Paper-thin characterization, laughable dialog, wooden acting, lotsa slime, Spud from Trainspotting, hoky mythologizing, sub-Tomb Raider sets, a weird X-Files reference (oh yes), interesting details for Alien completists, Frank Black, and great, great creature punch-ups, this movie has it all, except, disappointingly, gratuitous nudity (that pesky PG-13, I suppose).

Two (severed) thumbs up.

"It totally ignores the historical, intellectual and cultural context, and amounts to a tendentious diatribe… I object to the way in which this film presents our country."

The “historical, intellectual and cultural context” of genocide?

Louis Michel will now be the EU’s Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid.

No further comment necessary.

The morality of killing Muslims who work for the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq has long been debated on Islamic extremist Web sites, but generally it has been considered justifiable. . . .

Opinions have been mixed on taking Muslims hostage and beheading them, with some saying "fellow Muslims" should be spared and others saying they should be killed to deter Muslims from becoming "allied with the devil."

The alleged spiritual leader of Tawhid and Jihad, Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, posted an audio tape on the Internet on July 28 in which he defended the killing of Muslims who work for "infidels" without opposition.

Not true. We're very prepared here in Florida. As is the nation. Governor Bush called it a "6 year hurricane amnesia", but EM services have been drilling in and out for this sort of thing. Emphasis on terror has been a main focus of Homeland Security, but Florida has some of the finest, if not the finest first responders in the nation. Response and recovery will be strong.

The problem, the BIG problem with this hurricane is its trajectory over the "population belt" of Florida (Ft. Myers, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville). For a state with over 15 million people, 2 million now evacuated to shelters, and a bulk (somewhere around 8 million) being in that strip, I'd be worried about life before property loss. You can mitigate for disasters, but you cannot change their course.

(Sorry to flood your box, but it seems like no one in this country thinks Florida is capable of anything after 2000. We may have a problem with hanging chads, but you might wait to question our ability to react, recover, and respond in emergency situations. We are the best.)

[The Washington Post, December 21, 1996] He won the 1976 Democratic primary and was neck and neck with Republican Newton Steers until a controversy erupted over the portrayal of Davis's academic record in a campaign brochure. Davis claimed he had graduated from Yale Law School cum laude -- a designation the school didn't award in 1970, the year he finished.

After he narrowly lost a 1976 House race, Davis, 51, began evangelizing for the motivational door-to-door distribution company, which markets everything from toothpaste to telephone service. A prominent Maryland lawyer-lobbyist, who refused to speak for attribution, recalled that Davis once invited him to lunch to discuss a "business opportunity."

"We didn't order yet when he started talking, and it was like a switch went on," the lobbyist recounted. "He asked, 'Are you interested in making more money?' Well, what lawyer isn't? 'Do you want to be in control of your destiny?' And I go, 'Wait a minute, Lanny -- is this an Amway pitch?'

Report from a reader:

JG:

Not to clutter your inbox, but I almost drove off the road today listening to BBC "News of the World" interview the dutch guy who headed the oil for food program 1999-2000:

His three most important points:

1) He and his staff had "no idea" this was going on until the very end of his tenure: "FULL POWER to the ass shields!!"
2) It wasn't necessarily so bad, because as far as we know Saddam was hooking his peeps up with German luxury cars and other expensive trinkets, not using the money for WMD proliferation.
3) The security council never met on the subject because of the Russia/France/China vs. US/UK "rift," and this dutch guy explained that you can't even have a meeting in the UN unless you have consensus about having the meeting.

It was a concise, 5 minute brief on why the UN should be disbanded immediately.

I have no idea what her politics were, but conservatives have always missed the boat, in my opinion, by not lionizing her more. First of all, she lived to 91 proving daily that the health zealots were wrong. Yes, yes, I know she brought French food to America and I'm supposed to hate all things French. But I don't. French food, particularly traditional French food is wonderful, though I can do without the frogs, brains, snails and intolerably clever cheese. (What I object to is the notion which has even penetrated into these precincts that because their food is good, their politics can't be all bad).

In a sense what Julia Child did was rescue France's most valuable (and exportable) goods before the place went south. Think of someone racing into a building seconds before the Brown English department ransacked the place in order to collect all of the cookbooks. She was a consumate professional and career woman who would not tolerate political correctness in or out of the kitchen. She volunteered for the OSS during World War Two and while many authors and biographers have claimed she was a pretty serious spy, she always denied it, saying she was merely a file clerk.

In short, she was the bomb.

