News at 10...

This just in...

A surprising new statistic from the Drudge Report: More pit bulls are wearing lipstick than are hockey moms.

Fox News reports that President Obama's fake birth certificate claims his race is "Neapolitan." Sherbert lovers everywhere are demanding an investigation.

By a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has found that the Second Amendment does extend to people buying hand grenades at Bible Belt bomb shows.

Appeals Court rules that the Smuckers kid doesn't have to work for the family jam business. U.S. Supreme Court expected to reverse ruling by 5-4.

CBS Evening News with Katie Couric will lead tonight's news with a story about Michael Jackson's children seen eating cookies.

Fox News reports conspiracy birther gives birth to conspiracy. The insurance industry is willing to cover medical costs.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Blue-Dog Democrats will not support a public option until health care reform covers neutering.

Nutty Republican members of Congress sponsor legislation to provide elderly people with guns so they can defend themselves when the government tries to kill them.

Tonight on Fox, Bill O'Reilly reports that a woman received compensation for her husband through the "Cash for Clunkers" program.

Tonight on CNN, Anderson Cooper, in T-shirt and jeans, travels to a small Wyoming town where a bartender threw a yelling cowboy out of the bar. Both are seeking a "Whiskey Summit" at the White House.

On Larry King Live, Larry interviews a teacher who requires students to read a book. The teacher calls it a "Teachable Moment."

MSNBC devotes this entire Saturday to coverage of life in a Brazilian prison.

Thousands of "Rays" and "Jays" were mistakenly discharged from the military. The Pentagon regrets the error and says "gays" were the actual target.

Tonight on Fox, Sean Hannity literally foams at the mouth.

Besides texting and using cell phones, other activities that shouldn't be done while driving a car include: Eating barbecued ribs, yoga, praying with your eyes closed, reading a newspaper, shampooing your hair, changing diapers, playing a guitar, and most sexual activities.

American movies to watch...

Here is a list of recent American movies that I have enjoyed, most of which were rented through Netflix over the last five years. I recommend the following movies, in order of how I liked them:

