Olympic Opening A Stunning Event

The jaw-dropping, high-tech opening to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing - held as the event continues to be wrapped in political controversy and debate - was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen on television.

Tens of thousands of performers and costumes played out the 5,000 year history of China aided by gigantic state-of-the-art screens which were rolled out on the floor of the stadium and circled the entire interior as well. Every detail was under intense control (it is China) as every movement and every image celebrated the nation's past and their hopes for the future - though not much was revealed about the present and more recent tumultuous history of Communist control.

As troubled and unruly as the months of warm-up for this Olympics has been, once inside the stadium, China showed off it's might with astonishing displays.

Creative consultant Steven Spielberg left the project back in April, but his imprint was certainly visible. But under the direction of filmmaker Zhang Yimou the show was the very definition of Spectacle, blending the pageantry of the past with the most modern theatrical technology available today.

Any attempt to top this opening show by 2012 for the next Olympics has an incredibly high mark to reach. In fact, for many years to come the creation of any stadium show will have the massive shadow of this one looming overhead and few will be able to accomplish one-tenth as much.

The image of the globe inside the stadium is from the Daily Mail, whose review notes:

"Hollywood will study the DVD for years to come and plunder Beijing's visual tricks. Another sign, this, that China believes it can match any country in any department. This was a feast for the eyes cooked not from the books of ancient culture so much as the latest Microsoft manuals.

"The most arresting image was of a giant rice-paper globe around which dangling figures contrived to run, some of them upsidedown, while our own Sarah Brightman sang the 2008 Olympic anthem from the North Pole position.

"A sporting message, yes, but a political one as well. Nothing is beyond the Chinese, it said, even running upside-down. They want the future's flaming torch. They want the power."

Davis Not Conceding To Roe

Defiant David Davis tells Kingsport reporter Hank Hayes that "if" he lost his bid to return to Congress in yesterday's election it was someone else's fault.

"I think we won the Republican Primary with Republican Primary voters yesterday. I think he ultimately won the election with Democrat switchover vote.”

Davis also is refusing to concede the election and is pondering a recount.

One thing about Davis - he has consistently blamed Democrats for all the national and regional ills, and now he blames them for not being re-elected. Perhaps there were some cross-over votes, but he simply need look in the mirror to discover the reason for his loss. His inability to accept the outcome of the vote, to accept responsibility for himself, says volumes about his failings

Republican David Davis Loses Congressional Seat

Republican voters say "No" to a second term for Congressman David Davis, as challenger Phil Roe takes the party's nomination for the 1st District.

The unofficial totals being reported at 11:54 pm show 25,916 for Roe and 25,416 for the incumbent Davis. Roe won in Sullivan and Washington counties, as expected, and carried the nomination in close battles in Carter and Cocke counties. Roe's win happened as I predicted it would: a win in the two large counties and in just two of the less-populated counties.

Did Democrats vote in the GOP primary to unseat Davis? Perhaps.

In the Democrat primary, Rob Russell won the nomination, also as expected. However he has a large, but not impossible task against Roe. With less than 6,000 votes cast in that primary, versus the 50,000 or so votes in the Republican primary.

Over in West Tennessee, I was happy to see that incumbent Congressman Steve Cohen was getting huge margins of victory over Nikki Tinker. Good to see the majority of folks rejecting Tinker's grim approach to politics. Sen. Obama blasted Tinker this afternoon, but with voting already underway, the real victory belongs to the voters in the 9th District.

Oh, and as best I can tell, the last time an incumbent in the 1st District lost a renomination bid was 1932, when Republican Oscar Lovette was defeated by Carroll Reece, who decided he wanted the congressional office again. Reece held the office from 1921 to 1961 for the most part, seemingly able to take the nomination whenever he wanted.

Tinkering With Racial Fears

The last few weeks sure have been ugly in the political landscape of Tennessee. It was bad enough watching the residents of Polk County and Copperhill on CNN showing off their prejudices. And the Ugly is out full bore in the Democrat battle in West TN between incumbent Congressman Steve Cohen and challenger Nikki Tinker.

Tinker has been called out for running a 'reprehensible' campaign, which Kleinheider and Michael Silence have been following. News reports by the hundreds are eyeing the battle too.

Sadly, I'm sure the folks at FOX (and others, too) will continue to fan the flames of racial fears on a national level, as they did last night referring to a "race war" in American politics.

