rogue wavelength

Hiatus

2009-12-04T15:35:00.000-08:00

For those wondering where I am -- and really only one has, technically, at least here on the blog (bless you, Anonymous, truest of readers) -- I've gone to ground.

It says in the papers that I've been spotted in Costa Rica, either leading an army of mercenaries in my long-planned coup, or, drunk in mud hut. While I will neither confirm nor deny nor confirm these reports, the truth is a combination of other factors:

1) I'm writing again, my first new script project in a couple years.
2) Mrs. Splash has given birth to another Splashling, meaning we're now outnumbered.
3) The black helicopters have been hovering over the Splash Cave a lot again lately.
4) What little time all that leaves me for fighting the good fight these days is more economically spent in that one-click, hit-and-run Thunderdome known as Facebook.

Also, the Wavelength has been inundated by Japanese and Italian Viagra SPAMers lately to such a degree that it's kinda souring me on Blogger...and Viagra.

And what with baseball's winter meetings upon us -- and spring training just a few short months away? Well...

Not that I've unplugged the Wavelength forever. I'll be back, even if only to feed my ego or throw the government and Splashlings off my trail when they get too close.

Until then, stay classy, San Diego.

(Now will somebody please tell me how to say "keep it down, I have a splitting headache" in Spanish?)

Liberals hate free speech

2009-10-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

...also privacy rights and the sanctity of our entire political process. But who's counting?

A federal appeals court says Washington's secretary of state can release of names and addresses of people who signed petitions calling for a public vote on the state's expanded benefits for domestic partners.

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday issued an order reversing a decision from U.S. District Judge Ben Settle in Tacoma, who held that releasing the names could chill the First Amendment rights of petition signers.

And before you try tell me they only want to uphold the integrity of the process, note the topmost reason WhoSigned.org lists for doing this:

"When signatures for Referendum 71 have been verified WhoSigned.Org will: Work to make this public record signature information accessible and searchable on the internet."

Hmmm...

On the news this morning they said the right to contact the signers of this petition was also being sought.

Double hmmm...

I'm guessing "right to contact" means more Prop 8-style, gay-mob beat-downs of elderly women. But don't quote me on that... I have a wife and children to think about.

'Flashforward' has vision, but have we seen it before?

2009-09-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Flashforward, the first of the fall season's new hopefuls (hoped by me anyway) aired last night, and I'm a little torn.

The show sports a killer premise, an A-list writer/producer, and an uber-capable cast -- kudos to the ever-underrated Joseph Fiennes for maybe the best American accent from a Brit ever. Not to mention a bulletproof pilot that had me bumping it to near the top of my DVR timer queue.

But it's "near the top" because Lost still sits higher and, more to the point, got there first.

Comparisons to Lost are invited: Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer is the power behind Fastforward, and he freely admits he's a "huge, huge" fan of the Splash-proclaimed greatest TV drama ever.

The good news is, he understands what makes Lost tick. The pitfall becomes merely following the template. (Flashforward's kangaroo moment felt cheesily close to Lost's polar bear for me.) We've been down this road before, so those hairpin turns don't take us by surprise anymore. Meanwhile Lost is still barreling down the unmapped parts of that road far, far ahead.

So I guess I'm saying it might be a lightning-in-a-bottle deal. Lost's fan-based viral video and web sleuthing aspect sprung up organically, FF comes prepackaged with it, which rarely works.

And most of the fun last night for me came from the apocalyptic mushroom cloud hanging over the Event. Unless they sustain that, as opposed to the Prison Break-like whodunit this has the potential to become, we have another problem.

Or maybe just chalk it up to my own impossibly high standards. Compared to NCIS: Los Angeles the other night, this is the best show ever.

Encore showing of the pilot runs tonight at 8 p.m. on ABC. Check out the promo below.

You're just a middle class Socialist brat...

2009-09-16T11:44:00.000-07:00

I wonder if Danny Elfman had the Democrats in mind when he wrote "Dead Man's Party."

Huh--??

OK, some background: Before he was a big time movie composer, Danny Elfman had a little band back in the 80s and 90s that you may remember -- Oingo Boingo. Thoroughly alternative with layers of punk energy on stage. I liked the music, but I really warmed to the conservative message in songs like "Only a Lad" and "Capitalism."

With Michael Moore saying we need to end capitalism and the President doing everything in his power to make it happen, I've had 'Capitalism,' boinging around in my brain for a couple days.

I'm thinking somebody needs to cover this song pronto and get it into a lot of heads, because talk about a song ahead of its time...

There's nothing wrong with Capitalism
There's nothing wrong with free enterprise
Don't try to make me feel guilty
I'm so tired of hearing you cry

There's nothing wrong with making some profit
If you ask me I'll say it's just fine
There's nothing wrong with wanting to live nice
I'm so tired of hearing you whine
About the revolution
Bringin' down the rich
When was the last time you dug a ditch, baby!

If it ain't one thing
Then it's the other
Any cause that crosses your path
Your heart bleeds for anyone's brother
I've got to tell you you're a pain in the ass

You criticize with plenty of vigor
You rationalize everything that you do
With catchy phrases and heavy quotations
And everybody is crazy but you

You're just a middle class, socialist brat
From a suburban family and you never really had to work
And you tell me that we've got to get back
To the struggling masses (whoever they are)
You talk, talk, talk about suffering and pain
Your mouth is bigger than your entire brain
What the hell do you know about suffering and pain . . .

There's nothing wrong with Capitalism!
There's nothing wrong with Capitalism!
There's nothing wrong with Capitalism!
There's nothing wrong with Capitalism!

YouTube link:

Dear Leader Speaks: the final word

2009-09-08T11:02:00.001-07:00

Chalk up Obama's speech to the cheeelrens as another win for our side.

With a total conservative power outage in Washington, liberalism a raging wildfire, so it's all about containment right now.

So far so good.

With the Town Halls Gone Wild phenomenon, the Dems will have to punt on health care... Van Jones just had his czarist crown knocked off by Glenn Beck's September Revolution... Now, just before the big do-or-die speech to Congress, today's "how can we help the president achieve his goals?" pitch to American kiddos has been quickly toned down to "I pity the fool who don't stay in school!"

So are we actually kinda sorta winning? Without leadership? We're doing something. All we need to do is keep it up for another 1,229 days, 23 hours, 53 minutes, and 47 seconds.

My favorite moment in the Master Rhetorician's address today? The president says you shouldn't look to basketball for success in life...then holds up Michael Jordan as a role model. (Maybe you should put on some clothes if you're going to keep Emperoring today, sir. Little eyes are watching.)

But even with all the Cult of Personality warnings to avoid, did you notice how he still couldn't resist touching on the awesomeness of Being Barack? Has there ever been a president who self-referenced as much as Dear Leader Barry? This time we learned that because he studied hard at the dinner table in Indonesia, we can be somebody too! (Alpha...Omega! Alpha...Omega! Alpha...Omega!)

You too, John Piper?

2009-09-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

Dawg be trippin'!

Ah, man... John Piper just made a poopie.

What's the point of praying kids "take their studies seriously" when those studies can only, legally be a 100% man-centered curriculum? And there's attitude here, too, which kinda baffles me.

I just took part in a major Facebook brawl -- with fellow Christians -- over whether or not believers should enlist their kids in a soul-flattening state education if there's an alternative, so this one felt like a bit of a knife in the back.

Clearly he's reacting to the level of vitriol against Obama's speech to the cheeelrens. But that doesn't fill me with confidence on his grasp of the bigger picture.

Amazing the lines being drawn in the culture war lately. Christians, Mormon commentators and secular Libertarians vs. Christians, Libs and Statists. (Not that Piper is on the latter's side, but suddenly I have to put him on my "Guys Who Don't Get It" watch list, and that's no fun.)

My take on the speech itself...

