Need a Movie? Check out Ebert & Roeper

This month I received a good lead from fellow Catonsville staff-member Steve Bartosz. We are both film buffs and he told me about a good alternate to the Internet Movie Database (Imdb.com) that has been around for a while.The great film critics Ebert & Roeper have their own website that reviews over 5,000 movies in a lively and exciting format. This site has much of the same information as Imdb, but it is more visually exciting, with film clips of your choice movies up-front and accessible. Movie info, synopsis,Cast & Crew, Trailer, and other information is also easy to locate. There are also great links to films currently running in theaters, to help viewers make choices on which films to see next weekend.Visit http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper/ or Google Ebert & Roeper and check out this great movie site.Monty Phair (CA)

More of Hitchens nasty Bitchin'

Christopher Hitchens has another outrageous offering in the realm of new non-fiction that seems to be gathering strength in the bookstores as well as public libraries. God is Not Great is another volume in his expanding set of Atheist Manifestos. Another term for them is anti-religious rants. What Hitchens so glibly seems to have forgotten is that Elder Care, Hospitals, Orphanages, Schools, and public charity were originally created by the religious institutions of the world. But charity, from the Latin word caritas, an idea that was created by religious thought, is exactly what is missing from Hitchens' work.
What his works demonstrate is a thinly veiled misanthropism and utter lack of charity towards the majority of the Human Race. In fact, it would seem that if God is Love, Hitchens knowledge on the subject is either completely lacking, or he has set his camp in the opposing army. Whether one prefers to use the concepts of Philia, Eros, or Agape... it can be observed that Hitchens writing contains allusions to "none of the above". He has turned himself into another of the journalistic Frankensteins of the Twentieth Century that include such notorious figures as H.L. Mencken who made tirades against God but ultimately proved to be against most of humankind. Many consider the word bigot too weak in describing his idealogy.
What Hitchens, Mencken, and their ilk prove is exactly what was so wonderfully described by G.K. Chesterton many decades ago. Chesterton wrote that it was the most vocal of the Material Humanists who were so anti-human, while those who were most deeply religious were also those who were so completely human. It could be that the words human and humility enjoy the same roots. Hitchens seems to disbelieve in humility as much as he does in the Almighty.

The Ultimate News Source

My favorite source for news of any kind is the Drudge Report. Through this site I can find any newsbite I wish, from instantly breaking news anywhere....to the columns of my favorite writers and journalists. This site is easily accessed at : www.drudgereport.com
I don't need much television or newspaper news after viewing this site...and get the news as it happens, not at 11 pm.

Launching of the "Frasier"

Here is a picture of the new Fireboat:

http://www.baltimorefireboats.com/Newboat005.gif

On Saturday, August 4 Baltimore's newest fireboat, the John (Jack) R. Frasier was Christened and launched from its berth near Fort McHenry amid a huge number of fire, police and EMT staff from many jurisdictions. Also on hand was Governor O'Malley, Mayor Sheila Dixon and a host of local dignitaries who lauded the arrival of a new "State of the Art" Fireboat that meets the guidelines for National Homeland Security.
You can read more about it at:
http://www.fireengineering.com/news/print.html?id=150664

I was part of the Fort McHenry Guard procession that led dignitaries to the Fireboat on Saturday. We were fed hotdogs and hamburgers, fruit salad and Danishes, and given bottled ice water and gatorade to drink....the worst part of the day was the temperature. It was 102 degrees Fahrenheit in Baltimore at 2 pm. The best breeze was provided by the Police helicopter that took off from the fort grounds after the ceremony.

New YA Autobiography: I Want to Live. By Nina Lugovskaya

This is an amazing story about a teenage girl in Stalinist Russia who was both a "refusnick" and a dissident and dared to keep a journal. The very act of keeping a journal was outlawed in the Soviet Union of Stalin's time. Everyone was expected to be part of the Collective and to enjoy and promote the "Group Think" espoused by the government.
All creativity was stifled. Art and literature had to meet exacting political standards of "Socialist Realism" in order to be published.
While the Communist government spouted that all people were equal in status regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity...this was far from reality. Women were still second-class citizens under Stalin, while nationalities such as Ukrainians (Southern neighbors of Russia) were looked upon as disposable Kulaks (Middle-class farmers), who did not embrace Communism whole-heartedly, and therefore did not deserve and rights or respect. People who had oriental appearances were not even allowed to walk on sidewalks occupied by Caucasian Russians in Moscow.
In addition, the Proletariats (Working Class People), while extolled by the government...were nothing but slaves to the government leaders and bureaucracy. Peoples' homes and apartments could be broken into and searched for any reason whatsoever. Anyone could be questioned and searched anytime, anywhere. There were no privacy rights. Anyone charged as an "Enemy of the People" lost all their freedoms and were subject to deportation and imprisonment without trial or proof of any kind.
Individuality and non-comformity were disallowed and punished. The alledged Workers' Paradise was anything but...and in fact life was extremely bleak and drab for anyone with a mind, creativity and conscience. Nina suffered from depression because of her isolation from what she saw as the stupid, mindless, and ugly culture that engulfed her. Being the daughter of a dissident, she had access to news and information outside of Pravda and the official propagandistic Soviet news sources (also completely outlawed). She therefore knew about disasters, dissent, and the forced famine in the Soviet Ukraine that murdered at least five million people and reduced much of the population to starvation or canninbalism.
Upon the discovery of her diary by the NKVD (Secret Police prior to the KGB), Nina and her family were sentenced to five years of hard labor in a Soviet Labor Camp and seven years more in exile in Siberia. Though she had thoughts of becoming a writer, her years in exile silenced her forever. Nina died in 1993, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union.