Here's just an idea. I tried to pass it on to Nancy Pelosi, but apparently e-mail being what it is, my message was derailed. SO, if she's paying attention to things like this, maybe she can read this and see what she thinks. As usual, all my good ideas are free of charge and open to pilfering.
One of the biggest problems with the potential Bail Out is that as an American I feel like I'm funding the very same people who screwed up and I'm not getting anything in return. Oh sure, the potential for return on the investment of my tax payer money is decent, but what am I actually getting for that money? Any money earned will just go back into some nebulous government bank account to be used for something like subsidizing GM to build more SUV's, or something equally useless.
So here's my simple proposal... Any money gained through the sale of bad debt mortgages should be put in the Social Security fund so that we might re-fund Social Security.
Let's face it. Spending 700 billion bucks is a bit of a boondoggle. Getting anyone to agree to re-funding Social Security is also a bit of a boondoggle. Now we can kill two birds with one stone. We have to bail out bad mortgages. We have to re-fund Social Security. With one fell swoop, we can do both, and Congress can actually be seen to be doing something positive.
Voila! Lemonade out of lemons!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
The Greater Depression Watch Continues...
I was hoping that I wouldn't have to sound the bell of doom and gloom and that some semblance of reality would set in, but, alas, we're too far beyond reality for things now. We seem to be stuck on a course of disaster not unlike the course that fateful ship, the Titanic, seemed to be set upon - where everyone seems to be an expert after the fact.
I'm not a financial genius, but I know when things are screwed up. It might feel good to say, Screw Wall Street!, but the reality is that we're only screwing ourselves. As one Republican congressman so eloquently put it, when a man is drowning in front of you, you don't first yell at him for going swimming in dangerous waters.
You see, its fun to say that we don't want to give tax money to rescue the financial markets. But these arguments are too late. That house is already burning. What we're trying to do is prevent the next house from burning. With the no vote by Congress today, we've set the entire block on fire. First, more banks will collapse (we lost four more banks here and abroad over the weekend). Then credit will dry up - and not just credit for home loans and car loans, but everyday credit. "Well, I won't borrow anymore," you say. But you really don't have a choice. Like my company here, most companies don't have large reserves of cash lying around to pay for goods and services. If they need to buy product, they do so by financing it. I pay for six months stock now, and by the time that six months have passed, I've made enough money to pay off the bill and then also enough profit to keep my company afloat. But if they can't finance the purchase of products, then they don't have anything to sell and their companies go belly up. So, very quickly, without credit available we're going to see the financial crisis spread to other businesses (Sears, JCPenney, etc...) and these companies will collapse, adding to the unemployment rate and also driving up the price of goods available in other markets. Think of where you're going to shop when WalMart, Target, and J.C. Penney all disappear? And its not just retail companies that are in trouble, but just about every area of the economy. Doctors are going to be hard pressed to pay their bills when all of these companies shut down their medical insurance. Construction companies are going to stop building new buildings when there's no credit to fund their construction. Etc...
We are really only about one step away from complete collapse. Once these things start occurring, it'll be too late to put the genie back in the bottle and the entire financial landscape will be forever altered. But then, its probably more important to determine who to blame than to actually fix the problem.
I'm not a financial genius, but I know when things are screwed up. It might feel good to say, Screw Wall Street!, but the reality is that we're only screwing ourselves. As one Republican congressman so eloquently put it, when a man is drowning in front of you, you don't first yell at him for going swimming in dangerous waters.
You see, its fun to say that we don't want to give tax money to rescue the financial markets. But these arguments are too late. That house is already burning. What we're trying to do is prevent the next house from burning. With the no vote by Congress today, we've set the entire block on fire. First, more banks will collapse (we lost four more banks here and abroad over the weekend). Then credit will dry up - and not just credit for home loans and car loans, but everyday credit. "Well, I won't borrow anymore," you say. But you really don't have a choice. Like my company here, most companies don't have large reserves of cash lying around to pay for goods and services. If they need to buy product, they do so by financing it. I pay for six months stock now, and by the time that six months have passed, I've made enough money to pay off the bill and then also enough profit to keep my company afloat. But if they can't finance the purchase of products, then they don't have anything to sell and their companies go belly up. So, very quickly, without credit available we're going to see the financial crisis spread to other businesses (Sears, JCPenney, etc...) and these companies will collapse, adding to the unemployment rate and also driving up the price of goods available in other markets. Think of where you're going to shop when WalMart, Target, and J.C. Penney all disappear? And its not just retail companies that are in trouble, but just about every area of the economy. Doctors are going to be hard pressed to pay their bills when all of these companies shut down their medical insurance. Construction companies are going to stop building new buildings when there's no credit to fund their construction. Etc...
We are really only about one step away from complete collapse. Once these things start occurring, it'll be too late to put the genie back in the bottle and the entire financial landscape will be forever altered. But then, its probably more important to determine who to blame than to actually fix the problem.
Some guys just don't get it
I watched the debate on Friday and, as a whole, I'd say that the candidates were evenly matched. Really, I'd say that under other circumstances, both candidates might be good Presidential material. But John McCain did say something almost totally insignificant that still has me thinking about it three days later and makes me wonder what point he was trying to make.
The question was about the need for economic bailout and John McCain's gist of an answer was that our government already spends way too much money on useless pork-belly programs (which is something that most people would likely agree with). However, his first example was one that I had to question - nearly 3 million dollars to map the DNA of the Grizzly Bear. Is this wasteful?
I suppose the question really points to the underlying values of the American people. Sure, scientists and tree huggers are going to embrace this program as having extreme value. Any time we can discover the genome map of any creature it has extreme scientific value - and especially an endangered species like the Grizzly Bear. So, scientifically and environmentally, this plan receives kudos. On the other side of the equation, it doesn't exactly save people's homes from foreclosure nor put food in the mouths of the poor and desperate (unless something goes wrong and they like bear meat ;) So, from the fiscally conservative side, this plan is ridiculous and the money could definitely be better spent elsewhere (all 3 million of it... which will really go far ;)
I guess, though, the question is what do the rest of the American people think about this project. I'd say that for most of us the fact that we are exploring the DNA of a Grizzly Bear is news, in the same way that we're spending 30 million dollars to promote the sale of Chrysler automobiles in the UAE is news or the 100 million dollar budget of Radio Free Europe is news. If we started reading the 2008 budget right now, we'd probably finish in about 2010. There's a lot of stuff that we buy with our tax dollars (or there used to be anyway ;) So, really, 3 million bucks for DNA research into Grizzly Bears. Why not?
Or maybe I should ask the question another way... what SHOULD the American people think about this project? Should we even care that DNA research is being done? Should we care whether its being done for Grizzly Bears or are there more appropriate animals? Should we care that it costs 3 Million of our tax dollars to do this research? Might that money be better spent elsewhere? If we allow politicians to tell us what to think about a project (I'm John McCain and I tell you that its wasteful spending, therefore it is!), then why do we even vote? Many of these so-called entitlement spendings are the only time average tax payers actually get to see some of their pet projects get funded by the Federal Government with the money we give them.
As for me, I didn't really care that we were giving 3 million bucks to study the DNA of Grizzly Bears - one way or the other - but now that you mention it, I think its probably a good idea. IF something should happen to Grizzly Bears in the near future, I'd like to think that somewhere down the line we might be able to bring them back from a man-made extinction and restore them to the gene pool where they belong. But even if that scenario never happens and Grizzly Bears go on living just fine for thousands of years to come, I think the accumulation of knowledge more than justifies the expense of 3 million bucks. And I certainly don't like a politician telling me that not spending 3 million dollars on Grizzly DNA is going to somehow solve our financial crisis and end the greed on Wall Street. If you ask me, we'd be better off spending 700 billion dollars on programs like this than on Wall Street any day of the week - at least we'd get something for our money.
John McCain was trying to score a quick political point in a debate that will decide who the leader of the free world would be. Quite frankly, I'd rather have someone in charge who thinks that Grizzly Bears are worth studying than someone who'd be willing to throw the Grizzly Bears under a bus in order to score quick political points. But then, some guys just don't get it... do they?
The question was about the need for economic bailout and John McCain's gist of an answer was that our government already spends way too much money on useless pork-belly programs (which is something that most people would likely agree with). However, his first example was one that I had to question - nearly 3 million dollars to map the DNA of the Grizzly Bear. Is this wasteful?
I suppose the question really points to the underlying values of the American people. Sure, scientists and tree huggers are going to embrace this program as having extreme value. Any time we can discover the genome map of any creature it has extreme scientific value - and especially an endangered species like the Grizzly Bear. So, scientifically and environmentally, this plan receives kudos. On the other side of the equation, it doesn't exactly save people's homes from foreclosure nor put food in the mouths of the poor and desperate (unless something goes wrong and they like bear meat ;) So, from the fiscally conservative side, this plan is ridiculous and the money could definitely be better spent elsewhere (all 3 million of it... which will really go far ;)
I guess, though, the question is what do the rest of the American people think about this project. I'd say that for most of us the fact that we are exploring the DNA of a Grizzly Bear is news, in the same way that we're spending 30 million dollars to promote the sale of Chrysler automobiles in the UAE is news or the 100 million dollar budget of Radio Free Europe is news. If we started reading the 2008 budget right now, we'd probably finish in about 2010. There's a lot of stuff that we buy with our tax dollars (or there used to be anyway ;) So, really, 3 million bucks for DNA research into Grizzly Bears. Why not?
