URLs du Jour

2008-04-07

  • This would never happen at Dunkin Donuts: Starbucks has denied a customer's request to put "Laissez Faire" on his customized Starbucks card. [Update, 2008-04-10: reportedly reversed. Yay!]

  • We did that whole thing on patriotism-questionin' yesterday, and not to beat a dead horse on that or anything, but … Michelle points to a first-person report from the "legislative district caucus" of the 43rd district in Seattle, Washington:
    At the mere mention of doing the pledge there were groans and boos. Then, when the district chair put the idea of doing the Pledge of Allegiance up to a vote, it was overwhelmingly voted down. One might more accurately say the idea of pledging allegiance to the flag (of which there was only one in the room, by the way, on some delegate’s hat) was shouted down.
    "Just don't question their patriotism." Sam Gamgee was there, too.

  • Meanwhile, Obama is trying real hard to ratchet up the patriotism-content. If he's not careful, he'll lose the votes of the 43rd district. (Via Hugh Hewitt.)

  • If you're not yet Hestoned out, Scott at Power Line has a great post; among other tidbits, he's impressed with Stephen Hunter's tribute at the Washington Post, and so am I.

  • Continuing in that mortality vein: if you didn't make it to William F. Buckley Jr.'s memorial at St. Patrick's Cathedral, reading Shawn Macomber is the next best thing. The description of son Christopher Buckley's eulogy is both moving and funny:
    "We talked about this day, he and I," Buckley began as he settled in to give the father he described as "the world's coolest mentor" his due. "He said, 'If I'm still famous try to get the cardinal to do the service at St. Patrick's. If I'm not, just tuck me away in Stamford." The humorist waited two beats then added, "Well, Pop, I guess you're still famous."

    I also liked Rob Long's purloined memo from St. Peter on "recent complaints" about the ruckus Mr. Buckley is causing.

    Mr. Karl Marx has registered several formal complaints with the Administration about your repeated pranks — I believe, but cannot prove, that you and Milton Friedman were responsible for what we’re going to call the “jello incident” — and really, sir, if the gentleman doesn’t want to appear in a debate you’ve arranged on the topic “Resolved: This house believes that Marxism is an esophoric condition,” then please, do not keep asking him. Mr. Marx is here on a rather tenuous basis, and wishes to keep a low profile.

    The same goes for Mr. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.


Last Modified 2008-04-17 4:24 PM EDT

We Own the Night

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)
[2.0
stars] [IMDb Link]

Surprisingly uninteresting!

This movie is set in 1988 New York City, in which the Russian mob is trying to establish a serious drug trade. They're up against the cops, represented by the Grusinsky family: father Bert (Robert Duvall) and son Joe (Mark Wahlberg). The black sheep of the family is Bobby (Joaquin Phoenix), who runs a local popular dance club, in which one of the drug kingpins hangs out. He has a very attractive girlfriend, Amada (Eva Mendes). Problems, and eventually, tragedy, occur when Bert and Joe ask Bobby to help them out in their investigations.

Movies should assume that everyone in their audience comes in with a big why should I care about this? sign on their foreheads. This movie never makes much of an attempt to answer that question.

From the IMDB trivia page:

According to an interview with Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix would get into character by hurling insults at Robert Duvall between takes. This upset Duvall greatly and Wahlberg had to restrain him.
They should have filmed that. That would have been more interesting.

Last Modified 2024-02-01 5:39 AM EDT