If Matthew Perry had appeared on "Sports Night," Aaron Sorkin's great sitcom, in "Chandler" mode, that wouldn't have worked either

So I've been meaning to talk some about the show Mr. Sunshine, co-created by and starring Matthew Perry as the manager of a huge arena. I don't think I'm going to watch it any more (if there is any more), but I've watched every episode to date, and at a certain point I realized I was doing so not because I was especially enjoying it.

Rather because I was trying to figure out why it just wasn't working for me. And this is what I've come up with: They're trying to do Aaron Sorkin without having Sorkin, and Perry is out of tune with the rest of his show.

The similarities to a Sorkin show are easily evident, with Sunshine being set "backstage," as all of Sorkin's series (West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60) are, and underlined by the presence of more than a few past Sorkin collaborators either in front of or behind the camera.

Aspiring to do a Sorkin-type show is a worthy goal, to be sure, but one thing this demonstrates is that it's harder than it looks. Even Sorkin doesn't keep his balance all the time, look at the third season of West Wing, and his ear for language is rare if not unique among his peers.

Without maintaining that balance, and without that sense of language, Sunshine is swimming against the tide...and it doesn't help that Perry is going in a different direction.

Perry appears to have two different styles of acting, both of which can be very effective.

One of these is, not necessarily only dramatic, but certainly more reflective, such as he employed on Studio 60 and his guest bits on West Wing. The other is basically sitcom, or more specifically Chandler, the wisecracker covering up emotional turmoil.

The latter mode frankly can be a bit overacted, but usually that's okay because it's in keeping with the rest of the show (nobody seriously thought Friends had much of a connection to real life, did they? And I liked the show.)

Trouble is that the two don't work together very well. On Sunshine, we have most of the cast smoothly underplaying (and hence coming off a little bit boring), while Perry overacts like Celine Dion putting over a song.

Only Allison Janney strikes a consistent balance, and appears to be having the time of her life, but she's helped by the fact that the weight of the show is not on her shoulders.

The combined result is like watching idiot acrobats who don't understand physics try to make a teeter-totter work with one person at one end and everybody else at the other. After a while, you gotta wonder why they're just standing there.

I just know I'm going to wake up in the morning pregnant and alone

But for now, my reaction to the budget speech President Obama gave today is: Intoxication.

Obama came home.

Holy shit.

The Star Wars Meme Trilogy Episode Two: The Meme Strikes Back

This is derived from a long meme I found on Becca's blog. She answered all 30 questions in one post; I think the original idea was to answer one a day for a month. I'm shooting for something in-between, breaking it down into three parts...which seemed appropriate.

Part one is here, this is part two; Part three is here.

11. Favorite battle




12. All time favorite scene in any of the movies:

The Millennium Falcon destroys the Imperial fighter at the end of Star Wars (I will never call it "A New Hope.")

"You're all clear kid, now lets blow this thing and go home!"



13. Favorite quote

"...a Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice."

14. A scene that makes you happy




15. A scene that makes you sad/angry
Luke after Vader "kills" Ben Kenobi.

16. Photo of your Star Wars related things (books, action figures, posters, shirts, etc.)

Don't have one. It's not a lot, anyway--just a few books. But there is this picture of me Christmas morning 1980 (I think)...



17. Your favorite moment in The Phantom Menace

The 22 years before it.

18. Your favorite moment in Attack of the Clones



19. Your favorite moment in Revenge of the Sith

Obi-Wan light sabers Darth's remaining limbs off and leaves him to burn to death (he thinks). Either that or "POWER! UNLIMITED... POWER!"

20. Your favorite moment in Star Wars
See "All time favorite scene in any of the movies," above.

JADOR - PIXAR PLANT04 33p

JADOR - PIXAR PLANT04 33p, a photo by Ravenelle on Flickr.

Ever just want to start bitch-slapping someone until the skin on your knuckles wears off?

A Republican lawmaker on Monday poured fuel on the fire of Capitol Hill's heated spending debate, calling high spending "economic child abuse."

"We cannot continue this out of control spending. It is basically economic child abuse," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) during an interview on Fox News."

PS: Having gone to the Tenn well twice today, I feel compelled to say again: I have no Google Alert or something like that tripped to email me when stories about The State of Insanity appear. They just find me.

How's this for a metaphor?

Garbage will pile up in the streets of the capital, the Statue of Liberty will close and astronauts will stay home if the Congress fails to reach a budget deal and the government shuts down.

Every now and then, I like to quote what Roger Ebert says when he thinks a movie sucks

Because it's usually good fun and also underlines some things I take pride in avoiding in my own work. Case in point: Your Highness; the female characters therof:

I mentioned boobs. Yes, there are a lot of boobs in this movie. But not much interest in women. Zooey Deschanel plays the intended bride of Franco, the son of the king. She's brought onstage, quickly kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, spends a good deal of time as a captive in his lair, is rescued and lives happily ever after. She might as well be a mannequin, for all she's given to say and do. This intelligent, nuanced actress, standing there baffled. Used as a placeholder.

Natalie Portman is the Xena clone, a fierce warrior, laid on for anime fans who seem to regard such characters as masturbatory fantasies. She too has no personality, although she has more dialogue, all of it expressing cliches of steely determination.

The story to which Facebook doesn't want me to link

I was just trying to post a link on my Facebook wall to this story:

Christie Calls Teachers' Union 'Thugs'

My riff was going to be to cite this quote:

"I believe the teachers in New Jersey in the main are wonderful public servants and care deeply. But they're union – their union are a group of political thugs."

Emphasis mine.

Then I was going to say, "I like a story about criticizing teachers that ends up showing the need for good ones."

(I'm on a grammar kick today.)

As I say, that's what I was going to do. But when I tried, I got:

This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy. Let us know if you think this is an error.

Now, I don't know if it was the use of the word "thugs" or just that in combination with "political." But I feel like it's got to say something about something that a U.S. Governor is using language you're not allowed to use on Facebook.

All in order of criticizing people for having the temerity to expect a decent wage and respect in the workplace for educating his constituents. Why wouldn't the GOP want the U.S. to have an educated populace?

Oh, right. ...right.

No comment.*

Tennessee House Passes Bill That Lets Teachers Question Evolution In Science Class

*I mean, I tried to come up with some sort of riff on Dolby's "Science," but it's really early.

This is beautiful.

A painting by French Impressionist Paul Gauguin that was attacked by a visitor to the National Gallery of Art in Washington is back on exhibition.

The painting, "Two Tahitian Women," went back on display Tuesday after conservators determined that the painting, which was covered by Plexiglas, sustained no damage after a visitor attempted to pull it off the wall and hit it Friday.

The woman charged in the attack, Susan Burns, of Alexandria, Va., is expected to appear in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday.