Sending Your DNA Into Orbit

It's being called "Operation Immortality", an attempt to launch a saving throw for humanity into outer space.

The truth is much simpler. Richard Gariott, the video game tycoon, is the next "tourist" taking a flight to the International Space Station and he's running a contest to promote his new video game, "Tabula Rasa" in which U.S. residents can get a digital DNA sample and/or game character placed on a memory stick (aka The Immortality Drive) which he will ferry to the ISS.

The ISS really just needs to start selling advertising space on the exterior of the orbiting platform.

The recent commercial efforts for space earned one failure this past weekend when the latest SpaceX launch apparently exploded and thus lost the ashen remains of poor James "Scotty" Doohan and astronaut Gordon Cooper aboard the craft.

Richard Branson meanwhile is working on a mere $200,000-per-ticket fare for short orbital flights.

Until the price decreases, I'll have to settle for sending a digital-code version of this blog out into the universe via this site.

Paris Hilton Ad Scorches McCain

Dude -- I mean, Senator McCain -- got totally burned, owned and then idly dismissed by the one celebrity he thought was too dumb to boil water.

Her video was in response to his, true, but hers may just be the best of the entire 2008 campaign. I mean, forget Willie Horton ads or swift-boating, 'cause when Paris Hilton can zap you with effortless sarcasm, it's time to just wrap up your presidential hopes.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Can Rep. Davis Survive on Thursday?

One thing few folks are talking about here in this corner of the 1st Congressional District - that's the primary on Thursday. But of course, it is only Tuesday, so they have tomorrow to talk about it out loud amongst themselves.

The Big Question for Thursday is in the Republican Primary - can incumbent David Davis survive? I am thinking the answer is "No."

He won by a slim 22% in the last primary race, and there were many GOP candidates out for votes. This time, the battle is a two-man deal, with Johnson City's Phil Roe raising more campaign dollars (by a very small amount) than Davis. Here in Hamblen County, the one thing I've noticed is that signs for Phil Roe are everywhere, and few for Davis are evident. If Roe can win in Washington and Sullivan counties, and maybe in one or two of the smaller ones, he's the likely winner. If he can't carry Washington and Sullivan both - the race goes to Davis.

One blogger says of the race:

"Two members of Tennessee's wingnut patrol face primary challenges from other wingnuts hoping to capitalize on discontent within the wingnut base. In TN-01, freshman Rep. David Davis (who won the last primary with 22% of the vote) faces a rematch with 2006 contender Johnson City mayor Phil Roe. And in TN-07, Marsha Blackburn is up against Shelby County Register of Deeds Tom Leatherwood, who released an internal poll showing him within striking distance. These races don't seem to be about much other than "my turn," and Dems aren't in a place to capitalize in these deep-red districts (R+14 and R+12), but they're worth keeping an eye on."

Another blogger, the ultra-conservative David Oatney says:

"The only person running with a chance to win is Johnson City Mayor Dr. Phil Roe. Roe's actual platform is not substantially different from Davis ... The only thing David Davis is truly guilty of is that he almost seems as though he is taking his likely victory for granted. Phil Roe's people really appear to be working the district a lot harder than Davis' crew. If Roe upsets Davis, it will likely be because David Davis rested on his laurels."

If Oatney has doubts about Davis, then I'd say other ultra-conservatives are considering a switch too.

In the Democrat primary, the race belongs top to bottom to Rob Russell. And he continues to make more efforts to get out and be seen - he's appearing tonight at the Greene County Fair, but unless he's giving away free funnel cakes, I don't know how many folks will stop to talk with him at his booth. Actually, given the current heatwave here in ET, maybe he should be handing out free water and lemonade.

Thoughts on Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Sometime in 1974, I was lugging around this gigantic book with the weird name of "The Gulag Archipelago".

Fortunately, living in a small town on the Cumberland Plateau, the title was just a bit too strange and the author's name, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, too foreign, to cause any curious person to dare ask me what that book was about. Carrying that book around for the months it took me to read it, I could see so many folks just filing away information about me - that is a one strange boy, their eyes said.

I was strange. Still am, really.

But that book got etched into my mind. Ostensibly a chronicle of life in a prison camp in the former Soviet Union, it is so much more. It is a marvel of writing, sometimes deeply personal, sometimes darkly comic, wrapped in politics and madness, attempting to grasp the utter dehumanization of the individual and the society which was ingrained into the lives of not just a nation, but the world in general.

