Feckless in Florida

I was listening to NPR on the way home from work today and they were discussing the GOP primary in Florida. Skip ahead to 38:10 and listen to the gem comment from one caller.
 

Caller: "...I've always voted Republican. And I'm going to stick with Rick Santorum because I believe he is the one that's got the cleanest slate. He doesn't have all the baggage that Romney has with his IRS issues and that um, Gingrich has with his wife issues. So I think uh, I think it's safe to say that Santorum would have the least ammunition to uh, to go against with Obama. Obama would probably have not much to fire at him. So uh, I am going to go safe and go Santorum."

I mean, let's keep this in perspective, this is just some guy that happened to get his call answered but I really feel that many, many conservatives (to be as least judgmental as possible) share at least one of these sentiments. Let me count the fail:

1. Total allegiance to the republican party.  OK, I give a marginal pass and an "Agree to Disagree" on this.
2. Voting for the least dirtied candidate.  Santorum only seems so safe to this guy because he hasn't drawn any attention from the others.  It's not like he doesn't have any skeletons, which I'll get back to in #4.
3. Complete confusion on the actual issues.  Romney's IRS issues?  If making a ton of money and paying a low (legal) tax rate on it were IRS issues, I'd like to shoulder some of that burden. Come on, Guy!
4. Complete ignorance of the actual issues.  Maybe it's selective memory, illiteracy or something else but Santorum has got some really shady stuff in his past regarding dead babies.  Maybe I am being hypocritical but I really don't care enough to find out exactly what the facts are.
5. Going "safe".  Yawn. And so on.

Gingrich primary win good for the country?

With football in the rearview mirror (save for the Super Bowl, yawn), the recent surge in politics in the news has caught my attention lately. The republican primary has been pretty hilarious to say the least.  A recent news article (thanks to Yahoo!'s The Signal) was especially interesting.  Basically, it was analysis of some data from an information market (links to the wikipedia entry) in which trading indicates that Gingrich's recent success in South Carolina (and throughout the primary) was correlated to an increase in the likelihood of Obama winning the general election.  It kind of tells us something we already know but it's always nice to see some simple data backing up our intuition.  I feel like a fourth seed in the NCAA tournament rooting on the twelve-seed over the five because it gives me a better chance of advancing. To use a sports analogy...

Good Football in Our Great State

It's been a month since I posted last and because I was posting so much on football, I wanted to do a season wrap-up now that the Spartans, Wolverines and Lions are all done playing.  My plan was to post a few links and make a few comments for each team but as I curated some reading material, it became evident that there was a lot more to be said about the Wolverines.  So just a couple links for the good guys and a bunch of links for the bad guys.  Did you think this would be unbiased?

The Lions

This season, my dad started DVR'ing the Lions games.  For me that says it all.  Before 2011 he watched exactly one half of one NFL game per year, the second and third quarters on Thanksgiving.  Just enough to make a few comments about the long-term patheticness of the team.  I saw many people join the Lion bandwagon in a big way on Facebook too... not to criticize either my FB friends or my dad.  I think it says a LOT that so many people still care, at all.

So now that the season is in the books what's next?  Some guy at ESPN says "the Lions have earned themselves big boy treatment".  Fair enough.

The Spartans

Well, it was a great season for the Spartans and their fans.  I won't go too much into it but as ESPN B1G blogger, Adam Rittenberg, points out: keeping their defensive coordinator, Pat Narduzzi, is a good indication that the program is headed where it wants to go.  Agreed.

The Wolverines

You can't argue that the Wolverines didn't have a successful year.  But as DFP columnist Michael Rosenberg points out, it was just one of those years where everything went their way. Rosenberg: For Michigan, an honorable end to lucky season

Not many people outside of Ann Arbor were too high on the Wolverines (and Hokies) selection to the Sugar Bowl.  Rittenberg says that the game diminishes the league's aspirations of being perceived as equal to the SEC.

Some dude from Fox Sports takes it a step further, calling it a fraudulent bowl game.  Another writer from CBS Sports basically says the same thing. Comparing the game to a puppy falling down the stairs.

