Mourning the loss of Jennifer

Liverputty will be on hiatus for awhile to honor the passing of a special friend. Jennifer made a positive and lasting impact on those who knew her. She was a wonderful, charming and inspiring person. Words cannot express how much she will be missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her husband and kids.

GOP senators want to give $100 tax rebates to us for gas prices

I'm all for tax rebates, but this is just stupid. Why not just limit the checks to battleground states? I think it would be better if we weaned the government off the gas tax teat.

Encouraging news in Iraq

Not exactly new news, but Iraqis seem to be saying no to civil war and yes unity. Still a ways to go – but at least they’re going. For all the details on good developments in Iraq, go to Edward Copeland’s site…..oops, my mistake….Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

Good job, Bolton!

He managed to get a resolution on Sudan. It should be clear that China only cares about war criminals if they are already dead and Japanese. Pretty pathetic. As usual, you’ll have to scroll past the usually lame cartoon on Captain Ed’s site to get to the post.

Government probes generally screw somebody

So it’s disappointing that Bush called for one on the oil companies. What a waste of tax dollars! Tony Blankley complains about it better than I can.

They’re not exactly “thinkers” are they?

“Peace protestors” hurl gas bombs against Condi Rice. Personally, I’m offended at their lack of concern for the environment.

Pretty clever anti-Bush video

where Bush sings "Imagine" and then lapses into "Give Oppression a Chance".

Vote for the Best of the Best Pictures

There's just a few days left to vote for the best Best Pictures in Edward Copelands survey. I sent my ballot in already. I've heard from several people who said they wouldn't vote because they hadn't seen enough of the movies or felt like they lacked the authority to decide. Fiddle Faddle! Pshaww! Nonsense! You guys should vote anyway. If nothing else, it will help represent the Best Pictures that people got off their duffs to actually watch. Click on Edward's link, and follow the easy instructions. And click here to see the results of Edward Copeland's worst Best Pictures survey. Now I will list my top five pics, the main ones that I care about.


1. Casablanca Try to imagine the Hollywood of today making a bigtime, major melodrama with A-list Stars and a plot ripped from the headlines that also serves as a righteous piece of propaganda, urging people to CHOOSE A SIDE on the major events of the day, and the right side too. Now imagine that every line of dialogue and every plot point quickly becomes a popular cliche, and I mean cliche in the good sense, as in originality with staying power. Can you imagine all this? Are you in the Twilight Zone yet? In an age when most Hollywood movies tend to reverse that famous speech, by having world events and moments of great import not amount to a hill of beans when compared to the problems of three little people, this is the movie that got it right the first time. Casablanca works on so many levels it is mind-blowing. I once watched it just for the continuity, paying attention to how far down Bogie's cigarettes were smoked, and whether the glass on the table was half-full or half-empty, and the movie still kicked ass. I see that imdb says I don't know what I'm talking about; Casablanca has several continuity errors. A couple of these are undeniable, but I would still challenge and beg to differ with most of them. No, I still say the movie kicks ass continuity-wise and all other wises too.
Caveats: None
Quotability Quotient: 100%
Double Featured with: Rossellini's neorealist melodrama Open City.

2. It Happened One Night This Capra movie is pure magic. I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said about the laughs, the romance, and the charisma of its stars. I will add that this ain't no studio bound production. This is a movie that gets out and sees some country. Much of it now works as docu-drama. I love its sketch of the roadside sleeping cabins, with weary travelers standing in line to use the bathhouse. Perfect. A funny, sexy gem that is very modern in its pacing.
Caveats: None. (Don't get suckered into looking for that always-filming-one-side-of-Ms. Colbert's-face thing.)
Quotability Quotient: 92%
Double Featured with: That Uncertain Feeling - very loosely our couple seven years later.

3. Lawrence of Arabia I never understood the critics who compained that after seeing Lawrence of Arabia they still didn't know much about the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence. Whatever. Those guys should try reading The Seven Pillars of Wisdom sometime. Lawrence of Arabia is the ultimate in cinematic teletransportation. I had already fallen in love with it on badly cropped video, but seeing it in glorious 70mm was a true revelation, and I count myself one lucky s.o.b. to have seen it on the big screen twice in Dallas, once at the Castro in San Fran, and a few more times while operating the only 70mm projector in Oklahoma City. Once upon a time, I had to tutor and watch after some preteens. To entertain them, I just ripped off Lawrence and told large chunks of the first half in the first person. Those kids were on the edge of their seats. The sensory experience of Lawrence was so strong that it was easy to tell it like it happened to me.
Caveats: Sure, it's super long, and the second half isn't as tight as the first, but I love the whole thing.
Quotability Quotient: 74%
Double Featured with: It's its own double-feature, so how about something short about Persians, not Arabs, but still nomads, like Merian C. Cooper's Grass.

