Saturday, February 28, 2009

Farewell, Paul Harvey


Paul Harvey, the great Paul Harvey, has died.

I will forever associate that comforting, unmistakable voice with first grade. Because every day at lunchtime, we would get out our lunches, and the teacher would get out the radio, tuning each noon to "The Rest of the Story."

Surprisingly, even at that age we got the appeal of Paul Harvey and realized he was something special. Not surprisingly, our teacher never had to tell us to pipe down and eat our lunches. That was probably his plan all along, come to think of it, but I surely thank him for it now.

Godspeed, Paul. We'll see you when we get there.

'Rapex' anti-rape device hits shelves in South Africa

Speaking of Apartheid, they say South Africa had a bit of a rape epidemic after the fall of Whitey.

Apparently it's still a problem.
The words of a rape victim - "If only I had teeth down there" - have inspired the design of a new anti-rape device. Rapex - dubbed the 'rape trap' - is a product worn internally by women. The hollow inside is lined with rows of razor-sharp hooks, which are designed to latch on to a rapist's penis during penetration. They can only be removed by a doctor.
Oh, Ouch.

Weren't they marketing a flame-throwing car a few years back, too?

Friday, February 27, 2009

There goes South Africa?


"All I wanna do is a-Zuma-zoom-zoom!"

The falling dominoes of failed African states appear headed South Africa's way, with Nelson Mandela himself recently kidnapped and danced around like a marionette as part of a turf war between ANC rivals.
Supporters of ANC presidential candidate Jacob Zuma, who is awaiting trial on charges of corruption, swooped on Mandela's home near Johannesburg last week while the ailing 90-year-old's wife was away. The old man was whisked off to a mass rally in the party's former heartland of the Eastern Cape. ...

The former South African president was eventually lifted on to the stage by a desperate Zuma and his aides so that he could be seen to be present at the rally. Mandela did not address the crowd. ...

Many South Africans were sickened by the sight of the old man being manhandled at the event, with photographs of Zuma clutching Mandela's hand gracing the front pages of national newspapers.
Let's face it, South Africa has been sliding downhill fast since the fall of Apartheid. I'm not defending the policy, but stripped of the one-dimensional spin American liberals put on it back when "End Apartheid!" was the bumper sticker du jour, it's fairly easy to understand the perceived need for "separateness" felt at one time by workaday South Africans.

If that sounds scandalous, note how the recent unrest there is taking on ominous shades of Kenya and Rwanda, with the first generation's political ambitions already devolving into tribal ugliness with the next wave of ANC leadership:
Zuma, who already styles himself "President" on his campaign literature, has turned on those making the allegations, attacking the media and the Nelson Mandela Foundation for their criticisms. "What happens between Madiba [Mandela] and the ANC is nobody else's business," he told a political rally in Cape Town on Sunday.

Mandela was fetched from his home in Houghton, Johannesburg by firebrand and former leader of the ANC Youth League, Fikile Mbalula, and by his grandson, Mandla Mandela, on behalf of Zuma.

The Eastern Cape has become a battleground for the ANC in an election that is being fought along increasingly tribal lines. Zuma, a Zulu, is struggling to retain a majority in the province, which blames him for overthrowing the former president, Thabo Mbeki - a Xhosa, like Mandela. The region is predominantly Xhosa.

Many whites are already fleeing their native African soil. (See this sad story.)

But am I crazy to predict an Afrikaner military takeover down the road if this escalates? They probably still have the wherewithal to pull it off.

Hollywood would sure freak. And by "freak" I mean thank their lucky stars. I think every third movie released in the '80s was about South Africa, with Afrikaner = Nazi = Critical Acclaim.

Having turned paradise hell into paradise hell by the wonder-working power of Danny Glover, they haven't looked back since. The departure of Bush over here also leaves a vacancy in the "Hitler" element required of every good liberal movie. And Oscar® winner Sean Penn hadn't even arrived to play the villain back then. Think of all the good these do-gooders could do today.



Mexican drug war reaches as far as Seattle


Another day, another body bag in Juarez

The L.A. Times -- forced into reporting news out of an industry-wide desperation to survive -- has been focusing lately on the Mexican-American drug, gang and illegal immigrant crisis.

Check it here and here.

