We burned out our Sharp Carousel microwave oven tonight, heating up potatoes.  It lasted twelve years so no real complaints; in fact I'd like to get another Sharp, but the new models don't seem to be well-loved.

Any recommendations?  Spending under $100 would be ideal.

I LOL'd:

It looks like DNF might turn out to be a DNF*.

ZoomRumor has it Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms is shutting down. Shacknews today cites ‘a reliable source close to the company' who said the developer, along with the recently resurrected Apogee name, is finished and employees from both have already been let go.

I stopped caring about this game probably 10 years ago, but it was amusing for the periodic "it's almost finished" rumors that would sweep through the game industry media, only to be forgotten again after the 242nd terse comment from 3D Realms principal George Broussard: "It'll come out when it's done."

Well, it's done, all right.

Because I like posting flamebait, here's Matthew Yglesias, on a column by Carol Baum comparing the financial CEOs to the protagonists in Atlas Shrugged:

Atlas Shrugged is a stupid book, Ayn Rand is a stupid woman, and John Galt’s ideas are stupid. That said, none of them are nearly this stupid. Rand’s novel isn’t about a world in which executives who build companies based on a lot of incorrect decisions, then pay themselves millions of dollars while bankrupting their firms, then come to the government hat-in-hand asking for bailouts, then find that the bailers-out want to attach some strings to their hundreds of billions of dollars in public funds and then go to hide out in Galt’s Gulch. That doesn’t make any sense at all.

Rand-bashing aside, Yglesias is correct.

To inject flamebait of my own, I've read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged (albeit many years ago) and while I think Rand has compelling ideas and understand why many libertarians are drawn to her philosophy, I really don't . . . get it.  She is not, in my opinion, a particularly great fiction writer.

Homer, Louisiana police chief Russell Mills, after one of his officers shot and killed a 73-year-old mute black man:

"If I see three or four young black men walking down the street, I have to stop them and check their names," said Mills, who is white. "I want them to be afraid every time they see the police that they might get arrested.

"We're not out there trying to abuse and harass people -- we're trying to protect the law-abiding citizens locked behind their doors in fear."

Oh, but abusing and harassing black people—that's just good police work.  I guess we should at least thank Mills for the tacit admission that cops engage in racial profiling.

Tycho over at Penny Arcade pretty much nails a one-line review of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse:

It's a science fiction retelling of MTV's The Real World, and it works about as well as you would expect.

Not only that, Tycho has pretty much nailed me as a viewer of Dollhouse: I keep watching in the hope that Whedon knows exactly what he's doing and that the show will begin to engage me in the same way Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly did.  After all, Firefly didn't hook me until a second and third viewing, and that was unfortunately long after it had been canceled and released on DVD.

I'd hate for Dollhouse to meet the same fate, to be tossed in the dustbin too early by FOX, only to discover later that it was much more than the sum of its parts.  But the first two episodes have provided no inkling—zip-zilch-nada—that it will ever rise above its first impressions.

It's flat-out terrible.  I can even see the justification, as at least one of my friends have, for labeling it misogynistic.  As a vehicle for Eliza Dushku, Tru Calling held far greater promise; for one, it didn't expect her to perfect her Vacant-Eyed Pretty Thing stare (admittedly, it's a look she wears very well).  In Dollhouse, that's her default look, until her mind is imprinted with a new personality—or rather, an amalgamation of personalities, all with specific skills and memories.  Then she's sent out on whatever "assignments" the Dollhouse's clients request: hostage negotiator, say, or an outdoors enthusiast.  As for the latter, she really played little more than a rock-climbing prostitute.  As for character: how can we care about someone whose character changes every week?  She's never the same person.  It's not like The Pretender, where Jarod was his own person who was just very, very good at role-playing.  Echo (the code name for Dushku's "active") is just a cipher until some computer geek reprograms her.  Supposedly she becomes self-aware as the series progresses, and I can see how searching for her own identity could make an engaging story, but so far it's just not there.

In the meantime, I keep watching.  And hoping against hope.

A young woman showing remarkable candor and courage in the face of imminent death, or opportunistic drama whore?  Discuss.

