No matter what happens in the future, we'll always have Japanese girl bands to keep us entertained during the burning. Fresh. Clean. Never grows old or out of style. Openize the thread!

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:16 AM | Comments (637)
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• Noted Drunk Didn't Like Rubio's Response To His God King
  
• Yoko Ono Holding Up Fracking In New York
  
• Democrat War On Women
  
• Rubio's SOTU Response
  
• Let's Hope The Republicans Aren't This Stupid
  
• What If Asteroid 2012-DA14 Hit Earth?
  
• Remember That Hot Dancing Track Star? Well She's In The SI Swimsuit Issue
  
• Chief Greek Statistician Charged For Revealing True Size Of Debt
  
• CBS Affiliate Gets Pranked During Dorner Standoff
  
• Co-Parenting Is Now A Thing
  
• Debt Crisis Is Nowhere Near Being Solved
  
• Well This Doesn't Make Me Feel Better About Getting A CT Scan
  
• Everything You Know About The 1920s Is Wrong
  
• NBC Ratings Down
  
• War On The Young Hits Charm City
  
• Politicians Eyeing Pensions For Pork Barrel Investments
  

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Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:13 AM | Comments (373)
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Happy Wednesday.

I didn't watch any of the speeches last night, but I'm told Sen. Rubio's was good. Here's the text. The chattering class appears to be spending all its time this morning poring over Obama's speech and, since I don't give a damn, that's the only link you're getting.

How about another cover? more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:59 AM | Comments (308)
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Dredd is rated R for language, tone, and graphic violence. The movie runs 95 minutes long. This review, somewhat longer.

Judge Dredd opens with a sequence showing the young Baby Dredd being born in large birthing chamber, beside hundreds of other identical clone Judges-to-be. A long montage shows Dredd's Origin Story, as he's relentlessly trained by the Judges' Martial Arts Midwives. We see the Young Dredd, aged 6, heartbroken and crying as his most beloved Fighting Mistress is killed by a vicious drug dealer, and we can see in his eyes that Judge Dredd vows henceforth to rid Mega-City One of all drug dealers. This 25 minute backstory now revealed, we now proceed to the present.

Wait a minute, none of that happened. The movie begins with a short bit of Judge Dredd, as an adult man, narrating the basic facts of what Mega-City One is (Washington DC to Boston in one uninterrupted heavily urbanized sprawl), the "dying remnant" of a world largely dead due to some calamity (nuclear war, I think, but don't quote me), a city massively overpopulated and also in the grips of social degeneration into a barbaric pit of crime and murder. And then we see Dredd, with no Origin Story at all, in high speed pursuit of Suspects. (And then a very clear shout-out to Road Warrior -- low-angle camera shot of a man in black police leathers walking stiffly along the road.)

Wow, a movie without an Origin Story. I can't believe it. You notice they're doing Origin Stories even for heroes without superpowers now, too? Apparently Conan needs an Origin Story, because you need some kind of explanation how someone gets strong and good with a sword. The Solomon Kane movie (which one day will be released in the US) also gives him an Origin Story. Otherwise, you'd be like, how can this man be good with a sword and a pistol? It's impossible. I'm lost.

Anyway, so the movie avoids the Origin Story. Dumb. Every movie needs an Origin Story. How do I know how Dredd got trained in policework and weapons handling without an origin story?

But then we get some great movie-writing. Judge Dredd's boss summons him, and tells him that he's being assigned a new rookie partner. The partner is Anderson, who actually failed the Judge's fitness test (by three points) but has psychic abilities -- obviously a major boon to any law enforcement operation, so they're giving her a shot in the field anyway.

At this point, Judge Dredd begins screaming at his boss, "I work alone! I don't work with any wet-ear partners! I am the Law!" and giving his boss a lot of Sassy Catchprasing and generally carrying on like Judge Diva, making it very clear that he is a Lone Wolf Bad-Ass who is also an Estrogen Case on the Edge of a Menopausal Breakdown.

Wait a minute, that's not what happens. The boss tells Dredd that the girl only failed by three points, so she's a "marginal case," and Judge Dredd's only brief commentary is:

"It's not marginal. She failed."

Without even shouting it. He just sort of says it.

What horrible direction. Important character-establishing lines need to be Shouted with Emotion. A clear mistake.

