Speaking of Kicks to the Balls...

I don't know if you guys have followed the whole flap recently about who's to blame for 9/11, and the revisionist history pointing fingers against the Clinton administration - first in the "docu-drama" The Road to 9/11 pandered to us by Disney (see the trailer and "disclaimer" here), and now Republican pundits within the Administration and Congress. This sneak attack caused rightful outraged amongst these diplomats and retired officials, who conveniently had no real platform from which to defend themselves against a rewriting of history with them as the villains, and called into doubt ABC/Disney's true motives for the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. But we know, and I'm glad there's more people calling the President and his cronies to the mat - again.

Public Broadcasting seperates Truth from Fiction, part 1 and part 2.

Bill Maher and guests crush The Road to 9/11 on Real Time with Bill Maher.

Firebrand Keith Olbermann tops his 9/11 editorial here. And I thought it couldn't be done.

And there's this amusing little analysis.

Don't believe the hype, people. As Olbermann points out, responsibility is shared by at least 3 administrations, and probably 4. But as Clinton said in his own defense at the media witch hunt, "At least I tried." (while bitch-smacking FOX News 'fair and balanced' appraisal).

Ouch.

Worst. Game show. EVAR.

Jesus is a Baseball Bat

Or so Fox Faith (Fox's new Christian film unit) would have you believe...

On the other side of the coin, Mike Judge's Idiocracy looks fantastic. As does Renaissance. That is all.

This Just IN: Man Fights Panda, Man Owned.

Say what you will about Chinese legal procedure, but I wish the excuse of "I had too much beer when I threw down with that panda" held up in American courts.

Back...With A Vengeance

Hey gang. Sorry for the absence - I've been wicked busy, what with my house, seeing off friends to other sides of the country, Gencon, funerals, weddings, and even the occasional Crafty project ;) I've been peeking at the blog out the corner of my eye for the last week or so, so it's probably time to nut up and post. Here's the latest thoughts.

9/11
It's been 5 years now, and most of my fellow countrymen spent Monday pondering just what the hell happened and how we got here. Criticism from all sectors - war supporters, war protesters, conspiracy theorists, concilatory rebuilders, bleeding hearts and hawks - is noticably louder for one reason or another. And rightfully so - there's a lot to bitch about.

The nice thing is that some of the administration's lap dogs in the media have been let off their leash. How else can you explain the sudden dropping of testicles over at MSNBC and the NY Times?

Here's a sample:

Keith Olbermann's 9/11 Editorial (best TV editorial I've seen since Colbert's address to the White House press corps and best non-comedy commentary I've seen in years - bravo sir!)

And in the same vein, from the NY Times:

"9/11/06
Published: September 11, 2006

The feelings of sadness and loss with which we look back on Sept. 11, 2001, have shifted focus over the last five years. The attacks themselves have begun to acquire the aura of inevitability that comes with being part of history. We can argue about what one president or another might have done to head them off, but we cannot really imagine a world in which they never happened, any more than we can imagine what we would be like today if the Japanese had never attacked Pearl Harbor.

What we do revisit, over and over again, is the period that followed, when sorrow was merged with a sense of community and purpose. How, having lost so much on the day itself, did we also manage to lose that as well?

The time when we felt drawn together, changed by the shock of what had occurred, lasted long beyond the funerals, ceremonies and promises never to forget. It was a time when the nation was waiting to find out what it was supposed to do, to be called to the task that would give special lasting meaning to the tragedy that it had endured.

But the call never came. Without ever having asked to be exempt from the demands of this new post-9/11 war, we were cut out. Everything would be paid for with the blood of other people’s children, and with money earned by the next generation. Our role appeared to be confined to waiting in longer lines at the airport. President Bush, searching the other day for an example of post-9/11 sacrifice, pointed out that everybody pays taxes.

That pinched view of our responsibility as citizens got us tax cuts we didn’t need and an invasion that never would have occurred if every voter’s sons and daughters were eligible for the draft. With no call to work together on some effort greater than ourselves, we were free to relapse into a self- centeredness that became a second national tragedy. We have spent the last few years fighting each other with more avidity than we fight the enemy.

When we measure the possibilities created by 9/11 against what we have actually accomplished, it is clear that we have found one way after another to compound the tragedy. Homeland security is half-finished, the development at ground zero barely begun. The war against terror we meant to fight in Afghanistan is at best stuck in neutral, with the Taliban resurgent and the best economic news involving a bumper crop of opium. Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11 when it was invaded, is now a breeding ground for a new generation of terrorists.

