A Second Hand Conjecture

Steve Newton reviews potential First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign rally at Delaware State. According to Steve, Mrs. Obama is every bit the charismatic speaker that her husband is:

My overall impressions:

Grade for the campaign in scheduling this event (location/audience): B-

Grade for the overall quality of the presentation: A- [not enough campaign literature available going in or out]

Grade for Michelle’s performance as a speaker: A+

Grade for Obama campaign themes in terms of political effectiveness: B+/A- [while these themes were very good, I have not seen them tied into the campaign TV advertisements]

He has lots more, so RTWT.

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Is the government spying on paranoid schizophrenics enough?

(Came up in a conversation about Truthers.)

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This is fascinating, though the idea of destroying a female embryo to show that females could reproduce is sort of grotesque.

The researcher is applying for permission to use stem cells from bone marrow instead of embryos because it would be more practical, which leads me to wonder why it was necessary to try with embryonic stem cells first, and if it was easier to get permission to do so. (Certainly, women who want to produce sperm to fertilize another woman’s egg aren’t going to be doing it from an embryonic state.)

Overall though, this is really cool.

The article explains that sperm was created from male cells previously. The problem with creating sperm from female cells is that the information to do so is in the Y chromosome.

h/t Ann Althouse

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The Berkeley City Council has passed several resolutions denouncing the “barbarity” of the USMC recruiting office in their rather ridiculous city, as well as encouraging Code Pink to protest it regularly (including giving CP reserved parking in front of the Marine office). Big Dog argues for an American boycott of Berkeley as retaliation. I thought about joining in, but realized my budget for patchouli scented hemp oil peace vigil candles was already at zero.

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(Cross posted at What if?)

Did Rudy lose because the purportedly “ruthless” candidate was too nice?

Most critical in the closing days of the contest, when he desperately needed to reinsert himself into the narrative, was Giuliani’s inexplicable refusal to draw contrasts with his rivals, especially the surging McCain, whose votes were coming directly out of the former mayor’s hide.

“Within the campaign, there was broad strategic consensus to engage the opposition,” shared a frustrated adviser. “But whether it was subtle or aggressive or stuff in between, the reality was that it was his decision, and his opinion was that that was not the way he wanted to run campaign.”

“He just didn’t want to do [contrast ads],” said another source close to the campaign. “He rejected a lot offers.”

“You see what that gets you — maybe McCain will send him a thank you note.”

And

“I’m proud that we chose to stay positive,” Giuliani said after the Florida results were known. Even beyond his unwillingness to launch negative ads, in fact, Giuliani declined to raise direct contrasts with his rivals on the campaign trail.

Of course, I do not know if this evaluation is accurate or not. If it is, however – those of us who bemoan the nastiness and brutality of some campaigns should realize: we get what we pay for. If we do not reward candidates who attempt to run above board, based-on-the-issues campaigns, then we will not see more of them in the future.

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Arnold has to govern liberal California, Rudy had to govern liberal NYC and McCain…McCain is from Arizona. So what exactly is his excuse for his dramatic shift to the Left over time? Lest you think he has one, here’s a very good interview from Kudlow & Company with Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, who is championing the cause of slashing corporate taxes to induce growth, while his colleague McCain rants about the evils of big business. Just some info in case you’ve ever wondered if like Arnold and Rudy, McCain’s liberal positions are induced by electability concerns in demographically fluid Arizona. Kyl has managed to remain staunchly conservative for years while being easily reelected. On a media note, Kyl’s 2006 reelection is often described as “narrow” by the press. 53-43 isn’t narrow.

H/T: Larry Kudlow

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When I finish typing this and hit publish, the blog will send out a ping, and then the enters the strange ecosystem of the internet:

Imperceptibly and all but instantaneously, your post slips into a vast and recursive network of software agents, where it is crawled, indexed, mined, scraped, republished, and propagated throughout the Web. Within minutes, if you’ve written about a timely and noteworthy topic, a small army of bots will get the word out to anyone remotely interested, from fellow bloggers to corporate marketers.