4. All About Eve Who writes dialogue like this now? I'd say we're no longer worthy. Even today's best practitioners provide only a little fire or some music but never both the Fire and Music that Joseph L. Mankiewicz provided on a regular basis. This is one of the sharpest, most paradigmatic films about theater life, not that I'm in any position to know. And thank god these characters are in the theater, because if you made them all wear little Hitler mustaches and goose-stepped them through the plot, then the rest of the world had better watch out!
Caveats: A tad long.
Quotability Quotient: 99%
Double Featured with: Gregory Peck in The Gunfighter.

5. The Best Years of Our Lives As a kid, I fell in love with this movie right at the beginning, with its long takes of our returning heroes looking out the front of a B-17 as it flies over the home they've been homesick for: Boone City. The audience might get homesick for the movies' portrait of Anywhere, U.S.A. There's great deep-focus camerawork from Gregg Toland, and William Wyler stuffs the screen with wonderful details. I liked the folks in this movie, and the bottom line is I believed it. Sure, this wasn't the whole story after the war (and how could it be?) but with Best Years a whole swath of Americana comes to life.
Caveats: Long and soapy.
Quotability Quotient: 46% The same as its release year. Very weird.
Double Featured with: Let's start the evening with Raoul Walsh's WWII actioner Desperate Journey.

Of course there’s a double-standard!

With half-baked reporting like this, Pincus may be headed for next year’s Pulitzer Prize.

Here’s how the double-standard works: the President can’t “leak” information. He can only release it. The administration has that authority, regardless of any political implications that might exist. In contrast, CIA officials are not authorized to release classified information, unless ordered to do so. Why is that? Because the President is elected and CIA bureaucrats are not. It would be very dangerous for career CIA agents to determine policy. It’s a simple case of separation of powers (like civilian control over the military) – something that Democrats in Congress seem to be quick to cite though slow (if not incapable) to understand.

That’s the double standard - now on to the reporting:

The first thing that bugged me about Walter Pincus’s story is how he chose to describe the McCarthy leak and the release of Plame’s identity. Check it out:

Describing Plamegate –

Harman was referring to White House staff members disclosing the classified identity of CIA case officer Valerie Plame in 2003.

And later on, in describing McCarthy’s leak –

McCarthy, while working for CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson, is alleged to have "knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence, including operational information" to journalists including The Washington Post's Dana Priest.

Now I’m not a journalist and I would invite those Liverputty readers/contributors who have journalism experience to set me straight on the matter: How is it that Pincus makes sure to include “alleged” whenever addressing McCarthy’s leak, even though she reportedly admitted to leaking the information, yet, Pincus does not use “alleged” for the Plamegate accusations, even though 2 years of investigations have not turned up enough evidence for an indictment, let alone a conviction? Pincus’s presumption of innocence seems to be bass ackwards. Is it kosher to assume innocence on someone who has confessed guilt?

And then there’s the more minor matter of McCarthy’s political donations. Pincus does point out that McCarthy donated $2000 to Kerry, but does not mention the remaining $7K of donations she’s made in years past to other Democratic causes. By mentioning the Kerry donations, we do get the picture of her political leanings, but surely the other donations would’ve further hurt the claim that she “leaked” for our national security and not for partisan reasons. Of course, her political donations don’t prove one way or another what the real motives were for the leak, but that’s something a paper should report for the reader to decide, right?

I’ll refrain from criticizing Pincus for seriously reporting on John Kerry’s arguments, as it is hard enough for a person to describe how Kerry comes down on any particular topic without sounding utterly ridiculous, if at all coherent. That Kerry thinks “leaks” that are “true” are acceptable is pretty darn hilarious since it pretty much nullifies any belief that any administration can or should classify anything for any reason. Also, I find Kerry’s (and others’) comparisons between the leaking of black sites and the NSA program with Plamegate to be disingenuous at best - regardless of what the definition of is is. Whether Pincus agrees with Kerry’s rubric for what’s a good or bad leak is beside the point. For the record, I assume Pincus does agree that the NSA leak and black sites leak are good and the efforts to discredit Wilson are bad – but that’s just my assumption.

