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	<title>walt &amp;laquo; WordPress.com Tag Feed</title>
	<link>http://en.wordpress.com/tag/walt/</link>
	<description>Feed of posts on WordPress.com tagged "walt"</description>
	<pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:28:23 +0000</pubDate>

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<title><![CDATA[The life and lies of benjamin linus]]></title>
<link>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/the-life-and-lies-of-benjamin-linus/</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:42:36 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>finallylost</dc:creator>
<guid>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/the-life-and-lies-of-benjamin-linus/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Completed: 5-6 316, 5-7 The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham. Just 10 episodes left, &amp; 46 days t]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><img src="http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/lostpedia/images/thumb/a/a1/Prayingredux.jpg/800px-Prayingredux.jpg" alt="If lightening was ever to strike somebody in a church..." /></p>
<p>Completed: 5-6 316, 5-7 The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham. Just 10 episodes left, &#38; 46 days till the Lost Season 6 premier. As you know, I don’t know anything that is to come and like the survivors I am completely lost.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m getting ready to hit the panic button because I&#8217;m only 10 episodes away from joining you in Lost realtime and I don&#8217;t have nearly enough answers. I fear for the season 5 cliff hanger. First the recap: Jack, Other Ben, Desmond &#38; Sun go to the secret Dharma station in the church with Mother Time (Eloise Hawking) and she explains to them how there are pockets of strange EM all over the world. Apparently people have been searching for magic island for a long time until someone figured out how to predict where the island would be next (the island is always moving which is one of the reasons the Losties were never found). Mother Time has calculated that they are now in a 70 hour window and Indian flight 316 is going to be flying through the area where the island will be. If the O6 can recreate as many of the 815 conditions as possible then the island might decide to bring them back. This apparently includes Jack putting Daddy Jack&#8217;s shoes on Locke&#8217;s dead feet. This news makes Desmond peace out but Other Ben, Jack and Sun decide to take the flight, along with Kate who decided at the last minute to ditch her adopted son, Aaron, for this adventure (plus banging Jack for good measure). When we get on the plane, Sayid (arrested) &#38; Hurley are magically on board and Swoop (Frank) is coincidentally (not!) the pilot. After Jack reads Locke&#8217;s suicide note the plane begins to shake but the O6 are white flashed off the plane. Hurley, Jack &#38; Kate are together at Sawyer &#38; Kate&#8217;s love pool where they run into Jin. Then we get Locke&#8217;s story. Locke wakes up in Tunisia, the island&#8217;s exit point and home to where Other Ben jacked those locals up with his stick. The injured Locke is cared for by Mr. Widmore and is told there is a war coming and he has to get the O6 back on the island. Lt. Daniels (Matt) is assigned as his driver and one by one Locke fails to recruit the O6 for a encore viewing of magic island. While visiting Locke&#8217;s old gf&#8217;s grave (Helen) Lt. Daniels is shot and Locke via a car accident checks into Jack&#8217;s hospital. Locke tries to pull out all the stops on Jack and tells him that Daddy Jack is walking around on the island and says, &#8220;Hi&#8221;.  Once that fails Locke decides to kill himself but is rescued by Other Ben. And when I say rescued I really me he gets Mother Time&#8217;s name out of Locke and then strangles him and makes it look like a suicide!! Cut to Locke alive and well on the island (presumably on Other Island) and explains to some newbies that he&#8217;s been on the island before and was killed. Locke is then taken to Other Ben and we are LOST black-screened.</p>
<p>Other Ben might be the best liar in fiction. How cold was it that he saved Locke&#8217;s life only to kill him once he got his info. Other Ben also got to pick up the Jin story which he will eventually use to Ben-Whammy Sun to go back to the island. I&#8217;m also starting to think that he killed Nadia so Sayid could go back. While these episodes didn&#8217;t answer any questions, they did exposed how much Other Ben lies. Here are some:</p>
<ul>
<li>Once you turn the wheel you can never go back to the island.  FALSE!</li>
<li>He told Sun he didn&#8217;t know why Jin wanted her to think she was dead. FALSER!!</li>
<li>He told Jack he didn&#8217;t know Locke committed suicide and didn&#8217;t know he left Jack a suicide note. FALSEST!!!</li>
</ul>
<p>Why is Other Ben lying so much? May be while growing up on the island manipulation-pursuit was the only game they had and old habits die hard. Why is Other Ben so obsessed with getting the O6 back on the island? If Locke fixed the wheel then the Losties on the island won&#8217;t be time jumping and they should be safe. Something that really doesn&#8217;t make sense is why did Other Ben have to move the island to hide it from Widmore if the island already moves on its own? I&#8217;m really afraid that the writers don&#8217;t have a plan and have painted themselves into corners and just made mistakes. Before I started watching this series I was told no one is safe and anyone can die but they just brought back 2 main characters and haven&#8217;t showed the ability to kill any of the mains. Can you tell I&#8217;m feeling frustrated <img src='http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>With all this Other Ben lying business I almost buried the lead! Penny&#8217;s in trouble huh <img src='http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' /> ? Other Ben has the best lines&#8230;&#8221;Oh, I made a promise to an old friend of mine–just a loose end that needs tying&#8221;. Ahhh Desmond! He&#8217;s going to follow you to your boat to try to kill Penny! Cut to Other Ben on a pay phone (they still have those?) talking to Jack with lots of blood on his face. I&#8217;m not going to speculate, I&#8217;m not speculate&#8230;</p>
<p>Finally I feel like I&#8217;ve been asking too many questions lately and haven&#8217;t done enough predictions:</p>
<ul>
<li>I think Jack was white flashed to the island the first time around which is why he woke up in the jungle and not in the plane wreck</li>
<li>Ghostbuster (Miles) is the son of our favorite orientation movie star/scientist. Shortly after we learn this for sure he will die</li>
<li>Penny dies and Desmond desperately tries to return to the island to kill Other Ben. That was hard to write&#8230;</li>
</ul>
<p>Next on Finally Lost&#8230;I get to watch this LaFleur episode everyone keeps raving about. Hopefully it&#8217;ll make me not as frustrated with the writers!!</p>
<p>p.s. Kate just ditch Aaron like it was nothing?? And Jack doesn&#8217;t care about his own half-nephew?? That&#8217;s a little cold&#8230;</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Go Forth, Pioneers]]></title>
<link>http://theuglyblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/go-forth-pioneers/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:12:44 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>theuglyblog</dc:creator>
<guid>http://theuglyblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/go-forth-pioneers/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Just watch these&#8230;. And think for a minute&#8230; How they make you feel. I have done no resear]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p>Just watch these&#8230;.</p>
<p><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/FdW1CjbCNxw&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='wmode' value='transparent' /><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/FdW1CjbCNxw&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' allowfullscreen='true' width='425' height='350' wmode='transparent'></embed></object></span></p>
<p>And think for a minute&#8230;</p>
<p><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/mAXpJSvW5mA&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='wmode' value='transparent' /><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/mAXpJSvW5mA&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' allowfullscreen='true' width='425' height='350' wmode='transparent'></embed></object></span></p>
<p>How they make you feel.</p>
<p><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/C6I79Quwg_I&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='wmode' value='transparent' /><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/C6I79Quwg_I&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' allowfullscreen='true' width='425' height='350' wmode='transparent'></embed></object></span></p>
<p>I have done no research outside of this campaign.  I know only that the Pioneers speech is taken from Walt Whitman&#8217;s &#8220;Leaves of Grass&#8221; written in the late 1800s and the fortune video was from Grayson Ozias IV.  I know of no controversies, likes, dislikes, or biases of these commercials.<br />
All I know, is that they make me feel. These commercials do more than sell me Levi&#8217;s. They do more than brand Levi&#8217;s&#8230; which, that in and of itself is an amazing accomplishment. These commercials make me FEEL.</p>
<p>I feel a part of something bigger.  Something grass roots. Something natural and real and living under the surface.   These commercials make me feel American. I&#8217;m not sure exactly what that means, really.  But every time I watch one of these ads, I get chills.</p>
<p>Clearly, the target demographic is my age group &#8211; early twenties.  They seem to have really hit the nail on the head &#8211; love, adventure, mystery, wild, nature &#8211; with finding out what our generation wants out of life.  This campaign speaks to Generation Y&#8230; effectively!</p>
<p>The commercials overall are moving, but even within them the shots are great.  The images are striking and bold, the music builds each commercial up to a tense moment of interest, and they all feature sparks and loud noises.  They are attention grabbing, and once they have you, they keep you.  I love how the scenes jump around from so many different people but in each one you know exactly what is happening because all of the scenes work so well together.</p>
<p>To me, and maybe everyone else in my generation disagrees, this is a great campaign. Visually moving. Visually appealing. Emotionally striking. Levi&#8217;s is back in the game. Can&#8217;t wait to see where they go next &#8211; I wonder what famous speech they&#8217;ll use and what emotions that will stir in their audiences.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[We have to go back (Season 4 recap)]]></title>
<link>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/we-have-to-go-back-season-4-recap/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:48:44 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>finallylost</dc:creator>
<guid>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/we-have-to-go-back-season-4-recap/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Spoiler Free Season 5 As promised here are the poll results, my Season 4 prediction results, the]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><div id="attachment_224" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 650px"><a href="http://finallylost.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/lost-season-52.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-224" title="The Spoiler Free Season 5" src="http://finallylost.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/lost-season-52.jpg" alt="The Spoiler Free Season 5" width="640" height="480" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">The Spoiler Free Season 5</p></div>
<p>As promised here are the poll results, my Season 4 prediction results, the list of my favorite season 4 episodes and of course my new Lost Season 5 predictions. All in all Lost Season 4 was another great season. People keep asking me which season is my favorite and I keep telling them it&#8217;s too difficult to differentiate between all the different seasons (too many at once). Gun to my head I would say Lost Season 3 is my favorite and the worst part of Lost Season 4 was that it was so short due to the strike. I am very aware that the episodes I have left are quickly running out and I have been trying to watch them at a slower pace because I don&#8217;t want them to end.</p>
<p>Now for the poll results: 50-50, we had a tie! Much like the Losties, half of you would have followed Locke into the woods to your eventual death (unless you think of yourself as Sawyer, Hurley or Prego) while the other half of you would be safe at the beach. The ironic thing is that Locke was right but he led his people right into danger, while Jack was wrong (*cough* as usual) but kept most of his people safe (except for those who were blown up on the freighter). I think this teaches us to follow the leader who is more concerned with your safety than the safety of a mysterious island that often demands sacrifices.</p>
<p>And now for the Season 4 results, I think I did pretty good:</p>
<p>The Jack Shepard school of predictions (WRONG):</p>
<ul>
<li><em>The 4th season will be all about the island. Why it’s so magical and how it got its propertie</em>s. What the hell was I thinking?? I&#8217;m starting to believe we won&#8217;t ever learn this</li>
<li><em>In the future flash Kate is returning home to someone we haven’t met yet. Some big bad rich guy type. Who else could have gotten her out of all her legal troubles,  Maybe Mr. Widmore??</em> Arg! Of course Jack&#8217;s plan got her out of trouble and she was going home to Aaron. Really missed the mark on that one</li>
</ul>
<p>The John Locke school of predictions (CHECK):</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Locke is in the coffin</em>. Nailed it! I lose some points for waffling all season and saying it might be Other Ben after all.</li>
<li><em>Time travel is going to be huge</em>. This was a better prediction when I made it in season 3, than when I reiterated right before season 4. There also seems to be more of a space/time thing going on so I don&#8217;t know if that affects the purity of this prediction.</li>
<li><em>The survivors will leave the island at the cliff hanger of season 4. Other Ben isn’t lying, the bad guys are coming</em>. I think both of these were pretty obvious but I&#8217;ll take credit none-the-less.</li>
