To Try a New Sword on a Chance Wayfarer

The greatest song ever made about having to kill your girlfriend because she's a zombie

2009-07-16T01:10:00.000-07:00

"Early Sunsets over Monroeville" by My Chemical Romance
I suppose any song about something so absurd should be laughable, but I find it strangely moving instead. Maybe zombies aren't the only things it's about...

Buffy vs. Edward

2009-06-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

Jonathan McIntosh mashes up Buffy and Twilight (with a little Harry Potter thrown in) in a hilarious "critique of Edward's character and generally creepy behavior." (H/t: Eugene Woodbury)

How to make TV golf more interesting

2009-06-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

I've often said that golf is like sex: fun to do, but boring to watch. But here's a way to make golf on TV more interesting: add basketball announcers.

In the meantime...

2009-06-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

I probably won't be posting here much for the next couple weeks, but in the meantime you can enjoy my other blog, This Day in History Blog, which I've revived and plan to keep going for a year or so to see what happens. It's a parody of those "This Day in History" things that you see all over. That means it's funny. And each entry is only two sentences long, so it won't take much of your time when you read it every day.

Going home

2009-06-14T00:04:00.000-07:00

My mother died yesterday of breast cancer. As some of you may recall, she was diagnosed only a few months ago, and her cancer was already stage IV when it was discovered. It had spread to her bones and bone marrow already.

Her other health problems prevented aggressive treatment of the cancer. She was in and out of the hospital several times over the past few months. Last week she went in again, seemingly no worse than before, but a few days ago her condition began to rapidly deteriorate.

This song captures what she believed about death. It's a comforting thing to believe. And Mom always loved a good boys choir. I think she would have liked this a lot.

Going home going home
I am going home
Quiet like, some still day
I am going home

It's not far, just close by,
through an open door
Work all done, care laid by
Never fear no more

Mother's there expecting me
Father's waiting too
Lots of faces gathered there
All the friends I knew

I'm just going home

No more fear No more pain
No more stumbling by the way
No more longing for the day
Going to run no more

Morning star lights the way
Restless dreams all gone
Shadows gone, break of day
Real life has begun

There's no break, there's no end
Just living on
Wide awake, with a smile
Going on and on

Going home Going home
I am going home
Shadows gone, break of day
Real life has begun

I'm just going home

(Music by Atonin Dvorak, lyrics by William Arms Fisher, performed by Libera)

'80s Monday: The Cramps

2009-06-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

The Cramps are a little different from most of the bands I've written about in a couple of ways. First, they never had much success in terms of record sales in the US or the UK. Second, they never broke up, mainly because they were headed by a married couple, singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy. Lux and Ivy were together for 37 years until Lux's tragic death from an aortic dissection earlier this year. (RIP, Lux.) Other members came and went, but Lux and Ivy stayed together through it all.

The Cramps ~~were~~ are one of my favorite bands, and when I was young I could never understand why they weren't more successful. Today, it's kind of obvious to me, though: they were just too extreme and too unique. They rocked like hell, and they rocked like nobody else. They blended punk and surf guitars with rockabilly, coining the term "psychobilly" (although what they did was a little different than bands that fit that genre today). Their sound was unique, often featuring two or three guitars, a stripped-down drum kit, and no bass. Their lyrics often referenced old B horror movies from the '50s and early '60s, or were filled with sexual innuendo.

Above all, their live shows were insane, mainly because of Lux. He's one of the few performers who bear comparison to the heyday of Iggy Pop. Lux may never have engaged in the kind of self-mutilation that Iggy sometimes did, but other than that, anything went. And Ivy, by contrast, mostly affected boredom, with an occasional sneer at Lux's antics. The effect could be hilarious, as you'll see in the "Tear It Up" video (if you're up to watching the whole thing).

They never had much success selling records, but these videos will show you why they were able to keep making music and selling out shows for 30+ years. Enjoy.

"What's Inside a Girl?" (c. 1986). This is actually a little subdued for Lux (though not for 99.9 percent of other singers) -- maybe because it was for TV -- so it makes for a nice warm up.

