New, Improved, with all Digital Images!

I've added קּỉ©τџ®€ς to the Montreal website. I just got them back today--they're not horrible! You have to scroll all the way down to see all of them.

I also put some pictures of Janna's trip to the desert with her sisters and her mom on Bebo. If you haven't signed up yet--that's what you're missing.

multiple realities

Many Matt Linds

Figure Skater Matt Lind

Customizer Matt Lind

Coffee Drinker Matt Lind

Canadian Matt Lind

Swimmer Matt Lind

Businessman Matt Lind

self-portrait

This is me in the summer.
Go here and once you made your picture, press Print on your keyboard and paste the image into Paint or Photoshop.

Conan doesn't start until 12:30

Okay, so I may have stayed up until 3:30ish last night playing with Magic cards and paper tanks, however, at least I am not tut-tutting over the darndest things that politicians say. For instance, almost all of the President's policies are failures, and yet we are getting our underwear in a knot over some overheated comments political people are making while trying to practice politics.
Wouldn't it be great if instead of getting our panties in a knot over people telling the truth as they see it, we would demand that those people get in a room with each other and butt heads until they can find a reasonable way out of the messes that they have gotten us all in? I for one would love to see Sr. Arbusto send 100,000 more troops to Iraq right now. If he wants to show resolve, why not have the sack to get serious. Of course his strategy to "stand down," when the Iraqis "stand up" is nice. However, the fact that there is currently a civil war in Iraq makes that a pile of horsedoodie.
In fact, I think we should reinstate the draft (or national year of service), send another 100,000 troops to both Afghanistan and South Korea, move all our stealth bombers permanently to Guam, raise taxes, start selling war bonds, give tax breaks for buying fuel efficient cars or solar technology, build wind farms and nuclear plants with government money, require all U.S. and other passports to have biometric data electronically stored, require all containers to have electronic seals, and charge everyone at Guantanamo with a crime and put them on trial. Now that's what a real "war president" would do.
I watched the movie Bush's Brain about Karl Rove tonight. I wanted to see Bush's Brain not because it would somehow challenge my worldview, but because I was curious what all the heat was about. Anyways, the movie is chock full of interviews with dissatisfied Republicans, into whose backs Karl turned his knife very slowly and strategically. Of course, the reason the rest of the Republican party doesn't come out and say the same darn thing is because they don't want to be Roved like these poor souls. The statement that chilled my blood most thoroughly was that Valerie Plame and Karl Rove go to the same Episcopal Church in the D.C. area. Now that's moral values for ya.
Of course, accomplishing policies that actually work requires someone to believe that there is a higher good than getting and retaining power. Oh well, tilting at windmills went out of style a long time ago.

la dolce vitaalbeit musically challenged

Despite a humidity that clings to your skin like a rubber glove, it is great to be doing nothing in Charlottesville in the summer. I rode my bike to the Downtown Mall today to run errands. I ran into Peter Kleeman, whom I consoled on Rich Collins' loss. Apparently, David Toscano won the primary, although at last minute, I changed my mind and voted for Rich Collins.
I have decided, I'm going to change my strategy and vote for the one I most want to loose, because, I haven't voted for a winning candidate, but once, and that was for city council. Thanks Tom Tomorrow for that joke--in a cartoon after the 2000 election--"Voters in California didn't realize that it was 'Backwards Day,' meaning that they should vote for the candidate they most wanted to lose." Personally, I think we should change every election into a reality show; it'd be more entertaining.
Well, I also talked to Doug and his precious daughter Cassidy, who were trolling the mall so that Mara could get some work done at home. I did my errands, came back home, and am now attempting to find .pdf files of paper tanks I can print out on card stock and make. I found a Tiger I on a Japanese website, but it didn't have any instructions and it has a lot of parts, so it may be sitting on my desk for a while. I did find a Brazilian website that feautred a Jagdpanzer, which are really ugly looking tank destroyers, but there are instructions to make that one in a language I can vaguely read.
I also found out that MSN Music is featuring a buy 1 get 5 free deal. Well, since I am really bad at remembering the names of artists I like, I am asking the help of my more musically saavy friends. What 5 tracks should I buy with this free gift from Bill Gates et al.? I have until September, but I'm impatient, so give me some suggestions.
Oh yeah, did I mention I woke up at 11:00 this morning. Finally, this teaching thing is starting to pay off--I got the sweetest card from one of my students today with a big ol' gift certificate to Barnes et Noble. Also, in the heat of the afternoon, to enjoy a delicious wow cow frozen yogurt ("I call it frogurt") and Diet Coke at Arch's served to me by one of my former diligent Latin students--la vita è bella!

