abqjournal, Viddy

Spoiling Bad

I have a stiff middle digit for “superfan” David Layman and his cohort for spoiling the end of Breaking Bad for “ordinary” fans who have to wait until the episodes are released to us. Thanks, Dick! And thank you to the Albuquerque Journal for tooting its own horn on the front page about how much impact something in the Journal can have on Social Media. The fact that it was an ad, not an article, just gives the owner a bigger boner. Finally, thanks to reporter Rick Nathanson for his fair and balanced observation that in all the world one person was unhappy with this spoiler(it’s at least two, you tool).

Thank god social media was non-existent when the Empire Strikes Back and the Crying Game came out.

Viddy

Alice in Wonderland (3 stars)

First, this has to be compared with Dark Shadows, which has several of the same people involved. Alice is so much better than Dark, and each of those people involved in both is so much better in Alice. I heard it said a long time ago that Meryl Streep creates an accent for each character she plays. I realize now that is true too of Johnny Depp, who manages to carry each unique voice (and look) consistently through a film. Here, he is quite good as the Mad Hatter.

The story seems to mix the two books together. I don’t know why Alice is older here than in the books; accounting for that just bogs down the story. I wonder what Carroll would have thought of Alice as an emancipated, entrepreneurial woman. For the most part, I enjoyed this movie for the characters and the visuals, not at all surprising for a Tim Burton movie.

Election, NADA - New American Dark Ages

“It is a revealing glimpse into how the world would look if Cruz’s conservatives ran it.” — Dana Milbank

I urge you to read this article for the details of what really matters to the Radical Wrong.

Dana Milbank:No room for the sick and poor on GOP lifeboat – Editorial – Ohio

On the second day of the shutdown, House Republicans continued what might be called the lifeboat strategy: deciding which government functions are worth saving.

In: veterans, the troops and tourist attractions.

Out: poor children, pregnant women and just about every government function that regulates business or requires people to pay taxes.

The lifeboat strategy was the brainchild of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the freshman who has become the de facto leader of congressional Republicans in the shutdown.

Dana Milbank:No room for the sick and poor on GOP lifeboat – Editorial – Ohio

Viddy

Prometheus (2 stars)

The original Alien scared me to death. Everyone in it was good, but most especially Sigorney Weaver. The sequel Aliens managed to surpass the first movie, something that is rarely done. (Die Hard 2 would be another example; Tremors 2 would be an example of the more common collapse of a franchise.)

Ever the optimistic nerd, I had hopes for Prometheus, the prequel to Alien. It has a few great scenes, especially the android David in the alien planetarium. It has a few interesting characters/actors, such as Michael Fassbinder as David, Charlize Theron as Ms Vickers, and Idris Elba as Cap’n Janek. However, the movie has so many flaws, so much nonsense, it was almost unbearable to watch. Was the Engineer at the beginning creating or destroying a world? (“Sometimes, you must destroy before you can create.” Like destroy the respect Alien(s) earned in order to create … nothing respectable.) I do so hate stone tech, which I blame Indian Jones for popularizing. You know, press the stone glyphs to reveal a magically powered machine. What the hell was up with the virtual 3D security footage?

I know that Scott worked backwards from the phenomenal, darkly-lit, briefly seen Observer in the original Alien. He wanted to explain what lead the Observer/Engineer to be where he was. But wasn’t the Observer enormous, not just a big muscle-bound guy? How does the Alien Observer make sense in the context of the bloody (one of too many) death of the last Engineer?

The Engineer’s destruction of David was an interesting counterpoint to Blade Runner, where the android could have killed Ford but didn’t. Turns out our god was more senselessly violent than even we are. (Proving, as I’ve always felt, that we created god in our image.)

So, the Engineers came to earth and “created” (spawned) us. Then, they planned to come back and destroy us, but got interrupted by … what? worms on the exoplanet? So, David implants/infects what’s-his-name with a bit of the stuff engineered to destroy us (maybe), and David impregnates the no-Sigourney Noomi Rapace, who becomes pregnant with a squid child she extracts using a self-surgery machine. The squid child kills the last Engineer, giving rise to … ta-da .. the Aliens of the Alien series. I assure you it doesn’t help to understand or pay attention. Just watch things blow up. (Sound advice for all “blockbusters.”)

Election

Political hostage tactics and vandals

Thumbnails 10/2/2013 | MZS | Roger Ebert

Senator Elizabeth Warren brings it home, as she is wont to do: “In a democracy, hostage tactics are the last resort for those who can’t win their fights through elections, can’t win their fights in congress, can’t win their fights for the presidency, and can’t win their fights in the courts. For this right wing minority, hostage taking is all they have left. A last gasp of those who cannot cope with the realities of our democracy.”