Click here for a interactive, graphic picture of this strange world.

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Are you a liberal who foams at the mouth about the immorality of big business?  Are you a conservative who rails about giving ten cents to government employees who will waste it or steal it?

Turns out you are all right!

Let’s face it.  People are people.  Some of us rise to the occasion magnificently.  Some of us are utter low lives.  Most of us are in the middle; we basically live a decent life, but have our moments of acting poorly.

No matter where each of us falls, however, the bottom line is that government and the private sector has its share of bad apples.

The study, released yesterday by the nonprofit Ethics Resource Center, found that nearly 60 percent of government employees at all levels — federal, state and local — had witnessed violations of ethical standards, policy or laws in their workplaces within the last year.

Observed misconduct was lowest at the federal level, with 52 percent of federal workers surveyed saying they had witnessed problems such as conflicts of interest, abusive behavior, alterations of documents and financial records and lying to employees, vendors or the public within the last year. . . .

The sooner we all recognize this simple fact, the more rapidly we can get to superior solutions to lowering the ill effects of such activity.

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(Cross posted at What if?)

As any of my readers know, I was a Rudy woman. Now that the handwriting is on the wall for all to see, I must go elsewhere. Romney? McCain?

My best friend from first grade, who has political views remarkably similar to my own, has a blog about critters. Roxy has unearthed the important fact that McCain has more critters than any other candidate!

Now, while having three parakeets may not be the most critical reason for which someone should support a presidential candidate – one must take that tidbit of data into consideration!

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(Cross posted at What if?)

My liberal friends think I’m a conservative. My conservative friends think I’m a liberal. Frankly – there is truth in the assessment of both groups. Depending upon the issue, you can honestly label me with both.

One issue that continues to gnaw at me is that of equal rights for gay people. Again – I am bothered by positions by both conservatives and liberals on this topic! Too many conservatives either do not appreciate the burdens that gay folks must experience today, despite improvement in recent years. Others are out and out homophobes. On the liberal side, too many seem unaware of the relationship between the battle against radical Islam and the fight for equality for gay people.

Bruce Bawer has a column which highlights these points. Whether your general philosophy is of a conservative bent or a liberal one – please read this and take it to heart. Have more consideration for your gay neighbor. If you already do – then please realize that his rights are under terrible threat in societies that you consider to be “enlightened.”

Europe is on its way down the road of Islamization, and it’s reached a point along that road at which gay people’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is being directly challenged, both by knife-wielding bullies on the street and by taxpayer-funded thugs whose organizations already enjoy quasi-governmental authority. Sharia law may still be an alien concept to some Westerners, but it’s staring gay Europeans right in the face – and pointing toward a chilling future for all free people. Pim Fortuyn saw all this coming years ago; most of today’s European leaders still refuse to see it even though it’s right before their eyes.

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I guess she’s only pro-union when it benefits her.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4218509&page=1

In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world’s largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers.

Clinton has been endorsed for president by more than a dozen unions, according to her campaign Web site, which omits any reference to her role at Wal-Mart in its detailed biography of her.

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It’s not to often that a headline comes along that makes me bust out laughing. But the following one did.

(more…)

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And now for an unscheduled musical interlude:

Bill Withers wrote and recorded that song while he had a job installing toilet seats on 747’s. Apparently, he had intended to write more lyrics to replace the 26 consecutive “I know’s” but was convinced by friends that he should just leave it the way it is … a timeless classic.

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(Cross posted at What if?)

After five years of heated debate, the Commission of Human Rights approved the official Symbol of Marriage.

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(Cross posted at What if?)

Finally. The veil of ignorance has been lifted from the eyes of many liberals.