I'm full of it

Well, we had a great trip, and if you didn't get a postcard, holler at me, and I'll send you one from Charlottesville--a nice glossy of Sally Hemings and her five mulatto children or something of the like.
Okay, so the symptoms of depression hit anyone hard on the return from a vacation, so I'm not going to claim that I'm relapsing or anything, just that I still got a wee bit of the crazies--and I don't even have to go to work tomorrow. Pobrecita Juanita!
So, I bought a CD set of classic tales of "spine-tingling" horror from the Green Valley Book Fair for $6.50 to listen to in the car. I've already listened to several, but what I'm pretty sure was a cruel abridgment of Frankenstein got me thinking. Now, this is somewhat inside and somewhat outside the Calvinist Christian box, so take it as you will.

Sin or evil caused by humans is based primarily in selfishness, a desire to preserve one's own life over that of others.

Selfishness is part of the evil nature of the world and indestructible by purely human or wordly means.

Society demands selflessness in order to function (i.e. as Freud would say, we should not act on our id whenever possible).

Therefore the art of society is the delicate balance between allowing ourselves to indulge in our selfishness in ways that cause us to be selfless (i.e. competition for business, promotions, or prizes given to us by our fellow members of society).
I may be doing a grave injustice to C.S. Lewis, but in Mere Christianity he mentions that pride or arrogance is the one sin that we most quickly identify in others, however, we often fail to recognize pride itself as a sin, preferring to rather put it on our bumper stickers and community welcome signs.
There seems to be something else to be said here, but I just don't know what it is.

C-eh, D-eh, N-eh?

We're about to take off. Find Janna's and my thoughts on the trip here. Don't forget to save public broadcasting. Phil will tell you all about it. Au revoir e nous verrons dans Montréal!

Batman Began

My house is finally in order, literally and figuratively. I have tidied up the whole house, caught up with the laundry, put the recycling in the car for tomorrow, and run the dishwasher. Of course, tomorrow, I have to unload said dishwasher and do the other dishes and take the recycling to the center etc..., but you get the idea. I also finished the "renovations" in my room (i.e. putting in new shelves and cleaning it up a bit.) While I was cleaning up, I found some plastic soldiers my friend Bev had sent me in a care package. I put magnets (that I found at school) on all of them and stuck them to my new shelves. Right now the Wehrmacht and the 1st Army are duking it out for supremacy in the 900s. (Yes, I use the Dewey Decimal system, and yes I am a nerd.)
So to reward myself for all of my house-husbandry (no, I do not breed houses, I don't think that could be done), I got tickets to go see Batman Begins with Spencer tonight. The only thing was, no theaters in Charlottesville were showing it. (Exactly, whaaaa?) So we drove over half an hour to Staunton--in Spencer's truck so that we could blend in in the Valley. We went to the 10:10 show. Anyways, you know how when you spend $8.00 for a movie and $14.00 for popcorn and go see a movie on opening night during the middle of the week even though you know you could just wait to see it at the cheap theater and get your beauty rest and then you regret the whole thing later? Well, this was not my experience.
>>POSSIBLE BATMAN SPOILER ALERT<<

It is quite possible that Batman Begins will be my favorite superhero movie ever. Now, the reasons I like movies are possibly quite different from the average movie goer. However, I will mention the things that Joe Multiplex (and myself) may appreciate...

