Across Difficult Country

Atonement A comedy about a boy (Keira Knightly) who disguises himself as a girl to infiltrate the stately manor of Lord Snardbollocks and steal the Snardbollocks' family jewels. Hilarity ensues when assorted homosexualists (Englishmen) living at the manor find they’ve ‘inexplicably’ fallen in love with ‘her’. Juno I saw the preview to Juno in a theater. Afterwards I got up, went out to the lobby, and started punching people in the face. On principle. There Will Be Blood An elegy to our vanished way of life: men dig a hole in the ground, oil spouts out, everyone cheers then goes bowling. Existence had solidity and meaning; work was tangible and rewarding. Today it’s sit in cube, tap-tapitty-tap on keyboard, get yelled at by a lady-boss, then home to play Nintendo Wii or, worse, watch a movie like "Juno". What worms. Michael Clayton Dull bio-pic about a Tampa Bay wide receiver who caught 22 passes for 301 yards last season. 10,000 B.C. A stunning recreation of the world as...

Reporter Blaga Bangieva sends sad news from Bulgaria: Tobacco smoking in tourist sites to be forbid completely with a law from the start of 2009 are suggesting from Association of Bulgaria tour operators and tour agencies. In many European countries the ban already exists and this hasn't reflected to the incomes of hoteliers and restaurant owners. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) enters from July 1 only electronic tickets, which will embarrass the activity of tour agencies, because still many air carriers don't offer this kind of services.” Optimistic won’t effect tourism. Alas, I know from experience Blaga's optimism is misplaced. Is there anyplace in the world that still welcomes smokers? Yes, India, it turns out. The people there smoke like fiends : There are 120 million smokers in India, half of them younger than 30, the study found. India has a larger population of smokers than any other country in the world except China. Not only does India have a s...

The fossil of a giant, prehistoric frog that looked like a “ slightly squashed beach-ball ” was discovered in Madagascar, and researchers immediately began slandering its reputation, naming it Beezelbufo ('frog from hell’), and calling it “bad”, “ mean ”, and a “devil”. Yet there’s zero evidence one way or the other regarding the ancient amphibian’s manners or philanthropic pursuits. Whatever happened to scientific ethics? The Beezelbufo, which weighed over 10lbs and dined on baby dinosaurs, is thought to have gone extinct more than 65 million years ago, though some scientists believe it may have evolved into an anatomically similar toad living today known as the Jpod . This photo captured a Jpod moments before stuffing a human baby into its maw.

After careful consideration, I must formally announce the end of my tenure as Overseas Artistic Advisor to the Swaziland Reed Dance . Changing circumstances precludes my spending any more time and energy on ebony-hued bouncing-teenage titties; I must instead focus on fighting the crime against civilization  called the ' War on Tobacco ’. Also, after learning from the chairman of the West Sumatra branch of the Indonesian Clerics’ Council that Valentine’s Day is a Zionist plot , I’ve decided to formally announce I will not be participating in this year’s Valentine’s Day. According to Chairman Buya Mas’oed Abidin : "Kegemaran tersebut perlu segera dihentikan, karena hal itu tidak cocok dengan budaya kita," kata Buya Mas'oed Abidin, di Padang, Selasa. Hari kasih sayang, digelar kapitalis dan satu konspirasi yahudi itu bakal diperingati remaja dunia pada 14 Pebruari 2008, dan kebiasaan tersebut juga bakal diperingati generasi muda di tanah air, seperti tahun-tahun lal...

“Morality is not a science or knowledge that can stand on thought alone; morality is a practice. This explains why the heart of the inauthentic moralist beats only for distant and unattainable causes (in space and time): this gives him an excuse for not taking moral action and remaining all talk. It is very difficult to preach morality to one’s neighbor without applying it to oneself: by his very presence the other bears witness to the imposture and casts reproach in the face of the Pharisee. When the other is far removed, however, there is no reproachful look. The Pharisee therefore has every interest in reserving his moral discourse for the distant other, while he writes his neighbor off as a loss, on the argument that he is free to do what he wishes.” – Chantal Delsol, The Unlearned Lessons of the Twentieth Century .

Larison’s blog has absorbed the American Conservative . Breathing in the dust of dried cow shits prevents lung cancer . Did the Sandsend Blob attack a Chatsworth, California woman in 1971 ?

After overturning their parents’ taste in music, like all good little revolutionaries the children of the 60’s proceeded to oppress every subsequent generation with their taste in music. Now they’ve gone one step further and are inflicting the soundtrack of their perpetual adolescence on extraterrestrials : For the first time ever, NASA beamed a song -- The Beatles' "Across the Universe" -- directly into deep space at 7 p.m. EST on Feb. 4. The transmission over NASA's Deep Space Network commemorated the 40th anniversary of the day The Beatles recorded the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of NASA's founding and the group's beginnings... The transmission was aimed at the North Star, Polaris, which is located 431 light years away from Earth. The song will travel across the universe at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. I am relieved NASA didn’t send out that insufferable " Imagine " song. Hearing that tune could easily provoke aliens into coming...

Peasants discovered an enormous ear of corn in a field outside of Mexico City last Thursday. Theologians think the colossal cob harbingers the return of Chicomecoatl , the Aztec goddess of maize. Once a year the Aztecs would select a lucky girl to symbolically represent Chicomecoatl in a sacred ritual: "Every September a young girl...was sacrificed. The priests decapitated the girl, collected her blood and poured it over a figurine of the goddess. The corpse was then flayed and the skin was worn by a priest." Aztecs called this “being given the usual.” Chicomecoatl was married to a fellow named Tezcatlipoca who had a snake for a foot, which seems strange now, but that was the style back then.