Sigh...wouldn't you just know she'd be from Virginia? (My mother comes from there.)

According to court documents, Burns told investigators: "I feel that Gauguin is evil.

Um...no, Gauguin was an artist. And while I don't know enough about his life to say whether he was a moral man personally-and I suspect my definition differs from hers...doesn't matter. We're talking about one of his paintings, which can be neither evil nor virtuous.

He has nudity and is bad for the children.

Look lady, there's a little thing called context. Not all nudity looks like it comes from the pages of Playboy.

He has two women in the painting and it's very homosexual.

As we all know, two women = homosexual. It's just the way it works.



Just as any combination of six men and women leads you to an omni-sexual orgy:



Oh BTW, this is the painting:

You can clearly see how in this case, the work is not just homosexual, it is very homosexual.

I was trying to remove it. I think it should be burned. I am from the American CIA and I have a radio in my head.

You know...I'm beginning to think this woman just may be crazy.

I am going to kill you.

I can see I was wrong.

The Star Wars Meme Trilogy: Episode One

This is derived from a long meme I found on Becca's blog. She answered all 30 questions in one post; I think the original idea was to answer one a day for a month. I'm shooting for something in-between, breaking it down into three parts...which seemed appropriate.



1. All-time favorite character in Star Wars

Yoda. According to one of those quizzes (which as we know are never wrong) he's the Attack of the Clones character I'd be.

2. Favorite member of the Rebellion

Luke Skywalker. Or Leia Organa. Or Han Solo. Or C3PO...this is hard!


3. Favorite member of the Empire

I suppose I can't say Galen Marek, can I? He was Vader's apprentice but never actually a...so, ooh, Juno Eclipse!



4. Favorite Jedi

Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi. Honestly it's a toss up between him and Yoda for all-time favorite or favorite Jedi.

5. Favorite droid

R2D2

6. Favorite type of ship, or specific ship

X-Wings



7. Favorite planet

Kamino. I like a watery world, so it was either this or the Gungan part of Naboo, and that was never going to happen.



8. Favorite movie in the original trilogy

Empire Strikes Back



9. Favorite movie in the prequel trilogy

Attack of the Clones

10. Favorite photo that’s related to Star Wars
The Yoda-Buddha!

Whatever happened to shoving it in the orifices of desperate immigrant girls?

Colombia's Cocaine Submarines Take The Lead In Drug War

I swear. No respect for tradition anymore.

Are you a good list or a bad list?

Good or bad, this is a list of somebody named

Tom's Top 5 Imaginary Lands

This naturally begs the question: Which fantasy world would I like to live in?

I'm tempted to choose the world of Back to The Future, a world wherein it can be both constantly 1985 and Lea Thompson forever young and hot (now she's merely older...and hot).

However, the drawback to this is, it would be a world directed by Robert Zemeckis and there's no way that would agree with me for very long.

Plus it's a world where Elisabeth Shue is unrecognizable, and you know that's wrong.

And sadly, not George Lucas' universe either. Sure the music would be great, and it would look very pretty.

But a reality wherein everyone speaks Lucas-style dialogue would force me to hang myself.

So here's what I came up with.

1. The world in which Republicans keep telling me we are living. Where we have a really progressive, even--gasp!--liberal president. I swear if we were living in the world they seem to be tearing their hair out over, I wouldn't need to take pills to go sleep at night.



2. The world of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. All you need to know is: It's Gilliam, plus it has a couple of beautiful girls in it, one of whom grows up to be an incredibly talented director and writer-

(Aside: When, oh when, will Take This Waltz be released?)

-and the other of whom is Uma Thurman.

3. Canada. Don't tell me it's real. No, I'm kidding.

3. Tolkien's Hobbiton. The one scored by Jules Bass and Maury Laws, pls.


4. The Muppets world.

If I have to explain this one, get the hell out of my blog and don't let me see you back here until you've seen the first two Muppet movies and every single episode of The Muppet Show. I'm sorry, but I have to have some standards.

5. SawWorld.

No, I'm kidding again. The world I live in has enough bleak endings, thank you.



5. The world of Wall-E. It's a world of enduring love and greatly animated beings, which is all I need in order to be happy to be alive.

This is, by a wide margin, the greatest article I have ever seen.

You in my vast reading audience are well aware of my feelings regarding the state of Tennessee (in two words: They're insane). We could get into why I feel that way, but most of you either know the story, or don't care.

Suffice it to say I have come to depend upon Tennessee to give me periodic examples of that insanity. So when I saw this New York Times headline--

In Tennessee, Grand Plans for a $750 Million Theme Park Raise Great Doubt

--I clicked away with great interest. What I found was a treasure trove of insanity beyond my wildest dreams. The deeper you go, the crazier it gets. To begin:

SPRING HILL, Tenn. — Earlier this month, at a news conference in an empty field on the east side of the city, a man named Dennis W. Peterson announced that he was bringing a theme park to the Tennessee countryside.

People had a few questions: Who was this man? What was his background? Where was he getting the money for all this? What happened to his front teeth? (They were recently lost, he explained to reporters, to a crispy chicken wing at Hooters.)

Already, I love this. A bumpkin would-be theme park owner. But as I promised...there's more...

Michael Dinwiddie, the mayor of Spring Hill, was one of the only people to know about the project, having quietly worked on it with Mr. Peterson for two months. It thrilled him. For a small city like Spring Hill, 45 minutes from Nashville, it was the magic kingdom of economic development.

"Mayor Dinwiddie." The man's name and title is "Mayor Dinwiddie." What is this, an 18th-century children's book?

"Mayor Dinwiddie and the Mystery of the Empty Chair."

"Mayor Dinwiddie and the Ice-Cream Social."

"Mayor Dinwiddie Takes a Wife."

"Mayor Dinwiddie Has Two Mommies." (OK, maybe that last one's not from the 18th century)

We continue:

Still, there was something curious about the whole thing. For one, no one had contacted state authorities about the plans.

Hmmmmm. Yes, that does seem curious. You'd think Mayor Dinwiddie would've thought of that.

Local reporters and bloggers uncovered more oddities, starting with Mr. Peterson’s company, the Big International Group of Entertainment. The company, it was discovered, had its license revoked last year by the State of Nevada. The company’s president, Roger Kidneigh, who did not return messages seeking comment, had declared personal bankruptcy, claiming assets of less than $200,000.

Okay...first of all...just how Pythonesque is that company name? "Mr. Peterson now formed a big international group, which he called, 'The Big International Group." Further:

Reached by phone, the woman listed as the company’s treasurer said she had never actually worked for Big International Group and did not want her name associated with it.

"I don't know them, I tell you! Leave me alone!" Before the cock crows, you will deny the Big International Group three times.