Charles Krauthammer had it right when he said the problem isn't what Obama is saying, which appears to be bland. Or even the (quickly amended!) teacher's guide that had asked kids to find ways to "help the President." It's the fact that school kids are being asked to have a special relationship with any president, regardless of affiliation. Time was, and wisely so, when country and Constitution were paramount in the civic education of young Americans. Now we're holding up elected officials as the heart and soul of the nation?

Oy.

Afghanistan: getting ugly fast

2009-09-06T15:18:00.001-07:00

What a mess. Forget "social re-engineering." That should never be the mission of the U.S. military, and the Founders would be livid. We were right to knock down the Taliban after 9/11, but doing anything but leaving immediately after that -- with the promise to return and make them glow like Chernobyl if they mess with us again -- is a recipe for Vietnam II, even if our motives are right.

Story here, courtesy of the inestimable Michael Yon courtesy of Big Hollywood...

New Afghan War: Frontline Correspondent Says Fight Has Morphed

Shared via AddThis

B holes are better

2009-07-30T17:30:00.001-07:00

Live free or die

2009-07-26T00:10:00.000-07:00

Any place where a guy named Doobie can walk around freely in his kilt and shades with an AR-15 and a Braveheart claymore on his back is a place I want to be. Preferably next door, because you know that guy's neighborhood is the safest on the planet. (Not to mention the humdinger block parties he probably throws.)

Seriously, though. These people are doing it right. Keeping it light, while keeping it real. Making freedom fun while living out the ideals back home. Like Woodstock without the hippies, Marxism and B.O.

Read the article, then check out the Free State Project website.

(Kudos also to the Associated Press, yet again, for some solid, unbiased reporting on life in the Obama Era.)

You can still rock in America...

2009-07-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

One benefit of liberals running the media is the joy to be found in hijacking their material. I smile every time I hear Chrissie Hynde's "My City was Gone" because I know how much it must burn her biscuits that most people know it only as Rush Limbaugh's theme song.

You see it a lot on the campaign trail, where it's the sorry excuse for a Republican candidate who doesn't get at least one angry cease-and-desist for using some bootleg tune at a rally. (I loved watching McCain's use of "Right Now" lead to a minor flareup of the bad blood between right-leaning Sammy Hagar, who thought it was "cool," and members of his former backup band, Van Halen, who grumbled about "no permission" asked.)

It may be early, but I've got a good soundtrack suggestion for whoever's headlining for the GOP in 2012.

Yes, after watching President Barry's health care press conference/disinformation event tonight, I'm tired of laughing him off. I know we need to pace ourselves, but I'm in rebel mode right now, and this one is just what the doctor ordered. Can't miss with rage-powered lyrics like:

What if I say I'm not like the others!
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?
You're the pretender!
What if I say I will never surrender!!

A kickin' song. A killer video. Suitable for killing Taliban or raging against the Obama machine... I give you Foo Fighter's supremely stealable The Pretender. (And when Dave Grohl calls to cry about it, put phone to speaker and crank it to 11.)

Foo Fighters - The Pretender (Video Premiere)
by Alisvideo

(Video missing? Watch it here on YouTube.)

Barack O'Mama Jeans

2009-07-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

Maybe this is the real reason they were booing him at the All Star game?

I'm Geert Wilders!

2009-07-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

What a stud. Watching this, I find myself fantasizing about a day when people around the world are inspired to unite behind the man like they did in a certain iconic scene from 'Spartacus.' (Preferably without the rest of us, y'know, wearing chains.)

...And Rick Warren is His prophet

2009-07-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

Purpose-driven naivete

Rick Warren believes God needs Allah's help to combat man's inhumanity to man because "some problems are so big you have to team tackle them."

What, too big even for Bono??

(More here.)

Your tax dollars at work: Gay Pride edition!

2009-07-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

So let me get this straight. California is so broke that it's closing state parks and issuing IOUs in order to pay for essentials like law enforcement. Yet the California Highway Patrol finds the resources to man a recruiting booth at the gay freak show known as "Sacramento Pride"?

My dad went to the anti-tax TEA party held at the same location a month or two ago. To my knowledge, the CHP didn't set up shop on that occasion, and if you asked them, I'd bet you a case of fruit-flavored KY Jelly they'd say something about the partisan nature of the day. At which point I'd ask them about their position on a key point of the Pride event -- opposition to Prop 8.

I heard somewhere that gays just want to be "treated equally under the law." Apparently that doesn't include the ones on public nudity and indecency. And if the cops tried to enforce them, you know these second-class citizens would riot like it's 1969.

And with President Obama praising those gay street brawlers (who injured a cop or two as I recall) I probably wouldn't risk it anyway.

Luckily, the CHP is too busy signing guys in bare-butt leathers to arrest them. Which explains at least one member of the Village People, too.

All these photos, by the way, come courtesy of a Facebook friend's album. There were more shocking ones -- including a leather-strapped, bare-chested lesbian with pierced nipples roaming the streets with a sno-cone -- but Facebook removed them overnight. Wouldn't want young eyes seeing stuff like that, would we?

Which brings me to the Sacramento Pride website, which promised a "kidzone" for the event. And no, that's not a joke about the picture below. Pretty sure they meant an actual kidzone, meaning Facebook has higher standards than the CHP.

Do you consider yourself Californian? My condolences. If I were you, I'd go out and raise holy hell about this.

What writers are up against

2009-06-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

Sadly, I believe Frank Darabont when he relates, regarding his script for 'Farenheit 451,' this exchange:

I actually had a studio head read that script and say: "Wow, that's the best and smartest script that I've read since running this studio but I can't possibly greenlight it." I asked why and he says "How am I going to get 13-year-olds to show up at the theater?"

I'd have an snarky retort at this point, were it not for the weekend receipts for 'Transformers 2' staring me in the face.

Today in history...

2009-06-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

Epic Tragedy

Today in 1453 the 1,000-year-old city of Constantinople -- most powerful and spectacular city in the history of mankind -- fell to militant Islam:

"...The Emperor and his commanders were trying frantically to rally their troops and push back the enemy. It was too late. Waves of Janissaries, followed by other regular units of the Ottoman army, were crashing through the open Gates, mixed with fleeing and slaughtered Christian soldiers.

Then the Emperor, realizing that everything was lost, removed his Imperial insignia, and followed by his cousin Theophilus Palaeologus, the lord Branas, the Castilian Don Francisco of Toledo, Katakouzinos, Mathaios Sgouromalis and John Dalmatus, all seven holding their swords, charged into the sea of the enemy soldiers, hitting left and right in a final act of defiance.

They were never seen again...

". . . the great church of Hagia Sophia was filled to capacity. Thousands of people were moving towards the church. Inside, Orthodox and Catholic priests were holding liturgy, the last Christian service after almost 1,000 years. People were singing hymns . . . .

"Bands of Ottoman soldiers began now looting. Doors were broken, private homes were looted, their tenants were massacred. Shops in the city markets were looted. Monasteries and Convents were broken in. Their tenants were killed, nuns were raped; many, to avoid dishonor, killed themselves. Killing, raping, looting, burning, enslaving, went on and on . . . .

"The great doors of Hagia Sophia were forced open, and crowds of angry soldiers came in and fell upon the unfortunate worshipers. Pillaging and killing in the holy place went on for hours. Similar was the fate of worshipers in most churches in the city . . . .

"Thousands of civilians were enslaved, soldiers fought over young boys and young women . . . the invaders broke the heads of those women who resisted on the floor of the churches and they raped them dead. The famous icon of Apostole Loukas was totally destroyed.

"The sultan asked for the young sons of Duke Loukas Notaras. Their father refused and Mehmed was ready to take their heads. Notaras asked him to kill him after his sons so that he was sure that they were dead and not disgraced from the perverted sultan."

If this massive, advanced civilization fell to the same enemy we face today, what makes us think it can't happen to us?