Listing the sins of the Bush administration may help to clarify how we got here, but it will not get us out. The country still hungers for something better, for evidence that our leaders also believe in ideas larger than their own political advancement.

Today, every elected official in the country will stop and remember 9/11. The president will remind the country that he has spent most of his administration fighting terrorism, and his opponents will point out that Osama bin Laden is still at large. It would be miraculous if the best of our leaders did something larger — expressed grief and responsibility for the bad path down which we’ve gone, and promised to work together to turn us in a better direction.

Over the last week, the White House has been vigorously warning the country what awful things would happen in Iraq if American troops left, while his critics have pointed out how impossible the current situation is. They are almost certainly both right. But unless people on both sides are willing to come up with a plan that acknowledges both truths and accepts the risk of making real-world proposals, we will be stuck in the same place forever.

If that kind of coming together happened today, we could look back on Sept. 11, 2006, as more than a day for recalling bad memories and lost chances."

Seeing this, dare I believe that my fellow liberals are actually angry enough to say so? That the party - notwithstanding our vocally-opposed but voting-complacent 'leaders' - has some teeth? God I hope so. Bush and the Republicans have given the liberal movement so much ammunition they could call us Sandanistas (zing!) - we've seen indictments of corruption for Delay, Rove has all but confessed to 'helping out' the Valerie Plame leak, and Bush has admitted to OKing torture (TORTURE, PEOPLE - that's also known as terrorism on a small scale) and that there was no Iraq/Al Qaeda connecttion. I don't know they can give us anything more to help out this election. So what will you do with it, Democratic Party? If not now, when? If not us, who?

Avert Your Eyes if You Don't Like Naughty Language
I am normally pretty restrained on the blog, trying to keep the language from turning too blue, and I never would normally use the words I'm going to use right now to describe Anne Coulter, so please, if you want to continue to think well of me, skip the next sentence.

Anne Coulter is a ruthless psychotic cunt hack who should be drug out in the street and beaten until her eyes bleed for the good of our nation.

Don't say I didn't warn you. If you want to know why I'm using such naughty language, please check out this clip and this one. Words cannot begin to describe the outrage I feel. That she is given any airplay, moreover any modicum of respect or legitimacy, is shocking and disappointing beyond belief. Shame on you, FOX News. Shame on you, conservative America.

And On a Lighter Note...
Got to see some movies I've wanted to see for a while - there was some good 10kB reference material in there:

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang - Great flick, funny and keeps you on your toes. Val Kilmer's character is probably the funniest, most roundly developed gay character I've seen in a mainstream Hollywood film. Also, it proved to me someone could feasibly play a Thief/Detective and make it work :) Probably in my top 10 for the year.

Dirty - Ugh. It wants to be Training Day so bad, but ends up being more like a direct-to-video cop drama instead. Both the leads are good, but ultimately we never know why anything is happening: why the principles became corrupted in the first place; why their bosses want to sell them out to gangs; what the gangs have to do with anything. It's so bad we're told about the primary plot device for the action and "dramatic tension" (the shooting of an innocent man) before the movie even starts. Top it off with a total shit "surprise ending" and you've got a decent cop film totally ruined by the moments of poor storytelling and fabulously large plot contrivances. Best avoided.

The Italian Job (1967) - A fun, light romp. Not my type of crime film under normal circumstances, but it certainly was entertaining. Michael Caine, as always, rocks.

V for Vendetta - I tell you, this movie gets better with every viewing. I'm continually impressed by the Wachowskis' script and how it turned a 15 year old warning about fascism and passive consent to it into something so relevant today. Fuck Alan Moore's rejection of the work because it wasn't true enough to his original vision - this movie, like Kenneth Branaugh's visionary Hamlet update (still not on DVD for god knows what reason), makes some small concessions in order to keep the original work relevant for today's audience.

Calling all Kiwis and Aussies
I need your help. My wife and I will be enjoying a 3 week vacation in Australia and New Zealand from November 10-December 4, and I need to bounce some ideas off you for things to do and places to go. Our tenatative plan has us in Oz for 1 week (split between Cairns and Sydney), North NZ for 1 week (Auckland to start, then who knows), and South NZ (camping and tramping?) for 1 week. Drop me an email at alex AT crafty-games DOT com if you have suggestions!

Later peeps.