This establishes him as a stickler for protocol and a hardass... but also a terse one. And that's all he says about it: He makes his opinion on the matter plain, and then does something you almost never see movie characters who serve in military or paramilitary forces do: He actually obeys the orders of his superior officer without further argument and attempts to carry those orders out.

Holy crap, where did these guys learn movie-making? Don't they know that that every single event in a movie must be filled with lots of jumped-up emotion, especially involving cliched set-ups (the Lone Wolf Who Won't Work With A Partner), with lots of Heroic Complaining about every single thing that's asked of him?

And that the Hero must Rebel from Every Order, even the mundane ones? Otherwise, how do we know he's a hero?

Amateurish mistakes left and right! more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:22 PM | Comments (281)
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Tonight we journey to the surface of Mars.

Is there life here? Who knows. But I can guarantee that you won't hear any of the SOTU here.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:41 PM | Comments (795)
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Created by @notoserfdom.

Yes, alas, it's an Open Thread, and not a liveblog. I don't really feel like listening to this imbecilic gasbag. I asked around but no one else has much interest, either.

I proposed liveblogging the Derp song for as long as Obama spoke but that idea sounds cuter than it would be in practice.

Meanwhile, Ben Carson says he doesn't care if telling Obama the truth is found by some to be "offensive."

By the way, supposedly MSNBC is prepared to do the old split-screen if there's some breaking news in the Chris Dorner matter. They don't want to, of course. But they claim they're prepared to do so.

CNN/Chris Dorner Update: No, Anderson Cooper did not ask if it's harder to find a black man at night. See the "red flag" at the end.

I only say this because for five magical seconds I believed this was true, and I briefly lived in a wonderful world in which Cooper would be fired or suspended or at least painfully embarrassed tomorrow a.m., and then I realized "Wait, that's ridiculous, that couldn't possibly have happened," and then I was rudely torn from that magical place.

I watched 15 minutes of it (before the tweet) and he didn't say that at least in that timeframe.

So I wanted to spare you from similar disappointment.

Posted by: Ace at 04:38 PM | Comments (895)
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The cabin is on fire-- visibly on fire, like Hollywood fire, big orange flames in the windows.

Police spokeswoman says that fire-fighters will not be permitted to go near the house to put the flames out given that a mad shooter is there.

Posted by: Ace at 03:53 PM | Comments (369)
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I seem to remember a lot of Concern about the "split-screen" of the RNC going forward next to images of Hurricane Isaac's destruction.

An hour ago Obama minion Brad Woodhouse was still happily tweeting anti-Rubio propaganda, even as one cop died due to Leftist Folk Hero/Serial Killer Chris Dorner's rampage. I think maybe he stopped now.

But why is Obama going forward with the SOTU? Don't the same concerns apply here?

You won't believe this, but no one in the media will answer me on this point.

Corrected: Irene, not Sandy.

Correction to the Correction: Isaac, not Irene. I should have just said "the hurricane." You'd've known which one I meant.

Posted by: Ace at 03:38 PM | Comments (130)
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jwest, I believe, highlighted this hours ago, but it's compelling and rich and deserves a mention. Plus, the other thread just passed 1000.

I don't think it's a mark against him that he's never been in combat. Most men haven't.

He also apparently has never seen a movie containing combat.

Or, played chess.

Or, pondered the function of a pin.

One of the Officers Dorner Shot Has Died. So I suppose all the more Hero, he.

Posted by: Ace at 02:22 PM | Comments (603)
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Why, you'd almost think they were putting Status ahead of Principle or somethihg.

What do you call a low-income man who smashes a woman with a baseball bat and hospitalizes her? Felon.

What do you call a high-profile, high-income man who does the same? Oscar Darling Sean Penn.

Gossip outlets in recent months have speculated about the possibility of another celebrity reunion—Sean Penn and Madonna. Most of the coverage, interestingly enough, has glossed over Penn’s violent, abusive behavior while the “Poison Penns” were married. Once, Madonna was hospitalized after Penn struck her with a baseball bat. He was charged with domestic assault in 1988 and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. The two divorced a year later.

Afflict the comfortable? Ha-ha. The media is a bunch of celebrity-worshipping Tweener girls. Why, it's almost like they're edgy, counter-cultural SNL writers or something.

Headline Fixed: I blew the whole point-- the media awards free passes to high-status men who abuse women. Not all men.

Men they hope to meet a Conde Nast party.

Posted by: Ace at 01:27 PM | Comments (149)
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