Author: Moe_Lane

I am back from Daybreakers.

[UPDATE]: Like Jimmie, Those Who Hunt the Night would make for a good flick.

Assessment: not half bad. It had a 1950s Atomic Horror-style cheerful disregard for basic science – essentially, it waved its hands and chanted ‘classic vampirism is an infectious disease, and never mind all the supernatural elements’ three times while turning widdershins – but that was OK: it’s a horror flick with an action-movie flavor, not District 9.  The costumers did a nice job, as did the people in charge of thinking up all the little details of a world run by vampires for vampires.  Gory as all get-out, but it’s a vampire flick, so, well.

Also: expect sequels if this movie makes enough money.  Actually, the concept would make for a decent weekly television series…

Quote of the Day, Jules Crittenden edition.

Harsh:

Kristol at the Weekly Standard wonders whether [President Obama will] take the high road, and repudiate his party’s rape smear, or let it stand. Judging by his lack of interest in repudiating racism smears except in the mildest and lowest profile terms possible, I’ve gotta go with let it stand. Because Obama of all people understands this isn’t about Scott Brown, it isn’t about Martha Coakley, it isn’t about the Democratic Party, it definitely isn’t about fair play or the people of Massachusetts, and it really isn’t even about health care, either. It’s about him.

…but then, this is the world that we all live in now.

Crossposted to RedState.

Word of the day: ‘Anatine.’

It means ‘like or of a duck.’  This is the result of a discussion between my wife, myself, and the newborn:  we needed to work out what was a more highfalutin word for ‘ducklike’ –

Because ‘Defeat him, my ducklike minions!’ doesn’t have the right sound to it, of course.  This was a conversation between me and my wife, remember?

– and so, we had to reverse-engineer on the spot back from the Latin word for duck (anatis, which we looked up).  As ‘ursus’ (bear) becomes ‘ursine’ (bearlike) and ‘leo’ (lion) becomes ‘leonine’ (lionlike), we assumed that ‘anatis’ would become ‘anatine’ – and lo!  It did.  And if you don’t like it, I shall unlease my new anatine minions upon you.

See?  Much superior.

Moe Lane

PS: ‘Crustacean minions’ is already sufficiently awesome that I don’t really need to come up with an alternative, but I appreciate your input.

Pushback on some pushback rhetoric…

…I hesitate to call it a ‘meme.’ At any rate: somebody – presumably somebody from the other side of the spectrum – attempted to derail Mark Steyn’s observation that Adam Nagourney is sounding a little bereft-of-information these days by rhetorically asking:

You do realize that Democrats have won every single federal-level election since Obama’s election, right? Five.

Err… wrong, actually.  Eight.  And the attempt to eliminate the loss of NJ’s governorship (and pretty much VA as a whole) from consideration is both duly noted, and mocked. Continue reading Pushback on some pushback rhetoric…

I probably don’t really count as an early Brown adopter, Cynthia.

Thanks for the shout-out and everything, but I’m a well-known GOP party hack. Endorsing Scott Brown right out of the gate wasn’t exactly unsurprising for me.

Admittedly, it would have been a no-brainer anyway, but that’s just the serendipity talking.

Crossposted to RedState.

On the Haiti situation.

(Donations to the American Red Cross can be made here.)

Unlike Dan Collins, I’m not particularly sympathetic to the administration’s upcoming suffering of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune over Haitian relief delays (although I agree that said delays are largely outside of this administration’s control).  This would be because I don’t really expect that the people squirming under the world’s inexplicable refusal to stop resenting the USA even when the Democrats are running it will take the proper lesson – i.e., stop freaking caring so freaking much.  Instead, they will probably revert to type and bitterly and impotently fume that the current President (not being a total idiot) called in former President George W Bush for help with the relief efforts*.

So, really, I don’t see any reason to show any nonreciprocal niceness about it.

Moe Lane

*As I had foreseen.

Crossposted to RedState.

Scientists on track to eliminate most domesticated animals.

…I exaggerate: absent a Singularity, it would take too long for the technology to percolate through the Third World to guarantee extinction events for our food animals.  But the possibility is there:

Scientists turn stem cells into pork

LONDON – Call it pork in a petri dish — a technique to turn pig stem cells into strips of meat that scientists say could one day offer a green alternative to raising livestock, help alleviate world hunger, and save some pigs their bacon.

Written by someone who hasn’t seen a pig lately, I’d wager. Pigs are large, aggressive, dangerously smart animals that know why we keep them, and who aren’t averse to returning the favor if they can manage it.  It’s not like they’re horses; people don’t really like them much, except for maybe the potbellied subspecies.  Replace them with a vat of regenerating bacon and most people will never miss the species once it’s gone.

Via Ace of Spades HQ.

Moe Lane

PS: To sort-of reference Harry Turtledove: is this stuff either kosher or halal?  Would any vat-grown meat be?

RS Alumnus Pejman Yousefzadeh asks outright…

…a question that a lot of us are quietly wondering right now: “Is Martha Coakley TRYING To Lose?” Exhibit A is the Schilling Yankee smear, which garnished this reaction from me last night:

…it sounds nuts to think that a Democrat would sabotage her own race, but so far Coakley’s checked off every box that I can think of. So you tell me.

Crossposted to RedState.

DOOM.

Marvel, my brothers and sisters:

DOOM

It will most assuredly fluctuate many times over the next three days; and Martha Coakley might actually still win the election. But ask yourself: did you think that we’d ever be discussing the MA-SEN election in terms of a possible Democratic victory?

Well… false modesty aside, I always did.

Moe Lane

PS: Scott Brown for Senate.