Blogrophenia: The Reverend Aton's Site

Moonlight

For all you movie and baseball fans today marks the one hundredth year anniversary of Archibald "Moonlight" Graham playing one inning for the NY Giants. Of course, Dr. Graham went on to be a doctor in Chisholm, Minnesota and then a character in Field of Dreams. Of course they annoying made him a right hand hitting left hand throwing player instead of reversing that to a left hand hitting right handed thrower like he really was. The all ACC educated doctor died in 1965.

Well, I spent some time in the Mudville Nine,
watchin' it from the bench,
Moses

Wow!!! 115 years young we find Henny van Andel Schipper in this recent article. To give you an idea, she's 5 years OLDER than Babe Ruth who died well over 50 years ago, waaaay older than JFK and was born the year Nietzsche died. . .

For more on Dutch Centarians click here.

I see no reason why we can't all hope to live such long lives. If I can pull it off I am looking at another 85 years or so. . . How about that?

Teenage angst has paid off well,
Now I'm bored and old,
Moses

More Cruise bashing: A recent headline on Drudge says "CRUISE CONTROL: NO TO FREUD, YES TO SPACE ALIENS..." if you actually read the article all he actually says when asked in an interview if he believed in aliensis "Yes, of course. Are you really so arrogant as to believe we are alone in this universe? Millions of stars, and we're supposed to be the only living creatures? No, there are many things out there, we just don't know," Cruise, 42, said in the interview published in German. " His certainty might be a tad disconcerting but all in all a pretty reasonable position I think, that is completely distorted to make him look weird. . . Just leave me alone, Moses

Interesting article about a camp for children of non-believers, Heathen Heaven, if you will. I find rabid secularism/atheism just as disturbing if not more so than religious fundamentalism. Particularly coming from people who haven't given it much thought.

Amazing Grace,
How sweet the sound,
Moses

My Not So Vanilla Plan

For a few years now, and somewhat (although not completely) inspired by the movie Vanilla Sky, I have been interested in cryonics and have been telling people that I am very serious about having myself frozen shortly before my death. Therefore I was intrigued by this recent article that scientists have brought these dogs back from the dead.

At any rate my plan is to take a life insurance plan to help me pay for the procedure and then to use either Alcor or some other group to preserve my body. Obviously, I plan to have a "living will" type document expressing my wishes and some sort of very long term estate planning in the event that my body is in fact satisfactorily preserved, barring, say, an explosion that destroys my body.

Interestingly, I have noticed that when I tell people about my plans for this they tend to have mixed reactions. Often they get angry and even aggressive towards me. I wonder why?

Perhaps, they think it's cheating? Perhaps it offends their religious sensibilites. Who knows?

It seems to me that this should be a no brainer? When you get sick you take anti-biotics or have surgery we are always to delay suffering and death, why not try to prevent it alltogether?

Also, wouldn't it be fascinating to try to see what the future holds for humanity?

I, for one, am incredibly enthuisastic about this and really hope to do it. It may not work based on our current technology but why not give it a shot?

My friends would think I was a nut,
Turning water into wine,
Open doors would soon be shut,
Moses

In the latest edition of my regular column, The Seven Train, I take a look at the respective states of the Yankees and Mets. Please visit.

Life not going well? Wish you had some more cash, a nicer car and better house? Well, it's all useless unless your alive which you are if you're reading this. . . Say a prayer and be happy to ba alive. . .

And another one gone,
Moses

I spent my weekend on Long Island helping my parents around the house and fishing and at Yankee Stadium wathing the Mets take on the Yankees. I opted not to see Billy Graham although I was very curious. I really liked Andrew Sullivan's post about him today:

MISSING BILLY GRAHAM: It may or may not be his last crusade, but I have always admired Bill Graham's passionate but humane evangelicalism, his ability to reach out rather than condemn, his call to overcome our own deficiencies before we point out and excoriate others'. His refusal to meld his religion with a political ideology is now an anachronism, as contemporary Christianism has fused with a political party in condemnatory bitterness. But Graham shows what true Christianity is. And how it has become in danger of being eclipsed by the hubris of Dobson and the expedience of Rove.

I couldn't agree more. . .