(Hat tip, ACM)

Remember Neda

2009-06-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

I sit here watching this on Father's Day -- my own little girl asleep in peace across from me in our living room, the birds chirping and a cool breeze coming through our open door on a nice day in a free country -- and it puts the whole wide world in heartbreaking perspective.

Barham Saleh praises the troops on Colbert

2009-06-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

Iraq's deputy prime minister is so much cooler than ours. Well spoken and very classy. And I hope Colbert realized that when Saleh thanked the American military, he was thanking George W. Bush. (Props to Colbert for doing this, with minor boos for waiting until Obama was in office to realize it was worth doing.)

800,000 (and counting!) surprised by digital TV switch

2009-06-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

Mater was right... Tractors is so duuuuumb!

Road Worrier!

2009-06-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

This car has Farfegnugen.

Conservatives taking Europe by storm

2009-06-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

Mr. ~~Smith~~ Wilders goes to ~~Washington~~ Brussels

Good news from the twilight of Western Civilization...

Right-leaning governments came out ahead in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, while conservative opposition parties won in Britain, Spain, and Bulgaria. Far-right groups also made gains in Britain, Austria, the Netherlands and Hungary.
Many Socialists ran campaigns that slammed center-right leaders for failing to regulate financial markets and spend enough to stimulate faltering economies. But voters did not embrace their cause.

With more from the UK...

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's center-left Labour party finished third behind the anti-European U.K. Independence Party — a crushing defeat that cast more doubt on Brown's future. The Conservatives are expected to win Britain's next national elections.

Best of all, despised Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders' party made big gains, becoming the country's second most powerful party.

Wilders, who has become popular in the Netherlands running on an anti-Islam and anti-political establishment platform, promised voters he would be tough on immigration and criticised Turkey's bid to join the EU. "Should Turkey as an Islamic country be able to join the European Union? We are the only party in Holland that says, it is an Islamic country, so no, not in 10 years, not in a million years," Wilders said.

Like I said, baby steps. Now if we can only Geert our Wilders on here.

Tories taking England by storm

2009-06-05T11:52:00.000-07:00

OK in the UK!

With Gordon Brown's own MPs calling for him to step down and the Conservatives stomping Labour and the Lib Dems across the nation, things are looking up in Britannia.

"...The Conservatives have taken Staffordshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire from Labour - which had run all three since 1981 - as well as Devon and Somerset from the Lib Dems.
According to the BBC's estimated projected national vote share - the Conservatives are on 38%, Labour on 23% - a historic low - the Lib Dems on 28% and other parties on 11%.

...."We have won almost every council we could possibly have won ... We have won councils we really didn't think we were going to win ... so I don't accept that these aren't extremely good results for the Conservative Party," [said Conservative leader David Cameron].
He said the results showed people wanted a "strong, positive and united alternative" to the government and were seeing the Conservatives as that alternative.
"Across the country what's remarkable about these figures and what shines out is it's the Conservative Party winning in every part of the country," he said.

So as another nation in Europe does a spectacular about face, we here in the States stumble merrily on down the road to socialism.

So much for any Obama bounce!

300!

2009-06-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Standing tall

Warm congrats to Randy Johnson, only the sixth left-hander in history to reach the big 300.

Randy is a class act, evinced by his family interaction after the win and his gracious, no-frills appearance with the press soon after. He represents the best in baseball, and watching the win last night on TV was an honor.

Here's to seeing more wins from this Giant of a man in the postseason.

Bill Gates wants you dead

2009-05-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

Throw me a frickin' bone here. It's "population control," OK?

A bunch of billionaires just met in some dark corner recently to discuss how they can pool their limitless resources to reduce the number of people breathing air on planet earth.

The result...

There was “nothing as crude as a vote” but a consensus emerged that they would back a strategy in which population growth would be tackled as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat.
“This is something so nightmarish that everyone in this group agreed it needs big-brain answers,” said the guest. “They need to be independent of government agencies, which are unable to head off the disaster we all see looming.”

Hey, it's all fun and games until someone loses a few billion lives.

But why meet under multiple layers of secrecy?

It seems they wanted "to speak rich to rich without worrying anything they said would end up in the newspapers, painting them as an alternative world government."

Totally. Wouldn't want to start any crazy conspiracy theories or anything. Might interfere with all the plans for global control of human destiny.

Bible study banned in San Diego County

2009-05-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

Home is where the ~~heart~~ government is.

Holy shoot... I'm getting nervous over here. Seems like they're gunning for believers like never before -- outside the Roman Colosseum anyway.

Is planetary colonization available yet? Suddenly I'm dreaming of a shiny, solid-fuel rocket with "Mayflower II" stenciled on the side.

Networks announce fall shows

2009-05-19T23:29:00.000-07:00

Wasteland

The season finales of everything worth watching are now behind us. (Don't get me started on the sucktacular mess that was '24' this season.)

And while I'm still reeling from the tragic loss of 'The Unit' from CBS's 2009 fall lineup, I'm prepared to move on with my life and start seeing other shows -- after a long and glorious summer of baseball, of course.

The short version on what the networks have going on? NBC and Fox are going down in flames, CBS is running on the fumes of past hits, and ABC is looking real, real good. Assuming your definition of "real, real good" is maybe three shows Splash might bother taking for a test drive.

"Flash Forward," "V," "Happy Town" (all ABC), "The Human Target" (Fox) and "Day One" (NBC's 'Lost?') are pretty much all I'm interested in sampling at this point. And I'm secretly hoping they all stink, because I watch too much TV already.

Now excuse me while I resume my email campaign to save 'The Unit' or revive it on another network.

Muslim Demographics

2009-04-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

Get ready for some scary, scary numbers.

AP FACTCHECK: Obama is a big fat liar

2009-04-29T23:38:00.000-07:00

You are getting sleeeepyyy, very sleeeeepyyy...

Someone named Calvin Woodward at the Associated Press just got himself in a heap of trouble. And if his bosses don't get him, the multiple federal agencies no doubt pouring over his personal files right about now surely will. Nobody puts Baby in a corner.

Obama's budget "cut" in perspective

2009-04-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

And people think I have too much time on my hands. At least this guy puts his to good use. This is sharp.

Iraqi government calls U.S. troops criminals

2009-04-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

If we were fools to think Iraq could be turned into an American soul mate, it was a failure to acknowledge human nature. The Iraqi government and people appear to be total ingrates -- and corrupt beyond our reach -- already.

Iraq's prime minister denounced a deadly U.S. raid on Sunday as a "crime" that violated the security pact with Washington and demanded American commanders hand over those responsible to face possible trial in Iraqi courts.
The U.S. military, however, strongly denied that it overstepped its bounds and said it notified Iraqi authorities in advance — in accordance with the rules that took effect this year governing U.S. battlefield conduct.

We give them freedom, they want to lynch us.

This was a legitimate mission. These six detainees were Shiite thugs with ties to Iran. But at a word from (holy Shiite!) al-Maliki and hundreds of protesters, we dutifully turned them loose and retreated behind the wire with tail between our legs.

The end of a rogue leader like Saddam was necessary post-9/11, so taking him out was legitimate But wasting lives and money on so-called "nation building" appears to have been a total waste.

Meanwhile, in other "nothing's changed" news...

Elsewhere in Iraq, gunmen stormed two Christian homes in separate attacks in the ethnically diverse city of Kirkuk, killing at least two Chaldean Christians and one Assyrian, said police Brig. Burham Taib.

Justice won't be done in this case any more than it was in Afghanistan when the new and improved government we propped up with blood and American tax dollars proceeded to slap a Christian convert with the death penalty (reduced via insanity plea at the intervention of Condi Rice).

If this is the way it's going to be from now on, let's get out now. Ron Paul was right. America needs to look to her own interests, period. The rest of the world be damned.

