Hmm.

I thought this was going to be another one of those links to articles about which I have very little to say except that I think I agree.

Turns out I did have a little something to say after all.

I love when that happens.

Keli Goff in the Huffington Post:

...I believed that Hillary Clinton's problem [in the 2008 primaries] was not sexism but Hillary-ism, as in the people who were criticizing her did not have a problem with all women, but they did have a problem with her. As proof of this I noted analysis during the primary indicating that while women as a whole were a stronghold for Clinton, younger women were not.

But...

If someone had asked former Secretary of State Colin Powell what his lovely wife Alma thought of a particular policy issue, my guess is he would have been incredulous too. But the reality is no one would ask Secretary Powell that. I know some might argue that it is an unfair comparison, that Secretary Clinton is unique because she is married to a former president, but how many times was the most recent President Bush asked to articulate the policy positions of his father, the former president?

I found myself pretty frustrated with Hillary Clinton and her supporters last year too, as some of you may recall, but this is hard to argue with.

It's also interesting to me that in a weird way it's the exact same issues of female sexuality and power that I've been looking at in my blogs with regard to the "Megan Fox is dumb" stories...

17 Wonders of the World

I saw this on the Keith Olbermann show the other day, and it needs must be shared.

It seems that a couple vacationing at a rocky lake area, as couples vacationing are wont to do, wanted to take a picture or two of themselves by which to remember this time by.

So they set up a camera with an automatic timer and got themselves into position.

When, at precisely the right moment...

How the National Enquirer saved America

From the TV Barn:

So it was all true. Sigh.

John Edwards' paternity test proves he fathered the baby. As for Elizabeth, she long ago admitted to covering up the affair — and the push for healthcare reform sadly lost a powerful advocate.

The skanky tabloid press was 100 percent accurate, the good-guy reformer who defended the defenseless turned out to be 100 percent liar, and though America was harmed in the process, imagine if the guy had been put on the ticket. Kudos, National Enquirer.

How you know when 1970s nostalgia has gone too far

The Wonder Twins are coming to Smallville

If casting sides that Spoiler TV put up last week are accurate, the twins should appear in the 5th episode of the upcoming season, titled Idol.

On the bright side, this is who's playing Jayna, so it might be worth checking out at that.

18 Marvels of Regard for the Irreverent

Here, George Carlin shows why he belonged on the comedian's Mount Rushmore (with Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce). It's not just that he could literally make you laugh until tears came to your eyes...



It's that in the service of doing so, even with one of the most cliched subjects for 1990's comedy, he's returning to one of his best larger themes: How we use language--let me rephrase that, how language is used against us-to keep us disconnected from each other.

God, I loved that man.

19 Incidents of the incidental

Which of these records were not #1 US Hits of 1988?

"One More Try," George Michael

"Pale Shelter," Tears For Fears

"Being Boring" Pet Shop Boys

"I Get Weak," Belinda Carlisle

"Beds Are Burning," Midnight Oil

"Wishing Well" Terence Trent D’Arby

“Anything for You" Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine

"Father Figure" George Michael

"Got My Mind Set On You," George Harrison

"1 2 3" - Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine

“My Prerogative" Bobby Brown

“Two Hearts" Phil Collins

Think you know? Now go check this out.

An end to Grace

Saving Grace, with Holly Hunter, will finish its run next summer. Reportedly the studio was losing money on it.

According to the show’s creator, Nancy Miller, TNT wanted a full-season order for the series, but Fox, the show’s studio, declined for budgetary reasons.

Fox...the same studio that (in network form) hung my Terminator out to dry...

While Miller would have liked to see the show continue beyond the episodes scheduled for 2010, she said she is glad she got to tell the story about Grace Hanadarko, an Oklahoma City detective whose life is transformed by the appearance of a guardian angel.

"Here’s the deal. I got to set a show in Oklahoma City, my hometown, tell the story of Grace Hanadarko and explore God. [But] the DVDs are not selling, they can’t sell it foreign, and they’ve already lost a lot of money, and they don’t see any of that changing.

Great...now I feel guilty for not buying the DVDs. But then, what would a show exploring God be without a little guilt? Oh, well. This is one of the shows for which I've been most thankful in the last year or two.

For a while, at least, I got to see my favorite actress on television once a week. Besides that, I'll miss, among other things, the inter-female relationships on the show.

These were some of the best on television, by which I mean the ladies actually talk to each other about things besides men. And what ladies they were.

Any series that stars Holly Hunter, with the luscious (and hugely gifted) Laura San Giacomo in a featured role, with episodic appearances by the likes of Christina Ricci...





...well, for a show like that to fail may just prove that God is dead.

In recent episodes, besides Hunter & Giacomo, I've really become aware of what a great ensemble the cast has become.

When Hunter was absent from the middle third of an episode (her character had been kidnapped and the others came together to figure out who had taken her), I barely missed her at all.

But...for me not to miss Holly Hunter? To underscore: Not just as a guy who thinks she's a babe is she my favorite actress. If I were one (an actress) she'd be one of my role models.

Now, if I wanted to be dark, sardonic and bitter, I'd say that this year, first the networks took my Life, and now they've taken my Grace.

If I wanted to be dark, sardonic and bitter.

But fortunately, I don't. And anyway, as I quoted earlier, it seems to be the studio, not the network that killed this one.

