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Ben Affleck is in our backyard (no, really!)

Only yards from where we sit blogging here in Chelsea-by-the-Sea this afternoon, Hollywood heartthrob Ben Affleck is working on his directorial debut, "Gone, Baby, Gone," based upon the Dennis Lehane thriller about two Boston area detectives investigating the kidnapping of a little girl, "a masterful story of creepy child kidnappers, corrupt cops, and the Boston detectives drawn into their dark web," according to the People Mag preview. Stepping out onto the terrace, we caught sight of two immense white cinematographers' panels (only one visible in the image) mounted horizontally above one of the neighbors' backyards.

While we slept, Ben Affleck invaded our backyard. Sweet Tiny Pea and Baby Cakes  -- our felint (feline intelligence) agents -- had realized something was up and tried to warn us a full day before we managed to connect the dots. There had been a sound of muffled human voices coming from the general direction of the houses on the hill just north of us in the land retained by the 12-foot-high wall behind our house. Human voices from up there are not uncommon, but this time the cats were really spooked, cowering inside the little house and hurrying back inside the big house -- their bodies low to the ground -- at the earliest opportunity. They were spooked again today, and when we looked up to see what it could possibly be all about, we noticed two immense white cinematographers' panels (above photo) mounted horizontally above one of the neighbors' backyards.

Our camera's eye caught Casey Affleck's chair . . . he's the director's bro, who stars in the film. Just to the right of the house whose backyard is featured in the film was our own little homestead (right of beverage-filled HUV, inset).

With Tuck we headed out, camera in hand, on a reconnaisance mission and soon found an army of trucks filled with movie-making equipment and technicians parked along Suffolk Street (that's the one parallel to Marginal, just up the hill). We got close enough to the center of action to get a couple of interesting shots (above) and had a brief conversation with a most pleasant person sitting in one of the directors' chairs within the outdoor room created by the sheltering shade street trees -- mostly Littleleaf Lindens and Norway maples and London planes -- whose moment had come. This person, whose name we wished we'd asked, told us the filming would take place pretty much entirely in authentic Boston sites, with a few scenes shot in studio constructions in nearby Medford, home of Goomp's and Mummy's alma mater, Tufts. Filming would continue through August, with the premiere early next year. We talked with some adorable young locals who were hoping to get a glimpse of the star. Said one, "I wish Affleck had stayed married to JLo." We decided to retreat and perhaps later regroup after another member of the Affleck entourage suggested we remove ourselves farther down the street to "avoid possible injury."

Update: If it weren't in our own backyard, we wouldn't give a hoot, but this just in via Jen-Garner.net:

"Gone, Baby, Gone” director Ben Affleck was rushed to the emergency room at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge [Monday] afternoon after suffering a painful migraine attack.

Affleck was driven to the hospital by his concerned wife, Jennifer Garner, at around 2:30 p.m. He was released about two hours later. A spokesman for the actor-turned director said Affleck was “recuperating at home.”

Affleck has been in Cambridge for about a month working on his big-budget directorial debut, and the stress may be getting to him. The new husband and dad, whose acting career has been on the skids, badly needs a hit with this movie to propel his career in a new direction.

It's an old story. We devour them and spit out the shells and then go on to the next younger, prettier face. A national bulimia syndrome?

"Your loved ones' lives had what we all want: meaning"

Making the world safe for cob art. We salute the best and the bravest, the totally awesome members of the US military and their families -- also their counterparts amongst the coalition of the willing -- and all the veterans and their families who gave "the last full measure of devotion . . . that that nation might live." They gave us a world where it's still possible, despite the ever-present totalitarian impulse that is a vexatious part of our human nature, to gnaw one's monogram onto an ear of corn at a Memorial Day cookout (Tuck Willis = TW above).

"I think media envy of your loved ones' courage has a lot do with media mockery of the war," Ben Stein told participants in a Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors seminar and grief camp Saturday night [via Instapundit]:

Your loved ones' lives had what we all want: meaning. The knowledge you were doing something big for others. That is EVERYTHING in life.

Wall Street does not have it. Hollywood does not have it. They're just in it for the fame and the money.

Some lowlifes may be in it just for the fame and the money, but Babe is a lionheart, in it for reasons of noblesse oblige. Above this afternoon catching a few z's on the base of the scratching post at Goomp's, recharging his batteries for the coming night of high-level diplomatic talks with the local fauna community of Western Point.