One former Clinton supporter whom I do not know e-mailed me about a recent piece I’d written on the Clintons and said this:

allow me to apologize on behalf of all other liberals concerning the Clintons, though I doubt I’ll be the only one. They really are the soulless, cynical spinmeisters that many on the Right made them out to be… Speaking only for myself, I never actually thought there were purely political motives for conservatives to detest the Clintons that much. The visceral hatred directed at them always seemed sincere enough to me, just hard to understand because apparently so excessive. But now that I’m on the opposite side of them in a campaign for the first time (as an Obama supporter), I know what it feels like to wake up each morning and face ever new depths of shamelessness from the Macbeth Family. Now I may actually catch myself going back to Impeachment Trial evidence for the sake of Schadenfreude. I’m starting to regret not having enjoyed it at the time.

This note is typical of others I have received, and the list of liberals turning against Bill and Hillary Clinton is noteworthy. A partial list includes Senators Kennedy, Kerry, and Leahy; former Clinton Administration cabinet member Robert Reich; former Clinton lawyer Greg Craig (whom Bill Clinton asked to lead the defense team the White House assembled for his impeachment battle); liberal radio talk show host Ed Schultz; liberal columnists E.J. Dionne, Eugene Robinson, Frank Rich, William Greider, Bob Herbert, Joe Klein, and now Chait; Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, who described Bill Clinton as America’s “first black president”; and others.

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Despite Keith’s wise admonition, many Republican leaning (or formerly R-leaning) voters have resigned themselves to the fact that Sen. John McCain will be the Republican nominee for Election 2008. That does not sit well with more than a few. Personally, since Fred! dropped out I’ve seen little reason to go on with life had little interest in how the remaining candidates shake out, except for praying that Huckabee does not get the nomination.

However, since there are really only four candidates left (or three if you accept McCain as a fait accompli), then it might make sense to start looking at potential VP candidates. Perhaps, with the right running-mate, one of the otherwise embarrassingly similar candidates will stand out from the rest. Of course, I can’t imagine that the candidates will give anyone a nod until they truly are the nominee, but that shouldn’t stop us from contemplating the possibilities. I’ll do the Republicans first, and then the Democrats in a separate post. (more…)

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youwalkaway.com

I really have little to add to my declaration of extreme discomfort.

Much more on this here.

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Attorney General Michael Mukasey sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the interrogation technique known as waterboarding. Mukasey remarked that it is not an authorized interrogation technique, and that it “is not, and may not be, used in the current [CIA interrogation] program.” As in his confirmation hearings, however, Mukasey declined to absolutely declare the technique illegal:

The important part of that excerpt is this:

Indeed, I understand that a number of senators articulated this very concern in the fall of 2006, in the course of defeating an amendment that would have expressly prohibited waterboarding.

Essentially, Mukasey is telling Congress to declare the technique illegal if that’s what they want. He’s not going to do their job for them.

Mukasey politely adds that reasonable minds may disagree on the issue, which does not present an easy question, and that:

There are some circumstances where current law would appear clearly to prohibit the use of waterboarding. Other circumstances would present a far closer question.

He goes on to say that opining on “generally worded legal provisions” absent concrete factual circumstances is not wise, and that his reluctance to do so now is precisely because there are no such circumstances. This is typical judge-speak for not providing advisory opinions, and is a bit weaselly. Mukasey could at least identify what some of the “closer questions” are where waterboarding may be deemed legal, and I expect that he is being drilled on such scenarios in the Senate today.

My guess is that Mukasey is vaguely referring to “ticking time bomb” types of situations. He seems to be reluctant to proscribe waterboarding altogether, at least publicly, because our enemies may use that information to withhold vital information:

The principle that one should refrain from addressing difficult legal questions in the absence of concrete facts and circumstances has even more force as to this question. That is because any answer that I give could have the effect of articulating publicly — and to our adversaries — the limits and contours of generally worded laws that define the limits of a classified interrogation program.

Frankly, Mukasey’s reasoning makes absolute sense, but in this climate of highly charged partisanship regarding any matters concerning the war, all discussion is framed in terms of absolutes. Today’s Senate hearing has nothing to do with practical legal matters. Instead it is a battle for moral superiority. More accurately, it’s a highly publicized display of how morally superior the Democratic leadership on the Judiciary Committee considers itself, especially vis-à-vis the Bush Administration. In short, it’s a dog and pony show designed to make Democrats look good, and Bush (and any who agree even tangentially with him) look bad. Waterboarding is merely the current foil.

