Scary

The Republican contenders were interviewed by People Magazine (I love those hard-hitting journalists over at People) and here's a quote we can all relish and feel good about:

Sen. McCain, of all the candidates you considered, what drew you to her?

JOHN: Obviously, I found her to be very intelligent and very well-versed on the issues. But I think the important thing was that she's a reformer. She's taken on special interests since she ran for the PTA and the city council and mayor. The courage, I guess, is what most impressed me.

As others have pointed out.... she's taken on "special interests" at PTA meetings? At best this means she fought for creationism to be taught as "one theory" alongside the "theory" of evolution? Maybe scientists, or the scientific-minded were "special interests"?

Or, was it a fight to keep contraceptives out of high schools? And so the "special interests" may have been Planned Parenthood or some pro-women, pro-reproductive rights organization?

When I argued with Volkswagen to fix my car on their dime when the engine head melted, was I taking on a "special interest"? Holy crap, could I be VP too?

Feeling sappy

I saw The Notebook recently, and aside for my love of Gena Rowlands, I really likes me some Ryan Gosling too.

Anyhoo, thought this was cute.

Daily Show

Their take on Palin:



The Best F**king News Team Ever:

We are on the right side of history

Art show I'm sad to miss

If I were still in Oakland, I'd check out this show at my friend's Inferno Gallery! I hope you Bay Area peeps check it out for me and let me know how it is!

Hot

Mulder is in Sexhab!

Palin, or Lemon?

From Defamer:

Shocking news today as John McCain refuted his choice of Heidi Montag as vice president, instead settling on heavily lip-glossed Alaskan governor Sarah Palin. As Jeff Wells notes, Palin has a certain resemblance to Tina Fey as Liz Lemon: the horn-rimmed glasses, the messy up-do, the required fealty to an older, conservative man in charge. But where does each stand on the issues? We combed through their records (and Hulu) to find out — the results, after the jump:

QUALIFICATIONS

Palin: Former mayor of a small Alaska town, she was elected governor of the state in 2006 and has served less than two years in that office.

Lemon: "Who's got two thumbs, speaks limited French, and hasn't cried once today? This moi."

GAY MARRIAGE

Palin: Against gay marriage and supports a federal gay marriage ban.

Lemon: "Just because I think gay dudes should be allowed to adopt kids and we should all have hybrid cars doesn't mean I don't love America."

THE ECONOMY

Palin: Believes that the Republicans can help get the economy and markets back on track, aimed to reduce general fund spending in Alaska by $150 million.

Lemon: "I've got, like, 12 grand in checking."

EXES

Palin: The Alaska legislature is investigating whether she put pressure on a state official to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper.

Lemon: "Last week was my birthday and everyone forgot except Dennis. He called and we went out and it wasn't weird."
Jenna: "And how was the sex?"
Lemon: "Fast and only on Saturdays—it's perfect!"

In conclusion, Barack Obama must immediately retract his nomination of Joe Biden, thus leaving him free to appoint fictional character Liz Lemon the new vice president of the Unites States of America.

Ward Connerly smacked down in the AZ

Ward Connerly, former head of the UC Regents, brought his anti-affirmative action show to Arizona and it went down in flames.

As some of you know, he successfully passed Proposition 209 in California way back in the mid-1990s.

In Arizona, his campaign marketed the legislation as the "Civil Rights Initiative" - nice Orwellian overtones - but it was not able to get enough valid signatures to be on the ballot in November.

This is good news; as commentators have noted, this type of legislation hurts the entire system and moves our society in the wrong direction.

Obama's my man, but...

... this speech by Hillary Clinton is phenomenal.

Favorite line: "No way, no how, no McCain."

Ode to Christian Bale

Shameless hormonal post

Michael C. Hall is so smokin hot in Dexter. The show gets under your skin: you end up rooting for and (in my case) being attracted to a sociopath.

A new, "certified, pre-owned" vehicle?

