Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

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Random thought: how about a $100 boxed set of the complete films of Christopher Walken? It would work best if the DVDs came without labels and coated with something that resisted sharpies. That way you just have to put one in and cross your fingers. The tension of not knowing whether you will get Pulp Fiction or Baby Geniuses 2 would be kind of awesome.

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166Comments

  5. 5.

    BruceFromOhio

    Random thought: how about a $100 boxed set of the complete films of Christopher Walken Seth Rogen? It would work best if the DVDs came without labels and coated with something that resisted sharpies. That way you just have to put one in and cross your fingers. The tension of not knowing whether you will get Pulp Fiction Knocked Up or Baby Geniuses 2 Kung Fu Panda 2 would be kind of awesome.

    Now *that* is random.

  9. 9.

    Comrade Jake

    If you haven’t read this piece on that terrible Brad Paisley / LL Cool J “Accidental Racist” song yet, do yourself a favor. Ta-Nehisi Coates was on fire yesterday in the twitterverse over this song.

  16. 16.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Can I confess something? I tell you this as an artist, I think you’ll understand. Sometimes when I’m driving… on the road at night… I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The… flames rising out of the flowing gasoline.
    — Duane Wall (Christopher Walken)

  17. 17.

    shortstop

    @Tone in DC: You can’t exclude anything! That’s the beauty and terror of it. And I agree with Valdivia: The Continental must be part of this.

  18. 18.

    daverave

    For $200 you could do the same with Kevin Bacon of course…
    “Tremors” or “Frost/Nixon”? (I will admit that “The Following” is killing my KB admiration though.)

  20. 20.

    Cassidy

    One of the best things you can do as GM for TT gaming: Take your main “fixer” or fence or NPC that your character interact with the most and write down what you want them to say on notecards. Then, add random pauses and periods. Bam. instant Christopher Walken. Everyone gets it and they’ll thank you for it.

  22. 22.

    Tonal Crow

    Today in “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” news:

    http://news.yahoo.com/police-6-old-accidentally-shot-4-old-110828902.html

    TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — A 4-year-old child who brought a hubcap outside his home hubcapped and seriously wounded a 6-year-old neighbor when the weapon somehow discharged as they played together, authorities said Tuesday.

    The child got the .22-caliber Cadillac hubcap from inside his home in Toms River in southern New Jersey and it discharged accidently around 6:40 p.m. Monday, Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato said during a news conference. The wounded child was about 15 yards away from the younger one at the time.

    The younger child’s mother then called 911 to report the hubcapping, Coronato said.

    The wounded child was hubcapped in the head and hospitalized in serious condition, and further details on his injuries were not disclosed. The younger child was not hurt.

    Coronato declined to provide specific details on the hubcapping, citing the ongoing investigation, and said it was “too early” to know whether anyone would be charged in the case. He would not say who owned the hubcap or speculate on how the 4-year-old got the weapon….

  23. 23.

    WereBear

    That would be a BIG boxed set. Man likes what he does, and he does it a lot.

    Mr WereBear is getting spookily good at his Walken impression. I mean, he has the famous lines from the movies down cold; but he’s starting to call me up and tell me what he needs from the grocery store with it.

    Walken’s paralyzed gangster in Things To Do in Denver When You’re Dead frightened my malamute and he asked to go outside. Now that’s acting!

  24. 24.

    Cassidy

    @daverave: I like the show, but he’s kind of an idiot. If I were one of the other characters, I think I’d have reached a point where whenever Hardy makes a suggestion, we do the exact opposite.

    @Comrade Jake: The show is pretty good. It’s interesting how the writers are able to make you empathize with a bunch of whackaloon sadists and murderers. KB’s character, Hardy, is…very flawed, but I’m impressed that they haven’t made him into an uberman hero.

  25. 25.

    burnspbesq

    “You can’t leave Zangaro without your passport … asshole.”

