Former Republican congressman and libertarian hero Bob Barr takes aim at gun control advocates:
Of course, the media often reports on violent crime, which aides anti-gun politicians in their never-ending crusade against firearm rights. After all, bad and salacious news sells. The facts, however, tell another story. According to a seminal study published in the mid-1990s by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, firearms are used in self-defense about 2.5 million times each year in this country.
Unfortunately, news stories that feature law-biding citizens using firearms to fend off attackers often either go unreported or wind up buried in the back pages of newspapers.
Then, in a spectacular display of “who ya gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?” he goes on to state a blatant untruth about one such incident:
The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in ‘Episode IV,’ what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down.
Imagine the contempt he must have for his audience to be so brazenly disingenu… hold on, I think I got my notes mixed up.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/12/12 at 08:33 AM
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In which America’s favorite unkillable psychotic backwoods mongoloid sets aside his standard arsenal and adopts your weapon of choice, the ukulele.
I guess they went over-budget with the (rather impressive) Jason makeup, otherwise the costuming department surely would’ve outfitted the psychiatrist with some shoes.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/13/12 at 10:07 PM
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Fight back against the War on Friday the 13th by keeping the Jason in Jason Lives! Report to Drill Sergeant Final Girl for your training. C’mon, she worked so hard putting together the kyllabus.
SCHEDULING NOTE: I’m not sure how many (if any) people who know me IRL read this blog, but if you’re out there, I will be watching Friday the 13th 3D tonight from approximately 9pm to 10:35pm. Any non-emergency phone calls made during that time will result in some sort of weapon or garden implement coming RIGHT AT YOU. You wouldn’t want to know me IRD, would you? Hell, you’re getting the short end of the stick as it is. The stick that will be coming RIGHT AT YOU.
All you poli-sci dorks who don’t overlap Vennwise with horror geeks, feel free to assume the post title refers to this.
I realize most people would rather let 2011 quietly slip into the mists of memory and get on with life, but you’ll pardon me for taking a hangin’s-too-good-for-it stance; it really was a bastard of a year. In the spirit of very much letting the door hit the old sash-wearing cretin in the ass on his way out, I humbly submit my choice for Worst Of the 2011 Best Ofs. I haven’t actually read any other 2011 Best Ofs, but I can’t imagine I’d find a worthy challenger if I did.
Trailer for the upcoming HBO film “Game Change,” which is based on the book by John Heilemann and Mark “Dick” Halperin:
From that snippet, it appears Ed Harris pulls off McCain’s trademark peevish, constipated affect to a tee. Julianne Moore perhaps lacks the vocal range to accurately mimic Palin’s home fire alarm-speaking voice, but in that clip at least, she nails the verbal cadence, and kudos must go to the hair, wardrobe and make-up peeps.
I read the book when it came out a couple of years ago. The most revealing insights it provided were perhaps unintentional, as it was a window into the obsessive tabloid mindset with which our stupid media has so debased coverage of US politics. But for that reason, it’ll probably make an entertaining movie.
Hey, I just realized I can use this blogging software for something besides trying to feel better about myself by mocking others. I can also use it to point people in the direction of a thing I enjoyed, in the hopes that they too will enjoy it and then do something enjoyable for someone else, like in that movie “Play it, Forward,” which I guess was about basketball.
Atlas Shrugged Part I desperately wants to be a genuine Hollywood movie, just as badly as Christian filmmakers want to replicate the look, feel, and production values of their godless would-be peers/cultural enemies. It proves just as unsuccessful, yet Atlas Shrugged: Part I gets close enough for its efforts to be poignant, comic, and a little pathetic.
Read it more for the comments than the article. And speaking of skipping articles, a sample:
Cookie_Monster
Me late to thread, me know, but Heche completely wrong. By every metric - GNP, unemployment, median wages - US economy better off day before Pearl Harbor than it was day before stock market crash. New Deal not only got us out of Depression, it also set stage for incredible prosperity that follow WWII, and anyone who claim otherwise willfully ignoring facts to play politics.
By the way, I just found out that Gonzo lives here in Hoboken, I assume because of the Chicken Emergency. You’d think the brochure’d make a bigger deal out of that, I mean, fuck Sinatra.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/08/11 at 11:28 PM
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Every year around this time we gather all of the kids in front of their newfangled monitor screen thingees to enjoy Rumproast founder Kevin’s captivating, one-millisecond-long performance (more “insider” details here) in Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez’s film Grindhouse. Enjoy (unless you don’t like gore—you’ve been warned) and happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Yeah, I know the Farrellys are behind this. But other than Lenny or Chaplin, when was the last time you didn’t wince at watching a contemporary actor try to recreate classic shtick that’s already perfected in memory? (Man on the Moon, anyone?)
And just in case you were holding out hope that this would be a respectably earnest biopic dramatizing the off-screen lives of the Howard boys and Larry Fine, the IMDB plot synopsis suggests you’re going to be deeply disappointed:
While trying to save their childhood orphanage, Moe, Larry, and Curly inadvertently stumble into a murder plot and wind up starring in a reality TV show.
Sounds like The Blues Brothers meets Hollywoodland in a handbasket to Hell’s Kitchen.