Damn you, 70's grit!

Why'd you have to go and make Will Penny so lonely?

Okay, so the movie was from 1968...but it brought to mind 70s grit. And those were my words when the credits rolled and I threw my wet hanky at the screen. Will Penny's got to be one of the best Charlton Heston performances I've seen. I was sad with him, nervous with him, embarrassed with him...hell, I even wanted to learn to read with him. Everyone should be able to read. The little button could read - and read real good.

Don't know what I'm gum flappin' about? Watch the movie.

Dog riding bicycle

Not to turn Liverputty into a Worlds Funniest Videos - and I know anyone can pilfer Video Google, but...a dog riding a bicycle.

Funny video

picked off from Ankle Biting Pundits. There's some foul language that may make it unsafe for work.

Nice!

Berlusconi goes out in song. (via Lucianne)

Dana Milbank exercises the bigotry of low expectations

It’s a shame that Hu’s visit sparked all those riots and brick throwings at the Chinese embassy. Wait. I’m reading from the wrong queue card. What were the outrages? Oh yeah, the national anthem was referred to as for the "Republic of China." SCANDAL! But the indignities didn’t stop there. Cheney wore sunglasses. SUNGLASSES! Bush tapped his foot during one of Hu’s answers during the Q & A. And when Hu was trying to crawl off stage, someone tackled him and kicked him in the gut and ripped his jacket off….though on camera it looked like they tugged on his jacket to show him the correct way to leave.

There were more atrocities. The absence of a Chinese flag from the lamp posts. A Falun Gong heckler, which the secret service took three minutes to silence and imprison for life. THREE MINUTES! Vice President Cheney could’ve sobered up and taken off his glasses and confessed to murdering his entourage in that time. Bush knew the gal was a Falun Gong crazy because five years ago she was up to the same heckling tricks - and we all know he scrupuously reads all the papers. Obviously, it was a plot to discredit Hu. When that newsfeed hits Chinese television airwaves, every Chinese subject is going to fetch their torch and will be looking for you know Hu.
Plus, Bush wouldn’t give Hu a dinner, only a lunch. And, to complete the indignities, Bush insisted that Hu wear floppy clown shoes and a rainbow colored wig at the press conference, which clashed with his “Free Tibet” lapel pin. Truly horrible. No wonder the man spent last night crying into his pillow - according to "senior administration officials"!

According to Milbank, this was all terribly costly, as it made Hu too upset to negotiate with later. As a result, Bush couldn’t get Hu to release all his political prisoners, free Tibet, let the KMT absorb the mainland, force N. Korea to give up on nukes, so on and so forth. If only we’d put a Chinese flag on the White House pole and given the man a dinner, we could’ve hade all that stuff! See, according to Milbank’s logic, Hu is too much of a wuss to suffer all those indignities and then turn around and negotiate like a man. By being so darned insensitive, we completely blew an opportunity to bring peace and harmony to the world.

Contrast that with Bush. No leader in the world today has been compared to Hitler more, respected less, called and idiot or a big meany as much, been heckled and shown the correct way off as many stages as him. Does it ever shake him? Does he ever not conduct himself in a professional manner? And if he did, would Milbank blame others and excuse Bush for not being in the mood to negotiate?

Nancy Pelosi is a piece of work

I commend her for being pretty consistent on China – though her trade deficit and China-owning-our-debt talking points are off the mark. How is it that she does not recognize that President Bush hardened the line on China, which was woefully soft under Clinton? Pelosi should not be confused by the pomp and ceremony; the kowtower is no longer in office.

Meanwhile, Reid blasts that unilateralist SOB President for not being unilateral enough. President Bush has been a dismal failure when it comes to winning Reid’s heart and mind. Notice how with Reid it cannot be done. Always. Can’t this, can’t that. He’s already removed the military option for Iran:

"We don't have the resources to do it " because of the ongoing war in Iraq."

Verily, An Epic Story Built Brick By Brick

Behold The Brick Testament! This is more compelling than a lot of epic Bible movies I've seen. Just Wow!