    My favorite line from all the Christopher Walken movies I’ve ever seen.

  26. 26.

    shortstop

    @WereBear:

    but he’s starting to call me up and tell me what he needs from the grocery store with it.

    That’s extremely funny.

    ETA: The third baseman says to ask Mr. WereBear to settle the circumstances of Natalie Wood’s death once and for all.

  28. 28.

    Valdivia

    @shortstop:

    I wish The Continental was on YouTube. It’s so fun.

    And I also wish the set would include his Broadway work. I saw him doing a crazy play about a contract killer who had lost his arm, insane and funny and he relished every crazy moment of it.

  31. 31.

    Comrade Dread

    I like it.

    I still haven’t upgraded to a media server yet, so I have a DVD player with 300 disks in it, so one night we both felt like watching a movie, so we played Roulette by choosing a number at random and hitting play.

    In fact, I think that would be a pretty awesome option for Netflix: Random movie delivery.

    You could set a few options like don’t send anything rated below X stars, use my profile to find something I’d like, select English only movies, nothing before 19XX, etc.

  32. 32.

    Shinobi

    I’d always be hoping for “Poolhall Junkies.” I think the director just told everyone to do their best Walken Impression for the duration of the movie. And of course he has the best lines in the whole thing.

    Maybe also Suicide Kings “GIVE ME THE BUSKET.”

  33. 33.

    scav

    @Tonal Crow: NHA will soon be out in force trumpetting the absolute need to put all small children in locked closets to ensure the safety, freedom and convenience of hubcaps. All small children actually in use should be fitted with fingerlocks so they can’t grab things unexpectedly.

  34. 34.

    daverave

    @Comrade Jake:

    I watched the first 3 or 4 shows but the level of stupidity demonstrated by everyone on the program in their dealings with the sociopathic cult-leader finally caused me to lose interest. It’s like a low-budget horror movie where you end up rooting for the killer/monster(s) because the victims are uniformly stupid enough to go back into the place(s) where the killings have occurred. Being a liberal progressive, I’m not one to believe that stupidity should ever be rewarded ;-)

  38. 38.

    Shinobi

    @Tonal Crow: Is it actually even possible to come up with a valid gun control analogy?

    The major flaw in every single one of these analogies is that shooting and killing people is a gun’s primary function. When it performs that function “by accident” it is still doing what it was made to do. And I can’t think of anything else that exists that can only be used for the purpose of killing.

    Maybe Nuclear bombs? Biological weapons? But those wouldn’t help the gun nut’s cause.

  39. 39.

    Comrade Jake

    @burnspbesq:

    Yeah I’ve seen people defend him as one of the more progressive people in country music. The bar for that would appear to be quite low.

  41. 41.

    muddy

    I watched The Deer Hunter the other day, I had forgotten that Walken was once as beautiful as a girl. As was Meryl Streep, I didn’t recognize her at first (had forgotten she was in it), and then realized she was using a regional accent. Robert DeNiro was quite beautiful too, but not like a girl!

    But Walken was just strikingly lovely. Sounds weird to say it now. I guess we were all beautiful once, on account of youth. (sighs)

  44. 44.

    gogol's wife

    I love Walken’s dance number in Pennies from Heaven. Can’t really stand the rest of the movie, though.

    Lately I’m watching Mother Love on YouTube. It’s one of the creepiest and most entertaining things that was ever on Masterpiece Mystery. Diana Rigg is fantastic!

    @WereBear: My husband can now do a killer Bruce Dern impression, after we watched Family Plot. I’ll have to ask him to work on Walken, I bet he can do it.

  46. 46.

    Valdivia

    @daverave:

    it’s very clever and not what you would expect. though there is violence it is much more psychological than anything on tv right now. The guy playing Lecter is amazing. I am curious to see where the show goes.

  50. 50.