Or maybe I should ask the question another way... what SHOULD the American people think about this project? Should we even care that DNA research is being done? Should we care whether its being done for Grizzly Bears or are there more appropriate animals? Should we care that it costs 3 Million of our tax dollars to do this research? Might that money be better spent elsewhere? If we allow politicians to tell us what to think about a project (I'm John McCain and I tell you that its wasteful spending, therefore it is!), then why do we even vote? Many of these so-called entitlement spendings are the only time average tax payers actually get to see some of their pet projects get funded by the Federal Government with the money we give them.
As for me, I didn't really care that we were giving 3 million bucks to study the DNA of Grizzly Bears - one way or the other - but now that you mention it, I think its probably a good idea. IF something should happen to Grizzly Bears in the near future, I'd like to think that somewhere down the line we might be able to bring them back from a man-made extinction and restore them to the gene pool where they belong. But even if that scenario never happens and Grizzly Bears go on living just fine for thousands of years to come, I think the accumulation of knowledge more than justifies the expense of 3 million bucks. And I certainly don't like a politician telling me that not spending 3 million dollars on Grizzly DNA is going to somehow solve our financial crisis and end the greed on Wall Street. If you ask me, we'd be better off spending 700 billion dollars on programs like this than on Wall Street any day of the week - at least we'd get something for our money.
John McCain was trying to score a quick political point in a debate that will decide who the leader of the free world would be. Quite frankly, I'd rather have someone in charge who thinks that Grizzly Bears are worth studying than someone who'd be willing to throw the Grizzly Bears under a bus in order to score quick political points. But then, some guys just don't get it... do they?
Friday, September 26, 2008
Somebody Open My Eyes, Please?
I'm sorry. I really do try to be even handed. I try to stay right in the middle and really see things from both sides. But this is one I just don't get. First of all, I really can't see why anyone hasn't made up their mind yet, and second of all, I really can't see why anyone would still vote Republican. Now, I don't mean this to sound like a Democratic rally here. I'm serious. As a thinking adult, who has weighed all the issues, and who doesn't always agree with the Democratic leadership (in fact I sent them a rather nasty e-mail a couple of weeks ago), nor do I swallow campaign hype and regurgitate it as fact, I just can't see why anyone would vote Republican at this point.
I didn't understand it in 2000, but I thought, "Well, 50% of the American people voted for Bush - maybe I'm missing something here?" But then, well, he didn't do anything except show his ignorance. And then, after 9/11, he sent us off into a disastrous war that had nothing to do with anything either. Our economy took a hit, gas prices rose, we were forced to make tough moral, legal and constitutional choices and all the while Bush kept telling us that didn't agree with him that we were wrong. I looked around at the way the world was crumbling and I kept thinking, "What are these people smoking?" But clearly, I was still not seeing it correctly because 51% of Americans voted him back into office.
The train wreck continued. And now our economy is in a free fall and I'd like to think that the Republicans might fix it, but just as I'm not eager to give over tax payer money to the companies that caused the collapse, I really can't see why anyone would want to hand over their vote to the people in charge of the country when the collapse occurred. I don't know what people are looking for in a President. But I can't imagine that the color of one's skin or their "inexperience" or their charisma would exclude them from the highest office when we've already seen what the other guy has to offer.
I didn't understand why people would vote for Bush in the first place and he proved to be the biggest disaster of a President this country has ever seen. And now I can't understand why people would vote for McCain at this point in time, and I worry what that means for the country over the next four years.
Of course, I only get one vote and I have to go along with whatever the American people decide - just like everyone else. My criteria for electing a President might be different that yours. I happen to think that the main reasons for electing a person ought to be 1)their intelligence (We've seen what stupid CEO's, Baseball Managers, and elected officials can do, so why do we keep electing them?), 2)their patriotism (I've got to believe they love this country and not just the perks of the job), and 3)their can-do attitude. This last quality is the most difficult to define, but its that quality of leadership and potential that you see in the rare individual that would make you want to follow them into any situation. It's the Kennedy mystique and the way we think about Abraham Lincoln (after the fact). It's that little bit of Knute Rockne and Jimmy V. and the 1980's Olympic Hockey team rolled up inside of us. It's that spirit of Rocky, that eye of the tiger.
To be fair, I don't question two out of three of these qualities for John McCain. In fact, I mostly downgrade him for his integrity. Had he stuck to his guns over the torture of enemy combatants, I'd probably be voting for him right now (I'd at least be conflicted). And so that makes me wonder if McCain really wants the job for the right reasons and whether he'd become beholden to the special interests who practically ran the White House for the last 8 years. And, of course, Sarah Palin as President scares me even more. Not that she's not a good person, or that she couldn't be a capable leader, but President of the United States? This isn't a fantasy where some ordinary joe shmoe becomes president and saves the world. This is reality.
But again, I must be seeing things that others are not. So will somebody please enlighten me as to what trick of light I'm missing that suddenly makes putting the Republicans back in control of the country for the next four years a good idea? Otherwise, I just don't get it.
I didn't understand it in 2000, but I thought, "Well, 50% of the American people voted for Bush - maybe I'm missing something here?" But then, well, he didn't do anything except show his ignorance. And then, after 9/11, he sent us off into a disastrous war that had nothing to do with anything either. Our economy took a hit, gas prices rose, we were forced to make tough moral, legal and constitutional choices and all the while Bush kept telling us that didn't agree with him that we were wrong. I looked around at the way the world was crumbling and I kept thinking, "What are these people smoking?" But clearly, I was still not seeing it correctly because 51% of Americans voted him back into office.
The train wreck continued. And now our economy is in a free fall and I'd like to think that the Republicans might fix it, but just as I'm not eager to give over tax payer money to the companies that caused the collapse, I really can't see why anyone would want to hand over their vote to the people in charge of the country when the collapse occurred. I don't know what people are looking for in a President. But I can't imagine that the color of one's skin or their "inexperience" or their charisma would exclude them from the highest office when we've already seen what the other guy has to offer.
I didn't understand why people would vote for Bush in the first place and he proved to be the biggest disaster of a President this country has ever seen. And now I can't understand why people would vote for McCain at this point in time, and I worry what that means for the country over the next four years.
Of course, I only get one vote and I have to go along with whatever the American people decide - just like everyone else. My criteria for electing a President might be different that yours. I happen to think that the main reasons for electing a person ought to be 1)their intelligence (We've seen what stupid CEO's, Baseball Managers, and elected officials can do, so why do we keep electing them?), 2)their patriotism (I've got to believe they love this country and not just the perks of the job), and 3)their can-do attitude. This last quality is the most difficult to define, but its that quality of leadership and potential that you see in the rare individual that would make you want to follow them into any situation. It's the Kennedy mystique and the way we think about Abraham Lincoln (after the fact). It's that little bit of Knute Rockne and Jimmy V. and the 1980's Olympic Hockey team rolled up inside of us. It's that spirit of Rocky, that eye of the tiger.
To be fair, I don't question two out of three of these qualities for John McCain. In fact, I mostly downgrade him for his integrity. Had he stuck to his guns over the torture of enemy combatants, I'd probably be voting for him right now (I'd at least be conflicted). And so that makes me wonder if McCain really wants the job for the right reasons and whether he'd become beholden to the special interests who practically ran the White House for the last 8 years. And, of course, Sarah Palin as President scares me even more. Not that she's not a good person, or that she couldn't be a capable leader, but President of the United States? This isn't a fantasy where some ordinary joe shmoe becomes president and saves the world. This is reality.
But again, I must be seeing things that others are not. So will somebody please enlighten me as to what trick of light I'm missing that suddenly makes putting the Republicans back in control of the country for the next four years a good idea? Otherwise, I just don't get it.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Cool Fantasy Jobs
Someone was talking about a celebrity who had a gigolo on speed dial and it got me to thinking about career paths that we've all fantasized about at one time or another (whether seriously or not). I mean, who didn't want to be a fighter pilot after Top Gun? Or be the captain of a submarine after Hunt for Red October? And I know that I still want to be a Jedi Knight.
So here is my top ten list (in no particular order) of all time best fantasy jobs...
1. Baseball Player (and not some journeyman dude either... I'm talking Babe Ruth!)
2. Ice Cream Tester (come on... you know you wanted to at some point!)
3. Imagineer (Doesn't everyone want to design rides for Disneyland?!)
4. Spy (James Bond makes it look so cool!)
5. Gigolo (But only with incredibly hot women with lots of money!)
6. Movie Star (pretty self explanatory)
7. Astronaut (who doesn't want to bounce on the moon someday?)
8. Fighter Pilot (anyone can be the Red Baron after all)
9. Royalty (I think this is a universal fantasy)
and...
10. Accountant (to play with numbers in columns of A and B and... okay, I'm only kidding ;)
And now for real...
10. Toy Store owner (to think you get to play with toys all day long - like Willy Wonka with toys!)
Most of us, of course, don't get to do these things. We end up as inventory managers or CFO's or lawyers. And, of course, there's always that odd individual job that some people fantasized about - like I always wanted to be a truck driver because you get to spend your entire life traveling, and I think working on a cruise ship could be cool or being a travel agent. But there's the job you want and the job you've got and those two don't always go together.
So, what did you want to be when you grew up?
So here is my top ten list (in no particular order) of all time best fantasy jobs...
1. Baseball Player (and not some journeyman dude either... I'm talking Babe Ruth!)
2. Ice Cream Tester (come on... you know you wanted to at some point!)
3. Imagineer (Doesn't everyone want to design rides for Disneyland?!)
4. Spy (James Bond makes it look so cool!)
5. Gigolo (But only with incredibly hot women with lots of money!)
6. Movie Star (pretty self explanatory)
7. Astronaut (who doesn't want to bounce on the moon someday?)
8. Fighter Pilot (anyone can be the Red Baron after all)
9. Royalty (I think this is a universal fantasy)
and...
