist.

In non-war-related news, the Republican Senate, with the help a few chemical company-beholden Democrats (see select Senators from states like Nebraska and Louisiana), voted down an amendment that would have started the process of rebuilding the EPA’s Super Fund.  You might remember the Super Fund.  It was established to make polluters pay for their pollution.  Certain types of businesses–oil refineries, chemical companies, certain manufacturers–were assessed fees.  These fees were then deposited directly into the Super Fund.  The idea was that when a business created a huge toxic waste plume in the Earth either through neglect, malice, or both, that U.S. taxpayers would not be stuck paying for the inevitable multi-million/billion dollar cleanup if/when the company went belly-up, moved overseas, or otherwise managed to avoid responsibility for the problem they created.  Polluters paid to clean up their messes.  However, the power to collect this fee expired in 1996.  As such, the Super Fund is now the Less Than Super Fund, with a mere $28 million left in it.  Dubya, Cheney, and Co., despise the Super Fund because they feel it only reduces the profits of their buddies in the toxic chemical industry.  Dubya and Co. have pledged repeatedly to let the Super Fund run dry.  The consequences of this action?  You and I will pay to clean up the toxic waste created by Monsanto, Chevron, GE, and others.  So, the next time you read about a multi-million/billion dollar cleanup of toxic waste in Nevada, Alabama, New Jersey, or some other place where you don’t live, say Thanks Dubya and Co. as your tax dollars are spent to clean up yet another multi-national corporation’s mess.

Is anyone truly surprised by the following facts?

1. Iraqi military forces have not used a single weapon of mass destruction against US and British military forces despite ample opportunity and, if you believe the Bush administration, copious supplies.
2. US and British military forces, despite exerting tremendous amounts of energy and importing specialized units to do the job, have not found a single weapon of mass destruction.
3. US politicians and generals point to the presence of protective suits and anti-nerve agents in Iraqi hospitals as evidence of the existence of Iraqi chemical weapons.

The last point is such a logical fallacy that it seems meant to provoke public laughter rather than indignation.  Imagine a health-care facility possessing supplies both to heal those afflicted by chemical weapons but also to protect medical personnel.  If a hospital keeps rattlesnake antivenin on hand does that mean that the local military force employs rattlesnake venom as a biological agent?  If a doctor’s office keeps a supply of hepatitis vaccine on hand could invaders expect to suffer under an onslaught of biological warfare?  If an invading army stumbled upon a kitchen that contained both ammonia and bleach, should everyone break out their chemical weapons suits on the off chance that someone might be planning on mixing the two chemicals and producing chlorine gas?  Realistically, that is the argument being made the the US government.

Yesterday afternoon we returned from our trip to Brasil.  We spent seven full days in Rio de Janeiro and enjoyed nearly every minute.  The dollar is so strong right now, compared to the Brasillian Real, that almost everything produced in Brasil (food, drink, services, etc.) was really cheap.  As such, we could live very well and yet not outside our means.

Sarah and I were also engaged to be married while we were in Rio.  We have not chosen a date or location yet, but discussions towards that end are on-going.

Bush’s damn war (as someone we know always labels it) started while we were still in Brasil.  Fortunately, we were too busy to be forced to expend much energy avoiding coverage of the whole senseless affair.  Now that we’re back home we’ll expend a bit more energy avoiding the war, but fortunately we don’t have cable or satellite television.  Watching the damn war on television is like rubber-necking at a particulary gruesome accident.  I’m sure that the Pentagon is controlling the release of footage by reporters and that by the time the viewing public sees footage most days, the action has already come and gone and all that’s left is the clean-up and damage assessment.

Dopey, jingoistic, provincial thinking was a feature of American life when the news was still carried by horseback.

Now that the Academy Awards are over, I’m happy that the "Lord of the Rings:  The Two Towers" did not receive many awards.  Beyond the wholesale changes to the plot of the books, the movie just doesn’t have the depth of the books.  For instance, consider the following passage from The Return of the King:

Ere that dark day ended none of the enemy were left to resist us; all were drowned, or were flying south in the hope to find their own lands upon foot.  Strange and wonderful I thought it that the designs of Mordor should be overthrown by such wraiths of fear and darkness.  With its own weapons was it worsted!

Strange indeed.  In that hour I looked on Aragorn and thought how great and terrible a Lord he might have become in the strength of his will, had he taken the Ring to himself.  Not for naught does Mordor fear him.  But nobler is his spirit than the understanding of Sauron; for is he not of the children of Lúthien?  Never shall that line fail, though the years may lengthen beyond count.