This isn't really a video -- "She Said" was the B-side on a single, so of course there was no official video for it -- but I love this song. And my five-year-old daughter loves to sing along with the chorus: "Woo-ee-ah-ah! Woo-ee-ah-ah! Woo-ee-ah-ah! Woo-ee-ah-ah! Woo! Ee! Ah!"
"She Said" (1981)

"Human Fly" live (filmed in 1981). This one gives the full Lux effect, although unfortunately the sound is a little bad.

"Tear It Up" (1981). This was the first Cramps song I ever heard, but I'm playing it last. For a reason -- Lux's performance is insane. And by insane, I mean obscene. And by obscene, I don't mean the language, I mean the performance. Actually, this video is a pretty good test. If you really and truly, deep down in your soul, ROCK, you'll think this is great, and you'll turn it up. If you're a normal person who just kind of likes rock music (not that there's anything wrong with that), well, you'll probably turn it off. So let me know in the comments: did you turn it up, or did you turn it off?

If you want to hear more of the Cramps, I recommend starting with Bad Music for Bad People.

The Cookie Cake Pie!

2009-06-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

My family and I made the Cookie Cake Pie today (recipe h/t: CakeSpy). A Cookie Cake Pie is a pie crust with a layer of cookie and a layer of cake (and frosting on top).

We changed the recipe a little, though, and made it with a cookie crust, chocolate cake, and chocolate frosting.

Here's the finished product.

Here's how we made it.

We decided to start with an "Oreo" pie crust (actually we used some off-brand cookies rather than real Oreos).

We took off the cream filling...

And ground up the cookies. There was lots of grinding, so we took turns. The kids enjoyed this part.

Once the cookies were all ground up...

We added the cream filling back in...

And mixed it up so it would be gooey enough for a pie crust. It was a bit dry, so we added a little milk as we went along.

The we formed a pie crust.

And added a layer of chocolate-chip cookie dough. (We made this from scratch, using a Betty Crocker recipe.)

Followed by a layer of devil's food cake (store-bought mix). It's ready to bake!

We had so much cake mix and cookie dough left over, we made two Cookie Cake Pies (and still had enough left over for six cupcakes and five big cookies). My daughter said she didn't want frosting on the second one, so we sprinkled ground-up cookies on the top. It came out like this:

She's going to take it to school tomorrow.

We frosted the other one with chocolate/cream frosting and ate it with ice cream.

How was it? Delicious. Wonderful. Awesome. But it's almost too rich to eat. Even I could only handle one piece. (And usually I only stop eating stuff like this when it's all gone or when my wife starts yelling at me about my cholesterol.)

So I recommend making a Cookie Cake Pie only if you have a lot of people around to eat it. Each person will probably only eat about half their normal portion of cookie/cake/pie. But they'll enjoy it.

(Check my Facebook for more pictures.)

Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (6/1/2009)

2009-06-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

I'm too busy for real blogging, so here are some links.

I'm going to make this this weekend, but with an Oreo crust, chocolate cake, and chocolate frosting. And homemade ice cream.

Sounds good. Maybe FAIR is hiring. I kid, I kid -- FAIR doesn't hire scientists. ;)

Steroids: not all that bad?

Stop pronouncing Sotomayor's name correctly!

Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (5/26/2009)

2009-05-26T23:59:00.000-07:00

I generally relate better to intellectuals and artists than to workers, but I've never understood the way some of my peers look down on manual workers. I can't understand looking down on someone who has a skill, especially one that you lack yourself and have to pay someone to use on your behalf. Anyway, here's a thought-provoking look at manual labor: The case for working with your hands.

Noah deals with escaping marsupials and other post-flood difficulties in Noah's Lament.

Resolved question: Is it OK to run an illegal library from my locker at school?

Photographs of African kings

'80s Monday: Bow Wow Wow

2009-05-25T10:04:00.000-07:00

My three biggest celebrity crushes of the '80s were actress Phoebe Cates, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's, and Annabella Lwin of Bow Wow Wow. Annabella had the world's most beautiful Mohawk, and an awesome English accent -- one video and I was in love. But Bow Wow Wow suddenly broke up in 1983, and that was pretty much the last anyone heard of her in the USA for many years, except when MTV happened to play a Bow Wow Wow video. (Remember, there were no interwebs in the '80s, kids.)

