Should the US adopt countermeasures against dreadful poetry, as the Brits have?

JD Johannes has a terrific new post up about the failure of “Lions for Lambs” and other such fare to spark the interest of American filmgoers.  He theorizes that: The first block-buster Iraq War movie will be about the battle of Fallujah or another life and death struggle showing Marines or Soldiers as heroes.  This movie will follow the traditional monomyth with the heroes confronting a villain with violence and

Holy crap! Being overweight may not kill you, but it could lead to obesity, U.S. health experts cautioned on Wednesday in response to research suggesting that being a bit heavy does not raise the risk of death. As Taranto would ask, “What would we do without experts?” House Approves Broad Protections for Gay Workers   (Heh.) Out dammed spot. Poll: Clinton lags in quest for male voters

The US drops 8 spaces to 31st, of course.  Women in predominantly Muslim countries are struggling to compete for jobs, win equal pay and hold political office, falling behind the rest of the world in eliminating discrimination, a report said Thursday. Nordic nations, by contrast, received the best overall grades for gender parity in education, employment, health and politics, according to the review of 128 countries compiled by the World Economic

Well, maybe it will free up a few of them to go to Iraq:  The former director of President Bush‘s flagship democracy program for the Middle East is saying that the State Department has “effectively killed” a program to disburse millions of dollars to Iran‘s liberal opposition. In an interview yesterday, Scott Carpenter said a recent decision to move the $75 million annual aid program for Iranian democrats to the

They’re just facing up to the facts: It was a quagmire. They left, pretty much the way Pete Doherty leaves a pub. Meanwhile, JD Johannes is putting the finishing touches on his latest documentary over at Outside the Wire, which means he’s too broke and busy to go to Vegas for the Blog World Expo.  Too bad, because Geek Goddess Liz Stephans and that guy she vlogs with might be

Rusty gets all the good curses.

Yeah, I know. But it’s the best I could come up with off the cuff, and besides, it beats “Aceapalooza” — which, let’s face it, is so remarkably lame that were it to have any designs on walking, it would need a helmet, and one of those giant-soled shoes made specially for Flannery O’Conneresque clubfoots. Anyway, if any of you are in the Santa Barbara or surrounding areas and wants

What does new research do? It suggests. Among stroke survivors, women seem to be at greater risk of poor physical and emotional well-being than men are, new research suggests. In a study of nearly 1,300 stroke survivors, researchers found that women tended to report poorer quality of life than men did six months after the stroke. The reasons are not completely clear, but factors such as age and stroke severity

What a post-modern discovery.  Start rewriting the history books:  LAHORE: Muslim scientists have made all discoveries of the current age, said University of Columbia’s Arabic and Islamic Studies prof George Saliba at a seminar at the Government College University (GCU) on Monday. The seminar, titled The Problems of Historiography of Islamic Science, was held at Fazl-e-Hussain Hall. Saliba gave a critique of the standard classical accounts of the rise of