Why I could never hold public office

I just attended a democratic meeting.  It's not the first time.  I've been to city council meetings, district meetings, ward meetings and even little block meetings.  At each one the public has the chance to "be heard".  So, inevitably there is a questions & answers portion of the event.  Also inevitable is the presence of 'crazies'.  Now, there's many different levels of crazy, and most of these people, I'm sure, are actually nice individuals when you get them out of a public forum.  However, these people love to attend these types of events so they can stand up, be seen and heard and simply rant about something that the given speaker cares little about and has little to nothing to do with and has no power to do anything about.  Yet the person is given ample time to ask their insane question.

Of course it never is a single question either.  It's usually some 26 part question that includes a history lesson about the person asking the question "I moved here twelve years ago...and my cousin Barbara had a tumor...and three bicycles were stolen in that same year".  The parts of the question are usually disconnected and have little commonality between them.

The questions are not really questions, because the crazy doesn't really want an answer it just wants to rant.  They're usually a string of statements presented with ever escalating agitation.

The crazy can't use the English language very well and so the sentences are hard to follow and there is no subject, predicate, noun, verb, or at least some semblance of sane dialog.  I''m not saying these people have difficulty with the language itself; they speak English perfectly fine in general, but when it comes to standing up and saying something in a forum, English becomes their second, or maybe fifth language (even though they probably can't speak a single word from any other language).

Yet they are placated in the ruse that they are "being heard" in earnest.  Of course the crazy goes home thinking the speaker wasn't really listening, or was secretly thinking up ways to screw them over, and so the crazy comes back to the very next meeting to rant again in a never ending cycle.

I attended one ward meeting where the poor city councilman was beset by a ten-minute harangue from a woman concerned that nothing was being done about dead-beat fathers.  And just what did she think the councilman could do about it?  Nothing.  She said her piece, never asked a single question, and sat down.  I still don't know what that was for.  I've been told that people purposely get up and speak so that it becomes public record, but who in their right mind will be looking up that record?

The much beleaguered Port of Cleveland used to hold public meetings but the meetings would drag on endlessly with these crazy rants and no real questions ever got asked or answered.  So, they implemented a very strategic concept.  Upon arriving at venue each person is given a 3x5 index card and a pencil.  They are instructed to write their one question on the card (it must fit on that one card, front and back) and turn it in.  This keeps the length of the questions manageable.  Then someone from the Port takes the cards and pre-reads them to see if they make any legible sense.  Of course this also gives them the opportunity to weed out the undesirable questions.  Then they proceed to give answers to the chosen, culled questions.  The crazies leave feeling they weren't heard, but then they'd have done that anyway.  You'll never really placate them; it's impossible.

Some people feel that this culling of questions is anti-democratic.  I feel that it is MORE democratic because it gives people a chance to ask questions without being completely railroaded by the crazies.

If I were holding public office I'd crack.  I'd become a crazy.  I'd yell at them to sit down and shut the f*ck up and let the other people ask questions.

And that's why I could never hold public office.

Some recent/new movies

We just watched The Green Hornet starring Seth Rogen, Jay Chou and Cameron Diaz.  Although the gadgets were kind of fun, the story was extremely predictable and the direction was off.  The director had the actors try to talk over each other, probably to make it seem more realistic or something, but it didn't work.  Seth Rogen was his typical self which got pretty tiring.  Jay Chou was the best part of the show but the silly special effects threatened to ruin his martial arts scenes.  Now, the part I just can't forgive: the car is loaded with gadgets and the Green Hornet is mega-rich...yet....Diaz has to FAX information to him!  No email...FAX!!!  WTF?  There were a few other holes like this in the movie but this one really set me off.

Recently we watched Transformers 2.  I didn't really like the first one with its extremely 2 dimensional characters and unbelievably cliche "secret FBI" characters, but the special effects of the transformers themselves were kind of neat.  Why Michael Bay, the director, is at all celebrated is beyond me.  What does Steven Spielberg see in him?  In this sequel, Bay has the actors talk over each other, like the Green Hornet, but worse.  We again have the secret FBI that somehow can pull rank on the highest military officers.  We also have "comedy relief" in the form of a pair of twin car transformers with "black" voices, or voices that are trying desperately to be "street".  I was just cringing and waiting for one of them to say "girrrl" or "it's about to get crazy up in here".  They were simply awful.  If you like seeing nearly everything exploding then this is an okay movie.

