Inflatable Church

This is the perfect solution for all of you who can't decide whether to get married in a church, a garden, your backyard, at the beach or beside a mountain lake: an inflatable church!

Go ahead - click on the link - and get yours today! You know you want one...

Thoughts on The Jungle

Upton Sinclair's aim in writing The Jungle was to call attention to the terrible plight of laborers in early 20th century America. His accomplishment was to call attention to the disgusting processes employed by an unregulated food industry to acquire livestock, slaughter it, can it and ship it to dinner tables across America. While Sinclair's initial readers didn't seem to grok the human costs of industrialization, they certainly understood the health risks posed by an unregulated food industry and demanded that the government take action to reduce, if not eliminate entirely, those risks. Sinclair's book did a lot of good, it just wasn't the good that he intended it to do. Sinclair summed it up well when he said, “I aimed for America’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”

The story (like Mario Puzo's The Godfather (was Puzo inspired by Sinclair?)) opens with a wedding reception. Sinclair uses this scene to introduce the reader to his characters and their culture. The bride and groom, their family members and various other attendees are Lithuanian immigrants who have arrived at the Chicago stockyards in pursuit of the American Dream. After the wedding feast, Sinclair follows his characters as they find jobs in the stockyards, purchase a home, have children, endure work slowdowns and unemployment, lose their home, health and loved ones, and slowly accept that the American Dream that drew them to this country was not going to be realized in their lives. Jurgis, the newlywed husband, begins the story with confidence and vigor, endures tragedy and hardship, leaves the stockyards to take up migrant farming, gets involved in petty crime and beggary, and only finds renewed hope when, at the end of the tale, he accepts and preaches the gospel of Communist socialism. Marija, a family member who emigrated with Jurgis, begins as a proud, hard-working woman and ends as a morphine-addicted prostitute. She doesn't find salvation in any ideology; like many other characters throughout the story, she simply resigns herself to her tragic fate. In Sinclair's capitalist jungle, there is only one way to redemption - and it's not Jesus Christ.

The Jungle, having inspired the reform and regulation of the American food industry, was a significant book in American history. Looking at what has transpired since its publication in 1906 (and recollecting that Sinclair's primary concern was to uplift the poor) and observing the plight of the American poor today, one can only wish that he had accomplished his primary mission more successfully. To cite just one example of how America's poor continue to suffer, nearly 48,000,000 (roughly 16%) of 303,824,640 people living in the USA in 2008 had no health insurance. This, in my view, is outrageous. I'm not convinced that the wealthiest country on the planet cannot do any better than this to promote the health of its citizens. I believe we have just lacked the political will and compassion to do so. Lack of decent health care services is not the only issue that matters to the poor (homelessness and absurdly low wages are just two of many others one can cite) but it is a critical one. Left unaddressed, particularly as baby boomers age, the human and financial costs of a dysfunctional health care system could cripple the American economy within 20 years (perhaps far less).

Speaking more broadly, it's time for us to recognize that the plight of the poor in America is not "their" problem or "someone else's" problem; it's our problem. It doesn't matter whether the issue is health care, education, obscene wage gaps or something else. Living in a society committed to equity entails sharing burdens as well as benefits. Upton Sinclair's jungle didn't disappear with the rotten cattle and swine of the past century; it's still with us. Our task is to tame it.

Movie Brief: Angels & Demons

Dave, Joshua and I saw Angels & Demons this past weekend. As usual, I enjoyed the book more than the movie. I probably don't need to add that the book is not great literature, and the movie is not great cinema. Still, both the book and the movie are decent escapist fare.

The acting is well done; a talented cast did a good job with rather ordinary material. The soundtrack is okay, but I probably won't be adding it to my iPod. The best feature of the movie, by far, is the cinematography. Some of the aerial shots of Rome are breath-taking, and the lighting and tone throughout are appropriate to the story.

Ah, yes - the story. The movie follows the book closely, so aficionados of spy thrillers and the like will probably guess who the villain is fairly early. The basic plot is that the villain wants to rig the election of the next pope. His means for doing this are a) stealing a canister of anti-matter, thereby threatening the destruction of part of Rome and/or Vatican City, b) kidnapping four cardinals who are leading contenders, the preferati, for the position, and c) throwing suspicion for these dastardly doings onto a contemporary incarnation of the Illuminati, a freethinking group with 18th century roots. Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vestra's mission - should they accept it - is to find the anti-matter, rescue the preferati, expose the Illuminati and thwart this evil scheme - all of which has to be accomplished in less than one day. (You weren't really expecting a plausible plot, were you?)