In the end, we’ve learned that the technique is not available to the CIA for use in interrogation and that, at least in some situations, it is clearly prohibited by law. However, there maybe other scenarios (presumably involving imminent and catostrophic danger) where either (a) waterboarding is not necessarily illegal, or (b) we don’t want our enemies to know we won’t use it. The rest is just stentorian drama of little to no consequence or utility (i.e. Senators blathering away).

UPDATE: Andy McCarthy reports from the Senate hearings (emphasis added):

In the hearing today at which AG Mukasey is testifying, Sen. Specter — who believes waterboarding is torture — has pointed out that his opinion is not the end of the matter. He noted that the Senate had voted down a provision that would have made it illegal. He then pointed out that, quite apart from waterboarding, the use of torture in ticking-bomb exigencies has been approvingly discussed by President Clinton, the Israeli Supreme Court, Sen. Schumer, Prof. Alan Dershowitz, and others. (He left out Sen. Clinton, but could have included her too.)

Has Specter been reading ASHC?

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John Edwards To Withdraw From Presidential Race

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McCain may be the front runner, but it is still anyone’s game going into next Tuesday. And the race can be just as muddled after next Tuesday, if there’s not a clear front runner.

And yes, it’s my contention that at this time, there isn’t a clear front runner. Just look at the numbers:

McCain – 93
Romney – 59
Huckabee – 40

I know some will look at that and think McCain has a tremendous lead on Romney. Except that the goal is 1191 delegates to get the Republican nomination. So, as a percentage of goal the candidates are currently at:

McCain – 7.8%
Romney – 5.0%
Huckabee – 3.4%

Now, between Super Tuesday puts 1102 delegates in play (including 21 for Maine this Friday.) I doubt that any candidate is going to sweep 22 states.

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Assuming he doesn’t double down on the oppression, will come as his oil company collapses.

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Do you remember in the 80s when there were these bizarre quasi-political trash shows with psychopathic screaming hosts on television and the radio? They were something like a combination of Rush Limbaugh and Jerry Springer. Here’s of two of the worst getting into a fight over who is more “conservative.” Wally wins, but his only redeeming virtue now and then was that he was the father of Rebecca De Mornay (and this will always be as far as I’m concerned). Edit. Ah, .

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Horrible audio and video quality, but here’s Joey Ramone performing . Joey would be dead six months later, but the financial industry and markets he celebrated and loved live forever. You can download a high quality version of this classic track here for ninety-nine cents.

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Draft Sarah Palin has some excerpts from Alaska Magazine’s profile of “America’s Hottest Governor.” Palin also happens to be the most popular governor in America. Indeed, with approval ratings often in the 90s, the conservative Republican is perhaps the most popular governor in the history of the United States.

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Further conservative consolidation behind Mr. Slick. My friend the Huckabeeist has given in with an endorsement of Mitt Romney.

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Why? Because people are fed up with waiting for care and a health care bureaucracy with no incentive to improve:

Waiting times for medical care in Sweden are the longest in Europe, according to the Health Consumer Powerhouse, which analyzes health-care systems in the region. About 33,000 people had been waiting more than three months for surgery or other major treatments at the end of August, an increase of 43 percent from May, a report by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions showed.

Critics of Sweden’s welfare model say there are no incentives for hospitals to improve efficiency. Oscar Hjertqvist, director of the Health Consumer Powerhouse, likens the current system to a bad restaurant getting government funding.

“In Sweden, you would get paid just to have a restaurant, but there would be no requirements that people should get any food,” said Hjertqvist, whose group has offices in Brussels and Stockholm.

The reaction of the Swedish left to people using private care?

“The new hospital for the children of the upper classes is a mockery of the most fundamental values of the Swedish system,” said Lars Ohly, leader of the Swedish Left Party. “Care should be given based on needs, not wallets.”

