Oh, dear.

I'm close, are you close?

Sometimes I can't get my mind around things

For example: I've written before about how I just couldn't figure out what Disney was thinking sending Anne Hathaway to promote Princess Diaries 2 on the filthy (in the best way) Graham Norton show.

I can't really complain about that one too hard, of course, as this was where I got my first good, long look at Miss Hathaway, whom I subsequently decided to stalk and marry (it's been five years. The best-laid plans...).

More recently: Let's say that you had written one of those books that say that homosexuality is unnatural and gay people can be "rehabilitated" like drug addicts.

Why, unless you were severely fucked in the head, would you agree to go on the television show of a brilliant lesbian?

At the very least, read that article, but I heartily encourage you to watch the embedded video therein as well.

I mean, how could he not have known she was going to nail him to the wall using his own words as proof that he's really stupid?

Oh right, because he's really stupid...

Source this quote

So I'm reading again about how, apparently to placate two-faced boobs like Joe Lieberman, the Senate has "compromised" the public option down to the point where:

...an insurance industry insider who has been deeply involved in the health care fight emails to declare victory.

"We WIN," the insider writes. "Administered by private insurance companies...

I think about how this thing, instead of starting out great and ending up good, now seems to have started out good and ended up...absolutely nowhere.

It makes me think of a quote that suddenly seems all the more sane, sensible, and far-seeing...and I think that none of you reading this will be able to tell me where it comes from.

Let's see if I'm right.

Here's the quote.

Did you know that in the Far East, people pay their doctors when they're healthy. When they're sick, they don't have to pay. So basically, they end up paying for what they want, not what they don't want. We've got it all ass-backwards, here. These politicians, they say the same thing, over and over and over again. Healthcare decisions should be made by doctors and their patients, not by the government. Oh, now I know they're not made by doctors and their patients or the government. They're made by the fuckin' insurance companies.

Well?

To support this proposal, please observe the following

Proposed: Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) is of questionable sanity, and unquestionably an asshole.

Support: Here is a segment from liberal dream girl Rachel Maddow's show last week all about Sen. Inhofe:



Inhofe not only admits that everything said about him in the piece is true, he's proud to the point of smug condescension about it.

What's more, he thinks (or maybe I should say believes) that

"...The things she says she doesn’t like are contrary to the beliefs of 90 percent of the people in America.”

...which of course, if read by someone who actually cares about things like sentence structure and good grammar, would mean...

Sure is good to be in the majority, isn't it?

The Senate would appear to have made a deal to get rid of the Public Option.

It's not often I think that I missed much being born two years after the end of the 1960s. One thing, though, I think I get when I watch television programs/movies, read books, or listen to music from or about the time:

There were, like, a couple of years there where people seem to have thought it really was the dawning of the age of Aquarius, that they could take a sad song and make it better.

Those days are gone forever...that is, if they ever really existed.

I think I know why John Lennon withdrew in the latter half of the '70s.

I've said it for years: More often than not (certainly more often than I'd like), the difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans are evil; Democrats are incompetent (Bush the miracle baby was both).

Remember that jackass mayor from Tennessee last week?

The one who said President Obama deliberately planned his speech to block the Peanuts Christmas special on account of he is a Muslim? Well, that mayor would like us to believe, whoops I mean know, he's sorry, and he was just trying to be funny.

So you want to see an Israeli cover band interpret about a dozen '80s songs in six minutes

Kind of great, isn't it?

Sometimes I really like her...

(Via Think Progress)

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) stepped up and drew a parallel to help the amendment’s male co-sponsors better understand its repercussions. Since Nelson’s measure forces women to purchase special abortion riders — which require women to plan for unplanned pregnancies — Boxer challenged “the men who have brought us this” to “single out a procedure that’s used by a man or a drug that is used by a man that involves his reproductive health care and say they have to get a special rider”:

BOXER: There’s nothing in this amendment that says if a man some day wants to buy Viagra, for example, that his pharmaceutical coverage cannot cover it, that he has to buy a rider. I wouldn’t support that. And they shouldn’t support going after a woman using her own private funds for her reproductive health care. Is it fair to say to a man you’re going to have to buy a rider to buy Viagra and this will be public information that could be accessed? No, I don’t support that. I support a man’s privacy, just as I support a woman’s privacy.

In retrospect, it's kind of amazing how quickly President Obama has moved most of us to Missouri

To the point where I considered headlining this post "Obama administration shows it can actually do something."

