Want To Make A Hit Movie? Write In A Lesbian Scene For Natalie Portman.

Although past movies with lesbian scenes have done well, it is no indication of how future movies will perform with audiences.

So I'm only paraphrasing what Natalie Portman said about her new movie.

I guess it's one way to peak the public interests in a movie about ballet. It was either that or have the plot be about a Russian dancer who defected from the USSR to the USE end up in the USSR again. But that's been done.

I'm not trying to single out Black Swan (which I haven't seen and probably won't. Not when I have yet to see Tron: Legacy and The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader yet). But I doubt that guys will fork over the nine bucks to see the movie for that reason alone. Not when they are never more than three clicks away from porn for free on the internet*.

The lesbian scene is a gimmick. It was added to create buzz about the movie. Mainly from when I read anything about it, the girl-girl action is always mentioned. Would the movie be talked about if it wasn't?

Related: It's a tell all book so take it for what it's worth but-- if true-- does confirm much of what people suspect about Hugh Hefner. Thanks to Ace for that last link.

*A statistic I made up on the spot but it sounded good.

Updated:  Linked by The Other McCain. 

Video: A Rebuttal On The "Are Fox News Viewers Misinformed?" Survey

Via Ace.

There is a lot of wonky policy and budget speak in this but if you can stay with it, it's worth watching the entire 20 minutes.

Basically, the people who released the 'study' cherry picks their data and assumes a lot of answers. They have the end result in mind and work backwards to help back that up.

Video: Talking News Heads Parroting The Same Talking Point

I don't think this is an example of the Journolist 2.0 (AKA, Cabalist) getting the talking points out for their team as much as it is an example of the mindset the Main Stream Media.

Groupthink at it's finest.

One More PSA For This Holiday Season

Tip #4 is good practice regardless of a Zombie Apocalypse.



Zombies: It's the new vampire.

Thanks to the fine folks at The Red Shaker.

Christmas Related Enough: How to make a gingerbread house without the gingerbread but using only meat and bacon.

Now Is The Winter Of My Discontent

Cheer up. It may be the first day of winter but at least the days will start getting longer.

A Reminder For Tonight

Here's hoping that the skies stay clear.

Tonight, and tomorrow morning, these cycles will all come together: the Winter Solstice, which begins winter in the Northern Hemisphere, begins during a night of a Full Moon. At 1:33 a.m. Eastern Time (10:30 p.m. Pacific Time, still technically the 20th), the Moon will creep into the shadow of the Earth, and a lunar eclipse will occur.

Be sure to read the entire posting.

Barack Obama's New Safe School Czar Hits A Snag

Pedophile apologist arrested, Barack Obama's search for Kevin Jennings' replacement hardest hit.

Philip Ray Greaves II will not be able to accept the job.

Florida officials filed an obscenity charge Monday against the author of a self-published how-to guide for pedophiles that was yanked from Amazon.com last month after it generated online outrage. Colorado authorities arrested Philip Ray Greaves II at his home in Pueblo, Colo., on a warrant that charges him with violating Florida's obscenity law.

Sheriff Grady Judd in Polk County, Fla., said his office was able to arrest Greaves because he sold and mailed his book, "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct," directly to undercover Polk deputies. Judd says Greaves even signed the book.

"He very proudly sold us his personal copy," Judd told the Associated Press. "I was outraged by the content. It was clearly a manifesto on how to sexually batter children ... You just can't believe how absolutely disgusting it was."

For more about Philip Greaves, click here about the semi-literate man who happens to be an atheist. Not that those have anything to do with each other.

A Short Aside: Is it just me or has there been a rash of 'Enlightened Atheists' who just so happen to be damned, dirty perverts? Greaves and David Epstein both belong to the "Non-Prophet Religion" that is Atheism. Two points, a pattern does not make. But any more stories like this and I'm going to start believing that in order to be an atheist you're going to need to be a member of NAMBLA first.

I guess when God is dead to someone then everything is permissible.

Update: Linked by The Other McCain and tightened up some loose verbiage.

New Survey Showing That Doctors Will Work Part Time Or Quit Altogether If ObamaCare Goes Through

This came out last week but I just saw it a few days ago.



