The International House of Bacon

August is over!

Books:

Big Boned - Meg Cabot: The Heather Wells stuff is my least favorite of the Cabot canon, and this one was pretty much the same for me - fun, but still a little draggy. I still think it’s the mystery element more than anything else that hangs me up.

Ultimate X-Men: The Tomorrow People/Return to Weapon X/World Tour/Hellfire and Brimstone/Ultimate War/Return of the King - Mark Millar: I’m enjoying the Ultimate-verse brand of X-Men, but the ages are really skewing me and since I’m actually somewhat familiar with the X-Men (unlike Spidey), a lot of stuff is still throwing me. But yeah, still a good time.

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse - Victor Gischler: This book should be in Grindhouse 2. Seriously - anyone with any affinity for trash cinema needs to pick this book up. I really, really wish I had money so I could turn this into a movie myself, it was so damn fun. Seriously, give this one a shot - the most fun I’ve had with an adult book in a while.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn and David Levithan: I had never read the novel, and with the movie coming out, I had to catch up. It’s a very good read, very interesting and probably more orthodox now given the YA glut we’re experiencing than it was at first publication. My fear, however, is that the movie is going to get it all wrong. All very, very wrong.

The Chris Farley Show - Tom Farley: Interview-style biography of the late Chris Farley. Interesting and sad all rolled into one.

Spindrift - Allan Steele: Fact: I’m a sucker for any decently-well-written “first contact” novel. For whatever reason, that area of science fiction always catches me. This is one of the very good ones - hard enough sci-fi where it’s believable, and a story well done enough where you honestly care when things go down. Rock solid, and I’ve already taken his other books out of the library.

The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel - Michael Scott: I didn’t think I’d like this kids adventure of an immortal and the elders fighting against evil, but it works. Works surprisingly well.

Prom Dates From Hell - Rosemary Clement-Moore: For a formulaic teen demon-hunting novel, this was a lot of fun. Certainly not groundbreaking, but I struggled to put this one down, so that means something. That’s the basic sign of a good book, right?

It’s Not News, It’s Fark - Drew Curtis: The Fark founder talks about what he’s observed from the news. It’s a good bathroom read - it’s like Fark if Fark was a magazine.

Movies:

Tropic Thunder/Pineapple Express/Hamlet 2: I’m bunching all three of these together because my feeling on them is essentially the same - how, exactly, can you take such great concepts and make them so unfunny. Hamlet 2 was the best of the bunch - it had heart and fun in places the other two lacked - but even then, the film dragged in so many areas. We nearly walked out of Pineapple Express it was so dull, and Tropic Thunder was an immense waste of non-Cruise talent. What happened?!

If there’s one downside to Palinpalooza, it’s the complete lack of critical examination of the quickly-forgotten DNC speech by Barack Obama. One of the better fact checks I’ve seen on it, interestingly, comes from the AP. I’ve understood Obama to be factually challenged for a while now anyway, but it’s good to see the media stepping up for once along the way. I’d like to highlight a couple of these, plus some of my own:

”Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under $5 million a year?”’

A flaw in the political process the last few years is the apparent inability for the left to understand the difference between policy and satire. Now, I know that conservatives generally aren’t funny, but guess what - when Bush says “a dictatorship would be easier,” it’s a laugh line. When McCain jokes about a random number and then actually explains his position directly after, the joke ain’t the policy. I expect the drones at Daily Kos or TPM to run with a joke line as policy, but not a Presidential candidate. Hell, this goes as far back as “the bombing begins in 15 minutes” line from Reagan - if you’re to the point where you can run for President on a major party ticket, those concepts are appropriately grasped. That Obama feels the need to highlight that in a national speech shows either a gross misunderstanding of McCain’s policy or a severe lack of understanding of basic humor. Neither of which are a good thing.

”And when one of his chief advisers — the man who wrote his economic plan — was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a ‘mental recession,’ and that we’ve become, and I quote, ‘a nation of whiners.”’