Of course, he doesn’t want to merely express this opinion, but deny people the right to seek alternatives to the state run system. McQ has more.

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You may remember Michael Badnarik as the 2004 Libertarian Party nominee for President. Well, turns out he’s a crazy conspiracy nutter. Kinda regretting my vote for him now.

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That’s part of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ response to the SOTU last night.

Jim Hoft’s reaction: “Huh?” and drawing the obvious comparison to another famous redistributionist.

My first thought was: “Ask? Well I’d be much happier if they’d ‘ask’; that implies I can say no. Instead they all seem to pretty much insist while staring down the barrel of a gun.”

As a bonus, I can pretty accurately predict what Milton Friedman would have said:

President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”… Neither half of that statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society.

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Commenting on Bill Gates’ advocacy for “kinder capitalism,” Steven Bainbridge notes:

But when did Bill Gates ever believe in capitalism? He’s an inveterate monopolist and has been since the beginning. Monopolists hate real capitalism, precisely because they hate competition. Monopolists love corporate social responsibility because it creates barriers to entry. So of course Bill Gates is going to turn “a cold shoulder to the blessings capitalism bestows.”

His follow-up is here.

Needless to say, Prof. Bainbridge is exactly right. In fact, it was something that Adam Smith warned of long ago:

To widen the market and to narrow the competition is always the interest of the dealers … The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted, till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.

The Wealth of Nations, Book I Chapter XI

Another Smith quote seems appropriate to this situation as well:

I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.

Here, here.

[HT: Instapundit]

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I would have to think Saddams bluff against the world would be up there at #1.

A possible number 2 would be Rumsfeld, in 2004, siding with decision not to publicaly release information that supported going to war.

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12652

One member of UNSCOM told this author that in April 2003, shortly after Baghdad fell to U.S. forces, an Iraqi biological scientist called to tell him that part of Iraq’s biological program had been moved out of the country and part of it had been destroyed shortly before OIF began. Indeed, James R. Clapper Jr. headed the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is now Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and the Director of Defense Intelligence. In October 2003, Clapper told reporters that “satellite imagery showing a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria, just before the American invasion in March, led him to believe that illicit weapons material ‘unquestionably’ had been moved out of Iraq,” as the New York Times reported.

The Iraq Survey Group learned that Iraqi intelligence operated five biological laboratories until the start of OIF. In 2004, the Pentagon debated whether to release a cache of captured Iraqi documents. Individuals familiar with those papers say they justified the war. Then Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Stephen Cambone, however, argued against publicly releasing them, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sided with Cambone. Subsequently, a handful of those documents were leaked to a small on-line news service.

Among the leaked Iraqi papers is one detailing the production of small amounts of anthrax and another detailing the production of small amounts of mustard gas. Such quantities could be used for terrorism.

via Hot Air

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As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney oversaw the implementation of state-wide universal health care, something that he touts as a major accomplishment on his campaign website. In fact, after signing the legislation into law, Romney penned a an Op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal extolling the virtues of the health care plan, even going so far as to hold it out as a model for other states to follow:

And so, all Massachusetts citizens will have health insurance. It’s a goal Democrats and Republicans share, and it has been achieved by a bipartisan effort, through market reforms.

[...]

Will it work? I’m optimistic, but time will tell. A great deal will depend on the people who implement the program. Legislative adjustments will surely be needed along the way. One great thing about federalism is that states can innovate, demonstrate and incorporate ideas from one another. Other states will learn from our experience and improve on what we’ve done. That’s the way we’ll make health care work for everyone.

Of course, many think Romney’s “accomplishment” is nothing to write home about, especially during a Republican primary race: (more…)

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Tyson Foods suffers 40% decline in profits and will now raise food prices. That’s a huge decline, huge! All because people kept clamoring for the federal government to “do something” about the rising cost of oil. This is why I don’t really ever trust the government to solve anything. They’re usually going to make only a few people happy (usually those that lobby the most) and end up making most people suffer. More and more, everyday I’m convinced that corn ethanol is not the way, but it’s the one picked for us by our bureaucratic leaders.

