April Fools! (early edition)

I guess this is what those folks at Microsoft have been working on instead of the new operating system!

What happens in MA stays in MA

Those judicial activists are at it again. In a six to one vote, the Massachusetts Supreme Judical Court has upheld a 1913 law banning marriages to out-of-staters if the marriage would not be legal in their home state. Sullivan argues that this should end all pushes for constitutional amendments, state or Federal, since with this ruling Massachusetts has essentially saved them the trouble. But he ignores those in my situation: I'm legally married in Massachusetts but may or already have moved to another state. How is it just in this "e pluribus unum" nation that for so fundamental a piece of my identity I can have a different legal status depending in which state I reside. Are marriage laws simply like any other statute - those defining criminal offenses or zoning requirements, for examples - or are they intended to protect "the bedrock of society"?

Maybe it was the Ambien...

In India a man accidentally divorced his wife while asleep. Now that tops sleep eating!

OPRAH Approved?

How long until Oprah gets a restraining order to stop this? I think T-Shirt Hell has some pretty funny/shocking items for sale, but have they crossed the line this time?

The Real Cost of Freedom

A marine from Texas who was due to return home from Iraq to his wife and three children this week was killed last Wednesday. He had volunteered to disarm a bomb in Iraq's war-torn Anbar province because, as his widow explained, "he didn't want his children to grow up with people blowing up buildings."

Quote of the Week

Quote of the Week

In Annapolis, (Capital of) Maryland, at a hearing on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at AU, was requested to testify and he did so.

At the conclusion of his testimony, a right-wing senator rose to say, 'Mr. Raskin, my Bible says that marriage shall occur only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?'

Raskin: 'Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.'

The room erupted into applause.

Romney's mascot: a pander bear

Last weekend in Nashville Gov. Romney repeated an insult against gay & lesbian parents by asserting that "every child has the right to a mother and a father." Today he acknowledges that we have "a legitimate interest" in adoption. Gee, thanks Gov.! Never mind that Massachusetts law specifically allows gay adoption, including second parent adoption. This, from a Harvard Law grad. Romney's flip-flop reminds me of his stance on abortion. During his campaign for governor he said he supported the current Massachusetts law on abortion. Now that he's seeking the republican nomination for the presidency, his view has "matured" and he is now anti-abortion. Well, at least he's mastered the political art of pandering....

See for yourself

Last night I raved about Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep at the Oscars. See for yourself here, or view below:

Oscar Trivia, 2006

You'd have to go back 50 years to 1956 for the last time all six top Oscars - Picture, Director, and all four acting prizes - were spread among six different films. I guess that makes this year's Oscars one for the books after all!

Oscar Blog, Final Thoughts

Others may have been surprised, but I expected Crash to beat Brokeback for Best Picture.

Overall, the show was about average, continuing the recent tradition of minimal spontineity, few surprises, and just one moment for the history books.

I thought Jon Stewart did a fine job, and certainly deserves to be asked back. The Daily Show-inspired Oscar "campaign" ads were a hoot, but the zingers were few and far between.

Oh, well - let's do this again in 12 months!

Oscar blog, 7

I remember saying after she accepted the SAG award that Reese Witherspoon just won herself the Oscar. Her speech then, just like the one she gave tonight, was sincere, thoughtful, delivered with confidence and a minimum of distracting tears, and offered a paeon to her chosen profession. Who could ask more in such a speech? Wasn't Philip Seymour Hoffman listening at the SAGs?

Oscar Blog, 6

As expected, Philip Seymour Hoffman won Best Actor, and also as expected he wasted his time on the stage. I don't get it: he's a great actor, who knows lots of great writers (Paul Thomas Anderson and Anthony Minghella, to name a few) yet made lame acceptance speeches at the Globes, SAGs, and even yesterday's Independent Spirit Awards. Why didn't someone who cared about him sit the man down and get him to think about what he would say when (not if) he won the Oscar?

Oscar Blog, 6

There will be calls for a re-count, but "It's Hard Out There For A Pimp" from Hustle and Flow just joined the list of improbable Oscar winners (right behind Eminem and Marisa Tomai) - and left the writer/singer of the song from Crash looking stunned.

Oscar Blog, 5

WOW! Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin just showed us what pros can do when given great dialogue, some rehearsal, and of course, great talent. Their introduction of Robert Altman's Special Oscar will go down as one of Oscar's greatest. Inspired by Altman's signature over-lapping dialogue and unconventional structure, it should win the writers an Emmy - and the performers too, if they're eligible.

Greatest Oscar Prop ever

and the winner is....the March of the Penguins guys who each brought life-sized emperor penguins up to the stage. But what will they do with them during the Governor's Ball?

Oscar blog, 4

Poor Lauren Bacall - she looked frail as she shuffled to the podium and then haltingly read, or didn't, the teleprompter. I'm sure it's only a matter of minutes until her press people start explaining that there was a technical problem, and that her shockingly poor performance was not due to nerves, medication, or lack of rehearsal.

Oscar Blog, 3

Well Rachel Weizs's win supports my theory that if an actress sings or gets naked in a film, she increases her chances of winning an Oscar.

Oscar Blog, cont'

It's 53 minutes into the show and only one major award has been given. And what were they thinking with that montage of biopics? Was there no better use of those four minutes?

Blogging the Oscars...

Jon Stewart started slow and a bit hesitantly, but seemed to relax by the end of what was an average monologue. The video montage of the history of gay overtones in cowboys movies was reminiscent of portions of The Celluloid Closet.

Loved Nicole Kidman's reference to the nominees as "all leading men," and Best Supporting Actor goes to George Clooney. Will his thoughtful speech, without this list of thank yous, be a model of things to come?

My Oscar Predictions

With only 90 minutes to go until the show begins, here are my predictions:

Best Picture: Crash
Best Director, Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
Best Actor: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Best Actress: Felicity Huffman, TransAmerica
Best Supporting Actor: Jake Gyllenhall, Brokeback Mountain
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, Junebug
Best Original Screenplay: Crash
Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain
Cinematography: Brokeback Mountain
Animated Feature: Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

I'm going out on a limb with several of these - and I wouldn't be surprised to see Brokeback for Best Picture, Reese Witherspoon (Actress), George Clooney (Supp. Actor), and Rachel Weisz (Supp. Actress) win instead. Nothing will make me cheer more loudly than if Amy Adams wins - the supporting actress category has been a wild card in the past and as prone to recognize great performances (e.g., Marsha Gay Harden in Pollack) as well as payback (e.g., Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love) and hers is the best BY FAR - if only the voters took the time to watch it.

We'll know before too long.....

2 for 1? I'll pass

During the 1992 Presidential race, Bill Clinton joked that if we elected him we'd be getting "two for the price of one" because his wife brought so much to the table. Now we see what a Hillary Clinton administration could bring us along this line - she opportunistically plays politics while he works behind the scenes to achieve exactly what she is inveighing against. Do we need any more reasons to stop Hillary?

Well, that explains everything!

Here's a not-so-far-fetched explanation
for the real motivation behind Fred Phelps' hatred.

Small Investor, Beware!

If you're a denison of the Yahoo stock discussion boards, here's some helpful advice about the "bashers" who toil to make stock prices tank to enrich their short positions.