"Brothers" 2009

Natalie Portman makes me want to vomit most of the time, but I like the Gyllenhaal siblings and Tobey Maguire. I saw an ad for this and Maguire's character looked absolutely batshit insane and I thought I would compare the performance to his in one of my favorite movies ,The Cider House Rules in which he played such a sweet, gentle, intelligent and strong character.

Stars Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Sam Shepard, Bailee Madison, Taylor Geare and Mare Winningham.
So, I'm gonna go watch it now...

Ok, done.

Meh. I've seen more damaged human beings from war. War sucks. The movie is a remake of a Danish film film that's available for streaming on Netflix. Natalie Portman still makes me want to vomit. It's a good movie though...

Ok, I watched the Danish version. It's better in my opinion.

McConnell to Franken: "This Isn't SNL"

Posted by Colin Daileda
August 6, 2010 10:15 AM

Well isn't that special?


Come on, don't tell me I'm the only one who had that thought?

Who needs horror flicks?

13 stabbings, 5 deaths raise fears in Flint, Michigan
By Julian Cummings, CNN
August 6, 2010 4:31 p.m. EDT

"...Race may be a factor in the crimes: All of the stabbing victims are African-American and the perpetrator is described by surviving victims as a white male...

..." in many cases first lured his victims to his car by appearing to have car trouble or needing directions..."


Sick fucker.

I think this story is important

Which is why I keep eyeballing it and finally decided to post it. It speaks to so many of the problems that Americans are suffering and the only place I saw it prominently displayed is a favorite website of mine. Yes I am aware that more important stories are out there and one of them is related. Not that the court will be able to right this wrong any time soon.


CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Thousands Injured, 275 Dead, WR Grace Not Guilty
Corporate Crime Reporter 29, July 16, 2010

W.R. Grace's 2Q profit more than double
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 22, 2010, 5:22PM

COLUMBIA, MD.

W.R. Grace Found Not Guilty in Montana Asbestos Trial (Update4
By Bob Van Voris and Amy Linn -

May 8, 2009 17:19 EDT (Bloomberg)


Cheney's Firm Backed Bill To Limit Asbestos Liability
by Andrew Schneider and Lise Olsen
Published on Friday, August 4, 2000 in the Seattle Post-Intelligence

Rachel Maddow on CA Prop 8 ruling

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This segment made me laugh so hard

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Prop 8 overturned: Gay Marriage Ban Struck Down in California

"Although Proposition 8 fails to possess even a rational basis, the evidence presented at trial shows that gays and lesbians are the type of minority strict scrutiny was designed to protect," Walker ruled.

Woot!!

The judgment was the first offered by a federal court with respect to laws banning gay marriage at the state level and it promises to have massive reverberations across the political and judicial landscape. The decision is expected to now head to the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court (also based in San Francisco) for appeal and from there to the Supreme Court.

Woo HOO!

It does not appear that Walker allowed for an immediate hold on his decision, which means that the defense must seek one from a higher court. Until then, gay couples could be legally allowed to marry in the state of California.

Take that you silly Mormons! I wish you were getting out of San Diego, but since I see you are doing construction work on that hideous thing off of I-5, maybe you won't have as much money to fight what has been proven to be unlawful in California. AGAIN.

And it looks like it just might still be ok if it goes to the Supreme Court:

But gay rights activists may have been too pessimistic about the current Supreme Court. It's true that the Roberts Court is conservative and that several Justices are unlikely to be open-minded about same-sex marriage, including the four most right-leaning Justices: Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito. On the other side of the bench, there are four Justices likely to be favorable to Olson and Boies's argument that the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples violates the Constitution: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan (assuming she is confirmed).

As usual in the Supreme Court these days, the swing vote belongs to Anthony Kennedy. And there are several reasons to believe that Kennedy, though conservative on many issues, will vote with the liberals on this one. The Supreme Court has issued two major decisions dealing with gay rights over the past 15 years. Both decisions came out strongly in favor of gay rights -- and both were written by Justice Kennedy.

Tomgram: Bill McKibben, A Wilted Senate on a Heating Planet

We’re Hot as Hell and We’re Not Going to Take It Any More
Three Steps to Establish a Politics of Global Warming
By Bill McKibben

* Nine nations have so far set their all-time temperature records in 2010, including Russia (111 degrees), Niger (118), Sudan (121), Saudi Arabia and Iraq (126 apiece), and Pakistan, which also set the new all-time Asia record in May: a hair under 130 degrees. I can turn my oven to 130 degrees.

