Well it seems late enough to make it official -- in case you haven't heard, tomorrow has been scheduled for this year's Thanksgiving.

Thank you all for coming here. I really appreciate the odd, somewhat demented camaraderie you provide me.

Quick Movie Reviews... under the fold. more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:24 PM | Comments (65)
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Yes, that's a reference to Shakespeare. I told you morons I was well read.

But I'm not writing this to prove that point. I'm writing this for an entirely different reason.

You see, my friends, I grow increasingly concerned about the direction of my favorite show. And since I know that some of the Red Eye peeps stop by here on occasion I figured I'd offer a little "constructive criticism" in the only forum I have to reach them.

Because many of you don't care about a) Red Eye and/or b) my opinion about much of anything, I'll post my observations in the extended entry. more...

Posted by: Jack M. at 08:08 PM | Comments (26)
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So far, at least.

People keep saying, Why not Duncan Hunter? Well, he's a good candidate but he doesn't seem to be getting any traction. So just to get his name out there: Duncan Hunter! He really needs some PaulBot types.

But anyway, here's Gib's take on the Duncan "The Dunk" Hunter:

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)

Pros: I know of no personal or professional scandals involving this man.

Cons: For the exact same reason I know of no personal or professional scandals involving some guy randomly picked out of an Albaquerque phone book.

Mee-ouch.

Posted by: Ace at 05:55 PM | Comments (33)
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As I continue pimping the Atkins diet and also Gary Taubes' championing of it.

Audio of an interview with Taubes.

He comes off a bit glib and zealous here as far as the herd mentality he ascribes to mainstream nutritionists, but I still think he's basically right.

Thanks to Splunge.

Posted by: Ace at 05:05 PM | Comments (18)
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Article about the trailer; or, just save time and, you know, actually watch the trailer.

I'm still pulling for Cthulhu though that probably would have leaked. So maybe just some Lovecraftian monster that's like Cthulhu.

Apparently from the trailer you can see there are smaller, servitor monsters of the Great One. So maybe a little Deep Ones action.

Cool.

Thanks to dri.

No Smaller Monsters: magnetism87 links this site showing that the "smaller monsters" glimpsed in silhouette in the trailer are just human beings in biohazard suits.

But...

What is definitely in the trailer is the sound of a smaller monster, human sized, approaching a woman. There's no way that sound is made by a mega-sized creature. Unless the gigantic creature vocalizes at about the same volume level as a velociraptor.

Posted by: Ace at 04:00 PM | Comments (46)
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Worth reading in full. He mixes both upside and downside news but one has the sense he's basically on the level, if not necessarily correct about everything. The basic thrust is that the current situation is a "fragile calm," which could be disrupted, horribly, at a moment's notice. Something I wouldn't leap to disagree with.

CJ, who tips this, is critical of it:

Take a look at the question about positioning themselves for the next battle. It's complicated. it's fragile. It's not a bunch of psychopathic monsters plotting their next genocide. No one should present it that way.

... but I think that's forgivable, especially from a NYT reporter. These are, after all, people who are almost uncannily gifted at seeing the point of view and understanding the grievances of every group on the face of the earth... except Americans, of course.

But that's why we have an adversarial alternate media.

CJ Writes... to say I misunderstood what he was saying:

Actually I wasn't being critical of this report at all. From what I've read from Yon and Bill InDC it's on the money. Who I was trying to be critical of were the people who are using the New Yorker piece, which Damien specifically disavows to argue that Iraqis are simply using America to preapre for another civil war. Damien in fact says it's way to early to predict that. Ardolino seem to say that it is way too ealry to predict that to, as does Yon.

Some people though are happy to predict away (as in the recent New Yorker article cited at Hot Air) and claim that America has made Sadr King of Iraq. Something else that BillinDC and the rest seem to say is not the case. That's what I was criticizing.

(Lightly edited to include link and such.)

Sorry, CJ. Misunderstood ya.

Posted by: Ace at 03:06 PM | Comments (13)
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Obviously, from the standpoint of support for Mike Huckabee, as Drew noted below.

But it's got me thinking too.

Not that I would support Mike Huckabee -- indeed, this is the only first-tier candidate I now find it difficult to support -- but it changes my own political math.

If Giuliani is too divisive a figure for the GOP base -- and if so, it's his own damn fault I must say; he could have easily tacked enough to the right to appease social cons -- then I guess I need to find an alternative to Huckabee.

I like Giuliani but not enough to split the base over him.

Thompson seems to be a natural alternative -- or at least he seemed that way, before he actually began campaigning. He's in the mix, I suppose, but I'm not thinking he can win.

Which leaves me pondering a candidate I've never really gotten behind, except to say he's perfectly acceptable to me -- Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney has his own problems with the social cons. His religion offends many, and his new improved positions on hot button social issues have the stink of opportunism still wafting over them. But I believe he's credible on these issues, if only because he's now made a fairly unbreakable promise on them.

He's a smart guy. He lacks Giuliani's charisma and ease and command in speaking, but he's not bad either. He has tremendous executive experience. And he has... oh, what the hell, Hugh Hewitt's blog.

Second look time for Romney, at least for me. I think Huckabee would be a disaster in the general election. An easy manner only gets you so far.

Posted by: Ace at 02:01 PM | Comments (83)
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That's the killer quote, but I don't see any specifics. Though I do believe them -- this guy seems dirty as hell.

A minor point: The AP will undoubtedly say it's forced to go to bat for Hussein because it owes him some loyalty, he being an employee. But notice that that vaunted claim of journalistic neutrality has gone right out the window-- they are strong partisans in this case, calling it, among other things, a "sham."

It is interesting to whom the media decides it shall demonstrate loyalty and bias and those to whom it will not. AP is, I suppose, a global operation and not really any longer truly a US company, but I have little doubt that US media companies would similarly take the side of their own dirty terrorist employees, while piously instructing us that they must never take a position in favor of the US, even as against Al Qaeda.

Here, AP actually is showing the opposite bias, championing someone who is almost certainly AQ-connected over the American military, which is a far more honest broker than Bilal Hussein. Or AP itself.

UPDATE [Dave in Texas]: AP spins heartwarming "A Look at Bilal Hussein" story.

Posted by: Ace at 01:18 PM | Comments (5)
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The MSM and left (but I repeat myself) seized on quotes from McClellan's book -- carefully selected by his editor to generate interest in perhaps the least interesting person in the world, apart from Andrew Sullivan -- but it turns out, shock!, the quotes were deliberately oversold and misleading.

I expect the retractions to begin pouring in at furious pace.

Thanks again to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 01:00 PM | Comments (27)
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OK, you're out with an apparently hot babe going to dinner and suddenly she whips something out you weren't quite expecting and slaps it down on the table. Can you guess what it might be? more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 12:57 PM | Comments (17)
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