annika's journal
annika's journal
...it's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there...
Last year i had this New Year's Eve message for you all:
What a year it's been. i almost hate to see 2004 go. But it's time to celebrate an even more exciting year to come. Wow, 2005 already!The same message is appropriate today, except for the part about hating to see this year go. 2004 was a tough year to top, and 2005 didn't do it, blog-wise.Have a great NYE everybody! Be safe. You know the drill: designate a driver and don't forget to bundle up when you're out in the weather. Don't want to start the year off with a nasty cold.
Thanks for all your many kindnesses this past year, and for just stopping by to read my nonsense. i love you all and i'll see you next year!
i think 2006 will be a lot more exciting, both personally and for current events to write about. Good luck to all of you in the new year too! i look forward to continuing this electronic relationship we got going.
Until next year!
XOXO
Starting tomorrow, California teens will be subject to two new laws.
Thanks to the passage of Assembly Bill 646, children can no longer put holes in their heads without parental permission. The measure by Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, R_Lancaster, bans body piercing of a minor without a parent being present or sending notarized consent.and
Assembly Bill 1474 Bans new teenage drivers, their first year, from driving between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. unless accompanied by an adult 25 or older or traveling to school, work or to a medical appointment.Poor kids. Having to tell your parents before you get your ears pierced or go on a beer run can be quite a hassle. What if they say no?
On the other hand, you can still kill a baby anytime you want without telling anyone, so it's not all bad news for the kids. And really, it's all about the kids ain't it?
Dear Peter Jackson.
i love what you guys are doing with claymation these days, but three hours of watching a monkey grimace is a bit much, don't you think?
your fan,
annika
p.s. i mean, there's only so many ways an ape can make a sad face, you know what i mean? Geez, Roddy McDowell figured that out back in the seventies.
thanks again,
annie
p.p.s. The dino stampede was nice, but Spielberg already did one. Remember? Plus, i don't think a .45 caliber tommy gun is going to do much against a velociraptor, let alone a brontosaurus an apatosaurus, except make it madder.
luv ya,
a
p.p.p.s. Me again. Sorry, i just don't get the whole "girl loves monkey" thing. You know, Adrian Brody may not be the handsomest dude out there, but he does have a certain charm. At the very least, a cute blonde with a nice figure like Naomi Watts, shouldn't have to settle for a simian.
nika
p.p.p.p.s. i thought about my last p.s. and i should have added that i did find myself having feelings for the big furry primate by the end of the deal. Why'd you have to kill him?
byee
p.p.p.p.p.s. Who knew Jack Black could carry a whole picture? Oh, and if you wanted to cast Nicole Kidman, but she was unavailable, you couldn't have found a better facsimile than Naomi Watts. There were moments when i thought i was looking at Nicole for a second. Interesting that the two of them grew up in Australia and are actually close friends.
yours truly,
nika
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. The biplanes looked totally fake. It kind of ruined it for me. Biplanes move a lot slower in real life than you showed them. Maybe most people wouldn't notice that, but i'm kind of a biplane nut.
ceeya,
babs
p.p.p.p.p.p.p.s. i swear this is the last one. i thought the original KK was overrated. i've actually heard it referred to as the "greatest American film" ever, which is ridiculous. Like nobody's made a better movie since 1933? Come on. Your remake certainly was better. And you outdid the De Laurentiis version too. (But then De Laurentiis's sucked.) In all honesty Peter, i think you are a modern day DeMille. Keep making epics, you're good at them. i'll keep seeing them.
This King Kong was like three movies in one. The first hour was a trip through depression era New York. Nicely done. i love imagining what different periods of history looked like, and you really brought it alive for me.
The second hour was an action thriller, with monsters and lots of creepy-crawlies. It was fun, although it almost succumbed to the "Temple Of Doom" syndrome (too much action) in places. Not to worry though, i figured i could afford to miss at least one perilous escape to go relieve my bladder, and i was right.
The third act was the tragedy. No surprises there, and it may have been the weakest part of the movie. Like i said, the whole gorilla - blonde love association thing is just not believable. They must have known they couldn't have a future together. i mean, how would they do it? It's a stretch.
