I predict that Sex in the City will become the biggest grossing film of all time.

Which will irritate me greatly.

Stephen King’s The Mist is hideously bad. From its derivative, overblown script to its utterly cartoonish social and political commentary, from its monumentally bad special effects to its uneven acting, and all the way to the overly telegraphed and monstrously twisted ending, it embodies all that is bad about King’s movies and books. It is ham-handed and ugly with a simplistic view of our nation’s political and cultural differences; its characters are drawn obscenely from pure stereotype with not an ounce of sympathy for the depth of real folks; it’s dialog is tedious; its thrills are killed by the sheer unbelievability of the scary creatures and the stupidity of the plot; and its soundtrack (especially near the end) works hard to infuse emotion into a laughably contrived film.

What the hell was I thinking? I really should have known better and if I had seen it in a theater I would be pissed. Hell, I just rented it for $4.99 on pay-per-view and I’m pretty damn cranky.

1. Never heard of it? That’s not surprising. Even though it came from the mind that brought us Donnie Darko (brilliant), Southland Tales got exceptionally poor reviews along with a limited release.
2. It’s also a sprawling, messy, occasionally incomprehensible film that makes his previous work look like simplistic by comparison.
3. It’s also, occasionally, one of the funniest looks at the apocalypse that you’re likely to come across.
4. The acting (and there is at least a metric ton of famous folks going through this movie--some of them remarkably good actors) is a little out of step by design as is the slightly stilted script. When it works, it catches an edge of social commentary that is hard to ignore. When it doesn’t work, it jars you out of the “reality” of the movie almost painfully.
5. Visually intriguing, filled with strange characters, and shot with a more careful eye than the messy feel might otherwise indicate.
6. The barbs thrown at popular obsession with politics, idiotic and misguided “revolutionaries”, the mass media, entertainment, and some painfully real and moronic social commentary from TV talking heads, not to mention sly jabs at forced patriotism and government encroachment on freedom doesn’t always hit the targets. When it does, though, there are little tiny moments of perfection--witness especially scenes like the porn star talking heads discussing how the morning after pill becomes the morning before pill and a staged double murder that goes ludicrously wrong. Some of this stuff is really going to stick with you--if you can get past the rougher bits.
7. Interspersed with ads, news clips, various forms of cartoons, and a few moments of merely watching TV, it might be the qualitative decline and pervasive nature of media that takes the biggest, most direct hits.
8. Like DD, it’s obsessed with people who find themselves out of synch with their own lives. One particularly telling scene has a man staring into a mirror, watching his own movements which are happening in the mirror just a second behind his real movements.
9. Yes, that was Colorado’s own Big Head Todd and the Monsters singing “Broken Hearted Saviour” that you heard for a few moments there. Good stuff.
10. It’s a giant, ambitious mess--and I admire giant, ambitious messes. That doesn’t mean that it’s a success, though. Southland Tales isn’t the equal of Donnie Darko and most of the criticisms leveled at it are entirely earned. I don’t think it’s a complete failure, though--and, even with its shortcomings, I’ll be buying the DVD.
11. Bonus Point: Don’t read that last as a blanket suggestion for everyone else to see it. No film short on coherent narrative or accessible message, gifted with awkward moments that don’t even seem like part of the rest of the film, and entirely indecipherable politics (when it seems to be trying to make a political point of some kind) is ever going to reach a big market. It takes a peculiar mind to appreciate this particular brand of surreal filmmaking.

I think it might make more sense if we had some examples.

The lyrics would definitely be coming from a pro-fat, pro-sex, pro-queer, pro-bicycle, feminist, anticonsumer culture, situationist prospective.

Whatever it is, it doesn’t sound like fun party music, does it?

Was anyone else surprised by the Fed’s quarter point rate cut yesterday?

I haven’t been following the financial sites lately, and apparently I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. It seemed like a good time to sit back and do not too damned much.

Does anyone else think that it’s sort of cool that the Chinese government now has a super secret underground lair?

Well, maybe not so super secret since everyone seems to know about it, but it does fit the bad guy image they’ve been cultivating of late, doesn’t it? And, no, I’m not particularly worried about the thing; I’m pretty sure James Bond managed to single-handedly destroy more impressive super secret underground lairs a few times in his career. Once call to our friends in the UK and that thing is toast.

Does anyone else think that Josef Fritzl is going straight to hell when he dies--and that his is a clear case where his government should give him a helpful push down the path?

