Which Way, Bill Magavern?
Listen to my (okay, the Sierra Club's) Bill (gently) improve upon Ah-nold's gas-saving tips on Warren Olney's popular Which Way L.A.? show (scroll down to Reporter's Notebook and click to listen).

Sara's Silly Subaru Saga
1999 - buy white Subaru Legacy Wagon brand new, "Brighton" bottom-of-the-line loss leader model from Shingle Springs Subaru (negotiate great price using techniques so excellent Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook, former head of National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration once asked me to help her negotiate car purchase).

2002 - tree limb falls on roof, comprising passenger cage. Sara is convinced by auto safety expert Rosemary Shahan that car cannot be safely driven again. Cannot get declared totalled. Car is impeccably repaired under close supervision. Then we purchase 1998 white Subaru Legacy Wagon 75,000 miles, lotsa options from Shiller's Subarus.

2004 - (two weeks ago) Sara rear ends a car that rear ends a car in a classic mommy driving kids to school accident. "Mommy, you didn't fill out this permission slip!" "What permission slip, oh, that one...wait, look out!..." CRASH

Car being fixed. Have PT Cruiser rental paid for by insurance--woo hoo! Look at us in the PT Cruiser!

Oh, it's "totalled" (as in, they can recoup enough by selling it for scrap to offset cost of settlement). Back to Shiller's Subarus .

(last week) This time I buy a 2002 silver Subaru Legacy Wagon, 89,000 miles loaded.

Sam Shiller grows used Subaru's on his little farm outside of the Sonoma County Airport. I've known several people who have bought from him. It's well worth the trip. He and his wife are the salts of the earth. They certify these vehicles have never been crashed and they get them in top condition for you. They sell them to you at the bottom of the dealer blue book price and don't dicker.

Meeting between Kerry and Nader
The New York Times reported last week on the meeting between Kerry and Nader--if you haven't read it, do so.* It will likely make you feel better about both of them. Kerry Woos Nader, Who Deems Him 'very Presidential'

*it's free to read the NY Times on-line, but if you're not registered with the NYT, you'll have to do so--it's worth it because you can do it without getting spammed and them you'll be able to link to their articles

President Gore Speaks
Al Gore's statement issued today is nothing less than presidential.

It is impossible to do it justice through any remarks I might utter in this ridiculous blog, but you can't blame a blogger for trying.

If it were the speech of a sitting President, rather than a defeated candidate for President, it would be remembered and quoted.

If it were John Kerry's stump speech, we would be on our feet 'til we turned numb.

It calls for resignation of Rumsfeld, his deputies, Condoleeza Rice, and George Tenet.

It eloquently, and quite perfectly, says everything that needs to be said about the court-appointed President, his team, and the conditions he has created.

To quote only a bit:

George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world...

These horrors were the predictable consequence of policy choices that flowed directly from this administration's contempt for the rule of law. And the dominance they have been seeking is truly not simply unworthy of America--it is also an illusory goal in its own right.

Our world is unconquerable because the human spirit is unconquerable, and any national strategy based on pursuing the goal of domination is doomed to fail because it generates its own opposition, and in the process, creates enemies for the would-be dominator.

To read the rest, click here.

More on Randi Rhodes
A few weeks ago, I plugged the Randi Rhodes Show (AM 1240 in Sacramento) as being the left's answer to Rush Limbaugh.

Now, after several weeks of listening to her (and Al Franken) regularly, I second my own motion: she is Limbaughesque, in the extreme.

To wit, I am afraid I must report that, like Limbaugh, she is grossly inaccurate, rude and very seldom knows what she's talking about. Moreover, she's not so much "left" as profoundly anti-Bush and pro-Kerry.

What put me over the edge was her rant on Nader--not unexpected and not undeserved--however she repeated several times that Nader had "founded the Green Party" to run in '00 and that the Green Party had "rejected him as their standard bearer" this year and so Ralph was forced to desperately turn to that "loser Ross Perot's Reform Party" for help.

As most of my readers know, none of these statements are true. Specifically, Ralph did not found the Green Party; it is more accurate to say that he rejected their nomination than vice versa and lastly, it seems more strategic to turn to the Reform Party than anything else--"loser Ross Perot" was polling ahead of both Clinton and Bush in May of 1992 and the skeletal structure of his party gets Ralph easy access to several key states.