</ul>
<p>The Ben Linus school of grey predictions (Half credit):</p>
<ul>
<li><em>The big 5 (Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Locke &#38; Sayid) will not die this season and I believe all 5 will make it to season 6 (I think the coffin future is avoidable). I also think that there is NO WAY Prego (Claire) or Hurley can die. The writers won’t kill the most beloved happy-go-lucky character and they won’t kill a single mom and leave devil baby (Aaron) an orphan</em>. Wow this prediction came out interesting. The coffin future does not appear to be avoidable and I don&#8217;t know if Locke&#8217;s death counts as a Season 4 death or not. Thoughts? The writers did in fact have Claire abandon her baby but it remains to be seen if she&#8217;s dead. I was tempted to put this in wrong category but may be I&#8217;ll revisit this prediction at the next season recap.</li>
<li><em>Jin dies</em>. I didn&#8217;t take credit for this because I&#8217;m in denial and still hoping I&#8217;m wrong. I&#8217;m in danger of being optimistic to the point of foolishness at this juncture&#8230;</li>
</ul>
<p>In a new feature I thought I&#8217;d list my top 3 favorite episodes of season 4:</p>
<ol>
<li>Ji Leon. I don&#8217;t think this is a surprise to anyone. So well written, didn&#8217;t see the flashback and the flash forward coming and it prompted the great Jin debate.</li>
<li>The Constant. Again this shouldn&#8217;t be a shock because I like Desmond and Penny so much but I also really like how they dealt with time travel in this episode. This is the beginning of our understanding of how Lost will deal with time travel and so far, very cool</li>
<li>The Shape of Things to Come. Slingshot&#8217;s death and some real moments with Other Ben. As a rule Other Ben flashbacks are awesome.</li>
</ol>
<p>Least favorite episode: Meet Kevin Johnson. 1) it was about my least favorite character and 2) for an episode that was supposed to cover the large topic of &#8220;What happened to Michael &#38; Walt since season 2?&#8221; we got very few surprises and boring answers.</p>
<p>Last but not least my Lost Season 5 predictions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Lt. Daniels (Matt) kills/killed Locke.</li>
<li>The physicist and the people on the boat somehow end up back on the island</li>
<li>The Losties and the Others team up to become one big tribe, but then break up in a civil war (Others/Losties war is the bad thing that happened because Jack left)</li>
<li>Ghostbuster (Miles) &#38; Prego die this season</li>
<li>Peter Pan (Richard) is as old as the island</li>
<li>Aliens built the island (we might not learn this until season 6 though)</li>
<li>Other Ben is trying to get the O6 back on the island so he can find Penny</li>
<li>3 years will not pass for the people on the island like it does for the O6. If we are dealing with time and space, then moving the island (space) means moving time.</li>
<li>Jin is alive! (I had to..)</li>
</ul>
<p>Well there they are, the fearless Lost Season 5 predictions.</p>
<p>Next up on Finally Lost, it&#8217;s time to stop predicting and time to start watching&#8230;</p>
<p>p.s. Shout out to my boy Johnny Cavs for lending me Season 5 and taking the time to put paper over all the pictures that might be spoilers. That&#8217;s hardcore. So far I haven&#8217;t been really spoiled yet&#8230;</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Lost Season 4 complete]]></title>
<link>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/lost-season-4-complete/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:39:22 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>finallylost</dc:creator>
<guid>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/lost-season-4-complete/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Completed: 4-13/14 There’s No Place Like Home Part 2. 17 episodes left, 50 days to go. As you know, ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><img src="http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/lostpedia/images/thumb/5/52/Coffin.jpg/800px-Coffin.jpg" alt="Jeremy Bentham" /></p>
<p>Completed: 4-13/14 There’s No Place Like Home Part 2. 17 episodes left, 50 days to go. As you know, I don’t know anything that is to come and like the survivors I am completely lost.</p>
<p>Lost really knows how to do season finales and thankfully I don&#8217;t have Season 5 yet or else I would have immediately popped it in the DVD. Here&#8217;s the recap: Jack &#38; Locke get into an argument because Locke says the island doesn&#8217;t want Jack to leave. Jack thinks Locke is insane but Locke tells him he will believe in miracles soon and when he does he needs to lie about everything that&#8217;s happened since they landed on the island to protect them from Widmore. Back at the helicopter the commandos walk into a Kate induced Other trap and are all killed. In return for their help, Other Ben tells Sayid &#38; Kate they are free to leave the island. Back on the boat, Dumb-Ass Dad (Michael) uses nitrogen to keep the bomb&#8217;s battery frozen until Desmond can disable the bomb. They don&#8217;t realize the bomb&#8217;s trigger is tied to the leader of the commando&#8217;s heart rate and if he dies the bomb will go off. Cut to Locke &#38; Other Ben having a heart to heart about moving the island and passing the leadership-of-The-Others torch. The Commando leader shows up but Other Ben kills him with no regard for the people on the boat (Slingshot revenged). Other Ben then tells Locke to go lead The Others while he moves the island. He then goes to a secret frozen part of the Orchid Station and turns a donkey wheel to move the island. Other Ben had to move the island because the unfortunate consequence for the person moving the island is they can never go back to it. Back at the beach, the physicist is still loading people in the 6 person mini-boat because they don&#8217;t know about the bomb. The physicist tries to convince Indiana (Charlotte) to go back with him but she decides to stay after Ghostbuster (Miles) taunts her about leaving so soon after she&#8217;s been searching for the island for so long. Cut to the helicopter where Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Sawyer and Swoop (Frank!) begin to fly back to the boat but have trouble because they didn&#8217;t realize it moved closer to the island. To save fuel, Sawyer jumps out of the chopper and swims back to the island which buys the rest of the crew the time they needed to land on the boat when they Hurley finally spots it. Desmond frantically warns them that they must all leave the boat because the bomb is going to explode as soon as the nitrogen runs out. Kate goes to find Jin but Jack pulls her back into the chopper and they leave without Jin. The boat explodes as Daddy Jack tells Michael thanks for his services and while Jin is still on the deck. Next, the passengers on the helicopter watch the island disappear and with nowhere to land, the chopper eventually runs out of fuel and crashes into the water. Desmond, Swoop, Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun, Hurley &#38; Aaron all end up in the chopper life boat which is picked up by&#8230;Penny&#8217;s boat! Now that Jack has seen the miracle of the disappearing island he takes Locke&#8217;s advice and convinces everyone to lie about the crash and tells Desmond and Penny to go into hiding. Flash forward to the future and we witness Walt visiting Hurley and asking him about his father &#38; Jeremy Bentham, Sayid killing a Widmore spy at the mental hospital and breaking Hurley out (after he checkmates Mr. Eko), Kate having a dream in which Prego (Claire) tells her not to bring him (Aaron I presume) back to the island, Sun meeting Mr. Widmore and telling him they have mutual goals in finding the island, and lastly, Jack going back to the funeral home and looking at Jeremy Bentham aka John Locke&#8217;s body (dun dun dun). Other Ben shows up and tells Jack he has some ideas on how that they can go back to the island but all the Ocean 6 must go plus Locke&#8217;s body.</p>
<p>Wow what an ending. After all the speculating and it&#8217;s Locke in the coffin! All the wondering of how those particular 6 ended up getting saved and it&#8217;s only because they happened to be in the helicopter. In addition Desmond &#38; Swoop got saved but they had to go into hiding. Jin was seconds away from surviving (I&#8221;m still holding out hope) and it was all Jack&#8217;s fault if he is indeed dead. Other Ben won for now because killed all of Widmore&#8217;s commandos and has hidden the location of the island from him again. And now I think we know why Other Ben wouldn&#8217;t let anyone leave the island&#8230;he was afraid of giving away it&#8217;s location. It&#8217;s why he never helped the survivors get off.  He never really had to worry about them getting off in the first place because there is only one heading that would allow you to leave the island and what are the odds the survivors would have found it. For the same reason Penny must have been circling around the island looking for Desmond but couldn&#8217;t break into the island&#8217;s event horizon.</p>
<p>While a few things were answered, there are still so many questions. What the hell is the island? I&#8217;m starting to think the aliens theory should be back on the table. Why are people whose dead bodies are on the island allowed to walk around? (Daddy Jack, Mr. Eko, Charlie, Yemi, etc.) Why did Claire tell Kate not to bring him back when Charlie and Daddy Jack are saying you have to go back. Why is Other Ben helping the O6 get back to the island? What bad things happened to the people on the island since the O6 left it (probably to find Penny)? What happened to the physicist&#8217;s mini-boat since he was between the island and big boat when the island disappeared. Is Indiana that little girl who befriended Other Ben on the island when they were young? What does Widmore want to do with the island? And of course the classics: what are the numbers, the black smoke and why do pregnant women on the island die? There are only 2 seasons left and still so many more questions to go&#8230;</p>
<p>Finally, I still haven&#8217;t given up on Jin. May be he survived the explosion and got rescued by the physicist&#8217;s mini-boat and got to another safe island somewhere. I know I&#8217;m still in the denial stage of grieving but I really want him to pull through. Sun must agree with me or why else would she want to get back to the island. I&#8217;m also very happy for Desmond &#38; Penny. I hope they have good times together but judging by the lives of the other O6, I&#8217;m thinking tha won&#8217;t be the case. Sorry about all the venting but I&#8217;ve underestimated how difficult this exercise is yourself. I know it&#8217;s frustrating for you out there as well because all you can do is smile and try to not give anything away when I vent or tell you my latest theories. Well just 17 more episodes and we will be on the same page!</p>
<p>Next up on Finally Lost, I&#8217;ll give my season 5 predictions and score the ones from season 4 and then I can finally begin season 5!</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Ji Yeon and my broken heart]]></title>
<link>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/ji-yeon-and-my-broken-heart/</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:29:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>finallylost</dc:creator>
<guid>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/ji-yeon-and-my-broken-heart/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Completed: 4-6 The Other Woman, 4-7 Ji Yeon. 24 episodes left, 53 days to go. As you know, I don’t k]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><img src="http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/lostpedia/images/thumb/5/51/Jins_grave.jpg/800px-Jins_grave.jpg" alt="9-22-2004??" /><br />
Completed: 4-6 The Other Woman, 4-7 Ji Yeon. 24 episodes left, 53 days to go. As you know, I don’t know anything that is to come and like the survivors I am completely lost.</p>
<p>I didn&#8217;t have the heart to watch another episode after Ji Yeon. Before Jin&#8217;s death, I think there was some big surprise having to do with Dumb-Ass Dad (Michael) returning as Other Ben&#8217;s spy on the boat. It didn&#8217;t matter, Jin died. Has there been one character that has done more of an about-face than Jin? Charlie turned things around in 1 episode but Jin&#8217;s turnaround has been slower, steadier, more believable as a result, we&#8217;ve invested more into him. He started as a very unlikeable character, representing everything our culture hates:  a criminal misogamist who yells at his wife for displaying independence and too much skin AND he didn&#8217;t even speak english! Then we learned the sacrifices Jin made for Sun, we learned he was once a good man and he became that man again. As his english improved so did our affection for him. It was with a heavy heart that I predicted his death, and now on to the recap&#8230;</p>
<p>The Ice Princess&#8217; psychiatrist (and Other Goodwin&#8217;s wifey) appears out of thin air to let her know that Indiana (Charlotte) and Doc Brown (Daniel) are going to release gas on the entire island. Oh yea p.s. Other Ben is exactly where he wants to be (even when he&#8217;s not on screen, he&#8217;s cool). With little-to-no questions asked, Jack follows the Ice Princess but gets ditched when he stops to help Kate, who was knocked out when she saw Doc Brown&#8217;s gas masks. The Ice Princess beats Jack &#38; Kate to the island gas factory and is persuaded by Indiana to let The Doc finish disabling the gas so Other Ben can&#8217;t gas anyone else (like he did to those poor Dharma saps). The episode ends with the Ice Princess feeling sorry for herself because her love affair with Goodwin made Other Ben send him as an infiltrator because as Other Ben notes to the Ice Princess, &#8220;You&#8217;re Mine!&#8221; Did I mention that Other Ben reveals to Locke that Charles Widmore is the man financing the boat and seeking Other Ben?? (grieving check) Back on Widmore&#8217;s boat we learn from &#8220;The Captain&#8221; that someone (probably Other Ben) has spent a lot of resources to plant the real oceanic flight 815 black box at a fake plane crash site with 324 (NUMBERS backwards) dead bodies and Daddy Chuck (C Widmore) wants to find out why. A note from Other Ben&#8217;s spy says &#8220;The Captain&#8221; is not to be trusted and Sayid &#38; Desmond tend to agree when the capt. lets some chick tie herself up with chains and jump into the water without trying to help her. Afterwards The Captain shows them to their poop-stained quarters and they realize Dumb-Ass Dad (DAD) is both the janitor &#38; spy (dun dun dun). Back on the island (deep breath) Sun &#38; Jin decide to go to Camp Locke but the Ice Princess Ben-whammies them into staying by telling Jin that Sun slept with another man and thought her baby might be that man&#8217;s instead of Jin&#8217;s (now he know why his father-in-law wanted him to throw that hotel owner&#8217;s son out of a window!) Jin goes off fishing with White Bernard who imparts some serious karma wisdom on him and Sun is convinced by the Ice Princess to stay at Camp Jack and try to get off the island. Meanwhile in the shows first flashback/flashforward we are meant to think that both Jin &#38; Sun got off the island but alas it is revealed that Jin is dead and Sun has a healthy baby girl by herself in Korea <img src='http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' />  Fantastic writing&#8230;</p>
