The Deceiver

Posted on June 8 2005 by Mickey
    Big thanks to Think Progress for doing my blogging work for me.
The Downing Street Memo reported that in a July 23, 2002 meeting between Prime Minister Blair and his war cabinet, attendees of the meeting discussed the fact that President Bush had already made up his mind to attack Iraq. According to the minutes of the meeting: “There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action.” Yet, as the record below proves, President Bush claimed over and over after July 23rd until the war began that he had not made up his mind.

Bush: “Of course, I haven’t made up my mind we’re going to war with Iraq.” [10/1/02]

Bush: “Hopefully, we can do this peacefully – don’t get me wrong. And if the world were to collectively come together to do so, and to put pressure on Saddam Hussein and convince him to disarm, there’s a chance he may decide to do that. And war is not my first choice, don’t – it’s my last choice.” [11/7/02]

Bush: “This is our attempt to work with the world community to create peace. And the best way for peace is for Mr. Saddam Hussein to disarm. It’s up to him to make his decision.” [12/4/02]

Bush: “You said we’re headed to war in Iraq – I don’t know why you say that. I hope we’re not headed to war in Iraq. I’m the person who gets to decide, not you. I hope this can be done peacefully.” [12/31/02]

Bush: “First of all, you know, I’m hopeful we won’t have to go war, and let’s leave it at that.” [1/2/03]

Bush: “But Saddam Hussein is – he’s treated the demands of the world as a joke up to now, and it was his choice to make. He’s the person who gets to decide war and peace.” [2/7/03]

Bush: “I’ve not made up our mind about military action. Hopefully, this can be done peacefully.” [3/6/03]

Bush: “I want to remind you that it’s his choice to make as to whether or not we go to war. It’s Saddam’s choice. He’s the person that can make the choice of war and peace.” [3/6/03]

Bush: “We are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq. But if Saddam Hussein does not disarm peacefully, he will be disarmed by force.” [3/8/03]

Bush: “Should Saddam Hussein choose confrontation, the American people can know that every measure has been taken to avoid war, and every measure will be taken to win it.” [3/17/03]
    So is this — not forgetting lying before Congress, unprovoked warfare, the deaths of thousands of innocents, bankrupting the country, war profiteering, and rampant corruption — finally enough to start impeachment proceedings…or are we going to need a fat girl to fellate him first?
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The Itch

Posted on June 3 2005 by Mickey
    I’ve got the itch: that all too familiar feeling where I’ve got newfound money burning a hole in my pocket. All except for the money part, that is. After many months I’m finally poised to start a big video editing project, and it’s got me thinking how much nicer and sharper the end result would be if I’d shot all the footage with digital video. Thus, I now find myself with the itch to upgrade from Hi8 to MiniDV. One major stumbling block — sidestepping the issue of budgeting such a purchase — is that there are so many companies and cameras from which to choose, with no clear-cut winner on top.
    Normally I would be focusing on a Sony product, but my initial research had me considering the Canon ZR300. It bugs me that the Sonys all seem restricted to 10x optical zoom lenses, but here was one with a 22x optical zoom! Plus it reportedly had great color, “true widescreen”, and a good price. My mind was almost made up, until I found the lukewarm review at C|Net. A lot of their complaints meant little to me though: I don’t care if a camera is bottom-loading since I won’t be using a tripod; still photo performance doesn’t bother since I already have a digital camera; I don’t care if it doesn’t have a lot of bundled software since I already have Final Cut Express and iMovie; the lack of a microphone jack is meaningless since I don’t shoot EFP standups and have never used a separate mic. One thing which was hard to discount though is the reportedly poor low-light performance. Since most of the footage I’ve been shooting over the years is relatives blowing out their birthday candles, low-light performance would be important. Equally unfortunate, poor low-light performance seems pretty common with all makes and models of camcorder.
    I actually went out to Best Buy last night, just to check out the ZR300. Instead, I was instantly attracted to the very sharp picture of the Panasonic GS250. It’s sharper since it’s a 3 CCD camcorder, which also means it was a few hundred dollars more. I liked the adjustable viewfinder and I liked the feel of the camera, especially the little joystick control on the back — I could toggle through the menus easily with my thumb, rather than needing both hands to operate as with the Sony touchscreens. Unfortunately, it had poor low-light performance too, perhaps even worse than the ZR300 despite being almost twice the price.
    Further research on the GS250 soon led me to the Sony DCR-HC90. The user reviews I read seemed to suggest this might be the best camera to get for low-light performance. It was more than the ZR300 but equivalent to the GS250 — despite not having 3 CCDs.
    But before I could make plans to go back to Best Buy, or go price-shopping online, I read that Sony is coming out with a high-def consumer camera this Summer. It almost feels that if I’m going to upgrade I should really upgrade, even though I presently have no HDTV with which to view any HD footage I would be shooting. The stumbling block here would be that the Sony’s HDR-HC1 will list at around two thousand dollars! Then again, by the time I finally make up my mind that price will probably have dropped considerably. I can’t exactly say this news brings me back to square one, considering I don’t think I ever left there.
Posted in Gadgets, Tech | Leave a comment