And I'm gonna tune;
Right in on you,
Moses

Cruising Along Part Three

Most recently, Cruise has just KILLED Oprah Winfrey. . .

It's easy to forget how great Tyson was once upon a time. Check out this video for a reminder.

Cruising Along Part Deux

Well, on the heals of my controversial post yesterday Tom Cruise certainly did nothing to help my case. Just to show that I am fair and honest I will stipulate to the fact that he came off as weird and made himself look terrible on the Today Show with Matt Lauer. I still maintain a lot of my points about him, but for his wacky rant this morning he deserves to be criticized. . .

Save You,
Moses

Cruising Along

Tom Cruise gets no respect. For some reason or another critics decided long ago that he isn't the "artist" that a Sean Penn is or that a Johnny Depp. Many fans taking their cue from these critics have decided that proclaiming him a favorite is just uncool. Perhaps, all of this is a function of his being too big. At any rate it's unfair.

As for his latest antics, for which he's getting crucified, let's consider them. First the Katie Holmes thing. Well as I see it there are a few potential issue. First, the age difference. I don't see this as a big deal at all. It happens all the time and they are both well over 18. Secondly, the brief amount of time that they seem to have known each other. Well, sometimes that happens, I think we all know someone who committed to their significant other in a relatively short time. It's not the most common thing but it happens. Finally, his odd behavior on Oprah, ok I'll give you it's a little weird, but big deal. The guy was excited, he's really into this gal and he got enthusiastic. A little odd? Sure. But light years away from Michael Jackson weird and certainly much less harmful than say Sean Penn firing away at reporters!!! Look on the A-List celebrity scale Cruise is downright conventional!!

As for the water squirting incident he was totally in the right. There's nothing funny about squirting someone in the face with water. And I (and many others) thought he handled it fine. He essentially grabbed the guy and was like "How is that funny?. . . You're a jerk". I, for one, concur. Have someone come to your job someday and squirt you in the face and see how funny that is. . .

Further, the guy makes great movies (A Few Good Men is a masterpiece) and takes tremendous risks (Vanilla Sky). He not only starred in but also was the driving force behind getting Minority Report made. Further still, he's extremely unselfish as an actor having many times stepped back to let another shine (see Rain Man and Hoffman, AFGM with Nicholson and Jerry Maguire with Zellwegger) .

As for his Scientology stuff, everyone seems to decry it and yet literally EVERY SINGLE time I've asked the person ripping it to explain to me what they know about it they've been reduced to admitting they know little or nothing.

Cruise is a talented artist who is money at the box office and I am looking forward to War of the Worlds.

Look at my king all dressed in red
Iko, Iko, unday
Betcha five dollars he'll kill ya dead
Jockamo fee nane'
Moses

Ever since I started running half marathons and marathons people have expressed to me that they would like but that they are too old or out of shape. For all those who have expressed such sentiments or who just need a lift consider this man's story. At 95 he just shattered his age groupd record, he started running thirty years ago at age 65 years young. . .

You got the dreamers disease!,
Moses

I am loathe to make too much of this sort of thing. BUT, nice win for the Yanks and for Giambi in particular perhaps he can use this as a springboard. . .

Hopefully they'll turned it around (I've calmed down about the Stadium). . .

Movie Review: Batman Begins

Introduction: Batman the Comic Book Hero

Like most American boys I grew up loving superheros. In particular I remember being a Batman fan as a kid. He was always my favorite superhero because Batman had no special powers, he was just a man. If worked hard I could BE Batman. This was incredibly cool to me and as a result I worshipped Batman. Among other things, I had the action figure, the Batman doorhang cutout complete with movable joints and even a Batman bank to put my coins into.

When began approaching a decade of life I started collecting the comic books and learned of Batman's dark origin. I still wanted to be Batman, but was glad I hadn't shared his childhood trauma. Either way it wasn't that big a deal either way because his early formative years weren't discussed all that often anyway. At the time, the early to mid eighties, he still wore gray tights and featured a small bat on his chest framed inside a yellow border. The ubiquitous reruns of the Adam West television managed to temper any darkness associated with the character anyway.