4 Ingredients to a Climate and Energy Bill

religion sucks #22

Well, Ann Rice thinks so, and here is why

When heroes get religion
Jessica Reed
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 August 2010 12.06 BST


"... but last week's announcement that Anne Rice was to "quit being a Christian" while remaining committed to Christ made me smile. Rice made the annoucement on Facebook:

"In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen"...

Good on you Ann :)

Project Vigilant and the government/corporate destruction of privacy

MONDAY, AUG 2, 2010 08:03 ET
BY GLENN GREENWALD


"...Uber is the Executive Director of a highly secretive group called Project Vigilant, which, as Greenberg writes, "monitors the traffic of 12 regional Internet service providers" and "hands much of that information to federal agencies..."

Gee, ya think?

Mexico at War WaPo's coverage of the drugs wars in Mexico.

Obama: Patchwork immigration policy unacceptable
Monday, Aug. 2, 2010 AP

Gah.

They are fleeing economic hardship that our fiscal policies helped create on top of a country run by vicious, murdering drugs cartels that kill each other and anyone who gets in their way with guns that came from this country, in order to control a drugs trade that we support by using drugs and having a retarded justice system that makes some rich investors in it richer, and creates hopelessness in the prisoners because they never get a real chance for drugs or vocational rehab, and then we pour money into a corrupt government over there to fight the War on Drugs and we wonder why we have a gazillion people crossing into our country illegally?

Hmmm, was that a run on sentence?

In Mexico's Nuevo Laredo, drug cartels dictate media coverage
By William Booth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 2, 2010

Reporters without Borders coverage of Mexico

Arizona was once tolerant of illegal immigrants. What happened?Analysts suggest it was a perfect storm of demographic shifts, a scary criminal element, the recession and a new governor.

What the fuck took the LA Times so long to figure it out? Ahh, hmm, could be the estimate of almost a million illegal immigrants in LA County alone?

No wait, it's the LA Times, the paper that never criticizes anything that the Israeli government does, and never reports on the effect of Israeli settlements or their expansion.

Here I go again, on immigration

Does this dorkwad thinks he's actually doing something good for the cause? I actually find humor in that. Did he forget what country he's in?

Here are some thoughtful and short posts on immigration.

A look inside the government’s deportation flights
By Associated Press | Sunday, August 1, 2010

"..Most of those aboard the flight came to authorities’ attention after being convicted of a crime in the U.S. One was convicted of murder, 16 for assault, 11 for driving under the influence, nine for drug charges and six for theft. Another six had no criminal background..."

Honestly, I am not sure what the deal is with the 6 with no criminal convictions. Perhaps real immigration reform would help people like that in the future.

Bay Area protests put focus on immigration policies

By Matt O'Brien
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 07/29/2010 04:17:05 PM PDT
Updated: 07/30/2010 12:15:57 PM PDT

"..The program has identified more than 4,000 immigrants with criminal records in Bay Area jails this year, and many of those immigrants were then handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to government records..."

Immigration memo sparks controversy U.S. officials consider ways to allow some illegal migrants to stay through administrative actions. Republicans see it as proof that Obama is aiming to bypass Congress with a 'de facto amnesty.'

Don't think I don't understand why people risk life and limb for a chance at a better life than the one where they come from. My neighbor told me that at her citizenship confirmation there were people from 80 countries there. I was usually in the minority on most of my jobs, I worked with immigrants from all over the world, and I have heard some stories that would curl your hair from some of my co-workers.

Don't think that I don't understand that the "War on Drugs" and Nafta and Cafta and our corrupt politicians cozying up to corrupt Latin American politicians is good for anybody except big business and (at the very least morally) corrupt politicians.

And oh, yeah, Americans and their drug habits. Are we really so insulated from the truth that 25,000 Mexican people have been slaughtered? Gee, might that have actually increased the amount of people fleeing north to escape from Mexico? Could just be that Mexico is a corrupt shit-hole also. Could be that a few rich control everything in Mexico and the US policies have control over the economy through this tiny minority of the population there.

Mexico now gets more of its revenue from drugs than it does selling us oil, and they are our number two supplier of oil. You think Mexicans know Cantarell is in decline?