I learned that tyranny and terror were incredibly powerful tools which could warp the thoughts and actions, sometimes with colossal bluntness, sometimes with precise skill. Could anyone survive the systematic insanity the police state created?

Around the time of the book's publication, Solzhenitsyn's face was often in the news. His long beard made him look like a relic of the both the recent and the ancient past. His views, so often expressed through the prism of his political ponderings, were difficult to decipher. He wasn't willing to play the part the media had made for him, The Dissident. Eventually, he faded into the background.

I was sad to read of his death - he had lived in the U.S. in his own style of personal exile. He continued to write, but his books were hardly best-sellers anymore. The comments and the posting on Gawker, for example, are as obtuse and odd. While he might have been able to capture the effects of a world gone mad, the world never knew what to make of him.

His account of life and politics in the Gulag trilogy are among the great works of the last century. Reading the books will still challenge and startle and inspire. Perhaps that was the best he could have hoped for.

Tennesseans Prefer The Lies

A CNN story about residents of Polk County, TN shows a small but vocal group of seemingly intelligent folks who prefer fictions about Sen. Obama over facts. Dan Lehr writes about the story and the willful refutation of what's accurate for his blog for WTVC- TV. Others on the internet (here and here for example) have been on this report too and Tennessee comes off quite badly, all in all.

CNN reporter Gary Tuchman noted it was the mayor of the town which captured their attention:

"We called business leaders. We called mayors. And this particular town, Copperhill, has a very gregarious mayor who said he would be happy to go on camera.

And he guaranteed, everyone in town will want to talk to you.

And, indeed, they did. So, that’s why we went to Copperhill. But we could go to all 50 states and do the exact same story, Wolf.

Recently I was talking with a long-time friend, a very smart, thoughtful fellow who likewise spouted a stream of meaningless hooey about Obama he'd read and heard which have been talking points for the Tennessee Republican Party for months now. It was sad to hear him say these things, and worse, to realize he is far more ready to believe them. After a long talk, I hit a sizable obstacle in his logic which no amount of talking could alter, it seems - his unspoken fear of a non-white person being President of the U.S.

That's what it really is - a deep-rooted fear of another race. Period.

As for the folks in Copperhill and Ducktown - they are folks who a willing to commit to something no matter what the consequences. For decades, the operations of copper mines in the basin were conducted at a very high cost: for fuel, they "cut down every tree and burned it", and the resulting sulphuric acid by-product of the mining returned as rain which left a dead landscape where nothing could grow in the ground for a 50-mile radius. (See more on this from a children's history of Tennessee. If memory serves, at one time the bright orange scar in the Ducktown Basin was once visible from space. I understand they have been aggressively trying to replant trees and clean up the water since the early 1990s.)

Some folks seem to be willing to dig in their heels hold fast to an idea, no matter how destructive.

Image of Ducktown Basin circa 1912

'Hannah Montana Is Our New Secretary of Awesome'

Consider this as follow-up to yesterday's post.

McCain Says Obama's Number One

I've heard some goofy campaign ideas - but for the John McCain presidential campaign to promote this idea that his opponent is the "biggest celebrity in the world" puts McCain is on the sidelines, watching his opponent carry the day.

Claiming that none but Obama has the title of champ for worldwide celebrity fame is, given the nature of fame, more than just waving a flag of surrender. McCain's folks were darned near congratulating Obama for hitting the top of the charts. What's McCain's next plan: croon the tune "You're The Tops" to him via a video valentine??

Yeesh. Is Bill Hobbs working for McCain or something? What? He is? Oh well then ...

Just read what was written in the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

"Campaign manager Rick Davis said the Spears and Hilton photos were included to "demonstrate that the focus of the Obama campaign has been as much to create that celebrity status of his as it is to discuss the hard issues that the American people are forced to debate during the course of this campaign."

(Ouch. So Obama is focused on both discussing hard issues and still becoming wildly popular, eh? Yeah that's just awful ....)

"What we decided to do is find the top three international celebrities in the world," Davis added.
"And I would say from our estimations, Britney and Paris came in second and third."

McCain adviser Steve Schmidt also chided Obama as "the biggest celebrity in the world."

(Yee-ouch!! That had to sting!! In the world, you say, not just in the US of A? Yes, how ... terrible??)

