Author Archives: Bob Evans

Wait a minute Mr. Stewart…

Last night (Monday July 27th) Jon Stewart had Bill Crystal editor of The Weekly Standard on as his guest for The Daily Show. This promised to be a lively show as Mr. Crystal is a big supporter of Sarah Palin and is often credited with bring her to the attention of the McCain campaign. (So you can curse or praise Mr. Crystal as you see fit.)
The interview was long and it was lively. In fact they have placed the entire interview on-line as it would not fit within the time constraints of the program.
After the expected Palin back-and-forth Mr. Stewart and Mr, Crystal got into health care. Jon Stewart was in favor of a public option for health care, that is government run health plan, and Mr. Crystal was against the concept.
During the back and forth the military’s health care came up and Mr. Crystal basically agreed that the health care enjoyed by our military is top-notch health care. Jon Stewart leapt for the kill like comic-con fan on a copy of Action Comics #1. It seemed, Stewart pointed out, that the government can< run a top flight single payer health-care systems since it is already doing that for the military. Mr. Crystal tried desperately to get away from the point, going so far as to say the American people do not deserve the quality health-care system that the military gets. This of course is the wrong counter argument entirely. Naturally since neither Mr. Stewart nor Mr. Crystal have served in out military they do not understand how it's health-care actually works. It is free and it is very good. (Oh there are horror stories and I know a few personally, but those are the exceptions and not the rule.) But it removes all freedom from the patient. I'm not just talking about choice in doctors or hospitals or even treatments -- though all those decision are removed from the patient -- I'm talking about how the patient gets to live their life. In the military they can make you lose weight if they think you are too heavy. They can make you exercise if they think you need it. They can ban activities that they think are a cause if injury. (Such as motorcycle ownership.) The trade-off for such an expansive health-care system is the loss of freedom. This is exactly why I do not like the idea of a single-payer health care system, and why I am against the Public Policy option being debated now.

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Sunday Night Movie: Shaun Of The Dead

shaun-of-the-dead-trio Last night’s movie Shaun Of The Dead is one of my favorite films. Co-written by and starring Simon Pegg (Many people will not get to know him as Scotty in the rebooted Star Trek.) it is a film that exists in a relatively small genre of Zombie Comedies. (The next best zombie comedy is The Return Of The Living Dead, which is a sequel to George Romero’s Night Of The LIving Dead.) Shaun Of The Dead is billed as a romantic comedy with zombies and that is spot on.
The story is fairly simple. Shaun has a dead end life which he is not managing very well. His has a troubled relationship with his step-father, his girl is dumping him, and his flat-mate has no job and no motivation. All this comes to a head during the Zombie uprising turning London into a city of the damned and about to be damned.
This film works as a zombie movie, hitting all the marks expected of that specialized genre, and it works as comedy. The more you know about zombie movies the funnier the film will become.
This is not a film for the squeamish or for those for whom violence is never funny. If you can take your laughs with your blood then this is a film to take in.

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Night Time Visit to the Zoo

So tonight my sweetie-wife and I went to the World Famous San Diego zoo for a night time bird show. We walked around the zoo for about thirty minutes before show time looking at other animals then went to the show.
One of the more amusing sights before the show was a mountain lion. It was just at dusk and the cats were active. Pacing back and forth in their enclosure. a small scrum of people were up close to the fencing only a couple of feet away from the lions including a couple of families. The lion at one point spotted a baby, maybe a year old at most and the lion froze, its gaze intent on the child. Oh every knew exactly what was in that predator’s little mind.

If this mesh wasn’t here you’d be mine!

The show was fun. To raise money that had a trained African Raven that would accept bills from people and stuff it into the big collection box the conservation charity. I tried desperately to get a photo of the raven with a wad of bills in its beak, but I failed.

Damn it.

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Sunday Night Movie: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

libertyFor those who are new to my blog on Sunday nights after my sweetie-wife has retired for the evening I pop in a DVD or Blu-ray and watch a movie. As often as not with a big bowl of pocorn and with all the lights out. It’s the chance during the week for me to watch a film at home the way I prefer to. In a dark room and with a few stops as possible. (Usually none.) Lately I have made it a regular feature on my blog to talk about the films as I watch them.
The week’s movie was The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. (1962) Continue reading →

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Thoughts on today’s historical significance.

July 20, 1944.

Today a conspiracy of plotters sought to assassinate Adolph Hitler and overthrow the NAZI dictatorship with a coup. The coup was generated from with Hitler’s own military and nearly succeeded. It is only by chance and a string of unlikely events that Hitler survived this attempt. (I understand there were something like 15 different attempts on Hitler’s life. He had the devils own luck in avoiding these attempts.)

A film which does a very good job of being both entertainment and capturing the events — with some alterations one should always be wary of film as history — is last year’s Valkyrie . This film is tense and dramatic with a top notch cast that give a power performance.

July 20, 1969.

Mankind landed on the moon. Forty years have passed and age has dulled my memory but I do remember lying on a narrow bed (I was nine) with a father in a trailer on one of his worksites and watching the astronauts descend to the lunar surface.
I have always been a space bug. As a child I drew Gemini and Apollo and Mercury capsules. I was six and I would watch and try to understand Star Trek. (I remember asking my sister how the Enterprise could launch, thinking at the time that everything had to go straight up from the ground like an Atlas. She explained how ships may be built in orbit and my horizons were expanded a bit. (At least until JJ Abrams got his hand on the future.)
I loved the space program and I still believe that man’s destiny lies off-planet. It may not be America’s destiny but it is mans.

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Gun Rights in America

As I have mentioned in others post a reader of this blog should not confuse my attacks and problems withe the Republican Party as an indication that I am of a liberal political persuasion. To paraphrase SF author John Scalzi; I believe that same-sex couples have the right to marry and get automatic weapons as wedding gifts.
I am very concerned about gun right in this country. I am a support the contention that the second amendment is an individual right. (Come on people, all those other amendments – excepting the 10th are individual rights, it;s silly and asinine not to read the second the same way.)
While I myself do not own a collection of firearms I can understand the viewpoint of people who do. (Just as I do not have to be gay to support marriage- equality.)
Continue reading →

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For our God is an Ironic God

This was taken from a Yahoo news article about stars and their unusual phobias.

Sarah Michelle Gellar: Afraid of Graveyards
Oh, the irony. Sarah Michelle Gellar, the star of TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” has a fear of graveyards and admits that she’s had nightmares of being buried alive. Lucky for her, the set-dressing wizards on “Buffy” were able to create phony grave sites so that Gellar never had to shoot in a real cemetery.

I know people who do have a phobia of graveyards and who get creeped out just passing near or through one. (One of our trolley lines in San Diego passes through a graveyard.)
Me? I’ve l always liked graveyard ever since I was a teenager.I spent the summer of ’77 with my sister in the mountains and I used to climb up the hills into this tiny almost forgotten graveyard. I’d sit and read there. It was quite peaceful.

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