Nobody 706

Sunday, July 29, 2007
Nobody # 706

Nobody Asked Me But:

Grandchildren are your children’s love gift to you. (your writer)

One of life’s mocha malts is flying to Tucson and back the same day to see the newest Harry Potter with your daughter and grandchildren. That was how I spend yesterday.

Here is my quick review of the film. (My review of the company with whom I saw it is an A+)

“As I think back to the movie, I realize even more how much I liked it. It was clearly the best so far, partly because of the way it was made and partly because it was darker, just as the novel was darker. There were no playful scenes - except for the Weasly twins blowing off their finals. Life had moved beyond play for Harry and his group. And with the darkness comes increased interest. Such is life.”

“What fools these mortals be.” - I was thrilled to pay under 3.00 per gallon (2.97.99) for my gasoline this morning. Now that’s sick!

Did you know that until 1942, American school children said the Pledge of Allegiance not with their hand over their heart but with a stiff-armed, flat-palmed salute?

JIM’S WISDOM (Just a name, not a claim)

UP: Grandchildren - Benjamin, for just completing his first week in the first grade, Emily for ending her first practice with a club soccer team, exhausted but saying “ I learned so much that it was the best practice I have ever had” and Ryan for making the supreme sacrifice by letting his mother read Harry Potter first.

UP: J.K. Rowling, for writing the incredible Harry Potter series, and for making the seventh and final book the best of them all.

(Rowling stands with a newly unveiled portrait of herself by Stuart Pearson Wright at the National Portrait Gallery in London.)

And while on this subject, I have always known that Ann Coulter was Mrs. Lord Voldemort, but, until recently, I could never name her husband. Then I read a piece by columnist Thomas Sowell in which he identified himself as the evil one. This is what he wrote:

“When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can't help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.”

It is a good thing that I believe so strongly in free speech, lest I find Sowell/Valdermort’s remark dangerously close to treason.

UP: Standing in line for the privilege of standing in line to buy Harry Potter last week. I skipped the line and waited until noon for mine, but I admire those who couldn’t wait TO READ.

WAY DOWN: Bush, for trying/lying one more time about ties between al Qaeda in Iraq and Sept. 11.

There once was a shepard boy who grew lonely watching his sheep, so he cried “wolf” and his people came to help him. But there was no wolf. After a while, lonely still, he again cried “wolf.” Once more his people came. Once more there was no wolf. Then, a third time, the boy cried “wolf,” but this time his people said, “the boy is a fool, a liar or both,” and no one came. The next day the boy lost his job to a Democrat.

DOWN: Blowback. Of course, Islamic Fundamentalists (between 50 and 75 "disparate groups,” according to British intelligence) have flowed into Iraq to fight Americans just as they flowed into Afghanistan to fight Russians. Only then we financed and armed them.

UP: Joe Klein (Time Magazine) for saying the same thing last week that I have been saying for months. The way to guarantee a Democratic victory in 08 is to unite behind a Congressional agenda (Iraq, health care, energy, education) that the people want and either pass it, forcing a Bush veto, or push it to the point where Senate Republicans block it by threatening a filibuster.

DOWN: Democrats, for changing their attitude towards abortion. Not for the policy shift itself - there is nothing wrong with a goal of reducing the number of abortions - but for their hypocritical motives for doing so. Pandering to get Religious Right votes is an even greater “sin” for Democrats than for Republicans.

DOWN: Japan, for slowly, bomb by bomb increasing their offensive military posture and capability. I can’t totally fault them in this dangerous world but, by gradually eroding the part of their constitution that prohibits this, they are damaging what should be a beacon light of example for the world.

DOWN: America, who wrote this clause into Japan’s constitution and are now encouraging its violation.

UP: The wife of Louisiana Senator, David Vitter, R. When he criticized her for the quantity and quality of their sex, she replied, “You’ll pay for that.”

UP: Matt Groening, (see picture) the creator of The Simpson's, who told the New York Times, “I’ve rarely voted for a winner in my political life, with the exception of Al Gore.”

DOWN: My fellow Americans, at least those who are sexist. Here is an example.

Linda Carroll, 59, who lives in Crystal Springs, Miss., is “not ready for a lady president.”

“I’m not for this women’s lib stuff,” she said. “I’ve always thought the woman should be at home and not in the workplace.”

(Comment: Sometimes I think I should move to Europe where women are allowed out and religion is kept home.)

SIDEWAYS: Hillary, who, according to the Washington Post, came to the floor of the Senate in a top that put “cleavage on display.” If you’ve got it flaunt it. But does she have “it?”

(Comment: Perhaps she does, because according to one “expert” on Tuesday’s debate, Clinton won the “body language battle.” And that was with her cleavage completely covered.)

(Disclaimer – I am not trying to titillate you with these remarks. I am just trying to keep you abreast of what people are saying.)

DOUBLE-DOWN: Starbucks, for raising their drink prices and for raising them an odd rather than an even amount. I don’t need to pile up more pennies.

UP: Libby - Daughter Amy is getting married next month and she is fighting an obstinate organist to have “Once In Love with Amy” played as one of the prelude songs. You go girl!

Who can ever forget Ray Bolger’s song and dance number of that song in “Where’s Charlie?” I know, for most of you youngsters, you can’t forget what you never saw.

DOWN: Being a hostage to Iraq. While Americans and Iraqis die the Iraqi government takes an August break AND our government defends their doing so - White House spokesman, Tony Snow, “ it’s really hot in Baghdad then — 130 degrees.”

The tail wags; the dog sits up and begs.

SIDEWAYS: Rudy Giuliani - UP for being the most publicly secular major candidate of either party and DOWN for his conceit in believing that he is America's moral compass.

UP: Liberals, for their attempt to build a long-term strategy around an affirmative message of what the Constitution means and what the enterprise of constitutional interpretation should be about.

Too many forget that our constitution is not just a restriction on the dangers of bad government but a celebration of the possibilities of good government.

UP: Mrs. John Gotti. “It's disgusting that people are still obsessed with Gotti and the mob," she told The Daily News. "They should be obsessed with that mob in Washington. They have 3,000 deaths on their hands."

DOWN: Newt Gingrich - tell me that is not the name of a Southern species of lizards – anyway, down Gingrich for calling the Republican presidential field a "pathetic" bunch of "pygmies." Careful Newter, right or not, remember about glass houses and throwing stones.

UP: Maureen, for writing about “W.’s reign of error.” That Dowd woman can really coin a phrase.

Aside – Do you trust this man?

UP: Jerry Crowe, who has been writing the page 2 column in the LA Times sports section since T. J. Simers went missing in action. I hope this is a permanent change. I liked T. J. until his act grew tired and tiresome. Crowe is both fresh and writes in a style somewhat similar to the great sports columnist Alan Malamud.

Malamud, who wrote for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner until it folded and then for the Times until his death in 1996, was the ultimate American success story. He proved that a man can achieve greatness despite his most humble beginnings – In Malamud’s case, as Sports Editor of The Daily Trojan.