About Charlie Hebdo, Briefly

If an American magazine made similar ‘jokes’ about Jews or Christians or black people we’d be up in arms. However, in a free society we allow people to say stupid and hurtful things. I like it that way.

charlie-hebdo-s-est-deja-attire-les-foudresWhat a godawful tragedy in Paris. Horrible.

And to justify murder by saying you’re defending God? Seriously, isn’t God capable of dealing with this on her own?

Charlie Hedbo has been called a satire magazine. Maybe so. One man’s satire is another man’s hate speech. Some of their cartoons were definitely hateful, others patently racist.

If an American magazine made similar ‘jokes’ about Jews or Christians or black people we’d be up in arms. However, in a free society we allow people to say stupid and hurtful things. I like it that way.

Free speech has limits. You can’t yell “Fire” in a crowded movie theater. Most everything else is OK.

I wish Charlie Hebdo hadn’t tweaked the Muslim community as they did. Some of their satire was mean spirited. That was their choice. It is a right afforded to all in France, as it is in the US. It doesn’t come close to justifying what happened in Paris yesterday.

To radical Islamists, non-believers are infidels. Asking them to respect the beliefs of others is a non-starter. Reasoning isn’t an effective strategy. I don’t know what is.

Free speech isn’t needed to protect popular ideas. Free speech is there for the outliers. Even if I found some of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons offensive (and I did), I still defend their right to publish them.

This is all so senseless. What has been accomplished? When will it end?

Je suis Charlie.

Harold Ramis

“Acting is all about big hair and funny props… All the great actors knew it. Olivier knew it, Brando knew it”. — Harold Ramis, Ghostbusters DVD commentary

I was always a big fan. He was silly while maintaining an intellectual persona.

This title card from the Groundhog Day trailer shows what a real Renaissance man looks like.

Harold Ramis will be missed.

groundhog-day

Christmas In California

christmas-in-californiaWe received some great gifts when we got married thirty years ago. Most are long gone. Some were quickly spent. At least one gift lives on.

Bob and Terry were our friends from Buffalo. They gave us the artwork that hangs today over the Christmas tree. It’s called “Christmas in California.”

In Hamden it hung prominently above the fireplace. Here in SoCal it’s in the loft, our family meeting space.

It represented a goal… or maybe a fantasy. This year it’s come true. We spend our first Christmas in California tomorrow.

I miss wearing my red hat and tracking Santa on TV. I miss working so others could have this holiday at home with their families. I don’t miss winter.

Christmas in California is just as the picture shows.

We’ll be spending this evening with our cousins, then living the tradition of a movie and Chinese food tomorrow.

Have a great holiday. I hope you get everything you want.

Bob Dylan? I’m Crushed!

Since then my involvement with Dylan’s music has mostly been limited to explaining what we saw in him. Anyone younger than me has only seen the embarrassing Dylan.

I picked up the paper this morning and went to the opinion pages. I’m so old school.

I was drawn to a piece by Maureen Dowd because of the lead sentence: “Bob Dylan may have done the impossible: broken creative new ground in selling out.”

I remember listening to Dylan on the radio and at my friend Larry Lubsetsky’s apartment back when I was in high school. Youth was pushing back hard against authority and Dylan was our troubadour. I was a huge fan.

Since then my involvement with Dylan’s music has mostly been limited to explaining what we saw in him. Anyone younger than me has only seen the embarrassing Dylan.

It can’t be age. Dylan and Mick Jagger appeared at the Grammy’s this year. Jagger brought the house down. Dylan was awful.

Dowd’s article was triggered by a recent performance in China where he agreed to pass on some of his more controversial songs. She says Dylan, “let the government pre-approve his set.”

That really upset me, but my upset was just beginning.

He can’t really betray the spirit of the ’60s because he never had it. In his memoir, “Chronicles,” he stressed that he had no interest in being an anti-establishment Pied Piper and that all the “cultural mumbo jumbo” imprisoned his soul and made him nauseated.

“I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of,” he said.

I was used!

If you’ve ever been a fan of Bob Dylan you need to read Maureen Dowd today. Be prepared to be crushed. I was.