Dave at Garfield Ridge has a humorous post about early childhood crushes

I don't remember pre-Wonder Woman Linda Carter, but I do recall Wonder Woman, in all her lycra suit glory. Funny, her outfit gave me a curious sensation, but Daisy Duke's garb - similar in many ways - was somehow repulsive. Likewise, Lavern and Shirly probably delayed my interest in the opposite sex for a few years - ugh. But Erin Gray was all sorts of hot. That's right BUCK! (via Ace)

It's been several years, but I still miss Ari Fleischer

I never fully warmed up to Scott MClellan. Nothing personal, but he always looked nervous or fidgity. Fleischer gave the administration a face of confidence and strength, whereas McClellan seemed more on the defensive all the time. I couldn't complain about his performance beyond that since I wouldn't be able to handle the job of press secretary at all. I don't know how likely it is that Tony Snow might replace him, but I think he'd be a good pick.

The Peoples' organs

Gateway has a disturbing post on China harvesting organs from prisoners. A concentration camp in China is like a fish farm here. At this rate, China is a shoe in for the UN Human Rights Council.

Corrupting Our Bodily Fluids

Hey, maybe this is why I was never big on Gatorade. There is no regaining your innocence after this one. Probably NSFW. Via Garfield Ridge.

Who’s meeting Hu?

I’d like to see the complete guest list for Gate’s Hu dinner. Not to use it against those people or their companies, but for curiosity’s sake. Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks – fine. Who else? The more business hands Hu shakes, the better.

Japanese soldier shows up 60 years after war

An Imperial Japanese Army soldier who vanished in what is now Russia's Far East after World War II has been found living in Ukraine, officials said Monday.

Ishinosuke Uwano, 83, was officially listed as dead in 2000. He is due to return to his native Hirono, Iwate Prefecture, on Wednesday for a visit through April 28 to meet with relatives and others.

Officials said Uwano married a Ukrainian woman. He lived in Sakhalin after the war and was last confirmed alive in 1958.

I'm not sure what that final paragraph means. He was confirmed alive in 1958. By whom?

UN elects Iran to be vice chair of the Disarmament Commission

Scroll below the Zinni positions.

"Iran, which is threatening the United States if it tries to block Iran's nuclear ambitions, has now been elected to — of all things — the leadership of United Nations' Disarmament Commission, which oversees international disarmament and security. At its annual meeting in New York, the Commission on Disarmament — part of the U.N.'s General Assembly — voted to make Iran a vice-chair of the commission, along with Uruguay and Chile."

So, to recap, President Bush didn’t lie about Iraq shopping for uranium in Niger but Joey Wilson did

Boy, am I glad that’s settled.

Something you don't see everyday...

A very big snake coughs up a hippo. No foolin'. (via Geisha asobi blog)

Happy Easter

Cat costumes

This dandy is ready to harmonize with his quartet.
When you dress a cat up in something silly, you always sense their dignity is still there somewhere, trapped beneath the farce - which, of course, is why its funny in the first place. Beware if you choose the Japanese schoolgirl outfit for your cat - as it tends to attract the middle aged Japanese male. This feline will be groped on the train for sure.

Horses

Here’s a list and pictures of famous cowboys and their horses. I didn’t realize that Jimmy Stewart rode Pie for seventeen features. In fact, I didn’t even know Stewart liked Pie. Some of the coolest names: William Boyd rode Topper; Hoot Gibson rode Mutt; and Tim Holt rode Shiek. Missing from the list was Kirk Douglas’s horse in Lonely Are the Brave, Whiskey. I guess Whiskey was only with Kirk once and, who knows, maybe that wasn’t his name…but I always loved that name. The list does include Jack Benny’s horse in Buck Benny Rides Again, Partner, and I doubt those two had a multipicture relationship.

I’m partial to paints, so I’d say that the most handsome horse was Scout or Rusty, though Champion had some classic good looks. If I had to be a horse, then it would certainly have been Buttermilk, Dale Evan’s mount – meow! Of course, Trigger is the type of horse you could introduce to mom.

King Kong - Skull Island is All

I finally finished watching King Kong last night and here are my thoughts. It's very long. The first night I only got through about 15 or 20 minutes before I fell asleep. It wasn't good and I was worried. I had something riding on this movie because when I was talking to my brother about my still unposted essay Do I Still Love the Movies? (yeah, yeah, it's coming soon) he kept giving me a hard time and wanted me to clarify what I meant by "love the movies." When I kept fumbling around he said "Look, if you like King Kong, then you still love the movies."
"Really," I said "You're just going to come right out and say that? You haven't even seen it."
"Yes, I'm just going to come right out and say that."
"Well, okay."