10. Accountant (to play with numbers in columns of A and B and... okay, I'm only kidding ;)
And now for real...
10. Toy Store owner (to think you get to play with toys all day long - like Willy Wonka with toys!)
Most of us, of course, don't get to do these things. We end up as inventory managers or CFO's or lawyers. And, of course, there's always that odd individual job that some people fantasized about - like I always wanted to be a truck driver because you get to spend your entire life traveling, and I think working on a cruise ship could be cool or being a travel agent. But there's the job you want and the job you've got and those two don't always go together.
So, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Righteous Indignation
What a complicated mess! God has tumbled all of my beliefs and counter-intuitive thoughts together in a giant battle royale and I've spent the last two days fighting between anger and laughter. Mostly I've just been depressed. I feel like I was really put through the ringer.
Failure #1: "Do you mind?" I hate it when people ask me that. It forces me to decide whether my interpretation of God's judgment is correct. Would God mind your behavior is what I'm being asked? Because I see so many wicked things in this world, I've become immune to them. Grand Theft Auto, R Rated Movies, even the Evening News - these are all things that I shouldn't watch and shouldn't enjoy, but do. So when someone asks me if I mind being part of something that might be questionable, I'm forced to confront my feelings about the appropriateness of entertainment and whether God would be pleased by my choices. I told "Quint" (see yesterday's blog) that I didn't mind based on the description of the project he had given me - because it was right on the fence between good taste and bad. I think what I should have said was, "I would prefer if you filmed something different, but if that's your choice then I will be there so long as the film doesn't go any further than that."
Failure #2: The Drunk Actor. I hate that when the inebriated actor asked me whether I'd be willing to drive him home, I said no. In my opinion, that was inexcusable. Of course, in context, the question was hypothetical at that moment - would I be Willing to drive him home? Willingly? No, I don't think so. I'd like to think that if he was clearly intoxicated and heading for his car that I would have stopped him and taken his keys away. However, I do think that my response forced the actor to sober up before leaving. And I have to add that I didn't know he'd left until he was gone - so I have no idea what condition he was in when he left. But still, my initial failure to agree to offer a ride bothers me. I have no right playing dice with other people's lives merely because the guy was a complete jerk.
Failure #3: When the half-naked priest appeared I was so shocked that I didn't do anything. I simply shut down my responses to doing whatever I was asked and continued to film. The failure here is that I knew Quint was screwing up his film. I knew it. And I said nothing. I didn't try and tell him what he was doing wrong, I let him continue to make mistakes on purpose. I keep thinking back to Cain's response, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Though Quint had clearly mislead me and placed me in an incredibly awkward situation, did I have the right to let him fail?
Failure #4: I let this film get made and sent off to a lab. Had I known what was going to be shot, I would never have gone. But I did go. And I stayed for the shoot. And now its done (albeit poorly) and I had something to do with it. I feel dirty and I feel like I failed God.
Do I mind? Yes! Damn it! I do mind! I mind that I was put in a position that repeatedly caused me to fail this weekend. I mind that in the end my artistic belief in everyone's ability to create discourse by any means necessary betrayed me by forcing me to help produce something that I don't want to see or be associated with and that goes against pretty much everything I believe. I'm angry and confused and I simply refuse to be put into that situation again.
I'm adding a new requirement to my filming standards. I will not shoot in any unsafe environment. And I will not shoot anything that might be considered exploitive or pornographic by me (not by society, but by my own standards!) And if someone has a problem with that, tough.
Mr. Nice Guy has left the building!
Failure #1: "Do you mind?" I hate it when people ask me that. It forces me to decide whether my interpretation of God's judgment is correct. Would God mind your behavior is what I'm being asked? Because I see so many wicked things in this world, I've become immune to them. Grand Theft Auto, R Rated Movies, even the Evening News - these are all things that I shouldn't watch and shouldn't enjoy, but do. So when someone asks me if I mind being part of something that might be questionable, I'm forced to confront my feelings about the appropriateness of entertainment and whether God would be pleased by my choices. I told "Quint" (see yesterday's blog) that I didn't mind based on the description of the project he had given me - because it was right on the fence between good taste and bad. I think what I should have said was, "I would prefer if you filmed something different, but if that's your choice then I will be there so long as the film doesn't go any further than that."
Failure #2: The Drunk Actor. I hate that when the inebriated actor asked me whether I'd be willing to drive him home, I said no. In my opinion, that was inexcusable. Of course, in context, the question was hypothetical at that moment - would I be Willing to drive him home? Willingly? No, I don't think so. I'd like to think that if he was clearly intoxicated and heading for his car that I would have stopped him and taken his keys away. However, I do think that my response forced the actor to sober up before leaving. And I have to add that I didn't know he'd left until he was gone - so I have no idea what condition he was in when he left. But still, my initial failure to agree to offer a ride bothers me. I have no right playing dice with other people's lives merely because the guy was a complete jerk.
Failure #3: When the half-naked priest appeared I was so shocked that I didn't do anything. I simply shut down my responses to doing whatever I was asked and continued to film. The failure here is that I knew Quint was screwing up his film. I knew it. And I said nothing. I didn't try and tell him what he was doing wrong, I let him continue to make mistakes on purpose. I keep thinking back to Cain's response, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Though Quint had clearly mislead me and placed me in an incredibly awkward situation, did I have the right to let him fail?
Failure #4: I let this film get made and sent off to a lab. Had I known what was going to be shot, I would never have gone. But I did go. And I stayed for the shoot. And now its done (albeit poorly) and I had something to do with it. I feel dirty and I feel like I failed God.
Do I mind? Yes! Damn it! I do mind! I mind that I was put in a position that repeatedly caused me to fail this weekend. I mind that in the end my artistic belief in everyone's ability to create discourse by any means necessary betrayed me by forcing me to help produce something that I don't want to see or be associated with and that goes against pretty much everything I believe. I'm angry and confused and I simply refuse to be put into that situation again.
I'm adding a new requirement to my filming standards. I will not shoot in any unsafe environment. And I will not shoot anything that might be considered exploitive or pornographic by me (not by society, but by my own standards!) And if someone has a problem with that, tough.
Mr. Nice Guy has left the building!
Monday, September 22, 2008
24 Hours of Heck! - Definitely "R" Rated!
The Following Story Takes Place During a 24 Hour Period From September 20th to 21st. During this time period, many unusual and scary adult things happened. Viewer Discretion is STRONGLY advised.
You have been warned.
You will receive no further warnings.
My First True Taste of Hollywood
or
The Actor, The Priest and The Bullwhip
Our assignment, as simple as it sounds, was to film an actor carrying a lit candle from one location to the next (like a hallway or across a room) etc... This is a technical assignment requiring some creative thinking about the placement of lights and all of the technical strengths and weaknesses of camera, film, and other equipment. My group was well-prepared. (Real names have been omitted for reasons of obvious displeasure) Bob has been in all of my film classes. Tammy is a director, producer, and editor in a group that has won film festivals previously. Cassius is a passionate amateur film maker. And then there was Quint. I didn't really know Quint, but I knew that he had problems with filming on weekends and he was looking for a group. I figured, why not? Not only was it the right thing to do as a good person, but also there might be some advantage to having a fifth film maker.
Right off the bat there were problems. Quint lives in a remote location and had already asked his actors to be at his home on Sunday at 6pm. That's right - Sunday Night in a remote location. Okay... not as cool as it could have been, but I agreed to help out anyway. I'm always up to an adventure. Well, so's Jack Bauer, and we all know how those adventures usually turn out.
Our story begins on Saturday. We all arrive and begin setting up the equipment and things are going slowly - but that's typical with film shoots. When we finally get things set up, we have a big problem with our new camera. We can't quite figure out what it is. So, being so incredibly behind, we switch to the back up camera and start filming. Everything, more or less, goes smoothly from here. My shoot comes out brilliantly! A surefire "A"! I'm ecstatic!
After the shoot, we pack up all of the equipment and lug it downstairs (three flights - no elevator) and start to load up Quint's Jeep. At this point, Quint turns to Bob and I and tells us about his film - its a silhoutted film being shot against a back drop of white sheets (think Austin Powers second movie) about two gay priests "pretending" to abuse each other.
Now, I must digress here, and say a little bit about my college. City College of San Francisco is, at the best of times, Bohemian - but most of the time it can be downright counter culture with the worst excesses of the artistic world. On the one hand, I usually find suggestions like the one above to be artistic crap that offends me, but on the other hand, I defend people's rights to make art that offends me - its that dichotomous nature of being a Christian artist.
So, I'm offended, but I'm also committed to helping out. I try to balance what I know about Quint with the film he's describing and I think, "Maybe this will be okay - more of a wink and nod!" Bob and I look at each other with misgiving, but then confirm that we will be there. To be honest, I seriously thought Bob would make an excuse and not show.
On Sunday, I hop on BART for the 75 minute ride to regions unknown. When I finally arrive, Bob and I wait for a ride to Quint's house. Quint comes to pick us up minutes later and then tells us that he hasn't managed to get anything set up because his actors have been flaking on him all day. But he's finally got a replacement actor to come and GOOD NEWS, the replacement actor had taken the same class we were taking - so he could help out.
While Quint gets to work setting up the sheets for the set, Bob and I figure out where to put the lights and we set them up. As we’re finishing our job, the replacement actor arrives – Dick. Dick turns out to live up to his namesake. Almost before introductions begin, he starts to offer us advice on how to do a proper shoot from his vast experience. Dick then proceeds to raid Quint’s refrigerator for the beer – which he then goes out on the deck and starts drinking while somehow still finding things to fault us with. When he hears about our camera problems from the day before, he starts to “fix” them. (To be fair to Dick, I did learn something from him – something that we had not been taught and that was not in the instruction manual that came with the camera but that was essential to the basic operation of the camera. This sort of “Forgotten” information seems fairly common in film classes). While he didn’t call us idiots outright, the tone was there.
