Short and sweet today as I have a meeting I can't miss.
Absolutely one of the best Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes ever produced, featuring the Canadian Steve Rogers, Zap Rowsdower (Is that a make up-less clown?)!
Enjoy 'The Final Sacrifice!'
Something I can't deny; I'm older. I try to do some things from when I was in my 20's and I'm in pain for a week. I try to eat like I did at 19 and I'm doubled over in pain. It's normal, but as this new reality settles in, you do get a much better prospective of the elderly family and friends who went before you.
Today I'm getting hip replacement surgery. In 2018, I started noticing what I thought was a pulled muscle or ligament in my leg. It gradually got worse and worse. I got it checked out in 2019. I was shocked to find out I have arthritis in my hip, pretty bad too. Eventually it would need to be replaced.
For a temporary measure, I opted for a steroid injection into my hip joint and it worked great! For about five months into 2020 I felt fine. I got another shot in June of last year and that seemed to hold out through the summer. All this time I was very active, hiking like a fool 4-5 times a week through parks and trails in Minnesota. I also got back into biking, something the insane amount of bike trails around the Twin Cities makes incredibly enjoyable.
But then came December. The bike went into the garage and the walks were less frequent. Finally, when we started getting really cold, I took a few weeks off. It was then I noticed the pain in my hip and leg was getting pretty unbearable. I went back into the doctor and got a third steroid shot into my hip, but three weeks later I was starting to feel the pain again.
When the weather started to turn warmer, I was convinced I could just get back out onto the paths and the pain would start to fade away. Not so much. Two to three mile walks I did with ease last summer had become shockingly painful. I got the bike back out and after some initial success, it too starting hurting far more than I was comfortable with.
It's time. I need to get this done, and so I'm off to have what is a pretty amazing procedure done, supposedly outpatient (there is a slight chance I might be in the hospital for a night. We'll see).
It does present an interesting psychological problem: Has my hip been hurting really bad for awhile now and I just pushed it aside, but now with surgery coming I'm no longer having to be the 'brave soldier,' OR is the hip pain really not that bad but as I approach the surgery my mind is convincing myself it's much worse than it really is? Interesting...
Everyone who has this procedure tells me the same thing; it's a life saver. One listener, a teacher in St. Paul, wrote to tell me you won't realize how much you're compensating for the bad hip until it's fixed. He added there is an undeniable dark cloud over the head of anyone who is dealing with long term pain, a cloud that manifests itself over time. When that starts to clear, it's glorious.
I'll watch a lot of TV, and I'll get shuffling around as quickly as possible. I'm grateful to be in the position when I can have this surgery.
One of the things I've thought about: what would my life would be like 100 years ago with this same problem? My life as I know it would've been over. I'd be in a wheelchair or hobbling for my remaining days, most of them in constant pain. Modern medicine is truly amazing. Now if we can only make sure everyone can get affordable access to it. People in America shouldn't have to make due with 100 year old medicine.
A busy week here, with the biggest news being the three guilty verdicts handed down by the jury on former Minneapolis police officer, and murderer, Derek Chauvin. Finding some justice for George Floyd felt nice but the truth is we have a long way to go to really be able to say real change is happening in America. As we celebrated the Chauvin verdict, we also saw the funeral for Daunte Wright, the black man tragically killed after being pulled over in Brooklyn Center on a racially profiled police stop.
One step forward, and another step back...
The Friday Link this week is about a few more lesser stories which made this week shockingly busy. Let's start off with the Oscars, which air of Sunday. Delayed due to COVID, it's pretty competitive this year. Looking past the Oscar nominees, WatchMojo put together a great list of movies which were complete snubs from the Academy Awards. All of these movies were released with the intention of trying to get some nominations, but they all failed. I remember many of these films being marketed as slam dunk Oscar contenders. Not so much...
In 2019, after former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor was convicted of 3rd degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Justine Damond, a very deserved conviction, I said on my radio show "Now we see what it takes for a Minneapolis cop to be convicted of clearly murdering a citizen of the city. They have to be black."
