"Passion" Update: Blood Libel Out, Aussie Jews Approve

Herald Sun: Jews OK Mel's film [07feb04]

Other religious groups support the movie, saying it follows closely the literal interpretation of the Gospel. "In Christian teaching, Jesus died because of human sin and it would be quite tragic if a film about Jesus' death resulted in a human sin of anti-semitism," said Jeremy Jones, the president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

"We think it would be very unlikely that there would be hostility because of one person's artistic rendering of a Bible story, which is what this is.

"I don't think Mel Gibson is claiming this is anything other than one person's artistic rendering of how he reads a story important to his religious faith."

All Hail the Seventh Century Saxon King

Museum of London

Last autumn, the undisturbed tomb of an early 7th century Saxon King was discovered. The Museum of London is displaying some of the objects found in the tomb.

This is an incredible find. I'm going to guess - why not? - on the limited info available that the king is Sigeberht II, who converted in 653 CE. The other strong candidate is Saebert who died in 616, but the presence of Christian artifacts says that the survivors accepted the religion, and Saebert's sons kicked the Christians out after Saebert died.

But Then Again...

uggabugga: A possibility

1LT BUSH, GEORGE W
1LT WYLE, STEVEN W
PVT RICH, HAROLD W

Since the computer printout uses a machine font, anyone with a W middle initial, four letters in his last name, and six letters in his first, could fit into the torn SPE's name field.

From any year whatsoever.

Thanks, uggabugga. Be sure to go see the picture ugga's rigged up. It's eye-opening...

Is There A Missing 72-73 SPE?

UPDATE: THIS IS AN OLD POST OF MINE. Go see my new post on the recent Killian memos here. I no longer think the Killian memos are forgeries.

In a comment below, Gryn suggests that the first line of the torn SPE is for October, rather than November. He's angling for the maximum contradiction angle, but I'm afraid this assumption would loosen the noose considerably for Bush.

Reexamining the document, I agree that the letter could be a T. It's a computerized printout that doesn't use serifs in its font, contrary to my assertion below. What I see as a serif, therefore, could be the top of a T (I still believe the line is slanting). OCT is a good guess for the first date, though.

Here's why that starts to clear Bush: If the torn SPE proves to be genuine, then he's got proof that he made up time in October and mid November (the second line can now be NOV, placing the time immediately after Election Day) for the second quarter. This leaves a single quarter for the case of AWOL, and now it's getting down to a possible case of crossed communication.

Let's follow this trail of assumption: Bush clears base, confident that he's being transferred to an Alabama unit that won't require attendance. This transfer is denied, but because he's already left town, he doesn't get the notification. Thinking his Guard service is covered, Bush doesn't attend any drills, and at the end of the first quarter, someone in Houston (Jerry Killian) finally gets word to him that his attendance is deficient. He then applies on Sept. 5, early on in the second quarter for transfer to the second Guard unit in Alabama. (This request is sent to Col. Killian, and signed "George" - it reads like a letter dictated to Bush). This transfer is approved.

But for good measure, Bush comes back to Houston in October for a weekend drill. And immediately after Election Day, Bush pulls a six day stint in Houston. Both of these times of service must have been makeup days for the first quarter, a deal worked out with his commanders based on the mixup. This service would have cleared him for the first quarter.

This leaves room for Bush to have done duty in Alabama, while he was working the Senate campaign, and then gives him time to go back to Alabama for the November 29 date that the Bush campaign has specifically claimed for Bush to have attended in Alabama. This gets Bush cleared for the second quarter.

If there's a case for an AWOL Bush, then my original guesses for the first two months on the torn SPE must stand as the working hypothesis. However, the above scenario, while solving many problems for Bush apologists, still heighten the tension between other documents and claims about this time period. It's never been claimed that Bush returned from Alabama to get any drill points at Houston.

Furthermore, Killian is the person who signed off on Bush's annual evaluation for 72-73, the one stating that Bush had not been observed at Houston for 01 May 72 - 31 April 73. How could he have missed Bush's return to Houston in October, and his six day stint in November - not to mention the January and February/April times? Killian is the one who probably prodded Bush into the second transfer - he would definitely have known if Bush came back while in Alabama!

