Sex And The City2

is not a crappy movie after all. It is a science fiction movie. A.O. Scott of the New York Times — and moi — got it wrong. But Mannequin was better.

This review was kinda fun.
Outtake:

essentially a home video of gay men playing with giant Barbie dolls.

Oh, Okay

here's Dennis Hopper.

Lefties Can Be Big Jerks, Too

I first heard about Mikey Weinstein, I think, in a piece 60 Minutes did. But his work to prevent the Christianization of the military is well-known among liberal bloggers and I've read various pieces on it at Daily Kos.
So this little bit of good-meet-perfecthood just about nails the absurdity of ideological purity.

ZZZzzz And The City

Don't pay money, don't spend time to see this movie. I loved the show, hated the first movie and the second is, reportedly, even worse. SJP, you have sold us out for a heap of potash. Or something.

The first “Sex and The City” movie, which came out two years ago, qualifies as a comedy both because it is somewhat funny and because, according to a more classical definition, it ends, after some reversals and delays, with a wedding. The sequel — which should have borrowed a subtitle from another picture opening this week and called itself “Sex and the City: The Sands of Time” — begins with a wedding and never seems to end. Your watch will tell you that a shade less than two and a half hours have elapsed, but you may be shocked at just how much older you feel when the whole thing is over.

Friviality Friday

Pinky the cat has been around a year, but this was the first time I'd heard of it.

Pop Quiz O' Teh Day

Disclosure: I got nine out of 12 questions correct, but that's because I somehow didn't see and didn't answer the second question, which I would not have gotten wrong.
Test yourself.

Women And Movies

Give your favorite films the Bechdel test:
1. Are there two or more women in it?
2. Do they talk to each other?
3. Do they talk to each other about something other than a man?

I liked the relationship between the Red Queen and Um, although it was a relationship predicated on a fabrication. But I think it passed the test. I haven't been watching many movies lately, so I'll keep my antenna up in the future.

America And Morals

Doctor assisted suicide: tie
Gay or lesbian relations: close for teh gay
Out-of-wedlock babies: um, okay sort of
Abortion: nah

Government torture, government spying on citizens, financial industry control of government, oil industry control of government:Priceless

Gallup report here.

At Last

Someone who knows something writes in to TPM about the oil spill.

On having Obama "do more," WTF is he supposed to do? Everybody seems to be calling for more fire in his belly and scary, threatening speeches. What does that accomplish? It's like people want him to do a dramatic speech like post-9/11 about bringing the criminals to justice. It does nothing to actually plug the damn well. The
government does not have the expertise to do more to stop this gusher. It's in BPs interest to stop the gusher. All the conspiracy theories about wanting to preserve the well for future production are technically wrong and ignore that NOBODY in the industry benefits from this gusher continuing. BP wants what everybody else wants, though
I'll concede that I suspect dispersants are about killing life where it's less easily photographed. Dispersants aside, the only conflict of interest is regarding the causes of the blowout, not the capping of the well. Fed investigations are already taking care of that part.

Eat The Rich

Want to know why Larry Summers is out there floating another stimulus? Because it's scary out there, that's why.
The experts I most often turn to (Paul Krugman and, um, Paul Krugman and whoever confirms Paul Krugman) said the stimulus was too small, but acknowledged it may have been politically impossible to do otherwise.
I think it's significant that Summers is talking another one.
Here's a somewhat lengthy analysis. Key quote:

“We’re about to see a big national experiment on stress.”

You've probably already heard all about most of the social and economic fallout among various sectors of our population. I read all four pages of this thing and there wasn't a single fact that was new to me.
So let's just jump to the end:

Concerns over deficits are understandable, but in these times, our bias should be toward doing too much rather than doing too little. That implies some small risk to the government’s ability to continue borrowing in the future; and it implies somewhat higher taxes in the future too. But that seems a trade worth making. We are living through a slow-motion social catastrophe, one that could stain our culture and weaken our nation for many, many years to come. We have a civic—and indeed a moral—responsibility to do everything in our power to stop it now, before it gets even worse.

Let Us Be Happy

the glass, the songs, and the laughter make the night more beautiful.



The Brindisi, Act 1 La Traviata

Stop

Traffic

Streetcars, pedestrians, horse-drawn carts, horses and riders, cars.
San Francisco, 1905. The randomness of it all shocked me.


Correction: 1906 just days before the earthquake. And not as random as originally thought, at least not the car part.

AKC Includes Mutts In Competition

And MetaFilter commenter sets the proper tone with "Another example of our failing standards under Obama."

Too bad Gus is too old, I think he'd be great. Shorty could probably do it.

Browsing

on the Web is all very fine and good, but I don't have time.
So I subscribe to Mark and Angel, who send me stuff like this and then I can go out and garden after passing it along to you.

Comment O' Teh Day

If the GOP has to choose between dumb and insane for their candidates, which is preferred?

Commenter Chimpale after reading TPM's report of the ineffable Vaughn Ward of — you guessed it — Idaho!

ineffable — n., adj., cannot be more effed if he tried.

Just Like Bush

I'm so tired of the handwringing super pures out there that I blew up at a friend this week and  called yet another missive she forwarded to me "crap." But I stand by it anyway, because it is.
Here's why:

So if things go the way I think they'll go, by later this year Obama, Pelosi, and Reid will have passed a historic stimulus bill, the Lily Ledbetter Act, healthcare reform, college loan reform, financial reform, repeal of DADT, and Obama will have withdrawn from Iraq.¹ Not bad for 18 months of work. And who knows? There's even a chance that Obama's Afghanistan escalation will work. If it does, what president since LBJ will have accomplished more in his first term?
¹Except for the pesky "residual force," of course. Still, once the combat forces are gone, it's hard to see a scenario in which they're ever sent back in.

Oh, wait. They're not perfect. They could have, should have, would have (if Nader, Feingold, FDR were in charge) because, dammit, we say so.
I'm not against criticising Obama. There's plenty there. But to then turn the criticism into a conclusion that he's "just like Bush" is our own version of teabagging.

Most Reporters Would Kill

for a lede like this:

"The Brevard County doctor who was arrested for groping a woman while dressed
as Captain America with a burrito in his pants will not go to jail."

 

BP World

Andrew may not have figured out how to deal with it, but Mac McLelland is there. I go with her.

Soccer Players

have great butts. I think it's time I became a fan. Ronaldo, is that you, honey?

Right Back Atcha

So the Boomers are retiring and the political prospects for cutting the two biggest entitlements, the ones that threaten to bankrupt us, Medicare and Social Security, dwindle in proportion.
In the end, says one of the only sane conservatives left, the only way to handle it will be cuts to defense spending and increased taxes (on the wealthy, I presume).
Weren't these two measures sort of the fiscal underpinning of the great Sixties unrest? I think they were. What goes around, comes around, eh? Unintended consequences indeed.

Question O' Teh Century

If we cannot stop this, what else can we not stop?

        Andrew Sullivan, who admits he's had trouble deciding how to blog about Death in the Gulf.

Headline O' Teh Day

Chicken Costumes Banned At Nevada Polling Places

Um, what about free speech? Just sayin'. Could be a fun lawsuit, kinda keep the issue in the front of voters' minds.

Quote O' Teh Day

"I went to Princeton with Paleolibertarian John Stossel. He was an asshole in 1968 and I've seen nothing since then to change my mind."

        Jon Taplin