Festival Tennessee was not the company’s only dream. Several music magazines had been discussed, as was a theme park in Las Vegas. There were plans for “The Way of the Unicorn,” an animated movie about an orphan named Sailor — to have been voiced by Michael Jackson — who saves the world with the help of some endangered species.

They fell through.

Pity, that sounds as if it could've been a right winner. I'll bet you Robert Zemickis is still kicking himself (not hard enough for my liking...but that's another post).

Thomas Maierle, who is listed as a former officer of Big International Group, said Festival Tennessee would be different.

“It’s not easy putting something like this together,” said Mr. Maierle, who has something of a troubled record himself but says he still advises Mr. Peterson on business dealings. Asked what his position was with the company now, Mr. Maierle, who is on parole in Michigan for possession of “child sexually abusive material,” said that was “a subjective question.” But he said he had faith in Mr. Peterson.

Follow along with me now: A "Magic Kingdom"-style amusement park, which by definition would attract a largely child clientele, and they also wanted to be in business with Michael Jackson, and one of their former officers is a pervert. Are you beginning to sense why this article simply made my heart sing?

Still something missing, though...

David Anthony, a Nashville lawyer, had heard about Festival Tennessee before just about anyone around here. Last year, he said, a man facing foreclosure on several homes came forward with a promise that a millionaire in Florida was planning to buy three of the homes, at an inflated price of around $7 million. As proof of his financial resources, Mr. Anthony said, the millionaire — Mr. Peterson, as it turned out — sent the man a packet of material about vaguely planned projects, including Festival Tennessee and the “Unicorn” movie, with promises that the money would come later.

“These were magic beans,” Mr. Anthony said. The bank he represented in the case was unmoved.

That's it! Magic beans!

But of course, you know, not all the lawmakers of this Tennessee town can be such credulous fools.

This sort of thing gives pause to many Spring Hill residents, including Jonathan Duda, a city alderman. Mr. Duda said he had the same concerns now as he did last year when a man identifying himself as a Nigerian king — a claim viewed skeptically by everyone from the State Department to the Spring Hill police chief — was received with a ceremony on the steps of City Hall.

Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, I mean err um, see?

(He didn't even have to do it through Cyberspace, for god's sake...)

Finally, to return to our hero, Mayor Dinwiddie...

“It should be a very positive story,” Mr. Dinwiddie said in an interview at the Cracker Barrel, where the hostess urged him to ignore all the negativity and asked if her daughter-in-law’s Irish dance troupe could get a show at the theme park.

"In an interview at the Cracker Barrel."

I just love any article that can justifiably use that phrase.

Wave comes in, wave goes out. Never a miscommunication.

In April 1997, Anne Leibovitz shot one of her series of three page cover foldouts for Vanity Fair featuring a group of young actresses who were considered, at the time, "The Next Wave." For no particular reason, I thought it might be fun to see what those actresses are doing today.



From left to right:

Cameron Diaz. Diaz is at least as well known today for who she's dating, but is still considered a big star, in spite of not having made a well-reviewed film in years.

Kate Winslet. Stars in HBO's series remake of Mildred Pierce for which, I'm going to make a prediction without having seen a foot of film, she will almost certainly bring her a nomination for and/or win her an Emmy. Has also become something of a godmother to younger actresses, particularly on the subject of whether or not they should go nude for a film; she tends to be quite pro-strip. For which I am thankful.

Claire Danes. Still considered a beauty, though I find her considerably lacking in charm, and can still be seen at "Hollywood elite" events. Best remembered for a TV series she made when she was 15.

Renée Zellweger. Like Diaz, her social life seems to make most of the headlines these days...and has an even bigger need for a shit detector when choosing projects.

Minnie Driver. Driver is working the indie-film circuit; filming a pilot for CBS. Was allegedly so disliked by the crew of her film High Water that they took the opportunity to relieve themselves prior to her having to film an in-the-water scene.

Alison Elliott. If your response is "Who?" You're not alone. In 1996 she attracted attention as the lead in The Spitfire Grill, which seems to have developed a cult following. Since then, however, she seems to have made a series of films most of which either nobody wanted to see, nobody liked, or both. It is unclear whether this is due to poor choices or just plain bad luck, but I'm inclined to suspect the latter, if only because she probably has fewer choices than Diaz and Zellweger.

Jada Pinkett. At present best known as the mother of Willow and Jaden and wife of Will Smith, also stars in and exec-produces the TNT series Hawthorne, which from the one episode I saw last year is actually pretty solid.

Jennifer Lopez. American Idol judge, diva, still a popular singer, launching a new fragrance. Probably fair to admit, she's aging better than I might've thought.

Charlize Theron. Will appear in new Snow White movie; a sexy & photogenic young woman.

and Fairuza Balk. In some ways has it even worse than Claire Danes, in that she's best remembered for a film she made when she was 11, and which film (Return To Oz) absolutely died at the box office when it was first released, tho it has a cult following today. Seems to get a lot of "girlfriend" roles, playing Adam Sander's in The Waterboy and Moby's in the video for "Natural Blues." Appeared in the Sundance-winning Personal Velocity.

"...if you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did - you will become an agent of evil."

From a Time magazine article on what our intervention in Libya means for President Obama's foreign policy:

In his two years in office, Obama's approach to foreign policy has emphasized the limits of American power more than its reach.

This is probably an obvious question to ask, but is it possible his approach appears that way because the last president overreached to such a horrific degree?

Oh, and why the Yoda quote? Because:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Is Luke Skywalker
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Thank you, Keith

The greatest defense of our way of life and our democracy is not vigilance nor protest nor political skill, but the rampant and always-to-be-relied-upon stupidity and avarice of the Republican Party.

Keith Olbermann

"Everyone," Victoria?

Everyone knows that two men on a wedding cake is a comedy skit, not an 'alternate lifestyle'!

-Victoria Jackson

A poll released by Washington Post and ABC News concludes that 53 percent of Americans are supportive of gay marriage and equal rights for homosexuals in the US.

PS: Later that same article, Jackson says,

"Did you see 'Glee' this week? Sickening! And, besides shoving the gay thing down our throats, they made a mockery of Christians – again!

Believe me, Victoria: No one wants to shove anything down your throat. And "Glee" doesn't have to make mockery. "Christians" like you are doing that themselves.

Psst! Former Mayor Giuliani! You're sliming the wrong president!

From Mediaite:

In a non-campaign stop for the 2012 presidential race, former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-9/11) lashed out at President Obama for “dithering” (or engineering a UN-led no-fly zone over Libya, instead of overcommitting the US military to another Middle East quagmire. Tomato, tomahto.), and mocked the President’s manner of speech with a stuttering impression.
From The Associated Press:

Speaking at a Manchester Republican Committee fundraiser, Giuliani said he hasn’t decided yet whether he will again seek the GOP nomination. But he sounded a lot like a candidate, calling Obama’s handling of the uprising in Libya in the last week the worst foreign policy-decision making – or lack thereof – he’s ever seen.

