The Times opens an ancient debate

Ghostbusters is better than Star Wars.

"To those who still deludedly think they prefer Star Wars over Ghostbusters, all I need do is ask you this: you don’t really want to be a Jedi, do you? In a greige cowl, getting off with your sister, without a single gag across three films? I think if you thought about it a little while longer, you’d realise that you’d far rather be a Ghostbuster: a nerd in New York with an unlicensed nuclear accelarator on your back, and a one in four chance of being Bill Murray."

Now speaking of Bill Murray, Caddyshack > Ghostbusters, but that's only a matter of opinion.

Poor Farrah

With all the Michael Jackson news, let's not forget poor Farrah and how she should have taken the advice of that wise sage, Butters.

What a thriller!

I guess he wasn't already undead.

The Pacific

Not sure how you can top Band of Brothers, but this will be well-worth seeing:


Look for the miniseries on HBO next year; I understand it has a $200M budget!

Civilization, over.

I opened up Fark.com tonight and was confronted with this piece of awesome (can't embed the video, link is in the post title, this is an image). Incidentally, it recommends the use of shave gel beforehand and a moisturizing lotion afterward. Because the kind of guy who would do this, I'm SURE he has no experience applying moisturizing lotion around his groin.

Glad that's cleared up then.

Thoughts on violence in Iran

It appears they are having their Tiananmen Square moment. The police and paramilitaries are attacking civilians, hard. As with previous days, Andrew Sullivan is providing up-to-the-minute Twitter summaries. As he says, take it with a grain of salt. But it looks like there's a bloodbath going on. People getting shot in the streets, people opening their homes to wounded protesters getting shot in their living rooms, hospitals full of police looking to arrest or worse.

As a Canadian I'm conflicted on this, but have to admit that it would be a lot harder to do that kind of thing in the USA thanks to the Second Amendment. People protesting in the street would still not be permitted to carry them, but you could keep the paramilitary thugs out of your house a lot longer with an M-60 than with a stern warning.

Also, people are apparently being tortured to obtain information about how they're organizing. This is the problem with Guantanamo Bay - the USA has very little moral high ground to protest this activity. This is a government that has identified what it believes to be a challenge to its survival by a group of ought-to-be-unorganized people who are somehow able to act in concert, and is attempting to obtain information from them by any means. The only real difference is that we over here sympathize with the people being tortured in this case. This is a real difference - the Iranian protestors deserve support and sympathy and anyone who tries to find equivalency between them and battlefield combatants needs their head examined (although it certainly appears that Guantanamo contains more than battlefield combatants, also). But our moral authority is diminished here. A shame.

William Shatner is a god

Seriously. If the video doesn't link, check the link in the title. Shatner = best talk show guest ever. I refuse to describe this because it is too awesome.

Possibly the most horrifying commercial product ever.

In Japan they solve this "problem" with the Space-Shuttle-launching control panel I've previously posted. Here's how America does it.



"Being a big guy has its advantages and disadvantages." Indeed.

Things it is important to remember

(1) Government-administered healthcare systems or plans are inherently wasteful, expensive, and inefficient. They also produce a poor quality of care and result in unpopular rationing of care and interference in doctor/patient relationships. No country has ever had successful government-run healthcare.

(2) Insurance companies simply cannot compete with a government run system, and should be protected from it at all costs.

(3) There is no contradiction between (1) and (2), and noting such a contradiction means you are a socialist and you hate America.

Welcome to the GOP (and conservative Dem) position on health care reform.

Iran

Okay, not everyone likes Andrew Sullivan. But he's doing a good public service right now by amalgamating the various threads around the web dealing with the situation in Iran. http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

I'm actually also a big fan of the comments threads on Fark.com. There are some people there who appear to have family in Iran who are getting first-hand reports.

UPDATE: As always, Hitchens has good insights. http://www.slate.com/id/2220520/

The English are obviously big fans of ours

"They are wonderful plants really," waxed Simon yesterday. "Very much misunderstood."

Just like some of our readers.

Goths in Hot Weather

Goths escaping the heat, or not. Awe-inspiring.

If you live in LA, you have somewhere to be on June 10

Michael Winslow, best-known for his work in Police Academy, will be doing the sound effects to various silent films. if you live in LA, you need to attend.

An anthology of his best work to date (and not including his time on Love Boat):

Gaffney

Image blatantly stolen from howstuffworks.com

On the way to Atlanta on I-85, travelers pass by the above water tower in Gaffney, South Carolina. The tower, which is supposed to be a peach, is legendary in the Southeast for its resemblance to a large set of buttocks. In essence, Gaffney, South Carolina wants the world to think "huge ass" when it thinks of Gaffney.

And that's fine. Civic pride being what it is, you can't begrudge the effort. The addition of the green leaf at the top and the new paint job has lessened the effect somewhat, but you can't deny that, from certain angles, that is one huge ass.

So, Gaffney = huge ass.

It's heartening to see that the Washington Times is doing its part to maintain that word association. In his most recent drool-spattered screed, Times columnist Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. uncorks a series of jaw-dropping statements that basically amount to "Obama is a muslim terrorist."

Obama, you see, used "peace be upon them" when addressing a muslim audience and discussing Christ, Moses and Mohammed. This is, according to Gaffney, proof that he is really Muslim, since Christ is the Living Son of God and therefore shouldn't have peace wished upon his memory. No really, he actually said that. "When in Rome" must be to Mr. Gaffney an invitation to plunder and rape the entire Mediterranean.