Let me preempt the solution likely to be put forth by some eager beaver in the Obama administration -- just legalize the drugs. Voila! Problem solved.

We could turn these cartel butchers into respected businessmen overnight. And happy businessmen mean happy donors come reelection time. And remember, Obama wrote about doing "a little blow" when he could afford it back in the day. I smell endorsement deal!

But before you get too excited about the Times' work here, note they also included a piece slamming federal empowerment of local police departments to nab illegals, a program for which [politically motivated] "Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has called for a review."

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Second soldier sues over Obama's command eligibility


Serious business

I absolutely believe the president is hiding something here, but I haven't harped on this issue because 1) I realize how fringe it appears, 2) there's no way the man will be made to comply, 3) if by some miracle he was made to comply, the country would burn to the ground like Detroit after a Pistons loss, and 4) black people would never, ever shut the [bleep] up about it.

But this doesn't appear to be going away, with a second soldier having now joined 2nd Lt. Scott Easterling in the lawsuit demanding Obama release the vault copy of his birth certificate.
The second soldier wrote, "I am an Army reservist who was activated last August and am currently serving with a military police battalion in Camp Bucca, Iraq. I will be here until at least June 2009."
He continued, "When I enlisted last year I had to show my birth certificate, as well as my driver's license, high school diploma, college transcripts, social security card; I also filled out loads of paperwork to include listing the names, addresses and phone numbers of my family members and had to answer any questions regarding foreign travel.

"I think it is reasonable for Obama to prove his citizenship status thus certifying his eligibility. I too raised my right hand and swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States," he told Taitz. "
I believe the case you are filing could very well determine if we are in fact a Constitutional Republic or a nation of mob rule. I would be honored to be a part of your efforts."

Hey, like I said before, I had to show my birth certificate to play pee-wee football.

Is the man really so high above us he can't be bothered to put our minds to rest with a simple phone call?

It doesn't take a conspiracy nut to ponder why he'd refuse so simple a thing. Especially as Barack Obama rode in on the promise of never-before-seen levels of transparency.

I expect nothing to come of this, but I salute these guys...and suggest they watch their backs. (And Hollywood defines bravery as giving little gold statues to Sean Penn?)

Schierholtz wears his Olympic Bronze with pride


The first pitch flies today in spring training competition, so I'm in a baseball mood. As I will be from now through October.

I'm a Giants fan. And I find it ironic that in the most family-unfriendly city in the U.S. you also have one of the more good old fashioned teams in baseball. More so now than ever.

In fact, someone on San Francisco's flagship radio station KNBR recently said that there aren't many clubhouses in baseball where you'd feel comfortable leaving your daughter unattended, but the Giants' was one of them.

The game is a universe unto itself, of course. Much as the fans like to pretend otherwise, no team is really a reflection of its hometown, or anything else other than its internal culture. (Witness the cowboy image of the Boston Red Sox in recent years, for an obvious example.)

In the Giants' case, that works in their favor as far as a guy like me is concerned.

It's a team of good guys, led by a good guy of a skipper. Even the games are called buy a couple of good guys in "Kruk & Kuip." And while he's still working through some stuff on the field, Barry Zito still leads the league in goodwill for the troops.

So I love the team despite the town -- though really the Giants belong to Northern California as much as they belong to the gilded turd known as San Francisco.

This piece on Nate Schierholtz is neither here nor there, but it's a good read and has the flavor at least of what I'm talking about. (And explains why I pray Manny Ramirez stays the deuce away from No Cal. Which at this point sounds likely.)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

'Pride & Predator'

More Jane Austen zaniness... First zombies, now aliens.
"It felt like a fresh and funny way to blow apart the done-to-death Jane Austen genre by literally dropping this alien into the middle of a costume drama, where he stalks and slashes to horrific effect," Furnish said.
It was fresh last week. Now it's just stupid.

The creepiest part? Elton John may be the alien!

Monday, February 23, 2009

The Oscars, my take


Playing to the crowd


I'm only doing this by special request from CI Photog.

My take? In a word...

"Sucked."

I'd say worst ever, but that's a judgment reserved for anytime Whoopi Goldberg or Ellen DeGeneres host. And for the time Teri Garr flew in dancing like a drunken Rockette on the wing of a fake airplane in 1986.