Music to our ears. Ben Stein takes no prisoners:

The media try to rob your husbands' and wives' and kids' lives of meaning saying this war is not about anything.

They're wrong, and they say what they say because they don't see the truth. They print a story on the front page about Marines killing civilians in a town in Iraq, and if they did, it was wrong. But the big media never report a MARINE throwing himself on a bomb to protect an Iraqi child, or a Marine giving his life to rid a town of murderers or a Marine or an Army man or woman or a Navy Seal or a Coast Guardsman offering up his life so that Iraqi human beings can have the same freedoms and rights we take for granted here in America.

The media are like grave robbers, robbing you of the certain knowledge that your spouses gave their lives for something deeply worthwhile: human dignity.

And the media like to criticize because they know -- in their hearts -- that they will never have the guts that the man and woman in uniform have.

Tiny enjoys a crazy-hour moment -- eyes, ears and whiskers on high alert -- early morning at the catnip-infused base of the scratching post down Goomp's.

What to make of Marine vet Senator John Murtha's robbing of the graves of the younger generation? Marine Ilario Pantano in a letter to the editor of the WaPo [via Michelle Malkin] explains:

Not only is [Murtha] certain of the Marines' guilt but he claims to know the cause, which he conveniently attributes to a policy he opposes.

When it comes time for Senator Murtha -- like his fellow cut-and-runners Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore, not to mention a host of other BDS [Bush Derangement Syndrome] sufferers -- to meet their maker, it's not going to be pretty. Human dignity need not apply. No doubt each mistook all-about-me for Stein's "doing something big for others."

Update: Speaking of doing something big for others, be sure to check out the Friday Ark at Modulator and the 114th Carnival of the Cats at Shootin' the Breeze.

Update II: "If you have a blog, do me a favor and try tracking back to this post," writes Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom:

I mean, it’s not like you have anything better to do on Memorial Day weekend, right?

His wish is our command.

"Keep the faith, keep the hope, keep the love"

Sunrise this morning over Eastern Point across the river from Goomp's, headquarters for the family's Memorial Day salute to the awesomely brave and good and true fellow Americans who give their all so we might enjoy such natural wonders. We think you know who you are, our beloved fellow bloggers and readers who serve and love those who serve. We cannot thank you enough. God bless.

"Keep the faith, keep the hope, keep the love," said Benedetto in an historic mass this morning in Kracow. Thank God for satellite TV. We're the type that has the TV on all night so there's something "alive" there when we fitfully awake from time to time during the wee hours. This morning we awoke to an endless series of "Paid programming" plus one of our all-time faves, "The Birdcage," but what with all the ads and such and trying to figure out how to wrest power from the clicker, we got sidetracked and stumbled into the Evangelical TV network, broadcasting live with Vatican Radio assist from Krakow Benedetto's historical mass for the people of his predecessor, John Paul. There's so much history there, but the bottom line for us is that JP kept the homefires burning for getting the Polish people out from under the Commie boot, and Benedetto now carries the torch for the West's not forgetting its Christian roots as the insidious Islamicists, with a helpful assist from the useful idiots within our gates, inject their politico-religious toxins into the body politic of Eurabia. We've blogged about it a zillion times and will a zillion times more.

Not to mention, although we always do, that Benedetto is the Pope who loves cats and Mozart. His homily stirred this bone-weary atheist's spiritual heart and mind bigtime this morning. We hope to google his words and comment later on, but for now we've got some big-time cooking to do -- gotta mount a groaning board for a party of eight fun and funny relatives and their significant others for early afternoon. The weather promises to be just about perfect, and the cats are in their element, free to roam in field and forest. Watch out, all you small mammals and birds.

"When the sun finally popped out from behind the low-lying bank of clouds this morning, it was to the south (right in the photo) of the house on Eastern Point.  In about three weeks, on the longest day of the year, it will pop out just north of the house," we wrote last year at Memorial Day's sunrise.

As we said last year plus ça change?

Tuck reads The DaVinci Code so we don't have to

Tuck in the early evening light of the studio today at Goomp's down east on Memorial Day Eve.

