One Year Ago Today

chris kvale orange metallic

i haven't seen this frame in person, but the orange metallic is really something in these photos.  the blue accents and decals seem to work really well, too.  

how many kvale frames are out there, and will pictures of all of them wind up here eventually?  we may never know the answers to these questions, but tune in next week for another episode of bullshit or not?

another nixon/clinton debate

the assholes on the stage are bad enough, but those slimy moderators are somehow worse.

a perfect circle

their tri-state area's favorite painter also makes some sweet bikes.

i wonder if rachel maddow misses her buddy pat

maddow was always quite respectful of that vile fuck pat buchanan when she was sharing a panel with him on msnbc. 

living in rhode island

cute and cuddly slice-of-life from your friends in the 1% of rhode island.  this is just another example of how average folks out there are being fucked raw by the dipshits who serve the oligarchs in the united states.  hey, these folks have to be cheated out of their pensions so that some wall street fucker can get a tax cut or a subsidy, so if you don't like it, well, tough shit. 

newt vs. the lions

the nfl is up against newt 'the pissy troll' gingrich tonight.  i really wonder if it is too much to ask that football guarantee the entertainment value of their broadcast so that we don't have to watch newt fling his own shit around all night during his final hours of relevance in the 2012 primaries?  the whole train wreck is about to become very fucking boring if romney continues on after new hampshire and somehow wins south carolina and florida.  grandpa goldbug ron paul is on his way out and will probably bob up as a libertarian party candidate eventually, but that's gonna be about all she wrote for mittens's opposition unless one of those ass clowns manages to become a stupendous politician and campaigner in the next 24 hrs.

9 pm update: so far, so good, nfl.

virag's movie reviews: battle: los angeles (2011)

not as dumb or insulting as independence day--or as bloated, but of course, they didn't have that kind of money to spend.  however...if you are going to make a military/sci-fi movie, you either have to have very few aliens and do the whole gonzo military schtick or be up to your armpits in aliens the whole time.  battle: la had exactly the wrong amount of of tv-movie aliens, and any war movie rated pg-13 is guaranteed to blow dog.  i think i heard this turkey actually made movie-money, so perhaps they will make another one.  undoubtedly it will be as utterly pointless as this one was. 

recess bulllies

obama's recess appointments to the national labor relations board were a fantastic compliment to his appointment to the consumer protection financial bureau that drove the wingnut assholes fucking bonkers.  had obama been game to play this sort of political warfare from the start, he could have been poised for an easy reelection this year and quite possibly could have made the country a better place had he been so inclined.

virag's movie reviews: transformers 3 (2011)

why?  how is it possible that these movies got worse each time?  the first movie was almost indescribably bad, but compared to the next two it was pretty much a masterpiece.  the third one is so confusing and joyless.  if you replace megan fox in your movie, how exactly can you find someone who makes fox seem like meryl streep? maybe that in itself is a sort of genius, so there you go. 

cranky grandpa goldbug hates slimy racist attacks

crazy ole grandpa goldbug would never, ever support vile racist attacks on anyone.  of course not, since he's never had any sort of history of racism or crackpot bullshit or vapid insanity.  he's been a well-recognized chief rocket scientist for half a century.

is primeval all done?

the last two, very short, series (seasons) of primeval were okay--better than dr. who or torchwood for the love of pete--but also seemed kinda perfunctory, especially the second set as they wanted to close out the story after ditching most of the characters, adding an unintelligible paddy and the doctor from deep space 9.  i know there's talk of a spinoff or a crossover in canada or something, and the ending could have been a finale wrap-up or merely the launching point for another long story arc.  i wouldn't mind seeing it continue in some form; they did a good job with having a long, consistent narrative despite having main characters leave the show on short notice multiple times.  i'm pretty sure the guy who plays the kid scientist, the girl and the paddy would love to do more...since it's time travel, they should bring back the original people, too.  why the fuck not?  it would be great to have the unintelligible weegie jock back to go with the fucking mick and the limey soap opera actors. 

hilarious or 1 step away from a syfy original movie?

those crazy frakkers!  it seems almost funny, in a syfy original movie way, but this is all really tied to the sorta nutty idea of peak oil and associated horseshit.  as we deplete much of the easy and cheap-to-extract oil and natural gas, we will be using more of these difficult, dirty, dangerous and expensive methods to get our fix.  fracking, deep-water drilling, tar sands mining are all last-choice scenarios, so expect to see much more of this weirdness happening for the next century.  peak oil may not mean the last drop; it may wind up being more about the destructive extraction methods we are left with for the remaining oil and gas.  man-made earthquakes today, godzilla tomorrow.

8.5% is still really high

a drop in unemployment is fine, just fine, but that is still really, really high for the bullshit 'official' unemployment rate.  the u6 is horrifyingly high and the long-term, off-the-rolls folks (the 99ers) are all kinds of fucked, meaning that far too many people are barely hanging on a week at at time for the fundamental economy to be as robust as the nation needs for long-term stability.