E M P H Y R I O

Perhaps a Classic

An acerbic description of an upcoming film from the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette:

In “Thomas Kinkade’s Home for Christmas,” a drama inspired by the classic painting by Thomas Kinkade, a fictional young artist inspired by the classic painter named Thomas Kinkade, begins his career after learning that his mother might lose to foreclosure a home inspired by a classic house once lived in by Thomas Kinkade.

The young artist discovers his true purpose in life and helps his entire town rediscover the spirit of the holidays by vowing to create a classic painting that will inspire a classic movie. (Opens in December.)

I guess he'd read one too many promo kits that day.  The other films are treated the same (I especially like The Golden Compass joke, cheap as it is).

My prediction: another under-the-radar-promoted Christian hit, though more modest than POTC because it has no whipping, apparently. 

You'll Never Succeed...

...in this complex, cyber-footprint age, at pulling off a hoax.

That Princeton abstinence-advocating undergrad who said he received death threats and then a beating for his activism was shown to have faked it all...

...because of a spam filter.

(I recall fabulator Stephen Glass was caught, in part, because the nonexistant businesses he wrote about had crude, phony-looking websites created by Glass himself.)

Good News

Krauthammer and Kristol out at my sentimental guilty pleasure, TIME magazine.

Maybe there is some downside to being wrong about everything, finally.

Oh wait. Uh oh.

 

Torture Fails Again

He gave a bunch of good information.  The CIA thought there must be more.

So they tortured him.  He had to be holding out.

OW OW OW OKAY!  STOP! STOP!

So he made up a bunch of crap that wasted everybody's time, and probably millions of our dollars.

Zubaidah.

For Crying Out Loud

Blackwater shoots the dog that was the pet of the New York Times bureau staff in the Green Zone.

They apologized, though.

Heaven help us when these gunslingers come home.

At least we won't run out of villains for Hollywood thrillers.

A Chance for Truth

A class action lawsuit over torture at Guantanimo: former prisoners vs. CACI, a contractor.

It's probably the one best chance we have of getting out the truth.

A startling revelation within: a couple of torturers convicted of the Abu Ghraib abuse worked at Guantanimo first, where they were given instructions to employ techniques so repellant they refused to use them. 

Farce Closed

The case of the the Florida Seven will be a comedic footnote to these terrible years, but it's actually an emblem of the broader madness of the Bush era.

We paid millions to whip up some guys into pretending to be terrorists who otherwise wouldn't be worthy of a moment's attention.  It's a case of pure entrapment.

But it reminds me of how we paid the Rendon group, Curveball, Ahmed Chalabi's boys and  others to create phony evidence to be used as a pretext for a war that didn't need to be fought.

The incredible waste.

Stomach-Turning

If this is true, Huckabee's son sounds like a psychopath.

Hung a stray dog, slit its throat and stoned it to death.

Out of a Billy Bob Thornton movie.

Let it be said this is not thoroughly sourced and could be oppo whispers.

Saving America's Reputation

This had never struck me.  But yes, the major benefit of impeachment would be uniting the world with America.

Talk about cutting the Gordian knot.

Even a failure to convict (the likely outcome) would not completely destroy its salubrious effects.

Huckabee Oppo Storm

I've always suspected Rush Limbaugh's dramatic weight loss was due to bariatric surgery.  No shame in that, though naturally he hasn't been forthcoming about it. Personal responsibility, grit and character and all that.

Now, after the Wayne Dumond rehash and other attacks (including the pathetic "against killing Saddam in '92" charge -- good grief!), comes an interesting circumstantial case that Huckabee secretly had his stomach stapled -- then had the hubris to put out a diet book. 

It's a pretty good case, and the anonymous "Plutarch" I imagine is an oppo research guy for Mitt or Rudy. 

It's been an entertaining week or two in Presidential politics, a pleasant diversion from the gathering economic storm clouds.

Jesus and Satan are brothers, you know.  Poor Mitt!  He was born into it, what can he do?