Sentinel Blogs

Movies and Myths

July 19, 2008 – 5:46 pm
Movie making is a tedious business. This is one conclusion I came to today while sitting, sleep deprived, at the Hanford Fox Theatre, watching a film called "Pickin' and Grinnin'" in the process of being made. It was like watching the progress of drying paint. Mostly a lot of people standing around doing nothing. The ratio of standing around to filming was astronomically huge. And when they did film, it was pretty anticlimactic. The actors spoke in whispers, the scene only lasted a few minutes, and they had an airconditioner go off in the background that forced them to redo it. I watched the guys on stage, and they looked like they just wanted to get the heck out of there. Then I watched people in the audience. It couldn't have been more different: They watched with rapt, almost religious focus. Just being inside the aura of moviemaking was enough. This is curious. Movie scenes, dialogue and behavior ...

Posted in Signposts by Seth Nidever | No Comments »

Dallas Cowboys, here I come

July 18, 2008 – 3:41 pm
One of our loyal online readers sent me an e-mail earlier today, asking if The Pulse still had a pulse. I answered yes, but that I'd been so busy lately that I hadn't even been able to blog about my ongoing love affair with my Mr. Coffee iced tea maker. The real reason is a lot sexier, however. And it's something I've been keeping under wraps these past few weeks, especially from my coworkers. You see, later this month I'm going to Oxnard to try out for the Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad. "But aren't you too old?" you boldly ask, all the while knowing full well that my grown kids are 30 and 32, and I have stock in L'Oreal and Miss Clairol. The answer is, yes, for the "regular" squad; but there are plans in the works to cater to the more mature crowd. And what better way than by having ...

Posted in The Pulse by Jackie Kaczmarek | 3 Comments »

Geek Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora

July 18, 2008 – 9:01 am
I was going to review “Hellboy II” this week, but it really comes down to this: If you liked the first movie, then the sequel is even better and go see it. If the original bored you, then bugger off, because you have no taste. There, that said, I’m going to review a book. Yes, a book. You remember those, don’t you? Made of paper, bound by glue, filled with words? They were what passed for entertainment before videogames, summer blockbusters and HGTV filled our lives. I have this weird on-again, off-again relationship with reading. When I’m in the mood, I read voraciously, devouring pages by the hundreds, ripping through dozens of novels in a couple weeks’ time. Then comes the down period, where I try to read, really want to read, have a book I’ve just been dying to get my hands on, and, at best, I can manage ...

Posted in Panic Button by Joe Johnson | 3 Comments »

Room for belief

July 17, 2008 – 9:18 pm
I seem to have stirred up a hornet's nest with the last posting, so I thought it might be good to try to clarify things a bit. I am concerned about people thinking that there is no room for belief in God. The reason is that some popularizers of science like Richard Dawkins are on the warpath saying that belief in God is equivalent to a mental illness. Against this supposed delusion, Dawkins posits science, that omniscient source of all truth. Dawkins is just plain full of it. As a counter to his line of thinking, Dinesh D'Souza wrote a recent book entitled "What's so great about Christianity?" in which he merely tries to carve out a space for discussing belief in God in a reasonable way. His conclusion: It is not unreasonable to believe in God. Here's a little thought experiment for those of you out there who wonder how anybody could believe in God. What was ...

Posted in Signposts by Seth Nidever | 18 Comments »

Stray thoughts on racism

July 17, 2008 – 11:03 am
A recent Washington-post ABC news poll indicated that three in 10 Americans admit to race bias. This statistic — probably one of many conducted recently in light of Barack Obama’s presidential run — didn’t really surprise me. But it didn’t please me, either. In fact, when I first read that article, I actually lost a few hours of sleep thinking about the issue. Here’s the scary part: What if this poll was wrong? What if the number was higher? I do believe that people in this country, for the most part, understand if every individual is given the opportunities and tools, they will excel at whatever they do. Racism is still there though. Sure, overtly racist behavior in the public arena may be gone. This type of old-fashioned racism became unpopular in private settings, too. In today’s America, I think racism occurs in the most subtle, symbolic ways through expressions of deeply ...

