As the Religious Right preps for their coming crusade against sodomites and liberals, the NY Times examines the impact of yesterday’s landmark gay marriage decision in Massachusetts on the 2004 Presidential race. I dunno…I think the potential fallout for the left is being overstated. For one, it’s not as if jackasses like these are going to vote Democratic anyway. For another, if Tom DeLay succeeds in pushing a constitutional amendment on marriage to a vote, it will just redound negatively on Dubya and the GOP (as even the Weekly Standard realizes.) So by all means, let’s see the right-wing crazies get their dander up on this issue…the electorate will know where to stand after seeing ’em frothing at the mouth and threatening to encode their prejudices into the U.S. Constitution.
Month: November 2003
Endnotes.
TORN.net get the full version of Annie Lennox’s “Into the West,” soon to close a splendid fantasy trilogy at a theater near you. Those of you who found the Soundtrack.net excerpt to be a tad shrill will be happy to discover that that 30 seconds was the loudest part of the song. Also, in LotR news, I missed out on the TTT:EE Grand Central extravangaza yesterday, although it may have been just as well given some of the complaints coming in.
Bend it like Adu.
In something of a coup, MLS signs 14-year-old Freddy Adu, widely considered to be a potential soccer superstar, to a six-year deal. (Dallas had the first pick, but he’ll play for DC United, the closest team to his MD home.) Suddenly, LeBron seems like the old guy in the club.
Ring Kong.
Gollum gets a new preciousss…Naomi Watts. Apparently Andy Serkis will play King Kong for PJ much as he did Smeagol (and half the orcs in TTT.) Sounds good from here.
Paul, Polls, Pols, and Pints.
More grist for the orals mill:
| Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism. William Gillette, Retreat from Reconstruction: 1869-1879. Matthew Josephson, The Politicos. W.J. Rorabaugh, The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition. |
Four More Years!
Ghost in the Machine is four years old today. We’ve weathered lots of personal, political, and cinematic ups and downs since that badly written entry on 11.15.99 (as the archives new and old will attest), but it’s funny how most of the topics covered here at length (Dem politics, movie reviews, fanboy culture, the Knickerbockers) were foreshadowed in that first rambling preamble. As for the hits, well…I’m not going to talk about the hits, ’cause you won’t stay in this business for four long years if you dwell too heavily on the site stats. So, to paraphrase FDR, “I should like to have it said of GitM‘s first administration that in it the forces of selfishness, lust for power, and lousy film transitions of fanboy properties met their match; I would like to have it said of its second administration that in it these forces met their master.” Here’s to four more years!
Ender’s Games.
For you gamers out there, Day of Defeat 1.1 was released last night (over Steam.) I suspect it will conspire with Civilization 3.2 (Conquests), which I picked up while Christmas shopping today, to tempt me away from my increasingly necessary orals reading. A WWII FPS and a dominate-the-world strategy game counts as time spent historicizing, doesn’t it?
Revisionist History.
After several notable historians question the case in the NY Times, Tim Noah of Slate revisits the plagiarism allegations surrounding Doris Kearns Goodwin. I must say, it still looks pretty ugly, although I am curious to read her forthcoming Lincoln book.
Return of the Crichton?
Are the Moya crew on their way back from oblivion? Rumors abounded yesterday that Farscape had been picked up for a 4-6 episode mini-season to finish the story, but then today’s abruptly-called Henson press conference was cancelled. What the frell is going over there? Update: Crichton lives!
Mr. Smith meets Allan Drury.
While the Dems continue their 30-hour marathon filibuster of three Dubya judicial nominees (stunt-scheduled by the GOP to draw attention to – gasp – the Dems fulfilling their advise and consent obligation under the Constitution), Nixon counsel John Dean explains the stakes in this fight…and the GOP’s “nuclear option.” Lest anyone forget, the Dems here are filibustering four of 172 Dubya nominations (2%). By contrast, the Republicans blocked over a third of President Clinton’s nominees to the Court of Appeals. As per usual, the hypocrisy of the Right knows no bounds.