A Very Stray Thought

A film in which Abraham Lincoln is re-imagined as a vampire-hunter? Oh, please.  Yet by the end of this NY Times article I was actually looking forward to the movie.

And as if by unearthly providence, later that day I came across an excerpt of a Lincoln speech at Cooper Union, in which he explained the impossibility of compromising with and placating slave-holders:

Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored – contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man ...

Whaaaa?!? Lincoln offering undead metaphors, and admitting his failure as a vampire hunter?  Now I really have to see the flick.

Comments

[bgates]

Mr. Walker — who was cast after the impression he made as another president in the title role of the stage musical “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” — said he found Lincoln’s agile, ax-wielding inner killer by drawing on past experience. “I studied ballet,” he said.

You guys will little note nor long remember what I comment about that paragraph, but you can never forget how stupid that paragraph was.

[Danube of Thought]

Got that book as a birthday gift. Can't read print that small. Somebody please tell me: is it worth getting it (so I can enlarge the font) on the i-Pad Kindle?

[narciso]

LOL, bgates, 'that is very silly indeed, get on with it'

[Ignatz]

Abe the Vampire Slayer?
Could we bribe TM's wife to burn his copy of the NYTimes before he reads it each day?
Would probably make for fewer but better thread topics.

[Captain Hate]

Before my local Borders closed, I lolled when I saw the cover of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". I'm not sure that the two events weren't unrelated.

[narciso]

There's an interesting take on the Vampire meme, '12, (referring to 1812 overture,) thinking of it, as War and Piece, meets Dracula, sort of.

[Ecommerce website developer.]

I think the things you covered through the post are quiet impressive, good job and great efforts. I found it very interesting and enjoyed reading all of it...keep it up, lovely job.

[daddy]

Yay Jane,

I'd share a Jail-cell with you anytime!

[Jane]

LOL Daddy. The kids thought they were way cool. I missed the unvieling but after the description wish I hadn't.

[Pops]

So yesterday, the President joked about those who favor a moat and alligators on the border. Meanwhile at the same time we have drug gangs digging 250 feet long tunnels through solid rock to get drugs across the border to our kids.

So where are the Republicans? They should be screaming YES, Mr. President, we do want moats and alligators to keep the drug gangs from our kids...its the LEAST we can do.

[sbw]

bgates: you can never forget how stupid that paragraph was.

Really? Remember Rahm?

[Extraneus]

Good morning.

[Captain Hate]

I'm thinking Howie Carr isn't a big Mitt fan: http://bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?&articleid=1337097&format=&page=1&listingType=col#articleFull

Btw in case our friend Mustang shows up, I'm enjoying listening to Sunny Sweeny's "Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame" as I type this.

[narciso]

Right, wasn't there a South Africa jihadist, forget the name of the group who was stopped
at the border, some years back, wasn't El shukrijumah, 'Jaafar the pilot' rooting around
in Central America, for a time,

[Pops]

What we don't want at our border Mr. President is a Welcome Mat and a federal credit card.

[clarice]

Is it me? I know I haven't had my coffee but what in the world are Jane and Daddy talking about?

[Chubby]

smuggling illegal chocolate eggs?

[Pops]

Kind of funny that after a week of the adminstration telling us that Pakistan - a backward third world country- should have known they had illegal alien criminals living in their country and they should have done something about it...

to this week when the President must know their are thousands or criminal illegal aliens that he isn't do anything about...

[narciso]

I imagine, it was something that Jane found in Paris, that daddy told her about.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

BTW, if you have been following the the voter intimidation scandal in Soutbridge (the next town from me) the re-election was held yesterday.

In the November election, the republican Peter Durant won by 1 vote. On the basis of some weird testimony a Judge declared a new primary and election. After the primary, the town manager who works with the town clerk, who is the cousin of the then incumbent, called Eric Holder's office and alleged intimidation.

