Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Global warming getting worse faster than previously thought

Carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere much faster than scientists expected, raising fears that humankind may have less time to tackle climate change than previously thought.
[...]
At its most far reaching, the finding could indicate that global temperatures are making forests, soils and oceans less able to absorb carbon dioxide - a shift that would make it harder to tackle global warming. Such a shift would worsen even the gloomy predictions of the Stern Review which warned that we had little over a decade to tackle rising emissions to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
[...]
Peter Cox, a climate change expert at Exeter University, said: "The concern is that climate change itself will affect the ability of the land to absorb our emissions." At the moment around half of human carbon emissions are reabsorbed by nature but the fear among scientists is that increasing temperatures will work to reduce this effect.
It's getting hotter out there, and this winter was by far the hottest I've ever lived through because of a strong El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, which doesn't bode well for next summer's mercury readings.

Will our government finally step up to the plate and do something about it. No. At least not until that mastodonic failure of George W Bush is in charge.

Worst President Ever. Thanks for ruining the world we all have to live into.

Nice legacy.

We need more people like...

Retired Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, Desmond Tutu, who, on Friday, urged the African Anglican church to "concentrate on the continent's grim problems rather than on the row over gay clergy, and said persecuting gay people is akin to racism":
"I am deeply disturbed that in the face of some of the most horrendous problems facing Africa, we concentrate on 'what do I do in bed with whom'," the South African Nobel Laureate Tutu told a news conference in Nairobi.

"For one to penalise someone for their sexual orientation is the same as penalising someone for something they can do nothing about, like ethnicity or race. I cannot imagine persecuting a minority group which is already being persecuted."
[...]
"The God I worship would not consider that [gay clergy] to be a priority concern," Tutu said, adding that churches should instead be thinking about poverty, HIV/AIDS and conflict resolution.
Amen. It seems so basic to me, why doesn't the church realize that too? Why aren't Africans up in arms over the church's stance over gays when they have so many problems like poverty, malnutrition, AIDS, other life threatening diseases, famine, droughts, wars, sectarian violence, genocide, corruption and on and on to worry about?

Do they really think that all those things aren't as bad as letting two guys love and have sex with each other? Is it really ok if millions of Africans die each day for causes not related to gays at all as long as gays are persecuted, mistreated, and not recognized as human beings?

If that's the case, than, I'm sorry to say, but all those who feel that way really do deserve their fate.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Apocalypto

The latest offering by the controversial Mel Gibson is an action adventure simple in its concept but well directed and acted by a cast of unknowns. The final product is riveting and gripping, violent and lyrical.

It's the story of a tribe of Mayans that is attacked by another tribe in need of slaves and sacrificial bodies to appease the Gods. Our hero, like most of the villagers, is captured. Will he be sacrificed too?

The best aspect of the movie is obviously the cinematography, which is good to the point of turning the jungle into one of the characters, living and breathing.

Apocalypto is a well made, good movie, that keeps you on edge from beginning to end, but it's not for the faint of heart, with its recurring violence and gruesome details.

A lot of people actually complained that the level of violence in the movie was mostly gratuitous, but I think Gibson offers us a pretty realistic picture of what life must have been like for the indigenous tribes living in South America before the arrival of the Spaniards.

If you think you can stomach it, see it. It's worth it.

Grade: 7

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Casino Royale

Excellent action packed thriller that is already positioned in the top tier of the Bond pantheon in terms of quality. In my opinion, this is probably the best Bond ever.

The reboot of the franchise, which at this point suffered from gadget-overload fatigue and was saddled by overblown plotlines that were beyond unbelievable, is a certified success.

And Daniel Craig is, I believe, the best Bond ever as well, better even than the legendary Sean Connery. Connery was a great Bond, sleek and cool, a great womanizer, a good spy, but he always had the attitude of the invincible guy, the one that you knew in the end would prevail over the bad guys, while slipping away with the gorgeous girl.