There are reasons that we keep the words “monster” and “evil” in our non-ironic lexicon. He serves as a reminder that evil is very real, that there are monsters in the world, and that we need to remain vigilant if we plan to keep citizens safe from the worst of us.

Is anyone else terrified of the fact that we’re having a worldwide spike in food prices and availability because, largely, of destructive government policies?

Let me continue that thought for a moment: most modern food shortages occur because of natural events. Floods, droughts, disease--acts of God if you will. The food shortages now (because we are tying our food policy to our energy policy, because trade barriers are being erected, because the cost to bring food to market are growing wildly) are manmade. I’m sure that, as we always do, we’ll absorb the painful losses, change our policies somewhat, and adjust to new realities and costs. We always do. What scares me, though, is that if our policies aren’t changes wisely, what happens to energy costs, food costs, and food availability when God visits us will a really good flood, drought, or plant disease that severely limits the supply of some staple grain? Because what has happened over the last year or so has happened without dips in actual production.

I might be missing something that makes it all okay, but this has me worried.

Does anyone else think that the whole Lesbos/Lesbian thing is absolutely hilarious?

I’ve got nothing to add to that. It’s just funny, I tell you.

Does anyone else think that the Open Source Boob Project kerfuffle sort of goes to prove all the worst stereotypes about a certain subset of geekdom?

To the point, that this class of geek imagine themselves to be extra-special-evolved in cultural terms while the rest of us just recognize the reality of their sexually immature, juvenile social ineptitude. To try to somehow demystify breasts by making such a big deal about an ongoing gropefest seems a good way to miss the actual point of their point.

That’s only compounded by the native geek tendency to suck the spontaneous fun out of a thing by codifying it, over-explaining it, and extending it like overeager schoolboys into places where it doesn’t belong. All the while they see it as a way to make a social statement of some indistinct kind.

Hi, I’m socially evolved and don’t buy into the cultural taboos about boobs. Can I fondle you now? I promise it will be totally non-sexual.

Proving with impressive emphasis that some of the worlds smartest people can still buy into stupid like nobody’s business. Especially when breasts are the topic.

I originally saw this on Scalzi’s site. He’s nicer than I am.

For the record: any deals you make to grope or be groped by another consenting adult aren’t any of my business, I know. But pretending to some heightened sexual enlightenment because of something like the oddly named “Open Source Boob Project” just looks dumb.

In the face of high royalty payments owed by online radio stations, does anyone else think that we’d all be better off when the record companies had to pay for their stuff to get played?

Instead of working toward the destruction of Internet radio, we would see a boom in the number of stations, the variety of music, and the financial health of the businesses that, for all intents and purposes, are advertisers for the record companies. By comparison to this superhighway robbery, was payola really such a bad thing? Hell, I think it was more honest.

The original WarGames--with a predictable, not particularly bright plot offset by the incredible charisma of young Matthew Broderick --will always be a guilty pleasure of mine. If I come across it while surfing channels late at night, I’ll stop and enjoy the little blast of eighties Cold War nostalgia that I also get from the likes of Red Dawn. It isn’t a good movie in the same way as, say, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but it still makes me smile.

But a remake (with an even dumber plot plopped on an apparently no-charisma zone) probably won’t be making anyone’s nostalgia tour two decades from now. Which might be why it’s skipping the theaters and going direct to video where only the plainly foolish might be suckered into watching the thing.

Yet again I feel surrounded by seas of stupid. You can see the trailer for the abomination at the link.

On the plus side, when we went to see the slight but funny Forgetting Sarah Marshall (with all of its surprising and unfortunate male frontal nudity), I saw trailers for movies that I absolutely cannot wait to see. Steve Carell was born to play Maxwell Smart--which might seem a small thing to be born for, but if it’s as funny as the original TV show, Get Smart will be one of the funniest movies I will have seen in years. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian looks to be a worthy followup to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Lastly, a new version of The Hulk, with no connection to what shall forever be known as Ang Lee’s worst film, with Edward Norton is coming up, too, and it looks much more fun than the last movie. It doesn’t hurt that Norton, apparently, contributed some of the writing. Between that and Robert Downey, Jr’s turn as Iron Man, I have to think that there is some good comic book action coming to theaters this year.

Anyway, the message is this: don’t see War Games: The Dead Code, but look forward to some fun, dumb eye candy while the Democrats continue to work hard at making presidential politics a real brutal contact sport.

