The International House of Bacon

Happy May!

Books:

Ultimate Spider-Man: Venom/Irresponsible - Brian Michael Bendis: Still lovin’ the Spidey. Irresponsible may have been the first one I was genuinely shaky on, though.

Pandora’s Star - Peter F. Hamilton: An 800 page sci-fi tome that doesn’t even get into the meat of the story until almost halfway through. Oh, and then it makes you wait for the sequel. This is not damning a book with praise, however - it’s really exactly the kind of sci-fi epic I’ve been hungering for, and I’m honestly loving every page of the two book series. Highly, highly recommended.

Sarah Simpson’s Rules for Living - Rebecca Rupp: I’m not sure if it’s just so close to Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls or what, but this book didn’t do it for me at all. A kids book about a child working her way through, it just felt kind of stilted and empty, especially compared to Allie Finkle’s vibrancy or the endearing quirks of A Crooked Kind of Perfect. Too many threads left unresolved, and it just didn’t work for me.

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life/vs. The World - Bryan Lee O’Malley: I started reading these in part because I thought they’d be a good fit for my library (they are) and because Michael Cera’s signed on to be the title role in the film version. They’re fun, a little different, perhaps a wee bit more manga than I prefer, but still really good.

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You - Peter Cameron: A great, great YA book about an older teenager dealing with his life and therapy and whatever else. I really enjoyed this, it took some time to get into and suffers from Somewhat Unsatisfactory YA Book Ending, but still worked out great.

The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America - David Hajdu: The title of the book says it all - a very academic look at the government’s war on comic books in the 1940s-1950s. Some things never change.

Heroes: Volume 1: Published anthology of the free Heroes webcomics posted on NBC.com. Not essential, but a fun diversion nonetheless.

The Gollywhopper Games - Jody Feldman: Take Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, put it in a toy company, and add in a dash of social commentary, and you get this book. Not a bad read, even with the obvious nods to past ideas, and it’s one I’ll give to kids in a flash.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie: I loved this book. Loved it loved it loved it. The story of a kid on an Indian Reservation who strives for things greater than what’s around him, and it works. I understand Alexie gets a lot of flack from American Indians, and I think I can see why, but this is still a really great book.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart: If Wes Anderson was to write a young adult novel about Massachusetts boarding schools, I somehow feel like this book might be it. I’m a big Lockhart fan, and I feel like this story and writing was a big step above anything she’s put out at this point. An interesting narrative, a fun story, and it just works really, really well for me.

Movies:

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: I apparently forgot to get the memo that Judd Apatow’s crew isn’t funny anymore, because this movie was hilarious. Paced a lot better than a lot of efforts along the same line, and had plenty going for it from start to finish. High marks for this one.

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle: A rewatch for the inevitable viewing of the sequel. Yes, it’s absurd. Yes, Ann & I inadvertently watched it on 4/20. Yes, I love this movie a bit too much for someone who never touched illicit substances in college.

Baby Mama: Tina Fey is awesome, this movie was just okay. The funny parts were VERY funny, but it got dragged down a lot by the more touching parts, and that’s always tough. Not a bad watch, but I could have waited for the DVD.

I’m so behind. Or something.

* Budget situation in New Hampshire worse than feared. The worst part is that there’s no way in hell we’ll be able to vote Lynch out this year. Absolutely pathetic stuff here.

* Some crazy video from North Korea. Rarely do you get to see such first-hand images from there, really crazy stuff.

* Peter Bagge’s cartoons in Reason are always fun, but his illustrated log of his time during the New Hampshire primary is fun. Mostly non-political, it’s worth a read.

* Will Obama get in trouble for misstating charitable contributions on his tax returns? He apparently filed an amended return, but what does that one say? It’ll be interesting to see if there’s much follow up on this.

* Also via Reason, a question posed by the Christian Science Monitor regarding the Constitutionality of mandated health insurance. I think it’s a little cowardly that they consider single-payer capable of passing muster, but as for the topic at hand, it’s a neat argument I hadn’t thought of.

* Speaking of single-payer, more horror stories. At what point do these stop becoming the exception?

* The United States’s corporate tax rate just got more uncompetitive, as New Zealand drops its rate a bit. John McCain’s the only person even considering a corporate tax rate cut, one of the few things we really need from the government currently. Barack Obama wants to essentially charge corporations more. Does this make sense to you?

* Hillary Clinton - willing to force you to buy health insurance while ignoring the bills for the health insurance her campaign is responsible for. Class act.

* GraniteGrok offers a great statement on why conservatives should vote for McCain. It’s similar to other statements on the matter, but this one really resonated with me a bit.

* The top ten most unreasonable parking tickets.

* And the final tally on “Earth Hour?” No significant fall in power use.

* I’m interested in seeing how Obama rectifies the differences between his Illinois Senate position survey and today. Not that changing one’s mind is a bad thing, but an explanation of how one gets there would be nice.

* Speaking of, here’s more detail on a dishonest Obama ad. Populism kills.

* I’ve said it before that Rev. Wright is different than Rev. Hagee because Wright was involved by invitation with Obama’s political career and Hagee was not. Well, Barack Obama has his Hagee now, and it’ll be interesting to see how Obama’s supporters spin this one.

* Civil disobedience at its finest. Hell, it’s hardly disobedience as much as a protest of ridiculousness from a local high school who punished some students for having pictures with plastic cups on their Facebook pages, implying underage drinking. So some students get together, rent a root beer keg, and have a party. Cops show up, everyone blows 0.0s, and it gets on YouTube. Lovin’ it.

* FactCheck appears to side with me regarding Obama and lobbyist money. FactCheck is hardly a extreme right-wing source, for the record. The FactCheck.org piece is here.

* Christopher Hitchens savages Hillary Clinton. It’s sometimes hard to remember that Clinton is only marginally better than Obama in the grand scheme of things.

* Best hockey fight of recent memory. I grew up hating Patrick Roy, I’m glad his son is a tough guy.

* What every American should know about the Middle East. I didn’t know two of these things.