By the mid to late eighties I was heavily into comic books in general and Frank Miller in particular so when Frank Miller penned Batman, even my dad took notice and encouraged me to buy it. It remains to this not only my favorite comic book, but also the crown jewel of my comic book collection. Issues one through four, first printing Batman the Dark Knight (for any comic book geeks out there I also have originals one through three of DK2 but have not managed to get through them as yet -- and, yes, it's been awhile).

This comic book changed everything. Set years after Batman's retirement it features an old and creaky Bruce Wayne/Batman set against a very dark Gotham City that anticipates Sin City -- no big coincidence since Miller penned both the stories and artwork for both. After, this four part series comic books would begin a darker side. Batman: Year One an excellent work in own right would follow and a character already teetering on the edge, Marvel's Wolverine would step it up into another gear.

Batman the Movies

Setting aside the Batman of Adam West, the first significant live action Batman was that of Tim Burton and Michael Keaton. Fighting his old rival the Joker (played brilliantly by the peerless Jack Nicholson) Keaton's Batman was slightly aloof and mysterious almost disturbing. Further, Tim Burton's characteristically dark sets would reflect Miller's recent reinterpretation of the Dark Knight. Unfortunately, a stream of Batmans that included Val Kilmer and George Clooney would eventually, and perhaps inevitably, jump the shark with Chris O'Donnel as Robin.

Just like the comic book version, who was actually conceived by Bob Kane as a dark detective note that both Robin and the yellow circle around the bat on the chest were added later, the movie version found itself a characture of itself. Perhaps there is no where to go with a character who dresses like a bat and fights the bad guys.

Batman Begins

Fortunately, you can go see the new Batman Begins without worrying about any of this because this aptly titled movie never has a chance to get into all that.

First things first: Christian Bale who you'll recall from his fine fine performance in the overrated but good American Psycho is an outstanding Batman. Perhaps the best ever. It helps him significantly that the dialogue is above average by Batman standards but also he just brings a certain strong yet conflicted performance. The rest of his cast acquit themselves well. The love of Tom Cruise's life is competant, Morgan Freeman is typically good doing the most he can with a limited role and Michael Caine makes a great Alfred. Liam Neeson is impressive in his ostensibly somewhat Qui Gonn like role. But the truly incredible performances are brought in by Gary Oldman (is this guy a genius or what?) and Cillian Murphy in the mindblowingly creepy role of Dr. Jonathan Crane better known to comic geeks as The Scarecrow.

The story is good. Interesting, fun and entertaining it is equal parts, kung fu movie, Indiana Jones and Batman the movie moves along well dragging only slightly at the very end. The movie goes to great lengths to not only humanize Batman but also to bring him into the real world. One of the first thing that comic book fans realize that is that it was a shrewd move indeed for Stan Lee to set his heroes largely in New York City as opposed to in cities called Gotham and Metropolis. This movie seems to want to almost correct this in part by explaining such things as how it is that Wayne can have all these devices created without having them be traceable.

Ultimately this movie seeks to establish Batman as slightly more feasible in reality, a noble effort. One of the reasons why it works is that the screenplay respects the character and places in him a proper context.

The movie is fun and interesting and may be the best Batman movie to date. It may take another epoch making piece like Miller's Dark Knight to inspire another. Ultimately if there is criticism of this movie it is that in the end this project is really just a perfection of Miller's now almost decade and half old reframing of this venerable pulp hero.

It's been such a long time,
Moses

This Pirates middle infield is damn impressive . Yankees down 4-1 in the 7th. . . They really need to pick it up. Anyway, I am giving serious thoughts to dropping them because of this whole stupid new Stadium thing. Yankee Stadium is as much a part of this franchise as the pinstripes. This is a travesty. . .

Theater Review: Drumstruck

Last night, for my mother and mine's semi weekly theater outing I got us tickets to Drumstruck a fantastic interactive percussive event performed by very talented African musicians. Every audience member is given a big drum and encouraged and taught to play along as the players go through various African songs and polyrhythms. As the show goes on more little musical instruments are passed around to the audience.

It's a wholly unique experience and quite a good time. Although it probably has special significance for me and my family, my mother was born and raised on the "Dark Continent" and we certainly discussed many things it reminded us of from our lives, I think that this would be good fun for everyone. It would be perfect for a group, for a date or just something to with a friend -- maybe even cool to do alone for you real music aficionados. . .

