Do we live in a world led by Heroes or cowards?
There’s an old proverb — “Despair Makes Cowards Courageous” — that has grand resonance in today’s social and political climate.
Clifford — in King Henry VI Part 3 — suggests:
So cowards fight when they can fly no further;
So doves do peck the falcon’s piercing talons;
So desperate thieves, all hopeless of their lives,
Breathe out invectives ‘gainst the officers.
When “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin died by being stung in the heart by a stingray, he left behind a wife, a young son, and a daughter named Bindi Sue. In the devastating aftermath of his death his fans are forced to deal with the public pimping of his 8-year-old daughter Bindi in the popular media in order, it seems, to perpetuate the family myth and to earn professional fortunes.
Continue reading → Binding Bindi: How a Father Stings a Daughter
I’m not anticipating anything earthshattering to be released or to happen in the next fifteen days and so I present to you my favorites of 2006 a good two weeks earlier than it has been traditionally released.
Music
A lot of albums were released during the year but not a lot of them caught my attention, and many of those that did somehow didn’t manage to keep it for all that long. I have two albums in mind for this year – the eponymous Pearl Jam release and the soundtrack to the Disney film High School Musical.
Pearl Jam’s eponymous album was a nice return to a strong rocking band. It takes its place among some of my favorite albums ever. From the moment you open up the avocado emblazened album and put it in to the last moments of the last song you realize what a good thing you have. I was particularly pleased with the fact that for a limited time Pearl Jam basically gave away the mp3 of the first single off of the album, “World Wide Suicide.” I was unable to see them when they were playing at The Gorge in George, Washington (yes, very funny) but I know that the next time they are around I will certainly make a good effort to see them. The album as a whole is a no-punches held back crticism of the current government in power in the United States and the directions that we have taken in foreign policy. I think you could say that the band doesn’t particularly agree with the direction being taken.
Last night, former Dallas Cowboys football superstar 
running back Emmitt Smith and his professional dance partner Cheryl Burke won ABC television’s wildly popular contest Dancing with the Stars.
Moments after Emmitt’s win last night, the ABC message board was filled with racist tripe claiming the reason Emmitt won was because he is Black not because he was the better dancer.
What that racist mentality fails to accept is Emmitt is not a dancer and if you watched him on the show for the entire season you saw him incrementally and dramatically improve each week.
If there is a reality show on television I will watch it and I will enjoy it and I will — usually — be furious with the winner because the person who wins is rarely a kind and gentle spirit.
The sort of person who wins a reality television show is ordinarily cruel and misbegotten and hateful.
The biggest and the best of all the reality shows is Big Brother, now in its seventh season on CBS.
Last year Keyser Soze won Big Brother 6 and it was a huge disappointment.
I’m back with Big Brother this year because the live feeds are irresistible. To be able to watch live on the internet 24/7 what is happening inside the Big Brother house is a terrific treat if you are interested in human behavior.
Janelle and Kaysar work out together while plotting against others in the house:
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