After that first night, I called him. "I don't know, man, I watched the first part, and whoa! it's gonna be a long one. I'm twenty minutes in and I haven't even seen Adrien Brody yet. There's way too much back story and the subject can't support it. I mean, the original was in and out in ninety minutes."
"What about CGI Manhattan?"
"Well, it looks pretty good on the hi-def monitor, but it's still boring somehow, and sloppy too. With all the effects, you'd think it would've forced them to plan it better, but instead it looks like an excess of footage. Jackson starts wide with all the buildings and taxis, then goes in for a two-shot conversation, and suddenly he widens out again in the middle of it for no reason. He just can't help showing it off. It's not done in blocks, like you'd think, and there's a kind of annoying montage that tries to convey the whole city during the depression. Just too much info."
"Too much, huh?"
"Yeah, let's just say we've already seen shanty town."
"Oh."

The next night, somehow the planets were in alignment and my wife and I were able to watch the movie together. We started at one in the morning and saw all the way till Kong was captured. By then, it was just too late and we were too tired to continue. Besides, my wife wanted to stop there anyway. She was already in love with Kong and didn't want to get sad watching the end. It turns out she did the smart thing, but I'll get to that. Once the movie gets on the boat it begins to pick up steam. Some supporting players help it along, especially Thomas Kretschmann as the captain, Evan Parke as the first mate, and Kyle Chandler as a full of himself ham actor. My wife recognized the last from the tv show Early Edition. I don't see very many new movies so these were all fresh faces to me ( I just looked them up on imdb) and I hope to see more from them in the future.

When the ship gets pulled into the fog of Skull Island, the movie really kicks into high gear. I wasn't expecting the islanders to be Orcs, but maybe I should have, it being Peter Jackson and all. They are a particularly savage bunch, with weird get-up and strange coloration. When it started to rain, I half expected their body paint to wash off. Some of the old crones were in bad need of a shave. Well, I admire their tenacity for survival on this nasty island, anyway. What would you look like if a giant gorilla did a scary monkey dance on your community for god knows how many generations. Kong takes the girl, and after that, it's predicament piled on predicament in Temple of Doom fashion, with just one damn thing after another. We get every manner of life-threatening creature popping up and saying "Boo!", a spooky gorge bottom that is not fit for humans, and a spectacular dino-pile-up that reminded me of the elephants crashing down in Dumbo. When King Kong does battle with a couple of T-Rexes while hanging on industrial strength vines over the gorge, the acrobatics are ludicrous, funny, exciting, and great. There are plenty of How-the-hell-are-they-gonna-get-out-of-this-one moments and I heard myself saying "sheesh, Jackson you dog" a lot. By the time this island stuff was over, I was pumped and ready for Peter Jackson's 5 and 1/2 hour Sinbad movie. I wonder how long it would take him to show all seven voyages.

The final night, I called my bro again. "Well, are you up for it?"
"Up for what?"
"King Kong. The kids down for a late nap, if we start now we might get through most of it."
"I don't know."
"C'mon, you need to see Skull Island. It's gotta be one of the most inhospitable islands I've ever seen."
He agreed and we watched the whole damn thing. I could lose everything once they get back to Manhattan and never miss any of it. The problem is that in the original, people didn't know what was going to happen, and the makers just told the story: top of the Empire State Building, great ape gunned down in his prime, 'twas Beauty killed the Beast. I still think it was biplanes with machine guns, but okay. Now, though, everyone knows the story by heart, so what can Peter Jackson do? He takes the same thing and drags it out in color and lyricizes it. Slo mo with falsetto singing. It's boring and it left a bad taste in my mouth. It turned into The Passion of Kong.

So, to sum up, I spent close to 8 hours watching this movie. Much of it is bad, but if you start when they're on the boat and stop when they chloroform Kong, then you will see a hell of a movie.

The New World to get Smell-o-vision treatment in Japan

The movie was so clear in so many ways that I thought I was already smelling it, since all my senses were alive. Some of the scents seem a little silly, but it could be fun. If the Japanese theater is intent on expanding their smell-o-vision program, my top candidate for a proboscis pleasing re-release would be Tampopo. Actually, that movie just needs to be shown in a ramen shop. The least desired smell-o-vision candidate would be Kanal. I'm just not convinced that we have the technology to get the fecal aerosols right. (via Drudge)

The Bright Center of the Universe?

Baseball Crank says something many of us have wondered about while watching an increasingly Tatooine-centric saga.

Thanks, but….

