OK, so I watched this trailer here:

...and I thought, hey, this looks pretty good. Maybe we're actually going to get a big-budget Biblical spectacle that doesn't suck.

Also, the way this trailer is structured, it looks like the movie is going to be a more or less straightforward retelling of the familiar Bible story.

Doesn't it?
more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:05 AM | Comments (187)
Post contains 310 words, total size 2 kb.

America's best-named college rivalry is back! My beloved No. 6 Oklahoma State Cowboys face the line-jumpers from Norman, the No. 17 Oklahoma Sooners, with a championship title on the line. It's cold and snowy in Stillwater, but they've finally shoveled out Boone Pickens Stadium.

The Story of Bedlam:

In the Year of our Lord 1900, Oklahoma A&M (as Oklahoma State was then called) veterinary medicine professor Dr. L.L. Lewis brought together a group of students to participate in the first Oklahoma Territory Track and Field Meet. I say Oklahoma "Territory" because, you will recall, Oklahoma wasn't yet a state when this rivalry began.

Held on May 4, 1900, the event included several smaller Oklahoma schools -- Alva Normal College, Central Normal of Edmond, Kingfisher College -- and, of course, Oklahoma University. The prize of the tournament was a silver cup donated by a local jeweler named Douglas. A&M won the meet and returned to Stillwater with the traveling trophy.

In 1901, A&M won again, and a third consecutive win would mean permanent retirement of the Douglas Cup in Stillwater.

The third meet was held on May 23, 1902, with the Aggies winning the most points. Oklahoma, sore at their drubbing, filed a protest based on the pole vault competition not having been completed due to darkness. Nevertheless, A&M claimed the Douglas Cup and returned victorious to Stillwater.

The next day the Sooners held their own pole vault competition and declared themselves the victors of the tournament. Several weeks later, the Douglas Cup was stolen from its place of honor in a glass case at the A&M chemistry lab. Suspecting that Sooners had taken the Cup, a group of A&M students made a daring raid to Norman where they retrieved the Cup and buried it under Old Central for safekeeping.

Ten years later, when excavation was being done for a new classroom building, the trophy was found. Today the Douglas Cup resides safely in OSU's Heritage Hall.

Bedlam starts at noon EST on ABC.

Also, this is the elbow thread today. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:29 AM | Comments (148)
Post contains 371 words, total size 2 kb.

So as not to disturb the football watchers up above.

Oh, BTW, Iceland had a quiet revolution and replaced its whole government; an event the US media largely ignored initially and continues to ignore. Dream big, maybe it can happen here.[Purp]

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:28 AM | Comments (111)
Post contains 47 words, total size 1 kb.

Mentioned in the the Pearl Harbor thread comments is how Japanese aggression was driven by natural resource constraints.

This Idealabs piece shows how its starting to happen again with US procedural foot dragging in getting LNG and coal exports to Asia permitted in a prompt manner as is required by WTO rules. Rules the US was a strong proponent of.

U.S. government delays in approving pending natural gas and coal export proposals “are likely to violate” global trade rules, according to a report released this week by the National Association of Manufacturers.

The NAM commissioned former Democratic Congressman and World Trade Organization (WTO) judge James Bacchus to write the report, which urges the federal government to speed up the export approval process and lift regulatory barriers...

...“The United States has always been a strong advocate of these rules and has been forceful in challenging export restrictions imposed by other countries,” Bacchus writes, warning that if the export delays aren’t addressed “the tables may be turned on the United States directly in the WTO, but also through other countries walking away from core principles that have long been critical to U.S. success in the global economy.” - ...

Net, net, net? It seems Obama is doing everything possible to impede US energy export competitiveness, and that could have some pretty unpleasant ramifications down the road aside from the more obvious immediate jobs and trade balance issues.

I'm sure some clever coal engineering nerds will eventually figure out some way around this Obama foot dragging so they can still export product and not call it a "coal export". They could maybe do some semantic trickery like fine grind it and mix it up with up a thick bunker-C grade oil and call it an "oil export" of some sort and send it out of existing oil terminals. People can be pretty clever about working around government regulatory roadblocks when they have to. They shouldn't have to resort to that kind of trickery though.

With China having ~70% of its power supplied by coal, they're going to be getting it somewhere. There's very significant domestic Chinese production, but they still need some imports too. If that isn't the US, then its going to be someone else. If its anyone else, then US influence on Chinese policy/behavior is diminished.

With the US coal industry running at idle speed and domestic uses being crippled more and more by the Obama administration regulation every day, being able to export expeditiously is a big deal. Jobs depend on it.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:46 AM | Comments (71)
Post contains 464 words, total size 3 kb.

Seventy two years ago today.

16 million Americans served during WWII, ten times the number of those in uniform today.

Here's a story about a Curtiss P-40 that survived the attack on Wheeler Field that was purchased by an anonymous benefactor of the Collings Foundation.

And here is a comprehensive overview and a good collection of photographs from the battle.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:27 AM | Comments (114)
Post contains 66 words, total size 1 kb.

Another week in Obamerica goes down the tubes ...

Posted by: andy at 03:35 AM | Comments (274)
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.

The US Air Force band created a special moment at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC this week. Enjoy and please return to the Overnight Open Thread discussion in the previous post. H/TWeaselzippers more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:09 PM | Comments (94)
Post contains 60 words, total size 1 kb.

Doc Shock, indeed.

An estimated seven out of every 10 physicians in deep-blue California are rebelling against the state's Obamacare health insurance exchange and won't participate, the head of the state's largest medical association said.