Since the torn SPE is specifically for Houston points earned, there must be a similar document from his Montgomery unit somewhere. If the SPE is gone, there are other ways to determine just what days Bush served in Alabama. Phil Carter explains the different paths by which paperwork can establish the truth about Bush's service record in 1972-74. This information could confirm or deny the above scenario conclusively. So once again, the call for Bush to fully release his military records goes out.

The only reason for Bush to withhold his records is if he's got something to hide.

Plamegate's Shaken Loose a Few Names

Cheney's Staff Focus of Probe - Insight on the News - National

Scooter Davis and John Hannah, both from Dick Cheney's staff.

Pizza Party U.S.A.

The Morning News

The execution is never going to happen, of course. But I love the general idea. Leap Day (February 29) is the day of Pizza Party USA. Throw a pizza party yourself, invite your friends, make the dough yourselves, build little personal size pizzas and cook them on the stone. Pop open a cold one, eat the pizza you make yourself, and play Parcheesi with your pals. That's the way to celebrate the day that comes along every four years (excluding years divisible by 100, unless they're also divisible by 400).

Why Corporate Heads are Idiots, Part 754: Hey Ya, Charlie Brown

What used to be "Hey Ya! Charlie Brown

I was one of the lucky ones (although I never saw the last third). I got to view this cute clip that turned "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!" into a music video for the infectious song Hey Ya!. It was incredible how well the different shots fit the song.

What United Media, the owners of Charlie Brown, should have done was throw a few bucks in the direction of the editors, negotiated for the Hey Ya! rights, and gotten the video onto MTV. Seriously, it's that good. I haven't seen the Outkast video, but I imagine that shots could have been edited into the Charlie Brown video. A half day of greenscreen, and the band members could have been in the Charlie Brown shots.

Then United could have made the video the center of a marketing campaign for the DVDs of the Charlie Brown specials.

Instead, they stepped on it. We may never see it again. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Georgia Teacher Applicant Considered "Unrealistic Expectation" for Potential Students

Brains can hurt job applicants

This is outrageous. You would think that a metro school system would fall all over itself trying to score this kind of teacher for their students: African American. Male. 22 years old. Rhodes Scholar nominee. 3.75 GPA in college. Double major (sociology and secondary education - social studies). Three years on the National Dean's List.

That's just half of the man's qualifications - and yet he was denied a job teaching urban high schoolers because his "demeanor and therefore presence in the classroom would serve as an unrealistic expectation as to what high school students could strive to achieve or become."

Words fail me.

Something Going Unnoticed Concerning "The Passion"

BBC NEWS

In October, Gibson's Icon Productions company and independent movie specialist Newmarket Films agreed to distribute The Passion of the Christ. It will be shown on 2,000 screens in the US.

Something's being obscured by all the controversy: Mel's carving out a major niche for his production company. The true bottleneck of Hollywood power is in distribution, and now Icon is developing a distribution network to get The Passion of the Christ into theaters. Since the film only cost $25 million to make, it will clearly make an incredible amount of money. This will in turn strengthen the distribution arm of Icon Productions.

Mel's made an end run around Hollywood, and it doesn't look like he'll ever have to look back.

WaPo on Bush's Guard Service: The Cracks Are Showing

Bush's Guard Service In Question

This article is from yesterday, but it's a step in the right direction.

Bush's 72-73 year in the Texas Air National Guard is baldly described as "a one year gap...during the height of the Vietnam War." From the rest of the article, it's clear that the 73-74 complete SPE is being used, and the torn 72-73 document is not.

The heart of the Bush defense on this matter is this:

White House communications director Dan Bartlett said yesterday that although no official record can be found, "obviously, you don't get an honorable discharge unless you receive the required points for annual service." He said Bush "specifically remembers" performing some of his duties in Alabama. Bartlett also provided a news clipping from 2000 quoting friends of Bush's from the Alabama Senate campaign saying they recalled Bush leaving for Guard duty on occasion.

Bush said in 2000 that he did "show up for drills. I made most monthly meetings, and when I missed them I made them up."

Reached in Montgomery yesterday, Turnipseed stood by his claim that Bush never reported to him. But Turnipseed added that he could not recall if he, himself, was on the base much at that time.

