Moving

The name of this place no longer makes sense for what I want to post, so go here instead.

Winona as Amanda?

The news from that film factory down south, the vast wasteland known as Hollywood, just keeps getting worse, and I'm not talking about the writers' strike. No, I mean the word that Winona Ryder has been cast as Amanda Grayson, mother of Spock, in the 2008 Star Trek film, the 11th in the series.

My stomach actually lurched. Most of the cast just looks dreadful, but their acting talents are -- to me -- generally unknown, so they might surprise me. That's not the case with Winona, and there's just no freakin' way she can do Amanda Grayson, originally played by the wonderful Jane Wyatt, any sense of justice. This is just frighteningly bad, almost worse than that Speed Racer trailer thingee.

The casting of Simon Pegg gave me hope. Now hope is crushed. What's terrible is knowing that it can get even worse, that they can come up with a real crappy re-design of the Enterprise.

Dear God, no, not Speed....

I take some time off just for the sake of sanity and The Woman Who Currently Wants to Monopolize Me (and may I just say, "Yeehah"), and what do I discover...?

Good Lord, no, stop this thing from happening.

"Move it, Speed, it's getting ugly out there." Well, yeah. Can you hear Don Davis echoes of The Matrix in the music? Can you see the garish color schemes, a la Dick Tracy? Can you sense the deep, probing, inquisitive acting, the sort that makes you long for the soaring talent of, say, Keanu Reeves (can you smell the sarcasm?)?

I hope they refine the CGI because even that looks lousy. Watching this actually make my skin crawl. A mere trailer hasn't done that since, well, the first teaser for Wall-E (and please be good, Wall-E, please, please please).

Nicki Finke has a list of titles for screenplays read and reviewed by varied and sundry Hollywood studios during 2007. The titles on that list sound better than this Speed Racer thingee (it's not really a movie, is it?).

The original Fright Film....

Happy Halloween!

How animation should be done

I grew up in a household of animation. By that I mean that animation was never "cartoons" and never just for kids. My dad worked in film in the San Francisco. For a brief while he owned and operated a small production company. His notable productions were a series of ads for Rice-a-Roni -- which meant we ate lots and lots of Rice-a-Roni for a while -- and a multi-part syndicated history of California.

But his first love was animation. His closest friends and colleagues all worked in animation, either as producers, artists, or animators. I worked with him for close to 10 years and was a very crackerjack animation stand operator. Given a little more ambition and willingness to travel (i.e., to Los Angeles) I might have made it a career. Alas, it was not to be.

I mention all that by way of preface. Because of all that, I love a good animated show. In the United States, unfortunately, this almost always means kids' flicks. In this country we maintain the prejudice that if it's animated it's a cartoon and cartoons are meant for kids. The rest of the world doesn't agree with this, especially Japan.

"Anime" is the name often given to animated films coming out of Japan but I find the name vaguely derogatory. Anime, as a term, seemed to surface as a response to the flatly insulting "Japanimation". Japanimation, in turn, was genuinely lousy animation. Oh, it could be very pretty to look at but the actual animation, the movement, was terrible. Anime was an attempt to improve the product, to improve the animation while maintaining the art. As a term it also was used to separate the Japanese product from its American -- and elsewhere -- counter-part.

But because it came from that entire pit of Japanimation, "anime" always carries with it a certain veneer of cheapness. Anime fanatics will now attempt to murder me in my sleep, but sorry, that's just how I feel. If it makes you feel any better, that's not how I feel about the actual products, the films themselves.

For me, the revelation of anime came with Akira. Real long-term Japanimation/anime fans might point to an early film but for me (and, maybe, most others) Akira is the eye-opener. Released in 1988 it is mostly the result of 100% hand animation. There's nothing computer-generated, though a computer might have been used to calculate some of the actions. Using classic painted animation cels, Akira is a thing of beauty and wonder that earns its R rating the old-fashioned way, by being violent and profane. It's about as far from a kiddie cartoon as a film can be.

And it's animated.

More films followed along, including the Ghost in the Shell films and TV series. The latter rivals any season of 24 yet it's all done with voice talent and drawn images. I'm not enthusiastic of every animated project that oozes from Japan, and some of their shows that are actually aimed at kids are downright awful, but the films, the stuff for the big screen, are just marvelous.

