Forgo the Christmas sweater and see Zemeckis’ ‘A Christmas Carol’

Film review (with gratuitous political commentary)

In stills from Robert Zemeckis’ version of “A Christmas Carol,” Ebenezer Scrooge, voiced by Jim Carrey, is confronted by the tortured ghost of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley and is shown by the Ghost of Christmas Past the love that he gave up for the pursuit of money.
God bless [...]

‘Terrorist’-capturing Marine reservist has a very bright future in gay porn

There were media reports that right before he fired (and/or while he was firing) on his comrades at Fort Hood, Palestinian-American U.S. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan yelled “Allahu Akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great!”
I didn’t repeat those reports because officials hadn’t substantiated them — and still haven’t, to my knowledge.
Maybe Hasan did say [...]

‘Dilbert’ creator Scott Adams fires opening salvo at the baby boomers?

“Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams for the first time, to my knowledge, has taken the baby-boom generation head on in his strip for today:

(The full-sized strip is at the end of this post.)
The “pointy-haired boss” of “Dilbert” for years has been the quintessential baby boomer, utterly clueless and incompetent yet in charge of the whole show nonetheless [...]

Pot calls the kettle ‘radical’

Media bias can be subtle. But there it is.
Take this from The Associated Press today:
A radical American imam on Yemen’s most-wanted militant list who had contact with two 9/11 hijackers praised alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as a hero on his personal website [today].
The posting on the website for Anwar al Awlaki, who [...]

Texas massacre is another ‘senseless’ tragedy we won’t bother to learn from

 
Associated Press image
Palestinian-American Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who joined the U.S. military before Sept. 11, 2001 (and pictured above in 2007), apparently struggled to reconcile his Muslim faith and Arab background in an anti-Muslim and anti-Arab environment. Ultimately, Hasan, a military psychiatrist, rather ironically, shot up Fort Hood. Of course, we’ll blame everything on him, because that’s what we [...]

Win some, lose some

Election results are coming in, and I fail to see how Repugnican wins for the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia are some harbinger of a big Repugnican comeback in 2010, as the media are speculating. There are a lot of purple areas of the United States that routinely go to both Democrats and Repugnicans [...]

On the anniversary of Obama’s election

Today I received an e-mail from Organizing for America*, the remnants of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, titled “One year ago.” It’s meant to be nostalgic.
 Ah, yes – memories:
It was almost one year ago, on November 4, 2008, that I walked into my neighborhood polling place knowing that I’d vote for either Democrat Barack Obama or [...]

Why Fox ain’t news — and toes the line between dissent and treason

There’s been a lot of chatter lately about the obvious: That filthy-rich-wingnut-owned-and-operated Fox “News” — often called “Faux News” — isn’t news, but is right-wing, pro-corporate propaganda. The buzz stems from the White House’s announcement of the obvious that Fox ain’t news — and thus the White House’s exclusion of Fox from at least some White House news [...]

Die, Dick, die!

My fantasy: Justice delayed is better than no justice at all. Dick Cheney deserves to die in federal prison.
Why does Dick Cheney’s faulty, cold heart go on beating?
Why is washed-up former Vice President Dick acting like the Penguin to President Barack Obama’s Batman?
Cheney, with his latest act his rant against the Obama administration’s handling of Afghanistan [...]

Where the neurotic things are

Film review

Boy hero Max hitches a ride on monster Carol in Spike Jonze’s rather disappointing adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s children’s book Where the Wild Things Are.
After my boyfriend and I watched Spike Jonze’s film “Where the Wild Things Are,” we went to a bookstore and looked at Maurice Sendak’s children’s book Where the Wild Things [...]