This artifact is from one wherein Jack Chick read way too much H. P. Lovecraft.
Monthly Archives: December 2003
Neat.
Peter Jackson cast 34-year-old Royd Tolkien, J.R.R.’s great-grandson, to play a minor role (a Gondorian Ranger) in Return of the King.
Whither Carnivale?
HBO’s Carnivale concluded its first season last Sunday, and HBO wants to know what you think. The survey is short; if you like the show, give it a go.
Hey, it’s Friday. I don’t have to be outraged ALL the time
Here’s some cool stuff that happened this week:
- I saw the last Matrix flick, which I actually enjoyed. I’m sure the fact that I saw it at a pseudo-art-house theater with 4 other people while sipping a Diet Coke I spike with Jack Daniel’s had something to do with my positive opinion of the film, of course.
- Erin and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean, which is an awful lot of fun. No kidding.
- I completed the trifecta of film by seeing the aforementioned Bruce Campbell flick Bubba Ho-Tep. FfffanTAStic.
- I upgraded my Powerbook to Panther, which is definitely worth the bucks if only for the speed increase and Expose.
- I picked up two excellent Christmas gifts, about which I expect the recipients will be pleased.
- I finally gave in and bought the Outkast record, which is really fine.
Why the trees will win
Excellent photo via BoingBoing.
At last, an absurd story about Fundamentalists that isn’t in the South
Fundies in Presque Isle, Maine have created a curriculum for their schools that bans instruction about non-Christian cultures. Like, say, the Greeks, which would presumably hamper efforts to teach the history of democracy, or science, or math, or just about anything. On the plus side, at least for the Fundies, it’s sure to produce a crop of kids utterly incapable of critical thoughts.
Of course, they’ll also be incapable of algebra and have no notion of “zero,” so there you go.
Pentagon Fires Guantanamo Defense Team
From the Guardian:
So they’ll get ’em lawyers, but only if they don’t attempt to zealously represent their clients? Oh, those wacky Pentagon types!
Were the GOP’s strongarm tactics on Medicare bribery?
Tim Noah at Slate thinks so, and he’s got a point. Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich) said last month that someone on the House floor threatened to cut his son’s campaign funds (presumably from RNC) if he didn’t support the bill. Curiously, the DOJ has shown no interest in the case.
Ha!
Do this:
- Go to Google (new window)
- Search for “miserable failure”
- Hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button
Dept. of Headlines We Like
From today’s Houston Chronicle: “Fran’s Fight: Dismal year has A&M coach battling to stay afloat.”
Weasel.
Dissent and Protest Now Illegal in Miami
Or it at least seems that way. In yet another city, the police attack unarmed protesters with overwhelming force for little if any reason.
The Far Right probably loves this, but ask the soldiers in harm’s way
We’re in desperate need of Arabic translators in our military and intelligence services.
But only if they’re straight. Think about this for a minute: additional Arabic expertise could very well save lives in Iraq and elsewhere. Better intelligence analysis pre-9/11 could have given us critical and disaster-averting data. We’ve got people trained at the Defense Language Institute (viewed by many as the best language school in the world) who want to serve their country in this capacity.
But in the last 2 years, DOD has discharged 37 linguists from DLI for being gay at a time when we need precisely those skills. Damn, that is seriously fucked up.
Typical.
The Bush administration demanded heavy secrecy measures on Gen. Wesley Clark’s upcoming testimony in the war-crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic. These measures were not in place for the testimony of other high-ranking officials (Madeline Albright, for example). Joshua Marshall wonders if this is intended to keep Clark out of the spotlight, or just another example of Bush & co.’s ongoing contempt for international law.
Dept. of Neglected Categories
It’s been a while since I posted a genuine kook, so here’s Marissa Marchant, a New York based “musician” with a drastically inflated sense of both her talent and the value of her output.
Just Plain Cool
How about a Digital Sundial? (Via Blog-Fu)
Dept. of Strange Bedfellows
When the American Library Association and Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum agree that something is a bad idea, you know something ugly is being proposed. Check out H.R. 3261: Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act; believe it or not, Schlafly’s commentary is pretty clear on the subject. This is a bad, bad, bad idea.
Krugman on Diebold
The Times’ Paul Krugman provides an excellent summary of the Diebold mess thus far (NYT link; use nogators/nogators, and remember it’ll go away in a few days, so read quickly).
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”
An unnamed British Airways pilot is said to have glimpsed Air Force One over the Atlantic:
BA Pilot: Did I just see Air Force one?
Air Force One: (Identifying self) Gulfstream 5.
(pause)
BA Pilot: Oh.
The pilot has not come forward, so he’s the only one who knows who he is. BA has no idea.
I wish this surprised me
Talkleft points out this ABCNews story on the release of some of the Gitmo detainees. Why are we letting some of them go, you ask?
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a case involving two Britons, two Australians and 12 Kuwaitis, has agreed to decide if foreign nationals can use U.S. courts to challenge their incarceration at the base. [. . .] According to Time, activities leading toward release of the 140 prisoners have accelerated since the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. It said U.S. officials had concluded some detainees were kidnapped for reward money offered for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
Yep; some folks in Afghanistan said “hey, these are bad guys!”, so we took ’em to Gitmo and paid the bounty with no apparent regard for the veracity of our local warlords’ claims, and in doing so jailed innocents for two years. Great. I’m so fucking proud.
Time’s feature is online as well.