Posted in Alien Asylum by Eiji Yamashita | 21 Comments »

Spam Filter Upgrade

July 16, 2008 – 11:03 am
We have implemented a spam filter to help us cut down on the amount of spam we have to sift through to approve comments.  We don't anticipate any hiccups, but if you encounter a problem posting, especially a valid post within our terms of use,  please email me at webmaster@hanfordsentinel.com so we can correct the problem.  This should allow us to approve your comments much faster then before.

Posted in Sentinel Online by Josh Parrish | No Comments »

My sports corner: Now that’s baseball!

July 16, 2008 – 10:18 am
If you've been following the print edition in this little exercise in First Amendment rights as well as this blog, you know that I entered this baseball season with a bit of ambivalence due to the steroid issue (althoug the lackluster, but expected, play of the Giants helps). But somehow, the game keeps righting its own ship and keeps you interested. Last month, we had the tremendous feel-good story of Fresno State battling back time after time to win the College World Series. And last night, my goodness, what an All-Star Game that was! This is what separates baseball from the other All-Star Games. In the NBA, it's all about scoring and showmanship; in hockey, nobody hits, and in the Pro Bowl, does anyone care a week after the Super Bowl? But on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, you had fielders making the great plays and throws, pitchers coming up with the ...

Posted in My Corner by Richard de Give | No Comments »

Too tired to blog

July 15, 2008 – 9:52 pm
I was just getting ready to leave the office for my nice 4-day vacation and realized I hadn’t written my blog. The fight is just three days away and like most fighters about this time, I’m grumpy and hungry and ready to get in the ring. Did I mention hungry, because I could really go for some real food right about now. I’m sure most of you want to know what’s going on in my head or are curious to what it is I’m going through, but I figure I will save that ‘til after the fight. I’m too tired to type out an explain what I really want, so I figure I will save it for next week’s blog. I want to give it some justice and not just pound out some thoughts. As for right now, I will head home to drink some water, eat some spinach and go to sleep. I just ...

Posted in The Project by Jeremy Luchau | 4 Comments »

Don’t worship science

July 15, 2008 – 9:10 pm
Scientists can get away with saying almost anything these days. Some recent discussion on this blog about the popular role science plays in our culture made me think about a recent book by Princeton University physicist J. Richard Gott called Time Travel in Einstein's Universe. I haven't read it yet, but apparently Gott argues that time travel is not only possible - it may have already happened. This kind of stuff used to be reserved for science fiction writers like H.G. Wells. Now, physicists are talking seriously about visiting multiple dimensions and multiple universes. And because scientists are saying it, people will believe it. Heck, all you have to do is say "Einstein," and many people genuflect and cross themselves. I had a high school teacher who worshipped everything Einstein said. Einstein said we should unilaterally disarm. Let's do it. Einstein said we should twirl three times before walking out the door. Let's do that too. Einstein said pick your ...

Posted in Signposts by Seth Nidever | 40 Comments »

Tillman truth remains a mystery

July 15, 2008 – 11:06 am
Rep. Henry Waxman's investigation into the death and aftermath in the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman came to a conclusion that I feared most. Tillman, a standout defensive player with the Arizona Cardinals after playing collegiately at Arizona State University, spurned the riches of the NFL for the Rangers shortly after 9/11. He was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004, in what was originally reported as an ambush, but was later revealed to have been the result of friendly fire. On Monday, our friends at The Associated Press reported that Waxman's committee ran into a "striking lack of recollection" as to who was responsible for the wrong information being conveyed to his family and the American people, only to have it recanted five weeks later. Waxman also noted a similar pattern in the case of Pvt. Jessica Lynch, who, according to initial reports, was captured after a valiant gunbattle with the ...

Posted in My Corner by Richard de Give | 3 Comments »