"It's backed up by the reality of his tour around the world. He has many fans," Schmidt said. "The question that we are posing to the American people is this: Is he ready to lead yet? And the answer to the question that we will offer to the American people is no, that he is not."

Someone is paying for McCain's crew to talk like that about his opponent?

It reads like "Of course he's a success, the press loves his style, he's photogenic and comes across great on TV and magazine interviews and he's capturing the imaginations of people around the world, he is on top of his game -- but ... uh .... John McCain is ... nothing ... like ... that. .... Hmmm. Let me rephrase that ..."

Just sad, really, really sad.

New Info on Info

I marvel at the discussions about reading, writing and every other thing on the Internet which aim to study just what good it does us, or if it does us ill.

As some have noted - concerns about Information are as old as .. well, as Information:

"The continuity I have in mind has to do with the nature of information itself or, to put it differently, the inherent instability of texts. In place of the long-term view of technological transformations, which underlies the common notion that we have just entered a new era, the information age, I want to argue that every age was an age of information, each in its own way, and that information has always been unstable.

The writer of the essay, Robert Darnton has other ideas to consider, too:

"Other stories about blogging point to the same conclusion: blogs create news, and news can take the form of a textual reality that trumps the reality under our noses. Today many reporters spend more time tracking blogs than they do checking out traditional sources such as the spokespersons of public authorities. News in the information age has broken loose from its conventional moorings, creating possibilities of misinformation on a global scale. We live in a time of unprecedented accessibility to information that is increasingly unreliable. Or do we?

I would argue that news has always been an artifact and that it never corresponded exactly to what actually happened. We take today's front page as a mirror of yesterday's events, but it was made up yesterday evening—literally, by "make-up" editors, who designed page one according to arbitrary conventions: lead story on the far right column, off-lead on the left, soft news inside or below the fold, features set off by special kinds of headlines. Typographical design orients the reader and shapes the meaning of the news. News itself takes the form of narratives composed by professionals according to conventions that they picked up in the course of their training—the "inverted pyramid" mode of exposition, the "color" lead, the code for "high" and "the highest" sources, and so on. News is not what happened but a story about what happened."

He is writing mostly to shore up support for the institution of The Library, an actual building and location with real books and papers you can hold in your hand. And yes, studying the creation of those books and documents also indicate vast amounts of information had been shuffled to fit the needs or concerns of it's creators.

A recent report in the NY Times takes a look at reading and the Internet, called "Online, R U Really Reading?":

"On paper, text has a predetermined beginning, middle and end, where readers focus for a sustained period on one author’s vision. On the Internet, readers skate through cyberspace at will and, in effect, compose their own beginnings, middles and ends.

Young people “aren’t as troubled as some of us older folks are by reading that doesn’t go in a line,” said Rand J. Spiro, a professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University who is studying reading practices on the Internet. “That’s a good thing because the world doesn’t go in a line, and the world isn’t organized into separate compartments or chapters.”

Just recall that no one really taught classes in how to use text messaging, and yet somehow, Tennessee ranked last month as the "Textiest State in the Southeast". (And is "textiest" even a real word??)

Condolences for Shooting Victims in Knoxville Church

UPDATE: Potent video from the aftermath of the shooting at the Knoxville church via Knox News Sentinel reporter Frank Munger.
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UPDATE 2: Early investigations indicate the accused killer targeted the church for what he perceived to be the political beliefs of members - being "liberal", being "Democrat", and supporting the gay and lesbian community.

-- More here in discussion of these topics: "Well, this is what happens when you foment hatred in order to win elections."

- A pastor speaks out.

- Framing this event as a politically motivated hate-crime appears to be unavoidable, something sure to set off an internet firestorm in this area of typically Conservative East Tennessee, and it is a key aspect of FBI involvement, especially given the incendiary statements from the accused killer, Jim Adkisson.

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I'm wondering today how a shooting spree and some recent events might be linked. Others are too.

Yesterday morning I was reading at a few regular local web sites when at KnoxBlab the news came across about a shooting spree at the Tennessee Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville. The postings were within minutes of the event, and it was at least a few hours before the local traditional media outlets had the reports. Today the story is being well-tracked online and in reports and posts at No Silence Here, and at many other sites too.

I had just been reading one writer yesterday morning at the Blab who had an electrical problem at their house and had asked for some assistance. They community responded quickly, with much help, and it wasn't long before a fellow poster had arrived at the home to effect repairs. As wacky as some might see community boards, I had always noticed a strong sense of emphasis on the word "community." People seek aid on many things, from recipes to electrical problems, and yes, even to just sharing news on a terrible tragedy like a stranger walking into a church service and opening up with a shotgun on the crowd.