From an author and law professor named Peter M. Shane:

The White House this morning released a long-awaited Open Government Directive that follows up on the President's promise - memorialized on his first full day of office - to usher in a new era of transparent, participatory governance.

The Directive, issued over the signature of OMB Director Peter Orszag, explains: "Transparency promotes accountability by providing the public with information about what the Government is doing. ... Collaboration improves the effectiveness of Government by encouraging partnerships and cooperation within the Federal Government, across levels of government, and between the Government and private institutions."

But don't worry, folks, we're still screwed.

If transparency is truly to promote accountability, then the public needs journalists to help discover, gather, compare, contextualize, and share the new information becoming available.

Uh-oh.

In recent memory, "journalists" in this country tend to roll over for Republican presidents. Then decide they've been too gullible and fancy themselves "truthtellers" just in time to be an obstacle to the progress of any Democrat. Then they start all over again when the GOP is back in.

That is, when they're not covering the whole thing as if it were a horserace where who wins doesn't actually matter.

This does not bode well (and President Obama knows it).

These journalists may be citizen journalists.

They may be our only hope. I mean, seriously, can you name me five professional, trustworthy journalists in this country not counting Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart?

It is skillful engagement with information that turns greater transparency into deeper democracy.

"Skillful"...yeah, we're still screwed.

Of course, for me, the '80s clothes and dancing only make her look cuter...

In the little "more info" box on the YouTube page for this video, this girl says

Obviously, I exaggerated the 80's clothes and dancing. This is not a serious video and I'm not trying to dance well nor am I trying to look attractive.

Trying to or not...

Get well soon, kid.

Alexa Ray Joel, daughter of Billy Joel by Christie Brinkley, may have attempted suicide.

I wish I could muster the energy to be surprised by this...

Sam Tanenhaus' New Yorker review of Sarah Palin's book, as well as another book about the former governor, contains this nugget:

Palin, though notoriously ill-travelled outside the United States, did journey far to the first of the four colleges she attended, in Hawaii. She and a friend who went with her lasted only one semester. “Hawaii was a little too perfect,” Palin writes. “Perpetual sunshine isn’t necessarily conducive to serious academics for eighteen-year-old Alaska girls.” Perhaps not. But Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, gave a different account to [Scott] Conroy and [Shushannah] Walshe [authors of 'Sarah From Alaska']. According to him, the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: “They were a minority type thing and it wasn’t glamorous, so she came home.”

Via The New Republic. Some right-on comments, too.

You're killing me, Mr. President, you're absolutely killing me

Via CommonDreams.org, here's an article from the Nation called "Six Smart Progressive Complaints about the house health bill."

The Affordable Health Care for America Act was approved by the U.S. House Saturday night with overwhelming support from progressive Democrats who serve in the chamber and from a president who was nominated and elected with the enthusiastic support of progressive voters.

But that does not mean that informed and engaged progressives are entirely enthusiastic about the measure.

The complaints are:

1. "This Bill Will Enshrine in Law the Monopolistic Powers of the Private Health Insurance Industry"

2. This Bill Fails to Control Costs

3. "This Bill Obliterates Women's Fundamental Right to Choose"

4. This Bill Embraces Religious-Right Extremes

5. This Bill Worries About the Health of Wall Street, Not America

And

6. The Bill Does Not Cure What Ails Us

On the 19th day of Christmas, Corey K. sent to me:

A 904-year-old Time Lord...

The Republicans are still in charge

Hey, America! Remember that election we had last year? The one where we said, and I thought, pretty clearly, we wanted to go left because (if for no other reason) the incompetence of the extreme right Republicans in control (for eight years) had left our country FUBAR?

Remember that? Yeah, heh heh, that was cute, wasn't it?

Fortunately, it didn't actually mean anything.

Sentences that offend me both morally and from a linguistic POV.

I regret all the tragedy that has surrounded Phil [Spector] in recent years.

From:

Paul Shaffer's memoir, pp 275

Why it offends me morally:

Because Phil Spector was the tragedy.

Why it offends me from a linguistic POV:

"Surrounded" makes it sound like he was fallen on and acted upon by outside forces; we're talking about a convicted murderer here.

Dude, you cannot possibly be serious

Via the TP Wonk Room:

Orrin Hatch: If Republicans Controlled Government, We Would ‘Get This Country Under Control’

!

Is it any wonder I've gone totally mad?

Which character from Alice in Wonderland Are You? Caterpillar The Caterpillar is very laid-back and calm. ...How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail. And pour the waters of the Nile, on every golden scale. How cheerfully he seems to grin, how neatly spreads his claws. And welcomes little fishes in, with gently smiling jaws!

