Last year there was a long debate in the comments about smoking in public. While that conversation has been lost in the migration from Blogger to Movable Type, this article is a good example of the dangers that I was talking about :

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that an airline can be held liable for the death of a passenger from a severe asthma attack caused by exposure to secondhand smoke.

The 6-2 ruling was a defeat for Olympic Airways, the Greece-based airline that challenged a $1.4 million award against it in the case of a 52-year-old doctor from California who died on a 1998 flight from Athens to New York.

The airline had argued that it cannot be held liable under the Warsaw Convention, an international treaty on airline liability, when a passenger’s pre-existing medical condition has been aggravated in the aircraft cabin.

The U.S. Justice Department disagreed. It said an airline’s unreasonable refusal to assist a passenger who becomes ill during an international flight, in violation of its own policies and industry standards, can lead to liability.

The case involved Dr. Abid Hanson. After boarding the flight in Athens, Hanson and his family discovered they were in nonsmoking seats near the smoking section, which was not separated by a partition.

A flight attendant repeatedly rejected requests from Hanson’s daughter to move him to a different seat. The attendant said the flight was full, even though there were 11 empty seats.

After Hanson died on the plane, his family sued and claimed his death stemmed from a severe asthma attack caused by inhaling secondhand smoke.

The problem here is that most people see cigarette smoke as something that’s mildly annoying, but not dangerous. As far as they’re concerned, those of us who complain about smoke in public are just whiners. Well, I hope this puts things in better prospective. Second hand smoke can kill people, so the idea that smoker’s civil rights are violated by public smoking bans is nothing compared to the rights of non-smokers to not die because of someone else’s addiction.

Listen up liberals, this shit has to stop :

You hear Howard Dean supporters snidely remark that John Kerry co-opted their candidate’s anti-Bush tone once Kerry saw how popular it was with senate voters. At the candidates debate in Los Angeles Thursday night, according to one newspaper account, a Dean fan ripped a Kerry sign off a rail, saying: “You stole our message. We can steal your sign.” Now, the New York Times says, Kerry’s channeling that son-of-a-mill-worker John Edwards, too, borrowing heavily from his populist message and engaging manner.

“Mr. Kerry is talking nonstop about job losses, about the ‘haves and have-nots,’ about hardship and heartache in the industrial heartland. He is even surrounding himself with mill workers to prove his point — and retelling their stories about as often as Mr. Edwards mentions that he grew up in a textile town and saw the broken spirits of those whom global trade left behind.

“Mr. Kerry’s transformation into an empathetic candidate with a decidedly blue collar on his navy pinstriped suit began months ago as he struggled to connect with audiences put off by his patrician manner and emotional distance. It has taken on new significance, however, since the senate race narrowed to Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards, whose affability, speaking style and up-from-the-bootstraps biography stand in contrast to Mr. Kerry’s Boston Brahmin image and background. And it will be even more vital, senate strategists say, should Mr. Kerry win the nomination and take on a president whose popularity is based largely on his regular-guy, emotionally direct appeal.”

If Kerry is “stealing” good ideas, isn’t that a good thing? Whoever ends up winning this thing should take all the good ideas he can get. And it’s not as if John Kerry is indifferent or opposed to the ideas he’s lifted (unlike Bush’s co-opting liberal ideas without actually doing any work to implement them).

What’s so infuriating though is how juvenile this all seems. Nobody “owns” their position on healthcare, Iraq, or taxes. John Edwards isn’t the only one who should be allowed to appeal to the working class just because he did it first and Howard Dean shouldn’t be the only one who gets to bash George Bush. The very fact that your ideas are appealing enough that they’re being co-opted should please you during the primaries.

Quit being crybabies, people. We’re all in this together.

Yeah, I’m sure he only uses his guns for hunting :

The newly elected chairman of Smith & Wesson’s parent company has resigned in the wake of reports about his criminal past.

“I felt it was the best thing for the company, given the circumstances,” James Joseph Minder, 74, of Scottsdale, Ariz., told The Republican newspaper in Springfield.

Minder said he submitted his resignation voluntarily at a meeting of directors of the Smith and Wesson Holding Corp. earlier this week, the newspaper reported Thursday.

Company officials did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment. However, the newspaper said the gun maker was expected to name a replacement for Minder on Friday.

Minder’s resignation came three weeks after The Arizona Republic reported that he spent more than 10 years in Michigan prisons in the 1950s and 1960s for a string of armed robberies and an attempted prison escape.