1. Bush says he did. Well, that and a dollar fifty will get you a cup of coffee.

2. The points must have been made up for his honorable discharge. Perhaps so. When and how? It wasn't during the first two quarters of 72-73, and the Post doesn't seem to be admitting the torn SPE into evidence.

3. People remember him leaving for Guard duty. Well, unless they watched him actually go to Guard duty, fulfill Guard duty, and record his Guard duty, it doesn't matter if Bear Bryant saw him leave for Guard duty.

4. Turnipseed can't recall today whether he was on the base much at the time. There would still be records of Bush's attendance. There would be other Alabama guard members who remember Bush being there. No record and no Guard member has come to light.

The complete answer is yet to be understood. A full and immediate release of Bush's military records would clear all these questions up.

Unless, of course, what hasn't been released is even more damning than what has.

The 72-73 SPE: More Info Comes to Light

Today the incomparable Bob Somersby does a critique of Bush AWOL articles. He quotes from a Jo Thomas Nov 3, 2000 New York Times Article:

[Bush aide Dan] Bartlett pointed to a document in Mr. Bush’s military records that showed credit for four days of duty ending Nov. 29 and for eight days ending Dec. 14, 1972, and, after he moved back to Houston, on dates in January, April and May…

Another document showed that Mr. Bush served at various times from May 29, 1973, through July 30, 1973, a period of time questioned by The Globe.

These two documents are almost certainly the SPEs that I've been discussing. Thomas describes four days that end on Nov. 29, and eight that end on December 14. The first two lines of the 72-73 document reveal two dates ending in 29 and 14, with four points and eight points respectively. Thomas confuses days with points earned, perhaps under the patient tutelage of Dan Bartlett. And as the 73-74 SPE shows, points earned under the TD code 2 are two a day. So we're only talking about 2 days and 4 days on these lines, not four and eight.

Also, this document doesn't record any Alabama information. There's a letter code in the upper right corner of both documents that clearly corresponds to Bush's Houston unit. There's no evidence of Alabama time on either of these documents. Perhaps this is another illumination Ms. Thomas received from Mr. Bartlett.

But as you can see, my guess on the last two months is February and May, while Thomas reports that they were April and May. Following Thomas, the amended 72-73 SPE would read as follows:

1 72 NOV 28 - 72 NOV 29 2 004 (Tue after T'giving - Wed)
2 72 DEC 10 - 72 DEC 14 2 008 (Mon - Thu)
3 73 JAN 04 - 73 JAN 06 2 006 (Thu - Sat)
4 73 JAN 08 - 73 JAN 10 2 006 (Mon - Wed)
5 73 APR 07 - 73 APR 08 2 004 (Sat - Sun)
6 73 MAY 01 - 73 MAY 03 1 003 (Tue - Thu)
7 73 MAY 08 - 73 MAY 10 1 003 (Tue - Thu)
8 73 MAY 19 - 73 MAY 20 2 004 (Sat - Sun)
9 73 MAY 22 - 73 MAY 24 1 003 (Tue - Thu)

If Thomas's month guess is correct, this makes the May 2 statement by Bush's superior officers even more astonishing. According to them, Bush had not been observed at the Houston unit from May 1972 to April 1973. Yet the 72-73 SPE has him serving on April 7-8, less than a month before the signed and dated statements of his superiors.

What gives? Perhaps this is another example of the guiding hand of Dan Bartlett. Since the month in question is completely missing from the record, guessing April would be a little more complementary to Bush. It would mean he had pulled some Guard duty right before the April 26 order to active duty training (ACDUTRA). But then why the punitive character of the active duty order? This warning about "unsatisfactory participation", signed by Bush, is clearly punitive. Is it from this time period? If not, when was this warning given to Bush? The two primary guesses would be November 1972 or April 1973. What other time period would qualify for such a warning?

Guessing April for line 5 really doesn't make sense to me. So for now, I'm sticking with February.

The question remains, however: How could Bush's attendance record include credit for serving November though February/April which completely escaped the notice of his superior officers (who I assume looked at the records before signing an annual evaluation report on Bush)? How could they have missed him?

Operation "Reverse Engines Full": George Will Invalidates Preemptive War!

