They claim they can edit out all profanity, sex and violence from any movie you'd like and then return it to you for "safe" family viewing. OK, I'm a flexible guy, so do whatever you wish people. But after reading through the list of movies they've got already edited and ready for viewing, you have to wonder how long some of these movies would actually end of being. Here are a few choices I'd love to see edited of their violence, sex & profanity, just to see if they bear any semblance to their originals:
Braveheart (no violence? It'd be about ten minutes long)
Con Air (violence, swearing, cross dressing - its got it all)
First Blood (Rambo, need I say more)
No Way Out (Great sex scene in the limo)
Saving Private Ryan (This is my favorite! How the hell do you remove the violence from World War II?)
Starship Troopers (the whole movie is T&A and violence)
It goes on and on.
Report from deep in the heart of Soviet Canuckistan
I'm drinking my coffee & eating some fruit in the Ottawa Marriott this morning, when I read about everyone's favorite isolationist Pat Buchanan calling Canada"Soviet Canuckistan."
I'm proud to report that in an effort to enlighten the Canuckistani's on our war on terrorism, and why different people are bad, I will point their DSL service requests throught Sympatico to Bill O'Reilly's webpage.
Two weeks ago I posted this bloglet on ballistic databases and the blind kowtow of the Bushies toward the NRA in opposing it. There was even a comment from another (more conservative) blogger in Portland OR who took issue with my post (read the comments).
Now I have to say, "I told you so" as we see that ex post facto ballistic "fingerprinting" of the rifle found in the suspect's car in the DC-area sniper case has been used to: (1) confirm that the rifle was in fact used in all the cases where bullets and/or shell casings were found, (2) that it was the rifle used in Tacoma to shoot at tree stumps in a backyard where the suspect once lived, and (3) that the rifle was used in the murder of a Baton Rouge shopkeeper last month, a case unsolved, until now. There is an unsolved slaying in Tacoma as well in which the two are suspect, but a ballistic link has not yet been found.
Is ballistic matching perfect? Nope. But it's better than nothing. If the ballistic profile of this rifle had been in a database showing where it was sold, or even to whom, could police have gotten closer, faster? I think so. Criminals could alter the ballistic "fingerprint" of a gun--most don't. As a renowned law enforcement expert has been heard to say about perpetrators: "Aren't we lucky they're so stupid?"
Wow; the Letterman clip with Warren Zevon ("Enjoy Every Sandwich") was touching, and such a reminder of how this isn't a dress rehearsal. I was a DJ at my college dorm's (cable) radio station and have fond memories of playing tracks from Excitable Boy like the title track, Lawyers, Guns and Money, and Werewolves of London:
I saw a werewolf drinking a Pina Colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.
On a much lighter note, the trailer for Jerry Seinfeld's new movie, Comedian, is hilarious! It has nothing at all to do with the film (which is the point). Watch it here.
Did anybody watch Warren Zevon on Letterman last night?
Man, it was really touching in parts. In case you haven't heard, Zevon has been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, and has been given his death sentence. He went thru the normal shock and grief period by isolating himself, but emerged determined to live the remainder of his life to the hilt. He's fully accepted the fact that thirty years of hard drinking and hard smoking have put him in this position, and he's determined to work until he drops. To hear him talk about how he and his family are dealing with his upcoming demise is heart-wrenching, but his weird sense of humor makes it almost hilarious. You could tell that he and Letterman are friends, its the most subdued I've seen Letterman since the post 9-11 show.
I saw Zevon years and years ago in Providence, RI, when he was in his heyday of drinking. He kept the audience waiting over an hour while he got his act together, and then he came out obviously drunk and incapacitated. Then rocked the house down. It was great. On Letterman, he played three songs off his new CD ("Genius"), including a remake of "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner". They sounded wonderful, and I, for one, will miss him. I feel that he was a true artist of my generation, tortured as he was.
You can read all about it here in an article by By Phil Lebovits. One of the tasty bits (which sounds suspiciously like something Baze could have quipped):
"We cannot sit idly by and eat our delicious chocolates while the United States government engages in a policy of harassment," Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said in a nationally-televised address to the Belgian people. "Now is the time for action. We cannot waffle."
First, the Osbournes. Then came Anna. Will the world ever get their Liza?
No.
Her hus-thing, David Gest, is too overbearing, controlling, anal, etc., etc. ... so sayeth the folks at VH1, who decided to cancel the show before it's even aired one time.
So, does anyone besides me think this says something about the man? Anything we haven't already thought before he tied the knot? Any Michael-Jackson-ish things? Certainly not.
Does anyone else feel just a little bit repulsed at President-Select Dubya signing a bill into law which is supposed to guarantee election integrity? It gives me the creeps. Next we'll have Ken Lay on a Corporate Ethics Board and John Allen Muhammad as a spokesman for the Big Brothers Program.
Remember the idiotic McDonald's "Hot Coffee" lawsuit?
It's one many people, including myself, bring up from time to time to illustrate how perverted our legal system can be. Well, while checking out an interesting site called Footnote TV today, I read an article about Seinfeld and the time Kramer sued Starbucks for burning himself with coffee. Check out this article on Footnote TV about the McDonald's lawsuit. It's a fairly well-written defense of the suit, and an indictment of the "trial by media" aspects of the case. Thought provoking at the very least....
The nation lost a leader on Friday, a political leader all-too-rare in a time when the term has become nearly oxymoronic. Paul Wellstone was a progressive senator of rare character and honesty, a voice for the common citizen, poor, the disenfranchised, targets of discrimination, minorities. Even his opponents admired his passion, his strength of conviction, and his willingness to speak his mind regardless of the political consequences.
If you care about balance in the political process, understand that his death, along with several close races in the Senate and in the House make the possibility of a one-party government (House, Senate, White House) a real prospect. This cannot be what the framers of our Constitution intended. Early voting in Texas (with close races for Attorney General, Lt. Governor, Governor and US Senate) ends Friday.