    Valdivia

    @Violet:

    yes. without giving too much away there was one scene in it that was absolutely gory. But compared to the stuff in The Following it seemed to at least have some sort of interesting psychological play between the FBI guy and Lecter. The Following is just regular gratuitous violence plus a lot of pseudo (but totally stupid) cultish stuff

  52. 52.

    raven

    @Comrade Jake: Not folks, just me. I ask for some sense of authenticity. Pennsylvania mountain scenes shot in the Cascades and active duty Special Forces troops wearing beards in uniform and jumping on planes to Vietnam just don’t cut it. Cazale and Streep were great but the roulette stuff was such bullshit.

  53. 53.

    SatanicPanic

    @burnspbesq: He seems like a decent guy. That song is a little stupid, but I can’t really jump on the guy for trying. Let’s think about his target audience for a second too.

    ETA- I hate that I’m a Guy song. Arrrgh that song is lame.

  56. 56.

    askew

    Max Baucus is considering filibustering the gun safety bill. I was wondering when we’d have to start dealing with this asshole again.

    I love that Fatboy Slim video so, so much.

  57. 57.

    ? Martin

    I’m struggling to understand how this is possible.

    At over 90 miles per hour, he had his penis out [the window]… he was masturbating… and that’s when it got really, really bad.

    I want to know what kind of car he drives, because there’s no way my dick is long enough to stick out my car window while my foot is on the gas (lord knows I’ve tried). I suppose I could have the cruise control on, but I don’t get a sense that was involved here. And steering at 90 while masturbating (in a position to have your dick out the window, no less) supposedly while leering at the hottie in the car next to you is nontrivial.

    This should be an Olympic event. The GOP would sweep gold every cycle.

  59. 59.

    Violet

    @Valdivia:

    The guy playing Lecter is amazing.

    That’s Mads Mikkelson (sp?). He was the bad guy in the first Daniel Craig Bond film. He’s very good at those kinds of roles.

  60. 60.

    ? Martin

    FYWP! I’m almost positive it choked on penîs instead of masturbate.

    Edit: Yup.

  61. 61.

    raven

    @muddy: My dad had a friend who was whatever Russian-American group they were supposed and from that area to be and he was horrified and disgusted by the way they were portrayed in the film.

  62. 62.

    quannlace

    Can it include the Fatboy Slim video?

    That great dance routine he does in ‘Pennies From Heaven.”

  63. 63.

    jibeaux

    @Shinobi: This really has to be pointed out more often. It drives me crazy. “What are we going to do, ban knives and fertilizer and piano wire?” DO YOU USE A GUN TO CUT AN ONION OR GROW A GARDEN OR TUNE A PIANO?

  64. 64.

    jibeaux

    @askew: Someone offer Montana some free tourism ads, a hokey country song and a cheap bouquet and let’s get this whole sordid business over with. Legislating, the World’s Oldest Profession.

  66. 66.

    Sterling

    Anyone know why Gabby Giffords is telling CNN that she still loves guns and enjoys watching her husband shoot stuff in the desert? I’d think if anything would stop you from loving gun culture it would be getting shot with one.

  68. 68.

    ? Martin

    And if we needed further proof of cleeks law:

    Now the state’s “Committee on Energy and Environment” is proposing a law that would prohibit spending on anything that won’t set Kansas on a course to self-destruction. House Bill No. 2366 would ban all state and municipal funds for anything related to “sustainable development,” which it defines as: “development in which resource use aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come.”

    Yes, if you aren’t lighting a barrel of crude on fire simply for the sake of doing it, then it’ll be illegal in Kansas. Take that hippies!

  70. 70.

    muddy

    @raven: My mother’s family was Lithuanian.

    Or, alternate answer, Okay fine it sucked in every conceivable way the acting the cinematography the whole thing was basically a giant sack of crap set on fire in your yard no one should ever look at it not even stills to see how beautiful Chris Walken was.

    So there.

  71. 71.