Obama photo op sends NYC into 9/11 panic

2009-04-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

He gives the Queen of England an iPod, her Prime Minister a pack of DVDs that won't play outside the U.S., and now this...

Sorry, but how is Barack Obama not flat-out the most clueless president ever, up to and including George Bush? (And, folks? Don't look now, but we're only 100 days into this cavalcade of fun.)

Promise Keepers goes girly

2009-04-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

Looks like it's not just the government that thinks it can stabilize inherently unstable bubbles.

Remember Promise Keepers? The Christian dudes' organization is fading so fast they're turning to the ladies to keep them alive.

Only problem is, in my humble opinion, "PK" failed because it was a trendy self-help gimmick, like 90% of the rest of modern evangelical Christianity. Inviting women in to "challenge" their men sure isn't going to save it. Guys aren't wired for holding hands in a circle, let alone with their mothers-in-law.

How can you tell Ronald McDonald at a nudist colony?

2009-04-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

Models are so fake

Here's another one to file under "Stuff I Wish I'd Thought of First."

It seems someone with arteries of steel went out and bought a bunch of fast food items to see how they compared with the glossy magazine version. And much hilarity ensued.

I think my favorite is the mentally challenged-looking Big Mac, though I actually felt sorry for the Arby's Beef 'n' Cheddar... If sammiches could talk, that one would be begging to be put out of its misery.

(Thanks to reader Patchy for the heads up. At least I think he's a reader... If not, he can take a flying leap and I'll take full credit.)

Philips 21:9 aspect TV 'heist' commercial

2009-04-22T17:27:00.000-07:00

Whoa. Check this out. A commercial for some new super-widescreen TV apparently being developed by Philips. Can't speak to the TV, but the ad is spectacular.

Pot calls kettle black

2009-04-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

CNN's Susan Roesgen isn't angry at the "bias" of Fox News. She's livid at the event itself. And as Andrew Breitbart points out, she's a reporter, not the commentators Fox had at yesterday's 700+ Tea Parties around the nation.

UPDATE: Don't miss the follow-up video, linked to in the comments below.

Summer schedule

2009-04-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry for going AWOL the past week or two. Computer issues. Issues rectified -- I thought -- by the sweet new Toshiba laptop currently topping my lap. Only problem is, looks like I'm missing 20 gigs I paid for, so the saga continues.

But I have to say I kinda enjoyed the break. And I'm drifting more and more to a Facebook mode of blabbing lately. And now that baseball has returned (assuming no rain out for today, the true first day of summer, as the Giants play for the first time) expect the posts to be fewer and farther between from now through October regardless.

Which is as it should be. Now is the time for grilling and camping and road trips and kiddie pools in the backyard. Can't get much of a tan from flat screen radiation, right?

But speaking of baseball...did you catch that jackass Joe Biden during the Yankee game yesterday, talking about the troops?

"It's easy to forget about these guys. There's been a million of them over there by now, but it's not like they're your next door neighbor."

Well not in your neighborhood, Joe. You're a wealthy career politician, but we have more than one citizen soldier where I'm living.

Jack. Ass.

Sorry. Summer is no time for politics either. Couldn't resist a parting shot, tho.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's 20 minutes to game time!

Critics slam faith elements in 'Knowing'

2009-03-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

The Da Vinci Cage. (He said knowingly!)

I'm no Nicholas Cage hater by any means, but Knowing wasn't exactly on my radar. Looked a little too close to Next for comfort. But after all the brouhaha I'm more than a little intrigued.

"Knowing's" minimal discussion of faith and spirituality has made the critical corps apoplectic; the movie has been relegated to the land of hokey Christian cinema inhabited by clunkers like "Left Behind" and "Fireproof." Their revulsion is practically palpable. Instead of engaging with the text and discussing its contents in a reasonable way with an eye toward deeper understanding of the source material, critics have lashed out en masse and rejected a stylish thriller because they can't handle a mainstream film that deals with faith in a reasonable manner.

Movieguide confirms the faith-affirming element.

"...Very strong Christian worldview with some intentionally obtuse elements and characters that all conform to biblical hermeneutics, and controversial eschatology, but including a strong renunciation of a random universe (evolution) and an excellent example of reconciliation with overt message that “Jesus is the way, the truth and the life…”

Roger Ebert of course appears to have turned a blind eye to the religion in play but says it's the rare four-star shizzle nonetheless.

The one notable exception to this trend is Roger Ebert. In a four-star review, the critic wrote that the movie "is among the best science-fiction films I've seen — frightening, suspenseful, intelligent and, when it needs to be, rather awesome."

(Hat tip, Big Hollywood.)

'True Grit' rides again

2009-03-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

Duking it out Coen Bros style

In the hands of anyone but Joel and Ethan Coen, I'd cringe at the notion of a True Grit remake. After what they did to The Ladykillers, I should still probably be cringing. But obviously these guys are brilliant most days. If anyone can deliver a picture to get the world excited about westerns again -- look what they did for archaic mountain music -- it's probably them.

NBC's Goliath fells David?

2009-03-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

King me, NBC

So what's the deal with NBC's new show 'Kings'?

I saw a commercial or two, thought it looked interesting, but refrained from force-marching my already overburdened DVR into another full-season gig. I didn't realize it was based on the life of King David, set in the present (or is it future?), or I would have given it a spin.

From what I gather though, 'Kings' is just another kick in the nads for those of us crazy enough to take Scripture at face value. Turns out Israel is run by the Bush administration and Halliburton, David is a reluctant warrior, and Jonathan is (what else?) queerer than a three-shekel bill.

But here's the guy behind this abomination to explain his enlightened approach to Scripture and why you, good Christian, will support him if you're a good Christian.

World Magazine reviews the show here, calling David a "postmodern poster-child."

Even when he defeats Goliath, he doesn't do it for the Lord's honor and he doesn't do it with a sense of conviction; rather, like Forrest Gump, he stumbles into victory accidentally. A postmodern poster-child, there is no assuredness in David of his God or anything else. Of only one thing he is sure—that while he is a "good" person, as a hero he is a fraud. But this, of course, is what makes him the ultimate hero in a relativist worldview. Only because he knows he doesn't know anything for sure are we supposed to admire him. It is a sad, pale imitation of the heroism of the actual David: a man who knew his cause to be just because he fought on the side of the true God and, for the same reason, knew his victory was assured.

True, I'm prejudging based on a couple reviews and, y'know, the man's own words and all, but as a conservative Christian, prejudice is what I'm all about.

Three strikes you're out at the old ball game

2009-03-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

Betrayed

Sheesh. Sorry for recommending the World Baseball Classic. (Outlaw 13 was right.)

I take that back. It had its moments. Thrills even, at least early on. Player patriotism -- those who chose the red, white and blue over team colors -- was inspiring and infectious. And Team USA played a heck of a lot better than last time even if the results were the same.

But the loss to Japan last night was disgusting. Inexcusable.

Jon Miller and company calling the game on ESPN used the words "handcuffed" and "betrayal" to describe what American fans might be feeling.

Totally.

And it's Davey Johnson's fault. Davey Johnson and his masters, the bulk of baseball's general managers who refused us key players: pitchers. Davey Johnson, the bulk of baseball's general managers, and players who dissed their country for the silk sheets of spring training.

I'd blame American fans, too, but they were burned by the WBC once before, so failure to show this time is at least understandable.

Still, was I the only one -- along with Evan Longoria -- who got goosebumps hearing "USA! USA!" last night? I understand we didn't even get that in Florida last week. Thank God we weren't playing Mexico yesterday. (Having lived in L.A., I can assure you USA Baseball is the permanent visiting team vs. any team south of the border. Immigration is a beautiful thing. But I digress.)

Check out Steve Buckley on all this, though I think he blames Davey J more than the equally culpable GMs. Johnson is nothing but a toady, a willing, sacrificial scapegoat for ownership.