The allegation was based on the erection of a billboard in town (see at the above link) which the manager alleged constituted "voter intimidation".

This was the same action which resulted in the tea party losing its meeting place as threats were made to pull business from the bank where we met if they continued to lend us the room.

The general, held yesterday was observed by tea partiers and justice department officials. As far as I know no irregularities were reported. Peter Durant, the republican won.

[narciso]

It turns out that they got their own version of the Zetas:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1385697/Ilyas-Kashmiri-emerges-dark-horse-Osama-Bin-Laden-Al-Qaeda-leader.html

[Pops]

Abraham Lincoln allready appeared as a 'good guy' fighting evil in Star Trek..The Savage Curtain.

Hope he doesn't get type-cast and branches out. I'd like to see him do an appearance on Doctor Who...

[Threadkiller]

Is this the guy you are thinking of, narciso?

A history of derisive religious and political views and an international criminal past mark the Tunisian Muslim Cleric who snuck into the country from Mexico in early January. The man, Said Jaziri, was found hiding in the trunk of a BMW by Border Patrol agents who were tipped off by state firefighters.

That happened in San Diego county.

[Captain Hate]

Once again Pops @ 8:06 has the message the Repuke dimwits should be pounding this morning instead of examining their togas for any unsightly blemishes. Ahhh the Duke and Duke corporate culture strikes again.

[narciso]

I was thinking more of the person mentioned at
the end here, in the LUN

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

I could tell you Clarice, but then I'd have to kill you.

BTW I waited to get to the airport to get your magazine and then promptly forgot. I'm really sorry.

[clarice]

Don't give it a second thought, Jane.

[clarice]

Great story about Durant.Rah rah

[narciso]

My polite demeanor prevents from fully expressing the way I feel about Bin Laden pere, castigating us, for the handling of his 'old man'

[narciso]

Just another reminder, of how Panetta isn't really all that,

http://swampland.time.com/2011/05/04/did-torture-get-the-us-osama-bin-laden/

[Rob Crawford]

Hope he doesn't get type-cast and branches out. I'd like to see him do an appearance on Doctor Who...

LUN -- apparently he's been in one episode on TV and multiple times in other media.

[Captain Hate]

Don't you mean Bin Laden fils, narc?

Laura Ingraham: Tim Geithner and Hillary are the twin towers of disaster on dealing with China.

Iowahawk: Newt loves America until it gets cancer.

[narciso]

I was reminded by that earlier link, how dissapointed the Democrats were, that the
interrogation tapes weren't available, as they
could have used them, to go after the interrogators and try to incite the Moslem world further.

[PD]

My polite demeanor prevents from fully expressing the way I feel about Bin Laden pere, castigating us, for the handling of his 'old man'

Don't jihadis typically say they're in it "to the death"? Sounds like we gave bin Laden what he wanted and the castigator should instead be thanking us for services rendered.

[PD]

until it gets cancer

Wasn't that My Friends?

[narciso]

True that, Captain, I'm reminded PD, of how Efraim Bamaca, the wannabe guerilla of the late 90s, wanted to be like 'Che' then his wife complained to Bianca Jagger, who relayed
her concerns to Torricelli, 'be careful what
you wish for'

[Dubious but Horribly Dishonest]

Minus 12 at Raz today; 48% overall.

[Captain Hate]

PD, I don't know about McVain, although I'm always prepared to believe the worst about him, but it appears the eye of the Newt was the victim of some shoddy MFM reporting which amazingly always seems to skew against Repubs:

Gingrich has been married three times. In 1962, he married Jackie Battley, his former high school geometry teacher, when he was 19 years old and she was 26.[102][103] In the spring of 1980, Gingrich left Battley after having an affair with Marianne Ginther.[104][105] News reports have often mentioned that Gingrich visited Battley while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery to discuss the details of their divorce. However, Gingrich has disputed the account[85] as has his daughter, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, who has written that it was her mother who requested the divorce, that it happened prior to the hospital stay (which was for the removal of a benign tumor, not cancer), and that Gingrich’s visit was for the purpose of bringing his children to see their mother, not to discuss the divorce.