When asked for a comment, Minder replied “I’m proud of the products that Smith & Wesson provides so that families can protect themselves from people like me.”

This should surprise nobody and outrage everybody :

The panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States will get one hour to ask President Bush what he knew about events leading up to the suicide airline hijackings, the White House said on Friday.

“They are looking at an hour as you pointed out,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said when asked by a reporter whether he could confirm reports that Bush was limiting the meeting to an hour.

Rather than sitting down with all 10 members of the so-called 9/11 commission, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have only agreed to meet privately with its chairman, Thomas Kean, and the vice chairman, Lee Hamilton.

The panel would prefer that Bush meet with all of the members.

Created by the U.S. Congress, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States is charged with examining lapses in intelligence and national security in the months before the attacks. Strikes by hijacked airplanes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed about 3,000 people.

The panel has expressed concern that it will not have enough.

An hour is all they get? They’ll barely be able to go through the timeline of what he did on 9/11 in an hour. How can anybody truly think that Bush is committed to keeping us safe if he’s willing to spend more time at the Daytona 500 then with the 9/11 Commission? He probably spends more time doing the “Find the Pictures” from his latest issue of Highlights than he will discussing the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history. Yeah, this is pretty much standard fare for Bush, but it still pisses me off every time I read about it.

No, not for that job. For this job (link via Atrios):

Terry McAuliffe, who rose from Syracuse politics to lead the senate National Committee, will quit the chairmanship when his term expires next year.

“I’m going to leave here in February of ‘05, finish my term, and the legacy that I will get to leave this party is this is a party that is in the best technological and financial shape in the history of our party,” McAuliffe said Wednesday.
. . .
Observers credit McAuliffe with rebuilding the national party by paying off its debts, building new headquarters, introducing high-tech campaigning and rearranging the primary schedule.

McAuliffe, 47, learned politics at the side of his father, Jack, a former treasurer of the Onondaga County Democratic party. By 2000, Terry McAuliffe had raised an estimated $300 million for the Democrats and become Bill Clinton’s best friend and fund-raiser.

Dean’s looking for a new direction right now and I can’t think of a better one than this. Dean’s already proven himself capable of raking in money and firing people up. This is the perfect job for him.

I would love to see him step in now to be a co-chair with McAuliffe during this election. Let McAuliffe stroke the egos of all the big money guys and let Dean work towards more a grassroots-style organization within the DNC. Maybe Dean could dust off his attempt to get 2 million people to donate $100 each?

I know you’re probably getting sick of reading about The Passion, but I just saw two items on the Drudge Report that I want to post.

First, was that the movie killed an old lady :

A woman collapsed in an East Wichita theatre this morning, during a showing of “The Passion Of The Christ”. Peggy Law apparently suffered a heart attack. She was pronounced dead a short time later at a Wichita medical center.
. . .
People viewing the movie at the Warren Theatre East say Law collapsed during the portion of the movie where the crucifixion of Christ was shown.

A few off-duty doctors and nurses who were in the audience tried to revive her. But when she was taken away in the ambulance, authorities say Law still had no pulse.

The movie has been criticized for it’s graphic portrayal of Jesus’ death. Religious leaders around the country and here in Wichita say people need to be prepared for the graphic brutality.

Whether Law’s death and the timing in the film are related, we will never know, but religious and medical officials stress this film is not for the faint-hearted.

I can’t think of any tasteless jokes to make about this, but have fun in comments.

Also, it looks like Mel might be looking for more religious material :

As for what he’ll do after resting a while in his hammock, Gibson hinted there were myriad other stories in the Bible that deserve celluloid treatment.

“There are good stories in that book — it’s worth looking into them.”

Since Mel’s such a big fan of explicit realistic depictions of the Bible, what should he do next? Sodom and Gomorrah complete with graphic anal sex scenes? An Old Testament movie about God commanding the murder of all the “firstborn” babies in Egypt? (I guess he wasn’t pro-life yet) Moses killing a bull and playing around with its blood and guts?

Here’s a few cartoons about the gay marriage amendment that caught my eye. The first four are from Daryl Cagle’s Professional Cartoonists Index and the last one is from Calpundit.