Nothing makes my sap quicken like a good, old-fashioned story about three gals, a mountain and a pipeline that never got built.
Nonetheless, I’m SOOOO glad I didn’t donate a hundred bucks to SarahPAC for a $23 DVD that went on sale today for 44% off at Walmart...especially since it seems like a lot of Sarah fans who paid the big bucks months ago only got their copies yesterday:
I got my copy yesterday in the mail from SarahPAC. It was like Christmas.
I got my DVD yesterday. I heard that great chat with Todd and Bannon last night. He knows how to talk without any stumbles or mumbles. It’s great to have such an unassuming guy who is not at all afraid of making the facts crystal clear about history and his complete support of Sarah Palin and their family.
Run Sarah Run!
I paid $100 to receive my DVD one day before Wal-Mart. I hope that Sarah gets in… after waiting so long for my DVD.
I guess you really can’t destroy an American spirit…or the undead hopes of zombie fans who know for a fact that Snooki is running, precisely because she’s not.
This isn’t the clip most people would choose for a tribute, but there’s an eight-year-old part of me that will never forget his performance in the very first episode of The Outer Limits.
Has anyone seen heavy-rotation promo spots on cable? What about shelf-headers or free-standing kiosks at Walmart? Billboards? Happy Meals?
So far, all I can find is this. And once you strip away all the obligatory PR fluff, it sounds like Sarah’s movie is getting the same treatment as Beastmaster 12 and Star Trek: The Musical:
After methodically analyzing the most effective ways to bring this galvanizing film to the widest audience as soon as possible we have determined that Video-on-Demand, Pay-Per-View and DVD sales will be the best modalities by which to deliver this film as widely and as quickly as possible.
Yeah, well, since it sucked air in theaters, I guess that’s all you got left, ain’t it? Duh.
OK, so New British Superman has no pants and a shield that that looks like it’s made out of Fruit Roll-Ups. I guess it won’t matter since we’ll all be too busy staring at his mighty Kryptonian cod.
(More images here, with better detail on his fish scales and Captain Marvel-style sleeve guards. Lovely.)
DougJ at Balloon Juice is ready for an extinction-level event to punish our civilization for bestowing accolades on a columnist capable of this level of banality:
Meanwhile, Mr. President, on a rainy day, rent the movie “Tin Cup.” There is a great scene where Dr. Molly Griswold is trying to help Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy, the golf pro, rediscover his swing — and himself. She finally tells him: “Roy ... don’t try to be cool or smooth or whatever; just be honest and take a risk. And you know what, whatever happens, if you act from the heart, you can’t make a mistake.”
Can’t argue with DougJ’s sentiment. Friedman as always lacks insight. There is no “great scene” in “Tin Cup,” which is a thoroughly stupid movie. And the supposedly profound point—that “if you act from the heart, you can’t make a mistake”—is absurd.
But rather than think about the depressing state of politics and punditry, let’s focus instead on bad sports movies—the very worst. There are so many. And they are bad in so many ways.
What do you consider the worst sports movie of all time? My possibly controversial answer: “Rudy.” The mister and I argue about this all the time. He thinks it’s a great movie. I think it’s depressing and dumb.
I get that we’re supposed to be impressed with Rudy’s perseverance. But goddamnit, he’s bad at football! It’s not admirable that he persists at it after it becomes clear that he’s always going to suck—it’s pathetic.
Come to think of it, Rudy and Friedman have something in common: They’re both bad at what they do, and they both receive unwarranted accolades for contributing nothing of importance to their respective fields.
A quirk of tax law means that Scotland’s currently a good place for overseas film companies to make movies. A quirk of history means that some of Glasgow’s older architecture and grid street layout bears a striking resemblance to Philadelphia’s. A quirk of genetics, climate, and social engineering means that zombie extras apparently aren’t difficult to find.
All this made Glasgow city centre’s George Square and surrounding streets a shoo-in for the shoot of some key scenes from the upcoming movie of Max Brooks’s 2006 novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, starring Brad Pitt.
There’s a slideshow of the shoot here, and the Daily What has a fun little quiz to see if you can tell the streets and buildings of Philadelphia from those of Glasgow when they haven’t been all gussied up for $ (I got 80%).
I haven’t ventured into the city during the shoot—the location’s cordoned off to the hoi polloi, and by the look of that pic above, not without good reason. I’ve also not read the book, but if they film the climax on a Saturday night after a Celtic—Rangers soccer match, my money’s on the zombies.
Rumproast’s Founder and Ur-Blogger Emeritus introduced us to the original, live-action Black Dynamite film. We may never know if he approves of the new, animated Adult Swim incarnation, but I think we can all agree that every Liberal heart leaps at a cartoon that unites White CIA agents with kung-fu-fighting Ghetto Heroes to kick rogue PBS puppet ass, the way the Founders intended.
"[W]e wholeheartedly endorse the excellent Rumproast blog" -- Jim Newell, Wonkette
"Mind you, don’t let yourself be trapped dialoging with these guys: truth is their enemy; pyschological warfare and misinformation dissemination is their profession." -- TeaParty.org
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