1. DOUBT -- (2008) -- This story was first produced as a play and I can see why it was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. There is so much to discuss and consider after watching this movie which involves roles of power, gender, race. This movie would be great for a college film discussion class. I also think this was the best movie of all the Academy Award movies of that year. To me, it was better than The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, and The Reader. Cast: Meryl Streep.
2. IDIOCRACY -- (2006) -- A comedy about a guy who is frozen and then awakened in the year 2505, to find that, since the world has been so dumbed down over the centuries, he is the smartest person on the planet. This movie was funny and goofy and often adult-themed obscene, but, to this day, many of my fellow faculty members will mention it in terms of the onslaught and downright slaughter of academe, education, and media.
3. LARS AND THE REAL GIRL -- (2007) -- A delusional young man orders a life-sized doll who he then treats as his girlfriend. At first, I thought this likely plot was ridiculous, but as the movie progressed, I found it to be interesting and believable because of the acting performances. Here, also, I thought the way the community was depicted as responding to the guy, who is in need of mental health assistance, was inspiring. The community showed that they cared about him and if real communities showed the same concern about real people who often fall through the societal cracks with rejection, it would be a better world. Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer.
4. BELLA -- (2006) -- A pregnant, unmarried waitress gets fired and then is joined for the day by the restaurant's chef. The day actually leads to a lifetime connection. It's rather rare to see a good movie portrayal of a Hispanic family, which is also why I enjoyed the movie. Cast: Tammy Blanchard, Eduardo Verastegui.
5. UNLEASHED -- (2005) -- I think this is an American movie. Raised as a slave and trained as an animal to fight for survival, a martial arts expert who even wears a dog collar meets a blind piano tuner and his daughter, who help rescue his humanity. There is a very nice scene where the woman removes the dog collar and kisses his neck, a moment of change for his life, from violence to love. The movie was also called "Danny the Dog." I don't normally like martial arts movies, but the action was choreographically artistic. Cast: Jet Li, Morgan Freeman.
6. FROST/NIXON -- (2008) -- I wondered how a filmmaker could make the story about the David Frost interview of Richard Nixon interesting as a movie, but director Ron Howard pulled it off. Howard is my age, so he probably remembers the Frost interviews, as I do. Nixon probably shaped my early politics more than anyone--not that I liked him, just the opposite. There was much to dislike about Nixon, and I celebrated when he resigned. I remember how I was irked that Nixon got big bucks for the interviews. But I was glad when Nixon revealed himself with the statements about a president being above the law. As for the movie, it held my interest to the end. I saw a recent interview of David Frost who said most of the movie was historically accurate. The midnight phone call, however, did not happen. So, that was one detail of movie-making license.
7. THE WRESTLER -- (2008) -- I thought Mickey Rourke's performance of a tired, aging professional wrestler was the best of the year. The wrestling match scenes were tough to watch. I have known characters like that wrestler, so it was easy for me to like him despite his lone ability just to wrestle. Cast: Mickey Rourke, Marissa Tomei.
8. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE -- (2007) -- The music of the Beatles in music video-like sequences. What more can be said. The Beatles made great music but terrible movies in those days. This movie makes up for it, though I think the movie missed portraying the song "Blackbird" in a Civil Rights Movement way. McCartney said one inspiration for the song was the famous photo of Elizabeth Eckford, the teenage black girl, who was jeered at and mobbed by an angry crowd of white people as she tried to go to the newly-segregated Little Rock, Arkansas, high school. "Blackbird singing in the dead of night" was what McCartney said could have been "Black girl walking in Little Rock."
9. RAILS AND TIES -- (2007) -- A story about a train engineer who couldn't stop the train from hitting a car on the tracks. It is the first movie to be directed by Alison Eastwood, daughter of Clint Eastwood. Cast: Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden.
10. EASTERN PROMISES -- (2007) -- Intriguing but violent story that held my interest, with interesting characters and relationships. Actor Viggio Mortensen was great. It seems like he can bring believability to any role. I also liked his movie "A History of Violence" and I am not one who tends to like violent movies.

OTHERS: The Visitor (about an immigrant's deportation and the unfairness of an inflexible system), Apocalyto, Journey to the Center of the Earth (modern version, though I also liked the earliest version), Peaceful Warrior, Lassie (the latest version), Away From Her (about dealing with Alzheimer's), 3:10 to Yuma (good western), the Onion Movie (funny but not for Puritans to watch), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (I liked that the movie didn't portray Jesse James as a hero because, in reality, he was a murderous Confederate sympathizer), Breach, Freedom Writers (and there is a good book about it by the same name), Disturbia, Happy Accidents, and The Prestige.

Information Station...

Here are some random pieces of information that I have scribbled down from TV or Internet news, each ranked according to "Holy Cows"...

One Holy Cow!...

1. Sodium bisulfite that makes up 50 percent of some toilet bowl cleaners is also found in wine, potato chips, and pet food. (Hey, was it a very good year for that toilet bowl cleaner...I mean...wine?)
2. According to reports, 80 percent of 2009 graduates moved back in with their parents.
3. One in three Americans are obese.
4. Thomas Edison had 1,093 patents.

Two Holy Cows!...

1. For a lesson in journalism, CBS newsman Walter Cronkite had one-half hour of broadcast news printed on a newspaper page and it only covered three columns on one newspaper page. (Actually, I already knew TV news would equal that small proportion of a newspaper. All newspaper journalists, like Cronkite who worked in the newspaper business first, know that.)
2. There are only 30,000 lions left in Africa. Thousands of lions have been killed or poisoned.
3. Some sunscreen ointments have an ingredient that, when it washes off, kills the coral reef.

Three Holy Cows!...

