Stephen gets it

Snark and satire aside, this is one of the better essays I have heard recently. The issue of fraudulent registrations is serious, and I don't know that I have all that much love for Acorn. However, while Mickey and Donald and the others may have filled out registration cards, they are not going to be able to vote on Election Day. Much more serious is effort on the part of state GOPs (possibly directed from the top) to suppress the turnout of voters likely to vote Democrat. 

NBRA

Does anyone have a harder product to sell this year than the National Black Republican Association? 

White guys want to be black guys

This commercial is hysterical. There are all sorts of racial subtexts going on here that I am choosing to ignore, simply because it's so darn funny. I've linked to the non-American version which includes some choice moments that were probably too racy for Broadcast Standards and Practices (the strawberry dip that looks like a handjob comes to mind). 

This commercial gives me no desire to buy Axe body spray of any kind. All of their other scents are foul; I see no reason to imagine this would be any different. Just think it's the best commercial I have seen in a long, long time.

Just fall on it, son.

Ty Warren and Deltha O'Neal have more than 13 years of NFL experience between them, but it was the rookie who made the right decision on Andre Hall's second fumble of this evening. First Warren and then O'Neal, tried to pick up the ball on the run, looking for the electrifying fumble return for a touchdown, ensuring a place on the night's (and maybe the week's) top plays. 

Ty Warren is not built to be anything but a lineman. Deltha O'Neal, if he had good hands, would not be playing on the defensive side of the ball, trying to knock down the passes that others are trying to catch. These are not people who should be trying to pick up an oblong spheroid that was apparently slick enough to come out of one guys hands (twice) already.

Jerod Mayo just fell on the ball. That's just plain old good team play. Not flashy, but flashy wins fewer games than you might think. The right thing to do with a fumble is almost always to cover it, wrap it up, and hope they don't punch and gouge you too badly on the bottom of the pile. Trying to pick it up on the run is almost always the wrong thing to do. Warren and O'Neal risked giving the ball back to the Broncos (albeit far behind the original line of scrimmage), while Mayo just covered it up so the guys who are paid to handle the ball could do their thing.

Rape is Never Funny

Let me make that clear right now. Rape is never funny. Even when it's Steven Spielberg and George Lucas raping Indiana Jones. I originally started this blog to protest what was done to the good name of Indiana Jones, then never got around to writing the post. I want to rectify that now. 

With a nod to Bill Simmons, I recently added Indy 4 to my list of movies that never happened, right beneath Star Wars Episodes 1 & 2. George Lucas (The Ewok Adventure), Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park II), and Harrison Ford (What Lies Beneath) would never allow themselves to be involved in something so patently horrible just for another payday. A 60-year-old Indy? Noone's going to believe that? I know for a fact that quality actors like Ray Winstone (Beowulf) and Cate Blanchett (Pushing Tin) would never get wrapped up in such a paper-thin plot driven solely by star power. 

Never happened. 

Now, South Park has brought the whole horrible experience back to painful life with their latest episode, "The China Problem" (it also features an entirely forgetable plotline about Cartman trying to get the invasion plans from the patrons of Chinese restaurant). where the metaphorical rape of the Indy franchise is turned into graphic cartoon rape on the small screen. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have long been two of the most insightful and intelligent gadflys in our popular culture. I still maintain that "Best Friends Forever", their sendup of the Terry Schiavo, was the most incisive take on the whole matter I saw any where: "We're wrong, but for the right reasons. He's right, but for the wrong reasons." I was slow to come around on South Park, but time and again, Parker and Stone have come through.

If you care at all about cinema and the icons of our cinema, put on your extra-thick skin and go watch the new episode. 

McMaverick

Rollingstone has three great articles from the October 16th issue posted on their website. The profile of McCain is particularly unflattering. Please go over there and read them; they will curl your hair. Tim Dickinson's long profile portrays McCain as being cut from the same cloth as George W. Bush:

In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.

Given the libel laws in this country, I have little reason to doubt the quality of the reporting, especially since Tim Dickinson quotes extensively from McCain's own writings. As they say in football, you're neither as good or as bad as they say you are; I am willing to take some of Dickinson's characterizations of events and situations with a grain of salt, but geez it's pretty damning.

The Dickinson piece, Make-Believe Maverick, is very long, but it is rewarding reading. It lends credence to my sister's theory that the pandering lie machine that John McCain has become was the real John McCain all along. The other two pieces, a chronicle of McCain's reversals over the years and a Matt Taibbi essay about the choice of Sarah Palin, are also well worth the time to read. 

Human Juggs Machine

He continues to do it. I have a theory that Brett Favre is actually a humanoid robot. Due to the pounding he has taken over the years and the obsolescence of hardware to be expected with a humaniod robot built in the early 90s, he was scheduled to be taken out of service after last season. Indeed, they haven't been certain for several years whether they were going to get the machinery up and running properly in time for the season to start, hence his yearly flirtation with retirement. The engineers, convinced that they had pushed the technology to its limits, had the robot retire after the 2007 campaign. When they had a chance to take him apart and look at things this spring, they discovered that he was in better condition than they thought, and found they would be able to get him up and running in time for the season, hence he tried to come back. 

I believe that Kurt Warner came from the same lab. I don't think he was a stock boy, I think he was the stock boy's forklift. He was repurposed.

It's just a theory, but I bet you can't prove me wrong.