* Finally, a note about how corporations helped in the Katrina aftermath. An interesting thing to recall in a year of populist claptrap about corporate America during an election year.

You know you read too many blogs when you’re without internet access from Friday afternoon -> Sunday afternoon, and you have 580 unread posts in your Google Reader. Let’s see if we can’t knock some of them off.

* Did I post this last week? Maybe I did, but it’s worth posting again: this is awesome. A cell phone that doesn’t work via voice.

* Do ankles really exist? Doctors in Texas can’t agree. Ah, licensing squabbles…

* If Jonah Goldberg wrote as intelligently as he did in Liberal Fascism, I’d read him more often. His piece this week on the stark realities of the New Deal is one of those good pieces that will likely get overlooked. There’s no rational reason why it took me until an upper-level college history class to learn that there was even a rational alternative view on the New Deal, let alone the economic facts behind it. If we taught that sort of information in high school, it would do wonders.

* Deval Patrick made a pretty big deal about the casino legislation - one of the few things he’s been up to that I’ve thought was a good idea up to this point. Too bad he was working on his book deal in New York when the bill was being voted on. Way to push those votes, Deval. Good job.

* I learned something new today: Most United States citizens get their water from public works/governments, most United Kingdom citizens get it from private companies. Pretty backwards if you think about it - I never knew it was that widespread here, or that private there.

* Forget those White Sox frauds, read up on how the Red Sox are built for the long haul. Happy opening week!

* I love the “Al Gore riding in on a white stallion and rescuing the Democratic Party during the convention” fantasies. The reality is that he’s not going to run, and the perception is that Gore is even further left than Obama’s is.

* More about where the two Democratic candidates stand v. McCain. It’s still early when we don’t know who the Democrat is, but this is where Obama’s hurting the most following the Wright debacle - he may be able to recover the hard left (if he ever lost them to begin with), but the center is where his bread and butter was supposed to be in terms of viability, and that’s no longer a given. Regardless, a LOT can change in 6 months.

* I don’t watch Fox News. I don’t have any standard feeling as to what they stand for, whether they’re actually conservative or just further right than their cable competition. I did see Outfoxed and found it to be ridiculous. With that said, MoveOn demonstrating against Fox News? Really? Apparently, they think the mainstream media is getting its talking points from Fox, and that’s apparently bad. Isn’t the left also in favor of reinstating the fairness doctrine? How do these two things compute? I’m glad MoveOn’s relevance is continuing to disappear.

* Coming soon: WiiGuyver, where you use your Wiimote to diffuse bombs. This is actually for real - the US military is using rigged Wiimotes to help diffuse land mines. How funny is that?

* This past weekend was “Earth Hour,” where some people, groups, businesses, and even governments turned the lights out for an hour for yet another statement about climate change that only echoed amongst those who care. Google took part, turning their homepage black. The irony? It uses more energy for a monitor to display black than it does to display white. Yeah yeah, “awareness” and all that jazz, but come on.

* Barack Obama says his foriegn policy is a “return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush’s father, of John F. Kennedy, of, in some ways, Ronald Reagan…” So let me get this straight - Bush 41 made it so we had to spend 12 extra years bombing Iraq while we bent over backwards for the UN, Reagan spent a great deal of time funding contras and other undesirables in an attempt to disrupt various events, and JFK botched the Bay of Pigs so badly that it lead to a missile crisis that left the USSR in better condition defensively than it was when it started two weeks earlier. This is the type of foriegn policy he’s considering “realistic” and wants to return to, while deriding the alleged “naive ways that have caused us so much damage in our reputation around the world?” Barack Obama has said some ridiculous things on the campaign trail so far, but this takes the cake.

That’s enough for today. More tomorrow.

Books:

A Shadow in Summer - Daniel Abraham: This is probably the first fantasy novel in a while that I thought I’d really enjoy and just couldn’t get into. It’s a short book, and I kept waiting to care about what was happening and it just wasn’t coming to me. I don’t think it was a bad book, I just couldn’t find much to like for myself in it.

Ex-Machina: March to War/Smoke Smoke - Brian K. Vaughan I’ll say it again - Brian K. Vaughan is probably my favorite comic writer, and I think if I had found Ex-Machina years ago, I would have gotten into comics a lot sooner. The Smoke Smoke arc was a bit off for me, but that’s still better than, I dunno, the latest Ultimates arc to this point?

Teen, Inc. - Stefan Petrucha: Too often, books get so bogged down in their messages that the narrative suffers a bit. While Teen, Inc is a well-written book with a fun concept (a child whose parents are killed by a defect in a product is adopted by the corporation that produced it, and now he’s a teenager), but goes knee-deep into the typical stereotypes about corporate America, and not in a humorous way. Message books are fine, and I expect them in young adult books, but this one was a little too overboard for me at some points.

Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me - Ben Karlin A fun set of essays about break-ups by famous people. As with any book of essays, there are good ones, bad ones, and weird ones. A fun bathroom read for me.

Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra - Wendy Lichman: A cute, if not a bit overly light and fluffy, YA novel/murder mystery/concept book. A very quick read, but still pretty enjoyable on a whole - the quirk is that the girl loves math (not in an Abundance of Katherines way for those who are familiar) and it influences things with her a bit. I dunno - it was almost too light to leave a noticeable impact, honestly. Which isn’t bad.

The Nine - Jeffrey Toobin: It’s interesting, reading this account of the Supreme Court in contrast to Supreme Conflict (my review here). In the latter, an appreciation for what the “conservative” wing of the Court brings plus an even-handed account of the political battles makes for a read that’s markedly different from Toobin’s view, where O’Connor is almost a martyr for the cause and where Souter is the thoughtful one while Scalia is the abrasive jerk. In reality, the “true” story likely falls somewhere between the two, but the more political tone of The Nine really drags it down a bit, especially when you know of more sober takes on the Court are available.

Civil War: Young Avengers and Runaways: I probably shouldn’t have read this a) out of order from where I was at the time w/Runaways, and b) without reading the establishing Civil War graphic novel. Oops.

