Updates

I've been working a bunch lately, thus the lack of posting. Highlights from my life in the past week:

It' NBA Playoff time in our home!!! Yeah!!! Just kidding. I've been watching Elias watch a lot of ball. I'm learning a lot too. Do you know how many championships Phil Jackson's coaching has won? After many guesses, I got the answer right.*

I'm still driving a rental SUV while the insurance adjusters figure out what to do about my rear ended car. It looks like they plan to total my car out and give me money. It's a bad time to be driving a gas guzzler, but I have to admit I like it at the same time. It's really comfortable, drives well, and high off the ground which makes me feel powerful. Quite a contrast to a Toyota Corolla.

Last night, Elias and I got a taste for parenthood while we babysat my 1-year-old nephew and his 6-year-old sister. Caring for children is exhausting, and I'm really impressed at my brother's efforts. I'm asking myself some really hard questions.

Back to work ... .

*9 total (3 with the Lakers and 6 with the Bulls).

P.S. -- Super M, since you don't take my calls now that we don't work together, will you post a comment informing me about your attendance at the labor law section meeting on Friday? See you there?

Rising Up

[Editor's Note and direct message to Super Mosca: I planned to post this the other day, but I fell behind after getting rear-ended on the 101 after doing some Easter feasting with my family. My car is pretty messed up, and I'm suffering neck and back pain. I got a loaner (a big SUV if you can believe it!), and a chiropractor adjustment. All is well, I hope.]

Now that I'm working for a union, I have to encourage people to act in support of the union and organized labor. In other words, I have to tell people to get off their asses and make their voices heard. I have to track turn out and work on media for "actions." It's kind of fun as individual representation alone would get pretty boring.

It's also kind of a switch for me since I was getting used to being a has-been in the activist arena. After the Iraq invasion and the 2004 Bush victory, I sort of swore off protesting and most organized efforts to effect change. (Of course I was still doing my piecemeal work on representing the wronged, one case at a time.) But now my job requires me to get out there; last month I was in a picket line with everyone else and got my picture in a local paper.

At least I'm in good company. For further reading check out Xui's posts. Also, a recent LA Times OpEd piece rightly points out the ineffectiveness of all the whiners in the country versus the successful, organized immigrants and French workers.

Movie Review

We saw Crash, and it really sucked. Thanks for the warnings everyone.

The good things -- we think Terrance Howard and the woman who played his wife were good -- the best acting in the film and the most compelling characters to play. Elias liked the little girl with the cloak of impenetrability. Brother Ed did too. I didn't. In short, Crash would be fine as a training film for the LAPD employees. It lends itself well to post training quizzes that need to be easy to pass.

The bad things -- all the rest, especially how they threw every imaginable racially charged scenario that could ever happen into one movie that spans 2 days. I'm talking racist cops, cross-racial sexual assault, a dope fiend, sassy Black women who should just keep their mouths shut, a rich white lady who should just keep her mouth shut, Koreans getting called "Chinamen," human trafficking and slavery, politics as usual, an unjust health care system, and oh so much more. There is lots of speech making in case you don't understand what's really going on. Everyone acts badly, but the story lets everyone but the most well intentioned off the hook. Go figure.

Our other recent Netflix pick, The Fantanstic Four towered over Crash. And it also serves as a primer on how far we have to go in terms of tollerating each other. (Elias disagrees with me here and thinks Crash was better.)

April Madness

In the latest New Yorker, Seymour Hersh writes about Bush's plans to invade Iran. With nukes. Or "nucular weapons" as some prefer to call them.

Update to Last Post

The United Church of Christ is in the news today. I'm curious to see where all this is going. Will higher visibility in ads and NY Times coverage change things? Will Christians stop being the perceived political property of the right?

Refreshing

I just saw an ad for United Church of Christ inviting gay people and Black women with babies to join them. The ad was cool because it made its point by showing how icky fake Christians use a reject (eject) button to expell the willing from the pews.