The Why We War

Amir Taheri on the stakes in Iraq:

Those familiar with al Qaeda’s literature in the past four years know that all jihadi groups regard new Iraq as the principal battlefield between Osama bin Laden’s version of Islam and modernity.The new Iraq also has determined enemies within:

* The Shiite sectarians, often linked to the Khomeinist regime in Tehran, have done all in their power to destabilize the country and undermine the democratically elected institutions.

* Sunni sectarians, often supported by governments or groups in Arab states, have pursued similar objectives.

* The Saddamite regime’s remnants, especially the 200,000 or so members of the Ba’athist Republican Guard, provide the backbone of rival Shiite and Sunni insurgent groups and death squads.

And then, the chase – emphasis mine:

The struggle for Iraq is so bloody and bitter because the stakes are extremely high. The success of the democratic forces and their allies, notably America, in preserving the above achievements could have as dramatic an impact in the Middle East as the Soviet Union’s fall had in Europe.

Preserving the victory achieved in Iraq means delivering a deathblow to all the Middle East’s demons: the pan-Arab chauvinists, the Khomeinists, al Qaeda and other jihadis, Shiite and Sunni sectarians, and reactionary autocrats.

To the left:  Terrorists flock to Iraq because we’re the great satan and they hate us.

To the right:  Terrorists flock to Iraq because they realize that this is Terrorism’s Stalingrad.

(Via Jeff Kouba at TvM)

Bong Hits 4 SCOTUS

It’s the same old story:

Let’s join them, shall we?

[Joseph] Frederick filed suit, saying his First Amendment rights were infringed. A federal appeals court in San Francisco agreed, concluding the school could not show Frederick had disrupted the schools educational mission by showing a banner off campus.

Former independent counsel Kenneth Starr argued for the principal that a school “must be able to fashion its educational mission” without undue hindsight from the courts.

Now, let’s get this straight; the “incident” happened six years ago, and the kid won (albeit at the Ninth Circuit, which is sort of like a group of Phyllis Kahns in robes) – and the school district took it to the Supremes?

That brought swift skepticism from some justices.

“There was no classroom here,” said Kennedy.

“This was education outside a classroom,” replied Starr of the torch relay observation.

“What did it disrupt on the sidewalk?” asked Souter of Fredericks banner.

“The educational mission of the school,” was Starrs answer.

“The school can make any rule that it wants on any subject restrictive of speech, and if anyone violates it, its disruptive?” asked Souter.

Ding ding ding. Give a cigar to David Souter.

Welcome to life in a public school – where a parent, in addition to chauffeur, short order cook, taskmaster and sales manager, needs to be a lawyer to boot.

Justice Samuel Alito, alone among his conservative bench mates, appeared sharply critical of the schools position

“I find that a very, very disturbing argument,” he said, “because schools have and they can define their educational mission so broadly that they can suppress all sorts of political speech and speech expressing fundamental values of the students, under the banner of getting rid of speech thats inconsistent with educational missions.”

I’m tempted to get my daughter to make a sign – “Christians 4 Reagan” – and see what happens.

Let me leave aside my well-established cynicism about the public schools’ “educational mission” (and I do suspect that an awful lot of kids learned much more about American civics and government through this case than they ever did in class. Indeed, if my daughter’s last public school history teacher is any indication, they’d probably learn more American history watching soap operas. But I digress). And don’t bother that the “war on drugs” is a quagmire in a way that Vietnam never was and Iraq never will be, which has killed more Americans than both wars put together, for a moment.

The answer, on the part of the school (an arm of government) in response to this frankly dumb, sophomoric provocation is not to throw yet another draconian, anti-“educational” rule at it (although it’s more than likely the kid learned more in ten days out of school than he’d have learned sitting on his butt in a classroom). The answer to “bad” speech – or “dumb” speech, like this kid’s doltish sign, is to explain to him and the other students why this is dumb, wrong and sophomoric.

