JACK BERNARD'S TRAVELS

Posted by jdbernard743

· January 5, 2016

Picking at Scabs…

There is an unscripted moment at the conclusion of Adele’s November 17, 2015 Radio City Music Hall concert. After leaving the stage the camera continues to roll as she steps into a backstage elevator. There, she falls into the arms of a companion sobbing uncontrollably as the door closes behind her.

That scene could be a metaphor for the evening – a simple, quiet, unexpected explosion of emotion – that tells us something about the woman with the most luminous voice in more than a generation. She writes her own songs and the lyrics come across as desperate bleeding sores.

When We Were Young

Let me photograph you in this light

In case it is the last time

That we might be exactly like we were

Before we realized

We were sad of getting old

It made us restless

I’m so mad I’m getting old

It makes me reckless

It was just like a movie

It was just like a song

When we were young

The New York concert, shown on NBC on December 14, was riveting. Her last concert, in 2011, celebrated the release of her second studio album, the age-titled “21”. In the four-year interim she has undergone throat surgery to remove a bleeding polyp, quit smoking, given birth to her first child, and composed the songs for her third album, “25.” Despite the surgery the voice has lost none of its range, clarity or power. No one in recent memory has a voice or musical presence as mesmerizing.

“25” was the most anticipated music event of the year and didn’t disappoint. Its hit single, Hello was an instant success and the album, in six weeks, became the biggest selling album of the year and the decade – even though she defied conventional thinking and withheld it from the streaming sites.

She weathered a storm of criticism after the release of her first album, “19” seven years ago. With a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live in 2008 the conversation ricocheted back and forth between her extraordinary voice and the fact that she was a pudgy, maybe even unattractive, young woman. Definitely not star quality. But, the conversation was wrong. The UK had already made her a star, and it wasn’t long before negative voices were drowned out and the US caught up.

Like Taylor Swift, Adele writes her own songs. Unlike Swift’s, hers are heart wrenching, heart-breaking personal statements of loss and longing. Swift’s are personal too but tend to be catchy or ironic contemporary statements. Adele’s are raw aching stories of remorse and regret delivered with an arresting combination of intimacy and power.

Today Adele seems more self-assured, but when she stops singing the insecure cockney girl is still there. Watch any of the unedited YouTube videos or the unscripted asides in the Radio City concert and the blue-collar girl is there – nervous, awkward and sometimes silly. But, when she opens her mouth to sing there is nothing like it. It’s been a long time since we’ve heard a voice and musical persona like hers on the scene.

The first time I heard Joan Baez, 55 years ago, I had a similar reaction. I was sitting outside a small music store in Claremont California talking to Mr. Chase, the owner, when I heard it. I asked him who was singing and he told me it was a local girl whose father taught at Claremont Pomona. That was the day I bought my first guitar and the first of many Joan Baez albums. The voice was pure and unmistakable like Adele’s, but, as a songwriter, she didn’t pick the scabs or reach deep into her own emotional wounds for material. She was a unique delivery system for the music she shared with us, but she didn’t give herself to the audience as Adele does.

Rolling Stone’s November 19, 2015 issue featured her on the cover and in a long article on her private life. The boyfriend she sang about in When We Were Young, Someone Like You, and Set Fire To The Rain is gone now and she has a new “bloke” and a child. But, in spite of her professed happiness the raw, painful emotions of that earlier time are still pulsing in her new songs.

Hello

Hello, it’s me

I was wondering if after all these years you’d like to meet

To go over everything.

They say that time’s

Supposed to heal ya

But I ain’t done much healing.

Hello, can you hear me

I’m in California dreaming about who we used to be

When we were younger and free

I’ve forgotten how it felt before the world fell at our feet.

There’s such a difference between us

And a million miles.

You have to listen. This is Someone Like You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0

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Categories : Film/Television, Music, Uncategorized

Posted by jdbernard743

· December 30, 2015

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Past, Present, Future…

The winter solstice, the end of the year and birthdays all signify the end of something and the beginning of something else. It’s a convergence of the old and new, a time to review the past and prepare for the future. What has this year been like? What about the next one? What’s going on personally and globally – family, health, war, climate change, art, Wall Street, racism, national security, ISIS, politics? Issues large and small. It’s time to reflect and recommit.

