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Month: October 2004

Shed thy skin

October 6, 2004
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Judicial Watch is now identifying itself as a “conservative public interest group.” This is a change from their previous branding as a “nonpartisan public interest group.”

This change comes as they call on Republican Tom DeLay to step down. I don’t know if they’ve decided to generally admit that they’re conservative and partisan (which is not a dirty word), or if they just think they’ll have more weight in this instance because they’re calling on someone who’s theoretically a fellow traveller to step down. Either way, good for them.

Quick reaction

October 6, 2004
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Last night during the debate, Cheney suggested that you could find out the truth about his connection with Halliburton by visiting factcheck.com. At the time, factcheck.com was a spam site with ads for various and sundry scams; Cheney meant factcheck.org.

Sometime in the last 12 hours, the owner of factcheck.com redirected all traffic to that site over to georgesoros.com. That’s pretty impressive reaction time; either the owner is partisan or Soros got to him and offered him enough money to make the swapover really quickly. It’s also very Internet-savvy.

Meanwhile, factcheck.org is now pointing out that Edwards was “mostly right” about Cheney and Halliburton.

Not the movie

October 5, 2004
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So here’s the campaign. This is Mike’s fault.

It’s a little known fact, but once you’ve been President of the United States, you don’t get to die. You live on in eternal unlife after your death; sure, you leave a corpse, because everyone likes funerals, but your Ka goes on.

Yes, Ka. Just like in Egypt. Look at the dollar bill; you think the pyramid isn’t there for a reason?

You are bound to the country. You can speak to the current President, but each sentence you speak takes a year of his life. That’s the real reason why Presidents age in office. Once a President leaves office you lose your connection to them, but you’ll be there to welcome them to the afterlife, oh yes. It’s the only excuse you have for a party.

You are as you were when you died. Everyone takes turns caring for Reagan. It’s nervewracking; if he wanders off and finds his way to the White House, he could age any sitting President to death in one night of conversation.

Hoover and Nixon could hear the Dead Presidents, but did not join them in the afterlife. Ford never could hear them. Nobody tried talking to David Rice Atchison; everyone was very surprised when he arrived to join the rest of his comrades.

The ghosts of every Treasurer of the United States who ever lived serve the Dead Presidents in the afterlife.

Better than ice cream

October 3, 2004
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I saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow again today, and my adoration of Polly Perkins is confirmed. And here’s why. (Spoilers, of course.)

First and foremost, she is a woman who stands on her own two feet. Her career is important to her and by all evidence she’s pretty good at it. On second viewing, the triangle created by the skills of Polly, Dex, and Joe is fairly obvious: Polly notices, Dex analyzes, and Joe acts. Time and time again, Polly’s the one who notices things first. She makes contact with Doctor Jennings. She finds the scrap of map that Dex left behind. She figures out that the staff is important. She realizes the purpose of the rocketship.

And heck — she knew Joe was fooling around on her in Nanjing. A key point, that; it’s clear that Joe fooled around on Polly before she sabotaged his fuel line, and from context (“You’re not going to leave me again!”) it’s also pretty clear that Joe bailed on Polly at least once before. Why, he doesn’t even protest the accusation. It’s not terribly surprising that Polly’s willing to lie to Joe when he’s already proven that he’s not entirely trustworthy himself.

(Speaking of which, why can’t Polly take pictures of the giant robots? It’s supposed to be a big secret even after all the capitals of the world have been attacked? Joe’s a secretive type at heart, clearly.)

In any case, the triangle was crystal clear on second viewing. Joe barely ever figures anything out on his own; he can’t even get the wires cut. Polly is not a deep thinker, but she is very perceptive. She also only has one moment of action, albeit a crucial one. And Dex’s status as the thinker is the clearest of them all.

Other moments of interest: the jettisoning of the rocketship’s cargo. Polly says it needs to happen. Joe agrees, but claims there isn’t time — note once again the emphasis on action. Polly looks at the control panel and spends about two seconds figuring out how to trigger the emergency release, triggers it, and moves on. Joe gets entirely sour, perhaps because he couldn’t have done the same.

Oh, and at the end? The lenscap wasn’t on. Joe and Polly will play their little games with each other until they die, I expect.

A-yup

October 2, 2004
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“After last night’s victory, the Sox said Bronson Arroyo and Tim Wakefield would pitch Games 3 and 4 (if necessary), but did not say which pitcher would start which game.” (Boston Globe.)

Also, Schilling’s going to pitch Game 1 and Martinez will pitch Game 2.

Advantage: Population: One.