[PD]

Minus 12

The bounce has fully ebbed.

[narciso]

Yes, and that account first came from David Osborne, if he hadn't the second affair, while
denouncing Clinton, I would have given him the benefit of the doubt, but his flacking for
Freddie Mac, his 'date' with Boxer, for AGW
are more concerning.

[Cecil Turner]

This:

Aside From the Vampires, Lincoln Film Seeks Accuracy

fairly begs for: "aside from that Mrs. Lincoln, how'd you like the play?" But I think the best part is vampire slave-traders. Not sure what's worse, them or Nazi zombies . . . but anyway, what's not to hate?

[Captain Hate]

Yes the cuddle couch AGW session with Pelosi Galore was whoring of a different kind; and the WSJ has come down repeatedly on his ethanol pandering.

[Danube of Thought]

Time for Newt to move on. Any GOP president would be well-advised to listen to his ideas; the trick is in knowing which ones need to be rejected out of hand.

[Rob Crawford]

The bounce has fully ebbed.

Really? On the radio they were desperately fluffing The Highest Approval Ratings Ever Recorded or something like that.

[centralcal]

Good morning. I am seeing headlines on the web that John Kerry is going to go talk to the Pakistanis.

Makes you feel sorry for Pakistan.

[centralcal]

Rob C: you must be talking about the AP poll. Jim Geraghty at NRO and ED Morrissey at HotAir are all over it. From Geraghty:

With a poll sample that has a 17 percentage point margin in favor of the Democrats, is anyone surprised that these results look like a David Axelrod dream?

[Captain Hate]

Again I'm thinking the hero of Abbottabad's internals must be a disaster if he's trying to rally the base with a loser issue like immigration reform to distract attention from everything else.

[Rob Crawford]

cc -- I figured it was something like that.

But what the morning commuters heard was not the horrible internals, but how Everyone Loves Obama.

[Danube of Thought]

Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Gasoline prices will remain high through 2012, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. The government's prediction Tuesday assumes significant increases in global oil consumption, oil price increases to go along with that, and even stronger profits for oil companies in the short run. But it does not mention the volatility that has beset oil markets in the last couple of weeks, driving prices to near record highs. The spikes -- driven by massive amounts of investor money electronically moving in and out of the commodities markets -- have convinced many motorists that somebody is gouging them.

[narciso]

Jacobsen points out how Obama's jab against Fox was just another 'bitter clinger' moment
of illumination.

[PD]

Makes you feel sorry for Pakistan.

Maybe they need a botox refill.

[Mark in Houston]

DoT
I thought the ending of Vampire Hunter was a little weak compared to the rest of the book.

[PD]

But it does not mention

... the administration's policy of shutting down domestic production?

[Extraneus]

Are there really that many motorists who watch the commodities markets closely enough to know about recent spikes and volatility, as opposed to just higher prices? And does it make sense that these same people -- expert enough to closely follow the commodities markets -- are also the people who darkly suspect that "somebody is gouging them"?

[Danube of Thought]

Thanks Mark. I think I'll wait a while and listen for a little more buzz.

[narciso]

That is the point of the exercise, Ext, strangle independent oil production, fatten
the profit margins of the majors, for a time,kill off Alaska's 'golden goose,' as a bonus prize.

[Captain Hate]

Are there really that many motorists who watch the commodities markets closely enough to know about recent spikes and volatility, as opposed to just higher prices?

I'm sure that Muffer Stalin-Rodham is avidly reading the WSJ and poised to make another killing in commodities trading.

[Danube of Thought]

David Bernstein at Volokh:

That these three judges will vote to uphold the mandate, the signature policy achievement of a Democratic president and Congress, and do so unanimously, is almost a foregone conclusion, and, for reasons explained here, the question of whether three Democratic judges think that the activity/non-activity distinction is persuasive is entirely irrelevant to the ultimate outcome of the litigation.