Mama-se, Mama-sa, Mama-macosa,
Moses

Dontrelle Willis won his 11th game yesterday and has become, at least IMO, the stopper on this staff. He is arguably THE guy you want to pitch you a big game right now and maybe even THE guy you want up in a big spot as he singled twice yesterday and even had an RBI. He's hitting .263 better than teammate Juan Pierre!! I've met Dontrelle and he's a great young man to boot. This guy is an old school character. If you get a chance watch a game he pitches and enjoy his skill and funky delivery.

Diamond rope silver chain,
Moses

I have written in this space before about the proposed new Westside Stadium. Happily, the Stadium plans fell through but the big news today is that the Yankees are getting a new Yankee Stadium across the street. I am none too happy about this and I still think that it's feasible to build a workable stadium in Manhattan, much better than the now defunct previous plan, perhaps privately funded by Georgy boy and the YES Network. Or at least mostly funded by them, this stadium would actually be used 80 + a year as opposed to 8 +. . .

While we're on the subject, while I think that the YES network is a joke in many ways. It is effectively a propaganda machine disguised as a journalistic outlet, I find the term Al Yankeezeera offensive. Yet another the powers that be subtly rip Arabs. Al Jazeera is a news outle that in many ways is more objective than, say, the NY media. Of course they have their flaws just like ABC or FOX or whatever but they certainly don't rise to the level of being held up as a contemptable propaganda machine. . .

The Lies She Cried,
Moses

Camus: "Sick men have no holidays"

Anonymous: "Even the desert blooms"

MJ Trial

Well, the verdict is in in the MJ trial and as I predictd here a while ago he has been found not guilty on all the charges (to be fair I was later concerned about the alcohol charge). Anyway check out this entry:

Thursday, May 19, 2005
With the news today that MJ won't be testifying at his molestation trial, let me just go on record as saying THERE IS NO WAY THIS GUY IS GETTING CONVICTED, I haven't followed this that closely, but from what I have seen and based on the judgment of his laywers in not having testify, I've got to say that I just can't see this guy getting convicted. Now I suppose you never know with a jury, but if you're in Vegas and have some money to spend, I say bet the farm that this guy is getting off.On another note, just personally speaking, I don't know if he's guilty, I really don't. I will say that while I think he's a Grade A weirdo, that there is far cry between being weird and being a child molestor. It's going to be interesting to how this shakes out. . .

Cause this is Thriller,
Moses

After wings, beef of weck and beer all weekend I finding myself missing Buffalo quite a bit. What a great town. The people are nice, the food is great and the bars stay open late. Giddyup.

In unrelated news a good friend of mine just started a blog which you are all invited to visit. The Decadent Dance can found clicking here.

I'm so tired I can't sleep,
Moses

Off to the "Rough Buff" for the Deertick's bachelor party. . .

Truckin up to Buffalo,
Moses

Great quote:

In 1956, a supporter is said to have told Adlai Stevenson, "You have the support of every thinking person." He replied: "That's not enough. I need a majority."

A majority I would add that Kerry failed to get. . . just barely. . .

I'm the lyrical Jesse James,
Moses

Sad story out of South Florida/Cuba of some Cubans trying to make it here in an old taxi cab/boat. For anyone who doesn't understand the gravity of the situation in Cuba - think about it - what would make you get into shark infested in an - ahem - less than seaworthy ship and try to traverse the distance between Cuba and Florida. And while we're at it, the U.S.'s "dry foot, wet foot" policy is arbitrary and unfair. . .

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; send these, the homeless tempest-tossed, to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Does anyone remember laughter?,
Moses

Howard Dean has his flaws. His biggest was probably his groundbreaking campaign tactics that created a groundswell and seemed to indicate that he was the leader of the pack in the Democratic primaries. For a while he was a huge media darling and everyone thought that he had the Dem primaries wrapped up. When it was discovered that he was a media creation, the self hating media turned on him. They made an inordinately HUGE deal about his "scream" which was at worst slightly weird and at best perfectly in context. This anger has continued through today and the latest example of the media's self hatred because of it's own failure to gauge his chances in late 2003-2004 is the latest "white Christian" kerfuffle. Newsflash: THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS MONOLITHIC, they aren't very accepting of others. They oppose affirmative action and most gay rights issues, etc.