Remember the scene in Titantic where the iceberg has been spotted, and the crew scrambles to reverse those gigantic engines? Well, conservative journalists and pundits alike have just done the same thing with regards to their views of CIA intelligence. Before the Kay Report loomed out of the quiet January night, they regaled us with the timidity of the Intelligence Community. Now that the WMD are fully recognized to not be there, the story is that the CIA sold the White House a hyped bill of goods.

Atrios has sounded the Google call: Document the Reverse Engine Full. I'm taking George "Is Anybody Listening" Will. And while the search is on, I've landed a peach of a quote from Mr. Will:

ABCNEWS' Michel Martin said the discussion has implications for future administration efforts to build a foreign policy consensus.

"If the administration wants to go forward in Iran, in other places where there are concerns about nuclear programs being developed, and if the public — not just the American public but the broader public — comes to believe that they played fast and loose with their facts, there's going to be hell to pay when they make any effort to engage in a similar kind of policy," said Martin.

Will agreed.

"It is the case that the administration says we're going to find them," said Will, of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. "If we don't find them then the doctrine of preemption is gone, because preemption presupposes a certain degree of confidence in your intelligence."

This Week Roundtable, June 22, 2003

Maybe a better name for this would be "Operation Shooting Fish in Barrel".

Patriots 24, Panthers 14, Frodo 2

Eh, what do I know? I'm about to go see Return of the King again. (It's only my second time!)

I've not yet reviewed any of the Lord of the Rings films, a shocking lapse on my part. That's because I'm waiting for the extended version of Return for final judgment. Without a doubt the work of Peter Jackson and his production crew can't be overemphasized. Tolkien's world came alive, and it did this hobbit's heart good.

Short Disclaimer

There are good reasons for discounting the torn SPE from an accounting of Bush's service record. Many people do rely on it to exonerate Bush, however, and I hope I've shown that the document isn't the excuse Bush apologists are looking for.

In fact, the disconnect between this document and other documentation of Bush's service in 72-73 is highlighted. It shows Bush in Houston (as Martin Heldt pointed out, this SPE wouldn't have service from Bama), while other documents show Bush wasn't in Houston from May to April. Is it a forgery? If so, when was it forged - then or now? If it's authentic, then where was the time served? How did Bush put in the kind of hours the 72-73 SPE reveals without being noticed by his superior officers at Houston?

Were people protecting Bush? Or were they protecting their own culpability in falsifying Bush's record and giving him a easy path out of Vietnam? I don't know. You don't know. Only Bush knows, and he's not talking.

I'd like to thank The MahaBlog, Democratic Veteran, and Uggabugga for linking to the post below. My page views have shot through the roof! Is this what Bilbo felt when the dwarves were piling up at the door? Actually, I'm quite pleased.

Piecing Together Bush's Final Two Years of Guard Duty

"The importance of showing up and doing the job."

George W. Bush, when asked what he learned during his time in the Texas Air National Guard

There's a large controversy over George Bush's last two years of service, and the Bush campaign offered a lot of explaining and one piece of paper to account for the most egregious lapse of service records: his 1972-73 year. But while the 1972-73 and 73-74 Statements for Points Earned do show that Bush racked up the points necessary for his honorable discharge, they also expose the haphazard way that Bush did so. In fact, they reveal the exact blunt truth of how Bush described his chief lesson from the TANG.

There are two copies of 1st Lt. George Bush's SPE for the years 1972-73, the main year in question concerning Bush's military service. Both copies exhibit the same damage, but the one used by George Magazine in their exoneration of Bush's record has some handwriting explaining the page that doesn't appear on the one found at AWOLBush.com. Here's links to both:

The unaltered SPE

George Magazine's altered but more legible SPE

For an example of a complete Statement of Points Earned, check out Bush's 1973-74 record. Here's a reprint of that information. It will come in handy later on:

73 MAY 29 73 MAY 31 1 003
73 JUN 05 73 JUN 07 1 003
73 JUN 23 73 JUN 24 2 004
73 JUL 02 73 JUL 03 1 002
73 JUL 05 73 JUL 05 1 001
73 JUL 09 73 JUL 12 1 004
73 JUL 16 73 JUL 19 2 008
73 JUL 21 73 JUL 22 2 004
73 JUL 23 73 JUL 27 1 006
73 JUL 30 73 JUL 30 1 001

The next to last column is important. This tells us what type of duty (TD) is generating the points. From this website, you can see that TD 1 is active duty, and TD 2 is a special tour, whatever that means. The handwriting on George Magazine's copy of the 72-73 SPE indicates that the 2 is inactive duty, while the 1 is active duty. I don't know what inactive duty entails. I'll leave that to someone more knowledgeable.

