An arrest was made yesterday regarding the alleged Vancouver, WA, restaurant hate crime that I wondered about in December. According to an article in yesterday's The Columbian, the feds arrested the restaurant owner's brother for arson.
The restaurant's owner, Jimi Jouzine, has not (yet?) been charged, but is appealing a 2002 deportation order.
(Hat tip: Aaron at Metroblogging Portland)
Seashell at GayChristian.net noted that Exodus has finally responded to Monday's unflattering Good Morning America segment:
No mention that the segment really featured a former ex-gay speaking about the ineffectiveness of ex-gay ministries.
I suspect Exodus is either hoping that Christine's and other ex-exgays' stories lose the public's interest or that they are still planning on some way to counter the stories.
Gee, since I mentioned Exodus in my blog, maybe they will say I "featured" them too -- not to mention the many other websites devoted to exposing Exodus' deceptive messages.
Former ex-gay, Rising Up Whole blogger, and co-founder of BeyondExGay.com Christine Bakke was on Good Morning America this morning (video also available on Comcast.net). The story and her live interview with Diane Sawyer were excellent and very sympathetic to the ex-exgay viewpoint.
I'm sometimes concerned that ex-exgays come-off as bitter and hostile, but Christine was very positive and articulate. Good for her!
Scott, ma, and I saw Hot Fuzz (IMDB.com) this evening. It's the movie written, directed, and starring the same people from the great 2004 movie, Shaun of the Dead (IMDB.com).
Hot Fuzz was a good, funny, hilariously gory movie. It took a little while to set-up the scene and characters, but it was a well-paced movie that didn't linger too long.
I'm sure Simon Pegg (star/writer) and Edgar Wright (director/writer) felt pressure to make a movie as good or better than Shaun. That's a very daunting task because the 2004 movie was so good. Fuzz comes close to being as funny, but Shaun felt a little more unique.
Although Hot Fuzz's style of comedy is different, in many ways it was the funny cop movie I had hoped Reno 911!: Miami could have been.
Scott and I saw The Departed (IMDB.com) during the 5+ hour flight from Hawaii on Tuesday. To be fair to the movie, seeing a movie hunched over a little movie player, on a cramped, noisy, plane trip probably isn't the most ideal way of watching it.
I enjoyed the film and it made the long flight seem much shorter. All of the performances were great. The ending was the only disappointing part of the film. It was a little obvious that the secondary characters were more important than they were initially portrayed.
I don't think it was the best movie of 2006 or the writing was very interesting either. Oh well, so much for the Oscars.
Scott's office generously took everyone on a weekend trip to Waikiki in Hawaii. It was a great trip -- and much needed vacation.
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Right after we checked-in, we walked to a tiny restuarant, Ono Hawaiian Foods. The six of us had no idea what to order, but the ladies who served us were very motherly and told us what to order. The food was great!
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On the first night, Scott's entire office made a MaiTai beach crawl crashing three resort bars, the historic Surfrider, the Royal Hawaiian, and the House Without A Key. Thus, my weekend love affair with the great MaiTai:
On Saturday, we tried to snorkel at a popular coral reef. I had never snorkeled before and wasn't very successful. Claire saw a turtle though.
Scott and I had dinner at the Surfrider Hotel across the street. We later joined a group of Scott's co-workers at some restaurants across town. (There is a hilarious incident that happened that night, but I'll leave that to the office lore of Scott's co-workers.)
On Sunday, we caught a bus downtown. The Hawaii State Capital is a great example of 1960s architecture. Iolani Palace, the only royal palace in the US, is right next to the capital.
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We then walked over to the Aloha Tower, Chinatown, and Foster Botanical Garden.
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At sunset, we joined Scott's office on a catamaran tour off of Waikiki Beach. Definitely one of the best parts of the trip.
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On Monday, seven of us rented a minivan and drove to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We took the Pineapple Express mini-train tour and had pineapple whip, pineapple juice, pineapple cinnamon bread, pineapple hot dog, etc.
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We later visited some of the beaches along the north shore of Oahu.
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Another highlight of the trip was the tour we took of Kualoa Ranch. The young native tour guide was a real smartass, but very knowledgeable of the ranch's and Hawaii's history. The ranch is privately owned by the first non-native family to own land in Hawaii. It was later occupied by the US military during WWII. The military planted large African trees to camoflauge planes that were parked at the temporary airbase. The African trees later attracted Hollywood and the ranch has since been featured in many movies such as Jurasic Park, Pearl Harbor, and now (unofficially, shhh) the TV show Lost.
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[I'll finish this post and add more photos later.] [Done]
While I know I shouldn't expect much from the ultra-conservative, extremist, "news" website of the AFA, their poll today seemed too unbelieveable today:
So, the supposedly animosity toward Christianity has nothing to do with their own anti-them (gays, liberals, non-Christians, etc.) fundamentalism? Even if you buy the premise that there is increased animosity and all animosity is undeserved, how would you choose from the five options?
I can't wait to see the results.
Instant Quaker Oats, 1950's
Originally uploaded by Roadsidepictures.
A GCN forum reminded me to re-take the Belief-O-Matic survey. I took it a couple of years ago and Liberal Quaker and Unitarian Universalism tied.
And now:
1. Liberal Quakers (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (99%)
3. Neo-Pagan (93%)
4. Mahayana Buddhism (84%)
5. Reform Judaism (84%)
6. Bahá'à Faith (80%)
7. New Age (80%)
8. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (77%)
9. Secular Humanism (73%)
10. Theravada Buddhism (70%)
11. Jainism (69%)
12. Hinduism (68%)
13. Sikhism (67%)
14. Taoism (67%)
15. New Thought (61%)
16. Scientology (60%)
17. Orthodox Quaker (56%)
18. Orthodox Judaism (54%)
19. Islam (47%)
20. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (46%)
21. Nontheist (43%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (32%)
23. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (30%)
24. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (29%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (20%)
26. Roman Catholic (20%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (16%)
I'm not really into silent meditation or quietness, so I'm not sure the Quaker thing will work out for me. But so says the all-knowing Belief-O-Matic.
Fresh Air had a hilarious interview with three stand-up comedians, Maz Jobrani, Ahmed Ahmed and Aron Kader. They are of Iranian, Egyptian and Palestinian descent, respectively, and are part of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour.
Ahmed Ahmed mentioned that he was actually losing his hair due to the stress of fearing he would be stopped at airport check points. His name matches an alias of an FBI's most wanted terrorist. He actually spent some time in jail after being arrested at an airport.
Here are some clips I found on YouTube. (CAUTION: Some of the language is a little blue.)