For those of you about to answer: "Who the fuck is Jade Goody?"

Clearly, this kid doesn't know what he's talking about:

"Are you kidding? This is silly," says Zack Bartell, 12, who was taking a dirt-bike riding lesson at School for Dirt's track next to Kawasaki Motors' U.S. headquarters here. "There's no way I'm going to stick a motorcycle part in my mouth."

Shut up, Zack.  You're just some stupid kid.  Listen to our elected leaders; they know what's best for you, and will protect you, even if it means destroying an entire segment of the economy.

I can't think of a recent law with more insidious—and damaging—unintended consequences.

Every profanity uttered on The Sopranos . . . and nothing else.  It's almost hypnotic.

While Rhys Millen attempted to do a back flip in a truck on New Year's Eve and almost succeeded, this guy unintentionally pulls a double somersault in his race truck and nails the landing.

You've probably already seen this, but it's too Kafka-rific not to share again.

How many times have we told you?  Don't get between Mama and her babies.  Even the squirrels.

Another video that you've probably already seen, but worth posting again, just for its sheer joie de vivre.

This one is for agentsteel53: an HD scan of a photo of Q Street, Washington, D. C., ca. 1925.  Check out the "Boulevard Stop" sign about middle-left of the photo.  Shorpy, by the way, is one of my favorite new blogs.

Since groping of girls on crowded Japanese subways, once a national pastime, has declined (due to stricter enforcement and women-only cars during peak hours), some eager entrepreneur is catering to furtive gropers by offering "pervert trains":

The only thing that can be said with confidence is that Japan has found original ways to make money out of people's sexual predilections. Little more than a stone's throw from the huge Shibuya station is the "Shibuya Pink Girl's Club", which on its varied menu offers a chikan densha, or pervert train.

The "groper's course" starts at ¥12,000 ($130), where the connoisseur picks out from the menu the girl of his choice, dressed either as a schoolgirl or office receptionist. This girl then beckons him through the window of a mock-up train carriage, which not only broadcasts station announcements, but even shakes and rattles. For the next 45 minutes the connoisseur is under no risk of arrest as he gropes to gay abandon—before joining the slumberers on one of the last real trains home.

So I have a question for disciples of the Obamessiah:

When Bush ordered air strikes against a sovereign country, it was murder and a blatant example of American imperialist aggression; but when Obama orders drone attacks in Pakistan that kill 22 people, including three children, it's a display of "smart power", and no one on the left even raises an eyebrow.

Where is the outrage, the protests, the march on Washington, the denunciation of aggression against the innocent?  Or is it OK as long as it's your guy pulling the trigger?

I don't care which side of the Palestinian/Israeli debate you land on, this guy didn't do a fucking thing to deserve this.  Warning, this is emotionally intense.



HT: Antiwar.com blog.

words

When Red is Black, Qiu Xiaolong
This is the third installment in Qiu's mystery series featuring Chief Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police Bureau.  Chen is a complex, often conflicted character: a smart and conscientious police investigator, a loyal and fast-rising party cadre, and a romantic idealist with a taste for good food and poetry.  Set in Shanghai in the early '90s, during a time of profound political, social and economic upheaval in China, Qiu's mysteries offer an unparalleled look into a country in transition, helped along by detailed descriptions of Shanghai street life, particularly the cuisine.  When Red is Black is not quite as engrossing as the first two novels (Death of a Red Heroine and A Loyal Character Dancer; the latter is a favorite for its Triad-flavored intrigue and poignant storyline), but they're all recommended.

