ROMANES EUNT DOMUS?

Somehow I missed the fact that Monty Python’s Life Of Brian came out 30 years ago.

The Telegraph has a nice write-up of the film’s production (which only happened because George Harrison was willing to back it) and the subsequent outrage upon its release.

And it may be an obvious thing to say, but I think Sanjeev Bhaskar is right – you probably couldn’t get a film like this made in 2009 even as an independent production. And even if you did a Rodriguez and financed it yrself by volunteering for scientific experiments, you’d probably never get anyone to distribute it.

Of course, you could always stick on the YouTubes. Still, odds are at least one cast member would be assassinated by teabaggers within a year.

So naturally I still think it’s one of the funniest films ever made.

Here’s my favorite scene.

"Tinariwen - Koud Edhaz Emin" (Watch on YouTube)

Only Python could work in a Latin grammar lesson into a film AND make it funny.

Conjugate the verb “to go”,

This is dF

A NATION OF BRIDEZILLAS CAN’T HOLD US BACK

This has been making the rounds, so most of you have probably already seen it. I’m mainly posting it so that whenever I find myself in a position to explain WHY “the sanctity of marriage” is a disingenuous argument for making it hetero-only, I can just link back to this post and save me the work.

If you HAVEN’T seen it, it’s Diane Savino, a state senator from New York making the best case for legalizing gay marriage I’ve ever heard from a politician.

Turn on the television. We have a wedding channel on cable TV devoted to the behavior of people on the way to the altar. They spend billions of dollars, behave in the most appalling way, all in an effort to be princess for a day. You don't have cable television? Put on network TV. We're giving away husbands on a game show. You can watch The Bachelor, where thirty desperate women will compete to marry a 40-year-old man who has never been able to maintain a decent relationship in his life.

That's what we've done to marriage in America, where young women are socialized from the time they're five years old to think of being nothing but a bride. They plan every day what they'll wear, how they'll look, the invitations, the whole bit, they don't spend five minutes thinking about what it means to be a wife. People stand up there before god and man even in Senator Diaz's church, they swear to love honor and obey, they don't mean a word of it. So if there's anything wrong with the sanctity of marriage in America, it comes from those of us who have the privilege and the right and have abused it for decades.

Not that it matters. She made that speech prior to a vote on a bill legalizing gay marriage in New York. The gays lost. Because there’s no reasoning with homophobia or religious bigotry. That’s the whole point. They don’t HAVE to listen to reason.

Still, it’s nice someone said it. And said it well.

How can there be any "sin" in "sincere",

This is dF