Genghis Khan again...

... No one can get enough of the Great Khan.

But really, picking John Wayne or Richard Tyson to play the great Asian warlord is almost as stupid as ... as.. well, picking an Arab who got his start in Egyptian soap-operas.


little Mr Miggs could do it better!

Return of the "Conqueror"

Anybody out their remember "The Conqueror" - it was about Genghis Khan, played by John Wayne and a cast of hundreds, most of whom died of cancer. It was filmed on an atomic bomb testing site. It also won the Golden Turkey award for really awful movies.

Now someone seems to want to repeat the experience.


minus the a-bombs, one would hope

The Power of Prayer

A wavering Christian (actually, I waver occasionally on most of my convictions) I am always depressed when I see certain types of Christian behavior. Not many weeks ago a good Christian stood in my living room and told how much he approved of "enhanced interrogation."

This is another example: apparently some conservative Christians are sporting bumper stickers that say Psalm 109, verse 8, which goes like this, according to Rabbi Herschfeld on BeliefNet:

For those of you who may not know that particular verse, it reads "May his days be few, may another take over his position." And before anyone excuses this toxic use of scripture as nothing more than the wish that President Obama not be re-elected to a second term of office, the next verse in the psalm reads, "May his children be orphans and his wife a widow".

In fact the whole chapter is about awful things happening to an evil person.

Couldn't we just stick to claiming he was born in Kenya?

Yes, I know. Probably very few people are doing this and it is being blown out of proportion by blogs. Like this one, maybe.

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Balancing the budget: we can't get there from here

Actually, there are not that many ways of doing it without both tax hikes and spending cuts. And at least some of those spending cuts would have to come from the military. If military spending is off the table, then I don't see how it happens. Same is true with entitlements, as far as I can tell.

Here is one Republican commentator's thoughts on our war budget.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not exorbitant drains on the federal budget. Even if the cost of the wars increased 10 times, they are costs the United States must bear, because that is what victory demands.

Victory demands. What kind of victory? How important is it to our national interests? Who cares: send money. Oh yes, spending money on anything else will bankrupt the nation for all time.

Reagan was right: there are simple solutions, just not easy ones.

Dies illa et Tu-Tube

You can come across the strangest stuff on You-tube. I use it to find music videos I listen to while I grade. Some of it is riveting - which is why I sometimes stay up too late. Not to grade, but simply to listen to the music.

I found this Lux aeterna - it is all over You-Tube. For some reason the war gamers (legions of them) love to add it to videos of their latest slaughter.

And I discovered this. Karl Jenkins' Dies Irae wedded to a video from the movie Matrix. I liked it so much I searched through everything I could find of Jenkins. Wonderful stuff, including some where he teams up with Tiri Te Kanawa. There is a complete requiem, and a complete requiem for peace called "The armed man."

think I'll go 'grade' some more.

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Journalism ... not just for adults anymore

But then, you probably already knew that. Check this out.

and at the Washington Post too. tsk.

Foxx News

Once again doing the great state of North Carolina can be proud. This from TPM:

On the House floor today, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) warned that health care reform poses a greater threat to American freedoms than "any terrorist right now in any country."

"Everywhere I go in my district, people tell me they are frightened," Foxx began, reports Think Progress. "They fear for the future of our country. What they're talking about is, they fear for our freedoms."

Watch the video. For what it is worth, I live in her district. I returned a post card to her telling her explicetly that I was anxious for government health care and could hardly wait until we get it. But then, I probably am not the type of real American she wants to talk about.

Who knows? Perhaps down here they really ARE that frightened.

well, I least we got rid of Liddy Dole.

Crimean War photos

Somehow I managed to stumble across a site with dozens of pictures taken during the Crimean War (1853-1856), over a century and a half ago. This one is typical, except: They all seem to be staring at the dog.

The Great Patriotic War in Art

Found a link to a site with artwork from the Soviet Union during World War II (as we call it). You should take a look. Some of it is sappy, some dreadful, all of it hyper-patriotic. But some are arresting.

I like this one, entitled 'Victory Day in Berlin.'

[oops. Forgot the link. Thanks, Jack]