She also called Ralph an "egomaniac," a term I've heard people I respect throw around as well. I strongly disagree with that, but I'll call it a debateable point rather than flat ass wrong.

Don't misunderstand me. I still enjoy the show. It's just that from here on out, I think you'll find the reception better from on top of a lick of salt.

(:)(:) Two Snouts Up for Calendar Girls
I thought I was going to just love this movie. Great story (nude middle-aged women). Great cast (Helen Mirrin). Came highly recommended.

Instead, to me it had about the production and script value of a quickie made-for-tv-movie. Just about every "twist and turn" was predictable from 5 steps out. What is the value of a true story if it's not stranger than fiction?

Faithless Unitarians in Bush Country
According to the Austin Star-Telegram, the Texas Comptroller has denied a Unitarian Church tax-exempt status on the grounds that it "does not have one system or belief."

So, a centuries-old religion to which 2 former U.S. Presidents belonged, has been deemed belief-less.

With even religious freedom threatened by the Bushocracy, why am I the only one who seems to believe that we could win a campaign against Bush on freedom issues alone?

Freedom is the defining issue for Americans. Question: what swings voters? Answer: freedom of choice over women's bodies, freedom to own a firearm.

Bush's supporters are running ads talking about Bush fighting for freedom, working to preserve America's freedoms.

Yet, America's freedoms are facing their greatest threat in 50 years: freedom to speak, freedom to associate, freedom to check out whatever books you want, freedom to fly, freedom to vote, freedom to tithe to a Unitarian church are all under systematic attack by the Bush administration.

Even though I am equally passionate about the rights to due process, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and habeas corpus, we need not launch this campaign for freedom by fighting, as we usually do, in the context of the rights of "criminals." The average American will never identify with criminals.

Bush will continue to be able to play upon fears and insecurities and us vs. them to justify the need for stripping us of our cumbersome civil liberties.

But should we make it easy on the ABCs (Ashcroft, Bush and Cheney) of fascism?

I say, no. We should take a page from Karl Rove's playbook. Rove succeeded in getting Kerry to play defense for days on whether he was really a legitimate war hero.

The lynchpin of Bush's campaign is fighting for our freedom. Let's ask, what freedom? What is Bush fighting for? The scandal in Abu Ghraib prison is just the tip of the iceberg of what price freedom for Bush.

Zingale on Gay Marriage
Check out (former Davis chief-of-staff, Director of Dept. of Managed Health Care) Daniel Zingale today on Tavis Smiley NPR show today on gay marriage. Airs in Sacramento KXJZ 89.5 1:30pm.

Daniel "doesn't think Karl Rove will like it..."

I just met a girl named Maria
So my mom is all excited about this interview with Maria Shriver she read in Sacramento Magazine. It details the children's books she's written to answer questions she gets from her own on various tough topics like death (What's Heaven?), disability (What's Wrong With Timmy?) and Alzheimer's disease (What's Happening to Grandpa?).

That's all well and good, but what I don't understand is why so little has been made of the book she's currently writing--Why Did Daddy Grope Those Ladies?--which should be a huge bestseller.

One step ahead of MoveOn.Org
Dude. Check it out: 2 days ago I called for a campaign on Kerry to be bold and articulate a vital and winning strategy to get out of Iraq; and today, MoveOn.Org does exactly that.

Can I call it, or what? (uh-oh, I'm starting to talk like Dik)

On the off chance that you're not on the list of the most effective and important national on-line advocacy group ever. Here's what they have to say:

Dear friend,
As George Bush's poll numbers drop quickly, John Kerry is facing an important choice -- perhaps the most important choice he'll make in his campaign. He has to decide whether, as some consultants will urge, he should be cautious and run toward the center, or whether he should present a bold agenda for change and rally Americans around a vision for our future.

Through his history, Kerry has made a practice of standing up for bold initiatives to provide health care, protect the environment, and safeguard the right to reproductive choice. Together, we need to let him know that we want him to be his best, boldest self -- to go big, ask more of us, and power his campaign on the politics of hope.

Please join me in calling on John Kerry to "go big" at:

http://www.moveonpac.org/gobig/?id=2845-3349305-nC7MUGKp49Zo_f4Dk5BpXQ

Thank you.

Okay, It's Trippi & Huffington
All right, I've been reminded that it's Arianna Huffington and Joe Triffi who are spearheading this campaign to convince Kerry to do the right thing on Iraq as a strategy for taking back the White House.