Both Ayn Rand and Ronald Reagan talked about the consequences of this.

Rand in the book, Atlas Shrugs:

Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward.

And Reagan in his speech against socialized medicine:



Can't say we weren't warned.

Some Programming Notes For The Inner Geek

The BBC is producing Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. To which I say damn. There won't be any way it will air here unless it's on PBS and they only play the crappy shows from the BBC. So I'm out of luck unless it is released as a Region One DVD. Eventually. I wasn't sure from reading the article but I think it's going to be a regular series instead of a TV movie or mini-series.

This has to be the strangest source material for a Disney movie. The King of the Elves by Philip K. Dick. Not too bad. Especially considering some of Dick's other stories.

It should be obvious by now that I'm some sort of nerd.

I took my two daughters to see 'Tangled' tonight. Very good movie. There are a couple of rather intense moments for younger viewers. But if they have seen 'Finding Nemo' or 'Toy Story 3' already, it should be okay.

It does have its share of comic violence. But the character that it happens to, Flynn, lives through it without a scratch. So it isn't any worse than the 'Roadrunner and Coyote' cartoon.

For a decent movie with enough humor on both levels-- getting kids to laugh while throwing adults a bone or two-- give it a try.

Friday Night Christmas Carol With She & Him

Zooey Deschanel-- much like Frank and Deano-- makes it sound rather effortless.

Words. Just. . . Words.

Via The Daily Caller.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Now One Step Closer To Reality

The Voyager I spacecraft on the edge of interstellar space.



To go boldly where no man-made machine has gone before.

A Couple Of Good Questions Have Been Raised

The first is from Andrew Malcolm. Technically, it's from Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

"Imagine if this bill were that in order to protect our communities and homeland security, every American had to buy a gun. Can you imagine the reaction across the country to that?"

There's more there so be sure to read the whole thing.



And the second question is from TrogloPundit. Which is worth checking out for the Homer Simpson motivation poster alone.

Does A Head Shot Still Count As A Kill If Its A Zombie?

If you want cute, The Other McCain has it here. This is a bit. . . not.

Fair warning, it's rather graphic. It's every zombie kill from The Walking Dead in a little over a minute. That much should be obvious.



It's the holidays so the normal traffic is in a lull right now. Hence more oddball postings than usual.

Thanks to Viv.

Related: The Zombie Food Pyramid. The basic food groups that every growing zombie needs.

Uh. . . Yeah.

A movie about a man who uses a beaver puppet to communicate with the people in his life?

Meh, it's been done.

The Top Ten Things John Edwards Said When He Found Out That Elizabeth Edwards Passed Away

10: You know how much this will save me in alimony?

9: Pop the cork, Rielle.

8: I wonder if I can turn this into a book deal?

7: About time. Those medical bill were mounting up.

6: Now I can channel her spirit in closing arguments.

5:

4: If she didn't have the big 'C', I would be going through the big 'D'.

3: Elizabeth who? Oh, right.

2: I wonder who I can sue over this?

And the number one thing John Edwards said when he found out that Elizabeth Edwards passed away: For some reason, I'm going to be portrayed as the bad guy in this.

David Epstein: Obama Supporter, Palin Basher, Columbia Professor, Huffington Post Blogger and Incest Practitioner

To be filed under 'Ewwww, yuck. Obama supporter?'

Not sure what the incest laws are in New York but just because it might not be illegal doesn't make it right.

I was going to try to make a couple more jokes about it (besides the one in the first line) but decided against it. It's just sick and wrong.

Friday Night Christmas Carol

Tonight, I stepped aside and let my wife pick out the song.

Tom Daschle: The Elderly Have Options Under ObamaCare, They Can Die One Of Two Ways

Of course he doesn't say it quite that way. He dances around the issue by saying the elderly can go to a hospice. And die.



I think there was a term that caused quite an uproar about this sort of thing. Something about advisory boards or panels.

Video: Great Moments In Unintended Consequences

From the good folks at Reason.

If You Happen To Live In The Powhatan, Virginia Area. . .

