So I started watching Firefly a few weeks after the premiere, and never really got into it when it was on TV. That’s partly because the network never let Joss Whedon actually present Firefly the way it needed to be presented. And I meant to, but never got around, to buying the DVD set. Then came the movie, which I frankly didn’t see because I hadn’t seen the series. So finally, a few months ago, I used my Amazon gift certificates and bought the series and movie, then wound up lending them to a friend before I saw them, because I was busy working and when I wasn’t, I was watching my Gilmore Girl DVDs. There’s really only room for one TV series at a time.

Once my last job ended, and I had more time on my hands, I retrieved the DVDs from my friend and started watching.

Whoof.

Shoulda done this years ago.

Now I’m all bummed out because there’s only one season to obsess over, and it’s likely there won’t be anything beyond the movie. It really didn’t do that well. And people have moved on.

But there are the episodes. And the soundtrack. I love that music. It keeps playing in my head, especially the cello and violin pieces.

When I try to choose a favorite episode, I’m torn between Out of Gas and Objects in Space. Or Shindig. I really like Shindig.

If you have never seen this show, you are missing a wonderful thing.

Looks like they got away with more than just murder. But we already knew that.

Only one-fifth of the property that was stolen from Europe’s Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators has ever been returned, leaving at least $115 billion in assets still missing, according to a new study obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

Many Western European governments paid restitution for only a fraction of the stolen real estate, investments, businesses and household items, while Eastern European countries under Soviet control paid almost nothing at all, according to the study.

Even the highly publicized campaigns over the past decade for more complete compensation barely made a dent in the problem, said the study, compiled by economist Sidney Zabludoff, a former CIA and U.S. Treasury official.

Elan Steinberg, a former executive director of World Jewish Congress who helped spearhead the 1990s push for Holocaust restitution, said he was “shocked, but not surprised” by the study’s figures and called for a rapid resolution to the problem to benefit destitute, elderly Holocaust survivors.

“This is an extraordinary finding and what makes it most tragic is that despite the efforts at restitution, we have so many Holocaust survivors at the end of their days … who are not being taken care of,” he said.

Zabludoff’s study showed that before the Holocaust, Jews owned property in Europe that was worth between $10 billion and $15 billion at the time. Most of that was never repaid, translating into a missing $115 billion to $175 billion in current dollars, the study said.

So, you think anything will be done about it?

There is little chance of a new push for restitution because Western European governments feel they already did their share, Eastern European governments feel they are too poor, Jewish groups are too splintered to mount a major campaign and the U.S. and Israeli governments are too preoccupied with other issues, the study said.

Uh-huh. But that Holocaust, it was a myth, see, and since it was a myth, this property was never stolen in the first place, see, and—well, you get the drift.

And if you think there’s going to be a change in the future, think again. The international commission that is guarding the secrecy of the Nazi archives in Germany is still not letting anyone in to look at them.

Just a thought: Among other things are lists of the belongings of Holocaust victims. Not letting anyone in until those survivors that are left die off would be another way to prevent restitution.

This is why I laugh when people tell me that Islam has any relation to feminism.

The Saudi Gazette reported that a Saudi man who demanded SR100,000 from his daughter in return for allowing her to marry has been disallowed custody rights by the General Shariah Court, according to the Al-Madina newspaper.

The daughter, 35, who sued her father in court, said he had been turning away all the men who proposed to her until she came up with SR100,000.

Her father listed for the court all the funds he had spent on raising her, and stressed that he simply did not want any relationship with his daughter or to see her after she pays him the stated amount and would relinquish custody of her.

His daughter made it clear to the court she didn’t possess that amount of money.

The salient point: The woman is 35 years old. She cannot marry because her father never gave her permission. This is the Saudi version of Sharia law.

In his verdict, the judge mentioned the father had no right to ask for the money he spent on his daughter because it was his obligation as a guardian, as decreed in the Koran.

The judge will appoint her brother as guardian.

Now she is 35 years old and has a brother as a guardian. Wow, what progress! Maybe by the time her daughter’s 35, she’ll be able to drive in Saudi Arabia.

Naaaaah.