This has been some kind of week; it's like the cosmic floodgates of crazy opened wide and unleashed a deluge, nearly drowning us in bizarre behavior and really bad things. I know that Mercury is in one of its frequent, damnable retrogrades until May 13, and that usually means strangeness and perversity will prevail, but Mercury must be retrograding itself clean out of the Solar System because tons of weird shit have been happening all over.
Oh, speaking of "shit", we heard that word, or variations of it, echoing off the august alabaster walls of Congress as Senate hearings into the vile machinations of Wall Street raged on for five hours. The leaders of various financial firms got their buns raked over the coals by angry Senators, but they must have been wearing asbestos underwear because they didn't seem to be much phased by the whole ordeal. Maybe when you know you're making 50 million dollars this year you don't need to take some crotchety old man with a gavel seriously. I think that Wall Streeters know that their lobbying money has bought them protection from any meaningful reform, especially because the people trying to navigate the country out of the crippling, damaging recession are the very same people who caused it. So they don't have anything to worry about.
Very disturbing story about an environmental catastrophe unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico as a British Petroleum oil rig spews over 200,000 gallons of crude oil a day into the rich seafood beds and delicate wetlands ecosystem off the Louisiana coast, a truly special and unique part of the world that can't seem to catch a break when it comes to natural disasters. I wonder where that shithead Sarah Palin is now - we don't seem to be hearing a lot from her on one of her favorite subjects, offshore drilling. Who can forget her childish, simplistic chant of "Drill, baby, drill" at last summer's Republican convention, and the sight of all those wrinkled, pinched faces of the dessicated old people madly cheering her on. If I could, I would ask her, "Hey Sarah, how's that drilly-spilly thing working for you?" We'll see how far offshore drilling goes now.
And we're having our own shitstorm here in Arizona, as the whole nation goes ape shit (yes, I'm going to use that word as much as I can, while I can). The local news shows babble on breathlessly about the economic "backlash" this bill will cause us. In sonorous tones they announce the conventions that are being canceled left and right. The first convention canceled was for some immigration lawyers' group, so that wasn't exactly a horrible shock. But hotel owners are already declaring Armageddon and claim to be teetering on the edge of ruin. Various big-city governments, most notably San Francisco, Dallas and New York, have cut business ties with our fair state. But we've seen this before - Arizona caught all kinds of crap when it refused to honor Martin Luther King. Despite all the dire predictions, over 60% of Arizonans approve of the new law and Governor-Without-A-Mandate Jan Brewer's approval rating has gone up around 15 percentage points. What does that say about us, that we somehow invite and look forward to economic ruin? I guess this little psychodrama has to play itself out and by next week everybody will have moved on to the next manufactured crisis, and life here will return to relative normalcy. People have very short memories, especially when it comes to disasters.
I hope we can get some rest this weekend and nothing awful happens for a couple of days, at least. It would be just our luck that some flashpoint in the world will pop off, like North Korea or Iran, and all of a sudden everybody's attention will go over there. Either that or some dimwitted Hollywood starlet will make another public appearance without panties or someone will uncover a nest of 50 new Tiger Woods mistresses or some shameless trollop will parade around in a bikini with Nazi tattoos on her butt. And everyone will be interested in that.
Mercury, give us a break and un-retrograde yourself. We can't stand much more of this cosmic craziness.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Arizona: But It's A Dry Stupidity
I have to admit that living in Arizona these past 17 years has been a great experience for me. I've grown to love the enormous diversity and tremendous natural beauty of this state. From the intensely colored sunsets to the out-of-control summer monsoon storms that come barreling like a freight train down the Mogollon Rim straight into the valley, there is something for everyone here when it comes to weather. It is truly a miraculous sight to see the pure white of the San Xavier del Bac Mission emerging from the shimmering layers of heat and the muted colors of the desert south of Tucson; you can see my photos of the Mission on my website here. Arizona is dotted with wonderful, picturesque towns and cities like Sedona, Tubac, Jerome, Payson, Prescott and so many more. The cool, fragrant pine forests of Flagstaff on a bright, crystal-clear morning are unforgettable, as is our Wonder of the World, the Grand Canyon. The mixture of cultures, including Anglo, Hispanic and Native American influences, form an occasionally unstable but invariably rich and fascinating pastiche of art and color. An area so blessed with natural resources, history and culture must have something wrong with it, you might speculate. And you would be right.
The Republican party has held sway in this state for a long time (it seems like centuries). In the last decade it has been completely hijacked and taken over by its far-right, ultra-conservative faction, and that has shown up in Arizona state politics. A couple of weeks ago the Republican-dominated state legislature passed a law which allows anyone with a gun permit to carry a concealed firearm on their person without a previously-required concealed weapons permit. The Republicans have long been the bottom bitch of the NRA and the gun lobby so this is no major surprise. What is a bit startling is the prospect of so many badly-educated, mentally unstable people packing heat under their enormous flabby bellies. I don't feel one iota safer now that any of the meth-heads and alcoholics you see stumbling down the hot sidewalks every single day just might be hiding a pistol. But the Republicans had to bow down and pay tribute to their puppet masters in the NRA, so that's what we have to deal with every day now.
Another sideshow in this never-ending Cavalcade of Idiocy is the so-called "birther bill" making its way through the legislature. This bill would require anyone running for national office on the ballot in Arizona to present proof of citizenship. Proponents say it's needed for all office-seekers to prove they are qualified for the office, but it is a cheap, cynical and badly-concealed back-door attack on Barack Obama. The "birthers" in this country will just not give up their debunked, ridiculed notions that somehow Obama is not a U.S. citizen and has no claim to the Presidency. How sad and pathetic that the birthers still hold on to these childish notions and the Arizona legislature gets right in line behind them. This just adds to the general perception in America of Arizona as a dust-choked, sun-baked nest of batshit-crazy paranoid schizophrenics who see vast, interconnected webs of treachery and conspiracy everywhere they look.
But the biggest thing that has, in the national view, catapulted Arizona to the upper-echelon levels of mean-spirited insanity has been something called the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act," a noble-sounding but totally misleading title for SB1070, a new set of laws that give local law-enforcement great latitude and great responsibility to enforce federal immigration laws, and allows them to demand proof of citizenship from anyone in the state of whom the police feel a "reasonable suspicion" that they might be here illegally. Now exactly what this "reasonable suspicion" is, no one knows, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with having brown skin and speaking Spanish.
