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2004 Q3
A younger, wiser Dick Cheney:
And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.
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Where have you gone, John Kerry?
Going Upriver: The Long War Of John Kerry opens tomorrow in select theaters. Critics seem to like it so far, but the best line was written by The Onion AV Club's Scott Tobias:
"If only the Kerry of 1971, who famously questioned the morality of engaging troops in an unjust war ("How do you ask a soldier to be the last person to die for a lie?"), could arouse his slumbering conscience today, he might inspire more people to vote for him."
The actual line is: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Either way, Tobias is right. The only inspiration Kerry needs is himself.
September 29, 2004If you read one news article all week, make sure it's this A1 piece in today's Post.
September 27, 2004
Good grief. Where the hell did ABC find some of these women for The Bachelor? Skank Hos Unlimited? They could really dispense with the drama of the next 8-9 weeks and award Cheresse the top prize. She's a big-time outlier in a sea of bad hair, bad clothes, bad accessories, bad jobs, bad speech, bad ideas, and badly botched boob jobs.
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You know, just looking at the lawn signs for the two campaigns (below), Kerry/Edwards deserves to lose this election on design alone. Washed out blue, washed out red, terrible flag ... a serif font?! WTF?! Meanwhile, the Bush/Cheney sign looks like it's about to kick someone's ass, with the deep blue and red, a bold sans-serif with great contrast, and a pretty cool flag.
September 22, 2004
I haven't even a scintilla of doubt that Shrub will be re-elected to a second term, but in my neighborhood there are strong (lawn) signs that he won't win an alleged battleground state, Minnesota.
My zip code is 55424, and according to Claritas's zip code/demographics lookup, this ought to be Bush Country:
* Movers & Shakers* Upper Crust
* Money & Brains
* Blue Blood Estates
* Executive Suites
In other words, my neighbors are rich pricks. And this was borne out in 2002, when I saw only a handful of Wellstone lawn signs, and practically fucking lawn wallpaper (lawnpaper?) for one-time-Democrat Norm Coleman.
But this election cycle is different. I almost can't believe my eyes, but just driving around the neighborhood, Kerry/Edwards lawn signs outnumber Bush/Cheney lawn signs by at least 3-1.
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New Get Your War On
A really outstanding profile of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in today's edition of the Christian Science Monitor.
September 17, 2004
Now here's a great investment. Director Chris Kentis and wife Laura Lau made Open Water for $130K of their own cash, and the latest box office shows it pulling in $29,632,780 in just 6 weeks in release. With global box office and rentals it will probably gross $60-$75 million. Unreal.
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Immediately after the "Mission Accomplished" event where Commander Codpiece declared victory, I started tracking the number of American casualties over at the Rational Enquirer. I subsequently gave up the task because Michael White at icasualties did a much more thorough job, but it was easy while I was doing it because every American death was a Big Deal and would always appear on the Reuters/AP feed from the Washington Post. No more. While the casualty rate is spiking in September, there is nary a mention of U.S. deaths from AP or Reuters.
September 10, 2004
Sony wussed out on distributing Control Room, so it was left to Canadian firm Lions Gate, and they've set a release date for October 26. (Side note: why do Canadians hate America so much? Fuckers.)
It's the best movie I've seen in '04, and I highly recommend you check it out. Jehane Noujaim, who also did the brilliant Startup.com, is a gifted documentarian whose low-key style is in sharp contrast to a Moore or Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me). She lets her subjects do the talking, subtly and effectively making her point ... and in the case of Donald Rumsfeld, lets him look like a complete fool all on his own.
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While we're on the topic of Arab media, here's another collection to the forthcoming feature Babes of Middle East Media. If you can take your eyes off the shiny bald guy's head, those lovely collagen-injected lips tell lies about America and Israel for Abu Dhabi TV, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
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Cardigans are back, baby! They never left as far as I'm concerned, but lots more cool options are available this year. Under consideration:
Black cardigan, by Matthew Earnest. $255.
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Another BoMEM (Babe of Middle East Media), this time from the I side of the I-P conflict. A willowy blonde reading the news for the Israel Broadcast Authority, Jerusalem, Israel:
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Under Consideration:
Wall Art Dick Cheney Would Appreciate. Needlepoint, via Urban Outfitters. $18.
