Angus' Hateful 8 review

I really enjoyed the film.  Never got bored, looked at my watch, checked my phone, nothing.

To me this was at heart a comedy. I found it quite funny. Laugh out loud funny. The violence is cartoonish.

To be a bit more specific, it is kind of two different buddy comedies mashed into one. The first part is Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in "The Road to Red Rock". The second part is "I love you man" as directed by Herschel Gordon Lewis.

Damien Bichir and Jennifer Jason Leigh are hilarious and excellent.  Walton Goggins turns Boyd Crowder up a notch and to me is the star of the film.

If you squint real hard, the film also speaks about the possibility of better race relations, especially in the South.

I enjoyed it more than Django Unchained.

Cut cut cut, cut cut defense

I don't see how anyone could look at this chart and not see an easy $2 trillion in budget cuts over the next 10 years ($200 billion per year for 10 years).

To paraphrase / update some long dead white dude: "$500 billion for defense and $200 billion back in our pockets!!"

PS: OMG, Shrub was such a bad bad bad president. And to follow him, the GOP wanted us to go with this guy:

The Culture that is Singapore

The Boston Globe breaks it down for us:

"More than 80% of Singapore's population lives in public housing, in buildings designed to government specifications. And Singapore's government ensures that every apartment building mirrors the country's ethnic mix, with Chinese, Malays, and Indians living as neighbors in proportion to their share of the population - 77%, 14%, and 8% respectively."

Lets see here, Singapore's population is around 5 million, so 80% of that is 4 million. Shall we assume 1000 persons per building? So 4,000 government owned, government designed buildings each with 770 Chinese, 140 Malays and 80 Indians (somehow I lost 10 people!)?

That's just plain crazy, innit? Keep it in mind the next time you hear someone comparing some other country unfavorably to Singapore. The Singapore model has a lot of unsavory trappings.

(not) Taking the piss

I didn't know that Irish were such wimps:

Motorists using Ireland's new motorway network can expect to find themselves thirsty or bursting for the lavatory because the government hasn't any money left to build roadside service stations.
The government body in charge of roads has begun erecting signs warning drivers not to expect any rest stops along a network that stretches from the Irish Sea to the Atlantic.

Struggling to plug Europe's biggest budget deficit and to kickstart the ailing economy simultaneously, Ireland set aside scarce funds to revamp a road network still reminiscent of its past as one of Europe's poorest countries.

As money ran out the National Roads Authority (NRA) had to scrap plans to build service stations in most places. It is now putting up signs warning of no "online" services ahead and pointing motorists toward petrol stations in nearby towns.

"It's as important to let people know what's there as what is not there," a spokesman for the NRA told the Irish Independent newspaper.

The AA motoring group said it was unacceptable for drivers not to have anywhere stop for the toilet or a coffee for the entire 250 km (155 mile) journey between Ireland's two biggest cities Dublin and Cork for example, even from a purely safety perspective.

People, 155 miles is NOTHING. You can drive from OKC to Santa Fe and easily go that far without a gas station or rest stop. That's what, 2 hours of driving if you have a real car?

I guess maybe the typical Irish bladder on the highway is a tad fuller than the typical American bladder?