Wall of Mouths

Just Finished James Ellroy’s “Blood’s a Rover”. Not as good as “American Tabloid” but a fun read all the same.

@ Beigie97 use it mainly to keep tabs on stuff

Watching Machete…lotsa gratuitus violence and nudity..lotta fun

Happy New Years WOMbles and band!

The Big 4 DVD. I was shocked how good Anthrax sounded. Joey Belladonna sounded stronger than he did when I saw them back in 92! Loved the little bit of Heaven & Hell they did for Dio!
Megadeth was STRONG, great to see David Ellifson back in the mix!
Slayer rocked but Tom Araya’s voice is starting to show it’s age. Metallica was Metallica…

Awesome to see everyone on the stage for Am I Evil?

Funny in the special features to see Lars tell Dave how Megadeth was his daughters favorite band for a while recently. and how much they played them in the car.

Love to see a Megadeth/Metallica tour and have Dave come out and play some oldies with them.

Moving is a pain in the Ass!!!!!!

AT least it’s to my own house this time so I won’t have to do it again anytime soon. Twice in a year is enough!

Titus Livy’s History of Early Rome, The Boy’s- We Gotta Go Now (OK it’s a graphic novel but hay I’ve been busy).. and eventually I’ll blow through the latest Dresden Files book “Turn Coat”“

August 6, 2004
seems longer though

“The Mystic Arts of Removing All Signs of Death” by Charlie Huston…the beginning so far is bit reminiscient of Chuck Pahinuik…but I’m sure all hell will break loose soon and action aplenty

fatboy wrote:

Currently reading Snuff by Chuck

What’d you think..didn’t do much for me personally.

The new CHarlie Huston book…great writer quick Pulp Fiction type stuff. Except his newest stuff is about a Vampire..pretty good.
Also reading Berserk..up to volume 26.

Watching Saturday Night Live Season 4.
also have the new X-Files movie and Tropic Thunder on DVD to watch.

Live Wire- AC/DC

Right now it’s all about Dexter, Brotherhood and the Shield.
I have no clue how next weeks Shield finale is going to end up, will he go to jail or get killed? Can’t wait. Great show! But they’re smart to end while they’re ahead.

Too bad Brotherhood is done after this season…no matter how it ends it will feel like something was missed. Showtime just never gave them enough episodes to really get it rolling.

Dexter has surprisingly kept it at a high level..it was renewed for 2 more years so we’ll see how long they can keep it good.
Other than those, Two and a Half Men and My Name is Earl, it’s pretty slim pickens.
Nothing new has really caught my attention except I’ve gotten hooked on Top Gear re-runs on BBC America.

Thank god for DVDs and hockey season!

no Jersey Girl is the worst (if you want to count it). The Sweeney Todd junk…Horrible! And he almost ruined Clerks 2 with the song and dance bit! Ugh! I hope he’s forever off of that stuff.

Chasing Amy has it’s moments…the set up at the comic convention with Luther X was classic!
One of the best scenes though was cut (but available on the DVD), with Walt and Steve-Dave.

Anyone see the Zack and Miri yet?

I was proud to see that the fact he was black really wasn’t really an issue (at least with anyone I know, or that I heard), other than in the historical first aspect.
Foreign Policy should take a turn for the better. Little worried about Russia moving those missles into Poland though.

That being said.
I just hope he turns into more of a Clinton than a Carter. All three are coming in under similar circumstances…bad economy,
‘cause some of the Dems spending ideas scare the hell out of me…especially with the economy in the shitter as it it.

Carter was nice, people liked him but he took a sketchy economy and made it worse (17% inflation)…and other than the Egypt Isreal peace talks (which were great at the time, but unfortunately didn’t last) he was a laughing stock foreign policy wise. As a result, he was booted as quicly as possible, and his former VP tried to run, he got one of the most Historical beatdowns. Basically he left the country worse off than when he got there.