the souped-up Hummer batmobile

the crazy ninja $ђ!+

Katie Holmes

excellent use of the bat-grapple

Now, I will mention the things that were truly compelling to me. Morality is back! Batman/Bruce Wayne inhabits a moral universe in which his actions have moral consequences. However, although trained by a moral dualist, he rejects dualism and fights for civil society. This movie was what The Matrix could have been. In fact, much like The Matrix, the first half of the movie created the philosophical/moral universe and the second half involved @$$-kicking. However, while The Matrix tore down its own moral universe, Batman Begins rebuilt it, the Wayne Mansion serving as a perfect metaphor for morality. Also, unlike the Matrix, this movie is not neo-Platonic, but anti-dualistic.
In fact, the movie served as a subtle (or maybe not so, be your own judge) critique of our "war" on terrorism. At one point the Scarecrow--played beautifully by Cillian Murphy, the comic book villain perfectly updated for the movies, cackles, "You have nothing to fear but fear itself." Of course, this kind of rhetoric is the only thing that can fight terrorism. Terror can't be effective if one can be "inoculated" against it. In fact, it serves as perfect symbolism that the courageous characters in the movie were the first to be inoculated against the terror gas that was actually dispersed as weapon of mass destruction.
Also, Christian Bale, playing essentially the same character from American Psycho and Shaft channels the dark knight as brilliantly as Hayden Christensen did not channel Anakin Skywalker--especially in Attack of the Clones.
The great thing about superheroes is that they are as close as America will come to a mythology. That is why the absolute contemporary anachronistic futurism of the Batman movies is far superior to the contemporaneousness of Spider-Man and other superhero movies. Making the batmobile a souped-up hummer is morally equivalent to putting fins on it in the 1960s.
The thing that separates this movie from Star Wars is that it has a coherent philosophy of good and evil. Bringing balance to Gotham does not come through totally destroying evil, as one of the villains wants to, but rather through establishing civil society. This is a great lesson for our generation.
Oh, and while I'm blowing smoke up this movie's hind-end, Michael Caine was the perfect salt and pepper as Alfred. The other great thing about this movie is that the plot twists are somewhat suprising, and you may leave the theater pleasantly suprised at it's creativity.
Now it is time for bed.

Some more things I did not post last night...

I appreciate the way Chicago stood in for Gotham rather than New York this time. It made all the chase scenes seem like an homage to The Blues Brothers--"We're on Lower Wacker Drive."

A note about the torturous way the movie deals with economics and rewrites American history. I disagree with the author of the Village Voice review who suggests that, "the screenplay performs ludicrous contortions trying to conform the fact of Batman's bottomless wealth to the urban blight he conscientiously battles at night." In fact, Dr. Wayne suggests to his son that "this city has been good to us," meaning, that their wealth is a direct result of the patronage of the proletariat. Although, as I age, I am seemingly becoming more conservative (a startling prospect given my current age), I would suggest that the pre-modern (pre-Marxist) sense that the aristocracy provides--as its duty--protection, work, and the basic needs of the proletariat is a functional moral model for society. In fact, I believe the Katie Holmes character stands--if there is one--as the moral center of the movie. This is a biblical principle--"to whom much has been given, much has been demanded." If corporations were to behave as the "citizens" that they have been legally defined as being, the world could be a much better place.

Spencer, last night, of course, recognized Gary Oldman, however, his performance was so superlative, I didn't even know what actor was playing Sargeant "Commissioner" Gordon.

Finally, let's give Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson some credit, there were no total a-list stars, with the possible exception of the future Mrs. Cruise, but all the stars either did yeoman's service, or didn't totally stink it up, a la Star Wars.

Mercy and Revisionism:from the sublime to the ridiculous

Well, today, the unthinkable happened--my employer gave all of us a bonus, and since I am a relative old-timer in the Middle School, I got a relatively nice check. Before these checks were handed to us, a decently executed CCM song with an overly long drum break on the theme of mercy was played. Although sometimes I cringe at the cheesiness of music my coworkers deem appropriate devotional material, somehow this song got it right. It's easy to think about how all of our hard work has earned a record enrollment for next year, but it really does belong to the big (wo)man. It is also amazing to think that we have signed up a record number of kids for a chance at next year in a year in which two alumni (one fighting in Fallujah) and several parents and grandparents died, a disproportionate number of staff members were diagnosed with cancer, we had an unusually lively group of 7th graders, and two of our students ended the year cooling their heals in the Albemarle County Jail. The cash giveaway following on the heels of an extremely offensive but quite hilarious Shiflett impersonation by one elementary school teacher at the faculty appreciation dinner set the tone for this post.

