So, what of the politics of PotC3?

So, how many people thought that the opening scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was a dig at current administration in office? I was stunned listening to the cryer at the hangings that open the film listing off rights that had been suspended: habeas corpus, trial of one's peers, peaceful assembly. Stunned mostly because the idea that a Disney flick might actually criticize a sitting president was almost beyond the pale.

I'm sure that some would argue, "But that's what the villian would have done!" Yes, but why put it into the film that way? I'm quite sure there are any number of scripts that could have been played aloud at that moment. One that makes the villian seem to mirror our current government's obsessions is pushing the issue, don't you think?

South King Country Atheists and Agnostics

So, Omaha and I wandered down to the South King County Atheists And Agnostic Meet-Up yesterday. There were only three other people there, one married couple and another woman, and the general topic of conversation seemed to be "coming out."

They were all genuinely nice people, although they were mostly the apathetic atheist or agnostic type. Being a scientific atheist type myself, there wasn't a lot of common ground.

We didn't even get to the issue of substrate independence.

"The Month of Womanhood!"

This morning, while driving Kouryou-chan to one of her many birthday parties she seems to be attending this month, I passed by a church sign that read, "We declare May to be the month of Womanhood! Do something Nice today!"

Aside from being terribly out of date and all that, I'm wondering what the heck they were talking about. Should we be extra nice? Or was niceness only mandatory in May and is optional the rest of the time? Why is womanhood being singled out for May? Is there a month for men, too? (Elf prepares his cage of snark-tracking, flesh-gnawing weasles for the first person to write, "Every month is the month for men.")

Anyway, it was just weird. I was having one of those days where over and over I kept saying, "Where's my damn camera?" I'd left it at home.