URLs du Jour

2009-03-30

  • You should read Amy Kane's post about the Newburyport (MA) tea party. It got Instapundit-linked, with even a picture of Amy's daughter. Awesome!

  • But in other news, the country's headed down the Road to Serfdom in in a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid with failed brakes.

    Lileks, as he often does, has the exact right words.

    Maybe I'm old-school, but "President fires CEO" looks as wrong as "Pope fires Missile." Does not compute.

    He Who Used To Be JayTea looks at what's slightly further down the road. Unfortunately, he doesn't see any U-turns or offramps:

    Wagoner's head is most likely the first demand from the Obama administration. It's not hard to see future demands GM may face:
    • The death of SUVs.

    • More development resources into hybrid, electric, hydrogen, and other alternative-fuel vehicles.

    • More concessions to the UAW and other unions.

    • GM changing its tune on a host of issues, such as fuel efficiency standards, tightening emissions, and safety regulations.

    In other words, GM will be used to pay off various Democratic interests and constituencies.

  • So, since the real news is so depressing, Pun Salad must link to a New York Times essay on puns. The author, Joseph Tartakovsky, is not encouraging:

    THE inglorious pun! Dryden called it the "lowest and most groveling kind of wit." To Ambrose Bierce it was a "form of wit to which wise men stoop and fools aspire." Universal experience confirms the adage that puns don't make us laugh, but groan. It is said that Caligula ordered an actor to be roasted alive for a bad pun. (Some believe he was inclined to extremes.)

    If you make it through the article without at least an inner chuckle, though, you are a better man than I. <voice imitation="groucho">Unless you're a woman. In which case, you're a worse man than I.</voice>

  • Also: Heh!

    [Google Classic]

    (Via Technology Liberation Front).


Last Modified 2012-10-08 1:20 PM EDT

On Dangerous Ground

[3.0
stars] [IMDb Link]

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)

I wanted to like this 1952 film noir much more, but alas…

Robert Ryan is Jim Wilson, a bitter and lonely cop in the gritty big city, who works out his bitter loneliness by beating the crap out of lowlifes who rub him the wrong way. His cop buddies and cop boss (hey, it's Ed Begley!) are relative paragons; although they like the results, they deplore the whole brutality thing. To cool him out a bit, he's sent "upstate" where it's cold and mountainous; he's assigned to assist local law enforcement in bringing a murderer to justice. The hunt leads him to the home of saintly, but seeing-impaired, Mary (hey, it's Ida Lupino!). Will her saintliness rub off on the rogue cop? Well, maybe.

The genetics of this movie are impeccable: directed by Nicholas Ray, a Bernard Herrmann score. The first part of the movie is impressively atmospheric as the cops go down some very mean streets. But the main character and his travails just didn't work for me, and—come on—the second part is pretty darn sappy, even by 1950's standards.


Last Modified 2024-01-31 5:32 AM EDT