Link to Arianna's Blog to read about the campaign sign the petition to Kerry.

Mandatory Reading: Marine killed Innocent People
Sadly the national media is unlikely to pick up an important story in today's Sacramento Bee--it's an amazing interview with a recently-returned Marine who recounts in detail (although not in a gory way), the routine killing of innocent civilians in Iraq and how it disillusioned him to Bush and the justness of the war.

Let's Pressure Kerry on the war
Hey, you know, it just hit me like a ton of bricks: I helped raise $63,000 for Kerry's campaign and I don't think he's pushing the President enough on the war. MoveOn.org and the Kerry campaign and the DNC are on my back every f***ing day to do more for Kerry, and I will, but hey, let's put some pressure on him too. He's our best chance for really making the case to the public and putting the heat on Bush.

How shall we do it? And what shall the message be? And who else is doing this that we can piggyback on? And how can we do it without undermining him or highlighting the "flip-flop" that the White House is trying to tag him with?

(:)(:)(:) Three Snouts Up for Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
Before I talk about the movie, I have to add and subtract some previous snouts (I'm just getting the hang of this whole movie critic thing and my snout-based rating system). 1 or 2 of you that actually read my blog will remember that I gave Dogville 3 snouts up and Japanese Story 4 snouts up (out of a possible 5 snouts). In hind(quarter)sight, that really should have been reversed: Dogville was the better, more unique, creative and enduring movie.

Now for Wilbur: I liked the movie very much--it is a small independent picture by the director of Italian for Beginners. It is sweet, well-acted and well-conceived. Despite the title, the movie is not at all depressing. You care about these people and what happens to them and you believe that these are their real lives running a down-at-the-heels book shop in Glasgow. Jamie Sives is dreamy and compelling as the magnetic yet despicable Wilbur--I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually see him on the American screen. Even the most minor characters in the strange hospital that intersects with this family's lives are well-drawn, well-acted and interesting. See it, and let me know what you think.

From the Washington Post:
Nader's Advice To Kerry By William Raspberry

Ralph Nader, according to many who say they used to admire him, has become the self-centered star whose press clippings have gone to his head, the dog in the manger, the skunk at the Democratic garden party.

After all, the man whose name comes to mind at the mention of the phrase "consumer advocate" is also the man who almost certainly helped elect President Bush -- by siphoning away a few thousand Florida votes that otherwise would have gone to Al Gore.

And now he's running for president again!

Well, the advice here is that the Democrats -- very much including presumptive nominee John Kerry -- would do well to pause in their brick-throwing long enough to listen. Because what Nader is offering, he genuinely believes, is a road map to a Kerry victory.

"A part of the problem," Nader said in an interview last week, "is that the Democrats have become too cautious -- too indentured to the same money the Republicans are dialing for. Kerry's consultants and handlers are telling him to tone it down, and he has. For example, he's now saying, 'I'm not a redistributionist, I'm a centrist,' and that speaks volumes. Because the issue isn't redistributing wealth in the old-fashioned sense but stopping the redistribution that's already going on through corporate welfare."

In fact, ending corporate welfare is one of 10 elements of what Nader is certain would be a winning campaign. "Democrats would like it, but so would lots of conservatives, liberals and progressives who don't like the way wealth is being redistributed in this country." Here are some other ideas on Nader's list:

* Support a living wage. Kerry should propose a living wage -- and act as though he means it. Huge numbers of Americans (10 million households) earn less than $10,000 a year. Those workers would be substantially better off if the minimum wage had simply been indexed for inflation -- "like congressional salaries" -- over the past 35 years.

* Go after corporate crime. "This would attract a lot of conservatives to his cause -- certainly as many as there are Reagan Democrats. I'm talking about people whose 401(k)s have been destroyed by what Enron and the others have done through corporate greed."

* Repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. The prospective yield turns out to be "almost exactly what the American Society of Civil Engineers said last year it would take to restore America's deteriorating infrastructure" -- roads and bridges, schools, libraries, water and sewer systems, public buildings. "Everybody could get behind this, from labor unions to the Rotary, from workers to the corporate suppliers. And the best part is that it would create thousands of good-paying jobs that can't be outsourced to China."