Clinton had a generally liberal preference on things (big taxes and government health care) , but when the country balked and put in the Repubs in congress.. he was smart enough to see when other ideas were better for the country (balanced budget, low capital gains taxes, free trade etc). Socially slightly liberal, but fiscally moderate. And he left with things going great (until 9/11 anyways)

If O’Bama ends up a zealot we’ll be in for a long four years. But if he’s pragmatic and moderate..he could make it a great 8.

Of course I’m of the opinion no one party should have total control..it only leads to trouble. They start thinking they have carte blance to go nuts.
When Clinton was in office and Newt ran the House, they kept each other in check. Clinton kept any crazy social agendas from getting pushed through, and Congress kept spending under control.

But once the Republicans had it all (and no Newt and others to keep them in check), they went nuts..and got booted. Just like the Democratic congress 1992-1994. When Clinton first got in office they thought they could do whatever they wanted…that lasted 2 years. If the Dems aren’t careful history can repeat itself.

The change will be good for a while, but we need to keep them honest.
Someday I’ll get my national movement “No Encumbents!” rolling.
Since congress will never put in term limits, or outlaw PAC money, you need to keep them honest. Only way to do that..vote ‘em out!
Get that rolling for a few election cycles and you’d see REAL change in DC.

Being from the DC area, I know that yes we have a change now, but for the most part it will be just a change in who’s getting the favors. The faces change but the business is the same.
I know it sounds cynical, but in my life the only good times have been when the government got the hell out of our lives…so I’m a little worried when I have to look forward to bigger government (it’s 10 times as big as it was under Clinton as it is). I can’t help but see the irony when people say with one sentence “We want more liberty” and then in the next “We can rely on the government for…”
To me Government Health Care and Retirement is just as insideous as the Patriot Act. All on the surface promise more security of one kind or the other (financial versus physical), but both result in the government in your life/ or force you to rely on the government way more than I’m comfortable with.

It’s just as easy for a government to manipulate you by threatening to take away something you rely on, as it is to threaten someone with an action.

I don’t know…we’ll see. I’ll take my usual “expect the worst…hope for the best” attitude.

The one I’m most interested to watch is my new Senator Mark Warner. I voted for him because he was an excellent Governor who worked both sides of the fense for the good of the state. But if he comes out an becomes another partisan hack, I’ll never trust another politician…and just vote to ensure gridlock..if they can’t pass anything, they can’t fuck things up.

Well that’s my last political rant.
Thank god the elections over, and decisively so no Florida or Ohio BS… and Bush is gone.

Taunty Dan wrote:

Any John Grisham fans? I’ve never read any of his books (Or anything in that vein) but i’ve been leant The Firm, and its a bloody good read thus far.

The Firm, Time to Kill, Pelican Brief, the Rainmaker and Runaway Jury are his best. The Partner wasn’t too bad.
He occasionally gets an a preachy kick or can be downright boring. (The Chamber, and the Street Lawyer for example.) Stick with the first ones I listed and you shouldn’t be disappointed.

Here’s another guy with mixed results at the movies. The Firm and Pelican Brief were great. Time to Kill was good, but not as good as the book. The Rainmaker was too morose, the book was actually pretty fun. Shame since Danny DeVito and Matt Damon were perfectly cast for their characters.

The Runaway Jury completely changed the best part of the book. Turned it into a super-PC piece of shit. Completely ruined it. Maybe it would have been better if I never read the book.

Haven’t heard anything good about the Choke movie. I’ll catch it on DVD

Snuff was different. As usual a twisted ending. Not his best, but was a real quick read.

Watching the new US version of “Life on Mars”. Not bad. Not sure if it’s better than the original BBC version. They pummeled the original pilot. But now they have Harvey Keitel and Michael Imperioli who are really good.

At this moment watching the San Jose Sharks vs The Anaheim Ducks. I ordered the Center Ice package last season (so I can watch all the hockey games), and they never turned it off. I ended up getting the whole MLB package for free because it was on the same channels. ANd now that hockey season is back, I’ve got the Center Ice package free again!
This will make up for all the other gouging the cable company has inflicted.

