Going by Falwell's own penchant for drawing doubtful conclusions from factual events, the suddness of Falwell's death can ONLY be understood as God's righteous punishment for Falwell's failure to force the nation to live by one narrow interpretation of the bible as laid out by the man who knew the mind of God best: Falwell himself. God is patient, but not infinitely patient, and eventually He will exact his vengeneance.

Picture God as a shadowy villain in an early Bond movie, slowly stroking a cat in his lap. "You have failed me for the last time, Mr. Falwell," he says, pushing a button on the arm of his chair. Suddenly, in an office in Virginia, Mr. Falwell drops dead, plunged, as it were, into a metaphorical tank full of sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads.

This is exactly what happened; it's the ONLY conclusion that can be drawn. It is true because I say it is true, and if you question its truth you are Satan's pawn.

I was a teen in the Los Angeles area in the 1970s. Tarantino is a few years younger than me, but I saw plenty of films of the Grindhouse genre in many different theaters, so I have no trouble believing that Tarantino would have the same memories.

I saw "Grindhouse" in the typical modern stadium style theater, and while I loved the films and loved the concept, I don't think the films translated that well to the modern setting. Fact is, the current generation of film audiences have almost no frame of reference at all anymore to what QT and RR were getting at. The whole film going experience of today is designed to be slick and polished. There is nothing really organic about the experience. It's stripped of texture and personality.

I could write a whole essay on what I mean, but I will try to sum it up with one example. One of my favorite film experiences back then was seeing "Galaxy of Terror." Some homeless guy was sleeping in the back of the theater, and at one point in the movie we learned he'd woken up when he uttered a series of grunts and grumbles, and about the time a giant slug creature was slimily stripping the clothes off a nubile amazonian-type babe, he finally said in total confusion, "What the... What the FUCK is going on?"

Alas, those days are gone forever. Not enough homeless guys sleeping it off at the local cineplex.

The administration simply has no credibility.

I'm pretty much convinced that the report has already been written. Gee, I wonder what it's going to say?

Bill Frist on his first day:

I've never been to Darfur or Sudan, but I've seen videotape on the news and I've never seen anyone really in the process of being massacred, so I'm not convinced it's even happening.

However, the people there do seem to be lacking for food and other basic needs, probably out of some sense of welfare entitlement -- come on, people, they're called bootstraps. Use them! Unleash the power of the private sector! -- Still, some times you just need a little helping hand, so if you all promise not to use condoms and practice abstinence only, and no sex outside of marriage, then maybe we can work out some kind of a deal, and by "deal" I mean we take all your natural resources as collateral.

I didn't catch the names, but apparently they are already building the groundwork for the September excuse. I'm paraphrasing a lot, but according to the report, insurgents will cleverly use the "deadline" to ramp up and increase their attacks in order to create the illusion — the illusion — of chaos and disorder in order to discredit the surge.

The logic is inescapable, and typically Rovian in its duplicity: If it wasn't for the barrage of death, slaughter, blood, carnage, murder and mayhem -- looking past all that, we can see that the surge is a thundering success... if it only had more time, it could work even better.

We are in hell. I can't think of another explanation.