1. Texting while driving is 23 percent more dangerous than just driving. (Here's what I am wondering. I will probably be the last person on earth to have a cell phone. So, since I don't text or use cellphones or play chess and with other toys while driving, shouldn't my car insurance rates go down, while people with texting devices have increased rates?)
2. An estimated $1.3 million from insurance companies is being put into lobbying against health care reform EVERY DAY. (Wow, that industry has money and I know where they got it--from all of us with or without costly health insurance.)
3. Rush Limbaugh makes $54 million per year. (No way! I would think that media companies could surely find someone just as irritating, rude, and obnoxious at half that cost for a tremendous budget savings.)

Four Holy Cows!...

1. It was reported that the Taliban in Afghanistan pay $10 per day to keep some men as combat recruits. Per day, not even per hour. (Huh! You mean to tell me that we are paying millions and billions for two endless wars, with much of the billions going to greedy, awful companies like Blackwater and Halliburton, and the Pentagon could be offering a higher but still small price to pay, like $20 per day, to keep some Afghans from being insurgents. Seems like we're not using our finances wisely, but what else is new when it comes to military and war spending.)

Movies I hated and why...

The movies I absolutely hated:

The "Saw" series and other like-minded movies that feature gruesome torture. I saw the first Saw movie and made the mistake of stumbling upon a part of another one on TV. Cruel, mean, meaningless.

In that regard, I also hated the movie "Five Fingers," which probably is Dick Cheney's favorite movie. In this movie, not only is torture featured, but also the rule of law, which is crucial to a democracy, is squished like a bug and that is supposed to be justifiable. Well, I have a different opinion.

I have noticed that since the start of the Bush wars, there has been an emergence in American movies of the theme of torture with the more common graphic violence. Does the violence of war contagiously affect the national view or acceptance of cruelty? Hopefully not, but it makes me wonder when I look at recent movies. If it is some poisonous attempt to excuse the always criminal use of torture and to desensitize people to cruelty, it is a disservice to the nation and world. It is one matter to tell a story that includes torture for the factual history of it or as a statement or discussion about it. It is something completely different to use it for shock value and gratuitousness.

My Opinion about...

Here is my current opinion on several recent news events:

THE PROFESSOR AND THE COP...It was quite ridiculous and a big over-reaction by Cambridge police to arrest and haul a guy down to the police station merely because he was mad and yelling at them. Police should have thick skins in their job. But I also think the professor, right off the bat, jumped to stereotypical conclusions about the police, when the cop was probably just trying to do his job. As police have to think about the potential for getting killed when they arrive at a scene, their job is not easy. President Obama was right about the numbers--that more blacks and Hispanics are profiled by the police generally. But he stepped into a trivial incident in Cambridge that allowed the biased FOX network to have a field day and try to chip some middle class votes away from him. (Obama's middle class voter concerns should be about job creation and reducing unemployment.) As for the cop and the professor, I guess I would conclude that if I had a dollar for every moment I have encountered a swaggering cop and an arrogant professor, I would be rich.

UNIVERSAL RESPONSE...Whenever someone says "Do you know who I am?" as a way of trying to intimidate, I think there should be an acceptable universal response. Here is my suggestion: "Are you Rutherford B. Hayes?"

SARAH PALIN...She rambles.

SARAH PALIN, SECOND THOUGHT...Well, she rambles and rambles. Bad impression of Tina Fey. Get off the stage. Go do something you might be good at. But I don't think it is fishing. Did you see her in her hip waders that one time? She was fishing with nets. With nets! I didn't see any honest fishing poles. Just nets! That's not fishing! That's cheating at catching fish!