Since winning the Oscar for Spirited Away, most publicity seems to focus on Hayao Miyazaki, but lately I've come to admire the genius of Satoshi Kon. His trifeca of films -- Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers -- demonstrate the talents of a man who loves to make motion pictures. His production timelines are more in line with regular film productions (taking a couple of years as opposed to, say, the 10+ years production schedules that Akira director Katsuhiro Ôtomo took for something like the marvelous Steamboy). Indeed, Satoshi makes regular yet brilliant films; he just happens to use animation instead of actors. Perfect Blue is film in the Hitchcock tradition of psychological thrillers, while Millennium Actress is an exploration of motivations and desires.

As good as those two are, and Perfect Blue is excellent, Tokyo Godfathers is the stand-out. The set-up is simple: Three homeless bums discover an abandoned infant. From that discovery, Satoshi spins a tale of reconciliation and redemption, all so appropriate since it happens on Christmas Day. As is appropriate for the season, there's even a miracle or two. Laced with humor throughout, Tokyo Godfathers nonetheless packs an emotional wallop of the sort similarly themed films desire but never achieve.

And so, since the powers that be never saw fit to release Satoshi's latest in a theatre even remotely near me, I am in anticipation of November 27, the official release date for the DVD of Satoshi's latest, Paprika. This film delves straight into the world of science fiction and the power of dreams and, as with his other films, probably could have been made with live actors working in a CGI world. He remains true to his roots, however, and I anticipate a wild and entertaining ride as a result.

Prestige Pictures

Dirty Harry asks What Happened To The Prestige Picture? and has an answer:

When you look at the best Picture nominees of the last three years it’s astounding to realize that of the 15 nominations, only three cracked the $100 million mark — two by a whisker. The average box office gross of the 2006 nominees was $59 million; in 2005 it was $49 million. Another way to look at it is that 98% of the population just wasn’t interested. 

While there’s still plenty of prestige films left to be released in 2007, as of now things are looking even worse: Michael Clayton, In The Valley of Elah, Lust Caution, Sicko, The Brave One, Eastern Promises, Into The Wild, The Darjeeling Limited, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, have each been, or are looking to be, very expensive flops… Or, are they?

To call these films failures is fair in the sense that audience indifference is quite spectacular, but not when you take into account that audience reaction had little or nothing to do with their conception. Prestige films are no longer produced for public consumption by moguls eager to feed a public hungry for smart challenging stories –instead they’re produced by Hollywood for Hollywood, and to impress critics, festival-goers, and awards’ judges. It’s easy to blame this shift on an American people eager to see their Transformers, but in fact it’s Hollywood that’s changed.

Nice post, interesting points.

Right, uh-huh, no media bias

This is how the speech is reported:

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - The U.S. mission in Iraq is a "nightmare with no end in sight" because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded coalition troops for a year beginning June 2003, cast a wide net of blame for both political and military shortcomings in Iraq that helped open the way for the insurgency - such as disbanding the Saddam-era military and failing to cement ties with tribal leaders and quickly establish civilian government after Saddam was toppled.

But that's not the opening subject of Sanchez's speech, this is (original in all-caps, changed here for clarity):

On the other hand, unfortunately, I have issued ultimatums to some of you for unscrupulous reporting that was solely focused on supporting your agenda and preconcieved notions of what our military had done. I also refused to talk to the European Stars and Stripes for the last two years of my command in Germany for their extreme bias and single minded focus on Abu Gharaib.

And:

This is the worst display of journalism imaginable by those of us that are bound by a strict value system of selfless service, honor and integrity. Almost invariably, my perception is that the sensationalistic value of these assessments is what provided the edge that you seek for self agrandizement or to advance your individual quest for getting on the front page with your stories! As I understand it, your measure of worth is how many front page stories you have written and unfortunately some of you will compromise your integrity and display questionable ethics as you seek to keep America informed. [...] For some, it seems that as long as you get a front page story there is little or no regard for the "collateral damage" you will cause. Personal reputations have no value and you report with total impunity and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct.

This, of course, was not worth reporting.

As for his military assessment of Iraq, I think Allahpundit says it best:

It’s like saying, “Victory is within reach -- if only the American people were completely different.” Thanks for the helpful advice, General.

Arguably the Best Casting Decision in Film History

From Ain't It Cool News, comes this:

Fucking Yippee, Harry Here!!! Ok - I'm in. Simon Pegg as Scotty is as wonderful as an Asian Girl Sandwich night. I'm fucking deliriously happy. This is the first piece of STAR TREK casting that JJ has done that has made me drool with anticipation. The word is that the budget has gotten bigger and bigger and that for the first time in the history of the franchise, STAR TREK is being given a truly epic budget to recreate, conceive and explore Gene's universe. That news and SIMON "fucking" PEGG - make this the happiest day in Trek geek life, other than the day STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN was released.

