Farewell to Molly Ivins

Sadly, Molly Ivins died Wednesday night in Austin at the age of 62. I cannot say that I have read all of her columns and books, but what I have read I have appreciated and enjoyed. She was sharp-witted and very funny.

Both CNN and AlterNet have articles on her passing (here and here respectively). The Texas Observer website is currently dedicated to her and has made many of her columns accessible.

Some other articles about and tributes to Molly today:

• Remembering Molly Ivins, 1944-2007 - Time
• Quotes and quips from Molly Ivins - The Houston Chronicle
• Remembering Molly Ivins - The Nation
• Molly Ivins, Columnist, Dies at 62 - The New York Times
• Molly Ivins: A Life Of Passion, Wit And Joy - The Hartford Courant
• Molly Ivins remembers - Denver Post (a more personal note)

Here is a quote from a November 2006 column that I enjoyed:

"...it is always the right time to point out the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. Honest. There stands George W. Bush, buck nekkid. We want to help him out of this fix because he’s dragging the whole Army, the country and the world down with him. But don’t ask us to call those clothes."

From her last column:

"We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war."

So many blogs...

...so little time to waste.

I hit a few random blogs today between tasks at work (mostly as a product of the "next blog" button in blogger). I am always a little surprised by how much time some people have and how many different people there are in the world. I am also surprised by how much crap there is in blogs. Wow. Kudos to people for taking the time to enlighten/entertain strangers. The rest of them I can do without. Here are some you might find interesting:

• http://boobyfish.blogspot.com/ - I am a full time stay at home Mom who is never home and a self taught mixed media artist. In addition to creating art for various collaborative swaps and round robins, I sell through my Etsy shop and publish "Portals", a mixed media art Zine.
• http://arttealife.blogspot.com/
• http://bestestblogofalltime.blogspot.com/ - This blogs has link to and highlights of other blogs. An entertaining way to waste loads of time. [also related http://randomblogbutton.blogspot.com/]
• http://cesandherdishes.blogspot.com/
• http://668akaneighbourofthebeast.blogspot.com/ - Canadians are kind of crazy, but in a fun way.
• http://granitestudio.blogspot.com/ - A Qing historian reads the newspaper...
• http://averylongwalk.blogspot.com/
• http://sacredbluephoto.blogspot.com/

In my adventures with "next blog", I have found a few things that I am against:

• Blogs that only have one topic in them and are primarily just for advertising.
• Blogs that automatically take you to a commercial website. Several jumped to a jokes website (I will not provide the link because I refuse to support it).

It is not that I don't know that a huge majority of what is on the internet is just junk. I am just disappointed when I am directly confronted with it. It dampens my joy.

Good News

Do-gooders may not always make the headlines, but sometimes they do make the news. IT is good to be reminded of the positive work that is being done. I hope that stories of hard work and sacrifice for the sake of others will inspire someone (including me) even a little to make some small sacrifice in our life.

A great example of sacrifice is the story of a volunteer soccer coach for refugees in Georgia (USA). The New York Times article is in the archives now, so you may not be able to access it for free. I highly recommend the article if you can find it somewhere. It tells the story of the "Fugees" soccer team and their coach, Luma Mufleh. The consists entirely of refugee children who have been placed in Clarkston, Georgia, from places including Somalia and Afghanistan. If you know anything about small towns in Georgia, you know that the team members and their families may not be welcomed with open arms. The story tells of their struggles to be allowed to use the local park for practice as well as the struggles of the working poor families that the children come from. Check out the "Fugees" website here, which tells some of the personal stories and shows that the coach is trying to help the families in more than one aspect of their lives (education, housing, employment).

Where has all the good news gone?

Our media today is clearly driven by what the people ask for. As such, much of the news has become either sensational or simply meaningless. Take the current "Most Popular" 10 stories from CNN (updated every 20 minutes). Perhaps the interest in the stories of guide horses and miraculously surviving ducks offer some comfort in our otherwise troubled times. The violence in the world in the form of wars and bombings is on the list, but only 20%. Violence on an individual level, reflected in the personal tragedy of an elderly man in California who was attacked by a mountain lion, seems to be a more popular distraction. Of course, entertainment tops the stories as well, in Big Brother, Little Miss Sunshine, and even a royal visit. I think the popularity of the lives of celebrities is driven by a need for people to escape from their lives and vicariously live a glamorous life (I will not even start on shows like Cribs and most of what is on E! which feeds this need).

