Entertainer of the Year

Frank Rich on the United States:

"... a country where
     entertainment is god"

In another country:

Question:

"Que pasa, pendejo?"

-- Question in a music video,
   "You Save Me," by last night's
    Academy of Country Music
    Entertainer of the Year

Answer:

"Yolanda King founded and led Higher Ground Productions, billed as a
'gateway for inner peace, unity and global transformation.'" --New York Times

"Yolanda King’s Lecture Performances are tailored to suit your company’s
immediate need for a critical and timely message delivered with a
high-level of entertainment value." --Higher Ground Productions

From the five log24 entries
ending with "Dinner Theater?"
(linked to in yesterday afternoon's
Perspective on the News):

Frank Rich has the last word:

"A 'moral values' crusade
that stands between a TV show
this popular and
its audience
will quickly learn the limits
of its power in a country
where entertainment is god."

From this morning's New York Times:

"In April, Wiccans won an important victory when the Department of Veterans Affairs
settled a lawsuit and agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of
approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans' headstones....

Many Wiccans practice some form of magic or witchcraft, which they say
is a way of affecting one's destiny, but which many outsiders see as
evil. The Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star inside a circle, is
often confused with symbols of Satanism."

"Don't underestimate the Force."

The New York Times, Nov. 22, 2004:

"The Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University [at Lynchburg, Virginia] is part of a movement
around the nation that brings a religious perspective to the law."

Religious perspective:

See the five Log24 entries ending with "Dinner Theater?" (Nov. 26, 2004).  Note Charles Williams's discussion of the Salem witchcraft trials.

See also yesterday's "Seven Bridges."  In light of that entry's picture of Nicole Kidman in "To Die For," and of Charles Williams's remarks, a discussion of Kidman's "Practical Magic" may also interest some.

The title of the Robert Stone
novel comes from Emily Dickinson:

A Wife -- at daybreak I shall be --
Sunrise -- Hast thou a Flag for me?
At Midnight, I am but a Maid,
How short it takes to make a Bride --
Then -- Midnight, I have passed from thee
Unto the East, and Victory --

Midnight -- Good Night! I hear them call,
The Angels bustle in the Hall --
Softly my Future climbs the Stair,
I fumble at my Childhood's prayer
So soon to be a Child no more --
Eternity, I'm coming -- Sire,
Savior -- I've seen the face -- before!