Noor was Somali-American and while I don't necessarily want to get into the detail of his case, I made the comment back then "what happens from this point forward when a white cop is found to have done a comparable crime, or even worse, and we have undeniable evidence of the white cop's guilt? If that white cop get's convicted of their crime, then (although it can clearly be labeled 'minor incremental change') it would show all cops can be held accountable for their crimes. If the white cop gets found not guilty, then we know the only way the public will get justice is if the officer involved in the crime wasn't white."
A little more than a year later, former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin (who is very white and looks like a villain in a Spielberg film) was filmed crushing George Floyd to death on Chicago Avenue in south Minneapolis. He drove his knee into the neck of Floyd, who was handcuffed and displayed minimal resistance, FOR THE 9 MINUTES AND 29 SECONDS CHAUVIN HAD HIM PINNED. Most of the time the Minneapolis cops were piled on top of Floyd, he was already dead.
As the jury now begins to determine Chauvin's guilt as it takes over the case from the court, the test I alluded to in 2019 begins.
Let's just cut the crap. Chauvin is guilty. He's guilty of all three charges against him, 2nd degree murder (unintentional), 3rd degree murder, and 2nd degree manslaughter. The prosecution in the case MORE THAN proved their case. They showed the video, they brought in the eyewitnesses who pleaded with the officers to stop killing Floyd, they talked to the emergency responders who realized they were called to a murder scene, they presented the senior members of the Minneapolis PD who all called Chauvin's actions out of line and inexcusable, they talked to Chauvin's trainers who all insisted Chauvin was trained to never do what he did, and they brought in medical experts who (using the video itself and science) proved the cause of George Floyd's death was the officers killing him, mainly Chauvin.
Meanwhile the defense sounded incompetent at times. They so wanted to character assassinate Floyd, vilify the witnesses, and dismiss the experts, but every time they tried they sounded ill prepared and desperate. Their own witnesses not only didn't display any evidence which contradicted reality, they were picked apart by a far better prosecution team who even had the defense witnesses backing up their version of what happened.
And then there is the video, all 9 minutes and 29 seconds of it.
Yet the outcome of this trial is far from galvanized. I find it next to impossible to think the jury would vote not guilty on the manslaughter charge, but a lot of legal experts have said the convictions on 2nd and 3rd degree murder are not guaranteed.
Police in Minnesota benefit from two things. The first is police accountability rules written by Republicans which basically create a zero accountability standard for police (unless you're a black officer). All any police officer has to do is scream "I was SCARED(!)" and it becomes near impossible to convict them in Minnesota.
I've often made this analogy: A Minnesota cop could be off duty, drunk as a skunk in a bar. They could go up to someone and say "I hate you and I'm going to go get my gun and shoot you!" They then, drunk, drive home, get their weapon, drive back to the bar and raise their gun at the person they threatened. At that point the soon to be victim raises his hands to attempt to surrender but is shot and killed by the off duty drunk cop. It doesn't matter the intent, recklessness or premeditation of the situation, all the officer has to do is scream "I was SCARED when the victim raised their hands, and I feared for my life." Under that specific scenario, there's a 50/50 chance the Minnesota cop walks free.
Insanity!
Chauvin's lawyers have tried to modify the "I was SCARED(!)" argument. They have insisted the crowd begging the officers to get off of Floyd were scaring them (even though they never threatened the officers and there were five officers on the scene, including one specifically doing crowd control). They also implied Floyd had to be subdued like he was because at any moment he could become bequest with super strength and throw the officers off of him like he was the Hulk. Neither of those defenses seemed to work on the jury.
The other benefit to white Minnesota cops (and all white cops for that matter) is there's a substantial portion of the population who'll never convict a white police officer of a crime. No matter the evidence, they just won't do it. For some it has to do with a family member who is/were an officer, but for most it's a more evil internal decision. Cops keep bad guys in line, and for most of these people 'bad guys' can be defined as Black, Latino, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, Liberal, LGBTQ and any other group they dislike. They might not like the tactics they use, but they tolerate them because of who is being abused by the police's heavy handed approach.
The defense also tried their hardest to tap into any juror who might share these thoughts. Not only did they focus on George Floyd's drug use (even though there wasn't enough drugs in his system to warrant any concern), but the entire closing argument was a buffet of excuses for a pro-cop juror to lean their wrongful non-guilty assertions against.