As the Actor continued to drink beer he became more belligerent. At one point, while trying to set the lights, I said, “Wait, I just had a thought…” at which point he yelled out across the backyard, “Well congratulations! That makes one for today!” I was seriously ready to kick his ass, and I’m generally an easy going guy. He kept trying to give me advice. He even told me that “Story” was the key to good filmmaking. Well thank you, Sherlock, that hadn’t occurred to me.
So, after about an hour of this, the other actor calls to tell us that he’s just leaving the wedding he’s been at and that he’ll get there as soon as possible. Where was the wedding? In Pacifica… where I live… which means that he was at least 75 minutes away (not counting traffic). Dick didn’t like the idea of waiting. He demanded that Quint order a pizza (he did). Then he took Quint’s cigarettes and start smoking them.
At one point, Dick turned to me and asked me whether I had my license and if I’d be willing to drive him back to Berkeley. I politely declined (and yes, all the thoughts of another drunk Dick on the road did occur to me – but I didn’t particularly want to be a victim either). At another point Dick asked to see the bullwhip that was going to be in the film.
Bullwhip? Bob and I looked at Quint who laughingly said, “Yes, one priest is going to be pretending to whip the other priest… you don’t mind, do you?”
Quint gave Dick the whip and he proceeded to flail away with it right where we had been setting up lights. Had we had a car, Bob and I would have made one of those excuses (Oh, I just remembered the stove that I left on!) and fled with our lives. But we didn’t.
“I need to practice,” said Dick. “One of you go over there and pretend to be the priest.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” said Bob, in response, “Hand me the whip and I’ll practice on you.”
Needless to say, Dick got tired of the whip and went back to drinking in quiet while Bob and I tried to figure out what to do.
“Someone needs to run one of the lights,” I noted.
“You do it,” said Bob, “I’m not going to stand there while a drunk actor starts whipping everyone.”
When the pizza arrived, Dick promptly consumed half of it, burped loudly, and then told Quint that he was tired of waiting – and he left. (Only later did I find out that he used the fact that he was uncomfortable with the scene as his excuse ;) Bob and I watched him go with relief.
“One of you will have to put on the Priest costume and use the whip,” Quint said, “Do you mind?”
“Um… Not going to happen,” I replied and Bob agreed eagerly, “However, I think you can still do the assignment without the whip and just add the whipping later.”
So we waited… and waited… and waited… and in the meantime, we got the lights fine tuned, had the camera perfectly set, adjusted everything that could be adjusted so that when the other actor arrived, we were ready to shoot.
Finally, the other actor – we’ll came him Chris – arrived and immediately began to change into his costume. Things were finally starting to look up. I pointed out to Quint that we were going to have to leave the second the shooting was over and that he should make it quick. He agreed.
And then the actor came out – half-naked.
Yes, he was wearing the top part of a priest costume, but it only came down to slightly below the buttocks. He was naked below that.
Now I was not only offended, I was pissed as well. But, by this point, everything was so totally out of control, I just rolled my eyes and finished the shoot.
The first thing Quint wanted to do was readjust all the lights – completely destroying the perfect lighting we’d set up. We let him. Then he wanted me to follow the actor with the “candlelight” even after the candle was no longer in the picture. It had nothing to do with the project, but I didn’t care. I let him do that too. He started shooting his scene like he was holding a video camera and I just continued to move that light until he finally called cut.
Bob and I shut down the entire lighting scheme and were ready to go out the door in five minutes. As Quint finally let us off at the BART station, Bob turned to me and said, “I feel violated.” We simultaneously laughed, cried, and vented our anger during the 75 minute trip back to civilization. And we both agreed that we were never going to do that again, no matter what the situation.
I could go on and tell you about Dick’s sleeping buddy or the non-artsy fartsy movie to be shot entirely at sunset or the fact that I’ve now lost my equipment borrowing privileges for an entire week (they can have them!), but I think I’ve said enough. I’ve been Jack Bauered enough for one 24-hour period. I’m starting to get cranky. And next time, they might not be so lucky and I might have to “interrogate” someone with a gun or a machete or something equally 24-ish.
You have been warned.
You will receive no further warnings.
My First True Taste of Hollywood
or
The Actor, The Priest and The Bullwhip
Our assignment, as simple as it sounds, was to film an actor carrying a lit candle from one location to the next (like a hallway or across a room) etc... This is a technical assignment requiring some creative thinking about the placement of lights and all of the technical strengths and weaknesses of camera, film, and other equipment. My group was well-prepared. (Real names have been omitted for reasons of obvious displeasure) Bob has been in all of my film classes. Tammy is a director, producer, and editor in a group that has won film festivals previously. Cassius is a passionate amateur film maker. And then there was Quint. I didn't really know Quint, but I knew that he had problems with filming on weekends and he was looking for a group. I figured, why not? Not only was it the right thing to do as a good person, but also there might be some advantage to having a fifth film maker.
Right off the bat there were problems. Quint lives in a remote location and had already asked his actors to be at his home on Sunday at 6pm. That's right - Sunday Night in a remote location. Okay... not as cool as it could have been, but I agreed to help out anyway. I'm always up to an adventure. Well, so's Jack Bauer, and we all know how those adventures usually turn out.
Our story begins on Saturday. We all arrive and begin setting up the equipment and things are going slowly - but that's typical with film shoots. When we finally get things set up, we have a big problem with our new camera. We can't quite figure out what it is. So, being so incredibly behind, we switch to the back up camera and start filming. Everything, more or less, goes smoothly from here. My shoot comes out brilliantly! A surefire "A"! I'm ecstatic!
After the shoot, we pack up all of the equipment and lug it downstairs (three flights - no elevator) and start to load up Quint's Jeep. At this point, Quint turns to Bob and I and tells us about his film - its a silhoutted film being shot against a back drop of white sheets (think Austin Powers second movie) about two gay priests "pretending" to abuse each other.
Now, I must digress here, and say a little bit about my college. City College of San Francisco is, at the best of times, Bohemian - but most of the time it can be downright counter culture with the worst excesses of the artistic world. On the one hand, I usually find suggestions like the one above to be artistic crap that offends me, but on the other hand, I defend people's rights to make art that offends me - its that dichotomous nature of being a Christian artist.
So, I'm offended, but I'm also committed to helping out. I try to balance what I know about Quint with the film he's describing and I think, "Maybe this will be okay - more of a wink and nod!" Bob and I look at each other with misgiving, but then confirm that we will be there. To be honest, I seriously thought Bob would make an excuse and not show.
On Sunday, I hop on BART for the 75 minute ride to regions unknown. When I finally arrive, Bob and I wait for a ride to Quint's house. Quint comes to pick us up minutes later and then tells us that he hasn't managed to get anything set up because his actors have been flaking on him all day. But he's finally got a replacement actor to come and GOOD NEWS, the replacement actor had taken the same class we were taking - so he could help out.
While Quint gets to work setting up the sheets for the set, Bob and I figure out where to put the lights and we set them up. As we’re finishing our job, the replacement actor arrives – Dick. Dick turns out to live up to his namesake. Almost before introductions begin, he starts to offer us advice on how to do a proper shoot from his vast experience. Dick then proceeds to raid Quint’s refrigerator for the beer – which he then goes out on the deck and starts drinking while somehow still finding things to fault us with. When he hears about our camera problems from the day before, he starts to “fix” them. (To be fair to Dick, I did learn something from him – something that we had not been taught and that was not in the instruction manual that came with the camera but that was essential to the basic operation of the camera. This sort of “Forgotten” information seems fairly common in film classes). While he didn’t call us idiots outright, the tone was there.
As the Actor continued to drink beer he became more belligerent. At one point, while trying to set the lights, I said, “Wait, I just had a thought…” at which point he yelled out across the backyard, “Well congratulations! That makes one for today!” I was seriously ready to kick his ass, and I’m generally an easy going guy. He kept trying to give me advice. He even told me that “Story” was the key to good filmmaking. Well thank you, Sherlock, that hadn’t occurred to me.
So, after about an hour of this, the other actor calls to tell us that he’s just leaving the wedding he’s been at and that he’ll get there as soon as possible. Where was the wedding? In Pacifica… where I live… which means that he was at least 75 minutes away (not counting traffic). Dick didn’t like the idea of waiting. He demanded that Quint order a pizza (he did). Then he took Quint’s cigarettes and start smoking them.
At one point, Dick turned to me and asked me whether I had my license and if I’d be willing to drive him back to Berkeley. I politely declined (and yes, all the thoughts of another drunk Dick on the road did occur to me – but I didn’t particularly want to be a victim either). At another point Dick asked to see the bullwhip that was going to be in the film.
Bullwhip? Bob and I looked at Quint who laughingly said, “Yes, one priest is going to be pretending to whip the other priest… you don’t mind, do you?”
Quint gave Dick the whip and he proceeded to flail away with it right where we had been setting up lights. Had we had a car, Bob and I would have made one of those excuses (Oh, I just remembered the stove that I left on!) and fled with our lives. But we didn’t.
“I need to practice,” said Dick. “One of you go over there and pretend to be the priest.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” said Bob, in response, “Hand me the whip and I’ll practice on you.”
Needless to say, Dick got tired of the whip and went back to drinking in quiet while Bob and I tried to figure out what to do.
“Someone needs to run one of the lights,” I noted.
“You do it,” said Bob, “I’m not going to stand there while a drunk actor starts whipping everyone.”
