Ga-what?

I'm freaking out over the trailer for Marie Antionette.

I love Sofia Coppola's earlier two films, and the footage itself seems pitch-perfect. But the 80s-synth soundtrack keeps throwing me for a loop.

And Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI? It's either the worst casting choice ever made, or it's, uhm, perfect.

It's getting a bit lonely out here

I don't know how many people follow my blog links, but if you do you may have noticed that I'm not the only one who hasn't been posting as much in the past few weeks. Short-Schrift is taking a bit of a break, and Wombat of Doom's livejournal and Blathermentia are both only intermittently updated. (I'd like to say that it's like receiving a package in the mail when they are updated--all the sweeter for the delay--but I want something to read now, dammit!)

Snarkmarket still posts regularly, at least they update regularly with miniposts that link to cool things they've found in their virtual travels--full-scale posts have become a bit more rare, but at least half of Snarkmarket blogs for a living, and while I have a pretty good idea of what media he's consuming, I'm often not entirely sure what he's up to. (Of course, I'm notoriously private on my own blog. I'll talk at length about what I'm reading, my opinions, and what I'm doing in my spare time, but not at all about my family.)

All the same, the point of all this is that if something doesn't change soon, I'm going to have to go out and find some real blogs to link to, blogs with ads, and constant updates, and real day-to-day themes. I don't think anyone wants that. It just smacks of effort.

It gets you to thinking. . .

So who was the last sitting US Vice President to shoot someone? Aaron Burr?

Update, 7:36 p.m.--John Dickerson on Slate says I'm right, it was Aaron Burr. (Jump to the last paragraph.)

I swear to god I'm not making this up

Dick Cheney shoots a man. (via CNN.com)

My favorite part of the story, besides the blissful absurdity of the headline "Vice President Cheney accidentally shoots fellow hunter"? This quote:

"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," said [Katharine Armstrong, the owner of the property where Cheney and shooting victim Harry Whittington were hunting quail]. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."

The Vice President is so frail that he has an ambulance following him around, and he still gets to pack heat? Thank god that even in these times of uncertain Constitutional liberties an invalid can still exercise his right to bear arms.

The world is getting stranger and stranger.

Fire Donald Rumsfeld

Not so much even because he's condoned torture, but because he's utterly failed at what he considered his first priority as Secretary of Defense: adapting the military to fight new, non-Cold War enemies.

Oh, but do give us another volume of his wit and wisdom. The first was delightful.