Insomnia pretty much ruined Stephen King for me. Should have been called “Cure For Insomnia” (drum fill)
Desperation was another.. pure crap!

I thought they’ve done a better job of adapting his stuff for TV than movies. (The Shining, Creepshow, and Pet Semetary excluded).
Even though “IT” was different, they did a good job. I always liked the original “Salem’s Lot” but that had a bunch to do with James Mason “Put down the cross priest…face the master!”
I wasn’t crazy about the TNT remake with Rob Lowe, even though it was closer to the book.
I thought they did a decent job on “The Stand”. Definetly worth watching.

The TV version of “The Shining” was actually pretty good (I think King had something directly to do with it even..maybe the script. I believe he did this The Perfect Storm and Rose Red for ABC. The last two were written specifically for TV)
Nightmares and Dreamscapes wasn’t bad either.

I think the TV versions are better than most of the movies because they are able to do them as mini-series instead of cramming everything into (or leaving most out) a 1.5-2 hrs movie.

The last thing I read of his was “The Cincinatti Kid” or something like that. It was a noir type novella. But it really didn’t have an ending.

hoochalobster wrote:

I think it was Billy Baldwin in Backdraft. Alec is the one from 30Rock (effing brilliant, if you haven’t seen it). Then there’s Stephen and Daniel. One of them was in The Usual Suspects and the other one just does TV I think, can’t remember which way round though.

Daniel played in Vampires with James Woods, and on TV he played in the first few seasons of ‘Homicide-Life on the Street’ He was the one who constantly had issues with his wife/ex-wife taking off with his kids.

Usual Suspects- C’Mon..Stephen Baldwin has movie cancer. Ended up a classic!

I really liked Die Hard 4.. except for the bit with the plane.
Just as dumb as the bit with the Harrier in “True Lies” in both cases I think it held back the move from being even better.
Hollywood definitely needs to learn that just because you can do something with effects, it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

I also couldn’t help but laugh at the Mac commercial guy (I hate those fuckin Apple commercials!!) and his PCs.

The Star Wars prequels were just crap.
Horrible storytelling.
Part 1 was so bad, that it pulled down the other two because they had to cram so much into the rest to get it where it was supposed to go. They should have started with episode 2, fattened it out with another episode, then ended with Return of the Sith. It should have been a dramatic buildup to Anakin turning to the dark side. Instead they were in such a rush it was like “Okay we’ve only got an hour left…now you’re bad!” They needed a real scriptwriter…bad! Lucas should have gotten Lawrence Kasdan to write it. Look at the job he did on “Empire”…the best one by far.

Can’t speak to the Indy movie. Just the preview made me not want to see it (too much CGI). I’ll catch it on cable eventually.

I read last night George Whitton’s “Scapegoats of the Empire” . The story behind “Breaker Morant” from the Boer War by the one officer who wasn’t executed.
Anyone seen the movie? Classic. They even ripped it off in the X-Files finale trial scenes.

Between that and “Gallipolli: it seems that whenever the British need a hand from the Australians they should say “Thanks but ..no thanks”

Star Wars episodes 1-3. The first one just screwed it all up. They did a great job in Ep3 with how Anakin finally became Vader, but then ruined it with the Principle Seymore Skinner “NNNNNnoooooo!” when he heard his wife was dead. I couldn’t help but laugh. Ruined all the dramatic effect.

Bourne Ultimatum fell flat. Can’t put my finger on one thing…it just didn’t do it for me.

Constantine wasn’t too bad..nowhere near as good as the Hellblazer comics it was taken from, but okay…but again they ruined it when he popped the stick of gum in his mouth at the end. He was supposed to light up a cigarette. (anyone who’se seen it and read the comics knows what I’m talking about)

Staying on the Keanu Reeve’s theme…Matrix 2 &3 were a letdown..great effects, bad story.

