The AB2 Shuffle

Exciting developments on the movie front! Adam H. and I have been working on a "Super Bowl Shuffle" style rap for the upcoming sequel to the immortal masterpiece The Adam Barr Story. A sample for your enjoyment follows:

My name is paz and I'm smooth like jazz
obfuscatin' your mind with my razzamataz
whereas
I wasn't in the first movie baby
don't really know why 'cause I flow like gravy
when I'm on the dance floor all the ladies go crazy
wanna see me bust my moves just like Patrick Swayze
The Pazdur dance funk is the thing to do
if you wanna be a part of this shufflin' crew

Maureen Dowd, Cynical Liar

Best of the Web Today (first Item) points out the hypocracy of Maureen Dowd, NY Times columnist/political hack.

Post Long-weekend Doldrums

Well, after a long (and somewhat boring) Memorial Day weekend, it's back to work. Little Green Footballs isn't publishing today, which stinks because generally they keep things interesting for me. But not today.

As usual, my last refuge from abject boredom is Airliners.net, which has a wonderful database of airliner pictures, with which I am obsessed.

Take Note of the Following

I'm really really liking Happy Fun Pundit, which is the best thing to come out of Canada since Wayne Gretzky left for the Kings.

Reloaded? - An NRO Perspective

National Review Online has a pretty reasonable review of The Matrix Reloaded that does a better job than I did of summing up why I liked the movie but felt it lacking in some regard.

Reloaded?

After what seemed an eternity of waiting, The Matrix Reloaded hit theaters last Thursday, and I was there to take it all in. Upon reflection, I'd say that the movie is, to a certain extent, a victim of the success of The Matrix.

Reloaded is, to be sure, pretty, with lots of bells, whistles, and flashing lights, but I left with the impression that it just doesn't hang together as well as the first film, which was creepy, original, and introduced the world to the concept of "bullet time" special effects. It's too chatty - top-heavy with the philosophy that the Wachowski brothers are so proud of - and the action doesn't have the authenticity of the first film. In The Matrix, when Trinity hung in mid-air and kicked the cop across the room, it was REAL. In Reloaded, when Neo hangs in the air above 100 Agent Smiths, it appears to be something straight out of Star Wars. It looks like a special effect - it looks fake.

This isn't to say that the movie is a complete failure. It most certainly isn't. The story is still interesting, and I'll certainly be going to see Revolutions when it hits theaters this fall. And in fact, I thought Reloaded was better after seeing it a second time this weekend, simply because I could absorb more of what was going on. But the fact remains that it still struggles under the weight of its own hype.

Debunking Junk Science

NRO has a good piece on recent tornados.

Oh, if only Maggie could run for president here...

Margaret Thatcher, once again, speaks the truth and doesn't pull any punches. It's always refreshing to hear one of Reagan's contemporaries tell it like it is.

More on why dem politicians suck

Reason #430,275: Abuse of the Filibuster
Reason #430,276: Economic Boneheadedness

Hmmm. Must be SARS.

Wow, do I feel awful. Must be that leftover beef jerky I ate on the way to work this morning. Breakfast of champions, you know.

Daniel Pipes, Peacenik

Check out this article.

FRENCH JOIN WAR EFFORT!

A great nation displays it's true mettle...

Rebuttal

For those with interest, this is posted in rebuttal to a peice written by my good friend Aaron B. Smith.

Aaron:

Truth be told, one of the reasons that I wanted to start this weblog was the fact that I felt a deep need to respond to your thoughts. I've always been impressed by your thoughtfulness, your skill in communication, and your general...I don't know, let's call it "humanity" for lack of a better term. You're a sincere guy in pretty much everything you do, but on this one, you're sincerely wrong. Let's look at some of your thoughts...

"I have to say, we wouldn’t be in this mess with Iraq if Bush hadn’t thrown out the “axis of evil” statement. He really cheesed off Saddam and what’s his name in North Korea. These guys are fucking lunatic madmen that should not be disturbed, but rather carefully and quietly 'removed.' "

Really? You mean we weren't in a "mess" with Iraq and North Korea before? The fact is that Iraq and North Korea (and Iran and Syria and any number of other places) have been creating messes for the entire world for years now. The difference today is 9/11, plain and simple. We can't simply let them go on and pursue business as usual without consequence.

