My Sinuses are Aching!

I've been catching up on back copies of MacLean's, a weekly news magazine. Interesting to be reading about events that are now history written about as if they happened yesterday. Every now and then I have to remind myself that what I'm reading is no longer news.

The Tasmanian Devil is an endangered species! What would Bugs have to say about that? Seems they're every bit as vicious as portrayed on Looney Tunes. They're spreading the cancer cells that are killing them by fighting with one another.

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Here in Southern Ontario we're for another couple day's worth of rain. Guess I should be thankful it'll wash the tree pollen out of the air.

Given my maudlin mood grocery shopping and laundry would seem to be the most appropriate things to be doing.

Annual Haircut?

Yesterday marked the annual shearing of the locks; still a work in progress.


I've been doing my own hair for close to 30 years now since I got tired of trying to bully an Italian Barber into giving me the haircut I wanted and thought I was paying for.




Those clippers from Consumer's Distributing--long closed now--have paid for themselves many times over.

Beyond going out for supper at East Side Marios there isn't much to report.


Don't get me wrong, I'm forever thankful for the joys of air conditioning as an apartment without flow-through ventilation would fast become an oven when the afternoon sun lays in; but this morning my under-the-counter toaster oven was vibrating as a result of the noise the compressor makes.

Another Hollywood Gloss

Watched Eric Till's Luther last night. It is interesting to note that this effort was in part underwritten by a Lutheran Investment Company. What they got was a shallow treatment of a very complex man. There were 95 debating points--theses-- nailed to that church door but this bio concentrates almost exclusively on John Tetzel and the selling of indulgences. We see an individual who is tortured by self-doubt and self loathing. An unwashed monk who, before he is to meet the Pope's representative, is asked to take a bath--so he won't smell or give the prelate lice and fleas. Although much is made of his obsession with confession and later his work translating the Bible into German, aside from the support of his confessor we barely meet Melanchthon who may be recognized as having "ghostwritten" much that is credited to Luther. That he suffered from lifelong bad digestion and is quoted as having said he would love to fart in the face of the devil seems to have been censored. Apparently burning books, and monks as it happens, does make good footage.

The Lutheran Church was founded and the Reformation fomented by an unwashed (drunken) monk who marries a nun. Contrast this with a pope who delighted in hunting wild boar and supported a stable of up to a thousand concubines. The Germany of the Sixteenth Century was a welter of independent city states, electorates, and protectorates and Luther survives the Inquisition because he has the protection of Frederick who is tired of seeing his subject's money going to Italy to build St Peters.

Joseph Fiennes looks terrible in tonsure, his make-up artist must have cringed and as Ulric, Marco Hofschneider, now in his thirties, is barely recognizable as the prepubescent stripling lad whose dimples charmed everyone in Europa, Europa. Interesting that the Czech Republic stands in for Germany just as it did for Medieval England in Tristan and Isolde. Although things tend to drag at certain points one can forgive them for not presenting us with one of Luther's hour-long sermons or the four-hour-long German Mass of which these were a part. And to think people stood through those services--guess that's one way to ensure they stayed awake. I am disappointed they didn't use more of Luther's hymns though. Literal translations of an opus such as "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" show a man who used salty language and for whom the fires of Hell were very real. Modern audiences might not want to sit through all 30 or so verses of these hymns sung 'lento'. We do get to meet Katey, the woman behind the man; though Claire Cox is no one's idea of a buxom German Frau.

To summarize, even though this movie is just two hours long, the pause button comes in handy often. Without some exercise I'd have been hard-pressed to stay awake. The screen-writers could have used more research and tightened up their plot lines considerably using the time saved to present more well-rounded character development. For a movie about a man whose ideas shook the world we see very little theology here.

Bleary Eyed by the Lake

1923: The U.S. Attorney General determined that it was legal for women to wear trousers.

Imagine that.

Had to break down and take an anti-histamine last night. Today the temperature will hit 30º C and wait for it--there's a smog advisory. When I'm not yawning I'm going to be gasping for breath.

The big event of my day will be a visit to Chapters Books for their double discount day. When you buy as many books as I they send you a personal invitation.

If you haven't seen it yet must watching is the White House Press Club Luncheon. Being able to diss Dubya in front of the Secret Service must be quite a power trip:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879

Watched Tristan and Isolde last night. If I were in a more eloquent mood I'd give it a critical analysis. Luckily I got it in before I took the drugs, tonight it would probably put me to sleep. Not one of James Franco's better efforts. Maybe that homespun robe he was wearing was giving him a terrible itch; whatever it was he didn't look comfortable in that role.

I'm reading the complete poems by Jane Kenyon. Whoever wrote the article on her in Wikepedia was not a fan, that's an understatement actually. For those who enjoy the kind of bucolic pleasures written of by the likes of Robert Frost, but without the rhyming verses, should enjoy her writing. She's dead now so even sticks and stones can't hurt her.

Waxing Philosophical

The thing about being on vacation is the luxury of unwinding and having time to wax philosophical. Civilization is built upon human society having the luxury of taking time off from hunting and gathering--the necessities for survival--and spend time to decorate their caves and clothing with art. Remarkably we still find our own bodies to be a fitting canvas for our artistic endeavours, though today we can afford to pay others to perform those rituals. The development of written language meant that what had been an oral tradition could be passed on without the thinker even being present. If you have doubts about the significance of this statement, just think about the last time you went wilderness camping--particularly if you went winter camping.