Opponents of SB1070 were quick to point out that it could easily be viewed as a massive infringement by big government on the personal liberties of people. You'd think that would be tailor-made fodder for the Tea Party movement, as one of their tenets is the evil, pervasive intrusion of government in every aspect of life. If so, why aren't they protesting along with all others at the State Capitol? Where are the obese, sweaty white men in stupid costumes and the senile, confused old people doddering around with their hilariously misspelled signs? The stony, deafening silence of the Teabaggers in the wake of SB1070 speaks volumes to the innate ignorance, duplicity and hypocrisy of their movement. Could it be that their strident, anti-government, all-American populism does not extend to people who came here from other countries?
No one who lives here disagrees that undocumented immigration is a huge problem. Twenty-five years ago it was considered a regional problem affecting mainly the states that share a border with Mexico. Everyone in Montana and Vermont and Wisconsin felt it didn't apply to them and thought it was something that Arizona, California and New Mexico had to deal with, and there was little pressure for Congress to come up with a national solution. Since then, everything has changed: undocumented immigrants have shown up in every state of the continental U.S., taking low-paying, labor-intensive jobs that most Americans don't want, and it has become a national security issue in our post-911 world. Recent estimates state that as many as half-a-million undocumented immigrants reside in Arizona, and this sizable fraction of the population has been criminalized by SB1070. Blame for this new law has been spewed far and wide, but the lion's share has to go to the federal government, which has completely shirked its responsibility to come up with a coherent, effective national immigration policy for so many years. Something had to be done to address the issue, but is SB1070 a overreaching, misguided attempt to do something/anything? The lawsuits and court challenges to this bill are only just beginning and this drama will be unfolding for a very long time into our future.
It's very depressing when you live here and witness so many selfish, cruel and small-minded people continually get elected to state-wide office. It seems that voters intentionally go for the most reactionary, hateful and unqualified candidate there is (J.D. Hayworth, I'm talking to you). Maybe it's due to how poorly-educated and unsophisticated so many people are in this state, or the idea that Arizona is somehow a safe haven for crackpots and crazy people from all over the country. Stupidity just attracts more stupidity - as any personal appearance by Sarah Palin will clearly show - and somehow the dumber you are, the more media attention you will receive. Normally really stupid people would be grudgingly tolerated as some unfortunate genetic consequence of human inbreeding, but when they become state legislators and start writing their mental illnesses into laws that affect us all, then they become a really big problem.
The Republican party has held sway in this state for a long time (it seems like centuries). In the last decade it has been completely hijacked and taken over by its far-right, ultra-conservative faction, and that has shown up in Arizona state politics. A couple of weeks ago the Republican-dominated state legislature passed a law which allows anyone with a gun permit to carry a concealed firearm on their person without a previously-required concealed weapons permit. The Republicans have long been the bottom bitch of the NRA and the gun lobby so this is no major surprise. What is a bit startling is the prospect of so many badly-educated, mentally unstable people packing heat under their enormous flabby bellies. I don't feel one iota safer now that any of the meth-heads and alcoholics you see stumbling down the hot sidewalks every single day just might be hiding a pistol. But the Republicans had to bow down and pay tribute to their puppet masters in the NRA, so that's what we have to deal with every day now.
Another sideshow in this never-ending Cavalcade of Idiocy is the so-called "birther bill" making its way through the legislature. This bill would require anyone running for national office on the ballot in Arizona to present proof of citizenship. Proponents say it's needed for all office-seekers to prove they are qualified for the office, but it is a cheap, cynical and badly-concealed back-door attack on Barack Obama. The "birthers" in this country will just not give up their debunked, ridiculed notions that somehow Obama is not a U.S. citizen and has no claim to the Presidency. How sad and pathetic that the birthers still hold on to these childish notions and the Arizona legislature gets right in line behind them. This just adds to the general perception in America of Arizona as a dust-choked, sun-baked nest of batshit-crazy paranoid schizophrenics who see vast, interconnected webs of treachery and conspiracy everywhere they look.
But the biggest thing that has, in the national view, catapulted Arizona to the upper-echelon levels of mean-spirited insanity has been something called the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act," a noble-sounding but totally misleading title for SB1070, a new set of laws that give local law-enforcement great latitude and great responsibility to enforce federal immigration laws, and allows them to demand proof of citizenship from anyone in the state of whom the police feel a "reasonable suspicion" that they might be here illegally. Now exactly what this "reasonable suspicion" is, no one knows, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with having brown skin and speaking Spanish.
Opponents of SB1070 were quick to point out that it could easily be viewed as a massive infringement by big government on the personal liberties of people. You'd think that would be tailor-made fodder for the Tea Party movement, as one of their tenets is the evil, pervasive intrusion of government in every aspect of life. If so, why aren't they protesting along with all others at the State Capitol? Where are the obese, sweaty white men in stupid costumes and the senile, confused old people doddering around with their hilariously misspelled signs? The stony, deafening silence of the Teabaggers in the wake of SB1070 speaks volumes to the innate ignorance, duplicity and hypocrisy of their movement. Could it be that their strident, anti-government, all-American populism does not extend to people who came here from other countries?
No one who lives here disagrees that undocumented immigration is a huge problem. Twenty-five years ago it was considered a regional problem affecting mainly the states that share a border with Mexico. Everyone in Montana and Vermont and Wisconsin felt it didn't apply to them and thought it was something that Arizona, California and New Mexico had to deal with, and there was little pressure for Congress to come up with a national solution. Since then, everything has changed: undocumented immigrants have shown up in every state of the continental U.S., taking low-paying, labor-intensive jobs that most Americans don't want, and it has become a national security issue in our post-911 world. Recent estimates state that as many as half-a-million undocumented immigrants reside in Arizona, and this sizable fraction of the population has been criminalized by SB1070. Blame for this new law has been spewed far and wide, but the lion's share has to go to the federal government, which has completely shirked its responsibility to come up with a coherent, effective national immigration policy for so many years. Something had to be done to address the issue, but is SB1070 a overreaching, misguided attempt to do something/anything? The lawsuits and court challenges to this bill are only just beginning and this drama will be unfolding for a very long time into our future.