Still, Hugh Jackman's lame, lame, lame opener sucked. Nine out of 10 nominees sucked. The winners sucked. Bill Maher sucked. The lack of suspense sucked.

Even the In Memoriam segment, for which I'm usually a sucker, sucked. Memo to the Academy: next time how about fewer shots of Queen Latifah's full-figured booty and more steady camerawork on, y'know, the faces we're supposed to be remembering? (Seriously. If you were movie buff enough to know the faces from a distance, chances are you still couldn't read their credentials with all the swooping camera action. I only recognized Syd Charisse by, what else, those unmistakable legs.)

The few "highlights" were Tina Fey and Steve Martin doing the writing awards. I believe the last year the Oscars were watchable was the year Martin hosted. And I did like the new format of that bit and most of the show in general.

Even so, Ben Stiller serving up a hilarious slice of Joaquin Phoenix was the only time I actually laughed. Ditto (almost) for Jack Black's "I get my paycheck from Dreamworks and bet the money on Pixar" line.

Patrick Goldstein in the L.A. Times thought it sucked, too. Predictably he refuses to acknowledge the real reason it blew chunks. Too stodgy, not edgy enough, he says.

Really. Not edgy. As someone on Big Hollywood pointed out during the show, this marks the first time in Oscar history we saw more clips of men sucking face than scenes of boy meets girl. And I'm sure that really pulled in the ratings.

Come on, Paddy... We all know nobody watched this abomination because nobody watches any of the movies that get nominated anymore. (Slumdog Millionaire notwithstanding. Gotta see that one.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Hollywood was once loved because movies were considered the art form of the masses. Now they can't even give the technical awards -- until now the only honest awards in the bunch -- to big events like The Dark Knight and Iron Man.

Heath Ledger's family inadvertently summed it up by accepting the award in memory of Heath's reason for working: "validation from his peers."

Whoops. Not supposed to say that out loud, mom and dad.

Or as Will Smith put it by announcing the montage of action films as "movies with fans."

Exactly.

Things haven't always been this way. And it wasn't that long ago. Gladiator was best picture in 2000. The Lord of the Rings trilogy became an awards franchise not long after.

Of course it all comes down to politics too.

What else to conclude when Charlton Heston's memorial clips are met with all but crickets, while lesser names immediately before and after enjoy big time applause and whistles?

Dark Knight was afire with Oscar buzz when it hit theaters. Best Picture and Director for sure, they said. Then it not only became one of the top-grossing movies of all time but word also got out that it was subversively right wing.

The reaction was predictable...

"Nominations revoked, Batman. Oh, and that obligatory visual effects nod? We're giving it to a three-hour melodrama starring Brad Pitt in makeup that looked better when it was on Biff in Back to the Future 20 years ago. That'll teach ya."

Only thing last night taught me (besides the fact Hugh Jackman sings like Ethel Merman) is that the Oscars are now about as meaningful as home run stats from the steroids era.

And next year we get to look forward to Oscar's nipples "exploding with delight" for Che.

Let me put it this way. I haven't missed an Academy Awards show since the mid-80's, when my love of movies really took hold. Even during the Whoopi years I still tuned in.

But last night our DVR only recorded up until near the big awards at end. It went blank at the exact moment they were announcing the winner for best actress. My reaction...

"Eh."

And I clicked on over to sports.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Foster counselor fired for accidental music exposure


Musik ist verboten!

Despite the fact you'll find the term nowhere in the Constitution, we do have a "separation of church and State" problem out there. And the problem is State "separating" church into the gulag.

The woman, who, according to a press release from Pacific Justice Institute, had almost 20 years of experience, took four girls for a 5K run and then stopped at the beach. While eating lunch there, they were exposed to [Christian] music from a [secular] beach fest called Surf Jam at the Huntington Beach Pier.

When they got back from the field trip, the counselor was ordered into a disciplinary meeting and when the incident was reviewed months later, was suspended for six weeks for "exposing children to unapproved religious activities."

Anybody know where I can get me one of those Anarchist Cookbooks? (Dear Government Internet Police: that was a joke...maybe.)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

'Robin Hood' update



Looks like Ridley Scott's Robin Hood project just dropped the twist that put it on everyone's radar in the first place.