But overall, i'd give your KK a 3 stars on the Netflix scale ("liked it"). Definitely worth seeing, although it's an hour too long.
luvs,
annie bananie
i love my new Nano. It's the perfect size. If it were any smaller, you wouldn't have anything to hold on to. If it were any thinner, you might bend it. And it's so pretty, it's like a work of art. When it finally craps out i'm going to sell it on eBay for a profit. i wish i had kept my original Walkman, i could have made a few bucks off it.
Interestingly, i just got done listening to "Night Prowler," by AC/DC, which ends with the words "nano nano." How cool is that?
Now there's a problem with warrantless radiation monitoring? How could anybody possibly object to that?
i give up. i really give up.
Why don't we just propose a new law next year to quiet all the critics? The Unconditional Surrender Act of 2006. It might look like this:
<sarcasm>
AN ACT</sarcasm>To restore the United States of America to the safety of its pre September 11, 2001 status. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
TITLE ISection 101 FINDINGS
Congress makes the following findings:
(a) Life in the United States of America was easier when we didn't realize that there were people out there trying to kill us.
(b) Protecting the citizens of the United States from future terrorist attacks necessarily requires that difficult choices be made.
(c) Certain interest groups, including the news media, are very quick to criticize
anyevery action taken by a Republican president, no matter how sensible such action may be.(d) The elected members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America lack the collective guts to do the right thing in the face of media criticism or opposition by various nut-jobs such as Michael Moore or Cindy Sheehan and their ilk.
(e) By returning to a strategy of doing nothing and ignoring its enemies, Congress can invite a future attack on the territory and citizens of the United States of America.
(f) Such a future attack can be blamed on the President of the United States of America, thus allowing the Senate and House of Representatives to escape blame and responsibility therefor, and making it more likely that a change of political party control will occur in the executive and legislative branches of the government of the United States.
Section 102 SENSE OF CONGRESSIt is the sense of Congress that:
(a) People who have nothing to hide, generally do not complain about surveillance as much as those who do.
(b) People who oppose the use of the United States military are generally louder than those who support the United States military.
(c) Critics in the media, academia, and the entertainment industry will be satisfied only when the government of the United States gets out of the way of the people who want to kill us.
TITLE IISection 201 USE OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY
(a) Effective immediately, all operations by all personnel of the United States Department of Defense shall cease.
(b) All personnel and equipment under the authority and control of the United States Department of Defense, and located outside of the territory of the United States of America, shall be returned to locations within the United States of America as soon as practicable, and in no event later than thirty days from the date of enactment of this law.
(c) Hereafter, the use of any personnel, equipment or assets under the authority and control of the United States Department of Defense shall be limited to either of the following:
(1) The distribution of food, medicine and currency to the heads of state, or their representatives, of the following countries only: Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Brunei, Chad, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt, Gambia, Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen. For purposes of this subsection, the phrase "heads of state or their representatives" shall include warlords and/or members of the executive branch of the United Nations General Assembly.(2) The evacuation of American citizens under violent attack or after release from hostage captivity in the above listed countries.
Section 202 FOREIGN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES(a) Effective immediately, all diplomatic relations between the United States of America and the state of Israel shall be severed and all diplomatic officers withdrawn and returned to their respective states.
(b) The 1949 Recognition of the State of Israel by the United States, is hereby rescinded, revoked and withdrawn.
Section 203 HOMELAND SECURITYEffective immediately,
(a) The United States Department of Customs and Border Protection shall be renamed the United States Department of Welcome and Transit.
(b) Every person located within the United States of America, or within any of its territories or possessions, either now or at any time in the future, who is not already a citizen of the United States, shall be deemed a citizen of the United States with all the rights pertaining thereto. Citizenship conferred to any person under this section shall:
(1) automatically extend to all members of said person's family, whether located within or outside the territory of the United States, and(c) No person travelling on a commercial airliner within the United States of America shall be searched or in any way impeded or delayed from entry into any airport terminal or airplane, unless he or she:(2) shall remain irrevocable in perpetuity, regardless of any criminal acts, including treason.
