More Nelson

More music from Ricky Nelson's twins :) ...



Very different from their other song, (Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection, which is still my favorite one ...

Clown car

Who is driving this Republican clown car? Trump? Republican politicians? Republican voters?

I think the answer is all of the above, with the members just feeding upon each other, spawning out as a whole the stupid, the crazy, and the evil. QAnon theories of child-molesting satan-worshipping cannibals, anti-vaxxers, gun-toting militia members, religious/anti-abortion/anti-gay extremists, climate change deniers, and white nationalists like the Proud Boys and Boogaloo Boys. Some true believers, some grifters.

This is the Republican party: politicians and voters. God help us if they ever get back in control.

Thor

There haven't been many new moovies out that I've wanted to see, so I've been re-watching many of my old favorites. Tonight it was Thor: The Dark World ...

a 2013 American superhero film .... It is the sequel to Thor (2011) and the eighth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe .... It stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor alongside Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, ...

Captain America is my favorite character of the Marvel universe, but Thor is a close second. He's honerable, self-sacrificing, and just doesn't give up no matter how bad things get. The other characters in the Thor movies are interesting too ... Loki, Heimdall, and Frigga, Thor's mother. She's played by Rene Russo, who I remember from when I was in college because she was a Vogue model with the most amazing hair (In the ’70s, Rene Russo Made American Beauty Exciting in Vogue).

Sadly, in this movie, the character she plays is killed ....



If you haven't watched the Thor movies, you may like them ... Thor ... Thor: The Dark World ... Thor: Ragnarok ... and the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder.

Earth Day

During the early part of the pandemic, the non-human part of our world thrived ...



But people will *not* do what's necessary to preserve the small gains made during the last year .... they are too selfish. Everyone's already demanding we "get back to normal". What's normal? The continuing extinction of most other animal species, plants too ...



People will mostly perish shortly after, once we've destroyed everything and everyone else. And I'm ok with that because I think we deserve it. But perhaps the few very wealthy people will survive by going to Mars with Musk. Enjoy .) ....



I wish these Earth Day posts could be more upbeat and hopeful, but I'm just sick of what people ar doing to the other living things on this planet and I don't see any real sign that they care or want to change.

Spring

I love spring the best of the seasons. It's the short time here when it's warm enough and there's enough rain for the plants to be happy.

But the news says this will be the driest summer for some time :( ... Western U.S. may be entering its most severe drought in modern history

The verdict

This verdict, Chauvin found guilty on all counts, was a relief. It would not have happened if not for the brave and caring bystanders who recorded what took place. I understand the worry that this was an exception, how depressing it is that it took such an extreme event to get the justice that should have been expected. But maybe this is the beginning of real change. I hope so.

Yoda

The Yoda-beastie at rest ...

Anglo-Saxons

In the news: Hard-right Republicans forming new caucus to protect 'Anglo-Saxon political traditions'

A group of ultraconservative House Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., are discussing launching an "America First Caucus" that would protect "Anglo-Saxon political traditions."

I don't think these dopes even know what the "Anglo-Saxon political traditions" were about ... monarchy. To misquote both Daniel Jackson and Thomas Hobbes, they didn't call that time the Dark Ages because it was dark ... life then was nasty, brutish, and short.

Some history ...

The Anglo-Saxon political system -= a particular period in medieval Britain lasting only about 500 years. The Angles and the Saxons and other Germanic tribes immigrated (yes, they were immigrants ;) to England after the fall of the Roman presence there (after around 400-500 AD). They mingled with the early Britons (Celts, Picts, etc.) and other immigrants from northern Europe (like the Jutes).

Britain was attacked repeatedly by the Scandinavians (Norway, Denmark) from the late 700s onward, and the Anglo-Saxon period officially ended in 1066 with King Harold II, who managed to beat the Norse at the Battle of Stamford Bridge but who then lost the Battle of Hastings to the French (William, Duke of Normandy) about 2 weeks later. Read Ivanhoe to get a sense of how the Anglo-Saxons in Britian lost the economic and culture wars to the French under Norman rule (post 1066).

The Anglo-Saxon political system had fractious regional kings, there was a caste system which included slavery, while pagabism survived somewhat there was basically a state religion of Catholicism, and men and women were, of course, not equals. I don't see why anyone (except Republicans) would want to reinstate this.

Nelson

And ...



So, today Google news wanted me to know something about actor Mark Harmon ... 'NCIS' Renewed for Season 19 With Mark Harmon to Return.

I have never seen that tv series, but I knew some stuff about Mark Harmon, most interestingly that he was related to Ricky Nelson - his sister was married to Nelson.

Why do I know this? Because I can still remember being 10 years old and watching Ricky Nelson on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and thinking he was wonderful. He had kind of a sad life, though: an unhappy marriage, trouble being taken seriously in his later career, and a tragic plane-crash death at the age of 45.

In reading about Ricky Nelson, I came across an interesting thing. His two twin sons also went into the music business as Nelson and had a song that topped the Billboard Hot 100 on September 29, 1990 (see the videos above).

Read more: Nelson Still Can’t Live Without Your Love and Affection: Identical twins Gunnar and Matthew Nelson reflect on 30 years of third generation pop stardom

Outside

It was a nice day outside today. My sister came over and we r-puttied some windows. But first I was just hanging out with the cats and the camera ...