THE MOTHER-IN-LAW...I just watched again the movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" with Ethel Merman as the mother-in-law from hell. Whenever I see Sarah Palin now, I think of two people: 1). Tina Fey, whose impersonation helped to save the democracy; and 2). The son-in-law. O.K., what is his name? Levi Johnston. I think there should be a media rule that when Sarah Palin gets broadcast time, the media should always cut to the counterpoint of the son-in-law on some talk show, dissing his mother-in-law (although they aren't officially Republican "family values" relatives until he puts a ring on the finger of Palin's daughter, right?). I love it. If we are going to be subjected to the Palin "drama," then I want to see the counterpoint son-in-law. Of course, Palin created Levi's undeserved celebrity status, by using him and her other children as props, prancing them around on the Republican stage. In his case, he served as the "make amends" and "step up to the responsibility" concerning the early baby, that Palin needed for her "family values" plank. I thought he looked uncomfortable at the time. When she can't control him or use him anymore, naturally she frustated and doesn't like it. The media and comedians should leave children of politicians alone ONLY if those politicians leave their own children alone and out of the spotlight. If the children are political props, then they have been inserted into the public discussion. The reason I don't follow Sandy and Malachy, or whatever the Obama daughters' names are, is because I voted for their father and not for them, I don't care what they do, and I wish them well in trying to carve out a happy childhood.

HEALTH CARE...Well, see, I can actually get to a subject that matters. America needs a single-payer system. Why Congress makes it hard is baffling to me--Just look globally at the great health care systems that work for all those other democracies of the industrial world. The model is out there. And it shouldn't include the insurance industry.

Book Review 1...

BOOK: "Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream" by Adam Shepard.

One book that I read this summer was "Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream" by Adam Shepard. It is 2008 book about Shepard, a recent college graduate, who decided to see if he could attain the so-called "American Dream" through meager beginnings. His beginning thesis is youthfully and naively wrong, I think. He wants to prove that he can go from a homeless wanderer with only $25 to a business success. Yes, that can be done by some people, but he fails to consider the inequalities of life from its very basics to its complexities. His cover photo shows this rather athletic, boy-next-door look. He's also white. He's from the typical suburban family and upbringing. So, he could be already ahead of lots of people, in terms of power and privilege, though there are never any guarantees. America attempts to provide legal equality to all of its people, but social and economic and even physical equality doesn't exist as every person is different and is forged by different experiences and DNA. We reach our goals and successes because of our drive and diligence and skills, because of our circumstances and sometimes desperation, sometimes because of others we know, sometimes because we just lucked out at getting the right advice or tip or being at the right place at the right time. Graduates know this, I imagine. But Shepard does redeem his attitudes, I think, especially at the end of the book. He has succeeded in finding the jobs along the way that ultimately raises his bank account to more than $5,000 in a year's time. But there are many circumstances that don't burden him. For example, he doesn't have a disability, doesn't have the responsibility for a child, and didn't get sick in a major way. Both of his parents are diagnosed with having cancer and so even they find themselves on a new road with unanticipated circumstances. At the end, Shepard looks analytically at opportunity and poverty and makes the following good suggestions: More free classes on parenting, more government commitment to safe and affordable housing, more financial literacy instruction, reading instruction is an important and foundational need, an increase in customized social services, and more. He notes the familiar scene at an airport when all the passengers are hurrying to get their own incoming luggage off the conveyor belt. Does anybody care about the little old lady who is struggling with her one piece of luggage? In redeeming tone, Shepard writes, "There it is. Life is like a baggage claim: You can be aggressive and self-serving or you can be aware of those who need help and lend a hand." The book was a good and entertaining read. Any books out there that you all are reading this summer?

Foreign films to watch...

I have found that American movies are often aimed at teenagers and predictable in plot. So, if you are part of Netflix and looking for something different, you might think about some foreign films. Here is a list of 10 recent foreign movies that I have enjoyed and would recommend:

1. DEAR FRANKIE -- (Scotland, 2004) -- After years of sending her deaf son fake letters from his "father" who was away in the Navy, a mother must find a man to act as the boy's father for a few days when a ship arrives in the port community and the boy expects to see his father. Great twists and turns in this nice story. Cast: Emily Mortimer.
2. MRS. PALTRY AT THE CLAREMONT -- (Britain, 2005) -- After a fall on a London sidewalk, an elderly widow meets a young writer who agrees to be her "grandson" at dinners at her boarding house. Cast: Joan Plowright, Rupert Friend.
3. EVIL -- (Sweden, 2003) -- A teenager who has been subjected to violence all his life attempts to not lash out violently at a gang of bullies. It is a story about the confrontation of evil. In Swedish, the movie was called "Ondskan."
4. CHILDREN OF HEAVEN -- (Iran, 1999) -- A boy loses his sister's shoes and so they must share his sneakers at different times of day at their gender-segregated schools. When he sees that the third prize in a foot race is a pair of new sneakers, he enters to win the shoes for his sister. He doesn't want to come in first place. He wants to come in third for the prize of the shoes. In this movie, I also really liked how the extended community, for the most part, was depicted in its concern and treatment of children.
5. BLACK SHEEP -- (New Zealand, 2006) -- All that the movie “Black Sheep” had to provide was a scene of a rabid sheep driving a pickup over a cliff. I laughed and was hooked, and the humor overshadowed the moments of gore, making them tolerable. Saved by witty lines and funny moments, the pseudo-horror movie plot sends three memorable characters fleeing for their lives from flocks of sheep. And I rooted for their survival. Parodying scenes from “The Birds” from Alfred Hitchcock and the dinosaur danger in “Jurassic Park,” the New Zealand movie turns sheep, the planet’s most passive animal, into vicious monsters. That’s funny, actually. Only attacking butterflies would be a greater reach. In this case, the New Zealand filmmakers use what they have to scare and also to amuse. It is a wild, contrary notion, for a country with pastoral postcards of sheep grazing on green hills, and maybe that's why the dark humor works.
6. ANGEL-A -- (France, 2007) -- Every guy should have a beautiful, sexy angel to help him feel good about himself. I want one, too. In the French movie “Angel-A,” Andre, with the help of Angela the angel, looks into the mirror and his eyes tear up because he sees that he does have a place in the world. Don’t be intimidated by its subtitles or that it’s a black-and-white film. It’s stunning in black and white, like Ansel Adams photos. The angel’s blond hair and eventual wings stand out, as she stands tall above the disheveled Andre, who needs her comforting arms. Great acting. Memorable characters. Just the right amount of special effects. A mysterious storyline. What will happen?
7. ONCE -- (Ireland, 2006) -- A street musician and a migrant woman find they can make great music together. This independent film was done simply. No car crashes or explosions in this movie, which is refreshing as well. Its featured song won an Academy Award.
8. THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES -- (Spain, 2004) -- Based on a true story about a road trip, from south to north, in South America, by Che Guevara and a friend. The scene I liked the most was when Che swims across the Amazon River, which really is about trying to "bridge" the regular fearful community with a leper colony on the other side.
9. BEN-X -- (Belgium, 2007) -- This movie probably provides the best portrayal that I have yet seen of what it might like to have autism. A teenager, harassed by bullies, finds escape with an online computer game. This movie is also an example of what's different about American movies and their often predictability. Every time I thought I knew where the plot of "BenX" was going, it changed course.
10. HAPPY-GO-LUCKY -- (Britain, 2008) -- A London teacher, who is cheerfully optimistic, is paired with a driving instructor who is exactly the opposite, gloom and pessimistic.

Other movies: Eagle vs. Shark (a 2007 New Zealand comedy), Shiver (scary scenes in a 2008 Spanish film also called "Eskalofrio"), Wondrous Oblivion (2006 French film), and Paris, Je T'aime (a 2006 film from France--The best segment about people in Paris, France, is the last one where an American woman is speaking in broken French and what she says is pretty much the same feelings I had for Paris when I was there).

Quotes 1...

Here are some interesting quotes...

"The key to success in America is a good education." --Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court nominee at her confirmation hearing, July 2009, quoting what her mother told her.

"It's almost impossible to spend too much on your employees. It always comes back to the company." --Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy.com

"No one has written your destiny. Your destiny is in your hands...No excuses." --President Barack Obama at the NAACP Convention, July 2009.

"To be enlightened is to lighten up." --Actor Mike Myers.

Documentaries to watch...

