WeatherGirl’s Station

Once upon a time the Republican party believed in small government, personal responsibility and a hands off attitude to people’s lives. Now they are actually writing legislation to interfere the the private life of one specific person. I’m writing of Terri Schiavo who has been in a persistent vegetive state for 15 years. The clash has been between Terri’s husband and her parents.

There are rules and regulations as to who is a person’s next of kin and who has the right to make life and death decisions on their behalf. Clearly in this case the Republicans have trashed their avowed respect for the marriage relationship and decided there are more votes in championing Terri Schiavo’s parents. (Note:- issues involving under age children touch on a slightly different set of questions.)

One thing this case makes abundantly clear is that we should discuss these issues with our nearest and dearest. That those opinions should be put in writing so they could be presented in a court if some one wants to go against them. Plus we should contact our elected officials and tell them to stay out of our private lives.

Framing the agenda is one thing but using the full force of government power to force medical treatment on a grown adult against their will is not appropriate.

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As a law abiding US Resident Alien I wasn’t expecting to cross paths with the US Patriot Act much. So I was surprised that in the last week or so I’ve had two interactions with it.

About a week ago I contacted Merril Lynch to set up a Roth-IRA. As we talked on the phone the M.L. employee informed me I’d have to answer questions to satisfy requirements of said Act. Puzzling I must say as terrorists don’t strike me as the types to save for their retirement. Also I thought one of their aims was to get rid of the western way of life so investing in capatalism doesn’t make much sense. Being the co-operative type I answered all his questions, none of which elicted any information the US Government didn’t already have on me.

A trival matter you might suppose when considering just me but repeated thousands of times the cost starts to build. Plus I suspect the hunt for Osama Ben Ladin was advanced not a jot.

Today I was told that Trebor Extra Strong Mints have now been banned from the US. Apparently the US Patriot Act has galvanised the FDA to examine imported sweets (candies to Yanks) much more closely and they’ve decided my favourite confection is verbotten. (Given that almost no American has ever heard of this product, let along eaten it, I’m flumoxed.) What terriost threat is posed by these sweets is a mystery.

I’ve checked the ingredients list, just in case there was a dangerous cancer causing additive in them and everything appears to be legal in the US. I have not been able to discover from the FDA site why these mints are so dangerous. (Basically they’re sugar - here’s the ingredient list from the label Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Modified Starch Flavouring, Gelatine, Stabaliser E415, Colour E132, may contain traces of Sulphite.)

My main suspicions have focused on Gelatine as it’s a cow product and the UK had a serious problem with BSE some years ago. Documents I found on the FDA web site suggest that as of 1997 gelatine was not considered a threat as long as appropriate procedures were followed. Given the attention to this issue in the UK I would suspect that it is one of the safest places to eat cow products these days.

If you know why these mints are such a threat to life and limb in the United States of America but perfectly safe in the United Kingdom, would you please be kind enough to let me know?

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Wonderful production with really cool set design that aided the creepy atmosphere. (A wing back chair seated in the centre of leafless trees. It allowed a sense of being both inside and outside at the same time, suffocated by the forest.) Lighting effects played a very important part in achieving the sinister look.

I appreciated the fact that they didn’t explain everything, the loose ends allowed the viewer to answer some of the questions raised for themselves.

Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from Henry James’ novella, this production, by the Acting Company, was played as a two hander, Aysan Celik as the Governess and all other parts Glenn Peters. Interestingly the girl character was left as an imagined presence, which added to the strangness and complemented the fact that she never spoke.

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Great. Why this movie wasn’t showered with Oscar nominations is a crime. I assume the subject matter was what put off the Academy. Liam Neeson and Laura Linney were brilliant and were well matched by the rest of the cast even in the smallest part. The story allows us to draw some telling conclusions without beating us about the head with its moral rectitude.

Kinsey was/is a controversial character, mainly, I suspect because he suggested we face the truth of human behaviour. The idea that he should be held resposible for some perceived decline in moral values is ridiculous. Now we have a better idea of how human beings actually behave, doesn’t this allow us to have a more informed discussion on public health issues, education in schools etc.?

Young gay men are murdered for just being who they are. More enlightenment and less action is what we need.