(1) is over the age of 70 years, or under the age of 10 years, and(d) No interception of any electronic communications by anyone shall ever be conducted upon anyone, ever, for any reason whatsoever.(2) cannot claim ancestry from any of the countries listed in Title II of this Act, Section 201, subsection (c)(1), and
(3) is not carrying any weapon, explosive device or apparatus for remote detonation of an explosive device.
(e) No person shall ever be arrested, investigated, kept under surveillance, watched or glanced at in a sideways manner if that person:
(1) is an immigrant from, can claim ancestry from, or ever spent time in a terrorist training camp in any of the countries listed in Title II of this Act, Section 201, subsection (c)(1),(2) advocates or encourages any act of terrorism against citizens of the United States, or contributes money to any terrorist organization or enemy of the United States.
Section 204 TREATMENT AND INTERROGATION OF PRISONERS(a) No person shall ever be taken prisoner by any member of the United States Military, or any agent of a United States intelligence service, or any officer of any law enforcement agency operating within the United States if such person has committed, planned or conspired to commit a terrorist act, or in any way taken up arms against the military forces of the United States or those of any ally of the United States.
(b) All persons currently in custody for the above listed acts shall be immediately and permanently released, without interrogation, and after a full meal.
(c) All persons so released shall be provided legal counsel, at government expense, for the purpose of pursuing civil recovery for torts committed upon them while in government custody.
i'm still trying to think of an acronymic title for this bill.
These days, whenever something goofy turns up on the news, chances are it involves some fellow called Mohammed. A plane flies into the World Trade Center? Mohammed Atta. A gunman shoots up the El Al counter at Los Angeles airport? Hesham Mohamed Hedayet. A sniper starts killing gas-station customers around Washington, DC? John Allen Muhammed. A guy fatally stabs a Dutch movie director? Mohammed Bouyeri. A terrorist slaughters dozens in Bali? Noordin Mohamed. A British subject from Hounslow, West London, self-detonates in a Tel Aviv bar? Asif Mohammed Hanif. A gang rapist preys on the women of Sydney? Mohammed Skaf.Via Shelly.Maybe all these Mohammeds are victims of Australian white racists and American white racists and Dutch white racists and Israeli white racists and Balinese white racists and Beslan schoolgirl white racists. But the eagerness of the Aussie and British and Canadian and European media, week in, week out, to attribute each outbreak of an apparently universal phenomenon to strictly local factors is starting to look pathological. "Violence and racism are bad," but so is self-delusion.
For more background on Sydney's problem, see The Rise Of Middle Eastern Crime In Australia.
Via A Western Heart.
Here's an old version of a Christmas Hymn, which is different than the one i'm used to singing.
Christmas Hymnby Charles Wesley
Hark! how all the welkin rings
Glory to the King of kings!
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
Universal nature say,
Christ the Lord is born to-day!
Christ by highest Heaven adored,
Christ, the Everlasting Lord;
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of a Virgin’s womb:
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’ Incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to appear,
Jesus our Immanuel here!
Hail! the heavenly Prince of Peace!
Hail! the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home!
Rise, the Woman’s conquering Seed,
Bruise in us the Serpent’s head!
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore,
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine!
Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface;
Stamp Thy image in its place;
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love!
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the Heavenly Man:
O! to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart!
I spent a lot of years as a line prosecutor at the Department of Justice, and as the head of the Criminal Division in this building. Many of the tools which we are talking about using in the patriot act against terrorists are tools that have been used for years in the decades against drug dealers, or people involved in white collar crime. And they've been used effectively and they've been used without there being a significant impact on civil liberties.Well put.The question I ask myself when I hear people criticize roving wiretaps, for example, is, why is this something that we use successfully and prudently in the area of dealing with marijuana importers, but yet a tool that people want to deny us in the war against people who want to import chemical weapons or explosives. That makes no sense to me.
Why is it, for example, that delayed notification search warrants, which again, we use in all kinds of garden variety criminal cases, with the supervision of a judge, why should that tool be denied to our investigators when they're seeking to go into a house with a search warrant to see if there are explosives there, or other kinds of weapons that can be used against Americans.
[It's] Common sense [that] the tools that have been used without any significant impact on civil liberties in a wide variety of cases over the last 10 or 20 years, ought to continue to be available here against perhaps the greatest threat we face in this country, which is the threat of terror.
