JLooney.com

So on Saturday night I Megan and I were hanging out with Jordan, Jessica, Haley, and Deb. We played some games, talked and laughed, and had a great time. Megan and I took off around 2-ish, which means that by 3-ish, we were sound asleep.

Here’s where my car comes into the story. At 4:30 or so, I’m awakened by this humming/buzzing sound. I lay there semi-concious, trying to figure out what the hell that noise is. It sounds oddly familiar, and I just can’t figure it out. Then I realize that it’s my horn going off, like somebody’s dead in my car with their dead noggin’ holding the horn down. I through on pants and a hooide and run out to the car. Sure enough, my horn’s going off. No dead person, though, which I felt pretty good about.

So I unlock the car and push on the horn, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. It feels like somehow the horn button just got stuck down or something (mind you, the car was locked and nobody was around), so fiddling with it seemed to do the trick. The horn stopped, I went inside, and went back to bed.

I’ve been back in bed for maybe 10 minutes, just starting to fall back asleep, when the horn goes off again. I jump out of bed, throw on my jeans and run back out to the car. This time, fiddling around with the horn doesn’t seem to do any good. I start puching harder. Nothing (other than the horn still going off, of course). I punch it a few times. Nothing. I start throwing elbows. Nothing. Pop the hood. Yank the battery cable. Silence.

So I go back inside and go to sleep for a few more hours.

Now I realize that I’ve got to fix the horn, because the minute I hook the battery back up, I’ve got the same problem. So I figure I’ll take it apart and see what’s wrong. After yanking the entire airbag assembly off my steering wheel, it’s immediately obvious that this isn’t going to do me any good. The airbag is firmly mounted in front of the horn button, and there’s no way to get to the button from the back or the front.

After a quick call to my trusty (and very knowledgeable) friend Jerry, I find out that I can leave the horn disconnected, but I’ll have to fix it before I get it inspected. Jerry also informs me that I can hard-wire a horn to the dash. So now I’m thinking that I’m really glad that I didn’t have one of these bad boys installed when the horn went off, but ti might be time to get one!

Let me begin this post by making one thing very clear: this is not an attack on the LDS faith, it’s members or it’s leaders. I bear the church no ill-will. I’m not a bitter ex-mormon lashing out at church leaders, or anything of the kind.

That said, I have a real issue with the LDS church encouraging their members to support Proposition 8, and even going so far as to encourage their members who are residents or former residents of California to call their friends and family who reside in the state encouraging them to support Prop 8. Seriously, here’s the press release. Legal experts say that this hasn’t yet crossed the line of church and state. Technically, the actions of the LDS Church are still supported by the First Amendment.

For those of you who haven’t been following the news, Proposition 8 is a measure on the ballot in California to amend their constitution specifying that “marriage” is only legal if it’s between a man and a woman. You see, earlier this year, the California Supreme Court ruled that the statute enacted by Proposition 22 in March of 2000, as well as other statutes that limit marriage to a relationship between a man and a woman, violated the equal protection clause of the California Constitution. It also held that individuals of the same sex have the right to marry under the California Constitution. As a result of the ruling, marriage between individuals of the same sex is currently valid or recognized in the state of California.

Proposition 8 will change the California Constitution (not just the statute, or governing law) to clearly specify that you can only be “married” if one of you is a dude and the other is a girl.

Now, let me just reiterate before I go on my tirade in just a moment here: this is not an attack on the LDS faith, it’s members or it’s leaders.

Rant begins here.

In order to discuss this rationally and logically, which the great majority of people (on both sides) fail to do, let’s first consider what “marriage” actually is. A Google search of “Marriage” yields roughly 181 million results, so it’s pretty safe to say there’s plenty of information out there. Webster defines marriage as both “the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship” and “the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship”

So, from a strictly legal standpoint, a civil union – regardless of the make-up, be it boy/boy, boy/girl, girl/girl or anything your imagination might dream up – exists if two people have entered into a consensual and contractual relationship. In short, they’re married. Pretty basic, right?

Hardly.

You see, marriage is not just a civil and legal matter, but a religious one as well. In fact, in many religions, marriage is held as sacred, and ceremonies, sacraments and celebrations surround the actual event. This is all well and good, until one starts to blur the lines between religion and state.

Now I don’t personally believe that it’s any of the governments business who I hold hands with. If someone chooses to marry their pet iguana or a lamp, what do I care? For you hardcore activists out there who will no doubt cry foul and bring issues of taxation and partner benefits, I say only this: if the insurance agency wishes to extend partner benefits or withhold them, that’s their business, not the governments. As for the taxation, does an iguana or a lamp have income? Then what is there to be taxed?

So here’s the part of this whole thing that just angers me beyond reason. The LDS church is encouraging it’s members to not only support Prop 8, but to donate money to the campaign and to actively proselyte the cause to their friends and relatives.