Be sure to consider voting Todd Rojcewicz for the Board of Supervisors.



Todd is a good man, a Marine and is stepping up to be a citizen legislator. Sure, he's wearing a Boston Red Sox ball cap in the above video when a Detroit Tigers cap would have been more preferable. But we aren't going to agree on every single issue and that's okay.

It's not too early to start eying up a good candidate for next year.

Whitey Need Not Apply

Yes, this is rhetorical but why is it when minorities express interest in hiring people whose skin is a certain shade (Or, more accurately, not hiring people because of the shade of their skin) it's not considered racist?

If Chesterfield County [In Virginia] is going to offer a truly global education to its 58,000 or so students, the School Board and administration officials heard yesterday, it needs to do something about the wide gap in minority representation between students and teachers.

While 44 percent of the student body is nonwhite, only 13 percent of the teaching corps is, said Traci E. Teasley, the system's director of research and planning, during the board's quarterly work session. The immediate goal is 15 percent, with plans to top 20 percent in the long term.

"What gets monitored, gets done," Superintendent Marcus J. Newsome told the board, explaining the impetus behind including minority hiring among the five "Key Success Measures" for the school year.

The four other areas involve standardized test scores and student attendance.

The issue has been a priority for Matoaca representative U. Omarh Rajah, a one-time county teacher who became the board's first elected minority member when he unseated incumbent Thomas J. Doland in 2007.

So much of this is political correctness more than anything. And bonehead thinking.

If the school system really wanted to offer a 'global education', simply hiring minorities won't do it. To start with, minorities won't be able to offer the global perspective. Not if the teacher has live their entire life here in the US.

What happens when the Chesterfield school system can't find enough qualified candidates to hire? Do they buckle down and hire the white people? Or relax their standards to allow more 'preferred' teachers in to work? For the alter of Political Correctness, no wall is too high to make sure the right quotas will be filled. Of course standards will be relaxed.

What's more important? Making sure there are enough of the right kind of teachers or the quality of your children's education?

Hire the best teacher for the job. Regardless of skin color. At least that's how I understood Martin Luther King.

"I'm Eating My Cookie!"

Don't have too much to say about this. Other than that must be some cookie for the guy to be nibbling on it for the entire 2+ minutes.

I guess he only spent half of that time eating the cooking and the other half saying, "I'm eating my cookie".

It was only a matter of time. See, you can‘t dismiss questions about bloated wait times and problems with Canada’s single-payer health-care system by telling reporters to get lost while “I’m eating my cookie,” and expect to keep your job long.

The Walking Dead: Whats Next?

Last night was the last episode for the season.

I have to admit, I think I'll be hard-pressed into watching a second season. It started out with potential but the storyline would hit a wall every time it started to move forward. Most notably with the episode "Vatos". On a mission to recover the guns Ricked dropped and find Merle they meet up with a handful of gangbangers, decked out in wife beaters and driving a lowrider, no less. The storyline pauses here to give a morality play from the leader of the Vatos. As it turns out they really are a bunch of nurses, caring for the elderly.

And with a low point like that, it takes some time to gather up enough steam to move the storyline ahead.

***As always, something something spoilers something ***

Saturday Season's Greetings

Don't let the 'Hitman' graphic fool you, it's an amazing version of Ave Maria.

I've heard the song during the holidays enough that I'm counting it as one.

Friday Night Story

Heard this the other day at a department store-- it was being played for background noise-- and couldn't get it out of my head.

One More Follow Up About Christine O'Donnell. . .

Then I'm quitting the navel gazing and moving on.

I'm taking a liberty in saying that most people who vote in the primaries are the people who follow politics with this. Sure, there are the few who vote their civic duty but by and large, they follow this stuff, read blogs and are the more informed segment when it comes to candidates and issues.

Christine O'Donnell was a known quantity to the voters in Delaware. She had ran for Senate numerous times. Even a write-in drive against Joe Biden in 08 (To which he subsequently resigned to be Vice President and hand picked his successor to keep the seat to be in the Democrat column). Yet the voters chose her over Mike Castle, who was an even more well known quantity to the voters who were informed.

