Nuts anyone?

Pity poor Jessie Jackson who was caught saying out loud what he really thinks when it comes to Barak Obama.  Nothing is more galling to Jessie Jackson that Obama's success. According to Jessie Jackson, white people are racist until they can prove otherwise. Only he can determine who is and who is not a racist, what is and what is not racist. Along comes Obama who claims that some of the problems are self-inflicted, who challenges people to take responsibility for their own actions, and who acknowledges the existence of racism but does not accept it as the reason form people's failure. Jackson has been nipping at Obama's heels for some time. And while he could never say it, no one hopes for an Obama loss as much as Jackson because it will be an affirmation that the old extortionist ways are best. 

Following orders

Today, June 1, in 1962, Adolph Eichmann was hanged after having been found guilty of crimes against humanity. He remains the only civilian executed in Israel, which has a general policy against using the death penalty. Since his death, some argue that Eichmann was unfairly tried and condemned because he was only following orders. But I think, given what we know about Eichmann, and others like him, everybody is capable of committing horrendous crimes under the appropriate set of circumstances. In this instance, it was the German governments policy to eradicate Jews from Europe by any means possible. And in doing so, Eichmann was following the law. What hasn't been adequately address is how people allow the enactment of these laws. In every instance where the German population acted as a group to stop the slaughter, the SS backed down. Of course, in those instances, German citizens believed that THEIR rights were bring trampled, because there was little hue and cry when the Nuremberg Laws were enacted in 1935. We do the same thing in the United States. In our misguided attempt to protect ourselves, we allow our government to abrogate our rights, believing that somehow when the threat eases, the government will back off. Of course, the threat never eases and the government never backs off. Worse, we assume that the laws do not effect us because we are not identified as "the other."  Once you allow  the government to listen to the conversation of others, you invite scrutiny of your activities because who is to guarantee that what is legal today will be legal tomorrow? It has never been against US law for any citizen to be a member of a political party, including the Communist Party, and yet under McCarthyism citizens were deprived of their right to work simply because they were a member of the Communist Party or, if not, knew someone who as. And this happened on the heels of World War II when we should have known better. We are all in danger when the government decides that it can determine who is and who is not an enemy combatant and who can be incarcerated indefinitely without being charged. If we are not willing to protect our own freedoms, then we must accept what follows, and if we accept what follows than we are all guilty of what happens next. 

On the other hand

I've been thinking about Sex and the City, and while I still think it appeals to those who love the series, there was something in it that stayed with me. A terrible thing happens to Carrie, and because it is terrible, she needs her friends and because this is TV/Movies they are there. And that's what stayed with me. It's rare to have friends who will rush to your side and stay there when terrible things happen. But this is the movies and in the movies Carrie's friends are there and have the financial means to make a bad situation somewhat better. That's what friends are for. And to have friends like that in real life is rare. I wish I had the facility to make and keep friends like that, but I am careless. Friendship, like a garden, needs constant maintenance and care. So, in the end, it's not the fabulous jobs or terrific apartments, or luscious men, or expensive shoes that stays with me, but the fact that when a terrible thing happened, Carrie has her friends, who cannot take the sting away, but who are there to apply balm and comfort. And who, in the throes of terror, do not need the warmth of a loving embrace? Occasionally, that's all that stands between us and the long dive off a high bridge. Boyfriends come and boyfriends go, jobs are lost, marriages disintegrate, but friendship remains. So, my babies, if you have friends, call them tonight and ask how they are, and really listen when they speak, and don't let them slip away. Because if you don't, if you are not a friend, than you will end up like me, old, alone, and broke. The alone part hurts the most and is the thing that is forever.

Indiana Moans and the Temple of Groom

Know from the get-go that I planned to like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I hoped to love it, but I planned to like it. So when Indy appeared, first his hat and then his foot (did you ever notice that Harrison Ford had a small foot? Did I mention that I like small feet). And then his shadow and the music wells and there he is, looking every bit of his 65 years. Okay, here's the thing: I found all those references to every Lucas/Spielberg movie annoying (except I did miss Bruce the Shark) and distracting. Unless you know about Area 57, and not everybody does, you are lost, lost, lost. And then Cat Blanchett channeled Natasha (I truly expected someone to yell, "Stroke, stroke," to her "Bail, Bail"--and if you don't know what I'm talking about you're too young to remember Boris and Natasha). Anyway, I hated what she was doing. BUT, and this is my constant complaint with Spileberg: He does not know how to end a movie. What I wanted, at the end of the, the very last scene, was for Cate Blanchett, who now knows everything, locked-up in a nut house. The movie was fine, bloated, talky, but fine--no matter what the Russian government says (and who doesn't believe that Spielberg didn't bride the Russians to ban Indiana Jones etc). And, had this been a better world, instead of making those lame Star Wars prequels, Lucas would have done Indiana Jones ten years ago so we could have been on number 5 by now. Have you ever noticed how Indiana goes into a cave that has no one has seen for thousands of years and he finds a torch and it lights on the first try? And how everybody and everything gets sucked into the vortex but them? And no matter how lame the movie is, if it's Indiana Jones, I know I will have a good time (Ok, with number two I had to will myself to have a good time) even if the ending is lame.