...

California offers one of the lowest government reimbursement rates in the country -- 30 percent lower than federal Medicare payments. And reimbursement rates for some procedures are even lower.

Details of the reimbursement rates omitted; check the article. Spoiler: They're quite low.

In order to hide from the public the large number of doctors refusing to participate in the system, Covered California is resorting to, get this, lying.

Only in September did insurance companies disclose that their rates would be pegged to CaliforniaÂ’s Medicaid plan, called Medi-Cal. That's driven many doctors to just say no.

They're also pointing out that Covered California's website lists many doctors as participants when they aren't.

“Some physicians have been put in the network and they were included basically without their permission,” Lisa Folberg said. She is a CMA’s vice president of medical and regulatory Policy.
ontra Costa Medical Association.

...

“This is a dirty little secret that is not really talked about as they promote Covered California,” Waters said. He called the exchange's doctors list a “shell game” because “the vast majority” of his doctors are not participating.

Independent insurance brokers who work with both insurance companies and doctor networks estimate that about 70 percent of California's 104,000 licensed doctors are boycotting the exchange.

Covered California, on the other hand, claims 85% of doctors are participating. Someone is obviously extremely wrong here -- or extremely dishonest.

Posted by: Ace at 03:57 PM | Comments (374)
Post contains 300 words, total size 2 kb.

It's the Hero that the rapt fan is interested in, not the MacGuffin.

The left is just interested in the character, the Hero.

Take it away, New York Times:

WHITE HOUSE MEMO

In ObamaÂ’s Book List, Glimpses of His Journey

President Obama, with his daughter Malia, buying books last weekend at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington.

By PETER BAKER

WASHINGTON — President Obama has never visited the rugged mountains of Chechnya, but if he digs into one of the novels he bought last weekend, “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena,” he will be transported to a land of unremitting violence and tragedy, where the innocent are caught up in war as often as the guilty.

Perhaps Mr. Obama is seeking a deeper understanding of the roots of the ethnic bloodletting after Chechnya vaulted back to the front pages this year with the Boston Marathon bombings. Or perhaps he is thinking about his troubled relationship with Russia.

Either way, the novel would give the president a more visceral feel for one of the worldÂ’s most brutal conflicts than the graphic intelligence papers that cross his desk.

“I imagine someone in his position gets a lot of facts and figures,” Anthony Marra, the author of the book, mused the other day. “But the novel is really about the experience, about the psyche and the soul.”

A reading list offers a rare window into the presidential mind, a peek at what a commander in chief may be thinking about beyond theprosaic and repetitive briefings that dominate his days.

Yes who cares about those repetitive boring briefings. I mean, there's nothing interesting going on, certainly, apart from the intense drama of his signature policy initiative going up in flames.

The writer claims the reading list is a "rare glimpse" into the president's mind. Just as Howard Fineman said last night that Obama's talking about his own Journey was a "rare" glimpse into a president's mind.

Obama seems to talk about this a lot, and the media seems to write about it with great intensity and interest.

I'm not sure if we can call a several-times-per-week occurrence rare.

In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the concern for Obama's actual record that's rare. The intense interest in Obama the Personality is the common thing.

The right has repeatedly belittled Obama as a "Celebrity." And indeed that is what he is. His fans are primarily interested in Barack the Man, Barack the Personality.

And not so much as Barack Obama, the executor of federal law.

...

Many of the nearly two dozen volumes Mr. Obama picked up at Washington’s Politics and Prose bookstore will be gifts, and certainly children’s tales like “Harold and the Purple Crayon” offer few lessons for dealing with Tea Party congressmen.

But even if they are given away, some of the books reflect what Mr. Obama has already read or would like to read. They are volumes about identity and reinvention, about what it means to be American, and about family, love, betrayal and redemption.

Yup-- movie themes. Book themes. Story themes.

Unlike many of his predecessors, who devoured American history and biographies, Mr. ObamaÂ’s tastes lean toward the literary, in keeping with a man whose first memoir deeply explored issues of race and self.

The media's almost as interested in this Funny Little Muddle called Barack Obama as Barack Obama himself.

And here's the straight-up admission of a big Obama fan that she identifies with Obama, as fans identify with a movie's main character.

...

“I think President Obama has really searched his soul in the way that writers do,” Ms. Strayed said. “I certainly, like many people, identify with Obama’s journey."

The New York Times, like Chris Matthews, is not interested in policy. It is solely interested in the travails and triumphs of their Hero, Barack Obama.

Posted by: Ace at 02:09 PM | Comments (343)
Post contains 647 words, total size 4 kb.

At Hot Air.

The Democratic numbers from the generic-ballot test dropped from 45 percent to 37 percent, and Republicans moved up to 40 percent. This 10-point net shift from a Democratic advantage of 7 points to a GOP edge of 3 points in just over a month is breathtaking, perhaps an unprecedented swing in such a short period. Occurring around Election Day, such a shift would probably amount to the difference between Democrats picking up at least 10 House seats, possibly even the 17 needed for a majority, and instead losing a half-dozen or so seats.

Look, I have to apologize. This was a post in draft from Friday. I am just not seeing any news I want to write about. It's a slow news day, which is something that I should just deal with (and post what there is of the slow news), but I keep looking for better and I'm not coming up with much.

So, for now, Open Thread.

Posted by: Ace at 01:46 PM | Comments (227)
Post contains 198 words, total size 1 kb.