I always get a little help with this from the year-end film releases, that seasonal bonanza of films surging into theaters hoping to be celebrated and recognized as the best of the year for the upcoming award season. I’ve been doing this movie thing for a long time and it doesn’t surprise me when I find a link between what’s showing in movie theaters and what’s trending in the real world. Still, given the lag time between the germ of creation and the distribution of a film, the synchronicity sometimes surprises me. This month The Danish Girl, a film based on a true 1920’s transgender story, is in theaters. It’s timely; in the last 5 years transgender stories have become mainstream news. 15 years ago when the story was written and 7 years ago when the director, Tom Hooper, was pitching it to backers it was a tough sale.

What do this year’s films tell us about our world? Last week I saw three of them – Spotlight (about Catholic priest child abuse in Boston), The Big Short (about the subprime mortgage mess that brought down America’s financial house), and Room (about a young woman kidnapped, raped, abused and held prisoner by a predator). Is there a bright side? Every year has its tragedies and upsets, but this year feels different. Darker. More problematic. Fear infused.

2015 was not a banner year for optimists. Millions of terrorized refugees risked their lives trying to reach the safety of Western Europe. ISIS beheaded Western journalists and established a caliphate dedicated to the destruction of non-conforming people, countries, and cultures. Wall Street ignored the lessons of 2008 and rapaciously pursued the same greedy strategies that drove the country to near bankruptcy. Police shootings of unarmed African-Americans grabbed the headlines, and the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino hijacked our attention and crowded out the every day news about gun violence in neighborhoods all over America.

And, whenever there was a lull in the news cycle, the media feverishly fed us the inane, uninformed, bigoted Donald Trump crap that Americans either love or love to hate. Where is Jon Stewart now that we really need him? Is this the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?

Meanwhile, our leaders and legislators are sitting on their hands. Instead of being outraged at the epidemic of gun violence and working on solutions to keep us safer they are bickering over Obamacare, denying climate change, and demonizing immigrants? The year-end films tell us a lot about the society we live in.

Why is it that the criminals who destroyed our financial system have gone unpunished? Not one major Wall Street banker, trader or executive has been indicted for the criminal activity that brought on the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. (See The Big Short to find out how they did it.)

How did we not know that the Catholic Church was protecting hundreds of priests who preyed on vulnerable children? And how could lawyers, in good conscience, make a lucrative market out of the abuse by settling claims rather than spotlighting the flagrant abuse and corruption of the church. (See Spotlight to appreciate the value of investigative reporting).

And, almost every day we read of athletes being suspended for the domestic abuse of their wives or girlfriends. They are the tip of the iceberg. There are daily cases of kidnapping, rape and abuse by non-celebrity predators. (See Room for a chilling example of this and an Oscar worthy performance by Brie Carlson as the victim).

Our children wonder why M and I don’t go to light hearted entertainment films. Truth? They’re like Chinese food; I’m hungry an hour later. These films, including The Danish Girl, provoke serious thought about the world as the year comes to an end. They are dark and thought provoking but need to be seen.

Every year I look for the silver lining. I live a privileged life in good health. I’m in a loving relationship and my children and grandchildren are healthy and stable. I want to approach the future with a positive attitude, so I am dedicating myself to the following principles and behaviors in 2016.

In the end, we are all determined by the place and the time in which we were born.

Patrick Modiano, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature

Categories : Books, Film/Television, Personal/Family, Politics, Uncategorized

Posted by jdbernard743

· December 23, 2015

· 1 Comment

My Love Affair With Books

What do you notice when you visit someone’s home for the first time?

It’s not a trick question. It’s a reminder that first impressions are indelible and shape our perceptions. Do you focus on the décor? Lifestyle? Art? Floor coverings? Kitchen smells? Toys, or something else?

The first thing I notice are books – or their absence. If there are none I get suspicious. If people don’t read I wonder where their ideas come from or whether they have historical perspective on the present? If books are in evidence I imagine a narrative about their owners. Are there lots of them? Are they mostly fiction? Hardcover? Paperback? How are they displayed? Are they new or do they look like college leftovers? All of these things tell me something about the lives of their owners.

I was an early but not an avid reader. Ellen Smith, my high school English teacher, helped change that and I was reminded of her last week as I blogged about Hemingway.