Also, I have made an appointment in August, at my primary health provider's earliest convenience, at which I intend to be certified as insane in the membrane (not just maladjusted to society). Jessbob assures me that depression is the epidemic of our times, which, along with AIDS, probably takes a lot of people out. However, it did not help matters any to go to Barnes y Noble this past week. I was just overwhelmed by the amount of baloney that is floating around in the universary masquerading as art or scholarship. I mean, just think of all the BTUs we could get from all the Sean Hannity books if we used them as a bio-mass (pile of feces) energy source.
Moving past the well-groomed half-wits, I picked up a fine piece of scholarship in the History section which purported to be a "politically incorrect" version of American History. I believe nothing would have been lost by dropping the word "politically" from the cover. However, the book did have the keen insight on the cover that the American revolutionaries were actually conservatives--hmmm...let's throw meaningless labels around. The bullet point that caught my eye, though, was the contention that the Puritans did not steal any land from the red man, but merely purchased it at the fair market price in worthless trinkets. (I added that second clause myself). Always one eager to find out that my Calvinist ancestors were a little less evil than I previously thought, I turned to page 62. The iron-clad arguments this author put forward were thus.

The Puritans actually tried to teach the Indians about Jesus, which means that they liked them a lot.

Also, Roger Williams (although the book makes no mention of his somewhat extreme break from Puritanism) held the quite advanced view for his day that the Indians were born white, but turned red because of all their dirty sinning in the forest. This was the solitary proof given that, no, not as only a small number of us have been actually taught, the Puritans weren't genocidally racist, but merely benightedly ignorant.

Of course the author then goes on to defend their apparently non-existent racism by suggesting the obvious superiority of the European technology must have served as proof to the Puritans and to us in the modern era of European moral superiority.

Well, I may have been a little unfair, but it is this kind of soft-pedaling of hard-core racism that makes conservative ideologues look (in some cases) as stupid as they are.

So, I turn to the internet, that last bastion of lunacy and democracy, for hope. Phil Christman's latest superlative post reaffirmed my faith in humanity (or at least the fallen goodness of the creation order) in a thoughtful response to another thoughtful and hilarious blog, that of Meg Jenista, who has demonstrated that God does suffer fools far more patiently than the rest of us might want to.
Finally, for all of you who received an invitation to join me at Bebo, I only thought I'd be part of the digital revolution that everyone else is experiencing. Please know that you'll still be my friend if you decline to post your personal information on the web.
pax Christi, mysterium mundi

The Fog of War

I just watched the movie The Fog of War which is essentially an illustrated two-hour interview with Robert Strange McNamara. What an amazing film--McNamara was to Babyboomers as Rumsfeld is to Generations X, Y, and possibly Z. The man was responsible for possibly hundreds of thousands of deaths, civilian and military, and some of the most gruesome parts of twentieth century history--none of which the movie shies away from. However, this man, who has accomplished much evil, is some sort of Zen master in the end. He is the reverse of Darth Vader, and probably the more real version, if we can cast him in that role and LBJ as the non-dualist Palpatine. I mean, there were plenty of kids ready to chant, "Hey, Hey, LBJ how many kids did you kill today." It was also interesting how McNamara himself set up this moral comparison between him and Curtis LeMay. It was almost as if he felt that the two of them were flip sides of the same coin.


Anyways, the Vietnam war--like the quasi-genocide perpetrated against the pre-European American population and African slavery--is one of the darkest chapters in American history. I go back and forth weekly on whether that war was worth fighting--thanks a lot, Michael Lind. However, the fact of the matter is that at the end of the day over 3 million Vietnamese were dead and we had dropped more bombs on that small country than we did on all of Europe during WWII.
However, despite all of this, McNamara comes off as a kind of Zen master, whose life lessons the moviemaker, Errol Morris, distills into the following...

1. Empathize with your enemy.


2. Rationality will not save us.


3. There’s something beyond one’s self.


4. Maximize efficiency.


5. Proportionality should be a guideline in war.


6. Get the data.


7. Belief and seeing are both often wrong.


8. Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.