Craig brings a new rawness to the role (he's a great spy, technically, but his talents are at times overwhelmed by his primal physicality) and he makes Bond look that much more real overall. Deep down you know he'll get the girl and off the baddie, but Craig is so good he makes you doubt (and hope for) it all the way to the end.

The production also scaled down the visual effects-laden action sequences, opting instead for more physical action, another good decision that pays off over and over, especially in the first foot chase that is almost worth the entire film. Suspense abounds, even when there is virtually no action taking place, like in the long card game at the titular Casino Royale.

Of note is also the always magnificent Judi Dench as M, who quarrels with her newly promoted double-O several times, to our great delight. She's such a fine actress (and has a good script to work from) we're literally dangling from her lips. And this time she gets more time on screen as well.

Technically, the production is top notch. Costumes, props, gadgets, locations, visual effects, cinematography, all contribute to the final product and we can only hope that this team will work together again for the many chapters that will follow in the Bond series.

Grade: 8.5

The Siege

This was a fairly mediocre thriller packed with action sequences that were mostly predictable.

I actually had a sense of déjà vu several times, but I'm fairly confident I hadn't seen the movie before. Maybe it's because the subject, Arab terrorist attacks on US soil, are now a reality (they weren't when the movie was released) and therefore they're more "predictable."

All things considered, however, the film is enjoyable and far from bad. It shows us a scary scenario that doesn't look too far fetched anymore, given that we've been attacked by terrorists and our government has taken any step it can towards limiting the freedoms we're used to enjoy under the Constitution in the name of protecting us, whether that's true or not.

The movie shows how suicide bombers could easily bring our daily lives to a frightened standstill, forcing us to fear our very neighbors. Mass arrests based on racial and ethnic profiling would ensue, and the intervention of the military to contain the desperate situation wouldn't be unlikely.

The casting was good and the main actors, Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Bruce Willis, and Tony Shalhoub all do a fine job, but no one is exceptional.

Grade: 7

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

The 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards

They were last night and this year I wasn't particularly excited for the simple fact that I have scaled down how much TV I watch and I have gone to the movies sporadically. Therefore, I had not seen many of the nominated films, shows, or performances.

Also, it's the Golden Globes, which are handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which is a bunch of journalists that write for foreign publications and enjoy a humongous amount of power over the industry (and the Oscars), simply thanks to the power they can wield with their pens.

A while back I had seen a documentary on this association that depicted them as a bunch of leeches bent on currying the stars' favors (including interviews and photo ops) in exchange for good reviews and perks (i.e. expensive gifts).

The punishment for a star or studio that dared snub them was bad reviews in the foreign press, which could lead to lower ticket sales abroad, therefore hurting the bottom line. Hollywood decided it was better off bowing to the HFPA, but it's now paying a dear price.

The HFPA is, after all, just a critics association, like the more respectable ones in New York or Los Angeles, the industry's hub cities par excellence, so why don't they carry the same weight?

Things seem to be starting to change, meaning that those critics' associations' awards are starting to gain traction as well, but the gap between them and the HFPA, with its world famous Golden Globes Awards show, will likely never be filled. The stars love a red carpet, the studios benefit as well, and a production like that is very costly to set up, a cost probably unsustainable by other associations.

Anyway, these are my impressions on last night's show.

Overall not bad, but the vast majority of winners were announced and there were no big surprises, except maybe for Ugly Betty for Best Comedy Show and its star, America Ferrera for Best Actress in a Comedy Show.

The win for Babel was announced, but it always rubs me the wrong way when the Best Picture and Best Director awards are split, since the movie didn't make itself, the director made it.

It's always the same story: This year Martin Scorsese (or whoever else) made a great movie that is his best shot at an Oscar. Let's give him the Globe, so at least he gets this, which might also send a few more votes his way, since he's long overdue for an Oscar. As for the director of the movie we think is the best one, oh well, we'll make amends the next time he's able to make a movie just as good and there's no one else who we have to give a push to.

