T-M-I from T-I-M

Great Slate article on Larry Craig

If you haven't heard, Larry Craig is the senator from Idaho who got busted for cruising for homosexual sex in a Minneapolis airport bathroom.  (Did you know it's actually a crime to peep through the crack of a stall?  I mean I guess it makes sense, I just didn't know it was an actual law...but it is and he got busted for it and other things.)

Anyway, William Saletan wrote a great article pointing out the hypocrisy of the fact that Craig was a supporter of don't ask/don't tell and yet he still has his job after sort of admitting he is gay (well sort of denying then admitting now retracting it). 

I loved this quote from Mr. Craig regarding his take on DADT JUST TWO WEEKS AGO, after being arrested in June:

"I don't believe the military should be a place for social experimentation," Craig wrote. "It is unacceptable to risk the lives of American soldiers and sailors merely to accommodate the sexual lifestyles of certain individuals."

For me, honestly, I don't think they guy should be thrown out of office necessarily.  So he cruises airport bathrooms where it's known to happen, big deal (in fact that's why they set the sting up there...).  I just wish he would be honest about the whole situation.  As Mr. Saletan points out, it's the lying that is so hypocritical given the built in honesty bullet of DADT, it REQUIRES you to be honest or you're in deep trouble.

Nevertheless, I think it's game, set and match for Mr. Craig.  Perhaps it will give him more time to branch out into rest stops or park restrooms rather than the halls of Congress.

Call me childish, I think this is hilarious!

A few Davidson High students took the time to pull off a hilarious prank on a group of Darby students.  Apparently there have been suspensions and banishments handed out and lots of politically correct bantering about being more mature.

Perhaps the Darby students and parents and the Davidson principal could:

1. Not take themselves so damn seriously
2. Smarten up just a bit
3. Recognize the tremendous attention to detail it took to pull it off and realize the 3 students who led the deal have some very marketable skills

Eventually, they will re-channel them into other avenues I would think.  In the meantime, I'll be stoked if they move onto college and step up their prank games.  I mean really, think about it, do you honestly think that anyone was hurt by this?  Who knows maybe it might be hard to talk about it with a youngster, I suppose I could see that.

But in the end, I just think it was funny.

Book Review: Kushiel's Dart

I just finished a 912 page novel.  Yes, I'm proud of myself, that's a long book, but it was easier than you think.

Anyhoo, said novel Kushiel's Dart was fabulous.  The story is set in medieval times and follows the fate of a nation that is beset by treason and war woven around the power of love and the weakness of lust.

It follows the life of a young girl who is sold into a life of prostitution as her parents can't afford her.  She ends up having a list of Heidi Fleiss-esque clients hanging with the most priviliged and powerful of the nation who of course end up giving into their lust for her by revealing key bits of information or favors because of her...talent.  I've never read a book that so clearly uses the weakness of men and women for sex as a means to unwind a wonderfully told story.

That being said, the book is a little harsh for the faint of heart as far as sex goes.  But even that part is a small part of a wonderfully told story.  I believe the story could have been even better if the Ms. Carey had cut back on the details about the trysts and stuck with the story.  However, the story was inextricably linked with the trysts.

The main character, Phedre put herself in an awful lot of dangerous situations in the name of loyalty, sacrifice and nation when she did her work.  But the odd thing is she got tremendous enjoyment out of it.

About 90% of the book was a super fast page turner the rest was good not great, making for an overall fabulous read.  And for a change of pace from my regular reading it was fantastic!

Acceptance of fallibility and happiness seem to go hand in hand

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about how important it is to remind myself that I (and every other human on this planet) is fallible by definition.  Actually, I guess I might consider excluding a brand new born infant because fallibility wouldn't seem to come into play (interesting topic for another blog post perhaps).

Lately I think I've learned quite a bit about myself when I realized that my father is human.  I've always held my father on a saintly pedestal and, until recently, haven't connected that my view of him inhibits the honesty in my relationship with him and, more importantly, my view of myself.

I was talking with a friend last night about how much easier it is for me to accept the reality of being human as it applies to global or organizational issues (like what I wrote about the Catholic church).  But when it comes to my personal relationships (particularly when it comes to those who are really important in my lives) it's a little trickier.

For me, however, there is such power in realizing that in fact we are all human because that includes me.  I'm going to make mistakes.  If I don't accept my humanity, I'm sure, at a minimum, to be hard on myself.  I will also probably add to the drama because I will think it will lower myself in your eyes which I now believe is really important because I'm trying to keep up some type of act.

Knowing that we're all human inspires compassion in me quicker than judgment.  And when I reflect that onto myself it feels really good.  And when I don't I can simply remember that I'm human and I'll make mistakes!

