Month: June 2002

Returning Fire.

Frustrated by the FEC gutting of campaign finance reform last week, John McCain promises to hold up FEC appointments in the Senate until a more reform-sympathetic panel is appointed. Turns out Dubya’s kept a ringer on the panel a year beyond his term, Democrat Karl Sandstrom, expressly for the purpose of stifling reform. (He appointed a new Republican to the FEC in March.) Hmmm…why am I picturing Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell in a smoke-filled room?

Card-carrying members of the public library.

Armed with the Patriot Act (what a wonderfully Orwellian name) signed by Dubya last October, the FBI begins scouring libraries to check “terrorist” reading habits. Good news for your local Barnes and Noble, I suppose, who’ll probably be selling a lot more copies of The Anarchist’s Cookbook from now herein. I’d love to see a sample list of what books make the FBI’s red flag list.

Aw, yeah, baby.

There is a union now between the Two Towers, Orthanc and Barad-dur… Update: The new TTT teaser is available here, although you’ll have much better luck downloading it from Kazaa. (I did.) For those of you who’ve also been watching the flickery bootleg of the post-Fellowship preview over and over again, there’s not much different here (other than a Galadriel voiceover, slightly more Grima, and a few new lines.) Gollum’s clearly had more work done on him, though. You can see it in theaters in front of MIB2 July 3.

Losing Mass.

Fairvue Central has updated his Elements Portal, and GitM has gone from Osmium (76) to Indium (49), “a very soft, silvery-white metal with a brilliant luster. The pure metal gives a high-pitched “cry” when bent. It wets glass, as does gallium…There is evidence that indium has a low order of toxicity; however, care should be taken until further information is available.” Don’t say I didn’t warn you.