perpetual memory loss

Here’s the clip from last night’s SNL skit of Palin and Clinton.  It’s uncanny how much Tina Fey resembles Sarah Palin–I’m convinced they are doppelgangers–and she does the accent spot on.  Hopefully Fey continues to come back and reprise this role.  Enjoy.

Next week the new Spaceballs: The Animated Series will premiere on G4 TV.   And just to sweeten the pot both Mel Brooks and Daphne Zuniga will be returning to lend their voices.  It’s curious that Bill Pullman and Rick Moranis aren’t reprising their roles, seeing as they haven’t been busy for, oh, about 10 years.  Here’s a clip from the episode Spidermawg (half man, half dog, and half spider), now go set your DVR’s to record.

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I stumbled on this old clip whilst I was perusing The Daily Show website.  It is fucking hilarious, so you’re welcome.

Here’s a couple of videos that make light of this whole Sarah Palin veep pick.  Personally I think this is akin to suicide for the McCain campaign, but who knows sometimes these long-shots pay off.  It’s just that I think her negatives far outweight any of her potential positives.  One of the worst parts about this picks, from McCain’s standpoint, is that it takes away his argument against Obama’s experience.  Her youth and inexperience combined with his age and proclivity for cancer make for one potentially devastating ticket.  If he died in his first year or two the effects would be catastrophic and would make the Bush Administration look like FDR’s.  If McCain wanted to pick a women I’m sure he could have found a more experienced candidate, but maybe he just has a penchant for the beauty queens–Cindy McCain better watch her back.  Also it is never good for your veep pick to be embroiled in scandal on the first day.   Besides now I am going to have to listen to commentary about how her kid has Downs Syndrome and that somehow qualifies her for the VP.  Lastly, she has almost no opinion on the important foreign policy issues of our day: nuclear proliferation, Iraq, terrorism, Russia etc.  Doing a search for her on LexisNexis and EBSCO brings up nothing.  The closest she has come:

Alaska Business Monthly: We’ve lost a lot of Alaska’s military members to the war in Iraq. How do you feel about sending more troops into battle, as President Bush is suggesting?

Palin: I’ve been so focused on state government, I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe. Every life lost is such a tragedy. I am very, very proud of the troops we have in Alaska, those fighting overseas for our freedoms, and the families here who are making so many sacrifices.

Not exactly the deep thoughts I was hoping for out of a veep candidate, besides the fact that this is a blatant attempt to pander to women, and win their votes.  The only problem is that most of Hillary’s supporters won’t vote pro-life just out of spite.  I will re-iterate that is, in my opinion, political suicide, and that McCain’s campaign is effectively over.  Anyways enjoy the videos.

Update 3:25

Found a couple good commentaries on the Palin decision.  First is from Obsidian Wings, one from James Fallows of The Atlantic, and the other is from Sensico.

I hate hippies, and I think I always have.  The beginnings of my hatred, I’m sure, go back to my younger days when my pops told me stories about when he came back from Vietnam, and when he landed in the San Francisco airport he was called a “baby killer” among other things.  Then there was the Iraq War and all the crap that came about with that.  This story is old, back before I had this blog, but when I was stumbling around on Comedy Central I saw this, and decided to post a little bit about this topic.

The background is that Berkeley City Council and Code Pink were picketing the US Marines in Berkeley and telling them to get out of their town.  Read more here.  The funny thing is that I agree with some of the same things as these hippies, I just don’t like the way they go about it.  They are the flip side to the extreme hawks that we see around this country.  Both are wrong, and generally like everything, the middle road is usually the best course of action.  Also I just don’t like dirty, smelly, pot smoking hobos who don’t believe in anything but free love.  They also have a ridiculous, and unrealistic vision of the world.

I’d like to finish this unorganized rant with a quote:

There it is folks, we’re sitting here fighting for your freedoms.  You got the right to say what you want, we got the right to punch you in your fucking mouth if we disagree.

Ok this is a clip from the Daily Show of Rob Riggle, who is a Marine and an Iraq War veteran, interviewing some of these hippies.

Here is another clip just because I can’t resist to interject a little Cartman hatred anytime I can.

Semper Fi bitches.