When France proposed instituting a no-fly zone, “Our president, the leader of the free world, said, ‘A what? That’s hard! A no fly zone is r-r-r-really hard!’ ” Giuliani said to laughter.

That's the way most sites are reporting this, focusing on Giuliani saying President Obama was Colin Firth in The Kings Speech or sumthin'. But I noticed something else. A president blubbering about how hard his job is, while stumbling over his words?

That reminds me of something...now what was it?



Oh, that's right...

I think we'd all feel better about this if we hadn't spent so much life and treasure on Iraq, but...

For what it's worth, I think I agree with our intervening in Libya. Certainly the reasons for it make a lot more sense to me than our invading Iraq did, even back before we learned all we have about Bush & Co's lies.

Yes, we have our own problems. But I think I agree with this intervention because, when I think of my country sending people to risk their lives in the name of all of us...this is what I want them to be doing it for.

One of the many faults with the Iraq war, as I have come to see i,t is that we couldn't spark a rebellion at the point of a gun. In the case of Libya, the rebellion has clearly already been sparked...and not by us.

What we're doing, and fortunately we're not alone, is going in to stop a rebellion from being violently quashed. That's what we should be doing, I think (this puts me in a minority, BTW). I look at it this way:

You're walking along and across the street you see a man and woman fighting outside a cafe. From what you can hear, she's leaving him. She gets up from the table and starts to walk away. Whereupon, he says "Oh no you don't," grabs her from behind and smashes her head onto the sidewalk.

Do you go over and try to stop it? I sure hope I would.

I know Adrianne Palicki to be a gifted actress

She deserves better...

A Tale of Two Teen(ish) Stars

The CBS late show lineup gave me a look at a couple of young stars on their shows last night.

First, David Letterman had as his second guest (following Steve Martin, a position I wouldn't give to a monkey on a rock) the young actress/singer Selena Gomez, 18.

I know one or two of my readers (hello, Calvin) have crushes on or otherwise admire Miss Gomez, and who am I to call them creepy old guys?

But for myself, what I saw in the interview was a perfectly attractive young woman...with whom I have no references in common.




In the past, thinking like this is what led me to my Women my own age series, which turned out to be a good idea, being devoted to appreciations of women who remember the same television as me.

But then something made me wonder: Is it truly age? Or is someone like Selena Gomez someone who I'm just not going to have much of anything to talk about? No matter how lovely she is; how wide or narrow the gap in our ages? Here's what happened.

Craig Ferguson's second guest was Brie Larson, 21, also an actress and singer, whose work was unknown to me. She knocked me out. Why would I find Selena Gomez to be someone I could either take or leave, and Brie Larson so very charming, in consecutive television appearances?

(Hell, Larson even makes me want to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, something I had no interest in previously.)

But back to Brie Larson vs. Gomez: Look at all they have in common. Here are two young women, in the same situation (being interviewed by a late night host), who do exactly the same jobs.

Who are quite close to each other in age. Certainly more so than either is to me. Though, I would imagine that a girl could learn a lot in those three years. For the record, that last line wasn't meant as a smutty comment. For once.

Both started acting as pre-teenagers, and recording in their mid-teens. I had a look at the videos for their most successful songs (successful in this case being a relative term--neither has exactly burned up the top 40).

They even make approximately the same kind of music: "Power girl" with a touch of the Lolita.

(Gomez tends towards dance and Larson a little more towards pop rock.) And they both sound as if they've been helped to greater or lesser degrees by studio technology.

Gomez's solo single, "Tell Me Something I Don't Know," strikes me as a fine mass-market teen pop song, but what I can't quite see is what she brought to it.

What makes her performance better than any other adorable young lady in a recording studio with Autotune might have done? (Or, bending over backwards to be fair, any worse.)

Larson's "She Said" I don't think is as good a song as "Tell Me Something," (though it's definitely better in the radio mix than on an in-studio live clip I saw), but as the old saying goes, it's got a good beat and you can dance to it.

So why my preference? Let's start with the obvious: As Feguson says, Brie's adorable.

Just look at that dress. To say nothing of the way she practically flies into his arms for a hug when she comes out. (This reminds me...I must kill Craig Ferguson.)

(It's a joke, Craig, we're cool).

But seriously: What is the difference? Is it simply a matter of taste? Probably at least in part, tho I think it's also partly that Larson appears to have a vocabulary. Girls who can talk are so sexy.

But maybe that's another part of the answer there. Based on these clips--and what better way to judge two women you've never met and don't know than by seven minute clips of them on television? Based on these clips, Gomez is still a girl.

Nothing wrong with that. All the women I've ever liked were girls once. But Larson seems to me to be already a young woman.

(Again, I'm not making a cheap sex joke there. There's a lot more to being a woman than just having had sex, just as there is to being a man.)

I'm a fairly unabashed Duran Duran fan, especially the classic stuff

I've actually got two of their greatest hits collections (in my defense, they were going cheap). I think they're better when they keep to the clubs ("Sunrise") instead of trying to make dreary rock albums (the rest of that album), but that's a matter of taste.

And I especially like this interview. Here's a taste, on what one member (Nick Rhodes) thinks of:

Testosterone-fuelled ROCK critics...If you look at musicians, we've always been very respected for what we created, whereas a certain breed of [music journalist were never gonna like us.

Elsewhere in this interview, you may learn some things you didn't know. I did. Such as that, one of their former guitarists is now in the gay porn world and is selling models of his own penis. Fancy.

Apparently in Australia, it's like 1970 or somethin'.

Actual headline:

Out-of-wedlock pregnancies: a sin?

Now this is the New York I wish I could've visited

I just haven't felt like going there, since they scrubbed away all of the graffiti. But even if you're not with me on that, just try to stop watching this. Go on, try. I dare you. I double dog dare you.

Then you're not doing it right.

In 2003, Piscopo was convicted of sexually assaulting a female church member during a deliverance ceremony in which Piscopo said he expelled the devil from the woman's body.

Blame Canada

Time once again for another exciting episode of...

"Who's searching for me now?"

Only this time, we have a clue!

Today's contestant comes to us from an IP Address for Telus Communications in Abbotsford, British Columbia. In Canada, home of at least two of my vast reading audience as well as six of the seven Saw films.

But here's the clue: Whoever this is, he (or she) found this blog by Googling for "ben saulchurch varkentine." "Saulchurch," as at least one of you knows, is the screenname I used to use about 10-15 years ago on rec.arts.drwho...

Charlie Sheen's managers are two of the producers of the Saw films

I'm sorry, I'm sure this makes me a bad person, but the truth is I'm enjoying the Sheen meltdown just so much more since I realized that. Now it makes sense. This whole thing is just karmic payback for Saw 3D sucking so bad and so loud.

