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A dozen films for the Halloween couch potato
Submitted by Doug Allen on Thu, 2003-10-30 00:19Not participating in handing out treats to visiting neighborhood kids Friday? Not attending a crowded party with a cumbersome costume? If this is the case, the following is an assortment of recommended, appropriate, and personally favorite frightening movies to help keep you ‘spookified’ on the last evening of October...
Aliens Read more »
Norway looking to regulate "social pastime"
Submitted by Doug Allen on Tue, 2003-10-28 00:02I don't smoke. But if you do, and you've always wanted to visit Norway, you had better go before they enact a total smoking ban on the country's restaurants, bars, and caf?s. Evidently, the Norwegian ban is also intended to "de-normalize smoking as a social pastime". Noble intentions to be sure, but this illustrates yet another move by a government to change a lifestyle by force.
U.K. politicians have a better idea: Read more »
Movie Review: <i>Kill Bill Vol. 1</i>
Submitted by Doug Allen on Tue, 2003-10-14 23:08
Those who remember Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction will recall the dark humor, noir backdrops, scattered bloodbaths, and choppy flashbacks that made the film so appealing and challenging. In his new project, Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Vol. 2 is due out in February), Tarantino cranks up all these attributes a few notches. Read more »
Salad bowl or melting pot?
Submitted by Doug Allen on Tue, 2003-10-14 23:02Via a link in Neal Boortz' Nuze today, I had just gotten done reading Herbert Landon’s column describing his fears of the Balkanization of America, as opposed to the melting pot we've come to know. Read more »
Mandated shorter workweeks backfires
Submitted by Doug Allen on Wed, 2003-10-08 23:15In 1982, France cut the maximum work time to 39 hours per week in an effort to curb unemployment. This was economically flawed, and unemployment went up. Nonetheless, France cut the workweek to 35 hours in 1998, which yielded similar results. Read more »
Silence is Golden
Submitted by Doug Allen on Wed, 2003-10-08 23:08If only this could happen to someone chatting on a cell phone in a movie theater...
The Road Less Travelled...
Submitted by Doug Allen on Thu, 2003-10-02 20:48Backpaq in Iraq?
I happened to come across a blog by Leon, a 24-year-old American, that details his incredible journey backpacking into post-Saddam Iraq, meeting townspeople on the street, eating local food, and engaging in amazing conversations with citizens he met along the way. The depth and details he provides in his account are nothing you'll ever read in a mainstream newspaper, magazine, or a cable news show. Read more »
Competition for Detroit public schools?
Submitted by Doug Allen on Wed, 2003-09-24 23:52The teachers unions are getting worried. Read more »
Album review: BRMC's <i>Take Them On, On Your Own</i>
Submitted by Doug Allen on Wed, 2003-09-24 23:15Often viewed in the same light as The White Stripes and the Strokes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club released its second CD on Virgin Records earlier this month to high expectations. Its first self-titled CD received high praise and buzz, particularly around the single "Love Burns".
Hockey Dad roughs up 10-year-old daughter
Submitted by Doug Allen on Thu, 2003-09-18 20:39In the 'Sad But True' department:
Most have either seen these people first-hand, or read about them in the newspapers. They are the obnoxious and overzealous parents attending their kids’ sporting events, more obsessed with their child's statistics than their enjoyment. Read more »
Library construction bid: Non-union firms not allowed
Submitted by Doug Allen on Thu, 2003-09-18 20:18Bay County, a county in central Michigan, is accepting construction bids to build a new main library and several branch libraries around the county. The catch? Read more »
Chong sells bongs, will do time.
Submitted by Doug Allen on Thu, 2003-09-11 23:58Somewhere, violent criminals are still at large. Somewhere, a shady character is plotting terrorist activities. Somewhere, a drunken teen is getting behind the wheel of a car. Somewhere, a man is beating his wife.
But law enforcement resources are being used to charge Tommy Chong, fine him, and send him to a prison filled with dangerous whackos for nine months for selling bongs over the Internet.
FCC OKs Stern's Arnold interview
Submitted by Doug Allen on Thu, 2003-09-11 23:32Media hacks in such newspapers as the Washington Post and Seattle Post Intelligencer, as well as moralistic groups such as Morality In Media at the other wing of the political spectrum, didn't mask their disappointment upon hearing Howard Stern has been given a pass by the FCC and declared a "news reporter" (ironic, given Stern’s confrontation with the federal ag Read more »
Kids shoot into highway; Tommy Vercetti blamed
Submitted by Doug Allen on Mon, 2003-09-08 20:38
Much like clockwork, every so often we hear of a rock/rap group or movie being blamed for the violent shenanigans of unsupervised teenage delinquents. Currently, a lawsuit is being filed against the creators of Grand Theft Auto, a video game featuring carjackings, shootings, 80s music, and other garden-variety violence that 99.999% of customers use as some harmless escapist zeal after a long day at school or work. Read more »
Peter versteht das Problem
Submitted by Doug Allen on Tue, 2003-08-26 22:19"We have 80 million Germans and the cost of providing them all with healthcare is too high. We have to change the mentality so that they realise the state can't pay for everything." - Peter Bruckmaier, a German medical center director.