There are so many ways to do this; have the students talk about what is sophomoric versus useful speech; learn a bit of logic, and critical thinking; expose them to humor predating John Stewart, maybe.

Of course, if public schools taught critical thinking (to other than kids on the debate team), they’d grow up into parents that questioned whether jamming kids into huge schools run on an assembly-line model – possibly the system least conducive to actually learning things ever devised – is a good idea.

And then all hell would break loose.

New Math

The Strib, pro forma, notes:

A much smaller group of counterprotesters held signs and shouted slogans supporting the troops, the war and Bush.

They left out “dominated every argument with calm style”.

And while our numbers were certainly small, I called my friend from Citizens for a Supine “Safer” Minnesota for an estimate.

“You had close to 1000 people there”, she said upon looking at the group picture.

I always feel better about numbers after I talk with her.

Happy To Pay For A Dull, Anal-Retentive Minnesota

Bluesfest leaves Duluth.

Why?  Because Duluth’s crypto-Maoist government wants to squeeze blood from a turnip, natch:

Organizers of Duluth’s Bayfront Blues Festival say they’re choosing a new site to avoid losing thousands of dollars in revenue to the city.

The festival has been held in Duluth near Lake Superior for the past 18 summers.

But festival officials say they’ll name a new site by week’s end.

Duluth officials have been asking for a larger cut of ticket sales, control of beer sales, as well as an exhaustive audit of the festival’s accounting.

Festival attorneys say the city’s demands would cost an additional $48,000 this year.

Bergson – who may be Minnesota’s wackiest neosoc mayor – smells untapped small change:

Duluth Mayor Herb Bergson’s staff estimates that festival President Chris Mackey may owe the city at least $30,000 in back taxes and ticket fees. Bergson has requested all the festival’s accounting records.

How much real revenue – sales taxes, hotel taxes, and other revenue gained from having people actually come to Duluth and spend money – is Bergson whizzing away?

Minnesota Is Porked

Katherine Kersten writes re the Somali booze/pork flap:

Will America do better than Europe at assimilating Muslims? The jury is still out. But recent local events – Somali taxi-drivers refusing to carry passengers with alcohol, Target cashiers refusing to handle pork, the flying imams incident — signal that difficulties lie ahead.

Perhaps, but I’m not sure for whom.

Where are these problems in other cities? Detroit, which has the largest Moslem population in the nation per-capita, doesn’t seem to have these issues (or maybe Detroit’s other issues overshadow them); If the scruples of Moslem cabbies and checkouts were causing trouble in New York or LA, you wouldn’t think the selectively-righteous indignation of a few cabbies and clerks in the Twin Cities would make the news, would you?

These “problems” just don’t seem to exist elsewhere.

Submitted for your approval; the “problem” arises from…:

  1. …the presence of a relatively huge Somali community, brought to the Twin Cities during the Clinton Administration (with major help from our local DFL representatives, who realize that poor, welfare-bound immigrants make reliable DFL supporters),
  2. a number of imams serving that community that preach a strain of Islam that’d seem to be more fundamentalist than the Quran itself, and
  3. a local media that will serve as the chuzzlewitted, unpaid sock puppet of any special interest that can chant “Bush Sucks” in any language.

How will it resolve? Well, that’s the interesting question. Will the new DFL majority, to be sensitive to the new immigrants’ mores, ban pork and alcohol? Will local Somalis tire of the ostracism their excessively fastidious and publicity-hungry coreligionists will continue bringing them?

Or will this be for a group of publicity-hungry imams what Tawanna Brawley was for Al Sharpton?

I Don’t Think That Means What She Thinks It Means

On Saturday, Washington Senator and embarassment Patty Murray delivered the response to President Bush’s address on Saturday:

Senator Patty Murray said the nation needs a new direction in Iraq, “not more of the same failures.”…She blamed “Senate Republicans and a president who stubbornly refused to listen” for blocking a Democratic plan to narrow the mission in Iraq. The Senate rejected a measure this week that called for a withdrawal to begin within 120 days.