Here is my list of great documentaries worth seeing:

1. The Tank Man -- The amazing story of the iconic photograph of the young Chinese man who stepped in front of a row of military tanks in protest of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. The roll of film contain the photo had to be hidden in a hotel's toilet tank to keep Chinese government security people from confiscated it. The last part of the documentary is also interesting, as it deals with how the U.S. Internet companies have helped China to block images of the Tank Man from Chinese Internet users.
2. Two Days in October -- Based upon the great book "They Marched Into Sunlight" by David Maraniss (who I enjoyed meeting and working with during my brief reporter exchange at the Washington Post in 1982), it is a PBS American Experience film about two days in October 1967 in two very different places. One place was a battlefield in Vietnam, where a large number of American soldiers are ambushed and killed. The other place was the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where students protesting the campus recruitment by Dow Chemical, the maker of napalm, and the Vietnam War generally are faced with violent response from law enforcement. Great story-telling through archival film and interviews.
3. McLibel -- In the American system, a plaintiff must prove he has been libeled by a defendant. In the British system, a defendant must prove he has told the truth about a plaintiff. America has a better system concerning libel and the burden of proof, as the British system chills speech by people who are afraid they will be dragged into court by companies that can afford to carry on long legal battles. In England, the fast foods company of McDonalds had a long record of SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation), forcing silence and apologies from the BBC, Linda McCartney, and others. When McDonalds tried to do it to two young activists who had no money for retaining legal counsel, the activists refused to say they were sorry for a pamphlet they had created. The case became the longest trial in English legal history. Oh, I don't want to spoil it for you. You just have to find the documentary and see who won the case, who won the public relations battle, who won the battle, who won the war. The documentary also looks at the effects of fast food on diets, advertising campaigns aimed at children, and other issues.
4. Born Into Brothels -- Another amazing story! This story is about an American photographer who gives cameras to children who are born in brothels in a red-light district in a city in India. The children take photos of the life they know and see daily. And the photographer attempts to get the children into schools and she organizes a photo exhibit. A website continues to sell photographic work by the children to help further their education and to fund a foundation that has established a school for poor children.
5. Big Dream, Small Screen, The Story of Philo T. Farnsworth -- Not many people know the name of Philo T. Farnsworth and it is a shame because he was the remarkable inventor of electronic TV. A Mormon boy born in Utah, he is plowing a field in Idaho at about age 14 when he sees the furrows of the field and realizes that's how an electronic TV could deliver a picture to a screen. He's a genius, for sure, having to drop out of school and get a job when his father dies. He works to develop electronic TV (with tubes and circuits) from scratch and ends up racing for the patent rights for electronic TV against a Russian scientist with a doctorate working for the monopoly company of RCA, which owns all the radio patents and wants to monopolize the TV patents, too. Again, I won't spoil it. Who will win? David or Goliath? And probably more often than not, the Davids--the little guys--don't win.
6. Nellie Bly and Around the World in 72 Days -- Can you tell that I like documentaries about journalism and people in media? This is another amazing story of a woman with the pen name of Nellie Bly who wants to become a newspaper reporter in the late 1800s. At the time, woman are only hired as society writers. But Nellie wants to do what the men reporters do. She finally gets the attention of an editor at Joseph Pulitzer's daily newspaper in New York City, but he challenges with an assignment that was incredibly difficult for that time period. If she can get herself committed to the horrendous women's insane asylum there on Blackwell Island and stay undercover to write about the experience from the inside, she will get a job. She's not about to show fear for her opportunity to become a reporter, so she takes on the assignment. It is the start of investigative reporting, as well as stunt journalism. Another stunning Bly story is when she's assigned to race around the world, in order to beat the time of Jules Verne's fictional character in "Around the World in 80 Days." Her adventure puts America on the map and she becomes one of the first American celebrities known worldwide.
7. Pete Seeger: The Power of Song -- Folk singer Pete Seeger just won a Grammy this past year for an album he produced at age 89. He is an icon and heroic figure of protest music, banned from TV for years because he was blacklisted during the Red Scare of the 1950s, revising the hymn "We Shall Overcome" into the version that was adopted as an unofficial anthem for the Civil Rights Movement, protesting the Vietnam War, crusading for environmental clean-up of rivers and air. He tells the story about an angry veteran who comes to one concert with the intention of killing him. But in listening to the music and then talking to Seeger after the concert, the veteran realizes there is a place for protest and dissent within society. Seeger liked singing his music with the audience. It is another aspect of the theme he lived in believing in real democracy and public participation.
