Uganda. Gays. Blacks. Evangelicals.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The concept of "big" government is disgusting when it comes to healthcare, corporate regulation, taxes, etc. But it looks like some are perfectly okay with government in their bedrooms. The message: Stay out of our boardrooms, but come regulate what goes on in our bedrooms. We like this idea so much it's now in Uganda. Because Africa needs Jesus. And the gay cure. And if they're lucky, they may even get democracy too!

Teabagging: A History

This is the funniest thing I've read all week.

Just when you think it's died out, a gem like this comes along to rekindle that old spark.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

As performed by LOLcats.

30,000

The Daily Show on President Obama's Afghanistan speech:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
30,000
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

My own reaction to the speech was similar. Much of it was very Dubya-ish, but throughout the campaign Obama said that he would devote significantly more resources to the Afghanistan war, so any liberals out there who expected him to pull out were engaging in some wishful thinking.

There are no good options, and upon some reflection I think Obama is probably taking the least bad course. It's worthwhile to devote resources to try to improve the situation in Afghanistan, but it will never be ideal and what Obama acknowledges, which Bush never did in Iraq, is that our large-scale involvement will have to come to an end. Critics argue that by setting the flexible 2011 withdrawal date the Taliban will just be able to wait us out. Things don't work that way and here's a good explanation why.

Yesterday General McChrystal quoted Winston Churchill and said that in Afghanistan we are at "the end of the beginning." I see the utility in saying that to prepare the military for a difficult road ahead, but this strategy is really the beginning of the end, as it should be.

Feel the Boyle-mentum!

I fear Susan Boyle may have forever tainted the song "Wild Horses." Shame, because I really dig that tune, especially the mid-nineties cover by The Sundays. Oh well. Such disappointments are the fabric of life.

EDIT: The worst part of it all...the Susan Boyle version is kinda sorta achingly beautiful.

Presidential Address On Afghanistan Drinking Game

We all know by now what the President's new plan is for the War in Afghanistan, so we need something to keep the speech tonight interesting.

Drink when you hear these words and phrases:

troops

benchmark

finish the job

safe-haven

Taliban

al-qeada

hope

Pakistan

change

bless

God

America

deficit

daffodil

9/11

That should get you started.

War Bonds

Moderate senators haven't really taken to the "war tax" idea that was floated last week, but now some say we should have "war bonds" instead, like in World War II.

I suppose that would be preferable to the status quo, but this depends on people actually buying the bonds. Also, is this really any different than the bonds the Chinese buy all the time?

Why is actually raising the revenue through a modest tax increase on the wealthy such a crazy idea?

Politico Is Awful

Since President Obama is going to announce tonight on the teevee that he will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, Politico decided it was very important to interview Dick Cheney and get his super serial analysis about how much of a faggot Obama is. What Cheney had to say was stupid enough, the but the village "journalists" at Politico don't seem to understand the concept of a follow-up question.

CLEARLY, the administration that started and mismanaged the war for eight years is not to blame for its present state.

The fact that Dick Cheney has seemingly learned nothing from his own failures is upsetting, but I shouldn't be surprised since no one who interviews him ever asks him about them.

Ooops

Looks like the alleged cop killer in Washington state was at one point granted clemency by a one Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. Of course, when conservatives do things like this it's because they are great Americans who believe in the healing power of Jesus Christ. When liberals do this sort of thing it's because they are dirty fucking hippies who love criminals and secretly loath the victims. Makes sense to me!

Oile?...er...Texans!

My local sports franchise needs some help.

Antichrist Review

I don't make it to the movies much these days for a variety of reasons, but when I found out Lars von Trier, the Danish bête noir of the film industry, had made a new film, and that this film was called Antichrist, I knew what had to be done. The film is alternately the most entrancing work I've seen by von Trier and at times downright disgusting, but I would call it a success and a much needed dose of Gothic and intra-familial horror in a genre now dominated by dull torture porn.

The film stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a nameless married couple only known as "He" and "She," whose child dies by jumping out of a window while husband and wife are making love in one of the most over-stylized sequences I've ever seen in film. The design of the sequence, dominated by slow-motion and digitized color-editing, is no doubt von Trier playing with his audience, who have come to associate him with the stripped down, Dogme95 aesthetic. The sequence is beautifully edited, with the Italian chamber music soundtrack almost invoking a feeling of ballet, but it does eventually begin to try one's patience. After this opening prologue, the cinematography is more subdued, yet still much more stylized than other von Trier films.

After the death of her son, She is hospitalized when she collapses at her son's funeral, crippled by grief. Feeling his wife is being over-medicated and not allowed to experience her emotions properly, He, a therapist with unconventional methods, decides he is better suited to treat his wife. The two hike to a secluded cabin in the woods named Eden in the hopes of overcoming her maternal guilt.

Once they arrive, the film slowly builds toward its extreme yet ultimately unsatisfying conclusion. He has visions of still-born dear and talking foxes so well crafted that they will linger with you long after you leave the theater. It is during these moments that Antichrist is at its best, as von Trier has the nerve to to take time to use sound and image to build mood, all the while making his audience tear their hair out in anticipation of the horrific climax they know is coming. She continues to be tortured by grief until one day she wakes up feelin' fine, and we know it's all downhill from there. What follows are closeup shots of genital mutilation the Saw films only imply, and while von Trier's desire to shock his "seen-it-all" audience is admirable, it feels oddly superfluous to the film as a whole. These scenes have added to the film's notoriety, but not to the film itself.

The first hour and a half of the film, leading up to the explosion of violence, is masterful. More than anything else it recalls Stanley Kubrick's The Shining with it's slow, brooding terror and its demonstration that the person you share your bed with every night can be a source of dread. However, if von Trier had shown some restraint in the film's final twenty minutes, he would have delivered film that signified the best of the horror genre, but as is Antichrist showcases the best and the worst. Still, that's more than you can expect from the latest Eli Roth camp dreck.