Rain Storm, Barry Eisler
Sure, the hitman-with-a-conscience story has been done before, but Eisler's John Rain isn't some tough guy with a heart of gold.  He's a stone-cold killer and he knows it.  With memories of 'Nam atrocities haunting him, Rain has lived his adult life in the shadows, performing work for various employers, always specializing in the "natural causes" hit (i.e., it must look accidental).  He's truly lethal, but he's also funny and introspective and makes no apologies for his work even while struggling with his internal ethics.  He knows he's a bad guy, but he wonders if he can ever redeem himself.  In Rain Storm, the third volume of the series, he finally gets his chance.  Eisler's hitman thriller series is literate, funny, and action-packed.  He'll take you from Tokyo to D. C. to Rio to Macau and back again, hooking up with beautiful (and dangerous) women and facing up with even more dangerous foes, some of whom used to be his employers.  He's like Bond, but without the effete martini glass or glitchy British sports car.  You would do well to start with the first book in the series (Rain Fall) , as some details in subsequent books build on the previous installments.

music

Accelerate, R.E.M.
Easily their best album in 12 years (since New Adventures in Hi-Fi).  Stipe and Co. strip it down to the bone, with lyrics ranging from angry to apocryphal to absurd, and a stampeding, guitar-driven sound that barely pauses to catch its breath.  As a result the album is almost Ramones-short (its 11 tracks clock in at under 35 minutes) and maybe feels too rushed, given the moody aural complexities that are a hallmark of R.E.M.'s post-Bill Berry studio efforts.  But as a rock album, it kicks entirely too much ass for even R.E.M. fans to complain about it.

images

Persepolis
Reviewed elsewhere.  Just mentioning it again as one of the exceptional movies I've seen lately.

Monk, Burn Notice (USA Network)
These two shows are about to start new seasons, thus providing a reason to own a TV at all.  Burn Notice especially I've been looking forward to, with its cliffhanger ending from last season.  It's possibly the best-written show on television, well-acted, and it even has Bruce Campbell.  It almost can't suck.  Fortunately it does far better than not sucking.

Top Gear (BBC America)
These blokes (Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May) are veddy British, totally into cars, and completely mental.  Essential viewing, of course.

diversions

Virtual Villagers, Last Day of Work (PC or Mac)
A game targeted at casual gamers, Virtual Villagers may actually annoy the hell out of you if you're one of those micro-manager types used to playing Warcraft III with your mouse on fire.  Here, you just give your villagers some directions, and off they go.  The game runs whether you drag your little people around the small village they're building, watch them forage for food, or even shut the game down and go to sleep.  When you come back, things may have changed completely!  Compulsively playable, even if it's only in 10-minute chunks.  Additional installments follow if you like the first.

A little outrage with your morning coffee:

http://www.ktvu.com/video/18409133/index.html

There was absolutely nothing in that situation that called for an officer to draw a weapon, unless he was just incompetent and thought he was reaching for a Taser (which looks and feels considerably different from a sidearm in any case).

That kid was flat-out executed.  No judge, jury or trial.  And if that cop does not at least go to prison for the rest of his life it will only prove that the state and its justice system exists to protect its own.  Long live the land of the free.

ETA: Edited subject line; later reports indicate the victim was shot in the torso, not the head as the video footage led one to believe.

Just watched Persepolis on the DVR.  Brilliant film.  You'll almost have sympathy for communists after watching it.  (Just kidding.)  According to her Wikipedia entry, Marjane Satrapi (the artist of the original graphic novel) is descended from Iranian royalty (the Qajar dynasty, not the despotic Pahlavis that followed), but her immediate family was involved in the communist movement in Iran prior to the revolution.  You can imagine what happened to them after the takeover by Islamists.

But politics play a minor role in the film; it's really about a girl growing up against a backdrop of religious radicalism and a brutal, grinding war with Iraq (one funded on both sides by the West, in what has to be one of the most coldly cynical, and bloody, proxy wars ever fought), who still finds time to rock out to Iron Maiden and see Godzilla movies with her grandmother.  And it's remarkably funny, given the heavy subject matter, and beautifully animated.  On the surface it looks like a chick flick, but it's much more sophisticated and emotionally complex than any Devil Wears Prada fluff coming out of Hollywood.  Highly recommended, especially if you have HD.

(Yes, I'm alive.  Happy New Year.)

I haven't posted in forever, so I guess a Writer's Block entry is as good a place as any to start again.

Firefly, without a doubt.  An ironic choice, because I hated the show during its original run; I stopped watching after the second episode, I think.  And I can't really remember my reasons at the time: maybe I just dismissed it as another silly Western set in outer space, or there was something irritating about Joss Whedon's dialogue (which occasionally irked me during Buffy's run), or something else.  In short, I gave it about as much of a chance as FOX's executives did.

