Camera Obscura: 'Diary of the Dead'; Get A Life-Size Indiana Jones; And Laser Cats!

"When there is no more room in hell, the dead will create a MySpace page."

Let's talk about zombies.

Shambling undead humans who rise up from the grave to feast on human flesh were once the fevered imaginings of odd readers and bizarre writers and film-fans such as myself. Today, zombies are cultural icons. All across the globe, everyday folks will slap on some gory make-up and gather for Zombie Walks, and the movies about them and with them are everywhere, some very funny, some very scary and some very poorly made. The literary world reeks of rotting flesh and survival guides flourish to the point one may well wonder if some people know they are still creatures of the imagination.

The guru of zombies is George Romero and his most recent movie hit DVD this week, "Diary of the Dead". His dark fantasies have fired up imaginations for decades, movies that have skewered society with visceral glee. Students and teachers and film critics and cultural anthropologists pontificate on the Romero Zombie with frequent essays and doctoral thesis papers. In Romero's movies, the story is more than just a scary tale told in the dark - they are also stories about us all, about how we react and respond to disaster and destruction.

"Diary" continues such themes with a digital skewer. It's the YouTube Internet Zombie Age in his film, and more than any of his previous movies, this one pushes the undead into a vague fearful background and the foreground is full of cameras and people obsessed with them. The story begins with a narrator who says the following images were all captured via a variety of media sources, which the narrator is compelled to send out via the Internet. We then see a group of would-be low-budget horror movie filmmakers whose shoot is cut short when the radios begin crackling with reports of the rising undead. Quickly, the group gathers up and begins to flee, all of their actions being "documented" by an obsessed director named Jason.

Just as quickly, the viewer gets inundated with images within images, frames within frames. Our hardy survivors meet other survivors, but no matter what they do or where they go, they begin to die and transform into the undead. It is the camera and the cameraman (or woman) who remain the focus of the film. Though horrified and terrorized, the characters can't stop observing themselves as they are being destroyed. In one scene a character shoots a zombie and then passes the gun to someone else, saying "It's too easy to use". Moments later, after another attack, someone passes a camera off to someone else saying the same line "It's too easy to use."

Romero conceived of his idea to be an online movie only at first, and his MySpace page remains quite active. He hits all the aspects of the constant barrage of information, from cell phones to blogs to videogames , citizen journalism and surveillance cameras. And he notes too that even if the zombies devour every human, all those digitized details will remain long after all life is gone.

Does all of that information have any value? Towards the end of the movie, a comment is offered that all the billions of voices captured and sent around the world have no provided more truth or more illumination - instead it has deafened us, made us less sure of everything.

For the DVD release, 5 short amateur films submitted via MySpace are included in the extras and they're pretty good too - imaginative and spooky and funny takes on the zombie apocalypse. And I do have some complaints about the movie - mostly that Romero found some really bad actors, some of the worst in any of his movies. But "Diary" is more about the hardware, not the software, and the hardware wins out in the end.

One other aspect of all of Romero's zombie tales I truly like is that there is never a really clear explanation of a cause or a solution. How one might survive is considered, but if it's even worth surviving has always been his biggest question.

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MOVIE NEWS

Also rising up from the long ago this weekend is Indiana Jones in "Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." If you just can't get enough Indy and crave more, then perhaps you can bid on a life-sized Indiana Jones to place in your own home. It's being offered on eBay, with bids starting at $50,000.

Another attempt at resurrection arrives from the director of not-very-good "Sahara", Breck Eisner. He's working on a new version of "Flash Gordon" and "Creature From The Black Lagoon." Keeping his career alive at this point is a notable feat.

A blogger worked some liveblogging for Quentin Tarantino's two-hour talk about his movies, which you can read here.

The movie "16 Candles" has just been re-enacted in 30 seconds by bunnies. The result is here.

See the latest on the new animated movie "Space Chimps and Patrick ", featuring the voices of Andy SambergWarburton. What I want to know is when will someone greenlight a feature movie of Samberg's SNL creation - "Laser Cats"??? I'll pay cash money in a heartbeat to see that!

The Trust Drug

Researchers in Europe report success with clinical trials of a new "Trust drug", aka the "cuddle chemical", which soothes those who take it into trusting people even though that "trust" has been abused.

"The subjects who received oxytocin demonstrated no change in their trust behaviour, even though they were informed that their trust was not honoured in roughly 50% of cases."

No word yet if anyone is working on a Don't Abuse Trust drug.

O wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is!

O brave new world

That hath such people in't!

Starvation On The Campaign Trail

Are you exhausted by the media coverage of the current presidential election? Most likely. But have you actually learned much beyond how a candidate campaigns, feels about campaigning, or the now often-overused phrase "creating a narrative" for a candidate?

Given the history that so many political appointees and campaign staffers have become television icons who provide running commentary on elections, it's no wonder the results of a national survey show the TV coverage of the current presidential race is long on 'campaign strategy' and very short on analysis of issues and policies of the candidates.

FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) offers this insight:

"From December 26, 2007, until February 5, 2008, the three nightly newscasts aired a total of 385 news stories about the election. This averages out to more than nine news stories on the election per night on network TV. With that kind of saturation, you’d think that the coverage would not only touch on the horse race and polling, but would shed light on policy platforms, economic plans, foreign policy goals and other substantive differences among what was then a wide-open field of candidates. You’d think that, after viewing or reading 385 news stories, you’d come away well-informed and ready to participate in a democracy.

But, unfortunately, you’d be wrong.

Campaign Analysis/Strategy dominated the coverage FAIR examined, appearing in 333 of the 385 stories overall (86 percent). It was the dominant frame in 252 stories (65 percent), and it was the only frame in 79 stories (20 percent). In other words, one in five stories in this sample touched only on the “how” of getting elected.

It’s not that campaign coverage should be devoid of analysis and strategic concerns; who’s ahead and why is of legitimate concern to voters, and this type of story can be informative and illuminating. But the emphasis on this type of reportage mostly provides news consumers with a lot of insignificant “insights,” like the January 2 CBS story “Hillary Clinton Needs Supporters to Show Up to Caucus.” So which candidates didn’t need their supporters to caucus?"

FAIR goes on to mention critical failures in coverage of just exactly how a candidate might propose to address the faltering economy and the war in Iraq. Short, zippy riffs from campaigners get air time - specific plans are seldom given coverage:

"Remarkably, in the 55 stories that raised the Iraq War as an issue, the networks made no mention of any of the Democrats’ plans for troop withdrawal or their stances on the troop “surge.” Both of those topics, however, provided much fodder for the coverage of the leading Republican candidates.

John McCain is “surging in part because the ‘surge’ in Iraq, which he has long supported, has shown signs of success,” ABC reported on January 2. The “progress in Iraq . . . put new life into the John McCain campaign,” CBS reported (1/29/08).

The supposed success of the troop “surge” became a lens through which to view the McCain turnaround, but his plans for what happens next weren’t covered. Rather, his “ownership” of the war issue in the media left viewers with very little specific information."

