One of these things is not like the others...

America, England, Australia, and Norway? What was Ayman al-Zawahiri thinking?

O Muslims, take matters firmly against the embassies of America, England, Australia, and Norway and their interests, companies, and employees. Burn the ground under their feet, as they should not enjoy your protection, safety, or security. Expel those criminals out of your countries. Do not allow the Americans, the British, the Australians, the Norwegians, and the other crusaders who killed your brothers in Iraq to live in your countries, enjoy their resources, and wreak havoc in them.

University of Chicago professor Michael J. Green takes on the question in his weblog (sorry, no permalinks, so it may be gone from the index page by the time you read this). He examines and dismisses a bunch of hypotheses (e.g., it was part of the 'coalition of the willing' ~ nope). He suggests that, in fact, this use of inoffensive and obscure Norway was in a fact part of a coded message to Al-Qaida operatives. I find that a particularly persuasive suggestion and it makes my hair stand on end.

Code Orange, indeed.

Blogspot

To all my dear friends and colleagues out there using Blogspot for their blogs (this means you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you) : get a real provider, will ya, please? I promise your site traffic will go up.

The amount of time I spend waiting for Blogspot sites to (often as not, not) load should be subtracted from my expected time in Purgatory. Seriously, I'll get to heaven a whole heck of a lot faster.

If y'all had RSS feeds, then I wouldn't have to cross my fingers and spit against the wind each time I try to visit you... hoping against hope that the site will actually load and you'll have posted something new. But Blogspot doesn't provide feeds. Sigh.

Are you not fed up with it, yourselves? With permalinks that aren't? With archives that disappear? With not being able to access your own site your own self?

Can anyone chime in on comments with inexpensive and reliable alternatives for these lovely folks?

Reloaded

Oh, lordy, I can't help myself. I must comment on The Matrix Reloaded, which I just saw. Generic spoilers ahead.

Okay. The characters are cardboard. Can you say "allegory?" I thought you could!

This movie suffers from "middle of the muddle" syndrome. It's got flaws out the wazoo. Even some of the CGI is a fairly lame hack (which surprised me).

So far, you're thinking, doesn't sound like there's a whole lot to recommend it.

I've read all kinds of complaints about this movie, everything from "There aren't enough Asians in Zion" to "The sexual politics are screwed up." While I think there's room for debate about each such point (from my perspective there is a much higher than average representation of 'minorities' in this picture than most other mainstream movies, and despite a few idiocies the gender roles are pretty evenly distributed), there's one thing that I'm sure can't be debated:

No other movie with kewl kung fu and lots of explosions and stop-motion will ask you also to think about:

• cause and effect and their relationship to free will;
  
  
• whether knowledge (knowing why) really is power;
  
  
• what it might mean for your universe to have an Architect (in one or many parts) who can arrange for the whole system to be rebooted;
  
  
• the role of hope and love in the order of things.

Does the movie answer these questions in a coherent fashion? Uh, no.

Duh.

Religious, philosophical, and scientific inquiries into these questions have been underway since the species first became self-aware. I would hardly be the first to point out that our progress has been, at best, limited. Expecting a big-budget motion picture (especially the middle movie in a trilogy!) to solve the Mystery of Life for you seems to me to be asking a bit much.

I'll tell you what I really saw when I went to see The Matrix Reloaded. I saw a lot of people sitting around afterwards talking about The Important Stuff.

Talking about The Important Stuff, people. Talking about it, with passion. As if it mattered.

For most of them, sure, it's just a head game and a diversion. But if 1% of 1% of the people who see the movie actually start doing some real thinking about the meaning of their lives, the universe, and everything as a result... well, I'm ready to plant a big wet kiss on the Wachowski brothers' kissers. You go, boys.

Also, ya gotta love a flick in which one of the seeming baddies is called the "Merovingian" (yeah, Google it for some fun), who curses beautifully in French.

In a final note: I also don't agree with the critical comments that there was too much Keanu butt. As far as I'm concerned, there can never be too much Keanu butt. That butt is eloquent and, really, there just wasn't that much of it. Ahem.

I'll go see Matrix Revolutions when it comes out. I won't be expecting a masterpiece or anything ultimately more satisfying than "42." But I want to see what razzle-dazzle they finally wrap around the big, sometimes bitter, pill of Important Stuff that we all eventually have to swallow.