Regardless of which copy of the 72-73 SPE you're looking at, only the following information can be read:

     TD PTS

1 . 29 2 004
2 . 14 2 008
3 N 06 2 006
4 N 10 2 006
5 ? 08 2 004
6 . 03 1 003
7 . 10 1 003
8 . 20 2 004
9 . 24 1 003

I've added the 1-9 numbers on the left side for convienence. Also, in line 1, the dot that is holding the place for the last letter of the month is barely legible. Only the upper right corner can be seen, and it's a diagonal line heading up from left to right. The line is just visible along the tear, and the edge of a serif is plainly seen. What month could it have been?

Bush was serving on a May to May year, so let's list the months in that order:

MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY

The N's are quite visible, and can't be the month of June, because there's at least two month above the N month (the 29 month, the 14 month, and then the N month starting with 6). Therefore, the identifiable N month can only be JAN. Since the Bush campaign definitely claimed that Bush was serving on Nov. 29, the first month is NOV, not MAY, and the month in between is DEC.

Lt. Bush was ordered to attend active duty on May 22-24, 1973. This information fits into line 9, and would be his final entry for the year. (The other two dates of ordered active service are May 29-31 and Jun 5-7, 1973. They appear on lines one and two of the 73-74 SPE above).

Let's amend the 72-73 SPE with this information. The printed information is underlined, and all new dates are figured on a 2 inactive points per inactive day served, as per the 73-74 SPE. Any information not known at the present time is represented with a ? for a placeholder:

1 72 NOV 28 - 72 NOV 29 2 004 (Tue after T'giving - Wed)
2 72 DEC 10 - 72 DEC 14 2 008 (Mon - Thu)
3 73 JAN 04 - 73 JAN 06 2 006 (Thu - Sat)
4 73 JAN 08 - 73 JAN 10 2 006 (Mon - Wed)
5 73 ??? 07 - 73 ??? 08 2 004
6 73 ??? 01 - 73 ??? 03 1 003
7 73 ??? 08 - 73 ??? 10 1 003
8 73 ??? 19 - 73 ??? 20 2 004
9 73 MAY 22 - 73 MAY 24 1 003

With so much information in place, I'm going to give you my best guess for the rest of the story:

1 72 NOV 28 - 72 NOV 29 2 004 (Tue after T'giving - Wed)
2 72 DEC 10 - 72 DEC 14 2 008 (Mon - Thu)
3 73 JAN 04 - 73 JAN 06 2 006 (Thu - Sat)
4 73 JAN 08 - 73 JAN 10 2 006 (Mon - Wed)
5 73 FEB 07 - 73 FEB 08 2 004 (Wed - Thu)
6 73 MAY 01 - 73 MAY 03 1 003 (Tue - Thu)
7 73 MAY 08 - 73 MAY 10 1 003 (Tue - Thu)
8 73 MAY 19 - 73 MAY 20 2 004 (Sat - Sun)
9 73 MAY 22 - 73 MAY 24 1 003 (Tue - Thu)

By this reckoning:

Just as the George Magazine article states, Bush had enough retirement points to maintain his Guardsman status honorably, just like he accumulated enough electoral votes to become President.

But from 26 May 72 until 28 Nov 72, Bush blew off his Guard duty to work in Winston Blount's failed Senatorial campaign. He applied for one transfer to an Kansas unit and moved before the transfer was approved (it wasn't). In September, Bush applied again for an Alabama unit and was ordered to report for duty in October. He didn't.

He also blew off his piloting license. He missed his physical, because of his own admission that he no longer "intended" to fly, this despite the years of training at government expense. Do Guardsmen get to decide unilaterally what they will and will not do in the Guard? Bush was allowed this sovereignty.