After Kobe drops 62 on the Mavs in only three quarters, you gotta wonder if Wilt's record might be in danger. Wilt's 100 point game in 1962, for the Philadelphia Warriors, always seemed to me like a more unbreakable record than Hank's 755 or Maris' 61. Wilt's record survived all 3 Michael Jordan eras. But i think Kobe can, and should do it. Apparently, he took himself out of the game last night. If Kobe wanted to, against the right defense, he could get to 101. Unlike Wilt, Kobe is almost automatic at the line, and he's got the advantage of a three point shot that didn't exist in 1962. i'd love to see it happen.
Germany has "secretly" released the Hezbollah murderer of an American Navy diver.
Apparently ignoring Washington's extradition request for Mohammed Ali Hamadi, German authorities have secretly released the Lebanese Hezbollah member who was serving a life sentence in the country for the hijacking of a TWA jet and for the murder of a US navy diver.Nice going krauts.German prosecutors confirmed the release of Mohammed Ali Hamadi, now in his late 30s, to the Associated Press and said he was flown back to Lebanon last week.
Hamadi was convicted in 1989 by a German court of killing US Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem during the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight diverted to Beirut. He was sentenced to life without parole. His sentence is one Germany reserves for the most serious and cruel crimes. It is difficult but not impossible to release someone who receives such a sentence after 15 years.
Two observations occur to me. One, this secret release is not so secret, is it? Nice to see that leaks are not something unique to the American government.
Second, this guy was supposedly sentenced to the worst sentence you can get in a place without the death penalty: life without the possibility of parole. Except NOW HE'S FREE!
That's kind of an argument for the death penalty, don't you think? At least in cases of international terrorism, where the continued earthly existence of the criminal becomes a blackmail opportunity for terrorists.
Germany, an entire nation with no balls.
Not many people know that, for Catholics, some sort of penance is advised during the Advent season as well as during Lent. So this year i have decided that my Advent sacrifice should be to see ten movies in the next fourteen days.
i call it a sacrifice because the quality of Hollywood movies in recent years has not given me much hope that this will be an enjoyable experience. Plus, i intend to blog about each one, and lately, wringing a decent blog post out of my head has been a difficult task.
i am in Los Angeles until after the new year, so i will have the advantage of being able to see a lot of the limited release films that are already creating a buzz, such as Spielberg's Munich and Woody Allen's Match Point (a must see for me, since i love tennis.)
The boyfriend will be joining me next week, and he has indicated that he will help me cross the finish line on this goal, as long as "that cowboy movie" isn't one of the ten films.
i hope my Advent sacrifice, and the blog posts it generates, will be of some interest to you all. Besides, it's Christmas break, and what else have i got to do with my time? Otherwise i might spend it playing videogames with my bro, or eating and drinking way too much.
Bush seems to have his own "no controlling legal authority" problem now. He's straining the war powers and the congressional use of force resolution to justify his domestic wiretapping without a warrant. Well, after one semester of Con Law, i think i have found a way out of this mess. Simply invoke the Commerce Clause. It means whatever you want it to mean, you can use it to do anything, and Courts love expanding it. Only problem is getting it to cover executive action, but i'll leave that up to Alberto. Let him earn his keep and give some good advice for once.
Christiane Amanpour delivered the Democratic response to the president's speech on the Iraq War tonight. In a nutshell, she said we're losing.
Other democratic responses included the following:
Halliburton Halliburton. Bush spied, people died. Iraqis flying kites. Need specifics specifics timetable timetable pullout pullout. No WMDs.
blah blah blah blah zzzzzzzzz clunk.
i know what wills are, but what's a trust? i kind of zoned out by the middle of the semester in that class.
On the other hand, i am considering legally changing my name to "the evidence queen."
See that girl, she knows the F.R.E.,Oh yeah!
diggin' the evidence queen!
Today is a great day for freedom. i think it's entirely fitting that i have chosen this day to announce the biggest event in the blogosphere's short history. Today is the long awaited launch day for Nose In The Air Media.
What is Nose In The Air Media, you say? Perhaps you've noticed the new icon on my sidebar, under blogging affiliations. Go ahead and look. See it?