A little over a week ago I tivo’d Comedy Central’s Roast of Bob Saget, and today I finally sat down and watched it.  Comedy Central’s roasts are usually pretty good, but they usually have a few comics that are just terrible and that bring down the whole show.  Bob Saget’s, however, was one of the best I have seen.  Growing up many of us saw Full House and America’s Funniest Home Videos, and knew Saget from those.  As we got older he turned into one of the foulest, dirtiest comics.  The comics in this roast lambast him for that transformation, and for all his other more family friendly endeavors.  Some of the most hilarious jokes from the roast were the ones directed at the Olsen twins–who were evidently too good to show up–and the ones implying that Saget was a pedophile who molested the twins.  Good funny stuff.  If you get the chance to watch it you should it’s well worth the time.  The best two comics of this roast were Greg Giraldo–who is always hilarious–and Cloris Leachman.  Check out the clips and enjoy.

So last night I couldn’t sleep, and I had just finished watching the X-Files.  I started flipping around looking for something good to watch when I stumbled onto an episode of Spaced on BBC-America.  Now let me preface what I am about to say by asking did you like Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz?  If the answer was a yes (probably a resounding yes, because those two movies are money) then you really should check out Spaced.  So what is it?  Well it is a TV Show from the same team that did Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.  It is obviously a British show, and it is hilarious.  (I’m not one of those people that believes that British TV is so much superior to American, because it isn’t.  I do like the British Office, but I also like the American one, and I think Jim and Dwight are way better in the American version.)  There are many reasons why Spaced is a great show; foremost amongst them is that Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes, and Nick Frost have great chemistry on screen.  They are all also great writers who know the audience that they are writing for.  Unfortunately there are only two seasons totaling 14 episodes so it is a short lived series, but it packs a huge punch.  I have seen the series a few times myself, and all the episodes are jam-packed with tons of laugh out loud moments.  So do yourself a favor and check out the show on Netflix or just buy it.  It is well worth the money.  I found a few clips on YouTube so enjoy.

Episode 1 in full

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Paintball

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The Phantom Menace

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Star Wars Ending

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Over the past year I have started watching the Battlestar Galactica series on SciFi, because I kept hearing about what an outstanding show it was.  The first couple seasons of the show were utterly fantastic, and really delved into some serious issues in the way that good science fiction can.  The last few seasons even though they haven’t been as good, have been great, and are still better than most of the other options on TV.  With the series finale all done, even though it won’t air until 2009, work on the prequel series Caprica is in full force.  This trailer has whetted my appetite.  Although I didn’t have too high of hopes for this new show, my opinion is now starting to change, and I am looking forward to this.  Like BG it will start off with a two hour TV movie, and then the show will pick up from there.  According to Ronald D. Moore, Caprica, will explore many of the same issues that made BG such a good show:

“Well, we’re still going to be dealing with things that are similar, in that there are still going to be issues of terrorism and security and how society should protect itself or not protect itself,” Moore said. “You know, what is the line between civil liberties and protection of the homeland? We’re still going to be dealing with a lot of those things, because they’re going to be spiraling out of certain events that happen in the pilot. And, you know, but you’re also dealing with ethical responsibilities. You’re also dealing with things like, you know, what is a person? What does it mean to be a sentient being? Does that being have rights? What are you allowed to do to something that you’ve created out in a laboratory? … Does it have a soul?”

Like I said I am now officially looking forward to this new show, and if you haven’t seen BG, you should start Netflixin’ them.  They are well worth your time.  Until then check out the Caprica trailer.

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I just finished watching HBO’s new miniseries Generation Kill.  I would have to say that so far this is probably one of the most realistic Iraq dramas I have seen yet.  The show follows the First Recon Marines before the invasion, and then what happens after they invade Iraq.  Watching this I feel so many emotions bubbling up.  Although I am glad that I am not in the Marines anymore there was a certain simplicity in the Marine Corps that is still enticing.  What do I mean?  There is a certain comfortability within the Marine Corps that you won’t find anywhere else.  That is one of the aspects that this show captures really well.

