Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Why do rappers hold their guns sideways? – By Brian Palmer – Slate Magazine – Life imitates art imitates life. Stupidly, sometimes.
- A Top View of Tokyo – Neat photos. It’s so crowded and randomized, it looks more like a video game.
- The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: the first trailer – Den of Geek – And yet another fun-looking movie. Some very nice magic effects (beyond the blasty-blasty) here.
- Everybody Loves Avatar (Mostly) – I may have to go see this myself at some point over the Holidays. It looks stupid, but stunning.
- Kneel Before Zod (But Kneel Really, Really Low) – Alas, a scosh too pricey … but it would be very cool.
- Simon Maloy: Everything old (and crazy) is new again (and still crazy) – It’s not so much that the Birchers have reformed and returned to the GOP — it’s that the GOP has lurched so far to the Right that the Birchers fit right in again.
- Blue Shield of California threatens to revoke the coverage of customers who miss a single payment. – Ah, how much better the Blues became after they changed to for-profit. Better for their shareholders, at least.
- The Progressive Case For Passing The Senate Health Bill – Like George and Les, I’m confused between the particulars of whether passing the Senate HCR Bill would be an unmitigated disaster or the last, best hope for any sort of Health Care Reform we’re likely to see any time soon. Maybe I’ll just sit in the corner over here and poke pins in my Joe Lieberman voodoo doll.
- McCain Introduces Legislation To Repeal The Financial Disaster Created By His Friend Phil Gramm – Unfortunately, I’m with McCain on this one, and against the too-bank-friendly Obama Administration. While in theory lack of barriers between commercial and investment banks doesn’t have to lead to irresponsibility, risk-taking, and failure — in fact, it does.
- McCaskill On Afghan War Contractors: ‘We’re Competing Against Ourselves’ – Okay, I feel a bit better that many of the contractors are, in fact, Afghans. But, yeah, if we pay them more than they could make serving as police and the like — we’re sort of shooting our effort in the foot.
- Photos of rotting, abandoned water park at Walt Disney World – Okay, let’s remember — WDW is built in a swamp. And if you don’t keep hacking away at it, the swamp reclaims things pretty quickly (as 8 years of abandonment here demonstrates). Does make one wonder (depressingly) what the rest of the park would look like after 8 years of abandonment.
- Afghanistan: Obama’s legacy [Effect Measure] – And at least LBJ was willing to wheel and deal and crack heads in order to get his ostensible social agenda through.
- Preferring nightmares – Money graf: “What fascinates me here is not just that the Tea Partiers are choosing voluntarily to abandon reality, but that they’ve elected to fabricate a world that’s far worse than the actual one. They’ve chosen to populate their imaginary world with their worst nightmares. That’s a very strange choice.” The reason, to me, is simple — it’s externalizing and justifying perceived fear. An unease, a distrust, a frustration … those are will-o-the-wisps, and difficult to articulate in ways that don’t sound reactionary, or racist, or inarticulate. But postulating a conspiracy, a monster, a clear and present evil — that turns those vague sensations of dis-ease into something you can fight against, be noble against, be brave against. By making things worse than they are, it makes the difference between the sides clearer, and the battle more Manichaean. It’s the logical outgrowth of the decay of political civility and increase of rabid partisanship, where the point is not a clash of philosophies (which lends itself to debate) but a clash of sides (which can mean only victory or defeat).
- Greenland ice cap melting faster than ever – But, remember — it’s all a hoax by Marxist climatologists who work for ACORN. Cross my heart and hope to drown …
- Iron Man 2 Movie Trailer – Iron Man. The Constrictor. Nick Fury. The Black Widow. War Machine. Yeah, this looks like a hell of a lot of fun.
- “His Dark Materials” Trilogy on Indefinite Hold? – I enjoyed the movie (better than the book, in fact), and so was sorry to hear that it had done poorly. Except that it seems to have done quite well … but offended enough of the wrong people in the US to make it unlikely we’ll see a sequel. I hate to root for “profit should be the motivation behind film making,” but it’s a shame to see external pressures put the kibosh on what could be quite an enjoyable franchise.
- UK Trailer For Alice In Wonderland Features Key New Footage – This looks quite good. A bit of “Through the Looking-glass” thrown in, with plenty of Burton weirdity. I like it.
- SFPD won’t investigate hit-and-run car-v-bike accident – For shame.
52 view(s)
I should point out that I was in the next block over in Times Square eating breakfast when the shooting occurred (inside the restaurant, which is why we didn’t hear the shooting, just the arrival of the entire NYPD and several fire trucks). Cheri and I had just had a conversation the day before about the illegal vs legal street merchants after we stopped to buy a scarf from a seller who has having a conversation with one of NY’s finest.
According the NY Times, the NYPD has 30 undercover officers who do nothing but work that beat.
The Constrictor?
It’s a Whiplash/Crimsom Dynamo combo.
Really? Oh, yeah, that’s right. Yeah, that makes sense, in an odd way. Sorry, brain been hurting lately …
It’s definitely supposed to be Whiplash. I hate the character’s look, but then Whiplash had one of the dumbest costumes in the comics, and it would look even sillier on the big screen. And why did they make him Russian? He’s apparently no longer Stark employee and Maggia assassin Mark Scarlotti.
The notes on the trailer page say that Justin Hammer is in it. Too bad Peter Cushing isn’t around to play him! Wayne Pygram looked the part in Episode III. I think I might prefer him to Sam Rockwell (although I have never seen the latter in anything, and the former only in that one small role, so…).
~points to the earlier comment~
It’s a Whiplash/Crimsom Dynamo combo. Or, put another way, it’s Whiplash as if he were the son of the Crimsom Dynamo. 🙂