She would scold me mercilessly if she knew that my treasured 1952 edition of The Old Man and the Sea bears the Roosevelt High School Library stamp and shows a due date of January 4, 1955. I nicked it and by my calculation, at 5 cents a day (the 1955 overdue book rate) excluding interest, I owe roughly $1095 in library fines. I vow to settle that debt with a donation to the RHS Foundation, and it will be worth every penny because The Old Man and the Sea and Grapes of Wrath, were my introduction to literary fiction and the world of literature. Ellen Smith I love you. Maybe now you can RIP. I will make it up to you.

While my love affair with books was born in high school it grew significantly when Professor Sophus K. Winther walked me through War and Peace in a college literature class and changed the vector of my college experience. Together, Mrs. Smith and Dr. Winther cultivated in me a lifelong passion that has brought an astonishing amount of pleasure and information.

I am hooked on books. I’m vulnerable and impressionable around them. I almost never pass a Bargain Books table or leave a bookstore empty handed. I’m embarrassed to say it I don’t read all of them but my intentions are good. I might buy one because its subject is something I want to know more about, the author is someone I admire, or because I remember an admiring review in the New York Times Book Review. It doesn’t matter. I’m hooked.

Lucky for me my wife feels the same. In fact, she reads more and faster than I do, but we share a love of books. We own Kindles and our smart phones have Audible and iBooks apps but we both think there is nothing like the real thing – hardcover or paperback. It’s sensual; the feel, look, and smell of a new book invite a communion with the author that the devices can’t. When we travel we compromise in order to save space and weight, and often an Audible book read by the author provides an unusual insight into its meaning. I’m thinking of H is for Hawk which we listened to in Rome this spring, but when possible we both prefer the feel of the hard cover, the look of the typeface and smell and sound as the cover is opened for the first time.

I don’t read Romance novels (and neither does M) but I devour thrillers – the male version of brain candy – and other interests run the spectrum from literary fiction, to art, history, politics, philosophy and sports. I don’t keep all the books I buy, but I keep all those I think have enduring value or are personally meaningful. These “savers” are an important part of the interior decoration in our home.

The world is full of book lovers. I meet them all the time, seated on the floor of independent bookstores, drinking lattes at Starbucks, browsing Bargain Book tables, asking questions at author readings, enrolling in writer’s workshops, and picking through used books at yard sales. On January 20, 2016 Seattle will have a new place for book lovers to congregate and celebrate.

Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum is the latest creation of literary entrepreneur and gadfly David Brewster. David is a former Seattle Times journalist who left the mainstream in 1976 to found Seattle Weekly, a freely distributed alternative newspaper. In 1999 he was the driving force behind the transformation of Town Hall from a Christian Science Church to cultural forum. In 2007 he started Crosscut, a non-profit journal of informed opinion on politics, culture, and technology, and now in 2016 comes Folio, located in dedicated space in the downtown YMCA building at the corner of 4^th Avenue and Marion Street.

Mr. Brewster describes this latest endeavor as “a gathering place for books and the people who love them.” Its aim is to be general-interest library and cultural center. Its mission is to promote and deepen public appreciation of the literary arts through the preservation of book collections, a circulating library, book-related cultural programming, and workspaces for writers and others.

Folio is a member-supported nonprofit that offers a range of membership levels so that all book lovers can enjoy its facilities. The general public is welcome and non-members may access the collection on line, read books at the library, and attend Folio’s programs with some restrictions. At an open house last week we saw several large rooms taking shape with bookcases full of donated books, large tables with electrical connections, and corners with comfortable chairs arranged for quiet conversation.

Of course there are other places to write and share an interest in books. For the past three years I have experimented with spaces and places to read and write, mostly libraries and coffee shops, but none of them offer the combination of good workspace, economy, and community that Folio promises. There are other shared co-working environments, more all the time, that offer space for a fee. This month Seattle Magazine’s Essentials column features two new ones, The Cloud Room and Coterie Worklounge, that are clubby membership spaces with bars and cafés onsite, but at $300 and $160 per month respectively they are pricey. The same is true for the simpler workspaces at “The Office” at Ada’s Technical Books, but again, at $20/day is expensive. The $125 Folio membership promises access to work areas, a library, and reading rooms for a year.

Kurt Vonnegut invented the term “karass” in Cat’s Cradle to identify “a group of people linked in a cosmically significant manner even when superficial linkages are not evident” (Urban Dictionary). It’s Vonnegut’s way of saying we all seek community. Folio’s mission is to create a “community of the book” and it may very well be my next karass.

How fabulous!

Now – let me see what’s in your bookcase.