Sorry, had to leave all the F-bombs and R-spikes in there because it's obvious that Harry is ecstatic, and so am I. The rest of the casting for this film has left me cowering in a corner in fear. This single move, even if of a secondary character, might just save the day.

Yes, I think Simon Pegg is that good.

I Wanna New Phone

I put it in those terms because while my Treo 650 is beginning to show its age, it still (mostly) works. It does randomly stupid things, such as resetting while sitting on the table not being touched, and sometimes the call volume is ridiculously low (though that could just be my ancient and aging ears).

My needs are relatively simple. Anything I buy must do a desktop sync with Outlook. (Don't give me any grief, Outlook works just perfect for me.) I make this demand because I don't want to rekey all my contacts into a new phone, let alone my to-do's and calendar. If it syncs with Outlook then, voila, the phone just populates itself from my existing data.

After this comes my wish list. I'd like to be able to write and edit on any new device. This might be something as simple as entering a note and syncing it into the aforementioned Outlook, or something more complex like Documents-to-Go on the Treo (though Documents-to-Go frankly sucks and was the source of 99% of my Treo problems...until I just deleted the junk).

It would be nice if it played music, but I don't use that feature on my Treo. Thus, a lack of tunes would not cause me to pause. (Speaking of tunes, I'm listening to Steve Jablonsky's wonderful score to Transformers. Perfect music for the film and not half-bad to listen to all on its own.)

My shortlist of finalists includes the Helio Ocean, the T-Mobile Wing, and the forthcoming Sprint Touch. A dark horse candidate is a refurbished 4GB Apple iPhone. Why so specific? Because the theoretical price of such a device would be $250, and that's damn tempting. Of them all, though, the Touch causes me to drool the most.

For instance, the iPhone has some major drawbacks, primarily no solid support of 3rd party applications. Look at the fiasco with the latest 1.1.1 firmware update. It semi-bricked a slew of phones and killed any hacked apps. I don't question Apple's right to do this, since they gave fair warning that such hacks weren't supported, but it accentuates the developer-hostile attitude Apple currently has toward potential iPhone programmers. Things will change, but right now it's a huge red flag waving me away.

Meanwhile, the Ocean syncs with Outlook only on a very basic level and only from a distance. You go through some hoops involving exporting your Outlook contacts to either your Helio web account or another online service (such as Gmail) and then import them into the Ocean. It's a kludge but it works, and there's every potential that in the (near) future Helio will offer full desktop sync between the Ocean and Outlook. But that's speculation and/or wishful thinking.

Which brings me to phones running Microsoft Windows Mobile. Since I want to create and edit documents that narrows me further to the Professional version, which includes, among other things, mobile versions of Word and Excel. (This requirement also excludes the otherwise wonderful T-Mobile Dash.) If high-speed networking isn't an issue, then the Wing wins. Nice touch-screen, neat slide-out keyboard. Memory expandable via some variation of SD chip (micro? mini? whatever?). This is close to being a perfect little smartphone.

I'm less enthralled with some of its cousins, like either the AT&T 8525 or Tilt, or the Sprint Mogul, mostly because of the data plans those companies mandate. This is especially so for AT&T. The cost for each easily exceeds $80 a month for unlimited texting and unlimited data. In contrast, T-Mobile runs around $60 a month, including unlimited text/data. Of course for the extra money both AT&T and Sprint offer much faster data networks, or at least in theory as far as AT&T is concerned. AT&T doesn't offer high-speed networks in my area, so they're pricing is outrageous.

So you might think the Mogul is perfect, but it's heavier than the Wing and costs wads more.

Which returns me to the Wing and the Touch. The Wing would be cheaper to feed each month, i.e., a lower monthly bill, but the Touch is...well, the Touch is just damn gorgeous. To my very biased eye it makes the iPhone look like a hack. It's small, it's elegant, offers full sync with Outlook, gives me access to Mobile Word and Excel (and more), has a useful and (again) elegant home screen, and offers as that brilliant little final touch (ha!), the Touch-Flo interface.

The largest complaints about the original HTC Touch center on the included RAM, the processor speed, and its touchscreen keyboard. The Sprint version offers double the RAM, double the processor, and three keyboard layouts. And if none of those is satisfactory, there are at least two other options available for download and install, either of which looks really, really sweet.