From a reader:

All the news coverage seems to be missing the point re: New Jersey. It was a great speech. Likely calculated, he was a long shot to retain office. The outing was the nail in the coffin. His political capital is now sky rocketing. Well done, Jim. Worry about wife and kids later. Here is the point the Wonkette's of world miss, but us locals(I'm a NY resident) ponder. Homeland Security Aide? Couple people round the tri state area died a few years back. This job was created with the idea that we'd make an effort to avoid a repeat going forward. He created and filled the role with his boy toy. Wonderful speech, citizens be damned. Kudos for Jim coming to terms with his sexuality, but he oughta be out of office this morning. If Condi was Bush's incompetent, unqualified plaything, she and the president would be run out of town, if not up on charges. Don't let this be about sex, that's the spin, not the story.

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr suffered shrapnel wounds to his arm and chest during Friday fighting in Najaf while he was inside the Imam Ali Mosque, according to his spokesman Sayed Hazim al-Arajy in Baghdad.

The U.S. military denies any damage has been done to the mosque, and says the military has taken great caution and care not to disturb the site, one of the holiest in Islam.

"It's extremely important to the local Iraqi security forces as well as to U.S. military forces that we minimize collateral damage to any holy sites," Marine Capt. Carrie Batson said Friday. "Right now there's absolutely no indication that any damage has been done to the Imam Ali Shrine."

Insurgents loyal to al-Sadr have been battling U.S. and Iraqi forces in the Shia holy city for more than a week. The mosque compound is surrounded by Iraqi forces, but there is no plan to storm the site.

Al-Sadr was treated at the mosque and is expected to make a full recovery, al-Arajy said.

In the neighboring town of Kufa, Iraqi security forces led a pre-dawn raid with U.S. Marines on a mosque described by Batson as a "militia strong point."

"Iraqi security forces entered the mosque, cleared it of Muqtada militia men, killing several of them, also taking eight detainees," Batson told CNN. During the raid, U.S. Marines surrounded the mosque but did not enter the building.

This comes after Marines in Najaf Thursday raided al-Sadr's house, including two hospital and medical buildings he used, Batson said. The cleric was not home at the time of the raid.

"We knew that Sadr was not going to be there," she said. "In regard to Sadr, we're not concerned about one man. Basically our focus is to stabilize this city."

Batson said the raid was "very successful."

There have been up to 2,000 Marines in Najaf and about 1,800 soldiers from the Iraqi National Guard in the area, U.S. military officials said. The U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division has also taken up positions in the city.

Batson said Friday that 80 percent of Najaf is stable.

Iraqi authorities said al-Sadr and thousands of his allies inside the Imam Ali Mosque compound have been attacking their forces with mortars and laying land mines in the sacred compound.

Another spokesman for the cleric told CNN's Anderson Cooper that was not the case.

"The fighters are not inside the holy shrine of Imam Ali," Sheikh Salah al-Ubeidi said, blaming "several false news" reports.

Cooper then asked him about video and photographs showing mortar shells fired from inside the compound.

"I don't believe it was from inside [the shrine compound] because it is something forbidden for us to go inside the shrine with our arms."

Defense Minister Hazem Sha'alan stressed that Iraqi forces are near but not in the shrine compound. He said the multinational forces, referring to the Americans, are farther away, in the 1920 Revolution Square.

Iraqi forces and not foreigners would be engaged near the shrine, officials said.

Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib echoed that statement, saying, "We will not allow for any foreign forces to enter the shrine of Imam Ali."

Oookay, I don’t know much about McGreevey, and much of what I have seen (not least some nasty tax increases, I seem to recall) I don’t like. What’s more I have absolutely no idea whether there are other revelations to come that would make it impossible for him to do his job, or unseemly for him to try. I do know, however, that, in and of themselves, his matrimonial difficulties should not be a resigning matter. Governor McGreevey has a great deal of explaining to do, certainly – but to his wife and to his daughters, not the voters. That his adulterous relationship was with a man should make absolutely no difference - in this respect at least.

Looking in more general terms, in the absence of grotesque hypocrisy or (and you know who I am talking about) a spot of perjury, I couldn’t care less about the sex lives of our politicians. What should matter is whether they can govern effectively, legitimately and honestly. So long as it’s legal, what they do in their bedrooms ought to be their business, not ours. When it comes to government, better the competent rake than the incompetent ‘saint’. And to anyone who disagrees with that, I have only one thing to say.

Jimmy Carter.

I've gotten a bunch of emails from people about my article making the case against leadership on tax reform. One idea that I did not deal with keeps coming up: that a national sales tax would allow us to eliminate the hated IRS. This assumes that the introduction of the sales tax would coincide with the permanent elimination of the income tax. Otherwise, you would end up with both taxes. (Sometimes sales-tax advocates talk about repealing the Sixteenth Amendment, but they would have to go further and write an actual ban on income taxes into the Constitution. I find it hard to believe that the modern courts would block an income tax even if the Sixteenth Amendment did not exist.)

