Powerful movie, sweet reminder

Saw "Million Dollar Baby" last night, and was very moved. Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, and Hillary Swank were perfection, and they all worked me over throughout the film. Still don't like boxing (though perhaps it is one of the most honest "sports" around), but this film, I liked. The characters rang true, the relationships developed over time, and the ending avoided major Hollywood sappiness. Though Clint and Morgan were surprising and wonderful in their own ways, I think Hillary is her generation's answer to Meryl Streep. Her transformation through training--the rope-skipping sequences in particular--were stunning. Have I carried on enough, have I conveyed my admiration for this film? I hope so! One quibble: Hillary's teeth seemed a bit too perfect for a woman from a desperately poor background, particularly after she started getting hit in the mouth on a regular basis--but then, what do I know? From poverty? From boxing?? Nada/zip/wahloo.

Just came back from giving a dear person a ride to radiation therapy. This person was exceptional, in that she spoke openly about her family--which appears to have been blessed with gay and lesbian children. I was charmed by her matter-of-factness, which suggests to me I have a ways to go to get over my own homo shame, which comes up whenever I meet with people I assume are straight and narrow. Gotta watch that, eh?

Today's moral: Don't buy the Regressive hype! While some of my fellow Americans hate me just for the fact of my sexuality, a lot don't care a whit--and some actively, whole-heartedly love people just like me. What a concept!

And while I love the fact that That Man and his Administration are in hot water for media plants in the White House press pool and beyond, I think the progressive media has got to quit salivating over this story. It's getting a little unseemly.