Click Here to Take This Quiz

As god is my witness, I have no idea how I feel about this either

Disney is going to "reboot" The Black Hole.

Few would confuse the original with the best of what Disney or the science fiction genre has to offer. Robots on strings, hammy actors, and a script that didn't know where it wanted to go. But it is the kind of movie which has lodged in the brains of those of us who were about eight years old when we first saw it.

Largely because of those robots (strings, schmings, they sure were cool-lookin') and hammy actors (Roddy McDowall chews the most scenery as a bitchy robot who makes C-3PO look like a Brooklyn car salesman, even though he's only a voice).

And because when you're a kid, you don't care as much about where a script is going, as long as you have a good time in the getting there. (Or not getting there...)

And personally, I'm a big fan of John Barry's music for this film--maybe the most phenomenal he wrote for any non-Bond flick.

So as I say, I have no idea how I feel about this.

I will admit upfront, however, to absolutely loving this sentence in the item to which I've linked above:

The details of the update are being kept secret, though the take does involve grounding the story in the science of a black hole, much more so than in the original.

This will not be difficult...

There's nothing like a Tennessee public official making an ass of himself to put a smirk on my face...

Arlington Mayor Russell Wiseman posted a racist rant on his Facebook page about President Obama -- apparently triggered by President Obama's Afghanistan speech interfering with the annual broadcast of the "Peanuts" Christmas Special.

Oh, there's more.

Nooooooooooooooo!

Why...why, god...

You know how Marilyn Manson is insane, and thinks Evan Rachel Wood is his clone?

Well, apparently, that's what she likes.

She's back with him.

Nothing much to add to this, but good on 'er for courage

Meredith Baxter, familiar as the mom on Family Ties, has come out of the closet.

Oh, now that really hurts.

If you were reading this blog earlier this year, you know how often exciting and sometimes brilliant I thought Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles was.

I suspect the fucking Terminator: Salvation movie that followed was pretty weak and charm-less, esp. in comparison.

But I must be fair and admit I didn't see it. I have very little interest in seeing it, except maybe to mock that self-important nutball Christian Bale.

I mention the film here now only for reasons that will become apparent shortly.

I'd more-or-less "come to terms" with TSCC having gone away.

I'll admit I had some residual resentment that Joss Whedon's Dollhouse remained on the schedule (albeit only for a while). Rightly or wrongly, I have it in my head that Fox chose between the two.

(I feel the same way about Jay Leno taking up five hours on NBC a week with his no-longer-funny simpering, when I could've had a third season of Life.)

(Whether that's true or not isn't the point.)

But I digress.

I accept the reality that TSCC never got the House-like ratings it deserved. That's the way it works: People don't watch show, show go 'way. When this show was on, though, I joined a message board or two to talk about it. I'm still on at least one mailing list.

...which is how, this evening, I received a message offering me a chance to enter into a competition to win...a DVD of Terminator: Salvation.

Irony is really kicking my ass tonight.

I can't accept that.

Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" has received a Grammy nod for "song of the year."

This is obviously some strange usage of the word "song" I was not previously aware of.

("Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car"...now that was a song...)

Dude!

Ok--you know how my feelings on Natalie Portman are, shall we say, a tad mixed? Sometimes I think she doesn't really try as an actress (the Star Wars movies), but she can also be really good (Garden State).

Based on her public statements and such I suspect she's really a very silly person, but that's not a crime (or even rare) among actresses and anyway, I may be wrong.

But what's long been undeniable is that she was cute as a button with a curvy bod of the kind that makes men want to father children.

Even if she mostly chooses to keep it covered (which is certainly her right).

So I'm left to wonder: HTF do you conspire to make her look as creepily photoshopped as she does on this cover?

A good thing to read if you're worried about recent "revelations" that global warming is a fib

Climategate (or "Swifthack").

Not that anyone asked me, but...

...for the record (?) I would describe my reaction to President Obama's newly-made plan for Afghanistan as "apprehensive...but not without hope." I think he's trying to be all things to all people, and this may be a laudable goal, but I fear it's going to leave him ending up nothing to nobody.

Dear Rupert: Shut the fuck up, won't you, there's a good chap.

You may have noticed that one of the things with which I really have a problem is people who don't...heh, I think I just realized another reason why I'm in love with the Saw movies...don't appreciate their blessings.

Men who have beautiful girlfriends and treat them like shit (emotionally and/or physically).

