Quote of the Day -- Sunday, God, Religion Edition

 

"I love you so much that I’m going to hide my existence to the point that I will be indistinguishable from other gods, and if you follow the wrong god, you are going to suffer for eternity."

--Unknown 

John Le Carre', on George W. Bush, Part II

Because it's just that good.

And true.

And right.

A decade after “shock and awe,” he (le Carre') still rubs his forehead while speaking of it, as if discussing a death in the family.

On a shelf in his bathroom, le Carré keeps a rubber cartoon figurine of Bush, so he can stare at it while urinating.

God, I love that.

Link to original story: John le Carré Has Not Mellowed With Age - The New York Times

Coming movie: supposed to be good

Phillip Seymour Hoffman. It's supposed to be good.



A second trailer, maybe my favorite of the two:



Here's hoping they're right and it is.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/05/movies/cloud-atlas-and-the-master-playing-at-toronto-festival.html

This is rare--a sci-fi movie that looks good to me

Friend Dennis won't believe it.

Dr. Suess' "Oh, the Places You'll Go", with a twist

In case you don't know what "Burning Man" is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Man Hope you had a great Sunday and weekend, y'all.

The irony of "Captain America" coming out now



I can barely get over the irony of the movie "Captain America" coming out right now.

I confirmed, in researching, that this comic was begun in the 1940's, during the Great Depression.

That it would come back out now, in our "Second Great Depression" or the "Mancession" or whatever you want to call it, since it's the worst economic times since then, over the last 80 years, is just too great.  A subtle comparison it's not, but still, there it is.

And sure, we have far better technology now and it's been wholly refreshed and it's great for, what?  15-year-old boys or some such but, come on, the timing of this is just too rich to pass on.

The thing that gets me most about it is the whole "bringing back the America we once knew" aspect of it.  Clearly, we'd like to pretend we live in a bygone era but we can't go back to when it was all white people and no global warming or pollution or Mexicans coming into the country or Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown, etc., etc.

Besides blowing great wads of money, I think our civilization--the US--will also, one day, be known for not learning (e.g., Vietnam, housing booms and busts, Afghanistan, etc.), ignorant, obnoxious bravado (Geo. W. Bush, the Iraq War, etc.) and sticking our collective heads in sand, at minimum.

Pass the popcorn.

Links:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_america
http://captainamerica.marvel.com/

Hey, it's the holiday weekend: time to lighten up

Enjoy your long holiday weekend, y'all.

A "Twilight Zone" someone should make

A "Twilight Zone" episode I'd like to see because it would be fun and provocative and, hopefully, educational for all of us is one where the director/producer assume, to begin, that the universe is huge (as it is, of course) and that there is life out there.

In fact, there's life on multiple planets. Different life forms on each.

And guess what?

They're all advanced.

And they all know each other.

And they communicate with each other and have incredible transportation between one another's planets that we can only dream of.

And they have all their energy and production and pollution (there isn't any) and all other "problems" worked out and all of them live in what we'd consider to be Nirvana ("heaven" for the Americans out there reading this).

They all live in these perfect worlds. They're perfect unto themselves and each one works completely.

And the reason is because on each planet and in the rest of the universe, so the movie goes, they've all learned to cooperate with one another.

Everyone on every living system is educated (as educated as they need and/or want to be) and healthy (they have universal health care in all situations because they accept it should be a right instead of a privilege) and they share all land and resources--everything.

And the thing is, they've been aware of our little green planet earth for millenia.

And guess what?

To all of them--all the "perfect worlds" and perfect being out there--we are the "white trash" of the universe.

Think about it.

We view each other with only suspicion--individually and collectively.

All we do is fight each other. Heck, there are whole races that have spent hundreds and thousands of years just fighting and killing each other (e.g., Jews/Gentiles/Islamists, Catholics/Protestants, Catholics and everyone else, Muslims and virtually everyone else, etc., etc.).

We don't share anything. We pollute everything. We don't work together on enough things AT ALL.

Heck, all the "big religions" have fought and died and killed each other for thousands of years over what they all perceive to be the "holy ground".

We let people create artificial entities (read: corporations) just so those same entities can exploit people--both their own workers and their "clients" or customers. We let those same corporations kill other people so they can get natural resources like oil or whatever (e.g., Nigeria right now, etc.).

We let certain people and groups become obscenely wealthy (in terms of money and goods) (e.g., the Cote du Zur in Southern France and too many other wealthy enclaves around the world), but we let many more millions starve or die from disease or just be killed for one insane reason or another, rather than help them.

And we're okay with this system.

So in the movie, we see all these planets and beings and civilizations and societies getting along and existing and having a beautiful, big old time--but they merely observe and avoid us, here on planet Earth, until such time as we realize we're all in this together and that we could feed, clothe, house and nurse each other if we would but choose to cooperate, share and help one another.

Instead we exploit the planet and each other, as much and frequently as possible.

And we think we're civilized and intelligent.