<p>Now I didn&#8217;t mean to bury the lead but yes, I was SOOO confused with Jin&#8217;s flashback and Sun&#8217;s forward flash. I kept coming up with crazy theories on how one of the 7 oceanic survivors were hidden. Or may be the baby didn&#8217;t count as 1?? So well done. While Sun was in the delivery room, she kept saying she was waiting for Jin, Jin kept getting phone calls from the hospital and wanted to buy a panda for a baby! Sun &#38; Jin were the perfect people to use this trick on because they have had simultaneous flashbacks before, arg! And then the great Hurley shows up (of course he does) and it all makes sense&#8230;Except&#8230;the grave has a death-date of 9-22 which is the date of the plane crash!!!! Wooooo! Jin stayed on the island for some reason and isn&#8217;t dead&#8230;at least I think. I don&#8217;t know why he couldn&#8217;t leave the island but it makes perfect sense why he would have let Sun go without him. That has to be right! Take my check off the board for now because that&#8217;s new my theory and I&#8217;m sticking to it (otherwise I&#8217;d be really depressed)&#8230;</p>
<p>There are no words to describe how manipulative Other Ben is. I believe Goodwin&#8217;s wifey when she says Other Ben is exactly where he wants to be, just like it&#8217;s no shock that he knew Indiana and the Doc were going after the gas. Hell he may have even wanted them to succeed, who knows with him. One thing I know about Other Ben is that he doesn&#8217;t let people go; that&#8217;s why I shouldn&#8217;t have been as shocked as I was when DAD showed back up under Other Ben&#8217;s employee. So how did DAD end up getting Ben-Whammied? Too many theories come to mind, but maybe he and Walt got kidnapped by the boat and now he&#8217;s bidding his time till he can escape. In fact I wouldn&#8217;t put it past Other Ben to have sent him right on a course that got him kidnapped&#8230;</p>
<p>Next up on Finally Lost&#8230;I get to see 3-8 which many people rave about. Well 3-7 sure lived up to the hype.</p>
<p>p.s. Hurley to Sawyer: &#8220;Sawyer, I challenge you to a game a horseshoes, a game of hooorsehoes&#8221;&#8230;Take me to another island&#8230;</p>
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<title><![CDATA[The Wonderful World Of Walt Disney...]]></title>
<link>http://thefagcasanova.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/the-wonderful-world-of-walt-disney/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:12:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Gareth Aveyard</dc:creator>
<guid>http://thefagcasanova.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/the-wonderful-world-of-walt-disney/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Click Image to embiggen.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p style="text-align:center;">Click Image to embiggen.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://thefagcasanova.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/walt.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1092" title="The Wonderful World Of Walt Disney" src="http://thefagcasanova.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/walt.jpg" alt="" width="393" height="985" /></a></p>
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<title><![CDATA[Oh my god it's Oceanic Flight 815]]></title>
<link>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/oh-my-god-its-oceanic-flight-815/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>finallylost</dc:creator>
<guid>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/oh-my-god-its-oceanic-flight-815/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Completed: 4-1 The Beginning of the End, 4-2 Confirmed Dead. 29 episodes left, 56 days to go. As you]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><img src="http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/lostpedia/images/1/14/815crashsiteBali.jpg" alt="Oceanic Flight 815" /><br />
Completed: 4-1 The Beginning of the End, 4-2 Confirmed Dead. 29 episodes left, 56 days to go. As you know, I don’t know anything that is to come, like the survivors I am completely lost.</p>
<p>Season 4 begins and I&#8217;m just as clueless as ever, was I really expecting anything else? Did I expect a flash forward? Yes. Would Hurley have been in my top 5 guesses of who got the first flash forward? No. Recap (this is going to be tough with the flash forwards): The survivors split into 2 camps: Camp Jack believes the folks from the boat are good and here to rescue the survivors, Camp Locke is taking orders from mid-puberty Walt and believes the folks from the boat are bad and should be killed. Hurley convinces half the survivors to go with Locke by telling them that Charlie&#8217;s last act was to warn them about the people on the boat&#8230;flash to future Hurley in mental hospital and we hear him telling a pre-bearded Jack that he regrets that decision and says we need to go back. Hurley was put in the mental home after seeing Charlie&#8217;s ghost in a convenience store and giving the cops an OJ-like car chase. Back in what I think is current time, we see an A-Team land on the island: a ghostbuster, an archeologist, a physicist and a pilot that was supposed to be flying Oceanic 815 the day it crashed. Everyone but the archeologist (who gets shot) ends up with Camp Jack and it is revealed that the team&#8217;s primary target is Other Ben. We find out the person who visited Hurley in the mental home (char name? I&#8217;m calling him Lt. Daniels from The Wire for now) put together this supposed covert team with Bi-Ling (Naomi) as the leader, all while assuring her that no one from 815 survived. The last thing we learn is that Other Ben has a man on the boat and he knows everything about the team.</p>
<p>Dude, I&#8217;m part of the Oceanic 6! I&#8217;m sorry Hurley did you say 6?? So for some reason 6 of the survivors got off the island, got famous, are miserable and are haunted by the island until they go back. I&#8217;m kind of sad that there appears to be no way to change the fact that characters I like are going to leave their friends behind on the island and no matter what happens, Jack will grow a hideous beard. OK, I&#8217;ll bite and take a guess at the 6: Jack, Kate, Hurley (man I&#8217;m good at this), Locke (because I think his body is in the coffin), Sun (otherwise she&#8217;ll die on the island), and a random person! I picture Sawyer staying behind for some reason, Prego (Claire) not going because she and devil baby would make 7, Sayid has to stay behind to protect the survivors and all the rest weren&#8217;t on the plane. I think I only missed Jin and I already predicted that he would die so it would be hypocritical to say he got saved. Interestingly enough, Hurley is now seeing dead people when he isn&#8217;t even on magic island, what&#8217;s that all about?</p>
<p>Who is Lt. Daniels and why does he want to extract Other Ben from the island? How did he and Naomi know that 815 crashed there? Why was Indiana (archeologist chick) digging up Dharma-tracking jewelry from polar bears? One thing is for sure, Lt. Daniels knows his stuff. If I were assembling a team to extract someone from magic island I would definitely want someone that could talk to ghosts, someone that knew something about physics and someone that could actually land a helicopter on that damn island. I think the most logical guess is that the A-Team is working for Mr. Widmore. Since I already identified Widmore as a bad guy in a season 2 blog, I&#8217;m pot committed. If he doesn&#8217;t show up in season 4 I think I&#8217;m going to have to finally abandon this prediction.</p>
<p>New poll is up&#8230;When the survivors divided would you have gone with Jack or Locke?</p>
<p>Next up on Finally Lost&#8230;Locke takes the crew to see Jacob and Other Ben gets knocked around again. This time from his own stolen daughter!</p>
<p>p.s. I love the title name, &#8220;The Beginning of the End&#8221;. It sets the tone for the entire season in a similar way that &#8220;A Man of Science a Man of Faith&#8221; did in season 2. Plus Other Ben said it which makes it way cooler.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Flash Forward]]></title>
<link>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/flash-forward/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:19:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>finallylost</dc:creator>
<guid>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/flash-forward/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Completed: 3-21 Greatest Hits, 3-22/3-23 Through the Looking Glass.  31 episodes left, 57 days to go]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><img src="http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/lostpedia/images/thumb/5/52/Notpennysboat.jpg/800px-Notpennysboat.jpg" alt="The Hobbit becomes a Hero" /><br />
Completed: 3-21 Greatest Hits, 3-22/3-23 Through the Looking Glass.  31 episodes left, 57 days to go. As you know, I don’t know anything about the show that is to come. I use to think they got off the island but I think the flash forward I just saw got me off the hook of that spoiler.</p>
<p>Flash Forward!?! Now there&#8217;s a wrinkle. Recap: Desmond sees a flash forward of Charlie turning off a blinking light and then drowning. At Slingshot&#8217;s (Alex) request, Carl goes to the beach to warn the survivors that The Others moved up their previously scheduled kidnapping appointment a day early. The survivors break into 3 teams: Charlie (dead ppl get more respect) &#38; Desmond go off to knock out the jamming signal at the underwater hatch, Sayid, Jin &#38; White Bernard stay at Camp Survivors to shoot the dynamite planted in the fake identified tents, and Jack leads the rest of the survivors to disable Frenchy&#8217;s (Danielle) S.O.S signal at the radio tower which is also jamming the satellite phone. You know what happens next&#8230;the dynamite boys kill 7 of the 10 Others before being captured. Not to worry because Hurley saves the day with Other Ben&#8217;s father&#8217;s truck and between the truck, Sayid&#8217;s legs and Sawyer&#8217;s gun they kill the 3 Others (including Tom, check!). At the underwater hatch Charlie gets captured by Others guarding the hatch but is rescued by Desmond. Charlie uses previously un-exhibited manipulation skills to find out there is a jamming code and to convince one of the dying guards to give him the code. Charlie disables the jammer and talks to Penny but sees Left Eye (Mikhail) pulling a grenade in an attempt kill him and Desmond. As Desmond rushes to talk to Penny (who now knows Desmond is alive), Charlie closes the watertight door and with his last bit of life lets Desmond know the ship 80 miles off shore is not Penny&#8217;s (very sad check). At the radio tower the survivors rejoice when they learn Sayid, Jin &#38; White Bernard are OK and Other Ben attempts one last time to convince Jack not to phone home because Bi-ling (Naomi) is from a group trying to destroy the island and claims her crew will kill the survivors. Locke shows up and kills Bi-ling with his knife throwing skills (after a &#8220;hey you damn cripple get up and walk&#8221; speech from a mid-puberty-voiced Walt) and implores Jack not to phone the ship. Jack doesn&#8217;t listen and phones the ship and help is coming at last! Time for the series to end except&#8230;Jack&#8217;s flashback was really a flashforward and he&#8217;s using his Oceanic gold pass in hopes of crash landing back on magic island. Future Jack tells future Kate that he made a mistake and they have to go back. Clearly Future Jack is having rescue remorse&#8230;</p>
<p>I really beat up on Charlie a lot in this blog. I called him boring, the hobbit and I even dreaded his flashbacks. I&#8217;m feeling really guilty because Charlie redeemed himself in the end. I thought the &#8220;5 best things of my life&#8221; flashback was one of the most powerful flashbacks to date (connection: Charlie saves Nadia from a mugger in an alley). Charlie showed up as a hero when it counted most and it was hilarious to watch him toy with his 2 Others guards because he knew the future and the future said he was going to turn off the yellow light. The only good thing that can come of all this is that Penny knows Desmond is alive and maybe she can now rescue the survivors. Left Eye killing Charlie was quite poetic since Desmond let him go free when Charlie wanted to kill him. Charlie, you grew on me and you will be miss. Long live Drive Shaft&#8230;</p>
<p>All 3 of my favorite characters got to kill some Others together: Sawyer, Sayid &#38; Hurley. Poor Hurley, no one wanted to pick him in gym class but he showed everyone the why the fat kid shouldn&#8217;t sit on the bench. Despite the fact that I liked Tom, I LOVED when Sawyer killed him in cold blood for taken Walt. Guess that thing between them is finally finished. Back at the radio tower, I only have one thought&#8230;Other Ben could you PLEASE just explain things. Maybe if you did then Jack wouldn&#8217;t have phoned the ship filled with new bad guys. Or if you didn&#8217;t pretend-kill Jack&#8217;s friends! Arrrg. Maybe Jack was really Other-Ben-whammied because Other Ben really wanted Jack to phone the ship (unlikely). Either way the Others future isn&#8217;t so bright since most of their best warriors died (save Left Eye) and the survivors captured their guns. Throw in the fact that Other Ben&#8217;s leadership was already shaky and you have the makings for a revolution. Maybe Locke will take over now to help combat the new threat. Well at least Slingshot got to meet her mom, I&#8217;ve been waiting for that for like 3 seasons&#8230;</p>