In an unusually forgiving piece about Bush’s position on WMDs, the reporter says the following.

In retrospect it is clear that the weapons did not exist, although they had in
the past, and Hussein had used them against his enemies.

Is it really clear? Later in the article, Mr. Hughes cites Tariq Aziz as saying that Saddam revealed the absence of WMDs to his generals in 2002, which sent morale plummeting. Still, there are several conflicting claims. It’s one thing to say we didn’t find any WMDs, but quite another to assume they never existed, especially when so many Iraqi documents about WMDs are to released over the coming months. It’s hard to tell whether these documents will add to the confusion or answer questions, but at this juncture, assuming with any certainty that WMDs did not exist is simply not a responsible conclusion to make. However, regardless of the actual status of WMDs, concluding that Bush didn't lie is perfectly reasonable.

UPDATE: In another unrelated WMD story, the Wash Post sends up a misleading headline. Captain Ed has the details.

"Where are my kumquats?!"

Bun-O-Vision

Famous movies re-enacted in 30 seconds by bunnies. I started with Jaws and was laughing so hard I had to watch all the rest. You will too. I especially liked The Big Chill and Pulp Fiction. The poster for The Exorcist is really funny. Somehow not so odd, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is just as creepy with bunnies. I can't wait for the coming attractions.

Where is Our Casablanca?

I guess I'm cleaning house today instead of writing. I'll throw in this post because it tackles one of my bugbears and quotes two of my favorites: Mark Steyn and James Lileks.

Man From The Future

I'm not really a big reader of science fiction, but this short story was going around the internets a few days ago, and since then it has lingered in my mind long enough that I thought I should post it. There is a bit of a tease at the end. I heard someone compare it to the words Bill Murray says at the end of Lost in Translation. Well, it is and it isn't. Read it yourself. What would the three words have to be for all this to make sense?

Hamas is having trouble finding a bank that will do business with them

If I was Hamas, I wouldn’t know who to bomb to get what I wanted.

"This is part of the announced economic war because we have chosen the path of democracy," said Palestinian Finance Minister Omar Abdel-Razeq.

Nothing is sadder than seeing the most comprehensively wrecked people in the world drawing the wrong conclusions.

'Carlos the Jackal' is Fined

China agrees to accept illegals being deported from the U.S.

There’s about 39,000 of them. I'm thinking fair is fair, the U.S. should agree to accept all the Americans who are illegal aliens in China.

This has been floating around

Pretty funny pro Bush rock song. via Ace.

The Man Who Sang "Liberty Valance", He Sang "Liberty Valance"

Passed away. Gene Pitney died at 65. Sounds like it was quite unexpected. Via Tim Blair.

Mudville Gazette notes more piss-poor reporting from the NYTimes

Doggone it! I liked him!

He wielded a feeding rod like nobody's business.

Two acts of stupidity don’t make a right.

The ABC producer who wrote the email saying he would puke the next time Bush said “mixed messages” was suspended without pay. ABC can do whatever it wants, of course, but suspending this fellow pretty much sends the message that you can’t express yourself freely. The most telling thing about the whole incident isn’t that the producer hates Bush, but that he felt comfortable sending his email to a number of his coworkers with the understanding that they felt the exact same way. Suspending the producer won’t change that, but it will make the email recipients feel restrained from voicing that opinion – which is bad any way you look at it. No doubt, those people will think it is part of the Bush-stifling-dissent-in-a-vast-rightwing-culture-of-corruption-and-fascism-world they believe they are living in. ABC seems more concerned about the embarrassment of the ordeal than it is about the free expression of ideas and opinions among its employees. It’s vitally important in a free society that jackasses feel free to show themselves as jackasses.

One part of the story that made me snicker was the producer’s supposed remorse:

"John would be the first to say this has been a real lesson to him. John is abjectly sorry for all the comments that have come to light, and that's appropriate."

Something tells me it’s the fact that the comments came to light that he regrets.

Human cultivation is beautiful

I'm not sure where I stumbled on this photo (I think the link is dead). It's from Indonesia, though. There's something marvelous about rice terraces. They reflect a fusion between human development and nature. I guess lots of farmland is glorious, but there's something special about rice terraces.

The Results Are In

for Edward Copeland's Worst Best Picture Survey. I'm sure a lively and interesting comments thread will ensue. Forest Gump is the second worst of all time? Rocky? Titanic? Well go look for yourself, because I'm spittin' mad. Maybe watching The Sound of Music tonight will help.