As you can see I set the camera on top of my LCD Screen and popped off a few impromtu pictures. At least I managed to keep my eyes open for the flash though I don't find these shots particularly flattering. This will serve for a before and after shot when I decide the weather has finally turned warm enough for my summer haircut. Just Tuesday the temperature was 2 above when I got up. Here in Southern Ontario we've also been enjoying a period of over two weeks of rain. This morning has begun hazy with a great deal of high cloud though a sunny day with temperatures around 25º C are predicted.



Before I post this I believe I'll take a walk about the property with my camera and see if I get anything worth posting. With all that cloud the light is not particularly good this morning. Sort of a shame to use a Nikon Coolpix 4500 Camera to point and shoot, but it works. The sign reads, The Villas, the name of the Condominium Apartment in which I live.

Some Dyspeptic Mutterings

Is George Bush a moron? And what if he is? Memory serves that the American people have also elected Bonzo's B-Grade Movie Sidekick Ronald Reagan; Mr. Peanut--Carter; Sock's the Cat's meal ticket Bill--and what a tomcat he proved to be; and but for his lack of native birth might contemplate Ahnald. Normal seems to be in the eye of the beholder. Bush seems to think the American economy can't afford to fight global warming but the lessons of New Orleans would seem to show that the costs of allowing the arctic ice sheets to melt will be even costlier. To a Newfie, a white-coat seal pup is just another mouth that will eat fish they'd rather catch to make a living--if they looked less adorable and more like say a catfish would the rest of the world be so concerned. While the rest of the world fights to prevent the extinction of whales the Norwegians and Japanese say, "What's the point of there being whales if there isn't a whale fishery?" While 20% of South African's are HIV Positive, the best the Catholic Church can come up with is a prelate's statement that condoms are the lesser of two evils. Despite a severe shortage of priests in North America that same church will still not countenance the ordination of woman and clings to the concept of celibacy. Bush has declared war on terrorism, but the Mafia still thrive inside his borders supplemented by Bikers, Asian Gangs, and the like. And OJ is still searching for his wife's killer; guess he doesn't have any mirrors in his house.

Politics has been described as the art of the possible, but in this world of instant communication the wise politician keeps himself abreast of whether common practice is still common. I grew up on the East Coast of Canada where one was Liberal or Tory to the "backbone"--my parents cancelled each other's vote and my uncle dispensed bottles of rum and chocolates on election day . When the government changed hands almost the entire civil service changed as well--today that's called political patronage. Using public funds or resources for one's own gain is called miss-appropriation of funds or money laundering; voting to foster one's own benefit, conflict of interest; using one's position to sway others or buy votes, influence peddling; leaking information for the benefit of others, breaking confidentiality and insider trading; hiring relatives or friends, favouritism. Lying to the public, concealing the truth, obfuscation--just look at how politicians resist access to information laws and transparency, not to mention the popularity of paper shredders and hard drive cleaning devices--it's not called government wipe for nothing. The political landscape is littered with the bones of those who ignored these realities. Where's all this leading you ask? A public that assumes that policians are all corrupt and a generation in their late teens and twenties, the demographic who use this kind of service the most, who ask why bother?
Churchill is said to have claimed that democracy is the worst form of government--except all the rest. The problem is that political change is a difficult process and rarely accomplished without human cost. Karl Marx who laboured in a British Museum while lving in squalid conditions would hardly have recognized the system of government put in place after the 1917 Russian Revolution. It may be possible for a few people to reform government, but changing the mindset of an entire nation spread over 14 time zones? When the CCCP broke up the state ceased to own the means of production and opportunistic entrepreneurs became what we call the Russian Mafia--one oligarchy got replaced by another. A government that no longer directly profits from the work of its people was suddenly faced with a nation that resisted the idea of paying taxes for the first time and therefore lacks the means to support itself, its military, its police, the arts, or anything else. The pen, or ideas, may be more powerful than the sword; but the process of deciding whose ideas hold sway is quite another question.

What then can one man do? You've heard of the Butterfly Effect--a butterfly flapping its wings in China causes a tornado in Kansas? Think globally and act locally. As the people who elected those politicians we have to make them aware that we care and are engaged. We need to be involved in the world around us and make our feelings constructively known. Not everyone can be a priest or a leader, but everyone has a sense of his place in the world and an expectation that his reasonable needs will be met. Unfortunately change takes time and patience. Witness the years, lost lives, and inexorable process that finally led to sufficient critical mass to bring down the Berlin Wall. We inherit our world from our grandparents and we bequeath it to our grandchildren. Ballot boxes lead to politicians who fail to plan beyond their chance of being re-elected in 4 or 5 year's time. We need to make our leaders aware that we expect them to make decisions not only for the short term, locally; but also to make the entire world a better place in the long term. We also need to be aware that our own actions have an effect and to take responsibility to ensure that those effects are good onew.

Welcome to my Blog

Well, I've gone and done it. Guess being on vacation has caused me to have too much time on my hands. Not sure how often I'm going to be posting but this is a start. Suppose I should use my digital camera to make some up-to-date pictures of myself to post here. In the meantime you can see a few at my profile on My Space at:

http://www.myspace.com/bluenoser

Lame as it is this is my baptism in blogging. Stay tuned for more developments.