<p>Now the flashforward. Just when I&#8217;m think I&#8217;m getting out&#8230;My biggest question is can the future change or is that future set in stone? Based on Desmond&#8217;s flashbacks one would think the future is set but the future seems too grim to definitely happen. Jack seems like the last person to want to get involved with all the island mumbo-jumbo so something big must have happened for him to want to go back. Who was in the coffin? The most obvious guess is Sawyer since he has no one and Kate would certainly care, but I suppose it could also be Locke. And who is Kate going back to and how did she get out of her legal troubles? I love that the survivors got gold passes, and I would think they are famous now. I think this flashforward really sets a new tone for season 4 and it will be much different than the previous seasons. Before I started season 3, I was told that season 1 was about the survivors, season 2 was about the hatch and then I was asked what I thought season 3 would be about. I guessed The Others and I think I was right. My guess is that Season 4 is going to be about the people not on the island but who are pulling the strings. We&#8217;ll see&#8230;</p>
<p>Next on Finally Lost&#8230;I&#8217;ll review the poll (last chance to vote), tally my abysmal prediction record and make my season 4 predictions.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Disney's First African-American Princess Marks Studio's Return to Old-Style Animation]]></title>
<link>http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/disneys-first-black-princess-marks-studios-return-to-old-style-animation/</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:12:22 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>audiegrl</dc:creator>
<guid>http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/disneys-first-black-princess-marks-studios-return-to-old-style-animation/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Posted by Audiegrl Among Disney&#8217;s Royal Ladies, Princess Tiana Is a Notable First AP/Mike Cido]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><strong><em>Posted by Audiegrl</em></strong><br />
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<blockquote><h3><em>Among Disney&#8217;s Royal Ladies, Princess Tiana Is a Notable First </em></h3>
<p><img src="http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/ph2009041702325.jpg" alt="" title="PH2009041702325" width="475" height="150" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-18514" /><a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FILM_PIONEERING_PRINCESS?SITE=PAYOK&#38;SECTION=HOME&#38;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">AP/Mike Cidoni</a>&#8212;For most of the last century, the Disney &#8216;toon heroine was as white as, well&#8230; Snow White, the studio&#8217;s first feature-film superstar, who marked her debut in 1937&#8217;s &#8220;<em>Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs</em>.&#8221;</p>
<p>It would take some 60 years for the Disney artists to begin painting their leading ladies with all the colors of the wind, including the American Indian <em>Pocahontas</em> (1995), the Chinese <em>Mulan</em> (1998) and the Hawaiian <em>Lilo</em> (2002).</p>
<p>Only now, with &#8220;<em>The Princess and the Frog</em>,&#8221; have Disney animators put a black female front and center. Ironically, the inspiration for the new film came from two Caucasian men: current Pixar-Disney chief John Lasseter and the late Walt Disney himself. </p>
<p>&#8220;<em>The story really came from an initial idea of doing an American fairy tale, which hadn&#8217;t been done at Disney</em>,&#8221; said &#8220;<em>Princess</em>&#8221; co-director Ron Clements. &#8220;<em>And setting it in New Orleans, which is John Lasseter&#8217;s favorite city in the world. It was Walt Disney&#8217;s favorite city in the world &#8230; Out of that, it seemed natural that the heroine would be African-American</em>.&#8221;</p>
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<img src="http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/blank.gif" alt="blank" title="blank" width="1" height="1" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-6440" /><br />
<a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FILM_PIONEERING_PRINCESS?SITE=PAYOK&#38;SECTION=HOME&#38;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">More</a> @ <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FILM_PIONEERING_PRINCESS?SITE=PAYOK&#38;SECTION=HOME&#38;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT"><img alt="" src="http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/nws/p/ap_logo_106.png" class="alignnone" width="106" height="27" /></a></p></blockquote>
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<h3>Anika Noni Rose in Disney&#8217;s &#8216;<em>The Princess and the Frog</em>&#8216;; &#8216;<em>Dreamgirl&#8217;s</em>&#8216; latest role is history making</h3>
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<div id="attachment_5852" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 279px"><img src="http://weeseeyou.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/alg_aneka1-269x300.jpg" alt="Anika Noni Rose, famous for her role in &#39;Dreamgirls&#39; both on Broadway and in the hit movie, stars in Disney&#39;s latest." title="alg_aneka" width="269" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-5852" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Anika Noni Rose, famous for her role in 'Dreamgirls' both on Broadway and in the hit movie, stars in Disney's latest.</p></div><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2009/11/22/2009-11-22_anika_noni_rose_in_disneys_the_princess_and_the_frog_dreamgirls_latest_role_is_h.html">NewYorkDailyNews/Joe Dziemianowicz</a>&#8212;Anika Noni Rose has good reason to feel animated.</p>
<p>Her latest starring role isn&#8217;t simply high-profile — it&#8217;s downright historic.</p>
<p>&#8220;<em>The Princess and the Frog</em>&#8221; leaps into local theaters on Wednesday, and her voice will be heard as Disney&#8217;s first animated black heroine: Tiana, a sassy go-getter out to rescue a bewitched prince from amphibian oblivion.</p>
<p>The tweaked Grimm&#8217;s fairy tale is set in jazzy 1920s New Orleans, but Rose, 37, a Tony winner best known from the movie version of &#8220;<em>Dreamgirls</em>,&#8221; says her connection to Tiana is rooted right at the core of the Big Apple.</p>
<p>Rose was in the middle of Times Square when word came that she&#8217;d landed the coveted regal role.</p>
<p>The producers &#8220;<em>had been trying to reach me for quite a while, but I&#8217;m a New York girl</em>,&#8221; says Rose. &#8220;<em>I was trying to do 10,000 things at once and didn&#8217;t get the phone. I ended up running to the Disney office. Luckily they were nearby — and I was in sneakers</em>.&#8221;</p>
<p>Those sensible shoes fit the character of Tiana, a chef who&#8217;s waiting tables until she can open her own restaurant.</p>
<p>Unlike other Disney princesses introduced with a trademark &#8220;<em>I want</em>&#8221; tune revealing their deepest desire (like the <em>Little Mermaid</em>, Ariel, who wants to &#8220;<em>be where the people are</em>&#8220;), Tiana&#8217;s first song, &#8220;<em>Almost There</em>,&#8221; is one of self-confidence and certainty.</p>
<p>&#8220;<em>She&#8217;s been saving and saving, and she&#8217;s got the down payment ready</em>,&#8221; says Rose. &#8220;<em>She sees her dreams coming true</em>.&#8221;</p>
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<img src="http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/blank.gif" alt="blank" title="blank" width="1" height="1" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-6440" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2009/11/22/2009-11-22_anika_noni_rose_in_disneys_the_princess_and_the_frog_dreamgirls_latest_role_is_h.html">More</a> @  <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2009/11/22/2009-11-22_anika_noni_rose_in_disneys_the_princess_and_the_frog_dreamgirls_latest_role_is_h.html"><img src="http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/newyorkdailynewslogo.jpg" alt="newyorkdailynewslogo" title="newyorkdailynewslogo" width="160" height="16" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5789" /></a> </p>
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<h3>A Fairy Tale Beginning</h3>
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<div id="attachment_5848" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 250px"><img src="http://weeseeyou.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/amd_frog_princess.jpg" alt="Tiana, the heroine in the upcoming &#39;The Princess and the Frog.&#39;" title="amd_frog_princess" width="240" height="155" class="size-full wp-image-5848" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Tiana, the heroine in the upcoming 'The Princess and the Frog.'</p></div><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603139.html">Washington Post/Neely Tucker</a>&#8212;In the 72 years since Walt Disney&#8217;s animated version of Snow White captivated audiences as &#8220;the fairest of them all,&#8221; there have only been eight such Disney princesses. Through these movies and a line of toys, dresses and figurines, the Disney princesses have become global, doe-eyed icons of childhood. Sleeping Beauty awakened by a kiss, Cinderella&#8217;s clock striking midnight, Belle waltzing in the Beast&#8217;s castle, Ariel with Prince Eric in the moonlit lagoon &#8212; these have become heroines whom parents the world over feel safe to let their young girls idolize and mimic. And while Disney has brought us nonwhite princesses before (see &#8220;<em>Mulan</em>,&#8221; &#8220;<em>Pocahontas</em>&#8220;), Tiana is a first. </p>
<p>The implied message of Tiana, that black American girls can be as elegant as Snow White herself, is a milestone in the national imagery, according to a range of scholars and cultural historians.</p>
<p>Her appearance this holiday season, coming on the heels of Michelle Obama&#8217;s emergence as the nation&#8217;s first lady, the Obama girls in the White House and the first line of Barbie dolls modeled on black women (&#8220;<em>So in Style</em>&#8221; debuts this summer), will crown an extraordinary year of visibility for African American women.</p>
<p>But fairy tales and folklore are the stories that cultures tell their children about the world around them, and considering Disney&#8217;s pervasive influence with (and marketing to) young girls, Princess Tiana might well become the symbol of a culture-changing standard of feminine beauty.</p>
<p>&#8220;<em>If this figure takes off, you&#8217;re looking at 30 or 40 years of repetition and resonance</em>,&#8221; says Tricia Rose, a Brown University professor who teaches both popular culture and African American studies, citing the enduring popularity of Disney princesses at the company&#8217;s theme parks, on Web sites and in videos.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;It&#8217;s a very big deal,&#8221; says Leonard Maltin</em>, the film historian, critic and author of &#8220;Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;<em>She&#8217;s the first modern American [Disney] princess, and that she&#8217;s black sends a huge message</em>,&#8221; says Cori Murray, entertainment director for Essence magazine.<br />
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<img src="http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/blank.gif" alt="blank" title="blank" width="1" height="1" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-6440" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603139.html">More</a> @   <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603139.html"><img alt="" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/images/homepage/logos/twp_logo_300.gif" class="alignnone" width="150" height="36" /></a>
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<p> <span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/lAz9pr7wDGg&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='wmode' value='transparent' /><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/lAz9pr7wDGg&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' allowfullscreen='true' width='425' height='350' wmode='transparent'></embed></object></span></p>
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<h3>My Families Experience at Disneyland&#8230;</h3>
<p>
Last night, while putting together this story, I mentioned to Ogenec, my own families experience at DisneyLand.  At his request, I&#8217;ve added our story to this post.</p>
<p><div id="attachment_5920" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 210px"><img src="http://weeseeyou.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/1966disneyguidebook.JPG" alt="1966 DisneyLand Guidebook" title="1966disneyguidebook" width="200" height="194" class="size-full wp-image-5920" /><p class="wp-caption-text">1966 DisneyLand Guidebook</p></div>When I was around 4 years old we drove to Los Angeles to visit our cousins and their kids.  My Mom and Dad being older, offered to take us all out to DisneyLand.  So it was me, Michelle (age 4), Peter (age 5), and Alex (age 8), and our two sets of parents.  My dad purchased the groups admission and also a ticket book, which allowed us to ride all day.   Believe it or not, it was only $5.00 for adults, and $4.00 for kids under 12, which back then was a lot of money to spend for <em>just </em>entertainment.    My Dad gave the ticket book to my cousin George to keep in his back pocket.  My cousin&#8217;s were very young parents, and couldn&#8217;t have been more than 25 or 26 at the time. </p>
<p>So we get to the first ride, and of course, we are all excited and squealing with joy, and guess what?  The ticket book is gone.  Someone stole it from George&#8217;s back pocket, man,  was he upset.  So my Dad, being 46 and the oldest of our group,  takes charge and he and George go to find some manager to see what could be done.  They were taken into a office, and sat in front of the secretary in the waiting room.  By this point, they were getting kind of nervous&#8230;  This was 1966, and there were not many other Black people at the amusement park, so they just assumed that we were all going to get thrown out for trying to scam the joint.  LOL  <img src='http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';-)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>After about 15 minutes, a man comes out of the office, and asks my Dad and George to step in and sit down.  He sat on the edge of his big desk and listened very quietly to their story.  My Dad told him they didn&#8217;t want to disappoint their kids, and was there anyway they could get some ride tickets back, not all that were stolen, but just enough so the kids could ride a few times, and then we would all leave.</p>