Which, btw, gives a final reason to ignore the iPhone for now. The touchscreen keyboard in the iPhone is very nicely done, in contrast to the standard Windows Mobile software keyboard, yet while Apple actively loathes and shuns 3rd party developers, Microsoft embraces them. Thus HTC was free to develop its Touch-Flo interface on top of Windows Mobile, while other developers were free to develop better software keyboards.

In short, I think I'm willing to pay the higher monthly fee for the Sprint Touch because Sprint offers its high-speed data network in my area, and the Touch meets all my needs. As a bonus, it is just plain geeky cool, hated only by those who are utterly and insanely committed to the Apple iPhone.

The only question is what the initial purchase price will be like, and that should be revealed shortly as the rumored release date for the Sprint Touch is November 4, 2007. If it's too high, well, there's always the Wing to fall back on, and it, too, can use those same software keyboard add-ons. Thus I'm in a win-win situation.

I hope my Treo won't get too depressed.

DVD: Black Book (Zwartboek)

I confess, I am a Paul Verhoeven fan. Even when he stumbles, I'm still entertained. All right, I've never seen Showgirls, so it's possible, even probable, that he's made at least one totally irredeemable film. That said, I'm still a fan.

I discovered this wholly by accident. I saw Robocop, was surprised how much I enjoyed it, and saw that Verhoeven not only directed Robo but had also directed one of my favorite war films, A Soldier of Orange. I hadn't paid attention to who directed Soldier, and so this all came as a pleasant surprise. From then on, I kept a watchful eye for the next Verhoeven film, carefully avoiding Showgirls (which may or may not suck, though I am given to believe that it sucks pretty damn hard, pun possibly intended). And so I got a little depressed when he left the US in search of his cinematic roots. I heard about his next big thing, but until the DVD I wasn't able to at last catch up with Black Book (Dutch title, Zwartboek).

Black Book tells the tale of Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten), a Jewish woman hiding in occupied Holland during World War II. Everyone is on pins and needles in anticipation of the coming Allied liberation. Our heroine is no different; she's riding out the last days of the war hiding in a barn. (Her protectors, btw, are Christian. Their brief moments together are quietly touching.)

All of this comes to an end, though, when an Allied B-17 bomber rumbles overhead, pursued by a German fighter. To shed weight and climb to safety, the bomber is dumping its bombs, and one kills Rachel's benefactors and destroys her hiding place. Lucky for her, she'd just started flirting with a man who now takes her to his place to hide. From there she is lured to a boat that is ferrying Jews out of the country. This goes horribly wrong and she winds up with the Dutch resistance. Yes, it happens just about that fast and easy.

But that's all right because now the story really begins. Black Book is a story of betrayal, and not just a single betrayal but a succession of them. The film proceeds in straight, linear fashion, the twists and turns of the plot revealed to the audience as Rachel experiences them. There's very little that happens that we're allowed to see that she isn't. As a result, Verhoeven forces the audience to go through the same travails as our heroine.

She's not particularly admirable. For the most part, she just wants to stay alive. As a result, she's buffeted by demands on all sides, yielding to those which have the best chance of seeing her survive the day. This slowly becomes not enough and the plot evolves from survival to discovering who is the genuine traitor in their midst.

It's all great fun, in that in-your-face-brutal way that Verhoeven has. Verhoeven has never shied from violence, yet I've never found his films exploitive. Black Book is no exception. There is a particularly brutal and nauseating sequence involving Rachel, as degrading as it can be. What Verhoeven does with such material is present it in a direct, matter-of-fact fashion. He doesn't let his camera linger and he avoid slow motion like the plague that it is. The result is that's he's second only to Michael Mann in realistically depicting violence on the big screen.

That said, Black Book is not Verhoeven at his best, but it is certainly a return to form. It's an intense experience and one fans will applaud. Newcomers might be a little put off, but I think they'll find the experience worthwhile. I was happy to see him present a straight story, and never mind the half-baked allegories or analogies that weaken so many of his films. (For instance, did you know that Starship Troopers was satire? Didn't think so.)

I have a few complaints. First, the film opens in 1956 Israel, with Rachel living in a kibbutz. From there the film is a long flashback. I dislike this film technique in general because it shows a lack of faith in a film's actual opening act, and here it destroys any suspense that should have been growing from Rachel's worsening predicament. We already know she survives, so why should we worry when she's caught, tortured, etc.?