Filmmakers who make Academy Award-winning and/or box-office blockbuster movies and still stamp their little feet and throw temper tantrums if anybody doesn't like them.

People whose circumstances of life make available to them chances that I and most likely anybody reading this (sorry) will probably never, ever get and use them to keep themselves stupid.

And most recently: Shallow actor/writers * with 40+ films to their credit (and who are even on the masthead at Vanity phucking Fair, forcrissake), complaining that coming out has just ruined their career.

Any actors and/or writers out there (straight or gay, closeted or open) who, like me, would be willing to open a vein for a career as "ruined" as Mr. Everett's?

*I feel justified in the "shallow" tag, being as I've read his memoir.

I could die from all this irony, again

You know who the only people that still believe the Democrats in power have any interest in advancing "the homosexual agenda"* are?

The KKK connected, anti-gay Family Research Council, that's who.

*This "agenda" consists of the radical notion that homosexuals are people.

From the place and date stamp, there's a chance that I was in the audience at this

I honestly don't know which I find more insulting

That this blog is the 81st answer (only 81st?) if you do a Comcast Web Search for "nubileteen?"

Or that in the entry which comes up, I'm not talking about Emmy Clarke or Evanna Lynch like a normal person.

No, I'm defending Jigsaw from the charge that he "luridly dismembers" young girls like them.

I think I have a problem...

Very well, if you insist, I will imagine her in the costume

Rumors swirl that Anne Hathaway may have been approached to play The Black Cat in Spider-Men 4.

Where does one go?

There is going to be a summit meeting of they-who-are-beloved-by-the-stupid-and/or-logic impaired. I know, you think I'm making a Twilight "team" joke, but I'm talking about women. And not Jessica Biel, either.

I'm talking about Michele "Barack Obama is anti-American" Bachman and--oh be still my heart--crazy Sarah "And he pals around with terrorists!" Palin. Both are scheduled to attend the first National Tea Party Convention next year, Mrs. Palin as the keynote speaker.

Now. Be with me, as we consider, at leisure, a wonderful question. We have time--this will be just over a week before Valentine's Day (and I think I'm in love). The question is: Just where one does one go to find people willing to pay over $500 for this privilege?

(Please note: The price does not include any costs for lodgings.)

Not just willing, nay eager, to hear humans (of any sex) with the intellectual weight of plastic give their thoughts and discuss their ideas?

Where does one go?

Give yourself time. It's going to come to you.

Brace yourself.

Are you ready to read some of the most stomach-churning bullshit you've ever seen in your life?

Are you sure?

Are you really sure?

Okay, don't say I didn't warn you. Now go read Cameron and Zemeckis, Bold Visionaries.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow!

...he actually compares them to Lennon and McCartney...

Ain't it cool what editing can do to your perception?

It's times like this I'm glad I don't watch morning television.

ABC just says no to man-on-man kissing, but when it comes to a man beating up a woman, why, that's an entirely different matter...

The scary thing is, I don't think I can just dismiss this

Courtney Love says that Britney Spears' father molested her.

(Britney, not Courtney).

Things to be thankful for, 2009 (part three of three)

The other two parts are posted in my other blogs.

And now, in no particular order:

House. Still that rarest of things: Something popular with the general public that I like, too. Thus far even though I may not always like what the characters are doing, I can usually believe that it is what the characters would do. At least as far as the characters I care about, which is basically House, Wilson and Cuddy, that is. The others are pretty much interchangeable.

The promise of new Aaron Sorkin-written TV series and screenplays. He's still got more hits (American President, West Wing, Sports Night) on his stats sheet than misses (Studio 60)

Vladek Sheybal, the Terry Hall of Polish new wave;




Bob Marley of white Reggae:




Now that you're wondering WTF that really is, read this.

I may be wrong about this (though I hope not), but I think more people are coming around to my conclusion that Joe Lieberman is a two-faced boob, and the more we treat him as anything more than that, the more undeserving dignity we lend.

On balance, I am still certainly thankful that President Obama is in the White House instead of Senator McCain. It's just that, as Mark Evanier pointed out not long ago, the pass Obama gets for not being George W. Bush is not going to last forever.

If he sells out real change for cosmetic in health care, if he chooses political expediency over the lives of our soldiers threatened in Afghanistan...god help him.

Getting back to things I'm thankful for, of course, those suspicious Canadlians.

And last but you know not least, my man Jigsaw.

Most likable gangster/corpse/family counselor in film history...

Children bringing pie never looked so creepy

For reasons that have never been sufficiently explained to me, I'm on Amy Ephron's "One For The Table" mailing list.