Bones of the Earth - Michael Swanwick: All while reading this, I was chuckling a bit, as the book had a really Crichton-esque pop sci-fi feel to it and I was struggling to take it seriously. I didn’t really like it overall, just to learn that it was Nebula-nominated and Hugo-winning. Was 2002 a weak year or something? Compared to The Accidental Time Machine, the time travel aspect seemed forced and ended up awfully confusing, the characters were only marginally interesting, and I just really didn’t care much for it. I dunno - this was my first encounter with Swanwick and he’s apparently a pretty well-known author, so I’m not sure what to make of it.

Ultimate Spider-Man: Double Trouble/Legacy/Public Scrutiny - Brian Michael Bendis: I’m shocked I’m enjoying Spider-Man as much as I am. Absolutely shocked.

Stardust - Neil Gaiman: Neil Gaiman is good, but very hit-or-miss for me. This wasn’t quite a hit, but wasn’t a miss, either.

Apex Hides the Hurt - Colson Whitehead: I hate when I write a name of a book down in summer of 2006, pick it up in 2008, and just hate it. Sigh.

Movies::

Semi-Pro: After Blades of Glory, I was afraid that I was getting tired of the whole Will Ferrell shtick. The reality is that I’m not, and Semi-Pro was a very funny film, even if it wasn’t one of the better ones he’s done overall. You know what you’re getting with Will Ferrell, and that’s essentially what this is.

No Country for Old Men: Okay. Excellent movie, really one of the best of the year, and is generally deserving of all the awards it got. I still think There Will Be Blood is a better movie, and that has nothing to do with my being a Paul Thomas Anderson fanboy - the flaw in No Country is that the pacing, while deliberately so, really brings down the ride that the movie presents. That’s not to say it’s bad as an artistic choice, but as an entertainment one, I do prefer the slow burn of There Will Be Blood, which is very similar in pace but moves better as a whole. Also, the ending, while not Hollywood at all, didn’t bother me in the least. I thought it was a good ending and an interesting choice in what was ultimately an interesting film, and I’m glad I saw it.

Gah!

* Michael Barone breaks down the superdelegate issue. I think it’s going to be impossible for the Democrats to finish up things before the convention - either they’re going to go with a known commodity in Clinton or an unknown in Obama, and if they’re leaning toward the unknown, they’re going to wait until he’s as fully vetted as possible - the Democrats can’t afford for Obama to have another Wright skeleton in his closet, and I’d imagine that fear is palpable, if not unspoken. That’s what the superdelegates are for, right? Don’t buy the Politico hype - the superdelegates have a role, and never underestimate the ability of the Democratic Party to shoot itself in the foot.

* QandO on why Glen Greenwald is a hack.

* Patterico had two excellent posts this weekend: First, a little straight talk on McCain and the whole Saddam/Al Queda thing that the Los Angeles Times decided to hammer home. Even I didn’t know of many of the quotes coming directly from the 9/11 Commission. Secondly, a great takedown of an Obama endorsement from a so-called Republican. Makes me wish I didn’t have such a visceral reaction to John McCain.

* Massachusetts schools aren’t failing, they’re simply “Commonwealth priorities.” I hate self-esteem sugarcoating.

* Many of you were right: Albany’s screwed. Spitzer’s replacement may have to step down for his own corruption issues, and the next guy in line is close to being indicted as well? Yikes.

* The Washington Post on a possible reality of an Obama presidency. I must say - calling your allies “so-called” won’t help matters, he’s right.

* My favorite story in ages: red light cameras are being shut down in some places because they’re too effective and end up being a drain on revenues as a result. Again: why do people wonder why I don’t trust law enforcement?

* Heavy but cool if you can parse it: a look at a possible fall in oil prices. Lots of stuff on petrodollars and investment and peak oil and on and on.

* Hugo Chavez moves to shut down the last remaining critical news outlet. That’s what you get when you try to stand up to a coked-up dictator.

* Bill Richardson endorsed Obama last week. I’m disappointed, but not shocked.

* A great story from inside the organ donation market. An interesting note from the piece - if every cadaver had its organs harvested and handed out, we still wouldn’t have enough. As creepy as it sounds, selling organs still seems like a better idea all around.

* GraniteGrok on how John Sununu’s challenger is completely stupid when it comes to oil prices. Shaheen is typical of the current Democratic/liberal mindset on economic issues right now - no forward thinking, and no clear progress on ideas that can solve the problems we’re facing.

* A pretty great story about how one of my favorite films, His Girl Friday, only found an audience after it slipped into the public domain. It’s somewhat presented as anti-copyright extension limits, and while I appreciate the public domain and the benefits it gives people on a whole, I’m also very pro-getting-people-compensated for what they do. It’s a very hard line to draw, especially in a situation that is inherently arbitrary, but I’m not convinced Disney should have to worry about losing Mickey Mouse while it’s still around, nor am I necessarily convinced that, say, Mark Twain’s great-great-grandkids are entitled to money for copies sold of Huckleberry Finn (note: I know Twain’s work is in the public domain).

* Are burglaries declining because of cheap imports?

Whew. That should do it for now.

* The Wright story doesn’t want to seem to go away, even though I’d kind of wish it would at this point. The downside of the rapid-fire news cycle we’re in is that if a story persists for a week, it feels like an eternity. First, Jonah Goldberg had some good words that I liked regarding a comparison between Obama’s speech Tuesday and Romney’s speech. Michael Goodwin at thr New York Daily News had a great piece on the issues of doubt the Wright flap creates around Obama. Finally, I’ve been trying to cut back on my cursing on this blog, but there’s really no better way to put it: Andrew Sullivan is an asshole.

* Greatest. Case. Name. Ever.

* I’m hearing nothing but good news regarding the Supreme Court case about the Washington, DC gun ban. Some good coverage: Reason on some highlights, and, for those inclined, the oral arguments. I feel like the only non-lawyer utterly fascinated by these, but hey.

