Movies, War, and World Pride

In the movie dept., I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2. It was great if you can put your brain down on the seat next to you while you watch. Try thinking about it, and you are left with a filler made because we live in the post-sequel era of the trilogy. Anything good must be not doubled but tripled. Anyway, many people do enjoy leaving their minds on the side while they watch a movie, so don't take my comments as a knock to the film.

Also saw Luck Number Slevin. I liked it. Leaving Josh Harnett's shirt off for the first 39 minutes of the movie was an excellent call by director McGuigen. The movie was a little lopsided; they needed a lot of time at the end to sew up the plot and close loose ends. There were a lot of killings, but not much real action scenes. Some of the punches and plot lines were trite, stereotypes of Blacks and Jews abounded, but it had a feel-good kind of feeling to it and a hot lead actor that pretty much make it worth watching.

World Pride Jerusalem is coming up next week. I'm trying to decide whether to offer to host visitors. I have room, but you know how Mom always said never to talk to strangers. I mean, I'd love to be nice and offer a place. I'd really love it if I found a hot guy to offer it to ;-) , but I'm a New Yorker. You just don't invite strangers in; they rob you blind. It's really a shame, though.

I think it's better in J-lem than NY (it feels like we're all family here - amazing), but just the other day I was printing a big file at the university computer center and someone snatched my print card from the card reader while the machine was printing and I walked back to my computer to wait. Luckily, there was only about 5 shekel left on the card ($1.15), earlier I had had as much as 30 (~$7).

The Pride Parade and some events were cancelled, but much of the itinerary will go forth as planned. At this point, I'll stick in my feelings on Gay Pride: Cut it out. There is no need to parade around being proud to be gay and show off your sexuality in the streets of city after city. Sex is something private; do what you enjoy, but where is the "pride"? Is being gay an achievement that you are proud of it? Did you work hard to make yourself gay and now have increased self-esteem because you succeeded in becoming gay? I'll spare you the science of homosexuality and the nature/nurture debate, but point is you probably are gay by no conscious effort of your own. Even if you were, what is there to be proud of? We don't see heterosexuals showing off their "Straight Pride". So let's be clear, the Pride is not over a choice of sexual orientation, but rather "pride" as in not being embarrassed or discouraged from beng open about it. The idea is faulty. The real emotion here is not pride, but some mix of assertiveness, self-assuredness, and independence. This wouldn't sell to a mass market, so the Gay Lobby created this Pride thing which does us somewhat of a disservice even as it furthers our cause.

I, personally, would have trouble marching in a Pride parade on ideological grounds. I disagree with the idea of Pride (see above). My feeling is that people who are in touch with themselves and know their emotional attachments and sexual attractions, let them hook up with those people. Have a good time, do what you like. That is the Western ideal of individuality and the pleasure principle. But, there is no need to put sexuality on parade. It degrades the person; makes him/her nothing but a sex object. I see this with some of my gay friends who become nothing but "gay. It subsumes their whole identity. I prefer to have a whole personality, one part of which is my sexual orientation. But I am much more than gay. To submit to Gay Pride is to lose your identity, not to flaunt your individuality as some would have you believe. IF YOU DISAGREE, PLEASE TELL ME. I would love to hear from the other side on this debate.

As far as the ongoing War in Lebanon, I think a lot of us thought it would blow over by now, but it is still going strong. It hasn't been felt in J-lem, but up North, they are taking it pretty hard, living in bomb shelters, getting hit by Katyusha rockets. The poor Lebanese have been hit very hard. I feel bad and want Israel to stop, but realize that they are working to protect my safety and that the fault ultimately lies with Hezbolla. Yeah, the Israelis are behind the trigger, but they wouldn't be there if Hezbolla would leave them alone.