Mr. Mike's Sunday Link Party

Once again, interesting links have piled up in the bookmarks folder. Here we go with a lot of quick shots to clear them out.

* News from Ain't It Cool that the new "director's cut" of Donnie Darko is a winner. It's going out later this year into limited theatrical rerelease. I first saw the DVD and was confused though mesmerised by this film. Watching all the deleted scenes, suddenly the movie made a lot more sense! The producers had mutilated this film for time constraints. The rerelease restores the cut stuff, enhances the connections to the "theory of time travel" book and comes with some tweaks to the transitions between the hallucinations and "reality." It's now supposed to be a more understandable movie. I'll be watching for it.

* It's the Portrait Illustration Maker! That's right, you can now have your very own anime-style icon for message boards, LiveJournals, etc. Like this:


Hey, it's me!


* Having late last year encouraged Ralph Nader not to seek their nomination for president, now the Green Party is courting him again. Guys, you made your bed, now go to sleep. It's also funny to note that when googling for this bit, all three sponsored links on the Google page were from "Stop Nader" groups. Gotta love it.

* I don't understand this, my compu-tech skills being minimal, but it seems like something folks might want to know. Rocky Topper Say Uncle has created something nifty: a "roll up" of RTBers' posts that works in RSS. NO idea what it means, but it seems good.

* SNITCH is the Strategic Network of Intelligence on Terrorism in our Communities and Homeland. Learn how to spot terrorists, take quizzes to hone your terrorist-spotting skills, get the kids involved! Fun and patriotism for the whole family. If you don't click the link, I'll report you to the FBI.

* Here's a long-over due idea, one I thought some blogger would have taken up by now. But no, it's a major news net that runs with it: a daily summary of stories from the three major network evening newscasts. Still a little too bare-bones, but it's a start. I should note that I still miss the guy who used to do the summaries of the weekend talk shows; he was great.

* Pictures continue to leak from the new Batman Begins movie. I've also heard rumors that the film is being made for an "R" rating and not a "PG-13." It's looking good.

* Mick pointed me to this oddity, the Memphis News Bureau, a feel-good, good news story source. They bill themselves as "an independent source of accurate information for the news media about Memphis, Tennessee, and the Mid-South Region," but are a bit short on information about who they are funded by. I have a sense this is a product of local businessmen and civic booster types. Any ideas? By the way, does anyone notice that their header image strongly resembles a certain blogger's header image?

If you want real "independent" news, you might try the Tennessee Independent Media Center, an off-shoot of IndyMedia.

* An excellent article from Catherine Seipp about Hollywood films and film-making today and sixty years ago. Let's just say that today is lacking....

* Michael Moore Hates America: the documentary that tells the truth about a great nation. As if you didn't already know all that. Paraphrasing Christopher Hitchens: Europeans think Americans are fat, stupid, slovenly, arrogant, sensationalistic and shallow; Moore proves them right. Watch the trailer at this site and support the film-maker.

* Did you know that John Kerry has said he would "consider" anti-abortion judges? He did! It didn't get much play a week or so ago. It's also in typical Kerry waffle-speak, so he can deny it if he has to, though the way this nugget has been ignored I don't think that's a problem.

Kerry is also channelling Richard Nixon: "[Iraq] will not be like Vietnam," Kerry said. "I will get our troops home from Iraq with honor and with the interests of our country properly protected." Peace with honor? Man, the Sixties allusions just keep comin'.

* I've been blogging for a while now about various Federal government moves which, taken in a whole, would seem to indicate that the mechanisms are being put into place for a draft to start up in 2005. I'm not the only one, either.

But these folks are getting it wrong. The "draft bill" they worry over is the one introduced last year by Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel before we launched into the Iraqi War. Rangel intended it as a defiant challenge to President Bush, a political move to somehow force Bush's hand. It's not the real thing, though heaven knows it could be hijacked and used for one. But seeing folks making this fundamental error is unnerving.

When I see Congress approached by the Department of Defense to increase appropriations for men and materiel to increase the size of the Army, then I'll get worried.