It's very depressing when you live here and witness so many selfish, cruel and small-minded people continually get elected to state-wide office. It seems that voters intentionally go for the most reactionary, hateful and unqualified candidate there is (J.D. Hayworth, I'm talking to you). Maybe it's due to how poorly-educated and unsophisticated so many people are in this state, or the idea that Arizona is somehow a safe haven for crackpots and crazy people from all over the country. Stupidity just attracts more stupidity - as any personal appearance by Sarah Palin will clearly show - and somehow the dumber you are, the more media attention you will receive. Normally really stupid people would be grudgingly tolerated as some unfortunate genetic consequence of human inbreeding, but when they become state legislators and start writing their mental illnesses into laws that affect us all, then they become a really big problem.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Lost In Space?
News came this week that NASA's Constellation program is being stopped. Constellation was supposed to be the next generation of space shuttles. The current shuttle program is scheduled to end after 3 more flights. After that, NASA will have to rely on Russian rockets to get material and personnel back and forth to the International Space Station. It seems that the trend now is toward unmanned, robotic space missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. Manned missions have become too dangerous and expensive.
Actually, it seems to me that space missions have always been dangerous. A couple of days ago was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, which very nearly ended in horrendous disaster as a fuel tank exploded on the command module. It was only through the raw, sheer courage and grit of the onboard team and many more support personnel on the ground that the astronauts were safely returned to Earth. You would think that after 40 years of technological improvements it would be less dangerous to go to the moon now. So, what's changed?
Unfortunately, it's the "expensive" part. Things are so much different now. Everything is much more costly, and the recent recession and the dizzying, catastrophic bail-outs have dried up the supply of ready cash. A manned mission to Mars would cost billions. In fact I remember reading a story a while back which suggested the next mission to Mars would be a one-way mission; that is, astronauts would leave Earth and go to Mars without any intention of returning, since it would be impractical to carry enough fuel for the return voyage. As chilling as that is, Mars remains our next frontier, with the moon and all its recently-discovered water deposits a close second.
Robotic probes certainly have done very well in expanding our scientific horizons. The Cassini probe to Saturn has returned many thousands of astounding photographs of the most beautiful planet in the Solar System. The MESSENGER spacecraft has revealed the sun-blasted surface of Mercury in incredible detail. And most exciting is the New Frontiers mission to the vicinity of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon, speeding along at over 70,000 mph and set to reach Pluto in 2015. And who can forget the Hubble Space Telescope, which has revolutionized our view of the universe and consequently, our view of ourselves.
But manned missions to space and to the moon have been such a rallying cause, a way for the entire world to unite and experience the wonder of exploration not as a collection of separate nations but as a species, a race, a planet. People who were alive at the time will always remember when Neil Armstrong took his first step onto the surface of the moon in 1969. Even the normally unflappable Walter Cronkite was clearly overcome with emotion and, for a while, speechless. That only happened to him one other time that I recall - when John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
The scientific work behind the space effort was directly responsible for hugely important advances in science, engineering, technology and medicine, to name a few fields that have benefitted. Without manned missions we would not have the surreal and amazing picture of space-suited astronauts jauntily hopping across the lunar surface in gravity one-sixth that of Earth, and raising a pole with a slightly-crumpled American flag, as if it were flapping in the breeze. And the famous photograph of the "big blue marble," taken of the planet Earth as it hung motionless in the infinite blackness of space, all flawless and serene and most of all, small and insignificant. It was the perfect picture for the times, and really changed a lot of minds about the fragility of the planet we inhabit and the grave importance of taking care of it. You could argue that the current "green" movement got its start with that famous picture.
I'm sure that future robotic missions will continue to rewrite the pages of science but somehow, there is not the personal impact of following a number of brave men and women as they take tentative, dangerous steps off our planetary cradle and into the cold and the dark of space. Neil Armstrong took a "giant leap" for us, and it seemed as if we were there with him. We don't get that kind of buy-in with a robot. I don't fault Obama for making the tough call - maybe we should blame the greedy dirtbags in Congress and on Wall Street which have brought misery to so many and nearly plunged the entire world into a deadly serious financial depression. But by "oursourcing" our tradition of exploration to machines, we lose a little bit of the best side of humanity. I hope we get back into space again, soon.
In other news, the level of batshit-craziness in the world took a giant leap with the recent pairing of Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann in some ridiculous, stupid Tea Party flatulence festival. It's hard to put up with the hokey, phony folksiness of Palin. It's even harder to understand how anyone could take her seriously, being that she is so far beyond idiotic it's not even funny anymore. But Michelle Bachmann is even more profoundly mentally ill than Palin. Bachmann is truly ignorant and a menace to anyone who has the least interest in saving the tradition of meaningful political discourse in this country. Some women think that having these two dimwits on the national stage is somewhat of a triumph for women's rights but ladies, take it from me, it does the worthy cause of women's liberation a grave disservice. It is not an advancement if women set themselves up to be as stupid, venal, obnoxious and vile as men. It is not raising your gender up to new heights - by emulating and imitating all that is petty, ignorant and loathsome about men, you do nothing but lower yourself to their level. And that is not liberation.
Actually, it seems to me that space missions have always been dangerous. A couple of days ago was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, which very nearly ended in horrendous disaster as a fuel tank exploded on the command module. It was only through the raw, sheer courage and grit of the onboard team and many more support personnel on the ground that the astronauts were safely returned to Earth. You would think that after 40 years of technological improvements it would be less dangerous to go to the moon now. So, what's changed?
Unfortunately, it's the "expensive" part. Things are so much different now. Everything is much more costly, and the recent recession and the dizzying, catastrophic bail-outs have dried up the supply of ready cash. A manned mission to Mars would cost billions. In fact I remember reading a story a while back which suggested the next mission to Mars would be a one-way mission; that is, astronauts would leave Earth and go to Mars without any intention of returning, since it would be impractical to carry enough fuel for the return voyage. As chilling as that is, Mars remains our next frontier, with the moon and all its recently-discovered water deposits a close second.
Robotic probes certainly have done very well in expanding our scientific horizons. The Cassini probe to Saturn has returned many thousands of astounding photographs of the most beautiful planet in the Solar System. The MESSENGER spacecraft has revealed the sun-blasted surface of Mercury in incredible detail. And most exciting is the New Frontiers mission to the vicinity of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon, speeding along at over 70,000 mph and set to reach Pluto in 2015. And who can forget the Hubble Space Telescope, which has revolutionized our view of the universe and consequently, our view of ourselves.