Thank goodness.

Nothing quite like giving the enemy a date on which they can operate with impunity. Nothing like telling the Iraqis – the majority – that want the insurgents removed or killed that it’s time to shut up if you want to be alive 130 days from now.

Democrats: Still not ready to run a nation.

Logic Via The Left

So we followed the demonstration up to Lagoon and Hennepin.

We stood at the corner, flag and signs in hand, as the crowd of “protesters” swelled around us. Oh, we got some good response – an MTC bus driver honked and gave us a thumbs up – as well as some anger (a few middle fingers).

“So why didn’t you join the Army?”, yelled one vapid/drunk-looking thirtysomething decked out in Patagonia.

“Um, because on 9/11 I was a 38 year old single parent with two bad knees, offhand?” I responded.

Patagonia stood there, flummoxed, not really thrilled with the whole “eye contact” thing. “Oh, yeah? Are you on the Halliburton payroll?”

Observation: At their best, the typical anti-war protester is incapable of maintaining a discussion of longer than one statement, maybe two, without changing the subject. If you follow these things in my comment section, of course, it’s no surprise, but it’s interesting to see how flummoxed they get when they’re not in complete control of the discussion (as they no doubt are on campus).

On the other hand, at their worst…

Oh, we had the usual – one red-faced guy bellowed “F*CK YOU!” at the top of his lungs (yes, there were kids present). Another, obviously intoxicated, staggered down the bus/turn lane in front of us, bellowing “YOU MOTHERF*CKING HYPOCRITES” (yeah, still kids present) before staggering in front of someone’s car.

The lowlight of the day?

A shrivelled little husk of a “person”, probably 5’6 with a ill-trimmed fringe of white hair and a tumorous white goatee framing what looked like ill-fitting dentures, walked up to us. “What IS the mission?” he bellowed, sounding mildly intoxicated.

“Win the war”.

“How do we do that?”, he yelled, with a voice whose vocal cords sounded calloused by years of bellowing along on cue at demonstrations.

“Kill the terrorists, make the country safe for the law-abiding Iraqi”.

“What if there’s a million of ’em?”

“There aren’t”.

He upped the ante; “What if there’s ten million of ’em?”

“There aren’t”.

“Are you on some oil company’s payroll?”

“Um, yeah. Does it show?”

He put his hand on my left shoulder. Then, with his left hand, he reached over and grabbed my crotch, then staggered away into the crowd.

My hands were in my pockets – partly to keep warm, largely to make sure I couldn’t react to provocations. That little leprechaun’s dentist can be thankful for this.

I’ll be going through any photos I find of the event. If I find him on film, anywhere, I’m going to give the little perv his fifteen minutes of fame.

Got film? I’d love to take a look.  I’d love to make sure his co-workers get some idea of his predilections…

…but then, from the looks of him his only job for the last forty years has been “protester”.

Family Values

The “protester” bumped – intentionally – into Amendment X.

A string of profanities – from the protester, bellowed at full volume – ensued.

I looked at the four little kids in strollers and wagons that the passersby were pushing/dragging.

“Dude, there’s kids here”.

I don’t think he skipped a beat.

Start The Demonstration Without Me

I went down to the Dunn Brothers at Lake and Bryant this morning, and was gratified to meet some people; Amendment X from Savage Republican, regular commenter BillH, a photographer whose name eludes me, and Mark, a charter member of “Old Friends of Mitch going back about thirty years. Fortified with Dunn’s finest, we walked over to Lake and Lyndale, by the Army Recruiting station (to the relief of the capo di tutti barristi, who clearly was not in favor of completing the mission.

There, we met Diamond Dog from Freedom Dogs and American flag, and Doug (missed the last name), who brought signs. Finally, walking up Lake Street from the other side of the protest, of all people, James Lileks – bearing video and still cameras and the pithiest counterchants in the business.