September 7, 2004
Remember that really funny story about Iraqi drone aircraft flying 6000 miles to drop chemical and biological weapons on U.S. cities? The one that sounds like it came straight from the pages of a Saddam Hussein novel? The claim President Bush actually made at his October 2002 Cincinnati speech?
Well, big surprise, that was bullshit, too. On page A28 of the Sunday Post:
The United Nations' chief weapons inspector has concluded there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein's government ever developed unpiloted drones capable of dispersing chemical and biological weapons agents on enemy targets.
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September is off to a rousing start. 20 Americans dead in 6 1/2 days. Just looking at the data ... there've been more Americans killed since the handover of "sovereignty" (144) than there were in the "major hostilities" period last year (139). Goddamn.
The 1000 mark will be reached this week. As bombthrower Mark Morford wrote last week:
And that 1,000th soldier will fall in abject pain, his or her life utterly wasted for a cause that never really existed, that no one actually believes in, that was all built on a lie to begin with.
Can we just declare victory and go home?
September 2, 2004Some not-too-surprising results from a recent Zogby survey:
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The Passion of the Christ (2004) Seen by: 43.4 percent of Bush supporters 15.5 percent of Kerry supporters (now on video) |
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Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) Seen by: 2.7 percent of Bush supporters 65.5 percent of Kerry supporters (on video October 5, 2004) |
This hasn't stopped about 97.3 percent of Bush supporters from having an opinion about Moore's film.
September 1, 2004In the interest of promoting cross-cultural peace, lust, and understanding, dack.com is launching a new feature: Babes of Middle East Media.
Turns out that many of the newsreaders in Israeli and Arab media are damn hot, like this gem from Future TV, Beirut, Lebanon (still working on getting her name). I could watch her read news that my house burned down, and it would be enjoyable.
Many more additions planned. Stay tuned.
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Set the betamax. Tonight on Nightline: Jon Stewart.
August 31, 2004(Coming Soon: Cin-O-Matic RSS Feeds)
Cin-O-Matic is happy to announce a new feature for its members: javascript includes. Now you, too, can display your own personalized lists of movies you've watched and movies you wanna watch. It's free, it's fun, and it's simple. Just cut and paste a bit o' javascript and you can show the movies you've rated like this:
or like this:
and you can show your watchlist (movies you wanna see) like this:
or just about any other way you want. Check it out and please let me know what you think.
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An especially inspired and dead-on bit in the September GQ: Do You Dress Like A Jackass? Striped dress shirt, untucked. Flared, distressed jeans. Square-toe loafers. You can't get into a bar fight in Minneapolis without punching one of these guys. (Click picture for larger version.)
To get a sense of how totally fucked we are in Iraq, read this John Burns/Erik Eckholm article in the Sunday Times. Or this one in the Post.
August 27, 2004
That's US Senator Norm Coleman's wife. While it may look pretty good from a distance, I can assure you, up close, it's pretty grim.
The Post's photo caption reads like a personal ad: "Laurie Coleman, wife of Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman, strikes a pose for the GOP. In addition to modeling, she enjoys long walks on the beach and quiet dinners at home."
Perhaps she's on the market?
August 23, 2004
I'm a big fan of Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66 -- it's on the Best Sleepers of the '90s list -- so I've been looking forward to The Brown Bunny, Gallo's second film (and not just for the onscreen fellatio performed on Gallo by fellow hipster Chloe Sevigny).
The reviews are definitely mixed, leaning negative. Roger Ebert called the film's Cannes screening "the worst in the festival's history," which riled up Gallo, as told by the Times (now archived):
Mr. Gallo later called Mr. Ebert a "fat pig" and said that with the help of the filmmaker Kenneth Anger he had put a curse on the critic's prostate or maybe his colon. Mr. Ebert responded that he had enjoyed watching a video of his own colonoscopy more than "The Brown Bunny."
Ebert: 1 Gallo: 0
August 21, 2004Under Consideration:
Fred Perry brown wool v-neck. £65.00.
August 20, 2004Imagine what support for the stupid fucking war in Iraq would be if the majority of Americans weren't completely ignorant of the facts. Goddamn that's depressing.
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So George Bush is touting the success of the Iraqi soccer team at the '04 Olympics in a campaign ad and on the stump. But the team ain't down with that shit. Midfielder Ahmed Manajid said that if he weren't playing soccer, he'd "for sure" be part of the resistance (read: killing Americans). Some of the team members' thoughts:
"Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign. He can find another way to advertise himself."August 18, 2004-- Midfielder Salih Sadir
"How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes."