I, for one, as an ethnic outsider have never felt welcome into the Republican Party and HAVE OFTEN EVEN JOKED about with my highly educated non-white friends, whether that be my Harvard and Duke educated African American friend from South Carolina, my Rice and Duke graduate Latina friend from Texas or countless others. This is hardly a worthwhile story and perhaps that's why there were only a handful of stories about it when I googled and really only Drudge and the, epitome of journalistic standards, the National Review are running an op ed piece on it.

Know Your Rights,
Moses

Last night I went out to Shea with Blue Trash. He and I have resolved to go to every possible Pedro home game. Anyway, so we got there at about 6ish, bought scorecards and talked no hitter and sat in RF and watched the Astros take BP and then watched Pedro walk out of the dugout to raucous applause. Watched him warm up in the outfield. Then watched Reyes, Wright and Piazza all warm up (including Reyes do that rubber band thingy). Then watched Pedro in the pen. The game was electric -- as you no doubt know by now -- Pedro seriously flirted with a no-no. We scored the whole game (this was a particularly easy NL game to score) and really just sat back and enjoyed the whole thing. Once the no no was over -- which hurt it really felt like there was some magic in the air -- Blue declared "ok we need the win!!" The almost fight was cool, the crowd busted into "Let's go Mets" and best of all no fight and no suspensions. It was fun guesing if Pedro was coming back in after the 8th ("he didn't point up, at least he thinks he is coming back"). The last inning was nuts. K's the side Pedro started hitting 90 consistently. Which I don't think he had been before. You really get the feeling that he is toying with guys out there. I mean one second he's throwing 69 MPH curves and the next he's rocking an 89 MPH fastball. It's like he's messing with them. All in all a great night! And afterwards we met Vince Piazza, Mike's dad, outside looking like he was waiting for a car. We shook his hand and told him we were big fans of his son. He was cool I even told him a story Mike told me in Port St Lucie. . . I cannot stress this enough: Catch a Pedro start if you can!

You're so unbelievable,
Moses
Moses

More Bushshit??

Yet another example of the Bush administration's attempts to bullshit us. Anyone notice this tidbit from Juan Cole yesterday:

The Pentagon released this news late Friday in order to defeat the US news cycle, which closes down for the American weekend. I deliberately kept it for Monday morning.The Pentagon now admits that it found evidence in its files of the Quran being "mishandled" at Guantanamo. (Muslims would say "defiled.") All this after poor Newsweek was pilloried by the Bush administration. Moreover, I cannot for the life of me understand why the Pentagon thinks all the interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo were carefully recorded for posterity.

So the big news today is that Kerry's grades at Yale were just as bad as W's. BIG DEAL. One of my best friends who has an extremely lucrative and prestigious job in mid town Manhattan was nearly kicked out of college because of his grades. Grades don't bother me one way or the other especially not at a top school. I would be interested in seeing Kerry's HS transcript which I suspect is better than W's, b/c one thing that has been clear for years is that Bush had no business being at Yale in the first place. I wonder if the same is true of Kerry. Either way at least Kerry had an impressive legal career as opposed to Bush who never accomplished a damn thing on his own before becoming governor of Texas on the strength of his name and his father's accomplishments. . .

I also think it's pathetic that Bush the clear beneficiary of being a legacy is so opposed to affirmative action but thus is the hypocrisy of the Right.

Further, it interesting that Kerry's refusal to release his Naval records could have disputed the bogus swift boat claims. Those scumbags were clearly lying. Just goes to show much like last night's Game 7 it was not so much that Bush/The Pistons won, it was that Kerry/The Heat lost.

