Summer in Crawford

As the summer winds down something amazing is happening in Crawford, Texas. Cindy Sheehan and Gold Star Mothers for Peace are finally making this nation question the invasion of Iraq. Who knows where it can lead? It is attracting much hate from those who don't like to be questioned.

Vacation

Like the President, I've decided to take the summer off.

Supreme Facts

New York Times article about the definition of activist judges.

When Democrats or Republicans seek to criticize judges or judicial nominees, they often resort to the same language. They say that the judge is "activist." But the word "activist" is rarely defined. Often it simply means that the judge makes decisions with which the critic disagrees.

In order to move beyond this labeling game, we've identified one reasonably objective and quantifiable measure of a judge's activism, and we've used it to assess the records of the justices on the current Supreme Court.

Here is the question we asked: How often has each justice voted to strike down a law passed by Congress?

Here's the score, percentage of times voted to strike down:
Thomas 65.63 %
Kennedy 64.06 %
Scalia 56.25 %
Rehnquist 46.88 %
O’Connor 46.77 %
Souter 42.19 %
Stevens 39.34 %
Ginsburg 39.06 %
Breyer 28.13 %

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/opinion/06gewirtz.htm...

July 4th - Independence Day

I support the troops.

Independence Day here has been turned into a support the troops day. We honor the troops on Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day. I think July 4th should be different. We should celebrate the USA. I suppose someone will try to tell me they're fighting for our freedom. In my opinion that's not what this occupation is about. My freedom was not threatened by Iraq.

Movie Review: War of the Worlds

Spielberg does War of the Worlds. That sounded really inviting to me. So I wanted to avoid reading reviews until I saw it. Hence I was front and center on opening day. The story begins in my native New Jersey. Tom Cruise plays a deadbeat dad working on the Kearny docks. ( Gee it was great to see Kearny again—not.) Spielberg melds the 1898 story by H.G. Wells with the 1938 radio play and 1953 movie. There are loads of excellent special effects. People get killed in all sorts of ingeniously designed ways. The alien ships don't seem practical for an invasion fleet, but what the heck. I guess that was to remain faithful to Wells’ original story.
The acting is okay. Tom Cruise does a journeyman’s role in the thankless role of a divorced father who has to contend with aliens and rebellious kids he barely knows. Dakota Fanning is good, but should be familiar with aliens by now. (She starred in the mini-series, Taken)
The ending is from the Wells novel. But the movie never grabbed me. I never cared for any of the characters. Visually it was a great movie, but I think a movie fan needs more than that.
I recently saw Saving Private Ryan again. It reminded me of the quality that I expect from Steven Spielberg. I’ve enjoyed most of Spielberg’s movies. Some are the best I’ve ever seen. War of the World won’t make that list.
Grade: C+

Movie Review: Cinderella Man

I can’t believe I’ve enjoyed two boxing films in one year. Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man is a biographical film about Jim Braddock who makes a boxing comeback despite overwhelming odds during the depression era. Russell Crowe plays the part just fine. Renee Zellweger plays his wife Mae. Zellweger wasn’t the best choice for the roll in my mind. But Howard makes a film that is interesting and entertaining. I also thought Paul Giamatti was very good as manager Joe Gould. The depression setting really made the boxing have much more meaning. Although some of the lines were a little over the top like “I’m fighting to put milk on the table.” Yeah, we got the idea. No need to punch it up with a line like that. The story was more like a Rocky for real. We got into the characters as much as into the boxers. It’s hard to get past some of the similarities to Million Dollar Baby. But the bottom line is it is entertainment. Not a bad day at the movies.

I’ll give this a B+

Where's Osama?

It has been one thousand three hundred fifty-two days since Bush promised to find bin Laden, "dead or alive." So where is he?..."

A Night at the Opera

It was only a few weeks ago that I went to the ballet and found myself pleasantly surprised. The lure of free tickets got me to try a night at the opera. I couldn’t imagine myself enjoying the opera. We went to see Madame Butterfly. I only lasted until the intermission. I told my wife I’d wait in the courtyard outside the seating area, but she joined me on our exit. Oh well, I did try. I’m just not an opera fan.

Review: Star Wars III

I promised a Star Wars review. Still pretty busy so here’s the short version:

Special Effects: Great
Acting: Not so great (perhaps it was the script)
Script: It was the script. Except for Hayden Christensen he can’t even use that excuse.