It’s good that this show is on HBO, because on regular ass TV you wouldn’t get the sense of brotherhood, or the crudeness.  They didn’t shy away from some of the most lewd, and crude, but very fitting language that is prevalent amongst Marines.  No where else would you see blacks, whites, asians, latins etc all calling each other the most racist names they could think of, and not get in fights, but just laugh it off, because despite your differences you’re brothers.  It’s akin to a big brother who calls his little brother names, but as soon as someone else calls him names, he gets in a fight to defend his brother.  This show also gets the ridiculousness of the Marine Corps.  You see the commanding officers and the Senior NCO’s complain about Marines not tucking in their shirts or not shaving properly.  While all the regular Marines are concerned about the war, and surviving it, all the senior Marines are worried about stupid, meaningless regulations.  Most people don’t realize that this happens way too often, and that Marines end up spending too much time and effort getting hair cuts or worrying about dress regulations, than about the more important details of staying alive.  In one scene a Sergeant Major yells at the Marines for not shaving properly, and for not being properly dressed, yet when the Marines get their MOPP suits, they notice that the suits are camoflauged for woodland terrain, and not for the desert.  Also they don’t have all the equipment they need to fight the war.  As one Marines says, “they don’t give us everything we need to keep us pissed off.  If we were happy we wouldn’t be ready to kill all the time.”  To true, when the other branches of the Armed Forces go to war they have more than they need, the Marines, however, are always woefully undersupplied.

There is one scene in this show that cracked me up, however, and that was when the Marines heard a rumor that J-Lo was dead.  I remember that rumor–and the shit ton of other rumors like it–and how people were either kind of sad or just really, really happy that she was dead.  Rumors are a daily part of life in war, and most of the time some dude just starts a rumor just because he’s bored.  Actually most of the rumors are false, but they gave us something to talk about besides what we were doing, and because of that, rumors always spread like wild fire.  Then there is the real news that we get, like the story about Justin Timberlake and Pink recording an anti-war song.  Despite what we all thought about the war, we felt that that was a direct attack on us, and everyone was (and probably still is) bitter, and would have shot J.T. on sight.  He’s lucky he never did a USO show, because he probably would have never come back.

This show almost gets it all right when it comes to candy.  When you get your MRE’s you get some sort of candy in it.  You either get peanut brittle, M&M’s Skittles, or Charms.  The funny thing is is that most people that have had to eat these don’t eat Skittles anymore.  They were the most prolific candy of the bunch, and we all tired of them really quickly.  They don’t mention that in the show but I hope they bring it up in later episodes.  They get it right with the charms, however.  Charms are bad luck.  Everyone I have ever known who has eaten them has had bad things happen to them.  Luckily for us though we learned that while we were still in the states, so that by the time we were in country anyone that got charms in their MRE immediately threw them away.  This is another one of the small details that his show got right, and lends to it’s authenticity.

There’s plenty else that is good about this show.  It’s really hard to put everything into words, and I am still a little bit conflicted about watching something this authentic.  Here’s a few small details that were good: everyone dips, everyone hates their commanding officers, everyone knows better than the people that are planning the war (and seriously it’s hard to contend that point after how this war has turned into a complete debacle), no one trusts outsiders, and porn is everywhere.  These are just a few of the small detail points that this show gets right.  It’s little details that normally no one would notice if it was missing, but for those of us in the know it’s these details that make it realistic.

This show was based on a book from an embedded journalist with the First Recon Marines–he’s from Rolling Stone.  One of the best lines is when one of the Marines–commenting of Rolling Stone readers–mentions that they only feeling they know is the feeling of having a cock rammed up their ass.  One of the Marines yelled at the journalist saying, “so you gonna tell everyone we are baby killers and women rapers?”  The sad thing is is that most people don’t think that, but there are plenty that do.  Many anti-war activists have no clue, but enjoy throwing those pejoratives around.  I read a blog recently that called all the soldiers baby killers, and if I could have met that writer, I would have wrapped my hands around his throat until he turned blue.  This is why many veterans and current Marines don’t like or trust outsiders.  This show helps to convey the feeling among many Marines of “us against them.”  You get the sense from the beginning that all of these Marines hate outsiders, and feel like no one is on their side.  This is one of the most authentic feelings I believe that they conveyed in the show.  It’s an amazing (and not amazing in a good way) feeling to be half the world away doing something that you hope is right, but also knowing that most people don’t give a shit whether you going to live or die.  It’s that feeling that hardens you soul, and makes you do whatever it takes to get back home, to the few people, who you know actually care.  That feeling comes though loud and clear in this show; although I’m not sure that the viewers will really understand it.  Most likely they will just believe that the Marines are cocky, condensending assholes–which they are, but only because of the reasons I have mentioned.