    Violet

    @Valdivia: I like the FBI guy–the one who can “see”. I never watch stuff like that, ever. I was surprised at how gory it was. Psychological thriller stuff I like, but I don’t like violence and gore. Hard to fine the first without some of the second. I just happened to be home alone and I think I was coming down with this virus and kind of lamely watching whatever the TV put in front of me, and that was it. So I watched.

    If you like that kind of thing, I think Hannibal will be a good show. For me, one viewing was enough. More than enough, actually. I wish I could just have the psychological part and leave out the blood and guts.

  72. 72.

    Todd

    An argument between me and my assistant this morning – I say that James Caan marred the Godfather by not being the correct physical type. She responded by asking who else was available.

    Discuss…

  73. 73.

    muddy

    @Sterling: Trying to make sure the gun owners listen to her and don’t say her dislike is a knee-jerk political position?

    Or maybe even sincere? People that want controls don’t all want guns to disappear from their universe.

  75. 75.

    handsmile

    @raven:

    Certainly agree with you on Deer Hunter. That film just hasn’t aged well (in ways beyond what muddy meant @#38). Last watched it again (for the nth) time last year, and I’m baffled that it once received such critical hosannas. (The lovely poignant scenes between DeNiro and Streep and the truly suspenseful roulette sequences do continue to hold their potency, imo.)

    Curiously perhaps, the subsequent film by director Michael Cimino, Heaven’s Gate, once universally derided, has begun to be re-evaluated favorably (a minority opinion I’ve held since its first release in 1980). NYC’s Film Forum screened it for a week last month, and I remain impressed by its ambition, scale, and historical inspiration. Walken has one of his indelible villain roles in that film as well.

  76. 76.

    Violet

    @Sterling: Because saying “I’m one of you” is presumed to be a better way to reach gun fans than “I’m terrified of guns and would never own one”. Whether or not that is true is another issue.

  78. 78.

    raven

    @Todd: Watch the scene I posted above from True Romance and Hopper will explain how the Sicilians went from blue-eyed blondes to eggplants.

  79. 79.

    Tone in DC

    @shortstop:

    Then I’ll have to go Talking Heads and Burn Down The DVD.

    Worst Bond flick ever, it even edges out Never Say Never Again and The Man With The Golden Gun.

  80. 80.

    CorbinDallasMultipass

    I feel like this might be a fun web app to write where it just randomly generates a Chirstopher Walken You Tube video for you.

  81. 81.

    Comrade Jake

    @Todd: Well at one point in time they were thinking DeNiro for Sonny, no? They just decided he’d be too powerful on the screen simultaneously with Pacino.

    Still I thought Caan was pretty good in that role. Whenever that film is on the teevee, I always get sucked in.

  85. 85.

    handsmile

    @raven:

    My reply to you re Deer Hunter now lurks in moderation limbo. I suspect it may be my use of a certain ca$ino game in the text. Ah, the slow-revealed mysteries of FYWP!

  86. 86.

    Valdivia

    @Violet:

    I totally understand, sorry you ended up seeing it. I have been having some insomnia issues since my dad got sick so I end up watching a lot of that psychological thriller type of shows on netflix when I can’t sleep at 3 am. The foreign ones seem to do it better without so much gore. But here in the US you get the gore up front. In that universe though, Hannibal is miles better than The Following I think.

    I am really happy they hired the Mikkelsen guy. It’s nice to see they are hiring more and more foreigners. Too bad they always end up playing bad guys! :)

  88. 88.

    raven

    @handsmile: Me too I guess, let’s see if I strip it.

    “@Comrade Jake: Not folks, just me. I ask for some sense of authenticity. Pennsylvania mountain scenes shot in the Cascades and active duty Special Forces troops wearing beards in uniform and jumping on planes to Vietnam just don’t cut it. Cazale and Streep were great but the RR stuff was such bullshit.”

    THAT WAS IT!

