In the famous volleyball scene, it was pretty obvious; but I never quite perceived it in the rest of the movie.
I’ll let Tarantino explain (in this clip from Sleep With Me).
Updates from December, 2008 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Jehuda
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Jehuda
Via Drudge: Government aid could save U.S. newspapers, spark debate.
Spark debate? “Piss people off” is more like it.
First the Big Three of the auto industry. Now newspapers. So the norm now is not just to bail out failing sectors of the economy, but to bail out failing sectors of the economy that should either be very small or no longer exist.
Related: Some non-print media may also run into trouble in 2009.
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Jehuda
The AP reports that how many ballots remain uncounted is anyone’s guess.
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Jehuda
At Instapundit, a virtual carnival of Democratic corruption:
Rangel Danger, a Puerto Rican edition of “Name that Party”, and Blago puts Harry Reid between a rock and hard place.
If you want to put it in movie terms, it’s looking more and more like the sequel you didn’t know you were waiting for may in fact hit the screens just in time for a 2010 release!
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Jehuda
“Meet the New Boss” moments trend: Team O is now talking about a push for tax cuts.
(Woops: Bad link. Just fixed it. Sorry about that!)
MORE: Did Team O just pull a Cheney?
The Obama team, pledging the ”most open and transparent transition in history,” gets an ”A” for disclosing donors to the Jan. 20 inauguration and a ”F” when it comes to revealing transition meetings with groups.
(via Drudge)
One is a coincidence, two is a pattern, blah, blah, blah.
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Jehuda
Nikki Finke has the figures and analysis. It was a great weekend for PG pictures, with Marley & Me in the #1 slot.
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Jehuda
Well, maybe there’s a lesson here somewhere: from what I can tell, my idea for the next great political bumper sticker is just not catching on. Perhaps “Obama Lied. People Bribed” is too vague (which people? who did they bribe? But, hey: I’m trying to avoid litigation, after all). Perhaps it’s just too strident.
Or perhaps the message refers to too specific a situation to have any real resonance whatsoever. Perhaps it shouldn’t be about BlagO-gate, but about the hang-O-ver of disappointment that has slowly set in as more and more Obamaniacs realize that Obama is not The One.
At any rate, it’s too late now. Someone figured it out.
(H/T: Instapundit)
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Jehuda
Michael Barone says Obama will likely be aloof towards his own party, like Eisenhower was towards the GOP back in the day:
What’s my evidence for this? Well, for one thing Obama didn’t do a whole lot of campaigning for his fellow Democrats this year after he clinched the party’s nomination in early June.
Mr. Barone goes on to cite several more examples of coolness towards fellow Democrats. But the crux of his argument is the reason for the coolness: Obama doesn’t need Democrats or the traditional Democrat base as much as they need him. Give it a read.
That would explain why Obama keeps disappointing supporters.
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Jehuda
Fashion models and actresses mumbling scientific falsehoods I actually expect, but our political leaders not consulting with a science advisor or somesuch support staff before offering their scientific two cents I don’t.
UPDATE – Related: Don’t take health tips from celebs if you know what’s good for you. Amen to that!
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Jehuda
Via Instapundit: The Obama transition – making its mark on the backs of legally-challenged governors?
I sure hope for their sake that Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano – also an Obama cabinet pick – is not the target of any federal investigations.
Speaking of patterns, funny how Republicans need not fear being exiled into the political wilderness during this new era of Democratic control.
Oh, well. We were promised change we can believe in. No one ever said it would be change that we could see. It’s government for the people, but for people of faith!
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Jehuda
And here’s to a great 2009!
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Jehuda
NYT: Judge Says Fox Owns Rights to WB-produced ‘Watchmen’.
I’m not familiar with any of the evidence or the judge’s rationale in the case, but I had the feeling this would happen. Call it a hunch.
Fox insists once insisted that they would rather see the movie get shelved than become a profit participant in the film. I hope that’s just bluffing to prime WB for a very advantageous settlement. We’ll see.
(H/T: Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily)
UPDATE – Hmm: at the WSJ, WB says the film will still open as planned on March 6, 2009 (subscription required). Just talk or does that mean Fox and WB are about to settle?
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Jehuda
Every now and then Santa brings you exactly the present you almost got for yourself, but didn’t. These are actually from an old friend who just dropped by.
I haven’t bought cigars in months. I don’t feel comfortable spending on cigars right now. My mom offered to get me some, but I feel bad asking her to spend her money on something so superfluous and extravagant as my cigar habit, which as far as habits go is something I rarely indulge in anymore, since I prefer to smoke cigars only during moments of careless leisure.