But then we picked up the DVD set and watched the entire run over one weekend, and a second viewing proved to be much more rewarding.  And I've watched it many more times since.  It's really unfortunate that it was stuck on a network that didn't have a clue about what to do with it.  I would have settled for a dozen well-produced episodes a year on HBO.

Were it not for Firefly I would have chosen Homicide: Life on the Street.  This show, a predecessor to The Wire (H:LotS was based on a book by David Simon, the creator of The Wire), was for at least its first four seasons The Best Damn Show on Television, as we referred to it in the alt.tv.homicide newsgroup.  But it started going downhill, quite rapidly, from the fifth season on, and by the end of its final season I had largely stopped caring about it (but not enough to stop watching).  But those first four seasons?  There's never been better television.  The cast from those years is easily the best ensemble ever assembled for a TV show.  If you missed its original run, get thee to your Netflix queue and add it now (Seasons 1-4, at any rate).  Just writing about this show makes me want to load it into the DVD player.

Well, of course not:

Former New York Gov. Eliot M. Spitzer (D) will not face criminal charges for his role in the prostitution scandal that drove him from office this year, prosecutors announced this afternoon. . . .

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said today that his office had uncovered no evidence that Spitzer used public or campaign funds in a series of payments to a shell company, QAT Consulting.

"We have determined that there is insufficient evidence to bring charges against Mr. Spitzer for any offense relating to the withdrawal of funds for, and his payments to, the Emperors Club VIP," Garcia said in a prepared statement.

So Spitzer walks for hiring a prostitute, while people whom he prosecuted for the same offenses are probably still rotting in jail.  Business as usual!  Think Obama will give loverboy a job?

If John McCain had given a few speeches like that during the campaign, he might not be conceding the election right now.  Very gracious and eloquent in defeat.  And he only said "my friends" once!

Good morning!  Some election lulz for you:

Cindy McCain: A Vote For My Husband Is A Vote For Me Not Breaking Your Fucking Neck

If you really think that a junior senator with no executive experience is the best person to lead us out of this economic crisis, then by all means vote for Obama. Just hope to God I never find out about it and, say, drive to your house in the dead of night, crawl through your bedroom window, and, in a calculated moment of seething rage, strangle you with my bare goddamn hands.

If you're really, really lucky, I'll just shoot you in the face.

Now go vote, hippie!

I'm not voting for any of these clowns, so you know you can trust my opinion:

Obama, 294-244 (you can go here to play with an interactive map).  All he needs to flip from the 2004 elections are Virginia, Ohio and Colorado (actually just the first two are sufficient), and it's over.

But Florida, North Carolina and Georgia are thisclose.  If Obama picks them up early, the rout is on.  347-191.  An ass-kicking to be sure although not quite at the level of Reagan's two victories.  There is one state (Montana) where Ron Paul is actually on the ballot and not just a write-in, and that could hurt McCain there, although Montana's three electoral votes won't figure much in the election.

Tomorrow should be fun.  I am not voting, but I am looking forward to the Republicans being eviscerated.  No party in the past century is probably more deserving of a good ol' fashioned schoolyard ass-stomping than the Republicans are in 2008.  It will be a repudiation of a political party that has betrayed its own principles to an unprecedented degree.  Eight years of a Republican administration has brought us the largest government in the country's history, a needless and costly war, a wrecked economy, and the greatest infringement ever of our personal liberties.  If elections were horror films, Tuesday will be the director's cut of Saw V.

I hereby call on ikilled007 to re-start his Official LiveJournal Post-Election Suicide Watch list, as a lot of red-staters will need to be monitored for emotional trauma.

Some local races of interest:

Senate: The most recent polls show Bob Schaffer (R) narrowing the gap between him and Mark Udall (D), but as recently as last week Udall's lead was in double-digits, so I don't see him losing this race.  This has been a nasty little scuffle; Schaffer has been hammering on the "Boulder liberal" angle (about the worst political epithet you can throw around here) against Udall, and Udall has painted Schaffer as a Big Oil whore who doesn't love Our Troops (because of certain votes against veterans' benefits).  They can both pound sand for all I care, but Udall will win.