Michael Wright, head of programming for TNT, told The Hollywood Reporter that he was disappointed to be losing the show prematurely.

TNT wanted more and (unlike NBC with Life, he said pointedly), I can't be mad at them for a lack of promotion. They hyped the heck out of the series.



Oh, well...

20, if you've ever wondered, wondered, what is my favorite word...

brou·ha·ha (brōō'hä-hä')
n. An uproar; a hubbub.

[French, of imitative origin.]

21 Praises for the poise of Les Paul

R.I.P.

I could make a longer post out of this, but mostly all I have to say is:

He's right.

Peter Daou on why the Right is still in the driver's seat, elections and the will of the people be damned:

Democrats seem blind-sided and flummoxed by the right's extreme, game-changing rhetoric. HuffPost's Sam Stein reports that the White House is "frustrated and confused by Palin, Limbaugh and Hannity." But this has all been telegraphed for years, from Ann Coulter slandering 911 widows and being cheered by NBC and other media outlets, to John Kerry, a man who volunteered to sacrifice his life for his country, being swift-boated for his willingness to face bombs and bullets.

You know that moment in Star Wars...

...after Luke sees Ben Kenobi cut down by Darth Vader? How he stays and shoots it out with the stormtroopers for a few seconds, but then runs away when he hears Kenobi's voice in his mind?

I think Janet Jackson just heard a certain childlike voice in hers.

"Run, Janet, run! It's too late for me! Just run!"

22 I'm sick of coming up with these alliterative titles

Here's a great, semi-rare early '80s pop record. I call it "semi-rare" because although I managed to get through the entire '80s without hearing it (which I like to think makes it kinda rare), it did turn up on one of the best of the '80s comp series, Just Can't Get Enough.

Either way, that it's rare is debatable...that it's great is a fact.

No. No. No, no,.no, no, no, no!

Sigh. Ever just want to hit somebody but you're not quite sure who you can hit? It seems that in his town hall today, President Obama attacked those responsible for spreading lies and related idiocy about his policies.

And if you're anything like me, you say well, damn! It's about time! ...until you learn that what he attacked was not the Bush wingnuts...it was the media.

Now, certainly some aspects of the media have been "co-conspirators," is it were, in spreading these. But I'd really like it if this President would start both kicking ass and naming names.

My god, it's like somehow President Obama swallowed whole what Ronald Reagan called "the 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of a republican." Of course, when Reagan used it, he said "another republican."

I'm so, so, so, so tired of the people I elected acting as though the right-wing has any brains whatsoever. When they keep showing, every day in every way, not only that they don't, but that they insist on treating everyone else (right or left-wing) like they don't either.

Or, as a consoling white man once said to another dazzling urbanite who rode into a corrupt situation and hoped to change things with nothing more than a friendly smile...

"What did you expect? "Welcome, sonny"? "Make yourself at home"? "Marry my daughter"? You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons."

Everytime somebody screams and yells, and the response from the Obama camp is not "sit down, you idiot," but: "I understand your concern, but I think you're a little bit misinformed, let me try to explain just what..."

...is another day that we're going to have to put up with this cycle, and another day we get further and further from policies that might actually help some people. Instead of keeping up the pretense that everybody in Washington just wants the best things for all of our citizens, we just disagree on the methods.

Bullshit. There is right, and there is wrong. And we can see who's wrong. And we can see who isn't doing jack-diddly-squat about it.

Two rememberances of John Hughes

First, a writer named Beth Armogida came up with a list of lessons learned from John Hughes movies.

To which I'll add:

John Candy is a fine role model. -- I haven't even seen Uncle Buck, but I'll add that, because I am a bachelor/slob uncle.

A single parent raising kids is possible, but probably not a good idea. --Mr. Mom

Ed O'Neill is going to have trouble overcoming audience identification of him as Al Bundy --Dutch

German girls love to whip out their breasts. --European Vacation

Actually, there is a limit to how much cute will let you get away with. --Curly Sue

In his 70s, Walter Matthau would do anything for a paycheck. --Dennis the Menace

Say, you know who might be good in a romantic comedy? Jennifer Lopez. Brilliant! Where do you come up with these things, I tell ya... --Maid in Manhattan

If you think on it, you'll realize you really don't want to go to your --Class Reunion

Macaulay Culkin is not as easily replaced as many of us thought. --Home Alone 3

A great, big, slobbering St. Bernard dog may be lovable at first, but eventually it starts leaving a lot of waste in its wake. --Beethoven's 3rd , 4th, 5th.

And...

Then again, so do characters originally played by Macaulay Culkin. --Home Alone 4

Second: Ok Alec, I'll give ya this one.

You may recall that I have been, in the past, somewhat skeptical of Alec Baldwin when he puts fingers to keyboard. In fact, he and Richard "I'm speaking for the whole world" Gere are two poster children for my well-known "actors shouldn't talk" policy.

Be that as it may, he actually says some very nice things about Hughes, with whom he worked on She's Having A Baby, in this piece.

Ok...now this is just weird...

...continuing my occasional series of making note of odd search terms that have led people to this blog...this morning, somebody Googled "ken varkentine." I can understand typoing or even misspelling "varkentine" (sometimes I'm not even sure about it)...but "ben?"

23 Plethoras of Pythons

I think what I like about the Pythons is that they're just so intellectual...