I do find it amusing, thought, that, as Orin reports, “Motz shot back that, when Daniel Webster spent four days arguing a case on commerce regulation before the Supreme Court, he never once mentioned ‘activity’ as a crucial factor, and the Constitution itself does not mention the word.”

I don’t think that the Democrats want to fight this battle over the 18th or early 19th century understanding of Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce.

[MayBee]

I am going to say something nice.

It looks like Michelle has gotten her arms back in shape.

[narciso]

Alligator are so passee, when you can have 'sharks with lasers' I know they are not fresh water, but we can make accomodations.

[MayBee]

I went to a taping of the X Factor the other day. The comedian doing the warm up act asked people in the audience who had the X Factor. Justin Bieber, Michael Jackson, people said. Then someone answered "Obama has the X Factor". I can report that even in LA, the audience response was decidedly mixed. Some applause, some boos, lotsa groans.

[Jim Miller]

Bull sharks might be able to do the job.

[Rick Ballard]

Extraneous,

The current Short Term Energy Outlook (prepared by the Federal government) points to the President

EIA expects production from the Federal Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to fall by 130,000 bbl/d in 2011 and by a further 190,000 bbl/d in 2012 because of production declines from existing fields and the impact of last year's drilling moratorium and the subsequent delay in issuing new drilling permits....

Forecast OPEC crude oil production declines in 2011, falling by about 450,000 bbl/d, followed by an increase of 640,000 bbl/d in 2012. EIA assumes that about one-half of Libya's pre-disruption production will resume by the end of 2012.

as the main villain in the conspiracy to immiserate motorists through robbery at the pump. The Muddle is bright enough to understand that actions taken to limit supply will drive prices up and they're bright enough to place the blame in the Oval Office. This time, that's where it belongs - even Uncle Sugar himself says so.

[Extraneus]

What's the X Factor, MayBee? I know it's a show like American Idol, but I couldn't find what it means to "have" it, although I couldn't agree more that Obama doesn't.

[narciso]

Yet more commentary from the poet laureate:

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2011/05/10/obama-white-house-invites-racist-misogynist-pro-cop-killer-rapper-to-evening-of-poetry/

[Jim Miller]

Going back to the movie: I don't see many, but I might make an exception for this one. And as I said in my own post, it does supply an explanation for John Wilkes Booth.

DoT - FWIW, more than half (126 of 244) of the reviewers at Amazon give the book a 5 star rating.

[narciso]

I'll read the book, and report back, the things I do, LOL.

[MayBee]

Ex-
The "X Factor" is that extra sumthin sumthin that makes someone a star.
Maybe we should call it the Ex factor

[Captain Hate]

Question for the JOM attorneys: How frustrating is it that your profession has been coopted by the lefties as the means to thwart the will of the people?

[Extraneus]

lol. Yeah, that's exactly what we should call it.

[Danube of Thought]

Raz on May 2:

Now, 34.8% of American adults consider themselves to be Republicans, 33.5% say they are Democrats, and 31.7% say they’re not affiliated with either major party.

[Captain Hate]

31.7% say they’re not affiliated with either major party.

Another Duke and Duke success story.

[MarkO]

"How frustrating is it that your profession has been coopted by the lefties as the means to thwart the will of the people?"

Were you alive in the '60's?

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Gasoline prices will remain high through 2012, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says.

The flooding in the gulf will make at least 3 refineries unusable which will cause another spike - assuming it proceeds as expected.

[narciso]

Meanwhile Syria is 'defriending' scads of people in Homs, Bill Richardson?? will be along with a strongly worded statement, like
the uber PC missives in 'Demolition Man, 'tell
the maniac, in a calm clear voice, to desist
immediately.