Russell Crowe is still playing the world's most famous bowman (with four months of archery training now under his belt), but he won't be pulling double duty as the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Robin will now come from the ranks of Richard the Lionheart's bowmen.

So, rather than the Robin-vs.-Sheriff showdowns we’ve come to expect from “Robin Hood” movies, Scott has instead employed the history of the time to make an entire country the villain. “It is from France. It is the French,” he insisted. “The villain is much bigger in that sense; much more important, and much more dangerous.”

“[In] 1066 Harold II went against William the Conqueror. Harold took an arrow in his eye, and William the Conqueror took over England, and so France owned everything right through,” Scott explained of the turmoil of that age. “Even to the extent of changing the architecture of the churches from Anglo-Saxon to Roman, that’s French; they changed the arches in the churches.”

It's also been retitled simply "Robin Hood."

I thought it was kind of a cool concept to have Robin Hood be the Sherrif of Nottingham, but the historical/straightforward approach does suit the star power of Crowe and Cate Blanchett better. Defintely has more of a Gladiator tone to it now.

No way they're toppling Errol Flynn from the all-time top spot in my mind, though.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Science police

Weren't we just talking about the Gatekeepers pulling out all the stops to dictate What The Masses May Know?

Some science organization won't even set foot in Louisiana for their annual convention due to that freedom of knowledge act Bobby Jindal signed into law last year.

Note that this law says nothing about Evolution vs. Intelligent Design. It only ensures new theories in any scientific field be allowed a hearing.

Last I checked, academic openness was at the core of science. And this group's reaction -- which reportedly goes beyond the origins debate to the Gatekeepers' fear of challenges to the doctrinal orthodoxy of Global Warming -- only proves my earlier statement on Academia representing the modern equivalent of those who wanted to shut Galileo up.

The Emperor is buck naked

In light of Obama's planned unprecedented reliance on teleprompters, I can't resist running this golden oldie of the time one crashed on him.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Teacher cusses out, refuses to grade pro-Prop 8 student

How does it go again...? Liberals are all into free speech or something?

Time for a new Internet?


Some think the fabric of our current Web is fatally flawed and the heady days of our wild, wild cyber west are numbered.
What a new Internet might look like is still widely debated, but one alternative would, in effect, create a “gated community” where users would give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety. Today that is already the case for many corporate and government Internet users. As a new and more secure network becomes widely adopted, the current Internet might end up as the bad neighborhood of cyberspace. You would enter at your own risk and keep an eye over your shoulder while you were there.
Good thing? Bad thing? I have no clue. Something tells me, though, we'll be giving "The Authorities" more control over what we do and how we do it, and that means a net loss of freedom. (Pun intended.)

Then again, if it helps shutdown child porn and rampant intellectual property theft...?

Tough call.

Muslim TV exec 'severs' ties with wife in NY

Remember, Islam is a beautiful faith, and immigration is good for America.

Viet-ghanistan?


I never really entertained the notion, oft wished feared by the Democrats, that Iraq was sure to become another Vietnam. Iraq had manageable terrain, maintainable borders and a (relatively) modern people with no driving, homogeneous ideology to overcome. The goals of average Iraqis were elemental and pragmatic -- life, freedom and personal safety -- and therefore attainable, certainly quantifiable.

If anything, Iraq was more likely to become a second Korea.

Afghanistan, though. Now there's your potential quagmire. A population not centuries but a millennium removed from the rest of the planet... Class V terrain that favors the native enemy... A vast nebulous border behind which said enemy can retreat, resupply and regroup at will... Rules of engagement that prevent us from sealing that border... A population beholden to the enemy for sustenance (the poppy trade)... The list goes on.

Michael Yon has been dropping none-too subtle hints for some time that we could be up the creek without a paddle in Afghanistan, that this one may not be surge-able. Check out these stats.

Today's news from shifting, shiftless Pakistan only backs up that data.

One thing's for sure. If anyone is the type of leader to pull his punches and thereby make defeat (or pointless stalemate) inevitable, it's President Obama.

Big Hollywood review: 'The Reader'

I've been waiting for the blogging artist formerly known as Dirty Harry to weigh in on The Reader. He has, and it's good stuff. (The review, not the film.)