* A pretty bad gaffe by Obama: his grandmother as a “typical white person.” You’ll recall that his white grandmother was portrayed in his speech on Tuesday as someone who had some racially insensitive thoughts. Yeah, I’ll give Obama the benefit of the doubt here, but if he’s trying to convince people that he doesn’t agree with Wright, this isn’t going to help.

* I voted for Frank Guinta for mayor, and enthusiastically at that, but this is a bit ridiculous. The anti-drug sentiment in this country has got to end, and this is the type of ridiculousness that causes problems.

* On the bright side, I live in the safest state in the United States (no thanks to our current leadership), and I’m proud of our northern neighbors for fighting the good fight.

* Price-gouging laws are stupid. This is stupid - if you don’t want to spend the extra cash on gas, drive down the street.

* Apparently, your state is safer if your government does the majority of parenting for you. I love surveys like this.

* Hidden costs in our ethanol push. My father-in-law sent along a message in the theme of “we’re the only nation that burns its food away.” I’m not sure how significantly true that is, but the fact that we do it at all is kind of pathetic.

* Another roadblock in the establishment of an .xxx domain. This seems like such a no-brainer to me…

* Finally, I’m not one for “omg that band sold out” stuff, but the redoing of the Black Kids song “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You” is kind of crappy. The original version had a lot of messy charm to it, but this sounds almost overly polished. The song is, thankfully, still awesome, but there’s something to be said about a little less polish.

* We’ve started watching The Return of Jezebel James, because my famous girlfriend Parker Posey is in it and we’re not quite over our Gilmore Girls fix. It’s amazing how jarring a laugh track is after not experiencing it in a comedy for a while, and, while Posey’s trying a wee bit too hard to channel Lauren Graham, it’s…well…not horrible. I won’t say it’s great, or even all that good, but it’s a quick 30 minute shot in the arm as something mindless to keep on the DVR when we don’t want to watch an hour of something.

* Another show we’ve been going through is Quarterlife, which spent an evening on NBC before getting cancelled days later. Bravo aired the remaining pieces, which we’re watching - it’s essentially what I expected from Tell Me You Love Me, except that I feel like it’s it’s a better show. It’s a shame NBC didn’t give this one a better shot.

* Also on the DVR as we wait impatently for the shows we like to return (and baseball, and Battlestar) is Tim and Eric Awesome Show, which succeeds in ways that Wonder Showzen didn’t, in my mind. It’s completely bizarre and makes no sense, but, well, I kind of like it that way.

* Michael Cera = awesome. Michael Cera + Edgar Wright = more awesome. Michael Cera + Edgar Wright + a story about a guy who has defeat his girl crush’s seven ex-boyfriends video game-style? = the most awesome. Please let this happen.

* Also, Jason Segal doing a Muppet movie? Really? This is also exciting. Please let this happen.

* DMX, the rapper, apparently didn’t know that Barack Obama was running for President. Or that any black man was. Or that anyone actually has the name “Barack.” Or, we can deduce, that there was even an election happening.

* A crazy episode in Red Sox Nation today as they nearly boycotted their final spring training game and the trip to Japan over a dispute with Major League Baseball over their coaches getting paid a stipend for the trip. I’m with the Sox players on this one, way to stand up for a coaching staff that too often gets shafted by baseball and fans alike.

* What do we call Barack Obama’s $1 million earmark request for the hospital that his wife works for? All together now - Same Old Washington Politics as Usual. I’ll give Obama some credit where it’s due - he appears to be swearing off earmarks, at least temporarily, and earmarks, while annoying and wasteful, are currently completely legal. With that said, again, you cannot run as a “different” candidate who’s above all the Washington politics and is somehow better than everyone else when you’re not only requesting ridiculous earmarks, but doing so for groups you have an obvious conflict of interest with. It just doesn’t fly.

* By now, you’ve probably seen the ABC News clip of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who heads up Obama’s church and made enough of an impact on Obama where he took the name of one of his books, The Audacity of Hope, from one of his sermons. The fact of the matter is that, while Wright is especially extreme to most ears, anyone who’s a churchgoing person is probably going to be aware of somewhat uncomfortable things that their preacher says. It’s just a matter of reality when it comes to religion clashing with a diverse country. That the media is examining this is a good thing, if only to atone for the ridiculous “A Mormon!?!?” stories we had to suffer through while Romney was still in the race. With that said, let’s not take too much stock in what Wright has to say, either - unless Obama’s showing signs of wanting to hire him for his staff, I think we’ll be okay on that front. Roger Simon sees it as a bigger problem, to provide an alternative view from the right side of the aisle.

EDIT: I wrote this last night. It’s now the morning, and it turns out that, yes, Rev. Wright has a formal, albeit semi-ceremonial role in the Obama campaign, and is often consulted by Obama “before making any bold political moves.” So yes, this is problematic. Much more so than the Ferraro flap from earlier this week, and makes you wonder who else is on the committee that Wright serves on.

* Happy 100th birthday, Chuck Taylor All-Stars. You’ve kept my feet happy for years.

* I lolled.

* I love when statistics and facts back up my gut feelings. It turns out that John McCain has a great rhetorical record, but when it comes to action, he’s completely unpredictable. Need to pinpoint my discomfort with John McCain? There you have it - if I can’t trust him to be consistent on the issues that matter to me, what benefit will it give me to vote for him?

* Let’s be clear - I’m not anti-Federal Reserve. I don’t know if the current situation is optimal, but I don’t think abolishing the Fed is the right answer either. Regardless, EconLog covers a lot of the problems the Fed causes, and I think could use some adjusting.

* I mostly don’t regret my vote for Ron Paul in the primaries. Reason explains the problems inherent in the Paul campaign, and kind of sets a template up for more competent campaigns in the future, perhaps inadvertently. I don’t really disagree with any of this, but it is tonedeaf to the point that Paul likely didn’t resonate with more than 10% of voters in most places because he was ultimately the wrong vessel for the right message. If someone of Mitt Romney’s stature or Barack Obama’s charisma was carrying Paul’s message, it might have worked out better.

