Never Enough TV Watching Fun Department

I'm surprised I haven't blogged on this yet: The Science Channel is airing the 25th Anniversary rebroadcast of Carl Sagan's miniseries, Cosmos. This miniseries did more to spark an interest in science than practically any other influence in my life. Now, I get to share it with my stepson--and with new computer animations, I'm sure the eyecandy will be even more wonderful. Hope you'll be watching too, if you can!

Never Enough Gratitude For The Fallen Department

(No, I'm not talking about the dead in Iraq--although I am quite grateful to them as well....)

I'm excited that the Hate Crimes Bill cleared the House. I'm doubly excited that, for the first time, such a bill includes gender identity as a protected category.

From Rep. Nancy Pelosi's comments, it sounds like the murder of Gwen Araujo was a catalyst for this inclusion. If only the hundreds dead before were enough. If only simple outrage at one trans murder was enough. If only such brutality was not necessary to stir souls.

Transgender deaths are not rare--they happen all too frequently--so what was so special about her death? Was it because it happened in tolerant California? Or, as I sometimes suspect, was it that Gwen was a young and beautiful woman? That suspicion sickens me, and yet I cannot rule it out in the light of a media that focused on Natalee Holloway's rape and murder while largely ignoring similar plights among women of color.

That said, I am glad that Araujo's tragedy has motivated change, while still wishing that compassion, not tragedy, was the source of that change.

Never Enough Long Distance Interventions Department

Does America suffer from Battered Wife Syndrome?

Never Enough Words of The Day Department

Untenable. As in: "This situation is untenable and just heartbreaking."

"If three people in four no longer support the government, isn't this an untenable situation?" Indeed--we may see such a situation soon enough--and that would be certainly untenable.

Never Enough Eerily Appropriate Music Department

An ill wind / To bring naught but decay / and the stench of your slaughtered kin....
-- Primordial, "Gods to The Godless"

To say I've been horrified and outraged at the disaster and subsequent catastrophe which has been Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath--that would be a gross understatement. Gross, as in revolting. It's been hard keeping my composure. I feel such burning shame at how we've let poverty seep so deeply into our country, only to watch poverty conspire with calamity to produce thousands of deaths and the ruin of a once-vibrant city. And I feel intense outrage that the Bush Administration knew this might happen, then slashed funding for levee repair and allowed environmental ravaging of the Gulf Coast, and then remained apathetic and impotent for days before finally acting--a week late, and several billion short.

I've tried immersing myself in blog articles about the political fallout. (Incidentally, has anyone informed Bush that the "blame game" is not a game? Or that "blame" is a shabby synonym for "accountability"?) Grim satisfaction at watching this administration implode does nothing to staunch the revulsion. Watching "The Daily Show" for a few desperate laughs is only a temporary reprieve, and as Tuesday night's show proved, there were moments that were so wrong that not even John Stewart could manage a bon mot.

So I've turned to music. Has it helped? No--not one damned bit. If anything, the horror lurks there as well, as the snippet from the Primordial song above illustrates. The whole song sounds like a nightmarish vision of the GOP agenda. The music is gorgeous--melodic in ways not dissimilar to Opeth, but educated by their Irish Celtic roots. The lyrics, on the other hand, are savage. Just like the Great Wurlitzer.

At least I'm not listening to "When The Levee Breaks." I guess.

Never Enough Blog Editors Department

Just trying out Ecto--so far I like it, lots.