<p>The man said, &#8220;<em>That&#8217;s out of the question.  You came here with your family, and someone robbed you, so that&#8217;s not your fault.  Please take these ticket books, they are good for all weekend, and your family can ride as much as they want, and come back tomorrow if they want to</em>.&#8221;</p>
<p><img src="http://weeseeyou.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/walt-disney1-150x150.jpg" alt="walt-disney1" title="walt-disney1" width="150" height="150" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5913" />My dad and cousin got up, to shake this mans hand and thank him.  My dad said,<em> I&#8217;m sorry sir, I never got your name?</em>  The man said, <em>my name is Walt Disney&#8230;..</em>  </p>
<p>True Story&#8230;</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve read different opinions on why Disney decided to create this movie.  Some are not impressed, and have said that Disney&#8217;s  motivation is more of a financial nature, rather than a move to foster any kind of diversity.  Whatever Disney&#8217;s reasons, I&#8217;ll always remember my own families story, and have to believe somewhere, some place, Walt Disney is smiling&#8230;because for him, it was all about the kids.~~AudieGrl</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Disney's A Christmas Carol]]></title>
<link>http://hollywoodfilms.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/disneys-a-christmas-carol/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:06:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>hollywoodfilms</dc:creator>
<guid>http://hollywoodfilms.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/disneys-a-christmas-carol/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[When Disney&#8217;s A Christmas Carol came out a few weeks ago I went to see it and I must say that ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p>When Disney&#8217;s A Christmas Carol came out a few weeks ago I went to see it and I must say that it was a great family film. Jim Carrey&#8217;s acting was phenomenal and so was the visual effects. The 3D was amazing! All of the graphics were so crisp and clear it almost felt and looked as if you were right there in the scene with the characters. When Scrooge was flying through the air with the ghost of Christmas Past, I could almost feel like I was flying through the streets with them. The visuals effects were that amazing!</p>
<p>Did I mention Jim Carrey? Jim Carrey was acting at his finest by far. He played the role of multiple actors as well as the lead role of Scrooge, which he did hauntingly well. Just the sight of Scrooge would make you cringe when you saw Scrooge walk down the street. Jim Carrey definitely deserves an award for his performance in this animated classic adaptation of Charles Dickens&#8217; tale.</p>
<p><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/11pyCdiQzLc&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='wmode' value='transparent' /><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/11pyCdiQzLc&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' allowfullscreen='true' width='425' height='350' wmode='transparent'></embed></object></span></p>
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<title><![CDATA[That "Israel Lobby" Book You Hear About]]></title>
<link>http://seanpsmith.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/that-israel-lobby-book-you-hear-about/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:43:56 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sean P. Smith</dc:creator>
<guid>http://seanpsmith.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/that-israel-lobby-book-you-hear-about/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It made quite a splash. At such an ardently pro-Israel school as Tufts, the book&#8217;s near-demoni]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><a href="http://seanpsmith.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/4-27-zionlobby.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-763" title="4-27-ZionLobby" src="http://seanpsmith.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/4-27-zionlobby.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="343" /></a></p>
<p>It made quite a splash. At such an ardently pro-Israel school as Tufts, the book&#8217;s near-demonization nagged my interest a little &#8211; had Walt and Mearsheimer really gone mad, bandying about one of the silliest myths in American politics?</p>
<p>For all the abounding conspiracy theories, the pro-Israel lobby does not resemble a shadowy council of the Elders of Zion. But an unspoken and notoriously powerful &#8220;Israel Lobby&#8221; exists, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt insist, as a corroboration of decentralized American institutions bound in advocating continued American support for Israel. The lobby&#8217;s disproportionate influence in pushing a fervent, if not dogmatic support for the Jewish state damages American interests, says their book, <em>The Israel Lobby</em>. Unsurprisingly, the book&#8217;s publication touched off a vicious maelstrom of criticism.</p>
<p>&#8220;Were [the book] an actual person,&#8221; writes Israeli historian Benny Morris in <em>The New Republic</em>, &#8220;I would have to say that he did not have a single honest bone in his body.&#8221; Morris is often depicted as a &#8220;new historian&#8221;, an Israeli scholar engaged in reevaluating Israel&#8217;s historical narrative that many acknowledge as receiving a few nationalistic embellishments over the years. Walt and Mearsheimer seem to have counted on Morris&#8217;s support, referencing three of his works no less than eleven times throughout their book. Morris <a href="http://www.standwithus.com/pdfs/flyers/Response%20from%20Benny%20Morris.pdf">is unamused</a>. &#8220;[The Israel Lobby] is a travesty of the history that I have studied and written for the past two decades. Their work is riddled with shoddiness and defiled by mendacity.&#8221;</p>
<p>They take quotes from sources such as Morris that are &#8220;wrenched out of context&#8221;, storms Alan Dershowitz, Harvard University Professor of Law. <a href="http://www.comw.org/warreport/fulltext/0604dershowitz.pdf">Responding</a> to Walt and Mearsheimer&#8217;s <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/john-mearsheimer/the-israel-lobby">article appearing</a> in the <em>London Review of Books</em> upon which their book expands, Dershowitz accuses Walt and Mearsheimer of &#8220;distortions that should be obvious to any critical reader&#8221;. In alleging that the Bush Administration was unwarrantedly influenced by the Israel lobby in its decision to invade Iraq in 2003, or in its hard-line approaches to engaging Syria and Iran, Walt and Mearsheimer &#8220;simply chose the most insidious explanation &#8211; which also happens to be the least plausible explanation &#8211; without even an acknowledgement that other interpretations are possible.&#8221; Dershowitz, who is repeatedly referenced in <em>The Israel Lobby</em> as one of the Jewish state&#8217;s most assiduous American defenders, calls it &#8220;little more than a compilation of old, false, and authoritatively discredited charges dressed up in academic garb&#8221;.</p>
<p><em>Forward</em>, a Jewish online weekly, condemns &#8220;the flimsiness of [Mearsheimer and Walt's] work&#8221;, which <a href="http://www.forward.com/articles/6826/">it likens</a> to the work of an undergraduate deserving to be &#8220;laughed out of class&#8221;. The research is described as &#8220;oddly amateurish&#8221;, drawing considerably from newspaper columns &#8220;seemingly dug up in quick Internet word searches aimed at proving a point, not exploring the truth&#8221;. <em>Forward</em>, like Dershowitz, find numerous instances of &#8220;cherry-picking&#8221; quotes. In one instance, Walt and Mearsheimer assert that then-US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was the Bush Administration&#8217;s &#8220;most hawkishly pro-Israel voice&#8221; by quoting the <em>Forward</em>. Upon further inspection, insists the <em>Forward</em>, the article was seeking to deny this claim in an article about Wolfowitz being booed at a pro-Israeli rally for &#8220;defending Palestinian rights&#8221;. Again, Walt and Mearsheimer may have expected otherwise out of a newspaper they cited twenty-eight times throughout the course of their book.</p>
<p>This is merely a sliver of the sweeping vituperations that greeted <em>The Israel Lobby</em>&#8217;s publication. Most devote considerable time to the academic failings of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in preparing the book, uncommon for intellectuals of such caliber. It is surprising, for example, that by Mearsheimer&#8217;s admission the duo did not conduct any primary research. However, even if <em>The Israel Lobby</em> is as odious an aberration as many assessments (or almost all, at Tufts) lead a reader to believe, it is nonetheless doubtful that Walt and Mearsheimer would have abandoned all sense. Professors at Harvard&#8217;s Kennedy School of Government and the University of Chicago, each are acknowledged as among the foremost contributors to realist political thought. Their past writings have been received if not lauded with respect, and furthermore neither has any known history of overtly anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish leanings.</p>
<p>Many criticisms of <em>The Israel Lobby</em> fail to address its fundamental assertion &#8211; that the pro-Israel lobby has wielded an astonishing power in Washington that continues to direct US foreign policy towards unconditional support of Israel, harming the national interest. Walt and Mearsheimer have effectively broken the taboo of talking about the elephant in the room, which in part explains their widespread denunciation. The lobby&#8217;s existence is no secret, and in nearly every case documented by the book its numerous institutions have operated in complete lawfulness under the democratic, pluralistic US legal system. However, to allude in such grand terms to the lobby &#8211; and especially to find fault &#8211; is scarcely with precedent. Israel, they assert, receives &#8220;special&#8221; treatment within the US, to the extent that there is nearly a gag order on criticizing the Jewish state.</p>
<p>While the international community is less hesitant and freer to speak up when it feels Israel steps out of the line, the US takes pains to minimize its censure at the United Nations. The US has made a practice of ensuring Israel is nearly immune from the UN&#8217;s limited and largely rhetorical reach, obstructing resolutions that reach the Security Council. From 2000-2006, <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/UN/usvetoes.html">the US vetoed nine resolutions</a> that would have been critical of Israel, three times muting a call for Israel to halt operations in Gaza, once halting a condemnation of the Israeli assassination of Ahmed Yassin, and once preventing the UN from condemning the Israeli destruction of a World Food Program warehouse. All nine times the US was the only country voting against the resolution. The vetoes cast on Israel&#8217;s behalf between 1972 and 2006 amount to forty-two, &#8220;greater than the combined total of all the vetoes cast by all the other Security Council members for the same period and amounts to slightly more than half of all American vetoes during these years&#8221; (Mearsheimer and Walt 40). This US tradition of vetoing anti-Israel resolutions surely dooms the Goldstone Report were it to reach the Security Council, though it has already passed the General Assembly by a count of 114-18.</p>
<p>The Goldstone Report was met with distaste within the US Congress. By a 344-36 margin, the House of Representatives passed a nonbinding resolution for the Obama Administration to reject outright any endorsement of Goldstone&#8217;s Fact Finding Mission. Indeed, Israel is perhaps the most bipartisan-friendly issue in American politics, and the Goldstone Report by usual standards put up a decent fight. During the Second Intifada, the House of Representatives passed a 2002 resolution affirming &#8220;solidarity&#8221; with Israel by a vote of 352-21; the Senate echoed by voting 94-2 (210). In 2003, after an intense spate of Israeli targeted assassinations against Palestinian leaders, the House again voiced its &#8220;solidarity&#8221; with Israel and its support for &#8220;using force to deal with terrorism&#8221; by a margin of 399-5 (215).</p>
<p>The point is to illustrate in a concrete fashion that which cannot be disputed &#8211; that one would be hard pressed to find a single Congressional act since Kennedy that did not stand behind Israel in an overwhelming majority. Such a Congressional and UN voting records suggest that American and Israeli interests are always aligned, or nearly identical. Walt and Mearsheimer strongly dispute this. US and Israeli interests are no longer aligned, they argue, and with issues involving Israel in Congress &#8220;potential critics fall silent and there is hardly any debate at all&#8221; on account of the damning repercussions for opposing the Israel lobby (152).</p>
<p>The bulwark of the Israel lobby&#8217;s efforts in Congress is vested in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. By popular accounts, AIPAC is the most visible and the most successful facet of the Israel lobby. This is true, insofar as the lobby&#8217;s role in Congress is concerned; here, AIPAC&#8217;s influence is unrivaled. The organization&#8217;s magnitude can be seen in its remarkable sway within both Democratic and Republican camps. Bill Clinton praises AIPAC as &#8220;stunningly effective&#8221; and &#8220;better than anyone else lobbying in this town&#8221;; Newt Gingrich describes it as &#8220;the most effective general-interest group&#8230; across the entire planet&#8221;; Harry Reid once remarked &#8220;I can&#8217;t think of a policy organization in the country as well-organized and respected&#8221; (153). AIPAC&#8217;s &#8220;almost unchallenged hold on Congress&#8221; (162) led Jimmy Carter to warn that for a member of Congress to take an anti-Israel position, especially near an election year, is &#8220;almost politically suicidal&#8221; (160).</p>
