SHORTER NORTH KOREA THREAT

Dennis Rodman told you to call me. You didn't call me. Therefore I will nuke you.

L.A. TIMES GOOFS, HANDS OUT SECOND OSCAR

Under the title "Oscars 2013: 'Inocente' wins documentary short" by Mark Olsen I discovered this choice sentence with the list of other nominees:

“Open Heart,” which follows the stories of eight Rwandan children with rheumatic heart disease, has won the documentary short Oscar on Sunday.

No, there were not two winners. This seem a bit lax for the L.A. Times, no? Unless the paper is giving Oscars out itself.

It's not a "Dewey Defeats Truman" moment, but for god's sake hire some more copy and research staff, will ya guys?

Cardinal O'Brien, Gay-Hating Closet Case

Keith O'Brien, Cardinal of Sin?

Details of the Vatican Homosexual Scandal are breaking faster than New Year's resolutions the past few days.

Allegedly, Cardinal O'Brien, put the moves on some hunky young seminarians. It all came out, along with much more, in a big honking red-bound report now stowed away in the Pope's private safe, whose combination may be soon forgotten. He has instantly resigned and won't be sending up any white smoke in the coming conclave, but can he really disappear in a puff of black smoke?

For us on this side of the Atlantic, let us take a fond look back. It was only a year ago when the Telegraph printed him thusly as he spake against gay marriage in his very own op-ed, placidly entitled "We Cannot Afford to Indulge This Madness":

... Will both teacher and pupils simply become the next victims of the tyranny of tolerance, heretics, whose dissent from state-imposed orthodoxy must be crushed at all costs

In Article 16 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, marriage is defined as a relationship between men and women. But when our politicians suggest jettisoning the established understanding of marriage and subverting its meaning they aren’t derided.

Instead, their attempt to redefine reality is given a polite hearing, their madness is indulged. Their proposal represents a grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right.

So, it's the gay people doing the repressing, eh? Gay folks like you, Cardinal? Hypocrisy doesn't begin to describe this man's blather about "the children, the children!" and all the other usual nonsense. He pens this in his closet while he sexually harasses his subordinates.

The man's more bent than a psychic's spoon.

UPDATE, March 3, 2013: Cardinal O'Brien's revolting non-apology apology.

"However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.
"To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness. To the Catholic Church and people of Scotland, I also apologise.
"I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland."

What's this "to those I have offended" BS?  Meaning anyone reading the news? I guess it applies not specifically to the guys he put the moves on, apparently, but just to anyone out there even slightly disgusted by the actions of this creep. That would be, I don't know, any non-sociopaths out there. Predictable from the "moral leaders" of our era, I guess, but still revolting.

See also: DOLAN'S DARK DOINGS AND PAYOFFS

JACK LEW: PRE-CORRUPTED

Jack Lew got a $1 million dollar bonus from CitiGroup for landing a job with the Government. That's one whirling revolving door! He took over the internal management of the U.S. State Department.

And CitiGroup was getting corporate welfare at the time, of course. This was spilled at his recent confirmation hearing for U.S. Treasury Secretary by Orrin Hatch, of all people, guardian of the public interest that he is.

Lew dodged the question badly, hemming and hawing about complexity, the first refuge of the scoundrel.

Expect him to shake up the cozy relations between Wall Street and their supposed regulators. Or not.

Enjoy the article for some other absurd excuses of the four-year-old variety.

And you have to laugh when the moss-encrusted Wall Street Journal runs an editorial against crony capitalism with Lew as the whipping-boy. The outrage, the outrage!

Obama's Second Inaugural Address - in praise of riot

Okay, we can put aside for a moment that his actions don't always mirror his rhetoric and call this one a damn good speech. I enjoyed watching Eric Cantor look like his head was going to explode (Boehner was already blubbering by Battle Hymn of the Republic, so he wasn't as fun to watch).

I'm delighted to watch the TV punditocracy tie itself in knots, baffled by Obama's full-throated progressive manifesto. (He wasn't supposed to say that, was he?)

Yes, he defended Social Security, after offering to cut it a few short weeks ago. I say, bravo and well done. No backpedaling now, the world heard you say it.