The news media too often is addressing the cult of personality, and from their cheerleading heading into the war with Iraq to today, viewers are fed junk food and not food for thought.

Down The Memory Hole

George W. Bush, in 2000 says:

"Gov. George W. Bush of Texas said today that if he was president, he would bring down gasoline prices through sheer force of personality, by creating enough political good will with oil-producing nations that they would increase their supply of crude.

''I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply,'' Mr. Bush, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, told reporters here today. ''Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot.

Thanks to Hilzoy for that, and he adds:

"Honestly, it's not always hard to spot a bad President coming. If we had paid less attention to who we wanted to have a beer with, Al Gore's earth tones, and so on, and more to George W. Bush's total lack of any grasp of policy, we could have avoided the last eight years."

As for that 'force of personality', "the Saudis said they would pump an additional 300,000 barrels of crude next month. They also made a point that the decision had been made a week ago, and not in response to Bush's visit." But the President did promise to send the Saudis more nuclear technology. Is it even close to a good idea to help make Saudi Arabia a nuclear power? Sure they may agree to add in the technology safeguards we want them to have, and sure maybe it is simply the best we can hope for - that they will be a nuclear power allied with the U.S.

The local prize for Bad Ideas on Energy Policy once again goes to Congressman David Davis of East Tennessee. He thinks a.) OPEC sets the price of oil and b.) the government should provide tax-free bonds for oil companies so the poor, poor oil companies can build more refineries. He also urges more tax breaks for them and continues to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for high gasoline prices (article here).

A Pee Cup For A Mascot?

The concept of 'branding", which meant one thing to a cowboy means something else today. Today we have the latest 'branding' from HealthPartners HMO in Minnesota. They decided they needed a better identity in their state so they created a mascot to help them. A large, walking, dancing urine specimen cup.

Petey P. Cup is his name.

Nope, I am not making this up. Check out a promotional video below, which includes Petey hanging out at some waterfalls (heh heh) and at the Mall of America while "Funkytown" plays in the background. Perhaps you'll notice there are really no people in this video, so I am not sure who is actually interfacing with Petey. Maybe people flee when they see him. And why is he leaning against a gigantic photo of George Bernard Shaw???



Another blogger notes that the medical group also has another mascot too -- Pokey The Syringe. At least they didn't call him Stabby The Needle.

Oregon Has Already Voted

The presidential primary in Oregon today is quite unique - no one in the state will be going to the polls to vote. Back in 2005, they became the first and only state to have a 100% mail-in ballot. It's a funny story really, and their Secretary of State, Bill Bradley, says the change to mail-in voting was prompted by the actions of a 'cult':

"Oregon may be the only state to change its election laws because of a cult. We used to have election day voter registration here. Then the Baghwan Shree Rashneesh brought in thousands of cult followers, registered them to vote on the day of election, and took over the town of Antelope. The Baghwan then poisoned the salad bar. Only in Oregon. In most places you'd have to poison the beer, but in Oregon you go for the salad bar."

Bradbury also notes Oregon was the first state to hold a presidential primary and first to directly elect it's U.S. senators. And says the program drew a participation rate of over 85% in the last presidential election.

The Washington Post reports today too that some problems are trailing this primary:

"Tens of thousands of Oregonians switched their registration from Republican or unaffiliated so they could vote in the Democratic primary. But many switched so close to the April 29 deadline that election officials had already prepared ballots to send to them under their previous registrations. Pulling out those ballots would have been too arduous for most counties, so 33,500 voters received ballots for both parties."

As for Kentucky, one NPR report says their voting trends are still dominated by the Civil War and race issues. Also, while they generally vote for national Republican candidates, Democrats hold the lead in local and state offices. And despite a massive margin of victory predicted for Senator Clinton in Kentucky, CQ calls it - 'decisive but hollow'. Poor CQ. In Kentucky, they pronounce it 'holler'.

More GOP Tactics Backfire

Some facts and choice words arrive via DeMarCaTionVille for blogger David Oatney and the Tennessee Republicans in general in the 4th Senate District race between Senator Mike Williams and challenger Mike Faulk:

"It is one thing to point out issues with your elected official. Perhaps you don’t like his viewpoints or policies. He voted for something you oppose. You think his manner of dress is inappropriate and your guy is better for the job.

However, it’s quite another thing to launch a full-scale bullshit rock-throwing attack while your candidate is sitting in his own stinkin’ glass house.

You know, when the GOP first started grasping at straws here and twisting truth: feeling some loyalty to the party of my father, I didn’t say much. I had faith that the Tennessee Republican Party would figure out these tactics weren’t working locally.

Surely, Faulk would realize this and reign in his unpleasant supporters.

Nope. Not so much - because apparently whatever Republicans lack in common sense, they make up for in sheer collective hatefulness - and this bothers me.

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The TN GOP may also want to note the constant attacks and general viciousness aren’t going over well in this area. Many of us, who live here, are beginning to see why Williams got pissed off enough to leave the party.

Sen. Obama Rips Tennesse's GOP Leaders

Kleinheider did a fine job tracking the once-again pointless and feeble attempts of the Tennessee Republican party to garner publicity and attention with their slaps at Michelle Obama, and this morning he links to Senator Obama calling out the state's GOP for their lame effort to stir the emotions.

As for the massive negative reactions for their stunt, the GOP shrills out more name calling - "yer just a bunch of whiners."

Yeah, class act there guys. It speaks volumes about how Republicans in the state can't get any traction or mention providing discussion on issues and policies. They apparently despise their own party's nominee, Senator McCain, even with a strong likelihood he'll nab a majority of votes in the fall. What they cannot refute is that most Americans know the Bush administration and its supporters have not only failed at leadership, they will be leaving behind enormous problems in almost every area which will likely take years to correct.

Stuck with not being able to support their current president, not being able to muster support for their current nominee, they have nothing left but snide and empty jabs. All the state Republicans have is a cranky cry of "You kids get offa my lawn!" They need to just go back inside their house, clean it up, and join the rest of us when they decide to be good neighbors.

(See Senator Corker's comments via this Knoxville News Sentinel report: "Our country is, to me, at a point where all of us, on both sides of the aisle, need to begin acting more like adults and making those tough decisions that will cause our country to be stronger for the long haul," said Corker, the only Tennessean in Congress who isn't up for re-election this year.")

The Graduation Weekend

Over the weekend I traveled to north Georgia to help congratulate and celebrate my nephew's high school graduation. And being absent from the world o' blogs for three days is akin to missing 6 months of work. But it was time well spent away from the virtual world and immersed into the real one.