* Protect the poor. Low-income Americans have no legal protection for many of their ordinary transactions -- either because the appropriate legislation hasn't been enacted or because of "a congealed lawlessness that goes unprosecuted." Nader's list includes check-cashing businesses for people who don't have access to bank accounts, tax-refund loans at usurious rates, rent-to-own schemes, dumping of tainted meat and shoddy merchandise in inner-city outlets, bank red-lining, and all manner of predatory lending. "Democrats should flock to this issue, and the Republican blur machine couldn't do a thing about it. You know how they blur issues: passing an inadequate prescription bill and saying that takes care of the elderly, or passing No Child Left Behind and saying that takes care of education."

Nader says Kerry should demand reform of a tax code that taxes work more than it taxes wealth; promote reduced reliance on fossil and nuclear energy; and support a reversal of policies that "make it almost impossible to form a union in the private sector anymore."

As for the war in Iraq: Kerry needs to set a date for withdrawal of American troops and companies. "The way to separate mainstream Iraqis from the insurgents is to make clear that there will be no American occupation -- stop building those 14 military bases -- and no puppet government. Bring in peacekeepers from neutral countries and from Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world, until Iraqi forces take hold with internationally supervised elections."

"If Kerry takes these positions," Nader concludes, "the only thing he'll have to worry about is how big will be his landslide."

Maybe. At the very least, it would provide an answer to those who've been looking for some reason to support Kerry besides the fact that he isn't Bush.

Ralph and Me
I know, I know. The emails keep coming. Sorry people, but the cock is never gonna crow thrice with me and Ralph. He's my hero and Joan Claybrook thinks I may be the only person in America who has a signed written apology from him.

That doesn't stop me from wholeheartedly supporting Kerry this time. Nor does it stop me from wishing that Ralph would energize his 9 percentage points to vote for Kerry, but you're not gonna get me to say it's his ego or that he's selfish.

This is a man who built a vast network of public interest organizations by putting the truth and issues above ego. He never wanted it to be about him. He has always loved to see other advocates come into their own, get the byline, the spotlight, the gig on Nightline. He has never played the Mirror, Mirror on the Wall game, not with anyone.

But he is arrogant and he is sure he is right. That pigheaded quality has generally served him well, but sometimes it hasn't.

Jeez, the whole way I got that apology was that I had organized a dinner at $5,000 a head with wealthy arab-americans to support single payer health care. All Ralph had to do was waltz across the street to his favorite lebanese restaurant and put in an appearance. He wouldn't and we had words. He wouldn't because health care was Sid Wolfe's turf, not his, and he wasn't going to intrude on it and it wasn't his responsibility. We had words because I wouldn't take no for an answer.

So I know Ralph can be pigheaded, but he had to apologize to me because he thought I was too pigheaded.

This tour of duty is entirely consistent with how Ralph has always been, uncontrollable and more concerned with telling the truth and letting the chips fall where they may, be they on Democrats or Republicans. Let's just hope we don't all end up covered with chips this fall...

How can America get out of Iraq?
Radical researcher turned provocative lawyer Chris McGinn writes,

As the situation in Iraq goes from bad to worse, Noam Chomsky, Jonathan
Schell, Howard Zinn and William Polk outline possible exit strategies
for the US--read the Guardian.

Kerry Beats Clinton Hands Down
This is true in so many ways, but the way I mean now is that everyone needs to stop fretting. Everyone keeps talking about trouble in the Kerry campaign, but all the polls show a statistical dead heat between a relatively unknown challenger and an incumbent President.

The Bush operation has been playing defense for several days straight due solely to their own ineptness on the world stage. 75% of the American people are "shocked and appalled" by the torture of prisoners in Iraq (leaving aside that the same 75% is completely unaware and unconcerned that similar abuses happen every day in American prisons).

In May of 1992, Bill Clinton was running third for President against Big George after Ross Perot, 19 points down. Granted he was the comeback kid, but we've got the (gag me) "comeback Kerry." My point is that if this is "foundering," let 'em founder and we can laugh all the way to the inauguration.

Getting Used to Air America Radio
After 3 1/2 days of lotsa listening to Air America (AM 1240 in Sacamento, find a station near you here), better known as that new liberal Al Franken radio network, I really love it. But it takes a little getting used to.

Normally I only listen to rabid talk radio when it's 2am and I'm on the interstate outsida Gary, Indiana trying to get to Buffalo by dinner time--that is to say, almost never.

And there's a big fat reason for that (his initials are R.L.). Al Franken of course wants to be the leftwing answer to Rush--after listening a while, I can tell you he's not. He's too laidback and generally sweet to pull that off.

