| |
|
Saturday, January 07, 2006
|
|
Terrific post.
4:22:13 PM 
|
|
Foreign Policy:
...The health of the U.S. military was in serious decline. At 7 to 1, the ratio of wounded to dead in Iraq was the highest of any conflict in recent memory, including Vietnam, where the ratio was 3 to 1. A year later, the story is worse—and still largely ignored. In 2005, the most common number cited regarding the war in Iraq was the more than 2,100 U.S. soldiers that have died. When the number of wounded was mentioned, the Pentagon figure of more than 15,500 U.S. troops, or the Army Medical Department’s total of 20,748 medical evacuations, was usually rolled out. Today, the wounded-to-dead ratio remains near 7 to 1 by this official count. But a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) report released in October tells a bigger story. Its data shows that 119,247 veterans of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have sought VA healthcare. Of those, 46,450 were diagnosed primarily with musculoskeletal problems, such as joint ailments and back disorders. More than 36,800 veterans, or 31 percent of those the VA cared for, were treated primarily for mental disorders. Not even the VA had anticipated the number of soldiers they would be asked to help. In June, the agency told lawmakers that it had underestimated the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and required $1 billion in emergency funding.
(Via John Robb's Weblog.)
We're going to be paying for his war for a long, long time.
2:09:59 PM
|
|
For all those with visions of impeachment dancing in your heads, just something to think about:
Vice President (Richard B. Cheney)
Speaker of the House of Representatives (J. Dennis Hastert)
President pro tempore of the Senate (Ted Stevens)
Secretary of State (Condoleezza Rice)
Secretary of the Treasury (John W. Snow)
Secretary of Defense (Donald H. Rumsfeld)
Attorney General (Alberto Gonzales)
Secretary of the Interior (Gale Norton)
Secretary of Agriculture (Mike Johanns)
Secretary of Commerce (Carlos Gutierrez, ineligible)
Secretary of Labor (Elaine Chao, ineligible)
Secretary of Health and Human Services (Michael Leavitt)
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Alphonso Jackson)
Secretary of Transportation (Norman Y. Mineta
Secretary of Energy (Samuel W. Bodman)
Secretary of Education (Margaret Spellings)
Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Jim Nicholson)
(hat tip: Dean Lewis in a comment at ShakesSis)
(Via Brilliant at Breakfast.)
It's turkeys all the way down.
10:51:34 AM
|
|
King Kong is a very impressive movie -- if for nothing else than the sheer amount of entertainment you get. There's enough action here for any two or three movies. That's one of its problems; though I can't really say that it felt long while I was watching it, one of my prime feelings at its end was relief that it was over. Several scenes -- the dinosaur chase through the canyons, the Tyrannosaurus Rex fight, Ann Darrow's climb to the top of the Empire State Building -- went on for an awful long time. You could hae easily lost 10 minutes of run time by trimming these scenes, and more. It was long in a way that The Return of the King wasn't.
And for a move that spent so much on verisimilitude, it squandered that same, hard-won suspension of disbelief several times. Most notably to me was when Kong was fleeing with Ann Darrow through the forest. He was shaking her like a rag doll, hard enough to snap her neck several times. That wouldn't have bothered me so much if it hadn't been so blatant, and worse, Ann Darrow comes out of it with nary a scratch on her, her sheer gown untorn (dammit). If they hadn't worked so hard to achieve reality in the rest of the movie, this wouldn't have stuck out so much.
Those things said, it's an amazing, involving movie, mostly owing to Naomi Watt's performance -- she really sells the whole thing. Andy Serkis as Kong is also fantastic, you never doubt that Kong is a real character. Finally, all the special effects are glorious, especially the vision of New York in the 30s -- I'd like to see more of this.
10:44:53 AM
|
|
|
© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 2/1/2006; 8:43:54 PM.
|
|
|