Well, the reviews for “The Passion of The Christ” (not just any Christ, it’s the Christ) are in, and they’re surprisingly split down the middle. Since positive reviews of this film are about as exciting to read as going to midnight mass sober, here’s some quotes from some of the more interesting negative reviews :

Planet Sick-Boy

To me, there’s absolutely no difference between the religious zealots in the film who scream for Jesus’s death and the real-life people four-walling entire theatres to see The Passion with their flock. There is, however, great irony in the fact that these same people who were gesticulating until their arms fell off when their kids saw Janet Jackson’s boob pop out are going to drag those same kids to one of the most graphically violent films ever made.

Los Angeles Daily News

Lost in the film’s beautifully lit orgy of abuse is the sense of who Jesus was and why the Jewish priests - Gibson’s villains in this old-fashioned melodrama - wanted him crucified. Gibson, who directed the film and co-wrote it with Benedict Fitzgerald, teases us with brief flashbacks of Jesus’ life - the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Supper, some tender moments with mother Mary. But these are just blips between the relentless brutality. Jesus’ suffering is all that matters in this movie.

New York Daily News

Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” is the most virulently anti-Semitic movie made since the German propaganda films of World War II.
. . .
The movie is a compendium of tortures that would horrify the regulars at an S&M club. Gibson spares not one cringing closeup to showcase what he imagines Jesus must have endured.

The lashings are so brutal that chunks of flesh go flying and blood rains like outtakes of “Kill Bill.”

The Romans capture their prey with the help of a terminally regretful Judas, then haul Him around to be whipped, beaten, spat upon, mutilated and finally crucified - all with the cheering encouragement of a ghoulish mob of Jews. No one in the crowd speaks up for Jesus, not even, strangely, his mother (Maia Morgenstern).

Religious intolerance has been used as an excuse for some of history’s worst atrocities. “The Passion of the Christ” is a brutal, nasty film that demonizes Jews at an unfortunate time in history.

The Star Ledger

It’s perhaps the height of irony that a self-professed true believer like Gibson could get it so wrong, and that an admitted sinner like Martin Scorsese could get it right. If so, it is an irony that the Jesus of the Gospels — who ate with sinners — could appreciate.

Because, while Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” showed us how Jesus died, Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” showed us how he lived. And reminded us that, it was not Jesus’ immunity from human frailties that made him a shining light. It was his ability to rise above them.

Newsday

Where, one wonders throughout, is the “tolerance, love and forgiveness” that Gibson has promised his audience? Where, beyond some furtive snatches of backstory, is the buoyant embrace of life and hope that Christ’s message represents to millions? This movie is little else besides a depiction of punishment so ruthless and unyielding that watching it unfold feels like punishment.

Cranky Critic

Two hours of gruesome, sadistic, stomach-turning and hard core graphically violent torture detached from any background information is not something to expose kids to, regardless of religion. Kids of a slightly older age may ask “Mommy? Why is Jesus a punching bag?” and then you can explain all the stuff about “dying for your sins,” and inflict enough psychological terror on the kid to require a good twenty years of therapy. Or you can blame the Jews which, intended or not, is the message the film delivers as Gibson caps the piece with all the high priests standing at the foot of the cross, looking, ah, regretful.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Emphasizing Jesus’ agony over His ecstasy, Gibson has delivered a blood-drenched epic more stunning for its brutal violence than for its depiction of the calvary. This work of obvious devotion may well be the first spiritual splatter film. It makes Gladiator and Braveheart - even Friday the 13th - seem mild by comparison.

Toronto Star

Even from my position of relative spiritual impoverishment, I have no doubt that Gibson believes completely and utterly in the divinity of his mission. From precisely the same position however, I also believe, just as completely and utterly, The Passion Of The Christ to be a work of fundamentalist pornography. What graphic sex is to the use of the body in hardcore porno, graphic violence is to destruction of the body of Christ in this Passion.

The Fresno Bee

If this were any other film and any other subject, “The Passion” would have been slapped with an NC-17 rating faster than you can say “Council of Nicaea.” And if it had been any story but the Passion, the care and extreme to which Gibson goes to depict each nuance of Jesus Christ’s suffering — down to the tidy little table on which the Roman soldiers keep their arsenal of whips, chains and blunt instruments — would have been roundly mocked for its fetishistic qualities.

Slate

You’re thinking there must be something to The Passion of the Christ besides watching a man tortured to death, right? Actually, no: This is a two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie?The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre?that thinks it’s an act of faith. For Gibson, Jesus is defined not by his teachings in life?by his message of mercy, social justice, and self-abnegation, some of it rooted in the Jewish Torah, much of it defiantly personal?but by the manner of his execution.