No wonder Chipper Jones said he wouldn't be back unless fundamental changes were made to this whole thing. Listen up, baseball. Chipper speaks for the rest of us.

...Oh, who am I kidding? I just got a month of baseball in 30-degree weather, and I'll always be a sucker for the underdogs. I'll be back.

"Sweden rocked by radical Muslims"

2009-03-22T23:05:00.000-07:00

Just another day in paradise

I lived in Sweden for two fantastic years in the '80s. Even then our own tiny little town was letting in some strange new neighbors, from Iran and elsewhere. The latest news breaks my heart:

A few years ago, the left-wing London Guardian newspaper called Sweden the most successful society the world has ever known. But Sweden today is being rocked by a large influx of Muslim immigrants and the growth of radical Islam.

Malmo is Sweden 's 3rd largest city and a major epicenter of the Islamization of Europe. Wide-open immigration policies have changed Sweden and have made Malmo, which is now one-quarter Muslim, one of the most racially divided cities in Europe.

Most Muslim immigrants are concentrated in one district, where the male unemployment rate is 82 percent. Crime affects one of three families in the city and rape has tripled in 20 years, according to the Christian Broadcasting Network.

In one housing project in the district, fire and emergency workers will no longer enter without police protection.

Malmo has been so accommodating toward immigrant Muslims that a local Muslim politician and imam has even declared, "The best Islamic state is Sweden !"

But Malmo's Jews won’t give the city the same glowing assessment. Jews who dare to walk the streets wearing yarmulkes on their heads risk being beaten up.

When Israel recently played Sweden in a Davis Cup tennis match in Malmo, protesters demonstrated against the Israeli presence in the city, and hundreds attacked police.

Journalist Lars Hedegaard, who is based across a bridge-tunnel from Malmo in Copenhagen, Denmark , told CBN News that pro-Israeli demonstrators in Malmo were met with rocks, bottles and pipe bombs from Palestinians and other Arabs.

Right-wing Swedish Democrats, who support limits on immigration, have been stigmatized by the left-wing Swedish media as fascist and bigoted.

But there is a growing acceptance that "the Swedish model" - generous welfare benefits combined with liberal immigration policies — is now unsustainable, according to CBN News.

Hedegaard said: “I think the best prediction is that Sweden will have a Muslim majority by 2049, so we know where that country’s going.”

Check out video here of an incident in Malmo in January, where peaceful Israeli demonstrators were disbanded by cowardly Swedish police too afraid to confront the larger, violent contingent of Muslims.

More video and news here from Tundra Tabloids on the topic.

Top 10 Obama/Biden gaffes

2009-03-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

Toby Harnden has compiled a top 10 list of video goofs by President Obama and Joe Biden perpetrated since the election. (My take on personal favorite No. 3 here.)

Note, too, the link at the bottom of Harnden's post to memorable banana peels from the campaign trail.

Goes well with this list of Obamaisms.

And remember, George W. Bush was the dumb one.

CBO: Obama Plan deficit far worse than White House said

2009-03-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

Whoa, Nelly! Apparently the President wasn't the only player overlooked in the Special Olympics draft. His entire economic team missed the cut, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

President Barack Obama's budget would generate unsustainably large deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year over the next decade, according to new estimates released Friday. The new Congressional Budget Office figures predict Obama's budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over 2010-2019. That's $2.3 trillion worse than the administration predicted in its budget just last month.

They're pretty much just throwing darts at this point, aren't they?

Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree are unsustainable. By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5 percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level.

When questioned about the independently arrived-at reality check, Obama replied, "Uh...I guess it's true you can't spend your way to prosperity. Uh... My bad. We'll get you, ah, something that works in a jiffy."

Psych!

The latest figures throw a major monkey wrench into efforts to enact Obama's budget, which promises universal health care for all and higher spending for domestic programs like education and research into renewable energy.

"A major monkey wrench." Ya think?

At least now we know Nancy Pelosi wasn't losing it when she, not once but twice, talked about 500 million Americans a month losing their jobs in future.

I'd file this one under "Bwahahahaaa!" if I and my children to the biblical third and fourth generation of those that hate him weren't footing the bill.

No wonder the stock market gave up a week's worth of gains today.

I'll give you a stock tip... Load up on makers of dry dog food, because that's what we'll be eating for he next 50 years when Obama still rams this through.

Transgender humanoid exercises aged husband to death

2009-03-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

Only in Slovenia... I mean America.

"A teachable moment"

2009-03-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

My fellow special Americans...

Barack Obama is liberal self-parody. A walking, talking PC robot.

Witness this sorry spectacle from Obie's appearance on Leno last night, of which you've no doubt heard alllll about by now.

It began with the president joking about how bad a bowler he is.
Toward the end of his approximately 40-minute taping on the "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," Obama talked about how he'd gotten better at bowling and had been practicing in the White House bowling alley.
"I bowled a 129," he told Leno.
"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.
But then came the foot-in-mouth moment: "It's like the Special Olympics or something," the president said.

Sorry, but that was funny. The first evidence I've seen that Obama is a regular guy when not pontificating from a mahogany podium at Harvard or remaking the fabric of the Republic by fiat from the Oval Office. (Or mounting his even earlier mob-boss rise to power da Chicago way.)

We've seen him shoot hoops and talk football, but until that joke, I never took the bait. His basketball was serviceable but 1) he was wearing a Marines t-shirt and 2) he had it tucked in a pair of geeky sweatpants.

So for a few brief moments I'm thinking maybe, away from his teleprompter crutch, he is a regular guy, capable of misguided retard jokes like George W. Bush, Joe Biden and the rest of us.

But he was back in that wavering ivory tower the instant he stepped off stage and into the waiting arms of his pollster-handlers, phoning the offended parties in full hand-wringing panic mode from Air Force One.

"He was very sincere, expressed an interest and an openness in being more engaged in the movement and said he was a fan of the movement and I think importantly he said he was ready to have some of our athletes over to the White House to bowl or play basketball or help him improve his score."

This guy is going to get us all killed.

Arf? Arf?

2009-03-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

I support Israel unequivocally. Unlike many Christians, it's not because I believe in any end times significance of the political state of Israel. I support them as the lone outpost of democracy and freedom in a part of the world that desperately needs an outpost of democracy and freedom.

Israel is a friend of America who shares a common enemy with her, and that's enough for me to sign off on as many things-that-go-boom as Israel wants from our glorious military-industrial complex.

At the same time I react negatively to my country being anyone's female lapdog. And the more I read Pat Buchanan on the subject in recent years, the harder I find it to refute his contention that we are in fact wearing a tiny little sweater with our name embroidered in Hebrew.

Christians riding high on 'American Idol'

2009-03-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it. We watch this show, and have since the second season. Freak Week draws me in, and Simon's politically incorrect spade calling usually keeps me watching.

Some years I care, others I don't. But the talent has been deep this year, so I'm watching with more interest than usual...with the help of the DVR fast-forward button of course.

We all knew about Danny Gokey's church background, but MTV reports a faith-connection is the rule rather than the exception among the top crop this season, with Michael Sarver, Kris Allen, Scott MacIntyre and Matt Giraud reportedly among the faithful. (Look for it to come down to Gokey and Giraud in the end, IMHO.)

This of course makes me not only watch but vote, because the entertainment industry could use a few more good souls for salt and light.

As a side note, though, I'd say Joanne Brokaw (quoted by MTV) is wrong on one point. Contemporary Christian music has been viable for a long time now, with many a crossover act over the past 20 years, including disparate acts like Creed, Sixpence, Jars of Clay, Nickleback, and Mercy Me.

Pop music is a cheese-based product by definition of course -- another reason to keep it out of church -- but who doesn't enjoy a few slices as part of a balanced diet every now and then?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

Islamic MTV - spinning the dopest, freshest hits in the Muslim universe

2009-03-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson, bringing sexy back!

