FRANCIS COLLINS NOMINATION

The President has nominated a born again Christian to head up the National
Institute of Health. This is not good. Check out the Collins-Dawkins debates to see how muky Collins's thinking is. I would expect to see his religious views affect how
the NIH spends its money and hence how health science progresses (or regresses) in this country.

NOT PERFECT

The sports world loves the memory of Steve McNair. Oh, sure, he wasn't perfect, they say. Well, if he was so dang "not perfect," why didn't we hear more about it before? Why didn't we hear months ago, over the air or in print, that, "McNair was a great footballer, but he is cheating on his wife and kids with a fun loving teenager. No one's perfect." ?

And then we get this additional tripe from the jockstrap world. They want to leave judgment to the higher authority. This shows how really dumb and perverted they are. There is no higher authority; that is, other than our human reason and moral sense. But I regret to note the obvious fact that that is not what they are leaving it to.

CHANGE OF NAME

I've decided to dress as a demarchist - see John Burnheim's Is Democracy Possible? - rather than as an anarchist. I just can't cotton to the current crop of anarchists. When I took up the anarchist banner it was under the influence of Godwin, Shelley, Proudhon, and Kropotkin. I would guess at least half the youngsters now calling themselves anarchist know little or nothing of these folks.

The most famous "anarchist" of today is Noam Chomsky, but according to the analysis of anarchism scholar, Alan Ritter, Chomsky is not even an anarchist in the above tradition, but a type of Marxist. But it is just that Chomsky brand of extreme and sterile negativism that is so admired by many of those protesting as anarchists. Can you imagine Kropotkin or Godwin wearing a mask?

Anyway, I still have heroes in the anarchist community of the past, such as Gustav Landauer. And believe Sacco and Vannzetti were innocent,and more importantly I think it matters whether they were innocent or not. I say that because Howard Zinn says he doesn't care. That is, to Zinn it only matters that the prosecution was corrupt. He is like many others on the left of today who enjoy the war of unproven allegations - rhetoric and cleverness are everything, truth nothing.

GARY CROOKS PULLS CURTAIN FROM NANCY McLAUGHLIN

The local daily's Smart Bombs columnist does it again today. This guy is an order of magnitude smarter than anyone writing for his paper. Anyway, today's column exposes Spokane councilwoman McLaughlin and other neo-reaganites of the GOP for the shallow thinking, fear mongering, conspiracy loving, divisive gang that they are. And he makes one laugh while so doing. McLaughlin loves to put on a "reasonable" face at council meetings but her policies are anything but.

Some random thoughts:

Obama has his hands full with the economy. All this pressure on the torture front is not necessary and is distracting, especially the retribution angle. This can be worked out over time. The left is pathetic as usual when it comes to solutions but comes front and center when it comes to calls for political lynching. I believe many of them think it a crime for a Republican to even be in office. And maybe it is, but can't we wait for a little more general support on the issue?

On Spokane's revolutionary and silly attempt to codify through initiative various rights : Though the Envision Spokane authors of the campaign may not know it, they have an ally in Thom Hartmann. He also thinks health care, decent wages, and so forth can assured by proclamation and a police state, because the people want it. Another vote for the tyranny of the majority, I see.

HATE THAT NEVER DIES AND CONSPIRACY

The haters of the Cowles family are at it again in their opposition to Obama's choice of Michael Ormsby as U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington. These people - Talbott, Rodgers, et al - do not forget and wish to take no prisoners. It's a way of life with them and suspicions always trump facts.

I see this same temperament in those who thnk the internet movie Zeitgeist amounts to anything. Read Michael Schermer of Skeptic magazine on the part doing with Jesus Christ. He says the whole thing is nothing more than The DaVinci Code on steroids.

The thing that scares me the most about these people is the scapegoating. I trace much of Hitler's success to the use of that terrible trait. Beware the True Believer.

2008 MOVIES

I saw forty or so movies last year. Here are few of my thoughts.

First, I rank the the top seven in this order, from top to bottom: Slumdog Millionaire, The Secret of the Bees, Happy-Go-Lucky, Frozen River, Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, Rock'n Rolla. Forgive me if the titles are not exact.

On the better known films: Doubt talked too much about doubt. Milk had its moments but was boring for me in its first half. The Dark Knight also had its moments but it was too long. I saw it a second time and still snoozed a little. W was both interesting and boring. The religious part was scary. A Body of Lies was better than reported. Ghost Town was witty, sad and good. Another movie I found witty was X-Files which tackled taboo subjects and was, I thought, fairly true to the tone of the series. I walked out after the first hour of Hellboy II. I saw Bank Job twice and liked it much better the second time; in fact if you plan to see this movie, you should plan to see it twice. The best anti-war movie I saw was Stop Loss. Young at Heart, The Counterfeiters, and The Visitor are all well worth seeing. I think I've given you enough to go on.

One more movie I want to comment on is A Flash of Genius. I see this as being in the same category as Grizzly Man and Into the Wild in the sense that they are all stories of an obsessed man who destroys himself, but more to the point takes others with him in one way or another. And the others are supposed loves ones. I don't think this theme is explored enough in our society.