Now, I'll grant you that the guys are madmen, as you so eloquently stated, but haven't we been doing exactly what you're advocating here for about 10-12 years? After the Gulf War in 1990-91, all we managed against Saddam was "diplomacy" (read - 10+ UN Security Council Resolutions) and that got us where we were in March. As for North Korea, we "negotiated" with them as well (thank you Jimmy Carter) and LOOKIE HERE they lied and now are using the stuff we gave them to produce nukes. I think you need to step back, take a good look at where we were just prior to 9/11, look at how we got there, and you'll have to agree that changes had to occur in our policies.

September 11 may have been a great opportunity for our president to make it clear that while we will not tolerate being cluster fucked by people who hate our freedom, we would like to know what drove these people to fly planes into the World Trade Center. We should have explored, publicly why this happened. We should have tried to strike up a dialogue with these people to see if we could agree that peace was better than terrorism. Most likely this would have failed, I am certain. But it’s the idea I am after here, the gesture. The United States should have made a huge gesture of peace.

Oh, come on Aaron, you're above this. What were we doing through the 90's if we weren't avoiding conflict and trying to make "huge gestures of peace" to the world? What was all that stuff clinton was doing to promote a bogus peace process in the middle ease? What was with all the apologies for past wrongdoing, peacekeeping, etc? And do you seriously expect that any country in the world should "set up a dialogue" with Al Queda or anyone else that has at the core of it's organizational mandate the destruction of that nation? What's to figure out here, buddy? These people hate us because we do not adhere to their strict, Islamofacist view of the world. It doesn't matter how nice and smiley you are toward bin Laden, how many flowers you throw at his feet, how many gestures of peace you make in his direction - he's still going to slit your throat the instant you turn your back simply because you are not a fundamentalist muslim. You don't believe that shaira law should be imposed on the US? Well, nice to know you, but you have to die now. Dialogue isn't necessarry. We've had quite enough talking and appeasing, thank you very much. There comes a time for real action and facing down threats. That time came at around 10:00 AM on the morning of September 11, 2001.


I guess I just hate it that people hate us so much because we are free, but I don’t feel like our president is handling it the way he could. In one of the two functions that government should have—defend the country—I am not convinced the president has handled this the right way. He just seems to be making people angry and causing division in our country and around the world. It reminds me of “Christian” fundamentalists who judge and condemn. Bush judged and condemned Iraq and North Korea with his axis of evil thing—like they give a flying fuck about his view on how the world should be. (just like I don’t give a flying fuck what fundamentalists think Christianity should be like)

Oh, for goodness sakes Aaron, I know this is probably a stream of consciousness thing that you just wrote off the cuff, but how can you put a statement out for public consumption like this? Look - the division you are talking about was not caused by George Bush. It exists in reality. Bush acknowledges it. That's why he's the perfect leader right now. He has a sense of moral clarity. Are you somehow saying that Iraq and North Korea don't deserve judgement and condemnation? Somehow those nations are on the same moral plane as the United States when it comes to credibility in issues of morality? I understand that the United States is far from perfect in a lot of ways. But if we're so worried about perceived injustice in our society where there is actually recourse for those who feel slighted that we become unable to call evil elsewhere what it is, then we're just screwed. There are times where we as a nation can indulge our fascination with shades of gray. We don't have that luxury post 9/11.


Saddam and what’s his name are power crazy people who run their countries with fear. I imagine though, the more power they get, the more crazy they get about trying to keep the power. Absolute power twists them, corrupts their thinking, their perception of reality. It’s a lot of stress. So, when you threaten them they turn on their nuclear reactors and start hiding their weapons of mass destruction. They respond to words of anger with acts of anger. We all know that anger, when contained, eventually erupts.

History teaches us that when these madmen are allowed to stay in power, worse things happen. May I suggest a bit of Shirer or Churchill to clear up your thinking on this one?


Is this how a president gets re-elected? By pissing people off and starting a war and increasing the level of hatred 10 times over in the people who flew planes into a buildings?

Nope. A president gets re-elected by carrying out his constitutional obligations to defend our country when attacked.


I don't mean to offend, but really, after years of working at Acton, after witnessing the events of September 11, is this truly the best you can come up with? The Bible does teach that we as individuals should turn the other cheek. But I don't think that applies to nations. God gives to government the sword of justice, and the right to go to war in a just cause. Sometimes you have to fight. This is one of those times.


Oh, and if you need a bit of evidence, go here.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!

hahahahah...

Howdy!

Monday brings many challenges, including training a new intern, finding a way to keep dry on the way to work after leaving my window open all night in the rain, and waiting for an appropriate lunch time. Man, I'm hungry.

By the way, check out this fabulous music here. Radiohead for solo piano - a perfect combination as it turns out.