Check out Folio at: http://www.folioseattle.org/#!learn-more/cp7y

Categories : Books, Fashion/Lifestyle, Uncategorized, Work and Adventure

Posted by jdbernard743

· December 14, 2015

· 1 Comment

Eat Like Hemingway

One of the hot trends in dining today is the “themed” restaurant, and this year’s theme of choice in Seattle is the Hemingway-inspired boite. By my count there are three new places using Papa’s adventures and lifestyle to inform their spaces and menus.

As with other trends it is difficult to know what kicked this one off. I’m not aware that it’s a resurgence of interest in Ernest’s writing or a re-evaluation of his importance in the literary world although I do believe he is underappreciated. My guess is that it’s the romance of the Hemingway legend.

Three years ago I reread A Moveable Feast, the Hemingway memoir of Paris in the ‘20’s when he, Hadley, and their son, Bumby, lived in a walkup flat on Rue Cardinal Lemoine. As a writer I was reminded of the book’s rich insights into Hemingway’s writing process and the window it opened into the ordinariness of his daily life as a young writer in Paris. Bumby, aka Jack, was a friend of mine until his death in 2000, and A Moveable Feast rekindled my interest in Hemingway the writer in contrast to the Hemingway the myth. Moved by the memoir, two years ago I visited the Paris flat, drank Pastis at Les Deux Magots, ate oysters at La Coupole, browsed book stalls on the Rive Gauche, made a pilgrimage to Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare and Company bookstore, and this fall I spent time at the Hemingway house and museum in Key West.

The 1920’s is a romantic epoch for literature lovers who are able focus on the romance without having to cope with the real life aggravation of cold winters and 5-story walkup apartments. With this as background it’s not surprising that Hemingway’s adventures continue to inspire and add interest in contemporary settings.

In our city, where attractive, innovative, restaurants and cuisines are flourishing; the romance of the Hemingway era provides an atmosphere for the creation of intimate spaces evocative of that earlier time.

The three new Hemingway-inspired spots are all quite different reflecting the many aspects and places that played a role in the writer’s life or lives as the case may be. After all, he lived and worked in France, Italy, Spain, Cuba, and China as well as a number of locations in the US.

Of the three local restaurants, I think my favorite is Ernest Loves Agnes (reviewed in this magazine September 29, photos above), although all three offer something special. This café’s name is a trivia player’s dream. At 18, before the US entered WWI, Ernest went to Italy to serve as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross. An Austrian mortar shell exploded near him and he was badly wounded by flying shrapnel. An American nurse named Agnes von Kurkowsky nursed him back to health and they had an affair. In the end Agnes, who was 7 years older, rejected Ernest. These facts would just be part of the Hemingway biography were it not for the fact that they became the inspiration for the tragic literary romance in A Farewell to Arms, in which an American ambulance driver is nursed back to health by an English nurse who later dies in childbirth.

Ernest Loves Agnes feels like it could be Paris in the ‘20’s. The cozy space (formerly the well-regarded Kingfish Café) is divided into two long narrow rooms, with booths in one and tables along the wall of the other. Both sides are decorated with photographs of Hemingway’s Finca Viglia in Cuba and the small plate offerings on the menu are served on mismatched antique china by a friendly knowledgeable staff. On a recent visit we shared an appetizer of eggplant and red pepper caponata on artisan toast and a cheese plate that featured a bleu, a French double crème, Spanish manchego, and cheddar with a basket of razor thin toasted baguette slices. Everything was delicious and well presented.

The second of the three Hemingway-inspired restaurants, Manolin (Man-o-LEEN), is the creation of Renee Erickson, of Boat Street Café, The Walrus and the Carpenter, and The Whale Wins fame. This time Renee and a quartet of new partners have created a Caribbean centered menu long on fish and interesting spices. The space is less intimate than Ernest Loves Agnes and features hard surfaces, primary colors, a polished concrete floor, and bright lighting. It’s “a clean well-lighted place” like the Hemingway short story of the same name. In 2015 Bon Appetit named it one of America’s 10 best new restaurants. Pas mal, eh?

The name comes from The Old Man and the Sea, the 1952 Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Manolin is the name of the young protégé of “old man” Santiago. Other than the name the Hemingway connection is less clear. What is clear is the popularity of this new spot. With a no reservations policy it’s not easy to get in. Last Friday my wife and I walked in at 5pm and were told it would probably be an hour for a table for two. It was only because two friends walked in about the same time that we were able to capture the last four-top without a long wait. At 5 o’clock? Who eats at 5 o’clock?

