Saturday, March 06, 2010

Once again, I can't believe I'm saying this, but that's not right

This year's "Razzie" worst in film awards have been announced. I haven't seen most of the winners, like "Transformers" and Sandra Bullock in "All About Steve." But to mark an anniversary of the coveted awards, worsts of the decade were also selected, including:

Paris Hilton was chosen as the decade's worst actress for movies such as "The Hottie and the Nottie" and "Repo: The Genetic Opera."


I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Hilton was not crap in Repo. Granted that it was a role she could easily knock out of the park, but still.

And BTW, that's "Repo: The Genetic Opera," not, I repeat, not "Repo Men," although that's apparently...quite similar. But I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

Ironically enough, he comes off like Moses on the mountaintop here



BTW, what sparked me to post Carlin this time was the latest attempt by Catholics to assert their right to do whatever they want.

Friday, March 05, 2010

Ahem...Saving Grace goes into its last episodes end of this month.

This is a warning. Longtime readers may remember my periodic mini-rants on Saving Grace, being as it's one of my favorite shows; not least because it stars the best, most luscious, beautiful and thrilling actress in America...



...so the rants will soon be returning.

I always feel a little guilty...

...linking to pap photos that involve children. It's why I rarely do it. But pictures of Jennifer Garner and/or Ben Affleck with their kids make me want to make an exception.

Photobucket

First, because in every such picture that I can remember seeing, the parents seem to be really, actively involved with the kids. You can't say that about all movie star parents, some of whom seem to view their children, from "baby bump" on, as just another way of getting attention from the media.

And second, because the kids are just adorable.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Who could've possibly seen that coming?

The Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus on "Tim Burton's" Alice in Wonderland is in...


Sacrifices the book's minimal narrative coherence -- and much of its heart...A film of remarkable visual invention that lacks strong plotting or a sense of wonder.


You don't fucking say.

In other words, a Tim Burton movie.

(Think about that for a second...less narrative coherence than the book...)

(Sorry...I'm just feeling bitter because this movie is going to be huge at the box office, while The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus slipped through the cracks...makes me want to take cyanide.)

Cooooooooooooooooooooooooool

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Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Thank god the Conservatives kept us safe

Per Think Progress:

A new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center has unearthed shocking data about the rise of militias, antigovernment groups, and other right-wing extremist groups. The report, titled “Rage on the Right,” has found that there has been an increase of 244 percent in the number of these extremist groups in 2009.


Early last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned about the rise of “rightwing extremism in the United States,” sparking an uproar among many on the right who derided DHS’s warning as merely “paranoid accusations of liberal bloggers.”

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Good cerebral comedy, that's what I like



Mr Frampton, will you take your trousers down?

Monday, March 01, 2010

You know something? John McCain is the best friend President Obama's got

Because, Obama voters (like me) sometimes feel disappointed in him. We wish he'd just Do the Right Thing; do the things he said he would, and basically be the liberal champion that racist conservatives say he is. We worry that he's strangled his administration with "Washington insiders."

However. Most of the time when we feel this way, we can always depend upon John McCain to come along and remind us that while the Obama administration may sometimes be disappointing, a McCain administration would've been catastrophic.

Case in point (per Think Progress):

McCain To Propose Amendment Prohibiting Changes To Medicare Using Reconciliation


But!

Republicans have consistently supported far larger cuts to the Medicare program than what Democrats are currently proposing and are always complaining that the Medicare “entitlement” program will bankrupt the nation.

Larger than usual excerpts, from my man...

E.J. Dionne Jr...

...The proposal helps estates worth more than $7 million in the case of couples. I guess struggling millionaires deserve the same empathy we feel for those without a job.

And notice this: Especially in the Senate, what passes for "bipartisanship" too often involves a Democrat such as Lincoln allying with a Republican on behalf of the wealthiest interests in the country. And we're supposed to cheer this?


Addressing Obama, [Senator] Barrasso suggested that we might be better off if people were insured only for catastrophic care. "Mr. President, when you say [people] with catastrophic plans, they don't go for care until later, I say sometimes the people with catastrophic plans are the people that are [the] best consumers of health care in . . . the way they use their health-care dollars."

"A lot of people" with insurance, he added, "come in and say, 'My knee hurts, maybe I should get an MRI,' they say. And then they say, 'Will my insurance cover it?' That's the first question. And if I say 'yes,' then they say, 'okay, let's do it.' If I say 'no,' then they say, 'Well, what will it . . . cost?' And 'What's it [going to] cost?' ought to be the first question. And that's why sometimes people with . . . catastrophic health plans ask the best questions, shop around, are the best consumers of health care."

Obama played the old TV character Columbo, who thrived on posing seemingly naive questions: "I just am curious. Would you be satisfied if every member of Congress just had catastrophic care? Do you think we'd be better health-care purchasers?"

Barrasso answered in the affirmative, though he didn't propose that senators dump their present coverage. Obama came right back: "Would you feel the same way if you were making $40,000?"


Democrats on the whole believe in using government to correct the inequities and inefficiencies the market creates, while Republicans on the whole think market outcomes are almost always better than anything government can produce.

That's not cheap partisanship. It's a fundamental divide.

Random things


Random things
Originally uploaded by cneisner

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Tennessee is trying to draw my fire

Think Progress » Sen. Alexander: Using Reconciliation To Pass Health Care Reform Would ‘End The Senate’

confidence coincidence call it a sin



Just 'cos I like it.