<p>AIPAC commands an unmatched ability to direct campaign funds, say Walt and Mearsheimer, and &#8220;has been known to threaten politicians who appear reluctant to follow its lead&#8221; (159). They record some dozen instances in which AIPAC influence, and particularly fundraising, assisted in electing a pro-Israel representative during a tough campaign year &#8211; or in redirecting funds away from a candidate who does not display adequate commitment to ensuring the Jewish state&#8217;s security. In addition to controlling finances in a way that makes it &#8220;dangerous for senators or representatives to utter even mild criticisms of Israel&#8217;s conduct&#8221; (161), AIPAC provides regular information on Israel to Congressmen in need. Former AIPAC staff member Douglas Bloomfield even describes involvement in the policymaking process, assuring that AIPAC is &#8220;often called upon to draft speeches, work on legislation, advise on tactics, perform research, collect co-sponsors and marshal votes&#8221; (161). The organization is extensively networked, evidenced when Condoleezza Rice received an &#8220;AIPAC-sponsored letter signed by seventy-nine senators, urging her to avoid contact with the new Palestinian &#8216;unity government&#8217;&#8221; (162) prior to her departure for the Middle East. The Israeli government understands the importance of AIPAC in the American policymaking process; Ariel Sharon, speaking to an American crowd, once said &#8220;When people ask me how they can help Israel, I tell them &#8211; Help AIPAC&#8221; (162). Ehud Olmert also recognized the lobby&#8217;s indispensability, saying &#8220;Thank God we have AIPAC, the greatest supporter and friend we have in the whole world&#8221; (162).</p>
<p>While AIPAC does take positions outside the Congressional pale, Walt and Mearsheimer put considerable stock in pro-Israel think tanks. &#8220;[T]he largest and most visible foreign policy research institutions in Washington usually take Israel&#8217;s side and do not question the merits of unconditional US support&#8221; (177), of particular consideration when &#8220;news media increasingly depends on experts from Washington-based think tanks&#8221; (175). A number of think tanks are implicated as providing an unmitigated pro-Israel line, such as the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the Saban Center for Middle East Policy among others. Think tanks have been of unique importance in marshaling support for pro-Israel policies, especially those inclining towards the neoconservative movement that dominated much of the Bush administration&#8217;s foreign policy.</p>
<p>The decision to invade Iraq, the hardline approach to Syria and Iran, and American support for Israel during the 2006 war in Lebanon was primarily at the behest of the pro-Israel lobby and the neoconservative movement, allege Walt and Mearsheimer. Of the entire book, this section is perhaps the most important and certainly the most engaging to read. It is important to remember that, when discussing AIPAC, think tanks, and other pro-Israel groups in America, each operates entirely in accordance with US law in exerting its influence. Yet as Walt and Mearsheimer seek to demonstrate in the four case studies of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Lebanon, the lobby engineers a &#8220;reflexive support for Israel [that] has fueled anti-Americanism throughout the Arab and Islamic world and undermined the US image in many other countries as well&#8221; (335). Rising anti-Americanism in turn threatens US national security, leading to a set of policy recommendations Walt and Mearsheimer make at the end of the book.</p>
<p>In the Middle East, America has &#8220;three distinct strategic interests&#8221;: 1.) Ensuring reliable and consistent access to oil, 2.) &#8220;Discouraging&#8221; the acquisition of nuclear weapons in the region, and 3.) Stymying the growth of anti-American terrorism (337). Israel, the authors boldly state, &#8220;is ultimately not of critical strategic importance to the United States&#8221; (338) and abandoning unconditional support for Israel best serves American interests. Walt and Mearsheimer stake a belief in continuing American support for Israel&#8217;s right to exist, but when the dust settles maintaining the current degree of commitment to Israel only costs America billions of dollars and loses what few friends it has in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Walt and Mearsheimer&#8217;s aim to pinion the Israel Lobby is reasonably well met (the illustration of which is pretty limited here). As their critics point out, the authors&#8217; recurrent reliance on newspaper articles for evidence does not always best serve their ethos, and there was certainly an opportunity for primary source research that was not seized. To their credit, however, Walt and Mearsheimer broached a seriously taboo topic in American politics, and the ensuing vitriol spat in their direction in a way confirms a political culture &#8211; fostered by the Israel lobby &#8211; that outright condemns any and all criticism of Israel. Such a political culture is not borne in the democratic spirit.</p>
<p>While it remains debatable how pervasive the influence the Israel lobby commands over American politics, one may hope that after the publication of <em>The Israel Lobby</em> room has been created for further discussion. Now is a particularly pertinent time to conduct a critical  self-evaluation of the lobby&#8217;s putative role in American politics. Though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now countenances a mild settlement freeze (with dubious efficacy), there is still no reliable explanation for Obama&#8217;s initial retreat from his demands for a settlement freeze. For a president elected on a pro-peace process platform, this is suspicious behavior indeed.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[update: where's walt?]]></title>
<link>http://lovelyentropy.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/update-wheres-walt/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:22:51 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Lola</dc:creator>
<guid>http://lovelyentropy.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/update-wheres-walt/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[sometime ago i posted this article asking where Walt (the little physic boy from LOST) went.  I mean]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[sometime ago i posted this article asking where Walt (the little physic boy from LOST) went.  I mean]]></content:encoded>
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<title><![CDATA[Lost Season 2 complete]]></title>
<link>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/lost-season-2-complete/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:05:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>finallylost</dc:creator>
<guid>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/lost-season-2-complete/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Completed: 2-20 Two For the Road, 2-21 ?, 2-22 Three Minutes, 2-23 Live Together, Die Alone. 54 epis]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><img src="http://gallery.lost-media.com/albums/ep-promos/sea2/finale2/normal_finalepromo24.jpg" alt="I hate Michael" /></p>
<p>Completed: 2-20 Two For the Road, 2-21 ?, 2-22 Three Minutes, 2-23 Live Together, Die Alone. 54 episodes left, 65 days to go. As you know I don’t know anything about this series except that I’ve seen previews that suggest the survivors gets off the island at some point.</p>
<p>Season 2 is now in the books and what an ending. Recap: Dumb-ass Dad is compromised and kills 5-0 (Ana Lucia) &#38; Libby before shooting himself and letting Henry get away. Mr. Eko has a dream about his brother telling him he needs to talk to Locke and they soon find the Big Brother of hatches underneath the Nigerian plane crash site. Sayid realizes Dumb-ass Dad&#8217;s (DAD from now on) ruse and makes a plan with Jack to pull a rope-a-dope on The Others and Michael but the plan goes wrong when Jack, Sawyer, Kate &#38; Hurley are kidnapped. Back at the hatch Desmond shows Locke how to simulate a lockdown and locks out Mr. Eko so he can let the countdown hit 000. Desmond realizes at the last minute that this is a bad idea and uses the failsafe key to the hatch.</p>
<p>Where to begin?? Let&#8217;s pour out a little airplane-sized liquor for Ana Lucia &#38; Libby. I never liked Ana but she was starting to grow on me after she decided to &#8220;getting caught in a net&#8221; with Sawyer in order to steal his gun. Libby&#8217;s death was much more tragic and Hurley&#8217;s grief was summed up when he told her, &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry I forgot the blankets&#8221;. Tear. I&#8217;m very surprised they killed Libby without resolving the fact that her and Hurley were in the same institution and without resolving the fact that she gave Desmond his sailboat! I&#8217;m not going to spend much time on DAD but it&#8217;s safe to say that I hate him and hope he drowns to death several times. AND PLEASE STOP YELLING! While we&#8217;re on the subject of characters I don&#8217;t like, how about the hobbit (Charlie) stealing all the vaccine and giving it to Prego and Devil Baby (Aaron) just so he can try and &#8220;get caught in a net&#8221; with her.</p>
<p>Then there is the new hatch. So it appears there are 6 hatches on the island and 1 of those hatches is a spy hatch. We are led to believe whatever is happening in the other hatches are just psychological experiments. Locke believes this is true while Mr. Eko believes the real work is being done in the non Big Brother hatch. I agreed with Locke and like Locke was I proven wrong. Before we get to the timer, there is so much ground to cover on Desmond. Desmond goes to prison and writes his gf Penny but her dad makes sure his letters aren&#8217;t delivered. When Desmond gets out of jail the father offers him money to leave his daughter alone. Desmond declines the money, gets a free boat from Libby and enter&#8217;s Penny&#8217;s father&#8217;s race around the world and ends up on the island to become the next button pusher with the army guy Sayid was working with in Iraq. PREDICTION: Penny&#8217;s dad is SO pulling the strings here! He&#8217;s not the CEO but I think he&#8217;s one level below the big bad. Back at the hatch, Desmond uses Locke&#8217;s printout to discover that HE caused Oceanic Flight 815 to crash because the crash took place when Desmond let the countdown go past 000!! The electromagnetic thing on the island must have ripped apart the plane! Still no explanation on how everyone survived but I believe it&#8217;s coming.</p>
<p>Now back to Jack, Sawyer, Kate &#38; Hurley. I think Kate had it right when she said that The Others are only pretending to be feet baring and living worse than the plane survivors. I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised if the whole village DAD saw was just to trick people into underestimating The Others. It seems really important to The Others that they tell people they are good and keep their word because Henry (like Ethan before him) kept making that point. I also find it interesting that he told DAD that he must drive the boat on a specific course in order to be rescued. Somehow this island must be cloaked from the rest of the world and The Others know how to get off of it. This must be why Desmond couldn&#8217;t escape the island in his boat. Luckily for Desmond and the survivors, Penny seems to know a little about this stuff and is trying to find the EM disturbance. Help maybe coming. Meanwhile Hurley is let go so he can give a warning to the rest of the survivors and we are left to ponder what will happen to Jack, Sawyer &#38; Kate (or at least I am since you already know).</p>
<p>So much happened in these 5 episodes and I wasn&#8217;t able to note them all so I wanted to bullet a few things I thought were important:<br />
-  It&#8217;s interesting that The Others wanted Michael&#8217;s blood. I think Walt has some genetic gift/immunity they want/need which is why they kidnapped him in the first place<br />
- Henry seems to be the local leader of The Others, too bad the survivors didn&#8217;t know what they had captured<br />
- In Mr. Eko&#8217;s flashback we learn that Prego&#8217;s psychic is a fraud and was paid 16K (NUMBER) dollars by a couple in LA to mislead her into given the couple her baby. Knowing this show, the couple will probably turn out to be important<br />
- What is up with the statue with 4 toes that Sayid saw. Reminded me of the Colossus<br />
- It appears there are 6 hatches on the island but that isn&#8217;t a magic number. Maybe there is one hatch to rule them all plus the ?-mark in the middle which would make 8.</p>
<p>And finally the end of a season means I need to come up with new Season 3 predictions (some of which I&#8217;ve already said):<br />
-  After being wrong about aliens I&#8217;m going to say the island is a gov project that utilize the strange but natural EM properties.<br />
- The EM properties give the island the power to heal, the cloaking ability and I think some time travel ability<br />
- Mr. Eko will die in season 3. Someone has to die and he seems the right combination of main character but not too main.<br />
-  Penny will show up on the island before the end of Season 3<br />
- Michael won&#8217;t abandon the survivors and will return to the island (but I hope him and Walt are eaten by sharks)</p>
<p>Next up on Finally Lost&#8230;Season 3!!</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Cinderella III: A twist in time]]></title>
<link>http://xgardener.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/cinderella-iii-a-twist-in-time/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:23:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>X.Gardener</dc:creator>
<guid>http://xgardener.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/cinderella-iii-a-twist-in-time/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[CINDERELLA III: A TWIST IN TIME Thể loại: fantasy, lãng mạn, kịch tính Đạo diễn: Frank Nissen Hãng s]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p style="text-align:center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/AishaJosh_images/Blog/Cin_01.jpg" alt="cinderella 3 1" /></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>CINDERELLA III: A TWIST IN TIME</strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Thể loại:</strong> fantasy, lãng mạn, kịch tính<br />
<span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Đạo diễn:</strong> Frank Nissen<br />
<span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Hãng sản xuất:</strong> Walt Disney Pictures<br />
<span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Năm phát hành:</strong> 2007<br />
<span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Thời lượng:</strong> 75 phút<br />