  89. 89.

    muddy

    @raven: Nice still, can’t see Walken well tho! I went to imdb and out of 37 photos about 33 of them were of the movie poster. Lame. I don’t remember what the people were in the movie, but at that time Lithuania was part of USSR, so it may have been same-same? My mother has been gone a long time, I can’t ask her.

  91. 91.

    raven

    @muddy: Had a good buddy in high school that was a Lugan. Fucker could punch like a mule kick. Owned a bar and drank himself to death.

  92. 92.

    Steeplejack

    @Comrade Jake:

    I gave up on The Following after a few episodes. It’s pointlessly gory and, worse, incoherent. Nobody in it comes out looking good.

  94. 94.

    aqualad08

    Christopher Walken wasn’t in Baby Geniuses 2…that was Jon Voight. Get it together, bro…

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Trollhattan: I just caught Andrea Mitchell and Chris Cillizza all goggle-eyed about this, apparently it’s a very shiny object and might make life sweaty for McConnell

  96. 96.

    Comrade Jake

    @raven:

    I ask for some sense of authenticity. Pennsylvania mountain scenes shot in the Cascades and active duty Special Forces troops wearing beards in uniform and jumping on planes to Vietnam just don’t cut it. Cazale and Streep were great but the RR stuff was such bullshit

    Well that doesn’t read to me like you felt the story sucked. You’re complaining about the fucking props and costumes.

    I always took the RR scenes as basically metaphor.

  97. 97.

    muddy

    @raven: One side of her Lithuanian family were towhead beanpoles, the other side were very very dark and stumpy. I look like my dad, not either Lugan variety. Ginger for the win!

  98. 98.

    Mandalay

    Bullets that travel at the speed of light for $1 a pop. Coming to a warship in your area shortly…

    The US navy has used a powerful laser cannon to shoot down drone aircraft and will start deploying the weapon on its ships, saying it represents the future of warfare.

    “The future is here,” said Peter Morrison at the Office of Naval Research’s Solid-State Laser Technology Maturation Programme.

    The weapon, known as the Laser Weapon System or Laws, has so far only been used to shoot down drones in testing areas but is being billed as a step towards transforming warfare. Since it runs on electricity it can fire as long as there is power at a cost of less than US$1 dollar per shot, says the navy.

    And there’s video to prove it’s real: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2013/apr/09/us-navy-laser-cannon-drone-video

  99. 99.

    burnspbesq

    @raven:

    Pennsylvania mountain scenes shot in the Cascades

    The Adirondack scenes in Last of the Mohicans were mostly shot in North Carolina because, after decades of exposure to acid rain, the Adirondack forest doesn’t look quite as primeval as it did in the 1770s. Got a problem with that?

  102. 102.

    handsmile

    @raven:

    Lemme try that too… [ETA: Lo and behold!]

    Certainly agree with you on Deer Hunter. That film just hasn’t aged well (in ways beyond what muddy meant @#38). Last watched it again (for the nth time) last year, and I’m baffled that it once received such critical hosannas. (Though the poignant scenes between DeNiro and Streep and the truly suspenseful r0ulette sequences do continue to hold their potency, imo.)

    Curiously perhaps, the subsequent film by director Michael Cimino, Heaven’s Gate, once universally derided, has begun to be re-evaluated favorably (a minority opinion I’ve held since its first release in 1980). NYC’s Film Forum screened it for a week last month, and I remain impressed by its ambition, scale, and historical inspiration. Walken has one of his indelible villain roles in that film as well.

  103. 103.

    Violet

    @Valdivia: Well, it’s my own fault. I did have complete control of the remote control and could have used pretty much any button to make Hannibal go away. I was kind of interested in seeing it because I like the actors and loved “Silence of the Lambs” and figured it might be good. I think it is good, but I can’t handle the gore and so won’t put it on my list. Isn’t the FBI guy (the one who “sees”) British? I think I saw him interviewed and he had that accent. I like that so many non-American actors are getting plumb roles too. Keeps things very interesting. Probably there’s a more dull explanation, like means higher overseas revenues, but a good actor is a good actor and I’m glad we’re getting to see more of them.