Second, Rachel seems a little too willing to go from one step to the next. Hide? Sure. Hide here? Sure. Jump on that boat? Sure. Join the resistance? Hey, it's the thing to do! Seduce and sleep with a Nazi? Oh, heck yes! On and on. Eventually you come to understand that this is her character, but at first it just seems oh ho-hum and convenient. You actually cheer when she finally says, "Hey, enough!"

Last, Verhoeven very deliberately has the Nazis refer to members of the Dutch resistance as "terrorists". This is in stark contrast to history and reality. It's a less than subtle way of making the inane and insane statement that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". It's stupid, morally bankrupt, mentally lazy, and condescending. Every time a Nazi said, "Terrorist!" I was jarred straight out of the film.

I managed to make it through the film by mentally substituting "member of the resistance" whenever a Nazi said "terrorist". By ignoring the backhanded slap at the United States, I enjoyed Black Book as Verhoeven returning to form and style. If he can avoid silly political commentary, which was just as unsubtle as his films usually are, Black Book may mark the return of a great director.

Iowahawk, Sewer Side Chat

Iowahawk, Sewer Side Chat:

Questioner
Hi, I'm Josh Markin of the ESU Progressive Student Alliance, and I'd just like to say that as a campus activist for peace and justice, that I am totally down with how you have stood up against the fascist neo-Jew GPA thugs at A E Pi, and their plans for busting every grade curve on this campus.

Gromulak
Moje vznášadlo je plné úhorov Gromulak! Pun jegulja loma-làn!

Interpreter
These words please Gromulak! Continue your tribute, Hu-Man!

Questioner
Awesome! But I do have one problem. Warren continues to blame you and the mutant community for the sewage explosion that destroyed Baxter Hall in 2005, even though all the evidence points to an inside job! For example, did you know that sewage doesn't burn? Why did A E Pi have advanced warning? And what about the damage to Rec Building 7? All the facts are in this pamphlet! Why won't you come out and tell the truth that you are innocent, and that Warren's thugs blew up Baxter so he could plant illegal monitoring devices at the sewage pit, and jail mutants without a warrant, and...

Gromulak
Mia kusenveturilo estas plena da angiloj skeertuig is vol palings, loma-làn! Lije k'o iz kabla R'Qqharbok!

Interpreter
Your words grown tiresome like vines of cess algae, Hu-Man! Feast now on his pallid flesh, minions!

Questioner
Whoah! Don't eat me bro! Aaaaah! AAAAAAAH!!

 ROFLMAO!

Amazing article

The New York Times has dropped its "Times Select" subscription nonsense and, as an added bonus, opened up its archives. Which means I can finally link to an amazing article from 2005:

To More Inmates, Life Term Means Dying Behind Bars

Which contains this fascinating insight:

Indeed, in just the last 30 years, the United States has created something never before seen in its history and unheard of around the globe: a booming population of prisoners whose only way out of prison is likely to be inside a coffin.

"Unheard of around the globe"? And precisely what is a "life sentence" supposed to be if it's not life imprisonment? Last, doesn't this undercut the entire argument that life imprisonment is the humane alternative to the death penalty?

I was amazed when I first read this and felt compelled to share.

Never Forgotten

POW's Prayer
By Jean Ray and L. Vancil

Father,
Your own Son was a prisoner.
Condemned, he died for us.
Victorious, He returned to bring us the gift of life everlasting.
Comfort us now in our longing for the return of the Prisoners Of War and those Missing In Action.
Help Us Father;
Inspire us to remove the obstacles.
Give courage to those who know the truth to speak out.
Grant wisdom to the negotiators, and compassion to the jailors.
Inspire the media to speak out as loudly as they have in the past.
Protect those who seek in secret and help them to succeed.
Show us the tools to do Your will.
Guard and bless those in captivity, their families, and those who work for their release.
Let them come home soon.

Thank you Father.
Amen.

(For more information, click here.)

Who is Paul Haggis and why should I care?

Actually, I don't and there's no reason I should. I'm just marveling at how well regarded he is and comparing that to how mediocre his work is. Maybe I'm jealous.

Haggis makes Message Films, and he makes them like that, with capital letters. He's like the noob who discovers the rocket launcher in Quake and that's all he'll ever use. He's like someone who has just discovered all the font possibilities within Word, so he uses all of them.