And if you’re looking for more raunchy comedy from the Judd Apatow machine, Forgetting Sarah Marshall will have you laughing and, true to form, has some touchingly real moments about how men and women screw up their relationships. It’s a joyously vulgar thing and, for all the talk of bravery for movies like Crash and Brokeback Mountain, Jason Segel showed true bravery in his willingness to bare himself in so many (often disturbing) ways and top it off by singing a portion of a melodramatic rock opera about Dracula’s desire to be loved. That’s courage, my friends.

Let us all, who have attended Rocky Mountain Blogger Bashes, give thanks that I am not a particularly courageous man.

My MP3 player (a second generation iPod Nano) has done good things for my music listening habits. On the positive side, in place of the stacks of CDs that I used to keep in my car and office, I now have a mini library of music wherever I go that I can easily change and which holds enough music to match nearly my many moods and tastes.

On the negative side, I rarely listen to albums anymore. Unless it’s a new purchase, my favorite tracks get picked and placed with others to create some wonderful mixes, but the cohesive pleasure of listening to a great album from front to back is mostly gone. So, today I’m reacquainting myself with my favorite albums while I’m working.

Not that I don’t enjoy the playlists that I create--because, I’m here to tell you, I am the playlist king--but I know that there are hundreds of songs that I haven’t listened to in some time because they don’t easily fit into any of the playlists that I make. Like Screaming Trees’ “Look at You” from the first album on my list, Dust. It’s a gorgeous love song, but I haven’t heard it in quite some time.

The point being, since I doubt that I’m alone in the near abandonment of listening regularly to albums, you’re invited to play along and rediscover your own favorite albums. If you do play along, though, I’d love it if you would let me know what you’re listening to--it might give me some ideas for my own rediscoveries.

First up for me, as I noted, is Dust--the Trees’ last album is a wonderful little rocker. Not great, perhaps, but with some brilliant moments.

Update: This is list of albums thus far.

1. Dust, by Screaming Trees
2. Consider the Birds by Woven Hand
3. Definitive Collection, Disc 1, by Alan Parsons Project
4. Pet Sounds by Beach Boys
5. Sex, Love and Rock n’ Roll by Social Distortion
6. Deliverance by Corrosion of Conformity
7. Acadie by Daniel Lanois

And definitely look in the extended entry for some worthy suggestions.

12 is the Magic Number.
The Avs won the series 4-2 after scoring first in every game and only giving up a first period goal in one game. The Wild were often more aggressive--they pushed the play, the got shots on goal, they hit hard and often. But the Avs had better goaltending, made more of their scoring opportunities, blocked more shots, and never seemed to lose their composure--something that the Wild couldn’t say after racking up over 100 minutes of penalty time in game 4.

Great series. I hope the next one is just as exciting (and blessed with the same happy ending for Avs fans).

Congratulations to Danica.
It’s nice to see that she is both hot and talented. I’d been wondering a little about the talented part.

Danica Patrick became the first female winner in IndyCar history Sunday, taking the Indy Japan 300 after the top contenders were forced to pit for fuel in the final laps.

Patrick finished 5.8594 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves on the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval after leader Scott Dixon pitted with five laps left and Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan came in a lap later.

MacUpdate Promo looks pretty good.
For Mac OS X users, the MacUpdate promo looks like a better bundle of applications than the current MacHeist Bundle. Of course, that’s assuming that they reach the target sales goal and actually release all of the applications to they buyers. There are a few useful applications in it that I’d been thinking about buying, so I’ll be ponying up for the bundle.

Oprah is a pusher.
I try to stay nice on the subject of Oprah since there is much to admire. Her charities have done real good in the world, she’s risen to become one of the most powerful people in American entertainment, and the girl likes her enough to subscribe to her magazine. For that matter, she’s got all the business savvy that Donald Trump wishes he had--and he has the bankruptcy filings to prove it.

Anyway, where my admiration stops is right at the edge of her social and political commentary--commentary that leans less on thinking and more on feeling. That is doubly so when she’s pushing a self-help title of the nature of The Secret. Her new business venture with Eckhart Tolle, though, makes her seem more like a huckster than a reputable businessperson.

Disappointing isn’t a big enough word.

Suddenly, for no real reason whatsoever, I’m in the mood for the national anthem.