"Some of those mystery thrillers really grab you after a hundred pages, and you get a sense of the characters and start to identify. Whether this will happen now is too soon to tell," reports Tuck this evening, 20 pages in to The DaVinci Code. He put it to us point blank early afternoon at the checkout of the Hannaford's supermarket at York Corner, where we were stocking up for tomorrow's Memorial Day feast:

Do you think I should read The DaVinci Code?

"Well, sure, you can read it so we don't have to," we replied.

"It will grip car guys, car gals and their car kids, too"

Auto racing afficionado Paul Newman is the voice of Doc Hudson (above), "a 1951 Hudson Hornet, a seemingly quiet country doctor who runs the local 'medical clinic' (mechanic shop) in Radiator Springs. Though he's a car of few words, Doc is respected and admired by the townsfolk for the way he looks out for their health and tends to their aches and pains. Doc ends up teaching McQueen lessons he can apply both on and off the track," say the specs at the official site of Disney.Pixar's "Cars," premiering tonight at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. What's Doc's secret? The official website doesn't say, but USA Today tells all: "Doc turns out to be a former racing champion and eventually mentors young hotshot 'Lightning McQueen,' voiced by Owen Wilson."

"It will grip car guys, car gals and their car kids, too, and make them smile," writes Autoweek's [not yet available online -- we borrowed Tuck's snail copy] Dutch Mandel re Disney.Pixar director John Lasseter's new animated feature film "Cars." Opening in a theater near you June 9, it world premieres tonight at Lowe's Motor Speedway "in one of the most unique and elaborate movie events of all time" according to Disney Chair Dick Cook. Of course he would say that, but for once, reality appears to be living up to the hype. From the official Speedway web site:

Paul Newman, Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, NASCAR legends Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip, and others from the voice cast of the film will be joined by a host of stars from the racing world and 30,000 guests that are expected to attend the "CARS" World Premiere, taking place at the same location as that weekend's famous Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race. The screening of the film represents the first multi-screen digital cinema premiere ever.

Humpy Wheeler, the president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway, provides the voice of Tex, a 1975 Cadillac Coupe de Ville.

USA Today has more interesting tidbits:

Newman says he never owned a Hudson, although he will ride in a replica of the car at Friday's premiere. His tastes off the track are more environmentally friendly -- he owns both a hybrid car and a hybrid SUV, sharing his love for all causes environmental with his longtime friend Robert Redford.

Yes, and probably a gas-guzzling Lear Jet. No matter. Nobody's perfect.

Online, in toystores or in your local supermarket, the "Cars" tie-ins crossed the starting line weeks ago. We nearly impulse-bought a "Smack & Yak Plush Figure Sally" (above) during a weak moment at the supermarket yesterday. You squeeze or shake her, and she says cute, suggestive things. She's the "beautiful 2002 Porsche 911 from California who grew tired of life in the fast lane and made a new start in the small town of Radiator Springs" and wins the heart and mind of "Cars" hero "Lightning McQueen." We're no car nut, but even we got the sweet reference to that other legendary actor/racer, Steve McQueen. [Correction: Tuck informs us via the Autoweek article that the name refers to Glenn McQueen, a member of the Pixar team who died during production.] We used to think McQueen the actor was the cutest thing that ever came down the pike back in his pre-big-screen days as the star of "Wanted, Dead or Alive." We still think the President was right to say that way back when about Osama. His kowtowing to the Press Corps yesterday, asserting that such "cowboy talk" may have been a "mistake" misinterpreted by the enemy, made our toes curl.

As a triumph of American merchandising genius, "Cars" is already running victory laps -- among a zillion other tie-ins large and small, here's one of our all-time faves, again from the movie's official site:

Disney.Pixar's 'CARS Road Trip '06," presented by [the nation's number one auto insurer] State Farm . . . will cross the country with stops in over 40 cities . . . The cars will ride in style via a special truck inspired by the character Mack, which will be provided by Mack Trucks, Inc.

The business of America is business, of course, but as the President often reminds us, we're a nation of believers in something greater than ourselves. We do not live by bread -- or gasoline, in the case of our fellow automobile/Americans -- alone, and Mandel of Autoweek predicts a win for the good guys in the culture wars as well:

Do not be surprised, either, if with time we find "Cars" has had a profound social impact on those children as they grow up.

