Top 25 Halloween Movies

John Nolte's Top 25 Halloween Movies countdown (be sure to click on each for a nice analysis/synopsis):

Netflix: Yes/No/Instant! Queue

25. The Blair Witch Project (1999) Yes
24. The Uninvited (1944) No
23. The Others (2001) Yes
22. The Thing (1951 and 1982) 1982-Yes 1951-No
21. Wolfen (1981) Yes
20. Salem's Lot (1979) Not yet
19. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) Yes
18. Near Dark (1987) Yes
17. An American Werewolf in London (1981) Instant!
16. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987) Yes
15. The Ring (2002) Yes
14. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Instant!
13. The Orphanage (2007) Instant!
12. The Night Stalker (1972) Yes
11. The Hills Have Eyes (1977) Yes
10. Rosemary's Baby (1968) Yes
9. The Changeling (1980) Yes
8. The Last House on the Left (1972) Instant!
7. Freaks (1932) Yes
6. Halloween (1978) Yes
5. George Romero Zombie Movies (1968-2005) Instant! Yes.
4. The Exorcist (1973) Instant!
3. Psycho 1960 Yes
2. Universal Studio Monsters (1931-1954) Instant! Yes.
1. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Yes

Note: As I post this, the countdown is ongoing, but since this weekend will likely be prime Halloween Movie watching time, I'm sending it now and will update it as the final three are revealed.

A Remarkable Letter

Kevin DuJan, at HillBuzz.org, writes a remarkable letter to Rush Limbaugh.

Negative Ads

What should have been said to Matt Lauer: Matt, I'd like you to go back to your bosses at NBC and get them to pledge to only provide good, positive news and not air anything negative about any of the candidates on this stage on any NBC broadcast until after the election. Once they agree, I'll agree as well. But do you know what they'll say? They'll say, who the hell is she to tell us what the public has a right to know? Who the hell is she to tell us our business. But I'm game if you are, Matt, let me know what they say.

Government Intervention

VP Biden says,

"Every single great idea that has marked the 21st century, the 20th century and the 19th century has required government vision and government incentive. In the middle of the Civil War you had a guy named Lincoln paying people $16,000 for every 40 miles of track they laid across the continental United States. … No private enterprise would have done that for another 35 years."

In other words, the government has glommed onto and intruded upon every great idea anyone has had in America for the last 200 years.  Besides that, Biden is talking about the Transcontinental Railroad and the government paid minimum $16K in bonds per mile -- much more over more difficult terrain -- not per 40 miles.  Does Biden mention that the whole idea was tied up in Congress for decades because all of them wanted the railroad to go through their own state?  It wasn't until the South seceded from the Union that the North was able to pass the legislation for Lincoln to sign.

Aside from that, can VP Biden point to the legislation that invented the assembly line?  The electric light? The telephone? The air conditioner?  Duct tape?  Toasters? Slinkies? Airplanes?  The iPod?  Google?  How about aspirin?  Did government vision invent aspirin, because his statement is so idiotic it gives me a really big headache.

The Zombie Apocalypse

Frank Fleming has a way with words regarding why the Republicans will win next week even though they're awful.

... you have a car stuck in ditch, so you call the mechanic, but the only tool he brings with him is a sledgehammer. And then he smashes your car to pieces and charges you $100,000 for his service. Finally, he calls you racist for complaining.

Read the whole thing at the link, if you're into zombie apocalyptic analogies... or dogs barking in the night.

Heresy and the Creation of Monsters

Judith Curry has started her own blog in response the strange Scientific American article about her.  At both links, the comments are as interesting as the articles.

If you've not been following the fallout from the Global Warming emails, this is that.

Deficit Commission Looters

The Deficit Commission (set up to give Congress cover when they raise our taxes) says the mortgage interest deduction costs the government nearly $1 Trillion a year.  Look, let's get this straight, the government costs me a lot of money every year.  Me keeping my own money does not cost the government anything.  What costs the government money is the things for which they write checks!

Congress and the President claim the deficit commission was set up to recommend the tough choices (because Congress and the President are too wimpy to tell the American people we have to cut back on services) to get us out of debt:

[Deficit Commission] officials have found there aren't any easy ways to balance the budget, and they are expected to steer clear of more polarizing issues like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and a broad rewrite of the tax code in their short-term recommendations.