I visited some friends an hour or so later, and we talked about the shooting and theorized that the church had recently hosted a Planned Parenthood seminar, that some in the area had voiced opposition to the event. I've received many emails from the church myself over the last few years, via other friends, who see much worthwhile the church's stance on so many issues - a stance of tolerance and building acceptance, building community. And no, that is not the case in every church you might attend, only some.

And by this morning, it was apparent the shooter, tackled by church members and quickly taken into custody by law enforcement, was telling officials about his hatred for "liberal" groups, about how the event had been planned, a 4-page letter left by the killer in his car. I hated to realize our theory of yesterday seems to have been based in fact.

I have also noticed in the last few weeks - at numerous blogs in middle and east Tennessee - a spike in online comments raging with racism and hatred toward anything deemed "liberal" or "non-white". I am not linking to any of them, no. I read them, perhaps you did too. Some were nasty and vicious and all were deeply disturbed and wrong, wrong, wrong. But it helped formulate my theory as I had noticed such a sudden spike in taking these views public - as if they were really wanting more than just to "sound off', a sense they wanted to do something.

Someone did.

The inevitable debate about owning and carrying a gun wherever you go arrives fast on the heels of the story. The use of a gun to kill will sadly occur if someone wants to use the gun for that purpose no matter what the law might be. From reports so far, there were many in the church who sacrificed their safety to end the threat. And anyone can and has used any political belief or religious view to rage and kill against other people. They can also use beliefs to effect change in far more positive ways.

An aberrant event does not equate as "proof" of something, other than the reality that people can do bad things to other people for any manner of reasons or delusions or both.

So while the internet hums with talk of the event and what it means on so many levels of experiences, I can best offer only my deepest sympathies and condolences to all involved in this tragedy. I hope you take a moment to send them your best thoughts as well.

Camera Obscura: Alien Politics In The Human World

Swimming naked and chasing a dollar bill on a fish hook is one way to fame. NPR covered the story of the wee lad on the cover of Nirvana's album Nevermind this week. "Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis," he says from his home in Los Angeles. "So that's kinda cool. I'm just a normal kid living it up and doing the best I can while I'm here."

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Robert E, Howard's heroine Red Sonja is set to return to film via director Robert Rodriguez, with his girlfriend, Rose McGowan in the title role and the villainous Howard character of Thulsa Doom (played by James Earl Jones in "Conan The Barbarian") is set to get his own movie too, played this time by actor Djimon Hounsou. Thulsa Doom is one of the coolest names ever for a villain.

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Speaking of pulp fictions and comics, what for many many years had been The Comic Book Convention in the nation is now much more a Hollywood festival, akin to the Sundance Festival or Cannes -- The San Diego Comic Con is jammed pack with movie stars. Extensive coverage of the event is here at Cinematical. Read about "Tron 2", a "Robocop" remake, the new "Day The Earth Stood Still" starring Kenau Reeves as Klaatu and much, much more.

Check out the trailer for "The Day The Earth Stood Still" here.


The 1951 movie which has such amazing iconic imagery and added some intellectual heft to Hollywood's breezy take on science fiction will be tough to improve. That movie was based on the short story "Farewell To The Master" by Harry Bates, published in 1940 by Astounding Magazine and you can read it online here.

The movie (and the story) tackle a simple, profound and common human experience - meeting someone who Is Not From Around Here. The movie script added global warfare and atomic attacks to the mix, like many other 50s-era sci-fi, but focused on the human concepts of warfare and society rather than bug-eyed atomic monsters.

Politics was the key theme in the movie - a massive UFO lands in Washington D.C., and since America is the world's superpower nation, the alien is there to talk to everyone through us. So much film and television in the the post-WW2 America was wrestling with the after-effects of the battle, the morality (or lack of it) in all types of human interaction and conflict.

It's no surprise that these stories are returning today. Back then children and adults were constantly drilled to respond to nuclear attacks, and today we live in the age of the Terror Alert status.

Another profoundly influential science-fiction tale is returning too: "The Twilight Zone", now being assembled by Leonardo DiCaprio and Warner Brothers. Like "The Day The Earth Stood Still", Rod Serling's long-running TV series focused on political and moral conflicts in sharply defined episodes. Personal identity, politics, and often purely philosophical dramas formed the basis of this unique show which fueled political debates in the 50s and 60s and which echoes today in our deeply divided political climate.