* I wasn’t concerned about the inevitable legal challenge to John McCain’s citizenship/Constitutional ability to become President until it got filed in the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit is so screwed up, you could present evidence that the earth rotates around the Sun, and they’d likely find a way to determine the opposite.

* Bill Gates details another reason why businesses are fleeing the United States.

* Finally, I think I’m going to avoid eating within Boston city limits. I’m sick of nannying ridiculousness.

* The Wall Street Journal examines Barack Obama’s tax plan to “save Social Security.” The result? A 13% tax rate increase for people making over $200m a year (more than what a reversal of the Bush tax cuts would be, and this number doesn’t factor in that probability, either) in exchange for keeping Social Security out of the red for a whopping three extra years. Removing the wage cap cannot save a program that is a failure to begin with. Barack Obama: Same Old Washington Politics as Usual.

* More on Obama and taxes from the Obamology blog: an unsigned but honest examination of proposed taxes if one of the remaining three candidates wins. Not surprisingly, Obama comes out furthest ahead, and his per-year spending increases are just as staggering. Same Old Washington Politics as Usual.

* I’ve been a big fan of David Mamet’s plays since I was first exposed to him in college. He was the first “adult” playwright I really encountered (not counting Rent, which is an absolutely “adult” production but was all the rage amongst teens in my theatre hangouts) and I always found him to be interesting. The big blogswarm today is about Mamet’s political change of heart following writing a production about “a president who is self-interested, corrupt, suborned, and realistic, and his leftish, lesbian, utopian-socialist speechwriter.” Mamet knows his way around the English language anyway, and reading about his journey into what sounds like a conservative point of view on many important issues is really incredible. A few choice parts:

I found not only that I didn’t trust the current government (that, to me, was no surprise), but that an impartial review revealed that the faults of this president—whom I, a good liberal, considered a monster—were little different from those of a president whom I revered.

Bush got us into Iraq, JFK into Vietnam. Bush stole the election in Florida; Kennedy stole his in Chicago. Bush outed a CIA agent; Kennedy left hundreds of them to die in the surf at the Bay of Pigs. Bush lied about his military service; Kennedy accepted a Pulitzer Prize for a book written by Ted Sorenson. Bush was in bed with the Saudis, Kennedy with the Mafia. Oh.

I still get blank stares when I point out the resemblences between FDR and Bush.

I’d observed that lust, greed, envy, sloth, and their pals are giving the world a good run for its money, but that nonetheless, people in general seem to get from day to day; and that we in the United States get from day to day under rather wonderful and privileged circumstances—that we are not and never have been the villains that some of the world and some of our citizens make us out to be, but that we are a confection of normal (greedy, lustful, duplicitous, corrupt, inspired—in short, human) individuals living under a spectacularly effective compact called the Constitution, and lucky to get it.

This piece resonates with me a lot, as I was convinced of plenty of what are considered liberal ideas until the Clinton impeachment proceedings, where I then got more involved, more exposed, and figured out what I really believed. I didn’t have decades to turn back on, but I can absolutely relate to the realization aspects of his story. It’s long (and the Village Voice site has been up-and-down all day, allegedly due to the linking of the piece - a mirror of sorts is available here), but worth reading, especially if you want to try and understand where I come from politically.

* Libertas wonders what might be making the film Vantage Point more successful than the other war movies we’ve seen in 2007. They’ve been hammering home the concept that people don’t want to see “America is evil and corrupt” films, and I wasn’t really ever sure I could buy into the theory - none of those movies have been appealing to me regardless of politics - but this is an interesting note about it, nonetheless. The greater question remains, however - why doesn’t Hollywood go for more, for lack of a better term, “red state” movies?

That’s all I’ve got.

* Continuing with the sweet, sweet schadenfreude of the Spitzer crash, here’s a contrast between Keith Olbermann’s reaction to the New York Times non-story regarding John McCain and the lobbyist and Elliott Spitzer (Liz, you wanted to know why I’m not an Olbermann fan, here’s an example), and, just to show how detached some people are, FireDogLake being convinced that it’s just another Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Riiiiight.

* David Freddoso at National Review talks more about the wage stagnation myth.

* It only took four years, but the New York Times finally starts asking some questions about Obama.

* Even though it’s from the Competitive Enterprise Institute - a group I’m not really huge on and one most of you would likely discount immediately - this list of the five dumbest product bans is interesting.

* We kept hearing over and over in 2000 and 2004 about preachers shilling for Bush from the pulpit and the tax ramifications. Why is Obama getting a free pass on this? The American Spectator has another piece on how Obama may have screwed one of his churches. I’ll say it again - our campaign laws are moronic, as are our tax laws. Fix them so we don’t have to worry about this sort of nonsense.

* I subscribed to The American Conservative for a while, but they’re pretty damn isolationist and tend to bring out the worst in American conservatism - then again, Pat Buchanan runs it, so why are we shocked? Then again, they are one of the few publications to present Barack Obama as a “warmonger,” and it’s worth highlighting. Sure, Obama might have a plan to get us out of - and then back into - Iraq, but it’s no guarantee that Obama’s foriegn policy is really going to change that much in terms of military action from our current situation. If anything, deciding to go and “meet” with every loony dictator this planet has to offer will probably create more opportunities, not less.

* Some new, peer-reviewed information putting current “consensus” thought on global warming in context. Short answer - these researchers may have figured out why the models never match up with the reality. It’ll be interesting to see if this gains any traction.

* In a good move, Samantha Power resigned last week after calling Hillary Clinton a “monster.” The problem with Power wasn’t the “monster” comment, it’s what she believes and her possible influence on Obama that makes her resignation a net gain for the Obama campaign. I don’t need to write a post only on her anymore, now that she’s gone, but her positions regarding Israeli influence and knee-jerk reactions to accurate reporting on Israel should have given Obama some serious pause. Israel’s far from perfect, but they’re also arguably one of our best allies.

* Outer space is CRAZY.