Sitting on the lawn of my nephew's prep school Saturday morning as the sharp blue skies and warm sun was overhead was a fine thing. I became even more convinced he is far better prepared for life post-high school than I was. He's already earned numerous accolades and awards for his many achievements and he's been one of the smartest and most talented folks I know for many years anyway. Though he might be a bit perplexed at all the hoopla and excitement and by what a proper reaction to such might be, events again made me realize that while I made good use of the many freedoms that high school liberation provided, mostly I simply raced out into the world with a reckless abandon. But as I told him, I don't think there is such a thing as the Right Way to handle all the coming changes.

(I was kind of proud of myself too, as I never caved in to making an obscure movie reference with the joke of saying "My boy, I just have one word to say to you - plastics.")

It occurred to me as well while listening to the commencement speech that perhaps the adult world needs a regular schedule of commencement exercises as adulthood marches past. First, the value of ritual events heralding notches in time could add much needed sign-posts that we humans sort of require. Commencements give a shape and form to the ideas of "You started here, you went through this, and now you're headed here."

Second, adults could get that sense of being part of a community effort, much like being a part of a particular class of seniors, which makes achievements at many levels, and that your community will continue to progress further, with some changes to that community taking place as well.

Now I have no solid concept of how to create a criteria for organizing such Adult Commencements . Some might say that events such as annual meetings for Rotarians or Elk Lodge members, or the occasional retreats of your corporate business might be the contemporary version of Adult Commencements.

It's just that as we provide these events more and more for our young people, with commencement events being held for the transition from kindergarten to first grade, from elementary to middle school, from middle school to high school, from high school to work or college, and the many levels of college, those events are more likely absent for the rest of our lives.

We do have the Marriage Commencement events, and the Birth of Children Commencements (and even the Divorce Commencements), but most of the other milestones we have are of a more nebulous social construction which is far harder to perceive. The social conventions seem to change from year to year. And high school/college reunion events seem more an opportunity for renewals of previous commitments to alcohol consumption, or realizations that we've mystically morphed into new shapes and forms.

I've even begun to ponder attending some high school or college commencements at random from now on as each Spring converts to Summer, simply to participate in well-ordered rituals marking change. Each Spring I could be regaled with messages that not only had I endured, but that the Future was utterly open and ripe with Hope, that I have Time to manifest my own personal Destiny. Those notions often get nudged aside as we age.

So here's a toast to the graduates - to full lives, to the known and the unknown, to the world you will all be creating. And if you wish to take some time to wander just now, enjoy that too. If I've learned anything as I make the daily steps from Youth to Old Age, it's that everything we experience is useful even if we think at the time it is not. Cheers!

Camera Obscura: Kingsport Mayor Hates Horror Movies; Cannes Cam

The mayor of Kingsport banned a commercial promoting a new locally hosted horror/sci-fi show called Saturday Night Grindhouse, a promo you can see here on this MySpace page. Why the mayor saw something offensive is beyond me. The ETSU newspaper says:

"Kingsport city officials have demanded the first commercial for Saturday Night Grindhouse be taken off the air. The show is a horror movie showcase which began airing on MyTown Channel 16 in Kingsport on May 3, and is the creation of ETSU graduate Justin Simpson and Shannon "the Cinema Warrior" Wallen.

Simpson, 24, Kingsport, graduated in December 2007 as a digital media major.
During his last semester, he began interning at Elixir Media Group in Kingsport.
Elixir Media is contracted to provide programming for Kingsport's public television channel.

Although the city is a client, they provide the channel for the stations use.
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There is still some speculation as to why that decision was made.
"All we were told was 'they didn't like the big guy yelling at the screen,'" Simpson said.

I just wish I could get this broadcast here in Morristown - I love these kind of shows. I remember the most recent show from Greeneville hosted by Dungeon Doug and Momar Cadaver. It was great fun and they showed some fine old movies.

Another favorite was the old WSMV show hosted by Sir Cecil Creape, aka the Phantom of the Opry. (Be sure and go to the end of the post to here more from Sir Cecil.) According to Nashville horror host Dr. Gangrene, Pat Sajak used to write the comedy scenes for Sir Cecil.

Maybe the Mayor is just scared easily? You be the judge:

Saturday Night Grindhouse Week 1 Promo


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The Cannes Film Festival is underway, and your 'round-the-clock red carpet cam is here.

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Sir Cecil Creape's intro to Creature Feature:

"Each of us carries upon his shoulders this bony sarcophagus, the grinning face of death. Within it resides the human brain, encompassing within its pulsating grey mass the totality of the cosmic consciousness. What a delicate instrument; capable of thoughts of inexpressible beauty, but often enslaved in mindless terrors by monstrous horrors that the mind cannot fathom, and indeed, horrors that may not exist except within the bony confines of the human brain box. This is Creature Feature... exploring the realms of the unknown. And now, from deep within the catacombs beneath our studios, here is your master of terrormonies, Sir Cecil Creape."

Remember This Day

This Thursday is a special day, one in which you can take action and make a difference. Prompted by the ideas of sacrifice and service espoused by President Bush yesterday, I decided that starting this Thursday and for each Thursday through 2009, you and I can take action and take a stand.

Thank goodness I found a link to a web site which realized this need and sought to fill it. They offer a different theme each Thursday to turn the idea of increased awareness into a Day of Action.

Today's Call to Action offers this theme:

Today is Make Your Voice Quiver With Indignation Day.

Next Thursday is Wince and Fidget Day. (I'm really looking forward to that one!)

Yes, no longer will you have to feel uninformed or uninvolved, you'll have a Theme Day every week! No stickers to buy, no ribbons, no dangerous political views to embrace - just plain, simple acts which will let everyone know you're a little wacko and proud of it! America is depending on you.

Full list of Themes and Dates here.

Bush Lies About His Golf Sacrifice

I had to read the story a few times to make sure it wasn't a comedy skit from the Internets. Sadly, it is not.

Our fearless president claims that he gave up playing golf to show his solidarity and sacrifice due to the war in Iraq.

No word on what he gave up for the war in Afghanistan ... maybe Yahtzee?

And he lied about giving up golf ... or at best he is utterly confused about when and why he gave up the game. He told reporters:

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander-in-Chief playing golf," Bush said in an interview with Yahoo and Politico.com.

"I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal," he said.

Bush said his last round of golf was in August 2003 when he was informed that a truck bomb had wrecked the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22 people, including U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

"They pulled me off the golf course and I said, it's just not worth it anymore to do," Bush said.

But as the Washington Post reports it:

"the Associated Press reported on Oct. 13, 2003, that he'd spent a "cool, breezy Columbus Day" playing "a round of golf with three long-time buddies ..."


Even the golfing blogs are appalled:

"In an insipid interview with the web site Politico that featured no less than 20 questions about his daughter’s wedding, baseball, American Idol and who does the best impersonation of him, President George W. Bush was hit with a haymaker - Has he stopped golfing?"

He's never attended a military funeral.

Perhaps he has left the game of golf behind and instead sits idly in the course clubhouse, nursing a Near-Beer and saying "yeah, yeah, I'm The Decider".

SuperDad or SuperMom For President?