It ain't me,
It ain't me,
I ain't no Senator's son,
Moses

You have all been very tolerant of my Star Wars geekdom, I beg your patience once more. For all you Star Wars geeks out there check out this Star Wars blog. Also, definitely check out this hilarious Sith Apprentice movie which you will love even if you are not a Star Wars geek. Also scroll down for the very hilarious Star Wars gagsta rap edition. . .

and Nightcrawler too,
waiting there for me yes I do,
Moses

Well I was there when the season tipped off in New Jersey, I followed this team in person through games in Miami, and against the Knicks and even back in New Jersey during the playoffs, a game I watched with Pat Riley. I caught as many games as I could on television. It was a lot of fun. It didn't have to be like this. We were up 3-2 with game 7 at home. It was the Wade injury that killed this team. But he showed guts and came out and played Game 7 in visible pain. Wasn't meant to be. This sucks. This team WILL be a force to be reckoned with next year. . .

This one hurts. It reminds me of the 1995 Seattle series, that empty feeling I had as Leyritz lay on the Kingdome floor. Hell, look what happened for the Yankees the next year. . .

Some people will offer you their hand and some won't,
Yesterday I knew you,
tonight I don't,
Moses

In a strange decision down political lines, generally the liberals voted FOR the ban and the conservatives AGAINST it, the USSC decided in a 6-3 decision that the authorities may arrest and prosecute people whose doctors recommend marijuana to ease pain, subsequently the plaintiffs have insisted that they will continue to smoke. Interesting piece on legalization of marijuana by Milton Friedman.

These cops,
Come and try to snatch my crops,
These pigs wanna burn my house down,
Moses

Tonys

Spamalot just won best musical. It really deserves it in my opinion. It's an outstanding show that is amusing, thoughful and just generally impressive. I highly recommend it, but good luck getting tickets.

The striking Sara Ramirez also picked up a Tony.

Find your grail,
Moses

For all you Star Wars freaks out there, if seeing the new movie in the theatre wasn't enough for you, you may want to pick up the novel which offers something more than the movie in that it explains certain things not explained in the movie, such as: Why does Windu confront Palpatine so suddenly as opposed to waiting and enlisting the help of Yoda and Obi Wan? Why does Obi Wan wind up merely observing Luke from afar on Tatooine? etc.

Anyway sorry to waste the time of you normal well adjusted non obsessed with Star Wars people. But for you freaks: pick it up and you are welcome!

In the garage;
I feel safe;
No one cares about my ways,
Moses

Read a really interesting book recently called Freakanomics, which offers some really interesting solutions to some of life's riddles. I highly recommend it.

That ain't workin',
That's the way you do it,
Moses

Word is that Woodward got kinda screwed on the on the Deep Throat revelation. Good, someone else should make some money off this thing.

How does it feel?,
Moses

Jackson Trial

I have written in this space before that I don't think that Jackson will be convicted on the molestation charges, however I am not so sure about this new giving alcohol to a minor charge. Jackson is reportedly starting to really freak out. Hopefully, this doesn't make him act weird or anything.

Heal the World,
Moses

Gays in the military

Once again, sometime conservative, and full time gay activist, Andrew Sullivan makes an excellent point about a wounded gay soldier being discharged from the Army. As Sullivan points out, although there is a huge need for soldiers, the military will only accept those who lie about their sexuality.

Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground,
Moses

Is it HOT Enough for You?

Tonight the Heat face off against a tough Detroit team that matches up really well against them IN DETROIT. This game is critical because the winner will only need one more to eliminate the loser. Up until now Wade has been THE MAN, it'll be interesting to see if he can really step it up tonight. I really like this team, maybe more than I've ever liked another team. I've seen play in Miami, New York and NJ in person more than once. I even saw a playoff game in NJ. I've watched plenty of their games on television and I just really really like them. Unfortunately, tonight I have plans to go to Shea to see Pedro pitch against the D Backs with Blue. Hopefully, I'll be able to catch the end of the Heat game.

GO HEAT!!!!

The Heat is on,
Moses

The NHL continues to shoot itself in the foot. It almost feels like they are trying to destroy the league and hockey as we know it. It's a real shame.

Heterosexual Day?

Two words: Eoooww Wuh!