Dreamgirls' win also was a given, as were those for Mirren, Whitaker, Streep, Baron Cohen, Murphy, Hudson, and Scorsese. The screenplay went, deservedly, to The Queen, and I was pleased to see that four out of the five Best Score nominations were for smaller productions, and not blockbusters, as is often the case.

Best Song went to Prince, who wasn't in the room when called on stage by the super-hot Justin Timberlake. Gracious and classy was Hugh Grant when he called on him to take his bow (and applause) when he finally arrived (he had gotten stuck in traffic). After all, how often does it happen to win one of these things?!

Letters from Iwo Jima took Foreign Language Film, I assume, given the pedigree, quite deservedly, and Cars the newest addition to the Globe awards, that for Best Animated Film, not to be outdone by the Academy, which introduced such a category a few years back.

Nothing struck me on the television side, while the big winner of the night was undoubtedly the fabulous Helen Mirren, who won for her royal portrayals of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth I also won for Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

Multiple nominee Mirren, therefore, took home two of the three awards she was nominated for this year, Emily Blunt one of the two, while Leonardo DiCaprio, Toni Collette, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Annette Bening none. Would I call them losers? Unlikely. Hearing your name called more than once (especially in the same category, like in Leonardo's -and Helen's- cases) has to be a win in itself.

The thing I liked the most was the spreading of wealth among whites, blacks, latinos, and foreigners. Given that this is the foreign press, it comes as no surprise that winners aren't all from the US, but it was nice to see that minorities were winning as if it were the most natural thing, unlike what we see at the Academy, where something like this would be considered historical.

Of the top 8 movie awards (in acting, direction and writing), 3 went to foreigners and 3 to blacks. Latinos, as I mentioned earlier, took Best Actress and Best Comedy on the small screen side. So I'd say a nice spread.

The thing I liked the least is the HFPA's hypocrisy in wanting to hand out separate awards for dramas and comedies but not in all categories. Meanwhile, musicals get bunched up with comedies, why exactly? Not all musicals are happy affairs; I found Moulin Rouge to be quite dramatic and sad, so are Romeo and Juliet or The Phantom of the Opera.

It's almost like they want to make as many people happy as they can (to keep those nice perks coming, I'm sure), but they don't care enough to be fully balanced. Two awards are handed out to the two best films of the year, a drama and a comedy, but only one director and one writer are honored (and this year both winning films did not take directing or writing awards -- again with the let's make everyone happy philosophy). Awards are handed out for lead actors in dramas and comedies, no so for the supporting actors. They get to fight it out for just one Globe per gender.

This lopsided preferential treatment is even more evident in the television categories, where there are awards for lead actors and actresses in dramas, comedies and mini-series or made-for-TV movies, six categories in all, for a minimum of thirty nominations (the globes occasionally hand out more than the usual five nominations). But all the supporting actors are clumped into two categories, best supporting actor and actress. Ten nominations vs. thirty. Seems quite uneven to me, doesn't it?

It's almost like the voters can't be bothered or don't have the time to look beyond the lead performances. Let's just hope they never decide to go coed and cut those categories in half, 'cause you know that at that point women would all but be shut out of the race.

After all, women's categories are always called before men's (this in any award ceremony), not to be gentlemanly, but because the male categories are supposed to carry more weight and generate more suspense.

Which brings me to my other annoyance with the Globes. If you want to honor dramas and comedies separately, it must be because you think that comedies are just as deserving as dramas, and possibly also because they never get their due at other awards shows, especially the Oscars.

Why then treat the comedy categories as the crazy cousins, awarding them throughout the night (hell, Streep won her award halfway through, while Mirren had to wait until 10.45) or using them as fillers, instead of evenly alternating them with their corresponding categories for dramas? Wouldn't it be better to keep it more balanced?

Despicable was also cutting in on the Best Comedy/Musical Picture's acceptance speech because time was running out. This is the Best Picture award, dammit, cut the others, not the top one, or isn't this one of the two top ones? Problem is, when this was handed out, they still had to award Best Actor, Actress, and Picture Drama, so, Sorry, no time for you lower-tier folks...