For goodness sake! The defense's argument is Floyd didn't die of being crushed into the pavement, but rather of an enlarged heart, CO emissions from a car, non-existent drugs in his system and paramedics who should've gotten to the scene faster. Only a cop apologist would find such a ludicrous argument feasible. It'd be like saying "sure the shark ate him, but in reality he died of cancer seconds before being eaten. THAT was the real cause of death."
Crazy.
But yet here we are, wondering what the jury will find Chauvin guilty of, if anything. If 'not guilty' is read repeatedly when it comes to the verdict, I feel this city (and this country) will explode with anger. If 'guilty' is read three times, I think this city will become the sight of the largest dance party in history.
Either way we'll have a definitive answer to the test.
This has been a tough week in Minneapolis/St. Paul. We were heading into the third full week of testimony in the trail of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police officer accused of murdering George Floyd, and then on Sunday another tragedy struck the city. Daunte Wright was murdered by Brooklyn Center police on what can only be described as a racial profiling traffic stop which ended in horror as the officer seems to have confused her service weapon for her taser, a mistake which is frankly hard to believe.
And we are in the middle of other wave of the CoronaVirus, this time mostly caused by people going on reckless Spring Break trips and kid's sports, which have become super spreader events in the state of Minnesota.
...(deep breath in, deep breath out)...
We start tonight with Julie Nolke, a Canadian (she says "eh" a lot!). She's a very funny actress and comedian with her own You Tube channel. She came across gold with her 'Explaining to Her Past Self' series, little vignettes on how her future self is trying to educate her past self. I really liked her explaining the pandemic to herself, one year later.
This was a smile I needed this week.
This week we delve back into history.
First up is a British version of the Townsends You Tube Channel. Townsends does a lot with historic cooking in America, and Modern History TV has a similar series of videos, only dealing with the foods of ancient Britain.
We're getting a look at commoner food which is being prepared and presented as it would've been in Medieval times. On top of that, the food actually looks really good! Seriously, I'd gladly become a peasant if I can eat a meal like that every night!
Speaking of Townsends, we have another video from them tonight too, but this time they are not talking about food, but rather one of the oldest houses still standing in the United States.
As many of you know I'm a Catholic. When I bring up religion it's not about trying to covert anyone. That's why I often say this disclaimer: You do, or don't do, whatever it is you do or don't want to do.
Nor do I talk about being Catholic to give anyone an insight into my life, although I've been very straight forward. I'm a Progressive because of my Catholic faith. Frankly I'm stunned anyone can read the Bible's New Testament, especially Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four books of the Bible which relay the story of Jesus, THE REASON WHY ANY CHRISTIAN IS CHRISTIAN, and be anything but a Liberal. Feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, taking care of the sick, welcoming in strangers from strange lands...it's all pretty clear.
I primarily talk about my religion for one reason. The Conservative Right has taken Christianity, a faith built on love, compassion, peace, welcoming and caring, and turned it into a weapon of hate. They use Christianity to push a very narrow political agenda. What's amazing to me is how the Conservative Right has gotten so many "Christians" to ignore the teachings of Jesus himself, and boiled down Christianity to a handful of angry tropes, primarily 1) Anti-LGBTQ, 2) Anti-Abortion, 3) Pro-death Penalty, 4) Pro-guns.
I bring up my religion to try to stop far right loon balls from mutilating Jesus, his teachings and the Bible itself.
For the record, nowhere in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John does Jesus, THE MAN WHO MAKES CHRISTIANS CHRISTIAN, condemn the LGBTQ community (he doesn't), or demand women should have no choice in their own healthcare (he doesn't say squat about abortion, and by the way the Bible is FULL of questionable treatment of babies and the unborn!). And it's frankly laughable a man who was publicly executed in a horrific manner would be pro-death penalty. As far as weapons, Matthew 26:52 pretty much makes any Christian pro-gun argument moot (and just silly).
The Far Right work around on Jesus is to downplay his direct teachings (or outright ignore them), hype up other books of the Bible to promote their point of view (primarily Paul's letter to the Romans, which was Paul not Jesus, and Leviticus, a barn burner of a book from the Old Testament which is a really a double edged sword. You might want to read that book completely before calling it "gospel."), try to take passages out of context, or outright making up religious passages which have nothing to do with Jesus.