CITY OF YELLOWKNIFE CANCELS HETEROSEXUAL DAY
WebPosted Mon May 30 20:08:44 2005
YELLOWKNIFE---The city of Yellowknife rescinded its proclamation ofHeterosexual Day at a special meeting Monday.Councillor Alan Woytuik introduced the proclamation last week in responseto a request for the city to proclaim Gay Pride Day.
"I am not anti-gay and I'm not advocating denial of anyone's rights or promoting discrimination. In fact, my position is just the opposite. I fully support the fundamental principle of democracy that everyone should be treated equal."I feel many people have misinterpreted the intent behind my request. Theproclamation was in response to Out North's request for Gay Pride Day,but it was not intended as a protest against the ideals of Out North,"said Woytuik.
Last week, in proposing Heterosexual Day he said there's no reason why heterosexual people shouldn't be recognized.Woytuik's request made headlines across the country, but he withdrew hisrequest, saying he didn't mean it as an attack on anyone and heapologized to anybody he offended."I'm a little shocked over all the attention it received. I saw it as asimple request to treat everyone the same and it was misinterpreted andkind of blown way out of proportion from what the original intent was soI feel a little shocked about that."Over the weekend, Woytuik met with members of Out North, a group thatrepresents Yellowknife gays and lesbians.He says he understands their perspective. But he says he still believesthat proclaiming Gay Pride Day promotes inequality and animosity in thecommunity.Copyright (C) 2005 CBC. All rights reserved.

More Nixon

When I was at Duke a female friend of mine, who was and remains one of these arch conservative types, started a campaign to get the portrait of Nixon put up in the law school (not the one I discussed beforem that was a class picture). I supported it completely. Regardless of the scandal this man was elected President twice and had an extrememly impressive public service record. I thought it was insane that the liberal academic powers that be refused to acknowledge him. The woman spearheading the campaign often used me to support her position that this wasn't a partisan political saying, "Hell even Moses supports this". The picture is now up.

My latest column entitled "The Seven Train: By the Numbers" is currently available as the featured article at NY Fansites. Note: I had originally entitled it "The Seven Train: The Who by Numbers" but my editor felt this reference was too obscure. Bummer.

Speaking of bummers: The Heat lost last night making the Detroit series now a de facto best of three. Two sweeps followed by this? Interesting discrepency in talent among playoffs teams. Man, I hope Miami wins!

Yeah!,
Moses

Nixon and Me

Although I am a lifelong Democrat and probably the last person most people would think would say this, I too have a secret: I admire Richard Nixon.

First in the interest of full disclosure, Tricky Dick have paths that have crossed, sort of. You see we both attended Duke Law School, albeit almost 60 years apart. However, there was (and remains) a small picture of Nixon at Duke. It is his class picture which is hung up in a long hallway downstairs at Duke and was one that I always took visitors to when I ran tours for admitted students. The dour looking Nixon seems to stand out a bit even against a wall of other white male faces.

So to some extent I feel like I share something with him. But it's more than that. Nixon is to me by far the most interesting President of the 20th century for reasons to numerous to name but can basically be summed as that he was the most psychologically complex and had by far the most interesting and unique personal and political biography (honorable mentions to FDR, Teddy, Reagan and Clinton).

At any rate, it has always confused me that he is so vilified by the Left considering that in many ways he was the mirror image of Clinton, namely a Righty going Left. But the analogy doesn't end there. Between the two and their infamous foibles Nixon's was done to perpetuate his power, whereas Clinton's were just gluttonous. You see, say what you want about Nixon, but I firmly believe that at the end of the day Nixon was a good Quaker kid (disregard Stone's crucifiction piece, although not that that Anthony Hopkins, while looking nothing like Nixon somehow manages to channel him -- brilliant acting) who wanted to make a difference and his attempts to preserve or extend his power was an extension of this, I don't see that in Clinton. In fact it is often said that Watergate ushered in a new era in Presidential politics and this is most certainly true, but it probably also marked the end of a certain type of President. After Nixon, you get the sense with all his successors (with the possible exception of Carter) that a certain innocence is gone. I don't mean because of Watergate, I mean just in terms of character. Like I said I believe that Nixon was a good Quaker kid at heart just honestly trying to make a difference, exempting Carter and the irrelevant Ford, I see nothing even vaguely similar to that in figurehead Reagan, the calculating Bushes or even the admirable but often unprincipled Clinton.

More on Nixon and Watergate later.

You know in some way you're a lot like me,
Moses