There was always an aura of hype and artificiality about Bow Wow Wow. They were put together by Malcolm McLaren, who previously managed the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols. He somehow got all the entire band from Adam and the Ants to defect en masse and join Bow Wow Wow instead. He was one of those guys for whom any publicity was good publicity, and his strategy for hyping the band was to exploit Annabella's underaged sex appeal. She was 14 when the band formed, and around 16 during their heyday. (And, BTW, I'm only four years older than she is, so there was nothing creepy about me crushing on her back in the day.)

Many of Bow Wow Wow's songs were about sex, with titles like "Mile High Club" and "Aphrodisiac." Their most over-the-top song was "Sexy Eiffel Towers," which is so exaggerated that it's funny (probably unintentionally) rather than sexy. (No video, but you can listen to it here. Maybe not safe for work, but it's a lot of fun to play at parties.) She was 14 when she recorded that, BTW.

But McLaren's most notorious act was producing this album cover. That's 15-year-old Annabella naked in the photo. It's an artistic pose -- a homage to Manet's The Luncheon on the Grass -- and all Annabella's naughty bits are strategically covered, but still, she was only 15 years old. Understandably, Annabella's mom went ballistic, and she even managed to get a police investigation going, but that was all just good publicity as far as McLaren was concerned.

Anyway, as I was watching these videos, I realized that Bow Wow Wow was actually a lot better than I remembered. It'd been years since I heard anything but their "I Want Candy" cover, which is a catchy tune but not their best. They weren't just hype after all, but in fact were actually a pretty tight band. The guys were good musicians, and Annabella could sing just fine. And damn, she was pretty. (And still is actually. She's still quite good-looking in her 40s.)

On to the videos:

"I Want Candy" (1982)

"Do You Wanna Hold Me?" (1983)

"Aphrodisiac" (c. 1983)

Here's a little bonus. Annabella's on some music show hosted by a guy named B. A. Robertson, who apparently was some kind of English pop star himself back in the day. He gives a very patronizing intro, and the thoroughly pissed-off Annabella goes off on him before storming off the stage. Sure, she took herself a little too seriously, but hey, that's what's being young is for (see Dylan, Bob). She was fierce as well as beautiful. And poor dorky Robertson was probably having flashbacks to high school, when all the pretty girls used to make fun of him. Served him right for dissing her though. (Guess you can tell whose side I'm on. ;) )

Good Reads/random Cool Sites (5/23/2009)

2009-05-23T23:59:00.000-07:00

It was just another bad t-shirt, until some guy wrote a hilarious review at Amazon.com. Now people are competing to outdo one another in the hilarity of their reviews, and the Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt is the number-one selling item in apparel at Amazon. I'm going to buy one and wear it ironically. To Wal-Mart. And buy pork rinds. (What are pork rinds, anyway?)
(H/t: murketing)

How your favorite sneakers got their names. Did you know that Chuck Taylor was on salary the whole time he worked for Converse and never got royalties for letting them use his name? Me neither.

Ordinary "supermax" prisons are obviously not secure enough for TERRORISTS, so Hunter has designed the world's first Super Extreme Maximum Security Prison.

Finally, small penises are a problem in India. One in five condoms falls off or tears during use, because "about 60% of Indian men have penises which are between three and five centimeters shorter than international standards used in condom manufacture." I guess they should start importing them from Japan. (Condoms, not penises.)

Good Reads/random Cool Sites (5/22/2009)

2009-05-22T23:59:00.000-07:00

Being poor is expensive. "The poorer you are, the more things cost. More in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, menace."

The BA-K-47 is America's No. 1 bacon-based assault rifle

Man, Donald Sterling is a jerk. Seriously.

Finally, speaking of the LA Clippers, they have a "create a caption" contest for this picture. I submitted this:
"Where's your God NOW, Blake Griffin?!"
Oddly enough, they didn't post it on the site.