Especially since one of the manager/producers in question is the one generally blamed by obssessive fans like me for killing the series-rightly or wrongly; I don't want to get into that and you don't want me to either.

(That manager is also the one about whom Sheen allegedly made anti-semitic comments. Which I in no way condone, of course. Fucking up my most-loved recent film franchise is one thing, but I see no reason to bring a man's ancestry or culture into it).

So it's come to this

Oh, fuck

Robert Reich on why Barack Obama is going to lose the election in 2012:

Shortly after the Democrats' "shellacking" last November, I phoned a friend in the White House who had served in the Clinton administration. "It's 1994 all over again," he said. "Now we move to the center."

As someone mentions in the comments on HuffPo: That's great--as long as he remembers that "the center" is somewhere to the left of where he is now.

...many in the Obama White House have concluded that the president should follow Clinton's campaign script -- distancing himself from congressional Democrats, embracing further deficit reduction, and seeking guidance from big business. If it worked for Clinton, it must work for Obama -- or so it's supposed.

If you remember, this is exactly what I was afraid of.

Say, in case you've been wondering what Keith Olbermann thinks about the doings in Wisconsin...

...when you accomplish all this by parliamentary trick – after your national party has spent two years and more decrying Congressional reconciliation – when you deny the minority the right to participate in the outcome whether by compromise or protest, you cut through the cacophony of political-speak in this country and you transmit your sneering indifference towards democracy to ordinary citizens who do not normally pay attention.

...the Republicans have overplayed their hand in a way that seems startling even for them, and they shall inherit the proverbial wind.

.

I'm sure Steve Ditko and Stan Lee will be glad to hear that

Julie Taymor has been removed as director of the troubled Spider-Man musical. I have nothing to say about that, not having seen it. However, this paragraph in an NYT article (linked above) on the subject did catch my eye:

“Julie’s an extremely sensitive person, and she has always felt like a mother to her plays, a mother to her characters,” Jeffrey Horowitz, a friend and artistic director of New York’s Theater for a New Audience, said Wednesday. “This is like a mother being taken away from her family. She loves that family. She wants that family.”

Mr. Horowitz, repeat 3,000 times:

They're not her characters.

They're not her characters.

Geena Davis is wrong.

Davis, the actress perhaps best known for "Thelma & Louise" and the failed TV series "Commander in Chief" in which she played the president of the US) gave a speech last month in which she criticized the stereotyping of female characters in films and television.

"Gender stereotypes remain deeply entrenched in today's entertainment and there has been no significant progress over the last 20 years," Davis was quoted as saying at the gala held at UN Headquarters by the Agence France Presse.

I wasn't sure if I agreed with that, so I went to look at a list of popular films of 20 years ago, in order to compare them with those of today. What I found saddened and surprised me. Turns out, it's not merely that there's been no progress.

There's actually been a decline in the presentation of non-stereotyped female characters in films and television over the past 20 years. Check this out. In 1991, these were some of the most popular films of the year:

"Silence of the Lambs," with Jodie Foster as the FBI trainee matching wits with Dr. Lecter.

"Terminator 2: Judgment Day," with Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, one hell of a female role model as far as I can see (as was Lena Headey, in the same role, in the much-missed-at-least-by-me TV version).

Then there's Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," in which care was taken to make Belle more than just the beauty of the title, but well-read and outspoken as well.

This brings me to “The Addams Family." Well, that whole movie is about people who behave in ways which the mass of their culture find unusual or odd (and don't care that they do).

The women certainly aren't left out of this. Morticia (Angelica Huston) may be, as she defines herself in the sequel, "...just like any modern woman trying to have it all. Loving husband, a family..." But the way in which she tries to have it all is, shall we say, outside the realm of what is considered normal.

And Wednesday Addams (Christina Ricci) is a deeply weird child; I mean that in a good way.

So that's movies. And who were women television watchers finding on their sets 20 years ago?

Women like Roseanne, Clair Huxtable, Murphy Brown, Jessica Fletcher, The Golden Girls, Lisa Simpson. Even the female students on "Head of the Class" (who were, by virtue of the show's premise, by definition exceptional young women).

Powerful woman characters all--whose shows may or may not have ever explicitly invoked feminism--I'm honestly not sure--but were feminist all the same. And check out that demographic spread!

Before I go on, I wanna go back to Davis' speech for a second.

"What message are we sending to girls if there are so few female characters. If the characters are devalued, stereotyped, sidelined or simply not there at all," Davis said.

Remember that, as I move onto looking at the most popular films of today: Now I have to admit upfront that I haven't seen any of the current top five. If you have, and I'm wrong about what I'm about to say, please write in.

But I see a lot there that evidently either have no female leads, or limit them to girlfriend/romantic interest/wife parts. "...devalued, stereotyped, sidelined or simply not there at all."

As for popular contemporary TV?

I see shows that are willing to showcase talented women...but only if they sing. Not if they are committed to an ideal, even if that ideal is their own intelligence. I see shows with admittedly popular female characters...that nevertheless are subservient to men in their jobs. I see a show whose whole premise, as I understand it, was about two men raising a child without a woman. I see a show about "Desperate Housewives." I see the show "IJust Wanna Man!" excuse me, "The Bachelor."

But mostly, I see I see shows with women who are mostly young, white; white-collar, and successful. As compared to the variety in the 90-91 batch cited above (with the possible exception of "Mike & Molly").

(Even "House," which I think used to have some pretty good images for women, has either driven those women away or drained them of their strength.)

So what's the answer?

Darned if I know. I just know...it saddens and surprises me.

Let skeptics among you be reminded, Kimmel is Sarah Silverman's ex-boyfriend.

Who are we to say he couldn't really attract hotties if he didn't have a TV show with his name in the title?



But ok, so maybe this isn't that funny.

Not that I can blame them, in this case

Have a look at this Toronto Star piece on Arizona and Utah's race to be the first states to designate Official guns.

What’s next? Will crime-ridden Louisiana adopt the MAC-10 machine pistol, firing 1,000 rounds a minute? And how about Sarah Palin’s beloved Alaska, with its 1,500-pound coastal brown bears? The Marine Corps M72A7 anti-tank rocket, perhaps?

You know, I'm not sure, but I think the Canadlians just might be mocking us.

Stay well, Roger. We need you.

Roger Ebert reviews Hall Pass, a movie I had no intention of seeing, and have no intention of seeing, but may be worth existing just for inspiring his review:

It is perhaps hard-wired into men that their eyes should be constantly on the prowl. Maybe it's an evolutionary trait, and our species has developed it to encourage the sowing of human seed in many fields. Women, by contrast, have evolved to be sure their mates gaze in admiration at them alone and nobody else. There's a famous story by Irwin Shaw, “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses,” about an estranged couple who decide to make up. They go for a stroll down Fifth Avenue, but break up all over again because the man can't prevent his eyes from straying. He loves his mate — yes, he really does — but you see the girls are so pretty in their summer dresses.