That thought occurred to us, too, as we were boning up on the storyline and characters at the official site and remembering the simple and powerful "message" of another Disney.Pixar animated feature, "The Incredibles," that "family-oriented superhero adventure" that that won our hearts and minds last year. Instead of Hollywood's usual exercise of trying to indoctrinate us with their tired and discredited utopian visions, movies like this convince us by letting human nature speak for itself.

Update:  The world premiere at Speedway was a smash, reports CBS News:

Before the premiere, the movie's stars -- including Paul Newman, Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt and NASCAR great Richard Petty -- walked the red carpet outside the speedway. Fans craned for views, cheering at each celebrity, but the biggest ovation went to NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has a small role in the film.

[Director] Lasseter, a self-professed car geek and son of a parts manager at a Chevy dealership, has said the film is a love letter to vehicles of all cylinder configurations and to Route 66, the famous road that runs from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Petty said Lasseter gets NASCAR right in a way that Hollywood never has.

"He does a good job of just filling in, and if you are a racing fan and you know NASCAR history then you can really relate to the movie," he said. "If you're not a racing fan, you can just relate because there's a good story there."

As Henry Ford said, "Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars."

"And so we dished"

Pamela of Atlas Shrugs (above left) embodies (hubba hubba) for the right blogosphere what Wonkette was meant to embody for the left. Ana Marie Cox is long gone from these parts now, so you'll have to go to Atlas Shrugs to chercher la femme. Her you-are-there report of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's speech before a joint session yesterday is a great ride.

"She was as surprised by my politics as I hers. And so we dished," writes the weight-of-the-world-bearing Pamela of Atlas Shrugs -- on her the weight looks good -- re Dina, an Israeli TV reporter she happened to sit next to yesterday as both bore witness to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's historic speech to a joint session of Congress. We had caught most of the speech in C-Span reruns and were duly impressed, but Pamela/Atlas was there and by sheer force of personality -- not to mention her writer's eye for telling detail -- breathes life into the whole barmy scene:

What a day. I was honored to have been invited. The experience more than exceeded my expectations. DC, itself, was glorious. Just beautiful. Crisp, sharp and regal. Such a great town, wonderful people. My favorites are the cab drivers, they are from all over the world and so happy to be here. Free, working, you know -- the American thang.

I arrived at the south door, opposite the Longworth building where a small press contingency had congregated. I started chatting with an elegant gentleman, and coincidentally the only other blogger invited to cover the historic speech, Paul Mirengoff of Powerline. I liked him, he gave good conversation and was equally surprised and pleased to be in attendance.

He GAVE good conversation? This woman's prose crackles with sexual tension. "It was most interesting to see the play, the dance, of the power players," writes P/A. You'll want to read the whole thing, but here are a few bits to tempt your taste buds:

Entering chambers was the great satisfaction. I looooved it. It was thrilling. Watching the Senators and Representatives mill about was wildly interesting. The wannabees working the higher ups on the food chain, the higher ups deigning who they would reward with their attention and conversation.

Kerry came in looking haggard (think Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend), spent and depleted (think Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas without the bravado.) Watching that man gave me great pause. That someone as incompetent and worthless as he might have been President, made me shudder. Slumbering, slobbering Ted Kennedy came in late and scribbled notes and nodded off during the speech. What a yutz.

Hillary Clinton dashed (not quite but it was what she attempted to project -- she can't really do dash) in at the last moment -- very red carpet, very I am the star, a real diva moment. She thinks she’s President, or at least soon to be. Watching her watch the speech, she too was lackluster in her response, and when she would bring herself to applaud it was almost in slow motion. As if her hands were weighted down with iron shackles. She has her agenda. And it ain’t pretty although her pink overcoat was rather stylish.

Hot, hot, hot.

Taking command of the latest refurbished seat

You know how we feel about beauty in unexpected places. This one that caught our photographic eye this afternoon is the result of having the pieces of fabric that are about to underlie chair covers in Tuck's ongoing project hung over the top of the chair before being tacked into place.

Then there's Cakes, taking command of the latest refurbished seat.

"You get this tremendous serendipity"

When it comes to shrimp, Tiny and Baby know how to game the system. For our part, we're willing to give them what they want in exchange for exquisite photo ops.

