(no subject)

1. It's not so much that I Heart Huckabees was only occasionally funny. It's more like I occasionally stepped sideways into the parallel universe where the whole movie was funny. I might have made it there more often if not for the people behind me talking about how weird/dumb it was.
   
   I'm not sure whether I liked it. I'll let you know if I find out.
   
   
2. More links to Jon Stewart on Crossfire. Seriously.

(no subject)

Everyone's talking about Ron Suskind's Times Magazine article on Bush's faith-based/reality-challenged presidency. I haven't read it yet. I did read the paper's Kerry endorsement, and Frank Rich's roundup of the administration's "pattern of media intimidation".

Also a confusing article on a poll of American military personnel. They and their families approve of the Iraq war and Bush's handling of it, although they think his administration underestimated the required troop strength, relied too much on reservists, and failed to train and equip the reservists properly.

The Times underwent some redesign while I was gone, and I can't say I like it. The Arts and Leisure section is sporting too many fonts, or something, and the impenetrable just-the-facts panoply of everything going on this week has been replaced by a critics'-picks calendar that is probably more useful but makes the Times look like every other paper in America. And the Book Review now includes head shots of every author (who cares?), and the "about the reviewer" notes, invaluable in gauging bias, have been moved from their useful location (each reviewer is described at the bottom of the review) to a separate "contributors" page near the masthead. These are not important things but I am still dismayed.

(no subject)

ginmar, a reservist stationed in Iraq, makes a request: Vote.

In California, today is the last day to register. Here are the other states where it's not too late: Alabama, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming. In some of these states it's too late to register by mail--you'd have to hand-deliver it to the registrar of voters this afternoon.

worldometers

This site is kind of mesmerizing.

(no subject)

Will Shetterly, whose novel Dogland I thought was phenomenal, is posting drafts of his next book under a (fairly restrictive) Creative Commons license, and soliciting comments. That's some kind of courage.