Should you see it?
Well, if you saw the other 5 you may as well go and see this one. It does connect (sometimes weakly) the story line between the two trilogys. If you have never seen a Star Wars film I’d wait for the DVD.

Grade: C

Where is the time?

I'm not sure why I can't post more here. I didn't want this to be just political rants. I do sent out cartoons, news info, etc. to a list of people who tend to be liberal and can't rely on corporate news. I do that many times a week, but can't seem to find the time to post here. I may have to just provide some of that info here. I did see the new Star Wars film and need to post a review soon. But...where is the time?

A Special May Night - 1996

A special May night in my life:

On October 16, 1995, Dwight Gooden was signed by the New York Yankees. His days of glory in New York City baseball pitching with the Mets were behind him. Drugs and alcohol had made the man they had called Doctor K" pay a price.

The 1996 season was more of the same for Gooden, failure. George Steinbrenner had claimed that the 31-year-old hurler could win 15 games. He wasStruggling to win one. Gooden was sent to the Yankee bullpen with an 0-3 record and an 11.48 ERA. "I've just got to keep working on my mechanics," the Doc said. "It's complete frustration more than anything else."A depleted Yankee pitching staff brought Gooden back to center stage. He was rushed into the rotation on April 27. There were six strong innings hurled against the Twins, a half dozen shutout innings over the White Sox. Then Gooden notched his first victory since June 19, 1994. It was a gem against the Tigers, the final 20 batters were retired in a row.

On Tuesday night, May 14, 1996, Dwight Gooden, his father in the hospital in Tampa slated for next day double bypass surgery, took the mound against Seattle.

I was scheduled to see a game with my fantasy baseball friends, one visiting from Seattle. As I left the house I told my wife, "I'll be home soon, Gooden's pitching." How wrong I was.

As the Mariners came to bat in the ninth inning, most of the 20,786 fans, hoarse from screaming inning after inning, were edgy, standing up. Gooden had thrown more than a hundred pitches and was going on grit now.The Mariners managed to get runners on first and second base. "It was Dwight's game all the way." said Joe Torre. A wild pitch to the dangerous Jay Buhner moved the runners to second and third with one out. Gooden reared back and fanned Buhner. Two out.Gooden's 135th pitch of the game was a swerving curve to Paul Sorrento, a high pop to Jeter - - no-hitter! Yankee Stadium rocked! Gooden was carried off the field on the shoulders of his Yankee teammates. "This is the greatest feeling of my life," he said. "I never thought I could do this, not in my wildest dreams. A year and a half ago I thought I had pitched my last game, so being able not only to make it back but to throw a no-hitter, that's been an incredible blessing for me."It was the eighth regular-season no-hitter by a Yankee hurler. For Dwight Gooden that performance ended a streak of 23 months without a major-league victory and saw him rebound from an 0-3 start to win 11 of next 13 decisions

Still remember it until this day.

Ballet

I never expected to be writing a ballet review, but a cousin of mine convinced me it was worth seeing. I’m a pretty open minded individual. (Some of my friends just did a spit take on that.) So on Friday night we went to the ballet. Actually the ballet came to us. We saw it at an outdoor theater. It was the Houston Ballet. The program was most impressive. And it wasn’t too much of a starched shirt thing. It consisted of three parts. The first part was a Texas oriented tribute to Patsy Cline music. The second was of all things danced to the music of the Rolling Stones. The third was Celtic music. Sort of a quiet Riverdance. The dancers were amazingly talented and extremely athletic. I really enjoyed all three. This was no dance recital ballet. I was about a week removed from seeing some great dancing in Movin’ Out. I’ve learned to appreciate yet another art form. There’s hope for me yet.

April is a busy month

April has been a busy month. And a blog moves way down on the priority list. I wish I could make it more of a priority like many bloggers. This past week we’ve been busy helping a friend who traveled to Texas for some help with cancer. We just wanted to be there for her. I’m happy to report that things seemed to go positive. Earlier in the month we paid attention to a semi-annual library book sale, Earth Day activities, and some outdoor activity in the beautiful month of April. Let’s see if we can do better in May.

Anniversary

Today is my wedding anniversary. I attribute any lack of good luck I have to the fact I probably used it all on the day I married my wife.