Regarding Daniel Gibson, and also regarding Darin's being a slacker

In NBA news, LeBron James and the Cavaliers have gotten some help in the playoffs from an unexpected source: Rookie point guard Daniel "Boobie" Gibson, who is providing a long needed offensive spark to aid LeBron and the otherwise defensive minded Cleveland ball club. Yes, that's right: people call the man Boobie Gibson. You can even find it on Wiki. His mother started calling him that at an early age, and it stuck.

See Darin, this is what will happen every time you decide to step away from this blog for too long. Sure, I can keep it respectable on my own for a little while, but you can see the downward spiral. Since your enlightening post that discussed the legitimacy of the Prime Minister's rumored conversion, we have plummeted down to my most recent police dog post - which may appear to bear some social/political significance, but at heart is nothing more than an excuse for me to show a funny picture of a dog - and now you're reading these words: "Boobie Gibson". I heard about an athlete who has a weird nickname, The End. That's all I've got for our readers this week. Look Darin, if you've got better things to do, good for you, but I just want to make sure that you're aware of the consequences.

By the way, for those of you still mourning the dead dogs, perhaps this follow-up article will bring some closure. Sounds like the ceremony went pretty well. I admire the police chaplain who reportedly managed to read each dog's name aloud "solemnly and with great reverence". I tried it a couple times here at home myself, and I couldn't get past the first one, "Carebear", without at least smirking. In conclusion, I guess this merits another humorous picture of a police dog. Enjoy.

Faithful departed

Thanks to alert reader Reggie for forwarding this story. Apparently, there is going to be a memorial service on Tuesday for some deceased police dogs. The public has been invited to join in remembering these dogs. I personally will not be attending because it would be difficult to make travel arrangements, and also because I think it is a stupid waste of time to have a dog memorial service.

Super Duty

With the dramatic season finale fresh in our heads, it is time to reflect on the third season of "Lost"; what did we like, what have we learned, what will happen next? For me, one of the most compelling developments of season 3 has been the commercial for the 2008 Ford F-Series Super Duty, in which viewers are shown the "Tail-Gate Step" feature. Just look at it; don't you want one? Don't you wish you were that guy? Safety, comfort and style!

I'd imagine that this is causing all kinds of headaches for the engineers and marketers at Chevy, as they scramble for an answer to Ford's innovation. Perhaps they will manage to include a water bottle that stows neatly under the license plate, to prevent dehydration when entering the truck bed area. And a helmet. It just doesn't seem safe to climb all the way up there on that truck without your helmet on, so maybe they can find a way to build a helmet into the bumper.

Cool lyrics

This from the blog of Cavs beat reporter, Brian Windhorst: "Before the game, Damon Jones was being interviewed by two beautiful Italian female journalists. The English was broken and I'm not sure all message was getting through, but Damon was engrossed and trying his best. He must've felt good about his performance, because once they were gone he proclaimed: 'I can talk a cat off a fish wagon with my cool lyrics.'"


I have no idea why Italian journalists were interviewing Damon Jones, but I'm glad it happened, as I now look forward to using the phrase "cat off a fish wagon" in future conversations.

Tony Blair to Convert?

Several news sources have been making noise about Tony Blair possibly converting to Catholicism. Unless he has also changed his non-Catholic stance on abortion and homosexuality, its hard for me to get excited about this. He might as well say, "I don't believe in the incarnation or the resurrection, but I'm going to become Catholic."

I hope he does enter the Church. I also hope he enters the Church believing what the Church believes.

Here's the story.

Here is Dr. Edward Peters cleaning up the mess.

Parishioners Choose Priest Over Church

Via the Times Online:

Worshippers in the Pyrenees are planning an Ascension Day protest tomorrow in support of their village priest, who was dismissed by the Roman Catholic Church for having an affair with a widow.

The demonstrators want to voice their anger over the sacking of Father Léon Laclau, a popular curate who flouted church rules by living openly with a Dutch nurse he met 22 years ago.