* Finally, I knew my memories weren’t decieving me: it IS possible to shoot that dog in Duck Hunt.

So much for me not being busy. Hopefully I can write a bunch of stuff over the weekend. I’m sure you’re all very, very excited.

* Michael Gerson was a former Bush 43 speechwriter, so that would probably dismiss 90% of what he has to say in most minds anyway, myself included. I was still compelled, however, by his point of view on the image of the United States overseas. Essentially, we’re well liked in Africa, well liked in Eastern Europe, well liked in Japan and India, and Europe’s unhappy more because of their increased pacifism than anything else, which is largely something that’s unavoidable for the “superpower” anyway. You might not agree with him, but it’s a very interesting position, regardless.

* David Brooks, the “conservative” (quotes intentional) columnist for the New York Times, points out that as Obama’s campaign slips into attack mode, one of the hallmarks of his campaign is eroded as a result. Not that I haven’t been noting that for weeks already or anything…

* If I felt that Ann & I could handle it, I’d push harder to consider homeschooling our own future kids. This chilling California Supreme Court ruling is one I desparately hope will be overturned. This worries me greatly, and I know about the slippery slope fallacy, but what’s next?

* As a postscript to the Michelle Obama stuff from yesterday, I found John Podhoretz’s commentary on it to be illuminating:

[F]or a 44 year-old woman to tell a black audience that things have “gotten worse during my lifetime” is astonishing. When Michelle Obama was born, racial intermarriage was against the law in at least two dozen states. Governors were standing in front of university and classroom doors, attempting to bar black children and teenagers from entering white-only institutions. The per capita income of African Americans has risen sixteen-fold over the past 40 years. Black homeownership has risen tenfold. The black poverty rate has declined from 75 percent to 25 percent.

The piece is relatively short, but really spot-on, IMO.

* Go figure - heavily Democratic-weighted polls show the Democratic candidate winning in November. Y’don’t say.

* This is embarrassing:

McCain’s likely to trounce the eventual Democratic candidate on security issues anyway - when one of your foriegn policy advisors decides to go on national television and concede it like this, well, that’s easy enough.

* I won’t lie - I worry about this quite a bit. Who would have thought a history book that has the KKK as a subject would cause this much trouble?

* From Willisms, a correllation between Iraq war deaths and Iraq war coverage. Some of this might be attributable to the campaign season, but the trendlines are still interesting.

* The news of the day is that Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, has died. This isn’t just news because I’ve started playing, but more because if it wasn’t for this guy, RPGs and fantasy gaming (both tabletop and computerized) wouldn’t exist in the way we know it. RIP, and no saving roll jokes, please.

* The Wall Street Journal has a great piece about the differences between Ohio and Texas. I’m very glad I’m not in a union.

* A list of questions for Barack Obama. Some miss the point, but others, such as how his positions aren’t really representative of “change” or his Constitutional interpretation, are questions that need to be asked but probably won’t be.

* I learned something new today: Barack Obama is against gay marriage, but somehow can justify same-sex civil unions by using the Bible. Oh, but that part in the Bible about homosexuality being a sin and an abomination is “an obscure passage in Romans.” I’m very much in favor of gay marriage, but if this isn’t an incredible example of Obama’s use of speech to somehow at least partially please everyone, I don’t know what is. This was absolutely stunning to read.

* Of course the media is being hard on Obama.

* Of course the tax cuts were for the rich.

Someday, things will calm down.

ETA: fixed the WSJ link.

Look at me, being all pro-active.

Books:

The Somnambulist - Jonathan Barnes: I wanted to love this fantasy/mystery hybrid, but I only liked it, and it left a few too many questions unanswered than conflicts resolved, IMO. It’s a really interesting read, and I can’t say I disliked my time with it, but it felt like a chore a bit too often, which was frustrating. I’d say give it a shot, but be wary.

The Testament of Gideon Mack - James Robertson: Sometimes books are like movies - if they were a hair shorter, they’d be perfect, and this book was one of them. It’s about an atheistic preacher in Scotland who encounters the Devil, and the general reaction to it. The beginning is killer, the middle plods until the juicy bits, and then it sails to the finish line quite nicely, but the fact that I had to sift through 100 pages of stuff that could have been cut in half or more dragged the whole thing down. The worst part is that it’s a neat treatise on the whole “what if an atheist encountered God” question, but in a really unique and different way. It’s worth your time, though.

The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller: I’m starting to think I don’t like Frank Miller all that much, although I was annoyed more by the artwork in this one than anything else. I understand how Important this one is, but either it just didn’t do the trick or it’s just that I’ve never much enjoyed the Batman mythology much.

Beginner’s Greek - James Collins: This book achieves the unexpected by presenting the expected. Perfectly written, well-executed, and really a great diversion. I’ve been down on realistic fiction a lot as of late, but this book really did it for me.

Marvel 1602 - Neil Gaiman: Another one that I thought I’d love and simply didn’t. Interestingly, the conceit (Marvel characters in Elizabethan England) was what I struggled with more than anything. I appreciate the effort, I suppose.

Ex-Machina: Fact v. Fiction/Tag - Brian K. Vaughan: I don’t know what I can really say about Ex-Machina without gushing like a schoolgirl. I love everything about it.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules - Jeff Kinney: That this guy is fast becoming the next big deal in children’s books couldn’t happen to a better human being, and the fact that the books are completely awesome and really capture what it’s like to be a 10 year old boy stumbling through life only helps things more. So fun - every guy my age needs to make it a point to grab these two books and spend an afternoon with them.

Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court - Jan Crawford Greenburg: A really interesting look at how the Court has been assembled post-Roe v. Wade. An essential book in a lot of ways - it made me like Eisenhower less, respect Clarence Thomas more, and put me at peace a bit with John Roberts. I have The Nine sitting in my book bag next, so it’ll be an interesting contrast.

