From Amendment 2

Patricia Heaton looks right into the camera and says that the amendment makes it a constitutional right to buy and sell human eggs for stem cell research. Now, NPH is just reading through the text of the amendment for the first time, and we've found this: "(4) No person may, for valuable consideration, purchase or sell human
blastocysts or eggs for stem cell research or stem cell therapies and
cures."

The "no on 2" campaign has the website, "nocloning.org." Yet, again reading the amendment for the first time, it says this: "(1) No person may clone or attempt to clone a human being." That's right at the beginning of the amendment. It later defines "cloning": (2) “Clone or attempt to clone a human being” means to implant in a
uterus or attempt to implant in a uterus anything other than the
product of fertilization of an egg of a human female by a sperm of a
human male for the purpose of initiating a pregnancy that could result
in the creation of a human fetus, or the birth of a human being."

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Fact Check on The Missouri Senate Race

Before Michael J. Fox and Kurt Warner weighed in on Amendment 2, there were the Talent campaign's own ads. At first, his ads were clever and effective, relying on images of Talent himself rattling off his Senate accomplishments before exclaiming, "I have to get back to work!" But then the ads went the way of, well, political ads. The campaign rolled out a series of ads attacking Claire McCaskill's record as auditor, trying to associate poor conditions in nursing homes (notice the flashing phrase, "sexual assault" next to the face of a senior citizen), and using nefarious newspaper quotations to do so.

Factcheck.org has picked the ads apart and figured out that what the ads are doing is not quoting the newspapers, but quoting McCaskill opponents as quoted in the newspaper, then attributing the quote to the paper itself. For example, from the factcheck article:
 

"Exaggerating" state audits .
This quote is used five times in the four ads. Only once is the date
given: July 17, 2004. The article is a profile of McCaskill, and
contains the sentence: "Critics accuse McCaskill of sometimes
exaggerating her audit results." The ad falsely implies that the words
are the newspaper's judgment of McCaskill, rather than unnamed
"critics." The article goes on to quote one of those critics, her
political opponent Maxwell."

Nice. I can't wait for this thing to be over.

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Response Ad to Michael J. Fox

This is the ad that ran during the world series last night, featureing two entertainers and three professional athletes connected to Missouri.

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Michael J. Fox ad

Michael J. Fox

A couple of ads are running in Missouri on the proposed ballot measure known as Amendment 2. The measure has to do with stem cell research. What's remarkable about these ads is their stripped-down, gritty character, from Michael J. Fox's unedited endorsement of Claire McCaskill for her support of stem cell research, to entertainers and athletes staring into handheld cameras to oppose it. Both ads are enjoying serious run on the blogosphere, which is, of course, what they were meant to do. It's political advertising at its best. Or worst.

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I Know That Train

CNN is reporting this morning that a French passenger train collieded with a freight train this morning, killing 10 people and injuring scores of others. The crash occured in the northeastern part of the country, on the line connecting Luxembourg and the French city of Thionville.

NPH's wife grew up only miles from Thionville, and her best friend still lives there. NPH has been there and has ridden that train. Twice.

Our hearts go out to everyone involved.

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Freeloading Off Of Other Bloggers

NPH has been dragging his blogo-feet for nearly a month now. A Bradley Whitford post here, a Boondocks quip there, but largely emptiness on the great grey screen that readers (especially our Hollywood production assistant faithful) have come to depend on. We are sorry.

There may be some light at the end of the tunnel. But this is still the tunnel. So here are some quick notes and references that NPH readers are sure to, if not enjoy, benefit from.

• First, our beloved comic strip "Boondocks" has decided to call it quits. This is sad news indeed, although it is made less sad by the continuation of the Boondocks animated series. The end of the strip marks the quickest cessation of a comic that was syndicated by as many papers as Aaron McGruder's was. Here's how it went down, compliments of Wikipedia: "In late February 2006, McGruder announced that his strip would go on a
  six-month hiatus, starting March 27, 2006, with new installments
  resuming in October. Repeats of earlier strips were offered by
  Universal Press Syndicate in the interim. According to Editor & Publisher, two-thirds of The Boondocks'
  client list substituted different features rather than publish reruns.
  Universal Press Syndicate president Lee Salem announced on Sept. 25,
  2006, that the comic would remain on hiatus indefinitely, saying, 'Although Aaron McGruder has made no statement about retiring or
  resuming The Boondocks for print newspapers ... newspapers should not count on it coming back in the foreseeable future'. McGruder's editor at the syndicate, Greg Melvin, met with McGruder in
  Los Angeles over the course of at least two days unsuccessfully
  attemping to have the cartoonist abide by his agreement to return in
  six months." Happy [paper] trails Huey Freeman.
• Second, NPH's friend and colleague, Kairos, has been writing an important series of posts on torture. Kairos is a PhD candidate in Christian Ethics, and so speaks of the issue with a clear understanding of what is at stake, especially for the church, in the legislature's current debate over what is and what is not legal treatment of human beings. I recommend this post, this post, and this post especially.
• Finally, NPH's annual October Scary Movie Blitz is about to begin. Many NPH readers will no doubt recall last year's collection of reflections on the werewolf genre, which extended from "The Werewolf of London" and "The Wolf Man" to Neil Jordan's "In The Company of Wolves." Well, after much thought, NPH has decided that this year's theme will be haunted houses. Thanks to Netflix, we have a number of films qeued up, from the classics, "Cat and the Canary" and "13 Ghosts" to the very contemporary "The Amityville Horror." We are open to suggestions. What we're aiming at here is more than a glut of scares; gory orchestral hits need not apply. We're actually interersted in tracking the evolution of a genre of scary film, with special attention to the mythology employed and the literary and cinematic devices brought to bear on the story. We try hard to avoid lots of violence and gore, which is kind of like a bungee jumper saying he tries to avoid that stomach-in-the-throat feeling, I know. But NPH's experience has been that the best scary films tend to be those that rely only minimally on blood. We look forward to your participation, whatever it may be.

October is NPH's favorite month of the year; we're glad to have you along for it.

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Correction

NPH has two acquaintences in California who responded (one gently, one not so gently) to our last post about the disappearance of the WB. We admit our error and dutifully provide the following links to news and opinion pieces regarding the merger between the WB and CBS' UPN network.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/14565431.htm

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/24/news/companies/cbs_warner/

Astute NPH readers (is there any other type?) will notice that these stories date from May and January of last year, respectively; we're a little slow on the uptake. One would think that the NPH home, which knows nothing of cable, would be on top of such major network developments, but, alas, we have dropped the ball badly this time. We sincerely apologize if we caused any alarm over the suggestion that Gilmore Girls and One Tree Hill might be going off the air. As these news stories explain, they'll stay, along with tried-and-true UPN successes (uh . . . ) and some new original programming, all aimed at the coveted 18-34 year-old demographic. NPH wonders, is anything on television not aimed at the 18-24 year-old demographic?

We're intrigued by this development, largely since it involves a network (UPN) that one of our heroes (Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder) has repeatedly trashed. The irony of this merger is that, in all probability, most of UPN's all-black casts will be axed; speculation is that Chris Rock's Everybody Hates Chris will be the only UPN sitcom to make it. So UPN's cheesy, stereotypical, and just plain badly written sitcoms will be gone, but so will one of the best major network television avenues for black actors.

There's got to be more to this.

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