matt yglesias has yet another smart post, this one about the state of paki-american relations. i'll reiterate my recent assertion that the situation in pakistan scares the shit out of me.

...and i used to think that russia was a pretty scary place. at least the russians have somebody who's in charge over there.

jon stewart has a history of occaisionally bitch-slapping someone so hard they dont even realize what's been happening. back in 2004 (before youtube even existed!) he went on cnn's crossfire and utterly embarrassed that show's hosts (crossfire was cancelled months later), and he's maintained an ongoing frienmity with bill o'reilly ( Read more... )

why do people say "2001" to mean also sprach zarathustra when kubrick makes much more expansive and creative use of the blue danube?

went this afternoon to see the much-anticipated watchmen. i have to say i was most surprised by the number of families bringing young children to see this movie. i guess a lot of people just don't realize what they're getting into before they go out to the movies and probably assumed this'd be just another superhero movie. oh well. in case you were ( Read more... )

saw a great documentary this evening that my coworker was the senior sound editor on. called strongman, it played at slamdance and has a slot at the upcoming southbysouthwest. really fascinating documentary counterpoint to this year's other surprise hit the wrestler. both are fantastic, fantastically depressing, and set predominantly in new jersey.

dear everybody:

an inch of snow on the ground does not a blizzard make.

goddamn southerners.

early this morning i got in a car with some friends and hit the road for the sunset hill shooting range in tannersville, pa. had a little spare time early to wander through an odd lots store and a fireworks warehouse (fireworks have the best names, you guys. my personal favorite: "uncle sam's answer") before heading over to the range to squeeze off ( Read more... )

i've spent several hours over the past few days writing up text documents to describe things that, professionally, i kind of take for granted. i havent done much writing since my undergraduate days, and i'm finding myself somewhat out of practice. trying to distill the important pieces of information and convey them in a way that is linear and ( Read more... )

i just got home from teaching a college class.

oh, yeah, if you guys could all call me "professor" from now on, that'd be cool.

if you aren't terrified of recent events in pakistan, you should be.

a few weeks ago, the times published this story about rising taliban control of a centrally located pakistani province, and today we get news that the pakistani government has officially recognized sharia law in not only that province, but six others nearby. just to recap: the ( Read more... )