Last night's results from the Democrat primary in West Virginia (and yes I joked about that) gave a huge margin of victory to Senator Clinton over Senator Obama. But I almost spewed the crackers I was munching through my nose when I heard NBC's Tim Russert proclaim none could deny Sen. Clinton's "right" to stay in the race for the Democratic nomination:

"The magnitude of Senator Clinton's victory tonight will allow her tonight and tomorrow, the next day, to say to the Democrats and to say to Senator Obama's campaign: 'Let me finish this race. Let me take on these next five contests. … I have earned that right to continue to be a fighter.'"

It was days ago, after Sen. Obama won in North Carolina, that Russert said she should withdraw from the race immediately. Russert, like many political pundits, has bumbled this election from beginning to end. Of course, there are endless bursts of stupidity trailing the world o' campaigning.

For instance, also last night, noting the loss of another Republican seat in Congress from a special election, failed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee offered this nonsense:

"People ultimately don't buy the brand - they buy the cereal. … So what we've got to be able to do is to show that there are individuals out there that are worth supporting and worth electing. But they can't go out there and ride the elephant down Main Street."

Ah yes, the Cereal and the Elephant ... weren't they in Alice in Wonderland??

Something else I find surreal is the relentless and savage support some people have provided in the last few months for their choices of Super Candidate of All Time -- the daily humorless, shrill blogging for Candidate A or Candidate B, declaring all who oppose them are brutish thugs who expose their sexist or racist or some other -ist genetic code by daring to vote for the Wrong Candidate reveals to me a naivete' of politics.

I also marvel at the often illegal, unethical and incompetent campaign by Page Gardner and her Women's Voices, Women Vote organization which has been misleading voters across the country with bogus fears about being registered to vote. Facing South has been tracking this story with much skill, and also offered an interview with her in which she simply refused to answer questions about her group's often illegal, unethical and incompetent strategies to confuse women voters.

Likewise sad is BlabRadio's Rush Limbaugh, ever more irrelevant, proclaiming himself and his disciples The Deciders of the Campaign by urging his flock to cast votes for Sen. Clinton as part of something he calls Operation Chaos. I guess he rejected the name Operation Pay Attention To Me I'm Important!! He can only rally negativity, and is utterly impotent in rallying votes for the Republican Party he worships.


One wonders why so many Americans perceive the President of the United States should be our very own SuperDad (or SuperMom).

An interesting essay from Gene Healy from the Cato Institute called The Cult of the Presidency offers this:

"The chief executive of the United States is no longer a mere constitutional officer charged with faithful execution of the laws. He is a soul nourisher, a hope giver, a living American talisman against hurricanes, terrorism, economic downturns, and spiritual malaise. He—or she—is the one who answers the phone at 3 a.m. to keep our children safe from harm. The modern president is America’s shrink, a social worker, our very own national talk show host. He’s also the Supreme Warlord of the Earth.

"This messianic campaign rhetoric merely reflects what the office has evolved into after decades of public clamoring. The vision of the president as national guardian and spiritual redeemer is so ubiquitous it goes virtually unnoticed. Americans, left, right, and other, think of the “commander in chief” as a superhero, responsible for swooping to the rescue when danger strikes.

"In a 2002 study tracking word usage through two centuries of SOTUs and inaugural addresses, political scientist Elvin T. Lim noted that in the first decades under the Constitution presidents rarely mentioned poverty, and the word help did not even appear until 1859. Nor did early presidents subscribe to the modern notion that it’s all “about the children”; they rarely even mentioned the little buggers. But Lim found that “Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton made 260 of the 508 references to children in the entire speech database, invoking the government’s responsibility to and concern for children in practically every public policy area.”

Perhaps the reason so many Americans haul the President onto the pedestal is so they don't have to take any responsibility for themselves and to also have a handy scapegoat to tar and feather when any and every aspect of American life turns sour.

Vaudeville 2.0

Times are bad - no one ever thought West Virginia or Guam would be a vital part in becoming president. The price of everything is higher than boat dock gas. Take a break, people.

So open up this link and click the red button when you read these jokes.

Some samples include:

Q: What do you call a dinosaur with only one eye?

A: A Dyouthinkhesaurus.

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A Buddhist walks up to a hot dog stand and says: "make me one with everything".

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What's green and fuzzy and if it fell out of a tree would kill you? A pool table.

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What's brown and sticky? A stick.

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What do you call a guy who's always hanging around musicians? A drummer.

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What's Snoop Dogg's favorite weather? (wait for it...) Drizzle.

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Thanks, I'll be here all week. be sure and tip your waitress!!

Mandating Bible Classes In Tennessee Schools

As the fundamental needs of the state's education system face critical issues, some in the legislature have decided the state should, for some reason, teach a class about the fundamentals of the Bible.

Teacher pay is among the low end on a national scale, and a ranking based on student achievement shows that Tennessee ranks 41st out of 50 states, with a score of -8.48. Colleges across the state are looking at yet another year of ever-rising tuition costs, and without money from lottery ticket sales, many students simply could not afford to attend. The state's education association, TEA, offered a wish-list to the legislature for the past year in which needs for funding for everything from pay to building to having enough basic supplies are all mentioned.

The response from the legislature? Bible class.

A proposed bill mandates that every school district create a curriculum for an elective class about the Bible.

Backers of the bill, State Sen. Roy Herron and Rep. Mark Maddox, claiming that the current generation is the most "Biblically illiterate ever" offered some of their reasoning in this editorial from the Tennessean:

"If young people do not understand the importance and impact of the Bible on literature and art, in history and culture, where do they get their values? The television wasteland? Internet temptations? So much musical mess? In our coarsening culture, why not let students learn from the world's best-selling book?"

Now in this great state of Tennessee, it is pretty much impossible to travel more than a mile without seeing at least one, and usually many churches. Our state is without a doubt the very conservative heart of the Bible Belt -- justifying this type of class in our state doesn't add up.

If families have decided on their own to not attend or join a church in Tennessee, should our educational system step in to provide instruction on moral and religious history?

Camera Obscura: 'Speed Racer'; Doomsday on TCM; Call For A Better Movie Theater

The nation's film critics are having a blast attempting to craft the words to describe the movie "Speed Racer" opening today. The movie, based on a 1960s early anime TV show, explodes with color and energy and the best advice I can give you about the movie is to remember that it is aimed at kids more than adults who might recall the old TV series.

J. Hoberman describes it as:

"Gaudier than a Hindu-temple roof, louder than the Las Vegas night, Speed Racer is a cathedral of glitz. The movie projects a Candy Land topography of lava-lamp skies and Hello Kitty clouds—part Middle Earth, part mental breakdown—using a beyond-Bollywood color scheme wherein telephones are blood orange, jet planes electric fuchsia, and ultra-turquoise is the new black. Call it Power Kitsch, Neo-Jetsonism, or Icon-D—this film could launch a movement."

