And Now, For This Reluctant Political Statement...

I'm not a political person. Really, I'm not. And I have no intention of turning this blog into yet another right- or left-leaning political rant. But this entry has been building for a long time.

You see, I normally vote my conscience. I'm not affiliated with either major political party and I like it that way. However, for the last several years, I find myself straying further and further away from The Current Administration's policies.

Sanctioning torture? Not the America I know and love. The Chief Executive looking the American people in the eye and saying there are no secret CIA prisons and then, when it is revealed that there had been all along, defending his reasons for LYING? (Not refusing to comment, mind you, but outright fibbing, liar-liar-pants-on-fire...) A man who spent the minimal amount of time necessary in the National Guard and never seeing combat sending the cream of America's youth off to die on foreign soil, aided by a Secretary of Defense with even less real military experience?

(Don't get me wrong on that last point -- I fully support our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. They are just doing their jobs. I just hate seeing lives wasted and families destroyed for no real, long-tern purpose. Terrorism has always existed and always shall. Sectarian violence has always existed in the Middle East and always will. Democracy can't be forced on a people -- they have to come to it themselves and evolve their own system for implementing it.)

But the final straw hit me whilst listening to NPR the other day. It seems the IRS is investigating Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California with the intention of removing its tax exempt status. (Click HERE for a link to the full story.) Apparently, on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, the minister delivered an anti-war sermon. Churches? Decrying war?? Mock horror!

Nevermind that dozens, perhaps hundreds, of right-wing ministers not only preach the Republican Party message from the pulpit, but actually tell their parishioners how to vote and the IRS never darkens their door!

Enough is enough. I'm voting a straight slate of Democratic candidates in November and, most likely, again in 2008. Let me emphasize that I have never willfully done this before. But something has to change. Someone has to limit George W's power. Someone has to bring some balance back to this country.

Please?

Spock Lives!

This evening, I ushered for the Leonard Nimoy lecture at EJ Thomas Performing Arts Hall. Part of my duties included taking the names and addresses of patrons who paid big bucks for a private reception with Nimoy and the opportunity to have their picture taken with him. He stood less than ten feet away from me and I never got to say hello. Which kind of sucked. Had I been more brazen, I probably could have gotten in on the photo thing, but that just seemed so... pedestrian.

Nimoy talked for an hour about his career, his family, and yes, of course, about Star Trek. He related some tales familiar to Trekkers, but did so in a warm and, dare I say, human fashion. The hour flew by. He did a brief Q&A, which produced not very inspired Q's and, as a result, not terribly illuminating A's.

He managed to drop one of my favorite pearls of wisdom during his lecture: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience." ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

And yes, people came in Starfleet uniforms, Klingon costumes, Trek neckties and t-shirts. And a good time was had by all.

Live long and prosper.

Machines Hate Me

My lawmower quit on me about a month ago. Two weeks ago my vaccuum cleaner went on a little excursion all by itself, leaving me holding its severed handle. And today my desktop computer bit the cyber-big one.

(I'm typing this very, very gently on my laptop.)

I'm going to climb on an airplane in three days. I'm trying not to see a pattern.

Sheesh.

R.I.P. Steve "Croc Hunter" Irwin

One of television's most recognizable personalities, Steve Irwin, died today, doing what he loved to do - working with dangerous animals. Irwin, of "Crocodile Hunter" fame, was lanced in the chest by a stingray's barb.

Irwin was one of my favorite "over the top" characters. So much so that when asked to do a staged sendup of him for a friend's theater workshop, I spent hours watching his show and imitating his accent and mannerisms to get my characterization just right -- perhaps even more outlandish, if possible.

I always thought of Irwin as a sort of Australian National Treasure -- an Aussie everyman who did more than anyone to bring attention to his homeland and to the plight of endangered animals throughout the world. He made me smile often but I was also reduced to tears while watching his show, particularly when he was so moved by his occasional inability to help some poor, doomed creature. One example was the show in which he tried to save a baby elephant, but ultimately lost and broke down crying. Another that springs to mind was the episode wherein he discussed losing his dog, Sui.

My heart goes out to his wife, Terri and their two children. Steve was one of the good ones -- an original, never to be duplicated, only imitated. I like to think he and Sui are running wild in the outback together, watching over his beloved Australia Zoo and all creatures great and toothy.

Summer's End

It's Labor Day weekend, the traditional end of summer. We've had an unusually cool and cloudy August and now the remnants of hurricane Ernesto are blowing in to make the start of September rainy as well.

It is also the full-on start of the campaigning season. Despite the unseasonable temperatures, Ohio has a "hot" race for governor already warming up. One major contender wields too much state power now, considers his personal religion "right" and others "wrong" and spies this race as a stepping stone to the White House. God forbid. Any God.

Next weekend I'm making a one-day trip to another place famous (infamous?) for politics -- Chicago. Take the first flight in the morning, spend the day, eat some Gino's East pizza and back on the last flight out of Midway. Normally, I'd come back just in time for Bacchanalia, but alas, that is no more.

And September used to be the start of the new television season. Now it's staggered throughout the Fall. Hopefully, something will come along to assuage my heartbreak over the cancellation of Stargate SG1. And make the foul taste of all the mudslinging political commercials easier to swallow.

Oh, and on the subject of TV, the very week after I blogged about Tuesday nights on Food Network, they split up the two shows I wrote about. Ham on the Street is now on Wednesday nights. Bastards.