Senator John McCain is too dishonest to be president. For the candidate who claims to be better at foreign policy and correct about the US policy in Iraq, he doesn’t seem to know shit. It’s as if he’s making it up as he goes along. He’s just plain lying about what he knows.
“You know, there are worse ways to go, but I can’t think of a more undignified way than autoerotic asphyxiation.”
Clyde Bruckman (Peter Boyle), The X-Files, “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”
The Big Foot hoax was squashed several years ago when after the man who shot the most famous Big Foot footage revealed it was just a guy in a gorilla suit after all. Yet, some people don’t take that revelation as the truth. Big Foot may still be out there. These guys will still be on the lookout.
Yesterday, I washed both my cars. And it kind of sucked because just washing feels somewhat lame.
Late last century with my Mk II VW Jetta, I could have cared less about washing it. It was a light green almost aqua color that hardly showed any dirt. I think I washed it every quarter even less so when I was feeling less than satisfied with her.
When I bought my Mk IV VW Jetta, I barely thought about keeping it clean. Until the second year. Then I was a detailing fiend. I was washing the car once a week. I waxed and polished it twice that year (and the following two years). I even new why and how to use a clay bar. It was perfect for the first four years.
Then it became tough to find time to wash the car. In my new house, I don’t get any shade until the late afternoon around 3. It makes it tough to spend the four hours to really detail the car. That’s just a wash, polish and a wax. It gets too late in the evening to finish it off.
Now with the Mini Cooper, the detailing bug is back. I want to keep the Cooper a nice shiny red. I also want to get the Jetta back to being a beautiful blue. When will I have time to keep this up? What are you doing later?
“There’s been another unsubstantiated UFO sighting in the Heartland of America. We’ve gotta get there right away.”
Special Agent Fox Mulder, The Simpsons, “The Springfield Files”
Senator John McCain is too stupid to be president. Whatever policies he comes up with are not the correct ones to enable the US regain its global leadership. He embraces the Republican rhetoric which got us in this mess in the first place, and he has changed his views on many of his original standards.
I heard an aunt call Barack Obama a phony. I can’t believe that at all. Can you compare a candidate from the honest Democratic Party to the snake oil salesman of the lying Republican Party? I think McCain is a con artist who will swindle the American people out of the last shred of American decency in the world view for a chance to become president. Lord knows he makes shit up as he goes along. And the fucking stupid national press doesn’t care.
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| Which Robotech character are you most like? created with QuizFarm.com |
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| You scored as Dana SterlingDaughter of Max and Miriya Sterling, Dana is not only the first child born from a union between the two races, but she is also the first child born from the womb of a clone. Dana is among the first graduates of the Robotech Military Academy founded in the aftermath of the First Robotech War.
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There’s a lot of space in space. There’s a lot of stars, too. There’s got to be a planet orbiting a star just as Earth orbits the sun. The planet could even have similar conditions that support life like here on Earth. The life forms may be similar to Earth or they could be more advanced. They could have technology we only dream of in our science fiction stories. They could visit us. Or not. Do you think they’re out there? Do you think that they’ve been here?
I’m not too sure, but some people do believe. Who am I to argue?
Since cutting back on my Netflix watching, I haven’t been too concerned when holding onto a film. It takes me a few days to get to my latest red envelope and a few days to send it right back.
My latest was the Japanese romantic comedy, Densha Otoko (Train Man). I’ve watched it twice and feel that I like it.
It’s the story of a Japanese otaku who saves a woman on a train from a drunken salary man. The savior gets a nice thank you gift from her, and they end up going out for dinner. You can imagine where it goes from here: straight to love.
What’s interesting about the film is that it was inspired by a seemingly true tale on 2channel, a Japanese message board. The eponymous Train Man wrote the tale onto this message board and received the help of its denizens to woo this girl.
Could this have been real? Or was it another internet hoax?