Nose In The Air Media is the brainchild of blogger annika, of annika's journal. That's me. i made the whole thing up. The editorial board consists of me. The graphics designer is me. i'm the CEO, CFO, COO, judge, jury and executioner. i do all the work and i get all the credit.
Here's what Nose In The Air Media is all about:
Nose In The Air Media is not a club.
You don't have to join Nose In The Air Media to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to be invited into Nose In The Air Media. Just like some other hoity-toity blogging cabals, you might find yourself waiting forever.
If you are reading this, and you want to be in, you're in.
And you'll want to be in. It's that cool.
You don't have to be a "big time" blogger to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to get linked by any "big time" bloggers to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to have been interviewed by Time Magazine to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to be remotely interesting to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't even have to have a blog to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to have a cool site design to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to be a conservative to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to be a liberal to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to be political to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to wear pajamas to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to wear anything.
Your front page can load in less than five minutes and you can still be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to like annika's journal to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to link to annika's journal to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't even have to de-link annika's journal to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to have been mentioned in Hugh Hewitt's book to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You can have a crappy template and be in Nose In The Air Media.
You can say fuck on your blog and be in Nose In The Air Media.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck.
You don't have to be hot to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to pay dues to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to be high on the Ecosystem to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't even have to know what the Ecosystem is to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to care at all.
You can post about shit and still be in Nose In The Air Media.
No one is going to kick you out of Nose In The Air Media for hatin' on me.
You'll get no money for being in Nose In The Air Media.
In fact, there's absolutely no advantage to being in Nose In The Air Media.
We have no blogroll.
We have no bankroll.
You don't have to post any icons.
You don't have to link to any other members.
There aren't any other members anyway.
You don't have to take part in any carnivals.
You won't get bombarded by a kazillion spam emails.
You can post as much as you want, or as little as you want, if you join Nose In The Air Media.
You can join Nose In The Air Media, and then quit, and then join again, and then quit again, and then join again, and then quit again, as many times as you like.
There are no celebrities in Nose In The Air Media and being in Nose In The Air Media will not make you a celebrity.
In fact, you can be in Nose In The Air Media and still respond to e-mails from non-celebrities who read your blog. Your head won't even explode.
You don't have to have a clever name to be in Nose In The Air Media.
If you're in Nose In The Air Media, you won't be required to agree with everything that the famous big blogger of the week says.
On the other hand, the famous big blogger of the week won't ever link to you if you're in Nose In The Air Media, even though he or she reads you regularly. But then, they weren't linking to you anyway, so that's no big loss.
You don't have to be a member - of - a - discrete - interest - group - that's - usually - thought - of - as - left - leaning - whose - conservative - views - have - made - you - a - darling - of - the - big - bloggers, to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to be all overly serious and self-important to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to have a law degree to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to be a journalist to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to be any kind of jerk to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to be a nun or a minister to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You can smoke pot and be in Nose In The Air Media.
You can even blog about sex and be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to have a paypal button to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to solicit money for projects that you promise to do, then forget all about the project, but keep the money anyway, to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to use a fake name to be in Nose In The Air Media.
It's okay to correspond with your visitors when you're in Nose In The Air Media.
It's okay to be one of the little people when you're in Nose In The Air Media.
Even when your blog is ranked higher on the Ecosystem than many so-called "big time" don't-bother-me-I'm-so-serious blogs, not that you care about that shit anyway because it's all bullshit, and you're not competitive in that way, except for just a little bit.
It's okay to hit a paragraph break every once in a while when you're in Nose In The Air Media.
It's not necessary to have a blog ad with a grainy picture of a guy doing isometric push-ups on your sidebar if you want to be in Nose In The Air Media.
You can actually read and comment at other people's blogs when you are in Nose In The Air Media.
In fact there are almost no rules for being in Nose In The Air Media.
You don't have to be great.
You don't have to be more popular.
You don't have to be more interesting.
You don't have to be funnier.
You don't have to be better than any other blogger out there.
In fact there's only one prerequisite for being in Nose In The Air Media.
You have to THINK you're better than everyone else.