But not forever. By my reading of his record, Bush got some form of talking-to in November. He showed up for some makeup days somewhere. But all was not well in Lt. Bush's life. That Christmas, he took an underage Marvin out drinking and challenged his dad to settle their differences "mano a mano." When he sobered up from that one, he got back into a routine of attendance, getting the points he needed for the quarter.

But when Bush wandered away from regular attendance again, somebody lit a fire under his posterior. On 73 April 23, Bush was ordered to attend ACDUTRA beginning 73 May 22. He also crunched six more days of active duty into the month of 73 May, with four more inactive duty points for good measure. Further, from his 73-74 SPE, you can see George putting PAID to his Guard service. Late May, June and July are a flurry of active duty points. Finally, the last point was on record, and the last hour was served. Bush had in two months accumulated enough points to apply for an early release to attend Harvard Business School. He got it.

But he didn't even come back to sign the paper for his transfer to a non-attendance-required Denver Guard unit. The Guard tacked on an extra six months as a final door prize for Bush. But it was probably unnoticed. By that time, Lt. Bush was at Harvard, applying the lesson he'd learned at the Texas Air National Guard.



Showing up and doing the job.

UPDATE: An unaltered, unripped version of the 72-73 SPE is now available on the web. You can go to my post on this new information by clicking here.

Extraordinary Color Photographs of Pre-Communist Russia

The Empire That Was Russia: The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated
(A Library of Congress Exhibition)

This is the Russia Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky were talking about.

Remember Where The Hype Came From

Google Search: "we know he has weapons of mass destruction"

We were wrong.

Hello! Electronic Voting Machines Are A Snap to Infiltrate

Threat to American democracy

For a week, the computer whizzes laid abuse - both high- and low-tech - on the six new briefcase-sized electronic voting machines sent over by the state.

One guy picked the locks protecting the internal printers and memory cards. Another figured out how to vote more than once - and get away with it. Still another launched a dial-up attack, using his modem to slither through an electronic hole in the State Board of Elections software. Once inside, he could easily change vote totals that come in on Election Day.

"My guess is we've only scratched the surface," said Michael A. Wertheimer, who spent 21 years as a cryptologic mathematician at the National Security Agency.

Anybody else think that this is a bad idea?

Cutting Up Flag in Play Disqualifies Teens from Competition

Sun-Sentinel

The students from Archbishop McCarthy High were performing the James Clavell play The Children's Story. The plot concerns a conquered America. The New Teacher for a schoolroom takes about 20 minutes to completely control the hearts and minds of the children. She demonstrates her power by enlisting their help in an act of flag desecration. It's presented to them as a great way of having a piece of the flag for themselves, since it's such a great thing. The children, happy with their new teacher and ungrounded in the actual meaning of the Pledge they've been parroting, take up their scissors and snip the flag to pieces.

Clavell wrote the basis of the play when his five-year-old daughter asked him for a dime after saying the "plege illegience". The story and the play are powerful renditions of how fragile a child's understanding can be, and how a grounding in independent thought is the heart of a democratic education.

Yet in our post-9/11 world, the reactionaries are growing stronger. The students of McCarthy High were disqualified from competition based on their faithful replaying of the script.

After receiving complaints about the flag cutting, co-chairman Melody Wicht, who teaches drama at Pembroke Pines Charter High, disqualified the McCarthy team.

"Some people came to me after the play and complained about the performance," Wicht said. "So I looked into it."

Wicht said she based her decision on Florida Statute 876.52, which says "Whoever publicly mutilates, defaces or tramples with intent to insult any flag ... of the United States shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree."

"I tried to stay as objective as possible as they performed," Wicht said. "My problem was that they took an American flag off the flagpole and cut it into pieces. They were disqualified based on Florida law."

Wicht is an idiot. Let us dispense with the intents of the characters on stage, which is fiction. All the characters, except the New Teacher, intend to honor the flag. No, let's look at the intent of the production and the actual actors on stage.

The cutting up of the flag is meant to have a strong dramatic effect - it's the sight of the innocent doing something that should be unthinkable. And that's not just cutting up the flag - it's the play's total effect. It's how quickly the New Teacher can steal our children away from us. When done properly, the play is not meant to insult the flag. It's meant to caution the parents.