WTF else do you know who makes literary references in the middle of a review of a movie by the same makers as the Goodbye Girl remake?

The plot of the movie is meh. It involves the lads and their posse being cycled through several unsuccessful and quasi-slapstick situations showing their cluelessness, immaturity and how women easily see straight through them. Meanwhile, the wives and their posses have a great time on a getaway retreat. Women seem to get along perfectly well when set free from men, but men seem uncomfortable without women. It probably all involves which gender has the greater need to be reassured.

God bless you, Tennessee.

I take back everything I ever said about you. No really, I do. I know, you think I'm being ironic because of that whole Tennessee Stage Company/my play, "The Girl in the Boat" thing, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

I take it all back: You know, about Tennessee being insane and all. I have decided to take this step because I've realized how much I should really appreciate you. You're always there for me whenever I want illustration of how republicans are, by definition, big flaming hypocrites.

Case in point:

Tennessee Jumps on the Anti-Sharia Bandwagon

While a number of other states have filed legislation seeking to keep Sharia out of the courts, Tennessee is going one giant step further by attempting to outlaw it entirely.

(emphasis mine-BV)

Senate Bill 1028, introduced by State Sen. Bill Ketron, gives the state Attorney General authority to designate "Sharia organizations," defined as "two (2) or more persons conspiring to support, or acting in concert in support of, sharia or in furtherance of the imposition of sharia within any state or territory of the United States."

Hm. That seems un....something. Oh darn, what is it, it's on the tip of my tongue...oh yes: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." (again, emphasis mine)

The bill states its intent is not to outlaw free religion, or the practice of Islam. It claims that Sharia presents a real threat to Tennessee.

Trust me on this one: I pose a more real threat to Tennessee.

Tennessee is just the latest in a string of states to consider anti-Sharia legislation. But unlike in some other states, where the language in the legislation avoids explicitly mentioning Sharia by name, Tennessee's bill goes so far as to call Sharia "treasonous" and incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.

"...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" (Once again...ok, you get it).

This may be the part of this I most dearly love. They've devised an excuse to violate the Constitution on the grounds that this thing they've invented is incompatible with the Constitution. Beautiful.

Tennessee....I really just have to just stand back in awe. Thank you, Tennessee. For the love...for the laughter...For the Boys.

There's an AP story going around today about "Obama's Shifting Stance on gay marriage."

A couple things I feel compelled to comment upon.

You likely know how I feel about the overarching issue. In a few words: Full legal rights. Now. This is a position that has the dual advantages of being one, right, and two, growing in popularity.

Opinion polls show a steady rise in Americans' embrace of gay rights, and young voters solidly back positions their grandparents opposed, including gay marriage.

But as ever, I am left speechless (well, almost) by the statements of the anti-gay marriage politicians...although I suppose the larger point is that there are fewer of them:

Five or so years ago, Obama's decision might have touched off fierce Republican criticisms. But reaction Wednesday was comparatively sparse and muted from mainstream GOP groups and individuals.

Still:

One exception was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an evangelical minister who is considering a second try for the presidency.

"I think it was an absolutely boneheaded political move, and I think it was a boneheaded policy move," Huckabee said in an interview. He said Obama seems to say, "I don't answer to the voters."

Read the very first quoted paragraph in this post again, and then read that Huckabee quote again. See the first problem? Second problem is, last time I looked, we don't elect politicians to do exactly what the majority wants on every issue.

We can discuss whether that's good or bad, but we don't. We choose who we think is the best person (ideally), and if we don't like how they do the job, we fire them. That's how they answer to us. Not by being passive instruments of our will.

Incidentally, here are a couple of things in which Mike Huckabee believes with which a majority of Americans disagree:

Evolution. Huckabee doesn't believe in it. As of last year only 40% of us agree with him.

The Bible. Huckabee believes it is literally true. Not only is that belief shared by only one-third of us, but more of us could name the ingredients in a Big Mac than could name all 10 commandments. (Personally, I couldn't do either. I'm a Buddhism-influenced person, and I prefer Burger King).

I'm sure if Huckabee were to be elected president (a scary but unlikely thought) we could count on him to set policies which "answered to the voters" on those issues, aren't you?

The AP piece continues:

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said Obama cares little about the Constitution...

Except for the 12 years he spent teaching and lecturing about it, of course.

Again: Though surely we can disagree about how he interprets it, to just blithely assert that he doesn't care about it? The President?

This is the sort of thing that makes me think Republicans show up to a battle of wits half-prepared.

This is turning out to be a more popular feature than I imagined.

That's right kids, it's time once again for another episode of...

"Who's searching for me now?"

Tonight's contestant comes to us from an IP Address for something called Optimum Online (Cablevision Systems) in Brooklyn, New York, here in the great USA. To my knowledge, I do not know anyone in Brooklyn, New York.

But whoever this is, he, she or undecided (and with some of my friends past and present it's hard to tell) found this blog by Googling my name; stayed around for almost eight minutes and did at least some searching of my posts from the last few years, finally leaving after looking at this open letter to Elizabeth Hurley .

Do you suppose it was Miss Hurley, her cleavage, or my usual sort of useless witty remarks that drove them away?

Good ole "man on dog," always associating himself and his party with honor...

This just needs to go viral as widely and as fast as possible.

One for the '80s electronica lovers out there

It was John Hughes & Molly Ringwald's birthday recently, and I should've taken note, (among other reasons) because their movie Pretty in Pink brought me OMD.



Who remain one of my favorite groups; I love this song from their recent reunion LP. The video's really fun, too; full of "souvenirs"...how many can you spot?

On the positive side, this makes me think about Michelle Obama's breasts. On the negative side, it also makes me think about...

...In her latest comments, Bachmann slammed First Lady Michelle Obama's move as part of her physical fitness campaigns, plus decisions by the Obama administration proper, to promote breastfeeding.

"I've given birth to five babies, and I've breastfed every single one of these babies," Bachmann said. "To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies..."

Proof yet again that conservatives should never try to be funny

It's just not their métier.

Andrew Breitbart, at it again?

The conservative blogger – who is at the center of a lawsuit over a video his site posted depicting a government official as racist – now has a cartoon on his Big Government site portraying First Lady Michelle Obama as a plump, hamburger-scarfing glutton.

In the cartoon, posted over the weekend, the First Lady is sitting at a dinner table with President Obama.

"I've stepped up my efforts to control America's eating habits by telling restaurants to lower portion sizes and fat content," a double-chinned Michelle Obama says, referring to her anti-obesity campaign, which celebrated its one-year anniversary last week.