And as bad as her perceived flaws were*, she still won the Delaware primary. She was a choice, not an echo.

Update: Linked in the sidebar at The Other McCain.

*O'Donnell was disorganized more than anything. She would cancel appearances at the last moment when they needed to be made. And never got out in front of the narrative. The messaging always controlled her. Part of it could have been solved with a better candidate and on it goes**. If I invent the sure-fire method of winning elections, I'm charging $75,000 a month for them. A bargain considering GOP strategist Mike Murphy was charging $90,000 in California.

**Mike Castle was the "Better Candidate" but was passed over for O'Donnell. O'Donnell needed to be a better candidate like Mike Castle in order to win the general election. But Castle lost the primary instead. Yes, it's a Cliff's Notes version of what happened and the aftermath in Delaware.

Quote For The Week: Conventional Wisdom

It's been a while since I've done these but it's high time I brought it back.

From the famed Axis of Fedora, Da Tech Guy:

Conventional Wisdom is what everybody knows is true, right up to the moment when it is not.

Christine O'Donnell: Mea Culpa?

I see that Robert Stacy has another postmortem about Delaware— as if another one was needed— and I’ve been putting off doing mine so here it is.

Am I at fault for losing control of the US Senate by supporting Christine O’Donnell over Mike Castle and Chris Coons? No.

Need more?

The most grievous charge against Christine O'Donnell is that not only did she lose her race, she lost others as well. Usually, the names names Ken Buck in Colorado and Dino Rossi in Washington are dropped. I have to cry bullshit on that. A race in Delaware affects races two time zones away?

If— this is not an admission— that was the case, then Pat Toomey would have been affected as well. Much of Delaware is a suburb of Philadelphia. O’Donnell needed to advertise on Philly TV in order to cover a significant portion of the population in Delaware. Why didn’t she tank Toomey? He won.

It’s more about finger pointing and what-ifs more than anything else. It was said that Mike Castle had a proven track record— until he didn’t— with voters in Delaware and would have easily won the election-- until he lost.

So by that logic Linda McMahon should have had a cake walk with the proven liar that is Dick Blumenthal. She was the establishment pick by the GOP and the NRSC. She distanced herself from Sarah Palin and any Tea Parties. Yet she was soundly beaten by a guy who most likely to be typecast as a pedophile in most movies.

McMahon ran against Peter Schiff and Rob Simmons in the GOP Primary for Connecticut, both of whom were superior candidates. Schiff is an economic prophet and Rob Simmons is a certified war hero. On paper, she should have been dead last to the other two. But money talked and McMahon had the deepest pockets of the three.

But I have yet to see the spit on the sidewalk when people mention Linda McMahon’s race. No snarky ‘recriminations’ postings about her. No one is wailing in the streets wearing sackcloth and ashes. Her loss was almost as bad as Christine O’Donnell’s. If anything, McMahon’s loss is more directly related with the loss of Joe DioGuardi and Jay Townsend in New York. Connecticut is as much of a suburb of New York City as Delaware is of Philly.

I think most if the blame being directed toward O’Donnell is due to the fact that the Tea Party and Sarah Palin supported her. O’Donnell obviously wasn’t the party pick so with her loss the GOP and others are throwing their arms out of socket pointing towards her direction and blaming her from the 'potential control' of the Senate to their food coma they had on Thanksgiving.

Out of spite, the GOP and many others on the right-- acting as an echo chamber for the MFM-- repeated all the charges that the MFM has said about O'Donnell. She’s a religious kook, a witch (burn her), she’s paranoid, she turned Karl Rove inot a newt (he got better) and personally lost control of the Senate despite all evidence to the contrary.

If you wonder why she was thought to be paranoid, consider this. She didn’t receive any help from the Delaware Republican party. She was bad mouthed by Karl Rove repeatedly the very night of her primary win. And it took the NRSC about a day to try to squelch rumors that they weren’t going to support her. Any wonder where she might get the feeling that they were out to get her?

She had her faults. She was poorly organized with her campaign. I have it on good authority that they weren't really expecting to win the primary. The “I’m not a witch” ad was awful. The multiple cancellations for TV interviews. I think she stumbled out of the primary gate and never was able to find her footing. Understandable considering she was getting pummeled by both sides of the isle, which really isn’t an excuse but a statement of what happened to her.