We stood in front of Greek To Me, across the street from the main body of the protest.

Most of the media must have been concentrated up at Loring Park, where the protest was supposed to end; all we had at Lake and Lyndale was a single cameraman from Channel 5 who, to Stanley Hubbard’s credit, crossed the street to film and talk with us.

After half an hour of highly-scripted chanting (a nice girl walked around at the beginning of the gathering, handing out a photocopied sheet of “Antiwar Chants by MN Socialist Alternative).

A cute redhead with a pierced nose and a carpenters apron festooned with fascist flair walked through the crowd selling buttons. Among them were a bunch of Che Guevara buttons.

“One dollar”, she said, perkily.

“You do know that Guevara was a mass murderer, don’t you? He ordered the execution of children?”

She grinned, looking a little dazed, and walked away to more fertile sales ground.

After half an hour or so, the “protesters” began walking down Lake Street toward Hennepin. After a block or two, their organizers – equipped with bullhorns – began urging the crowd to move out onto the westbound lane of Lake Street, causing a big, carbon-guzzling traffic jam behind them.

We counterprotesters, being ecologically conscious, stuck to the sidewalk.

The entire mob of them walked through Calhoun Square, chanting at the top of their lungs (Lileks and I followed them), and then came out the Hennepin side, heading north . The counterprotest met them at the corner, and as the bullhorns bellowed “Who is the terrorist?” we answered “Ahmadinejad!” over their feeble “Bush Is The Terrorist”.

More observations as they return to me…

Yesterday in DC

Michelle Malkin has the blogburst coverage of yesterday’s Gathering of Eagles counterdemonstration Vietnam Vet’s memorial – which, according to many observers, matched the well-funded ANSWER-sponsored protests against the war:

A pure, grass-roots effort, the Gathering of Eagles’ volunteers matched the massive Soros-funded anti-war machine sign for sign, chant for chant, and marcher for marcher. The contrast was most stark right before the entrance to the Memorial Bridge, where Eagles gathered with a field of American flags–while anti-Bush, 9/11 conspiracy nuts wrapped themselves in a figurative blanket of yellow “Out of Iraq” placards. Several of the vets shouted, “Yellow! How appropriate!” in between spirited chants of “U.S.A! U.S.A!” While the classless Cindy Sheehan ranted profanely, the Eagles raised their voices in polite, but roaring disapproval and raised their American flags in answer to the ANSWER socialists’ Che banners and peace pennants.

Why did the Eagles come? One common refrain: Vietnam veterans, some fighting back tears, told us they came to show the kind of support for the troops that they did not receive when the surrender lobby marched on the Pentagon 40 years ago today.

Mission accomplished.

Read the whole thing.

The American cultural right – with families and day jobs and mortgages – doesn’t do a lot of picketing in the streets; we don’t have people who’ve been organizing the kind of stuff since the Johnson Administration.

So the turnout – in DC and here – is gratifying and encouraging.

Act Locally

Lassie over at The Dogs on tomorrow’s local anti-war pro-dictatorship demonstrations:

12:00 PM – Books Not Bombs Youth Bloc
Gather at military recruitment station on Lake & Lyndale followed by a youth march to the…

1:00 PM Mass Community Antiwar Demonstration
Gather at Hennepin and Lagoon then march to Loring Park for a rally

On their flyer, these fine groups are in collaboration: Socialist Alternative , Anti-War Organizing League and Yo! The Movement 

You’ll find indoctrinated kids becoming active. These are the anarchists – kids – who are trashing military recruitment property and harassing military exhibitors at events. I’ve attended Iraq anti-war protests for the last three years, and found many supposed “peaceniks” who are anything but. The kids have a history of throwing paint and breaking windows at recruiting stations. If you are in the area Sunday, check ’em out. Better yet, speak up for our soldiers in Iraq and those who’ve returned and remind them that the adults are in charge.