Consider Million Dollar Baby, written by Haggis. He got an Oscar nomination for the screenplay and the film went on to win the golden guy for best picture. Now I was attracted to see it because a) it was directed by Clint Eastwood and b) I find Hilary Swank to be very gentle on the eyes, even when she's all buffed up as an unstoppable female boxer. That this film should have been great was a no brainer.

Instead, the film literally had no brains and, much worse, assumed the audience had none.

I can't authoritatively comment on the boxing sequences. Some thought they were ludicrous but from a filmmaking point of view they were gorgeous. Tom Stern's photography is above reproach. I was mesmerized.

Then...The Accident. Just like that, with capital letters. Contrived, sure, but here's where the movie goes straight to hell. Swank's character has been portrayed as unstoppable, the sort of person who doesn't believe in giving up. She's a fighter from her toes to her fists to her head. Now...she just quits. I didn't buy it. This change was completely, utterly, and thoroughly not fitting with the character she just oh so carefully crafted.

Worse, she is -- as stated in the movie -- put in this superb extended care facility. And they let her get gangrene and have to amputate her leg? Uh huh, sure. Can you say "automatic malpractice"?

It keeps getting worse. This is in the here and now, in California, and she wants to die so Eastwood must kill her? No, no, no, no! It's a complete lie.

Do you know what it takes to be taken off life-support in the US of A today? You turn to your doctor -- as Swank's character could have -- and say, "Turn that damn thing off."

Done. Switch thrown, plug pulled, adios, senorita, vaya con dios.

In the end, Million Dollar Baby is a huge mess which makes no sense whatsoever. There's no point to any of it. The assisted suicide -- actually murder -- is unnecessary. The end is a fundamental lie.

Haggis returns to this form -- of building a morality tale around a lie or series of lies -- in his Oscar-winning fiasco called Crash. The entire film is contrived, with impossibly over-the-top racist incidents and characters, that come together and equal less than zero. Early on there's a sequence with Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges that is brilliant. It plays on every racial stereotype applicable at that moment and turns them all into brilliant satire. It made me hope and pray that this was how the entire film was going to go, and that would have been a magnificent thing, but no, it was but a fleeting moment, a golden opportunity lost.

And so now Haggis parades his "technique" and Message again with In the Valley of Elah and by all accounts it's the same crap again: An artificial morality tale spun out of a tissue of slanders and lies.

Who needs this crap?

But this isn't surprising. What's frightening is that he's listed as the screenwriter for the next Bond film. Which only proves that in Hollywood, nothing is sacred.

Maintaining Focus

Mary Katherine Ham remembers September 11, 2001, in visceral terms:

On that day, 19 young men--inhabitants of our country, recipients of our hospitality, beneficiaries of our prosperity, wearing modern clothes to cloak a primitive hatred--turned planes into missiles, passengers into war casualties, and a beautiful Tuesday morning into a day that changed the world forever. They were driven by a radical ideology, a charismatic leader, the funding of villains, and the protection of rogues. They killed 3,000 people that day.

Anna Quindlen remembers to takes advantage of the sixth anniversary of September 11, 2001, to attack Bush. As is the norm, she does so in haphazard fashion, but it was this bit that caught my eye:

Instead of trying to understand and therefore counter the mind-set of those who hate us, and to rally our allies in their communities, American jingoism has produced an ugly strain of anti-Muslim thought and chatter.

For myself, I'm tired of being told that I must try and understand Islamofascists, members of a cult of death. I'm tired of the moral equivalence. I'm tired of hearing the left cry that September 11, 2001, was our fault, that we somehow deserved it. Martin Amis, in remembering the day and describing those who cry for "understanding", writes:

We are drowsily accustomed, by now, to the fetishisation of "balance", the groundrule of "moral equivalence" in all conflicts between West and East, the 100-per-cent and 360-degree inability to pass judgment on any ethnicity other than our own (except in the case of Israel). And yet the handclappers of Question Time had moved beyond the old formula of pious paralysis. This was not equivalence; this was hemispherical abjection. Accordingly, given the choice between George Bush and Osama bin Laden, the liberal relativist, it seems, is obliged to plump for the Saudi, thus becoming the appeaser of an armed doctrine with the following tenets: it is racist, misogynist, homophobic, totalitarian, inquisitional, imperialist, and genocidal.

We are engaged in fighting World War IV. Iraq is not the war, it is a front within a larger conflict. It is no more the entire war against terrorism than the Mediterranean front was the entire conflict during WW II. WW IV is nothing but asymmetrical warfare and it involves ideologies. It is not a case of state versus state, as in WW I, II, and III, but rather it is truly a conflict of civilizations.