But manned missions to space and to the moon have been such a rallying cause, a way for the entire world to unite and experience the wonder of exploration not as a collection of separate nations but as a species, a race, a planet. People who were alive at the time will always remember when Neil Armstrong took his first step onto the surface of the moon in 1969. Even the normally unflappable Walter Cronkite was clearly overcome with emotion and, for a while, speechless. That only happened to him one other time that I recall - when John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
The scientific work behind the space effort was directly responsible for hugely important advances in science, engineering, technology and medicine, to name a few fields that have benefitted. Without manned missions we would not have the surreal and amazing picture of space-suited astronauts jauntily hopping across the lunar surface in gravity one-sixth that of Earth, and raising a pole with a slightly-crumpled American flag, as if it were flapping in the breeze. And the famous photograph of the "big blue marble," taken of the planet Earth as it hung motionless in the infinite blackness of space, all flawless and serene and most of all, small and insignificant. It was the perfect picture for the times, and really changed a lot of minds about the fragility of the planet we inhabit and the grave importance of taking care of it. You could argue that the current "green" movement got its start with that famous picture.
I'm sure that future robotic missions will continue to rewrite the pages of science but somehow, there is not the personal impact of following a number of brave men and women as they take tentative, dangerous steps off our planetary cradle and into the cold and the dark of space. Neil Armstrong took a "giant leap" for us, and it seemed as if we were there with him. We don't get that kind of buy-in with a robot. I don't fault Obama for making the tough call - maybe we should blame the greedy dirtbags in Congress and on Wall Street which have brought misery to so many and nearly plunged the entire world into a deadly serious financial depression. But by "oursourcing" our tradition of exploration to machines, we lose a little bit of the best side of humanity. I hope we get back into space again, soon.
In other news, the level of batshit-craziness in the world took a giant leap with the recent pairing of Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann in some ridiculous, stupid Tea Party flatulence festival. It's hard to put up with the hokey, phony folksiness of Palin. It's even harder to understand how anyone could take her seriously, being that she is so far beyond idiotic it's not even funny anymore. But Michelle Bachmann is even more profoundly mentally ill than Palin. Bachmann is truly ignorant and a menace to anyone who has the least interest in saving the tradition of meaningful political discourse in this country. Some women think that having these two dimwits on the national stage is somewhat of a triumph for women's rights but ladies, take it from me, it does the worthy cause of women's liberation a grave disservice. It is not an advancement if women set themselves up to be as stupid, venal, obnoxious and vile as men. It is not raising your gender up to new heights - by emulating and imitating all that is petty, ignorant and loathsome about men, you do nothing but lower yourself to their level. And that is not liberation.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
5 Really Depressing Movies
I'm kind of a fan of movies; I don't live and breathe cinema, but I like some of them. In my opinion really well-done science fiction is a slice of heaven. I also love batshit-crazy comedies featuring stupid people doing stupid things, and a really edgy, intelligent psychological thriller. But there's something to be said for gloomy, depressing films, the kind that bum you out to no end and make you feel drained and sad. No one wants a steady diet of them, because real life can be depressing enough, but once in a while they just hit the spot, emotionally speaking.
Thus, I submit to you my choices for the Most Depressing Movies Ever. Your mileage may vary, and I'm sure everyone has their own lists, but these are the ones that really send me into a blue funk, and entertain me along the way. Here they are, in order of less to most depressing:
5. Wings of Desire (1987, directed by Wim Wenders, starring Bruno Ganz). This is the story of an angel who somehow got himself trapped between worlds, heaven and earth, and was condemned to live with one foot in each. Set in Berlin, the Angel plods solemnly through a bleak, sterile urban landscape completely devoid of life, color and vitality. Streets are narrow, dirty and windswept, buildings are plain, drab and faceless, and nighttime scenes are in a black monotone with streetlights futilely trying to pierce the smothering darkness. The isolation and alienation of the Angel is palpable, as is his sense of being everywhere and nowhere at once. A triumph of depicting the numbing austerity of urban life.
4. Trainspotting (1996, directed by Danny Boyle, starring Ewan MacGregor). This movie followed the miserable, stultifying lives of some residents of Edinburgh, Scotland as hopelessness and drug addiction swallow them up and lead them to commit various crimes. It shows how they use any and all means possible, from alcohol to heroin, to try to dull the pain of their wretched existence. They have really awful lives and what's worse, they know they have really awful lives. One of them makes the memorable comment that their country was once taken over by the English, who are a "bunch of wankers," so what does that make them? There is a sequence in the middle of the film where Ewan MacGregor's character undergoes withdrawal from heroin addiction. It is truly horrifying and astonishing, hallucinatory and painful to watch, but a masterful combination of imagery and music. The highlight is a dead baby crawling across the ceiling - really cheesy in terms of special effects but it will gross you out to within an inch of your life. But there are flashes of humor and for this movie, a relatively happy ending, so it does cover all the bases quite well.
3. Wonderland (2003, directed by James Cox, starring Val Kilmer). Wonderland is one of a subgenre of films which I call "L.A. Pathological." These movies are set in an arid, surreal and bleached-out southern California, which extends from south of Santa Barbara to the Mexican border, and east from the coast to the Arizona border. It seems everyone who lives there is a junkie or a hooker, and everywhere the landscape is bleak to the extreme. There is a stifling, suffocating nihilism, and an air of complete, total hopelessness pervades everything. The film, supposedly based on real events, relates the story of the involvement of 70's porn icon John Holmes in the brutal murders of 4 people in an apartment on Wonderland Street. For most of the inhabitants, their idea of planning for the future is wondering where their next drug fix is coming from and whether they're going to be alive 24 hours from now. Even the people who are trying to lead relatively normal lives find themselves being consumed by despair. Other films of this type are The Salton Sea (2002, directed by D. J. Caruso, starring Val Kilmer AGAIN!), a sprawling, repellent story of meth freaks and criminals set near the surreal weirdness of the Salton Sea in California. I have actually been there and it stinks to high heaven and has lots of eccentric people living in their recreational vehicles and is weirder than you can ever imagine. Also Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch, Naomi Watts) a claustrophobic, dimly lit and highly disturbing mind-f**k which will leave you reeling and confused like riding on a roller coaster blindfolded.