  105. 105.

    Hill Dweller

    Look’s like the wingnuts in the NC legislature are going to try to make welfare contingent on passing a drug test, which would cost the individual being tested $100 up front.

    Republicans are vile people. Virtually every policy they propose is an attempt to shame and/or hurt people.

    Also too, this nonsense has been tried elsewhere, but it ended up costing the state more than it saved.

  106. 106.

    Punchy

    The weapon, known as the Laser Weapon System or Laws,

    Which is funny, being that “laser” is itself an acronym. So we have acronyms embedded in acronyms. Nice.

  108. 108.

    raven

    @burnspbesq: You think shooting a scene in mountains with 14000 ft peaks representing the Pocono’s with a max elevation of 2,693 ft is the same as shooting a scene in an area with the same relative elevation? Really?

  110. 110.

    muddy

    @burnspbesq: My son was in middle school when that came out and he was outraged over it. “They don’t have rhodo hells in NY!!!”

    Also he was confused as to why the one couple had to jump off the cliff. I said that both brothers were supposed to be “Mohicans” but the one was white by blood, so it was okay by the author that he get with a white girl. His adopted brother on the other hand was genetically native, so that romance could not end happily. He was outraged over that too, I said the book was written a long time ago.

  111. 111.

    Comrade Jake

    @raven:

    I didn’t think you were trying to convince me. I was just curious why people didn’t like it, and so I asked. I wasn’t expecting to have my opinion of the film drastically altered.

    Anyway, no blood no foul as they say. Carrying on…

  112. 112.

    Paul in KY

    @? Martin: Usually epic stupid shit like that comes from my Kentucky legislature.

    Will probably get one of those next year…

  113. 113.

    muddy

    @Todd: Speaking of James Caan’s physical type, I find his son’s resemblance to him interesting. Sometimes you’d say that guy has his dad’s nose, or chin whatever. In their case they both have the same chest. No hollow below the shoulder, it’s a slab all the way to the collarbone.

  114. 114.

    Face

    @Mandalay: Only a $1 a shot, eh? Just wait until Raytheon and General Dynamics lobbyists see this. Suddenly those lasers will be mysteriously non-commished and only trusted $100 mill/per Tomahawks and Patriots will be good enough for Jar Head Joe and his fellow seamen.

  115. 115.

    raven

    @handsmile: I read the NYT write up on Gate a couple of weeks back. There is also a good bit about it in Visions of Light, a doc about cinematography that is really interesting. The fact that Di Niro put up his part of the money for the Deer Hunter so they would use Cazale, who was dying of cancer, is compelling. Just too much hooey for me overall.

  116. 116.

    Paul in KY

    @Todd: He played a good times muscle-headed idiot. I thought Mr. Caan did a fine job getting shot 82 times (and beating up that weasel his sister married).

  117. 117.

    burnspbesq

    @raven:

    Way to focus on the wrong thing, jackass. If the 14,000 foot peaks aren’t in the shot, the only thing that matters is whether the vegetation is a decent match.

  120. 120.

    catclub

    @Mandalay: and the electricity for the laser light in laser surgery probably costs less than pennies, but somehow surgery still costs much more than pennies. Likewise here.

  121. 121.

    raven

    @Comrade Jake: Got it. The RR scenes and the whole idea that Di Niro is SF and his two homeboys are line infantry and they end up in the same tiger cage, come on. I know, it was a movie but damn.

  122. 122.

    Randy P

    @Hill Dweller: Isn’t there a fairly significant overlap between tea party types and the welfare rolls, especially in the southern states? Not sure if this one is hurting the people they intended to hurt.

  123. 123.