Anyway, the federal government cannot raise the amount of money it takes to fund its current operations, or anything close to them, without being intrusive. Perhaps the intrusion could be confined to business owners who would be tasked with collecting sales taxes--in which case it might end up being much more onerous on this class. But almost every economic transaction you make will continue to be the business of the federal government in some way or other.

A number of correspondents also criticized my defeatism. Here's one: "I am a little dismayed at your recent article . . . . You mention the political difficulties of getting [flat-tax] legislation passed, well if you work to have a political majority you can ram this stuff right down their throats. The key is to build a significant majority, especially in the Senate so no obstacles get in your way. You also have to, as President, use the bully pulpit to convince the American people of your idea. If it is explained thoroughly and with the right emotional tugging words it will pass. . . . Your dismissive and defeatist attitude on this is quite dishearting."

You are never, ever going to build a political majority so committed to the idea of abolishing the mortgage-interest deduction that you can ram it through. Rather than wasting their time trying to build such a majority for comprehensive reform, I argued that conservatives are better off seeking actually achievable policy improvements that make further progress possible in the future. If that is "disheartening," so be it. I think conservatives should generally be talked out of useless enthusiasms.

K-Lo:

This line from today's NYT web story struck me: "WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 — Vice President Dick Cheney ridiculed Senator John Kerry today, telling a *friendly Ohio audience* that the Democratic presidential nominee's view of the world is wrong and dangerous in this era of terrorism."

Let's go Nexis:

Over the last two years, the number of times "kerry" and "friendly audience" have appeared together nationally: 154.

For Bush, 340.

On MSNBC right now.

They are 25 minutes away from upsetting Portugal in the Olympics! The Iraqi fans with Iraqi flags jumping up and down, sensing victory, is inspiring!

You can’t help but pull for them!

Senator Kerry has also said that if he were in charge he would fight a "more sensitive" war on terror. (Laughter.) America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive. President Lincoln and General Grant did not wage sensitive warfare -- nor did President Roosevelt, nor Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur. A "sensitive war" will not destroy the evil men who killed 3,000 Americans and who seek the chemical, nuclear and biological weapons to kill hundreds of thousands more. The men who beheaded Daniel Pearl and Paul Johnson will not be impressed by our sensitivity. As our opponents see it, the problem isn’t the thugs and murderers that we face, but our attitude. Well, the American people know better. They know that we are in a fight to preserve our freedom and our way of life, and that we are on the side of rights and justice in this battle. Those who threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively. They need to be destroyed. (Applause.)

I listened to what Senator Kerry had to say in Boston, and, with all due respect to the Senator, he views the world as if we had never been attacked on September 11th. The job of the Commander-in-Chief, as he sees it, is to use America’s military strength to respond to attacks. But September 11th showed us, as surely as anything can, that we must act against gathering dangers - not wait for to be attacked. That awful day left some 3,000 of our fellow citizens dead, and everything we have learned since tells us the terrorists would do worse if they could, and that they will even use chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons against us if they can. In the world we live in now, responding to attacks is not enough. We must do everything in our power to prevent attacks -- and that includes using military force. (Applause.)

From a reader:

Jonah, I'm a self-proclaimed liberal and I agree with you on literacy tests. In fact, I'd even go further -- unless you can pass a basic exam, similar to that of naturalized citizens that displays you understand our system, you should not be allowed to vote. A friend of mine who works in a typical office with a citizen who had just been naturalized decided to take an informal test of his American-born office mates to see who else could pass the test. No one could. Only one person out of 11 could name the three branches of government, and that person could not correctly identify the functions of the branches. Yet they all can cast a vote. Cripes. Unless you care enough to educate yourself about how the system works, you shouldn't be able to participate in the process.

"They've got a clandestine weapons program, which, combined with delivery systems, is a threat to stability," deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said when asked about Iran's test earlier Wednesday of an upgraded version of its conventional medium-range Shahab-3 missile.

From a reader:

Oh, you *can't* let a great idea like NRO-MST3K out, Jonah, without at least casting the thing! Who would be the robot? A no-brainer there: Derb. Couch is ready, too, I'm sure.

Isn't there some lame public access cable time available in NYC? All you'd have to do is tape Peter Jennings doing *anything* and it'd be a slam-dunk. What an enhancement to Derb Radio!