2. Leaving Las Vegas (1995, directed by Mike Figgis, starring Nicholas Cage). This movie starts out bleakly and just goes downhill from that point. Loser-in-life Nicholas Cage comes to Las Vegas with the intention of drinking himself to death, which he does, but along the way falls in love with a hooker. She tries her damnedest to save him because in their weird, infinitely dysfunctional way, they have sort of found redemption in each other. She doesn't quite succeed, and this is one of those times when death is a welcome blessing. DO NOT watch this movie in the late evening and then go to bed, you will have a really bad night.
1. Requiem for a Dream (2000, directed by Darren Aronofsky, starring Ellen Burstyn). This story chronicles the disintegration of a family whose matriarch lives in Brighton Beach, New York, and exists in a fantasy world where she tries to recreate happier times. Her husband is dead and her life is lonely, and her feckless son and well-meaning daughter-in-law are trying to deal with their own wretched lives and are not really inclined to help the mother much. Each of them descends into their own hellish, nightmarish cesspool as various schemes to get money for drugs or, in the case of the mother, a spot on a deeply disturbing television contest show, ultimately lead to their degradation and dissolution. Filmed in a very unique style, it mesmerizes you and sucks you into the story. The horror and ugliness are unrelenting, and just when you think it can't get any worse, it of course does. Extremely graphic and unflinching, it is a train wreck of galactic proportions, from which you cannot tear your eyes away. I was still bummed out 2 days after my first viewing, and various scenes from the film haunt my dreams to this day. A truly awful masterpiece.
There you have it, my list of (actually more than) 5 really depressing films. Honorable mention to There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Day-Lewis) an extraordinarily detailed smorgasbord of all that is wrong with humanity, and Crash (1996, directed by David Cronenberg), not the one with Sandra Bullock, but with James Spader who gets involved with a group of people who get sexually aroused by automobile crashes. I had to sit through that movie at least twice before I could even begin to wrap my brain around such a concept. Then there's the grandaddy of all depressing films, Eraserhead (1976, David Lynch, Jack Nance) an Alice-in-Wonderland-on-bad-LSD trip down the rabbit hole to hell. After you watch one of these movies you will want to take a long hot bath and hug a fluffy bunny. See! Getting horribly depressed can be fun!
Thus, I submit to you my choices for the Most Depressing Movies Ever. Your mileage may vary, and I'm sure everyone has their own lists, but these are the ones that really send me into a blue funk, and entertain me along the way. Here they are, in order of less to most depressing:
5. Wings of Desire (1987, directed by Wim Wenders, starring Bruno Ganz). This is the story of an angel who somehow got himself trapped between worlds, heaven and earth, and was condemned to live with one foot in each. Set in Berlin, the Angel plods solemnly through a bleak, sterile urban landscape completely devoid of life, color and vitality. Streets are narrow, dirty and windswept, buildings are plain, drab and faceless, and nighttime scenes are in a black monotone with streetlights futilely trying to pierce the smothering darkness. The isolation and alienation of the Angel is palpable, as is his sense of being everywhere and nowhere at once. A triumph of depicting the numbing austerity of urban life.
4. Trainspotting (1996, directed by Danny Boyle, starring Ewan MacGregor). This movie followed the miserable, stultifying lives of some residents of Edinburgh, Scotland as hopelessness and drug addiction swallow them up and lead them to commit various crimes. It shows how they use any and all means possible, from alcohol to heroin, to try to dull the pain of their wretched existence. They have really awful lives and what's worse, they know they have really awful lives. One of them makes the memorable comment that their country was once taken over by the English, who are a "bunch of wankers," so what does that make them? There is a sequence in the middle of the film where Ewan MacGregor's character undergoes withdrawal from heroin addiction. It is truly horrifying and astonishing, hallucinatory and painful to watch, but a masterful combination of imagery and music. The highlight is a dead baby crawling across the ceiling - really cheesy in terms of special effects but it will gross you out to within an inch of your life. But there are flashes of humor and for this movie, a relatively happy ending, so it does cover all the bases quite well.
3. Wonderland (2003, directed by James Cox, starring Val Kilmer). Wonderland is one of a subgenre of films which I call "L.A. Pathological." These movies are set in an arid, surreal and bleached-out southern California, which extends from south of Santa Barbara to the Mexican border, and east from the coast to the Arizona border. It seems everyone who lives there is a junkie or a hooker, and everywhere the landscape is bleak to the extreme. There is a stifling, suffocating nihilism, and an air of complete, total hopelessness pervades everything. The film, supposedly based on real events, relates the story of the involvement of 70's porn icon John Holmes in the brutal murders of 4 people in an apartment on Wonderland Street. For most of the inhabitants, their idea of planning for the future is wondering where their next drug fix is coming from and whether they're going to be alive 24 hours from now. Even the people who are trying to lead relatively normal lives find themselves being consumed by despair. Other films of this type are The Salton Sea (2002, directed by D. J. Caruso, starring Val Kilmer AGAIN!), a sprawling, repellent story of meth freaks and criminals set near the surreal weirdness of the Salton Sea in California. I have actually been there and it stinks to high heaven and has lots of eccentric people living in their recreational vehicles and is weirder than you can ever imagine. Also Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch, Naomi Watts) a claustrophobic, dimly lit and highly disturbing mind-f**k which will leave you reeling and confused like riding on a roller coaster blindfolded.
2. Leaving Las Vegas (1995, directed by Mike Figgis, starring Nicholas Cage). This movie starts out bleakly and just goes downhill from that point. Loser-in-life Nicholas Cage comes to Las Vegas with the intention of drinking himself to death, which he does, but along the way falls in love with a hooker. She tries her damnedest to save him because in their weird, infinitely dysfunctional way, they have sort of found redemption in each other. She doesn't quite succeed, and this is one of those times when death is a welcome blessing. DO NOT watch this movie in the late evening and then go to bed, you will have a really bad night.
1. Requiem for a Dream (2000, directed by Darren Aronofsky, starring Ellen Burstyn). This story chronicles the disintegration of a family whose matriarch lives in Brighton Beach, New York, and exists in a fantasy world where she tries to recreate happier times. Her husband is dead and her life is lonely, and her feckless son and well-meaning daughter-in-law are trying to deal with their own wretched lives and are not really inclined to help the mother much. Each of them descends into their own hellish, nightmarish cesspool as various schemes to get money for drugs or, in the case of the mother, a spot on a deeply disturbing television contest show, ultimately lead to their degradation and dissolution. Filmed in a very unique style, it mesmerizes you and sucks you into the story. The horror and ugliness are unrelenting, and just when you think it can't get any worse, it of course does. Extremely graphic and unflinching, it is a train wreck of galactic proportions, from which you cannot tear your eyes away. I was still bummed out 2 days after my first viewing, and various scenes from the film haunt my dreams to this day. A truly awful masterpiece.