Twin Peaks- Fire Walk with Me, was nowhere near as good as the show. The first X-Files movie..the same (haven’t seen the new one yet)

Not sure how many here have read him. But “Infinite Jest” is a classic. A shame!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/books/15kaku.html?no_interstitial

I liked the idea of this. But…
My friends step dad did it a few times. He had a kit where you’d make a quarter kegs worth at a time. I just remember it wasn’t very good, and it smelled bad. May have been the cook, but it killed any thoughts I had of trying it.

mrs h wrote:

So anyway, if a state has less people in it what difference does it make, if each state has one national vote? Or is that why it’s an issue - because it means that the smaller states have a whole vote, whereas the bigger state’s votes are representing a lot more people so they weight it according to bunches of people - eg ‘one vote per 100,000 people’ ?

The number of votes a state gets in the electoral college is determined by population. So Deleware has 5 or 6 (maybe 10 I’m not sure, but it’s not a ton), and California has 30 something.

What it means is one guy can get more total individual votes in between California and three smaller states. But if the other guy wins the other states they could both end up with the same number of electoral votes. It means candidates can’t sleep on all the small states because their totals add up.

mrs h wrote:

@FNYANKEZ - Could you give me a rough guide as to how the American voting system actually works? (or at least how it’s supposed to work) I get confused about the different states and I don’t understand whether the ordinary people are voting for the party or for a candidate?

Gladly Mrs H!

For the President and Vice President.
The way it works is actually an electoral college. Each vote isn’t directly for the candidate. It’s really for how your state goes. Each state has an electoral delegate value based on population. In the end all of the electoral college votes are counted up to determine the winner. That’s how you theoretically could end up with someone loses the popular vote but wins the electoral college, winning the presidency. This is one of the issues with the 2000 election and the Democrats wanted to abolish it, yet in 2004 the roles were reversed and it came down to Ohio which was super close. If Ohio went for Kerry, he would have won…even though he lost the popular vote by 5 million votes. So they tried trumping up irregularities to get votes added (or thrown out) so he would win the state and thus the electoral college and the presidency…of course they would have been fine with it then.

The system allegedly was established in the constitution that way to ensure that smaller states still end up with a say in the process. That way California, New York, and Texas don’t have complete say in who’s elected.

Back in the day, each state counted their own votes and determined the electoral college winner. The state would then representatives went to a convention to cast the votes on behalf of their state. That was where the winner was officially named. (I think it still happens, but it’s a formality now).

In the past I could see where this was needed due to the physical complications of counting and collecting votes in such a large country. But in the computer age, it’s kinda antiquated.

As for the actual physical balloting process, it is set up and managed state by state.

In Virginia we have pretty straight forward voting machines, and have yet to have any issues.

Why there isn’t a standardized voting mechanism…I have no clue, and that’s how you end up with the hanging chads and dummies unable to fill out a ballot correctly in Florida which caused so much grief in the 2000 election. (The people who set that up were Democrats by the way..but of course the Democratic party pissed and moaned about the republicans when it didn’t go their way).

I’m not a flag carring republican by the way, but the Democratic Party as an institution and many of their most visible talking heads drive me nuts.
If you asked me about the republican led congress between 2000 and 2006, I’d have plenty of negative things to say.

enough ranting back to your questions.

For congress (and this also answers your question about do we vote for the candidate or the party)
You vote for the candidate you want for Senate and House of Representatives that represents your area. For national elections you can have up to three offices to vote for (President, House of Representatives and Senate), but it depends on where you live and on what cycle your particular Senator or Representative was elected in. (President is up every 4 years, Representatives 2 years, Senators 6 years). We have off year elections where only congressmen are up for election, and not always in every district.

For all votes you select the candidate you want. Many people vote the party line (all the candidates on the ballot who belong to the same party), but that is their choice.
I have in the past split my votes between the candidates of both parties (Dem for President, Repub for House of Representatives and Senate) or some combination thereof, with the occasional third party independent to make things interesting.

I believe once upon a time you could split the presidential and VP ticket. But now (and as far as I know since the 20th century) they’ve gone together.

Hope this helps.