"You name it . . . Face it . . . Look," boilerplates Mike McCurry -- Bubba's former press secretary, now "contributing blogger" at The Huffington Post and lobbyist in chief of HandsOff.org* -- in an embarrassingly mismatched email "debate" [via InstaPundit] with Craig Newmark -- proprietor of Craigslist and charter member of SaveTheInternet.com -- on this crazy thing called "network neutrality" that seems to have come to a head this week in Congress, where the House Judiciary Committee will vote today on a bill that would make it illegal for any provider of high- capacity telecommunications services to discriminate between web sites. When we say mismatched, we mean McCurry is talking out of both sides of his mouth -- it depends upon what your definition of is is -- hoping we're too dumb to catch on. Newmark, self-acknowledged geek that he is, is calling the shots as he sees them. A taste of Newmark's argument:

Mike, can I suggest some straight talk from your clients?

The problem has already been discussed; the big guys will get privileges at the expense of the little guys and at the expense of consumers. They've admitted they'll do that. Let's stand up for small and innovative businesses.

I realize you're cleverly using Colbertian "truthiness," and I just can't compete with that. Nerds are notoriously literal.

On the other side of the aisle:

"You have to ask how much of this might be blatant regulatory gaming of the system," says Adam Thierer, a telecommunications analyst at the Cato Institute. "Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon, [Google] -- if they can push any regulatory mandate that benefits them in the long run, they're going to do it."

Good point, but if we have a choice, we'll go with the nerds, and speaking of nerds, Sir Tim Berners-Lee -- "the British scientist who developed the web in 1989 as an academic tool to allow scientists to share data" -- makes the case for keeping politics out of it, reports the BBC:

The World Wide Web Consortium, of which Sir Tim is the director, believes in an open model. This is based on the concept of network neutrality, where everyone has the same level of access to the web and that all data moving around the web is treated equally. This view is backed by companies like Microsoft and Google, who have called for legislation to be introduced to guarantee net neutrality . . .

Speaking to reporters in Edinburgh at the WWW2006 conference, he argued this was where the great benefit of the internet lay.

"You get this tremendous serendipity where I can search the internet and come across a site that I did not set out to look for," he said.

A two-tier system would mean that people would only have full access to those portions of the internet that they paid for and that some companies would be given priority over others.

The serendipity is where it's at. Ironic that Google, champion of network neutrality, is acting just like those big, bad telecoms, closing the gates for presumably political/dhimmitudinous reasons both here and in China. The latest provocative you-don't-sbose from Instapundit:

GOOGLE FUNDING MOVEON? Eli Pariser denies it.

Says Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org, who doth protest too much:

Internet freedom opponents told one right-wing tabloid that "Google has become the single largest private corporate underwriter of MoveOn." That's news to us since MoveOn has never received a cent from Google - or any other big business. We're funded by the small dollar contributions of 3.3 million members.

We know our friends on the far left are really into telling truth to power, but that's just plain disingenuous. As we've blogged before, billionaire George Soros is MoveOn's silent partner in crime. Which brings us to a crossroads:

Apple's browser, Safari, has a built-in Google.com search window, which is very convenient. But what if you're fed up with Google's insidious political and dhimmitudinous shenanigans and would like to substitute -- say -- Ask.com as the default? We've done a workaround by adding Ask.com to our Bookmarks and activating the Bookmarks Bar. Anybody out there know how to change the built-in-window?

*HandsOff.org . . . echoes of Soros-sponsored, Gore-friendly MoveOn.org, whose acolytes are  gathering in cells living rooms throughout the nation tomorrow evening "to help pick the three big positive ideas that MoveOn will campaign for in 2006."

"To-day women can be on active service every day in the month"

"To-day women can be on active service every day in the month. They're free of traditional disadvantages," went the cheery Tampax ad copy (left) in those giddy early days of the nation's involvement in World War II. Who knew where this would lead? Slippery slopes always start out level and dry. The way ahead seemed full of hope and promise. As a young woman growing up in the 60's, we welcomed the freedom implied in the 1941 Tampax headline, "What a blessing it is that sanitary protection is now worn internally." Somewhere along the line, things went terribly wrong, as the once provocative if always air-headed Madonna went off the deep end (above, right, top headline now on Drudge: "CHURCH SLAMS MADONNA ON THE CROSS"). Isn't that special? Update: Kiran Chetry of Fox & Friends puts her finger on what's wrong with Madonna's latest effusion: "It's getting old. I mean been there, done that."