Anyway, I'm done ranting. The winners' speeches. Alec Baldwin, Jeremy Irons, Clint Eastwood, and Hugh Laurie were funny. Kyra Sedgwick was completely stunned, while Jennifer Hudson, America Ferrera, and Forest Whitaker were adorable and touching because so emotional.

Helen Mirren was simple and gracious (both times), while Sacha Baron Cohen was grossly funny but took too long for his gig and when the music started playing he hadn't even started with his list of thank yous. If you plan on having a two minute gig on stage when you win, forget about the list. You're not the only one here.

Finally, the best moment of the night, Meryl Streep's acceptance speech: funny, poignant, and masterfully delivered. What a lady. What a thespian.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Cloudy vs. clear

I'm talking about juice. Apparently a new study has determined that cloudy apple (or strawberry) juices are far better than their clear counterparts when it comes to fighting heart disease and cancer:
Polish scientists found the levels of antioxidants which protect against heart disease and cancer are almost double in cloudy apple juice.

The antioxidants, called polyphenols, are also found in red wine, berries and dark chocolate.

In the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, the researchers said the manufacturing process led to fewer polyphenols in clear apple juice.
[...]
But overall cloudy apple juice, which contains more pulp, was found to have higher concentrations of antioxidants and showed more antioxidant activity in experiments.
[...]
"Health benefits are expected mainly in the case of cloudy apple juice consumption."
[...]
Previous research has shown that polyphenols contained in fruit and vegetables help to protect against diseases such as cancer, by mopping up free radicals which can cause damage to cells.

Apples themselves contain a wide variety of polyphenols but when processed into apple juice some of these may be lost.

The manufacturing process used to make clear apple juice, which include using an enzyme to break down the pectin in apple cell walls and spinning to remove pulp, considerably decreases the levels of polyphenols in the end product, Dr Oszmianski explained.
Quite self evident. Cloudy juices have been filtered (read, processed) less then clear ones, so, as with any other food, are more wholesome and natural than their counterparts.

Probably as close to the original product as you can get when you opt for juice instead of the actual fruit.

The death of a lake

Lake Chad, once the third largest in Africa, is shrinking so fast, it will be only a pond in a couple of decades, threatening the livelihood of fishermen who depend on it for their catch and of farmers who need its water for irrigation.

Not to mention of humans and animals that need its water for mere survival.

From BBC News:
Experts are warning that the lake, which was once Africa's third largest inland water body, could shrink to a mere pond in two decades.

A recent study by Nasa and the German Aerospace Centre blames global warming and human activity for Africa's disappearing water.
[...]
As recently as 1966, Lake Chad, which sits between Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger, was a huge expanse of water that the locals fondly referred to as an "ocean".
[...]
For the politicians, there is no arguing with the figures: 40 years ago, the lake was 25,000 sq km and the daily fish catch was some 230,000 tonnes; now it is 500 sq km with a catch of barely 50,000 tonnes.

The Sahara Desert in the north is speeding towards the lake.

"Lake Chad is a global heritage and now a disaster waiting to happen," speaker of Nigeria's House of Representatives said at a recent meeting to discuss ways to save the disappearing lake.
Will we be able to avert the death of this once great lake, and with it of the people and animals that depend on it?

Only time will tell.

Lemon or milk?

Apparently adding milk to black tea eliminates its heart disease and stroke fighting abilities, a very good reason not to:
Drinking tea can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke but only if milk is not added to the brew, German scientists said Tuesday.

Research has shown that tea improves blood flow and the ability of the arteries to relax but researchers at the Charite Hospital at the University of Berlin, Germany, found milk eliminates the protective effect against cardiovascular disease.

"The beneficial effects of drinking black tea are completely prevented by the addition of milk, said Dr. Verena Stangl, a cardiologist at the hospital.

