Does one traditionally shake a Polaroid picture? And why? Is it supposed to make the image show up faster?—and what would youngsters today know about that?

The whole thing sounds suspicious to me.

And I'm shakin' nothing.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 11:35 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Ted Nugent, or Alice Cooper? (I'll take plenty of each, please.)

Posted by: Attila Girl at 03:20 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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The movie.

I know some people think it's "too soon," five years after the fact. But if that's your perspective, you might want to take a look at this:

It wouldn't be there if the passengers of Flight 93 hadn't taken action. (And the White House wouldn't be there if it were easier to spot from the air: instead, our friends from AQ had to settle for the Pentagon.)

Ed Driscoll has more on United 93, via Insty.

And it's nice to know that someone in the entertainment industry has neurons that actually fire now and again. Other than Lionel Chetwynd, of course.

Please, guys: we want to see this addressed. We want to see victory over the terrorists. The victories can be symbolic some of the time, though the terrorists are very real. And this particular victory is about as real and basic as it gets.

Via Insty, Jim Garaghty's got some great thoughts on the film, including the fact that a few ignorant lefties refuse to admit that this incident even took place: Garaghty quotes one moonbat who maintains that the 9/11 Commission Report dismissed the idea of a passenger uprising on United 93. Naturally, Jim gives us the relevant passages from the Report that show the passenger assault did, in fact, occur.

Judith Weiss of KesherTalk discusses the movie's prospects: she foresees it doing moderately well in theatres, and then becoming a cult classic among those who really don't want us ever to forget what happened that day. I think it might do exceedingly well: one has to consider the effects of pent-up demand. I don't want to compare this movie to The Passion of the Christ, but I guess I must. After all, once more with Flight 93 there is a whole arena of human experience that we don't see addressed in the entertainment world very often. So when it is addressed, people will flock to see it. There are millions of people in this country who are profoundly grateful to the folks on Flight 93 for saving the Capitol Building. And I'll bet each of those people has $20 for a movie. As with watching The Passion of the Christ, it will be a deeply moving experience, and possibly a spiritual one.

The Kesher Talk posting has a great recollection of the passenger assault on the hijackers from the point of view of a surviving spouse, who was in contact with her husband by cell phone as the uprising began. It's sad and stirring.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 01:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If you haven't seen The Right Brothers' new video yet, here's your chance.

Hm. The right hasn't really had an anthem band for some time—IIRC, not since Oingo Boingo. (No: my favorite wasn't "Only a Lad" nor even "Ain't This the Life." It's a bit politically incorrect, but I adored "I Want To Make Violent Love to You." Naturally, I never bought any of their albums, because they were such horrible reactionaries. And I only listened to them with the windows closed and the shades down, so I'm sure it was okay.)

Apparently, the Right Brothers have two albums out, and they have a new song, "What About the Issues?" that addresses a lot of their hate mail:

Whatcha gonna do to fight three chords and the truth?—
Just ignore the issues?

You can download it for free here, though there's no video just yet.

Hat tip: everyone, but I saw it first by linking from Hackbarth's site.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 11:08 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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The husband and I definitely argue like writers. James Thurber once pointed out that the typical way in which writers agree tends to go like this: "you're right; you're absolutely right. The problem is, you don't have the faintest idea why you're right."

We each had squabbles with the way evangelicals were portrayed on this week's episode, though for very different reasons. Attila the Hub thought Catholics were getting smeared alongside Protestants, though I thought this week's Catholic-baiting was pretty mild; after all, how can one top Christopher helping to bury Ralphie's head—encased in a bowling ball bag, after Chris himself had dismembered the body—and crossing himself as the earth is placed atop it? That incident, several seasons ago, was the Catholic-baiting apogee.

The fact that evangelical support for Israel is mentioned, and then qualified by another Jewish person who feels cautious about Christian support is not at all contrary to my experience: there are some old-school Jews out there who are skeptical about Christianity, given the little incidents there have been over the centuries. (One friend and I have at least annual arguments about whether the Nazis could be considered even nominal, surface-level Christians. Once one grants that, it is all over, and one has to concede his premise that Christians are essentially out to get Jews. Which I feel is a few centuries behind the times.)

The spouse felt that Tony's conversion to "what the bleep" spirituality this week came about as a result of a stacked-deck comparison between Catholics/Evengelicals and this more "woowey" approach to spirituality. ("Woowey" is my Tai Chi teacher's self-description. It fits, you know.)

I thought the portrayal of evangelicals worked rather well, given that it was a cartoon, with my usual caveat that pro-abortion writers never seem to get this nuance: Protestants don't have issues with birth control methods they don't consider abortifacients. Their argument is not with artificial birth-control per se, but rather with anything that might kill a fetus, embryo, or pre-embryo. This distinction is often obscured by those who either wish to proclaim that all pro-lifers are out to get their birth-control, or are simply intellectual slatterns. Not that there's anything wrong with being an intellectual slattern, of course.

The Catholic subplot? Not related to Tony's new "what the bleep" philosophy at all: it's simply a way of explaining Paulie's increasing willingness to take chances for rather stupid reasons. We're supposed to wonder if he's going to get caught. And I do.

The "what the bleep" business will very likely fall by the wayside in coming weeks: we know that Tony is able to excise any tendancy toward soft-heartedness/humanity when his "business" is on the line.

Let's review:

Attila Girl = right right right
Attila the Hub = wrong wrong wrong, unless we agree, in which case he's likely right for entirely the wrong reasons

Honey, do you need me to put this on a 3x5 card and place it on your desk as a reminder?

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:53 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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