On one side is the dark ages proposed by the Islamofascists, as described above by Amis: racist, misogynist, homophobic, totalitarian, inquisitional, imperialist, and genocidal.

On the other is everyone else, which includes Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc., and even atheists, and all their attendant values and beliefs.

September 11, 2001, was not the opening shot of the conflict. Islamofascists had been striking against the west for at least 30 years leading up to 2001. September 11, 2001, was, however, the loudest shot. It was and should remain a clarion call, a brilliant flare revealing the true nature of civilization's dark and loathsome enemy.

I do not have to denigrate Islam to identify the radical ideology hiding within its folds; the villains trumpet their sick interpretations daily. I do not have to invent the hideous nature of the enemy; he reveals it daily with the horrific methods he uses and the innocent targets he selects. I do not have to fabricate his motives; I just have to read his own writings, listen to what he says.

This is nothing new for western civilization, or the United States in particular. There were serious doubts we would prevail against Hitler, yet we did. President Kennedy cautioned about the "long twilight struggle" against Communism, and it was a long struggle, yet in the end, Communism collapsed.

I believe we will prevail again. If we quit Iraq, however, victory will be a long time coming because we will have handed the forces of darkness a tremendous victory. And then one day, be it next year or next decade, they will deliver another blow against our country, something that matches or exceeds September 11, 2001. When that happens, if you actually listen to the Islamofascists, you will hear them say how inspired they were by their defeat of the United States in Iraq.

I wish many of our popular icons would look beyond their hatred for President Bush, the United States, and capitalism in general, and see this. I will not hold my breath waiting for them to open their eyes.

Remembering

There's something about date/day anniversaries that always haunts me. It's one thing to recognize the date; it rolls around every year. But when the date corresponds to the day of the week of the event, the memory is somehow stronger.

Thus, when December 7 rolls around on a Sunday, Pearl Harbor takes on greater meaning. And today is the sixth anniversary of September 11, 2001, and it's on a Tuesday, just as then.

The casualties should have been worse. There have been so many complaints about things that went badly that day, yet the simple fact remains that over 50,000 people could have died, yet so many were saved by planning and training, and quiet acts of anonymous heroism.

The office where I work sits under one of Sacramento International Airport's departure routes. There's always something flying overhead. And that morning I looked up into empty, blue, silent skies.

Evil visited the United States that day, and a clear line was drawn. For over 30 years the United States had stood mute and opted to handle terrorism as a criminal act. For the first time we had a president that said no, that this required a stronger response than issuing an arrest warrant.

So many things went wrong that day, and so many things have gone wrong since then. Yet I thank God for President George W. Bush, flaws and mistakes and all, because he knows the nature of the evil we face, and what must be done to destroy this evil. I agree completely with Dirty Harry:

Six-years later I find comfort in just one thing. The one thing that has kept us safe. It's imperfect, this thing, it makes mistakes. But the only effective weapon we have is George W. Bush's determination to completely and forever destroy the ideology that committed this horrible crime. Knowing that as I write this brave men and women are fighting them where they live means something to me. Means everything.

Today, the animals who hit us six-years ago can be found in Iraq. Al-Queda is in Iraq. Al-Queda is fighting and dying to win Iraq.

God bless our President. God bless our troops.

Amen.

Brian De Palma, BDS victim

Right off the bat I have a confession to make: I think most of Brian De Palma's films are crap. They stink, they're horrible, they're ungood and unwell made. When he makes a good one, it's generally very good, but they are rare exceptions. For every good De Palma film there are several that suck. For every The Untouchables there's...well, everything he's made since, and that's been twenty years.

His latest film, Redacted, premiered at the Venice film festival and left audiences sobbing. What is the source material for this inspirational presentation? The story of several US soldiers in Iraq kidnapping, raping, and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. As De Palma puts it, he read that account and knew he had a story.

Isn't that nice?

On the surface it sounds like a thin re-tread of his snoozefest, Casualties of War. It, too, involved rape, torture, and murder. It painted the picture that one good soldier comes forward to confess and he's the villain to the "military establishment".

De Palma apparently thinks less of the US military than he does of women, no mean feat. At least with Redacted he's close to telling a true story. But he doesn't make any bones about his intent, which is to smear our troops:

I have done something that just cannot be done. You can never say anything critical of the troops.