Random thoughts while riding the bus

2009-05-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

This morning I was riding the bus, when a woman got on who seemed vaguely familiar. I was sure I'd seen her somewhere before, but I couldn't place her. Then it hit me: she looked just like Arnold Schwarzenegger's malfunctioning disguise in Total Recall.

Of course, her facial expression was a little different, and she didn't have a massive freakout and her head didn't open in segments and then explode, but except for that she was a dead ringer.

While I was looking at her and trying to figure out why she seemed so familiar, I noticed she was reading a book called From Fatigued to Fabulous. She was reading the book and yawning copiously. I don't think the book is working.

Fun with ALL CAPS

2009-05-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

I like it when somebody posts a long blog comment with many words in all caps, because you know what's really fun? Taking out all the other words and just reading just the words in ALL CAPS:

CHOICE! CHOOSE ONLY HAVE ALWAYS MORE POWER AUTHORITY. WHEN GET ON OUR KNEES, LEGIONS ANGELS DO NOT FEAR, ANY GIVEN MOMENT… IF TEMPLE LORD CAN TURN RETURN LORD INSTANTLY ANY YES, LAW CHOOSE THEREfore YOU OR YOU CHOOSING. YOU CHOOSE NEVER MAKE DO ANYTHING NOT TO ANTI- LEARN CHOOSE

My sentiments exactly.

But seriously folks, when somebody posts something with that many words in all caps, that's how my brain processes it. I skip the little words and just read the BIG WORDS. Use all caps in moderation (if at all), please. Thank you.

Update: The capness continues...

ALL NO ALL VEIL.. RULES, MISSION….. DESTROY. BAD “MISSIONS”…. THE DESTROYER; FATHER OF LIES; NEED BUT, NO GETS LIVES OUR REDEEMER.

'80s Monday: Madness

2009-05-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Madness was little different from a lot of bands I listened to during the '80s in that they weren't "deep" at all. A lot of their songs were nonsensical, just an excuse to have fun and dance and jump around like a fool. They called themselves the "nutty boys" and their music the "nutty sound."

Their first album, "One Step Beyond," was my favorite during the early '80s. I wore out the cassette listening to it over and over. I didn't like their subsequent albums nearly as much. They started to move a little bit away from the ska sound that I liked so much, and my taste probably evolved a little too. "Our House" was their big American hit, and it's an accessible, nostalgic song that most people can relate to, but as far as I was concerned it wasn't a true Madness song. I liked it, but it wasn't "nutty" at all.

"One Step Beyond" (1979)

"Night Boat to Cairo" (1979)

"Baggy Trousers" (1980) was my favorite song off their second album.

"Our House" (1982), since everybody remembers it. Like I said, I like the song, it's just not what I wanted from Madness.

Who would Jesus torture?

2009-05-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

Suspected terrorists, of course.

A new Pew Forum survey found that the more Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support torture. The less they attend church, the less likely they are to support torture. More than half of white evangelical Christians and of people who attend church weekly support torture.

Question wording: Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?

Happy May Day!

2009-05-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

"The Internationale," performed by Alistair Hulett and Jimmy Gregory

Arise, ye workers from your slumber,
Arise, ye prisoners of want.
For reason in revolt now thunders,
and at last ends the age of cant!
Away with all your superstitions,
Servile masses, arise, arise!
We'll change henceforth the old tradition,
And spurn the dust to win the prize!
[Chorus]
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.

No more deluded by reaction,
On tyrants only we'll make war!
The soldiers too will take strike action,
They'll break ranks and fight no more!
And if those cannibals keep trying,
To sacrifice us to their pride,
They soon shall hear the bullets flying,
We'll shoot the generals on our own side.
[Chorus]

No saviour from on high delivers,
No faith have we in prince or peer.
Our own right hand the chains must shiver,
Chains of hatred, greed and fear.
E'er the thieves will out with their booty,
And to all give a happier lot.
Each at his forge must do their duty,
And we'll strike the iron while it's hot.
[Chorus]

Car Chase Friday: The Master Touch

2009-05-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

As a general rule, I post car chases from movies I've actually seen, but I had to make an exception for this one from The Master Touch (1972), which I've only seen on YouTube. This was apparently one of those low-budget, multinational European productions featuring a fading but still big-name American star (Kirk Douglas in this case).