We did and it was deliciously different. Like Ernest Loves Agnes this is small plates spot and the four of us shared several – salted plantain chips, albacore ceviche, Tuscan kale with cojita cheese and sweet red peppers, grilled beef with lardo, sautéed squid buried in a molded squid ink fried rice, and a whole grilled branzino (European seabass) – innovative offerings full of exotic flavors.

The last, but not least, of the Hemingway-themed restaurants is Bottle and Bull. Drinking and bull fighting, two of Mr. H’s favorite pastimes. Proprietor Jessi Waldher and husband, Chad, operated Marcy’s Bar and Lounge in hometown Walla Walla but missed the energy of the Seattle/Bellevue scene. They settled on upscale Kirkland for their enterprise and created Bottle and Ball as a hip, noisy, lifestyle bar and bistro. Bottle and Bull combines the dimly lit décor with photographs we saw at Ernest Loves Agnes with the hard surfaces of Manolin and a giant antique wooden bar to offer young professionals of the Eastside a trendy watering hole to gather and gawk.

Jessi is charming and knowledgeable and her staff well trained. After we ordered our food the waiter brought us the pickled egg with salmon mousse and caper appetizer – unsolicited – asking us to try it on the house. It was a clever way to introduce us to the cuisine. Puckery and savory, it was a complete surprise.

We followed with an apple and Brie flatbread with caramelized onions and fresh tarragon sprigs accompanied by a wild watercress salad with thin slices of watermelon radish. Everything was clean tasting with flavors enhanced by fresh picked herbs.

It’s only suitable to end this Hemingway-theme with some drink suggestions. Bottle and Bull is the most creative on that side of the menu with drinks named for Papa’s characters or adventures. The Robert Jordan (From Whom the Bell Tolls), Blood and Sand (bullfighting), Stockholm’s Prize (Nobel Prize) and Snows of Kilimanjaro (short story) are just a few on their craft cocktails list.

There is something about being located on the top of the Left Coast that seems to keep Seattle from getting the kind of recognition it deserves – whether it’s the Seahawks’ powerhouse, the inventive restaurant scene, or the fact that so many Broadway-bound plays start their tryout runs here. We’re in a secret spot and there’s something special about discovering a place as creative as our city. This is about more than “surviving Seattle.” It’s about linking a particularly creative literary period, in the nation’s second most literate city, with a particularly creative period on cutting edge of American cuisine.

Categories : Books, Fashion/Lifestyle, Food/Restaurants

Posted by jdbernard743

· December 8, 2015

· 1 Comment

The Emperor’s New Guns

I took this picture of Seattle’s iconic landmark on Wednesday and planned to write a column about it, but then a nut case in Colorado Springs shot up Planned Parenthood and a couple of jihadi terrorists blasted their way into history in San Bernardino and that column disappeared in a cloud of gun smoke.

This is a column I didn’t want to write. I’ve written it before (see Cowards and Bullies, April 19, 2013) and though I didn’t want write it again it’s a burning issue that isn’t going away until we do something. Given the bloviators on the 2016 campaign trail and the gutless wonders in Congress,” something” may not happen soon enough to prevent another bloody massacre.

I don’t really understand it, but the 2^nd Amendment really has legs. In 1919 Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes declared that shouting “Fire” in a crowded movie theater was not a protected right under the 1^st Amendment, but open carry i.e. “the act of publicly carrying a firearm on one’s person in plain sight,” is permissible in a majority of states without restriction. That firearm can be anything from a .22 caliber pistol to a semi-automatic military style rifle loaded with a high capacity magazine. What’s the disconnect here? Why are limitations on other fundamental citizen rights acceptable but not on the 2nd Amendment? The “strict scrutiny” test of judicial review requires the state have a “compelling interest” to limit a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. What could be more compelling than protecting the lives of its citizens? The fundamental right to own an armor piercing semi-automatic weapon?

With Sandy Hook Elementary, Aurora, Umpqua, Charleston, Colorado Springs, and San Bernardino in the rearview mirror why the fuck aren’t we doing SOMETHING to make America a safer place?

