Aside from crafting, we’ve enjoyed reading aloud a wonderful trilogy called His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.
It’s an older series but full of subversive, anti-authoritarian messages and well worth reading. Although there is a movie version coming out this year, I would highly recommend reading the books because it appears that New Line Cinema has bowed to fear of a religious backlash by toning down or eliminating any references to God or the Church. It seems that the book's message of courage in spite of overwhelming odds was lost on the producers. How ironic.
Movie Version of Controversial Novel Being Toned Down
12/9/04
Fans of the Philip Pullman novel His Dark Materials have expressed outrage over news that director-screenwriter Chris Weitz has removed references to God and the Catholic church in the movie. New Line Cinema, the company producing the film, has "expressed worry about the possibility of perceived anti-religiosity." The studio had told him that if the references remained, the project would become "unviable financially." He remarked that he had discussed the matter with Pullman, who had told him that the role of the Authority (God) in his book, could be transformed into "any arbitrary establishment that curtails the freedom of the individual." The religious villains in the film, he said, "may appear in more subtle guises." He added: "you will probably not hear of the 'Church.'" One fan posted a message on the website calling the changes a "blatant cop-out to the Bible Belt of America."
Aside from mommy duties there are other friends and family that need care and attention. We went out to California to visit the in-laws for Father’s Day. Imagine my father-in-law’s surprise when he picked up his L.A.Times on Sunday morning to find his daughter-in-law scantily clad in an article about the very talented Jenny Lens. I wonder if he thought "my poor son married a strumpet," or "my clever son married a strumpet."
August 1977, photo by Jenny Lens.
Alice Bag, Dottie Danger (Belinda Carlisle), Hellin Killer and Pleasant Puss Gehman.
For the 4th of July we did the patriotic thing and went to see Sicko. It made me want to move to Canada, but only for a minute. I felt better after I went online and sent an email to Senator John McCain using this link. It was bad enough thinking that people all over the world disliked us for being greedy and ethnocentric, but now I realize that they’re laughing at us for allowing our government to rip us off. As one woman in the movie put it (I’m paraphrasing here) "You Americans are afraid of your government; here (France) the government is afraid of the people." She’s right - when I was in France recently during their elections, the government was hurriedly putting up barricades because they were worried about how the people might react if they were displeased with the results of the elections. We need to make our government more afraid of us than of losing their corporate perks. Michael Moore is preaching to the choir here; I’ve been a proponent of socialized medicine forever. The movie was really good and if you haven’t seen it, you should. Be prepared to be pissed off.
And speaking of getting pissed off, I received a letter from a friend on MySpace telling me about a place I’d never heard about before called the T. Don Hutto Residential Center. The place houses the children of people who are awaiting trial for violating immigration laws. The children are housed in prison-like conditions, with limited access to medical services and education. As a parent it made me sick to hear that these children are being torn away from their parents, relatives and friends to be housed as inmates in a detention center. As a former teacher, it made me angry to hear that these children are being deprived of an education. But as an American it made me wonder where the fuck our humanity has gone. What part of us has died that would make it ok to treat little children like criminals?
Mini doc on Hutto by the ACLU.
Just when things start to seem really bleak, something comes along to restore my faith. On 7/7/07, live concerts and gatherings were held around the world to raise consciousness about the issue of global warming and demand that our politicians take action now. Even though Live Earth didn't feature my favorite bands (except for Spinal Tap!!!) I could appreciate the message and was inspired to make some changes in my own life to help save our planet. Summertime is here and it's about time for things to really heat up.
12 comments:
Yes, France is afraid of its people.
In fact, in 2005, 9,000 vehicles were burned in Paris in a three week period of rioting because three boys were electrocuted when they illegally climbed a fence into a power substation.
Is that a healthy sign?
“The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles” - Mahatma Gandhi
Funny, I'm also reading "His Dark Materials", and was wondering if the film would cop-out on the anti-religion theme.
I'm enjoying the book, but Pullman is kind of a dick in real life. I thought all of his public whining about C.S. Lewis in the British press last year was completely hypocritical considering his books are like Narnia for atheists.
I was just going to give the link for this article but it was so good I decided to post the whole thing. Sorry for taking up all the space!
Sicko Spurs Audiences Into Action
By Josh Tyler: 2007-07-01 17:15:27
Long time readers of this site no doubt know that I live in Texas. As everyone knows there’s no more conservative state in the Union than here. And I don’t just live in Texas; I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Dallas isn’t some pocket of hippy-dippy behavior. This isn’t Austin. Dallas is the sort of place where guys in cowboy hats still drive around in giant SUV’s with “W” stickers on the back windshield, global warming and Iraq be damned. It’s probably the only spot left in America where you stand a good chance of getting the crap kicked out of you for badmouthing the president.
So when I went to see Sicko for a second time this afternoon, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the audience. I wasn’t watching it downtown, where the city’s few elitist liberals congregate and drink expensive lattes. I went to a random mall in the mid-cities, where folks were likely to be just folks. As I sat down, right behind me entered an obligatory, cowboy hat wearing redneck in his 50s. He announced his presence by shouting across the theater in a thick Texas drawl to his already seated wife “you owe me fer seein this!”