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I’m not sure that’s “news” to those who have been paying attention the last few years, but now we have another source reported by CNN on Sunday. What makes this source newsworthy and interesting is that it’s FBI agent George Piro, who interviewed Saddam almost daily after his capture. He was on 60 minutes last Sunday, and it’s a very interesting interview with someone who had personal contact with the former Iraqi dictator.

It’s especially interesting for the psychological way Piro gained trust and control over Saddam. He became the conduit for anything Saddam wanted.

Mr. George controlled the baby wipes that Saddam was fond of. Saddam was a clean freak and he used the wipes to clean his cell and wipe off fresh fruit. Saddam wrote poetry every day, but Mr. George controlled the pen and paper. And in a cell with no windows, Mr. George had the power over day and night.

“We had the guards remove their watches. And the only person that was wearing a watch was me. And it was very evident to him, ’cause I was wearing the largest wristwatch you could imagine. And it was just the act of him asking for the time — was critical in our plan,” Piro says.

It’s an amazing glimpse into the mind of the dictator of Iraq, RTWT.

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Dan Collins at Protein Wisdom links this news article from the BBC with typical irreverence.

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Maybe that’s overstating things a bit, but probably not by much. My parents experienced a similar cascade of events when my grandmother was injured in December of ‘06, and died several weeks later. Even before then, her treatment was one of visiting any number of specialists with problems never being resolved completely.

When consumers are in the driver’s seat, best practices tend to spread. In a market economy, if you fail your customers, you go out of business. BJC, which is regarded as one of the best hospitals in the country, should go out of business. It should be driven out by hospitals that function more like its subsidiary, the Rehabilitation Institute.

Internists and specialists who do not like to touch old people should be driven out of business. They should be driven out by hands-on doctors and by gerontologists who take a more holistic view of patients.

The reason that medical care works the way it does is that government is the customer. Government pays health care providers for time and materials. Shannon Brownlee and others believe that government could come up with better compensation schemes that would help promote quality. I doubt this.

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It seems the great economist, an obsessive tabulator of everything, tabulated his sex life in two very different diaries. The second in code complete with assigned numbers (grades?)

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I know many of you have always wanted to cause us harm. This is your chance to do it, virtually of course. I’ll start with allowing you to do something more gentle, like a protest!

Then go up to the little bar, select your tool of choice, and rain destruction upon as us you feel fit. Crash a Led Zeppelin through our page, command a chainsaw and mangle the pieces of our posts, have Martians attack, dinosaurs rampage. Get it out of your system before you happen to meet me.

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Blackfive posted a response by an editor and the author of a New York Times article about how the military turns people into killers.

Essentially the response is “that’s not what we meant.”

Taken together they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.

Yet that’s what it said. It said that returning veterans are dangerous psychos.

Now, the purpose may well have been to help, as the author claims. And we ought all agree that those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan (or elsewhere) need to have access to help to reintegrate into civilian life and readily available psychological help if they need it. Certainly the issue has been addressed in the most naked manner at Blackfive.

So why object when well meaning persons express themselves poorly?

I was browsing Flickr last evening and came upon an excellent reason…
(more…)

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Paul Krugman roasted in study:

Left Out: A Critique of Paul Krugman Based on a Comprehensive Account of His New York Times Columns, 1997 through 2006
Daniel B. Klein with Harika Anna Barlett

I have only glanced at this point. H/T: Instapundit

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Uh, I am not the one to really speak to this story.

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Banks May Need $143 Billion for Insurer Downgrades: Banks that raised $72 billion to shore up capital depleted by subprime-related losses may require another $143 billion should credit rating firms downgrade bond insurers, according to analysts at Barclays Capital. Banks will need at least $22 billion if bonds covered by insurers led by MBIA Inc. and Ambac Assurance Corp. are cut one level from AAA, and six times more for downgrades by four steps to A, Paul Fenner-Leitao wrote in a published report. (Bloomberg)

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From Captain Ed.