Neighborhood In Lockdown

A neighborhood is in lockdown, no one is allowed to enter without police checking their IDs and all seeking entry must prove they either live in the neighborhood or have some legitimate business. The neighborhood is in Washington, D.C. - where enormous attention was riveted back in March when the Supreme Court invalidated the voter-approved law regulating gun ownership.

The community, Trinidad, had previously enacted a previous lockdown in early June, following a spree of shootings that left 7 dead. The checkpoint system was halted, but has been enacted again following another spree in the same community this past weekend, two were killed this time, including a 13-year-old boy in the area who was visiting relatives.

Officials have also installed ShotSpotter sensors around the city, which alerts police when gunfire occurs. Of course, once a shot is made, it cannot be unmade, only responded to by police.

A Washington Post columnist, Courtland Milloy, spoke to some of the young kids living in this world, and their best advice is not to be outside once it's dark. The current lockdown is set to end tomorrow and few can say with optimism that the shootings won't start all over again.

Sadly ironic is that the city's gun laws, the one overturned by the Supreme Court, remains in effect. The city is trying to re-write the law and in the meantime, it certainly appears to make zero difference if handguns are banned or not. Or perhaps it might - once a shooting spree starts, more shots might be fired back.

The earnest and devoted attention and discussion which the D.C. v Heller case created is noticeably absent in the nightmarish world in Trinidad, just blocks away from the U.S. Capitol. For those residents, the real questions are how to survive for now and how to create a neighborhood controlled by something more than rage and random violence.


UPDATE: The "military-style checkpoints" will continue for another five days according to law enforcement officers in D.C.

If Food Is Dangerous, Why Do We Have Buffets?

I'll confess it right here and now. I am an addict. My addiction is food. I started eating at a very early age and have continued to eat every day since, often several times a day. I'm hardly alone in my addiction. Everyone I know is an addict too.

My tastes include most anything edible. Except for a few things, like this stuff they call "potted meat". The ingredients listed and the way it tastes and even the name curdle my insides. I really love sushi, but that does not mean when I go fishing and I catch a bass, I'm going to bite a chunk out of it. (And I never keep what I might catch anyway, I always unhook the poor critter and put it back in the water.) I also will not eat pork rinds. I tend to seldom desire to consume something called "rind".

Anyway, this study was recently released ranking Tennessee in 3rd place for "obese population" and the South in general as the Land of the Fatest. I have to agree that I see many folks whose width exceeds their height. I do try and eat things that are healthy for me, but, sometimes I don't. . Let's all remember this simple rule: Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that’s bad for you! ~Tommy Smothers

And before the nation Organizes A Formal Committee to Explore The Problem and Create A Law About Eating Stuff, it's best to consider (and read) this post from DeMarCaTionVille, who says:

"And at such time the US Government requires me to jog or do any activity which could be described as “bouncy,” or when they try to place restrictions on or prohibit in any way my rights to enjoy Southern Foods, such as fried green tomatoes, okra, chicken, gumbo and beer-battered catfish, AND/OR they even attempt to limit how much sugar I can put in my tea, I do hereby declare the South will rise again.

I, personally, will lead a band of freedom fighters on the march to DC with the intention of **overthrowing the federal government. And the Revolution will not be televised… mostly because we’re fat and out-of-shape down here. This means many of us will have heart attacks, strokes and/or die of heat exhaustion before we make it to DC, therefore our numbers will be depleted. Plus, the rest of us will so tired from doin’ all that marching that a 63-year old unarmed DC tour guide could kick our ass, so you might not hear about our Revolution unless you read the Reuters’ Oddly Enough Section.

But that’s not the point. It’s the principle of the matter.

You know how they say: freedom ain’t free - well, this means a lot of different things. One of them being if you expect the government to pay for your poor choices, you’re going to see those choices eliminated. It’s that simple. And if I had my druthers - I’d druther live fat, free and Southern Fried than extend my life expectancy by five years and live to see the day Mama’s cooking is outlawed and I’m required by law to bounce."

High Security At City Council Meetings

For reasons unexplained in news accounts, high level security measures have been adopted during city council meetings in Morristown.

"The heightened security measures employed Tuesday were largely procedural and probably went unnoticed by those who attended the meeting.

