I don't really have terribly fond memories of the cheesy 1980 mythological monster movie mash-up Clash of the Tians. Except I did like a couple of the monsters. (Medusa with a serpent's body? Turned her from lame to cool.)

And so I don't know why, even with all this remake fever, they'd remake this particular movie.

But I guess there's some reason the movie still plays on TBS every year.

Here's the trailer.

Once again we have classier British actors playing the gods (was: Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith; now: Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes).

What I don't get is this: I liked the Medusa's blood that turned into the giant scorpions. Good monsterage there. But, still and all, giant scorpions are pretty unimaginative monsters, and aren't particularly unique to Greek mythology.

So why does every third cut in this trailer feature them? Yeah, giant scorpions, yay. But I would think they'd want to show us more flashes of more iconic monsters.

Why this movie might actually be good: The director is Frenchman Louis Leterrier, who did a bang-up job with The Incredible Hulk. I watched the commentary, and a lot of the stuff he says makes me think he's got a lot on the ball as regards this kind of movie.

Stuff like, "Oh, here I didn't want to put the CGI right in your face, I wanted to be subtle about it," or "I let this take go on a while because I hate that chop-chop-chop style of editing." *

Those aren't real quotes. They're made-up for-examples.

I remember, though, nodding along with him as he described the various choices he made, thinking, "Yeah, man, I hate that crap too. Thanks for not doing it for once!"

Thanks to DavidR.

* One thing I really appreciated was his use of a practical (not CGI) special effect where anyone else, pretty much, would have just used CGI because it's so cheap and easy.

He wanted to show Tim Roth running at 40+ mph. (He'd been given Captain America's super soldier serum.) They set up a line above Roth, then dangled him from that line by another line, then pulled him by another line, this one powered by a motor, at 40 mph as he pretended to run across an open field.

Then, yeah, they used CGI to erase all the ropes.

It was a subtle thing, and not really this huge eye-catching special effect, in the sense you weren't quite sure you were looking at a special effect. Maybe he went too subtle on that one.

Still, it was cool to actually see a guy booking along at a very high speed, and realize, "Hey, I'm not looking at some dopey-looking CGI gollum here, nor obviously-sped-up film, that is really Tim Roth somehow running that fast."

I like his impulse to go with the right way to pull something off rather than just going with the easy and cheap way.

Dating Advice: Pretty much why everyone comes here.

Oblig. offers some:

If your date's gone well and you got the lady home, and you're about to seal the deal but you need to drop that lobster-dinner deuce first, excuse yourself quietly, and at the sound of the closing bathroom door, yell "UNLEASH THE KRAKEN!"

Always be closing.

Oh Dear Lord: This isn't even the remake of the cheesiest movie from this era coming out soon.

They're remaking... Piranha.

Posted by: Ace at 08:57 AM | Comments (157)
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Patterico is still keeping an eye on the lamest "thinker" of the Left, long after we stopped caring. This one is noteworthy though as a demonstration of how desperately Democrats will cling to their community-based reality, even when the truth is shooting us in the face.

Writes Patterico:

I’m at a loss for words to express how stupid Greenwald’s claim is — and indeed, I needn’t mock it, because it mocks itself. May I remind you: on September 11, 2001, Muslim hijackers aboard Flight 93 yelled that phrase as they piloted the plane into the ground. Coincidence, I’m sure.

If common sense isn’t enough for you — if you really need to rely a lawyerly-sounding definition of “terrorism” — how about the one used by the U.S. Department of Defense: “The calculated use of violence or threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or try to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.”

At the risk of explaining the painfully obvious: when you yell “Allahu Akbar” during a shooting rampage, that’s evidence that the shooter had Allah’s greatness on the brain during the time of the murder. That suggests a religious motivation, which suggests terrorism.

When Greenwald characterizes as “repellent” the claim that shouting “Allahu Akbar” suggests terrorism, he is engaging in the same sort of political correctness that caused military brass to turn a blind eye to Hasan’s extremist support of Muslim terrorism.

Which is to say, itÂ’s attitudes like GreenwaldÂ’s that helped Nidal Hasan kill 13 people at Fort Hood.

All emphasis in the original. Patterico's right, of course. Hasan wasn't muttering "Allahu Ackbar" in the street before he got gunned down for doing something "suggestive" of terrorism. He was yelling "Allahu Ackbar" while shooting Americans on an Army base.