"Menstruation Is Fast Becoming 'Optional'" goes the Drudge headline, one among many, all trumped by the one at the top of the left column, "MADONNA TOUR OPENS TO CONTROVERSY." So much for national priorities. We don't wish to embarrass Goomp or Tuck or any of our other esteemed male readers, so we're going to tread lightly on this one, but the issues raised are HUGE:

Most doctors say they don't think suppressing menstruation is riskier than regular long-term birth control use, and one survey found a majority have prescribed contraception to prevent periods. Women have been using the pill for nearly half a century without significant problems, but some doctors want more research on long-term use.

The new methods should be popular. A non-scientific Web survey for the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals found at least two-thirds of respondents are bothered by fatigue, heavy bleeding, "really bad cramps" and even anger. Nearly half said they would like to have no period at all or decide when to have one.

In our salad days we dabbled with "the pill" but finally decided it was too risky -- cancer worries, mainly -- and opted for other means to the same end. Even as we found periods oppressive, they were, at the same time, a sign of physical well being. We were forever wondering how women managed in the old days -- mostly every era until the aftermath of WW II, when Tampax, popularized during the war, caught on amongst the general population of women both here and abroad. Then came the toxic-shock-syndrome hysteria, when lots of women of our generation turned their backs on "No Belts, No Pins, No Pads, No Odor." That is all we will say about these female mysteries to spare our male readers' delicate sensibilities.

Now we're wondering what role this toying with the menstrual cycle may have had in leading to the grim realities of our own and especially Europe's dwindling reproductive rates, even as hate-mongering Muslim immigrants spawn at will. Glenn Reynolds's Tech Central Station article the other day, "The Parent Trap," catches the conscience of the thing:

We've taken a lot of the fun out of parenting. Or to echo Longman, the "social costs" of parenting continue to rise, and, more significantly, perhaps, the "social returns" continue to decline.

Parenting was always hard work, of course. But aside from the economic payoffs, parents used to get a lot of social benefits, too. But in recent decades, a collection of parenting "experts" and safety-fascist types have extinguished some of the benefits while raising the costs, to the point where what's amazing isn't that people are having fewer kids, but that people are having kids at all.

Our sis has always said how glad she was she had her two Barneys before the pc police stepped in, uninvited, and took all the joy out of it. Is it too late to turn back and take another look at what we've wrought?

"A symptom of pagan emptiness"

"In the past, pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate the gods, but today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions," writes Australia's Cardinal Pell. We and Baby (above this evening atop the kitchen counter waiting for treats) would have phrased it a little differently: "In the past, pagans sacrificed humans and even animals in vain attempts."

"He says these worries are a symptom of pagan emptiness," reports ABC News [Australia] re the latest non-PC assertion by the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, who has "angered Australian Muslims with his description of their holy book as an incitement to violence" [via Miss Kelly]. It seems that just about anything a person of the free world might say these days is in danger of inciting Muslims to violence -- check out Andrew Bostom's piece at The American Thinker, the gist of which was:

"The goal [was] to promote general hatred toward those who are outside Muslim circles.”

This “hatred” was to assure that Muslims would not succumb to corrupt, i.e., non-Islamic, thoughts.

What's not to love about these folks? Back to infidel Cardinal Pell:

In the past, pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate the gods, but today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Sub Rosa blogfriend Marybeth of Miss Kelly -- unlike the folks at truthout who keep trying to fit their square utopian hopes into the round holes of reality -- tells it like it is:

Pretty funny! There is so much about how leftists/feminists/environmentalists think and act these days that demonstrates that the post-Christian world has retreated to paganism. They don't believe in the myths and stories of the Bible, but they happily believe (with religious fervor) in a great many other baseless things (recycling glass matters, gun control works). I'm just thinking out loud here, but here are some of the beliefs, sacraments and sacred texts of the neo-pagans.

Be sure to click on over for her examples, and then scroll on down to her commenters' excellent additions, our own among them. This is where the debate will be at in the coming monsoon season.

Update: For relief from the antics of our fellow humans, join the animals at the Friday Ark at Modulator and the 113th Carnival of the Cats at IMAO.