Increasing safety further will cost from several hundred to several thousand dollars, according to Morristown Police Chief Roger Overholt.

The possibilities include a metal detector or hand-held wand at the public entrance of Council Chambers, a video monitoring system and enhanced communications equipment, according to Overholt."

Plans also include possibly blocking off parts of surrounding streets on meeting dates.

Have some credible threats been made towards the council? I surely hope not, and fortunately the city's police department is but a few yards away from council chambers. Some years back, at least one police officer has been stationed inside council chambers during meetings, which seems like a sound idea.

I do find it odd that while the city has so far not been willing to record and broadcast their mid-day meetings on local cable TV outlets, they are considering aiming cameras at those who attend meetings and requiring security checks to enter the council chambers. The pessimist in me wonders if some residents will decide these measures will make them reluctant to attend meetings

Hey Up There - Good Job

It's just a year shy of the 40th anniversary, but as each July rolls past I still marvel at what some bold and brave and ingenious folks did back in the summer of 1969.

Their actions were not swaddled in safety, they took risks beyond imagining.

I recall most vividly watching the blurry black and white images flickering on television, feeling the tension of all who were with me (my family and some friends), tension which engulfed us one and all.

After I had watched their amazing and tentative steps for some several minutes, I went outside and looked up into the sky. It was a very humid night and I recall wondering how many other people all across our own planet were also looking up as well.. I did not know then, as I do know, that the two men landing on the Moon for the first time touched down on the surface with bare seconds of fuel left, or that Commander Neil Armstrong had taken manual control of his craft and steered his frail ship with steel-strong courage to complete his mission.

I stared upwards for a long time and then, being just a wee child, I decided to wave up at the sky and say "Hey up there. Good job." And I was pretty sure that even if they could not hear me, I liked thinking that much of the world was doing the same thing. The footprints I made that night in the thick grass of the backyard disappeared moments after I made them. The footprints they made did not.

I continue to admire Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and the handful of other explorers who also made the journey there and back again. And for some odd reason, I am proud that one of those first two explorers was named "Buzz". It was as if it somehow brought outer space closer to home, and took home out into space.

So cheers to these men, and to all those who helped achieve that moment in history. Thanks for your courage.

UPDATE: I was reminded by this recent post from the one and only Squirrel Queen that you can add your name to a giant list of names which NASA is sending to the moon. No, really. Add your name by July 25 at this link. I added mine gladly.

SQ writes on her post on this topic: "NASA is now allowing folks to submit their John Hancock to a database which will be placed on a microchip and put on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, spacecraft. The LRO will be in orbit around the big green cheese in the sky for many years."

So now I am a bit closer the surface than I have ever been. And what a fine way to observe the anniversary for the first lunar landing by humans.

Weekly Best Of Tennessee Blogs

Here's the latest roundup via TennViews of the best in blogging from Tennessee writers/readers/bloggers.

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Fahrvergnügen! (a comprehensive roundup of VW Chattanooga news)

• Andy Axel: Bait and Switch

• Tiny Cat Pants: As we all know, Bill Hobbs is on his great crusade to defund Planned Parenthood and instead move all that money into government-run services, because the TNGOP loves government-run healthcare, except when it’s proposed by Democrats.

• BlountViews: Finney or Overbey? Who does a progressive support? PLUS: Lazy election coverage

• Carole Borges: New Yorker loses its sense of humor

• The Crone Speaks: It seems that when doctors themselves stop accepting insurance, their patients get better care at a more reasonable cost.

• Cup Of Joe Powell: A blistering editorial on 1st District Congressman David Davis by the Editorial Board of the Bristol Herald Courier is out today and makes some excellent points: BONUS: Coffee War AND: Camera Obscura: Batmania (and more)

• Don Williams: Al Gore’s daring challenge -- an ‘Apollo program’ to save the Earth

• Tennessee Democratic Party Blog: The Associated Press released an article today explaining how a 30% increase in voter turnout for Obama in the black community could swing the South, including Tennessee, into the blue column.

• Enclave: It's clear to me from this research that if you want a stronger economy that includes job creation, you have to run with Democratic Presidents. All of the conservative campaign rhetoric that moderate-leaning-left administrations will destroy American jobs is unsubstantiated in this research.