Douglas doesn't appear in the car chase, but it's great anyway. It's one of the most innovative I've seen -- the sequences with the stairs and with the upside-down third car (you'll see what I mean) are inspired. They bash the hell out of their cars. It's also very low-budget. The car being chased changes from a two-door to a four-door and then back to a two-door again. Seriously. They probably blew their budget on Kirk Douglas, so they couldn't afford two identical cars.

It doesn't matter though; it's still a great chase. Enjoy.

Ich habe die Schweinegrippe!

2009-04-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

German is an awesome language because "swine flu" in German is "Schweinegrippe," and there is no word in English nearly so awesome as that. "Ich habe die Schweinegrippe!" sounds far more awesome than "I have swine flu."

Why class-action lawsuits are a ripoff -- for everyone but the lawyers

2009-04-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

I've been using Norton Anti-Virus from Symantec ever since the day I got my first computer (1995). I've always been satisfied with it -- except for one thing.

When you buy the software, it comes with a "subscription." That means you've paid for "free" updates for (usually) one year. This is essential with this kind of software, because it's reactive -- new viruses come out, and new updates address them.

So if you bought the product on April 29, 2008, for example, your subscription is good through April 28, 2009. And when your subscription expires, you can renew and upgrade over the internet, so you're never without up-to-date anti-virus protection.

Sounds good right? But here's the thing: buy a Symantec product on April 29, 2008, and renew/upgrade over the internet on, say, March 29, 2009, and that's when your new one-year subscription starts. Not April 29, 2009. See, Symantec doesn't wait until your old subscription runs out before renewing; it just starts a new subscription.

So if you renew a month early (and Symantec starts sending you renewal notices well ahead of time), Symantec takes away a month of service that you've already paid for. The sneaky bastards.

That happened to me once. I lost a whole month of service that I'd paid for. I thought about switching to McAfee or AVG after that, but I was otherwise satisfied with the product and I hate change, so I still use it. I just wait until the day my subscription's expired before renewing. ("Fool me once...") And, obviously, that experience absolutely killed any goodwill I'd felt towards Symantec, the sneaky bastards.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and Symantec got sued for ripping off its customers like that. Apparently, enough people sued for the case to morph into a "class-action lawsuit."

A couple days ago, I received an e-mail telling me that Symantec had settled the case. Here are the main terms of the settlement.

1. Each ripped-off person gets either $2.50 in cash or a $15 voucher towards purchase of a Symantec product.

2. The three main plaintiffs (and don't ask me why they're the lucky ones) get $5,000 each.

3. Symantec has to put up a statement on its subscription renewal pages saying that upon upgrade the old subscription ends and a new one begins. Note that A) they don't have to phrase this in terms of people losing something they already paid for and especially B) they don't have to stop ripping people off, they just have to sort of tell them that's what they're doing.

4. The law firm that "represented" us ripped-off people gets up to $2,275,000 in costs and fees.

Lovely system, isn't it?

Good reads/random cool sites (4/28/2009)

2009-04-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

If there was ever any doubt that Michael Jackson is a complete nutter...
(H/t: Murketing)

Princess Unicorn: Her horn can pierce the sky!

Excerpts from No Regrets: The Best, Worst, & Most Ridiculous Tattoos Ever (heavy on the "worst" and the "ridiculous" -- the psychotic laughing Jesus is my favorite)

Uncomfortable Plot Summaries. For example,
GLADIATOR: Convict murders head of state.
LOLITA: Man encourages step-daughter to take chances.
PREDATOR: American military-industrial complex ruins first contact with alien life.

Nothing Wavering -- well, OK, Wavering a Little Bit, no, A Lot, When It Comes to Being Nice to Those People

2009-04-27T11:09:00.002-07:00

First, some background. There are about a gazillion Mormon blogs on the internet. These include blogs about being Mormon or just by Mormons. There are also several Mormon blog aggregators that compile some of these blogs according to various principles. My favorite is Mormon Blogosphere, which aggregates pretty much any blog with any connection at all with Mormonism. To Try a New Sword on a Chance Wayfarer is in that one. There's also Outer Blogness, which is blogs by former Mormons, non-believing Mormons, and so on. To Try a New Sword on a Chance Wayfarer is in that one too.