I've seen one or two people comparing this to the hay that was made from Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign, in the '80s. Thing is, people who made fun of that did so because they felt it was an overly simplistic slogan that didn't take into account the realities of addiction as a sickness. IIRC, that was usually made clear by the comedians who made fun of it..

Cartoonists James Hudnall and Batton Lash' motive, however...well we have to consult the article linked above to know that because otherwise there's no way we would, based on the work. But they say they're making fun of the First Lady's anti-obesity campaign because

"We find the 'do as I say, not as I do' approach of the Obamas hypocritical and ripe for ridicule. The First Lady seeks to enforce healthy eating on the nation, while indulging on snacks in public appearances," said Lash, pointing to the recent White House Superbowl menu, which included deep-dish pizza and buffalo wings.

I suppose there might be a case to make for that. But I also feel that the cartoon is both unfunny, which may be a matter of personal reaction, but at least as importantly doesn't make that case. I defy anyone to tell me that's what they got out of that cartoon, like it or not.

Also I think Lash, sadly, apparently misunderstands the difference between enforcing and encouraging. So far as I know, no police are raiding homes because children reported their parents for eating hamburgers and pizza.

Unlike what happened in the Reagan '80s with one or two stoner parents. I'm just saying is all.

What the hell kind of a sick, fucked-up list of movie dragons doesn't include...

Toothless Fish Plz by *BellaNique on deviantART


...or the dragon in Dragonslayer?



This kind.

Rebel, Rebel

Shirley Sherrod is suing Andrew Breitbart. And while I wish her luck, part of me feels in a perverse way that we ought to thank him, as well, for reminding us of how the Obama White House, which just loves to piss on its progressive base, well, when a dirty right-wing flack like Brietbart says jump, they say how high?

I'm sorry, on your what?

Heidi Montag: I Blew Millions On Music Career

Sometimes, it is about how you say it

...social scientists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences have found that outrage talk is endemic among commentators of all political stripes, but measurably worse on the political right.

Hands up, the first person who's surprised. But wait a minute.

Granted that these folks are scientists and I'm not, the example they give of "outrage talk" from both the left seems to me to be at least flawed, and maybe even totally incompatible with the example from the right

Those examples are

"Whether it’s MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann spitting out his coffee because of some conservative transgression or radio host Michael Savage venomously impugning the character of immigrants, cable television, talk radio and blogs overflow with outrage rhetoric, and even mainstream newspaper columns are not above the fray," they said.

Well, as I say...wait a minute. Keith Olbermann spitting out his coffee (it's called a Spit Take, o bright sparks of Tufts Uni) is by definition an attempt at a comedic reaction. We can discuss whether or not it succeeds as comedy in any given case, but a person who uses the spit take is at least trying to be funny. I would argue they're not even being satirical, but (more importantly) they're certainly not spewing venom. Just coffee, I guess.

But Savage, on the other hand...well, take a look at the most recent handful of quotes as tracked by Media Matters, just as some examples. Forget whether or not you agree with what he's saying, that's not my point (and if you're reading my blog, there's like a one percent chance that you do, anyway). Look at how he's trying to say what he's saying. Is he even trying to make a joke? Forget failing/succeeding, is he even trying?

My point is not that Keith Olbermann has never said anything that went over the top, rhetoric-wise. He has and he's been quick to admit it. My point is, rather than spotlighting the finding that the right is considerably meaner than anything on the left, these scientists appear to have thought they had to tie their own hands by assuring us of their finding, "Oh, but the left is mean too!"

Well, no wonder that's their finding...if they're counting a spit take in the same category as Michael Savage saying that immigrants expect free education, that they are to blame for the bedbug epidemic (and that leprosy, tuberculosis & cholera will follow in their wake). And yes, both of those are real.

It's that old demon bugaboo false equivalence, and unfortunately, it is very, very...President Obama. I do not think we will ever rise above this tragically dark cloud until we accept the truth that when we are talking about vitriol, we are talking, overwhelmingly, about the right.

This is not to say that no one on the left ever has their little slips of frustration, either (including me). But with the right, I think, it isn't little slips. It's their everyday mode of discourse, 24/7.

But of course, I'm not a scientist.

This is a surprisingly great article

...on how Conan O'Brien was able to come back riding on "the wave of the future," in other words the digital media audience. I say "surprisingly great," because you don't always find two big chunks of Truth in articles about TV stars, but this one has these:

"The boomers have overstayed their welcome," declares the man credited by many with creating the phrase "viral video," Douglas Rushkoff, the author most recently of Program or Be Programmed, a book about digital media. "Generation X is finally at the stage where they can have the jobs the boomers had, and the economy crashes. There's nothing left for them...

and

O'Brien sits back in his office, guitar in hand, trying to make sense of his personal and digital evolution. First he thinks it through as a performer: "The Beatles were trying to be the Everly Brothers, and they couldn't quite pull it off. Elvis really wanted to sound like Dean Martin. But, you know, by failing …" He stops and starts again. "You have an image in your head of this iconic person. For me, it might have been Johnny Carson, where you grow up with him, and you think, 'Well, that's who I need to be' -- to realize that feeling I had when I was 8, sitting in my parents' house and watching him. And then things happen, and you think, 'Oh, my God, I didn't -- that fell apart.' But it's the failure to be that person or to completely follow through on what he did that leads you to something that's much better."

The moron strikes back

Once again, I have received a comment from a critic of President Obama.

How's that Obama thing working out for you?

I won't pretend that every single thing he's done has been a winner with me, but...pretty good, actually.

BTW, the link in the poster's screenname leads to nothing. But searching that name suggests they are Rick Fader, an Ohio resident of Hungarian descent who fancies himself good with tools, and a graduate of Wayne High School in Huber Heights, OH (Class of 1988). God, I love what the internet has done to would-be anonymous cowards.

Anyway, as happens too frequently to be merely coincidence with these kinds of comments, he seems not to have cared that the post he's commenting upon is over two years old. I guess that he couldn't slow down long enough to notice that in his hurry to call me a

Moron.

This is ridiculous, of course. If I were a moron, I'd be running NBC (and/or MSNBC).

To get back to this timely comment: He responds to my querying of the qualifications and experience of Sarah Palin and Dan Quayle by first using a snark term apparently favored by "birthers," then adds:

I mean at least [Obama] had experience as a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER....Hahahaha What a JOKE.

Well, first of all, the American people chose President Obama. They must've thought he was experienced enough for them. John McCain and George H. W. Bush chose Palin and Quayle, respectively...and the American people made them pay for it to greater and lesser degrees.

But also, say what you will about Obama, and I've said some good and bad...but it's hard to deny he's smart. I mean, he's not an idiot. You can't say that about the other two.