And while Rex Reed hardly qualifies as a real movie critic, he echoes the Fuchsia theme memorably in his review:

"Speed Racer makes you want to never see a movie again as long as you live. I can sit through just about anything, but I draw the line at two hours and 15 minutes of fuchsia vomit."

From Cinematical, writer James Rocchi provides a more balanced view:

"This is a property where one of the supporting characters is, after all, a monkey; any fully-grown individual hoping for an adult action film or racing realism is looking in the wrong place. Speed Racer plays like a car-crazed visual wonder -- it looks and feels like what pop artist Roy Lichtenstein would dream if you locked him in a room full of gas fumes, gave him only candy to eat and showed him nothing but Tron, Indianapolis 500 footage, episodes of the '60s Batman TV show and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. All at the same time. With the volume very, very high."

All I know is, I've liked all that the brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski have done so far, and the jaw-dropping insane colors and production design make me most curious to see the movie. So many movie critics seem to despise the idea that movies are first and foremost a visual form of storytelling. But from all I've read so far, they looooove the way they can stack wild verbiage to describe "Speed Racer", which tells me that the movie does offer much enjoyment.

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One movie trend of late which just bugs the crap out of me is the Extra Scene After The End of the Credits. One Rant echoes my thoughts on this practice - mainly, if it's supposed to be part of the story, put it in BEFORE the credits roll -- dammit!

"Oh, what, at the end of the last Pirates of the Caribbean -- after the 37 minutes of credits have rolled -- it turns out Elizabeth has a son and is standing around waiting for her once-in-a-decade evening of romance with Will? No she doesn't, and no she isn't. Because the movie ended 37 minutes earlier, when the closing credits started. Whatever happens after that is just you horsin' around. Doesn't count. It's not canon. What's that you say? After the credits of X-Men: The Last Stand we learn that Dr. X is not dead after all? Huh. Interesting. You'd think an important piece of information like that would have been included in the film, not as part of the previews for the next showing to be viewed by the ushers as they're sweeping out the theater. "

Seriously, stop it.

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Now for something I most earnestly, desperately desire - and a confession of deep envy for what the folks in Nashville have: The Belcourt Theatre. I got their most recent email and my heart skipped several beats just reading about how good they are at providing more than just a screen for a studio release or the newest indie trend - they've got midnight movies, weekend classics, concerts with folks like John Prine and John Hiatt, and Dan Tyminski, plus indie movies, new cult movies, old cult movies, a Werner Herzog min-fest, and even the legendary "Raiders of the Lost Ark - The Adaptation", a shot-for-shot remake by teenage film fans which took years to complete. Oh, cruel Fate, which has left this corner of the state of Tennessee without such a fine theater.

Feast your eyes and feed your head, East Tennessee, at the awesomeness which is The Belcourt.

WANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS: if someone wants to open such a place here in East TN, I know the very exceptional person who could operate it --- ME.

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Tonight on Turner Classic Movies, a trio of Apocalypse movies will hit the airwaves, starting with a much-overlooked gem of a movie, "Five", by director Arch Oboler. His movie was the very first of the 'what would life be like after a worldwide nuclear bombardment' epics. This 1951 classic hasn't been show in a long time, and it is a fascinating and very smart film. Director Oboler filmed much of the movie inside his own house, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and makes an impressive backdrop for the story.

It inspired many other movies, including the second feature of the night, "The World, The Flesh and The Devil", which tells the story of two men, Harry Belafonte and Mel Ferrer, and one women, the beautiful Inger Stevens, who are the last three people on the planet. The third movie is the often-shown film, "On The Beach", with big-time stars like Gregory Peck, who travels the oceans via submarine after the nuclear nightmare.

But it's the first two of that trio which will make your evening and your weekend better.

East TN Crop Circles Return, plus Other Strange Events

A report from WVLT-TV in Knoxville says that crop circles have returned to Monroe County, close to where they were made last May. (A commenter on the WVLT page says that deer are quite capable of making such intricate designs, and who knows, maybe they can pilot deer-ish sized craft across the cosmos, too.)

I guess anything is possible in a week where we have reports of a "Gay Bigfoot".

Or when a substitute teacher does a magic trick in class to make a toothpick disappear and is ousted for practicing "wizardry".

Or when the Cookie Monster ponders his addiction in a piece titled: "Is Me Really Monster?"

Comcast Considers Fees Based On Internet Usage

Comcast is considering a cap on internet usage each month and charging additional fees if users go over the limit. Other internet service providers, like Cox Communications, already have caps and fees in place depending on how much info is accessed. Time Warner is preparing to test a program for varying charges for access depending on how much info is accessed.

And while this takes place, Congress is holding hearings on issues related to Net Neturality. Backers are supporting a bill called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act (HR 5353), with investigations already underway into whether Comcast has been blocking access.

Ben Scott, Free Press Policy Director offered his comments at the hearing:

"First, almost everyone agrees that consumers are entitled to access the lawful content, applications and devices of their choice; and second, that it is reasonable to establish these principles in the law. FCC put it in a policy statement that Congress has tried to codify in different ways.

This leads me to conclude that it is no longer a question of whether consumers will have laws guarding an open Internet, but how those laws will be crafted. We strongly support this bill for rising to the occasion.

This bill simply places these agreed-upon consumer rights at the base of the Communications Act. It clarifies the authority of the FCC to protect Internet users from discrimination. And it tells the agency what rights Congress wants consumers to expect in an open Internet marketplace. It is a modernization of the principles that have long been in the Act. Simple and clear."

Science Discovers Happy Conservatives

With a budget of nearly 6 billion dollars, funded by your taxes, the National Science Foundation decided it would be money well spent for a survey asking "Who's Happier - Conservatives or Liberals"?

Now I can't say I knew that there was a "scientific" definition of Conservative, Liberal, right-wing or left-wing. And I did not notice any definitions in reports on the survey. But the study says:

"Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.

The rationalization measure included statements such as: "It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others," and "This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are."

"Our research suggests that inequality takes a greater psychological toll on liberals than on conservatives," the researchers write in the June issue of the journal Psychological Science, "apparently because liberals lack ideological rationalizations that would help them frame inequality in a positive (or at least neutral) light."

So ... scientifically speaking, if you worry about the way our society works, you are a Liberal? And given the way the right-wingers whine and moan on BlabRadio day in and day out, are they really Liberals? 'Cause they sure don't seem like happy folk to me.

Thanks, NSF, for making Science a pointless exercise in relativism.

News For Free

A recent survey among the world's newspaper editors shows that most think that whether their product is available in print or online, it will most likely be free in coming years.

The Zogby poll also shows that making the changeover to an online presence follows the adage of "Innovate.Integrate. Or Perish":

"According to the survey, 56 percent of respondents believed that the majority of news, be it via print or online, would be free in the future.

That was up from 48 percent who answered yes a year ago.

Those leaning towards the free model mostly came from 'emerging' newspaper markets in areas such as South America, Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Asia where 61 percent of respondents believed news would be free.