Have we lost our collective minds? Are we drinking a new mind-altering Kool Aid that makes us believe it is more humane and compassionate to own a high capacity, semi-automatic military firearm than it is to “burden” online sellers by asking them to initiate background checks on their buyers? Americans are like the Emperor’s subjects who were afraid to tell him he had no clothes? This is outrageous. The Emperor has new guns and they are killing us. It’s outrageous. I don’t know about you, but I wish these gun buyers had undergone extensive background checks – and so do the families of the people they killed.

We’re supposed to be a nation of laws, and the brilliant founders of our country put in place a set of checks and balances – three branches of government – with a Constitution as the primary governing document. The underlying supposition is that the legislative branch will enact laws that are the will of the people for their protection and general good, the executive branch will enforce those laws and the Supreme Court will safeguard us from those that violate the Constitution. So, where are the reasonable, common sense regulations that govern gun ownership responsibility? Polls repeatedly tell us that the majority of Americans favor reasonable laws governing the responsibility and ownership of guns. So where are they?

Last week, in the wake of San Bernardino, the gutless wonders in the US Senate, most of whom have taken campaign money from the gun interests, defeated a bill that would have expanded background checks to include online sellers and gun show purchases. The National Rifle Association and right-wing zealots act as if owning a gun is going to prevent an intrusive, totalitarian government from taking away our rights. Trust me, if the government wants to take away your rights they will be gone in a heartbeat and your gun will still be in the closet.

Ted Cruz says schools would be safer if teachers were armed to protect their students. I’m sure Mrs. Hamilton who teaches my 5-year-old grandson would be ready, willing, and able to quick draw her securely stored handgun and drill the terrorist who breaks into her kindergarten classroom with a modified AR-15 semi-automatic rifle like the ones used in San Bernardino. What do you think?

Marco Rubio and others say that Paris and San Bernardino wouldn’t have been prevented by gun control legislation. They argue that this is a reason not to enact further legislation. While it’s true that these terrorists would not have been deterred, is that a good reason not to enact reasonable limitations on gun purchases? What’s so sacred about Internet or gun show sales? Why are they exempt? If I didn’t want my gun purchase tracked I’d buy it there too. The same is true for private sales. I’d feel safer if there was a law in place regarding them too. It’s too big a burden on the seller? Bullshit. The San Bernardino terrorists bought their assault rifles from a neighbor. No background check required. Lives can be saved if terrorists, demented individuals or criminals can be stopped from buying weapons? Let’s expand background checks to close these loopholes. Currently someone whose name appears on the US “no-fly list” can walk into a gun shop and buy a military style weapon. What is going on with that?

On Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving, 185,000 guns were purchased from legitimate gun dealers and 185,000 background checks initiated. That’s an astounding number – and those were just the legal purchases. What about the online, gun show, and private sales? We don’t know who bought them or how many there were.

Terrorists will always be able to get guns. Their organizations are quasi-military. They’re on a war footing with war-like resources. Paris has strict gun ownership laws, but the terrorists came down from Belgium and who knows where the weapons were purchased. We probably can’t do much to prevent this kind of terrorism, but the San Bernardino killers bought their AR-15 assault rifles from a neighbor. Maybe their Muslim/Pakistani/Saudi connections and recent travel would have raised flags if a background check had been conducted.

Terrorism is all about scaring the bejesus out of people. It’s working. We’re scared. Do you think Americans would have bought 185,000 guns in one day if they weren’t scared? I had a great day at the Space Needle on Wednesday. I didn’t think much about it then but now I realize it’s a great “soft target.” I’m not easily scared but I won’t be going back any time soon even if friends come to town who haven’t seen it. There are plenty of other places to take them. Maybe I’m getting timid in my old age or maybe just smarter. Last weekend I watched The Wiz and until the wimps in Congress get some bigger balls I’ll think of them as descendants of the Cowardly Lion. Grrrr…

Breaking News: Moments ago the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal on a 2^nd Amendment case involving the constitutionality of an assault weapons case. That means that the lower court ruling upholding a ban on assault weapons will stand. Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia were apoplectic over the decision but the 7-2 decision means they have no power to change the outcome.

The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case could be read as an indication of the justices’ unwillingness to further define the contours of the Second Amendment in light of the current political climate. Huffington Post Legal Affairs Analyst

Gun legislation is still a local issue but this ruling means a state can ban assault weapons. It’s another tool in the kit that will make America safer – assuming there are state legislators with the courage to vote for the ban.

Categories : Politics, Uncategorized