I think the images she chooses for her E-Cards are generally pretty nice, though, so I don't pick.

This one, however, kinda gives me the creeps.

It's just got a certain The Omen quality to it...

I don't even know what to say about this one, either

Former Bush administration spokesperson and current Fox analyst Dana Perino ...made this astonishing statement:

"...we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term."

A classic Jack Benny routine, performed with a v. young Johnny Carson

That is flagrant false advertising

On the TV menu tonight, it said John Cleese was to be a guest on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Just now, however, Conan announced his second guest as Jon Lovitz. Nothing against Lovitz...but come on.

How quickly they forget

Just now on the Bonnie Hunt show, she was talking about how in the new Twilight movie, the only way the teen heroine can get the attention of the vamp she loves is by hurting herself. Bonnie was metaphorically clucking her tongue about this, for understandable reasons.

But then she further went on to compare this with her experience of the movie Grease when she was a teenager, how she and her friends just went home singing all the songs and so on, and what a shame it was that Twilight couldn’t have had a more...smiley, I guess, message.

Now, I hold no brief for the Twilight movies or books one way or the other. I know many people enjoy 'em, and god bless them. As a lover of most things Saw, who am I to tell other people what they can or cannot appreciate?

But the central message of Grease is, as the wonderful Mad Magazine satire at the time pointed out: In order to get the boy you want...you have to be a slut!

Then again, I know a lot of women thought of Pretty Woman as a fairy-tale romantic comedy, and the message of that film is clearly: A woman is a whore, until a rich man validates her...

I'm a prophet.

From my Amazon.com review of Michael Palin's Diaries, 1969-1979: The Python Years:

Can we have 1980-1990 soon please Mike?

Apparently yes, yes we can.

And you all thought I was a dead loss...

Crazy question.

Is it me, or does Khalid Sheik Mohammed, here, look like a Muppet version of Captain Jack (Johnny Depp, not John Barrowman)?

I don't even know what to say about this one

The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington says it is obligated to keep paying retirement benefits to six priests who church officials have confirmed are pedophiles.

Is it wrong that I'm in some ways sexually aroused by this news?

Six words:

New. Aaron. Sorkin. Written. TV. Show.

Up there with the big boys, but not in a good way

Remember last month when those lists of best-value-for-money movie stars came out, based on how much their films make vs. how much they get paid? Well, the other shoe had to drop sometime, and here it is: The Most Overpaid Stars in Hollywood.

Something to observe: I confess myself to have been kind of delighted to see that there are so many more men on the top 10 list (nine) than women (one).

That's because, at first blush, it made me think that movies centered on women are a better risk than movies centered on men. So maybe we'd see more of the former, especially since there were so many women on the money-making list.

On second glance, however, I wonder whether it might just say something about how much more even an unprofitable male movie star makes compared to a female...

Waist deep in the big hilly

Recommended reading: Dan Froomkin on the dilemma President Obama faces in Afghanistan. Excerpts:

As it happens, in this case political reality actually diverges quite markedly from public opinion. The public overwhelmingly opposes the war -- 57 percent to 39 percent, according to the latest Associated Press poll. And disengagement from Afghanistan -- even though it's not even being discussed as a serious option in political circles -- is considerably more popular with the American public than escalation, which is almost all anyone in Washington can talk about. The latest CNN poll found that 49 percent of Americans favored reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan -- with 28 percent saying they should all be withdrawn immediately -- compared to less than 40 percent who want to send more.

And while our nation's most predictably superficial media figures are jumping all over Obama for taking too long to make up his mind, the quality of the debate -- not to mention the existence of the debate itself -- is a tremendous improvement over the heedless rush to war in Iraq by the Bush administration.

Okay, I admit it...

For all that I've had my differences with President Obama this first year, seeing these images of him visiting the Great Wall really makes me feel...what's the opposite of disdain? It's been so long since I felt this way when looking at our Commander-in-Chief...

Ever see someone that you know is trying to look hot but instead they give you the creeps?

Leighton Meester.

(In her defense, it's not entirely the fault of her outfit and makeup. It's just that combined, they make her look like one of the underaged girls I used to see round the lobby before The Rocky Horror Picture Show...and that's just spooky.

Carrie Prejean truly is the gift that keeps on giving

To recap:

She's an embarrassment to my home state.
She's a hypocrite.
She's unbelievably stupid.

How unbelievably stupid?

...this unbelievably stupid:

The former Miss California said she learned a lot while doing pageants, and described her introduction to Donald Trump:

He meeted us!

