Well, as you all now know, we have finally succeeded in capturing Saddam Hussein. I guess that this means that we will get out of Iraq soon. Bush is expected to address the nation about the capture at noon today, which is in around a little over two hours from now.

Well, the Dow Jones Industrial has hit 10,000 for the first time in 18 months; so I guess it looks like the economy is finally back on track. Now all Bush needs to worry about in 2004 is, you know, those wars we're still fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

There is now an impending crisis with Taiwan, as well as with North Korea (25 days and counting) and Iran (57 days and counting), which has a timeline, too, which says 105 days and counting. (www.globalsecurity.org)

President Bush has secretly absconded last night via Air Force One from his ranch in Crawford, TX, to Washington, D.C., and on to Baghdad to give the troops there a needed boost in morale. He assured them that they were fighting for a truly noble cause: "We will win because our cause is just. We will win because we will stay on the offensive." However, it must be asked, Will staying on the offensive in the short-term have beneficial consequences for the long-term? It seems that Operation Iron Hammer will most likely do more harm than good, and probably increase the volitility of the insurgency against our forces in the long run; nevertheless, in the short run, good things should have immediate effect.

I'm sure you all have heard of this: the Republican National Committee has released this ad, which claims that those who are exercising their Constitutional rights of criticizing the President on his policies in Afghanistan and Iraq are actually "attacking" him "for attacking the terrorists." That is not patriotic, RNC, now, isn't it. Disgusting.

Well, according to a quite credible source, which I have cited before (www.GlobalSecurity.org), 44 and 76 days remain until military action of some kind takes place in North Korea and Iran (respectively). Well, they were right about Iraq. I pray it isn't true.

So, right now in the Washington, D.C. area, in which I reside, there are high winds, a huge cold front is passing through, and there are about 100,000 without power (or heat, for that matter). Not very good.

Dell has released a blatant iPod rip-off called a "DJ". It has less hard drive space and cost more than an iPod, and probably, being a Dell product, will suck. (I would know; I, unfortunately, have a Dell laptop.) I have an iPod (for Windows, but its good), and people, if you are looking to a get an MP3 Player that will work and work great, just get an iPod: they're cheaper and better. Don't listen to what Dell is making to compete with it. There is no competition when it comes to Apple.

According to the most recent CIA World Factbook statistics, about 13% of the population of the United States is living below the official federal poverty line: that's about 40,000,000 Americans. Why isn't the administration addressing this?

According to www.GlobalSecurity.org (you can access the link to it here), we have about 71 days until the U.S. military exacts some sort of military action in North Korea and approximately 103 days until a similar action by the United States occurs in Iran; both of these countries, by the way, were a part of the "Axis of Evil," along with Iraq. Speaking of Iraq, this website had a countdown for U.S. military "intervention" in that country, and it predicted it on the nose, almost exactly to the hour. (For North Korea, 71 days points to around Tuesday, December 30, 2003 or Wednesday, December 31, 2003 on the calendar; for Iran, 103 days points to around Thursday, January 30, 2004 or Friday, January 31, 2004.)

And now, another "Bushism":

"Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."

-- Oct. 3, 2003 (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)


Hmm. Then, by Mr. Bush's logic, the United States is the least free nation in the entire world. Makes sense, right Dubya?

"If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us." -- George W. Bush

"Revenge is so incredibly negative." (March 23, 2000)

"I am a person who recognizes the fallacy of humans." (September 19, 2000)

"I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun."

"I don't want nations feeling like that they can bully ourselves and our allies." (October 23, 2000)

"Dick Cheney and I do not want this country to be in a recession." (December 5, 2000)

"Presidents, whether things are good or bad, get the blame." (May 11, 2001)

"Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." (June 14, 2001)

"I believe what I believe is right." (July 22, 2001)

"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." (April 23, 2002)

"There's no doubt in my mind that we should allow the world worst leaders to America hostage, to threaten our peace, to threaten our friends and allies with the world's worst weapons." (September 5, 2002)

"I think war is a dangerous place." (May 7, 2003)

"I'm the master of low expectations." (June 4, 2003)

"My answer is bring them own." (July 3, 2003)

"Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to peace." (July 25, 2003)

-- George W. Bush

According to a NBC poll, George W. Bush's approval rating now stands at a record low of 49%! (142,800,000 Americans surveyed now oppose that unelected bastard. Hallelujah.)

I can't wait for Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Volume One" (Oct. 10?). It's gonna be fuckin' awesome.

After having seen the newly restored, authorized version of Fritz Lang's science-fiction masterpiece, "Metropolis" (1927), on DVD, I can say, at the very least, that I am stunned by its cinematography, its social criticism, and everything that made it the inspiration for films such as "Blade Runner" and "The Matrix." The first time I watched the film was, too, on DVD, but the digital transfer was terrible; the titles were blurry and somewhat illegible, and the music used was not the original score, and did not synchronize at all with the action.

However, Kino Video, in association with the Murnau Foundation, restored the classic German silent to its former glory (as much as possible). That is, it is the closest possible version (restored in its full length) to what people saw in 1927. And no, this is not hype. In fact, the restored version of "Metropolis" has been selected as the VERY FIRST FILM to be entered in the "Memory of the World" databank, alongside Beethoven's 9th Symphony and the Gutenberg Bible.

Aside from what is said on the back cover of the DVD keep case, the film, which has been cleaned up, removed of scratches, dust, and other "artifacts," is absolutely incredible, in both its scope and context. In fact, I was inspired to make a remake of the film* after first seeing it on the other DVD version of the movie, which is, by the way, (as virtually all versions of the movie are, until now), "shortened and truncated." Now, after seeing the restored Kino version, "the definitive version," apparently, I am convinced that a remake would be wholly unnecessary, and the movie, as it now stands, is in of itself a complete masterwork.

Finally, several scenes that were originally in the movie when it premiered have long been lost, so the people at Kino Video and at the Murnau Foundation took their time to insert new title cards, explaining what occurred, so that there are no plot holes.

*By this, I mean that that I actually began to write out what the look of my version of the movie would be like, a paraphrasing of the premise, and so on. After having seen the new version, I think I will delete those notes, for they are no longer needed; there does not need to be a remake, at least by me.

Apparently, North Korea and South Korea have begun firing rounds of ammunition at each other along the Korean DMZ. Oh, shit.

I don't know about you, but Quentin Tarantino's new film, "Kill Bill" looks pretty cool.

Q: How can you tell when Bush is lying?

A: When his lips move.

The 4th of July is coming up, and I have brought along some patriotic slogans to my site:

"Real patriots ask questions." (Carl Sagan)

"Where there is doubt, there is freedom." (Ancient Latin Proverb)

"Political interest can never be separated in the long run from moral right." (Thomas Jefferson)

"The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty." (Abraham Lincoln)

"Repitition does not transform a lie into a truth." (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." (Harry S. Truman)