These are Cubans, which means I must smoke them before returning to the States. That shouldn’t be a problem!
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Jehuda
There hasn’t been laissez-faire capitalism in this country probably since the New Deal years, Ms. Huffington.
But Prof. Reynolds is being kind. I know he’s thinking exactly what I’m thinking: it’s neither capitalism nor socialism. It’s IP theft.
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Jehuda
Whenever I’m in Mexico to visit mom, I make a trip to Home Depot. Thing is there is always something in her home that requires maintenance or fixing.
The prices make for pretty nice bargains if you are paying in U.S. Dollars.
No, there are no day laborers hanging around Mexican Home Depots. The Mexican government does not tolerate illegal immigration much. Illegal immigration to Mexico, that is.
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Jehuda
Video: A salute to Brit Hume as he steps down as anchor of Fox News’ Special Report.
Well deserved, Mr. Hume. What a pro. Congratulations and much success in your new endeavors, from a big fan.
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Jehuda
Jonah Goldberg at The Corner “compares” Bill Ayers’s fortunes back in the day to those of the Fort Dix would-be terrorists.
UPDATE: How dare we refer to Bill Ayers as a terrorist? He was merely an “extreme vandal”!
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Jehuda
Via Drudge: President-Elect Interviewed by Prosecutors.
This presidential transition sure is giving people lots to talk about. How long since a senator became President? Since JFK? Maybe attempts at selling senatorial seats have been made before, but how would we know?
More related links at Instapundit.
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Jehuda
Via Drudge: There was no quid pro quo between Blago and Team O over Obama’s seat, concludes a report released by…Team O.
What? Were you perhaps thinking “Obama Lied, People Bribed“? Why would you ever think that?
UPDATE – At the L.A. Times: Obama team probe of Obama team finds no Obama team impropriety. More at FoxNews.com: The inquiry…was bound to meet its pre-conceived conclusion. (H/T: Instapundit)
Exactly.
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Jehuda
So it turns out Mexicana Airlines, which cancelled my flight to Mexico at the last minute due to a shortage of passengers, has a contract of carriage to which I wouldn’t want to be bound ever again. And seems I’m not alone in feeling that way.
I was fortunate that the inconvenience I suffered could have been much worse: having to fly on a red-eye with one connection added (my original flight was a 3-hour non-stop departing in the early evening). But the 11-hour trip that resulted sure was no picnic.
To this day there is no Passenger Bill of Rights. And I don’t even know there should be one. A few simple FAA rules should do. I remember reading about the so-called Rule 240 and the rights it gave to passengers almost a year ago, probably through The Consumerist. But – like so many things related to commercial air travel – Rule 240 is not what it used to be.
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Jehuda
It’s a most confounding challenge for many this season: Should you celebrate Christmas and risk offending others or just be safe and celebrate “the Holidays”?
It’s a good thing we have Stuff White People Like to offer a little guidance.
Who knew ugly sweaters could enhance your PC status?
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Jehuda
America declining?
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Jehuda
The New York Times published a fake letter attributed to the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, in which the author criticized “Caroline Kennedy’s Senate bid as ‘appalling’ and ‘not very democratic’”.
So much for the superiority of mainstream media’s myriad levels of editors and filtering mechanisms.
But most striking of all is that a bastion of the cultural elite such as the NYT would fall for such a simple hoax. It’s almost as if the paper were staffed by the sort of people their elite peers derisevely think of as parochial, unsophisticated, small-town types.
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Jehuda
A comprehensive list at Politico. They even mention the mainstream media’s omission of covering the Edwards lovechild story. Nice.
What about failure to report on Senator Chris Dodd’s (D – Countrywide) sweetheart deals? That should definitely figure on the top 5, at least.
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Jehuda
Anne Thompson is on a Trailer Watch.
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Jehuda
Via Instapundit:
The Illinois situation fuels a perception that the SEIU has an “inside track” with elected officials…“Every union will use political influence to make organizing easier…They may have gone beyond the usual influence.”
Perhaps it’s time that vague bumper sticker idea of mine gets a little more specific…
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Jehuda
And they’re trying, but their backs may be against a wall to the point of zero wiggle room:
The expectations game is always tricky in politics. To win power, candidates promise to enact sweeping change. But once victory is in hand, they often scramble to lower those expectations so they won’t be perceived as falling short.
