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Rick Jore is a very ambitious, no doubt about it. He’s also stupid.

Jore has created an amendment to the Montana state constitution that legally defines life as beginning at fertilization rather than at any other stage. Currently the Supreme Court and others have ruled that life can’t really be established until viability of a fetus which is why it’s okay for states to regulate or even ban abortion for older fetuses that are viable–that is, they can live unassisted–outside the womb.

Jore, however, wants to change that. He wants life to be defined as beginning at fertilization. When sperm hits egg, Jore says, then life has begun. I wonder if Jore knows how terribly unsuccessful most fertilized eggs actually are, especially in humans. Up to half of all fertilized eggs created will not implant and will thus not become a fetus. So are we going to start charging all women with murder who don’t live up to Jore’s lofty goals of implantation?

His nutty amendment is certainly an all-out appeal to religion and doesn’t attempt to hide that fact. If you read the amendment’s language, including changes made to the amendment, you can see that words like “born free ” were crossed out and replaced with “created free, ” and obvious allusion to religion. I have no problem with being religious but, last I checked, there was separation between church and state. I have the right to believe what I want, and CI-100 makes it seem like there’s only one acceptable explanation of life. That sucks.

So defining a fertilized egg as an human isn’t just a not-so-nice way of pushing religious ideas. It also sets a dangerous precedent for women. Consider the following:

• All abortion could be outlawed, including abortions performed to save the lives of mothers. The Supreme Court, by the way, has ruled many times that it’s unconstitutional to force a woman to die for her unborn child, assuming that an abortion would save her life.
• Birth control would be in jeopardy. So not only does this guy want to outlaw abortion, he wants to outlaw the one thing that can eliminate the need for abortion? Smart, Rick Jore. Smart.
• Doctors who treat women with high-risk pregnancies could face serious problems if women miscarry. It’s unclear if a doctor who treats a high-risk woman could be prosecuted for not doing everything in his power to save the life of a zygote, assuming the woman has a miscarriage.
• Jore, that silly rascal, has also said publicly that this law could allow for the investigation of women who have miscarriages for not doing everything they could to save the pregnancy. That’s the ticket, Rick! Blame the grieving women who’ve just lost their pregnancy!

I’m not trying to push my views on abortion, women’s health, or birth control on anyone. I just feel like a law this stupid has to be stopped and the people who write these laws need to stop and think about what they’re doing. Even if this law was passed, it’s unlikely it would be held constitutional by even our now-conservative Supreme Court. The problem is that people get this idea that it’s okay to ignore the fact that women have some say in their bodies, including their rights while pregnant. Jore’s amendment is almost like telling women that they are less important than the fetuses they carry.

Also, where’s this idea coming from that birth control is bad for our nation? Birth control saves lives! It keeps women from becoming pregnant before they are prepared. It prevents abortions. Who can argue against that?

Reports have surfaced that legendary actor and director Sydney Pollack has died after a nine month battle with cancer. Pollack was 73.

I remember Sydney Pollack from great films he directed like Tootsie, the Dustin Hoffman vehicle that was hilarious and touching at the same time. Pollack was also responsible for such award fodder as Out of Africa (starring Meryl Streep) and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They.

Youngsters will probably recognize Pollack not from his directing but from his acting. In his later years, Pollack became a sort of everyman character actor and appeared in many different projects ranging from Will and Grace to last year’s Michael Clayton.

The New York Times is reporting that an all-Republican Texas appeals court has ruled that the 468 children taken from the Mormon fundamentalist compound in west Texas were taken and held illegally. The children were taken from the Yearning for Zion FLDS polygamist ranch outside of Eldorado, Texas.

The prosecutors for the state could not prove that the children were in any imminent danger of physical or sexual abuse and that the abuse previously reported was mostly unsubstantiated. Though the ruling only applied to the families who appealed, the burden of proof now lies with the state to prove that those remaining children are in immediate danger. Without such proof, all of the children will be returned from the foster families they’ve been living with in as soon as 10 days.

The call that prompted the decision, a call made by a supposed 16-year old girl who was being sexually abused by an older “husband,” is being called a hoax by many. The search for the girl who made the phone call came up empty, leading many to doubt that she actually existed in the first place.

The quick reaction to take away the community’s children was sanctioned by a lower court judge who was chastised in the appeals court’s ruling.

The quick reaction to take away the children, as I’ve said before, stinks of religious condemnation rather than genuine concern for the children. After all, the impetus for the raid was a single phone call and not the long, documented histories required for most children to be placed in the protective custody of a foster family.

Hopefully the state will now find a way to accurately find those children being abused and take them out of their family situations without widespread harm to the entire community.

You can read my previous posts on this subject here and here.