When the pizza arrived, Dick promptly consumed half of it, burped loudly, and then told Quint that he was tired of waiting – and he left. (Only later did I find out that he used the fact that he was uncomfortable with the scene as his excuse ;) Bob and I watched him go with relief.
“One of you will have to put on the Priest costume and use the whip,” Quint said, “Do you mind?”
“Um… Not going to happen,” I replied and Bob agreed eagerly, “However, I think you can still do the assignment without the whip and just add the whipping later.”
So we waited… and waited… and waited… and in the meantime, we got the lights fine tuned, had the camera perfectly set, adjusted everything that could be adjusted so that when the other actor arrived, we were ready to shoot.
Finally, the other actor – we’ll came him Chris – arrived and immediately began to change into his costume. Things were finally starting to look up. I pointed out to Quint that we were going to have to leave the second the shooting was over and that he should make it quick. He agreed.
And then the actor came out – half-naked.
Yes, he was wearing the top part of a priest costume, but it only came down to slightly below the buttocks. He was naked below that.
Now I was not only offended, I was pissed as well. But, by this point, everything was so totally out of control, I just rolled my eyes and finished the shoot.
The first thing Quint wanted to do was readjust all the lights – completely destroying the perfect lighting we’d set up. We let him. Then he wanted me to follow the actor with the “candlelight” even after the candle was no longer in the picture. It had nothing to do with the project, but I didn’t care. I let him do that too. He started shooting his scene like he was holding a video camera and I just continued to move that light until he finally called cut.
Bob and I shut down the entire lighting scheme and were ready to go out the door in five minutes. As Quint finally let us off at the BART station, Bob turned to me and said, “I feel violated.” We simultaneously laughed, cried, and vented our anger during the 75 minute trip back to civilization. And we both agreed that we were never going to do that again, no matter what the situation.
I could go on and tell you about Dick’s sleeping buddy or the non-artsy fartsy movie to be shot entirely at sunset or the fact that I’ve now lost my equipment borrowing privileges for an entire week (they can have them!), but I think I’ve said enough. I’ve been Jack Bauered enough for one 24-hour period. I’m starting to get cranky. And next time, they might not be so lucky and I might have to “interrogate” someone with a gun or a machete or something equally 24-ish.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Greater Depression Watch Begins...
I suppose you could also call it, The Great Depression II - Electric Boogaloo, but I'm not sure many people are going to find this a laughing matter in a short period of time.
I'm a student of history and the two constants in history that I can be certain of are that human beings are incredibly short sighted when they don't factor history into their equations and that human beings are certain that it will never happen to them. We all fall into the category of human beings, so don't take this too hard. Its a certain myopia endemic to our race.
So part of me is laughing to watch as Wall Street continues to crumble. I guess I'm in that place beyond fear and beyond anger where acceptance begins to nibble around and all you can do is watch, wait and laugh - laugh at the absurdity of it all. We humans have been convinced since time began that we could find a way to be safe and happy by trading little slips of paper or coins or giant tiki's covered in gold. And we're constantly surprised to learn that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
But what makes me laugh the most about this entire crisis is that while New York's financial center is burning, there are plenty of volunteers to play the fiddle. You see Goldman Sachs actually recorded a profit two days ago. But yesterday, their stock dropped 40% mostly as a result of profiteers short selling the stock (its a selling strategy that allows investors to make money when a company's value begins to fall - but it can also have the effect of driving a stock price down as short sellers reap profits). This may sound like an isolated instance, but the same exact thing brought the Bank of Scotland (the oldest bank in Scotland) to bankruptcy in just two days. And the same thing is bring the largest Chinese bank, and three of the largest Japanese banks down as well. If things continue on this path, by the beginning of next week, we should all be well on our way down the greasy slope to world wide depression.
You see what many people fail to understand and fail to remember is that world wide recessions and depressions are never about a sudden lack of money. Money remains the same. They are always about panics and crises of confidence. People invest money when they think they have it to invest because they're not worried about feeding their family. Our entire modern economy is based on investment. So, if people suddenly stop investing because they're suddenly convinced that they need to hold on to their money, the entire system dries up and whammo! We have a financial crisis.
"BUT WAIT!" you say. "We built all sorts of protections into our monetary system to prevent this from ever happening again! There's no way it can happen!" Might I remind you doubters of a certain ship that COULD NEVER SINK! What hubris we've endured! What collective foolishness!
But just to reiterate, I'm rather enjoying all this. You see, the way I figure it is that I don't have anything already. I don't own a house (can't afford one) and my job isn't so great that losing it would be a huge loss. I've lived without health care before and I've learned to survive on very little food in the past. So, I think I'll survive. And all the companies that I owe money to will go bankrupt long before I ever pay them back. So I'm actually doing okay in a worst case scenario. And as for the country and the people most affected by this - well, they've been living in a fantasy world that said that something like this would never happen again. I'm kind of enjoying the fact that they're about to get a large dose of reality. I ought to be panicking, but I'm not. Wall Street is... and that's the problem.
I'm a student of history and the two constants in history that I can be certain of are that human beings are incredibly short sighted when they don't factor history into their equations and that human beings are certain that it will never happen to them. We all fall into the category of human beings, so don't take this too hard. Its a certain myopia endemic to our race.
So part of me is laughing to watch as Wall Street continues to crumble. I guess I'm in that place beyond fear and beyond anger where acceptance begins to nibble around and all you can do is watch, wait and laugh - laugh at the absurdity of it all. We humans have been convinced since time began that we could find a way to be safe and happy by trading little slips of paper or coins or giant tiki's covered in gold. And we're constantly surprised to learn that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
But what makes me laugh the most about this entire crisis is that while New York's financial center is burning, there are plenty of volunteers to play the fiddle. You see Goldman Sachs actually recorded a profit two days ago. But yesterday, their stock dropped 40% mostly as a result of profiteers short selling the stock (its a selling strategy that allows investors to make money when a company's value begins to fall - but it can also have the effect of driving a stock price down as short sellers reap profits). This may sound like an isolated instance, but the same exact thing brought the Bank of Scotland (the oldest bank in Scotland) to bankruptcy in just two days. And the same thing is bring the largest Chinese bank, and three of the largest Japanese banks down as well. If things continue on this path, by the beginning of next week, we should all be well on our way down the greasy slope to world wide depression.
You see what many people fail to understand and fail to remember is that world wide recessions and depressions are never about a sudden lack of money. Money remains the same. They are always about panics and crises of confidence. People invest money when they think they have it to invest because they're not worried about feeding their family. Our entire modern economy is based on investment. So, if people suddenly stop investing because they're suddenly convinced that they need to hold on to their money, the entire system dries up and whammo! We have a financial crisis.
"BUT WAIT!" you say. "We built all sorts of protections into our monetary system to prevent this from ever happening again! There's no way it can happen!" Might I remind you doubters of a certain ship that COULD NEVER SINK! What hubris we've endured! What collective foolishness!
But just to reiterate, I'm rather enjoying all this. You see, the way I figure it is that I don't have anything already. I don't own a house (can't afford one) and my job isn't so great that losing it would be a huge loss. I've lived without health care before and I've learned to survive on very little food in the past. So, I think I'll survive. And all the companies that I owe money to will go bankrupt long before I ever pay them back. So I'm actually doing okay in a worst case scenario. And as for the country and the people most affected by this - well, they've been living in a fantasy world that said that something like this would never happen again. I'm kind of enjoying the fact that they're about to get a large dose of reality. I ought to be panicking, but I'm not. Wall Street is... and that's the problem.
The Solution to Everything!
Okay, so the guy has to walk down the hall holding a candle and it has to look convincing on 16mm film.
You start with your zoom lens set to 50mm which gives you a depth of field of approximately 19 feet to 6 feet. The actor starts at one end of the hall by walking into the hall with a candle. As he approaches the hallway, you slowly crank up a 600w CTO gel covered fresnel with a fader on the wall closest to the actors entrance. As the actor enters, the fresnel operator moves the light to the candle in the actors hands, thus making it appear that the candle is casting a soft orange glow. The actor proceeds down the hall until he's approximately 10 feet away. At that point, the candle flickers and the actor moves a hand to cover it - and this is the tricky part! As he covers the candle, the fresnel operator dims the light on the candle, while a second operator lying on the floor 10 feet out turns up his gel covered light to about 25% and points it up at the candle above him. The timing of this is crucial. If done right, it will appear that the actor has successfully covered the candle flame from the outside wind, and it will still continue to glow inside the man's hand and on the man's face at a consistent T-4. Then you simply, and quickly reverse this process, turning the lamp on the floor out at the same time that you bring the other lamp up. The actor then moves forward four feet and exits the hallway through a door on the other side of the hall. You also use a 600w light off a bounce board behind the camera to provide some soft fill in the hallway, which you filter through a cookie and a blue gel to give the hallway some added depth and shadows.
Okay, I admit that doesn't solve the world's problems - but it does give me a lighting design for my advanced cinematography class. And since I think its best not to open your mouth if you have nothing nice to say, I'll leave the rest of the world's problems for the rest of you to solve. ;)
You start with your zoom lens set to 50mm which gives you a depth of field of approximately 19 feet to 6 feet. The actor starts at one end of the hall by walking into the hall with a candle. As he approaches the hallway, you slowly crank up a 600w CTO gel covered fresnel with a fader on the wall closest to the actors entrance. As the actor enters, the fresnel operator moves the light to the candle in the actors hands, thus making it appear that the candle is casting a soft orange glow. The actor proceeds down the hall until he's approximately 10 feet away. At that point, the candle flickers and the actor moves a hand to cover it - and this is the tricky part! As he covers the candle, the fresnel operator dims the light on the candle, while a second operator lying on the floor 10 feet out turns up his gel covered light to about 25% and points it up at the candle above him. The timing of this is crucial. If done right, it will appear that the actor has successfully covered the candle flame from the outside wind, and it will still continue to glow inside the man's hand and on the man's face at a consistent T-4. Then you simply, and quickly reverse this process, turning the lamp on the floor out at the same time that you bring the other lamp up. The actor then moves forward four feet and exits the hallway through a door on the other side of the hall. You also use a 600w light off a bounce board behind the camera to provide some soft fill in the hallway, which you filter through a cookie and a blue gel to give the hallway some added depth and shadows.
