Thursday, October 18, 2007

Power - to make the multitudes run squealing in terror!

Just sent off to the Oregonian:
Dear Mr. Caldwell,

Like so many of your readers I avoid reading columns by David Reinhard as a general rule. Please understand it has nothing to do with Reinhard's political affiliation. There are many fine conservative columnists including George Will and Debra Saunders who put forth valid, intellectually honest arguments advocating the conservative position on the issues of the day.

No, the problem with Mr. Reinhard is that is writing is always predictably pedestrian and completely without nuance. Reinhard writes his columns as if he's playing a game a scrabble with the text of the daily G.O.P. blast-fax. Add an adjective here, move a sentence around there and voila! Send this baby to print. For most of us it's simply easier to skip Reinhard and go directly to the source.

Against my better judgement I opened my morning paper and decided to give Reinhard yet another chance. Maybe I was missing something in those hundreds of other columns I've read. Maybe he wasn't as intellectually squishy as I remember.

In reading today's column imagine my surprise to find out that Reinhard is not only just as bad but, surprisingly, has actually regressed in his skills as a columnist. I had to read through the column twice just to confirm that Mr. Reinhard was indeed making-fun of a twelve-year-old boy. A new low for someone like Mr. Reinhard who regularly feeds on the bottom.

The Living section of the Oregonian allows for annual voting on the comics pages where readers are allowed to choose which strips the paper will run and which strips they should drop. I would like to suggest you provide this same opportunity for the readers of the Oregonian's Forum section. I realize this would mean David Reinhard would quickly be out of a job, but a bright guy like himself would surely be able to land on his feet. Or pull himself up by his bootstraps or what ever.

I would hope that you will take my suggestion in consideration,

Sincerely,

Dean Vernon Wormer

I understand. But if we don't use your device against Godzilla, what are we going to do?

Matt's spot on of course. When the President says "So I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," he's playing a rhetorical game that goes something like this--

We will prevent Iran from deploying a nuclear weapon.

To...

We will prevent Iran from knowing how to make a nuclear weapon.

To...

We will prevent Iran from watching the movies "War Games," "The Day After," "Terminator 2" or any other films that contain depictions of nuclear weapons.

To...

We will prevent Iran.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Okay, so McCoy has been cast and it looks like the rumors about Scotty had been premature. I'm actually pretty surprised/ happy about who they got for the parts.




That's right: Simon Pegg and Karl Urban.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.


A belated congrats to Al Gore on the Nobel Peace prize. I'd also like to thank right-wingers for pointing out that a prize given for the advancement of peace is liberal and everything.

In the last few years they've attacked the Academy Awards, Purple Heart medals, Medal of Valor and now the Nobel. I'd say the only thing that would be off limits would probably be boy-scout merit badges but the word on the street is they have some "potentially negative" information about one that Graeme Frost was awarded before his accident. Supposedly he only walked 3 little old ladies across the street and not the 4 he'd initially claimed to win the badge.

Sigh.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Some men dedicate their lives to science. Some men dedicate their lives to politics. I'm dedicating my life to understanding you.


Random musings on my trip to Florida-

The Express tickets for theme parks are criminally cool. I never had to wait over five minutes to get on a ride. It allowed me to do everything I wanted in one day.



At Universal's Islands of Adventure I was shocked to see Captain America alive. I was sure I'd heard he'd recently taken a bullet. Also - check out the bods on Wolverine and Storm. They didn't look like they'd been fighting anything, least of all calories. Meow!

I used to read the "Blondie" comic strip and as I recall the Dagwood looked more like the sign outside the restaurant...


...than the actual sandwich.




Stupid shark. I went on the ride twice and he attacked the boat both times.



Echoes of 911 always seem to come up. We were told this is the reason we couldn't get any closer to the shuttle Discovery than this.



No, Dean, you can't drive the Shuttle Transportation Vehicle and no, it doesn't do a "wheelie."



The Reflective Wall for Fallen Astronauts is one of the most beautiful memorials I think I've ever seen.



We were able to shoot a manned Apollo rocket around the moon without Microsoft Windows. Just saying...



Workers as the Kennedy Space Center don't appreciate the joke where you ask to see Major Nelson's office so you can check the pencil-holder for Jeannie.



It's just a little sad that the Space Center has such a "history museum" vibe to it. They show the video of John Kennedy proclaiming we were going to the moon and it's hard not to get choked up.

Then you realize that our greatest achievement was over 30 years ago with the moon landings. It's sort of like Lewis and Clark came out the Northwest, proclaimed it terrific, then nobody followed or built on their accomplishments. We don't seem to want to do things anymore because, as Kennedy said, "they're hard."