And if you can do that, welcome. You're in.
In honor of Peter Jackson's latest film, here is some ape poetry:
Teaching The Ape To Write Poemsby James Tate
They didn't have much trouble
teaching the ape to write poems:
first they strapped him into the chair,
then tied the pencil around his hand
(the paper had already been nailed down).
Then Dr. Bluespire leaned over his shoulder
and whispered into his ear:
"You look like a god sitting there.
Why don't you try writing something?"
Caught with their pants down again. You simply cannot trust the media to report the truth.
The media is on the side of the enemy.
Update: President Bush has now given four major speeches in recent weeks on the Iraq War. i see a new pattern emerging.
1. Democrats complain that Bush needs to explain his Iraq policy.
2. Republicans* admit Bush hasn't done a good job of explaining Iraq policy.
3. Bush explains Iraq policy in a major speech.
4. Media ignores major speech, but pulls one negative quote for headlines. ("30,000 civilians killed" or "Bush takes blame for faulty intel")
5. Go to #1, repeat cycle.
And in the meantime, everybody ignores the fact that Iraq continues to improve every day.
_______________
* myself included.
Atlanta at home vs. New Orleans. Atlanta favored by 10½. Atlanta will cover, no prob.
Here's proof that the smackdown Howard Dean received last week is doing some good:
So go easy on Howie, not only is he working hard to elect the next Republican Congress and President, he's a friend of annika's journal.
What the hell, i just found out that Clareified got nominated for Best Liberal Blog. i've been so busy with finals that i haven't even looked at the contest and i wasn't planning on voting for anybody this year. Sour grapes and all that.
But i'll make an exception for Dawn, and i urge every reader of annika's journal to go forth now and vote for Clareified!
More: As of this writing, my blog is #135 on the Ecosystem, just two places behind disgusting fatbody Oliver Wills. And i've done shit on this blog for the last year and a half, which should tell you something about fat Ollie, or the Ecosystem, or whatever.
An interesting interview with the one-time legend, now cranky drooler, Mike Wallace appeared in Thursday's Boston Globe. The irony of Wallace's answers to the first couple of questions was funny.
Q. President George W. Bush has declined to be interviewed by you. What would you ask him if you had the chance?Gee, i wonder why the President turned down an interview.A. What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?
My first thought was that most of these questions could have been more appropriately directed to President Clinton, or President Carter while they were busy [expletive]-ing up the country in ways that our current President is now trying to fix.
And then, after showing what a blatantly biased hack he is, Wallace had the nerve to wonder why nobody cares about tv news anymore.
The days of Walter Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley are gone. People still do watch, but it doesn't have the clout that it used to have. I don't know what's going to happen or if there will be an evening news 10 years from now.Totally clueless.
Then Wallace is asked who he admired the most, out of all the people he's ever interviewed.
Martin Luther King. . . . Despite the gratitude he felt for what Lyndon Johnson did about relations between the races, Martin had the guts during the Vietnam War to say this is the wrong war, the wrong time, the wrong place.That's unbelievable. Read it again, because the quote really gives us an insight into Wallace's mind.
Look at the choice of words: "gratitude" and "what Lyndon Johnson did." Wallace doesn't admire Martin Luther King for King's Civil Rights accomplishments. He clearly thinks those were gifts from the "great white father," LBJ.
Wallace thinks the most admirable thing about King was his opposition to the Vietnam War!
i don't know how anyone can gloss over King's great achievements, what he did to bring real voting rights, end segregation and Jim Crow, and change the way Americans think about themselves, and then say duhh, I liked him cuz he was anti-war.
Go away Mike Wallace, you had your day. Now you're just irritating.
Arnold is supposed to announce his Tookie decision today. He's not given me any reason to believe that he won't wimp out. i predict clemency.
Update: i would like to apologize now to Tookie Williams for predicting clemency. i should have known that i was probably jinxing his chances with the way my predictions have gone this year.
i suppose he can add me to the list of "motherfuckers" he warned at the end of his trial in 1981:
After the jury read their guilty verdict Williams, according to transcripts, looked to jurors and mouthed: 'I'm going to get each and every one of you motherf------.'Nice guy. Good riddance.
