Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

Okay, saw the new Indiana Jones film today. And it was...okay. Maybe not fabulous, but a worthy offering. I admit I went in with somewhat lowered expectations, thanks to several of my friends (including the honorable Whited Sepulchre ), who were not so impressed. The first third of the film was fabulous. Not to give anything away, but we are smack-dab in the middle of Cold War 1957 paranoia (sort of American Graffiti meets Raiders of the Lost Ark). Great cheesy fun with lots of cultural references. Added bonus for Scrubs fans: Neil Flynn , who plays the Janitor , has a small part as a suspicious FBI agent (he also played a guard on Harrison Ford's The Fugitive ). The middle third began to sag, despite all the action sequences (for me, anyway). Commies have replaced Nazis as the interchangeable Bad Guys. Yawn. The last third of the film revs things up again, and gives us an appropriately effects-laden ending, updating things to fit the 50's zeitgeist. Over the top, but hey, th...

...Because people are dumb asses. It's the old " boil-the-frog " story: as long as the price of gas goes up just enough to be uncomfortable each time but not excruciatingly painful, people will piss and moan for a few weeks, then continue to drive their Hummers and Lincoln Navigators. begin old-fart mode >I remember being in high school and paying thirty cents a gallon. After getting out of college, the first Energy Crisis hit. Gas sky-rocketed to a buck a gallon and it was as if the apocalypse had begun: odd and even day rationing, lines of cars snaking around the block, people generally convinced the fall of civilization was eminent. /end old-fart mode > The way I look at it, if people in honkin' big pickups are still whizzing past me on the freeway during my morning commute, gas prices haven't gotten expensive enough. I realize these outrageous prices affect me, too, but I feel a little like the woman who found the genie in the bottle and was told by the...

The new guy I report to (a good guy, really) told me yesterday that part of my performance would be rated by how quickly I accomplished a certain repetitive task. While task X is important, it's not the most important thing I do, at least in the eyes of the people I support. Another arbitrary metric. In the past, the line was, "That's not my job." Now it's, "That's not my metric."

After being a Hillary supporter since this election season began, I find myself slowly but inexorably tilting towards Obama. I admire much about her, but it's about time to fold up the tents and quietly do whatever it is she's planning on doing once she finally realizes it's over. I've grown less and less enthusiastic as she descends into the "say anything" region that abuts the last stop on the campaign. What finally pushed me over the edge has been this business of the gas-tax holiday, which strikes me as pandering in the worst possible way, not to mention being a bad idea--no, a freaking terrible idea--for any number of reasons better stated elsewhere . Sorry, my disgust quota has finally been reached. Steve Colbert's commentary last Monday pretty much summed up the whole situation better than anyone else could have. What can I say? The man's a flipping genius! As far as I'm concerned the current price of gas is a classic market-based solution....