It's true. I've seen the clip from the Today show where she said it.

PS: The link above takes Prejean at her word that she was 17 years of age when she made the tape(s) of herself expressing her sexuality in a healthy and natural way.

But per Countdown, the ex-boyfriend for whom she made the tape(s) says she's lying, that she was 20, and that she asked him to lie to back her up.

Apparently, I didn't create my new blog a moment too soon

My post about Jessica Simpson from earlier today was "tweeted" on a Twitter feed (I think that's the correct vernacular) called "sexycurvybabes."

I'd be in a better humor about this, were it not for the fact that by my rough estimate, 50% of the other tweets to the feed are things like (and for once I'm going to "censor" myself simply because I don't want to pick up certain kinds of traffic):

H()rnv blond fvck!ng outdoors: K!nkv chick fvck!ng really hard in all her holes

Being Catholic, on the other hand...

A preliminary report commissioned by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops to investigate the clergy sex abuse scandal has found no evidence that gay priests are more likely than heterosexual clergy to molest children, the lead authors of the study said Tuesday.

The fault, Dear Catholics, lies not in your stars...

The question has been raised repeatedly within and outside the church because the overwhelming majority of known victims were boys. As part of the church's response to the crisis, the Vatican ordered a review of all U.S. seminaries that, among other issues, looked for any "evidence of homosexuality" in the schools.

"What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse," said Margaret Smith of John Jay College, in a speech to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now."

But don't worry, any Catholics who may be looking in. Your church is still homophobic and generally sex-negative.

In a separate move on Tuesday, the bishops adopted a pastoral letter affirming the church's definition of marriage being between one man and one woman, and that sex is meant for procreation.

Capturing the exact precise instant Jessica Simpson realized her career was over

I suppose I could feel sorry for her, but when you can't really do anything but be curvy with big boobs and take most of your clothes off...

It'll never happen.

Too many slapfights about who gets to be called "Butch."

You won't often see me saying nice things about Jessica Biel.

I mean, she may be very sweet, and the nice ass and everything, but I generally think she's kind of a bimbo. However, especially in this day and age, I like any Hollywood starlet who realizes a baby isn't just an accessory.

Somebody tell Blogger

"When it comes to the flow of information, I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can call their own government to account," Obama said.

Teenaged hillbillys say some stupid things sometimes

Case in point.

Just goes to show ya.

I truly didn't think it was possible anymore for the Republicans to do anything that would leave me literally open-mouthed with surprise. From Julie Gulden on Daily Kos:

30 Republicans voted against Senator Al Franken's amendment that would stop the Department of Defense from contracting with companies that require employees to resolve workplace complaints through private arbitration rather than the courts. This includes complaints of sexual assault.

Franken's amendment will be used during the coming campaign year. Women from coast to coast will be asking their Replublican Congress Critter, "What the Hell were you thinking of?"

But because of one of his first pieces of legislation, Democrats now have their most brazen attack line of the emerging 2010 campaign season: that Republicans are insensitive to rape victims.

Privately, GOP sources acknowledge that they failed to anticipate the political consequences of a "no" vote on the amendment. And several aides said that Republicans are engaged in an internal blame game about why they agreed to a roll-call vote on the measure, rather than a simple voice vote that would have allowed the opposing senators to duck criticism.

They failed to anticipate the political consequences of voting no on a woman's right to bring her rapist to trial. Wow. That's all. Just...wow.

See if you can tell at what point I stopped taking this article seriously

Yes, it's time for the annual "Are there too many gay stereotypes on TV?" articles.

Over time, the image of gay people on TV became less lavender and more gray—as multifaceted as the five men on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy or the ladies of The L Word.

We expected better of you, Mr. President

Don't ask me why, in retrospect.

It's always nice to see a Democratic White House with a majority abandon the rights of half the country for a pyrrhic victory.

Yes, they did.

Is it possible that Carrie Prejean has been punking us all along?

You remember Ms. Prejean. She's the embarrassment to my home state whose attempts to convince us that she's actually a Catholic nun were stymied by the revelation that she'd taped herself riding to Bethlehem on her own ass. Or something like that.

The other day she threatened to walk out on Larry King because he asked her a perfectly legitimate question. Personally, I was hoping Larry's reaction would be "Bitch, please. I've interviewed Presidents and foreign heads of state. And you think that you walking off my show will leave me to stammer and fumfuh?"

But now I've begun to wonder whether or not she can possibly be serious. Because:

No, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with getting breast implants as a Christian. I think it’s a personal decision. I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where it says you shouldn’t get breast implants.