1. Mountain lion victim worsens
2. Uncle Sam spoils dream space trip
3. Indian actress wins 'Big Brother'
4. Plot aimed to kill Shiite clerics
5. Tiny horse helps blind owner
6. Big night for 'Sunshine'
7. Former lawmaker and priest dies
8. Israel bakery bombing kills 3
9. British royals visit U.S.
10. Plucky duck survives again

Lest we start thinking ill of the Americans and their evil/ignorant ways, here is the current top 5 on the BBC international edition:

1. Australia shows Irwin's last film
2. Duck comes back from dead, again
3. Thai airport hit by runway cracks
4. Comedy spoof tops US box office
5. Defiant Reid says 'I won't quit'

Apparently, that is one very popular duck. I would also note for the record that the Big Brother story has been getting a lot of air time on BBC International TV recently.

A further examination of the news reveals a wild variety of murder and mayhem, including the story of a man who was convicted of killing his wife. Though an alarmingly common plot line, the twist came when he blamed his 12-year-old daughter for the killing. There was story of a woman who apparently has mental problems and drowned her children, believing she was sending them to God (also not as unusual as I would hope it to be).

In our modern world, it is difficult to escape the 24-hour stream of news and information. And I do not advocate escape. What I find sorely lacking is some good news - where are the front page stories of people who spend their lives helping others and advocating to make our world a better place? What about teachers who aren't sleeping with students or trying to save public school students from hell? I know they are there, working quietly behind the scenes. I just wish that sometimes they were more interesting to us as a people than a resurrected (admittedly somewhat remarkable) duck.

Shop for the Cure?

I want to be clear: I support breast cancer research and awareness. I run the Race for the Cure whenever I can. I own pink socks, great jewelery with pink pearls (thank you, Angela), a pink lunch bag and various other items showing my support for the cause. I do not waiver in my support nor do I wish that these things had not been purchased. [See CNN's article on the Komen Foundation]

However, I must admit that a recent piece, entitled Is Breast Cancer Awareness a Marketing Sham?, does raise some good points. For example, I very strongly agree that some awareness and effort should be dedicated to women's heart disease issues. I have been happy to see that the American Heart Association has started a "Go Red for Women" campaign [red ribbons were already taken]. I also think it is important to consider the motivations of the pharmaceutical companies and the chemical companies when they interpret the relevant research. I do not take the cynical view that these companies would purposefully harm women to promote their product, but I would not think them above reading into ambiguous data what they want to see. It is human/corporate nature at work.

This article may take a fairly extreme view of the situation, but it is important to consider other sides of every issue. This is a reminder that not everything that is "for a good cause" is necessarily a pure good and should be carefully considered to understand what other motives may be in play.

Television, TV, the "Tube"...

So many things have been said about television since it entered popular culture 50 or 60 odd years ago. Here are a few of my favorites:

I wish there were a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. There's a knob called "brightness," but that doesn't work. ~Author Unknown

Television: A medium - so called because it is neither rare nor well done. ~Ernie Kovacs

The publishers and others should quit worrying about losing customers to TV. The guy who can sit through a trio of deodorant commercials to look at Flashgun Casey or swallow a flock of beer and loan-shark spiels in order to watch a couple of fourth-rate club fighters rub noses on the ropes is not losing any time from book reading. ~Raymond Chandler, 1946

The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little. ~Ray Bradbury, The Golden Apples of the Sun

Television was not intended to make human beings vacuous, but it is an emanation of their vacuity. ~Malcolm Muggeridge

Your cable television is experiencing difficulties. Please do not panic. Resist the temptation to read or talk to loved ones. Do not attempt sexual relations, as years of TV radiation have left your genitals withered and useless. ~Matt Groening, The Simpsons

The smallest bookstore still contains more ideas of worth than have been presented in the entire history of television. ~Andrew Ross

Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television. ~Rita Mae Brown

Television: chewing gum for the eyes. ~Frank Lloyd Wright

Clearly, all of these learned intellectuals (exclude the Simpsons quote for purposes of this discussion) have realized that they are too smart and too good to truly enjoy television. They see it as a meaningless opiate of the masses. In their eyes, everyone who watches and enjoys TV is somehow mentally impaired, not capable of higher order thought - and the situation is only made worse by the hours of shows they are absorbing. I cannot say that I completely disagree with this sentiment. Those who spend their life in front of Jerry Springer reruns might not be the sharpest knives in the drawer, so to speak, but that does not make TV all bad. TV is great for relaxing and for having some exposure to what the masses seem to find entertaining. You can't be a snobby intellectual 24/7 - it makes you boring and painful to those around you. Everyone needs an escape from the ivory tower. To take a break from some of the (hopefully) more thoughtful material that I may blog about, I present:

TV Shows I Watch/Like and Why (in no particular order)

• Heroes - How do you not love a comic book put up on the small screen? I am hoping that the wide variety of characters will keep it interesting for many seasons to come. It is great so far! They have saved the cheerleader, but have they saved the world? I am waiting for the new episode to I do not know yet.


