Entries from April 2008 ↓

The movie version of “The Hobbit” is getting under way. Here are some details:

Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro was named on Thursday to direct two movies based on the J.R.R. Tolkien book “The Hobbit” to build on the blockbuster success of “The Lord of the Rings” series.

Plans to make a two-part precursor to “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, based on Tolkien’s three-volume follow-up to his “Hobbit” story, were announced in December after settlement of a bitter legal dispute cleared the way for the project.

Del Toro, whose credits include “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Blade II,” will move to New Zealand for the next four years to work on both “Hobbit” films with executive producer Peter Jackson, who directed all three “The Lord of the Rings” movies, according to New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios.

The studios have said that filming will begin in 2009, with tentative release dates set of 2010 for the first film and 2011 for the sequel.

The plans call for del Toro to work back-to-back on “The Hobbit” and its sequel, which will deal with the 60-year period between that story and “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the studios said.

Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” was a pretty remarkable fantasy movie, however creepy and depressing, so he should be OK. Jackson, who did such a good job with the trilogy, will be in charge. That this two-movie arrangement will include not just “The Hobbit” but will cover the 60 years before “The Fellowship of the Ring” is interesting, indeed. I guess that means that filmmakers will be taking on at least part of “The Silmarilion.”

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been taking every opportunity to share her favorite Bible passage:

“The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, ‘To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.’ On this Earth Day, and every day, let us honor the earth and our future generations with a commitment to fight climate change.”

Apparently, it’s a favorite verse of hers. She has used it in official statements on global warming, the budget, Martin Luther King Day, Christmas, and why she’s a Democrat.

Padre Pio was an Italian monk who apparently bore the stigmata, the bleeding wounds of Christ in his hands and feet. Forty years ago, he died and was soon proclaimed a saint by the Roman Catholic church. Now his body has been exhumed and put on display for veneration. His body, of course, had decayed–which was doubtless a disappointment to those looking for that miraculous sign of sanctity, a body that did not decompose–but a lifelike silicon mask and other reconstruction has made the body presentable. See Thousands flock to exhumed body of saint Padre Pio , which includes this sad sentence:
“A poll in 2006 by Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana found that more Italian Catholics prayed to Padre Pio than to any other figure, including the Virgin Mary or Jesus.”

The word-hoard of the English language keeps growing, as new words come into existence and into our vocabulary. This article–Harold Meyerson - Back to The ’60s - washingtonpost.com–gives us “Sixtiesism,” which could be defined as a reversion to the issues and mindset that characterized the 1960’s. The article also coins a related word: Sixties-ization. Meaning imposing the issues and mindset of the 1960’s on contemporary times or on an individual.

The author is using those terms to analyze the current Democratic presidential race, as all of those elderly Sixties survivors–Rev. Wright, those Weather Underground terrorists–and the Sixties issues of Civil Rights and Peace are being injected, for better or worse, into today’s campaigns.

Still, the words are the best part of the argument. So what are some other examples of Sixtiesism? Of Sixtiesization?

America. . .what is the matter with you? On “American Idol,” the two best performances of the previous night, Syesha’s and Carly’s, landed up when the votes were tallied as the bottom two! And Carly, the tatooed Irish lass who certainly belonged in the top three of the whole bunch, got voted off.

(In saying these two performances were the best, I’m not applying my own personal arcane tastes in classical music or alt country. The two did rock numbers–as much as Andrew Lloyd Weber can compose rock numbers–but they did them very, very well.)

Whereas the two worst performances, an awful performance of an awful song, “Memories,” by the dreadlocked Jason and an effort by Brooke in which she actually forgot the lyrics and had to start all over, made their perpetrators “safe.”

This is a terrible injustice. So was voting off the Australian, Michael Johns, but this conjunction of awarding the two worst and punishing the two best is just wrong.

This comes from letting little children have cell phones. The contest is in danger of being taken over by young girls enthralled by “cute” boys. (True, two of these–the two Davids–are worthy of winning. David Cook, I think, is the best, rocker though he is. David Archeleta, though, I predict, will win.)

The government needs to intervene. Congress should investigate. American Idol should be regulated. Those who vote more responsibly should get tax cuts. President Bush should send in the troops.

America, what are you going to do when making a more important decision, like picking a president?

This article surveys our energy problems and the global food and starvation crisis caused to a major extent by the biofuel fiasco. The solution the article lifts up is nuclear energy! It does not pollute the air like other fuels. It is pretty much inexhaustible. And yet, people fear it irrationally. A nuclear power plant does NOT set off an atom bomb. It’s not like on the Simpsons, generating three eyed fish and irradiating the community. The radiation can be managed pretty easily.

Do you buy that argument, that environmentalists, in blocking the building of new nuclear energy plants, are harming the environment?

Or can another case be made against nuclear energy, that it violates the basic building block of matter in a profoundly unnatural and so immoral way?

At any rate, when the left ridicules President Bush, pro-lifers, creationists, and social conservatives in general for being “anti-science”–whether their stances are valid or not– can we include anti-nuclear activists in that group?

