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Pan’s Labyrinth (4 Stars)

Information © IMDb.com

Wow. The Labyrinth of the Faun is quite a weird fairy tale / history. Guillermo del Toro has an amazing vision and knack for realizing that vision.

Certain items, such as insects and clocks, figure into most, if not all of his work. And creatures with misplaced or too many eyes. (The second Hellboy wasn’t as good as the first, but had several mind-blowing images clearly from del Toro.)

The violence of the history – of the real monster, played too well by Sergi López – was difficult to watch. I don’t think the movie had a “happy” ending, but that may depend on your faith.

Uncategorized

Up (4 stars)

Information © IMDb.com

Finally saw Up (on Roku). Enjoyed it a lot – 4 out of 5 stars. It was quite amazing how the movie condenses an entire shared-lifetime into 10 minutes without using any words at all. Very impressive and moving.  I’m surprised when I come to care about cartoon characters, as I have with The Incredibles, Wall-E, and Up. (Well, Simpsons and Futurama, but not in the same way.) And after countless talking animals in the movies, there’s something ironic or post-modern about these talking dogs. (Technically, pre-post-modern.) Don’t miss it.

Mer first saw Up soon after Lucky died. I couldn’t face humor then. We watched it together on his anniversary. Dogs, loyalty, love, death – carrying on, when you can’t. Wow.

NADA - New American Dark Ages, The Atheist's Pulpit

Happy Birthday, Barrack Hussein Obama!

I don’t like veneration or adulation. That ties into my rejection of religion and certainty there is no god. It’s why I don’t give a damn about American Idol or idolatry or most celebrities.

So, I’m not the kinda guy to wish the President a happy birthday just because he’s president.

It’s troubling how many people who consider themselves patriots absolutely hate Obama beyond all restraint. These are people who stand and cover their hearts for the National Anthem and who pledge allegiance to the flag. I do not. These people coined “My country, right or wrong,” and “America, Love it or leave it.” Indeed, just six years ago, they were joyously hoping for a liberal exodus to Canada or some other socialist nation (hear the sneer). They screamed for us to sit down and shut up. They herded us into Free Speech Zones without a clue about irony.

Today, many good, decent, upright, gawdfearin’ sons and daughters of the Republic hate one man with every fiber of their beings. They pray and hope for his death. He is Satan, as far as they are concerned. And it has nothing to do with his race.

Now, to be fair – and I do want to be fair, even to people who aren’t fair themselves – I know something about anger and hatred and I have plenty of both for some people. I hate George Duhbya Bush to this very day. Spit on the ground. I hate Big Dick Cheney. I hate Karl der Grosse Rove. Yes, I hate them passionately and I won’t shed a tear when they die. But I want them to live out a natural life. I want them to live long enough to realize that if they are remembered at all, it won’t be kindly.

I think the damage those vile men wrecked on the nation is as obvious as taking off your shoes for the Homeland. I think they are evil villains. So, I voted against them and spoke out against them every chance I got. I endured their horrible reign over the nation for eight awful years. I never once waived a gun in their directions.

I believe change is inevitable and only fools fight it. And I think the biggest fools waive their guns the hardest. I know the crazies won’t simply SHUT THE FUCK UP and wait for 2016. With luck, their venom will poison only them or they’ll shoot each other.

Happy Birthday to Barrack Hussein Obama. I thank him for his extraordinary courage in taking on the huge mess made by Duhbya and AmeriCo. I wish Obama good luck, and a long, long life.

Happy “Birth” Day, Mr. President; Welcome to the Post-Fact Era – Tuned In – TIME.com

Posted by James Poniewozik Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 3:07 pm

Submit a Comment • Related Topics: news media politics , birthers

Barack Obama celebrates his 49th birthday today. Or so he claims. According to a CNN survey, more than a quarter of Americans doubt that Obama was born in the United States; 29% say he probably was; and a mere plurality of 42% have no doubt. This despite widely reported empirical documentation of the President’s birth in Hawaii in 1961, contemporary newspaper reports of his birth and the dismissal of birther rumors by Hawaii’s Republican governor. Speaking of which, big shocker, there’s a partisan divide in the findings: 41% of Republicans believe Obama probably or definitely was not born here, next to (a not entirely comforting itself) 15% of Democrats.

