Just got back from V For Vendetta (imdb | rotten tomatoes). I liked it, quite a bit actually. More than I expected to, given the negative reviews I read when it first came out. Not sure what I was reading, since it’s carrying about 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The storyline, and the implications of the setup, were very well done, and they managed to portray the dystopian future without making the fascism over the top (usually movies in such settings are like watching the marching cartoon hammers from The Wall). There was just enough darkness, hope, and relevance to make it seem like fantasy and warning all at once.

.:.

This NY Review essay of the new book by two writers of Daily Kos (which I found on POGGE) contains some interesting theories, such as the one that Howard Dean’s campaign was attacked from the inside by other leading Democratic candidates (John Kerry included), large political donors and media advisers for subverting the usual “kingmaking” process.
While I find this, if true, very interesting, I do not find it terribly surprising. I suspect the Republicans would have welcomed a fight against Dean (given the political capital their manufactured war had temporarily given them), so it was unlikely they who made sure Dean’s half-crazed yell from an Iowa stage was made the subject of such mockery.

.:.

Still on some heavy topics, Scott Adams — the writer of Dilbert — often says interesting things on his blog, but I took a special interest in this one: he asks why he must be forced to respect all religious beliefs, even the ones he finds ridiculous. He stops short of saying they’re all ridiculous, but I get the feeling he wanted to. One of the commenters sums it up nicely: “I think Scott’s saying that tolerance, as a principle, shouldn’t be taken so far as to distort reason.”

Somebody write that down.