• Gilmore Girls - Alas, we are in the last season of Gilmore Girls. It is no longer at its peak, but I will keep watching to see how it all turns out.
  

• Medium - While I find it questionable that the main dead-person-seeing character is in fact based on a real dead-person-seeing person (as I believe is the premise of the show), I am still entertained by Allison's reactions to the dead and the many ways that they communicate with her. Conveniently, she can use her skills to solve a wide variety of cases for the district attorneys office.
  
• Ghost Whisperer - It is kind of like Party of Five meets the Sixth Sense. You may think this show too much like Medium (dead-person-seeing main characters being a significant similarity), but they have a totally different vibe. Also, people do not generally get arrested in GW. Instead, the families/friends of the dearly departed deal amazingly well with the crazy lady telling them that she is talking to dead people. As I recall, only a very small proportion actually think she is crazy and cannot be won over in the end. I am not sure about the additions of Jay Mohr and Camryn Manheim to the cast this season, but I will hold out to see how it goes.
  
  
  
  

  

• Supernatural - Ah, the WB (now the CW)...it may not be the highest quality TV around, but it certainly is entertaining. Supernatural pulls our every standard urban legend they can think of and is just fun to watch. On this one, I even listen to the podcast recap sometimes. I cannot say that I recommend it, but it is definitely an interesting insight into how some people choose to spend their time.

• Law & Order (all of them) - The original, CI, SVU - they are all good in different ways. Of the three, I would rank the original in third place so far this season. They have had a good run, but they need to spice it up a bit. But still, the L&O franchise is strong. I like to watch the new episodes and I like the reruns. Before you judge me, read this article about power women watching L&O reruns. Need I say more?
  

• CSI (all of them) - In this case, we have Las Vegas, New York, and Miami. I would rank them in that order. At first, I could not bear to watch Miami, but it is growing on me. At this point, I am just stuck waiting for Horatio (David Caruso) to actually face someone straight on. It is both unnerving and unnatural to watch him going episode after episode addressing people with his shoulder pointed at them rather than facing them.
  

• Cold Case - I don't actually know why I watch this show. It is formulaic and I am pretty sure the target market is senior citizens. The episodes have great soundtracks, but that does not really explain it. I guess it is because you get a glimpse of the dead person at the end and the detective almost looks like she sees them - reminiscent of Medium and GW just enough to be interesting?


• Without a Trace - Another one that I cannot quite explain. It is not great, but I enjoy it and in the end that is all that matters.


• The Amazing Race - People yelling at each other and travel - a winning combination.
  
• The Office - This show is hilarious (at least most of the time). That is all there is to it.
  
• Scrubs - Just a funny show that does not take itself too seriously.
  
  Dexter - If you have not seen this bizarre show on Showtime, you should try to catch some reruns. In a nutshell, it is about a serial killer who might not really be such a bad guy after all.
  








• 
  
• Monk - I like it. It makes me laugh. It is like a kinder, gentler Law & Order.
  




• Psych - I laugh every time I watch this show. The idea of a fake psychic cracks me up, particularly because I am also entertained by the "real" psychic shows (see above re: Medium and Ghost Whisperer).



• House - This show is consistently entertaining, although I have found that House has been a bit of a jerk this season. A little to much drama for my taste - they can save all that and just get back to the show, in my opinion.
  
• Survivor - Wes makes me watch it.
  
• Numb3rs - They can make anything about math. I love it...and so educational.

To sum up, I like some funny shows, a very limited number of reality shows (you can keep American Idol and Dancing with the Stars), lots of dramas about dead people or missing people, and a small sampling of the CW offerings. Also, in putting it in writing I realize that I watch quite a few hours of TV a week. In the future, I will have to summarize some books I have read lately or other non-TV-watching activities just to prove that my brain is in fact not on its way to turning to mush. [And I also watch Family Guy, the Simpsons and Bones but the list was just getting so long that it was starting to be embarrassing. I can quit anytime.]