-- Midfielder Ahmed Manajid
"My problems are not with the American people. They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?"
-- Coach Adnan Hamad
"I want the violence and the war to go away from the city (Najaf). We don't wish for the presence of Americans in our country. We want them to go away.
I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that mean they are terrorists? Everyone [in Fallujah] has been labeled a terrorist. These are all lies. Fallujah people are some of the best people in Iraq."
-- Midfielder Ahmed Manajid
Although about 9 out of 10 Republicans apparently still believe the earth is flat, at least one Republican House member sees that the earth is, in fact, round. Good on ya, Mr. Bereuter (R - Nebraska).
Bereuter: War in Iraq not justified
Bereuter pointed to a list of negative consequences arising from the war.
"The cost in casualties is already large and growing," he said, "and the immediate and long-term financial costs are incredible.
"From the beginning of the conflict, it was doubtful that we for long would be seen as liberators, but instead increasingly as an occupying force.
"Now we are immersed in a dangerous, costly mess, and there is no easy and quick way to end our responsibilities in Iraq without creating bigger future problems in the region and, in general, in the Muslim world."
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A video release date for Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 has finally been set: October 5. You gotta love it when a distributor's profit motive jibes with an effort to oust the prez.
August 16, 2004
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Movie Math:
Without a Paddle = Deliverance + City Slickers - anal rape
August 14, 2004Massive blowouts at both bluefly and Clark's Register. And the new fall collection from Clark's Register. The closest thing to a perfect mail order catalog is Clark's Register.
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Under Consideration:
Boiled wool cardigan by Ryan Roberts, via Clark's Register. $255.
Poly/viscose/spandex jacket by ISDA & CO, via Clark's Register. $240.
Reversible golf jacket by Original Penguin. $88.99.
August 12, 2004An absolute must-read article in today's Washington Post admits it fucked up the coverage in the buildup to Gulf War 2.0, putting the administration's fibs on A1, and Walter Pincus's truth on A17, or worse. It's good to see the Post's mea culpa appear on the front page, which is in stark contrast to the Times' lame-ass "admission" which was buried on A10 ... and didn't even call out that lying whore Judith Miller by name. The whole episode further cements the Post as the superior publication.
Of course, had you been a regular reader of the warlog, you knew the administration's case for war was bullshit all along, and now you look like a goddamn genius.
August 11, 2004Cin-O-Matic was linked from Metafilter a couple of days ago, and the reviews were mixed, at best. While the Metafilter crowd is pretty tough to please, I'm finding that people who see cin-o-matic either love it or hate it. Well, "hate" is a pretty strong word; maybe let's just say they don't really get it. And invariably they make a comparison to Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic. Show me another movie site that lists all the movies playing at your selected theaters (with showtimes), rated by your favorite critics, with watch lists, email notifications, and Netflix integration ... and I'll eat it.
And there are more cool features yet to come.
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In The Bag:
Vintage tortoise frames from allyn scura. $75.
August 9, 2004Cin-O-Matic got a nice plug from John Christakos and the other fellas over at mega-hip furniture design shop Blu Dot in their latest email newsletter:
Dack Ragus, the man behind well-known blog dack.com and Blu Dot friend, has recently launched a new movie site called cin-o-matic.com. As Dack says, this site is "possibly the quickest, easiest, and simplest way to see what movies to watch, both in theaters and on dvd/video." The site is loaded with data and allows you to customize a watch list based on the theaters you like and the critics you trust. Dack is a purist when it comes to web design. We found the site to be rigorous and the interface to be a little intimidating. Don't fear the rigor. Sign up (it's free) and take the guesswork out of movie night.
For more information: http://www.cin-o-matic.com/
I'd agree that the interface is a bit intimidating for some people, but I wanted to get a lot of data on the screen to give users a clear, at-a-glance look at lots and lots of movies.
August 8, 2004Against the advice of White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who, before kicking off the product launch of Gulf War 2.0 in the fall of 2002, said, "From a marketing point of view you don't introduce new products in August," I'm launching a new product in August.
The fact is, medication and therapy can only help so much, and venting in this space is a good way to let off some steam ... and lower my healthcare bills.
New readers of this site will probably find the new "blog" just plain weird. Long-time readers, in the unlikely event they come back here, will find it much more personal, a lot more fucking profane, and much less profound.