Thumbnails 10/2/2013 | MZS | Roger Ebert

Government Shutdown – The Reign Of Morons Is Here – Esquire By Charles P. Pierce at 9:10AM

In the year of our Lord 2010, the voters of the United States elected the worst Congress in the history of the Republic. There have been Congresses more dilatory. There have been Congresses more irresponsible, though not many of them. There have been lazier Congresses, more vicious Congresses, and Congresses less capable of seeing forests for trees. But there has never been in a single Congress — or, more precisely, in a single House of the Congress — a more lethal combination of political ambition, political stupidity, and political vainglory than exists in this one, which has arranged to shut down the federal government because it disapproves of a law passed by a previous Congress, signed by the president, and upheld by the Supreme Court, a law that does nothing more than extend the possibility of health insurance to the millions of Americans who do not presently have it, a law based on a proposal from a conservative think-tank and taken out on the test track in Massachusetts by a Republican governor who also happens to have been the party’s 2012 nominee for president of the United States. That is why the government of the United States is, in large measure, closed this morning.

We have elected the people sitting on hold, waiting for their moment on an evening drive-time radio talk show.

We have elected an ungovernable collection of snake-handlers, Bible-bangers, ignorami, bagmen and outright frauds, a collection so ungovernable that it insists the nation be ungovernable, too. We have elected people to govern us who do not believe in government. …

We have elected a national legislature in which the true power resides in a cabal of vandals, a nihilistic brigade that believes that its opposition to a bill directing millions of new customers to the nation’s insurance companies is the equivalent of standing up to the Nazis in 1938, to the bravery of the passengers on Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, and to Mel Gibson’s account of the Scottish Wars of Independence in the 13th Century. We have elected a national legislature that looks into the mirror and sees itself already cast in marble.

We did this. We looked at our great legacy of self-government and we handed ourselves over to the reign of morons.

Government Shutdown – The Reign Of Morons Is Here – Esquire

That has been my contention for a long time, that the liberlunians want to prove government is total ineffective.

Meet the Morons Who Caused This Shutdown – Esquire

There has never been a single House of the Congress with a more lethal combination of political ambition, political stupidity, and political vainglory than this one.

Meet the Morons Who Caused This Shutdown – Esquire

Election, Health

It took 15 minutes to save $1000/month on NM Health Insurance Exchange

Michael Cadigan of Cadigan Law Firm PC says health exchange will save him $1,000 a month – Albuquerque Business First by Dennis Domrzalski Reporter- Albuquerque Business First

The New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange saved one Albuquerque small business owner $1,000 a month in insurance premiums Tuesday.
 

Michael Cadigan, president and owner of the Cadigan Law Firm P.C., said he signed up the firm’s four employees Tuesday for an insurance policy and got a quote that was $1,000 less a month than he’s currently paying.

“I was very pleasantly surprised. I thought it was going to be an administrative nightmare and it literally took me 15 minutes once I found everybody’s birthdates, Social Security numbers and ZIP codes,” Cadigan, a former Albuquerque city councilor, said. “They gave me a quote that would save me $1,000 over what I was paying at Pres [Presbyterian Health Plan], so I’m psyched.”

Cadigan said he chose a gold level plan, which pays 80 percent of medal expenses, for the firm.

“I selected gold and it gave me 17 choices and I signed up for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico,” Cadigan said. “I thought this was going to be an all-day thing, so I had a Diet Coke handy, was well rested and I had a good lunch, and it was almost disappointing” that it was so easy.

“I was blown away,” he said. “I hope it’s not too good to be true.”

Michael Cadigan of Cadigan Law Firm PC says health exchange will save him $1,000 a month – Albuquerque Business First

Link to New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange

Election, NADA - New American Dark Ages

The Nullification Party by Andrew Sullivan

Hat tip to Rebecca Lasley.

The Nullification Party « The Dish

How does one party that has lost two presidential elections and a Supreme Court case – as well as two Senate elections  –   think it has the right to shut down the entire government and destroy the full faith and credit of the United States Treasury to get its way on universal healthcare now? I see no quid pro quo even. Just pure blackmail ….

I fear this nullification of the last two elections is a deliberate attempt to ensure that the American system of government as we have known it cannot work. It cannot, must not work, in the mindset of these radicals, because they simply do not accept the legitimacy of a President and Congress of the opposing party. The GOP does not regard the president as merely wrong – but as illegitimate. Not misguided – illegitimate. This is not about ending Obamacare as such (although that is a preliminary scalp); it is about nullifying this presidency, the way the GOP attempted to nullify the last Democratic presidency by impeachment. …

If we cave to their madness, we may unravel our system of government, something one might have thought conservatives would have opposed. Except these people are not conservatives. They’re vandals.

The Nullification Party « The Dish

"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