Okay, I admit that doesn't solve the world's problems - but it does give me a lighting design for my advanced cinematography class. And since I think its best not to open your mouth if you have nothing nice to say, I'll leave the rest of the world's problems for the rest of you to solve. ;)
Monday, September 15, 2008
A new day of filming...
If you'd like to read the latest Production Diary from 12 Step Jedi, it can be found over at my new blog - HemiDemiSemiQuaver of Cool.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
A.J. has taught me well...
Okay, let's give credit where credit is due. I stole this idea from A.J. over at Bittersweet Life. A few months back he decided to split his blog posts into those personal ones and those professional ones. I've decided to do the same thing since I could hear the collective sigh of wind passing through the hallowed halls of ICONville every time I mentioned anything to do with writing or films or the sort. Not you bag, baby... I understand. Besides, I need to have an excuse to occasionally remind myself that I am a writer or film maker (depends on the day of the week, the position of the moon... you know, its too complicated to explain) and that I need to let others know about that or its just creative masturbation - like YouTube.
So, if you'll all please join me in welcoming my new writing/filmmaking/etc... blog site - The HemiDemiSemiQuaver of Cool!
Yeah, I know... great title. Let's hope that there's more to it than that. In the meantime, you can still come back here to ICON for all the latest religious/political discussions your minds can handle.
You know, now that I think about it, I have blogs for writing, religion, exercise, and baseball. I'm starting to think that I'm breaking up my interests into little horcruxes of blogging - putting each small part of my soul into writing for all the world to "enjoy". That'll make it virtually impossible for you all to kill me! I'll be immortal! Bwah ha ha ha ha hah!
Oops, sorry... every time I split myself like this, I become a little more unstable.
So, if you'll all please join me in welcoming my new writing/filmmaking/etc... blog site - The HemiDemiSemiQuaver of Cool!
Yeah, I know... great title. Let's hope that there's more to it than that. In the meantime, you can still come back here to ICON for all the latest religious/political discussions your minds can handle.
You know, now that I think about it, I have blogs for writing, religion, exercise, and baseball. I'm starting to think that I'm breaking up my interests into little horcruxes of blogging - putting each small part of my soul into writing for all the world to "enjoy". That'll make it virtually impossible for you all to kill me! I'll be immortal! Bwah ha ha ha ha hah!
Oops, sorry... every time I split myself like this, I become a little more unstable.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Paradigm Shift
The shortest definition I can give for paradigm (pair-a-dime) shift is: A complete rethinking of a problem. A good example of which is the embracing of evolution as a scientific fact. For almost two thousand years (or perhaps longer) humans believed that they had been created by God - then along comes Darwin and in the course of about 50 years, human thinking had a huge paradigm shift to the point where Evolution usually wins out in people's thinking. But this is not an article about evolution, nor where I stand on it. This is about a personal paradigm shift that I've been going through in the past couple of weeks.
I started out wanting to be an astronaut (who didn't?) then, after Star Wars, I wanted to be an actor, then a director, then a producer, then some sort of media god like Walt Disney - all in the space of about three months. I've been working towards that goal ever since. But working is perhaps too generous a description of what I've been doing.
Working implies that the method for completion of this task has already been figured out. Working towards an Olympic Gold Medal, for instance, implies that you know the sport and that you are practicing, practicing, practicing and competing with the eventual goal of being the best in the world. But there isn't exactly a simple path to media god. I've checked. Its not even on Google.
Presumably one might become the next Walt Disney by being a great animator... except that animated movies cost so much to create and, well, Disney already has that area pretty much sown up. But Walt Disney was also a great storyteller, so one might reach that goal by becoming a great storyteller - which implies that one knows how to tell a story and has some means for conveying that story to an audience. That would mean trying for a career in film making or writing or... well, you get the idea. So, that's what I've been up to - trying to become the next Walt Disney one story at a time.
Of course, my results thus far have been non-existent. Its not easy dreaming big - there's too much reality to overcome.
Ironically, it was after the completion of my film (by no assessment is it a great film) that I came upon this paradigm shift. You see, in the end Disney wasn't really all that great an animator and he wasn't a great architect or writer. What he was good at was bringing together great animators and storytellers and film makers and getting them to make great movies bearing Walt's name. He provided the inspiration, they provided the perspiration - which is, of course, a great oversimplification. But the Walt Disney Company wasn't an afterthought in Walt's mind - an apparatus constructed after the fact to spend all the money he'd made as a great animator - the Walt Disney Company was what Walt wanted in the first place. He wasn't creating animation or storytelling, he was creating a company - a company that created animation and storytelling. And so, after the completion of my film instead of focusing on the next film and figuring out how I was going to rake in the dough and then create this masterful company from the profits, I suddenly realized that I FIRST needed to create the company to make the movie. I realized that I needed to work on the film from the context of it being a project for my company and not a project to make my company.
For my entire life, I've been creating products and then assigning them to the company. I've been a writer first and a President second. I realize now that I need to be a President first and a writer second - that I need to get my company off the ground so that I can get my films and books and other projects off the ground.
I've been the defacto head of my company now for 25 years and I've never once thought in these terms before. Its been a bit unusual in my head these last couple of weeks as my mind turns away from plotting the next script (which is a good one) to figuring out how to raise funds for my next script. In the end I will be just as creative as before, but with an emphasis first on making the creativity happen rather than on being creative and then figuring out how to make it happen.
So, I ask you all for prayers as I try to make an old endeavor new again.
I started out wanting to be an astronaut (who didn't?) then, after Star Wars, I wanted to be an actor, then a director, then a producer, then some sort of media god like Walt Disney - all in the space of about three months. I've been working towards that goal ever since. But working is perhaps too generous a description of what I've been doing.
Working implies that the method for completion of this task has already been figured out. Working towards an Olympic Gold Medal, for instance, implies that you know the sport and that you are practicing, practicing, practicing and competing with the eventual goal of being the best in the world. But there isn't exactly a simple path to media god. I've checked. Its not even on Google.
Presumably one might become the next Walt Disney by being a great animator... except that animated movies cost so much to create and, well, Disney already has that area pretty much sown up. But Walt Disney was also a great storyteller, so one might reach that goal by becoming a great storyteller - which implies that one knows how to tell a story and has some means for conveying that story to an audience. That would mean trying for a career in film making or writing or... well, you get the idea. So, that's what I've been up to - trying to become the next Walt Disney one story at a time.
Of course, my results thus far have been non-existent. Its not easy dreaming big - there's too much reality to overcome.
Ironically, it was after the completion of my film (by no assessment is it a great film) that I came upon this paradigm shift. You see, in the end Disney wasn't really all that great an animator and he wasn't a great architect or writer. What he was good at was bringing together great animators and storytellers and film makers and getting them to make great movies bearing Walt's name. He provided the inspiration, they provided the perspiration - which is, of course, a great oversimplification. But the Walt Disney Company wasn't an afterthought in Walt's mind - an apparatus constructed after the fact to spend all the money he'd made as a great animator - the Walt Disney Company was what Walt wanted in the first place. He wasn't creating animation or storytelling, he was creating a company - a company that created animation and storytelling. And so, after the completion of my film instead of focusing on the next film and figuring out how I was going to rake in the dough and then create this masterful company from the profits, I suddenly realized that I FIRST needed to create the company to make the movie. I realized that I needed to work on the film from the context of it being a project for my company and not a project to make my company.
For my entire life, I've been creating products and then assigning them to the company. I've been a writer first and a President second. I realize now that I need to be a President first and a writer second - that I need to get my company off the ground so that I can get my films and books and other projects off the ground.
I've been the defacto head of my company now for 25 years and I've never once thought in these terms before. Its been a bit unusual in my head these last couple of weeks as my mind turns away from plotting the next script (which is a good one) to figuring out how to raise funds for my next script. In the end I will be just as creative as before, but with an emphasis first on making the creativity happen rather than on being creative and then figuring out how to make it happen.
So, I ask you all for prayers as I try to make an old endeavor new again.
Monday, September 08, 2008
After Hole In The Wall, I can see nothing but good times ahead...
It was like getting hit in the head with a giant foam wall and getting knocked into a pool of water. What are the odds of getting two guilty pleasure game shows in one summer season?! First, Wipeout and now Hole In the Wall (kind of like Human Tetris, only with even less mental power needed! ;) But, I digress, because I'm sure that the fact that Hole In The Wall premiered on Fox last night had nothing to do with the epiphanous moment I had today.
So, I kind of understand now what makes me tick. I guess that's a big breakthrough even if I'm not entirely sure of the meaning behind it.
I realized that the one thing I complained about the most (internally) with my youth group was the one thing that I've sort of always been struggling with my whole life, on one end of the spectrum or the other - enthusiasm vs. lethargy.
To recap: To do something you need to have an idea of what to do, you need to know how to do it, you need to have someone willing to do the work, and you need to have someone who has the energy to get the task done.
