This is the kind of news I could read over and over.  For one, Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake are not only sexy people, they play their spotlight roles with grace, taste and the ever important rule of never taking yourself too seriously.  

Timberlake’s work with SNL’s Sandberg was one of the most refreshing career moves I’ve ever seen.  As for Kunis, I’ve never seen a movie that she didn’t make better.  She seems to walk that hard line of realizing how much of a knockout she is, without being obsessed with her image.  Possibly the only thing hotter than her looks is her seemingly fun loving personality, and the only thing hotter than that is the sound of her voice.  If we ever ended up in bed together, I’d make her read to me…  Recipes, Green Eggs and Ham, Moby Dick…  whatever.  

Anyway, good job Justin and Mila for doing the right thing for especially deserving fans, and for representing the artistic community with class.  

I invite you to look within. And I mean that literally. “Looking within” is one of those phrases that makes people often freeze up, thinking, “oh no… another Gandhi, Tony Robbins wannabe trying to motivate me to greater inner peace and righteousness…” Well, for one, so what? You got a better idea?…!! Just try this: Quite literally and deliberately “look within” at how your chest and gut feel when you act this way or that. Our bodies tighten and tell us what to do; we just have to take care of them.

Eat your vegetables, don’t drink too much alcohol and smoke too many cigarettes. When faced with the choice to share an opinion that only validates you, your kin, and massages your ego; or to relay some kind words… try either shutting up or being kind.

Being yourself is not always about uniqueness and your opinions. It is about taking the “high road.” When we are asked to be ourselves, it is usually in situations where it is challenging to do so. We are our greatest selves when we question norms, often taking a less popular course of action.

So thinking about perspective and all, I was thinking about how, depending on who you were, and where you were in, like,  history…  Christopher Columbus is like, sort of a terrorist.  That said, my daughter is named after the queen who sent Columbus to conquer stuff.  

My daughter is great.  She’s five.  Man oh man, do her mom and I love her…  and her little sister, too.  They will soon enough be learning all about Columbus’s “discovery” in school.   Because of one man’s bravery, strength, and perserverence; combined with a monstrous ignorance of the value of other cultures besides his own, we all have Monday off and I’m excited to play in the fallen leaves, and maybe do some arts and crafts.

A toast to tyranny and the expansion of nations who think they are destined to rule the bodies of other humans that look different.  In the immortal words of Trey Parker and Matt Stone…  “America…  BLEEP YEAH!!!” 

Human emotion, when housed by a mind and body united by a loving sense of soul (or god or spirit or whatever you want to call it) helps guide our actions.  Guide.  Not dictate. 

We must use mind to observe emotion.  Otherwise, we’re totally screwed.

Since the late night drinking isn’t my thing anymore, I’m back in my hotel room at 9:30, just in time to see some of the Fox News sponsored Republican candidate debates. A military man based in Iraq literally came “out” to whoever was watching the debate, and asked if it was alright that people know he’s gay should Republicans get into office. We all know that Obama doesn’t care. He not only loves gay people, his agenda is clearly about taking everyone’s guns away, and making us all watch gay porn until we live in a homosexual nation of communist sissypants. Anyway, In his response, Rick Santorum made it clear that he would NOT be ok with this protector of our country talking about sex. Fortunately, he at least said he would not kick him out even though he’s “out”…

I am utterly ashamed to breathe the same air as people who do not let people be who they are.  I guess the motivation to discriminate is based on the assumption of homophobia in the ranks, and that heteros will not fight for freedom as hard if their platoon mate is “different.” I don’t know about you, but I imagine if I was getting shot at and needed cover, I’d take anyone’s help and wouldn’t be thinking about whether or not they liked vaginas or penises.  In the wars we fight, are we not fighting for human rights and the promotion of greater civil liberties on this planet as a whole?

Seeing Rick Santorum, Governor Perry, and Mitt Romney standing in their perfect suits reminds me of a “conservative” fraternity I knew of in college. I heard about this guy in the frat getting really drunk, smoking some late night weed, and letting his true self out. He hit on one of his fraternity brothers. He was of course kicked out, and immediately ostracized. Knowing the kinds of families these kids were from, this is the kind of situation that likely leads to shaming from the family, and in many cases, suicide.  Clearly the man fighting in Iraq has been loved enough for who he is to carry on, and found the courage to find support for himself and his “lifestyle”–as some idiots call it–and is willing to stand against the oppression of homosexuals.  After all, he was taught to fight for what’s right.

I don’t know about you, but Rick Santorum might be hiding something.  He looks like he’s pretty tight, and is just wishing he were back at Alpha Sigma whatever, lying in the arms of his secret late night lover.  If only he could find that spark within, and let ALL of God’s people into his fearful, narrow world.

What makes life tick unites us all.  American, Somali, Dutch or Chinese.  We need food, water, and a family to tell us everything is gonna be alright when we start wondering whether there’s a monster under the bed.  We need the ability to rest from our fears before they cripple us and cause us to lash out against life.  Our aliveness seems to be our greatest treasure and our greatest fear, depending on the weight of the air we breathe.

She said, “God is like a magical creature that lives inside our bodies.”

That was a perfect example of how, when you don’t think you could love someone more, the love just keeps growing.

The truth is, we have plenty of money, and the potential for more wealthy, healthy life for all is very real.  It’s just that a lot of money is just sitting around making more money for people who don’t do anything good with it except spread it around to other people with a shitload of money.  Sure, some of it trickles down, but only enough to keep those in the middle and the bottom believing the lie.

Liberals complain that budget items like military spending are bloated and out of control.  I don’t know.  I sure don’t want to get attacked by terrorists again; that sucked.  I also don’t want to see our military using sub-par armored vehicles in whatever war we decide to fight.  So, what I do want to know–since military spending is a huge portion of the pie that could be spread around to help us without going into more debt–is what are the ratios in that budget?  What are “research and development” costs vs. operational costs?  Can we trim R&D without compromising safety?  Why not.  After all, look at the weapons our enemies are using.  We are against a bunch of MacGyver’s using some pretty old stuff.  Their greatest weapon is clearly an extremist fervor that no amount of technology will fully stamp out.  Our “shock and awe” only pisses them off more.  I’m not positive, but our technological might seems to only reflect the excessive culture that makes these folks call us “infidels” in the first place!

We have literally begun to fight ourselves.  If we are what has been depicted by the kind of rhetoric I hear on the extreme right and left, we too have become a nation of extremes.  If our sons and daughters are protecting us from extreme ideology, it might suit us better to move toward the middle together.  The farther we move apart, the sooner we will all go down.

The events of that morning were an aberration of the spirit that lives in us all.  Fortunately, even as the horror unfolded, we witnessed the best of that spirit bringing people together.  We were united in the knowledge that our love is bonded by serving one another. Whatever the reason people give for committing such atrocities, let us unite in the cause of increasing understanding among cultures across the planet.  When there is greater understanding, perhaps such raw, misguided contempt will no longer have fertile ground.