<span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Rating:</strong> G</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>OST:</strong> &#8220;Perfectly Perfect&#8221;, &#8220;More Than A Dream&#8221;, &#8220;Anastasia&#8217;s Theme&#8221;, &#8220;At the Ball&#8221;, &#8220;I Still Believe&#8221;</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Nhận định riêng:</strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Cinderella</strong> (<strong>Cô bé Lọ Lem</strong>), một câu chuyện cổ tích có nguồn gốc từ đất nước Hy Lạp kỳ bí, từ lâu đã trở nên quen thuộc với hàng triệu trẻ em trên toàn thế giới. Với sự góp mặt của dàn họa sĩ, đạo diễn và diễn viên lồng tiếng hùng hậu, một lần nữa Walt Disney lại cho ra mắt phần 3 trong series kinh điển này. Nối tiếp sự thành công của phần I – bản phim bám sát nguyên tác nhất, và phần II: <strong>Cinderella: Dreams Come True</strong>, phần III thật sự đã tạo nên nhiều bất ngờ mới. Thế mới thấy, dường như với các nhà làm phim Walt Disney, không có chủ đề nào là cũ cả ^^</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><em>“Nếu chiếc giày pha lê không vừa chân Lọ Lem thì sao?”</em></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Đã bao giờ bạn tự hỏi như thế, sau khi xem xong phim hay đọc xong truyện chưa? Chuyện gì sẽ xảy ra nếu như chiếc giày pha lê chưa được ướm vào chân Lọ Lem đáng thương thì đã vừa chân một trong hai chị em con mụ dì ghẻ? Ôi, vậy thì hàng triệu trẻ em sẽ thốt lên “không thể nào” hoặc “điều đó thật kinh khủng”. Làm thế nào mà điều đó lại xuất hiện trong một câu chuyện cổ tích chứ? Nhưng trong <strong>Cinderella III</strong> thì có đấy. Vì lần này thì mụ dì ghẻ độc ác đã cướp được cây đũa thần của bà tiên đỡ đầu &#62;_&#60; Và theo yêu cầu của mụ, đũa thần đã quay ngược thời gian, trở lại lúc sứ giả của nhà vua đem giày đến thử.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/AishaJosh_images/Blog/Cin_05.jpg" alt="cinderella 3 2" /></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Chiếc giày thủy tinh không còn là của Lọ Lem</strong></span></span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Không thể tin được! <strong>Anastasia</strong>, đứa con gái thứ hai của mụ dì ghẻ, đã ướm vừa chân vào chiếc giày và trở thành hôn thê của chàng Hoàng tử đẹp trai. Cinderella đau khổ nhìn theo, trên tay nàng là chiếc giày còn lại. Nhưng mụ dì ghẻ đã đẩy nàng vào trong và hất vỡ chiếc giày đó. Âm mưu của mụ đã rõ. Mụ muốn nhân cơ hội này xóa đi kí ức của tất cả mọi người, đày nàng Cinderella đi thật xa, thật xa… Tiếng vỡ của pha lê tưởng chừng đã là điểm chấm dứt cho những tháng ngày chờ đợi khấp khởi của nàng. Nhưng âm mưu ấy có thành công hay không? Bạn cứ xem phim sẽ rõ ^^</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Đây có thể nói là một bước đột phá trong thể loại phim hoạt hình của Walt Disney. So với 2 phần đầu, phần III này có nhiều pha hành động hấp dẫn hơn, và cũng kịch tính hơn. Bạn sẽ há hốc khi thấy Hoàng tử đu dây xuống thuyền kiểu Sinbad để cứu người yêu, và ngã ngửa khi thấy nàng Cinderella dịu dàng xinh đẹp của bạn, trong bộ cánh tơi tả, cưỡi ngựa phi nước đại. Có thể nói rằng trong những phim hoạt hình mới ra lò gần đây của Walt Disney thì Cinderella III là câu chuyện cổ tích đã được làm mới một cách hiện đại và đầy hào hứng. Vẫn là những nàng công chúa, hoàng tử xinh đẹp, cung điện xa hoa tráng lệ. Vẫn là hoa viên rực rỡ, và nắng tràn qua những ngọn đồi. Trên nền thế giới tươi đẹp đó, những nhân vật chính diện của Walt Disney luôn tin vào một thứ không bao giờ thay đổi: tình yêu đích thực.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><em>Tình yêu đích thực là sức mạnh, cũng là thử thách.</em></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Có lẽ bởi thế mà <strong>Cinderella III</strong> phiêu lưu hơn, cảm động hơn và tươi mới hơn. Pháp thuật là nguyên nhân chính làm xáo trộn tất cả mọi thứ, và nguy hiểm hơn, pháp thuật lại nằm trong tay kẻ xấu. Song pháp thuật không thể điều khiển trái tim con người. Mụ dì ghẻ độc ác đã thất bại lần nữa, bởi mụ không bao giờ hiểu được khao khát về một tình yêu chân chính của Anastasia, cũng không hiểu để có tình yêu Cinderella đã phải đấu tranh như thế nào. Nếu Cinderella của phần I chỉ là cô gái hay khóc, biết chịu đựng, thì Cinderella của phần III đã trưởng thành lên rất nhiều. Cô lạc quan hơn, dũng cảm đứng lên chống lại cái ác, nỗ lực phục hồi trí nhớ của Hoàng tử, và nỗ lực đến phút cuối cùng. Hy vọng của cô không bao giờ tắt. Điều này sẽ làm bạn có chút liên tưởng đến những nhân vật nữ chính trong manga hay anime Nhật Bản ^^</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Một điều mới mẻ khác trong bộ phim lần này chính là sự xuất hiện của Hoàng tử. Hoàng tử của <strong>Cinderella III</strong> đã chủ động hơn, liều lĩnh hơn, và có lẽ vì vậy mà cũng quyến rũ hơn <img src='http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' />  và có chút nét tương đồng với chàng Hoàng tử của một trong những phim hoạt hình thành công nhất của Walt Disney: <strong>The Litlle Mermaid</strong>. Đó là một Hoàng tử dám vượt qua vòng lễ giáo triều đình và luôn một lòng chung thủy với cô gái mình yêu thương, dù xuất thân của nàng có là gì đi nữa.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Cinderella III</strong> cũng chú ý khai thác nhiều hơn những nhân vật phản diện như mụ dì ghẻ và hai con gái của mụ, đặc biệt là Anastasia. Chẳng có cô gái nào lại không muốn một chàng trai yêu mình thật sự, và sẽ đau khổ nếu như người con trai đó yêu mình qua hình bóng một cô gái khác. <strong>Cinderella III</strong> hé mở một góc nhìn đầy nhân đạo với Anastasia, một cô gái xấu tính, vụng về, chẳng hề xinh đẹp, nhưng cuối cùng lại được thông cảm và yêu thương bởi nhà vua và cô chị Cinderella. Đó là vì cô đã biết dừng lại đúng lúc và nói “không” với những thứ mà cô biết không thuộc về mình.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/AishaJosh_images/Blog/Cin_11.jpg" alt="cinderella 3 3" /></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Anastasia và Hoàng Tử đã-bị-bùa-chú</strong></span></span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Và dù muốn dù không, bạn cũng sẽ không thể quên được <strong>Jaq</strong> và <strong>Gus</strong>, hai chú chuột tí hon thông minh đã giúp Cinderella thực hiện những kế hoạch của mình, và cứu cô thoát khỏi mụ dì ghẻ. Cả những chú chim dễ thương đội mũ xanh đã dẫn đường cho Hoàng tử nữa. Những nhân vật phụ đáng yêu này sẽ đem đến cho bạn những tràng cười thoải mái khi xem.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/AishaJosh_images/Blog/Cin_10.jpg" alt="cinderella 3 4" /></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>Jaq và Gus diễn tả lại cảnh bà mẹ kế cướp đũa thần của bà tiên</strong></span></span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vẫn không thiếu những nhận định cho rằng Cinderella, dù là bất cứ phần nào trong 3 phần của Walt Disney, là một phim hoạt hình mang tính thực tế nhiều hơn là một câu chuyện cổ tích. Và thực tế thì không phù hợp với trẻ em. Và một điều không thành công lắm ở series này là những ca khúc OST đã không thật sự thỏa mãn được người xem. Nhưng những ưu điểm của <strong>Cinderella III</strong> và những cái “mới” trong khâu kịch bản và xây dựng nhân vật là không thể phủ nhận. Điểm mạnh của phim hoạt hình Walt Disney luôn là phối cảnh và màu sắc. Đừng lo vì bạn vẫn sẽ thấy những khung ảnh đẹp lung linh và những giây phút lãng mạn như thường. Thêm vào đó là một kết cục viên mãn đủ để những khán giả khó tính mỉm cười vui vẻ.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/AishaJosh_images/Blog/Cin_06.jpg" alt="cinderella 3 5" /></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Và nếu <strong>Cinderella III</strong> không được yêu thích lắm bởi trẻ em, thì hãy xem nó như một câu chuyện cổ tích dành cho người lớn ^^</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong>X.Gardener</strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <span style="font-family:times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">&#62;&#62; <strong>Link tham khảo:</strong> http://ichinews.acc.vn/bai-viet/4333/cinderella-iii-a-twist-in-time/xem.htmx</span></span></p>
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<title><![CDATA[Vaccines, spontaneous healing and imaginary friends...]]></title>
<link>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/vaccines-spontaneous-healing-and-imaginary-friends/</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:29:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>finallylost</dc:creator>
<guid>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/vaccines-spontaneous-healing-and-imaginary-friends/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Completed: 2-15, Maternity Leave, 2-16 The Whole Truth, 2-17, Lockdown, 2-18 Dave, 2-19 S.O.S. 59 ep]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><img src="http://gallery.lost-media.com/albums/ep-promos/sea2/dave/normal_dave-promo05.jpg" alt="4 8  15 16 23 42" /></p>
<p>Completed: 2-15, Maternity Leave, 2-16 The Whole Truth, 2-17, Lockdown, 2-18 Dave, 2-19 S.O.S. 59 episodes left, 65 days to go.As you know I don’t know anything about this series except for I&#8217;ve seen previews that suggest the survivors gets off the island at some point. Recap: Prego (Claire) goes searching for the vaccine when devil baby (Aaron) gets sick and begins to remember what happened to her while she was kidnapped; Henry gives 5-0 (Ana) and Sayid a map to his ballon but they discover he killed and took on the owner&#8217;s identity; Henry tells Locke he didn&#8217;t enter the code in the computer; food drops out of the sky; we learn that Hurley had an imaginary friend; and Rose and White Bernard have an argument about making an S.O.S sign.</p>
<p>Just when I stopped wondering what happened to Prego when she was captured, they pull me right back in&#8230;we got answers! So in addition to being an impersonator and tracker, Ethan is also a part-time doctor. A drugged up and giddy Prego decides The Others really have her babies best interest in mind and she decides to leave devil baby with them so it can continue to receive the already sparse vaccine. I&#8217;ve ignored the island sickness plot so far because like on every other plot point, I&#8217;m clueless. The existence of a vaccine suggests there IS something about magic island that gets you sick and The Others have a protection against it. If we accept that as fact then The Others must not want new recruit devil baby sick, however, they unfortunately decide that Prego isn&#8217;t worth the secret stash and plan to kill her. Prego then gets good-drugged by Frenchy&#8217;s daughter and is left out in the woods to escape. Prego, still drugged up, tries to screw up the rescue attempt but Frenchy the mom shows up and knocks her out (giving Prego amnesia) and completes the mother-daughter rescue. Why haven&#8217;t The Others come after devil baby since? Maybe they decided Walt was the better quarry. If there is a sickness on the island then why haven&#8217;t any of the survivors gotten sick yet? Maybe you can only contract the sickness at a certain location on the island and let&#8217;s face it, the survivor&#8217;s of Oceanic Flight 815 have not exactly been great magic island explorers (Locke being the exception).</p>
<p>The rest of the episodes I watched were great character drivers but didn&#8217;t move the main plot forward much. Before we learn that devious Henry was impersonating someone he killed, he tries to fulfill Locke&#8217;s request of putting the numbers into the computer. After Henry is discovered as a fraud, he tells Locke that he didn&#8217;t enter the numbers into the computer after-all which shakes Locke to the core. Is this true? Henry had less than a minute (the last minute alarm sound had started) to get through the vent and enter the numbers so I don&#8217;t think he did. Do The Others already know about the computer? I think they do. And what was that crazy octagonal (NUMBER) design on star wars blast door? I paused my DVD and starred at it for a while and I think it&#8217;s a design of all the Dharma facilities out there. Maybe when combined they form&#8230;a time machine! I told you I&#8217;d use that theory. I&#8217;m also thinking that time travels differently on the island and when/if the survivors get off they will find that a lot more time has passed in the real world than on the island. Maybe this contributed to how Locke and Rose got healed. Time will tell&#8230;</p>
<p>Now onto the character front. We find out Hurley went crazy because he broke a dock and killed 23 (NUMBER) people and now sees Charlotte&#8217;s husband from Sex and the City in Beautiful Mind style (Was it obvious to everyone he wasn&#8217;t there). Hurley is told by his imaginary friend to jump off the cliff so he can wake back up because it&#8217;s pretty ridiculous that the numbers he heard in the loony bin contributed to him winning $130M, that they shouldn&#8217;t have survived the plane crash and no pretty girl is going to be interested in him. Tear. Because of all the strange things that have happened to Hurley he is the perfect character for the &#8220;this island is all in your dreams&#8221; plot line. Once Libby saves him Hurley from himself we find out SHE was in the hospital with Hurley. AHH! Why won&#8217;t these people talk to each other about their past!!</p>
<p>Can&#8217;t forget about Sun and Rose! Turns out Sun is pregnant (don&#8217;t worry everyone is keeping their current nicknames) and learned english from suave hotel owner. We also learn that Jin&#8217;s boys can&#8217;t swim but like everything else on this island it is magically healed and he was able to knock Sun up. And speaking of healed, Rose claims she healed for real for real this time despite lying to White Bernard after he took her to some great healer in Australia. It&#8217;s great that Rose seems to be the only person that knows Locke was in a wheelchair on the plane and they share a common bond of being healed. Thinking that Rose will only be healed on the island (because time flows differently there?) White Bernard and Rose decide to stay and play Gilligan no matter what happens. It will be interesting to see if they actually stay when/if the survivors are rescued.</p>
<p>Next up on Finally Lost&#8230;The return of the dumb-ass dad! Forgot to mention that Jack wanted to prisoner swap Henry for Walt but found Michael instead!</p>
<p>p.s. I almost peed myself in the one scene when Sawyer used every nickname he had for Hurley&#8230;Stay Puff, Jaba, Pillsbury, Rerun&#8230;</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Collisions, Horses and the 23rd Psalm]]></title>
<link>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/collisions-horses-and-the-23rd-psalm/</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:11:44 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>finallylost</dc:creator>