Recently, a new ingredient’s been added to the effort of fooling us into believing that what we’re watching is intelligent, and that’s The Immoral -- with the normalization of sex with young children leading the charge. "Notes on a Scandal,” “Birth” and “Towelhead” actually portray a physical intimacy with children as liberating, while “The Woodsman,” “Little Children,” and “L.I.E.” offer up those who molest our children as alternately sympathetic, wise and the protector.
Creepy. But it gets creepier.

“The Reader” is so desperate to be perceived as intelligent that it creates an entirely new recipe: the sympathetic Nazi child molester and former S.S. concentration camp guard responsible for the mass murder of 300 Jews who with the help of the young boy she once raped triumphs over her reading disability.

The reason you keep thinking Hollywood’s finally hit bottom is because you forget how well they dig.

Love that last line. Vintage Dirty Harry. Full review here.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Rape explosion engulfs Kenya



Oh. My. Lord.

We've had some issues with Kenya, and the hellhole known as the continent of Africa in general, over the past year here on the Wavelength, but this time even I'm shocked.

Click here and weep for fallen humanity.

Move along... Nothing to see here!

You may recall Barack Obama's promise to post major policy issues on the White House's website before signing them into law. All part of the new accountability, ya see. He's broken that promise at least twice already, with assurances it will be a rare occurrence.

Now the House just passed the reworked stimulus bill -- seven Democrats joining every Republican in voting 'no,' thank God -- and, well... I'll let John Boehner give you the details.

Keeping it real

I don't see why this wasn't allowed on the air.


(Hat tip, Boneman.)

Sorry, Charlie


High five!

Despite the best efforts of the public education system, a majority of Americans maintain that Charles Darwin was full of it. The bad news in that only 41 percent of weekly churchgoers believe their scriptures on the subject.

Cue response from CI Photog!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Zombies, m'lord!


Braaaaaaains...

Are we ready for Pride and Prejudice: The Zombie Apocalypse? It's been done every other way imaginable at this point. Part of the tension will no doubt come from trying to spot the living from the dead during the dance scenes.

Then there's this one, a zombies vs. special ops scenario. Could be cool if the walking dead are stealthily made symbolic of the mindless, unrelenting enemy we face over there. More likely, it'll get the standard-issue "what have we done?!" treatment.

Approached with smarts and restraint, both of these could be really good in very different ways. Realistically, expect two brainless gore fests showing the filmmakers as the real zombies.

Cate joins Russell Crowe in 'Nottingham'


Pretty maid all in a row...with a Crowe

Cate Blanchett has signed on to play Maid Marian in Nottingham. Talk about trading up from the previously announced "talent" for that role.

Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe, now Cate... This thing is gonna rock the greenwood.

Mary, Mother of Christ

When I read "female empowerment" I assumed the worst, then I saw "Benedict Fitzgerald (The Passion of the Christ) co-wrote the screenplay with Barbara Nicolosi" and suddenly I'm on board in a big, big way. This will be one we can get behind, folks.

Geert Wilders banned from the U.K.

Yeah, Britain... This guy is your problem. Is the U.K. really this far gone??

Why I oughta...


Blank
I guess it is perfect casting, Sean Penn being a stooge and all, but this is the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time. Making this movie at all is about as pointless as it gets.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Julio meets The One

"And when Julio beheld The One, he fell to his knees and spake, saying..."

Christian Obama voters...oxymoron?

Great post from Steven Crowder over at Big Hollywood:
I will say however, that I’ve disturbingly witnessed what I like to call “Trendy Christians” pulling the lever for Obama in this last election. These are the type of Christians whom even atheists don’t respect. The type of Christians who allow their core values to be trumped by fads or the most recent P. Diddy campaign. The type of Christians whose misunderstanding of the New Testament is overshadowed only by his ability to discuss the “extreme Christian symbolism” amongst his sleeve of tattoos. I sincerely hope that in retrospect, they can now look at Obama’s first actions as president and pull a proverbial head slap reminiscent of a young Alvy Singer. We get it, young Christians. You were fooled by the packaged, messianic glow of the Obama campaign and we forgive you. Just don’t let it happen again, little buddies.
Some 150 comments and counting. Must have hit a nerve.