9. In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.


10. Never say never.


11. You can’t change human nature.

I would recommend anyone who is not a dualist to approach this movie as a profound moral teacher. Listen to this beauty...

"We are the most powerful nation in the world--economically, politically and militarily--and we are likely to remain so for decades ahead. But we are not omniscient. If we cannot persuade other nations with similar interests and values of the merits of our proposed use of that power, we should not proceed unilaterally..."

It is a shame that each generation has to learn for itself the disappointment and horror of armed combat. Despite Rumsfeld's brief foray into epistemology, I wonder if he will produce such a thoughtful reflection on the nature of war. Maybe they were the "Greatest Generation" after all.

Odds and Ends

I spent the greater part of the last few days cleaning my room, so I'm in that totally fastidious state of mind that invites little reflection, but rather merely enumerates a seemingly random list of goals...well that, and sleeps a lot. Anyways, when I came home from the knitting party at Sorbo's house at the end of Tuesday I was a dollar down and hopped up on caffeine. (Sorbo is my favorite former Halliburtonian--quote, "Dick Cheney is too left wing.") So, I went to school from 1:00 to 5:00 ante meridiem and cleaned up my room. After a short nap, I came back at 8:00 in the a.m. to finish what I had started.
Now, you need to understand something, despite the fact that the Boys and Girls Club produced Denzel Washington, they also produced the effects of a small tornado on my classroom last summer. Since I am in enumeration mode, I will share.

graffiti on bulletin boards

posters torn off the walls in a heap

staples and markings on my personal books

general disarray

Due to their maltreatment of the facilities, I was told that they would not be coming back for the summer of '05. However, money talks and teachers' complaints walk. So anyways, to save myself the grief this summer I took down all my posters, covered my bookshelves with butcher paper, and put everything else on my rolling table and covered it with a sheet. We were promised that the administration of the Boys and Girls Club had changed, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I also got a new old desk because my old old one was broken, so I think I'll put some fun contact paper on it sometime this week.
Anyways, I was able to check out at work yesterday, so I had absolutely no obligations at school today. Which allowed me to prepare for our upcoming trip à Montréal par auto.
Also, I have added some more wonderful links. Brian Bork is a friend of Tom and Phil's. Apparently we both did a SERVE project in Toronto together, which was one of my favorite memories. Also, both Phil and Brian recommended the blog by Meg Jenista. She writes with a keen insight into the state of the modern church.
These last two come by way of confession. Through a link on Joel's website, I have been heartily enjoying both Brett's and thence Sarah's blog. Brett lived in the same dorm with me at Calvin and Sarah was a friend of another Sarah with whom I performed Children's Theater on the Invention Team. Both of them are wonderful, but I particularly enjoy Sarah's insights into the process of growing up and change that all of us twentysomethings are going through.
Have a heck of a summer. Paix.

My precious babies

This morning I met at the city market with Anne, Anton, Nevsky, Inessa, Yuri, and Olga. And Peter Kleeman, who was doing some campaign work for Rich Collins, who is running against Kim Tingley and David Toscano for the 57th district seat in the House of Representatives (the one seat that is more liberal than the Symbionese Liberation Army). Nevsky says that Inessa says that Kim Tingley's own sister says that he is a total douchebag. I guess that confirms it for me. Anyways, we had a pleasant breakfast at Café Cubano and then Anne, Anton, and I proceed to the City Market, where I bought some cucumber plants to plant in the Turtlesgarden (that’s German for turtle pen).
Anyways, when I cam home I saw this (over 18 please) and so I took a picture (over 21 please) of it to put on my blog. Roger and Tullia are so in love. Plus, Silvia is too fast for Roger, so she was hanging out in the pool (PG-13).
My turtles are stinking cute. However, Adelphia has not deigned to make sure my internet service is working this weekend, so I’m saving this to Microsoft Word, and I’ll post it when I can.
My internet service came back today—the 5th of June, however, I haven’t been able to see anyone else’s blogs, and I have had problems with Google—anyone else?

It goes without saying...

I never agree with Charles Krauthammer, well, hardly ever. But, this week, he really had his head up his butt. So, I sent this somewhat angry missive to the editors of TIME.