• Fletch: Seagull Contrail PLUS: Still Life

• KnoxViews: You can look up your bank or credit union at the following links to a) make sure they are insured, and b) check their financial statements and ratio reports, which are a quick snapshot of their performance. PLUS: John McCain posting on his blog. AND: Clinton (and Edwards) should be on the ballot in Denver

• Lean Left: Massachusetts is now in the process of repealing the racist and obsolete law that Mitt Romney invoked to continue to limit marriage rights for gays after the state legislature removed the overt bar to marriage in the law.

• Left Wing Cracker: Endorsements

• Liberadio(!): Leave Robin Smith Alone!

• NewsComa: Stewart Byars

• The Pesky Fly: Atrios wonders why the image of the burning twin towers is seen by Republicans as a powerful image of their strength and resolve.

• Progressive Nashville: Tennessee could save nearly six dollars in health care costs for every dollar spent on prevention according to a new study by the Trust for American Health. PLUS: Glass Houses AND: TNGOP Declares Victory in Iraq

• Resonance:: What will it take to instill in our elected leaders a sufficient sense of urgency to act? $160/barrel oil? $180? $200? Whatever it is, it will come too late.

• RoaneViews: Lincoln's Republican opponent, Whatshisname, doesn't live in our district and won't be our next Congressman.

• Russ McBee: Not surprisingly, the EPA intends to stonewall the issue long enough to avoid taking any action until after Bush leaves office; nevertheless, it's astonishing that the EPA has finally dropped its hostility to nearly universal scientific consensus. PLUS: The phantom promise of offshore drilling

• Nashville for the 21st Century: Congress-stakes: If A) Obama wins, and B) he offers Cooper a cabinet position, and C) he accepts...who would run for the open seat? I'll throw out some potential candidates, and follow with a poll. PLUS: Will Pelosi and Dean Block Hillary at Convention?: The DNC can't and won't change the rules so that only Barack Obama's name can be thrown out there.

• Sharoncobb: Oh. You Have To See/Hear What Larry Craig Just Said: Oh Dear Lord. No one could make this stuff up. Here's what Larry Craig just said, and it's captured on tape:

• Silence Isn't Golden Netroots Nation dispatches here, here, here, and here. BONUS: You are so Nashville if...

• Southern Beale: Okay, kids, it’s time for that wacky new game: Elitist: Yes or No? PLUS: Memory Holes

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: Sounds good. Except for the fact that for weeks now the media has been reporting that Hillary's name on the ballot is not assured, rather the question will be determined by negotiations between the Clinton and Obama camps. PLUS: Breaking MSNBC Political News: Hillary Clinton Has a New Hairdo!

• TennViews: Voters say more focus needed on children's issues PLUS: Tennessee Senate 8th

• WhitesCreek Journal: Republican Chair Robin Smith is a symptom of what is so wrong with our political process. There is a deep dishonesty in her half of the process and a willingness to let it slide on the part of most news media, and a massive double standard that examines Democratic candidates in minute detail but lets republican candidates get by with slanderous conduct. PLUS: Species Count for Whites Creek

• Women’s Health News: HHS Attempts to Define Contraception as Abortion PLUS: Open letter to Obama:: I’d also like a pledge to not put anti-science, anti-woman yahoos in charge of, you know, science and women.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog Review

The nerd which owns much of my heart and what little remains of my pop culture-infested brain has been constantly promoting the most unusual 3-act sci-fi musical comedy called "Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Along Blog" and today (well, really tomorrow, the 20th) will mark the end of seeing it online for free. After tomorrow, purchasing it via iTunes or on the upcoming DVD will be your only choice.

Writer-director Joss Whedon (and some of his family) made this very surreal, very funny and ultimately very entertaining mini web-series. Building on the skills he learned from the musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer ("Once More With Feeling"), he and his crew and the performers have indeed made something most unique.

Action and comedy, hubris and tragedy, goofiness and pathos all combine in this mini-musical and it is no wonder producers are seriously considering making this into a full-blown Broadway extravaganza.

Act I reels you in with some wry humor, Act II extends it into something more compelling and the 3rd Act payoff is more than worth the 40 or so minutes of the time you and your computer will invest to watch it. While Marvel or DC superheroes rake in mega-bucks at yer local multi-plex, Whedon delivers something much more interesting with Dr. Horrible. It's a sharply observed look at how incompetence can incubate something .... horrible.

In the YouTube age of self-produced silliness, Whedon has made a bit of Internet history. So stop reading this review and just go watch it.