What's good about the Catholic church

I was thinking tonight about how much I've put into revealing and lamenting my Catholic upbringing.  I realize that in doing so I'm demonstrating the very intolerance that I claim to abhor.

As such, I gave some time tonight to thinking about what I like about the Catholic church and came up with a few:

• Community: One nice thing I remember about going to church was seeing my friends and other families.  To a certain extent the kids bonded to one another through the common boredom however at least for a little over an hour we were all pretty well behaved.  I never saw fights or even arguments in the church parking lots.  There was something genuinely nice about walking back from taking communion and seeing some people who I still consider friends.
  
• Direction and Hope:  Even though it didn't quite work for me, I must admit that the church has provided millions upon millions of people with direction and hope in their lives.  I'm certain that a lot of people, inspired by this direction and hope, turned out and around to help out people in need.  Yes, I know a lot of people do it without it, but sometimes it just works for some people to do it with it.
  
• Some of the clergy were actually cool:  I look back and remember a few Fathers, Sisters and Brothers who were super cool and made a huge impact on my life.  It's a little hard to deal with the fact that the one who made by far the biggest impression on me (Fr. Michael Skelly) while I was at Marquette University, left the order.  But while he was there he (along with many others) were very good to me.
  
• Jesus is a cool dude:  My intro to Jesus was through the Catholic church.  And despite the seeming near complete loss of what he was all about in modern day Catholicism, it's still the way I got to know him and I'm blessed for it.

These are just a few that I could think of when pondering it's impact on my life. 

In the end, the single most important role the Catholic church has played in my life may be that it was the institution that introduced God to me in a way that didn't really work for me but because of that I am seeking a level of spirituality in my life that I may not have achieved had that not been my path.

One last thing I realized today.  The pope....he's human.  And so is everyone else involved in the Catholic religion.  And as humans, we are flawed.  But it's their path to deal with those flaws in a way they see fit.

I'm feeling like I'm near done chastising them for their flaws (of which there are NUMEROUS).  It doesn't mean I won't point it out if I feel like it, it just means I'm close to done blaming the church for where I am today.  They continue to help millions and many of them live lives that are worth aspiring towards.

You're just not likely to see me at Sunday mass trying to learn how to copy them.

Why I blog

Every now and then I think about why I spend the time sharing my ideas and often my innermost thoughts on a blog.  After all, it would be just as easy for me to write a journal and keep it to myself.  I'm not particularly interested in "building a brand" out here.  I'm also not really trying to sell anything.

In the end, I'm not really sure, but I love doing it.  I love to hear that my Aunt Marie in Hayward likes to read what I write (yes I know you are reading this Marie bless your heat!).  I love that I receive emails or comments from people when I touch them, it's rewarding.

It's rewarding to me because I'm not intentionally trying to do it.  I'm simply writing whatever is of interest or important to me at that time.  I think what I've found most powerful about these realities is I don't have to worry about what you might think because I never really worried about it from the beginning.  I've put up some pretty deep, personal stuff about myself and have even been able to see myself evolve and grow through what I write.

And, frankly, at many times it's much easier than keeping a journal.  One thing's for sure, I can't leave my blog at a Starbucks or on a plane, that's nice.

Of course, in some ways I'm just a link in a chain.  There were people before me like Ben, Chris and Jackie and people since me like Justin and Franziska. 

Perhaps part of the reason I blog is to show you that anyone can.  Let's face it since I'm not brand building, selling anything or issue driven, the question remains what do I bring to the blogosphere.

Me.

And you have one of those too that is totally unique.  I'd love to see you share it online and find out for yourself why you blog.

Thank goodness I decided not to live life explaining why I don't when I never had that feels like living in fear.

And that's something I prefer to avoid thank you very much!

What the media puts its attention to will continue to show up

It's not a new idea.  What we put our collective attention on will keep showing up in our lives.  It's the way the universe works.

So, this morning, as I was getting myself updated on what was going on in the world (something I actually just don't do very often) I went to cnn.com and here were the headlines of the day:

* Musharraf warns of 'Talibanization'

* Mine images raise hope; silence persists

* Computer glitch creates big LAX backup

* Shuttle gets once-over | LIVE: Inspection Live Video 2 min

* Theme park actor: It's not easy being Jesus Video

* Hurricane nears Hawaii likely to weaken

* Fourth suspect sought in schoolyard slayings

* WCVB: Four charged in MySpace burglary plot

* Police: British girl may be dead

* Four soldiers killed in Afghan fighting

* Ticker: Romney: No-shows knew they'd lose

* Candidate/Rocker Huckabee jams in Iowa Video

* 4 grandmothers attacked with hammer at salon

* Most dangerous job? (Hint: not mining) Video

* At the beach, sun's bad but water's worse Video

Look at the negativity.  It just oozes from the headlines in the forms of fear, anger, hatred, etc.  The only one that made me smile in any way was the story about the dude playing Jesus in the theme park.

