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Via Hedgeblog and Moonshine Highways.

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Try it, it's kind of fun.

Do a google image search earch for all of your favorite items and post the first or best results.

Yay! Movies!

I'm in too much of a good mood today to care about things like how, in this day and age, people are willing to kill each other over what may or may not have happened to a book, (not to mention the fact that poorly documented book abuse is a big story, but well-documented people abuse is nothing to write home about....but I said I wasn't going to care about it today...)!

Let me explain...I bought a new computer!

I mean a new one! Not one made out of the parts of someone's ancient WinME-running eMachine bought for 200 bucks...I mean a new computer! With a box and a warranty and everything!

This is a big deal to me.

Anyway, instead of blogging about important issues that make me angry, I will now proceed to blather about movies I want to see, and the trailers that made me love them.

Starting with...is it totally wrong of me to want to see the roller-skating/coming of age movie starring (formerly Lil') Bow Wow? I don't know, something about how he flings his arms open in joy to the line "a lovely daaaaay!" while rolling along with those giant headphone on makes me happy. Makes me want to roller-boogie, a little.

Eep. Weird spider-dollies are creepy. Odd angry Russian demon boys with glowy red eyes are creepy. Giant flocks of evil black ravens are creepy. Luckily, I like creepy so I can't wait to see Night Watch. That is, if I get to see it. It's one of those "select cities" kind of movies. Albuquerque is not a "select city."

Speaking of creepy little dollies, Tim Burton appears to have another stop-motion animation movie coming out this fall. This, naturally, is cool, and hopefully represents a return to form after several crap-tacular films in the past few years. (Not counting Big Fish, which I kind of liked.)

But the more interesting thing will be to see if Helena Bonham Carter breaks up Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis like she did Tim Burton and Lisa Marie after appearing with them in this movie, and Kenneth Branaugh and Emma Thompson after appearing with him in this movie. Let's hope Johnny can hold on to his virtue.

Then, of course, there's the big one. Wednesday night at midnight baby! Look, I'll say it again, I'm sure it will suck. This is not the point of a latter-day Star Wars movie. Opening night at midnight is the only time to see a latter-day Star Wars movie. Seeing it with a normal, non-fanboy audience removes the carnival, cosplay-like atmosphere and draws attention to the fact that these are actually some of the worst movies you'll ever see.

So, I'll be there at midnight. Maybe with even with a towel.

The Great Shock and Awe Swindle

Over at Body and Soul I read about something going on in Iraq that made me, jaded old me, spit my homebrewed beer all over my monitor in astonishment.

An official US audit has unearthed evidence of widespread corruption in postwar Iraq, finding that the occupying authorities failed to keep track of nearly 9 billion dollars (£4.8billion) of Iraq?s oil and other revenues.

9 billion dollars??? 9 billion dollars! That's enough to buy chicken mcnuggets for every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth!

Look, even I can admit that the war in Iraq could have been a big opportunity for the country to recover economically from the strain of years of sanctions. There could have been huge financial gain in rebuilding. The fact that there was even 9 billion dollars of revenue to "lose" impresses me (although that probably just means I know crap about economics...).

But this is just crap.

Isn't it bad enough that we gave all the choice contracts to non-Iraqi companies (okay, to Halliburton...)? But the revenue they did manage to make we lose and/or steal? Jeanne is right. This is why they hate us.

The plot thickens...

Will the truth be revealed?

FORT HOOD, Texas - A military judge on Wednesday threw out Pfc. Lynndie England's guilty plea to prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, saying he was not convinced that she knew her actions were wrong at the time.

...The action came after Graner, the reputed ringleader of the abuse, testified as a defense witness at England's sentencing hearing that pictures he took of England holding a naked prisoner on a leash at Abu Ghraib were meant to be used as a legitimate training aid for other guards.

...When England pleaded guilty Monday, she told the judge she knew that the pictures were being taken purely for the amusement of the guards.

Pohl said the two statements could not be reconciled.

"You can't have a one-person conspiracy," the judge said before he declared the mistrial and dismissed the sentencing jury.

Sooo...maybe we get to find out how big a conspiracy can get?

Welcome to Plucky Land...please take your tin-foil hat at the entrance...

Okay...am I a dork because I think this is cool?

Excuse me while I geek out for a moment...

This totally rocks!

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - The Force lands in theaters a bit more forcefully in the final installment of George Lucas "Star Wars" tale.

"Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" is the first "Star Wars" tale to receive a PG-13 rating. The movie was screened for reporters Tuesday night at Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, and the PG-13 rating — "for sci-fi violence and some intense images" — is well-deserved.

Okay...I probably won't bring a towel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (ed's note...jeeze, Salon, was it a slow news day or what?) but I will bring one to Revenge of the Sith, to mix a geek metaphor.

Look, I know it will suck. I'm going to see it anyway.

We can't handle the truth!

I totally wish I could be a fly on the wall at the Lynndie England trial. Her creepy but honest-seeming former boyfriend is now saying things that directly contradict the 'frathouse fun' guilty plea she entered. I guess the higher-ups bear some culpability after all...

FORT HOOD, Texas - The reputed ringleader in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal on Wednesday contradicted a key part of Pfc. Lynndie England's guilty plea, in which the defendant said she knew she was committing wrongful acts when she took part in the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees.

The testimony of Pvt. Charles Graner Jr., contending that notorious photos taken of England at the prison were to have a legitimate use, could endanger England's guilty plea to seven abuse charges. Under military law, a judge can formally accept England's guilty plea only if she knew at the time that what she was doing was illegal.

...Graner maintains that he and the other Abu Ghraib guards were following orders from higher-ranking interrogators when they abused the detainees.

Any moment now you expect Jack Nicholson to delivery a fiery monologue with lots of heavy eyebrow-arching action. I get the feeling that poor, compliant Lynndie England is the opposite side of the same coin on which Jessica Lynch is cut.

Short, chubby, and butch, England will become the representation of everything that's wrong with the military, just like Lynch and her rescue became idealized into everything that's right. Too bad it seems she was just following orders, and if her guilty plea stands it will remove blame from the people on which it should truly fall.

In Europe, I would be conservative...

I am: -7% Republican.

"You're a damn Commie! Where's Tailgunner Joe when we need him?"

Are You A Republican?

Who's Tailgunner Joe?

Via skippy.

Hello, future draftees!

Bad news for the Bush administration...we're running out of armed forces!!!

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military may not be able to win any new wars as quickly as planned because the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have strained its manpower and resources, the nation's top military officer told Congress in a classified report.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the U.S. military as in a period of increased risk, according to a senior defense official, who described the report Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.

If I were an able-bodied(ish) person between the ages of 18 and 30, and I am, I would start getting nervous reaaaallly soon...