Made in India: the new "moo juice"


Move over, Mr. Pibb...

Hippies ask me, "Splash, why do you have to be so Ameri-centric?" They ask, "what's so great about your precious United States? We could learn a lot from other countries."

I just sit them down, pour them a tall frosty imported Gau Jal and tell them to get comfortable. Because it's a long story, with a funny aftertaste.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Power grab!

Hoo boy... Have you heard this one now? The Obama administration has seized census control away from the Commerce Department and placed it...in the White House.

That's right. A partisan governmental entity is now in charge of counting heads. And they won't even be counting them. They'll be estimating.

So much for "unprecedented levels of transparency," huh?

This change -- sure to subtract representatives from certain parts of the country and give more to certain other parts -- coincides with Rahm Emanuel/Obama's bid to designate the District of Columbia "the equivalent of" a state for such purposes.

Senators...from...D.C.

And they tell us George W. Bush bastardized the Constitution?

Why we're screwed

We all agree that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. Like it's our fault. It is, partly. But we forget often that the writers of history have de facto control over what we're allowed to remember.

Listen to "Meltdown" author Thomas E Woods here. The whole segment is good, but the first two minutes are key.

Norman Thomas was right

I've never reprinted an email forward on these hallowed Interwebnets, but today -- the day we've sold our grandkids down the river for no apparent reason -- it's more than appropriate.

...Sixty four years ago Norman Thomas predicted what was going to happen to our country.

Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 - December 19, 1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.

The Socialist Party candidate for President of the US , Norman Thomas, said this in a 1944 speech:

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism", they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."

He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate on the Socialist Party Ticket. The Democrat Party has adopted our platform."

Indeed they have.

References here, here, here.

Joseph Farah has a column on this today, too.

Monday, February 9, 2009

U.S. rancher sued for violating illegals 'rights'


Right back at ya, Pancho

Holy freaking frijoles... An American citizen is being sued by unsuccessful illegal immigrants for their lack of success illegally immigrating. (A.k.a., defending his property from trespass, theft and vandalism. A.k.a. violating their civil rights.)
In March, U.S. District Judge John Roll rejected a motion by Mr. Barnett to have the charges dropped, ruling there was sufficient evidence to allow the matter to be presented to a jury. Mr. Barnett's attorney, David Hardy, had argued that illegal immigrants did not have the same rights as U.S. citizens.
You'd think so, wouldn't you?
Mr. Barnett told The Washington Times in a 2002 interview that he began rounding up illegal immigrants after they started to vandalize his property, northeast of Douglas along Arizona Highway 80. He said the immigrants tore up water pumps, killed calves, destroyed fences and gates, stole trucks and broke into his home.
If these people succeed -- and in Barack Obama's America, si, se puede! -- it's time to declare war on Mexico, then on our own wretched excuse for a government. (Actually, strike that, reverse it. To make Mexico City really sparkle we'll need artillery and aircraft carriers.)

I'm only half joking. Remember the Minuteman Project? When a bunch of regular folk started patrolling the border a few years back? They made a point of being non-violent about the whole thing, but as I recall, the original Minutemen had no problem pulling the trigger. Maybe it's time to live up to the name and take the safety off.

They want to fight this in the courts, let's fight it in the courts in a way that will be hard to miss. Defending our neighbors, our country and ourselves is a right, and if it's a right, it's arguably a duty.

This guy admits to personally detaining some 12,000 foreign nationals invading his land over the past decade. We should give him a medal -- and then put him in charge of ICE.

Chances are, though, the feds will put a gun to his head to the tune of $2 million, every penny of which will be headed right back into the cesspool.

Obama bonks his noggin


Why bother reporting how a president of the United States bumped his head while exiting Marine One? Oh I don't know. Probably has something to do with the press and late night talk making it their mission to bring us these updates for the past eight years. And they're the pros, right?

Yet note how the AP caption suggests The One's greatness even here. The world is just too small for this big man.

Seems like a good time to link here again, too.

Christian Bale: defender of the little man?

Huh... I guess context is everything.

Bale's still a hothead, but since his wrath has now been documented as directed at this jerk, Gloria Steinem and his loopy Leftist upbringing in general, it's not only understandable, it may be commendable.