I have tons of ideas. I am smart enough to know how to do things (most of the time) or to figure out how to do things. I am not always able to find people willing to do the work, but then, most of the time, I'm willing to do the work even if nobody else is. However, where my plans always seem to fall apart is in finding the energy to get the task done. If its a task that I want to do by myself, like writing a novel, I can usually muster whatever energy it takes to do the task even if it sometimes requires prodigious amounts of energy. But when I need help to complete the task, I often find that the people I work with don't come equipped with the enthusiasm to get the task done. I try to be enthusiastic enough for everyone, but their lack of enthusiasm - their lethargy - quickly saps my own enthusiasm and I end up being tired enough for the both of us. The end result may be that the project gets done, but I've lost any enjoyment of it because I'm too tired from getting it completed.
This battle between lethargy and energy has been a constant one for myself. When I get to the end of a project I constantly find myself falling into a period of lethargy afterwards. I've since learned that this is a period where I recharge my batteries for the next challenge, but I've now come to realize that my batteries wouldn't nearly be so drained if I worked with people equally enthusiastic about an outcome.
In my youth group, I've become less enamored with the prospect of running the group primarily because the things I want to do with the group is always met with a lethargic response. "Let's Go On A Mission Trip!" "Yeah, okay... whatever." I can provide the leadership. I can do all the work. But I can't do everything and be enthusiastic enough for the entire group as well. It was really sapping my enjoyment of the entire process to the point where I wondered why I even bothered. But rather than let my enthusiasm for the Lord be overcome by the lethargy of the youth, I decided that perhaps God needed to send someone else to inspire them. He is clearly calling me into areas where my enthusiasm will be better received.
I can also see this process in my decision to make a movie this summer. Though I've tried to make films in the past, I was always fighting the uphill battle of providing the camera, direction, script, and enthusiasm as well. Some of my family and friends were motivated, but not nearly as much as what was needed to finish the project. However, in my film classes, I suddenly met an entire group of people who were as enthusiastic about film making as I was. And in my friend Andrew, I met a group of actors who were enthusiastic about appearing in films as I needed them to be. After spending most of my life having to do all the work and provide all the enthusiasm as well, this was really a most refreshing change. And the end result speaks volumes about my future direction - the movie turned out well, people are still enthusiastic about it, and I've already begun work on my next film project!
I realize that not everyone is as enthusiastic as I am about the things that matter to me. And I realize that I'm not always enthusiastic about the things other people are enthusiastic about. Maybe this is God's way of dividing the Holy Spirit amongst us - not only in the gifts that we receive but in the joy that we finding in doing things.
I think the tragedy of this is when we don't do things because we think nobody will be interested in doing them with us. The Ice Cream Social might meet this fate this year because of the amount of lethargy I'm having to overcome to get it started. I simply refuse to single handedly do everything and provide the energy as well. I'm ready to use my energy where it will be better spent instead of using it to do things that nobody else really wants just because we ought to do it. This might be my new benchmark for determining which projects to tackle and in what order.
Or will that seem a little too much like taking the path of least resistance? Tell me, do you do things that nobody else seems to want to do?
So, I kind of understand now what makes me tick. I guess that's a big breakthrough even if I'm not entirely sure of the meaning behind it.
I realized that the one thing I complained about the most (internally) with my youth group was the one thing that I've sort of always been struggling with my whole life, on one end of the spectrum or the other - enthusiasm vs. lethargy.
To recap: To do something you need to have an idea of what to do, you need to know how to do it, you need to have someone willing to do the work, and you need to have someone who has the energy to get the task done.
I have tons of ideas. I am smart enough to know how to do things (most of the time) or to figure out how to do things. I am not always able to find people willing to do the work, but then, most of the time, I'm willing to do the work even if nobody else is. However, where my plans always seem to fall apart is in finding the energy to get the task done. If its a task that I want to do by myself, like writing a novel, I can usually muster whatever energy it takes to do the task even if it sometimes requires prodigious amounts of energy. But when I need help to complete the task, I often find that the people I work with don't come equipped with the enthusiasm to get the task done. I try to be enthusiastic enough for everyone, but their lack of enthusiasm - their lethargy - quickly saps my own enthusiasm and I end up being tired enough for the both of us. The end result may be that the project gets done, but I've lost any enjoyment of it because I'm too tired from getting it completed.
This battle between lethargy and energy has been a constant one for myself. When I get to the end of a project I constantly find myself falling into a period of lethargy afterwards. I've since learned that this is a period where I recharge my batteries for the next challenge, but I've now come to realize that my batteries wouldn't nearly be so drained if I worked with people equally enthusiastic about an outcome.
In my youth group, I've become less enamored with the prospect of running the group primarily because the things I want to do with the group is always met with a lethargic response. "Let's Go On A Mission Trip!" "Yeah, okay... whatever." I can provide the leadership. I can do all the work. But I can't do everything and be enthusiastic enough for the entire group as well. It was really sapping my enjoyment of the entire process to the point where I wondered why I even bothered. But rather than let my enthusiasm for the Lord be overcome by the lethargy of the youth, I decided that perhaps God needed to send someone else to inspire them. He is clearly calling me into areas where my enthusiasm will be better received.
I can also see this process in my decision to make a movie this summer. Though I've tried to make films in the past, I was always fighting the uphill battle of providing the camera, direction, script, and enthusiasm as well. Some of my family and friends were motivated, but not nearly as much as what was needed to finish the project. However, in my film classes, I suddenly met an entire group of people who were as enthusiastic about film making as I was. And in my friend Andrew, I met a group of actors who were enthusiastic about appearing in films as I needed them to be. After spending most of my life having to do all the work and provide all the enthusiasm as well, this was really a most refreshing change. And the end result speaks volumes about my future direction - the movie turned out well, people are still enthusiastic about it, and I've already begun work on my next film project!
I realize that not everyone is as enthusiastic as I am about the things that matter to me. And I realize that I'm not always enthusiastic about the things other people are enthusiastic about. Maybe this is God's way of dividing the Holy Spirit amongst us - not only in the gifts that we receive but in the joy that we finding in doing things.
I think the tragedy of this is when we don't do things because we think nobody will be interested in doing them with us. The Ice Cream Social might meet this fate this year because of the amount of lethargy I'm having to overcome to get it started. I simply refuse to single handedly do everything and provide the energy as well. I'm ready to use my energy where it will be better spent instead of using it to do things that nobody else really wants just because we ought to do it. This might be my new benchmark for determining which projects to tackle and in what order.
Or will that seem a little too much like taking the path of least resistance? Tell me, do you do things that nobody else seems to want to do?
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Maybe Jesus knew what He was talking about...
In the space of two weeks, Hurricane Gustav has caused an estimated $3 billion in losses in the U.S. and killed about 110 people in the U.S. and the Caribbean, catastrophic floods in northern India have left a million people homeless, and a 6.2-magnitude earthquake has rocked China's southwest, smashing more than 400,000 homes.
If it seems like disasters are getting more common, it's because they are. But some disasters seem to be affecting us in worse ways — and not for the reasons you may think. Floods and storms have led to most of the excess damage. The number of flood and storm disasters has gone up 7.4% every year in recent decades, according to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. (Between 2000 and 2007, the growth was even faster, with an average annual rate of increase of 8.4%.) Of the total 197 million people affected by disasters in 2007, 164 million were affected by floods.
It is tempting to look at the lineup of storms in the Atlantic Ocean (Hanna, Ike, Josephine) and, in the name of everything green, blame climate change for this state of affairs. But there is another inconvenient truth out there: We are getting more vulnerable to weather mostly because of where we live, not just how we live.
In recent decades, people around the world have moved en masse to big cities near water. The population of Miami-Dade County in Florida was about 150,000 in the 1930s, a decade fraught with severe hurricanes. Since then, the population of Miami-Dade County has rocketed 1,600%, to 2,400,000.
So the same-intensity hurricane today wreaks all sorts of havoc that wouldn't have occurred had human beings not migrated. (To see how your own coastal county has changed in population, check out this cool graphing tool from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.)
If climate change is having an effect on the intensities of storms, it's not obvious in the historical weather data. And whatever effect it is having is much, much smaller than the effect of development along coastlines. In fact, if you look at all storms from 1900 to 2005 and imagine today's populations on the coasts, as Roger Pielke Jr., and his colleagues did in a 2008 Natural Hazards Review paper, you would see that the worst hurricane would have actually happened in 1926.
If it happened today, the Great Miami storm would have caused from $140 billion to $157 billion in damages. (Hurricane Katrina, the costliest storm in U.S. history, caused $100 billion in losses.) "There has been no trend in the number or intensity of storms at landfall since 1900," says Pielke, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado. "The storms themselves haven't changed."
What's changed is what we've put in storms' way. Crowding together in coastal cities puts us at risk on a few levels. First, it is harder for us to evacuate before a storm because of gridlock. And in much of the developing world, people don't get the kinds of early warnings that Americans get. So large migrant populations — usually living in flimsy housing — get flooded out year after year. That helps explain why Asia has repeatedly been the hardest hit area by disasters in recent years.
Secondly, even if we get everyone to safety, we still have more stuff in harm's way than ever before. So each big hurricane costs more than the big one before it, even controlling for inflation.
But the most insidious effect of building condos and industry along water is that we are systematically stripping coasts of the protection that used to cushion the blow of extreme weather. Three years after Katrina, southern Louisiana is still losing a football field's worth of wetlands every 38 minutes.
Human beings have been clearing away our best protections all over the world, says Kathleen Tierney, director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "The natural protections are diminishing — whether you're talking about mangrove forests in areas affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami, wetlands in the Gulf Coast or forests, which offer protection against landslides and mudslides."
Before we become hopelessly lost in despair, however, there is good news: we can do something about this problem. We can enact meaningful building codes and stop keeping insurance premiums artificially low in flood zones.