This is the one that gets me.  All this talk of "Is Michigan Back?".  Granted, much of it is prompted by the media who think it's a great story line. And when asked if they're back, the players have little choice on how to respond... Coach Hoke finds a way to turn it on its ear a bit by saying that "Michigan never left".  But where is it that Michigan Football is back too (or never left, depending on whom you ask)?  Why not acknowledge the hard work and fortuity that lead to a surprisingly successful season and let the winning speak for itself?  It is this sense of pre-destination or responsibility or entitlement to greatness that people outside of the Michigan fold really detest.  But I guess it's also what draws many people to the program... and gets them into games like the Sugar Bowl.

Our Daily Dose of Hipocrisy

... From UofM athletic director, Dave Brandon.  He thinks OSU is getting special treatment that contradicts the NCAA's goal to create "a level playing field"...

Read the short article from ESPN, HERE.  Too lazy to click over?  Basically, Brandon is mad that Ohio State's new coach, Urban Meyer, is being allowed to recruit thus freeing up time and resources for current interim, Fickell to coach up the Xs and Os in OSU's bowl game.

Yes, Dave Brandon.  It's just another case of the NCAA trying to keep the little guys down.  When will UofM ever get a hand up from the big mean NCAA football machine?

Pigs are to Pork as Horses are to... Horse Meat?

I read this article earlier today about how the law would soon allow the slaughter of horses for meat.  (Horse meat is an interest of mine. It's normal. Thanks for asking.)  Anyways, the last line of the second paragraph struck me as a little odd:

Congress lifted the ban [on slaughtering horses for meat] in a spending bill President Barack Obama signed into law Nov. 18 to keep the government afloat until mid-December.

I'm pretty sure there's something in The Constitution that protects our god-given right to slaughter horses but still, I am happy that Congress reaffirmed that right in a subtle, efficient and not at all weird way. Way to go, government.

Big Ten Championship Mini-Rant

Ah, the madness of being a Michigan State Spartan fan.  Is this not the opportunity we've been waiting for for so, so long: a chance to play our way into the Granddaddy of them all, The Rose Bowl (presented by some company)?  It's supposed to be.  But it feels like we're getting screwed all over again.  What a hose job.  Last year before the advent of the B1G title game, the Spartans, tied for the league title, lost a popularity contest/ tie-breaker to other co-champs, Ohio State and Wisconsin, and were relegated to a non-BCS bowl... which I cannot recall.  Now in the first year of divisional play, the team has played its way against all the toughest teams (save for Penn State) to become the only seven-win team in the conference.  Now, to move on, the Spartans will need to re-defeat early favorite, Wisconsin.  Win and you're in.  Lose and you're in... The Outback Bowl?  I say win and let's get in.  I'm not going to cry if we lose and I encourage all Spartan fans to shut their yaps if that happens.  Although all Spartan fans will know with a wink and a nod that we're getting screwed, just like usual.

Adding possible insult to potential injury is the rumor that if State loses, UofM would be jettisoned into an at-large BCS berth.  I guess we'll see if that happens but right now, UofM is 16th in the BCS rankings... and apparently you must be at least 15th or 14th to be eligible.  But I ask, how can they move up from there?  If State loses, won't that diminish their computer rankings?  Since a State loss would be the only relevant activity to UofM's BCS ranking, wouldn't it have to go down due to the fact that A)State beat UofM (28 to 14, just sayin') and B)Two of UofM's signature wins were against teams that beat State (Notre Dame and Nebraska).  I don't see it happening but I just want to be on the record as saying that would be a truck-load of crap.

Shocktoberfest

Every October I do a horror movie marathon.  I like to call it Shocktoberfest.  I watch old ones, new ones, Italian ones, American ones, creature films, effect films, zombies, werewolves, aliens, serial killers, vampires, tortureporn, slashers, mashers, creepers, stalkers, maulers, crawlers and ghosties. Here's the lineup from this year's celebration:

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Genre: Zombies

George Romero's all-time classic follows a group of strangers that seek refuge in a Pennsylvania farmhouse as a mysterious phenomenon wakens the dead across the country.  Highlights include the stark opening in a hillside cemetery with a lone zombie wandering in the background and the pioneering use of source footage as law enforcement agents combat the zombies.