"If you want to drink tea to have the beneficial health effects you have to drink it without milk. That is clearly shown by our experiments," she told Reuters.
[...]
Stangl and her team discovered that proteins called caseins in milk decrease the amount of compounds in tea known as catechins which increase its protection against heart disease.

They believe their findings, which are reported in the European Heart Journal, could explain why countries such as Britain, where tea is regularly consumed with milk, have not shown a decreased risk of heart disease and stroke from drinking tea.

Coahuila: the new kid on the block

One of Mexico's states is the latest to pass same-sex marriage legislation. From the Washington Post:
The northern state of Coahuila, a mining and ranching region south of Texas, approved gay civil union on Thursday, becoming the second area in Mexico to give legal status to homosexual partnerships.

Legislators in the state Congress voted 20-13 for a bill that gives gays greater rights than a similar law backed by Mexico City last November.

"It is more like a civil marriage," said Silvia Solis, a gay rights activist in the capital. She said Coahuila would grant social security benefits to both members of a homosexual union, an important demand of gay campaigners.
A comment from Andy Towle at Towleroad:
When Mexico City passed its same-sex union law in November, openly gay congressman David Sanchez said, "These reforms are going to cause a snowball effect that no one will be able to stop." Coahuila, which had its same-sex union bill in the works at the time, is the first state to follow suit.
Let's hope it's the first of many.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

A Quote By:

Sophia Loren, talking about her beloved husband Carlo Ponti, who passed away yesterday at the age of 94:
"If you find the right person to be with, you have to stick to it. He has been a pillar all of my life."
PS: I could have said that about Ray myself.

How much is too much?

Just read on Towleroad that David Beckham has decided to leave the soccer team he's playing for now, Real Madrid, and join the L.A. Galaxy in the US.

I don't follow soccer at all, or any sport for that matter, but this tidbit made my jaw drop (well, his picture too...):
The five-year deal is reportedly worth £128m (that's $248 million here across the pond).
How can anyone running after a ball be worth that much? Where's the outrage?

I wonder how much doctors and educators who decide to go work in Africa to help those poor people make. Or the doctors that have to work 20-hour-days, 3 times a week. Or teachers in inner city schools who have to deal with obnoxious teenagers everyday.

And forget that, I mean, that's half a BILLION dollars for this guy. How many people could be saved from starvation or given a better future, or an education, or health insurance for that kind of money?

Where are humanity's priorities?

A sane reaction to Bush's lunacy

Escalating Our Military Involvement in Iraq Sends Precisely the Wrong Message

Washington, D.C. - Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Senate Assistant Democratic Leader Richard Durbin released the following statement tonight on President Bush's address to the nation on the war in Iraq:

"Last November, the American people delivered a strong message of no confidence in the President's Iraq policy and clearly expressed their desire for a new direction. The President had an opportunity tonight to demonstrate that he understood the depth of the concern in the country, make a long overdue course correction, and articulate a clear mission for our engagement in Iraq. Instead, he chose to escalate our involvement in Iraq's civil war by proposing a substantial increase in the number of our forces there. This proposal endangers our national security by placing additional burdens on our already over-extended military thereby making it even more difficult to respond to other crises."
That is the most crucial point to make in order to successfully build a case against Bush's escalation plan. The military is already stretched to its breaking point. It has, for some time now, forced people into staying in Iraq against their will. It has to make use of the Army Reserves and the National Guard for purposes that go beyond their training, because it doesn't have enough regular troops for rotations anymore. And it has lowered the bar for recruiting new people so much it now allows dangerous people to join, just so that it can keep up with the demands of the Iraq war.

How are we going to find another 20,000+ soldiers to send to Iraq? How are we going to face the next crisis that strike us, either here at home or abroad?

Sending more troops to Iraq is dangerous for our national security and is wrong for the Iraq war. Let's hope the Democrats in Congress can derail this plan without losing too much political capital.