The young girl, named Sarah Barlow, who called authorities from that Texas polygamist compound claiming that she being abused, leading to a raid and the taking of 400 children away from their mothers? Evidence has come in that indicates she was a 33-year-old African-American woman from Colorado with a history of phoning in false accusations of sex abuse. But Texas authorities still vow to “press on.” FromTexas 911 Calls Linked To 33-Year-Old in Colo. - washingtonpost.com:

SAN ANGELO, Tex., April 23 — The phone calls that triggered a massive raid on a polygamist compound in west Texas — in which a quavering girl’s voice described being forcibly married at 15 — have been linked to a Colorado woman with a history of making false claims of sexual abuse, according to an affidavit filed in Colorado Springs.

The affidavit says calls that allegedly came from “Sarah Barlow” — a teenage girl at the Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, Tex. — actually came from numbers connected to Rozita Swinton, 33, of Colorado Springs. The affidavit also notes Swinton’s possible involvement in a series of separate but similar reports in which the young caller described being abused by a pastor, an uncle or her father.

Texas authorities yesterday said they have not determined whether the calls about the Yearning for Zion Ranch were a hoax and that they plan to press on with their investigation of possible sexual abuse there. More than 400 children are now in state custody, as authorities try to sort out what happened at the ranch run by a polygamist group called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Strange lights flew in formation over Phoenix, Arizona, and St. Augustine, Florida. (Something similar happened in Phoenix in 1997.) These were widely seen and photographed. Here is a story about the Arizona sightings: Unexplained lights spotted above Valley; what were they? Here is a story on the Florida sightings. (The anchors say the lights may be wedding lights, I guess something like balloons.)

Here is a video of what people were seeing in Arizona, so you can see them for yourself:

What do you make of these? (I welcome opinions both serious and humorous.)

UPDATE: We have a confession.

Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama by double digits in Pennsylvania. She seems to have the momentum now, though it will be nearly impossible for her to overcome Obama’s lead in delegates, which he racked up earlier in the campaign. Back then, he was a breath of fresh air, promising an end to ideological warfare, transcending race, and embodying a politics of hope. Lately he has been coming across as just another liberal politician. Racial divisiveness is back in politics, as is the old class warfare that Democrats always seem to want to wage and always seem to wage in a way that it backfires on them. Part of the problem may be the Clintons backing him into these corners. Also, now that he has become the candidate of choice of the party’s harder left, they may be affecting his rhetoric. But is there a way for Obama to get back to his original image?

P. J. O’Rourke is a satirist–a very funny guy–who got to ride on an aircraft carrier recently. He applies that experience, including witnesses the pilots’ courage and skill, to former carrier pilot John McCain. From 24 Hours on the ‘Big Stick’:

Some people say John McCain isn’t conservative enough. But there’s more to conservatism than low taxes, Jesus, and waterboarding at Gitmo. Conservatism is also a matter of honor, duty, valor, patriotism, self-discipline, responsibility, good order, respect for our national institutions, reverence for the traditions of civilization, and adherence to the political honesty upon which all principles of democracy are based. Given what screw-ups we humans are in these respects, conservatism is also a matter of sense of humor. Heard any good quips lately from Hillary or Barack?

A one-day visit to an aircraft carrier is a lifelong lesson in conservatism. The ship is immense, going seven decks down from the flight deck and ten levels up in the tower. But it’s full, with some 5,500 people aboard. Living space is as cramped as steerage on the way to Ellis Island. Even the pilots live in three-bunk cabins as small and windowless as hall closets. A warship is a sort of giant Sherman tank upon the water. Once below deck you’re sealed inside. There are no cheery portholes to wave from.

McCain could hardly escape understanding the limits of something huge but hermetic, like a government is, and packed with a madding crowd. It requires organization, needs hierarchies, demands meritocracy, insists upon delegation of authority. An intricate, time-tested system replete with checks and balances is not a plaything to be moved around in a doll house of ideology. It is not a toy bunny serving imaginary sweets at a make-believe political tea party. The captain commands, but his whims do not. He answers to the nation.

Nearly 70% of Italian gynecologists are now refusing to perform abortions, citing moral grounds. And the number is growing. See this:

Between 2003 and 2007 the number of gynecologists claiming the conscience clause to avoid carrying out abortions rose from 58.7 percent to 69.2 percent, according to the report.

In our continuing series on holidays, what would be a good Christian appropriation of Earth Day? Christians in the past have co-opted pagan holidays to give them a Christian meaning. What could Christians do with Earth Day? How about turning it into a Creation Day, a festival to commemorate God’s creation of the universe. (Or would we need six days for that?) I don’t recall the church ever celebrating that little event!

It seems to me that a successful holiday has to be inspiring and, if possible, fun. Merely hitting people with guilt about not recycling or scaring them to death with global warming scenarios will not make for a happy holiday. Can you think of ways to actually turn this day into a Christian celebration?