Another Storm Coming...

Better get used to the fact...Tomorrow afternoon, we are going to get decked with 12 to 20 inches of snow. Looks like I'll be doing some shoveling tomorrow. My attorney buddy wants me in the A.M. so my snafu couldn't have been that bad. As a matter of fact, I went to the immigration bureau to rectify it and got a taste of the red-tape quagmire. I had to wait for my number to be called for a half-hour and was told that the documents that I wanted a copy of had to be requested through the proper channels with the proper forms. Hey, I tried. Not surprisingly, this detachment of Homeland Security is affiliated with TSA, the government-sponsored security-screeners found at every U.S. airport. The attitude really depends on what airport you depart from. Some are polite...Some are wannabe cops or federal marshalls. I had a friend and colleague visit me for a couple days from Minneapolis. Basically, we bummed around, did some shopping, reminisced, did some drinking, and watched a couple of movies. Danny was in the mood to see some MATRIX so we checked out the first and RELOADED along with some bits of ANIMATRIX. An amazing blend of philosophy, action, special-effects, and a fully-realized world to place it all in. A bit disappointed with REVOLUTIONS. I wanted it to be more of a what-is-reality mindscrew...Matrix within a Matrix within yet another Matrix. Instead we basically got two protracted battle scenes. Stick with the Agent Smith material. You won't go wrong. We also had some deep religious discussions...Got a great e-mail from a friend with the following passage that pretty much encapsulates it all... "During my visit with my mother, I dutifully went to her little small-town church with her for Sunday morning services, and was pleasantly surprised to hear a really good sermon. The guy was talking about being good human beings, but I thought his points applied in many specific ways. Now I'm not overly religious, mind you, but I picked up some ammunition to use against homophobes, Republicans, and other judgmental hypocrites, and can't wait to dish it out to them in their own language. One: We are all God's children. Two: Jesus died for all of us. Three: God is fully capable of judging his children without the help of any of his other children. Four: Judgment is not our job anyway -- our job is to love one another. Next time I hear some homophobe bashing gay marriage, for example, I'm going to say "Are not gay people God's children, too? Did Jesus, according to you, not die for them, too? Does God need your help judging them? Can you not learn to love your brothers and sisters?" Pretty simple when you look at it that way, and damn near irrefutable in terms of what it says in the New Testament, specifically The Sermon On The Mount (blessed are the meek, etc.). Also applies to our government's judgment of Iraq and Iran. Once again, I don't wholly buy into the Christian dogma, but it strikes me that some of these political Bible-thumpers are little more than "Cafeteria Christians" -- they pick out the verses that suit them and ignore the ones that don't. To me, if you're going to profess faith in a religion and its text, you have to practice ALL of it. Yeah, there's a verse in the Old Testament about homosexuality being an "abomination", and the bit about "an eye for an eye" justifying violence towards others, but JC came after all that and blazed a new trail into what became the New Testament, which defines the difference between Christianity and older religions. And Christ never advocated hatred, censure or ostracism. Nor did he EVER advocate killing anybody for any reason. Thou Shalt Not Kill, unless Saddam is a bad guy? Really?" Couldn't have put it better myself...Be well.