True Grit II

Watched the Netflix DVD last night. It's really good. I didn't expect a remake of a classic to be much at all. This one is. Hailee Steinfeld plays Matty Ross and does an amazing job, especially as she is only 14 herself, just what the role calls for. I would have guessed her to be older, say 18 or so. I will look for her in future movies. Jeff Bridges plays Rooster Cogburn. His Rooster is more disreputable than John Wayne's Rooster. Long gray beard, uncut hair, generally scruffy look, drinks harder. The other parts in this movie, Matty and Laboeuf, get better roles than they did in the original, which was a John Wayne vehicle and focused on the Rooster Cogburn role. The bad guys, Tom Cheny and Ned Pepper are not as well played as they were in the original. Lots of the dialog is unchanged, I assume it comes from the book, which I never read.

The Economist hates Republicans

The Economist, for those that don't know it, is a weekly news magazine published in London. They do a lot of real news, unlike Time and Newsweek, but they also have some of their own ideological hangups. According to the Economist the Republican party is handicapped by the following beliefs.
1. Pro-life. Tut-tut. Actually we Republicans make a strong effort to avoid this wedge issue and concentrate on matters of real public policy.
2. Anti-gay marriage. Another Tut-tut. Again, this is a divisive wedge issue that we don't campaign on.
3. Anti-amnesty. This is a hard one. No one wants to let illegal immigrants into the US ahead of legal immigrants who have been waiting in line. No one wants to send out SWAT teams to round up the illegals and bus them to the border. If there is a decent solution I don't know what it is.
4. Anti-Obamacare. True. Obamacare will destroy company health insurance where most of us get our health care. It does nothing to reduce health costs. It imposes rationing and death panels. And endless paper work.
5. Anti global warming. True. Global warming is a scam. The climate gate emails revealed a conspiracy between climate "scientists" to exaggerate the warming and edit the data to create Michael Mann's hockey stick temperature graph.
6. Anti-gun control. True. We Republicans strongly believe that a piece in the cash drawer or the bedside table reduces crime. Most Americans agree with us.
7. Anti tax increase. True. Raise more revenue and the government will just spend more.
8. Pro Israel. True. The Israeli's have created a decent and humane democracy in the face of intense opposition. They are to be admired.
9. Anti-EPA. True. The EPA is on a tear to shut down coal power plants, the auto industry, pour money down "green" ratholes and throw people out of work.

Other than this kind of bigotry, The Economist is an interesting read.

Those limo's are Lincolns.

The Wall St Journal had a good clear picture of the Kim funeral and you can see the Lincoln hood ornament on the limo.
I wonder how a Lincoln limo gets to Pyongyang. Sure they don't have a Lincoln Mercury dealer up there.

Popevers finally popped

Half a dozen batches of popovers made in the last few months have failed to pop. They would come out edible enough, but without the high rise crustiness that makes a popover a popover.
Today it all came together and the popovers rose, got crusty, and were delicious.
The recipe is simple, cup of milk, cup of flour, two eggs, pinch of salt (1/4 tsp actually) and a tablespoon of melted butter. NO BAKING POWDER! Preheat oven to 400F. Add the milk, eggs and salt into a mixing bowl. Beat with an egg beater til smooth and fluffy. Melt the butter (I cheat and use margarine) in a big spoon on the stove. Beat the melted butter into the eggs & milk. Sift in a cup of flour. Only this time I used bread making flour instead of all purpose flour. It has more stickiness than the all purpose flour. Grease a muffin tin liberally, the popovers can stick and their hollow nature doesn't support prying out of the muffin tin. Bake 25 minutes at 400F, back off to 350F and give 'em another 15 minutes.
Yummy.

Frosty

It's below zero this morning. Coldest it's been so far this winter. Must be global warming.

Where do they get those cars?

The North Koreans did a state funeral yesterday. Vast empty street, Snow on the ground, crowds of mourners confined to the sidewalks.
Humungous long black limousines, with a '70's look to the styling. They weren't Cadillacs. I don't thnk they were Lincolns. Were they Russian? Do they Russians make such cars? And export them? And what do they do the rest of their lives, when they aren't hauling coffins in state funerals?

Hyping your headlines

Today's airliner incident, a 737 aborted its takeoff. According to Fox TV News, the tires "exploded".
Yeah right. Any motorist knows that tires blow out, they don't explode.
But the writer's must think "explode" is catchier. Or maybe they are just ignorant. TV people are poorly educated.
But for those of us who drive or fly, "blow out" gets our immediate attention.