Here's a quote worth thinking about:
Man nurtures the suspicion that God, at the end of the day, takes something away from his life, that God is a competitor who limits our freedom and that we will be fully human only when we will have set him aside . . . There emerges in us the suspicion that the person who doesn't sin at all is basically a boring person, that something is lacking in his life, the dramatic dimension of being autonomous, that the freedom to say 'no' belongs to real human beings.Overcome the temptation of a mediocre life, made of compromises with evil.
i did a search for Pearl Harbor poetry and i came up with this one, by Walt McDonald, published in Valparaiso Poetry Review.
It's nice, but this next one, also by McDonald is really nice, and still timely.
The War In BosniaUnder darkness of stars our son flies
over Bosnia, keeping watch over snow.
Apache gunships will be out tonight.The moon on foreign snowfields highlights
bodies running under trees, friend or foe.
Under darkness of stars our son flieswith star scope and rockets and wide eyes
over war zones bitter enemies know.
Apache gunships will be out tonight.What keeps a nation armed and justifies
air power is such a killing field—we know,
but under darkness of stars our son flies.In boots and parka, someone watches the skies
and owns disposable Stingers, and is cold.
Apache gunships will be out tonight.I conjure God to stop him, warp his sights.
I stare with the prayer all fathers know.
Under darkness of stars our son flies.
Apache gunships will be out tonight.
i took a mid-week study break this afternoon and saw Aeon Flux. This is an interesting movie to review because audience expectations can be all over the map. The original MTV cartoon has a cult following, so i imagine those viewers would be the most discerning. i liked the original cartoon, without being obsessed by it. i wanted to see it because i like sci-fi post-apocalyptic shit, especially with a kick-ass heroine. My boyfriend, of course, went along with the hope of seeing some t&a.
i would give Aeon Flux a solid three stars (liked it) on the Netflix five star scale. i wasn't expecting greatness, only coolness, which it delivered.
My first introduction to Charlize Theron was The Legend Of Bagger Vance, which i saw in a hotel room on free HBO. i still felt ripped off. She was horrible in that lemon of a movie. The second time i saw her she was partying with an apple, and the third time i saw her she was partying in orange.
But Charlize is a big star now, because she's won an Oscar. She deserves another nomination for having never blinked once during all 93 minutes of Aeon Flux. Nobody blinks in this movie, check it out, it's freaky.
The plot is this: Aeon Flux is a 25th century assassin, and part of a high-tech underground rebellion against a mildly oppressive government a la Logan's Run without the chanting crowds. She's sent on a mission to kill the head honcho, but once she gets there, she finds out that things are more complicated than they at first seemed. They never are in these types of movies. But thankfully the plot wasn't too convoluted for my finals-fatigued brain to follow.
There are at least two requisite bitch brawls, which aren't too bad, action wise. There's minimal reliance on sci-fi gadgetry, which i count as a good thing. The atmospherics can't quite match up to the original, but then the original is a cartoon. You have to inject some humanity into a live-action remake or it would be unwatchable. Still, i think this version captures enough of the original's dreamlike weirdness to satisfy most non-purists.
i wonder where the exteriors were shot. There's a nice balance between futuristic cold concrete and manicured gardens, so the background never looks too sterile. The climactic scene features gently falling cherry blossoms, which was a nice touch.
But my favorite part was the costumes. Chris didn't think there was enough skin, but i have only two words to say about the fashions: wedge heels. i think you know how i feel about this year's must-have boot. They're on my Xmas list. Charlize shows that you can run in them, snap a dude's neck like a twig in them, and still look good in a crouch. And she does do a lot of crouching, but why not, her ass was made to be in spandex.
Charlize spends most of the time in Aeon's signature black bodysuit, but her grand entrance is in a 25th century hooded leather suit that's too hot to describe, and the stills do not do it justice. She also wears a very svelte white number in one scene, that i like a lot. But above all else, it's the boots that make this movie, baby.
So, to sum up: i liked it. It's a little too short for me to recommend paying full price though. See it on matinee like i did, or wait for the DVD.
Today is the 37th anniversary of Elvis Presley's 1968 Comeback Special, a legendary event in music history.