Long, long ago, I wrote of the amazing version of Opie Gone Bad’s Jake Schroeder singing the national anthem before the Colorado Avalanche home games. Now, through the magic of YouTube, here’s Jake.

Unfortunately, the sound isn’t the best, but it gives a good idea of his voice--and maybe a good idea of why I get a little misty when he sings it. I’ve heard him do it quite a few times and there wasn’t once where I doubted the depth of his respect for the song, his belief in its words.

A little Opie Gone Bad in the extended entry for the curious--and the sound is significantly better.

Read the Rest...

I was in the mood for a variety of mellow songs and thought it would be nice to share. You’ll find a little Toad the Wet Sprocket, Twilight Singers, Isobel Campbell, Otis Taylor, Sam Cooke, and, frankly, just a bunch of other stuff that fit my mood.

Enjoy it while it’s here because I don’t know how Seeqpad works--but my guess is that the streams are from either the sites that originally provided the songs or from temporary caches. Either way, they probably won’t be there forever.

It is so surprising for me to find that Oliver Stone’s film about President Bush (The Most Recent) might be biased, incomplete, inaccurate, and even a bit controversial. I mean, given his reputation as a stickler for historical details in his films, it’s so unusual to find that his centrist view of this White House might not be perfectly in line with reality.

Just weird.

Now that we’ve registered the proper amount of surprise, I say we go back to perpetually ignoring this movie that will likely shed absolutely no light on this presidency.

As problems go, this one seems pretty small. “Lloyd’s of London warned yesterday that an absence last year of natural disasters or man-made accidents was putting pressure on firms to reduce premiums in 2008.”

While I’m sure that a certain class of investor is a little worried, the rest of us are breathing a sigh of relief.

The problem with Putin’s request to “be friends...and engage in an honest dialogue” is that I don’t think he’d like what we have to say about his view of Russia or our post-Cold War international relationships. Frankly, he can take the entirety of the arctic circle (minus valuable natural resources, of course, which would have to be removed carefully beforehand) and shove it up his KGB-lovin’ butt.

I"m going to guess that’s not the kind of honest talk for which he was looking.

The problem with this is that it’s stupid. Which is Kenny Wright’s problem, too. Stupid. Which isn’t really unusual--the stuff gets all over the place if you aren’t careful.

The problem with wealthy, young socialites these days is that so many of them are intent on the dignified, smart use of their privilege, skills, intelligence, and wealth to support their philanthropic efforts, truly hoping to make the world a better place. Oh, wait, that’s not their problem at all. Their problem seems to be something else entirely.

Sorry about that.

The problem with pirates is that they aren’t much like that lovable, funny, yet desperately in need of some personal hygiene guidelines Captain Jack Sparrow. Which, if you look carefully, is also the problem with failed states (and, if you look even closer, the problem with fetishizing anarchy--but that’s a long conversation for another day).

The problem with today is that I’ve got a lot to do and no desire to do it. Which, as problems go, is a big one for me but not so much for you.

Just sayin’.

Complete this phrase properly, name the source for Big Zomby Bonus Points that can be exchanged for precisely nothing at your local lap dance emporium.

“Oh, shootings, yes. But that doesn’t mean Americans are more violent than other people...”

Update: If you were wanting a few more quotes from this quotable film, click on through Nathan’s post. Got, that’s a good movie.

Steve talks cover songs and I can’t help but think about some of my own personal favorite covers. While it’s true that it’s very rare for a cover to outshine the original, I think it’s just as true that many cover versions bring something new out of the song. Update: And check out Jed’s post (and thanks for the link) on the subject.

These are a few of my favorite things, although I’ve done it with a twist. Every other song is something covered by Mark Lanegan or a Lanegan-related group. If you don’t like his voice, you might want to skip those; if you do like his voice, they would make a tremendous EP all on their own.

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen penned a beautiful song, but Jeff Buckley’s voice and arrangement made it into something as near perfect as can be. It’s not often that I would call a man’s voice angelic, but Buckley’s qualifies. The entirety of Grace is worth hearing, but “Hallelujah” is tremendous.

Twilight Singers - Live with Me
Massive Attack’s “Live with Me” is a sort of mutant cross between electronica and blues with Terry Callier on vocals. Great stuff. Greg Dulli’s Twilight Singers slow it down a bit, bring out the full-on blues experience, and gives Mark Lanegan the chance to make it more desperate and earthy than the original.

