Yes, That Was a Shout-Out ...

... on Lost last night. Although I would have preferred if the writers made my cast surrogate one of the ruggedly handsome bohunks than the older gentlemen. But I'll take it. Next step, I write a freelance for them (and, I'm sure Andy Cosby is mentally noting, take too damn long to turn it in to Damon, too).

A quick link to the most recent Index Page for a group of humans who will be visiting here soon. Otherwise, back into the draft.

Writing the Freelance Script

Why no updates? because I'm writing the goddam freelance script. next in the series tomorrow.

All Hail the Queen

That's it - a man has to know when to yield to his betters. La Queen Sucia goes on the sideboard this week, of only for this:

MICHAEL SAYS: 3. They do not register for selective service and do not serve in the military - forcing legal Americans to defend them.

ALISA SAYS: Sigh. According the U.S. government, all male immigrants – legal and otherwise – are required by U.S. law to register for selective service.

According to the National Center for Immigration Law, one in ten U.S. soliders who have DIED in Iraq have been immigrants. Five percent of those serving in our military are illegal immigrants.

The first soldier to die for the United States in the current war in Iraq was Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.

He died for you.

You are not in Iraq fighting for anyone. You are home, sending lie-riddled missives to strangers at 3 a.m. on your computer.

Enough said.

*sniff* She's All Grown Up

Always a pleasant day when I rewrite this particular bit of code in the blog template:

Julie Goes to Hollywood has just graduated from Spec Monkey to Pro-Monkey. Congratulations!

Far and Away

And this is why you don't be a dick in your career.

Fifteen ... let me walk that off ... fifteen years ago, DJ McCarthey and I went to Melbourne to perform for two months at the Last Laugh Theater, overlapping with the Melbourne Comedy Festival. DJ got all the great reviews, while I did all the heavy lifting. It was ever thus.

The booker who brought us over there was Rick McKenna, a great bloke who delighted in tormenting me with cultural pranks. But although he was a fine guy and we got along great, he was a club owner like all the rest. He was a bit eclipsed by his immensely talented wife Gina, who was both funny and had a set of pipes on her like Big Mama Thornton.

Last year Lovely Wife adds some Aussie show to the Tivo list that she's heard good things about -- Kath & Kim. It is funny and broken and the characters are truly awful in that distinctively Commonwealth way -- wait, is that Gina Riley? Well, I'll be damned. I wonder if this show is popular?

Um, yes. As in broadcast in several dozen countries, biggest comedy hit in Australian history popular. And, inexplicably, Gina has still not shed Rick, as he explained while we had drinks at the Polo Lounge tonight -- Rick being in town to negotiate a massive American network TV deal. He is now the type of people who would not return my call if I had not, at some point, worn a goofy robot shirt because he assured me it would be a good idea.

Several hours later, discussions about Australian TV, international financing and DVD sales later, I realize I have been given yet another lesson in the somewhat pokey yet relentless inevitibility of karma. It's not quite as explicit as how the office assistant to the two writers who wrote my pilot became the head of ABC comedy just eight years later, but damn close.

Theocracy in Action

Via, as usual, Majiksthe, an article on "pro-life" El Salvador, where abortion is completely criminalized:

At least El Salvador is morally consistent about the value of embryonic life. Sanctions are not limited to doctors. Women are severely punished for ending their pregnancies. If they aren't caught in the act, the state gets them after the fact when they seek medical help for life-threatening complications of botched abortions. The forensic vagina squad gets called in when a woman seeks treatment for "suspicious" signs and symptoms like a perforated uterus, uncontrollable bleeding, sepsis, and organ failure. Hitt describes abortion suspects shackled to their hospital beds and doctors subpoenaed to testify against their own patients. He even interviews a 26-year-old mother of 3 who is serving the fourth year of a 30-year prison term for her abortion.

Along with this little nub from Atrios, it reinforces my belief in the essential duality of American society (as far as I know I've never written about how I specifically feel about abortion, which as it should be) -- you either believe you effect "moral" change through education, or through inviting the government to be policemen in our bedrooms. And those who believe the latter have not really thought it out. Because that's not the American Way.

That's it, folks. El Salvador-rules is either the country you want, or not the country you want. There will be a great gnashing of teeth that "it's not that simple", but sadly it is.

Also, the day that forced-birth folk (happy, Amanda?) stop opposing birth control access and stop flogging abstinence-only education, I will start taking your discussion seriously.

And it doesn't help that people keep describing Plan B as an abortifacient. If you call it that, you are lying. Stop that.