1907 W. R. B. GIBSON Eucken's Philos. of Life (ed. 2) App. 170 Eucken deliberately adopts the activistic label as a distinctive philosophical badge. 1909 Athenæum 17 Apr. 469/3 Pragmatism..is tainted with the characteristic activist fallacy of making process as active account for the structural form of process which it implies. 1913 E. UNDERHILL Mystic Way 31 The positive and activistic mysticism of the West. 1915 Times 7 Aug. 7/6 For some, neutrality simply means a passive aloofness. For others, neutrality should be active, and these are divided, in the current jargon, with active and passive ‘activists’. 1949 Theology LII. 363 American Christianity has tended traditionally to express itself in an activist form. 1954 KOESTLER Invisible Writing 206 He was not a politician but a propagandist, not a ‘theoretician’ but an ‘activist’.

A few liberal readers seem horrified --or at least dismayed --- by my belief that voting should be more difficult. They ask, "What do you want, literacy tests?"

My short answer is yes. My slightly longer answer is, I haven't a clue what is wrong with literacy tests if you take the racial connotation out of the equation. What, exactly, is so bad about the idea of expecting a certain minimal degree of education before letting citizens vote? It seems to me that literacy tests are the bare minimum. Of course they would be a logistical nightmare to implement and wholly unpractical. But as an abstract standard I simply don't get why liberals are horrified by the idea (other than the fact that it might dissuade some of their voters).

Seriously, the argument for letting ex-cons vote is that it encourages them to rejoin society as stakeholders and citizens. Okay, well, wouldn't letting only the literate vote encourage citizens, including ex-cons, to learn to read? And, isn't an informed/educated electorate better on the whole than an uninformed/uneducated one?

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces stormed the home of rebel Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf Thursday, witnesses said.

They said servicemen went into the house in the center of the city after warplanes bombed nearby targets and battled militiamen loyal to Sadr.

The cleric was believed to be at Imam Ali shrine, a mile away.

A fire was still raging in the street when Humvees drove to the house.

U.S. Marines, backed by aircraft, swooped on Najaf's city center earlier in an attempt to end weeklong fighting with Sadr's militiamen. But they stayed away from Imam Ali Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Shi'ite Islam.

I've often thought that a Mystery Science Theater version of the Corner could be pretty funny (if it worked, otherwise it would be horrendously lame).

But on a larger note, I get questions from readers all of the time about "Why don't you have a TV or radio show?" Or, "Why don't you go on show X or Y and set so-and-so straight?" I know other NROniks get these sorts of questions too. It's all very flattering, but I try to tell folks that that's not the way things work. Unless you've got the fire in the belly to be a TV star and are therefore willing to hustle and work to get a show, you have to wait until somebody offers you a shot. Ditto being invited as a guest or substitute host. Personally, while I'd certainly entertain offers to do that sort of thing, and I even have some ideas of what would constitute a good show, I really don't have a burning, yearning passion to be infotainer.

The Remington Steele pundit brings up a great point about In Harm's Way. It is a neat picture with a solid cast (John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Burgess Meredith, and Patricia Neal)--and has even more parallels to Kerry's naval service than the ones he remembered.

John Wayne plays Capt. Rockwell Torrey ("Rock" to his friends) whose complete dedication to the Navy, a dedication that led to his divorce from a woman from a Beacon Hill family. He discovers that his son has volunteered for "motor torpedo boat" duty and goes to the young man's boat to meet him. When Rock arrives, the young man is below decks--typing. He tells "Rock" that he volunteered for MTB duty not because he was looking for action but because he thought it would eventually get him assigned to an admiral's staff; he also boasts of his close relationship with the aforementioned CDR Neil Owynn (to the point of blabbing about a top-secret operation).

Later, when Rockwell Torrey is having lunch with Burgess Meredith's character (a delightful creation), he points out his son in the mess hall/o-club. When Meredith's character says something like, "Oh, I'd like to meet him," Rock replies, "No you wouldn't."

I saw something interesting in another movie recently, "In Harm's Way" (1965). I think the title of the film is pretty ironic, too. There is a brief scene where two naval officers are having a discussion about being sent to hostile waters. One of the officers is a secondary character, Commander Owynn, who has a political career in mind after the war. He's not too keen on being shipped out to a danger zone, so the other officer consoles him by saying (and I'm paraphrasing) "Some combat would be good for your political career, a purple heart might be worth half a million votes."

Now I don't want to jump to conclusions, but given the year of the movie's release and the fact that it contained scenes with PT -boats, perhaps a young college student bent on emulating JFK would have seen the movie and drawn some inspiration. At any rate, that scene sort of jumped out at me, and my sick twisted mind instantly thought, "Hmm, 3 Purple hearts would be worth 1.5 million votes." I think I'm being overloaded with campaign coverage.