If you have the time on Sunday – what, SUNDAY?    Not Saturday? 

Oh.  I’m so there.

Anyone want to meet up and do a counterprotest?

Maybe frequent commenter Doug can send some of his veteran friends to “bitch-slap” me.  That oughtta be good!

Note To Rudy

Carnivore from TvM notes:

No Democrat running for president has had anything to say about the ruling. If a Republican candidate, say a former mayor from New York, who needs help on the gun issue, would come out and actually endorse the ruling and say he would appoint judges likes those who decided the case for the majority, he would nearly guarantee picking up the Republican nomination. It would be enough to convince me and I’m to the right of Attila the Hun.

Note to Rudy (or his people):  this is not the kind of flip flop that’s going to hurt  your chances at a nomination.

On My Block, All The Guys Called Her Flamingo

Commenter Fresch Fisch left this in the comments section yesterday – one of the latest treasure trove of YouTube vids I’ve started obsessing over.  Only this one – a “Darkness”-era version of “Backstreets”, the best break-up song of all time – is astounding.

I like just about everything Springsteen’s done, from the great stuff (Born to Run, Tunnel of Love) to the not so great stuff (Tom Joad, Greetings from Asbury Park, Human Touch).  But as I’ve written before, Darkness On The Edge Of Town is still my favorite.

And the concert vids from the era – much more raw than from the Born In The USA tour, but just plain better and more polished than the Born To Run-era shows – are just stunning.  This version of “Backstreets” was from the era where Bruce would launch, more or less ad-lib (or so it seemed) into snippets of different songs during the bridges; “Backstreets” swerves through Manfred Mann’s “Pretty Flamingo”, an early version of “Drive All Night” (which’d come out two years later on The River), and something else that, in typical Springsteen form, has probably been part of a couple of different songs during his career.

I may meander around this subject some more in the next week.

Dioux The Sioux

While I follow hockey in general only a little more than, say, rollerderby, I do get a little excited over WCHA puck.  Partly because it’s really good hockey (sorry, NHL fans – I’ve always preferred college puck, albeit in the same way that I prefer being shot to death by a crazed fan to being trapped in flaming diesel oil), and partly because it’s a sport where my native NoDak kicks butt.

Chad from Fraters – who’s a hockey fanatic, but usually sober and with a mostly-full mouth of teeth – makes his calls for the WCHA tournament:

he WCHA team that I think is playing the best hockey right now is the extremely politically incorrect University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux. They shouldn’t have too much trouble putting SCSU down 5-3 in the Friday semi.

* I have no confidence in this Gopher squad and their silly hair-dyeing ways. Shaky goaltending and a young team does not usually get you far in the playoffs. I wouldn’t be shocked in the Gophers fell on Friday, but I gotta think that they should have enough to get past Tech 4-3 in the other semi.

* That sets up a UND-Minnesota final. The Sioux dominated the Gophers in a late-season sweep at Mariucci and I think they will do the same on Saturday, something along the lines of 4-2.

I pick the Sioux for the same reason I pick the Bears; I always do.  But I’ll go along with Elder.

I do want to note that Mark Yost, “pride” of Brooklyn, is picking a St. Cloud State–Wisconsin final. We’ll see who has the true hockey cred after this weekend.

Uh huh.

It Wants Food

The DFL-glutted Senate is Happy To Demand More Money for a “Better” Minnesota:

A more-than-$500-million annual tax increase for roads and transit survived its first test Thursday in a state Senate committee, suggesting that legislators’ appetite for new revenue and the investments it would fund will fuel a long and spirited debate at the Capitol.

The measure includes a 10-cent increase in Minnesota’s gasoline tax of 20 cents a gallon, a half-cent sales-tax hike in the seven-county Twin Cities area that would require no voter referendum, higher vehicle-registration renewal fees and statewide county-option wheelage taxes of up to $20 per vehicle per year.

