Monthly Archives: July 2005

Welcome

A hearty welcome to any new visitors who may have come to this site due to it being mentioned in a local community newspaper.

Victor Hugo Central, the fansite mentioned in the article, has been around since 1998 in some form or another. Links to the article in the Christian Science Monitor, and the interview on Australian radio from 2002 can be found on the left.

Most of my posts deal with politics, religion, something else I saw in the newspaper, or my fiction and poetry. Often I will write about science fiction and fantasy — books, movies, comics — as I am active in the local fan community. You can read a science fiction short story I published last October, here.

Recently, I have begun reading the weekly Torah portion, and rewriting the action in poetic form, occasionally adding a character to narrate, or I write it from the perspective of a minor character. (One such minor character has been Balaam’s donkey). Most of these poems have been posted on this blog. My intent is not to be sacreligious, even though I know some will interpret it that way. One of the 613 commandments is to write your own Torah scroll, and while I know this isn’t at all what is meant by the commandment, it will be the closest I am likely to come to fulfilling it.

Bush Joke

In an effort to overcome the continuing criticism that he is unsupportive and in fact dismissive of Israel, one of America’s closest allies, today President Bush announced that he is converting to Judaism in the hope that this will demonstrate his affinity and empathy with the Israeli people.

Authorities have been unable to handle the millions of people who have volunteered to be the mohel.

ShowMeCon 4 – April 21-23, 2006

Mark your calendars now!

ShowMeCon 4 – April 21-23, 2006 – will be a SUPER science fiction convention.

In attendance:
Lois Lane from the 1948 Kirk Alyn movie serials
Lois Lane from the 1950s George Reeves TV series and movies
Lois Lane from the 1973 Superman movie
Lois Lane’s mother from the 1978 movie
Someone who made an appearance in an episode of the TV series Superboy
And someone who will be in the 2006 Superman Returns movie

Amazingly, all of the above are the same actress:
Noel Neill

Author GOH and an Artist GOH To Be Announced later.

Pinchas: The Second Census

Pinchas: The Second Census
Numbers 25-30

Another census has been taken –
Six hundred thousand
men over twenty —
out of these only two,
besides Moses,
are left from the original count:
Joshua and Caleb.

The land, yet to be yielded,
has already been apportioned.
We, daughters of Zelophehad —
Mahlah, Noah, Haglah, Milcah and Tirzah —
complained to Moses.
Our father died without sons,
but we didn’t want to lose our land.
By speaking up, our wish was heard.
Now all brotherless daughters inherit.

*

G-d’s told Moses it’s time
for him to ascend a mountain
and join Aaron and Miriam.
He can gaze at the promised land,
but can’t enter.
Joshua will become our leader.

The taste of milk and honey is in the air.

Please provide for me an example

In a column in the Washington Post, a columnist talks about the Supreme Court nomination, and how Democrats are Democrats on the wrong battlefield

I don’t disagree with the thesis, but within the column he says something that others have said in similar ways, and it disturbs me that there are actually people who think this.

“And Congress, not the executive, has been known to overturn Supreme Court decisions.”

I ask anyone to provide me with an example. The Supreme Court interprets law. Congress makes law. So the only way to ‘overturn’ a Supreme Court decision is through a constitutional amendment (requiring more than just the US legislature, but also the state legislatures to buy in), or for the Supreme Court to reinterpret. There is no other way.

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Today is the 36th anniversary of July 20, 1969 – The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing. Google, using satellite imagery from Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 and their GoogleMaps application, has created Google Moon

In tangentially related news, James “Beam me up Scotty” Doohan has passed away. Reports attribute it to Alzheimer’s and Pneumonia. He was 85.

Back in 1990 I met Doohan at a local convention, and had my picture taken with him. A couple years ago, he was back in St. Louis, and I had that photograph signed. He was in a wheelchair, and showing signs of his Alzheimer’s, and his ‘caretaker’ made the joking comment that Doohan had managed to keep more of his hair than I had since the photo was taken. I was unable to argue.