For completeness, I also offer for your consideration Shows I Used to Watch (but am now over)

• The Apprentice
• Smallville
• One Tree Hill
• Lost (mostly over this - I might watch some of the new season just to make sure)
• Las Vegas
• ER (although I hear the new season is good)
  

And finally....Shows I Miss

• Angel
• Charmed
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Arrested Development
• Futurama
• The X-Files

Help! I am turning into a computer geek!!

Alas, my new-found blogging enthusiasm has led me down a dangerous road. A road pave with html and templates and layouts and widgets (thanks to New Blogger). I have spent the last hour or so trying to figure out how to format my quote of the day so that it looks like the rest of the sidebar (to no avail you have likely noticed by now). I would like you to note, however, that the font color is at least consistent. That took some actual Javascript "programming". Now, I will not deny that I often land on the geeky/nerdy side of life - but I try to stay in the liberal arts and business worlds as much as possible. At least there I actually know what I am talking about. I was not cut out to be a computer programmer (and have laughable skills at it), but I did find in my many minutes of reading on the internet that it actually makes some sense. I think it is something I could have made a go at had I been so inclined. As I look back, I liked math and science in high school and wasn't half bad at them - maybe I have missed my true calling. I am sure my engineer husband would beg to differ. It is really a moot point, though, because I have no inclination at this point in my life to go in that direction and dedicate the hours of my life that it would take to learn how to make a truly flashy blog.

To sum up, I hope you enjoy the new blog and I hope you will appreciate the impressive skills of all the other bloggers who manage to sort out all the bells and whistles better than I ever could.

Lent

In about a month, the Mardi Gras season will end and the Lenten season will begin. Baptists generally do not spend much thought on Lent - our focus tends to be on Easter and not on the season that was intended as a preparation for the joy of Easter.


However, a growing number of Baptists are recognizing the season of reflection and repentance that leads up to Easter (see "Give It Up for Lent" in the Baptist Standard last year). A recent column on EthicsDaily.com also explores why a Baptist might celebrate Lent.


Given this coverage, I thought I might throw my oar in as well. Having lived in south Louisiana and having many Catholic friends in both high school and college, I am very familiar with the outward trappings of Lent. A year did not go by that "I am giving up homework for Lent" was not heard (it is, in fact, not funny every time). I have also heard some very solid sermons both during Catholic mass and in Methodist services which explained the purpose and the importance of the symbolic sacrifice during Lent.

Lent is a time when we can sacrifice to both remember the sacrifice of Christ during his forty days in the desert and on the cross as well as sacrifice to remember the poor. In remembering Christ's sacrifice, we can more fully appreciate the joy and gift that was given to us with His resurrection at Easter.

Remembering the poor helps us to live out the commandments of Christ to care for the needy in our world. When we give up some of our luxuries or eating meat, our suffering in no way approximates that of those who live each day not knowing where their next meal will come from - but that is not the purpose. The purpose is to remember the poor in particular during one season of the year so that we may put the charity of Christ into action in our daily life throughout the year.

For some, Lent means a restrictive set of rules to follow. Unfortunately, if your heart is not in it, then no amount of sacrifice will give you the benefits that are offered by true sacrifice. So, while the specific guidelines provided by the Catholic church (see here for example) may provide a road map for some who need structure, it is important to remember that God sees past our activities and to our hearts and our motives. Lent is about getting our hearts in the right place and preparing ourselves for Easter and for serving a needy world.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Psalm 51:10-12 (NIV)

Some additional resources on Lent:

• What is Lent? - Catholic Culture
• Free Lenten Bible Study - Baptist Center for Ethics and Baptist World Alliance
• Lent Adult Devotionals - Bible Resource Center

Images from Baptist Standard and Catholic Culture.

Blogging

I have realized that there are a wide variety of blogs that I check on a regular basis. The problem is, they are almost never updated. This is because these blogs are not the popular blogs populated on a regular basis by faceless strangers - they are the blogs of my friends and family and I check them to see what is going on. I also like to know what they think of current events or what interesting tidbits they have read lately. In checking the vast array of un-updated blogs, it dawned on me that I am guilty of the same - too busy to take the time to write up what I think or what is going on. Of course, Wes and I maintain a blog of our various travels, but that by no means encompasses the entire scope of our life events and activities (unfortunately!).

So, for this New Year I will try (no guarantees here) to be more vigilant in communicating my thoughts to the blogosphere. I do not actually expect that anyone will read it, but this is my small gesture to reduce my own hypocrisy. In addition, I have read that it is good for your brain to write things. Here's to more volume on the web for the sake of my mental health!