Ameli Fragetta, Erin's mother, said anyone who knows about the play knows the flag is destroyed in a respectful fashion.

"This play has been a voice of patriotism for years and is regularly performed at district, state and national drama competitions," Fragetta said. "My daughter is very upset. Justice and fairness are very important to her, and this decision just wasn't fair."

Fragetta said her daughter, a Girl Scout, saves the flag fragments after performances to dispose of at official flag destruction ceremonies.

"These kids had absolutely no intention of desecrating the flag," Fragetta said. "They're just performing a very serious play where the flag is destroyed. This is ridiculous."

Was anyone offended by the cutting up of the flag? They ought to have been. But was the intent to insult the flag? No.

Wicht, as a drama judge, should have recognized that. She didn't and bowed to the complaints of people who don't know any better. What a waste. McCarthy should boycott the competition from now on...

Two ADL Members Screened Gibson's Passion

The gig is up on The Passion of the Christ. Some members of the ADL finally got into a screening and are speaking out about their disappointments with the film:

Foxman said he is preparing a letter asking the filmmaker, who self-financed the $25-million "Passion," to append a personal statement to the version scheduled for release Ash Wednesday (Feb. 25) in which Gibson would condemn any bigoted interpretation of his Passion narrative.

"Mel Gibson, like all of us, has a right to freely express himself," Foxman said. "As an artist, let him have the film he wants to have. But, given the film he has made, I would like to see him do a postscript. Let him say, 'I did this film because I believe I was inspired by the Holy Ghost. I believe that Jesus suffered for all mankind. Some people want to put the blame for his death on the Jews. Don't do that. I've said I wanted to make a "Passion" of love. Blaming Jews for Christ's death would make this a "Passion" of hate.' "

ADL wants a postscript on Gibson's 'Passion' - LA Times (requires subscription)

The "blood on ourselves and our children" quote is in. If you've seen the trailers, you'll recall a pale, thin-faced man in the crowd sometimes - that's a phyical embodiment of Satan. The Washington Times reports that Satan is only ever seen at the side of Jewish leaders, and implies that Caiaphas controls Pilate. All bad. All of this continues the whitewashing of Roman involvement in the death of Christ, making the religion more palatable to Roman authorities.

But who puts Jesus on the cross in the film? The Times reports that Jesus himself crawls up to the cross and stretches out his arms. This reminds me of a Christian friend who stressed this point to great effect. Since Christians believe Jesus was God, no one could have crucified Jesus without his complete cooperation. Jesus was the only Jew that actually killed Christ.

It's very telling that the two members of the ADL who came out of that screening aren't demanding the film be shelved or edited beyond the asking of an epilogue from Gibson.

But the LA Times article ends on a sobering note.

"[I]t's now likely that more people will see his Passion in two months," Foxman said, "than saw all the Passion plays ever staged in the previous 2,000 years."

Reason enough for concern. Reason enough for Gibson to ensure the message he seeks to impart is the one that people will take away.

New on the Blogroll: The Great Divide

Go say howdy.

What Happened to My Sidebar?

Well, I messed up a tag. Blogger didn't let me know that the tag was messed up the last time I changed the templete. And for some reason, Safari (my browser of choice right now) actually fixed the tag, so I didn't see anything wrong.

But just a few minutes ago, I had IE open and swung by the site...OH, NO! A headline tag end was missing and it sent the formatting all the way down! It looked awful.

And so all my recent new visitors saw the site look nuts. This is the story of my life. Well, the problem's fixed now.

(Note to self: Always check the new templete in all the browsers I have.)

On edit: whoops. Saw that my recent addition to the blogroll, Ungodly Politics, wasn't showing up. Another stinky tab end missing. Sorry, Lazarus.

Bush or the Texas Air National Guard: Who Was The Bitch?

I brought up the AWOL issue on a Republican Air Force Reservist's blog recently and was chewed out one way and the other for it. I resolved then and there to get some more info about this issue:

1. People in the Guard get and got a lot more leeway on the attendance issue than people in the active military. Bush was very lackadaisical about his attendance, especially in the last two years of his service, but he was honorably discharged from the Guard. Whatever his lapses, he made up for the lost time.