But first we need to understand that disasters aren't just caused by FEMA and greenhouse gases. Says Tierney: "I don't think that people have an understanding of questions they should be asking — about where they live, about design and construction, about building inspection, fire protection. These just aren't things that are on people's minds."
Increasingly, climate change is on people's minds, and that is for the better. Even if climate change has not been the primary driver of disaster losses, it is likely to cause far deadlier disasters in the future if left unchecked.
But even if greenhouse gas emissions miraculously plummet next year, we would not expect to see a big change in disaster losses. So it's important to stay focused on the real cause of the problem, says Pielke. "Talking about land-use policies in coastal Mississippi may not be the sexiest topic, but that's what's going to make the most difference on this issue," he says.
FROM TIME MAGAZINE24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
Matthew 7: 24-27
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Yes, I am mad. The question is... why aren't you?
The owner of a large estate had to leave for a business trip and put his entire estate under the control of his formerly prodigal son over the equally qualified former head rancher.
"I know that you have lived a life of ill repute until recently, but I think you have earned the right to call the shots while I am gone," he told his son. "Our ranch is in good shape. We have a surplus in the bank. We are at peace with all of our neighbors. And business is really good. Our workers are happy right now, so this should be a piece of cake."
As soon as the owner left, his son divided the surplus cash and distributed it amongst his friends as a way to stimulate the local business economy. The workers looked on with some worry as now the ranch had no surplus in case things went wrong. But the son assured them that things were great and that the money spent would come back to them many fold.
But instead, a little more than a year after the owner had left on his trip, a group of vigilantes sneaked into the ranch and burned down one of their barns. Many workers who were inside died and many people who fought the fire died as well. All of the neighbors were incensed and agreed to help the son track down and capture these vigilantes. When the son tracked the vigilantes to a particular farm, they helped him capture that farm and bring the vigilantes to justice. The son was very pleased with what he had done.
Then he decided to attack another farm, claiming that they were planning to attack his farm and that maybe they'd even supported the vigilantes in the first attack. Most of the other farmers were wary of the accusations and the proof that the son provided did not change their minds. The son attacked the farm anyway and easily conquered it, but then had to spend money and hire men to protect the new farm from the former owners family, eager to get revenge for the unwarranted attack. The son poured more men and more money into the neighboring farm to protect it, borrowing heavily from more friendly farms to do so.
When the rainy season came and wiped out part of the son's own ranch, stranding many workers in the process, the son was too occupied with his protection of the other farm to send help. When he started losing buildings and sheep to other farmers because the other farm was bleeding him dry, he simply blamed the former head rancher for everything.
Finally, after eight long years, the owner returned to his ranch and looked on in disbelief. His surplus was long gone. Most of his sheep were owned by his neighbors. One whole section of his ranch had been flooded out and left in a state of disrepair and now he was part owner of a ranch he'd never wanted, nor needed, that was bleeding him dry. And his workers were all fearful of losing their homes and their jobs. He called for his son and demanded an explanation.
"What happened to my home?" he asked.
"Well," the son replied with a goofy smile, "You see... it was all the fault of the angry workers."
"The angry workers? What did they do?"
"They kept telling me I was wrong and that I was doing the wrong thing and they blocked my attempts to do more," the son replied.
"More? Haven't you done enough?"
"No... I was going to dig some more wells so that my friends might have more water to sell, but the angry workers stopped me. And there are a few other farms that I want to try and bring under our sway - they stood up to me and they should pay for that."
"No more, son. I've had enough of your ineptness."
"Very well. I'll simply take my share of the inheritance and retire, but in the meantime, I've got just the person to replace me. He believes exactly as I do and can guarantee you almost exactly the same results!"
"No thanks... I'll pass. I was stupid to put you in charge in the first place. But I've at least learned my lesson now to know that if I want to have a ranch in four years, I sure as hell better find someone better to run it than you or anyone like you."
"I know that you have lived a life of ill repute until recently, but I think you have earned the right to call the shots while I am gone," he told his son. "Our ranch is in good shape. We have a surplus in the bank. We are at peace with all of our neighbors. And business is really good. Our workers are happy right now, so this should be a piece of cake."
As soon as the owner left, his son divided the surplus cash and distributed it amongst his friends as a way to stimulate the local business economy. The workers looked on with some worry as now the ranch had no surplus in case things went wrong. But the son assured them that things were great and that the money spent would come back to them many fold.
But instead, a little more than a year after the owner had left on his trip, a group of vigilantes sneaked into the ranch and burned down one of their barns. Many workers who were inside died and many people who fought the fire died as well. All of the neighbors were incensed and agreed to help the son track down and capture these vigilantes. When the son tracked the vigilantes to a particular farm, they helped him capture that farm and bring the vigilantes to justice. The son was very pleased with what he had done.
Then he decided to attack another farm, claiming that they were planning to attack his farm and that maybe they'd even supported the vigilantes in the first attack. Most of the other farmers were wary of the accusations and the proof that the son provided did not change their minds. The son attacked the farm anyway and easily conquered it, but then had to spend money and hire men to protect the new farm from the former owners family, eager to get revenge for the unwarranted attack. The son poured more men and more money into the neighboring farm to protect it, borrowing heavily from more friendly farms to do so.
When the rainy season came and wiped out part of the son's own ranch, stranding many workers in the process, the son was too occupied with his protection of the other farm to send help. When he started losing buildings and sheep to other farmers because the other farm was bleeding him dry, he simply blamed the former head rancher for everything.
Finally, after eight long years, the owner returned to his ranch and looked on in disbelief. His surplus was long gone. Most of his sheep were owned by his neighbors. One whole section of his ranch had been flooded out and left in a state of disrepair and now he was part owner of a ranch he'd never wanted, nor needed, that was bleeding him dry. And his workers were all fearful of losing their homes and their jobs. He called for his son and demanded an explanation.
"What happened to my home?" he asked.
"Well," the son replied with a goofy smile, "You see... it was all the fault of the angry workers."
"The angry workers? What did they do?"
"They kept telling me I was wrong and that I was doing the wrong thing and they blocked my attempts to do more," the son replied.
"More? Haven't you done enough?"
"No... I was going to dig some more wells so that my friends might have more water to sell, but the angry workers stopped me. And there are a few other farms that I want to try and bring under our sway - they stood up to me and they should pay for that."
"No more, son. I've had enough of your ineptness."
"Very well. I'll simply take my share of the inheritance and retire, but in the meantime, I've got just the person to replace me. He believes exactly as I do and can guarantee you almost exactly the same results!"
"No thanks... I'll pass. I was stupid to put you in charge in the first place. But I've at least learned my lesson now to know that if I want to have a ranch in four years, I sure as hell better find someone better to run it than you or anyone like you."
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
I can't help it... I like Sarah Palin!
Sarah Palin makes absolutely no sense as a Vice Presidential candidate. She's a mother of five kids. She lives above Anchorage in the real frozen tundra. She's been a commercial salmon fisherperson. Her husband is half-eskimo. She's only been governor less than two years and before that, practically a political nobody. She's a Hockey Mom. Her 17 year old daughter is five months pregnant. She has a business degree from the University of Idaho.
What I've just described, except the part about being a vice presidential candidate and governor, could be the description of about half the women her age (not is, but COULD be). She's clearly a real person. Her interests are real and not 100% connected to her job. Her politics and her faith go hand in hand. She lives in tough places not because of some tax break they allow her, but because that's where she lives. Her family has struggles like lots of other families. Her past has troubles like lots of other pasts.
It'd be easy to compare her to other, more polished, politicians and see her deficiencies. She didn't go to Yale or Harvard. She wasn't part of some secret Skull and Bones club. She hasn't been a diplomat and she didn't attend private schools. I dare say that up until a week ago, she'd probably never even met a secret service agent much less been protected by one.
Even her struggles have been real life struggles - not some conflict of political interest. When she discovered that she was going to have a Down Syndrome baby she had to make a real life choice about whether to bring the baby to term - not some hypothetical choice for other women, but one with real consequences for her own life.
I don't agree with most of her politics, but I still can't help liking Sarah Palin. The more we discover about her, the more the press really exposes her to scrutiny, the more I like. She is a real person. A real life person with real life problems and real life answers.
Ask yourself, when was the last time we had a real person in Washington D.C., much less the White House?
But for all that, I'm still voting for Obama. I like Sarah Palin, but I still won't vote for her. Still, I wish her luck in the election and in the future.
What I've just described, except the part about being a vice presidential candidate and governor, could be the description of about half the women her age (not is, but COULD be). She's clearly a real person. Her interests are real and not 100% connected to her job. Her politics and her faith go hand in hand. She lives in tough places not because of some tax break they allow her, but because that's where she lives. Her family has struggles like lots of other families. Her past has troubles like lots of other pasts.
It'd be easy to compare her to other, more polished, politicians and see her deficiencies. She didn't go to Yale or Harvard. She wasn't part of some secret Skull and Bones club. She hasn't been a diplomat and she didn't attend private schools. I dare say that up until a week ago, she'd probably never even met a secret service agent much less been protected by one.
Even her struggles have been real life struggles - not some conflict of political interest. When she discovered that she was going to have a Down Syndrome baby she had to make a real life choice about whether to bring the baby to term - not some hypothetical choice for other women, but one with real consequences for her own life.
I don't agree with most of her politics, but I still can't help liking Sarah Palin. The more we discover about her, the more the press really exposes her to scrutiny, the more I like. She is a real person. A real life person with real life problems and real life answers.
Ask yourself, when was the last time we had a real person in Washington D.C., much less the White House?
But for all that, I'm still voting for Obama. I like Sarah Palin, but I still won't vote for her. Still, I wish her luck in the election and in the future.
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