There you have it, my list of (actually more than) 5 really depressing films. Honorable mention to There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Day-Lewis) an extraordinarily detailed smorgasbord of all that is wrong with humanity, and Crash (1996, directed by David Cronenberg), not the one with Sandra Bullock, but with James Spader who gets involved with a group of people who get sexually aroused by automobile crashes. I had to sit through that movie at least twice before I could even begin to wrap my brain around such a concept. Then there's the grandaddy of all depressing films, Eraserhead (1976, David Lynch, Jack Nance) an Alice-in-Wonderland-on-bad-LSD trip down the rabbit hole to hell. After you watch one of these movies you will want to take a long hot bath and hug a fluffy bunny. See! Getting horribly depressed can be fun!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Apocalypse Deferred
Personal note: Exactly one year ago this day I wrote the first entry in my new blog. In it I took Meghan McCain to task for being, well, Meghan McCain. Writing "Careless Whispers" has been a supremely interesting experience for me and I've enjoyed it very much. When I wrote my first entry I thought I would run out of things to say after like 5 posts but now, after 73 posts, I feel I'm just hitting my stride. Sometime this summer I will be posting my 100th entry and will take a look back then. But until that time, I thank everyone for reading my blog and the great feedback you have provided. You would do me a great honor if you continue to read my ramblings.
After more than a year of bickering and fighting, including a summer full of testy town hall meetings, innumerable marches and protests, the highly entertaining spectacle of insanely misspelled signs and endless commentary and disinformation campaigns, health care reform became law of the land when an obviously pleased Barack Obama signed the bill in a jubilant ceremony at the White House. As we are constantly reminded, the fight is not yet over and the Republicans are girding their wrinkled, pasty loins for an Armageddon scenario of plans to "repeal" the law and poke holes in the federal requirements under the guise of "states rights."
I suppose we can't expect the Republicans to do anything else, but graceful losers they are not. In fact on Sunday night when the House of Representatives was taking their final ratification votes the Repubs had to hide behind unborn babies and try to get the whole bill referred back to committee (e.g., killed) for not "protecting the unborn." This was preceded earlier in the afternoon by opponents screaming racist and homophobic slurs to members of Congress and even spitting at one of them. Such a lovely example to show the world. The attempt to use the abortion issue for their own nefarious purposes stunk to high heaven of back-against-the-wall desperation and scorched-earth policy - they were prepared to do anything, no matter how ridiculous or cowardly, to try to scuttle all the effort to reach this point. Luckily, it did not work, but it did result in the hilariously surrealistic scene of Rep. Bart Stupak, a staunch anti-abortionist and until then the darling of the Republican opposition for nearly torpedoing the whole bill over abortion funding, being called a "baby killer" by some misinformed moron from Texas.
So the legal challenges are only just starting, and we are going to hear about attempts to derail health care reform far into the foreseeable future. The task of carrying out reform has just begun and it's not going to be pretty or pleasant, despite all the other extremely pressing matters we must address as a nation. But probably the most important task that remains to be done is to get Rush Limbaugh out of the country, because he promised on his radio program in a very public fashion to leave the country if health care reform passes. I strongly believe we should hold him to that promise and get his big fat obnoxious ass out of the country and over to some other country we really hate, like North Korea. After all, if they threw his flabby bulk into a big stew pot and cooked him up, he could feed all of Pyongyang for over a year.
The Republicans are spitting mad and all look like they took a huge crap in their Depends and can't find anyone to change them. They are vowing revenge in the midterm elections and while that is not a threat to take lightly, so much can happen in six months and once the American people get to see that health care really will make many lives better, their attitudes will soften and maybe they'll see that it was a good idea after all. But history was truly made last Sunday, March 21, 2010, and we will be looking back on that date for many, many years to come.
After more than a year of bickering and fighting, including a summer full of testy town hall meetings, innumerable marches and protests, the highly entertaining spectacle of insanely misspelled signs and endless commentary and disinformation campaigns, health care reform became law of the land when an obviously pleased Barack Obama signed the bill in a jubilant ceremony at the White House. As we are constantly reminded, the fight is not yet over and the Republicans are girding their wrinkled, pasty loins for an Armageddon scenario of plans to "repeal" the law and poke holes in the federal requirements under the guise of "states rights."
I suppose we can't expect the Republicans to do anything else, but graceful losers they are not. In fact on Sunday night when the House of Representatives was taking their final ratification votes the Repubs had to hide behind unborn babies and try to get the whole bill referred back to committee (e.g., killed) for not "protecting the unborn." This was preceded earlier in the afternoon by opponents screaming racist and homophobic slurs to members of Congress and even spitting at one of them. Such a lovely example to show the world. The attempt to use the abortion issue for their own nefarious purposes stunk to high heaven of back-against-the-wall desperation and scorched-earth policy - they were prepared to do anything, no matter how ridiculous or cowardly, to try to scuttle all the effort to reach this point. Luckily, it did not work, but it did result in the hilariously surrealistic scene of Rep. Bart Stupak, a staunch anti-abortionist and until then the darling of the Republican opposition for nearly torpedoing the whole bill over abortion funding, being called a "baby killer" by some misinformed moron from Texas.
So the legal challenges are only just starting, and we are going to hear about attempts to derail health care reform far into the foreseeable future. The task of carrying out reform has just begun and it's not going to be pretty or pleasant, despite all the other extremely pressing matters we must address as a nation. But probably the most important task that remains to be done is to get Rush Limbaugh out of the country, because he promised on his radio program in a very public fashion to leave the country if health care reform passes. I strongly believe we should hold him to that promise and get his big fat obnoxious ass out of the country and over to some other country we really hate, like North Korea. After all, if they threw his flabby bulk into a big stew pot and cooked him up, he could feed all of Pyongyang for over a year.