40 Top Movie Soundtracks

Posted on June 1 2005 by Mickey
    Another list, this time about movie soundtracks, compiled by the listeners of UK’s Classic FM and revealed during the Monday, May 30 Bank Holiday.
40  633 Squadron – Ron Goodwin
39  Cinema Paradiso – Ennio Morricone
38  Superman – John Williams
37  Once Upon a Time in the West – Ennio Morricone
36  The Merchant of Venice – Jocelyn Pook
35  Somewhere in Time – John Barry
34  The Shawshank Redemption – Thomas Newman/Mozart
33  Indiana Jones – John Williams
32  The Dambusters – Eric Coates
31  Chariots of Fire – Vangelis
30  Pirates of the Caribbean – Klaus Badelt
29  The Lion in Winter – John Barry
28  The Godfather – Nino Rota
27  Braveheart – James Horner
26  The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Ennio Morricone
25  Brief Encounter – Rachmaninov
24  The Last of the Mohicans – Trevor Jones
23  The English Patient – Gabriel Yared
22  The Great Escape – Elmer Bernstein
21  The Deer Hunter – Stanley Myers
20  E.T. – John Williams
19  Gone with the Wind – Max Steiner
18  Titanic – James Horner
17  Ladies in Lavender – Nigel Hess
16  Harry Potter – John Williams
15  Dangerous Moonlight – Richard Adinsell
14  The Big Country – Jerome Moross
13  The Piano – Michael Nyman
12  Saving Private Ryan – John Williams
11  The Magnificent Seven – Elmer Bernstein
10  Dr Zhivago – Maurice Jarre
  9  Jurassic Park – John Williams
  8  Lawrence of Arabia – Maurice Jarre
  7  The Mission – Ennio Morricone
  6  Dances with Wolves – John Barry
  5  Out of Africa – John Barry/Mozart
  4  Schindler’s List – John Williams
  3  Gladiator – Hans Zimmer
  2  Star Wars – John Williams
  1  The Lord of the Rings – Howard Shore
    Of course I had to take a look, but I can’t say I’m very thrilled with the choices. I have to admit a couple of those titles I don’t know at all, a few others I know but am not familiar enough with the music, and a couple others come almost as a shock. Pirates of the Caribbean and Gladiator? Superman ranked so low? A “score” by Rachmaninoff? Is that fair? If so, I guess that’s why Gladiator showed up so high, since I guess they are including the unsubtle cribbing from Wagner and Holst.
    I can’t say I approve of lumping some scores together either. With Lord of the Rings this is understandable, since the intent was to make one large organic piece; but it doesn’t seem fair not to separate Star Wars (or “A New Hope” as you kids call it) and Empire Strikes Back. Or just to concentrate on Raiders at the expense of the other Indiana Jones scores. With that in mind, it would be hard to argue — even for this LOTR fan — that Howard Shore’s work bests Williams groundbreaking and instantly recognizable themes in Star Wars and Empire.
    Those aren’t my only quibbles either. I would much rather have Field of Dreams over Titanic; the latter might have sold more albums but the former has better music. E.T. and Superman should swap places. It’s nice they noted Elmer Bernstein’s two great themes, but what about his Ten Commandments score? And think for a moment of all the composers who are completely left out of that list. No Jerry Goldsmith?! I’m not his biggest fan, but surely they can’t have forgotten all the significant work he has done. Erich von Korngold wrote several classic scores for cinemas Golden Age, none of which is remembered here. Another unbelievable lapse is the absence of Bernard Herrmann, whose Citizen Kane score was voted best in the recent TIME poll — and of course, the great work he did in many Hitchcock films. If they’re going to give a nod to Elmer Bernstein’s two greatest themes, what about the memorable melodies Henry Mancini wrote for the screen? A lot current moviegoes were came of age with the music of Danny Elfman, but he didn’t make a showing here either. Not forgetting Randy Newman, Alan Silvestri, James Newton Howard to just name a few. There’s a lot of good stuff in the list, admittedly; but there’s so much lacking.
Posted in Movies, Music | Leave a comment

Under Construction…again

Posted on May 27 2005 by Mickey
    My site is currently being moved to a new server. There might be performance problems in the meantime — but I swear it’s me. It’s me; not you. And sadly, yes, this has happened to me before.   [05/26/05 10:35 AM]
    Update: it took most of the day before the changeover occurred. Now I’m scrambling to reload everything. The two big databases have been rebuilt, but the images and audio and video files are still being uploaded. A lot of links might be dead for a while. I’m also having trouble with my e-mail, so all you C|AL|S and V|AGR4 folks and hot girls with webcams will have to wait.
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Blogger’s Last Post Leads to His Murderer