Respondents in Western Europe were less likely to believe in news becoming free, with 48 percent of news executives thinking it likely, while North American editors were on par with the average.

The newspaper industry has been hit in recent years by the push to move content online and executives still saw many problems ahead.

According to 704 senior news executives surveyed, the greatest threat to the industry was the declining number of young people who read newspapers while the increasing emphasis on speed meant only 45 percent of editors thought the quality of journalism would improve over the next 10 years.

More than a quarter thought it would become worse."

Last week I took some time to browse through a Borders bookstore in Knoxville, and made a few realizations - mainly that I seldom if ever buy a magazine or newspaper anymore since I can access almost all the information from nearly any publication whenever I wish via online services. It's a change I had not really noticed, but it is a major shift.

In years past, I would usually spend quite a bit each month not only for the publications, but also in the cost of reaching outlets where the info was for sale. No more. No matter how large or small the magazine or paper I seek, I'd say at least 90% is available for free online. I'm able to get it faster, too, and get it in pretty much the same way I did when purchasing the magazine itself, with plenty of graphics and photos. With the online access, I can also see video related to the topics I'm reading as well.

It's a change the public demanded and that publishers for the most part have been diligently working to make possible. Charging fees online or limiting the content available seems to be a dying trend, too. It is a massive benefit for those of us who read and seek information - but I'm sure the biggest challenge for publishers remains how to keep their businesses profitable.

Ending Oil Subsidies vs Gas Tax Holiday

Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly suggests a better idea than a few months of no gas taxes would be repealing the labyrinth of subsidies for oil companies. But finding out the costs for such a repeal is no simple task. Is it 20 billion dollars annually? 50 billion? Kevin writes:

"I couldn't figure out which subsidies/tax breaks still existed, how big they are, who they go to, or who voted for them. Royalty relief alone was enough to bring tears to my eyes. If I spent several months on this topic instead of half an hour, maybe I could figure this all out, but surely someone else has already done this?

Anyway, this really ought to be the liberal rallying cry: forget a windfall profits tax, let's work first on getting rid of the massive corporate welfare infrastructure we've constructed for an industry that really, really doesn't need it. Not as sexy as a gas tax holiday, maybe, but it makes a helluva lot more sense."

The congress tried to enact some repeals and have not been successful due to threats of a veto or a Republican filibuster. Much of the time, legislation simply moves the money around into different categories and the public awareness of how much goes to who for what is simply lost.

Then there's the confusion of Royalty Relief, where the government is losing vast sums as the normal royalty rates paid by oil companies to the government have plummeted.

I'm left pondering on this idea that only presidential or legislative proclamations could cap or reduce the costs we all pay for just about everything.

Abuse Common in Tennessee Justice System

Some very damning judicial rulings in the case of death-row inmate Paul Gregory House indicate House should already have been released, but he remains in in jail. The questions raised by the rulings about how the state is operating it's judicial system reveal that abuses are a constant.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling of two years ago urged his release, and 10 years ago, DNA evidence showed his conviction was an error.

Yesterday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said House should have never been tried, that the case was jammed through the system riddled with mistakes and have ordered a new trial. Hopefully, barring some as-of-yet unknown evidence, the state will drop this case.

Presiding Judge Gilbert Merrill spoke about the critical failures and abuses of the justice system in Tennessee:

"The blatant prosecutorial misconduct in this case shows two things," Gilbert S. Merritt, the presiding judge on the panel, said in an interview after the ruling.

"First, the local district attorney in East Tennessee should never have prosecuted House in the first place, but certainly should have released him more than 10 years ago once he received the exculpatory DNA evidence.

"Second, the local district attorneys, rather than the Attorney General or the Governor, exercise almost complete control over the system of criminal justice in Tennessee.

"They are frequently mistaken and frequently abuse their power," Merritt said."

And this:

"These gross injustices will continue so long as law enforcement agencies and the Attorney General, the governor and the legislature continue to overlook or countenance this kind of prosecutorial misconduct."

WBIR has more on the story here.

The Tennessean report has links to PDF files of the rulings in this case.

UPDATE: This story is a good example of why the creation of the Tennessee Justice Newladder is most timely. An explanation of the Newsladder reads:

"A new forum dedicated to highlighting the urgent need for criminal justice reform in the Volunteer State. Every day, the 6 million residents of Tennessee depend on a fair and accurate criminal justice system to determine the truth when crimes are committed. Too often, however, the system comes up short for a variety of reasons. The problems include inadequate representation for indigent defendants; excessive caseloads; geographic disparities in the administration of justice; unreliable eyewitness identification; false confessions; jailhouse snitch testimony and more.

An unjust system produces unreliable results."

The Tennessee edition above is a local extension of a national blog, which is explained here on The Huffington Post.

The Business Of Running Government

There's an interesting post via MCB regarding Governor Bredesen's comments that Tennessee government and its budget must operate more like a business. The concept that government should operate like a business has been often touted by those in elected office (and sometimes by pundits in the public arena too).

But should government follow business models?

One comment on the post from Southern Beale says "Government should be run like *government* — of the people, by the people, for the people. Running government like a “business” has lead us to the problems we see in Washington right now."


On the one hand I agree with with SB - the two groups seem to be best operated separately, with different priorities.

But the reality is that business relies on government for success, and government relies on business for success as well. I can think of very few products made and sold by any business which is free from governmental policy or regulation.

The oft-mentioned episode in the American Colonies called "The Boston Tea Party", resulting in dumping crates of tea into the harbor, is surely an episode too of government insuring success for big business and failure for smaller businesses. As noted on this web-site:

"Many people today think the Tea Act—which led to the Boston Tea Party—was simply an increase in the taxes on tea paid by American colonists. Instead, the purpose of the Tea Act was to give the East India Company full and unlimited access to the American tea trade, and exempt the company from having to pay taxes to Britain on tea exported to the American colonies. It even gave the company a tax refund on millions of pounds of tea they were unable to sell and holding in inventory.

One purpose of the Tea Act was to increase the profitability of the East India Company to its stockholders (which included the King), and to help the company drive its colonial small business competitors out of business. Because the company no longer had to pay high taxes to England and held a monopoly on the tea it sold in the American colonies, it was able to lower its tea prices to undercut the prices of the local importers and the mom-and-pop tea merchants and tea houses in every town in America.

In an article for Harper's this month, writer Kevin Phillips shows that intentional governmental policy has altered the way government reports on business and the economy in general, with the result being that few Americans get an accurate picture of how weak or strong the economy truly is. How we have allowed massive changes to the definitions of unemployment rates, inflation, the consumer price index, etc, has had a very plain result: the average person has no idea what the economic status of the nation or individual might be.

All of the above to say that really, business has been running government for a very long time.

Camera Obscura: 'Iron Man'; "Cloverfield'; Nashville Screenwriters

I took my first trip out to the 18-screen Turkey Creek Pinnacle Theater to see "Iron Man" in digital projection and it nearly became a huge folly.