The Republicans are spitting mad and all look like they took a huge crap in their Depends and can't find anyone to change them. They are vowing revenge in the midterm elections and while that is not a threat to take lightly, so much can happen in six months and once the American people get to see that health care really will make many lives better, their attitudes will soften and maybe they'll see that it was a good idea after all. But history was truly made last Sunday, March 21, 2010, and we will be looking back on that date for many, many years to come.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Countdown To History
It's been pretty tough these past couple of days not to hear the phrase "make or break" if you watched, read or listened to any sort of news coverage about the health care reform bill. It all comes down to the next couple of Congressional votes, the MSM (mainstream media) would have you believe. Although the news media have a very long tradition of exaggeration and making mountains out of molehills, in this case it seems to be warranted.
The stakes in this long, acrimonious battle could not be higher. President Obama has made health care reform the centerpiece of his young administration, and has basically bet everything on getting the bill passed. The rest of his presidency and its legacy hang in the balance. The Republicans have fought him every step of the way, goose-stepping as a unified block in perfect lockstep behind their leadership. They say they are so concerned about the country and health care reform is so horrible, but it's painfully transparent to anyone that they could not give a crap about what's best for this country; they only care about embarrassing Obama and turning his administration into a failure because he is African-American.
It's clear that health care in this country is horribly dysfunctional and keeping the status quo would be disastrous. Every year over 45,000 people die in this country from lack of adequate health care. If that number of people died in terrorist attacks each year Congress would be apoplectic with outrage and you could be sure the legislation would be pouring out of Washington. The present system works best in keeping the health care insurance providers in business, and has allowed them the latitude to do unbelievable things, such as increasing insurance premiums for their members as much as 40% while racking up multi-billion dollar profits. Do the Republicans not see anything wrong with the insurance companies making enormous profits while costs to working people go through the roof? What if these profits went to actually caring for sick people instead of lining the pockets of insurance executives?
At any rate, the Democrats are scrambling for votes in the House of Representatives to pass the revised health care legislation and refer it to the Senate, where only a 51-vote majority will be required to send it to Obama's desk for signature. The Dems are cautiously optimistic they will have the votes later this week. The Republicans are engaging in a full-court press, pulling out all the stops trying to keep the 37 Democrats who originally voted "no" on their side. Some Republicans have threatened "civil disobedience" in the halls of Congress to get their point across, which is reminiscent of the "Tea Party tantrums" we were witnessing last summer, where petulant, confused old people stood up with their hilariously misspelled signs to "keep the government out of my Medicare."
Conservative talk radio has switched over to 24-hour Armageddon mode. Yesterday I had to take an extended drive into the southeast hinterlands, and to amuse myself I tuned in to Glenn Beck on the radio. Yes, I do listen to conservative talk radio on occasion just to get some idea of how crazy these people actually are, and Beck always comes through in spectacular fashion. He was making all sorts of dire predictions in very somber, sonorous tones that we will "not recognize this country" in five years if health care reform passes. Well, I'm pretty sure the country will be recognizable; what I'm hoping is that the health care system will be completely different. It's always an experience listening to these kind of shows - the hosts do every ridiculous thing possible to make their points to a gullible audience. They make loopy, elliptical connections between unrelated events in the past and in the future, they engage in hyperbole, fear-mongering and wild exaggeration at every turn. They appeal to the prejudices and ignorance of the public, as they always do, to panic people into a stampede and make them think Al-Qaeda is ready to march down Pennsylvania Avenue and set up a nuclear-weapons farmers' market on the White House lawn.
Beck did make a hysterical statement which almost caused me to drive off the road. Someone on his show brought up the argument that providing health care for all citizens is a moral obligation of the government. Not so, Beck replied; that's not the job of the government, that's the job of the churches, to take care of moral issues like that, because we have something called separation of church and state in this country!! EXCUSE ME??? Conservatives invoking separation of church and state like they actually believe it?? That sounds like something right out of the current Alice in Wonderland movie. Conservatives don't have the slightest problem with government interference in moral issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, but they do have an issue with government getting involved in universal health care. Just another example of how conservatives pick and choose their moral arguments and talk out of both sides of their mouths at once, as it suits them. For them, morality is completely subjective and situational, and changes about as frequently as the wind direction. They use it and abuse it any way they see fit, to bolster their ridiculous, idiotic and ironically, their morally bankrupt arguments.
The health care reform battle will run right down to the wire, and every vote will be in play until the very end. The Republicans are increasingly desperate and the Democrats increasingly confident in the final outcome, but it is not yet a done deal. Democrats have a long and rich history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, so I'm certainly not taking anything for granted. It will be interesting to see where we'll be a week from now. So much is on the line right now, and what happens in the next couple of days will resonate far into the future.
It's an exciting, scary and exhilarating time. The old Yiddish curse of "may you live in interesting times" seems ever so applicable.
The stakes in this long, acrimonious battle could not be higher. President Obama has made health care reform the centerpiece of his young administration, and has basically bet everything on getting the bill passed. The rest of his presidency and its legacy hang in the balance. The Republicans have fought him every step of the way, goose-stepping as a unified block in perfect lockstep behind their leadership. They say they are so concerned about the country and health care reform is so horrible, but it's painfully transparent to anyone that they could not give a crap about what's best for this country; they only care about embarrassing Obama and turning his administration into a failure because he is African-American.
It's clear that health care in this country is horribly dysfunctional and keeping the status quo would be disastrous. Every year over 45,000 people die in this country from lack of adequate health care. If that number of people died in terrorist attacks each year Congress would be apoplectic with outrage and you could be sure the legislation would be pouring out of Washington. The present system works best in keeping the health care insurance providers in business, and has allowed them the latitude to do unbelievable things, such as increasing insurance premiums for their members as much as 40% while racking up multi-billion dollar profits. Do the Republicans not see anything wrong with the insurance companies making enormous profits while costs to working people go through the roof? What if these profits went to actually caring for sick people instead of lining the pockets of insurance executives?
At any rate, the Democrats are scrambling for votes in the House of Representatives to pass the revised health care legislation and refer it to the Senate, where only a 51-vote majority will be required to send it to Obama's desk for signature. The Dems are cautiously optimistic they will have the votes later this week. The Republicans are engaging in a full-court press, pulling out all the stops trying to keep the 37 Democrats who originally voted "no" on their side. Some Republicans have threatened "civil disobedience" in the halls of Congress to get their point across, which is reminiscent of the "Tea Party tantrums" we were witnessing last summer, where petulant, confused old people stood up with their hilariously misspelled signs to "keep the government out of my Medicare."