Now, contrast that with the following snippet of dialogue from "The Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring:

One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten thousandmen could you do this. It is folly.

Or with this scene from The Lord of the Rings:  The Two Towers:

Haldir:  I bring word from Lord Elrond of Rivendell. An Alliance once ex isted between Men and Elves. We fought together and we died together. We are her e to honor that Alliance.

Aragorn:  Haldir, you are most welcome!

Haldir:  We are proud to fight alongside Men once again.

Clearly the movie makers tried to capture some of the flavor of Tolkien’s writing, but while the dialogue of the movies has an archaic flavor, ultimately it is 21st Century English.  Tolkien’s books were written in the early 20th Century, but their dialogue seems to stem from much further back in time.  Tolkien uses adjectives like fey and fell, verbs like worsted, and prepositions like ere.  All of those words have their roots in Middle English, with many finding widespread use before the 12th Century.  Also, since many of the words used by Tolkien are no longer in widespread use, they add an exotic undertone to the writing that is not found in any of the movies’ dialogue.  As one who often pays as much attention to how something is said as to what is said, these things make a great deal of difference to me.

We got our Brasil pictures back yesterday from the photo developers.  If I get time this week, I’ll scan eight or ten and put them on-line.  One thing we both noticed was that the Fuji film turned out noticeably superior pictures in all situations to the Kodak film we used.  The Kodak film produced gray and grainy pictures.  The Fuji film was sharp and the colors weren’t as washed out they were in as the Kodak film.

My curling team was eliminated from the league playdowns last night.  (Playdowns are what most people would term playoffs.  I have no idea why the term playdowns is used in the curling world, it just is.)  We were the twentieth seed in a field of 24 that was drawn from a league of 96 teams.  Our last match went into an extra end, lasted three hours, and came down to the final shot.  We forced the other team’s skip to make a difficult shot, of a type that he’d had trouble throwing all evening, and he made the shot.  So, we lost, but we certainly didn’t just give the game away; we made the other team earn their win.  Now I can avoid frozen water (except in my beverages) for the next six months or so.

We’re pretty much ready for our upcoming trip to Brazil.  The passports stamped with visas came back from the consulate last week.  We got a stack of Brazilian money.  Our tortoise and plant care plans are finalized.  Now we just have to pack and get ourselves to the airport this week.  Considering that the weather there has consistently been in the 80′s and 90′s, Rio will be a nice change of scenery.

It’s not clear to me where people get the time to watch television.  For instance, I curled on Thursday night, went to a concert on Friday night, had dinner with acquaintances and attended a hockey game on Saturday night, curled again on Sunday night, and am attending a lecture tonight.  Tomorrow night I’ll clean part of the house.  Wednesday night I’ll pack for our trip.  Thursday evening I’m having dinner at the curling club and curling afterward.  Sarah is at least as busy with school.  People say to us, Did you see blah-television-show last night? and the answer is always No, we were too busy doing something else.  I haven’t even found time to watch a half-hour episode ofthe Simpsons that I taped the Sunday before last.  I don’t understand where people get the time to invest an hour or more every night in television.

The biggest used book sale in Wisconsin was held last week on the UW-Madison campus.  Despite the fact that used books in Wisconsin are overpriced compared to used books in California (especially if one considers cost-of-living), and that this (yearly) used book sale was dwarfed by the (twice yearly) Friends of the Alameda Library Used book sale, we picked up a couple of volumes to add to our collection.  The one I’m reading now, The Ultra Secret is reasonably informative andentertaining.  The author is clearly in love with himself, but the bookdoes bring a British perspective to WWII history.  The book’s primary focus is the Allies’ ability to decrypt the German’s high-level communications and how that affected the war effort.

If you don’t like the price of gas, may I suggest biking, walking, ortaking public transit?

License plate frame of the day:  Eritrea.  Pearl of the Red Sea.

The Bush administration has a plan (those are rapidly becoming the six most chilling words in the English language)…  Truer words have never been spoken.

Absolute worst possible way to wake up in the morning:  John Ashcroft mumbling into your ear about detainees and undisclosed locations on NPR.  Your day can only get better from there.

PATRIOT Act II:  The Justice deparment wants the power to revoke your citizenship.  Why?  Because citizens cannot be held indefinitely without a trial or lawyer, but non-citizens can.

Is there currently a more ironically named governmental department than the Justice Department?