The Big Important Mormon Blog Aggregator is called Mormon Archipelago. It aggregates the Big Important Mormon Blogs that are collectively known as "the Bloggernacle" ("blog" + "tabernacle," you see). The primary criteria for inclusion seem to be being a devout Mormon and being a friend of the people who run it. To Try a New Sword on a Chance Wayfarer is not in that one.

The big Bloggernacle blogs are run by mostly devout Mormons who also tend to be well-educated intamallectuals. Like intamallectuals everywhere, they tend to think they're smarter than everybody else, which many people seem to find annoying. (I don't, since I'm also an intamallectual and thus think I'm smarter than everybody else -- including them.) Also like intamallectuals everywhere they question 'most everything, even -- and I know this will shock you -- sometimes the LDS Church. I mean, they don't question that it's true, fergoshsakes, but sometimes they kind of wonder if maybe sometimes the Church doesn't make a mistake now and then.

That's entirely too much for some other Mormons, who can't understand why people don't just get out of the Church if they're going to sometimes kind of wonder if maybe sometimes it doesn't make a mistake now and then. One such Mormon, some guy who does that pretentious first initial followed by middle name thing and wears a ~~beret~~ silly hat in his internet picture, decided he'd had enough of those heathen sinners pretending to be devout Mormons and started his own aggregator, which he calls Nothing Wavering. By "wavering," of course, he means things like sometimes kind of wondering if maybe sometimes the Church doesn't make a mistake now and then, because that's something the people who write those blogs say they would never ever do. And that (along with not making fun of his initial or his ~~beret~~ hat) is the primary criterion for inclusion. To Try a New Sword on a Chance Wayfarer is obviously not in that one either.

So that's roughly the state of Mormon blogs, or at least of their aggregators. (There are, of course, lots of other blogs by Mormons -- apparently including some of the biggest "mommy blogs" -- but I don't know much about them.) Now on to the real topic of this post.

A Mormon missionary was recently arrested while trying to board a plane. He was arrested because he is an undocumented immigrant -- an "illegal alien." His parents brought him to the US as a child. He grew up here; it's the only home he knows. Now he faces deportation to a strange country where he has no home, no family, no friends, no possessions, and no prospects. But the everyday travesties caused by US immigration policy aren't really the topic of this post.

The real topic is how Mormons are reacting to the incident. Because, for reasons that could only interest a sociologist (in other words, I don't know the reasons), most American Mormons are very conservative politically, and that especially seems to describe the Nothing Wavering kind of Mormon. Bloggernacle type Mormons, on the other hand, are less likely to be conservative, since most intamallectuals recognize that reality has a strong liberal bias, as a great American political philosopher put it.

The LDS Church as an institution tends to be quite conservative as well. For example, as most people know, it recently led the way in taking away the right of gay people to marry each other in California. So there tends to be a comfortable coincidence of Church policy and personal philosophy for Nothing Wavering type Mormons, while Bloggernacle type Mormons sometimes have to struggle to reconcile Church policy with their personal convictions.

But immigration policy is an exception. Since one of the cardinal tenets of American conservatism today is "Be mean to people who aren't like us," most American conservatives ~~hate the Mexicans~~ favor strict immigration policies and want to deport ~~the Mexicans~~ undocumented immigrants and never do anything to help them. The LDS Church, however, has a different policy. Its policy is basically, "We don't care about immigration status." And it has no problem with calling undocumented immigrants into service as local leaders and teachers, etc., or as missionaries. And as the article about the arrested missionary says, the Church even looks out for its undocumented missionaries and thinks of ways to make it less likely for them to get caught.