Conservative talk radio has switched over to 24-hour Armageddon mode. Yesterday I had to take an extended drive into the southeast hinterlands, and to amuse myself I tuned in to Glenn Beck on the radio. Yes, I do listen to conservative talk radio on occasion just to get some idea of how crazy these people actually are, and Beck always comes through in spectacular fashion. He was making all sorts of dire predictions in very somber, sonorous tones that we will "not recognize this country" in five years if health care reform passes. Well, I'm pretty sure the country will be recognizable; what I'm hoping is that the health care system will be completely different. It's always an experience listening to these kind of shows - the hosts do every ridiculous thing possible to make their points to a gullible audience. They make loopy, elliptical connections between unrelated events in the past and in the future, they engage in hyperbole, fear-mongering and wild exaggeration at every turn. They appeal to the prejudices and ignorance of the public, as they always do, to panic people into a stampede and make them think Al-Qaeda is ready to march down Pennsylvania Avenue and set up a nuclear-weapons farmers' market on the White House lawn.
Beck did make a hysterical statement which almost caused me to drive off the road. Someone on his show brought up the argument that providing health care for all citizens is a moral obligation of the government. Not so, Beck replied; that's not the job of the government, that's the job of the churches, to take care of moral issues like that, because we have something called separation of church and state in this country!! EXCUSE ME??? Conservatives invoking separation of church and state like they actually believe it?? That sounds like something right out of the current Alice in Wonderland movie. Conservatives don't have the slightest problem with government interference in moral issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, but they do have an issue with government getting involved in universal health care. Just another example of how conservatives pick and choose their moral arguments and talk out of both sides of their mouths at once, as it suits them. For them, morality is completely subjective and situational, and changes about as frequently as the wind direction. They use it and abuse it any way they see fit, to bolster their ridiculous, idiotic and ironically, their morally bankrupt arguments.
The health care reform battle will run right down to the wire, and every vote will be in play until the very end. The Republicans are increasingly desperate and the Democrats increasingly confident in the final outcome, but it is not yet a done deal. Democrats have a long and rich history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, so I'm certainly not taking anything for granted. It will be interesting to see where we'll be a week from now. So much is on the line right now, and what happens in the next couple of days will resonate far into the future.
It's an exciting, scary and exhilarating time. The old Yiddish curse of "may you live in interesting times" seems ever so applicable.
Monday, March 15, 2010
The Amazing Ms. Kirby
At the end of last year, right after Christmas, a foster bunny came to stay with me for a while. Kirby is a brown and black Holland lop mix, weighing not much more than three pounds when she got here. That didn't include the weight of the splint and bandages which wrapped her left hind leg.
Kirby had suffered some sort of terrible trauma or accident. I was told when she was turned over to the vet she was dragging her leg behind her. I saw the x-rays, and they were quite startling. Her tiny little thigh bone was broken in three places. The first break was below the hip joint. Then there were two bone fragments completely detached, floating free, and then the knee joint.
Normally a compound fracture such as that would have resulted in a leg amputation. But luckily the veterinarian, Dr. Donald Holmes of Pecan Grove Animal Hospital in Tempe, is one of the best in the region when it comes to broken bones. He inserted a long, thin metal rod through all the pieces and reconnected the fragments with Kirby's knee and hip joint. He told me he was very pleased with how the different bone pieces aligned and came together. There was some hope after all that her leg could be saved.
Kirby had to wear her splint and bandages for at least four weeks, but to watch her move around and even run, you would never had known anything had happened to her. From the very start, she acted like there was nothing wrong at all, and to her the splint and bandage weren't even there. Always happy and very active, she never let anything come between her and a good time. Her spirit is absolutely indomitable, and she continually amazed me with her energy and activity. Here was a bunny who would not allow herself to be slowed down one iota by a slight inconvenience like a compound fracture.
Now, three months later, the bandages and the splint are gone, but Kirby is still with me. Also still here is her incredible energy and spirit. It is quite impressive to see her run and even jump. Her leg did not heal perfectly straight, the bottom part of her left foot noticeably turns in toward her body, but like everything else that has gone before, she could not care less about that. She is an extremely happy, active and friendly little girl who knows her name and comes when you call her. She loves any and all treats and her daily green vegetables. Every time I walk by her cage she puts her paws up on the bars and greets me.
Like all of the rabbits I have had the privilege of knowing, her spirit and courage are truly impressive, and the strength of her will to live her life to the fullest, in the present, and with no regrets, is inspiring. Human beings can truly learn so much from these amazing little creatures when it comes to accepting and overcoming adversity.
Kirby had suffered some sort of terrible trauma or accident. I was told when she was turned over to the vet she was dragging her leg behind her. I saw the x-rays, and they were quite startling. Her tiny little thigh bone was broken in three places. The first break was below the hip joint. Then there were two bone fragments completely detached, floating free, and then the knee joint.Normally a compound fracture such as that would have resulted in a leg amputation. But luckily the veterinarian, Dr. Donald Holmes of Pecan Grove Animal Hospital in Tempe, is one of the best in the region when it comes to broken bones. He inserted a long, thin metal rod through all the pieces and reconnected the fragments with Kirby's knee and hip joint. He told me he was very pleased with how the different bone pieces aligned and came together. There was some hope after all that her leg could be saved.
Kirby had to wear her splint and bandages for at least four weeks, but to watch her move around and even run, you would never had known anything had happened to her. From the very start, she acted like there was nothing wrong at all, and to her the splint and bandage weren't even there. Always happy and very active, she never let anything come between her and a good time. Her spirit is absolutely indomitable, and she continually amazed me with her energy and activity. Here was a bunny who would not allow herself to be slowed down one iota by a slight inconvenience like a compound fracture.
Now, three months later, the bandages and the splint are gone, but Kirby is still with me. Also still here is her incredible energy and spirit. It is quite impressive to see her run and even jump. Her leg did not heal perfectly straight, the bottom part of her left foot noticeably turns in toward her body, but like everything else that has gone before, she could not care less about that. She is an extremely happy, active and friendly little girl who knows her name and comes when you call her. She loves any and all treats and her daily green vegetables. Every time I walk by her cage she puts her paws up on the bars and greets me.Like all of the rabbits I have had the privilege of knowing, her spirit and courage are truly impressive, and the strength of her will to live her life to the fullest, in the present, and with no regrets, is inspiring. Human beings can truly learn so much from these amazing little creatures when it comes to accepting and overcoming adversity.
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