Markie Goes to the Movies: Surfwise (dir. Doug Pray)

One of those movies that starts off on the surfing-lifestyle, Endless Summer tip, then spirals deep into creepiness. Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, the patriarch of "the first family of surfing", ditches his medical practice to pursue the Sixties hippie dream: marry a beautiful woman, have lots of babies, and drive around going surfing instead of boring stuff like having a job and going to school. Unsurprisingly, the kids' friends in each place the family wanders off to fall in love with the kids and their free-from-responsibility lifestyle. It's only gradually revealed that Doc is, besides his generous donation of medical services in poor, doctorless communities and rejection of the American Dream, a fascist and a bit of a nut: he prescribes the diet for his kids, whacks 'em when they get out of line, has sex with their mom while all 11 of them are sleeping in a 24-foot van. You see the tragedy play out in the lives of all these feral kids when they grow up into adults who've never learned to function in the "real world." So, like many a narcissistic visionary before him, Dorian looks back on the things he's made people sacrifice to feel part of a special family unit and life but doesn't see the cost to his own. He did it his way, and if that means engineering a deus-ex-machina ending with all nine kids reuniting with him or letting the camera crew in to film him exercising naked on his Honolulu balcony, so be it.

Bill O'Reilly?!?!?!

Last thing in the world I'd have predicted from the Meanest Old Man on TeeVee.

Politics and Ideas

I like this analysis of the roles that "ideas" play in political discourse--especially as those ideas differ between the left and right ends of the spectrum.

Keeping Them Pure

Remember: no sex with anyone but Daddy 'til you have that metal around your ring finger.

Craziest. Blog. Comment. Ever.

No, really. It starts with "This is the life into which you've been placed. This is the life on which you will be judged."

If I were Larry Craig

Wouldn't it be awesome if his speech tomorrow said something like this?

My fellow Americans: My recent experience has made me reconsider many assumptions I had about myself, my life, and my conduct. My values are the values of the people of Idaho. I believe in almighty God and in the Holy Bible he gave us as a guide to living our lives. When votes on contentious social issues came up, I was a dependable vote on the side of traditional values.

Now I have come to realize a truth I cannot anymore deny. I am a homosexual American. I have the deepest conflict within my heart between my belief in God's judgement of this lifestyle, as made explicit in the Pentateuch, and my own undeniable nature. I have come to recognize how my conflict played out in my political career: for a certain class of voter, warnings that their children were vulnerable to deviates in their churches, their schools, or their neighborhoods were a main motivator of voting patterns. I was only too happy to oblige their fears.

I believe the use of "values" as a wedge issue has been deeply damaging to people such as myself who believe that government has no business dictating our most private and intimate relationships. No one of any sexual orientation should be denied a job, a home, and safety from harrassment. Let us disagree about public issues that affect us all; let us agree that we affirm individuals' right to live their lives the way they choose.

Bigotry in decline?

I hope that in my lifetime the people who hold a lot of hate for gay people (whatever they claim about "loving the sinner") will wind up looking as backward and stupid as Bull Conner and Lester Maddox do in historical hindsight. (Though I do notice open racism is quite a la mode again. Just as well--may as well be out in the open about it.)

Proof that Good Taste In Advertising Is Timeless

Corollary: It is impossible to make an ad too stupid.