This is fantastic news. Looks like the worm of pop culture is about to spoil Islam, too.

DJ Jazzy Habib, the new Ayatollah of Rock'nRolla, has had a revelation of Mohammedan proportions:

4Shbab TV is Abu Haiba's attempt to put young people back on the right path, he says, in a way that is fun and entertaining. Music videos from around the world – not just "Islamic videos," but anything that's positive, he says – air alongside call-in shows and contests like "Who wants to be an Islamic pop star?"...
The videos on 4Shbab don't have the backup dancers and beach side sets of their mainstream counterparts. In one, singer Sami Yusuf sits by a baby grand piano. Something of a Cairo heartthrob, Mr. Yusuf's song, "He is there," celebrates the omnipresence of God without being religiously specific.

So he's the Amy Grant of the Islamic world? That's musical bling to my infidel ears.

And it's already bearing Western-style fruit:

Drinking orange juice at a cafe along the Nile, Ismail Mohamed, a local university student, says he's open to the idea of watching an Islamic video channel. But for him, it would just be another network on the dial.
"Sure I would watch 4Shbab, I like to watch a lot of different things," he says. "Music videos, American movies, I watch whatever looks cool."

Couldn't happen to a nicer religion. Though it already is happening to a nicer religion.

Now if we can only get them to start singing praise songs that repeat every bland verse a minimum of six times per outing, we could see a 90-percent drop in suicide bombings worldwide!

"The Coming Evangelical Collapse"

2009-03-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

A shell of its former self

Continuing our theological theme of late, here's a thought-provoking piece I stumbled upon over at the Christian Science Monitor the other day.

Thought-provoking and, in light of last week's ARIS survey, timely.

"This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good."

The first of his bullet points had me assuming this was coming from the Left, but after reading the rest (and allusions to Francis Schaeffer, Gene Edward Veith and Doug Wilson on the man's blog) clearly it's not.

The author is Michael Spencer, a.k.a. iMonk. I sense a subtle "too spiritual for politics" vibe, which always drives me nuts, it looks like a worthy blog, chuck-full solid logic and genuine faith.

"The Faithful go to Church, the Rest go to Therapy"

2009-03-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

On this fine Sabbath day, allow me to submit a simple, well-stated defense of the faith, courtesy of Big Hollywood, for your reading pleasure.

And now for something completely different

2009-03-12T00:25:00.000-07:00

Only in America... I mean, Slovenia.

Pixar's 'Up' theatrical trailer

2009-03-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

Up, up and away!

After a dozen or so movies, Pixar has yet to disappoint. From concept to classic story sense to writing to flawless, inspired execution, they're simply the best filmmakers around, period.

Cars remains a daily play in the Splash household, with mom and dad sucked in every time along with the kids. The screenwriter in Splash remains awed by the economy of character development, creativity and, yes, emotional impact in a movie starring animated vehicles. (Lightning McQueen at the finish line with The King? Gets me every time.)

Next up for Pixar/Disney is Up, and the theatrical trailer has just been posted.

Looks like another winner.

Enjoy.

Thousands 'party' against taxation in LA

2009-03-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Tea Party, So Cal style

That would be some 8,000, to be vaguely precise.

I'm so happy I could cry.

Apparently this thing was organized by John and Ken from KFI radio in L.A. I used to love these guys when I lived down there. But the remarkable thing about this is that they aren't "Rush Limbaugh conservatives." They're centrists. Right of center to be sure, but hardly right wing fanatics, particularly Ken.

Also remarkable is the fact that these people were old and young, black, white, Latino and every over color of the rainbow. I think my favorite photo from the Orange County Register is a tattooed, brown arm with a Terminator action figure impaled in effigy -- though there was gorier imagery that also brought a tear to my eye.

Sure it was the O.C., but these folks came from all over Southern California.

YouTube footage below of the Fullerton event. (Because CNN sure isn't going to show you what's been going on all over the country since Rick Santelli fired the soundbite heard 'round the world.)

Keep slugging, America... We'll bring these pretenders down yet.

Study: Uncle Sam losing his religion fast

2009-03-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

What, this isn't working??

I read about a pastor recently commenting that American youth groups were essentially "holding tanks with pizza" for a generation of youth shrugging off the faith in droves as soon as they leave home.

Now the latest American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) has confirmed the trend in a disturbing, comprehensive look at the loss of faith across the spectrum of American life.

Church has become increasingly irrelevant to people the more it's bent over backward to become relevant.

Mark Silk, director of the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College, sees in the numbers "an emergence of a soft evangelicalism — E-lite — that owes a lot to evangelical styles of worship and basic approach to church.

"But E-lite is more a matter of aesthetic and style and a considerable softening of the edges in doctrine, politics and social values," Silk says.

The next time someone tries to tell me how important Rick Warren is, I'm replying "scoreboard."

And don't forget, ladies and gentiles, as goes the Church, so goes society:

The piety gap defines the primary sides in the culture wars, Kosmin says.

"It's about gay marriage and abortion and stem cells and the family. If a personal God says, 'Thou shalt not' or 'Thou shalt' see these a certain way, you'd take it very seriously. Meanwhile, three in 10 people aren't listening to that God," he says.

"There's more clarity at the two extremes and the mishmash is in the middle," Keysar adds.

That "mishmash in the middle" is growing, with Wiccans, pagans and spiritualists rising in numbers.

"More than ever before, people are just making up their own stories of who they are. They say, 'I'm everything. I'm nothing. I believe in myself,' " says Barry Kosmin, survey co-author.

So much for the last 15 years of seeker-sensitive spiritual foot massages.

Maybe booting the Apostles Creed to make room for that double-bass kit wasn't such a hot idea after all.

Unsurprisingly, Islam, the only faith with tradition, conviction and real teeth has doubled its numbers, small though they remain. Protestants have also dropped off faster than "boring old" Catholicism with its uncool hierarchy and resistance to change.

We're in trouble, folks. And it's going to take more than another disco ball in the ~~sanctuary~~ main auditorium to fix things.

It's the gift that keeps on givin', Clark

2009-03-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

"With warmest regards to Her Majesty"

My heart goes out to Michelle Obama. I hear she's ashamed of her country again. And who can blame her?

Sweet mother of Pamela Anderson in 'Baywatch' Season One... Way to make Dubya look like David Niven, Mr. President.

He does realize this is the kind of thing to fuel another hundred years of "dumb American" jokes, right? No...?

We're in for a long four years, in every possible way.

Loving the WBC

2009-03-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

If you're a baseball fan not watching the the 2009 World Baseball Classic right now, you're missing out.

I didn't care either when it launched in 2006. I assumed it was a gimmick as lame as Olympic baseball. As in, the best wouldn't suit up, so it would mean even less than the meaningless MLB All Star game.

Well forget Olympic baseball, turns out the WBC is better than the Olympics.

Turns out, it's a full league of all stars slugging it out like they care, playing for something not welcome at the Olympics anymore -- love of country.

The US squad has been vocal about it: pride of wearing the uniform, a drive to show the world this was our game first, and a special mission to avenge the embarrassment of 2006, when the Americans -- described by returning player Derek Jeter as a group of overconfident egos out for individual glory -- got spanked by Canada, Japan and Mexico.

Nothing like shame to light a fire under a man, right?

This year, the team is tight. And if the sight of Yankees, Red Sox and Mets on the same bench with fire in their eyes against a common enemy isn't enough to wake the flag-waving fervor in you, dear reader, nothing is.

And remember, these guys are missing out on spring training by choice. No time to work the rust off easy-like. This is full-speed playoff mode right out of hibernation. Risking injury all the while.

"These are the guys who really want to be here," one commentator said during Saturday's game.

The other teams are the same way, many chuck-full of pros rich on American cash but now showing their true colors. Hint: they ain't red, white and blue. (Actually...I guess they are in some cases...but not configured into the glory that is Old Glory, brother.)