8. Sick Around the World -- This PBS Frontline documentary looks at the health care systems in Britain, Singapore, and other democracies of the industrial world, all of which have better coverage for their people and better systems than the lousy health care system in America. Why can't Americans get the same kind of health care that other countries enact and that people in other countries enjoy. My students from Canada are delighted with their health care system, and they are covered from birth to death. In America, people can't afford medical costs, some go bankrupt with medical debts, and then we have Congressional leaders who must be the worst group of leaders in the free world because they seem to prefer to cater to the insurance industry rather than to the citizens. So why does our idiotic Congress make it hard? One thing is definite. Don't ever vote for Republicans or those blue-dog conservative Democrats. Don't ever!
9. Sicko -- The Michael Moore documentary also looks at the problem of health care with much the same information and conclusions as the previous documentary. I think it is Moore best work yet. "Bowling for Columbine" is also good. Moore has really raised the quality level for documentaries.
10. Half-Past Autumn -- The story of Gordon Parks, New Deal photographer and later one of the first African-American film directors in Hollywood. Parks wrote a great book called "Weapon of Choice." His weapon of choice is the camera. When he first went to work as a newspaper photographer in an Eastern city, the editor tells him on his first day of work to put down his camera and instead go eat a local restaurant, go to a movie, and go shopping at a clothing store. Parks finds that he can only enter the restaurant from the back of the building, he's not even let into the movie theater, and he is ignored and encouraged to leave at the clothing store. When he comes back to the newsroom, he sees the editor, who asks how it went. Parks replied that the editor probably knew very well how it went. In fact, the editor did. But then the editor said to him, "Well, what are you going to do about it?" That's where the camera as weapon against discrimination and poverty comes in. That same evening, Parks takes the iconic photo of the building's cleaning lady, a black woman with a mop and broom in front of a draped American flag, in a pose that satirizes the Grant Wood painting "American Gothic." I tell my journalism students all the time--If you see something you don't like in society, what are you going to do about it? After all, you have some power as part of the media, with your cameras and your words.
11. Rivers and Tides -- The quiet, slow (to the point of intriguing) story about a Scottish artist who creates artwork by use of nature. His artwork might be composed of stones, leaves, flowers, twigs, ice, even impressions in sand or from shadows. The work is often washed or blown away on the same day he creates it. But he saves the work with photographs. The documentary was beautiful to watch.
12. One Bright Shining Moment -- This documentary is about the season of the 1972 campaign of Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, a man who was so much better than the one who was elected (Nixon), but lost in a landslide to Nixon, who less than two years later would have to resign in disgrace.
13. Ralph Nader, An Unreasonable Man -- In this documentary, "unreasonable" is a positive quality, revealing the lifetime of Nader's advocacy work in trying to make a better society. Nader took on GM and the car industry about unsafe cars (and cars without safety belts) when a big industry was rarely challenged. There is a bewildering moment when Nader, who has a ticket to enter, is nonetheless kept out by security guards of an auditorium where Bush and Gore will be debating, at the order of the biased Presidential Debate Commission. I couldn't help saying aloud, "How can that happen in America?"
14. The Conscientious Objector -- A documentary about Desmond Doss, a devoted Seventh Day Adventist who wanted to serve his country in the military during WWII but refused to carry a gun or use weapons. He serves as a medic, though even most medics carry guns. For his refusal to carry a gun, he is harassed and tormented by commanding officers and fellow soldiers, who think they know how to define "patriotism." Some called him a "traitor" and wanted him thrown out of the military. He then was sent into battle at Okinawa and ended up rescuing 75 wounded American soldiers by carrying or dragging them to safety during Japanese gunfire. Doss was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by Truman. I think the documentary noted that he was the first "conscientious objector" to receive the honor. Fascinating story.
15. Steal Me A Pencil -- This is a Holocaust documentary about a couple who are Jewish prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII and who fall in love. They attempt to keep their love alive through inventive messages sent in any way they can to each other.
16. Religulous -- Is this documentary or is it feature entertainment? Bill Mauer's caustic look at religion worldwide is funny and interesting. I didn't know about the mythical Horus and that's certainly interesting for discussion. I laughed every time Mauer, in his unabashed cynicism, would confront someone of a highly religious dogmatic nature, all of whom, without a shred of humility, thought they were absolutely and completely right...and looked foolish because of it.