He also contends that such figures of speech are deeply revealing of Obama's true religion, but that his characterizing the bond between Israel and the US as "unbreakable" is "mere lip service."

How easy it must be to live in the world when your world view allows you to distort all fact and reason to fit your own beliefs.

It gets even worse. Check this one out. After noting darkly that Obama was "raised a Muslim in Indonesia," he goes on to state:

This is not to say, necessarily, that Mr. Obama actually is a Muslim any more than Mr. Clinton actually is black. After his five months in office, and most especially after his just-concluded visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, however, a stunning conclusion seems increasingly plausible: The man now happy to have his Islamic-rooted middle name featured prominently has engaged in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain over Czechoslovakia at Munich.

Pretty impressive use of a debunked lie about Obama WHILE violating Godwin's law, all in the same paragraph.

So yeah. Gaffney = huge ass.

Kidnapping people to take them to justice

Saw this via Andrew Sullivan. Apparently the two journalists imprisoned in North Korea were kidnapped by NK security officials from inside China. The blogger suggests that this kind of activity is reprehensible and should be condemned. They also suggest it's a direct consequence of US policy endorsing "extraordinary rendition".

I don't want to go to a North Korean prison any more than the next guy. But it does sound almost exactly like what the Mossad did to Adolf Eichmann in the 1950s. And if I remember correctly, in the 1950s is before the US started doing extraordinary renditions.

Those of us who criticize have an extra duty to be accurate and fair. Not everything is linked to recent US government policies. Ceci n'est pas toujours, n'est presque jamais, une pipe. And when a broken clock is right twice a day, sometimes it's just a coincidence.

[Yes, the story of a kid recovering from a lawnmower accident makes it almost impossible to post my usual snark. Had to find something serious to say.]

Of strength, faith and generosity

Preston Loyd - a stonger kid, you'll never see.

I went to college with Ashton Loyd, a gregarious mountain of a guy who played football for Davidson. Ashton and I weren't best friends, but we were definitely friends, and Davidson is a small place. There were times when if he wasn't singing the National Anthem at basketball games, I was playing it on my trumpet. Ashton can flat out sing. We've remained in touch from time to time - either at reunions or basketball games and now, especially, on Facebook.

After a brief career as an assistant football coach, Ashton now sells insurance in Mooresville, North Carolina. He married a beautiful woman named Cinamon and together they are raising two children, just down the road from Ashton's parents.

And that is where our story truly begins.

On April 23, Ashton's father was mowing his yard, when Ashton's four-year old son Preston ran out of the back door into the yard, and ran up behind the mower his grandpa was operating. Grandpa never saw him, and backed right over him. The injuries were horrific, and Preston lost most of the blood in his body, half his left lung, all his ribs on his left side, his left kidney, his spleen, and most of his pancreas, and his stomach was ripped from between his esophagus and small intestine. He also has severe lacerations on his head and left arm.

The EMS responders thought both he and his poor grandfather were going to die right there in the yard. But through the spectacular efforts of those responders and the doctors at Levine Childrens Hospital in Charlotte, this is Preston today:



He is sitting up in bed, talking to his friends who come to visit, and arguing with his nurses over whether or not he's allowed to stick his tongue out. He wants to watch SpongeBob, and can tell you exactly who brought him which stuffed animal.

These are all remarkable things. Some, including Preston's parents, would call them miracles.

Throughout the 32 days of their four-year-old's coma, Ashton and Cinamon have been remarkably strong in their faith and their conviction that their son would survive. Even if a person doesn't necessarily share the style of their faith, you cannot help but be in awe of their steadfastness in the face of such adversity. It is truly humbling.

Preston's story has touched thousands through Facebook and the internet, as churches around the country have placed him on their prayer lists. He's become a bit of a celebrity, as even the world of NASCAR has stopped to take notice, and extend a helping hand.

This story on ESPN.com details the accident, and the remarkable act of generosity of NASCAR jack man Jeff Kerr, of Martin Truex's team. Kerr donated his $10,000 first prize in a recent pit skill competition to the Loyds for Preston's medical costs.

If, in reading all this, you are motivated to follow Kerr's lead, you can do so at the Preston Loyd Foundation.

In any event, say a prayer for the little guy. He's got a long way to go, but he's certainly shown the strength to get there.

My knees hurt just watching this

With friends like these...

Franco Frattini, the Italian Foreign Minister, also dismissed rumours that the Prime Minister had a romantic interest in Miss Letizia, but he said that sex with girls over the age of 14 was not wrong in principle. Asked by Newsweek magazine if a relationship with Miss Letizia when she was under 18 would have been a crime, Mr Frattini said: “Absolutely not. In Italy it is a crime under the age of 14. Between 14 and 18 is absolutely legal.”

Well, glad that's settled.

"Stanley Cup Elevates NBC on Sunday"

According to The Hollywood Reporter, hockey took NBC to top spot in the ratings last night.

Could the worm actually be turning? Could Americans finally realize that hockey is more interesting than baseball and football?

Of course, nothing beats rugby. Super 14 final yesterday. You want to see what football should be like, check this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65sUvblIWiA for the 3-minute highlight reel. 80 minutes of solid running, at altitude (Pretoria is 5,000 feet above sea level).