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The tenacity of these five women to discover the truth about their brother’s murder is amazing. I can only praise their bravery and offer my ‘virtual’ support. The likes of Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams now have to decide: are they members of a political party participating in the messy democratic process with all its failings, or are they members of a terrorist organisation that demands subserviance from it’s sympathisers by threats of violence. McGuinness’ statements yesterday sound like the latter to me.

Check out the latest on this at the Beeb.

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Scary!!!!!! Very scary. I had to hide behind my fingers several times and the tension was … tense. I expect the afficionados of the genre had it all worked out in short order but I was surprised by the ‘twist’ though I had worked out what had happened at the New Year party before the film makers revealed all. Yay me!

Phi asks why the hell he lets me take him to this kind of movie when he could be at home, tension-free, listening to cool music. Ah, true love.

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Sadly disappointing. There was a really good film in here somewhere but, unhappily, it was throttled at birth by person/persons unknown. An excellent cast, decent budget, talented crew, a novel take on traditional characters and yet …

I don’t care if the legend of Arthur et. al. is based on real people. It’s a tale with so many different aspects that can be told in so many different ways that it can watched anew each time. For example, the character of Guinivere. I loved this characted! Both a warrior and perceptive feminine character, Kera Knightly portrayed a complex woman who was both heroic and sensitive. I just wanted to cheer as she raced into battle as a woade painted warrior wielding an axe. Then in the final reel we are left with a cop out ending (which the director was clearly unhappy with - just listen to the commentry track on the alternate ending) where Guinivere is basically ‘castrated’ and rewarded for all her valour with a wedding.

There were many great visuals and intense fight scenes. The battle on the ice was fantastic. It was such a shame the movie wasted so much talent.

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Overrated. I just don’t understand how this movie got so much Oscar buzz when Kinsey was almost entirely ignored.

Sideways ranged from awful to brilliant, parts of it just made me want to take a nap while other scenes were quite moving. When Miles meets his ex-wife toward the end there was so much emotion and self awareness in that moment that it paid off having survived the movie thus far. Most of the best moments are Miles’ interactions with various women.

On the minus side I must say the 70’s travelogue parts of the movie were awful. The music used destroyed much of what the director was trying to achieve from my point of view. Most of the time it was annoying and made me want to hit someone. As for Miles and Jack’s relationship - why?

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The last two days have been awful. No BBC. No blog posting or reading. Arghhhhhhhh! Now all is right with the world.

Happy Mothering Sunday to mothers everywhere, especially my mum in Preston!!!

Current temperature 55F/13C (windchill 35F/4C) High reached the mid 60s today!!!!!

Aren’t exclamation marks wonderful!!!!!!

For a bit of fun the three of us filled in the ballots just to see how often we agreed with the Academy. As it turns out, not often. I scored highest with 10 of 24 followed by Sub-Evil Boy with 5 and Phi with 3. Not a bad showing for me, I suppose, especially given the history of Oscar voting. Did they seriously think that Titanic was so much better than LA Confidential?

I watched the event time shifted an hour later using that wonderful invention TiVo. No need to watch the ads or boring lists of thank yous from people desperate for their next job.

Favourite acceptance speach - Jorge Drexler for Best Original Song. Al Otro Lado Del Rio. He sang a cappella. It was short. It was beautiful. He should have been asked to perform the song on stage during the preceedings instead of Bandaras and Santana!

Favourite winners - Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth for Best Original Screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. An amazing script that made you engage the old grey cells. Best Script seems to be becoming the award where the Academy says sorry to the film that should have won Best Picture.

Most disappointing miss - Kate Winslet for Best Actress for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Time after time she has turned in superb performances and yet doesn’t seem to get the credit she deserves from award shows like this.

Favourite Oscar show host - Billy Crystal. Chris Rock was a disappointment. If you’re going to employ someone with an edge you need to let him do his thing. I’m assuming he didn’t write most of the material used as it was pretty poor and he’s a huge talent., Perhaps his material is too adult for this show?

Unsung Hero - Sean Penn for replying to Chris Rock’s diatribe against Jude Law. No, you don’t wait for The Star to become available, you employ talented actors and actresses.

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