All the long way of saying, these games have been good.

As Adam Dunn said in the multi-homer, back-and-forth, down-to-the-wire win against Canada in round one, this is better than the playoffs. (Class clown Dunn was seen checking his pulse during the nail-biter of a ninth inning in that game.)

Then there's the underdog appeal of the whole thing.

Big leaguers are scattered throughout most teams, but a few aren't so lucky. How the Netherlands, South Africa and Italy have enough guys to stock one team, let alone three, is a mystery to me.

Yet the Netherlands pulled out a huge 3-2 win Saturday over the likes of David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez and the powerhouse Dominican Republic. The Netherlands.

How can you not love Cinderella action of that magnitude? The Dutch -- mainly islander bats and European pitchers (who knew?) -- celebrated for all the world like they'd just won the World Series.

As well they should. As you should. For that, my fellow Americans, is good baseball.

Textbooks filled with bias, errors

2009-03-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder why people are yanking their kids out of public schools at a record pace for private or home schools?

Authors Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research found some 500 imperfections and distortions concerning religion in 28 of the most widely used social studies and history textbooks in the United States.

Like the one teaching "Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus."

Ybarra says part of the problem is that publishers employ or contract with writers who are not experts in the subject, or they may use out of date information. Or they may bow to special interest groups.

Not surprisingly (since Christians don't issue fatwas or blow up publishing houses) Islam alone gets all the respect in the world and then some.

One example is in the glossary of "World History: Continuity and Change." It calls the Ten Commandments "moral laws Moses claimed to have received from the Hebrew God" while the entry for the Koran contains no qualifier in saying it is the "Holy Book of Islam containing revelations received by Muhammad from God."

Partly, the study says, it comes down to money. Forget the smoke-and-mirrors talk of education being a higher calling and sacred purpose. Like the dirty little secret of the "woman's right to choose," education is an industry, at least to those without a moral compass. From publishers down to local teachers unions.

For those with a moral compass, it still likely won't resemble the traditional, let alone biblical variety.

But Ybarra said it goes deeper than pure economics. He thinks textbooks are being used as tools for propaganda, particularly in negative attitudes towards Christianity and Israel and pro-Palestinian views concerning the Middle East.

"We fear that this is creating a generation of biased school children," he said. "Some of our projects in the higher education realm with some of these same subject matters, we find that students do show up at universities with these prejudices."

Puts a fresh perspective on the Intelligent Design embargo enforced by the same crowd, doesn't it?

Full story here.

Obama admits he's a socialist

2009-03-08T04:59:00.000-07:00

He's just a temporary socialist is all. Wink, wink.

Check it out here.

Pruden on the ebb and flow of politics

2009-03-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure "eh... don't worry about it" is the wisest approach to Obama's economic kamikaze run, but the premise of Wesley Pruden's column has merit.

Unless, maybe, you look at the pendulum swing of American politics instead as a NASDAQ stock "trading in a range" -- which will always break out to the upside or downside with a vengeance eventually. And more powerfully so the longer it's been bouncing around inside the lines.

Notice Pruden has calibrated his pendulum with FDR, making the cycle a phenomenon of the modern era of U.S. history. Yet philosophies, Republic-shattering debates, and, yes, political parties(!) now extinct once roamed the American political landscape prior to that.

Is it unreasonable then to assume our present troubles might end in something other than just another standard-issue swing to the Right? That they might mean something bigger and uglier, up to and including one major party not getting up off the mat? Or another shattered Republic?

I'm not calling it for the apocalypse. I actually take comfort in Pruden's logic, which I've used on friends recently myself. The Constitutional bedrock of the Founders is still the firmest in world history, and we have relatively little history under our belt yet.

I'm just saying Pruden is technically flawed in suggesting things never change, and if there was ever a time ripe for a seismic paradigm shift (for good or ill) the Obama Era would certainly fit the bill.

Then again, we've already established how my brain works.

New boss same as the old boss

2009-03-06T08:20:00.000-08:00

Say hello to President Obama's "outsider" Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

Bulldozer attack injurs two in Jerusalem

2009-03-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

Hard hats do not stop bullets

Yep, they're evil bastards.

And none too bright. Seems to me, the only thing slower and easier to avoid/catch than a bulldozer was George Costanza in his electric chariot.

The best part? Abu Dumbass gets capped by a passing taxi driver. Score one for the Hebrew National Rifle Association! (And remind me never to stiff a cabbie in Israel.)

Olbermann's college credentials less than impressive?

2009-03-04T21:02:00.000-08:00

I'm Keith Olbermann!!!

Speaking of boobs... This is fun and informative.

It seems Keith Olbermann's much-touted "Ivy League" credentials aren't as in order as he'd like you to believe.

"...Keith didn't go to the Ivy League Cornell; he went to the Old MacDonald Cornell.

The real Cornell, the School of Arts and Sciences (average SAT: 1,325; acceptance rate: 1 in 6 applicants), is the only Ivy League school at Cornell and the only one that grants a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Keith went to an affiliated state college at Cornell, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (average SAT: about that of pulling guards at the University of South Carolina; acceptance rate: 1 of every 1.01 applicants).

Olbermann's incessant lying about having an "Ivy League education" when he went to the non-Ivy League ag school at Cornell would be like a graduate of the Yale locksmithing school boasting about being a "Yale man."

Most satisfying petard hoisting since Ben Affleck savaged Olbermann on 'Saturday Night Live.'

I'm also wondering now how much of MSNBC's wannabe elitist went into Ed Helms' portrayal of Andy Bernard on 'The Office.' ("I went to a little place called Cornelllll... Ever heard of it?")

Oh heck, let's roll that SNL clip again while we're at it.

Yes, we do want him to fail

2009-03-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

The "outrage" over this "controversy" is so ridiculous it warrants no comment. But Jonah Goldberg of the L.A. Times has quite nicely. If you're a liberal wishing to gum this one further, I refer you thither.

"...Pretty much every major news outlet in the country has said as a matter of objective analysis that Obama wants to repeal the legacy of Ronald Reagan and remake the country as a European welfare state. And yet people are shocked that conservatives, Limbaugh included, want Obama to fail in this effort?

What movie have they been watching? Because I could swear that conservatives opposing the expansion of big government is what conservatives do. It's Aesopian. The scorpion must sting the frog."

"The scorpion must sting the frog." I say if we ever get a third party off the ground, we adopt the scorpion as mascot. I understand they can put the fear of God in both jackass and elephant alike.

The reason for the Second Amendment

2009-03-04T10:57:00.000-08:00

I just found another woman I'd vote for in a heartbeat. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp.

Based on how old this clip is and how big it is on the Web, I'm probably one of the last to see this, but it's brilliant. This is the same argument I always go to immediately whenever the Left tries to define our right to keep and bear arms as something akin to the Founders' "Field & Stream" clause. No, ladies and gentlemen, the Second Amendment is there to guarantee the First.

I just wish the clip ran a half second longer to include Chuck Schumer's reaction to her last statement. The girl's got guts.

Her bio here.

(Thanks to brother Brook for the link!)

Fun at the French Oscars

2009-03-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

Apparently the Cesars are the French equivalent of the Oscars. In the clip below, watch for a "life's most embarrassing moment" wardrobe malfunction, the unparalleled classiness of Emma Thompson (despite the Liberace outfit), the funny sight of Sean Penn pretending he understands what everyone is talking about, and proof the Franks are even more insufferably long-winded at awards shows than we are.

(Warning: nudity. With apologies to Traffic Cop Timmy for the double standard.)

Césars 2009 : 34° Cérémonie / Julie Ferrier
Uploaded by websilone

McCain: "So much for change, Mr. President"

2009-03-03T16:20:00.000-08:00

As the Associated Press reminds us, Barack Obama campaigned on the promise to go "line by line" to remove earmarks from porkified legislation.