[Captain Hate]

Mark, I was alive in the 50's. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make because the pendulum swung about as far to the left as it has in my lifetime in the 60's; ie LBJ's landslide victory over Goldwater. Also the libs in the 60s had their own civil war to deal with and there was a much higher percentage of lefties who believed the Constitution didn't need to be completely remade.

[Pops]

The whole politicians worrying about obesity is starting to piss me off.

I proposed we have a political obesity index and start charging politicians for the obesity of their budgets.

Every percentage point they are over spending, we deduct 1% of their pay, 10 percent deficit, 10% cut in pay..etc.

I am so sick of politicians that think it is their jobs to run our lives, rather then do the job we pay them for so we can run our own lives.

Of course we would have to cut Obamas pay by about 60% per year.

I am convinced the only way to fix this mess it to NOT raise the debt ceiling, or raise it 200 Billion with the caveat that that is the last raise and starting with the 2012 budget, you better be in balance.

The Republicans need to understand that it is deficits that keep liberals in office. They get to spend money to get re-elected without the people enduring the hardship of the tax rates it would require to support the level of spending they want.

If the Federal government couldn't raise the debt, they would be forced to either cut spending or pass a huge tax increase to continue the liberal spending.

Borrowing is the only thing keeping liberalism afloat.

[Danube of Thought]

I'm not sure I understand what CH's question means. There have been leftist lawyers since before I was born; I don't notice anything new today.

[Rob Crawford]

I am so sick of politicians that think it is their jobs to run our lives, rather then do the job we pay them for so we can run our own lives.

I think the real problem is that too many "Americans" think it's appropriate to elect a president to run other peoples' lives. The average politician isn't sufficiently motivated to care if people are fat; they're responding to what they hear.

[narciso]

THey are more clearly 'running the asylum'
now, consider the senior partners at Acheson's
old firm 'Covington, Shearman, Wilmer, et al.

Meanwhile the Post doesn't even serve as good
puppy training material:

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/05/11/website-of-wash-post-editorialist-pronounces-barack-obama-is-dead/#comments

[MarkO]

CH. I think that by and large the decisions of the Supreme Court are significantly more conservative (whatever that is) than in the '60's and '70's. If the point is to recognize the corruption of the legal system as it relates to judges and decisional law, I think it just depends on where one might look. There is the poorly names criminal justice system, which generally processes those caught up by the power of the State. Civil cases, including those that make the papers, like the Obamacare case, are greatly influenced by factors such as politics, but there are other issues as well, including the talent of the litigator (that's how the Dodger matter unwound), and the silly mandates to have judges clear their calendars.

I have not been visited by the ghosts of those cases that gave trees standing to sue, but the penumbras, like force, are always with us.

Moreover, one cannot dismiss the effects of judges who pack the intellectual heft of Cleo.

[Rocco]

Alligators in Arizona? How silly, everyone knows alligators aren't native to Arizona! He must be thinking about one of those other 57 states. Besides venomous water snakes are much more efficient.

Jane, great news! I hope it was more than a few votes. Welcome home.

Is Howie Carr right? Should Mitt just admit he was wrong or would they hammer him on another flip flop?

[Rob Crawford]

I'm not sure I understand what CH's question means. There have been leftist lawyers since before I was born; I don't notice anything new today.

I think the difference is the profession as a whole has internalized the lefts' goals. See also doctors.

Some of this is likely due to institutional capture of professional organizations. Anyone else here ever a member of IEEE? I dropped my membership after years of hearing them repeat the same "solution" to every problem: federal money, federal money, federal money.

[MarkO]

"I think the difference is the profession as a whole has internalized the lefts' goals."

This feels like the old debate about whether assholes go to law school or law school produces assholes.

As for me, I decry the false choices.

[Danube of Thought]

those cases that gave trees standing to sue

I think the clinically insane William O. Douglas alluded to that possibility at one point, but if there was ever a case that actually allowed such a thing I am unaware of it.