Aside from raising our taxes, the commission is considering whether to recommend "a freeze on domestic discretionary spending"  (shock and awe, baby, shock and awe). 

Private Docs Must be Released

A Judge in Alaska has just ruled that private documents pertaining to Joe Miller (Republican running for Senator of Alaska) must be released to the public because

"...although Mr. Miller has a legitimate expectation of privacy in those documents, Mr. Miller's right to privacy is indeed outweighed by the public's significant interest in the background of a public figure who is running for the U.S. Senate," the judge said. He noted that U.S. senator is among the highest elected offices in the nation."

Well, well, well... is this a new precedent which will finally allow us to see President Obama's college records?  And how will this affect people running for office in the future? 

The True Size of Africa

From Information is Beautiful

The Truth about Thorium

Popular Mechanics includes a very nice article this month about using Thorium for nuclear power.  As I've mentioned here before, Thorium is more plentiful than Uranium, it produces more power by mass than Uranium, its waste is not usable for weapons and decays far faster than Uranium.  The ony reason we're not using it today is because we wanted Uranium for bombs.

The Sun is Crackling

The mega-filament of magnetized material on the lower right of the Sun is longer than the distance between the Earth the Moon... and it's crackling with solar flares.

Ready, Willing and Able

From the movie Ready, Willing and Able in 1937. Pretty inventive... when will talent like this roll around in Hollywood again?

Via TYWKIWDBI.

On the Firing of Juan Williams

NPR fired Juan Williams? 

Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us who went through 9/11 would be pretty nervous of those in Muslim garb on airplanes; number two, that NPR acted stupidly in firing somebody when there was already proof that they were not bigoted and were, in fact, a well know author and historian of civil rights in America ; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history at NPR of African-Americans and Latinos not being hired in the first place. That's just a fact

Fearful Weather

I've always thought the best thing about the weather is that people accept it for what it is. You don't deal with the weather the way you deal with people, you look outside, measure the sky and act accordingly. Oh, you can plan a bit -- buy a generator, store some water and food, keep a stock of candles just in case -- but nobody has preconceptions about weather months, let alone years, in advance. They just step outside and accept it.

But now we're constantly told to be afraid. Just today, we're told, we can look forward to extreme drought as hasn't every been seen in the Western Hemisphere, with the western two thirds of America looking like Death Valley for decades and decades -- coming to a theater near you in 20 years or so.

The thing is, scientists are people, too. If world governments dangle billions of dollars in front of the scientific community to research Climate Change... you can bet there will be plenty of reasons found for further research. 95% of the climate models being used to predict future climate have failed to match observations. Propounding the worst as justification for action not likely to alter the outcome doesn't work forever... eventually people step outside and let the fall breeze tousle their hair...and they smile.

Update: Do we even measure precipitation properly?

Hummel

Purdue's Hummel out for the season.  Same knee as last year.  We'll see how far Purdue falls in the rankings... they had been in the top three in the nation for awhile.

Paying more next year?

Congress went home without passing a budget because they were too afraid overspending would be used against them. And they went home without extending the Bush tax cuts because they were too afraid tax increases would be used against them. But neither issue sits idly by while candidates, back home, lie to their constituents. We keep borrowing and spending despite our lack of a budget, and the Treasury department is busily assuming your tax rates are going up next year because that is the law Congress failed to change on their way out the door.

Congress returns in the middle of November, which is when the tax-rate tables are normally sent to businesses for the new year. Unless Congress acts immediately upon return, every single earner in America is likely going to be paying the higher tax rate in early 2011.

Norwell Girls Volleyball, 18-10

The Norwell Girls Volleyball team is 18-10 on the season, facing Homestead (4-11), Concordia (6-6) and Bluffton (3-13) yet this season.  The Knights have no Juniors on the team this year -- just four seniors, three sophomores and five freshman. 

Norwell Football, 2-5

Norwell's had a tough season and it's about to get tougher.  The Knights sit at 2-5 and face 5A Homestead (6-1) and 4A Columbia City (6-1) in the final two games.

The Knights two blowout victories were against 3A Heritage (3-4) and 4A DeKalb (0-7).  The Northeast Hoosier Conference is split between feast and famine teams. This year, Columbia City, Homestead, New Haven and East Noble have been feasting while Carroll, Norwell, Bellmont and DeKalb are enduring famine rebuilding years.

Good luck to the Knights, I've been there, it ain't easy.