From NME.com:
By the mid-'60s, The King was washed-up, so his detractors claimed. The world was being wowed by the experimentalism of The Beatles, the Stones' dirty rock'n'roll, the string-drenched sonic onslaught of Phil Spector. Presley was a distant memory, an anachronism, remembered mainly for his decline from hip-swivelling slick-haired rock Adonis to slightly campy balladeer sleepwalking through a string of bad movies. Then, in 1968, after years absent from live performance, Elvis decided to put on a show in Las Vegas, go back to his musical roots, perform some rock'n'roll standards with a stripped-down band, recapture the raw energy that characterized his '50s heyday.It should've been a disaster - like, who was this old nark with his bad hair and blues standards? But no! He gathered together a coterie of brilliant musicians, including ace guitarist James Burton, slung on a leather jacket and a six-string, and got up onstage and blew everyone away.
He kicked off with 'Blue Suede Shoes', went on to do 'The Wonder Of You' which stayed at Number One in the UK for six weeks, joked with the band, improvised, messed around, looked cool, and won millions of fans back. From then on, until his death in '77, he remained The King, and his crown was never threatened again.
Ok, so i joined the Frappr! bandwagon. Whatever, i'm a sheep. Put yourself on the map before this whole Frappr! craze blows over.
Is more movies about a family with a zillion kids.
<sarc>Keep them coming please.</sarc>
Ten Marines were killed by a roadside bomb near Fallujah today. This is tragic, obviously, and i'm exasperated that we haven't killed all them fuckers yet. But really, it only takes a couple of lowlifes to plant these bombs, and how many are discovered and destroyed without killing anybody? Yet everytime the enemy gets lucky, the anti-war media (who are on the side of the enemy) use the event to hammer another wedge into our resolve.
Here, Reuters Foundation Alertnet (i'm not sure what that is, but their slogan seems to be "Alerting Humanitarians to Emergencies," whatever that means.) chose to highlight the latest casualties by celebrating some past terrorist successes in Iraq.
Surprise, people die in a war. Civilians die. Soldiers die. Marines die. It's how wars are fought and won and lost. i understand the political reasons for not focusing attention on enemy body counts. It wasn't really a good indicator in Vietnam either. But i do detect a little bit of glee in these left wing media outlets, whenever some of ours die. How about a little perspective? How about a list of the "Deadliest Incidents" for the terrorists since we began kicking their asses over there? That list would be much longer.
But since the media is on the side of the enemy, they wouldn't want to publicize anything that might hurt enemy morale, or boost our own.
Update: Not all of the media is on the side of the enemy. Thank goodness for the exceptions.
Via Sarah.
[The] irony in all these death-penalty stories: A media that typically sees Born-Again Christians as suspect suddenly finds the Born-Again Christian a nobel [sic?] figure. Listen, I have no truck with Born-Agains and I hold them suspect as well, but I find this odd: Having blood on your hands is a forgivable offense; trying to hang the Ten Commandments in a public school makes you a threat to society.
Has anyone ever used the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google?
i haven't. But that's only because in all this excitement i can't remember if he fired six shots or only five.
Punk.
My money is on Randall. He's a team player, who knows when to lead, and when to play the supporting role. His past mistakes have not stuck to him. The chick, on the other hand, will always be remembered for her ill-advised loyalty to that loser friend of hers in one of the earlier episodes. She's good, but can Trump expect that she'll never make another judgment call like that?
It seems this season can't end soon enough for Trump. He axed two last night. Anybody know if the show's been picked up for another season? i think Trump's getting bored with it, like the show is one of his ex-wives.
i'm telling you, i'm perplexed by the media. Why is this a story?
Since early this year, the Information Operations Task Force in Baghdad has used Lincoln Group to plant stories in the Iraqi media that trumpet the successes of U.S. and Iraqi troops against insurgents, U.S.-led efforts to rebuild Iraq, and rising anti-insurgent sentiment among the Iraqi people, according to senior military officials and documents obtained by The Times.So they paid the Iraqi editors to run the stories. So f-ing what. Why is this controversial? Why is this a bad thing? There's a war going on. i guess its only controversial if you don't care who wins. Or if you want the good guys to lose.