Oh, he is funny. And they've wisely paired him with a Minnesota public radio pro who knows more about staying funny on the air all morning.

But the real anti-Rush is the afternoon host, Randi Rhodes. A hilarious, obnoxious, fast-talking Brooklynite who puts (even suspected) Republican callers right in their place and randomly switches from what she read in The New Yorker to how's she not getting laid to her problems getting the Pottery Barn to deliver her new couch (and "why don't they selling any f***ing pottery?"). This show is to die for.

All Nonessential Email Must (not) Leave Iraq
Chris McGinn tells me to link to this blog to read about how Halliburton employees in Iraq are on 90-day nonessential email suspension per the pentagon. Note: I do not know Kathryn Cramer, nor do I read her blog, but if McGinn says it, I obey.

Give Hetch-Hetchy One More Chance
If you enter Yosemite National Park on Highway 120, you drive right by the entry to the Hetch-Hetchy Valley entrance to Yosemite. Have you ever gone there?

Although it purportedly broke John Muir's heart when Hetch-Hetchy was made into a reservoir to quench San Francisco's thirst, the valley is still breath-takingly beautiful, especially this time of year.

Today we hiked from the dam to Wapama Falls, about 5 miles roundtrip. Amazing wildflowers, butterflies, great path all along the "lake" and a spectacular waterfall payoff at the end. Do it in April or May to survive the exposure and see a lot of water.

Sign *MY* Petition to Oust Rumsfeld
I returned from 3 days out of town to emails from MoveOn.org, the Kerry campaign, the DNC and TrueMajority.org, and a couple of friends to sign "their" petition to demand Rumsfeld's firing. Setting aside for a minute the question of why President Bobblehead is going to care what I and my *liberal* friends think of his cabinet choices, or how it's going to help us to sacrifice one pawn in the Cheney/Rove game only to replace him with another, just *whose* petition is this?

I signed the Kerry one. Click on this and do it if you haven't.

Don't Ralph, Don't!
I field a lot of questions these days from people who want to know, am I supporting Ralph again this time? If not, why not? If I strongly feel Bush should be defeated by any means necessary, why didn't I last time, etc.?

None of these questions have particularly easy answers, but they do have answers. To wit, no, because I like Kerry, because I didn't like Gore.

Am I furious at Ralph for running again this time (the way so many people I know are)? No. He has a right to run and I don't think he's doing it out of ego, if anything it hurts him.

Do I wish he weren't running? Yes. I really do. At first I really wished it for him, because I thought it was worse for him. But right now, with polls showing Bush and Kerry neck and neck with Ralph with 4-9% (depending on the poll). That troubles me. Read this article on Nader taking aim at Kerry on war.

Of course, everything Ralph is saying is fair game and true (it almost always is) and it is very hard to justify Kerry's tap-dancing on Iraq. Maybe Ralph's numbers and visibility will force Kerry to take a firmer stance on the war--and maybe, just maybe that'll still be able to swing the right voters in the right states. Right now, all we can hope is that most of the Ralph support is coming in states that will go for Kerry anyway--after all, that's where I campaigned for Ralph last time.

More to come on this subject.

(:)(:)(:)(:)--Four snouts up for "Japanese Story"
Saw and loved brilliantly-acted Australian film 'Japanese Story' directed by Sue Brooks and starring Toni Collette (Muriel's Wedding, About a Boy). Collette and Gutaru Tsunashima, the Japanese man she leads around the deserts of Australia have the same build and a marvelous subtle androgyny to their relationship. Gotta love the camera directed by a woman slowly caressing Tsunashima's lithe form on the beach while matter-of-factly announcing Collette's ass in her khakis. Oh but there's much more to this romantic, strange and unpredictable Australian woman/Japanese man outback road movie...

Reader Mail
"Kill Bills' 92 Personalities" and related entries provoked some strong responses--
Mark Worthington of L.A., himself a creator of Hollywood film environments, currently teaching in Hong Kong, felt that my response to "Kill Bill" might be akin to what an "an uninitiated viewer might think of the 'emoticon'." It all comes down to context...

Jane Macauley of Sacramento on the other hand seemed to agree with me wholeheartedly yet went further to suggest that Ted Koppel's recitation of the names of the dead U.S. soldiers in Iraq was equally emotionally numbing and unnecessary as "Kill Bill" or the story of the woman with 92 personalities.

Mateo Burtch of San Francisco likes the blog in general, but thinks there should be more porn and recipes.

