Setback for Separatists

I'm not entirely sure why, but the idea of our Neighbor to the North splitting up amuses and fascinates me.

But it apparently won't happen soon. Betsy Newmark points to this BBC article about recent elections. For us non-Canadians, the fallout is that Canada remains and will remain in one piece.

Which is for the best, really. Still, if Quebec seceded, that might inspire other provinces to think hard about doing the same, and maybe some of the would want to join the U.S. Probably not, but it'd be fun to watch, and there's little chance of serious violence erupting.

And that's kind of what I live for-- interest without danger. (Oh, and I suppose it's roughly equally concievable that Oregon or Maine or some other state would consider seceding from the Union and joining Canada. Why, I don't know, but whatever.)

Update to a Couple of Posts Ago

From Big Lizards:

Nobody that Bush nominated to replace Gonzales would even be given a confirmation hearing, let alone a vote.

Well, there you have it. Attorneys General nominees do need to be confirmed by the Senate, which kind of makes firing the current one a bad idea.

Unless Bush conditions Gonzales's departure on his replacement's confirmation- in that case, it'd be Out With the Rumsfeld, In With the Gates Redux.

I don't know. I'm really not feeling this story. Go read Patterico.

Oh My God, This Is Funny

From Hot Air, all the Rocky films in twenty-some seconds.

I haven't actually seen any of them, but it's still hilarious.

(And yeah, I've been itching to link to Hot Air for a while now.)

Belated Krauthammer

Too busy to blog the past few days; this week probably won't be much different. Sorry, Nice Deb, and any theoretical lurkers. (Yes, I'll put up a SiteMeter counter dingus someday. And I'll do the normal blog-pushing kind of stuff eventually-- I kind of want to have more content before I try to increase visibility and do any branding and whatnot.)

Ahem. Dr. Krauthammer's column this week is about Attorney General Albert Gonzales and U.S. Attorney-Firing-Gate. He says Gonzales should go based on his incompetence in handling what should not have been a crisis/scandal/controversy.

Personally, I'm not sure. I mean, yeah, there's plenty of grounds for dismissal, but really. Appeasement doesn't work. At this point, the Democrats will just be emboldened by Gonzales's ouster, and clamor for more.

Keeping him in won't solve the situation either, granted. So I'm going to boldly say it's a tough call.

My question, though, is this: If Gonzales gets replaced, who should replace him? Honestly, I don't have any answers. No one President Bush would actually appoint would satisfy the Democrats. Unless Bush goes nuclear and appoints the Democrats truly despise like John Bolton or someone. That might be neat. (Is Bolton even a lawyer? Is that even a requirement? I should do some actual research. I mean, I'm not even sure whether or not the Senate would need to confirm a replacement.)

Yeah, I obviously have no idea what I'm doing.

So I Saw TMNT

One of my New Year's resolutions is to see more movies- not necessarily in the theater (though so far, I have)-- but *period*. It just seems like I hadn't seen many the past few years.

Anyway. I was looking forward to TMNT for a while- I've been a fan of the franchise off and on for a long time, and hey! CGI!

This was a really good film. It's kind of a "family" film-- i.e. for kids-- but not entirely. (There wasn't anything too adult-themed or violent or scary or anything, but it didn't have the more puerile elements of some kid's movies, like annoying sidekicks and youth-identification characters.) It had a lot of action, some neat character stuff, some genuinely funny moments (but not too many for an action-drama)... And it was really a family film in that the main theme was family. Both the Turtles and the main protagonists dealt with that issue in different ways, and the "main" villain, while kind of built up as a nasty, evil guy, really isn't. Not so his henchmen/co-workers. That was kind of neat.

From a technical standpoint, the CGI was quite good. Much better than the Muppet-suits of the previous three TMNT films (though that's a very low bar), for starters. I'm something of a fan of traditional/cel animation, but the CGI in this flick was well done. In one scene, it starts to rain, and you can see the individual droplets on the characters, for example.

So while I didn't have great expectations for this film (having seen the previous films, cringed at the memory of the 80's cartoon and the "Fast Forward" iteration of the current [and also otherwise quite enjoyable] series, and read many of the original comics), I did want to see it, and I'm glad I did.

So I Saw 300.

I liked it. Much has been written about it-- so I see no need to belabor various points.

That said, it was impressive on a technical level, it was very much a Guy Movie, it was good versus evil, and had a lot of action.

It was bloody and grim, but had a few darkly humorous moments. It was violent and macho, but the heroes displayed romantic love, familial love, love of freedom, love of country, and love of one's way of life.

And, dude, the Persians were *freaks*, man!

Friday Krauthammer- Catchup Edition

Well, I missed Charles Krauthammer's last column, which was about the Case of "Scooter" Libby, and it's worth reading as a kind of summation of the case and its history. (Personally, while I followed the story, I wasn't really engaged, and now that Libby's been convicted, I care even less.)

Today, though, he discusses Vice President Dick Cheney-- or more accurately, the Left's view of him, and again, it's well worth reading. (Remember, the term BDS- Bush Derangement Syndrome- was originally Krauthammer's.)

Ice on Mars

Via MSNBC:

With a radar technique, astronomers have penetrated for the first time about 2.5 miles (nearly four kilometers) beneath the south pole’s frozen surface. The data showed that nearly pure water ice lies beneath.

Martian ice itself isn't news, but the extent of it and the method by which it was discovered are.

Open Thread-- Because, Hey, Why Not?

Lost was really good last night. It's been good all season, says I.

Seriously, though-- talk about whatever you want- I really need to get some work done.

Oh, really? Yes, really.

Via Yahoo, a Norwegian study shows that, basically, having a sense of
humor lengthens your lifespan:

Adults who have a sense of humor outlive those who don't find life funny, and the survival edge is particularly large for people with cancer, says Sven Svebak of the medical school at Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

I know I've heard this, and that laughter is the best medicine, but, really. It only stands to reason that if you enjoy life, you'll want to keep on keepin' on.

Kind of obvious, but it amuses me that there was funding and everything for this. (That makes it a self-reinforcing public service, you know.)

Let's Try This Again, Shall We?

Empty post/open thread/statement of intent/"Yeah, I'm going to actually post here."

Friday Krauthammer

Charles Krauthammer has long been one of my favorite columnist/pundits. It's not really because of any agreements I have with him (though frankly, there've been many)-- there are people who I basically agree with, but just can't stand the presentation of their assertions. No, it's because of his elequence and erudition. He's very persuasive.

Anyway. the good Doctor's column this week is about one of my top-tier political interests- Outer Space. Specifically, the idea of a Moonbase:

The moon is a destination. The idea this time is not to go to plant a flag, take a golf shot and leave, but to stay and form a real self-sustaining, extraterrestrial human colony.

And he's right. He argues against the Space Shuttle, which I disagree
with, though probably largely on a "But it's so cool!" visceral level.

Regardless, it is of the utmost importance that we spread Humanity and Civilization beyond this island we call Earth. I know that the 18th and 19th Century ideal of Manifest Destiny is outmoded, but as long as there's an endless frontier and no current inhabitants, we should be out there-- exploring, colonizing, learning, advancing.

Read it all, and I'll have more on Space in posts to come. Part of the impetus for this blog was to cover and call attention to things that should receive more attention. Outer Space (and what we do with it) definitely does.

First Post

Yeah. There clearly aren't enough blogs out there, so here's mine.

Expect colors and things to shift a bit in the coming weeks.

Not that I expect any readers for a while; I'm just saying.