"I'll answer the question . . ."

I forgot how good this movie is. I'm buying it this weekend.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

Pioneers care little about sending records to the home office; they are busy staying alive, making babies, and killing off anything in their way.

-Robert A. Heinlein, "Time Enough For Love"

More on the WHCD

Here's more on the White House Correspondent's Dinner, including this gem:

By the end of the night, Christopher Hitchens was of course the last man (barely) standing, and he had some choice words for the evening's headlining comedian, Wanda Sykes. "The president should be squirming in his seat. Not smiling," he said. "The black dyke got it wrong. No one told her the rules."

Christopher Hitches, ladies and gentlemen.

New CG in Afghanistan

There's a new commanding general of the Afghan theater. Sounds good to me.

Electric Light Orchestra

TRAILER:

And they claim conservatives lack nuance?

The Pope and the Barbarians

Pope Benedict walked out on an anti-Israeli schtick (notice the irony) from a Palestinian cleric who wasn't even scheduled to speak at the inter-faith dialogue he was attending. The global community unanimously agreed it was highly uncharacteristic of a Muslim spiritual leader to accuse the Jews of "killing Gaza's children".

BIGHOLLYWOOD on Wanda Sykes:

This is a good post on a great blog about Ms. Sykes' (who I had forgotten existed until this morning) comments at the White House Correspondent's Dinner.

I wasn't offended by her very off-color jokes (disingenuously claiming that Rush Limbaugh wants the country to fail and therefore she wants his kidneys would fail, etc) as many conservatives were, but I also didn't get offended by David Feherty's hilarious anecdote about Nancy Pelosi (the excellent WSJ has a characteristically well-done piece on the two jokes) as nearly everyone has. I did, however, take issue with her comments. My problem is the too-clear-to-be-hidden agenda of the entertainment industry: unlike Steve "unoriginal hack" Colbert's skewering of President Bush, Ms. Sykes barely bothered to knock on President Obama - only noting the fact that the press never takes pictures of him smoking, but constantly prints pics of him sans shirt. Again, I'm not so much offended as I am disgusted at the clear bias of a media and entertainment industry that has crawled so far up the president's ass that he's going to start crapping People's Choice Awards.

It's taken almost a century, but the Progressives' destruction of the classical liberal education American children used to receive as late as the early twentieth century has finally yielded an awful crop: a cultural elite devoid of creativity and dedicated to the proposition that all men should end up equal.

TRAILERS:

The following have my seal of approval:



Year One. Looks funny.



This movie looks so badass I wish machines really would become self-aware and embark on a regimented campaign of extermination against the human race. My only concern is whether or not Christian Bale would step up and lead. Hmm . . .



This one could have been better. I hate when movies rely too heavily on CGI (*cough* Peter Jackson *cough*), but I anticipate the Snake-Eyes/Storm Shadow ninja fight will redeem most of the suck.



Two of my favorite actors plus lots of shooting, car chases, killing, sexing, escaping, and all manner of coolness. Can't wait.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

Then, if he becomes good at fishing, you can take up to 40% of the fish he catches and give them to people who are unwilling or unable to do their own fishing; they can't be expected to compete with a man whose parents bought him a fishing pole and tackle box.

"Five years old . . . Couldn't even talk yet."

The best show on television.

Red Eye = Comedic Genius

Red Eye is one of the funniest shows on TV right now. It's a comedy show that does the news. It's on at 3am Eastern - I think this is so that they can push the envelope in regards to their content. The host and guests are hilarious and you can tell they love their job. Check it out.

A Slobbering Love Affair, Indeed

President Obama's one-liners at this dinner are pretty darn funny. "My next 100 days will be so successful, I will complete them in 72 days. And on the 73rd day, I will rest." It's hard to fault a man with an active sense of humor. Nevertheless, his "Most of you covered me; all of you voted for me" zinger was funny because it is true. At the risk of beating a dead horse, let me say that we've entered a brave new world of unrestrained media bias in which "objective" "journalists" see it as their job to help the current administration. It would be pathetic if it wasn't so alarming.

Beatiful and Lofty Things

Read Mark Helprin's "A Soldier in the Great War".

"Is that a Slavic name?"

Hands down my favorite comedy. Ever. The perfect little cul-de-sac: a fat, annoying conspiracy theorist, an over-the-top Vietnam Vet caricature (complete with trophy wife), the charming, slacker teen (Corey Feldman), the common sensible wife (Carrie Fisher), and the Average Joe suburbanite-cum-Hero (Tom Hanks) who just wants to enjoy his vacation. Right up until the very end, you have no idea whether the Klopeks are totally evil or if the suburbanites are just overzealous nutjobs. A brilliant story complemented by great casting.

BRAVE NEW WORLD I

This is a sample of some of the work Hugh Hewitt is initiating to save Americans from the utopian fantasies of "free" health care (don't be an idiot: someone has to pay). Hugh has been urging doctors to speak up against the coming health care Apocalypse; Republicans will largely be unable to stop it due the technicalities of the House and Senate lawmaking processes, therefore it is imperative that every citizen who doesn't want to wait 7 months for an MRI take action to stop this. Hugh's website is a good place to get informed: he's a lawyer who hails from Ohio (albeit northern Ohio, and thus a Browns fan) and now lives in southern California where he teaches law and has a nationally syndicated radio show (it's free on the internet!).

". . . we are the makers of manners, Kate"

This is one of my favorite scenes in all of Shakespeare, and probably my favorite romantic scene of all time (jockeying for position with "When Harry Met Sally" and "The Princess Bride"). You think this sort of thing happens every day?

Beautiful Song, AWEFUL Video. Enjoy:

This is a great song, but a crappy video. Most of the human experience doesn't change over time - liberty, beauty, virtue: these are immutable principles by which we can measure a people or civilization and pass judgment. Yet, while human nature remains constant, many aspects of a culture will grow and evolve over time. Some things will get worse over time (ever picked up a McGuffey reader?), and many things will get better over time. Music videos have gotten better over time.

Disgusting Semantics

This article is one of the best and most up-to-date of the many articles coming out about the continuing drama surrounding THIRD IN LINE FOR THE PRESIDENCY Nancy Pelosi's outright lying about her knowledge of the use of waterboarding on a few recalcitrant terrorists. I'm getting to the point where I'm neither angry nor motivated to set things right; for the first time in my life, I am becoming genuinely disenchanted with the political process. I can't fix with something I can't understand, and I honestly cannot wrap my mind around the cynicism of a regime that entertains the notion of prosecuting its predecessor while continuing do the same thing (holding unlawful enemy combatants in perpetuity at Bagram Airbase Afghanistan and continuing the predator drone strikes on villages in Waziristan).

The Female Prince

Great movie. The dumb ruminations of Sex in the City's Carrie aside, I must admit I'd rather serve under an Elizabeth the Great than I would a Sarah Palin.

POEM OF THE WEEK:

Never give all the Heart

Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;
For everything that's lovely is
But a brief, dreamy, kind delight.
O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play.
And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love?
He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost.

-William Butler Yeats

WELCOME!

My first blog entry on my first blog . . .

Take a chance and try my fare:
It will grow on you, I swear;
Soon it will taste good to you.
If by then you should want more,
All the things I've done before
Will inspire things quite new.