And even as I'm writing that paragraph, my "no friggin' duh" buzzer is going off. At this point I'd ordinarily delete it because it's so obvious it's painful to read, but I'll leave it this time for any trolls who wander by and because Gleen apparently cannot make the simple connection: VIOLENCE + RELIGIOUS/POLITICAL/IDEOLOGICAL MOTIVE = SUGGESTIVE OF TERRORISM.

More and more as Obama's presidency progresses, I get the feeling when I hear Leftists speak or read their writing that we're not even using the same language anymore. The words sound familiar, but I suspect they're all suffering from some politically-induced aphasia.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:42 AM | Comments (122)
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I have adopted a tradition of my Dad's (two tours in Vietnam) for Veterans Day. He works half a day because he is not a State or other government employee who gets a free day off, and then he heads to a watering hole because he earned the right. So as my last official act today a couple of links.

Mike Royko on the same sentiment as my old man

Warrior Legacy Foundation has adopted the ass-kicking "Warrior Song" as our Fight Song, and also announces a new campaign with country music stars, and other sports and entertainment types called "When they come back, we give back".

Now I will don my "Don't be a DouChe' shirt, my Blackwater hat and am off to aggravate the lefties in my trendy Alexandria neighborhood.

Thanks to all who have served and all who support them. I'll add this collection of dogs welcoming their owners home from the war.

Posted by: Uncle Jimbo at 08:08 AM | Comments (39)
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Actually, the "same" edge is misleading but it's close enough. Depending on what month you look at, Republicans were either tied with the Democrats (near the elections) or had some 1-5% advantage running up to the elections:

The pattern, as explained by Gallup, is that when Democrats do well in elections, this is prefigured by big double-digit leads in the Congressional generic. When Republicans do well, it's prefigured by Republicans either being tied or just a tad ahead.

The technical definition of a "tad" is 4%:

Of course this is one poll and it might turn out to be one of those occasional samples that actually favor Republicans.

Having said that, I don't know whether to take Independents' shift as an earthquake or an outlier. Because, according to Gallup, Independents now favor Republicans by a 12 point edge.

Did I say 12? I meant 22.

Byron York writes:

It's an extraordinary turnaround for the GOP. Last July, Democrats held a six-point lead. Last December, Democrats held a 15-point lead. At one point in 2007, Democrats held a 23-point lead, and for all of that year, 2007, Democrats held a double-digit lead.

The new Republican lead is the result of a dramatic move of independents toward the Republican party. In the new poll, according to Gallup, the GOP leads among independents, 52 percent to 30 percent -- whopping 22-point margin. Last month, the Republican lead among independents was just nine points, and in July, the GOP lead was a single point. So among independents, the Republican lead has gone from one point to 22 points in less than six months -- with much of lead accumulating in the last month.

'This administration has pulled off an astonishing hat trick -- they have irritated Democrats, alienated independents and energized Republicans," says the Republican National Committee in a statement on the poll released this morning.

Here's the downside: This poll, if confirmed, may actually make it more likely, not less, that ObamaCare passes.

Consider: If you are 90% sure you are headed for a midterm blowout almost as bad as 1994 anyway, and realize that there's mostly nothing you can do about that (it's the economy, stupid), does that make you shrink from passing big liberal legislation your party has agitated for for decades, or does that give you the courage and serenity of a man on death row who just exhausted his final appeal?

Update: I have been emailed by an executive at MSNBC informing me that Chris Matthews has developed "secondary post-traumatic stress disorder" just by being told about this poll by someone else.

Damnit! Purple Avenger posted this last night. Oh well. It's not a repost, it's a recontextualization.

Plus mine has pretty pretty graphs.

Posted by: Ace at 07:57 AM | Comments (88)
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Whoa:

"Well, first of all, it has more than a robust public option, it's got a totally government-run plan, the costs are extraordinary associated with it, it increases taxes in a way that will not pass in the Senate and I could go on and on and on," Nelson said in an interview that is part of ABC News' Subway Series with Jonathan Karl.

"Faced with a decision about whether or not to move a bill that is bad, I won't vote to move it," he added. "For sure."

[...]

There is one thing about the House bill, however, that Nelson does like: the strict ban on any abortion coverage by insurance plans bought with government subsidies. Unless the Senate bill includes a similar provision, Nelson said, he'll vote against it.

"Federal taxpayer money ought not to be used to fund abortions," Nelson said. "So whether it is subsidies on premiums or whether it is tax credits or whatever it is...it should not be used to fund abortions."

The clearest signal yet from the Blue Senator from a Red State that he's not going to go along with the Democratic plan to cripple our nation's healthcare system. The Democrats need all of their senators, plus both Independents, if they want to get cloture on a healthcare bill (unless Republican squishes decide to cross the aisle).

