reminder about cousin’s film

just to remind everyone, my cousin siân héder won 3rd place in the cannes film festival with her movie mother. she spells her name siân heder because she thinks one accent is enough, but i am also a part of the héder family, and i spell it héder, because i am hungarian and not some mormon who played napoleon dynamite. in my previous blog post i put the carat above the i instead of the a in her first name, showing that i cannot spell. anyway her film is called mother, and the category it was 3rd place in was the cinéfoundation category. it was actually a tie for 3rd place, with a hungarian film, which is interesting because siân and i are both half-hungarian. she got her award handed to her by tim burton, who said he loved her film, now please get out of los angeles. this was a reference to how her movie was about a crazy rich woman in los angeles who is a complete failure as a mother. the short film is actually based on a true story, when my cousin baby-sat for such a person, in a hotel. but the story is not quite the same as what really happened, because my cousin replaced herself with a homeless girl. now my cousin has a boyfriend named david newsom, who is part of the supporting cast of the new show windfall on nbc. david newsom has been in a great deal of tv shows and you have probably seen him but would not really remember it too well because it is not like you would remember every episode of every tv show you ever saw, and every minor character that appeared in it. but, despite not knowing who he is, still... you have probably seen him on the tv. he also helped with the movie. my parents are in the credits, as people who donated. it is just like the little old ladies who donated to the producers, but never got back money for the smash broadway hit springtime for hitler. and i have 2 other cousins that are also going into the movie business in hollywood, both of them also heders that don’t use the accent. as for me, i have 3 accents in my full name, and i am keeping all of them, including the one in héder. one of the other cousins who is going into the movie business is siân’s little sister, who just graduated college, but i am not naming her name because i have a policy against giving out names of people who are not already famous on this blog. it is actually her birthday today (siân’s sister). i just hope that alfie gets to celebrate. alfie is their pet turtle. i played a lot with alfie the last time i visited, because i like pets, but what i really want for myself is a doggie.

now today at quaker meeting (just because i go does not imply i believe in all aspects of quakerism, but it is a major influence on my life), there was a professor from swarthmore who is an expert in war tax resistance. a certified public accountant with a law degree who teaches tax law. but his message is about the quaker peace testimony, and how it is really against the quaker religion to pay money to fund a war, just as much as it is against the quaker religion to participate in a war or help build a military-industrial complex. apparently, the internal revenue service does not go after you if you are a “sympathetic case” because there would be bad publicity. so, people can actually refuse to pay taxes, and not be punished, because the government is afraid that if they put the people on trial they would lose. for example, if this professor were to refuse to pay any taxes that finance war (i am not exactly sure whether he does or not) he would be a sympathetic case and the internal revenue service would not put him on trial or go after him, because he is an expert in tax law and could easily represent himself. but he actually lobbies congress, in person, once a year. he goes down to d.c., and visits the offices of everyone in congress and the senate, and talks to them or their staff about this issue of war tax resistance. there is actually a bill they are trying to pass, which would create a legal framework for people to refuse to finance the military. people could register as conscientious objectors with the treasury department, by filling out some form, and then their taxes would go into a special fund that could finance any part of the government except for the defense department. if only a few people did this, it would not affect the defense department at all. but suppose the defense department consumes 50% of the budget. then if more than 50% of taxpayers register as conscientious objectors, this will start to reduce the military budget. if 75% of taxpayers signed up, the defense department would be down to a maximum of 25% of the budget. but, any reduction in defense spending would occur only if that is the will of the american people. this would be the ultimate form of democracy: voting with your money. and as long as less than half of the public signs up, it would not really impact defense spending at all. so there is no real reason anyone would have to oppose this modest measure. but until then, it will continue to be the religious duty of some quakers and members of other historic peace churches to refuse to pay taxes that fund war. he got the american friends service committee friends committee on national legislation, the quaker lobbying group, to agree with him on this issue, but it is not high enough on their priority list for them to actually lobby politicians on it, because they have so little money... they rely on donations from quakers. and i wish i could be a quaker, but that is a very serious decision, to officially become a quaker, and i am not sure if my beliefs regarding the existence of god are compatible with quaker teachings. i agree with other quaker beliefs aside from the existence of god, but they are ostensibly predicated upon god’s existence, although in my mind, they are simply sound moral principles that stand on their own and do not need any external justification since they speak for themselves. quakers believe in peace, not war, and they believe everyone is equal, and in tolerance for those who are different. these types of universal moral principles transcend other questions such as god’s existence, and can bring together people from different belief systems. as an atheist i can endorse quaker principles, just as many christians reject those same principles, despite quakers being traditionally viewed as a subgroup of christians. i believe in jesus, not the son of god who rose from the dead and performed miracles, but the son of man who taught his followers peace and tolerance and charity, and then was executed by the roman empire for his beliefs. but those jesii were the same man, it is just that some of his followers were more superstitious and prone to ascribing supernatural causes to normal events that could be explained rationally. the jesus i believe in was the son of joseph and mary, and lived in the occupied palestinian territories. or the occupied judean territories. or something. but jesus wasn’t republican, and he didn’t support george w. bush, nor would he be republican or support bush if he were alive today. he would be a democrat. i should make bumper stickers that say “jesus voted democrat 2,000 years ago - i demand a recount”. that’s some pretty funny stuff. well my dad is going to have half his colon removed and all that will be left is a semicolon, and i need to mow the lawn again. i am going to have my computer’s motherboard replaced, like i discussed in earlier blog posts. i have taken the motherboard out and put it back in the box and i am looking for the receipt now or else i will have to pay $25 for the repairs. and on saturday i was at a meeting to help plan for creating a new chapter of the young democrats for broome county. it sucks that official party organizations such as the young democrats are barred from endorsing specific candidates in primaries, but apparently that is how the laws are written, and if you want to help a specific candidate you can join their campaign. there are some people working on drafting a constitution for this local chapter of the young democrats. i was mostly thinking about positions we could take on various issues, stuff like that. or, how to recruit people. anyway i have to go to bed and sleep and stuff. it is starting to bother me how bloggers all think alike, either in the liberal camp or the conservative camp. i am starting to find bothersome not just the terms “wingnuts” and “moonbats” and other ones like “idiotarians”, but also the choices of people to criticize or support. why do liberal bloggers all like harry reid but dislike nancy pelosi, despite the fact that nancy pelosi is more progressive than harry reid, and why do they dislike chris matthews so much and call him “tweety”? it is just kind of disturbing to me that on the internet, apparently nobody likes chris matthews, yet those very same people still watch his show hardball on msnbc. i am worried that bloggers are becoming a self-brainwashing force and might reinforce a collective disconnect from reality. i must resist both the brainwashing effects of the mainstream media (or m.s.m.) as well as the blogosphere (or blogistan). perhaps the best way to resist their effects is to pay attention to neither. good night.