A Drowned Maiden’s Hair - Laura Amy Schlitz: This is one of those books that reminded me that kids books don’t have to be all kiddish to make sense and speak to a certain concept. A child is adopted for the sole purpose of defrauding rich people using seances, and it’s a really strong story with really sympathetic characters. The ending was a bit of a letdown, but only because the ride to get there was so really great. Amanda, I really think you’d enjoy this one if you haven’t seen it yet.

Movies:

There Will Be Blood: Quite simply the best movie from 2007 I saw. I still haven’t seen No Country, but I can’t imagine this not surpassing it. I’m a total Paul Thomas Anderson fanboy, true, but the performances were incredible, and the story really nailed it for me, and it’s really an amazing masterpiece.

Sydney White: I don’t know what’s worse - that I’ve become a complete Amanda Bynes fanboy, or that I really loved this movie a lot. It’s a teen flick at its heart, and it has your typical South Park “I think we all learned something today” ending, but it’s less than 90 minutes long, the pacing is pitch-perfect, it’s funny in all the right places, and it’s just a really great ride. I’m 14 years old.

The Ten: Now, for something I thought would be a lot of fun, but really wasn’t. A kind of goofy series of vignettes inspired by the Ten Commandments, of varying humor and point. That so many good people (Michael Showalter, Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder, etc) were involved and it was this underwhelming was somewhat of a disappointment.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters: What a wild documentary, all about a guy who challenges the long-standing record score in Donkey Kong and the internal political strife that goes along with it. Absolutely crazy documentary, the fact that this wasn’t nominated for anything big is criminal, IMO.

I’m so happy that the duo for Once won an Oscar last night. I call them “the duo for Once” because I don’t know how to spell Marketa Irgosloveta. See?

* Bookseller has announced the shortlist for oddest book titles.

* Saturday Night Live came back this week - one funny bit with Mike Huckabee, one “would be funnier if it weren’t so true” bit about Obama.

* Is there any piece of populism that Obama won’t embrace? I worked in textbooks for years, it’s no more a racket than any other form of bookselling.

* I loved this story: Minnesota bar patrons become actors in theatrical productions to retain their right to smoke. Any way to poke holes in ridiculous anti-smoking laws, I’ll support.

* Meet the new Florida Marlins cheerleaders: the plus-size male group, The Manatees.

* QandO has an amazing takedown on the ethanol movement. Required reading.

* Barack Obama, funded by corporate interests. Same old Washington politics as usual.

* PowerLine posts the response from Rep. John Shadegg about his changing his mind over retiring following a large groundswell of support for him staying in Congress. I’m pleased.

* Female readers, do you agree that you “wake up every morning wondering how on earth I am going to pull off that next minor miracle to get through the day”? Are you “struggling to keep her head above water?” Exactly how out of touch is Michelle Obama? Do we assume that her husband is this out of sync with the rest of us, too?

Non-political in nature.

1) Rock on, Red Sox. I’m a big Francona fan at this point - hell, he’s only 8-0 in the World Series - and I think he’s the best guy to run what is essentially a very difficult team in a very difficult market. This is where Rick chimes in with Francona’s record in Philly or the 2006 All-Injury All-Stars or something, but I don’t care much. 3 trips to the playoffs with 2 World Series trophies is enough for me to want to see him handed a blank check.

2) ABC plans to air the Wizard’s First Rule television series starting this fall. Talk about weird - the rumors of a television something based around Goodkind’s novels have been floating since at least 2005, and Sam Raimi got involved, and this is apparently a go - 22 episodes based on the first book in the series. I’m a little stunned by it, frankly, and I can’t imagine how they plan on translating what’s essentially 100 pages of S&M into a syndicated program (believe it or not, it’s somewhat important to the plot), but hey. I just hope with Raimi involved, it won’t be too cheesy, but fantasy on film can go so wrong so quickly…

3) So I ended up popping for Team Fortress 2 on PC so I could play with extra maps and not be monopolizing the television 24/7 when I need my fix. I have to say, while being able to use the 360 controller with it works wonders, I still suck. I’m usually pretty good on the 360 matches, but I’m just consistently destroyed by people on the PC. It’s crazy. I do need to get my headset to work better, though. The drivers didn’t make the mic pick up sound any easier, but I’ll figure it out.

More later on.

Preface: I do not consider myself an expert on all library systems, or even everything that’s out there and available for libraries to use. I’m speaking more from experience and knowledge than any sort of all-encompassing position, so keep that in mind.

Apparently, an anti-DRM protest against the Boston Public Library is scheduled for this weekend. DRM, for those who aren’t aware, is shorthand for Digital Rights Management, which is the system most major companies use to restrict content access of digital media. It’s what keeps you from installing the same disc of Windows on two computers, what keeps you from playing songs from iTunes on a SanDisk, etc. I’m not a huge fan of DRM, but the simple reality is that many companies are, and thus we’re stuck with it for the time being.

The protest we’re seeing is one mostly out of ignorance, unfortunately. Should DRM-enabled material be used at a library? Maybe that’s your position, but consider this - it’s ultimately not your library’s decision:

* If your library lends DVDs, the copy-protection scheme is not optional. Studios install those.

* If your library allows for downloadable audiobooks (probably through the Overdrive system), the DRM there is solely so the major publishers can get on board without having to worry that their audiobooks will be posted up all over the internet.

* If your library has music CDs or books on CD, any DRM you encounter is, again, at the behest of those producing the media, not those lending it.

If you’re going after your public library for having DRM-enabled materials, you’re essentially telling the library that you want them to be on the cutting edge of technology for materials, but you don’t want them to allow you to access it. The reason your library has downloadable audiobooks and DVDs is because people want them, period. Get rid of the DRM-enabled materials, and you’re essentially getting rid of a lot of the materials that the library is offering.

A better protest would be to start harassing the publishers about it - those groups are the ones that are looking for DRM on their audiobooks. Harass the movie studios - they’re the ones that insist that DVDs remain encypted. Harrass OverDrive - they have the oomph to get them on board, and they’re making the decision to offer DRM to get more materials in your hands. Don’t protest the library - they’re offering you a newer service that may be imperfect, but is better than not having it at all at this stage.