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:59 AM | Comments (67)
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Gerald Walpin is the inspector general fired by the President for being too thorough while looking into Obama pal, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. The President accused Walpin of being unfit for work, erratic, old, and senile, and then tried to quietly put him to pasture. Walpin refused to be bullied, publicly denounced the President's thuggish attempt to fire him, and sued for reinstatement.

In a filing on Monday, Walpin made public a letter dismissing the probe opened against him by the "Integrity Committee" of IGs.

"After carefully considering the allegations described in the complaint together with your response, the IC determined that the response sufficiently and satisfactorily addressed the matter and that further inquiry or an investigation regarding the matter was not warranted," committee Chairman Kevin L. Perkins wrote.

The investigation had been prompted by an extraordinary April letter from Lawrence G. Brown, then the acting U.S. attorney for the Sacramento area, complaining to the Integrity Committee that Walpin had "overstepped his authority," withheld "potentially significant information at the expense of determining the truth" and engaged in a campaign in the media that damaged the image of the AmeriCorps program.

"He sought to act as the investigator, advocate, judge, jury and town crier," Brown wrote in the April 29 letter.

By then, the investigation of Johnson and how he had used federal funds for his St. HOPE agency to run schools and other endeavors had been closed without criminal charges. The federal government agreed to settle the matter with Johnson and St. HOPE agreeing to repay $400,000 in funds.

In short, Johnson misused federal funds, but got a pass. Walpin was too enthusiastic about doing his job and got fired for it. Boy, this is some country Obama's running.

Background on Walpin's suit and discussion of his options is here.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:50 AM | Comments (34)
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Happy Veterans Day. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our vets. We are quite simply not good enough, but we're trying.

Also: For readers still wondering where the Top Headlines Sidebar went, move your eyes about five inches to the right. Ta da!

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:27 AM | Comments (73)
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Originally blogged here back in the good ol' days.

A few years ago, the Supreme Court scared the wits out of property owners all over the country.

The aftermath of Kelo is the latest example of the futility of using eminent domain as corporate welfare. While Ms. Kelo and her neighbors lost their homes, the city and the state spent some $78 million to bulldoze private property for high-end condos and other "desirable" elements. Instead, the wrecked and condemned neighborhood still stands vacant, without any of the touted tax benefits or job creation.

That's especially galling because the five Supreme Court Justices cited the development plan as a major factor in rationalizing their Kelo decision.

This cannot be emphasized enough.

The people who run your city, the politicians who are full of bright ideas for improving your life by infringing on others' rights, and the black-robed genius who is tasked with interpreting our founding documents; NONE of these people are smarter than you.

NONE of these people are gifted with superior insight on how better to run your life or use our native resources. But they believe that they are. So without the brake of morality or explicit law, these geniuses and pols and town busybodies will extend professional courtesy to each other as they go about dismantling your life for some dubious utopian idea.

According to the Institute for Justice, which represented Susette Kelo, 43 states have since passed laws that place limits and safeguards on eminent domain, giving property owners greater security in their homes. State courts have also held local development projects to a higher standard than what prevailed against the condemned neighborhood in New London.

A number of Connecticut municipalities also went about passing resolutions against this kind of predatory behavior, buttressing the rights of property owners. I'm proud to say my town was one of them.

If your state or municipality hasn't addressed this issue, assume nothing. Please use the Kelo example as a reason to become involved in local politics and make absolutely sure this can't happen to you or your neighbors.

Posted by: LauraW at 06:00 AM | Comments (63)
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Extremist white supremacy hate group Gallup's polling propaganda has Republicans beating Democrats 48/44 on the generic congressional ballot, with independents breaking 52/30 to republicans.

Gallup will not begin to model likely turnout until much closer to the 2010 elections...prospects for a good Democratic showing appear slim.

more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 04:47 AM | Comments (96)
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Welcome to the boringest night of the week. Hopefully the ONT sub-morons can change all that.

Watch Maritime Traffic in Realtime
This site shows where all AIS-transponder ships are around the world and updates every 99 seconds. Probably most interesting if you live on a coast or near a big lake.

Tech Support Tuesday
Here's how to search the AoSHQ comments for all posts by a certain commenter (or their hash):
If you want to find all posts by ace (or his hash p+lWQ), type this in the google search box:
site:minx.cc ace
or
site:minx.cc p+lWQ more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:04 PM | Comments (628)
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