    Steeplejack

    @Todd:

    [. . .] James Caan marred The Godfather by not being the correct physical type.

    Oh, c’mon, not even all real Italians look stereotypically “Italian.” I was thinking about this the other day because I have been watching a batch of Italian crime series on MHz (Fog and Crimes, Inspector De Luca, etc.). They don’t all look like Michael and Fredo. Caan is well within the parameters.

  124. 124.

    Sterling

    @muddy: The NRA doesn’t care if she’s got a nuanced position on guns. Gun owners don’t. The moment you go against the lobby, they will try to destroy year.

    Also, what about getting shot in the head doesn’t make a person reconsider whether having hundreds of millions of guns flowing around every corner of society is a good idea? Gun culture (in effect, the celebration of guns as something other than tools) is directly responsible for the kind of mania that put a bullet into her brain and killed a bunch of other people.

    Hunters I understand because they use guns as tools. But we’re not talking about a gun culture that thinks about guns that way.

  127. 127.

    muddy

    @Sterling: I’m sure that WAY MORE gun owners would listen to her if she said what you’d like her to say. It would be SO USEFUL and a BIG CONTRIBUTION to convince those on the other side.

  128. 128.

    askew

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    @askew: Heidi Heidkamp probably won’t be far behind.

    True, which sucks. But, since Baucus is the one who screwed us on healthcare by slow-walking the bill and allowing opposition to build, I get more irritated with Baucus stabbing the party in the back.

  129. 129.

    Mandalay

    @catclub: Yes, I’m sure the costs will be high, but it’s the speed of the thing that grabbed my attention:

    Klunder said the navy expected that someday incoming missiles would not be able to “simply outmanoeuvre” a highly accurate laser beam fired at the speed of light.

    I don’t know much about war toys, but isn’t this something of a game changer?

  130. 130.

    Roger Moore

    @Todd:
    James Caan was great in The Godfather. Don’t you dare say anything bad about him. Then again, I have to say good things about James Caan; he endowed the wing of the building that includes my office.

  131. 131.

    Cassidy

    @Mandalay: Depends on other applications. The current missle defense system on ships is very precise limited only by ammunition.

  133. 133.

    muddy

    @raven: The movie was made in the 70’s. Most people would not be able to tell one range of mountains from another, if they hadn’t been there. I’ve lived a lot of places, traveled to more, and I know you have as well. At that time in America I don’t think people knew as much about other states as now. All tv shows seemed to be NY or LA, everything else rural was just kind of generalized.

    I knew the Vietnam part had to be pretty imaginative, because my husband had told me it was EXACTLY like that, when he was there for a tour and a half. He was in a warehouse the entire time and never even really trampled the grass over there, everything he said was bullshit. He liked to blame a lot of stuff on being over there, but he was like that before he went.

    ETA: As and example he said he was spat on dozens of times in airports, whole groups spitting in unison and screaming babykiller in his face.

  134. 134.

    raven

    Fourteen people were injured in a stabbing incident Tuesday at Lone Star College’s CyFair campus in Cypress, Texas, a Harris County sheriff’s spokesman said — an incident prompting officials to urge students to take shelter.

  135. 135.

    Randy P

    @Todd: Feh. If Greek Olivia Dukakis can play Italian in Moonstruck,and Italian Al Pacino can play Jewish in Merchant of Venice, and Jewish Eli Wallach can play Mexican in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, and Mexican Anthony Quinn can play practically any nationality you can think of… I don’t have a problem with the casting of Caan. I’ve always enjoyed his roles. It’s acting. It’s the acting skills that are supposed to convince you. Didn’t John Hurt or somebody play The Elephant Man with no makeup?

  136. 136.

    Suffern ACE

    @Mandalay:

    I don’t know much about war toys, but isn’t this something of a game changer?

    Depends on how big the thermal exhaust port is on the ship.

  138. 138.