On Thursday morning, the second quarter GDP numbers were revised, with export sales leading the charge (rich irony given Obama’s trade leanings). Obama not only should have known the economic situation that day, but willingly chose not to adjust his speech. Combine that with the point that the media does, in fact, shape economic perception, and it seems like Obama’s more than just reaching here.

‘How else could he offer … a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?”

Only to a Democratic Presidential candidate does a government-run financial account become “private.” To cut Obama a little slack here, this is a myth that’s been perpetuated for more than three years now, but Obama missed a golden opportunity for accuracy.

“John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell - but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.”

Here’s one more thing I don’t get - does Obama really believe this? Does Obama really think that, if there was credible, useful information that bin Laden was, say, in a cave outside of Kandahar, that he wouldn’t make it a point to go after them? Furthermore, Obama and McCain hold the same position in American government - does Obama know where bin Laden is? If so, is he sharing? The answer, of course, is no, but that’s where Obama is failing here. That he even thinks it’s okay to imply this, let alone outright state it, shouldn’t sit well with anyone.

This will hopefully be my last Palin-only post for a while - even I’m getting a little exhausted by the nonstop coverage of all things Sarah. With that said, I’ve seen so many good pieces worth highlighting that I may as well put them all somewhere.

For the record, the whole “Bristol is pregnant” thing is more annoying than anything else. There’s a lot of impolite things that could be said about it, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Things happen, y’know?

With that said:

* Factcheck #1: Palin was against the “Bridge to Nowhere”. The “Bridge to Nowhere” was the name given to the waste in Congress, not the project itself, which is apparently still going forward. Confusing? Sure, but worth noting that the problem was the waste, not the project.

* An example of Palin’s foriegn policy experience. This is not to say she has a ton, or much at all, or even to say that Cindy McCain has much of a clue, but it’s not like she’s unaware of basics.

* Palin may be pro-life/anti-abortion, but she’s not anti-contraceptives. This might actually put her at odds with the head of the ticket, interestingly.

* Factcheck #2: With all this stuff that’s coming out - from Troopergate to the daughter’s baby to whatever else, the common theme is that Palin wasn’t vetted. She was. Don’t let the hype take the lead - they met numerous times, and no one can know for sure how often they may have spoken beyond that, but if McCain was as smitten by her as is being reported, it surely happened.

* How is the evangelical right apparently taking the pregnancy news? Grover Norquist reports positively, as does James Dobson, and so on . The pregnancy appears to have been an open secret, and the delegates are supportive. Also, kudos to Obama for stepping up quickly. A classy move by him.
* From Monday’s Rasmussen tracker:

Obama receives favorable reviews from 85% of Democrats while McCain is now viewed favorably by 90% of Republicans. Both men are viewed favorably by 60% of unaffiliated voters. Enthusiasm among Republicans for McCain is up significantly since the announcement of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Fifty-one percent (51%) of GOP voters now have a Very Favorable opinion of McCain, the first time he has ever topped the 50% level in that measure. On Friday morning, just 43% were that enthusiastic about McCain.

Palin is a bonafide hit early on. Popular with the core GOP, popular with conservatives, popular with evangelicals, and a financial boon as well: $47m in July with $10, coming since Friday, 11am.

* Factcheck #3: Palin didn’t push for a windfall profits tax, but rather renegotiated the existing severance tax, and for good reason. A quick and dirty - a severance tax is a one-time fee for resources being removed from the state they reside in. I don’t care much for them, but it’s standard, and the one that was negotiated by Palin’s predecessor was not done in public, so she fixed that. If only all government was that open.

* Compare and contrast Palin and Biden on energy. Who do you want filling in?

* Why not two more: Palin may have been part of the the Alaskan Independence Party for a time, but didn’t support Buchanan. The latter would worry me more than the former - again, Alaska is very different. VERY different. I know that there was more than a bit of an adjustment from Massachusetts to New Hampshire in terms of basic political activity when we moved up here, and I can’t imagine isolated Alaska is what we’d call “normal.” But Buchanan? He was - and still is - a bit of a douche.

That’s all I’ve got. I’m trying to get on a consistent schedule this week, but it’s already 10pm on Monday night for me, so we’ll see.