Sicko started; the stereotypical Texas guy sat down behind me and never stopped talking. He talked through the entire movie… and I listened. The first ten to twenty minutes of the film he spent badmouthing Moore to his wife and snorting in disgust whenever MM went into one of his trademark monologues. But as the movie wore on his protestations became quieter, less enthusiastic. Somewhere along the way, maybe at the half way point, right before my ears, Sicko changed this man’s mind. By the forty-five minute mark, he, along with the rest of the audience were breaking into spontaneous applause. He stopped pooh-poohing the movie and started shouting out “hell yeah!” at the screen. It was as if the whole world had been flipped upside down. This is Texas, where people support the president and voting democratic is something only done by the terrorists. Michael Moore should be public enemy number one.
By the time the movie was over, public enemy number one had become George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy all rolled together. When the credits rolled the audience filed out and into the bathrooms. At the urinals, my redneck friend couldn’t stop talking about the film, and I kept listening. He struck up a conversation with a random black man in his 40s standing next to him, and soon everyone was peeing and talking about just how fucked everything is.
I kept my distance, as we all finished and exited at the same time. Outside the restroom doors… the theater was in chaos. The entire Sicko audience had somehow formed an impromptu town hall meeting in front of the ladies room. I’ve never seen anything like it. This is Texas goddammit, not France or some liberal college campus. But here these people were, complete strangers from every walk of life talking excitedly about the movie. It was as if they simply couldn’t go home without doing something drastic about what they’d just seen. My redneck compadre and his new friend found their wives at the center of the group, while I lingered in the background waiting for my spouse to emerge.
The talk gradually centered around a core of 10 or 12 strangers in a cluster while the rest of us stood around them listening intently to this thing that seemed to be happening out of nowhere. The black gentleman engaged by my redneck in the restroom shouted for everyone’s attention. The conversation stopped instantly as all eyes in this group of 30 or 40 people were now on him. “If we just see this and do nothing about it,” he said, “then what’s the point? Something has to change.” There was silence, then the redneck’s wife started calling for email addresses. Suddenly everyone was scribbling down everyone else’s email, promising to get together and do something… though no one seemed to know quite what. It was as if I’d just stepped into the world’s most bizarre protest rally, except instead of hippies the group was comprised of men and women of every age, skin color, income, and walk of life coming together on something that had shaken them deeply, and to the core.
In all my thirty years on this earth, I have never ever seen any movie have this kind of unifying effect on people. It was like I was standing there, at the birth of a new political movement. Even after 9/11, there was never a reaction like this, at least not in Texas. If Sicko truly has this sort of power, then Michael Moore has done something beyond amazing. If it can change people, affect people like this in the conservative hotbed of Texas, then Sicko isn’t just a great movie, seeing it may be one of the most important things you do all year.
I just want to commend you for being such a great, involved parent: refusing to allow your child to be raised by the TV; doing sewing projects together, reading (aloud for chrissakes!!); I'm assuming you took your child to see Sicko and discussed it afterwards. You are anything BUT a "Bad Housewife." Thanks for allowing me to share.
Did you know Canada is getting rid of their current health care system because it doesn't work? I wonder how Moore missed that one? Ever known anyone who had cancer in Canada? They get put on a list. And then they hope and pray they don't die before they get treated. Our health care system may suck, but it IS better than a lot of places, CERTAINLY it's better than CUBA. The fact that Moore tried to insinuate that Cuba was anything other than a sad, depressing country with people so poverty-stricken we can't even comprehend it sure sent up some red flags to me. You should know better than to believe everything someone tells you.
P.S.
If you want to do something to save the planet then stop eating animal flesh and secretions (no meat, no dairy, no eggs). That's the single best thing you can do to make less of an impact on the environment. How odd that Mr. Gore doesn't address that fact.
My god, why does it seem like so many people are so blind???
"Did you know Canada is getting rid of their current health care system because it doesn't work?"
Cite? I've been seeing a lot of discussion of this and I've never heard that. Any cites for any of those claims?
I'm not sure how to cite talking to Canadian citizens (my customers)that I've spoken to at length after seeing this movie. The general consensus is it's great if you need to go get a presciption for something simple, but if you have anything seriously wrong with you you will very likely have a long wait. I have been told by ever Canadian customer I've asked about it that they are getting rid of their national health care because of problems like that AND abuse of the system - like people going to the doctor for every little sniffle.
My husband's ex-aunt had breast cancer and was told she'd have to wait 6 months before she could get in for chemo. She came to the U.S. and paid for her care and she's still alive.
And has anyone considered that we DO have socialized medicine here in the U.S.? It's called medicare and medicaid. My stepdad has had to look into this: http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/financialhelp/
In a country where even our illegal immigrants get basic medical care, I fail to see where there is this huge medical crisis.
OK, I'm not an expert on, this, nor do I even have much to offer in the way of anecdotal evidence, but for the moment I'll note that one of the best bloggers on this is Ezra Klein. His many posts on the subject (with links to data from studies comparing U.S. to Canada, France, and other countries) are collected here. The main points to be gained from all this: Canada's system is problematic, but overall, as well cheaper, than the U.S.'s, and that there are other countries such as France and Germany with systems that are much superior than Canada's.
Also I still think this 2006 article by economist Paul Krugman from the New York Review of Books, is about the most thoughtful thing I've seen on the subject.
It's possible that I'll come back later with a point-by-point response, if the mood strikes me, but in any case there are plenty of fine liberal political and economics blogs where people more knowledgeable than me will be happy to get deep into this with you, if you're interested.
make that "overall, superior to, as well as cheaper than...
Sorry, I should really look through all the sources instead of posting piecemeal like this, but... I'm thinking that angry bear is actually a better blog for this topic than Ezra's. Links to relevant post are at the top of the left column, under "The U.S. Healthcare System."
http://angrybear.blogspot.com/
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