There is no reasonable basis to believe Obama was born outside the U.S.; a lot of people believe it anyway.

Happy “Birth” Day, Mr. President; Welcome to the Post-Fact Era – Tuned In – TIME.com

NADA - New American Dark Ages

This Week’s–no! This Month’s WTF?!

OMG. You thought Tenthers are idiots – meet the Thirteenthers! Read the highlighted text twice.

Think Progress » Iowa GOP Supports Amendment To Strip Obama’s Citizenship Because He Won The Nobel Peace Prize

The Iowa GOP is not trying to overturn this amendment to reinstate slavery. Instead, it wants to reintroduce the “original 13th Amendment” first offered by senator Phillip Reed of Maryland in 1810. The amendment states that “if any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain any title of nobility or honor” from a “foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen” and “shall be incapable of holding any office of trust.” In receiving only 12 out of the 13 votes needed for ratification, the amendment was never adopted.

Traditional supporters of the idea are known as “Thirteenthers,” who seek to prevent those with the title of “esquire,” such as lawyers and bankers, from participating in government. But according to its spokeswoman, Danielle Plogmann, the Iowa GOP supports it as an attack on President Obama’s Nobel Prize win:

There are, of course, other implications of Thirteenthism, such as ensuring that the United States never again suffers the humiliation of having a president win the Nobel Peace Prize. That was just what the Iowa Republicans had in mind, according to Plogmann, who wrote in an e-mail that the plank “was meant to make a statement about the delegates’ opinion about Mr. Obama receiving the prize.” (Presumably they didn’t mind if, in the process, they were also making a statement about any American scientist or writer unlucky enough to win a Nobel.) Unfortunately for them, the Department of Justice looked into whether Obama needed Congressional approval to accept the Nobel under the existing emoluments clause, and based on the meaning of “foreign state” (which would not cover the Nobel Prize Committee) concluded that he did not.

Iowa is currently “the only state where this type of plank has been introduced into the GOP platform.”

Think Progress » Iowa GOP Supports Amendment To Strip Obama’s Citizenship Because He Won The Nobel Peace Prize

Theirs

Obama’s Second Act – Charles Krauthammer – National Review Online

Obama’s Second Act – Charles Krauthammer – National Review Online

I have a warning for Republicans: Don’t underestimate Barack Obama. …

The net effect of 18 months of Obamaism will be to undo much of Reaganism. Both presidencies were highly ideological, grandly ambitious, and often underappreciated by their own side. In his early years as president, Reagan was bitterly attacked from his right. (Typical Washington Post headline: “For Reagan and the New Right, the Honeymoon Is Over” — and that was six months into his presidency!) Obama is attacked from his left for insufficient zeal on gay rights, immigration reform, closing Guantanamo — the list is long. The critics don’t understand the big picture. Obama’s transformational agenda is a play in two acts. …

The next burst of ideological energy — massive regulation of the energy economy, federalizing higher education, and “comprehensive” immigration reform (i.e., amnesty) — will require a second mandate, meaning reelection in 2012.

That’s why there’s so much tension between Obama and the congressional Democrats. For Obama, 2010 matters little. If the Democrats lose control of one or both houses, Obama will likely have an easier time in 2012, just as Bill Clinton used Newt Gingrich and the Republicans as his foil for his 1996 reelection campaign.

Obama is down, but it’s very early in the play. Like Reagan, he came here to do things. And he’s done much in his first 500 days. What he has left to do, he knows, must await his next 500 days — those that come after reelection.
So 2012 is the real prize. Obama sees far, farther than even his own partisans. Republicans underestimate him at their peril.

Obama’s Second Act – Charles Krauthammer – National Review Online

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams