Okay, it's 2075 and the space cadets are in the Terra Space Station, above the:
...90th meridian, to be exact. Their orbit lies in the ecliptic, the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, rather than in the plane of the Earth's equator. This results in them swinging north and south each day as seen from the earth. When it is noon in the Middle West, Terra Station and the [school ship] Randolf lie over the Gulf of Mexico; at midnight they lie over the South Pacific.
Got that?
The plane of the ecliptic is well seen in this picture from the 1994 lunar prospecting Clementine spacecraft. Clementine's camera reveals (from right to left) the Moon lit by Earthshine, the Sun's glare rising over the Moon's dark limb, and the planets Saturn, Mars and Mercury (the three dots at lower left).
The ecliptic is the apparent path that the Sun traces out in the sky during the year.
Even with pics and gentle explanation it's still gonna take me a minute to figure this out. But look at Saturn, Mars and Mercury over there. Sweet. Can't see that from the back yard. Where's Uranus?
Floridian called 911 three times over McDonald's chicken shortage
MARCH 3--Angered that her local McDonald's was out of Chicken McNuggets, a typical loser called 911 three times to report the fast food "emergency."
This is not the kind of change we had envisioned when we saw Aretha's hat. And sure, click on the Floridian -- I love that word -- link above for audio of the distress calls. Time for some 'Nuggitz stimulus from the White House.
Yeah, I too "...confess to some misgivings about the mode of public discourse in 21st-century America." Thanks, Mark Steyn. But this IS kindda funny. In an abstract way and only as long as you ain't the one getting beat on.
Allah Akbar and far be it for me to suggest anything nefarious in a name change, Eugene Walcott, aka: The Charmer. We all know Contento tampered with his own name a time or two.
______________________________ Hmmmmmmmm. Was that just last week -- six days ago -- we said:
I can't comment on or add to what Smith says here.
Last updated: 4:29 am March 1, 2009 Posted: 2:01 am March 1, 2009
For two and a half minutes near the end of "Taking Chance," the new HBO movie about the body of a young Marine returned home for burial, there is no sound except for the salute of the riflemen and the Wyoming wind battering the flags that stand at half mast as the shattered remains of PFC Chance Phelps are placed at rest. The silence amounts to perhaps the most eloquent statement Hollywood has yet made about the Iraq War.
Its main competition is an earlier scene in the same movie. Driving along a country road behind an SUV carrying the casket, Lt. Col. Michael Strobl finds other motorists forming an impromptu funeral cortege out of respect for the departed.
"Taking Chance," which is the only Iraq movie to show the troops in a wholly positive way, is also the only one people are watching. The film industry has reduced our troops to dupes, dopes, deserters and losers in an insane clown posse of laughably bad films like "Stop-Loss," "In the Valley of Elah," "Lions for Lambs," "Home of the Brave" and "The Lucky Ones." To say that these relentlessly skewed movies, made by people innocent of any knowledge of the military, are flops would be an understatement: "The Lucky Ones," for instance, which starred Tim Robbins and Rachel McAdams as desperate and moronic vets on leave, last fall grossed $267,000, a figure that wouldn't even cover the cost of advertising. It was yanked from screens after a single week.
"Taking Chance," though, a work of transcendent sorrow and infinite dignity, was watched by two million viewers on its first HBO showing last Saturday, the best figure for an HBO original movie in five years. Though the violent death of a serviceman informs every frame, it is also a powerful statement about duty and honor as embodied in the stark face of USMC Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, nobly portrayed by Kevin Bacon with a chesty military bearing and a hidden well of resolve. The film is based on Strobl's experience escorting the remains of Phelps, who was killed in action in 2004 and who inspired Strobl to keep a journal published on blogs such as Blackfive.net.
To show the fallen as heroes is too much for some to bear. "There is surely an edge of propaganda to the unfailing grace and dignity of the process showcased in 'Taking Chance,' " snarked Ray Richmond in The Hollywood Reporter. " 'Taking Chance' is saved from patriotic sentimentality by its attention to detail and Bacon's performance," said Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times. Saved! Whew. That was a close call.
In the New York Times, Ginia Bellafante ruled that "Taking Chance" contained "a flatness that made me feel unpatriotic for being bored." She needn't worry. Finding this stately but cathartic film boring isn't unpatriotic. It's merely cloddish.
Taking the Silver Star for snark was Jeffrey Wells of the popular movie blog Hollywood Elsewhere. If you have ever served in the military, I advise you to skip the next paragraph. Especially if you are armed.
Wells says that "Taking Chance" "sells the honor and glory of combat death in a 'sensitive' way that is not only cloying but borders on the hucksterish. Which I feel is a kind of obscenity . . . It may be one of the most inspired con jobs of all time in the way it walks, talks and acts apolitical . . . and yet deep down, it's a film that will warm the cockles of Dick Cheney's heart. 'Taking Chance' is about simple sadness and dignity in the same way that Scientologists offering free stress tests are just trying to make your day go a little smoother."
Since Wells apparently scorns all "combat death," not just those in Iraq, I wonder whether he is a local pacifist as well. Maybe if there were no ceremonies to honor fallen police officers, the force would be unable to recruit new talent and disband. Then criminals, unprovoked by the presence of law enforcement, would simply disappear?
"Taking Chance" makes no case for the Iraq War. It asks merely for understanding and respect of those who sacrifice. The pain etched in Bacon's face is so profound that by the end of the film, you feel why he says, "I should have been over there. I was trained to fight. If I'm not over there, what am I?" Then he delivers his highest praise: "Those guys - guys like Chance - they're Marines.