>I think Mr. Krauthammer is getting a little confused as he inches towards old age. In his essay, “In Defense of Certainty,” he alleges that the problem with secularists is first, that they have no beliefs, and secondly, that they are trying to shove those beliefs down our nation’s throat. He also does not seem to have a healthy grip on the value of pluralism, one of the values, according to Krauthammer, for which secularists apparently can’t quite seem to find enough time to endorse. In fact, if any criticism of his is fair, it is not that liberals don’t have values, it is that we so often talk of respecting others’ points of view, that they take us at our word. Liberals, however, do have values. For instance, demanding moral behavior from a nation in the midst of a war is what some might call a quaint, old-fashioned value—the kind of thing reserved for Quakers and Buddhists. Having values makes you wise; being uncompromising, however, makes you an ass. In other words, unskeptical certainty quickly leads to being certainly wrong.<



I'm assuming that it won't be published, saving me the ignominy of my pretentious arrogance being broadcast to the country. Plus, that sentence about pluralism is horrible. I can't believe I didn't do a third edit on this before sending it out. Oh well, chalk that up to the dangers of e-mail.

I bought the album, Dookie by Green Day. I considered buying the International Superhits album, but, I decided not to as a matter of principle. I really wanted to own "Basketcase", because I thought it might give me clarity. Plus, there is something to be said for owning a CD, coverart, case and all (don't tell the music industry I said that.)

Well, it inspired me to go back and check out my insurance company website. I received my PIN number a few days ago, so I logged on, and I found a veritable dearth of information. Well, I realized that, for the information I was seeking, I needn't have gotten a PIN, but we all know I'm certainly an idiot. (Certainty is my new friend, thanks Krauthammer!) I feel so loved by the people at Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Here's what I can get.

"Anthem KeyCare provides coverage for routine check-ups and sick visits.

office visits, etc...

mental health and substance abuse care"

Here's what I can't get...

"To help manage health care premiums, Anthem excludes from coverage certain services that are considered to be insufficiently effective, experimental, inappropriate or outside the practical scope of coverage. More information is provided in individual policies, but here is a detailed list of exclusions to help you evaluate the extent of our coverage. The following services will not, under any circumstances, be covered by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Unless another type of service is specified, the word "services" means both services and supplies. Benefits for the following will not be provided:

• The following mental health services and substance abuse services:


• inpatient stays for environmental changes;


• cognitive rehabilitation therapy;


• educational therapy;


• vocational and recreational activities;


• coma stimulation therapy;


• services for sexual deviation and dysfunction;


• treatment of social maladjustment without signs of a psychiatric disorder;


• remedial or special education services; or
  
• inpatient mental health treatments that meet the following criteria: more than 2 hours of psychotherapy during a 24-hour period in addition to the psychotherapy being provided pursuant to the inpatient treatment program of the hospital; group psychotherapy when there are more than 8 patients with a single therapist; group psychotherapy when there are more than 12 patients with two therapists; more than 12 convulsive therapy treatments during a single admission; or psychotherapy provided on the same day of convulsive therapy."

God bless capitilism, or to coin a new-phrase, bio-medical fascism! I know that all people who work for the insurance industry aren't evil, but it's comforting to imagine a band of mustache-twirling villains denying people's claims in a soulless vortex of cubicles.
The problem with medicine is a fundamental problem that neither the market nor government can solve. The problem is that our curiosity is only limited by time and space. This means that there is almost unlimited funding for medical research in this country. This means that there is almost no limit on the possible costs to "save" someone's life. When it comes to human life, it is impossible to put a dollar figure on it. Therefore, when people are scared $и!+less of death, they will spend ridiculous amounts of money to "save" their lives. Thus, the medical insurance companies have to pay for it. This being a capitilist society, they are in business for business, and have to protect their bottom line, so they jack up the prices. Therefore, in the end poor people end up taking it up the hind end. Not that socialized medicine would resolve all of these issues, however, it would mean a broader distribution of heinie violations.
But, let's give Mr. Krauthammer his due--since I'm a liberal, I'm going to shove these my political values down America's throat, while at the same time not believing in anything and whinily β!+¢иing about how it is so horrible that people do have values. Господи, I'm a jackass.