2. Bush took advantage of the system. Of this, there can be no doubt. He applied to a unit that would not require attendance so that he could work for William Blount's failed Senate campaign in Alabama (for $900 a week, in 1972 Alabama! How much Dixie homegrown will that get you?). Before this transfer was approved, he left for Alabama, a definite no-no. When that transfer was denied, he pulled together the paperwork to transfer to an Alabama unit, at which the aforementioned Col. Turnipseed recalls that he never attended. This transfer was approved.

3. The Bush campaign produced a mangled copy of points earned by Bush in this time period (Bush was on a May to May year in the Guard). This was covered by George Magazine. Here's a link to an archive of George's coverage. Their conclusion: "Bush may have received favorable treatment to get into the Guard, served irregularly after the spring of 1972 and got an expedited discharge, but he did accumulate the days of service required of him for his ultimate honorable discharge."

3. The paper is badly damaged, but it's got just barely enough to show that Bush first reported for duty on Thanksgiving weekend, when Col. Turnipseed may not have been aware of his presence. The paper further establishes that Bush crunched in his points by attending two drills a day to make up his missing points, one protracted period in December, and twice in January.

4. Bush flat out grounded himself. After completing training for his aircraft, Bush actually volunteered to go to Vietnam. He was not allowed to, because the plane was being phased out anyway, and he didn't have enough hours flying the plane to be allowed to volunteer. It's this rejection that is the key to Bush's subsequent performance in the Guard to my mind. I honestly believe he wanted to go to Vietnam. I believe this is evidence of Bush getting one break after another from his family connections, breaks that he resented. After all, Poppy was a big WWII ace (chortle), and now W was being kept out of action. I think that he failed to attend his next physical (which invalidated his pilot's license) out of spite. Never mind the money it took to train him as a pilot, he was pissed at Daddy and Daddy's interference in his life, and blew off the Guard from that point on.

5. Until someone lit a fire under his ass again, and again. The paperwork made available to George Magazine is open to at least two ass-chewing for First Lt. George W. Bush. The first was in November, when his Alabama vacation finally caught up with him. It's easy to get yourself lost in the paperwork for a while, but it finally turned on him. He made up some Alabama time in late November, and then did some time in early December somewhere, and then again in early January (two different segments) and then again, I believe, in February. The December through February times must have been in Texas (Bush has an old girlfriend in Alabama who verifies the late November time he made up, but not the December time on.). For now, Lt. Bush was back on course.

6. Then he stopped going again. Through other paper work, George verified that Bush was ordered to attend drill work May 1-3 and May 8-10. But by the mangled paperwork, it's clear that Bush didn't attend from early February until the first of May: a two and one-half month gap in service. Furthermore, the May 1-3 and May 8-10 service time is recorded as active duty points, whereas all the other points were inactive duty points. This is clearly punitive in nature. Why else would someone be ordered to do something that they were obligated to do?

7. Bush applied for and recieved an early discharge later in 1973 to attend Harvard Business School. It's noteworthy that his transfer to another non-attendance-required unit was accompanied by an order to add six months to his discharge time. This is because Bush skipped out again before all the paperwork was done. It was a toothless punishment, but it was a punishment noted on the paperwork for anyone to see.

8. Not that this mattered to Lt. Bush. Bush had long ago moved on from the Guard. When absolutely required to do so, he made up his time and got his honorable discharge. But after his attempt to volunteer for Vietnam failed, the Guard was in Bush's rear view mirror, and except for a couple of disciplinary actions for egregious abuses of the system, Bush's familial contacts helped make that vision a reality.

And that's where I'm at on this issue. Was Bush ever AWOL from his military commitment? The word AWOL may prove too stringent a case to prove. But there was certainly a contest for who was going to be the bitch in that relationship, Bush or the Guard, and in the end, the Guard proved to be surprisingly compliant.

Somebody Bumped A Chimp Thread...

...and I got a lot of traffic because of it. Yay!

Unfortunately, it was during my hiatus. Awww.

Maybe some of those people will come back! Yay!

Thanks for stopping by in the first place. I hope I've got something to say that you'd like to listen to/engage/excoriate me for/laugh at.