It’s one thing for a church to take a position that marriage (within their respective religion) is between a man and a woman. It’s another issue entirely when the government is either dragged into the mix or intervenes willingly to mandate this same religious standard for every person in their jurisdiction, regardless of faith.

I’m not the only one who feels that the LDS church has crossed a line, here. In fact, Bruce Bastian, co-founder of WordPerfect and an ex-mormon, on hearing that the LDS church had encouraged it’s members to “do all you can” to back Prop 8 and had organized fund-raising efforts to support it, donated $1 million of his own money to fight against it. Incidentally, his contribution easily eclipsed the total from fundraising efforts conducted by church members, which amounted to roughly $120,000.

One of the basic tenets of the LDS faith is free agency – the right to choose and be accountable for those choices. It seems more than a little hypocritical to proclaim free agency and at the same time fight to limit the choices of others who may or may not share your belief. After all, didn’t the LDS church members fight a pretty similar fight in their early days, but on the other side, fighting for the freedom to be LDS when everyone around was fighting to take away that choice?

Intersting how time changes things.

This is, perhaps, one of the most visually stunning films I’ve seen since The Cell. Unlike The Cell, however, there’s a story to follow and the acting supports the story.

I first heard about this film while surfing through a post of “best movies you’ve never seen or heard of” on someone’s blog. The trailer (below) intrigued me, so I watched it yesterday and was mesmerized.

Now, let me be clear, this is not a film for everyone. In many ways it’s the telling of a fairytale in the same style as The Princess Bride. There are two stories in the film. The first, set in a hospital in 1920′s Los Angeles, is the story of Roy and Alexandria played by Lee Pace and Catinca Untaru. Roy is an actor who has been seriously injured on the set of a film and is paralyzed from the waist down, and is battling depression and suicidal thoughts after losing his career and his girlfriend. Alexandria is a precocious and yet, adorable little girl who has broken her arm falling from an orange tree while picking them. At their first meeting, Roy begins to tell her a story…

The second story is the story of a band of six men from around the world all with a common goal – kill the evil Governor Odious. You see, Governor Odious has wronged each one of them in a different way, and each have sworn to kill him for his mis-deeds. It is a tale of epic proportion, and it is portrayed beautifully in storybook color and brilliant costuming.

The first story is endearing, the second is captivating. Cinematically, it’s absolutely gorgeous. Watch the trailer if you need further convincing, but this is a great movie.

If you like Joel and Ethan Coen’s other work (O Brother, Where Art Thou, No Country Foir Old Men, The Big Lebowski) you’re in for a real treat.

Like any Coen Brother’s movie, it’s got an all-star cast including Frances McDormand, George Clooney, John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, and Tilda Swinton. And, like any Coen Brother’s movie, the story is detailed and engaging, and so interwoven that to describe it here would only confuse you. The basic premise, though, is that a disc containing the personal financial information of a former CIA agent falls into the hands of two unscrupulos (and not so bright) types that work at a gym and decide to blackmail the former agent.

What follows is a comedy of errors and mishaps that engages and entertains. The performances by everyone are top notch, but the real standout for me was Brad Pitt. Now I’m not generally a fan of his, but after considering this film and some of his other work, the mans got range.

I mean, think about it. In 12 Mokeys he plays a very convincing nut-job. In Troy he’s a serious-as-a-heart-attack warrior/force to be reckoned with. In The Mexican he’s a very believable hapless loser that just can’t seem to catch a break. In Meet Joe Black, he’s… whatever he was – but it was good! And don’t forget about his breakout performances in Snatch, Fight Club and Se7en.

Now, I’m not putting him on par with Anthony Hopkins or anything. In fact, although Hopkins is an incredible actor and easily makes it into my top 5 favorites of all time, I think Pitt may have a broader range. Anyway, I digress…

The bottom line is this: Burn After Reading is a wickedly funny dark comedy that represents the Coen Brothers at the top of their game.

If you’re looking for a typical Hollywood flick with a predictable story that spoon-feeds you the details through voice-over and flashback, has predictable performances by the stars, and is white-washed and watered down just to get the magic PG-13 rating (see Live Free or Die Hard for all of the above), this film is not for you.

If, however, you appreciate an intelligent film with sharp dialogue and spot-on performances by a cast of actors who do it for love of the craft, then you should put this on your “Go See Now” list.

You should go see it.

Now.

Really.

I’m not kidding. I’m going to see it again while it’s still in theaters, and I never do that.

So go.

4.5/5

Many of you may not know this, but I’m completely fascinated by the visual representation of data. It’s probably something I picked up at UPS going through all those pages of numbers in the QMG. Hell the only way I could make sense of it was to see some sort of representation of it on a graph or something, and then I could see what I was looking for immediately.

Well, I wasn’t actually looking for anything this time, but I just stumbled across this. It’s a map of the US that charts the growth of Wal*Mart from it’s first store in 1962 to through the end of 2007. Check it out, it’s worth the watch.

http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/