But I was struck by this bit, which made me sit up, take notice, and get all chokey-uppy:

And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice - not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes:  tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths - that all of us are created equal - is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

Yes, he went on to defend the equal rights of gay people, all people really, but the mention of Stonewall stands out. That was a riot, a real riot, a violent retribution for police brutality, a we-can't-take-it-anymore moment in history. Polite society is not supposed to endorse such uncouth behavior... well, maybe not until 40-odd years later, when the rioters are proven right after all.

I also loved that he mentioned Seneca Falls, the convention that gave birth to all women's rights movements throughout the world, not just America's own. The connection of the two to Selma is also key, and slams progressives who for decades have been happy to consider glbt people as other and undeserving. The left has some 'splainin' to do on that score! No matter, we can all proceed now if we drop the squabbles.

It's clear in this speech that he believes we must commit ourselves to extending progressive ideals all over the world. That is visionary, especially as we see ourselves mired in state-by-state or law-by-law fights for equal marriage, voting rights, equal pay, etc., etc. He declared that we can't stop with securing basic human rights for ourselves. And it's true, peace and security can't happen while barbarism flourishes. It's the proverbial tall order, but there you have it.

Copper Supply to be Choked?

This is interesting, and perhaps alarmist. It looks like the SEC is greenlighting financial instruments that buy up and hoard physical copper, which is a big change. The article says it could happen to grain or any other vital supply.

A lot of people scream for a free market, but they don't usually mean cornering markets, hoarding commodities, or any other traditionally destructive practice. It looks like something to be aware of as this one gets slipped through with no law in back of it.

Zero Dark Thirty - Nothing

My brain is still reeling from Zero Dark 30. Here are some highlights:

At least a half hour of torture porn that somehow managed to be boring and repetitive, followed by rapid-fire spitting of Arabic names I had likely read before, but could not place (nor did any of them get explained much).

The propagandistic propping up of the old saw that torture got any useful information, let alone being the key unlocking the hiding place of Osama.

A pasty mushroom-woman neurotic central character who took down the world's most wanted with a series of tics, spasms, and outbursts of hissy fits interrupting her otherwise cold, clammy, affectless demeanor.

A fairly good video game version (complete with dirty-screen overlay) of the actual raid in Pakistan. Worth the ticket? No, but I cared much more about the Navy Seal team than I did about the careerist, torture-loving wanks at the CIA the film massaged so lovingly.

So, we have, overall, a stew of nastiness that the critics love. I walked away muttering, "I'll never trust the critics again." Which only confirmed what I was muttering when I left The Master. More than that, this movie had dialog your average 15-year-old could have written. The Master at least felt like a 17-year-old wrote it.

I rate it: Zero, zilch, nada.

More: Senators write angry letters about the movie's central point, and the CIA's playing footsie with the picture people. 

Zero Dark Thirty - The Central Lie?

The story gets curiouser and curiouser. Senators Feinsten, McCain, and Levin have been writing letters hotly disputing the movie's central premise: that the CIA tortured the name of the courier out of a detainee, who they followed to Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

They want to know what the CIA told the Zero Dark Thirty people, who they are also asking to set the record straight. In communication to both they throw in these interesting bullet points about the torture program:

• The CIA did not first learn about the existence of the UBL courier from CIA detainees subjected to coercive interrogation techniques. Nor did the CIA discover the courier's identity from CIA detainees subjected to coercive techniques. No CIA detainee reported on the courier’s full name or specific whereabouts, and no detainee identified the compound in which UBL was hidden. Instead, the CIA learned of the existence of the courier, his true name, and location through means unrelated to the CIA detention and interrogation program. 

• Information to support the UBL operation was obtained from a wide variety of intelligence sources and methods. CIA officers and their colleagues throughout the Intelligence Community sifted through massive amounts of information, identified possible leads, tracked them down, and made considered judgments based on all of the available intelligence. 

• The CIA detainee who provided the most accurate information about the courier provided the information prior to being subjected to coercive interrogation techniques.

Gee, it looks like someone gave them some kind of information about the courier (after the identity was known?), but then they tortured the guy anyway. Nice.

The letters also point to a bit of coyness on the part of the CIA, and tries to pin the agency down on the details. Stay tuned.

Again, Zero Dark Thirty's central point is that torture works, torture is glorious, torture is what we should do. Take that away and the movie's story falls apart.

See my thrilling review of this dreadful movie.