The reason for this is simple. The Far Right's politics is far more important that their Christian Faith. They also know their politics, for the most part, is incredibly anti-Christian, so they eagerly distort the teachings of Jesus to make their politics seem righteous.
This is why I'm writing today. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to talk to a Far Right Chrisitan about Jesus' teachings, especially in regards to feeding the hungry, healing the sick and welcoming in strangers from strange lands, and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM says something to the effect of "Oh I'm for doing all of that, but..." They always have some political excuse which suddenly overrides the religion they say is the most importing steering principle in their lives.
Didn't used to be this way. This bastardizing of Christianity as a political weapon began in the 1970's in the aftermath of Nixon's resignation, and became a much more prominent movement in the Reagan 80's. Since then, this Far Right version of Christianity has become more and more focused, forcing many of their followers to abandon large swaths of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and only focusing all of their attention on one or two political issues.
I remember when churches rarely said anything which could be construed as political. Now it seems politics is constantly being preached in some churches, even occasionally mine! I remember when former Arch Bishop Nienstedt demanded all priests in the Diocese take an anti-gay marriage stand in the 2012 election. My church's priest, Father Kennedy, came out and said [paraphrasing] "The diocese has given me a list of political things I'm supposed to tell you, but I won't. You're intelligent people, you can make up your own minds about things." He got a standing ovation for about two minutes.
Considering this deformed version of Christianity has been around for 40 years, you have an entire generation who have grown up around it. Have the 'hate über alles' Christians been able to resonate with the average person? Gallup just released a poll which shows not only has this new version of 'hate Jesus' not resonated, but people are abandoning religion as an institution at a stunning rate.
Starting in the 1930's, when Gallup first asked "do you belong to a house of worship," the results show 70+% of Americans did. It stayed above 70% all the way up until 1999. Then a change started to happen. People started leaving organized religion in droves. By 2018 people who said they belonged to a house of worship was down to 50%, and this year, for the first time ever, we actually have less than 50% of Americans who have a regular place of religious worship, 47%.
I'm convinced this is a direct result of taking the love, compassion, peace, welcoming and caring out Jesus' teachings. Why would anyone be part of the church when the first thing they tell you is who you have to hate. The church leaders have no one to blame but themselves. In their strive for political power, they themselves allowed their religion to be mangled beyond recognition. When the people who were supposed to be the keepers of the faith were the ones who were forsaking it, they pushed parishioners out the door, firmly.
To be fair, the Gallup poll does refer to all religions, but in the US, the only way you are getting this level of decline is if people are walking away from Christianity. There are many other reasons for some people not belonging to church. The sex scandal in the Catholic faith was a big reason, but most of that attrition happened before 2015, and these numbers hare still dropping, and fast. I don't know too many football fans who go to church any more unless their team plays a night game. But to be fair to sports fans, the question is not how often you attend church, but rather "do you belong to a house of worship?"
Maybe this is why some of the more extreme Far Right Christians are trying to find ways to force Christianity onto others. Until they stop with the politically butchered version of Christianity, the number of people walking away from church will continue to rise.
I don't see the Far Right stopping anytime soon.
Apologies! I'm in the middle of Spring Break week with my kids so this is the only post I have for you this week.
I've really enjoyed the Marvel Series on Disney+. WandaVision was exceptional and did not shy away from the idea that the hero can become the villain in a blink of an eye.
The second series Marvel has released is Falcon and The Winter Soldier. This series takes two of the lesser characters from the Captain America comic book universe and gives them their own series, and as enjoyable as Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are in the title roles, it's Wyatt Russell who is stealing the show.
The replacement for Captain America in the Marvel world is actually a character in comics more known as the US Agent John Walker, and he's quite the jerk. Seriously as kind and righteous as Chris Evans character was, Walker is a hollow shell of the original Cap. I was very concerned they would try to soften the character, but so far Wyatt Russell is absolutely crushing it.
Wyatt is the son of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and before he got into acting was quite a good hockey goalie, even playing college level. The Friday Link this week starts off with a few cuts from Off Camera with Sam Jones. The first cut is how Wyatt, as the son of two very famous Hollywood actors, had to find his own path through hockey.