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Why do I say this?
Well for one, overconfidence. The Democratic party has a recent history of obscene overconfidence. The Republicans and Karl Rove are brilliant, to treat them as anything otherwise is foolish.
Second, the perception that the Republicans are better for security was not effectively challenged. To be clear, I do not consider modern Republicans to be an effective catalyst for a safer world. However, to many Americans it is the Republicans that sent people to fight “the terrorists”, be it in Afghanistan or Iraq (many people still believe Iraq is linked to terrorism, even though it really isn’t). People might vote Republican out of a sense of need. It is like that episode of “King of the Hill” where the guys in the alley are discussing a jury trial and Bill comes out and says “I once served on a jury, we did our duty. Convicted on all counts”. Many people will disregard evidence out of a feeling of duty.
(As an aside, I believe that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are good for security. I’ve met some hardcore Democrats believe that invading Saudi Arabia would have put a silver bullet terrorism - these are the same fellows who were complaining about gas prices, FYI.)
Finally, there is obscene gerrymandering in the US, just like up here in Quebec. It is funny to me that soccer moms march about pornography being obscene, but the systemic rigging of elections through making weird electoral boundaries is ignored. Mind you, porn is obscene; but subverting democracy is more-so. The Democrats are as guilty of this as the Republicans, but I get the feeling that the Republicans were far better at it.
I think we can all agree that even if the Democrats win, it will be a case of “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”. In an effort to win Republican votes, the Democratic party will drift right-wards. To avoid charges of wartime political profiteering, congressional oversight will not be nearly as thorough as it probably should be. As always, political lobbyists will be welcome to offer comment on bills, and the US (and the World as a result) will continue its economic walk off a cliff.
In spite of all of that, I still do hope the Democrats win.
I never watched “The Other Limits”, except for once - and I still remember the episode to this day. A haunting tale of human stupidity in “The Light Brigade“.
My photo skills need some practice, these look awful, even after hours of photoshopping.
There exist many misconceptions about the world of Japanese Television. The most interesting is the extreme game show where people get humiliated and physically harmed for not getting the right answer to a question. In many cases, these are misunderstandings based on the difficulty of understanding foreign humor. Japanese is a language that mainly used to interest businessmen. As a result, many of us coming out of the school system have a difficult time understanding Japanese humor. London Hearts is a good example of a show that would, on the surface, appear to be a perfect example of one of those cruel game shows.
So I just watched the first episode of “Garo” (Wolf Fang). It wasn’t a particularly great show, especially for one that is supposedly marketted towards adults. Actually, the description on Wikipedia is quite inadvertantly funny: “Produced by Bandai, the series is considered by some to be a turning point in tokusatsu entertainment, as it was marketed towards adults and older teenagers, as opposed to younger children. The show contains graphic violence, nudity, and mature themes.” As if nudity and ‘adult themes’ are part and parcel of a show aimed at adults
The show was not particularly bad; the special effects were nice (in a modern chinese kung fu movie sort of way), but the story seemed to be the same old. “Magic Knight has a mission to destroy all of a group of people, transforms when he needs super-powered help, et cetra”. They dress it up with a romance in the middle, but it is nothing special.
I’ll keep watching, to see what a “mature tokusatsu” show is if for no other reason. Thus far, it seems to be a cliched WB series.
I generally don’t get scared by scary films. Startled or disgusted, maybe; but fear itself isn’t really something I dwell in every day. Usually the only thing that really gets my knees a-quaking are bad intentions - something there but just out of sight. Number Stations fit that bill perfectly. There is no beneficial effect to having spies in one’s country; you know they are always up to no good. The idea that they are just beaming transmissions with impunity over the open airwaves irritates me beyond measure.
Behold, 