McCain's attempt to strip out an estimated 8,500 earmarks failed on a vote of 63-32. The Arizona senator's proposal also would have cut roughly $32 billion from the measure and kept spending at last year's levels in several federal agencies.

Last year's Republican presidential candidate said both he and Obama pledged during the campaign to "stop business as usual in Washington," and he quoted the president as having said he would go line by line to make sure money was spent wisely.

The White House has said that Obama intends to sign the legislation, casting it as leftover business from 2008.

Proving Barack Obama is a liar.

Oh, and he wants to effectively limit how much "the rich" will be able to deduct in contributing to charity. Even Charlie Rangel is balking at the dangerous implications of this one.

What is wrong with this man's soul?

'Terminator Salvation' pics up

2009-03-02T14:16:00.001-08:00

Man vs. Machine

With Robin Hood suddenly turning all emo and angsty and feminist on us, Terminator Salvation moves to the head of the queue.

Because these new stills make the original look like a cheesy Van Damme flick.

Which is impossible, but I'm just saying. Very cool.

Farewell, Paul Harvey

2009-02-28T19:39:00.000-08:00

Paul Harvey, the great Paul Harvey, has died.

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

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

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

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

2009-02-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

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

Apparently it's still a problem.

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

Oh, Ouch.

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

There goes South Africa?

2009-02-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

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

The falling dominoes of failed African states appear headed South Africa's way, with Nelson Mandela himself recently kidnapped and danced around like a marionette as part of a turf war between ANC rivals.

Supporters of ANC presidential candidate Jacob Zuma, who is awaiting trial on charges of corruption, swooped on Mandela's home near Johannesburg last week while the ailing 90-year-old's wife was away. The old man was whisked off to a mass rally in the party's former heartland of the Eastern Cape. ...

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

Many South Africans were sickened by the sight of the old man being manhandled at the event, with photographs of Zuma clutching Mandela's hand gracing the front pages of national newspapers.

Let's face it, South Africa has been sliding downhill fast since the fall of Apartheid. I'm not defending the policy, but stripped of the one-dimensional spin American liberals put on it back when "End Apartheid!" was the bumper sticker du jour, it's fairly easy to understand the perceived need for "separateness" felt at one time by workaday South Africans.

If that sounds scandalous, note how the recent unrest there is taking on ominous shades of Kenya and Rwanda, with the first generation's political ambitions already devolving into tribal ugliness with the next wave of ANC leadership:

Zuma, who already styles himself "President" on his campaign literature, has turned on those making the allegations, attacking the media and the Nelson Mandela Foundation for their criticisms. "What happens between Madiba [Mandela] and the ANC is nobody else's business," he told a political rally in Cape Town on Sunday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mexican drug war reaches as far as Seattle

2009-02-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

Another day, another body bag in Juarez

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

Check it here and here.

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

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

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

Second soldier sues over Obama's command eligibility

2009-02-25T23:40:00.000-08:00

Serious business

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

But this doesn't appear to be going away, with a second soldier having now joined 2nd Lt. Scott Easterling in the lawsuit demanding Obama release the vault copy of his birth certificate.

The second soldier wrote, "I am an Army reservist who was activated last August and am currently serving with a military police battalion in Camp Bucca, Iraq. I will be here until at least June 2009."

He continued, "When I enlisted last year I had to show my birth certificate, as well as my driver's license, high school diploma, college transcripts, social security card; I also filled out loads of paperwork to include listing the names, addresses and phone numbers of my family members and had to answer any questions regarding foreign travel.

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

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

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

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

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

Schierholtz wears his Olympic Bronze with pride

2009-02-25T00:08:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'Pride & Predator'

2009-02-24T16:15:00.000-08:00

More Jane Austen zaniness... First zombies, now aliens.

"It felt like a fresh and funny way to blow apart the done-to-death Jane Austen genre by literally dropping this alien into the middle of a costume drama, where he stalks and slashes to horrific effect," Furnish said.

It was fresh last week. Now it's just stupid.

The creepiest part? Elton John may be the alien!

The Oscars, my take

2009-02-23T13:13:00.000-08:00

Playing to the crowd

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

My take? In a word...

"Sucked."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exactly.

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

Of course it all comes down to politics too.

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

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

The reaction was predictable...

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

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

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

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

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

"Eh."

And I clicked on over to sports.

Foster counselor fired for accidental music exposure

2009-02-20T08:42:00.000-08:00

Musik ist verboten!

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

The woman, who, according to a press release from Pacific Justice Institute, had almost 20 years of experience, took four girls for a 5K run and then stopped at the beach. While eating lunch there, they were exposed to [Christian] music from a [secular] beach fest called Surf Jam at the Huntington Beach Pier.
When they got back from the field trip, the counselor was ordered into a disciplinary meeting and when the incident was reviewed months later, was suspended for six weeks for "exposing children to unapproved religious activities."

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

'Robin Hood' update

2009-02-18T09:18:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Science police

2009-02-17T13:06:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

The Emperor is buck naked

2009-02-17T09:38:00.001-08:00

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

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

2009-02-16T23:03:00.000-08:00

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

Time for a new Internet?

2009-02-16T14:15:00.001-08:00

Some think the fabric of our current Web is fatally flawed and the heady days of our wild, wild cyber west are numbered.

What a new Internet might look like is still widely debated, but one alternative would, in effect, create a “gated community” where users would give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety. Today that is already the case for many corporate and government Internet users. As a new and more secure network becomes widely adopted, the current Internet might end up as the bad neighborhood of cyberspace. You would enter at your own risk and keep an eye over your shoulder while you were there.

Good thing? Bad thing? I have no clue. Something tells me, though, we'll be giving "The Authorities" more control over what we do and how we do it, and that means a net loss of freedom. (Pun intended.)

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

Tough call.

Muslim TV exec 'severs' ties with wife in NY

2009-02-16T09:20:00.000-08:00

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

Viet-ghanistan?

2009-02-16T05:52:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

Big Hollywood review: 'The Reader'

2009-02-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

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

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

Creepy. But it gets creepier.

“The Reader” is so desperate to be perceived as intelligent that it creates an entirely new recipe: the sympathetic Nazi child molester and former S.S. concentration camp guard responsible for the mass murder of 300 Jews who with the help of the young boy she once raped triumphs over her reading disability.
The reason you keep thinking Hollywood’s finally hit bottom is because you forget how well they dig.

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

Rape explosion engulfs Kenya

2009-02-13T19:52:00.000-08:00

Oh. My. Lord.

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

Click here and weep for fallen humanity.

Move along... Nothing to see here!

2009-02-13T18:31:00.000-08:00

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

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

Keeping it real

2009-02-13T17:25:00.000-08:00

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

(Hat tip, Boneman.)

Sorry, Charlie

2009-02-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

High five!

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

Cue response from CI Photog!

Zombies, m'lord!

2009-02-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

Braaaaaaains...

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

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

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

Cate joins Russell Crowe in 'Nottingham'

2009-02-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

Mary, Mother of Christ

2009-02-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

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

Geert Wilders banned from the U.K.

2009-02-12T10:24:00.001-08:00

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

Why I oughta...

2009-02-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

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

Julio meets The One

2009-02-11T23:12:00.000-08:00

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

Christian Obama voters...oxymoron?

2009-02-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

Great post from Steven Crowder over at Big Hollywood:

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

Some 150 comments and counting. Must have hit a nerve.

Made in India: the new "moo juice"

2009-02-11T09:05:00.000-08:00

Move over, Mr. Pibb...

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

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

Power grab!

2009-02-10T15:10:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why we're screwed

2009-02-10T10:18:00.000-08:00

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

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

Norman Thomas was right

2009-02-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

Indeed they have.

References here, here, here.

Joseph Farah has a column on this today, too.