Father Léon, 55, was asked to leave southern France for the Ivory Coast in West Africa after his order, the Congregation the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Betharram, denounced his behaviour as "too scandalous".

Pierre Molères, the Bishop of Bayonne, said that the priest had reneged on his vow of chastity, refused "brotherly advice" to end his relationship and placed himself in a "complicated situation".

Father Léon’s removal has stirred fierce controversy in the Notre-Dame-du-Piémont parish, near Pau in the French Pyrenees. More than 1,500 people took part in a public meeting where the priest’s supporters said that his affair with Marga Lamadou, 57, was widely known and accepted locally.

A week later 400 of them boycotted Mass, which was celebrated by a substitute priest. They demonstrated outside the village church and put up banners demanding, "Give us back Father Léon".

And it gets worse:

Father Léon said: “It is a permanent tension to live a forbidden love. But
love is always the strongest. My story is simple and true. I could very well
have said that Marga was my housekeeper but that really would not have been very
brave.”

In a statement sent to parishioners, he said: “Far from stopping me from
carrying out my job as a priest, Marga helped me and encouraged me through her
enthusiasm and her vision of the world and the Church and through her
faith.”

Here's the whole story.

"But that really would not have been very brave." At least he got that right. However, the truly courageous thing to do would be to simply live out his vows.

George's Movie of the Week

This week's movie is Spiderman III. Spiderman III can best be described as 140 magnificent minutes of unadulterated entertainment. The only way to improve upon this movie is to buy some Skittles at the theater and eat them while viewing the film, thereby extending the euphoric experience to a wider range of sensory receptors.

The stunts, fights and scenery are worth the price of admission on their own, but Spiderman III goes beyond the call and delivers an engaging plot as well. More than just a special effects action extravaganza, this movie has a clear and uplifting moral theme about the virtue of forgiveness and the chaos of vengeance: as glamorous as the black spidey-suit of vengeance is, we are all better off in life to don the red spidey suit of justice.

There have been complaints that Spiderman III is too long, but this critic was not bothered by the film's length. I could watch Spiderman III twice standing on my head, except that other people in the theater would probably complain about that, and I don't think I'd keep my balance standing on my head for 4 hours and 40 minutes.

I give the film three out of four stars (***).

Therapeutic Value

Now I generally don't like music videos. But this one by Cake is hilarious (plus it's a good song). Just goes to show you don't always need a big budget to make something decent - just a good idea. Apologies if this is old news, but I gave up watching MTV a long time ago, so I'm a little out of the music video loop.

Here's the link.

Embryo Screening

In London, a clinic has been given permission to assist a couple in "weeding out" embryos which have a genetic disorder that results in the child having a squint. The man who was granted the license carries the logic further:

When asked if he would screen embryos for factors like hair colour, he said: "If there is a cosmetic aspect to an individual case I would assess it on its merits.

"[Hair colour] can be a cause of bullying which can lead to suicide. With the agreement of the HFEA, I would do it.

Read the article at telegraph.co.uk and remember to replace the word embryo with person.

LifeSite has a much better version of the story.

The Week in Review

For the past week, George McFly's Left Hook headquarters have been experiencing power outages, hence the lack of new content on the blog. It must have been very difficult for my readers to be without this valuable resource of news and current events for so long; I apologize for the inconvenience, and would like to thank all of you for your patience.

The good news is that no noteworthy events have occurred during the past week, so I would advise my readers to simply continue using this blog as if last week didn't happen; the blog will continue to maintain your mental readiness for participation in enriching discussions of all events and topics bearing cultural and/or political import.

I know what you're saying to yourself right now: "How can George say that there has been NO news for the past week when EVERYONE is talking about Sasha Pavlovic's game-saving block for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday?". Well, to answer that I'll just point out that the Cavs are the best basketball team in the world, so its not really "news" when something like this happens.