As the beheadings and "honor" killings creep ever closer, over at the JAWA Report we're reminded that yes, school children too make ready targets. Allah Akbar:
February 23, 2009 French teenagers victims of Cairo bomb
Brave Mujahideen Attack French School Children Allah's brave warriors at it again in Egypt. This time they attack the Western Crusaders by bombing French high-school kids ...
Beat the Hollywood rush. It's not too late for y'all to convert.
Yeah, I have beloved friends, all of 'em all coo-cooing today about Sean Penn last night. Here's a different take:
AND FOR BEST SUPERCILIOUS GASBAG…
Let’s say you believe that gay marriage should be legalized and you want to convince those among your fellow Americans who have reservations. It seems to me the wisest, most effective course would be to assume the opposition to be people of good will with real concerns and to argue your position before them forcefully but reasonably. Now let’s say you’re a narcissistic windbag who wants to parade yourself in front of people who agree with you as an icon of crusading righteousness when you’re really just a violent lowlife who idolizes dictators and tyrants while attacking your own country. Ah, then you would be Sean Penn. Winning an admittedly deserved Oscar for an excellent performance in Milk, Penn used his time at the podium to declare everyone who doesn’t support his cause hateful and shameful, a disgrace to their grandchildren. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Leftists are always talking about diversity but if you disagree with them—you’re a monster. What a schmuck!
Oh, you missed Penn? Find it on YouTube. Nah, I won't link you. Do your own goddamned search. And they actually wonder why we don't watch this tripe any more. Can they hear? Can they be that blinded? Or worse yet, do they think we cannot hear? Or think? I'm just saying. Thanks, Andrew Klaven. Read the whole thing here. Klavan's books here. Need more showbiz Penn-head intellect? Don't miss this. And, here ya go. Too bad you skipped college, Spicoli. Notice Klavan can write a coherent paragraph. Penn can't. But he feels the right things. Guess that's what matters.
With any luck, Colin will appear in some English-speaking role eventually, but I somewhat doubt it -- an actor of Colin's intelligence knows better than to muck around in the cultural tar pit of Hollywood. In France, Colin retains his eclectic choices and his integrity, and probably sees no reason to trade that in for the falling currency of Hollywood celebrity.
Yeah that's worth reading tonight, while the rest of you are at your Oscar get togethers. Read the whole thing here, now. Anyway, I mention Gregoire Colin because tonight I'm watching In The Arms of My Enemy, and yeah, Colin's in it. Sweet. But besides Colin, this film has this great sound track. Made me stop right in the middle of watching to find out who does this music. Perfect for a Colin film. Johann Johannsson. Icelandic, I think. Nice.
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Don't forget those of us who promised to chop off a testicle during the Oscars for each time a Member of the Academy thanks our troops for their work in a just war. Give me a call when it's time to slice, willya? Phone's set on vibrate for you. Hope to feel ya.
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By Con Coughlin in Helmand Last Updated: 12:16AM GMT 21 Feb 2009
"British" Muslims provide Muslim-barbarians -- oh, do I repeat myself? -- with triggering devices for killing British British.
"British" Muslims are providing the Taliban with electronic devices to make roadside bombs for use in attacks against British forces serving in southern Afghanistan.
___________________________________________________________________ Hmmm. Anyone recall the Tomo Report calling on soccer hooligans to "save" Britain back in '05? ___________________________________________________________________
SAO PAULO – A Brazilian carnival queen famous for her skimpy attire is grabbing headlines again for painting President Barack Obama's face on her body. Viviane Castro paraded nearly nude early Saturday with the U.S. leader's visage on her right thigh. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's face was on her left thigh. Castro's stomach read "for sale" — a message she said represented the sale of Brazil's Amazon to the U.S. Many here fear the U.S. wants to control the resource-rich region. Castro appeared in last year's Rio Carnival parade wearing nothing but a strategically placed piece of tape 1 1/2-inches (4-centimeters) long , violating a little-enforced nudity rule and drawing a penalty for her samba group. She wore the same patch this year.
You'll have to do your own search for a visual on Miss Viviane's Obama thigh patch. I'm giving up porn for Lent and I'm starting early. No, really, I'm giving it up.
In light of the recent “Honor Killing” on our own soil (and the complete lack of media attention), the religion of Islam needs a healthy dose of criticism. Sure, I could have made a video about Christianity or Buddhism (only to receive a handful of respectfully scolding letters) … But what’s the fun in that?! Read your Qur’an.
Huffpo had posted what appeared to be a video of Fox News's John Gibson jokingly referring to Attorney General Eric Holder as a monkey with a "bright blue scrotum." That last bit is a reference to an unrelated news story about a Debrazza monkey that escaped from a zoo in Seattle.
Plus Puffington publishes showbiz intellects Cusack and Penn. What could be better? Secret word of the day: scrotum. You remember what to do when you hear the secret word, dontcha? _________________________ Thanks, Jeff Bercovici UPDATE: Breitbart Video here and here. _________________________ PS: Of course Puffington also publishes James Freedman and we do love James around here, definitely. Hey James, call me. _________________________
Chuck Norris was the fourth wise man, who gave baby Jesus the gift of beard, which he carried with him until he died. The other three wise men were enraged by the preference that Jesus showed to Chuck's gift, and arranged to have him written out of the bible. All three died soon after of mysterious roundhouse-kick related injuries.
In It Together: At last, something worth reading in the LA Times
plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, rather than in the plane of the Earth's equator. This results in them swinging north and south each day as seen from the earth. When it is noon in the Middle West, Terra Station and the [school ship] Randolf lie over the Gulf of Mexico; at midnight they lie over the South Pacific.