I wanted to wait until after law school to get a new car, but my current one feels likes its on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

It's still under 100K and the trade-in value is still somewhat strong. Of course, I don't want a car payment while I'm in law school but I think I could swing it if it were around $200/month or so.

I found this nifty auto loan calculator that helps me figure out what I can afford to keep my payments that low.

I'm thinking of getting a certified/pre-owned volkswagen (yes, another goddamn VW!) but I'm open too, since it will be a temporary thing until I'm working and can afford a higher car payment.

Happy Hour Friday

... returns!

Well, sorta. Just saw this cute little Salon article that has new and interesting cocktails recipes I hope to try out at some point.

Cheers!

How to make a daguerreotype

Wired posted a cool article about creating daguerreotypes "the old way" as well as with modern conveniences such as Photoshop.

Wired says this picture of Edgar Allen Poe is the most famous daguerreotype:



Check out a gallery of images here, courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.

Finally, some accurate news about the 24 movie?

As many of you know, I thought season 6 of 24 sucked, but I'm still looking forward to season 7, hoping the show will redeem itself.

According to the trailer, season 7 takes place in Washington, D.C. as opposed to Jack's familiar L.A. stomping ground.

They were underway with filming season 7 and planned to air it at the beginning of 2008, but the writer's strike derailed those plans. Instead of interruptions or delays between each weekly episode, the producers decided to put off the entire season until early 2009.

What to do in the meantime? There have been numerous reports about a 2-hour movie that would air sometime this fall. There were reports that it was a "prequel" to season 7, then there was a rumor that it would merely be the first two episodes of the season, not a stand-alone piece.

Today Cinematical reports that it will be a 2-hour "prequel" (not simply the first two episodes of the season) but that it will go straight to DVD, releasing on 11/25/08. From Cinematical:

Looking like more of a feature-length episode prequel, Exile will be released on the 25th of November. Acting as a bridge between the seasons, the prequel follows Bauer as he works as a missionary in Africa. The US government is after him, and he's also been tapped to stop a warlord from drafting innocent children. "But first, Bauer must confront his own torturous past and face an impossible decision that will change his life forever." That man has a rough life. Will it ever end?

The DVD will include the first 16 minutes of the first episode of season 7 to tease us.

Randy Pausch, Last Lecture

Another great video. Enjoy!

Dave Eggers, 826 Valencia

This is a great video of Dave Eggers presenting to a TED conference about a new, 826-related education program to connect communities with their local public schools.

He also talks about other 826 locations and how they've taken the tutoring-center/pirate store concept in SF and mixed it up a bit. For example in NY, there's a "superhero supply company" and in LA there's the "Echo Park Time Travel Mart" - what Eggers calls "a 7-11 for time travelers." It's awesome to see the wit of those McSweeney's peeps come alive in a retail experience!

Enjoy!

Hamdan story goes to Hollywood

Word on the street is that George Clooney will be making a movie based on the story of Salim Hamdan's capture, detainment at Guantanamo Bay, and the trial that just finished.

Remember the anthrax scare?

Glenn Greenwald of Salon has an interesting series of blog posts about the latest developments in the anthrax case.

There apparently is more than meets the eye (big surprise) and we may never know the truth about the anthrax thing. BTW, did you hear the first suspect was paid $6M in compensation from the government?

UPDATE:The Washington Post has an op-ed arguing against the guilt of Bruce Ivins. I'm sure the government just wants to wash its hands of this 7-year investigation, but as we know those "lone nut" theories don't tend to work.

BTW: No autopsy was done on Bruce Ivins, so we'll never know if he actually took an overdose of Tylenol or not. Testing his blood revealed the overdose, but not checking his stomach or intestinal tract to confirm he took pills (instead of say, being injected) leaves me suspicious. I thought autopsies were routine when someone is found dead?

Fun!

Thanks to The Prock Life for this little fun thing:



Interesting how large the word "Work" is in this collage... Hmm. Methinks I need to stop obsessing about work on the blog?