Posted on May 26 2005 by Mickey
    Sometimes a weblog lets you learn too much about a person. I can’t stop thinking about this story, as described at Web Pro News
    A Chinese student in Queens, NY, was tied to a chair and stabbed repeatedly in the chest with a butcher’s knife. His sister, the ex-girlfriend of the killer, arrived a short time later and met a similar fate. What the killer didn’t expect was a web log entry that placed him at the scene.
    Jin Lin, 23, has been charged with the first-degree murder of Sharon and Simon Ng, of Flushing.
    Nineteen-year-old Ng’s weblog stated that his sister’s ex-boyfriend was waiting downstairs, smoking and pacing, while Ng look[ed] for the would be killer’s fishing poles. That was a short time before the slayings.
    Nin confessed to police after his alibi crumbled in the wake of the web log’s proclamation placing him at the scene. He said he intended to rob the siblings to finance his return trip to China.
    Here’s Ng’s last post.
Today I missed my Japanese class again, since I have gotten a bad throat. I only went to the class once this week, so I am probably so far behind now. I will catch up in the summer tho so no worries hehe. Anyway today has been weird, at 3 some guy ringed the bell. I went down and recognized it was my sister's former boyfriend. He told me he wants to get his fishing poles back. I told him to wait downstair while I get them for him. While I was searching them, he is already in the house. He is still here right now, smoking, walking all around the house with his shoes on which btw I just washed the floor 2 days ago! Hopefully he will leave soon, oh yeah working on the jap report as we speak!
Posted 5/12/2005 at 5:05 PM
    You can see Ng’s Xanga site here, including the final post.
Posted in Blog, Links, News | 1 Comment

TIME‘s Top 100

Posted on May 25 2005 by Mickey
    It’s hard to take TIME seriously after their Ann Cu…sorry, Coulter cover story (and Newsweek is hogging all the attention right now), but I enjoyed perusing their big list of 100 greatest movies. Sure, there are some quibbles, but it seems a well-rounded list: some popular favorites, some foreign movies, some critical darlings, and some personal favorites. Plus a lot of plain old good movies. Any critics’ list which includes Brazil, King Kong, Meet Me in St Louis, and Lord of the Rings is fine by me…not forgetting mentions of Spielberg, Hitchcock, Kubrick, the Coen Brothers, and Pixar.
    I’m chagrined to admit though I actually had one of their movies, City of God, in my possession but let it slip away unwatched. I rented it from NetFlix back in November. Yes, November. And I’ve been keeping it all this time because of my well-meaning but half-hearted plans of watching it. I finally admitted I would never get around to see it and, coincidentally enough, sent it back this very morning.
Posted in Movies | Leave a comment

In the News

Posted on May 23 2005 by Mickey
    Quote of the Day: from The Sun UK
    Bush Probes Saddam’s Pants
    George Bush yesterday launched a probe into how pictures of Saddam Hussein in his underpants were leaked.
    His spokesman said: “He has been briefed. He wants to get to the bottom of it.”
    Somebody call Jeff Gannon!
    For our Kansan readers:
    I wouldn’t go so far as to equate the biblical story of creation with a stork ‘nursery rhyme’, but then again I don’t see why Creationism and Evolution are mutually exclusive (or why the biblical story needs to be taught in schools — unless of course we also plan to teach algebra in catechism). (See the full This Modern World comic at Working for Change.com.)
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Congratulations, Graduate!

Posted on May 23 2005 by Mickey
    Congratulations to my niece Cathy, shown with her sister Heather, who graduated from Ladywood High School today!


Heather & Cathy
Posted in Personal, Photos | Leave a comment

Image of the Week

Posted on May 12 2005 by Mickey
    Godzilla attacking the coastline and other remarkable cloud formations can be seen at the Cloud Appreciation Society’s gallery:
    (Link found via Attu Sees All.)
Posted in Links, Photos | Leave a comment

Feta’s Fate Fêted

Posted on May 11 2005 by Mickey
    According to the Southeast European Times, “The advocate general of the European Court of Justice announced Tuesday (10 May) that in his opinion the name of feta cheese is a typical Greek name and deserves legal protection.” Germany and Denmark had been using “feta” to describe their own version of pasteurized goat’s milk cheese but Greece was demanding exclusive use.
    The EU Observer takes up the story:
The difference between the various types of feta cheese — claimed as an original product by Athens – is in its way of production.
    While the Greeks make feta from unpasteurised sheep’s milk, or a mixture of sheep’s milk with goat’s milk, and then curdled with rennet, the Danes and Germans make it from pasteurised cow’s milk.
    Copenhagen and Berlin have been trying to overturn the European commission’s 1996 decision to give the Greek cheese the same protection as Italian parma ham.
    However, on Tuesday (10 May) the advocate general to the European Court of Justice, Damaso Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer, advised that feta was not a generic name and should be seen as a traditional name, based on a product of which quality derives from the geographical surroundings where it is made, reports the Guardian.
    Therefore, its traditional name should be preserved across the EU member states.
Posted in Food | Leave a comment