Blog Woes

Blogger seems to be half dead right now. This blog sometimes won't fully load, other times it crashes when I try to open it in Firefox or Safari. I expect Blogger will straighten this out very quickly, but just so you know that it isn't you, and it wasn't me- it was blogger.

French Cardboard Tron Movie

Tron
by freres-hueon

How is Babby Formed?

I'm a little behind the curve on this one, but I'm posting it so that I'll always be able to find it. It's the new Colin's Bear for me. An animation based on a pair of terrible, illiterate Yahoo Answers postings, possibly by the same person. Perhaps language was a factor in making these so funny, but I'm betting they were written by one of our bonehead US born Americans. I just have that feeling.



A better quality loop of that same animation: Here.

One of the sources for this illiterate madness:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060612070106AA6lVY2

This is the other one:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070912163334AAvp7nL

Related:
A dramatic reading of a middle school breakup letter (reposted)

Suggest A Movie?

I've had a very good run watching movies lately, and I'd like to keep my average up by watching the best movies I can for awhile. Eventually the summer movie season will drag me into the theater to be disappointed by a bunch of lame popcorn movies, but until that time I'd like to fill my eyes and ears with only the best.

If you're reading this, and you have a suggestion, please leave it in the comments. I watch movies of any genre, from any time period, from anywhere in the world, so nothing will be rejected out of hand. I have memberships in four or five different video rental outfits, including Scarecrow with their 70,000 plus titles available. Don't hold back. I can probably track down the most obscure of suggestions.

Thanks!
TD

Bush's Successor Inherits Iraq

Is he just going to hang around and do nothing for the next 9 months?
Do me a favor and post this photoshop around anywhere you can, will you?
I just think it's too insulting and profane to just waste sitting here on AD.

Bush's Successor Inherits Iraq (Prensa Latina)
President George W. Bush will leave to his successor the future of US troops in Iraq, since his plans do not include reducing its forces in 2008. The New York Times says that a videoconference with the US military and political executives proves that Bush will not reduce the forces although his term is coming to an end.

Link

Further troop cuts in Iraq within Bush's term unlikely (Xinhua)
There will be no more U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq beyond the planned draw down after the "surge" plan ends this summer, according to a new blueprint presented to U.S. President George W. Bush by top U.S. officials in Iraq.
Link

Bush Silent on Troop Numbers in Iraq (Sydney News Herald)
It now appears likely that any decision on big withdrawals of US troops will be left to the next president, ensuring the war will remain at the centre of the US presidential campaign.
Link

UPDATE: My mistake. He was working on his list of presidential pardons. Among them:

Thomas Donald Moldenhauer Colorado Springs, Colorado
Offense: Knowingly selling migratory bird parts in violation of Migratory Bird Treaty Act

Robert Michael Milroy Cinnaminson, New Jersey
Offense: Importation of heroin

William Marcus McDonald Wetumpka, Alabama
Offense: Distribution of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, use of cocaine, possession of cocaine, use of marijuana

William Bruce Butt London, Kentucky
Offense: Bank embezzlement

Read the rest of the list here.

Luna Park Cafe in West Seattle

Years ago, West Seattle boasted an amusement park they called the Coney Island of the West. It was built in 1907, and was only a memory by 1913, but it's warmly remembered by many Seattlites as a colorful part of Seattle history and heritage.

Today, near the bones of the old place stands its tiny namesake. A true, living, breathing old school diner, the Luna Park Cafe is almost an amusement park in itself. It's filled with a collection of automatons, jukeboxes, vintage signs, clocks and other legitimate Seattle fossils and treasures, but it doesn't overwhelm you. It doesn't feel cheesy or gimmicky in the way of so many chain restaurants, with their repainted tricycles and their phony moose heads. The goodies on display here are of the distressed, pitted and weathered variety and can evoke real empathy, and nostalgia as you lunch; an eight foot tall vintage neon ice cream cone hangs in one corner, while a fiberglass Ultraman hangs in flying posture above the center of the dining room. On your right as you enter is a Batmobile kids' ride, the paint worn off after years of affectionate caresses by children and grown-up admirers alike. The undercoating shows through apple red. Have a look:

Rubbed raw by the heiners of a thousand, thousand toddlers.

That's a large outdoor seating area through that window. Summer's coming, you know.

The food is good diner fare, the portions are the reason Americans are so fat, and they serve breakfast all day long. They offer dozens of flavors of milkshakes, ice cream desserts, enormous onion rings, and basically everything you need to ruin your waistline and shorten your life. There are logo tees and sweatshirts, and stickers available too, so it's a fun place to take out of towners. It's easy to find, just off the West Seattle Bridge at2918 SW Avalon Way. This is the Luna Park Cafe website, with the address and a Google map link. It's only a couple of minutes away from anywhere in town. I live in up north in Greenwood and on a good day it's a quick twenty minute drive. Recommended!

Read about the rise and fall of the original Luna Park here. It's a very interesting story. Here's another link to another history of the Luna Park of antiquity. If you go to the Cafe, look up to the roof of the Luna Park apartments building next door- it's crowned with the original sign letters of the park itself, if the legends are true.

Bush And The Easter Bunny

While troops and families mourned the 4,000th American killed in the Iraq war, Bush took the time out for a photo op with the Easter Bunny. Here's an article in the Daily Express. Here's a link to the story with a video from the New Zealand Herald. Here's the Sydney Morning Herald.

The papers in the US didn't bother to connect the death milestone with the Mad Hatter-in-Chief's meeting with the Ambassador to Golgotha. They just reported on the White House Easter Egg Roll, the way they always do this time of year. The Aussies and the Brits are properly outraged past the point of civility.

This link goes to a site that keeps tabs on the Iraqi civilian war dead.

Sadly, this is post 650 on this blog. I was hoping for something a little cheerier.

Dick Cheney Reminds Us: The 4,000 US Dead in Iraq Volunteered To Serve, To Die.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney was asked what effect the grim milestone of at least 4,000 U.S. deaths in the five-year Iraq war might have on the nation.

Noting the burden placed on military families, the vice president said the biggest burden is carried by President George W. Bush, who made the decision to commit US troops to war, and reminded the public that U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan volunteered for duty.

Linked from Huffington Post. Click here for the full enchilada.

Graceless. Shameless. Tasteless. Soulless. Tactless. Brainless. Godless.

Here's a bonus Cheney quote:

"I had other priorities in the sixties than military service." –on his five draft deferments, April 5, 1989.

From Stupid Dick Cheney Quotes.

Ratatouille's Cheney Swipe

This was posted on a Disney obsessive's website a few days ago, but I can't remember where I found it. Sorry to whoever made these captures. I wanted to link to the site. I'll find it again soon and correct this mistake. Update! I found it! These were on the Jim Hill Media site. It's an interesting news site and forum for animation fans and fans of all things Disney.

In Ratatouille, when the old lady in the beginning of the film sees Remy and his brother, she grabs a shotgun and a box of shells.

But look carefully! Those are RB Cheny shells, and that stands for Richard Bruce Cheny (Cheney), also known as Dick. The Disney attorneys asked for the spelling change of the last name as a legal buffer in case Dick overheated about it later. Dick.