Hat tip Big Hollywood.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Going nuclear


Heja, världen!

Well glory be... Even my onetime adopted homeland Sweden -- that paragon of worthiness in the eyes of liberals everywhere -- is going (or remaining) nuclear now.

And here's why:
Using renewable sources to generate those same quantities of power would present huge technical and financial challenges, and might even be impossible, while using coal or less-polluting natural gas would make it much harder for either country to meet its targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Echávarri said.
So what's our deal then? I thought the Democrats were all about emulating all things European and bringing backward, backwoods, hillbilly America into line with almighty Euro Progress? Now, no? What am I missing here?

More importantly, how on earth could the far-seeing King Solomon of our times, Obie wan Kenyobi, be missing it?

Oh, and don't forget these little darlings.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Barry's gift to Hollywood pals dies at the box office

U.S. Senate Republicans have shut down production on Barry's payback for Hollywood graft.

File this one under "Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"This isn't stimulus. This is a gift," said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who wrote the amendment to strike out the giveaway for some of the Democrats' most generous political supporters.

"It's not going to stimulate the economy at all," he said. "What it's going to do is line the pockets of very wealthy individuals already not experiencing the downside of the economy."

Keep this up, people might start voting GOP again.

Not much coverage -- "the news is so good"


MGen John Kelly USMC, via Michael Yon, on witnessing the "unthinkable" -- bloodless elections in Anbar Province, Iraq:
Every Anbari walking towards the polling place had these determined and, frankly, concerned looks on their faces. No children with them (here mothers and grandmothers are NEVER without their children or grandchildren) because of the expectation of death. Husbands voted separately from wives, and mothers separately from fathers for the same reason. In and out quickly to be less of a target for the expected suicide murderer. When they came out after voting they also wore the same expression on their faces, but now one of smiling amazement as they held up and stared at ink stained index fingers.

Norman Rockwell could not have captured this wonderment.
He goes on:
One of the things I've always said was that we came here to "give" them democracy. Even in the dark days my only consolation was that it was about freedom and democracy. After what I saw today, and having forgotten our own history and revolution, this was arrogance. People are not given freedom and democracy - they take it for themselves. The Anbaris deserve this credit.

Today I step down as the dictator, albeit benevolent, of Anbar Province. Today the Anbaris took it from me. I am ecstatic. It was a privilege to be part of it, to have somehow in a small way to have helped make it happen.

Semper Fi.
Kelly

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Obama cash discriminates against religion


Conduct unbecoming of stimulus

I love it when people say Fox News is a biased network. As if weighted reporting -- not within the reporting like, say, Campbell Brown, but weighted in covering actual news that isn't being reported elsewhere -- is a bad thing.

Fox is the only secular network reporting on one particularly dastardly slice of pork within Obama's stimulus package, a rider that bans any institution of learning from its piece of the pie if it so much as allows floorspace for religious activities.
According to the bill, which the Democratic-controlled House passed despite unanimous Republican opposition, funds are prohibited from being used for the "modernization, renovation, or repair" of facilities that allow "sectarian instruction, religious worship or a school or department of divinity."
That would include everything from the U.S. Naval Academy to the University of Notre Dame to religious studies departments at state colleges. (Looks, though, like they're still cool with $20 million to reseed the National Mall lawn obliterated by Barry's inauguration day disciples...who heard a few official government-sponsored prayers that day, as I recall.)
"President Obama's version of faith-based initiatives is to remove the faith from initiative," said Staver, who believes Obama has "a completely different view on faith" from what he said during his presidential campaign."
Different from the Constitution, too, but who's counting? And come on... They were just campaign promises anyway.

Keep digging, y'all. We just might find Jimmy Hoffa buried in this pile o' Shinola.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Pelosi: 500 million Americans losing their jobs every month

Speaking of pageant-brained hotties... Here's one in charge of signing up your great-grandchildren for indentured servitude to the Chinese, one $25 million ATV trail at a time.

More like it?

Even I can't stand looking at that photo in my last post anymore.

This should go down a little easier.

Trouble in gay paradise?


(Wavelength real lesbian file photo)

What Oprah hath joined...

Gay marriage pioneers Julie and Hillary Goodridge are calling it quits.