Again, this may not apply at every library, but think before you act.

I’ll never find time for everything I need to say, I swear.

Books:

The Princess Diaries Volume 9: Princess Mia - Meg Cabot: The latest in the long line of Princess Diaries books - this one did very little for me until the very end. So much of it involved Mia moping about her boy troubles and it seemed amazingly out of character and just didn’t work for me. Regardless, the way it ended left a great setup for the final book in the series.

Ultimates 2 - Mark Millar: I can’t say I loved this the way I loved the first set of Ultimates, but it’s still a really interesting perspective that I never expected.

Born Standing Up - Steve Martin: Steve Martin could write about paper and I’d likely be entranced. A really neat memoir about his rise as a stand-up comic, very fun and enlightening.

Size 14 is Not Fat Either - Meg Cabot: I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the Heather Wells mystery stuff anymore, but that’s probably less about Meg Cabot and more about my natural aversion toward mystery novels in general.

The Opposite of Invisible - Liz Gallagher: An interesting read, for sure. It took me a while to get into, as the narrative on this one was very unique, but it roped me in soon enough where I pretty much couldn’t stop until I finished this shortish YA novel. It’s not perfect, but it’s really a great, interesting story with good characters, which is not something that always happens in YA lit these days.

Love is a Mixtape - Rob Shefffield: I wanted to love this book for obvious reasons, but, at the end of the day, it really came down to the fact that mix tapes matter, but only to a) you, and b) the person you made it for. You’ll never truly understand the impact of a tape for anyone seeing it from a third party perspective. So maybe I did love this book. Hm.

Ultimate Spider-Man: Power and Responsibility/Learning Curve: God damn it, you guys. I guess I’m a Spider-Man fan now. I’m really enjoying this.

Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution - Woody Holton: “Hey, I have an idea, I’ll write a 200+ page history of the Constitution using only debt and money as the basis.” Maybe the whole Ron Paul thing has really made me overly sensitive to money policy lately, but this got very tiring very quickly. An interesting premise that would have worked better in a compilation of ideas around the Constitution rather than a full-length work.

Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days - Brian K. Vaughan: Vaughan is probably my favorite comic writer at this early stage of things. This is really one of the most fascinating concepts for a comic I’ve seen since Y: The Last Man, and he wrote that, too. I’m excited to keep going with this series.

Liberal Fascism - Jonah Goldberg: An Important Book in every sense of the word. I never expected Goldberg to have this sort of book in him - it’s well-researched, well-written, and presents a concept that everyone on the right has felt like they’ve known, but had nothing to back it up. My only complaint is that this book needed to come out 8 years ago, not today. Highly recommended for everyone, really. Ignore what you know about his sometimes abrasive writing for the National Review, this is a very good read.

Movies:

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Essentially, mostly what I expected from a film version of this, although it’s cut in a lot of weird ways. Worth seeing, definitely, but yeah.

Cloverfield: I still think this was perfect for what it was - a Big Monster Movie. That time away from it has only improved it in my mind says a lot, I think.

Excuse me while I take some time to sift through links I’ve had sitting around for a while.

Over at Betsy’s Page, Newmark highlighted a piece about “Care Bear Politics.” The piece, based off of a blog post by Reason’s Julian Sanchez and an article at Real Clear Politics:

And then there’s the Care Bear vision, which takes as given the perfectability of humankind and correspondingly interprets all problems as fixable, given the right conditions. Care Bearism involves, in Thomas Sowell’s words, “a disdainful dismissal of arguments to the contrary as either uninformed, irresponsible or motivated by unworthy purposes.” Should the critics prove, after the fact, to have been right, Care Bearists grant themselves absolution because their hearts were in the right place.

Since at least the 1960s, liberalism has provided an ideological wigwam under whose pastel-colored flaps the Caring-American community has gathered to emote and caucus in its therapeutic and sentimental fashion, always looking forward to a better future (in part, because it means they don’t have to look at the wreckage of their past schemes). Some latter-day conservatives began as liberals, until they understood that The Care Bear Stare was no effective defense against problems originating in human nature, which is not infinitely malleable, and in the intractability of evil.

While the conclusions of the piece leave a bit to be desired, the relative concept therein - from Sowell’s words to the examples at the start of the piece (both of which I’ve encountered numerous times) - are not only apparent, but seem to be manifesting itself in this election cycle to new heights.

I went into this election not so much tired of Bush (although there’s more than a little exhaustion) as tired of the brand of politics that have been ushered in - a “do-something” attitude, if you will, that seemed to reach new heights even as Bush branded himself a conservative regardless of his actual resume. With the failure of the Thompson run to gain traction, and knowing full well that Ron Paul is a non-factor, we’re stuck with more of the same, more of this “Care Bear” mentality:

* Barack Obama with his nondescript “change” manifesto.
* Mike Huckabee’s plans for the Constitution.
* John Edwards’s…everything.
* Mitt Romney’s abysmal record in Massachusetts.
* Hillary Clinton’s Santa Claus view of government.
* Rudy Guiliani’s record in NYC.
* John McCain’s record in Congress.

To use a cliche I hate, it’s the same pig dressed in different lipstick, and, perhaps more interestingly, is proof positive that this sudden lurch rightward that is alleged since Bush entered office is completely nonexistent - that the centrist Bush with his “compassionate conservatism” and government-can-do-it attitude introduced into the Republican Party and is apparently embraced by those with national recognition. Sure, the Jim DeMints, Jeff Flakes, and Jon Kyls of the Repubican Party exist, but most people reading this won’t recognize all three of those names for a while.

So what does this mean? It means that, right now, we have seven Care Bears running for President. Sure, some of them have lesser powers than others - as bad as McCain is, for instance, the damage he could do doesn’t come close to Edwards - but we’re still heading down that same road that so many are allegedly tired of. Especially in the age of large deficits, a slowing economy, and financial uncertainty, can we afford it in any context?

We know the answer to this, of course, but none of the folks who’ll be President in a year are actually going to answer it.