this has been causing some buzz in the blogosphere lately (tommy hates that word so much that he thinks we should invent a new one, cept neither of us are clever enough to do so), but i wasn't aware if some of my friends had heard about it: Michigan Preparing To Let Doctors Refuse To Treat Gays.

it's so troubling on its own that i don't think i need to add any bitter commentary to it. i have a gay friend from uva who's in law school at michigan now, though we've been out of contact for a couple of years, and this is obviously very worrying. most telling part of the article:

The Republican dominated House passed the measure as dozens of Catholics looked on from the gallery. The Michigan Catholic Conference, which pushed for the bills, hosted a legislative day for Catholics on Wednesday at the state Capitol.

pushfluids.com cites a couple of other examples of bigotry in the medical profession:

this is not an unheard of phenomenon. a woman named tyra hunter died in washington dc after a car accident. as she lay on the street, an EMT stopped treating her when he found that she had male genitals. robert eads was a female to male transsexual who died of ovarian cancer in georgia because he could not find an ob/gyn willing to take care of a transgender patient (there was an excellent HBO documentary about him).

anyway. terribly sad. extremely slippery slope. etc.

i really want to see this movie.

It's summer in the harsh plains of Southern Italy, where a brutal sun beats down on endless corn fields. Children from the village ride their rickety bikes into the wide golden expanse, inventing daredevil games to while away the lazy afternoons.

Thus begins "I'm Not Scared," looking for all the world like another feel-good movie with nice music, lush cinematography and adorable Italian kids.

But then this new effort from Gabriele Salvatores, who directed the enchanting "Mediterraneo" a decade ago, takes a sudden dark swerve.

As 10-year-old Michele hunts for his sister's fallen eyeglasses, he stumbles onto a piece of rusted metal and discovers underneath it a squalid hidden pit. Peering down into the darkness, he sees a dirty foot lying under a filthy blanket. Is it a dead body? He looks away, then looks again: the foot has moved. The body is alive.

For Michele, as with most kids, curiosity trumps fear. On his next try, he discovers that the foot belongs to a frightened little boy, chained to the ground, so disoriented that he believes he is dead.

"Mediterraneo," his 1991 film that won the best foreign film Oscar, was a funny and lighthearted romp about a sorry group of Italian soldiers sent to invade a remote Greek island during World War II. "I'm Not Scared" is quite different: part thriller, part coming-of-age drama, it touches on one of life's baser instincts: greed.

Italy in the 1970s was plagued by a spate of child kidnappings for ransom. Novelist Nicolo Ammaniti, who grew up against that chilling backdrop, used it as the basis for a prize-winning novel, also titled "I'm Not Scared," that he later adapted into a screenplay (co-written by Francesca Marciano.)

Salvatores made his film in the underdeveloped but beautiful regions of Basilicata and Puglia. For the children, he used only local, first-time actors, which gives the film a wonderfully natural feel from the start. Giuseppe Cristiano, who plays Michele, has a lovely, expressive manner that never falls into the haminess that can plague young actors.

the basilicata and puglia regions (where matera is located) are some of my favorite in italy. it's playing at the loew's in dupont circle, right near my office. so who wants to go with?

"Hellboy" came in at No. 1, which means the producers of that film are busy getting another comic book adaptation to the big screen. "We're going to do 'The Watchmen,' '' says producer Lloyd Levin. "It's about a group of superheroes who reunite to figure out who is trying to kill them off."

though tommy probably already knows about this through his secret internet nerd sites.

(via juliansanchez.com)

this is for you "jetpack" fans of that retarded shark.

i would just like to note that he stayed up there for a whole TWENTY-SIX SECONDS. ooooooooh. wow. that's real great. yeah, jetpacks are the way to go, for sure.

NOT. FLYING CROCODILE!!! motherfuckers.