Another film we saw was Never Let Me Go.  Now this film was very different.  English students live, play and learn in a strange, extremely strict school.  As they grow up we discover what their real purpose is.  It was as if someone took the script from The Island (starring Ewen McGregor) and rewrote it to be a thoughtful piece about love and ethics.  It was tenderly done and a very quiet, haunting film.

I liked the action, the fast pacing, the graphics work, and the music of the original Smoking Aces.  Somehow I missed that someone decided to make a sequel Smoking Aces 2.  This film was such a stinker we just couldn't even finish it.  Everything was style over substance to such a degree it was rendered ridiculous. This was just a student's version of the first film with every lens trick, computer generated after effect, and horrendously poor scripting they could throw in.

On the other hand, the English film Layer Cake from 2004 starring Daniel Craig (007) and Colm Meaney (Deep Space 9) was pretty good if you can understand anything anyone says.  The accents are so thick it's an anglophile's test.  However, the storyline, acting and action are well done and Craig shows off how well he can create a character.

Speaking of Daniel Craig, we saw the Spielberg film Munich about the assassination of Jewish athletes in the 1970's Olympics and the following reprisals.  Craig shows again that he is a consummate character actor.  The film is good even if the script kind of plods along slowly.  In a way, I actually prefer the 1980's version because it was much shorter.

I loved Roddy McDowall

This is an admission.  I have always loved Roddy McDowall.  The very sound of that incredibly smooth voice still sends shivers down my spine.  I would watch nearly any movie or television show if he was in it, and was very rarely disappointed.

Now most of you may remember him from his role as Cornelius in the Planet of the Apes movies, or as Galen in the short lived television series based on the Planet of the Apes movies.  But my love affair with him started long before: he was a young man in Orson Welles' version of Macbeth.

He starred in Cleopatra, the Poseidon Adventure and even played the "Book Worm" in tv's Batman series with Adam West.  These three were guilty pleasures of mine and I'd watch them whenever they were on.  I must have seen the Poseidon Adventure over a dozen times!  He was also the voice of V.I.N.C.E.N.T. in the wonderful movie the Black Hole (one of the only critically good movies put out by Disney).

It would take too long to list all that he'd been in.  He was very prolific.  Go to IMDB and scroll down page after page if you don't believe me!

But the show that really clinched it for me, due to the mysterious and scientific nature, was a series called "The Fantastic Journey".  It was about a collection of people stranded on a strange island where "barriers" had been created by someone all over the island, dividing it up into multitudes of sections.  Each section had a different time, a different population, etc.  Endless stories could be conceived using this mechanic.  Roddy played a scientist who thinks he is all alone so he creates a population of robots to keep him company.

Did you take my used kitty litter?

We have been buying kitty litter (Tidy Cats) in a big plastic tub.  We should probably start buying bulk, but for now the cat loves this particular brand, and I've always had good luck with it with my former cat.  Anyway, it clumps up very nicely with no stragglers and keeps the smell way down.  Every couple of days I scoop out a bag full of waste and take it out to the garbage can.  However, for some reason, this one time I ended up dumping the scoops into an empty litter tub.  I kept doing this until it was quite full.  I don't recommend doing this because the ammonia builds up in the tub and then whenever you open it you get a face full of strong ammonia.  I won't do this ever again.  However, like I said...this one time...

Thursdays are our nights to put garbage out on the tree-lawn/curbside for Friday pickup.  So on a Thursday night I took out the garbage, guided the garbage can to the curb and set down the plastic tub of smelly, used kitty litter.

A couple hours later I happed to look outside and the tub was gone.

Someone came along and took the plastic tub full of used litter.

Now, I may understand someone wanting the tub, but once they discovered it was full of litter, I'd think they'd abandon that plan.  Perhaps they were very recycle conscious (as we typically are) and decided they'd recycle the tub for us.  However, they'd have to dump the litter out first, and that seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a Clevelander.

I just can't figure out what someone wanted a tub of soiled kitty litter for.

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a David Lynch film, or Candid Camera.  The world is a very absurd place and it just keeps going round and round.