Month: December 2003

If only the good die young, isn’t that incentive to be evil?

PAD

And now there’s the stories that some people are lobbying for a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

Putting aside that, as a general rule, amendments best serve the commonweal when they *expand* the rights of the people rather than restrict them, wouldn’t such an amendment put the final lie to the notion that we have separation of church and state in this country? After all, marriage, that bwessed awangement, that dweam wiffin a dweam, is a religious ceremony. An amendment that attempts to define what marriage is (a union between male and female only) is, by definition, an amendment that is curtailing religious freedom.

I mean, once the precedent is set, why stop there? Why not introduce an amendment that says, “Marriage is a union between male and female that will only be recognized by the government if it’s done as a sacrament from our lord, Jesus Christ.” Is it likely? No. But once the government is allowed to dictate the specifics of the religious ceremony in any aspect, they can dictate it in every aspect.

PAD

Before Captain Hook was maimed by the croc, was he called Captain Hand?

PAD

Okay, it wasn’t exactly ick, but the new version of “Peter Pan” (which the now fairly healthy Ariel and myself went to see this afternoon) just somehow didn’t engage me as much as it should have.

I’d have to attribute it largely to the casting. Jason Isaacs as Hook had the singular misfortune to follow the recent cinematic piracy of Johnny Depp and Geoffry Rush, and pales in comparison. Peter Pan himself is inexplicably the only American and is certainly handsome enough to look at but just doesn’t capture Pan’s arrogance. The only truly magical presence in the film is the mercurial Tinkerbell, who infuses every frame she’s in with boundless energy that no one else approaches (which is ironic considering presumably she shot all her scenes by herself against a green screen.)

Nor am I ecstatic over the subtext of budding maturity being brought so completely over the top. While in the book literally no one touches Peter (which can be interpreted so many ways that it’s a thesis-writer’s dream), in the film the sexually awakening Wendy lays a timely kiss on Pan that sends the entirety of Neverland into orgasmic spasms.

There’s moments. There’s tons of moments. Some great visuals. But somehow it just didn’t make me stand up and crow.

PAD

…because I’m pìššëd øff.

So I’m watching this “TV Guide Best of 2003” show for no particular dámņ good reason, and they’re talking about how shows like “Queer Eye,” “Boy Meets Boy,” “Will and Grace,” etc., have caused America to understand and embrace the gay lifestyle. What a spectacular load of crap, as evidenced by the poll which indicated that 70% of Americans are opposed to gay marriages.

Americans laughing at the Fab Five no more translates to an actual acceptance of homosexuality in this country than a hundred years ago when audiences laughing at Minstrel shows translated to a belief that blacks and whites should be able to drink at the same water fountain. “South Park” absolutely nailed it in the episode where all the men in town “embraced” the gay lifestyle but were simultaneously horrified by the notion of actual homosexuality, and that was before the poll came out.

If anyone thinks that the ratings of gay-oriented TV shows provides anything remotely approaching acceptance, just wait until the 2004 Prez race heats up. When that poll hit, the GOP must have been peeing themselves with excitement since Dean’s Vermont supports civil marriages. The Clinton administration being sandbagged in its first six months by the gays in the military issue will be, I suspect, just a warm up for this go-around. The GOP would be crazy not to take advantage of it. I can just see the adverts now: “With George W. Bush in charge, our armed forces captured Saddam Hussein. If Howard Dean were in charge, our soldiers would have been too busy marrying each other to get anything done.”

This may well be the final nail in the Dean’s Un-electable coffin.

PAD

Oh, it’s been an enchanted Xmas here. Ariel is getting over her cold but at this point I feel like I have an elephant sitting in my sinus cavities. I have taken absolutely everything that everyone has recommended, and at this point it’s just laughing it off. Kath is supposed to come home with the baby today after spending Xmas down in Atlanta with her family. I begged her to stay down there and the heck away from the house of germs, but she’s determined to come back. At least Caroline had a flu shot before they became scarce.

We did manage to get our act sufficiently together to go out to a movie, which we traditionally do on Xmas. We saw “Big Fish.” It’s easily Burton’s best film since “Scissorhands,” but it was about a dying father who’s always making up stories so, y’know, it was just the thing to put me in a good mood.

PAD

If familiarity breeds contempt, but we’re not supposed to talk to strangers…doesn’t that mean we’re pretty much screwed?

PAD