The mission is supposedly a joint undertaking by Robert and Vittoria. After viewing the movie, however, one could be forgiven for wondering whether Robert would have done just as well on his own. Vittoria was a major player in the book; in the movie, she was a pretty face (the prettiest one besides Ewan McGregor). I'll bet it took her less than 1/2 hour to memorize all of her lines.

Overall, Angels & Demons is decent entertainment. If you feel like going out to the movies, you could do worse than this one. But, you won't go wrong if you wait for the DVD.

P.S. - I haven't seen the new Star Trek movie yet. Jonathan and Joshua saw it on opening day and highly recommend it. If you can only see one movie, you'll probably want to see Star Trek instead of A&D. Otherwise, enjoy two weekends out.

NB: This is my 400th post.

Oops!

I had to send this employee's name tag back to the vendor.

Star Trek Meets Monty Python

And the results are hilarious. Enjoy!

Final Vacation Photos

I've finally looked at the last few photos I took on our trip downtown at the end of April. I'll share two of them with you now. Dave and I plan to go again early on a weekend morning, before the crowds arrive. We also want to go on some evenings and at night time to get some different photo opportunities.

First, a look at a small portion of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This is a simple black wall engraved with the names of 58,260 American soldiers who were killed and missing in action in that conflict. This monument does not glorify war and war deaths. If anything, it shows in a striking manner the horrible waste of war. It takes a lot of wall - 246 feet, 9 inches, to be precise - to inscribe that many names.



Second, the statue of Abraham Lincoln that stands inside the Lincoln Memorial. I've posted exterior shots of this memorial in the past. For some reason, I hadn't taken any interior photos before.

I don't know when I'll get downtown for some more photos. I promise to keep you posted.

Fundamentalist Follies

This story doesn't need an introduction or a commentary:

FINDLAY, Ohio (AP) — A Christian school in Ohio says it will suspend a student if he attends a public high school prom with his girlfriend.

Despite the warning, 17-year-old Tyler Frost says he plans to attend Saturday's dance at Findlay High School, where his girlfriend is a student.

Frost goes to Heritage Christian School. The fundamentalist Baptist school in northwest Ohio forbids dancing, rock music, hand holding and kissing.

Its principal, Tim England, says Frost is facing a suspension that would keep him from attending graduation. Frost is scheduled to receive his diploma May 24.

Frost's stepfather, Stephan Johnson, says the school's rules should not apply outside the classroom.

Since graduations are usually boring, the school may be doing the kid a favor by not requiring him to attend the ceremony.

More Vacation Photos

Even though I've been back at work all week, I've just gotten around to editing more of my vacation photos. I'll start with a black and white version of the Monticello photo I posted last week. I tweaked the contrast and color balance a bit to make the shot look more dramatic than the color version.



Dave and I did something unusual on our vacation last week. We came home partway through the week so that we could take some time to visit some Washington, DC sites. Today's photos are some of the results of our visit to Arlington National Cemetery, which is the final resting place of more than 300,000 American military personnel. Dave and I had quite a discussion about the criteria for being buried there. It turns out that the system is more complex than either one of us realized. Check out the Wiki link above for more information.

First up is the grave of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in November 1963, during his term of office. It's hard to see the eternal flame in this photo, as it was a bright, sunny day when we visited, but it's there.



A short distance away from John F. Kennedy's grave is the grave of his younger brother, Robert F. Kennedy. Senator Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, during his campaign to be the Democratic party nominee for the presidency.



Next, this is a view of the Custis Lee Mansion, the home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which overlooks the cemetery (all of which had belonged to Lee's family) and the city of Washington, DC. This is a view of the mansion from the John F. Kennedy grave site. (Trivia Note: George Washington married a Custis back in his day).



As one climbs the hill to the Custis Lee mansion, one can see the Pentagon, home of the US military, not so very far away.



One of the most popular sights at the cemetery is the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a ceremony that occurs every 30 minutes, on the hour and half-hour throughout the day.



Finally, a spectacular view of Washington, DC and several of its most famous buildings from the walkway in front of the Custis Lee Mansion. Click on the photo to get a better look.



Stay tuned for more photos in another post.