Please don't hesitate to write if you have any other questions or witty observations.

Come on down!

Time once again for another episode of...

"Who's searching for me now?"

Tonight's contestant comes to us from an IP Address for something called Newnan Utilities in Sharpsburg, Georgia here in the great USA. To my knowledge, I do not know anyone who works for a utility company in Sharpsburg, Georgia.

But whoever this is, he, she or undecided (and with some of my friends past and present it's hard to tell) found this blog by Googling my name, looked around for exactly one minute and then motored.

Your move, o mystery utilitarian.

Oh dear GOD no...

Just when you thought it couldn't get any sadder.

Alec Baldwin to Replace Keith Olbermann?

As most of you know...

... West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin is one of my writing icons (and a good bet to win a screenwriting Oscar this year for The Social Network).

Here's info on his new HBO show, and movie on the John Edwards affair (which he is also set to direct).

Hey Joe, don't let that door hit you in the ass on the way out, mmkay?

Joe Lieberman went on TV recently to insist that there really were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

...or er, at least, that Iraq was "developing" them.

Now this is, in itself, no surprise. Joe Lieberman is a boob, and a two-faced one besides. We've long known that. So it's no shock, just kind of saddening in a wholly expected way, to see him trot out this old chestnut in a Q & A with Arianna Huffington (and others):

I'm basing it on the so-called Duelfer Report. Charles D-U-E-L-F-E-R conducted the most comprehensive report on behalf of our government. And it was, nobody thought it was partisan. I want to be very clear: he didn't find big caches of weapons of mass destruction. But he found, and proved I think, that Saddam had every intention, and particularly to develop nuclear weapons, was developing chemical and biological weapons, and had a structure in place including nuclear scientists that he was prepared to support if he broke out of the sanctions, which he was inclined to do.

God in Heaven, Joe. I have every intention of developing my own TARDIS so I can have Cameron Diaz, Winona Ryder, Jennifer Connelly, Helena Bonham Carter, Natalie Portman and Laura Prepon when they were good. Which I am inclined to do. Doesn't mean I can be sued for child support as the father of Natalie Portman's baby.

Another thing: Here is an item about the report he cites from the AP:

Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004; 5:53 PM
Contradicting the main argument for a war that has cost more than 1,000 American lives, the top U.S. arms inspector said Wednesday he found no evidence that Iraq produced any weapons of mass destruction after 1991.

Y'get that there, Joe? "No evidence."

Also, from a related Washington Post article on the same report:

Duelfer's report said that no chemical weapons existed and that there is no evidence of attempts to make such weapons over the past 12 years

As I say, all this, like the fact that Lieberman is a two-faced boob, is what we already knew. But what we didn't know, or at least I didn't, is just how patronizing he could be to a woman...who just happens to have better information than he.

Because when Ms. Huffington quiered his assertion, the following exchange took place:

LIEBERMAN: ... these are not unfounded. Go read the Duelfer Report.

HUFFINGTON: There is nothing in the report that proves anything that you have said.


Dripping with condescension, Lieberman retorted, "I don't think you've read it, sweetheart."

(emphasis mine)

Ooh-boy...

New Amazon book review

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

Ah...you can always depend upon Tennessee

Think Progress:

Tennessee Tea Party Demands School Curriculum Not Focus Too Much On The ‘Minority Experience’

You know, as I read this I'm reminded that in my play The Girl in the Boat, there is a fleeting reference to a never-seen character named José. When the play was produced in the insane state, I was asked to change the name, on the grounds that apparently, there were no Mexicans in Knoxville, Tennessee. Somewhat to my later chagrin, I agreed.

Better to change my sign than my sex, I suppose.

In September 2009, I linked to-

Sex and relationship monthly astrology: Virgo

--Virgo being my astrological sign at the time and indeed for most if not all of my life. Now that I'm a Leo, I thought it might be amusing to visit the newly-relevant page...

How to attract and date a Leo man: A Leo man needs a woman who is grounded in reality and can help him keep his feet on the ground...

Yeah, that's fair.

...Usually the royal Lion's romances do not last that long, when his emotional ideals of a grand and magnificent romance coming crashing to reality.

Well, that's kind of a bummer, if not exactly untrue. I do like being called "The royal Lion," tho, I admit it...

Sex will never be dull with a Leo, though, and they will master every move they know.

Ahem...

Oh please, Tom. If we had that kind of power, do you think we'd waste it on a small-time crook like you?

Tom DeLay: Liberals Sentenced Me To Jail

I don't know about you, but I could really use some comedy right about now

So here's comedian (and Woman My Own Age) Maria Bamford...

Jokes.com
Maria Bamford - Cults
comedians.comedycentral.com
Jokes Joke of the Day Funny Jokes

So sue me, this makes me happy

Tom DeLay, once the most powerful man in the House of Representatives, was sentenced to three years in prison Monday.

Art by Fred Wessel

Via ArtistADay.

Have I mentioned lately that Christian Bale is a fucking self-important nutball?

Christian Bale has hit back at "patronizing" suggestions he picks movies that require him to lose weight, insisting it is "horrible" to drastically alter his body for extreme roles.

"To be honest, I find it laughable that it's considered some f**king gimmick -- it's so patronizing. For God's sake, do people not understand what a pain it is to do? It's as though it's some comment about, 'Oh, it's easy for him, because he's done it a bunch of times.' It's not easy, it's not fun -- it's horrible.

"I would never pick to do that, but (playing Eklund was) a part that I like and he's a welterweight and he's a crack head. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a welterweight with any fat on him - or a crack head. So it's just what you end up having to do. Somebody told me that somebody wrote something about my 'trademark weight loss'. I'd just like to p**s on that guy's shoes."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/dailydish/detail?entry_id=80476#ixzz1AKEbysTd

One or two of us were saying that back in August or so, but it's nice to have confirmed

The Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was an avoidable accident caused by a series of failures and blunders by the companies involved in drilling the well and the government regulators assigned to police them, the presidential panel named to study the accident has concluded.

Now I look forward to seeing the terrible price which the politicians will make those companies pay.

Also, I look forward to having an orgy with Teri Polo, Olivia Wilde, Beau Garrett, Anna Faris and a 31-year-old Blythe Danner. Seems just as likely.

Todays "Who's searching for me now?" question

Someone in Villeneuve, Bourgogne, France found this blog early this morning (my time) by googling "varkentine.blogspot.com." To the best of my knowledge I do not know anyone in Villeneuve, Bourgogne, France. I don't even know anything about it.

I wonder if it's that place where the ladies wear no pants I've heard so much about. That would be cool.

Proof positive that Karma is real

Folks who got their audio book version of President Bush's new memoir Decisions Points on Christmas were surprised to see chapter headings like "Bushit" and "Innocent Children Die" when they popped the CD into their computers on Christmas morning.