She has got to be kidding me!

We'll have a gay old time

The soft n' smart Blue Gal found a photograph from a 1966 advertisement that made me laugh out loud:


Reminds me of a track from one of Bill Cosby's albums. He has a toothache and, for lack of anything else, accepts a Midol tablet from his landlady.

Much to his shame, "...the pain went away. And I tried to make the pain come. Nothing! Midol did it. Good ole' Midol. And you women don't tell anybody about it. Keep all the goodies to yourself..."

Lucky I didn't shoot him after all, then

Burger King happens to be the fast food that is closest to my heart (and is no doubt blocking my arteries, but that's another post). At least twice in the past month, I have gone to one of the branches here in Seattle only to be told that because of the one dollar double cheeseburger promotion they'd been having, they were out of burgers. At Burger King.

This was annoying, but not overly stressful. Believe it or not, we actually have more than one branch around. So I went to another and didn't think too much about it.

Turns out, though, I'm not the only one to have been inconvenienced by this promotion. Most of the Burger King Franchisees are mad. And they're not just mad, they're suing mad!

Burger King franchisees sued the hamburger company this week over its $1 double cheeseburger promotion, saying they're losing money on the deal and the company can't set maximum menu prices.

What a senseless waste of human life.

An actor? No. A writer...

Entertainment Weekly asks if readers have ever felt "betrayed" by an actor (and their choice of role). I don't think I have. Because even the most brilliant actor can only go where the story takes them; they're usually not in control of that (and usually shouldn't be).

For example, that movie with Kevin Kline as Cole Porter sucked, but that wasn't his fault.

I may sometimes have felt saddened to learn that an actor whose work I enjoy believes some things that I think are really fucking stupid, but betrayed? No.

I didn't even feel betrayed by the Tennessee cast of The Girl in the Boat. True, some of them acted liked divas, but...they're actors. The director is another story. And not just a director of my work.

(Although some directors--Brian De Palma--can't betray me because I'll never trust them)

Natalie Portman is annoying, but George Lucas betrayed me with (most of) the Star Wars prequels, she didn't.

Writers is another story. There I think I could say I've felt betrayed, most especially in television.

I've felt betrayed by the Buffy and Angel writers, as I came to believe that for all their nice talk about feminism, they had no idea how to write a strong woman out of the series without killing her. And because of their insensitive handling of fans who were truly upset at the loss of one of those women.

The later, post-Sorkin seasons of The West Wing might've seemed like a betrayal, but that's why I stopped watching after he left.

Last year's season finale of Bones felt like a betrayal (actually, if felt like an hour-long "Fuck you!" to fans); again, that's why I stopped watching.

Jersey Girl and Clerks II are betrayals, not just of me as an audience member but of the promise of Kevin Smith's talent.

Speaking of things that have to be stopped

Four words: Jon...Gosselin...sex tape!

As sure as the sun rises every morning...

Richard Floyd, a member of the...oh yes, come to papa...Tennessee House of Representatives, sez:

"Not all Muslims are terrorists, but so far all terrorists are Muslim."

And oh yes, there's more.

A new venue III (A new new venue)

I've finally accepted that Dancing Girls is closed until further notice. So, I have created a new blog to take its place. The new blog is called She Makes Me Quiver. I'm still "moving in," but I have a couple of posts up already, including one that explains the title of this new place...

Saved by sudden sanity at the supreme second

Oh. My. God.

A 17-year-old, openly gay girl in Alabama was told that she could not go to prom with her girlfriend. I wish I could say that surprises me, but it doesn't. What does surprise me is what happened when the ACLU stood up for the civil rights of the young woman:

Rather than treating their students like oh, what is the phrase, actual human beings, the school actually tried to cancel the entire prom.

Dig it, that's how powerful is the hold ignorance and bigotry has on this school and/or its principal. They were willing to ruin the night for an entire class before they'd let two girls attend a dance together.

Happily, cooler heads seem to have prevailed. The latest word is that the prom will go forward, and the lesbian couple will be "allowed."

"Allowed." How generous.

I reiterate: Robert. Zemeckis. Has. Got to be. Stopped!

It was bad enough that he seems to have been sucked so deep into the Uncanny Valley (look it up) that he's confused it with real animation (you know, what Pixar and Brad Bird do).

At least when Zemeckis made Roger Rabbit, he had the rare good sense to hire the incredibly gifted Richard Williams to do the animated parts of the film. You'd think that would've taught him an important lesson, but apparently not.

