Dead Dove.

Do Not Eat. Read more!

A Thought: On Outcries and Amendments

The outcries to end the IRS and repeal the 16th amendment after the recent scandal seem to be coming from many of the same camps that fiercely defend against the repeal of the second amendment after every mass shooting, with no sense of irony whatsoever. 

America, folks.  It's a shame Washington only cut down the one cherry tree, as had he kept going, we may not have to deal with so many cherry-pickers. Read more!

A Thought: On Constitutional Scholarship

I've noticed a growing trend amongst this new breed of self-proclaimed Constitutional scholars who use the infallibility of The Found Fathers to back up any number of antiquated statutes. 

The problem I have with this, however, is the same I have with many religious (not just Christian) fundamentalists, which is a tendency to pick and choose which things they want to defend, ignoring the less palatable bits.

In other words, if you try to cite The Constitution as a perfect, static document allowing everyone to have all the guns, be prepared for me to do the same thing when I make my argument for the legality of slavery, because that's in there, too.

Also, if you ever even imply that taxation is unconstitutional, I just assume you've never actually read The Constitution (See the 16th Amendment).  Oh, and if you argue that it's not taxes but the IRS that's illegal, I'll gladly support the dissolution of the IRS as a means of assessing and collecting taxes if you're willing to give up all your bullets, but keep the guns. Read more!

A Thought: On Argument and Semantics

If semantics are the only things that you can argue, then you probably need to stop arguing. Read more!

A Thought: On the Hope in Dystopia

There was a time when dystopian fiction was used to highlight the problems with the world as it was in an attempt to show how to fix them, to offer a cautionary roadmap in the imagination to prevent us from heading down the path in reality.

Now, it seems, with the market flooded with images of dystopian futures, on television, in movies and in literature, we've lost the hope, the caution, choosing, instead, to focus everything on the hellish hopelessness of it all.  There are no victories, no answers, no ways to stop it.  And that, to be certain, is the surest way to guarantee these dark visions become reality. Read more!

A Thought: On Science and Conspiracy

We tend  to see conspiracies only in the words and actions of those whose views disagree with what we want to believe. 

True, healthy skepticism weighs all things taken in equally and seeks out fact derived from accurate, valid, reliable science first, drawing conclusions from them, rather than seeking evidence to back up what they've already decided to be the answer.  Read more!

A Thought: On Changing the Past

We cannot change the past, but we can allow the past to change us. Read more!

A Thought: On the John Hughes Generation

I've heard or read a few times in recent months people complaining that John Hughes is an overrated writer/director, that his work is just too sappy, sentimental and overly idealistic. 

True, most of his movies ended happily.  But there was rarely a neat little bow on them.  It was, as it so often is in real life, less of a happy ending than the possibility for a happy beginning.  It wasn't idealism so much as hope.  Add to that the fact that the characters he wrote, especially the teenagers, were some of the most realistic, three-dimensional kids ever to grace the screen and his legacy is unquestionable.  He understood them in a way that teen movies hadn't before and haven't since, making them people, rather than just some caricature of a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, or a criminal. 

How many people in my generation didn't secretly kind of want to end up in Saturday detention after The Breakfast Club?  How many didn't feel, every time they went out with friends, that maybe, just maybe, they could have the kind of time that Ferris, Cameron and Sloane did?  And maybe it made it a little easier for some of us, most of us, who were burdened with things like poverty, abusive, overbearing or absentee parents and the stress of society's seemingly overwhelming expectations.

So yeah, perhaps they were a bit sappy.  Maybe they were idealistic.  But you know what they made?  A generation of idealists, of people who question authority, empathize, don't necessarily take someone at face value and try, even if we sometimes fail, to understand the world and one another a little better.  That seems to me like more than enough to validate his reputation.  Read more!

Missing Two Johns

I'm watching Planes, Trains and Automobiles.  It makes me miss both Johns, Hughes and Candy.  They just don't make movies like this anymore, much to the detriment of cinema. Read more!