Is it any surprise that stuff like this just keeps showing up in our lives?

Yes, I get that people will tell me that this is what sells.  OK, I understand that it sells and is proven.  And, unfortunately, the mind that creates the problem can't be the ones to solve it.  So the media isn't likely to come to the rescue. 

It also means that the minds that eat this stuff up (ours) probably can't solve it either.  Where does that leave us?

What can we do about it?

Does anyone care?

The role of intention growing up Catholic

I was thinking the other day about the power of intention.  My basic definition of intention is the feeling motivation for your thoughts and actions. 

I was thinking about what my intentions were when I went to church in my younger years.  I grew up Catholic and so I never really had an intention when I was going when I was really young.  If I had one it was probably the feeling of wanting to be loved or maybe just not wanting to get in trouble by going and trying (usually unsuccessfully) to behave.

Where it got real tricky was when I was in my teenage years.  My intention then was to feel accepted and fulfill an obligation, sort of like everyone else was doing.   I probably also intended to feel good about myself and avoid the guilt of not going (after all it was a sin not to!).

Guilt avoidance and obligation fulfillment are inextricably linked and the financial cornerstones of the mega multi-national corporations known as religions.

Interestingly when I went to college for about 2 years I actually went to church almost every night.  It was a little chapel where about 25 of us sat on the floor and lots of us participated.  My intention was to feel loved and give love and they were by far the most rewarding times in the Catholic church.

Of course that changed as soon as I found SF and went to church to the same stuff I experienced when I was a child.

How many children and young adults like to go to church?

Almost none and they would all freely admit it.

I wonder if the church actually realizes that core issue.  Going to church just isn't fun or rewarding as a kid.  It was pretty much the same for me as an adult. 

In fact the part that seems to be rewarding for a lot of people is that church is personal quiet time.  How great is that?  I go to church to be alone with my thoughts.  It says an awful lot about what is being chattered about up front.

Perhaps I'm considering this because I want my daughter to have a relationship with God (or some spiritual energy however she wants to define it).  Right now she considers God to be both man and woman which is cool by me.

Whatever the relationship she has, I'm trying to figure out my role as her father in helping her set intentions as early as possible that avoid guilt and obligation and focus on love.

Today, I intend to feel love and be loved, I just don't need church to do it.  At the same time, I feel like I need community and when the time is right I will find one that suits me.

Steve Jobs should host SNL

It would seem to make a great match.  He's a confident, at times funny guy.  I'm sure the ratings would be huge and I bet the demographic that it would attract would generate awesome ad revenue for the show.

I suppose I'm suggesting it because I pondered it as I watched Ratatouille.  I bet they could pull it off.

Movie Review: Ratatouille

I saw Ratatouille this weekend and thought it was good, not great.  The animation (similar to Shrek III) was, in the words of Dr. Evil....breathtaking.  There were scenes in Ratatouille that showed Paris that I honestly couldn't tell whether it was actual footage of the city (which it may have been, I still don't know) or animation.

I liked the core message of the story.  I took away that you should never judge the package in which genius may come because genius may come from anywhere.  I just didn't find the story itself all that compelling.

It's sort of like the core message of Finding Nemo was about the uncertainty that a father faces when trying to raise a child and was great.  The story wrapped around that was unbelievable.

An interesting note for me was that the voices in the movie were all virtual unknowns.  It sort of reminds me of the early days of Disney when they did the same thing.  Pixar, understandably, seems to be easing on the gas of the star power of its voices.  After Cars which included Owen Wilson and Paul Newman, this film included a list of people I've never heard of, I suppose it makes more money for the studio!

It's also interesting to compare that to Shrek III which seems to be relying more and more on those big names while the story is getting less interesting.

The thing about the animation for me that was so stunning was that this movie was loaded with physical comedy and the animation made it very believable.  The rat controlled Linguini, the young "chef" as a puppeteer and frankly it looked like he was stealing scenes from Pinocchio with his body flopping around.  In addition, the scenes where the rat was running through sewers and the streets of Paris were spectacular.

I liked that the movie tried to spice in some stuff for adults (in particular, the food critic whose last name was Ego was brilliant) while still keeping the kids engaged.   My bet is if you like cooking to some degree the movie was probably awesome!

Perhaps my expectations were too high (in  fact I'm pretty sure they were).  I love that  Pixar has kept Brad Bird (who wrote and directed it) around.  His movie Iron Giant was tremendous.  He also was part of the early Simpsons years.  Hopefully the next one (which apparently is about a robot who becomes all that he wants to be) will be cool.

Then again, a good outing by Pixar (sorry I just can't quite bring myself to call them Disney) is better than most any outing by almost all the other studios so keep them coming!