It seems to me that the Warren court started the whole process of radicalizing the profession. It became possible to effect "social change" through litigation, so the usual suspects were attracted.

[narciso]

'the rest of the story'

http://bigpeace.com/kschlichter/2011/05/11/the-bin-laden-files-excerpts-from-osamas-captured-diary/

[Captain Hate]

Thanks for the response, Mark; I'm going to take a while to consider everything you wrote before responding further on it.

I guess my biggest gripe is how relentless the left seems to be on pushing their agenda, through any means necessary, and how frustrated I am by the wishy-washiness of the grandees in the Republican party. For example, yesterday's speech by BOzo should've been a treasure trove of dumbass statements to blast him with and put him on the defensive. Yet I don't hear anything from the declared candidates so in essence he's given a pass on it, just like every other thing he does.

I've had it with the spinelessness of the Repukes on being unwilling to confront him on anything. I can't take people with such a lack of urgency seriously.

[Danube of Thought]

Justice Douglas, dissenting in Sierra Club v. Morton (1972):

The critical question of "standing" would be simplified and also put neatly in focus if we fashioned a federal rule that allowed environmental issues to be litigated before federal agencies or federal courts in the name of the inanimate object about to be despoiled, defaced, or invaded by roads and bulldozers and where injury is the subject of public outrage. Contemporary public concern for protecting nature's ecological equilibrium should lead to the conferral of standing upon environmental objects to sue for their own preservation.

* * * *

Inanimate objects are sometimes parties in litigation. A ship has a legal personality, a fiction found useful for maritime purposes. The corporation sole — a creature of ecclesiastical law — is an acceptable adversary and large fortunes ride on its cases.... So it should be as respects valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, lakes, estuaries, beaches, ridges, groves of trees, swampland, or even air that feels the destructive pressures of modern technology and modern life. The river, for example, is the living symbol of all the life it sustains or nourishes — fish, aquatic insects, water ouzels, otter, fisher, deer, elk, bear, and all other animals, including man, who are dependent on it or who enjoy it for its sight, its sound, or its life. The river as plaintiff speaks for the ecological unit of life that is part of it.

[Captain Hate]

Exhibit A of McCain family values: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/meghan-mccain-goes-naked-for-racy-skin-cancer-psa/

[MarkO]

DoT, that still makes me laugh out loud. Not even Wm Van Alstyne could take it seriously.

[Rob Crawford]

CH -- that's cold, linking to something like that. I thought you liked us?

Thank goodness the link includes the warning.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Frankly,

I think if we lose on Obamacare it is time to talk about secession.

[glasater]

Blast on my iphone:

CME has halted trade on gasoline from a drop in price of 7%.

?

[Jim Ryan]

So the 4th Circuit panel of two Obama appointees and a Clinton appointee, is going to overturn Henry Hudson's ruling because activity is indistinguishable from inactivity. That's great. It's up to Justice Kennedy, then?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Fun, fun, fun!

[maryrose]

Jim Ryan:
Never fear- the Supremes will slap back Obamacare toute suite.
It's unconstitutional and the lefties know it. It's only a matter of time before SCOTUS confirms it.
As far as responding to Obama and immigration- it was his party and Obama himself who torpedoed President Bush's attempt at reform. Hannity is on it as is O'Reilly. By the number of negative comments after Obama'a speech I think everyone is going to let Obama crash and burn on this one.Repubs just need to refute his lies and focus on the budget which is where Obama is really vulnerable.

[narciso]

They would kick it up to an enbanc hearing, right,

[Danube of Thought]

Best we can hope for, JimR. And it's a long shot. We need to get Obama out of there in 2012, and that's not looking like a sure thing either.

[squaredance]

Well, there is this.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Has anybody read these NOAA "Catch-Share" regs?

Utterly Soviet. I looked into it after narciso's point to the news story. These fishermen are forbidden to talk about the regs if they are subject to them.

This needs a bigger push out of the shadows.