Stop-Loss (2008)

Seems to be a reasonably even handed treatment of the fictional story of American soldiers coming back from Iraq, despite the unfortunate circumstance of being stop-lossed.

This is small government by the Republicans. Let's not do a draft. Let's not provide appropriate danger pay to encourage people to re-enlist. Let's screw them in the back end of the process when they think they'll be let out. Let the poor bastards mop up our stupid decisions.

My own illiberal thoughts here: it does suck, but it's in the contract, and everyone who signs such a contract should be aware of it's contents, no? They should consult a lawyer if there was a question? Of course, these guys are young and imprudent to sign up, or just wanting to be patriotic. There was never a declaration of war by Congress, but US judges seem to be saying such a declaration is not necessary for the President to invoke the stop-loss clause. Soldier beware.

Overall, I liked this film, not least because of pretty boy Ryan Phillippe.

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

Johanssen plays the ingenue and younger sister Mary, and Portman the manipulative and aggressive older sister Anne. (Somehow, I never fail to become alarmed when seeing Portman's eyebrows. Is this why she gets the edgier roles?) I like period pieces, so probably that's why I liked this film. It probably should be obvious, but there are a lot of advantages to being king. You certainly could get a lot of people beheaded.

Where the Light Is: John Mayer

A number of tracks are nicely done acoustic versions of some of Mayer's better songs. Also included is a minimalistic but great sounding cover of Tom Petty's Free Fallin'.

Rainbow Six Vegas (PC)

Another in the first person shooter series. Again the same storyline about going up against criminals and terrorists. I like the interface updates like the ability to look from behind a wall, the ability to scan behind a door and have teammates attack from one side while you go in from the other.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

I only just now watched this film. Polished over many years, Gore's line of attack is well reasoned and easy to follow. I was particularly struck by how disinformation campaign driven by the oil companies and the current administration leads people to believe there is an controversy of the possibility of global warming when out of almost 1000 peer reviewed articles in this field there was not a single article which disputed the finding that global warming is happening. It is also stunning how melt from major ice shelves in Greenland and/or Antarctica would raise worldwide sea level by 20 ft. The street my home is on would probably be close to being underwater at that point.