Pacificapocalypse

Did We Really Need a Robo-Serial Killer?

Via io9

The arthouse gore hounds behind Machined have answered a question you never knew you had: How about a robo-serial killer made from scrap metal in a machine shop? I think the answer is still a tentative “no” even after seeing this mini-epic about a creepy, hairy, shirtless dude who turns a guy he hit with a car into a half-machine serial killer. Now he keeps his robo-pal in the basement and feeds him naked co-eds while watching on CCTV. Really, the entire movie is like this. There is no punch line.

Best comment:

Heh.
Doc Pop finds the Euros make with the funny.

Ok look, I’m no fan, by any means, of Pat Buchanan, but the man does have a handle on history.
Ignore the messenger ( odious though he may be ) and listen to the message.

Will the Terrorists Succeed Again?

“Terrorism is a tactic, a technique, a weapon that fanatics, dictators and warriors have resorted to through history. If, as Clausewitz wrote, war is the continuation of politics by other means, terrorism is the continuation of war by other means.”

So, will they? I’m not so sure. I do believe he’s correct in his argument that the real target of this attack is Pakistan itself:

But the strategic target of the militants is the Pakistani government.
Pakistan’s offenses? Cooperating with America in Afghanistan and the border region, battling al-Qaida and the Taliban, withdrawing from the fight for Kashmir, seeking peace with a Hindu nation where 170 million Muslims are denied their place in the sun.

I pray ( as I seldom do these days ) that cooler heads prevail and that these ten criminals do not end up in the history books, but instead, as Trotsky said:

“You are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on / into the dustbin of history!”

I have a little more than passing acquaintance with the Twilight series, primarily through Court, who as a educator of these… young minds, has to experience the fan phenomena on a more personal level every day.

And her opinion is clear if not profane.
And apparently she’s not alone.
Came across this via Reddit:

Twilight has raped the minds of teenage girls everywhere…

Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga has stormed onto the national scene drawing streams of female fans, ranging from pre-teens to adults and has spurred a blockbuster movie…and has just reiterated the same concept illustrated to me by Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code: most people have no idea what composes good storytelling or literature.

Read the whole thing.
My favorite take is a comment by Akira:

Let’s cut to the chase.
These books, and the movie, are evil.
Evil sells.
All this talk about “Well at least kids are reading!” is such nonsense. It’s like saying about Satanists, “Well at least they’re praying.”

For facile critics of critics: No, they’re not evil because they’re about vampires. And they’re not good books because there’s no sex. Better a thousand morally serious, obscenity-riddled and sex-filled books about evil, than one lousy sexless Satanic book that presents evil as normal, reasonable or understandable.

Could not have said it better myself.