There’s one moment in the new Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that really defines the new turn of Indiana and his ragtag gang that end up way over their heads, searching for ancient artifacts in remote corners of the world. Times have changed. It’s now the fifties and Indiana Jones is an older, wiser man. When we first see him, he’s been hauled out of the trunk of a car by the bad guys. Gone are the Nazi instigators in Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. Today’s baddies are all Russian, all the time.

You can almost see the anti-red sentiment dripping from old Indy’s brow as he sneers contemptuously at the Ruskies, antiquated leather fedora on top of his head. We get the feeling, even before he says anything, that we’re looking at a man who’s down but not out. Sure Indiana Jones is older and wiser. He’s no longer the youthful, vigorous, and worldly professor he once was. However, as Indiana begins his escape from the evildoers, as he always does at the beginning of these films, we see the character reclaiming his rightful place in the world. Sure, he knows he’s old and washed up. But he also is the last of the old guard, ready to take down the Reds at every turn.

“I like Ike” he sneers after proclaiming the Red Menace the real threat to America, and we believe him. We even find this endearing, as if fifties-era conservatism is a welcomed change from today’s corporate-whore conservatives.

Without revealing too much of the plot of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we soon learn that Indiana Jones will be forced to use his knowledge to find a valuable artifact that incidentally can contribute to world domination by the Russians. It’s up to Indiana to foil the Russian’s plans. You know, the usual fare. This time, the adventure takes us to South America again, just as in the first scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. In fact, Indiana’s old love from Raiders, Marion Ravenwood (played by an older-but-wiser Karen Allen, just as in the original), has also been captured. Indiana also gets stragglers in the form of Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), a tough-acting greaser kid who seeks out Indiana in order to find his mother and stepfather who’ve been kidnapped by the Russians.

Between the stunt-heavy fight sequences through the jungle and the seamlessness of CG animations, we learn that the significance of the Russian’s find is stranger and more wonderful than we could have imagined before. This is where the movie takes an odd turn into the surreal. Crystal Skull makes use of strange, occult ideas, just as with the other three movies, only this time the artifact isn’t part of the major world religions. The artifact in question, the Crystal Skull is actually aboriginal, dating back to pre-colonialism and the South American civilizations before they were wiped out by the Spanish.

After watching all four movies in the past four days, I can attest that Crystal Skull doesn’t live up to the charm, humor, and wisdom of The Last Crusade which is, in my opinion, the best Indiana Jones movie made so far. That being said, this movie bathes the Indiana Jones franchise in a whole new light. Today’s Indiana Jones is worn from hard years as adventurer and, we later learn, intelligence operative fighting the Reds. However Indiana is not down for the count, and it shows. The times have changed and Indiana hasn’t… much. In Crystal Skull, we can see how Indiana Jones adapts in a world that’s no longer for men like him.

All in all, Crystal Skull will be the inevitable summer blockbuster. Is it good? Yes, definitely worth a watch. Is it missing Sean Connery? Most definitely. Should you see it? Yes, and preferably on the big screen. You wouldn’t want to miss the magic of the dramatic CG climax because you’re watching on a screen that’s too small. Go see in the theaters.

Grade: B

I love my Wii. My husband and I managed to stand out in the cold, freezing ourselves to the bone for nine hours outside of a Wal-Mart in order to get one, but the wait was totally worth it. The night we got it, we stayed up until very early in the morning playing Wii Sports, the game that comes packaged with the Wii system in this country.

The thing about Wii Sports is that it gives you the opportunity to actually get off the couch in order to play games. There are real motions involved. To play baseball, swing the Wiimote like a bat. To play golf, swing the Wiimote like a golf club, and so on.

When the concept of the new game Wii Fit was introduced at the famed E3 convention and advertising videos were placed online, the inevitable backlash began. This video on YouTube lampooned the strange motions that accompany a Wii Fit gaming session:

After all, who would want to play this game? When playing the game, you look very silly.

Wii Fit is the next evolution in Nintendo’s bid for an “active gaming” market. The game comes packaged with a balance board, a white board on which you stand in order to do most of the minigames involved in Wii Fit. You can also check your weight and track your progress over time. There are aerobics, strength training, yoga, and balance games you can play, all using the ingenious balance board to measure weight fluctuation and center of gravity.

After seeing and reading about recent demonstrations, including a somewhat-puzzling demonstration on NPR’s Morning Edition, I’ve decided that the Wii Fit is the next frontier in active gaming and I’m all for it. Perhaps kids all across the country will play fun balance games while at the same time dropping some pounds. Perhaps it will bring families closer together with games everyone can play. Or perhaps it will surprise everyone and become a flop.

Whatever it is, I want one. If my family is reading, you can buy me one for my birthday which I know is in the fall, but I take advanced presents.

Wii Fit is now available at stores for about $90.