Democrats are facing an especially precarious version of that dilemma. In crafting a package that will sink hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into the economy, they are apprehensive about the fallout if the economy merely continues sputtering along for several years.
The AP has certainly been lending a hand in lowering expectations, as I noted here and here.
Of course, wiggle room may not even be an issue if Corruption Fest 2008 extends well into next year and beyond.
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Jehuda
Nikki Finke has the numbers and analysis. Looks like the winter storms are actually chilling theater attendance, but The Wrestler did not do too badly.
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Jehuda
Stories of Democrat corruption are the gifts that keep on giving! We have Blago, Rangel, Dodd, Mahoney, and now former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, although you wouldn’t know he’s a Democrat by reading the AP.
And if it wasn’t for the successful challenge to his old seat, William “Cold Cash” Jefferson would still be making news, no doubt.
I think the Democrats are really hankering for another Republican Revolution in 2010. Jefferson losing his seat to a Republican in a heavily Democratic state is a strong reminder of that old maxim: there are no permanent victories in politics.
After all, Democrats saw their majority vanish once under very similar circumstances to today’s: an imperial Democratic congress under a very popular black president!
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Jehuda
Wondering whether we can we really take Obama at his word on gun rights at the American Thinker.
Can we? Should we? Iraq surrenderists could not take him at his word on the issue of troop withdrawal. Gay rights supporters did not take him at his word on the issue of gay marriage, although they should have.
The real question here is: which words should we focus on? His words about believing in the Second Amendment as an individual right or his words about the legitimacy of local and state constraints on the exercise of individual rights?
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Jehuda
The Sun looks at the darker side of Che’s story as he gets the Hollywood treatment.
Hey, I guess The Sun doesn’t publish page after page of falsehoods after all!
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Jehuda
There’s plenty of politics in the film’s context and subtext. It’s all on the latest episode of Poliwood with Lionel Chetwynd and Roger Simon. Only on PJTV.
It’s free. And you can watch a Flash version if you don’t want to use their video player software.
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Jehuda
No surprises: they gave it an “A”.
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Jehuda
Like such lawsuits were ever going to stop music piracy…
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Jehuda
Obama’s already dissed the gay lobby. Is labor next?
George McGovern and Al Sharpton oppose card check. Would it be such a big deal for Obama to oppose it as well?
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Jehuda
The Greenwaldist wing of the Democratic party really thirsts for justice when it comes to the prosecution of so-called Bush war crimes. So much so that they are speculating on Obama’s complicity in such crimes if he fails to prosecute them (via Instapundit).
Yes, you read that right.
Zeal for justice or petty vindictiveness? Has Obama disappointed his supporters that much?
How come no one on the Left cries “war crime” against Bill Clinton for blowing up a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan back in the day? Is there a statute of limitations on war crimes that I don’t know about? Or does every administration get a freebie?
Maybe these days the term “war criminal” has as much weight as the term “celebrity” does in the reality TV era.
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Jehuda
The widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry – who made her own important contributions to the Star Trek universe as an actress and voiceover artist – has died at age 76.
Rest in peace, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry.
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Jehuda
Popular Science wonders Dude, Where’s My Flying Car (and Jetpack, and Robot Armies)?
I often wonder where my flying car might be myself…
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Jehuda
I take it layoffs and paycuts are exclusively for the private sector. Why should our elected leaders play by the same rules?
The Hill: With economy in shambles, Congress votes itself a raise. (via Drudge)
Hey, as long as We the People are paying for it, why not?
Food for thought: will this and the newly-discovered Democratic culture of corruption become the seeds for a second Republican Revolution in Congress come November 2010? Don’t rule it out. If it happened under America’s First Black President, it sure can happen under an Obama administration.
Contract with America II: The Return. From Executive Producers Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, comes the sequel you didn’t know you were waiting for!
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Jehuda
I’ve posted on Venezuela’s oil hangover before; and on Iran’s. Now the WSJ has related news on the Russian front: Oil’s Crash Stirs Unrest in Russia as Slump Hits Home.
Nothing worse than having your entire economy depending on oil. Ask Mexico, which made the same mistake in the 70′s.
Now it’s time for a reality check. And that’s worldwide. By the way, STRATFOR takes a closer look at the global winners and losers in this brave new world of cheap oil here. They are generally more optimistic about Russia’s situation than the WSJ. Only time will tell. Give it a read.
UPDATE – via Drudge: the World Bank is not optimistic about Russia’s situation either.
