I don’t have a thought of my own tonight. Ernie the Attorney (whose blog I found from Jeneane, who lives in Atlanta but not where the tornado tore through) has managed to get out of New Orleans after going back in. Now he needs a place to camp out.
The one thought I actually had today was that this is all the neocon’s fault for screwing up the environment. I think I said something like “it’s all Bush’s fault; he’s unleashed the forces of evil on this planet.”
As usual, Frank Paynter has a much more intelligent thought on that subject.
Frank also has a great post about that silly “Intelligent Design” theory. He says:
….it’s not as pro-god as it is anti-sex. The great engine of evolution over the last billion years has been the emergence and avid practice of sexual reproduction. And we KNOW what the christian right thinks about sex, joyous sex, wet and hard and hot and passionate, slippery sex. Okay, in case you don’t know, they basically don’t like it. And tying sex to survivbal characteristics they like even less. One look at Rove, Cheney, or Rumsfeld should tell you why they don’t like the evolutionary aspect of sex. Survival of the fittest? Let’s just say that the pairing of Lynn and Chuck … what is Cheney’s first name? He looks like a Chuck. Anyway, the Cheney pairing is noty the stuff of evolutionary dreams. Breeding? Not really. It’s more a thing of sow bellies and pork futures.
Doug, up in Canada, has a painfully funny/true post about gas prices.
Ronni put some thoughtful time in today with a post about the an issue of importance to my generation and all those who one day will find themselves in a similar time/place. She ends her post with:
Instead of spending billions of science dollars on increasing life spans (even if it were successful, it will take many decades to accomplish), we could apply that money to improving health in the old age we’ve already got and spend some effort to bring older people into the mainstream of public life where their experience, judgment and wisdom can be put to effective use in helping to solve the really important problems of the world.
It’s hard NOT to think of the devastation visited on all of those people by that heartless Katrina. I can’t imagine what they’ll be going through over the next weeks and months. I don’t want to imagine. I don’t want to think about it.
I don’t want to think about flooded homes with dead in them being marked with black paint because there aren’t enough refrigerated trucks to move them or places to move them to.
I don’t want to think about the woman who went to the cemetery to see how her son’s tomb held up and saw tombs toppled everywhere, coffins littering the ground.
I don’t want to think.

September 30. That’s the day for Serenity.
No, not for me. For the release of a movie by the guy who knows how to create seriously unique “shades of gray” characters armed with unexpectedly snappy one-liners and cleverly complex personalities.
Serenity‘s characters emerged in a Fox-nixed series, Firefly — an intelligently crafted mixed-genre saga that obviously rose too high for Fox viewers to understand and enjoy. Except for thousands (maybe millions) of the younger set (under 40) who got it, banded together, and fan-forced interest in getting the movie made.
Joss Whedon, that guy who also created one of my other favorites, the beleaguered Buffy, created a Firefly universe that is absurd in the way that the one in which we live is; a cast of characters as quirky and diverse our best misunderstood friends; and situations that reflect the deepest and most frustrated longings of the human soul.
What, you say? Such verbiage over a sci-fi movie based on a series that lasted one season? Just remember, it was on Fox. We all know how stupid Fox is when it comes to recognizing true talent. Or just truth, for that matter. If Fox says is bad, it must be good. And vice-versa.
From infocusmag.com
Universal’s decision to greenlight “Serenity,” the big-screen sequel to “Firefly,” was said to have been influenced by “Firefly’s” phenomenal post-cancellation DVD sales. An extraordinary 200,000 copies of the “Complete Series” were purchased in the first four months of its release. On July 6 of this year, more than 18 months after the DVD set’s release, it would rise (again) to the number-two spot on Amazon.com’s daily “top seller” list.
I was one of those who bought the DVD. I wish I could be one of those in line on September 30, and maybe I will — depending on how absurd my universe gets on that day.
One of the most intriguing characters on board Serenity (which is the name of the space-faring vessel of Firefly fame) is a girl with telepathic abilities who had undergone some kind of brain tampering before she and her brother make their appearance in the Firefly series. Over the past several weeks, quick video clips of undocumented origin have found their way onto the internet that give eerie glimpses into River Tan’s ordeal before she boards Serenity.
I’m told that the place to go to check these out is http://www.session416.com/mirrors where you can watch a few stark River moments.
If this post leads you that far, you should watch the clips in the following order:
Session 416, Second Excerpt
Session 1
Session 22
Session 165
Session 416, First Excerpt
I have no idea what the plot of the movie is because I haven’t been able to get to any of the pre-screenings. But if it’s anything like the Firefly series, the plots (clever as they often are) are really vehicles for the characters to unfold more of themselves and face dilemmas that really have no black and white solutions. Only shades of gray.
Serenity. Not just for the kids. Go see it. And don’t forget to get your senior citizen discount. And then let me know what you think.