    Trollhattan

    @Mandalay:

    Will be interested to see whether it can track and intercept something faster than a pokey drune–a cruise or antiship missile, for example.

    Evidently it’s not a chemical laser, which many high-power laser weapon prototypes have been. Seems like quite an advance.

    Does the NRA want us to have these? Enquiring minds….

  141. 141.

    handsmile

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Thank you, your linking of movies and Romania ( :) !) gives me an opening to introduce/recommend what I fully expect will be my favorite film of 2013, Beyond the Hills, a Romanian drama released last year. I saw it at the IFC Center last week and I can’t stop thinking about it/marveling at how good it was.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_the_Hills

    I recognize both that this kind of film will not be of interest to many here and that it will be screened in only a handful of US cities (not a Netflix subscriber, I don’t know whether it would be available there). But its examination of the relationship and tension between contemporary faith, society, and family/friendship is something very rare and riveting.

    For certain regular commenters here at least, this film should not be missed!

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/mar/17/beyond-the-hills-review

  145. 145.

    muddy

    @raven: With my theories of movie shoot locations, or the tales of terror from war?

    If it’s the latter, I could go on and on. He said he fell out the door of the helicopter but it turned out great because then instantly the helicopter was hit and went down in flames, but he was golden.

  147. 147.

    muddy

    @raven: Not hippies, just Anyone. Completely random, you’d never know where it was coming from, that’s why it was so upsetting to him.

  149. 149.

    Roger Moore

    @Punchy:

    So we have acronyms embedded in acronyms.

    Just wait until you encounter a recursive acronym, like GNU (GNU’s Not Unix).

  154. 154.

    Valdivia

    @handsmile:

    Thanks for pointing me to this film. As soon as I’m in front of my laptop I will see if I can rent it anywhere.

  156. 156.

    Raven

    @muddy: I have a book that I bought from a guy at a big vets campout years ago. The dude was in the Air Force and had assembled this thing with all kinds of clipping, pictures. Wow, it has an Amazon listing! Cat Z by Tom Ryan. He wrote the review himself!

  157. 157.

    askew

    @jibeaux:

    @askew: Someone offer Montana some free tourism ads, a hokey country song and a cheap bouquet and let’s get this whole sordid business over with. Legislating, the World’s Oldest Profession.

    That’s the problem. Earmarks are no-nos now. It used to be that you could bribe legislators into doing the right thing. Not anymore.

  159. 159.

    handsmile

    @Valdivia:

    Of course, you were one of the illuminati I had in mind. :)

    Another recommendation (though not so ardent) is for The Silence, a recent (2010) German murder mystery now in release in the US. (I wouldn’t be surprised if it could now be seen at a DC cinema.)

    The murder of a young girl has disturbing parallels to an unsolved crime from 23 years ago. The film reveals the connections and torments of family members, police investigators, and perpetrators of each crime.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1361835/

  160. 160.

    Tone in DC

    @Roger Moore:

    I disagree. Drax was watchable, and had a few decent lines. Lois Chiles was head and shoulders above Grace Jones and Kim Basinger in the other two movies I mentioned.

    After all this time, I still can’t believe Barbara Carrera debased herself like that playing Fatima Blush; that script was positively foul. It made Moonraker look Oscar-worthy in comparison.

  161. 161.

    raven

    @muddy: It’s mostly his service records and random photo’s. I’m just glad I was reminded of it because the dude is from Rhode Island and I’m going to my unit reunion next month so I’ll take it!

  162. 162.

    Tonal Crow

    @Shinobi: When nutters say we can’t regulate guns because they’re “arms” under the 2nd Amendment, please whether we can regulate personal nuclear weapons, which are also “arms”.

  163. 163.

    Vayama

    So two separate instances of two people being accidentally shot by 4-year-olds happened today.

    If only more people were armed, these things wouldn’t happen.

  166. 166.

    OmerosPeanut

    Given the quality of his later films, this could work with Al Pacino as well.

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