GoldbergBlog

Family Guy Is Still Funny Sometimes

The show will never be as consistently funny as it was before it was canceled and then resurrected, but it still manages to make some killer jokes from time to time. The episode “Back to the Woods” happen to have two such jokes back-to-back which I’ve embedded below (contrary to the ad bumper, you won’t actually have to watch a commercial to enjoy these 50 seconds of comic glory).

Election 2008: The Final Countdown?

After winning Hawaii and Wisconsin both by sizable margins last night, Barack Obama has now won ten primaries in a row (eleven if you count the Virgin Islands, which apparently, only I do) and seems poised to be the Democratic nominee for President. Ohio and Texas have truly become Hillary’s last stand. She’s not in Mike Huckabee-land where it’s impossible to win and the she’s hoping for is that her opponent will die (she did not “major in miracles”), but now the pressure to win those two states on March 4th is tremendous. Now it doesn’t matter if she wins Vermont or Rhode Island, who also have their primaries on that day, because not only are they nowhere near enough in delegate counts, but also because she has ignored them just as she’s ignored almost every other state since Super Tuesday. Furthermore, even if she loses Ohio and Texas by small margins, that’s it. Even if she actually wins more delegates in those states but loses the popular vote, that’s it.But my prediction (based on my gut, so Stephen Colbert would be proud), is that she will end up winning both Ohio and Texas but my slim margins. Not, oh say, 58% to 41% which is the pummeling she took in Wisconsin where it should have at least been close. But backed into a corner, I think the Clinton camp is going to go nuts, and maybe pull out some Rove-ian politics and just straight-up rumor-monger and scare-tactic and do anything to try and diminish Obama’s momentum before March 4th.

Should be an interesting two weeks in the political arena.

I Heart History

I’m a huge history nerd and I’m very lucky that my brother loves history, especially American History, as much as I do. I don’t know anyone else who I could have a conversation with about who we would cast in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film about Abraham Lincoln based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals (we both agree that Liam Neeson is an uninspired choice for Lincoln and I think I nailed it with my fantasy casting of Chris Cooper as William Seward).

So my history-hard-on makes me incredibly psyched for HBO’s upcoming seven-part mini-series, John Adams, based on David McCullough’s best-selling biography. Check this cast: Paul Giamatti as Adams, Laura Linney as Abigail Adams, Danny Huston as Samuel Adams, David Morse as George Washington, Tom Wilkinson as Benjamin Franklin, and Rufus Sewell as Alexander Hamilton. I love history and movies so that casting gets me aroused. The promo below doesn’t do that much for me but I imagine it’s difficult squeezing a seven-hour miniseries into a two-minute ad.

You’re Busy for a Few Hours on August 8th

Because you’re seeing Pineapple Express. Below is the red-band trailer, so technically NSFW because your job sucks.

And if you’re wondering what was that awesome song featured in the trailer, it’s “Paper Planes” by M.I.A. which I have also embedded below for your listening pleasure.

Review Recovery

I didn’t really post last week seeing as I was combating the plague. But now that I’m back at full HP, I wanted to kick off the week by unleashing a whole pile of movie reviews. Enjoy!

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (7.9 out of 10)
Bowfinger (8.1 out of 10)
Cassandra’s Dream (6.4 out of 10)
Cloverfield (8.5 out of 10)
Definitely, Maybe (2.5 out of 10)
Harsh Times (5.8 out of 10)
Hostel (3.0 out of 10)
The Nines (7.6 out of 10)
No End in Sight (9.0 out of 10)
Oldboy (10 out of 10)
Over Her Dead Body (6.0 out of 10)
Persepolis (8.7 out of 10)
Rambo (7.0 out of 10)
Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show (8.2 out of 10)

Special Comment: On FISA and Telecom Immunity

The Strike Is Over

After three long months, the WGA strike is finally over. It looks like they got a fair deal and that’s the most important thing. I would rather keep waiting for new television shows than have these guys go back to work with a shitty contract (especially since in my wildest dreams I hope to one day join their ranks). Last night, the last A Daily Show with Jon Stewart, got in the last word:

Election 2008: The Potomac Primaries

Repeating his weekend sweep of Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington, Maine, and the Virgin Islands, Barack Obama has swept the “Potomac Primaries” by winning Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.  And I’m left to wonder: at what point does it “matter” to the Clinton campaign?  Of course it matters, but every time she loses, it doesn’t “count”.  Either there was too high a population of African-American voters or she was never really competitive there in the first place.

Now it seems like her campaign has become gung-ho about taking a page from Rudy Guiliani’s failed playbook and decided to make a last stand on March 4th in Ohio and Texas.  That’s fantastic, except only one of those is a swing state and what does it say for a candidate who is willing to ignore all of the states she’s already lost and is going to ignore Wisconsin and Hawaii next Tuesday?  For those keeping count, that will be eleven states straight that would rather have Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee than Hillary Clinton.

Another comparison I find interesting, is that Obama only seems to skip states he’s confident he can win.  He didn’t go to Illinois because that’s the state he represents.  He didn’t go to Hawaii because it’s an eight-hour plane ride to win his birth-state.  It’s the nature of a grass-roots campaign that you can’t take any state for granted.  But Clinton, going all the way back to South Carolina, happily skips states where she’s confident she won’t win.  Yes, it’s political calculation and every candidate has to do it, but that kind of capitulation bodes poorly for a general election.  What happens when the polls show her down in Michigan or Florida (two states that should apparently now be counted because she’s losing)?  Does she quit those states and focus her energies elsewhere, putting more and more pressure on other swing states to carry her to victory?

And at what point does Clinton become the Mike Huckabee of the Democratic primaries?  How much of a delegate-lead would it take for Barack Obama to be the clear front-runner before she looks ridiculous and egotistical in her campaign?  I’m not saying it will come to that.  Her strategy with Texas and Ohio may well pay off (although the more delegates Barack wins, the wider the margin of victory has to be for Hillary in those two states).  But it’s clear that her campaign has been rocked by Obama’s momentum and now she’ll have to try and convince the remaining primary states (the ones that “count”) that she’s the underdog and not the incumbent-who-wasn’t.

It Brings All the Boys to the Yard

Must. Have.

Update: HAVE.

I’m a Bad Person

Because I find this news story fucking hilarious.