Only too recently, we learned he's going to fuck up Yellow Submarine for future generations. Now it comes out, not only is he also planning a Roger Rabbit sequel, but he wants to do it using his creepy, not-real-animation for the humans in the story.

Taking a cue from South Park: Why doesn't Zemeckis just film himself raping Roger Rabbit for 104 minutes; call it a movie, and leave it at that?

Women Demi Moore's own age, or, What's wrong...

...with these pictures?

These are direct contemporaries of Ms. Moore, who are mostly all at least somewhat still in the public eye. BTW, the point here is not to suggest that any of these women look bad, quite the contrary.

But to ask: Why do you suppose Moore looks like she could be any of their daughters?

Meg Ryan

Gina Gershon

Paula Abdul

Michelle Yeoh

Tracy Thorn

Lisa Whelchel

Helen Hunt

Lisa Kudrow

Tori Amos

I think I feel good about this idea

Gay groups are boycotting the Democratic Party. That means they're freezing their fundraising. Let's see if the Dems grow a spine when you threaten them financially. Because clearly, being in the right morally means little or nothing to them.

I just wish she wouldn't deny that she's had surgery and other cosmetic alteration

I feel bad. For some years now, I've been intimating...well, I've left some bald-faced hints that...oh what the hell, I've been stating:

I think Demi Moore may well have had some things done to her body and visage so she could keep looking young; feeling sexy.

I don't morally censure her for having done so, although at times I've thought she'd gone too far...and hoped she wasn't a role model.

I can see now, that I was wrong, however.
This is clearly the real face and body of a 46-year-old (almost 47) mother of three.

Ironically, this touches on a few of my primary fetishes...

Starting with Dita Von Teese + Jane Wiedlin...

Now this kind of shames me

This blog is only the number five answer, if you Google the phrase "cuddy's ass on house."


I believe I can do better. And by god, I will in the future. Perhaps my problem is that I've written too generally about my lust for Cuddy, and not enough about her ass in specific.

Oh sure, I've said that Lisa Edelstein is the sexiest woman currently on television--and I stand ready to fight anyone who says otherwise.

But have I really made clear to you, my vast reading audience, just how much I, as the saying goes, "hate to see her go, but love to watch her walk away?"



(And watching her walk up isn't exactly hellish either)

If you're like me, Christian Serratos is a name you've never heard before.

Apparently she's a young actress in New Moon. But more importantly, because it means I get to run this not-at-all sexualized--she's only leaning against a tree, for god's sake--photo (shop):

She's against cruelty to animals.

What the hell is going on here?

My vast reading audience...what things come to your mind when you see the word "Brazilian?" Something sexy, yes?

Some kinds of jazz?

The bossa nova, perhaps?

The Braga women;
(Bebê, você pode conduzir meu carro.)



enough supermodels to make a calendar for every day in the year, and...


...never have to repeat?

Kirsty MacColl's (bless her) final album?

And er, uh...y'know?





Those are the things I think of. Plus of course, Gilliam's Brazil, but that's not really connected to the country.

What I don't think of is a country where a 20-year-old woman can be driven from her school because she was wearing a mini-dress. With a line of students chanting "whore" at her. And yet...

Eva Green has such a rockin' bod that it should quite frankly be illegal

The photo is an acknowledged homage to a series taken of Charlotte Rampling (one of the originals is estimated to be worth $120,000-180,000) by the late; much appreciated, Helmut Newton.

Happy birthday, Tara Reid

You wild-eyed, crazy chick, and


My beloved revolutionary sweetheart, you're beautiful, baby!





Botched (and unnecessary) plastic surgeries, bad career decisions...





Choosing never to wear pants (and other fashion don'ts), they don't matter to me. By god, I'd still marry you.

Robert Zemeckis must be stopped.

So, Hollywood mega-mogul Robert Zemeckis is recreating the Beatles' Yellow Submarine for the 3-D big screen, and Zemeckis is crossing his fingers that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will appear in the remake!

Zemeckis has pitched the idea to McCartney and Starr, but he says they "haven't gotten the word yet on… whether they're interested in doing it or not."

The Back to the Future director is adamant on continuing with Yellow Submarine even if the two remaining Beatles decline to sign on, but the group has always been a "great source of inspiration" for Zemeckis.

Robert Zemeckis wouldn't know inspiration if Venus herself stood half-naked before him.

Ever see a picture that you know...

...is supposed to make someone look like a sex queen, but instead just makes you feel like you stepped in something?

Just wondering.