1408 (2008)

Genre: Haunted House (or hotel room in this case)

Hack haunted hotel writer, Mike Enslin (John Cusack) meets his match in the Dolphin Hotel's room 1408.  Highlights include a slick setup (haunted hotels aren't real, they're not real, OK maybe they're real) and when Mike consults his emergency map to discover there is indeed no way out.

The House of the Devil (2009)

Genre: Devil Worshiping Freaks

The credits say 2009 but everything else says this movie was made in the late seventies.  Everything is perfect in this ode to low-budget horror movies of yore.  The period detail and slow pace lull you in and then the film goes right off a cliff and lands somewhere you never thought could exist at the bottom of a cliff.  Highlights include two totally unexpected gunshots to the head and the opening credits. Yep.

Make-Out with Violence (2008)

Genre: Arthouse Zombies

False advertising on this one.  The plot is about two brothers whose prom queen crush vanishes and is presumed dead and then is rediscovered not dead but not exactly alive either.  The making of doc was far more interesting as a quarrelsome Tennessee art-collective struggles to make the film over several years.

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974)

Genre: British Zombies

Great start as two British mods get stranded at a country estate. The Netflix disc was scratched and I didn't finish it. Sigh.

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Genre: Werewolves (in London)

John Landis' horror-comedy standard.  Two Americans backpack across England when they are accosted by a man-beast. One is murdered, the other wounded.  For some reason, the wounded guy does not return home until the next full moon despite his friends death. Things end badly.  Highlights include the penultimate creature effects of the era and a dreamed attack by Nazi mutants.

Deathdream (1974)
Genre: Zombie Vietnam War Vets

Directed by Bob (A Christmas Story) Clark. Andy's family receives news that Andy has been killed in Vietnam.  So when Andy shows up on the doorstep at home, they assume a mistake has obviously been made.  Something is not quite right with Andy though.  He stays up late rocking his chair, strangles dogs and oh yeah, his flesh is rotting and falling off.  Andy tries to conceal that last fact for as long as possible until getting set up on a date with his handsy sometimes-fling.  Highlights include the opening credits where we watch Andy get killed in slow-motion and the ending where Andy lies in a grave trying to cover himself with dirt.   

Dead and Buried (1981)
Genre: Zombies on the East Coast  

Dan Farentino (aka Dan, the dad from Wonder Years) investigates a rash of murders in a sleepy fishing town while his mortician-buddy takes way too much pride in his job.  Highlights include a host of early-eighties whats-their-names? and a Sixth Sense-esque twist ending. 

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Genre: Headless Horseghosts

It was time to revisit this one after only having seen it once.  Johnny Depp plays Johnny Depp in a Tim Burton movie and Christopher Walken snarls his way through as the Horsemen.  Highlights include a slew of beheadings and  a tree where all the resultant stray heads are stored like acorns.

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Genre: Devil Worshiping Freaks

Say what you want about Roman Polanski but the guy makes great movies. It's your basic guy and girl move into apartment, girl gets raped by the devil story.  This movie alone could serve as source material for a season of Mad Men.  It's glorious. The building (filmed in NYC apartment building, The Dakota), the apartment, the music, the clothes, Mia farrow (I mean, cmon) and the mounting sense of dread and entrapment as Rosemary's Baby comes to term.  Yikes. Highlights include some crude but unsettling camera effects and Mia Farrow (that's Mrs. Sinatra to you).

When a Stranger Calls (1979)

Genre: Lunatic on the Loose

You know the ghost story where the prank calls turn out to be coming from inside the house.  That's this movie, they either started it or stole it. Whatever.  Most of this movie is a manhunt for a deranged killer book-ended by the Is He In the House? gimmick.  Highlights include the portrayal of the bad guy as so crazy that he's sometimes murderous instead of vice versa and the dead-pan delivery of the frantic dad asking the babysitter to "Please check the children."