Mark Stivers of Sacramento reacted to an earlier posting, "[w]hen you wrote in your blog, 'If this is the first you are hearing about this, you'll now notice it everywhere you go,' you indirectly referred to a phenomenon known scientifically as an acausal synchroneous event and informally as 'the shrimp thing.' This describes the situation where you see something for the first time in your life and then immediately see it three more times in the ensuing days. While I haven't seen the movie myself, 'the shrimp thing' is a reference to the movie 'Repo Man.'

Writers beware
Be careful, if you write to me, I might publish it. Also, if you're a subscriber--watch out, when you reply to the group, it goes to the group (some readers found out the hard way!).

I thought my new emoticon ate my 92 personalities but I turned out to be wrong
Maybe it just wasn't meant to be, but by inadvertantly clicking on my own installed emoticon link above, I just negated 20 minutes spent composing a lenthy emotionally stirring piece regarding my evolving opinions on fictional vs. factual horror and abuse.

I am way too tired to recreate it now, but here were the highlights:

My mind turned to real and imagined abused after being forced this evening to watch a decade-old Oprah interview with Truddi, a woman who copes with her horrific child sexual abuse through the use of her 92 personalities (actually, in a sad addendum to the piece, we learned that two of the personalities were former navy seals turned mercenaries who died in Iraq this week, so she's down to 90. Ted Koppel has not decided whether to read their names on the air.).

[all right, I'm tired and cranky--in the original piece, I did not make fun of the 92 personalities. But what am I gonna do, that fucking emoticon ate some of my best work!]

I revealed my ancient rules for avoiding hideous depictions:
leave during the second anal rape.
never read any of the well-written books sent to me by my well-meaning and wonderful mother-in-law.

I bare my deep and abiding contradictions by waxing semi-eloquent about the brilliant contrasts in the movies Pulp Fiction and Blue Velvet.

I confess that I had to create an entire personality just to cope with the basement scene in Pulp Fiction.

I close by dissing Kill Bill and its sequels, suggesting that if whatever we put our attention to grows and comes to fruition, we better not put our attention to Lucy (not to be confused with Carol) Liu and her severed heads. Not to mention I would rather not have started my evening hearing how a tiny girl was raped by her stepfather and covered with snakes.

My very own emoticon!
I am so excited. My insanely brilliant friend Mateo Burtch created it to celebrate and represent a certain period of my life that he was, frankly, never really part of, but may wish he was. Click here to see it.

The Merits of Kill Bill's 92 Personalities
Tonight, as part of a writers' group, I was subjected to a decade-old Oprah interview with a woman named Truddi who claimed (quite credibly, I'm afraid to say) to have 92 personalities as a coping mechanism for the horrific abuse she suffered as a child.

Naturally, in order to better understand Truddi and the made-for-tv movie about her life that was airing that evening on other ABC affiliates, Oprah needed to probe deeply into the twisted and psychotic torture Truddi's stepfather dealt her from the age of 2 on.

I knew I would hate watching this and I did. I have always hated any depiction or talk of child abuse. I simply cannot abide its existence.

And isn't that the way it should be? Shouldn't *everyone* loathe, abhor, reject and condemn any such instance?

Obviously the answer is yes. But the more complex question is what form that condemnation takes? Does a dramatization and books about and subsequent interviews with survivors of such horrors make it any less likely that they will occur again?

And on a related question, for years I drew a distinction between "real" and "fake" terrible stories. Oh, don't get me wrong. I have never had a high tolerance for hellish scenes or stories of any kind.
For years I've been served well by a basic rule of thumb: I walk out of any film during the second anal rape.

I also don't see horror films (exception: The Shining). And, truth be told, I don't really enjoy the experience of reading the many well-written novels depicting childhood evils given to me my wonderfully literate and completely sunny and optimistic mother-in-law.

Yet two of my favoritist favorist films are Blue Velvet and Pulp Fiction. Now what is up wit dat? Blue Velvet contains at least two rapes (albeit only one anal) and I have created at least one additional personality whose only job is to remember the basement scene in Pulp Fiction.

I have often waxed on, completely unoriginally, regarding the brilliance of the contrast between the happy sunny 50's society and its seamy underbelly in Blue Velvet and the sheer audacity of violence and over-the-top cartoon characterizations of Pulp Fiction.