Read the entire response here.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

A Quote By:

Former designer Mr. Blackwell, whose 47th annual "Worst Dressed" list saw Camilla Parker-Bowles, a member of the British royal family, finish in second position:
"The Duchess of Dowdy strikes again. In feathered hats that were once the rage, she resembles a petrified parakeet from the Jurassic age. A royal wreck."

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

The end of oil

I read this very interesting article about the need to look for alternative energy sources both because of environmental concerns and because by 2050 some regions are expected to be past their production peak, which would cause crude prices to shoot upwards dramatically.

This final quote, however, say it all:
Birol of the IEA, while saying there is enough oil, stresses the need to get ready for the day when it does run out.

"We should make the preparations for the day we are going to leave oil," he said. "We need to one day leave oil before oil leaves us."
It's not just a matter of saving the planet, cleaning our act up or any such "green" slogan, as much as I can agree with them.

It's also a matter of getting ready for the day when we won't be able to rely on oil for our energy needs.

It's not a question of "if" it will happen. It's only a matter of "when."

Friday, January 05, 2007

The anti-gay hormone therapy

Well, this is quite scary. Scientists are trying to quell the homosexual instincts in rams by altering their hormone levels, and foresee a future when a mother will be able to stave off any chances that her child will be gay by wearing a hormone patch that will prevent it:
SCIENTISTS are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of “gay” sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans.

The technique being developed by American researchers adjusts the hormonal balance in the brains of homosexual rams so that they are more inclined to mate with ewes.

It raises the prospect that pregnant women could one day be offered a treatment to reduce or eliminate the chance that their offspring will be homosexual. Experts say that, in theory, the “straightening” procedure on humans could be as simple as a hormone supplement for mothers-to-be, worn on the skin like an anti-smoking nicotine patch.

By varying the hormone levels, mainly by injecting hormones into the brain, they have had “considerable success” in altering the rams’ sexuality, with some previously gay animals becoming attracted to ewes.
[...]
Potentially, the techniques could one day be adapted for human use, with doctors perhaps being able to offer parents pre-natal tests to determine the likely sexuality of offspring or a hormonal treatment to change the orientation of a child.
And to anyone who thinks that such a research wouldn't be exploited for eugenics-type experiments, check out this guy's comment:
Michael Bailey, a neurology professor at Northwestern University near Chicago, said: “Allowing parents to select their children’s sexual orientation would further a parent’s freedom to raise the sort of children they want to raise.”
This professor has a very valid point, that puts the whole issue into context:
Udo Schuklenk, Professor of Bioethics at Glasgow Caledonian University, who has written to the researchers pressing them to stop, said: “I don’t believe the motives of the study are homophobic, but their work brings the terrible possibility of exploitation by homophobic societies. Imagine this technology in the hands of Iran, for example.
One more comment:
Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner, said: “These experiments echo Nazi research in the early 1940s which aimed at eradicating homosexuality. They stink of eugenics. There is a danger that extreme homophobic regimes may try to use these experimental results to change the orientation of gay people.”
Ladies and gentlemen, they're officially plotting our extinction.

A Quote By:

Nancy Pelosi, newly elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives, the first woman to occupy such position ever:
"It’s an historic moment for the women of America. It is a moment for which we have waited for over 200 years."

David Horsey

A great cartoon about the GOP's grim future now that the Democrats are back in control of Congress:

Thursday, January 04, 2007

A Quote By:

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin:
"Human expansion into our solar system is fundamentally about the survival of the species, about ensuring better odds for our survival through the promulgation of our species."

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Let's just hope we don't lose MA

Unfortunately, the hateful bigots living in the Bay State won one yesterday, when lawmakers voted in favor of sending a ballot initiative to the voters in 2008 regarding the legality of same-sex marriage:
Lawmakers in Massachusetts, the only state where gay marriage is legal, on Tuesday advanced a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, a critical step toward putting the measure on the 2008 ballot.
[...]
The proposed amendment, which would define marriage as between one man and one woman but ban future gay marriages, still needs approval of the next legislative session before it can go onto the ballot.
Now, a second vote in favor will have to take place in the next legislature in order for the voters to be able to vote on it, otherwise it will be scuttled and the whole process will start over.