All through the previews, the image and the sound stuttered and screeched as the digital process seemed to just collapse. Just as I was about to go and complain, a woman behind me called the theater on her cell phone and told them to fix it. So she gets the Best Use Of Cell Phone in a Theater Award.

Sadly, we all had to watch all the previews again when the problem was fixed. After seeing the review for Adam Sandler's new movie, where he plays an Israeli super commando who really just wants to cut hair, I'm positive it is a movie I will never watch.

And for all the hoopla for digital projection, I didn't see enough difference between a crisp film image and a digital one. Plus, that 7-dollar matinee and a 4-dollar small soda is insanely high. Thank goodness the movie made all the effort and cash more than worth it.

Tony Stark's character weaves in and out of much of the Marvel Universe. He is a mega-wealthy, irreverent playboy and brilliant engineer running Stark Industries, which manufactures and develops weapons for the military. For the movie, we discover Stark pitching a new weapon to U.S. officials in Afghanistan. When his convoy is attacked, he is kidnapped and held by Afghani militiamen because they want him to build them a super weapon. Instead, he creates an armed metal exo-skeleton which he uses to escape.

But his experience rattles his carefree worldview and he remakes the exo-skeleton not as a new cash cow for the company, but for a more humane purpose.

Stark has always been a rather complex creation - smug, indifferent and rakish - until he decides to take his Iron Man creation into the world as a force for fighting "injustice", a fight which almost casts him as an anti-war, anti-corporate kind of liberal hippie. But he isn't. He loves technology, but he is also seeking a balance of power. As with Spiderman and the X-Men, Marvel's heroes are touched with an anti-authoritarian streak which makes them far more interesting than most comic heroes.

The movie expertly navigates all the thorny issues of Stark, thanks to director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr. Downey is able to handle the odd shifts of Stark's personality and makes an essentially unlikable playboy into a compassionate character. Job very well done. Favreau also has a knack for allowing dialog to overlap and conflict, so it rolls out like an old Howard Hawks movie, plenty of natural style and quite a bit of humor.

And also as good in the movie is the presentation of the various stages of the Iron Man suit - from a clunky home-made metal monolith into a sleek, layered machine which seems both unstoppable and more important, fun to wear. Several scenes of Downey conversing with the robotic appliances in his workshop stand out - he feels more at ease with them than with the people around him.

Audiences get teased with one of the most fascinating (to me) creations of Marvel: S.H.I.E.L.D. And if you stay to the very end of the credits, you'll get to see the one and only Nick Fury, played by Samuel Jackson. I hope that they have Nick Fury on the fast track for a movie - and maybe they should go ahead and think of making Favreau the director.

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A near-perfect monster movie hit DVD this week, and as producer J.J. Abrams has said, it plays much better on the small screen than it did on the big screen. "Cloverfield" is presented as but one random video artifact made during an attack on New York City by some unknown creature. The video was being made at a farewell party for a young man about to head off to Japan. But before long the earth violently trembles as something happens outside.

The story never appears too staged as the party-goers and the video document-maker take to the streets. It's a nightmare of chaos and a city under attack, and despite efforts to leave the city, it gets worse and worse for all involved in this small scale version of a massive disaster.

On a TV screen, it looks and feels very authentic, full of panic and unknown dangers which are barely glimpsed. Writer Drew Goddard and director Matt Reeves have done an astonishingly good movie here. And I think the movie has the perfect ending too -- even if you've seen the movie on the big screen it is better at home.

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The end of May will bring the 10th Annual Nashville Screenwriters Conference. Congrats to the organizers for reaching the decade mark!

What's The Best Cover of a Beatles Song?

A video pops up on YouTube of a wee boy singing "Hey Jude" and the video shows up on the pages of MetaFilter and quick as a wink, listing of cover songs of Beatles music spins out.

So be sure and check out what the MeFites are saying about the cover songs.

And really, any musician worth listening to has cut a version of some Beatles tune - this list is only a brief sample of performers ranging from Frank Sinatra to Jimi Hendrix to The Brady Bunch and even a listing of Give Peace A Chance by Louis Armstrong (that's one I'm still tracking down!).

There is no denial that The Beatles changed the world of music forever - every song on every album is a thing to celebrate. Their reach was endless.

Below is a short sample of the wide range of artists who've done The Beatles -- maybe you have a favorite to mention as well.


SeeqPod - Playable Search

Creation Seminar is Certainly Creative

A near-miracle is taking place as Creationists are now claiming Darwin's theory of evolution is also the theory of how the universe and the planets were created. Taking a theory about natural selection within life forms on this planet and converting it to a theory about the creation of stars and planets - that must be some kind of miracle, right?

The claims were offered at a "Creation Seminar" being held in Greeneville this week. Dr. Alan White, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry said:

"In his talk, White made his case for a created universe -- rather than one that somehow evolved naturally without creator or design -- by using examples relating to the complexity of a single cell, or amoeba.

"White stated that, in his view, the traditional biblical description of six days of creation makes sense in a scientific context, starting with Earth, space, time and light being created first, with God as the Creator, or cause."

With the presence in movie theaters in towns across the country of the movie "Expelled" hosted by actor Ben Stein, this linking of theories on the development and growth of life on this planet being also linked to the creation of the universe itself will surely add more ignorance than knowledge. And it will add cash to Ben Stein's wallet.

Court Rejects Voter ID Challenge

By a vote of 6 to 3, the US Supreme Court rejected a challenge to Indiana's Voter ID law on Monday.

In one sense the court left open challenges to Voter ID cases, but also placed emphasis on states to resolve election issues.

Two good case assessments from the SCOTUS blog note:

"The voter ID ruling may turn out to be a significant victory for Republicans at election time, since the requirement for proof of identification is likely to fall most heavily on voters long assumed to be identified with the Democrats — particularly, minority and poor voters. The GOP for years has been actively pursuing a campaign against what it calls “voter fraud,” and the Court’s ruling Monday appears to validate that effort, at least in part. The main opinion said states have a valid interest in preventing voting by those not entitled to do so, even if there is no specific proof of that kind of fraud in the state.

While the Court’s main opinion said it was “fair to infer that partisan considerations may have played a significant role” in enacting the photo ID law, it went on to say that that law was neutral in its application and was adequately supported by the justifications the state had offered."

That's from their initial report. Here's the analysis today:

"Democrats argued that voter impersonation is rare and that voter ID requirements, by making voting a more onerous task, actually tend to undermine public confidence in elections; Republicans submitted evidence that, they asserted, demonstrated the precise opposite. The Court made clear that such factual disputes should be decided by legislatures, not courts. The court exhibited the same hands-off attitude that it has exhibited toward redistricting disputes in recent years."

I'd expect more states to quickly adopt Voter ID laws, where challenges may be pushed forward on the local levels and appeals may bring the issue back to the Supreme Court further down the line.