(Sadly?) I find that tolerance and appreciation of incongruous over-the-top violence coming to an end with the 60 seconds I saw of Kill Bill the other night (my Bill was watching Kill Bill to prepare for Kill Bill II). In it that asian actress from Allie McBeale and Charlie's Angels was lecturing an audience while holding up a severed head--it was out of context, but I was given to understand that she had a hand in why head was now bodiless.

As I understand more and more that what we visualize and put our attention to in this world comes to fruition, I fret increasingly about visualizing creative new, untold horrors. Maybe what I'm saying is the same as people who dislike violent movies because they believe violence begets violence, but it feels different to me. It's more about where we focus energy, money, attention, time than it is about the ultimate product itself somehow.

So I'm relatively clear on this: I won't see Kill Bill or Kill Bill II and I don't really want anyone else to see it--although I'm sure many of you have. But what of Sybill, 92 Personalities and the like? Does it do harm to focus on what's (I presume) true and most vile in our socieity? Or is it better to focus on what we want to bring about, a world where children are treated with love and respect?

Can we we create the latter without acknowledging the former? I invite your comment...

Today's Outrage
Technically, this may be yesterday's outrage, but I was too tired and blissed out by community yesterday to be outraged. Today, I've recovered enough to rally.

It's this: Sinclair Broadcasting Company, a huge Republican-leaning media conglomerate, refuses to run a segment of Nightline on all 13 of its ABC affiliates because Ted Koppel was reading the names of the war dead in Iraq and this goes completely uncovered by my local paper, The Sacramento Bee. Nor, as far as I can tell, was this outrageous censorship covered as such by any of the major dailies in the country (please someone, tell me I'm wrong).

I see it was on the AP wires, mostly as "Ted Koppel reads names of war dead on 'unusual' show," with some coverage of the controversy. But who picked it up?

That this administration has things so clamped down that solemnly reading the names of dead soldiers has become a "slanted news story" staggers the imagination. Surely this story of censorship should not itself be censored.

Sacramento Restaurant: Taste of Thai
On an entirely different note (with apologies to out-of-town readers), but have you tried the Taste of Thai restaurant on Broadway? If not, do. I think it may be the best Thai restaurant in town--with the possible exception of Thai Basil on J.

The toxic mimic of community
I spent my May Day in seven hours weeding, mulching, scrubbing, drying, stretching and k'vetching with around 40 other neighbors in my cohousing community. We ranged in age from four to 78 and in ability from limited use of hands to whole body. We ate, we laughed, we argued, we sprayed each other with water (a high of 90) and at the end we had a May Pole and a drumming circle that lasted into the night.

I recently heard a story on NPR's Talk of the Nation or something regarding these "sim" games on computers where people spend hours under a fabricated identity living in a fantasy world (although it's not clear that it's really their fantasy, more likely the creators or "gods" of the simulated world. Plus, it has to be said that these places are no longer the shangri-las they once touted themselves as, they have crime, prostitution, drugs, nasty backstabbing everything I would think one might want to escape given a choice.).

Caller after caller described themselves buying and selling real estate, running for office, organizing controversies. They touted the ability to change their name, their body, their gender, their income and live out this simulated existence.

What was palpable for me was the degree to which a yearning for community was driving the need for these people to log in dozens of times a day. I was aghast as they described how the sims filled the void created by the emptiness and loneliness of their own lives.

As a listener who is deeply involved in real world politics, and genuine in-person community, I frantically dialed the 800 number over and over (to no avail) to tell my story, to offer my existence as a solution, a different choice.

If these people put half the energy they put into running for President in a fake world into organizing their own real neighborhoods, that would create real power, real change, real community.

I was reminded of something Caroline Casey (a wonderful inside-the-beltway astrologer for cynics) once said as she was trying to explain the inexplicable popularity of Princess Di and other celebrities: to wit, our culture lacks, and therefore craves mythology. We no longer have gods and goddesses to worship; therefore, just as fast food sucks toxic faux nutrients out of its stryofoam containers, we seek the toxic mimic of a goddess: goddess Diana. And we feed on her image.

So it is with the Sims. Human beings simply must have community. It is essential to our survival in every possible way. So, some of us who keenly feel the lack of community seek its toxic mimic in simulated on-line community.

Given a choice, would anyone really trade genuine tired muscles (at least one of them from smiling), full bellies and three-dimensional love of one's fellow man for the illusion of thin thighs, a faux castle and a thriving real estate business? I, for one, like to think not.