But going back to the journalist, most of those guys were cocksuckers.  The guy in the show seems ok, but I’m not sure how he is going to turn out (since I haven’t seen the rest of the series or read the book.  For all I know this could turn out to be an expensive hit job on the Marines, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt).  For the most part it was hard for those journalists to separate their political beliefs from their duties as a journalist.  Most of them couldn’t and would end up writing a biased piece, or they would try to tell you how to do your job.  One asshole tried to tell us that we shouldn’t be breaking down doors in this school, because we were damaging the school.  He never wrote about how the schools haven’t been schools for years, because the Iraqi government had been stockpiling weapons in the schools for a decade.  We cleared out schools all over Iraq so that kids could actually use the schools for school, but regardless, we still ended up being the assholes.  I hope this show further explores some of these dichotomies throughout its run, and helps to show people a little bit of what it was like to be there.

One of the few things that bugs me about this show, so far, is that it follows a Recon unit, and not a regular Marine unit.  I would just once like to see a show that follows a Marine Infantry unit, and shows, realistically, what it is like to go on a patrol.  Not everyone gets to drive around Iraq in Hummers.  Many of us ended up spending more time walking than riding, and we walked through terribly dangerous neighborhoods.  Maybe someday something like that will come out, or maybe not.  I’m sure this article has been a bit disconjuncted, and I apologize for that, but I am drunk, and I am trying to remember everything that I wanted to talk about.  I’m sure I missed a few key points, but hopefully I told you enough to pique your curiosity.  You should watch this show, no matter what side you are on, because most likely you will learn something that you didn’t know before.  I looking forward to the rest of the series, however, because I want to see how my old unit the 1st Marine Division gets treated.

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Update

For those that don’t know and don’t read the comments, Oscar Mike stands for “on the move” in military jargon.

Last year was a terrible year for movies, and there wasn’t a whole lot to be excited about.  This summer is shaping up to be much better, considering that there have already been quite a few great movies like Hulk and Iron Man.  The next 6 weeks are looking to be a very geeky time for movie fans.  Personally, I’m excited.  This Friday, July 11,  Hellboy 2 will be released.  I’m looking forward to this movie for a few reasons.  First off, I enjoyed the first movie–although it took a little too long to get going–and now that he doesn’t have to worry about origin stories, we can just jump right into the action.  Secondly, I want to see how good this movie can be, because Del Toro is–if you don’t know–going to be directing the two Hobbit movies.  I love Del Toro’s style, and I think it will meld well with the LOTR’s imagery.  If he can really make this Hellboy movie his own, and really make into something great, then it will assuage some of my apprehension at him doing The Hobbit.  So this Friday I will be making my way to the multiplex to check it out:

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On the Friday after, July 18, comes the next movie that I am excited about which is The Dark Knight.  Everything about this movie is top-notch.  Check out the poster, which is one of the best posters I think I have ever seen (BTW thanks to PML friend Mag-10 for sending this my way).  Everyone is fawning over this movie, and you know that when movie critics–generally snobbish, fickle, and jealous crowd–start singing the praises of a comic book movie, well then, it’s really good.  I originally wasn’t sure about Heath Ledger as the Joker, but the more I see the more I am completely sold on him.    Even though I like the Tim Burton Batman and Nicholson’s Joker, I always thought that that vision of the Joker was too campy, and not dark enough.  I’ve talked to quite a few people who have said that they don’t care what Ledger does, that Jack Nicholson will always be the Joker.  I say shenanigans to that.  The thing that is great about the Joker is that he is a sadistic, demented criminal, that has a ton of fun being evil, and has absolutely no conscience.  So far there hasn’t been a Joker that has captured that darkness, but I am willing to bet that Ledger’s performance is going to shock a lot of people.  There is already Oscar buzz about Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker:

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