<guid>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/collisions-horses-and-the-23rd-psalm/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Completed: 2-8 Collision, 2-9 What Kate Did, 2-10 The 23rd Psalm. 68 episodes left, 67 days to go. W]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><img src="http://gallery.lost-media.com/albums/ep-promos/sea2/psalm/normal_psalm23.jpg" alt="The lord is my shepard" /></p>
<p>Completed: 2-8 Collision, 2-9 What Kate Did, 2-10 The 23rd Psalm. 68 episodes left, 67 days to go.</p>
<p>We get our first Ana &#38; Mr. Eko flashbacks and we finally learn what Kate did. Let&#8217;s start with Collision, the episode where Ana keeps Sayid tied up. I seriously wanted to strangle 5-0 (Ana Lucia&#8217;s new nickname) during this episode. She is so uncompromising and unwilling to listen to reason. She told Bernard that she kept him alive, but the lives of the other 19 tailgaters were lost in some part due to her poor leadership. At least she makes the right decision in the end and let&#8217;s Sayid go. On a lighter note, Jin goes home to Sun and has the physical/metaphorical handcuff removed. It&#8217;s going to be great to see Jin evolve as a character now that he will begin to learn english.</p>
<p>Now onto our girl Freckles (Kate). After a little rough touch nursing incident (Sawyer choking Kate), Kate decides to run off and get spooked by a horse. Is it real? Who the hell knows on this island! (It is later confirmed as read) BUT we FINALLY get to the bottom of Kate&#8217;s story and&#8230;.we have a prediction winner. Cut to me your humble blogger host doing a solo fist pump (that&#8217;s what she said) and texting a friend bragging how right I was&#8230;.Kate killed her dad! Never mind my invisible dino and alien island creation predictions looks rather poor at the moment. Who cares that my prediction record has historically resembled the Washington Generals (or Redskins for that matter)&#8230;I got one right! Or half right since it sounds like Kate was never molested, which makes her motive all the more intriguing&#8230;she didn&#8217;t want to be from someone that evil. I&#8217;m glad we finally got to meet General Dad (Kate&#8217;s dad) and I can&#8217;t help but think the onion&#8217;s going to peeled back on him a bit more. This episode also gives us some more insight into the Sawyer-Kate-Jack love triangle. Jack &#38; Kate finally kiss but it&#8217;s a total party foul on Jack due to Sawyer&#8217;s condition, due to the fact he told Jack he loves Kate and after Sawyer did Jack such a solid by telling him about his dad. To make matters even more confusing, Kate tells Sawyer that it reminds her of Wayne (dead biological daddy) when she has feelings for him and it makes her sick. Sawyer picks that moment to have a Lazarus reawakening. There&#8217;s no WAY Kate is picking Jack, it&#8217;s Sawyer all the way&#8230;</p>
<p>After learning about Kate we finally get some info on our pal Mr. Eko. How cool is he?? Mr. Eko saves his brother the trouble of killing the town priest and goes all Blood Diamond and becomes a hardcore drug trafficker. In part 423 of the infinite part series of &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe in Lost coincidences&#8221;, Boone&#8217;s downed plane turns out to be Eko&#8217;s plane and the dead are his old partners and brother!! Didn&#8217;t see that coming! Is EVERYTHING in this show going to come back full circle?? For now I&#8217;ll throw it in the closest with Locke&#8217;s wheelchair and Boone&#8217;s distress call. The jungle and burial scene was great TV (or DVD) but I was hoping for Charlie to burn the heroin. Instead he takes all the statues and doesn&#8217;t explain himself well to Prego, who promptly tells him to find some other piece of charred plane and canopy to call home.</p>
<p>Mr. Eko doesn&#8217;t just shine is his flashback&#8230;he also gives the missing film to Locke. This must mean we&#8217;re about to find out more about the hatch?? Nope&#8230;just more questions. Don&#8217;t feed gremlins after midnight and don&#8217;t use the computer for anything else but the code! Cut to Dumb-ass Dad (Michael) talking to Walt on the computer! So The Other&#8217;s have a computer?? They must if they have a boat. Why haven&#8217;t The Other&#8217;s gone into the hatch already?? They are too skilled to not have broken in. Maybe this Walt thing is a ruse (your cunning attempt to trick me) to get into the hatch and get at the computer. And as far as the &#8220;incident&#8221; referred to on the film&#8230;er maybe..er&#8230;some other operators screwed up before and they blew up another island somewhere.? Did I mention I got the Kate thing right!! One thing is for sure, I agree Locke, it does not seem like a coincidence that the plane broke in 2 and both groups were able to discover pieces to the film. Finally a note on Walt&#8217;s ghost, how sad was it that we find out that Sayid could see Walt in the jungle when Sticks (Shannon) got shot? Just when he finds out she is telling the truth, she dies and he can never tell her she&#8217;s not crazy. Tear.</p>
<p>Next up on Finally Lost&#8230;Dumb-ass Dad goes solo and tries to rescue Walt??</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Lovers, Tailgaters and Others...]]></title>
<link>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/lovers-tailgaters-and-others/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:05:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>finallylost</dc:creator>
<guid>http://finallylost.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/lovers-tailgaters-and-others/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[3 more episodes down (&#8220;&#8230;And Down&#8221;, &#8220;Abandoned&#8221; &amp; &#8220;The Other ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><img src="http://gallery.lost-media.com/albums/ep-promos/sea2/Abandoned/normal_abandonedpromo28.jpg" alt="Hott on hott girl crime" /></p>
<p>3 more episodes down (&#8220;&#8230;And Down&#8221;, &#8220;Abandoned&#8221; &#38; &#8220;The Other 48 Days&#8221;) and so much to talk about. First we get a Sun &#38; Jin flashback episode centered around Sun losing her wedding ring. While nothing really happened this episode I still thought it was a great episode. No main plot revelations were needed because Sun and Jin carried the episode like it was Sawyer with a gun shot wound. And speaking of speaking of gun shot wounds&#8230;I&#8217;m sorry Sticks, I think I&#8217;ve jinxed your family. One episode after I declared no main characters would die in Season 1 Boone took a nose dive in a tree-parked plane. Incredibly  only 2 episodes following my latest dumb prediction that no main characters from Season 2 will die, you get shot. There is nothing I hate (or love) more than hott on hott girl crime. On the bright side you&#8217;ve given Sayid an out and he can now go back to pining over a much more worthy gal.</p>
<p>Now it&#8217;s in poor taste to mock Sticks after she was given a semi-tragic death scene and a spectacular flashback episode. First we find out Stick&#8217;s dad was the person Jack&#8217;s wife killed in the car crash (we even see Jack in the same room). Then I remembered Jack viewed her dad as a lost cause and didn&#8217;t even bother to work on him. Next we meet a mother-in-law so mean that we actually feel bad for Sticks. Really? You&#8217;re not going to feel even a little bad after taking all her inheritance? Well I hope Sticks gets back at you someday and pretends to get beat by her boyfriends just to con you out of money. Dammit, now I&#8217;m even OK with that behavior!  And for a cherry on top Shannon (got to give her some respect) selflessly runs off to chase ghost Walt resulting in her own demise. Stick&#8217;s I&#8217;ll miss you in a bikini and I&#8217;ll miss you because I think given time you could have really redeemed yourself and turned into a productive citizen on magic island.</p>
<p>And now to the meat of it. The Tailgaters!!! The beach scene was AWESOME. The plane looked like an asteroid falling to earth which keeps me wonder how all those people survived the crash. We also get a great parallel between the tailgaters and tribe prime. Great writing to show how the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 continued to live their affluent first class existence. They got all the luggage, they got all the skilled survivors and they even landed on the beach instead of the water. The folks in the back of the bus were literally in the back of the bus. Those second class citizens were awarded beach front property right in the lair of The Others. They got no resources from the plane, no doctor and not enough good people to help them survive. I thought the symbolism of Ana letting gimpy-leg guy die in order to save resources was so striking verses Jack (at the same exact time across the island) spending too many resources to save the doomed US Marshall. Then The Others come and turn the happy to be alive Tailgaters into an untrusting band and cause Mr. Ed to give up speaking for Lent. Very interesting that The Others were able to infiltrate both sides and they are a bit obsessed with kids. NEW PREDICTION: The island is really Michael Jackson&#8217;s super secret Neverland 2 ranch(too soon??). If that prediction doesn&#8217;t work then I suppose they kidnap the kids so they can retrain them while they are young so someday they can grow and be child kidnappers and killers just like their Other parents. Oh and before I forget, how about the fact that Boone was talking to Bernard when he was in the plane! The monumental events that followed made me totally forget thinking&#8230;who the hell is answering the plane radio?? The range can&#8217;t be so good, it&#8217;d have to be somebody really close&#8230;you know like Rose&#8217;s white husband (love that they made a half joke about it on the beach). All in all great episodes and I don&#8217;t hate Mean Bitch half as much. She is almost a product of her magic island environment&#8230;notice I said almost. Jack would have saved gimpy-leg or cried trying&#8230;</p>
<p>Next up on Finally Lost&#8230;On Day 48 (NUMBER) the two tribes converge and we get to see how Sayid reacts to Mean Bitch killing his girlfriend. I predict he will fix a transceiver and shove it where the sun don&#8217;t shine&#8230;</p>
<p>p.s. I think it&#8217;s very interesting that while Shannon saw ghost Walt the other survivors heard the strange whispering. What is going on there&#8230;</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Walt Disney and the Wonderful Orlando Hotels]]></title>
<link>http://disneyactingauditions.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/walt-disney-and-the-wonderful-orlando-hotels/</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>karenokada</dc:creator>
<guid>http://disneyactingauditions.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/walt-disney-and-the-wonderful-orlando-hotels/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Author: John Articles Source: articlesfactory.com Walt Disney is pure magic to children around the w]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p>Author: John Articles<br />
Source: articlesfactory.com</p>
<p>Walt Disney is pure magic to children around the world but many times adults often find themselves drawn towards the characters and stories that have eternal, <a href="http://www.disneyactingauditions.net"><b>disney acting auditions</b></a>,  happy endings. When visiting Orlando even though it may be the last thing on your mind the hotel will play a big role in your, disney acting auditions,  experience so, why not take a minute and enter the world of magic with the right step.</p>
<p>There are many Orlando hotels to choose from therefore you need to determine a few points before you decide on one and they are.</p>
<p>The purpose of your visit to Orlando for even though it has the Walt Disney World situated there many people visit Orlando for business purposes and they may not want to get a hotel at Disney World. If you are in Orlando for, disney acting auditions,  business then you may want to look up hotels where your business is oriented or downtown so you can access everything with ease.</p>
<p>Find the Child in You</p>
<p>However, if you are in town vacationing then choosing one of the Orlando hotels situated in Walt Disney World itself would be probably the best choice; you, disney acting auditions,  have approximately, disney acting auditions,  20 different hotels to choose from that are located in Disney World.</p>
<p>If you are not in town visiting Walt Disney World, but want to spend a quiet time with your partner, you can have your pick from the Orlando hotels situated around the Lake Buena Vista, where it is quiet, romantic and private.</p>
<p>Orlando is a magical place and if you are visiting with family or by yourself you will not be able to resist visiting Disney World because the town is bustling with its presence, which inevitable makes even adults reflect on their childhood and find the child within. Orlando hotels situated in the Disney World will allow you to get in touch with your inner child and once again enjoy some magical times that you will always cherish especially if you are visiting with children who will be gushing with each turn of the head.</p>
<p>Book your Orlando hotel in advance, it is a resort that is busy year round and you may be disappointed if you wait for the last minute; while you can book online with almost any hotel available in Orlando it is advisable to book through an agent for special discounts and packages.</p>
<p>Copyright ฉ John Hanna All Rights Reserved.</p>
<p>This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Waaaaalt!]]></title>
<link>http://lovelyentropy.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/where-the-fuck-is-walt/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:56:40 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Lola</dc:creator>
<guid>http://lovelyentropy.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/where-the-fuck-is-walt/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[counting down to the final season of lost i have just on question: Where the fuck is Walt?]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[counting down to the final season of lost i have just on question: Where the fuck is Walt?]]></content:encoded>
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<title><![CDATA[Ghost at Disney Land]]></title>
<link>http://paranormalitywp.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/ghost-at-disney-land/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:44:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>staypuft138</dc:creator>
<guid>http://paranormalitywp.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/ghost-at-disney-land/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
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