I don’t know but I liked the simple tale of geek falling for the girl. Or the girl falling for the geek. Simply adorable. And so heartwarming. It’s for all the inhabitants of the internet who get no love and want to aspire to that transcendent state.
The film follows the Train Man as he gets up the nerve to ask her out. His internet buddies cheering him on. He cleans himself up to not be too geeky and to be more human. His internet buddies guide and coach him. He falls for the girl and his internet buddies help him move their relationship forward. His internet buddies also gain from him as they take on assess their lives, loves and relationships they have in the meatspace.
While this is not for everyone, it’s really enjoyable for those lovelorn geeks in all of us. And also Miki Nakatani is cute.
4 of 5 stars.
On the Marvel-DC comics divide, I fall squarely in the Marvel camp. I know the rudimentary aspects of the DC universe. I know the major characters, their origins and even some of their story lines. I know some of the tangibles of the DC universe, but honestly, I really don’t care too much with any of the DC heroes. They were too “SuperFriend-ly” for me and seem to have that wholesomeness still grafted onto them. For what they are they can not be too dark.
Enter the new revisionist take on DC. Starting with Infinity Crisis, DC begins to remake themselves into a more grittier universe. Batman always being so dark takes on the mantle of chief dark character in the DC universe. Frank Miller writes the ultimate Batman tale of urban grit and grime in the immortal, The Dark Knight Returns, and ever since then it’s been a brooding, sinister, hard boiled Gotham for the Batman to prowl.
Tim Burton makes a splash with Batman and adds some color to Bruce Wayne’s Gotham. It was a joyous romp taking inspiration from Miller’s The Dark Knight, but adding some sense of whimsy and playfulness to Gotham. Burton knew that he’s doing a comic book movie. His main character is a man in a tight fitting suit. While embracing Miller’s Darkness, Burton weaved into the Batman movie a feel of enjoyment in the comic book.
Almost twenty years on and the DC universe goes through another revision to make it more darker. Superman has a kid. And Batman, well, he’s dark and all.
The first Batman movie of this century, Batman Begins, takes place in the more modern Gotham. It’s like a version of New York in an alternate time. Yet, it still had some fun as a comic book movie: Ra’s Al Ghul, the Scarecrow.
The Dark Knight lacks any sense of comic book-ness and instead goes for reality. You know it when the Joker’s sense of playfulness arises from being completely psychotic. The film is not a summer comic book movie to enjoy, but one to sit in the dark and meditate on what darkness lies in men’s souls. Is the Batman dark? Is the Joker dark? Their souls are joyless in this movie and the seriousness hurts it as a fun time.
And it was forty minutes too long with several endings. I thought the Joker was the main baddy. He’s joined by TwoFace. And then the Penguin, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy would show up next. Yet, if they did, it would ruin the seriousness of the movie, because we must be shown that in all of us there is a darkness and a happiness battling it out all the time. Except for the Joker who is a loon.
So The Dark Knight bored me. Every turn in the plot made me cringe. “What more is there,” I thought exasperated! And can’t they capture one guy shooting at the mayor while surrounded by the entire police force? I mean this was at a police funeral with everyone on high alert. I mean everyone. Right down to the mayor’s wife! Everyone should’ve been ready and when the shots occurred not twenty feet from the mayor and twenty feet from several hundred officers the best the police could do was duck and cover?! How convenient. Let’s just add another forty minutes to the movie. It’ll just suck all fun from what should’ve been a comic book romp of ass kicking goodness.
And that’s my problem with The Dark Knight. Its soul as a comic book movie probably died with Heath Ledger. They wanted to make it more serious in tribute to the fallen actor so that the audience can remember him as a serious actor not as a man dressed up as a clown. Yet, the clown show is what we wanted to see. His jokes were not funny, just ask the guy the guy about the pencil.
Most likely, my reaction to the film comes from my Marvel fandom. Not one to associate myself to much with the DC universe, I could care less about their major characters. They bore me. So too with this film.
2 of 5 stars.