If the bill were to become law in its present form, it would raise more than $1 billion a year by 2012 through increased taxes, borrowing and a tax transfer approved by voters last November.

“We’re going to move the state forward,” said Senate sponsor Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing. “We’re tired of sitting in the same spot.”

Expect the DFL to stay on one message if no other; “Taxes” equals “progress”, “forward”, a “Better Minnesota”.

Most elected Republicans, including Gov. Tim Pawlenty, oppose the smorgasbord of new taxes and fees in the bill, which passed the Transportation Committee on a straight party-line vote of 11 to 7.

Sen. Dick Day, R-Owatonna, said Republicans on the committee offered no amendments Thursday because it would have been “almost like putting a helmet on a kamikaze pilot.”

Thanks for nothing, Dick Day. You have been skittering about the center for most of your career. You’ve kept the “Carlson Republican” flag flying.

Thanks for turning into a “tax hawk” exactly one career too late.

Murphy estimated that his current bill would cost an average family of four with two cars less than $200 a year to “save lives, improve roads and transit, create jobs and bring economic benefit for everybody.”

Day put the tab at up to $580 a year for a three-car family, which Murphy said would still represent a savings off the $800-a-year “congestion tax” allegedly borne by gridlocked Twin Cities commuters. But Sen. Gen Olson, R-Minnetrista, said such savings wouldn’t accrue for many years, if at all.

The great untold story; we’ll still be paying the “congestion tax” in the Metro, because the DFL is committed – thanks to the “Transportation Amendment”, which passed overwhelmingly last fall, 40% of these increases will be going to fund Mass Transit, which predominantly moves people from where they aren’t, to where they don’t want to go.

A billion will be squandered on the Central Corridor light rail line, connecting the two Downtowns (and connecting them badly, according to current plans), which will scarcely affect congestion on 94, much less 494; the clots on that stretch of road aren’t caused by people going from downtown to downtown, but by people going from Wisconsin to Eden Prairie and from Minnetonka to 3M.

To which Murphy replied: “I can guarantee that after 10 years of this program congestion will be reduced in the metropolitan area.”

And if your “guarantee” doesn’t get met, Mr. Murphy? What then? A guarantee without a remedy for default isn’t much of a guarantee at all.

Nice to know not everyone at the Capitol is insane:

Said Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung: “The Democrats took a transportation bill that started out loaded up with tax increases and added a few more. This bill is the original veto-bait transportation bill.”

One might hope.

Yet Again

Paglia is right about Ann Coulter:

Coulter is a smart woman with formidable energy, and whether liberals like it or not, she is a high-profile feminist role model in her appetite for aggressive debate. But Coulter seems to be regressing rather than growing intellectually and sharpening her analytic skills. She evidently leaves no room in her life for study and reflection. I take books seriously (which is why I left the scene for five years to write “Break, Blow, Burn”) and thus hold against Coulter the part she has played in the debasement of that medium. Her books may rake in millions but won’t last because they are shoddily constructed. Coulter should be using her syndicated column for her topical opinions but her books for more considered contributions. “Godless,” for example, which intriguingly postulates the quasi-religiosity of contemporary liberalism, should have stimulated wide discussion but was so thrown together and full of holes that it was easy to dismiss and went unread outside her core audience.

Coulter sometimes reminds me of William Shatner.

No, bear with me here.

Shatner started his career as a serious actor.  Then came Star Trek.  And after Strek, he gave in to camp.

Coulter seems about the same; she can offer steak, but she seems to focus on sizzle.

Trite, embarassing sizzle.

Hooray For Hollywood

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of Red’s memes. This one’s about movies.

So I’d best get cranking, huh? 

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.

Not as many as I’d have liked.  Casablanca, of course, I’ve seen 44-46 times.  I’ve probably seen Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back,  Return of the King, Maltese Falcon, Das Boot, LA Confidential and The Usual Suspects somewhere close to ten times each, although who’s counting?