4th Congressional District: Hoo-boy, I can't wait for the results on this one.  Incumbent Marilyn Musgrave, who has lost support with every election, is about to be shown the door by Betsy Markey, a former political operative for Democratic Senator Ken Salazar.  This has been an epic bitchfest, with both women slinging corruption charges at each other.  Musgrave gets points for opposing the bank bailout but is otherwise pretty contemptible.  Markey has a real shot at winning, but the district (mostly rural northeast and north-central Colorado) is strongly Republican, so she'll have to count on high Democratic turnout and Republican voters who are generally sick of Musgrave and the GOP in general.

Colorado's ballot issues have become a running joke.  Any idiot with a clipboard and petition forms can get a proposal slapped on the ballot here.  I haven't been following every issue, but here are a few I know about:

Amendment 46: Ends affirmative action programs for public education and government contracts and employment.  About damn time.  Any program giving preferential treatment on the basis of race is by definition racist and should be vigorously opposed by anyone who supports equality under the law.

Amendments 47, 49 and 54: These are anti-union ballot measures, despite what their supporters may claim.  47 is a "right-to-work" initiative, making it illegal to force employees to join unions or pay dues as a condition of employment.  49 would prohibit government from deducting union dues from its employees' paychecks.  And 54 would prohibit certain government contractors from contributing to political campaigns.

I don't know much about 54 and have no opinion on it, but 47 is a non-starter.  Generally I support the right-to-work concept, but 47 is more like the "right of the employee to dictate to management how to run its business" amendment.  It would make it illegal for employers to even enter into exclusive collective bargaining agreements.  That smells like a property rights violation to me.  Plus, under current Federal labor laws, no one is compelled to join a union anyway, and if 47 passes, unions would still be obligated to represent the free riders in negotiations with management.  That violates the unions' rights.

49 makes more sense: government should not be operating as a dues collector for private organizations (anymore than private businesses should be compelled to act as revenue agents for the government by collecting payroll and sales taxes).  This is especially true when those private groups use those dues payments to lobby government.  If employees want to support their unions' efforts on their behalf, they can pay them out-of-pocket.

Amendment 48: This is one of those ZYGOTES R PEOPLES TOO! proposals.  Defines a "person" as human life beginning at conception.  Essentially this is a cornerstone being laid by supporters in the hope that McCain wins, nominates pro-life judges to the Supreme Court, and gets Roe v. Wade overturned so they can quickly move to outlaw abortion.  But the one-line amendment is sufficiently broad to allow all sorts of bullshit laws to be crafted by the state legislature.  So if 48 passes and a pregnant woman shoots a bank teller during a robbery, I want that fetus charged with felony murder!

Amendment 50: Allows casinos in the statutory gaming districts (Cripple Creek, Black Hawk and Central City) to raise their betting limits, with extra revenue earmarked for community colleges.  I really hate this amendment, even though there's nothing wrong with it.  Casinos should of course be allowed to set whatever limits they choose at their tables.  But it's been sold from the start as a way to help government earn more revenue.  I just find it sad that the only way it seems we can promote liberty is to demonstrate how it contributes to government largess.

Amendment 58: Out of all the ballot issues, this is the one that makes me want to kick puppies.  This would eliminate the reduction in severance tax paid by energy companies and spend the $320 million-plus a year it would generate on—well, whatever the governor feels like, it seems.  Of course any time you raise taxes on businesses, they don't really pay them: they raise their prices so that the rest of us pay.  And it would siphon money out of the private sector at a time when capital investment is already drying up.

So if you haven't voted yet—good!  Keep it that way.  Stay at home, nuke some popcorn, and enjoy the carnage as it unfolds.  But if you insist on exercising your democratic right, you are now better informed.  Never say libertarians don't support public service!

For rent: charming 3 bed/1 bath townhouse in Wellington, NZ.  Includes patio, wardrobes, oven, washing machine, and a pervert under the bed.

HT: It's Lovely! I'll Take It!.