Slobberbone - To Love Somebody
The Bee Gees’ wonderful “To Love Somebody” has been covered by more people than I can remember. Some of the best--and, to me, most surprising--were Janis Joplin, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Slobberbone. And it’s Slobberbone’s version that I like the most. Slobberbone turns the R&B number into a slow, warm country ballad. Great stuff.

The Walkabouts - Feel Like Going Home
When Charlie Rich sang “Feel Like Going Home”, it came out pretty and nice. When The Walkabouts sing “Feel Like Going Home” it becomes something more personal and the weariness of “everything I done is wrong” becomes more real. Mark Lanegan’s voice comes in on the third verse ("Cloudy skies are closing in...") like an old man facing his death after a long life and wanting the release. It would be brutal if it weren’t so pretty.

The Gourds - Gin and Juice
Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” wouldn’t normally seem like a perfect fit for a bluegrass makeover, but it is one of the most fun songs to come from the 90’s alt.country (whatever that means) movement. Enjoy the groove and laugh when you hear the heavy accents singing about ghetto thug life.

Mark Lanegan - Carry Home
The original from the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce is a little rock number from The Gun Club’s album, Miami, but Mark Lanegan makes it his own. From his album of covers, I’ll Take Care of You, “Carry Home” becomes a sparse slice of Americana that is hardly recognizable as the original--just a simple guitar framing Lanegan’s rich, deep voice. 

Johnny Cash - Hurt
When Nine Inch Nails recorded “Hurt,” I would never have imagined that Johnny Cash could turn it into a deeper lament than the original. But his aging voice and emotional reading of the lyrics stand as one of the most blatant and affecting looks at failure, regret, and mortality.

Screaming Trees - Darkness Darkness
Basically a throw-away from the song from the Trees for the True Lies soundtrack, their cover stands well against The Youngblood’s original. It’s fun to hear Lanegan and company hitting full rock stride with a song that fit beautifully with their own work. A perfect fit.

Israel Kamakawiwo’ole - Hawai’i ‘78
Best known for his shockingly pretty cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” Israel Kamakawiwo’ole also covered “Hawai’i ‘78”, a song originally recorded by The Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau. Iz’s voice was truly special; sadly he died far too young from complications related to his morbid obesity (at one time weighing well over 700 pounds).

Soulsavers - Blues Run the Game
If you’ve heard “Blues Run the Game,” it was probably Simon & Garfunkel’s pretty cover of the little-known Jackson C. Frank original. The Soulsavers trade the folk guitar in for gentle piano and cello. Folkies will always love the original, but for the rest, the Soulsavers created a song that won’t ever be stuck in one time zone. Others have covered the tune, but none quite so effectively.

Bonus - Megadeth - These Boots
Nancy Sinatra couldn’t pull off the rocking attitude that comes with Megadeth’s speed-metal version of her rebellious classic. To be fair, Dave Mustaine will never be as cute as she was when she sang the song, but his growl does have a certain charm.

Big Bonus Territory
In the extended entry is an assortment of the songs and artists listed here. Where I couldn’t find an original or a cover, I went with something by the covering artist. And, yes, Megadeth is there at the end.

Enjoy.

Read the Rest...

Enjoy.

After watching American Idol I like to listen to music that is suits me more than what I hear on the TV. That could be something loud if they’ve been foolishly praising the rock bona fides of some wannabe crooner or it could be the original of something that one of the contestants massacred the night before. Whatever else it does, American Idol helps me appreciate my own record collection more by showing me how bad or cynically calculated music really can be. Not that there aren’t good performances on the show, of course, but the bulk of the stuff is one or another variety of bad.

After watching Chikezie go last night--not a bad choice, although it really should have been Ramiele--I’ve been listening to my Lizz Wright albums. Her voice is amazing and a few of her songs are amongst the most beautiful I’ve ever heard. For that matter, some of her covers are striking, too. You should hear what Zep’s “Thank You” when she’s done with it.

If I weren’t already in love with the most wonderful woman in the world, I’m pretty sure I’d be obsessed with Lizz Wright. Here’s her singing a live version of the gorgeous “Hit the Ground.”

If you like this, I highly recommend buying her albums The Orchard and Dreaming Wide Awake. And if you liked that, there’s a bonus video in the extended entry of her singing Joe Henry’s “Stop.” Madonna covered the song, too, but it’s better if we pretend that never happened.