On Thursday, the California Supreme Court made the bold move to overthrow a state law, approved by voters, which prohibited gay people from getting married. This law was similar to laws enacted in states all over the U.S. in the past several years, including an unfortunate ban in my home state of Missouri. In as little as 30 days, Gays should be able to get married legally in California by judges and other authorized figures.

In the 4 to 3 decision, the Republican-appointed Chief Justice Ronald George wrote:

“In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation.”

The court also cited the state’s former ban on interracial marriage as inspiration for the ruling, saying that they could not reject a ban on interracial marriage while at the same time allowing a ban on gay marriage.

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi—the same wonderful Portia from my beloved Arrested Development—have already announced plans to marry legally in California after many years of being together without the possibility of legal marriage. DeGeneres was quoted on Perez Hilton as saying:

“I’m thrilled that the California supreme court overturned the ban on gay marriage. I can’t wait to get married. We all deserve the same rights, and I believe that someday we’ll look back on this and not allowing gays to marry will seem as absurd as not allowing women to vote.

P.S. I’m registered at Crate & Barrel.”

Conservative groups in California are now pushing for a constitutional ban on gay marriage to be put on the November ballot, which would reverse the court’s decision. They are also asking that the court suspend their ruling until a vote can be put to the people in the fall.

Many of these unjust anti-LGBT laws were put on the ballots of several states as a way of swaying voter turnout. In my state of Missouri, the gay marriage ban appeared as a ballot measure right before the key 2004 presidential election. At the time, our Democratic governor managed to muscle back the vote to August leaving the November ballot clear, though the ban still passed. However, in many other states, bans were put on the ballot as a way of bringing out socially conservative voters who would also vote for Bush.

No word yet on how this ruling will affect court rulings in other states.

Just thought I’d pass on a little comic gem I found, a gallery of the 50 worst album covers as compiled by Newsday. Of course these albums are mostly old LP’s, many of which are so tragically awful looking that it boggles the mind.

Also, there seem to be a lot of covers with dummies as in the puppets some comedians use to illicit laughs.

It’s been a hectic week here in the ‘Lou and I don’t know about you, but I could use good laugh. Enjoy!

In a revealing interview with media outlets Politico and Yahoo! News, the Associated Press is revealing that President Bush has given up golf as a way of standing in solidarity with soldiers in Iraq.

In his interview, Bush is quoted as saying, “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be as — to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

So our commander in chief wants us to know that he’s making sacrifices, too? He’s not sending one of his kids to the front line or anything, but it’s a sacrifice nonetheless. No word on whether Bush will also be giving up fishing and horseshoes with Dad, downing cold brews with those crazy kids Jenna and Henry, or giving up reading celebrity gossip blogs in the morning before his daily security briefing.

Life as president must be tough.

At first, I wondered who would really care about the new Beverly Hills 90210 spinoff they’ve created. Apparently the cast consists mostly of fresh-faced teenagers much like the old show only now it’s a new cast with new problems. Jennie Garth rehashes her character and manages to come back as a guidance counselor. Other actors on the original series have expressed interest in coming back.

As what? The guy who refills the vending machine at school? But I digress.

Today they released the publicity photo for the new show and guess who’s on there? None other than the fabulous Jessica Walter. Walter, as you may or may not remember, was the fabulous Lucille Bluth on what was once America’s best television show, Arrested Development.

I know I miss Arrested Development a lot, so I’m hoping that the producers of the new 90210 fully utilize Walter’s talents. Maybe I’ll even like her as a character besides Lucille.

And let’s hope they give her plenty of time off to shoot the Arrested Development movie. Please?

In a sudden and surprising turn of events, police in San Diego arrested nearly a hundred people, 75 of them college students, in a suspected drug ring. Only 20 of those arrested were detained because they were alleged dealers. The rest were arrested for possession.

Above is a picture of the stash seized. Police confiscated cocaine, along with, according to an AP report “350 Ecstasy pills, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hash oil, methamphetamine, illicit prescription drugs, several guns and at least $60,000 in cash, authorities said.

The operation, called Operation Sudden Fall, first involved local police after a cocaine overdose by one student. The DEA joined the operation soon after and launched a full-on attack, including undercover buys by youthful-looking DEA agents.

Apparently a few fraternities on campus were actively selling and recruiting customers to which they could sell drugs. Six fraternities have now been suspended because of the bust according to a SDSU press release.

In a damning piece of evidence, one fraternity member sent a mass text message to his “loyal” customers discussing the selling of cocaine and listing a price for the drug. His name is Kenneth Ciaccio, who still has active MySpace and Facebook profiles online:

In a slight touch of irony, you can also read an article titled “Parents Guide to Fraternity and Sorority Life” about all the reasons your child should go Greek at San Diego State University.