And just for fun, here’s a hilarious quote from one of the positive reviews :

CAP Alert

Regarding Jim Caviezel, he spent so much time in full-body make-up that his skin blistered. Jim also spent much of his time in a loin cloth in the Italian winter, sometimes unable to speak due to the cold. Jim was obviously so absorbed into the part that he was able to overcome a lung infection, numerous cuts and bruises and a shoulder dislocation to finish the picture. Interesting to say the least, while working on Golgotha, Jim was struck by lightning — then got up and walked away. Obviously his part in the film was a labor of love for Jim. And it may be obvious to some that God intended for this film to be finished, the leading actor’s miseries notwithstanding.

Yeah, sure. God strikes people with lightning as a way of encouraging them. It’s sort of a religious high five.

In a few hundred years, when historians of the future are putting the pieces together and trying to figure out why the Holy American Empire crumbled, I hope they come across this article.

Large voter turnouts are expected for Tuesday’s presidential primary in Utah and caucuses in Idaho.

Hawaii is also holding caucuses, but the state Democratic party chairman says because a well-known Hawaiian contestant will be on American Idol tonight, many voters may stay home to watch the show instead.

If you’re not too busy watching American Idol tonight, you check out the election returns here.

Full Disclosure : I’ve become hooked on American Idol this season. Like everyone else, I’m addicted to the reality show formula of watching people become emotionally devestated as entertainment. That doesn’t mean I won’t be switching back and forth between Fox and CNN, but it does mean that I’m as vulnerable to the tone deaf interpretations of “Caribbean Queen” as anyone.

These are the rights that the president is trying to prevent same-sex couples from having (link via Atrios) :

Tax Benefits

Filing joint income tax returns with the IRS and state taxing authorities.

Creating a “family partnership” under federal tax laws, which allows you to divide business income among family members.

Estate Planning Benefits

Inheriting a share of your spouse’s estate.

Receiving an exemption from both estate taxes and gift taxes for all property you give or leave to your spouse.

Creating life estate trusts that are restricted to married couples, including QTIP trusts, QDOT trusts, and marital deduction trusts.

Obtaining priority if a conservator needs to be appointed for your spouse — that is, someone to make financial and/or medical decisions on your spouse?s behalf.

Government Benefits

Receiving Social Security, Medicare, and disability benefits for spouses.

Receiving veterans’ and military benefits for spouses, such as those for education, medical care, or special loans.

Receiving public assistance benefits.

Employment Benefits

Obtaining insurance benefits through a spouse’s employer.

Taking family leave to care for your spouse during an illness.

Receiving wages, workers’ compensation, and retirement plan benefits for a deceased spouse.

Taking bereavement leave if your spouse or one of your spouse?s close relatives dies.

Medical Benefits

Visiting your spouse in a hospital intensive care unit or during restricted visiting hours in other parts of a medical facility.

Making medical decisions for your spouse if he or she becomes incapacitated and unable to express wishes for treatment.

Death Benefits

Consenting to after-death examinations and procedures.

Making burial or other final arrangements.

Family Benefits

Filing for stepparent or joint adoption.

Applying for joint foster care rights.

Receiving equitable division of property if you divorce.

Receiving spousal or child support, child custody, and visitation if you divorce.

Housing Benefits

Living in neighborhoods zoned for “families only.”

Automatically renewing leases signed by your spouse.

Consumer Benefits

Receiving family rates for health, homeowners’, auto, and other types of insurance.

Receiving tuition discounts and permission to use school facilities.

Other consumer discounts and incentives offered only to married couples or families.

Other Legal Benefits and Protections

Suing a third person for wrongful death of your spouse and loss of consortium (loss of intimacy).

Suing a third person for offenses that interfere with the success of your marriage, such as alienation of affection and criminal conversation (these laws are available in only a few states).

Claiming the marital communications privilege, which means a court can?t force you to disclose the contents of confidential communications between you and your spouse during your marriage.

Receiving crime victims’ recovery benefits if your spouse is the victim of a crime.

Obtaining domestic violence protection orders.

Obtaining immigration and residency benefits for noncitizen spouse.

Visiting rights in jails and other places where visitors are restricted to immediate family.

I dunno about you, but most of these don’t scream “the most enduring human institution” or ” the most fundamental institution of civilization” to me. Why should we amend the constitution to block people from sharing these rights?