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater.

Very few!  Being all half-Norwegian and all, that kinda goes against my genetics. 

The only ones that jump to mind are Rocky Horror Picture Show (it’s not like you can watch that one on your VCR, right?), First Blood, probably Star Wars and Rocky, and that was about it.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.

I’ve gone to a couple of movies strictly to see Marisa Tomei.  It’s led me into bummers (What Women Want) and stunners (Welcome to Sarajevo). 

Probably Kate Winslet and Paul Giamatti.

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.

I can’t think of any. 

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.

Casablanca, This Is Spinal Tap, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian all jump to mind. 

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs

Probably not what they’re looking for, but the only two I can think of are Tommy and Quadrophenia. Which aren’t really “musicals”, but I’ve never really gotten into them.  I used to know all the drum parts to Cabaret…

UPDATE:  After reading Tommy’s entry, I need to add “every Disney movie that came out when my kids were little” – Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Little Mermaid…

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with

Quadrophenia!

“Bell Bo-ee! Carry the bloody baggage out!”

And probably “This Is Spinal Tap”

“Livin’ in a HELL HOLE!  Don’t wanna die in a HELL HOLE!”

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.

An Inconvenient Truth.  Not.

I really loved Lost In Translation, although I don’t think a lot of people “get” it. 

The Big Red One is one of my favorite war movies – I tip it to war movie buffs all the time.

9. Name a movie that you own.

Not all that many!

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.

Eminem was actually really good in Eight Mile.  And this might get me drummed out of the League of Irate Conservative Talk Hosts, but I thought Ludacris was excellent in Crash.

Oh – Dwight Yoakam was great in When Trumpets Fade and Sling Blade. I had no idea it was him, in either movie.  Impressive.

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?

We had a drive-in in Jamestown when I was little, and I remember going there with my parents.  I don’t remember any of the movies.  I do remember throwing up macaroni hot dish after we got home from one movie there, though.

12. Ever made out in a movie?

Um, yeah.  Most recently – well, the make-out was more memorable than the movie.  Can’t remember which movie it was.

It was not The English Patient or Leaving Las Vegas, if that helps.

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it.

So many.  Movies were not a huge part of my life growing up – we didn’t even have a theater in Jamestown for a couple of years.  Red’s got me jonesing to see a lot of things – old Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman films I’ve missed over the years, Hitchcock stuff, this and that and the other thing.

14. Ever walked out of a movie?

Very rarely.  I’m half Norwegian, remember?  If I think a movie’s going to stink, I don’t waste the money.  I’ve only walked out on two, ever.  I bailed on The Burbs, a movie Tom Hanks made during his fall from grace between Big and Philadelphia, where he kinda jumped the shark for a couple of years.  Awful, horrible movie.  And one time, the kids wheedled me into taking them to Little Nicky, the worst Adam Sandler movie ever.  I marched us outta there in about ten minutes.

I almost left Red Dawn after about twenty minutes, but stuck it out.  I still debate that decision; the movie remains the guiltiest of all guilty pleasures.

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.

I don’t cry.  But Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was incredibly emotionally affecting.  And I’ll go along with Red – A Walk To Remember was very, very good (and would have been better had Nicholas Sparks been able to write a story that didn’t have such a schmaltzy, overblown, artificial ending).

16. Popcorn? 

Light butter.  The Riverview in Minneapolis makes the best popcorn ever – sorry, Uptown Theater, but it’s the truth.

17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?

10-12 times a year.

18. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?

Casino Royale at the Roseville (a second-run $2 house).

19. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie?

Noirs, good war movies, and just about anything with a really good story.

20. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?

Bambi.  At the Grand in Jamestown.  I think I was 4.

21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?

The Phantom Menace. That movie made me angry! 

22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?

Not sure how to answer that.  Nothing is really “weird” to me; I am a pretty nonsequential person.

23. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen?

I don’t really go to scary movies much.  I figure if I want to be scared, I’ll just lie in bed and contemplate my life for a while. 

I got wheedled into seeing The Ring once.  Hated hated hated it.

24. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen?

Too many to count.  Movies where I remember laughing so hard I thought I was going to be hurt:  Airplane, Naked Gun, A Fish Called Wanda (John Cleese’s Russian scene), and, much as it shames me to admit it, the “terrorist” scene in Jackass Number Two.

She’s Got A Point

Camille Paglia on women in politics:

Dianne Feinstein is far more presidential than Hillary Clinton, who alternates between smugness and defensiveness before pulling out that tiresome middle-aged .mom card. Feinstein, even when maneuvering strategically, always seems genuinely focused on the idea at hand, while Hillary isn’t really there — she’s just riffling mentally through her team’s cue cards. All politicians are actors, but Hillary’s a bad one. No audience wants to see with such crystal clarity how it’s being massaged.

The whole thing  – about Obama, Clinton and Coulter – is worth a read.  Since it’s Paglia, it’ll be a mercurial, sometimes infuriating read, but that’s just fine…

Thank You, Mrs. Clinton

You are a gift that keeps on giving.

Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton told Democrats Tuesday the “vast, right-wing conspiracy” is back, using a phrase she once coined to describe partisan criticism…Clinton was first lady when she famously charged allegations of an affair between her then-president husband Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky were the result of a conservative conspiracy.

Again, thank you.

Keep up the great work.

Good Thing We Have Gatekeepers!

Last week,Joel Rosenberg highlighted a piece from the Blue Earth Daily Democrat about a fatal shooting.

Let’s flip through the piece and find the bits and pieces of atrocious style, editorial malfeasance, and error in fact; I’ll highlight them and put explanations in square brackets.

No fair looking at Joel’s piece. Yet.

A Richfield man was charged Tuesday with unintentional murder for shooting his half- brother to death in their home last Friday.

Jerome H. Bartlett, 40, allegedly got into an argument with his half-brother who went out with a friend to get takeout food and found the front door locked when he returned about 9 p.m. Friday [Leaving aside that it’s a bit of run-on – who found the front door locked, the half-brother or the friend? Who were these half-brothers and friends? Do they turn up in the future?]. Derek Storrusten, 36, had left it unlocked and got angry at his brother for locking it, said the friend, according to second-degree murder charges filed in Hennepin County District Court [Huh?]. The charging document continued:

Storrusten pounded on the door and called his Bartletts cell phone [Whose? His? Huh?] before getting in through a back door. He started arguing on the basement stairs with Bartlett, then went down stairs to Bartletts bedroom. Then the friend, who was identified only by initials, heard a loud gunshot.

“You killed me,” Storrusten yelled a few times, the friend told police.

“Talk to Jesus,” Bartlett replied several times.

The friend [Was this the same friend as above?] ran outside and called police, as did Bartlett. He said Bartlett appeared in his underwear and yelled at him to go home.

Bartlett initially told police he was awakened by noises he thought were made by an intruder and accidentally shot his brother. Then he said he knew it was Storrusten, but he fired in self defense [Brother? Storrusten? The usage is confusing].

Bartlett was waiting for police and directed them to the basement where they found Storrusten dead, with a 50 mm handgun a few feet away. He was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center where he died that night. [What? Both times?]

Oh, yeah. And that “50mm handgun”? Fifty millimeters is two inches – almost five times the bore of Dirty Harry’s .44 Magnum:

Would it be this kind of handgun?

No, that’s only 27 milllimeters!

Here’s the only “50mm handgun” I know about…

…and it’s not technically a “hand” gun.

Oh, and I lied. The story wasn’t from the Blue Earth Daily Democrat. It was from the Minneapolis Star/Tribune – the place with the gatekeepers that make them so much better than bloggers.