What I know about her is that she wasn’t the strongest candidate but I still would have preferred her over Mike Castle any day of the week.

So do I still need to offer a mea culpa? I did miss-read the Big Red Wave, after all. Why take the ‘safe’ bet of Mike Castle when all the odds look to be in your favor?

Well, if you consider the recent vote in the Senate, chances are that Castle would have been one more Republican voting for the Farm bill that needed to be defeated.

So no, I don’t need to say I’m sorry for supporting O’Donnell.

If anyone says that O’Donnell lost someone else’s election, look behind that person. There is either a party loyalist hack or a wannabe party player saying that.

Do you know what was really scary about Christine O’Donnell? Nothing about being a witch or human sacrifice or that she was going to ban masturbation. It was that even though she was a known quantity in Delaware— she ran several times for office before— the rank and file of Republican voters rejected the party’s pick of Mike Castle. It wasn’t who she was but what she represented. She was a choice, not an echo. A departure from the normal power brokers and gave the people a real choice in that election.

That’s the real crime she is guilty of.

Reason # 244,345 To Stop Funding PBS

What the hell, I'm throwing NPR in with this as well. Go big or go home.

Via Doug over at his Gator hangout and News Busters. Go on, watch the video. I'll wait.

The video is from last May but it still doesn't change the stupidity that is Tavis Smiley. If there ever was an affirmative action hire, Smiley is it. And PBS knows it too. Why else would they schedule his show late at night after Nightline is over?

To start with, Smiley grossly asserts that Christians are more responsible for acts of terror "every day" (his words) than Muslim extremists. Then points to himself and says that he's a Christian as well (Which is funny in retrospect. Didn't realize he was admitting he was a terrorist). He then props up Columbine as an example of Christian terrorism.

Except that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold where not Christians (If they were, they weren't acting out In The Name Of The Lord the way Islamic Terrorists scream, "Allah Akbar". A subtle but very important difference). Cassie Bernall was, however. She was shot by one of the two during the Columbine shootings.

Sure, there has been in the past an occasional shooting of an abortion doctor. The important thing to keep in mind is when that has happened, the mainstream Church readily condemns said shootings. And I can't remember when the last one has happened. Almost over ten years ago[See update below]? Compared to other acts of terrorism (really, what other word would fit) that has been committed recently.

I guess you can throw Timothy McVeigh in the domestic terrorism column. He fell under the lone wacko variety rather than religious fanatic. Ted Kaczynski could be placed here to. Except that he was a religious fanatic of the environment. One could even say druid like.

Back to Smiley.

He repeats the lie about Emmanuel Cleaver being called the N-word. With all of the video cameras rolling that day and not one instance of that word being uttered. If it was said, it would have been replayed constantly, digitally processed and every letter pronouncement analyzed. Don't believe me? Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen and Michael Richards would disagree.

That the N-Word was said is a damned, dirty lie and until a video clips shows otherwise, I'm going to keep on saying it's a lie. Because Emmanuel Cleaver is a filthy liar. It was needing to be said.

Anyhoo, I could go on about Smiley's asinine,ignorant and stuttered ramblings but it's like shooting prairie dogs with a .22 rifle. After a while, it gets boring. You need them to line up in order to shoot them two at one time.

The guy from the movie, 'Radio' could do a better job than Smiley and wouldn't need subtitles in order to understand what he was saying.

Sylvester Stallone has better pronunciation in 'The Expendables' than Tavis.

Smiley must have naked pictures of Charlie Rose and Jim Lehrer together someplace. Besides the affirmative action scenario, that's the only possible reason why he has a show on PBS.

He's does what a good houseboy needs to do. Smear conservative groups like the Tea Party in any way he can. He's a liberal tool. Does the public really need to be subsidizing fools and rewarding stupidity like this?

Update and fact check: A small walk back. George Tiller was shot and killed just last year. The late term abortion doctor died at the hands of Scott Roeder. So it was a lot less than ten years ago since the last one.