Sam Brownback starts White House run

This guy is truly scary. The darling of the Christian right, he's a perfect example of the religious crackpots described in Chris Hedges' "American Fascists" (a book I highly recommend). These people, ranting against abortion, the "homosexual agenda," and "secular humanism", want to establish a fascist Christian government. You think I'm kidding? Read Hedges' book.

Good spy movie!

Watched an excellent World War II spy movie last night: The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), with William Holden and Lilli Palmer. I remember liking it as a teenager, and it holds up quite well. Holden, a studiously neutral businessman from studiously neutral Sweden, is strong-armed into working for British/American intelligence, gathering information for the allies on his oil-related trips to Germany. To further gain the trust of his German connections, he's forced to act like an outspoken Nazi sympather, publicly rejecting his Jewish best friend, without letting even his wife know that it's all an act. As he gets more involved, he witnesses an atrocity that shatters his cynical world view - and becomes wholly committed to helping the allies, deeply and personally involved with key players in the German underground resistance. Meanwhile, suspicious Gestapo agents are watching his every move, waiting for a slip-up.

This is great spy vs. spy stuff! It's talky by today's standards, but that's not a bad thing. It's incredibly tense, with an unusually nuanced portrayal of the various participants - "ordinary" Germans, neutral Swedes, ruthless allied intelligence, and the Danish resistance (the Copenhagen bicycle scene is a classic). According to reviews on the web, it's a true story, but I haven't been able to verify that. Shot at the actual locations of the events that took place in Germany and Scandinavia. With Hugh Griffith and Klaus Kinski.

David Brodsley

While the rest of the nation rightly remembers Martin Luther King, I will always associate January 15th with my friend David Brodsley, born on this day in 1944.

We lived next door to each other in the Wilshire / Miracle Mile district as kids, and David, older by three years, was the one to first introduce me to Mad Comics (later Mad Magazine).

We drifted apart after elementary school, but became reacquainted in our college years, in Boston: he as an aspiring architect, I as a freshman at Boston University. He was married by then, and he and his wife Ronna's apartment in Back Bay became my home away from the dorms on many a weekend. Back in California, in 1970, we renewed our friendship, and remained close for decades to come.

David passed away on September 29, 2003.

Fifty Years Ago

Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957)

I saw the headlines of his death on a news rack in Huntington Park. At nine, I thought he was really cool - I'd seen "Angels With Dirty Faces", "Maltese Falcon", and "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," among others on TV. Wasn't he a little young to be dying?

New arrivals...

Steve and Veronica Winston's baby girl Zoe arrived at 12:30 AM, Saturday, January 6th. Mazeltov!

(photo sent by Steve)

The sun goes down on...

The sun goes down on...
Originally uploaded by gunga din.

Returning from a drive to Pismo Beach, we pulled off the 101 at the Gaviota State Beach exit, hoping to get some pictures of a nice sunset. But before we could even find a parking place, a state park official stepped up to say we needed to pay $8 for the privilege of entering the public facility - even if we didn't plan to park or get out of our car. He was "kind" enough to let us leave without charge, and we took an adjacent side road to a bluff that gave us a view of the ocean. But, as you can see, that side road was not a very friendly place.

Eight dollars to enter a public park? Barbed wire blocking coastal views on a public road? This is an ugly tend.

Check out this equipment...

My Dad, Ed Kanouse, at work
Originally uploaded by gunga din.

I came across this great photo of my dad at work at the L. A. Department of Water and Power in the late 1940s. He was an electrical engineer, specializing in transmission line design - but I have no idea what this machinery is. It looks like one of the old computers depicted in 1950s cartoons.

A good old fashioned double feature

Robin and I went to see "Children of Men" in Monrovia last night, then got back in line and saw "The Good Shepherd". Two good films in one night!

"Children" was an excellent sci-fi film, convincing and scary, with extraordinary camera work. Its vision of a nightmarish future paired neatly with "The Good Shepherd" - a revelation of the ugly doings of our government in the recent past. The illegal and murderous manipulations of the OSS/CIA, supposedly in the name of anti-communism, are laid bare - and there are plenty of scary reminders that these creepy Skull-and-Bones boys are more powerful than ever, now operating under the guise of the so-called "war on terrorism."

Ford's pardon of Nixon...

A friend writes...

I remember being quite upset [about the pardon] at the time, but was surprised that my parents (who hated Nixon) didn't seem to object. But to this day, I'm still a bit upset about it. Sure, without the pardon, the Nixon case would have occupied the newspapers and congress for a while, but surely it would still have been mostly in the background, just as most investigations only come to the forefront when there is something new. In any case, I don't think Nixon should have been pardoned until it had been determined exactly what laws he had broken.

I think he's right to still be upset about it. If Nixon had been forced to stand trial for his crimes, future presidents like Bush might not be so confident that theirs would also go unpunished. I also think there was a deal - perhaps unspoken, perhaps not. One NPR interview with a former insider from the time said that Ford, soon before Nixon's resignation, was asking "theoretical" questions about the scope of presidential pardon powers - and that Nixon's awareness of Ford's probable pardon was one of the factors that clinched his decision to resign.

Whether the deal was explicit or not, the pardon was a terrible move, and I fail to see why the media are falling all over themselves to glorify a lackluster caretaker president whose most important major decision was a bad one. I guess it's because the current president is such a disaster that there's some nostalgia for ANY former president.

Granddaughter walking

Angela reports on Saturday, 12/16:

...Kaitlin took 10 unassisted consecutive steps this morning!!! She is what we can officially call a walker!

And by Sunday, 12/17, she's traipsing all over the Christmas tree lot. (photo by Darryl)