Of course, one can ascribe the Church's policy to entirely cynical reasons, but I think that's rather unfair. Credit where due, I think it simply got it right this time. A church's job is to minister to people's "souls," not to check up on their immigration status. So it should feel free to assign undocumented immigrants to volunteer positions in local leadership or as missionaries. (It's perfectly legal, by the way, as long as the people are unpaid, as all Mormon missionaries and local leaders are.)

A discussion of this case and of the Church's policy regarding immigration status in general has ensued on one of the big Bloggernacle blogs. And learning of this policy has been quite shocking -- mind-boggling -- head-exploding -- to some of those conservative Nothing Wavering type LDS, who had so much fun stopping the gays from getting married but can't understand why the Church won't be mean to ~~the Mexicans~~ the illegal aliens too.

The result has been a sudden outbreak of -- dare I say it -- wavering on the part of the Nothing Wavering crowd. Suddenly it's the conservative LDS who are questioning the Church and its leaders, saying a policy is inexplicable or even wrong, or using the same kinds of arguments they've always decried when coming from Bloggernacle types: it's not "official," it's not "doctrine," it's not "binding" on the members of the Church. And it's been a hoot to watch.

'80s Monday: The Psychedelic Furs

2009-04-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

The Psychedelic Furs were an English band that was somewhat popular in the US. All their albums during the '80s at least made the top 150. They're probably best-known for "Pretty in Pink," which they re-recorded for the Molly Ringwald movie of the same name. (I don't think it's one of their best songs, though, so I'm not including it here.)

Like most of the bands I listened to in the '80s, they had a distinctive sound -- I especially like Richard Butler's raspy, weary, sardonic vocals -- danceable tunes, and thoughtful lyrics. Anyway, here's some music.

"Love My Way" (1982) is a nice "us-against-the world" love song.

Love my way
It's a new road
I follow where
My mind goes
They'd put us
On a railroad
They'd dearly
Make us pay
For laughing
In their faces
And making it our way
There's emptiness
Behind their eyes
There's dust
In all their hearts
They just want to
Steal us all
And take us all apart
But not in
Love my way
It's a new road
I follow where
My mind goes
So swallow
All your tears my love
And put on
Your new face
You can never win or lose
If you don't
Run the race

"Goodbye" (1982) wasn't even released as a single, so there's no music video that goes with it, but it's probably my favorite Furs song. If you've ever been caught up in a group of people who you don't really like and who don't really like you, you'll know what this song is about.

Hello to you, hello to me
Ah yeah, I really care
I'll see you all around sometime
I hope that I'm not there
...
Hello to you, hello to me
And yes, I really care
I'll see you all around sometime
If I ever go back there
...
Goodnight to you, goodnight again
I've somewhere else to be
I'll see you all around sometime
I hope you don't miss me
Goodbye to you, goodbye to you
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
Goodbye to you
Goodbye

"Heaven" (1984) was their biggest UK hit, but inexplicably it wasn't released as a single in the US. It's another side to the Psychedelic Furs, less angry and sarcastic and more romantic. I think it's quite nice.

Heaven is the whole of the heart
And heaven don't tear you apart
Yeah heaven is the whole of the heart
And heaven don't tear you apart

I actually agree with a Fox News guy

2009-04-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

I've noticed Shep Smith before. Once in a while, he rocks.

It's not that hard. Torture is always wrong. Period. But even if it wasn't, it's against the law. It's a crime. And America is party to war crimes treaties (and ratified treaties are the highest law of the land, they're not "suggestions") that require the investigation and prosecution of possible war crimes.

Conservatives, I would have thought, should be all over this. They're supposed to be in favor of law and order. They're supposed to believe that no one is above the law. There are some honorable exceptions like Shep Smith, but it seems that for far too many conservatives, the highest law is It's OK If You're A Republican.

Update: And on the question of whether torture "works," I'll let Smith speak for me again (language not safe for work/children/prudes):

Unexpectedly good news

2009-04-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

I don't know who any of the British reviewers mentioned in this note are, but they seem to love the new Star Trek movie.

The Star Trek enterprise is back in business. British critics (the latest sequel premiered in London Monday night) and U.S. trade reviewers have greeted it with rapturous applause.

I would have seen it on May 7 anyway, but now I have much higher hopes than I did before.