I am a blogger...

As you can see if you click on and enlarge my profile photo, I am just sitting here by a log at a quiet stream on a sunny day, without a care in the world for the moment, enjoying the beauty and solace, thinking about the good books I have yet to read and the stories I have yet to write, and realizing that I am today something I have never been before...I am a blogger.

I have been a writer all of my life. From the time I could first print letters as a child, I was writing stories in "books" prepared by my mother. She would cut some typing paper in two, fold the sheets together, and then braid red yarn through two punched holes on the spine. The book was ready for my words. One of my first books was titled "Fly the Bird."

Trying to spread my literary wings and also fly into imagination, I wrote and wrote. Stories and stories, most of them quite awful if anyone were to read them now. But I also wrote letters. I wrote in diaries.

Because my family moved a lot, books were good friends and writing was a hobby easily enjoyed on rainy days. My high school journalism teacher particularly encouraged my interest in journalism. She chose me as editor of the high school newspaper.

In my freshman year of college, I wrote news stories for the student newspaper. My first published story in the University of Arizona Daily Wildcat was about the sinking of the U.S.S. Arizona in Pearl Harbor. But the first story for which I was rewarded financially was never published, nor was it journalism. It was fictional story that won a prize of $15 in a campus writing contest. Eventually, I earned the position of science reporter, covering the science and research beat for the student newspaper. I loved it, meeting all kinds of people and learning about all kinds of science topics, from jojoba beans, tree-ring research, and controversial nuclear energy issues to Antarctica expeditions, folklore superstitions, and what zookeepers fed anteaters. No, not ants. We student-reporters were paid a small amount per column inch. I would have done it for free.

When I left college, my sights were set on starting my own newspaper in my home state of Wyoming. The newspaper was The Medicine Bow Post in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. I performed every task imaginable at a small weekly newspaper for 11 years, but the writing part was what made the newspaper a voice and a public record for the history of the town. The science of wind energy technology in its infancy in Wyoming meant more science writing. I was able to exchange reporter jobs for a short feature experiment with a Washington Post reporter. I compiled some of my newspaper columns into a book titled "Sage Street," thus the connection to the name of this blog. I have interviewed amazingly interesting people, from CBS newsman Walter Cronkite to a destitute drifter sleeping in a highway culvert. I helped my brothers with editions of "The Wyoming Almanac." I wrote my master's thesis on the Journalist-in-Space project. I helped students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln learn to use layout software. I advised college students about writing and reporting for student publications at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, and Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri. I organized and edited "The Missouri Almanac." I taught journalism courses. I still teach college journalism classes and advise students.

Every year from my time in high school, I have had something--a feature story or a photograph or a book review--published. I have written about the Freedom of Information Act, rocket science and history, actress Barbara Stanwyck, Owen Wister's cowboy myth-making, the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird." A review about a literary "Mockingbird" is a long flight from the child's idea of story-telling with "Fly the Bird," but it also makes some sense. Writing marks my path, history, and journeys.

And now I am a blogger. My writing now finds a place on the Internet. I hope it will be worth reading. I know it will be fun to write. And you never can tell where the "herd of words" will venture.

Sitting here by a log at a stream on a sunny day, I know adventures in writing are as close as a pen or a notebook or a keyboard or a thought retained. You never can tell what will happen or where it will lead.

Huh? It just felt like the log moved...