Month: October 2003 (Page 2 of 7)

Bullies

Watching President Bush give one of his rare press conferences on C-SPAN today, it was painful as usual. But I put up with bulging veins in my head because I think it’s important to know what he’s saying. Among his main points:

-Iraq is a main front on the war on terror.
-Lots of schools and other infrastructure elements are opening back up in Iraq. Electricity is almost back to pre-war levels.
-Terrorists promote a culture of fear.
-Terrorists end innocent lives, primarily 3,000 people on…wait for it….Sept. 11, 2001.

Listening to this, all I could think of was a bully pinning his prey to the playground blacktop, grabbing the geek’s hand and slamming it into his own face, while chanting, “Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!”

“28 Days Later” DVD

I think this is my first DVD review. But I was quite impressed with the DVD production of Danny Boyle’s non-zombie zombie movie. There are two alternate endings on the disc, each interesting in its own way.

There’s also another “alternate ending” that’s really a whole new second half, shown in storyboard and voiceover form, replacing the military compound section of the movie with something completely different. I thought the movie’s second half was much less interesting than the first part, where the survivors made their way alone – the military storyline was just a little too “haunted house” for my taste. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the alternate storyline either, but it was fun and engaging watching the storyboards.

Another thing I liked was the narration alongside the still photo galleries. I enjoyed hearing (from Boyle himself) the significance of the images I was seeing.

As for the movie overall, I enjoyed it more on DVD than I did in the theater. It felt more intense, somehow, on the small screen – just the opposite of what I expected.

Definitely recommended.

Footnote: Have you seen “Shallow Grave”? It was also directed by Danny Boyle, stars a young Ewan McGregor, and has razor-sharp dialogue and a fun creepy edge. Highly recommended.

Liberators. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Word of the Day

synecdoche

(thanks to David for the inspiration)

Unfathomable

This article on The Smirking Chimp has me wondering about a prospective second term for Bush.

Here’s my question to you: Will Bush win the 2004 election? And why or why not? Let me know your prediction in the comments.

Attention Fawlty Towers fans: I have all 12 episodes of the brilliant John Cleese comedy series on VHS. Since I now own them on DVD, I’d like to give the tapes to someone who would enjoy them as much as I have. The only catch is, you have to come here and pick them up. First come, first served.

I was going to write my usual grumpy screed about Daylight Saving Time this morning, but I found that I’ve already written a pretty good one, so I thought I would let it go at that this year.

Don’t forget to set your clocks back, suckers.

The American family

“Some say they are uncomfortable with the thought of gays and lesbians marrying. But our rights as Americans do not depend on the approval of others. Our rights depend on us being Americans.”

Fantastic essay from John Lewis with some searing common sense on the gay marriage issue. (via Atrios) Please read this and pass it on.

Depends on what the meaning of “imminent” is

It infuriates me that conservatives have been able to draw anti-war people into this meaningless debate over whether the administration said Iraq was an “imminient threat.” It’s a stupid debate over Clintonesque language parsing, and I’m not going to take the bait and list hundreds of quotations from administration officials where the threat was outlined.

Similarly, the common conservative position that “WMDs were not the reason for the war” also infuriates me. Clearly they were the stated reason, and I won’t bore you with quotations you’ve probably heard already a hundred times. If anything – anything – had been found on the ground in Iraq, conservatives would be splooging all over themselves crowing about how right they were about the “imminent threat.”

The sad fact is, the reason we can even have these “debates” is that no clear case *was* made for war with Iraq in the first place. Nobody really cared at the time.

Do they care now?