I got a lucky picture of this squirrel in the pecan tree ...

When I'm out in the yaed, a few cats always follow me around. One is Gretel ...

And also Mouse ...

And Lucy. Here she is rolling in the dirt ;) ...

I saw Prince Wendell too. He's newer and still kind of worried about me ...

The orange tree is blooming. The fowers smell wonderful ...

Squirrels

See, it's not just me. I've lost count of how many people have complained since I was a little kid that I liked animals too much, that it was odd, that I seemed to care more about animals than I cared about humans.

But there are zillions of videos online of people helping and caring for animals, domestic and wild, and they all seem pretty normal and adjusted. Thanks to YouTube, I have finally found "my people" ;)

Matt Gaetz

I've been watching the crashing and burning of Trump loyalist, Republican politician Matt Gaetz .... he's being investigated for possible sex trafficking of a minor, prostitution, funding ghost political candidates, and more. And his buddy Joel Greenberg, eyeball deep in all of this with him, looks to be flipping.

So far Gaetz is employing the strategy used by the evil Cigarette Smoking Man of the X-Files ...

And ...

But, as Agent Fox Mulder was fond of saying, the truth is out there. I have confidence that the investigation of Gaetz will uncover a trove of illegal activities. I hope he goes to jail.

More: The Gaetz Show gets weirder

RIP: Hans Küng

The New York Times ...

Hans Küng, Catholic Theologian With a Powerful Critique, Dies at 93

[...] As a liberal, he criticized church policy on governance, liturgy, papal infallibility, birth control, priestly celibacy, the ordination of women, mixed marriages, homosexuality, abortion, the meaning of hell and much else.

On some issues, Dr. Küng said, Buddhism and Judaism were more constructive than Catholicism. Serving Jesus Christ is what matters, he insisted — not serving the church that took his name.

Many Catholics supported him, or at least admired his effectiveness. Peter Hebblethwaite, a Vatican expert, wrote that all Dr. Küng’s proposals at the Second Vatican Council were accepted, some in modified form, in the council’s final documents.

“Never again would a theologian have such influence,” he wrote ....

And from America magazine ...

Hans Küng, influential Vatican II theologian censured by John Paul II, dies at 93

Hans Küng (b. 1928), who died on April 6 at the age of 93, was the youngest and third most influential Catholic theologian of the second half of the 20th century, after Karl Rahner, S.J., (1904-84) and Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P., (1914-2009); but he was first in flair and media savvy.

Küng rose to public awareness in the events leading up to and during the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). He flourished as a Catholic theologian for more than a decade after the council by writing a number of landmark books. After being disowned by the papacy as a Catholic spokesperson in the early days of St. John Paul II’s pontificate, he flourished again as an organic intellectual of the world by mediating among religions and stimulating a global ethic ...

I liked him, read some of his articles. Typical of the church that he would be censured.

1977

The Eagles, 1977, doing New Kid in Town.

Good Friday

I hate Good Friday. I hate the suffering. I don't understand the Christians who love it, who love the suffering, love the idea that all that suffering was for them. If you care about someone, you don't want them to be tortured to death, not even for you, not even for the world.

I think the atonement theory is a construct. I think Jesus didn't have to die, probably didn't want to die. But once he did get murdered, I think the disciples had to come up with a reason for why everything went so terribly wrong. Because otherwise, they'd have to face the possibility that they had wasted their previous few years.

I know, it sounds sacrilegious. It's not, though, it's just a minority opinion. For instance, Duns Scotus didn't believe in atonement theory either (Incarnation instead of Atonement ).

Here's a bit from an article by Richard Leonard SJ ...

God did not need the blood of Jesus. Jesus did not just come ‘to die’ but God used his death to announce the end to death. This is the domain of ‘offer it up’ theology: it was good enough for Jesus to suffer; it is good enough for you. While I am aware of St Paul in Romans, St Clement of Alexandria, St Anselm of Canterbury and later John Calvin’s work on atonement theory and satisfaction theology, I cannot baldly accept that the perfect God of love set [us] up for a fall in the Fall, then got so angry with us that only the grisly death of his perfect son was going to repair the breach between us. This is not the only way into the mystery of Holy Week. For most of Christian history the question that has vexed many believers seems to be, ‘Why did Jesus die?’ I think it is the wrong question. The right one is ‘Why was Jesus killed?’ And that puts the last days of Jesus’ suffering and death in an entirely new perspective. Jesus did not simply and only come to die. Rather, Jesus came to live. As a result of the courageous and radical way he lived his life, and the saving love he embodied for all humanity, he threatened the political, social and religious authorities of his day so much that they executed him. But God had the last word on Good Friday: Easter Sunday.

And a great article on this not-atonement theory is from Ken Overberg SJ - The Incarnation: Why God Wanted to Become Human

The trial

Like so many others, I've been watching the trial of ex-officer Chauvin, accused of murdering George Floyd. Yesterday I watched testimony by onlookers to the crime. Today I watched testimony by paramedics who tried to resuscitate the victim. Numerous photos and video clips were used as exhibits. In my past jobs at hospitals, I've seen my share of dead people, but it was still very disturbing to watch this.

We've only heard the prosecution's case so far, but it's hard for me to see what happened as anything but a deliberate murder.