Apparently the majority of voters in Massachusetts are in favor of keeping the status quo, but two years are a long time and many things can change. I can only imagine the enormous amount of resources that the right wingers will pour into that state from across the country to influence the outcome.

That is, after all, the only state in the nation where gay marriage is legal at the moment, so their main goal is certainly to turn the clock back and make it illegal there as well.

Now, we can only wait and see, hoping the next legislature votes not to put the initiative on the ballot or doesn't vote at all. 17 representatives won't be back, including some of the most vocal opponents of gay marriage, which is good, but, like I said, many things can change in two years.

Thankfully, the new Governor, Deval Patrick, is on our side and will push to quash the proposed amendment before it comes up to a vote in the next legislative session:
DiMasi said the amendment discriminates against gay citizens and vowed to work with Gov.-elect Deval Patrick to defeat the question before it reaches voters.

"Today a minority of legislators voted to advance a proposal that takes away the civil rights those couples are guaranteed to under our constitution," DiMasi said in a statement. "This initiative petition is offensive and deplorable."
More from another gay marriage supporter:
"This is not just another question for popular decision. This is a question, under the equal protection clause, about what freedoms the minority is entitled to," Patrick told reporters after meeting with DiMasi. "This is the first time that the petition process has ever been used to consider reinserting discrimination into the constitution."

After the vote, Patrick issued a written statement saying he was disappointed.

"We have never used the initiative petition to limit individual freedoms and personal privacy, but today's vote was a regrettable step in that direction," he said.
Let's keep our fingers crossed, because the civil rights of the minority should not be decided by a popular vote

Torchwood

After seeing this video from the British BBC show Torchwood starring John Barrowman, I was so touched, I had to post it. It's just so realistic and wonderfully touching, it's amazing.

I wish we had stuff like this on TV on any night of the week.

Saddam is dead

Now what? Will his death change anything? It's unlikely it will make things better, since it's not like the Iraqis were just waiting for his execution to start loving each other, so if it will have any effect at all, it will be a negative one.

The question I have, however, is, Was it worth it? Was it worth all the US military personnel who are now dead, wounded, and scarred forever? Was it worth the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead or risking death any second of every day?

It does seem to me that Iraqis were better off with Saddam than they are now, especially women, who had certainly more freedoms before than they have now. I'm sure the Iraqis lived in fear before, but now it seems much worse.

And we were certainly better off before. Before having spent over 350 billion dollars, having lost some many men and women in the battlefields of Iraq, having lost our credibility worldwide, having alienated any willing ally we ever had, having helped spread terrorism instead of eliminating it.

And on and on.

What a waste of lives, money, time and goodwill.

Nice work George. Nice legacy.

Worst President Ever!

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Farewell 2006 - A great year is over.

Another year has passed, and what a year it's been. 2006 will be remembered as a very eventful year.

We packed and sold our old house in Stratford and moved into a much bigger, more beautiful and highly secluded one in Southbury.

I, with a big help from Ray, finished up my last class and got my Master's Degree. School is finally out.

I had my eye surgery to correct my vision and cornea problems, and it went very well. At my last checkup I was told I technically have 20/15 vision right now. It's great, except for quite a bit of dryness, which should subside in time.

The kids seem to thrive in their new daycare and it's amazing to see them learn so many things and grow into little people with their own personalities.

My job is going well and I got a nice raise when I was due for a review. So did Ray.

And last, but most certainly not least, Ray and I got married in a beautiful ceremony attended by friends and family, including my parents and a few selected friends from Italy. The ceremony and reception progressed magnificently, as did the rest of our guests' visit. It was, however, very sad to see them leave one by one, but that was inevitable.

A great year that hopefully will be followed by another one.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Happy 2007 everybody!!