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Only $100 per win. Dunno if I would have put the 2 loss record on the ring though.

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The last roundup of the month is up at Fausta’s.

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Those free clinics, not a happy story.

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“Cloverfield” has got to be just about the worst movie I’ve seen in my life. My wife agrees, saying “Starship Troopers” was better, which for her, had been one of the worst movies of all time.

And we weren’t alone. The teenagers in the front row could be heard as the movie ended, “Is that it?” There was no buzz or excitement from anyone after seeing this movie.

The only redeeming feature of this movie, is that it’s over now, and no one can make me watch this again. I think if they made Gitmo prisoners watch this, it would be considered torture.

Warning if you are going to see it. If you tend to get motion sick on carnival rides, playing video games, or at the IMAX theater, DONT SEE THIS MOVIE. Perhaps that was part of our utter disappointment, nearly getting sick about 1/2 way through the movie. I was ready to leave at 45 minutes in, but my wife said, surely it’s got to get better. I’ll never again watch another movie that wants to present the entire thing as if it were filmed with a hand-held video camera.

Besides the shaky point of view, there was not a single character that I cared at all about. When the monster finally attacks, it was a sense of relief to know that something was going to happen, and that some of these 2 dimensional characters were going to die. DIE DIE DIE. That’s all the fate I wanted for these narcissistic whiners. And in that, the movie didn’t disappoint.

And sorry but, if a monster is of the material world, why would HE rounds from an Abrams tank, missiles from helicopters, and finally, bombs from aircraft, not make a dent in the thing. And the tactics the makers made up for the air force, they must have been sleeping through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as the air force commence to carpet bombing NYC in order to get the monster. Seems like precision bombing would have won the day, but I guess that would have made a shorter movie.

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McQ on the recent news from the UK’s National Health Service.

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I think that may be overstating it, but the Iraqi army is planning a major offensive against the last area where al Qaeda has a significant presence, Mosul and its environs.

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Fausta has the details, and Captain Ed has more. A wave of attacks was planned, and as Captain Ed points out, none are involved in Iraq.

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Yeah, that’s me after a few too many cocktails in the hotel lounge. As Lance related, I’m in Houston in the Texas Medical Center (TMC) visiting my father who recently had an internal defibrillator put on his heart. The surgery went remarkably well and he seems more lively than when he went under the knife on Thursday, but he’s trapped in the bureaucratic waiting-for-approval world of hospitalization that feels like standing in line at the DMV…only with your ass hanging out of a gown. Thus my mother and I keep him company during the day and sit starring at the hotel walls at night. I decided to start obliterating the time with vodka this evening, thanks to the encouragement of the medical-student bar staff who have seen this all before.

As always when I’m here, I’m struck by the bizarre experience of this health care city (and I’ve unfortunately been here a lot with Dad’s ongoing heart problems). The TMC is the largest medical district in the world, with one of the highest concentrations of hospitals, clinics, research centers and doctors anywhere (photo of the TMC’s rows and rows of hospitals). Just looking out my hotel window I can see the Texas Children’s Hospital, St. Luke’s Hospital, the Methodist Hospital, the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Baylor’s College of Medicine, Ben Taub Hospital, office tower after office tower of medical offices, research facilities…and seemingly perpetual construction for even more. There’s a boutique across the street for designer scrubs (the official uniform of this city-state) and almost every store/cafe/bar has a somewhat medical theme or is named after a famous surgeon, doctor or whathaveyou.

It’s a highly Ballardian place, full of sanitized winding corridors to nowhere, sterilized corporate conformity, multi-million dollar ugly sculpture, startlingly advanced high technology, foreign doctors nabbed from the world over, meticulously manicured lawns, smiling receptionists in vivid eyeshadow…and just beneath the surface –infecting the place with its sole purpose– life and death. Think Super-Cannes for physicians.

(more…)

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