He also states quite clearly that he believes his film points out the "truth" of what our troops are doing in Iraq:

The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people.

[...]

The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against this war.

Will his film point out that the soldiers in question -- those involved in the heinous crimes that inspired his fictional rendition -- were caught, tried, and convicted. The minimum sentence handed down was five years, the longest is 110 years, which I'm pretty sure translates to life imprisonment. I also believe at least one is facing execution. (This reality, by the way, utterly discredits his portrayal of the US military in Casualties, an irony I'm sure he'll miss.)

It's amazing to me that so many filmmakers take the De Palma tack. They see a criminal act and that inspires them to tell a story. Countless acts of common heroism don't. The parade of sacrifices that are quietly made by our men and woman in uniform don't. The mad acts of criminals do. The abusive and criminal behavior of a few attract their eye, while they are blind to everything else. Then, to their shame, they weave tales that imply that the aberration is the norm. (Why am I surprised? They believe how they think and act are the norms.)

A new wave of crap is coming from Hollywood to round out the year. It will be high quality crap. That is to say, it will be well-made, but it will still be crap because most will be based on a fundamental lie. The lie? That the few aberrant members of the military represent the military as a whole.

This is Hollywood's mantra, its creed, its belief. The participants, like De Palma, are clueless and wonder why they are treated with disgust and disdain.

The Smugness of Apple

Steve Jobs danced across the stage today, introducing a new collection of iPods. There weren't many surprises. Actually, were there any surprises?

Well, yes. The prices were surprising. First, wow, what a slap to anyone who ran out and bought an iPhone. A wait of 69 days saves you a cool $200! At $399, the 8GB iPhone begins to look attractive. It's biggest failing, for me, is the inability to create Word or Excel documents. You can look at them, but don't touch, let alone create. This is just a software revision away, but since the iPhone is a closed development environment -- unless you want to hack it open and risk voiding warranties, etc. -- I'm not holding my breath.

Still, even lacking that the iPhone is now a serious contender as Bob's Next Phone. I gave up on Documents to Go on my Treo 650 since it was the source of almost every problem I had on the Treo. Since then, I haven't edited much of anything on the Treo. If the iPhone has some basic editor, something to jot little notes into that will then sync with Outlook, I might be tempted. Absent that, the music and video features of the iPhone aren't enough to stop me from leaping to T-Mobile (I'm currently an AT&T subscriber) and grabbing a Wing (for $100 after assorted rebates).

In fact, on ninth thought, if I do that I'll have $300 for a portable media player (PMP), assuming I want to spend as much as on an iPhone alone. That means the newly revised and re-priced and re-named iPod Classic 80GB model is within range. $250 for 80 gigs is better than great. Off the top of my head I can't think of another PMP that matches that capacity for that price.

For that price and with that capacity I might opt to re-rip my library into Apple lossless format (ALAC) and fit a fair amount of my stuff onto the iPod. Or I can leave well enough alone and bring roughly 90% of my entire library into the iPod. Or I can get ornery, install Rockbox, and re-rip everything into FLAC. Oh, the vast temptations.

Or I can save some money and just get a new 4GB iPod Nano. Leave well enough alone on my file formats, which sound just fine on my system and to my ears, and save $100 in the deal. Oh, I bet Apple is just smug as a bug in the rug seeing me seethe with this many options.

Me, looking at an iPod. Who knew?

AFP demonstrates how well they check facts

I mean, this is hilarious!

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia plans to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2025 and wants to build a permanent base there shortly after, the head of Russian space agency Roskosmos said Friday.

"According to our estimates we will be ready for a manned flight to the Moon in 2025," Anatoly Perminov told reporters. An "inhabited station" could be built there between 2027 and 2032, he said.

The only moon landing in history is NASA's Apollo expedition in 1968.

(Emphasis mine.)

First the unfired bullets that were "shot" at the old woman's home, now this. And in case you just tuned in, December 1968 was when Apollo 8 first orbited the Moon. The US landed on the Moon in July 1969. We did it again five more times, the last one being Apollo 17, in December 1972.

So if the illustrious French news agency can't get some basic, obvious, simple history right, what does that say about the rest of their "reporting"?

And I thought reading about pompous and obtuse Brian DePalma was funny.

HT: Hot Air.

Olive Opus No.5 = Heaven on Earth

I want one. Simple as that. Once acquired I'd just have to piece together a worthy stereo. Click logo to see why.