As this post says, more challenges to such ID laws are almost being invited by the court:

"The lack of a majority opinion, moreover, injects some uncertainty into the appropriate standard for reviewing other challenges to onerous election laws. The Court’s specific split in this case will blunt charges that this is a politicized 5-4 decision — and it is significant that the Court, once again, has failed to cite to its opinion in Bush v. Gore."

Goodbye, Local Franchises

AT&T gets what it wants as the state legislature caves in to their desires.

Will you see decreased rates? Will they add jobs in Tennessee?

The answers no longer matter - the legislation they wanted is almost in place.

The Politics of Religion

It is not very tough to find a critical reaction to something said by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright - he speaks his mind about what he believes.

But I don't buy into the notion his views are those also held by Sen. Obama, much less that Rev. Wright is seeking to control American government and politics. His words and/or actions never reach the level of the right-wing Moral Majority, which actively entered the political world in 1979 and has been tackling political changes with lobbying organizations, contribution campaigns, voting guides and much more.

Rev. Wright is not playing at politics, but is being played instead.

Take the ad campaign from the North Carolina GOP - serving up snippets of Rev. Wright's sermons and comments, they seek to link him with every candidate and member of the Democrat party. But as one editorial in N.C. said: "And what does any of this have to do with improving the lives of North Carolinians?"

I can't blame Rev. Wright for coming forth to challenge and repudiate the media and their reports about him. It's his freedom to speak as he wishes in the pulpit or out of it. Folks are free to weigh the value of what he says, too. Weighing others with Wright's words just makes little sense.

The fact is Americans have allowed for considerable influence from certain religious beliefs to dictate policy and promote programs. Take the first two Executive Orders from current President Bush - the creation of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Here's a federal program, based in the White House, which in the year 2006 funneled over $2 billion to church groups.

It's just more difficult for the media to challenge the existing church-led government, easier to stack sound bites of a single pastor as proof of Sen. Obama's wacky belief system, regardless of whether it has a basis in fact or not.

Evaluating the place of religion in American politics is a dicey issue - your views of how or if the two go together may be used against you.

Weekly Best of Tennessee Blogs

Here's the weekly wrap-up (via TennViews) of what the good folks of Tennessee have been blogging about in the world of politics in general and on a personal level too. After a year (sort of) of hard knock campaigning for the presidency (and why take the job after the Bush disaster? because it will be easy to look better next to that wreckage, I suppose), the personal is getting really personal.

And when you do check some of the links below, be sure and read more than just one post from the blogger mentioned. You'll be glad you did.

• 55-40 Memphis: I'm a Hillary-hater now

• BlountViews: Republican County Mayor charges Sunshine Law violation against commissioners helping citizen investigate county finances. Plus: Local paper discovers blogs, interviews yours truly.

• Carole Borges: Hillary please do go gently into that good night

• The Crone Speaks: Abstinence Only Doesn't Work, and Barrack’s Senior Problem

• Cup of Joe Powell: Search For Terrorism in TN Nets Seatbelt Violations , plus: this is not a pipe.

• The Donkey's Mouth: Tennessee's Republican Congressional delegation votes against Medicaid Safety Net, TN GOP doesn't get the memo and blames Bredesen.

• Enclave: Beth Harwell has no interest in protecting Tennessee kids from dangerous toys (wonder why?), and any effort to regulate dangerous toys at the state level usurps the federal government's right to not regulate dangerous toys.

• Fletch: See Chattanooga on a Segway, plus Temple of the Gods: When the temple is occupied, the gods will command a magnificent air-conditioned vista of downtown, the Tennessee River, and Lookout Mountain, while processing the paperwork and making life and death financial and health decisions for the mere mortals down below who pay their tithes to the gods.

• KnoxViews: Straight talk about real life, plus McCain wins Pennsylvania primary. Bonus: KnoxViews voted best local blog by Metro Pulse alt-weekly readers. (Instapundit was a runner up.)

• Lean Left: McCain Opposed To New Benefits for Veterans, plus: Lean Left: You don't stop doing business with Pizza Hut because you don't like their corporate policies. You stop doing business with Pizza Hut because they have sh**ty pizza.

• Left of the Dial: No Deal

• Left Wing Cracker: It's time for some MISSIONARY work, my Democratic brothers and sisters, plus: Democrats for LAMAR!

• Liberadio: Steve Gill’s Gas Problem, and Phil Valentine’s Lying Problem

• NewsComa: Now famous in Pakistan.

• Progressive Nashville: Lamar Alexander Votes To Deny Justice to Tennessee Workers: Alexander and Corker both feel safe in their seats, so they had the freedom to vote party line over common sense. They should both be ashamed. Plus: What do coral snake bites and German rooftops have in common? Hint: the so-called free market.

• Resonance: Is Conspicuous Consumption Out? Plus, People Get Outraged Over The Silliest Things: And somewhere near the bottom of the list would be the horror of having my precious snowflake exposed to a few seconds of Spanish over the school public address system one day a year.

• RoaneViews: Becky Ruppe Officially announced her campaign for State Senator

• Russ McBee: McCain's Pander Bus stops in New Orleans, lies to the Lower 9th. Plus: happy blogiversary!

• Sean Braisted: Let the Caveats Begin: John McCain is backtracking on his tough talk over earmarks... Plus: Willie Horton Part Deux

• Sharon Cobb: Reverend Jeremiah Wright Gives First Interview: I bring all of this up to underscore how much your average white person does not know about the black churches, and how Rev. Wright is going to get his words twisted. Plus: Hillary Clinton Runs Her Campaign Like A Republican, And It Will Backfire

• Silence Isn't Golden: Dear Senator Obama: Hi. I know you're busy right now, and you've got a lot on your mind. But if you can spare a few minutes, then for God's sake, call this woman! Bonus: Awesome spring break, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. (And the amazing thing is, she still found time to blog for Obama!)

• Southern Beale: Rep. Jim Cooper recounts an embarrassing trip aboard Air Force One ("These are astronaut mattresses!") Plus: Back to the Kitchen!

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: Chelsea Clinton at Duke On Hillary's Position On Feminist Issues: In the video clip below, Chelsea Clinton campaigns at North Carolina's Duke University (on Equal Pay Day) and points out that numerous feminist, um, human rights bills fail to pass in even a Democratic Congress. Plus: NY Times Whines: Hillary Made Politics Mean!

• TennViews: Democratic Convention 101, Plus: Fight higher grocery prices: Buy local

• Vibinc: Harrowing Healthcare Hedge, And: Whiners and Hand Wringers

• Whites Creek Journal: No She Can't: Ohmygod!!! Obama is Willard Scott! Plus: Pictures from the Morning Hike: My yard is a bit unusual, lying in three counties and two time zones, and having over 800 feet of elevation change from bottom to top.

• Women's Health News: Drug-Addicted Women Need Medical Care, Not Jail Plus: Happy Earth Day - Alternative & Reusable Menstrual Products

UPDATE: Also, Don Williams.