Read the Rest...

“...You can’t have it.”

Speak truth to power, Brother Nuge!

I totally can’t be the first person to say that today.

I always knew that I liked Dawn Wells the best.

In Palenque, Mexico, the saviors of humanity are converging to lend their knowledge of the sciences to the fight against global warming be teaching us about “reviving Indian notions about ownership, use, compensation and respect.” Which doesn’t sound like it will go far in finding ways to increase fuel efficiency in cars, cheap ways to sequester emissions from coal burning plants, or even a practical way to get the nuclear power industry jump-started in the US.

Which is a shame since, according to US EPA regional administrator Elin Miller, “The planet-wide stress on the environment today means that collaborative efforts ... are not just good things. They may well be essential for our survival.” If that means we die unless collaboration with these folks brings useful solutions, we are well and truly screwed.

Seriously, though, looking to cultural guides for wisdom in how to live our lives from a practical and moral standpoint isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But only a fool could expect a solution to providing the amenities and necessities of civilized society (health care, longer lives, abundant food, clean water, the new CD from the Gutter Twins) with clean energy sources that aren’t so disruptive to economies that they see us fall into a global depression. This native wisdom isn’t going to solve those problems, and, with all due respect, I want better health care, a longer life, better nutrition, and better insulation than the average Native American saw before the Damned, Evil white devils showed up.

Ultimately, all religions do what they can to remain relevant to their times, but religion and cultural wisdom don’t engineer anything other than the shape of society, and then only within certain boundaries.

Those lessons--generally some variations on things like respect and responsibility to the planet and to future generations and the expectations of our behavior placed by a God (or whatever deity or deities you prefer) who gave us a special role in His creation--are important and useful guides to the way we should approach living our lives. Those ancient wisdoms did little to teach us how to combat infections with antibiotics, treat cancer with radiation, or revive lagging libidos with little blue pills.

If we need salvation on a global scale from anthropogenic global warming, then it won’t be at the whim of religious dictate, it will be because of scientific breakthroughs and smart energy policies.

Of course, if we follow the indigenous path, we might all get some hella nifty Flinstone-mobiles to ride to work. Not sure how I’ll get the drive to be downhill both ways, though…

Read the rest.

I just dropped by FoxNews to see what’s going on in the world today and was faced with a grim, depressing, brutal reality: today’s news sucks.

1. It seems like a small thing--and it is in the context of some of the other stories of the day--but Patrick Swayze didn’t deserve the kind of headline that the National Enquirer ran. Jerks, Swayze was never a great actor, but I always like him. He’s done some decent movies, some seriously bad films, a bunch that fall in between, and more than I care to admit that I’ll stop and watch regardless of the category that they go in. Here’s hoping that the Enquirer was wrong about how far advanced the cancer is and that he continues to make the kind of entertainment that somehow rises above conventional standards of good and bad. He always seemed like a good guy to me.
2. Jajuan Holmes, an 18 year old boy who killed himself in front of his classmates, possibly because he had recently been charged with a robbery. What a horrible waste of a young life--and an example of why we should embrace a faith in redemption. I don’t mean that in a religious way--although that doesn’t hurt--I mean that in a practical way. People need to believe that even when they’ve screwed up they can still go on to find not only forgiveness but meaning in their lives. Some crimes are so beyond the boundaries of civilized society that I wouldn’t be able to offer up much in the way of hope; but this was a robbery charge. Proper punishment for crimes is important, but so is faith in the future.
3. A father who thought that a clothes drier was a Disney World ride might need a second chance, too. But he should probably get it without the responsibility of kids (a two-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy)--and only after appropriate punishment involving a little time in a jail cell. Obviously, he isn’t a fit parent, and that’s assuming that his story isn’t just something to cover up abuse that resulted in second degree burns on one of the children.
4. Some of the stories are just stupid people doing stupid things. Not horrific, by any means, but achingly dumb.
5. This is just a sad, strange story of elderly neglect perpetrated by a 94-year-old woman’s daughter.
6. And then, in Israel, at least 10 are dead and 35 wounded in an attack on a rabbinical seminary. Hamas, of course, “blessed” the operation and the deaths and threatened more of the same. Some days, I hope for peace; some days it just seems a mountain far too high to climb.

And that’s the news that I see today--almost all of it some unsubtle shade of bad. Tonight would be a good night to drink a beer or five, I think.