Court documents indicate a settlement in which Mrs. Goodridge will get the house, Indigo Girls CDs and their Great Dane "Gaia," while Mrs. Goodridge will walk away with the couple's Prius, electric hair clippers and three (metric) tons of organic compost.

The Goodridges will maintain joint custody of their 14-year-old collection of Birkenstocks.

"I'm just thrilled and ecstatic -- I mean, in a really sad way," said pioneering gay-divorce lawyer Harv Shankman.

The couple cited "irreconcilable differences" as grounds for ending the astonishing four-year union.

"The plumbing was all wrong," Mrs. Goodridge told the judge with a shrug.

When prompted further, she revealed the couple had tried for years to have a baby, but when the State of Massachusetts and a 2006 discrimination lawsuit against the universe failed to produce a child, things went from bad to worse.

Friends from the couple's favorite sports bar told the Wavelength that the rift actually began when Mrs. and Mrs. Goodridge clashed over who to support in the 2008 Democratic primary, then widened when Mrs. Goodridge blew all the money earned from a decade of farmer's market wind chime sales on a faulty David Crosby insemination kit purchased through Craigslist.

"It's so sad," said a misty-eyed Misty Irons, the Goodridge's pastor at Inclusion Methodist Church. "They were married for four years. That's almost half a whole decade, you know?"

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Get it while it's hot!


Don't forget to scramble on down to your local Denny's for a free Grand Slam until 2 p.m. today. Tell 'em Splash sent you, then leave me a tithe of flapjacks and boysenberry syrup in the comments section below.

Monty Python and the meaning of YouTube


Monty Python has had enough. (Curse you, Inspector Dim. You are too clever for us naughty people.)
"...For 3 years you YouTubers have been ripping us off, taking tens of thousands of our videos and putting them on YouTube. Now the tables are turned. It's time for us to take matters into our own hands.

We know who you are, we know where you live and we could come after you in ways too horrible to tell. But being the extraordinarily nice chaps we are, we've figured a better way to get our own back: We've launched our own Monty Python channel on YouTube."
Which is nice and all, as far as it goes, but where else but in the lawless wilds of YouTube proper can you find The Spanish Inquisition with actual Spanish subtitles?

Monday, February 2, 2009

An athiest's plea for faith

Matthew Parris says "As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs more God." It's an intentionally ironic headline to his Times of London column, but he's far from joking.

How ironic indeed that that best argument I've ever read for reaching the lost with the gospel of Christ -- and he takes it beyond just the needs of Africa here -- is coming from a confirmed nonbeliever. It's a remarkable statement and a fine read.

It's sadly ironic too, of course, that the liberation Parris sees specifically in Reformation Christianity is a reality Parris yet resists in his own life. Then again, he's standing precisely where C.S. Lewis stood before he was dragged kicking and screaming into the liberating freedom of faith in Christ.

Hollywood finding religion again?

Looks another like a flurry of quasi-pseudo-Christo-flavored religious flicks in the works all of a sudden.

Earlier production announcements include typical kick in the crotch fare like this and this. With the occasional hopeful project along the lines of Scott Derrickson's adaptation of "Paradise Lost" and Ralph Winter's (stalled for lack of script?) adaptation of C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters."

The deals being announced today could go either way, though the safe money is on me launching into my angry Church Lady falsetto like never before.

First up, Angelology. A Nephilim-related concept sounds fun and doable, but "Da Vinci Code-esque" does not.

Next, Martin Scorsese's Silence looks too promising to be true. Coming from Mr. Last Temptation, it probably is.

Then there's Conception, another in the pure popcorn vein. Unlike other conspiracy-based "religion" stories, this one at least posits an interesting, technically-plausible "what if" scenario which doesn't automatically mean a blasphemous end result. Can't say the director's past projects bode well, though.

The bleeding obvious


Hamas...feeling the hope and change

Michael Yon has written one of the more straightforward, logically irrefutable pieces I've seen on the importance of how we respond to Israel's current situation.

And when Michael Yon starts talking World War III, people better listen up.

It's a quick read, so no excuses for clicking elsewhere before you do. And after that, read the latest today for confirmation of what he wrote.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Obama: Well done, President Bush!

President Obama believes the war in Iraq has been a success, and looks forward to emulating President Bush's formula in Afghanistan.