Jonathan's blog

The other day some of Elliot's friends stopped by for a bike parade around the neighborhood.  Here are a few photos:

It's always a bit of a disappointment when you watch a season or two of a show only to see it cancelled...especially if it has a serial story line that's gets abandoned mid cliffhanger.  The more episodic ones that die are a bummer too but to a lesser extent.

Today I went through the season pass lists on the Tivos and did some investigating about the shows I suspected might be dead.  I noticed a trend in which the creators of some of the canceled shows are making an effort to provide some resolution for their fans.  The other trend I noticed: ABC.

October Road (ABC)

Can you ever really go home again?

That's the question that confronts acclaimed novelist Nick Garrett when he returns home after being away for ten years. Once back home on October Road, he quickly discovers that the circle of friends whose teenaged lives he wrote about have since settled into blue collar careers and started families.

Canceled.  I was definitely sorry to see that this one was gone.  It grew on me over a couple of seasons...lots of likeable characters and storylines.  When they heard it was canceled, the creators wrote a 15-minute finale and contacted each of the cast-members.  It will be on the season 2 DVD when it's released in about a month.

Traveler (ABC)

College friends go on the lam after becoming suspects in a terrorist bombing. Along the way, they attempt to track down information to clear their names and expose a conspiracy.

Not as disappointed that Traveler died.  That's probably because it was only 8 episodes in.  Anyway, after it was cancelled, the show's creator posted an "answers blog."

Notes from the Underbelly (ABC)

Andrew and Lauren are deciding if they really want a family or not. But the advice from their friends is not helping them at all! Are they going to have a baby or are they going to continue their lives without one?

Underbelly was cute and enjoyable and always good for a few chuckles.  Not glad to see it go.

Dirty Sexy Money (ABC)

When idealistic attorney Nick George's father dies, he ends up taking his father's clients, the Darlings, led by patriarch Tripp.  It's not always easy for Nick handling both legal and sometimes illegal matters.

I liked DSM at first but then it seemed to devolve into just a prime time soap opera, so I wasn't too sad to see it go.  There were a few episodes that didn't air in the U.S.  Guess those will come with the DVD.  It'd be nice if they showed up on ABC.com too.

Pushing Daisies (ABC)

...centers around a pie-maker with the ability to bring the dead back to life with minor stipulations.

I like Daisies and enjoyed it, but in the end it just seemed like a gimmick with no where else to go.  There are 3 as-yet-unaired episodes.  Reportedly they'll air this summer but won't provide a narrative conclusion (per ABC's instructions).

Aliens in America (The CW)

A Wisconsin mom arranges to host a foreign exchange student, believing the visitor will help her shy son become more popular. When the student turns out to be a Muslim teenager from Pakistan, her plans go awry - and everyone is likely to learn a little lesson about life.

I enjoyed this Aliens and was disappointed to see it go.  It was a nice combination of comedy while also dealing with issues of religion and culture.

Dirt (FX)

The series follows the exploits of Lucy Spiller, an executive editor at two tabloid magazines. Lucy possesses the power to manipulate the lives of celebrities through the articles she prints in the magazine.

I liked this Dirt OK, though it seemed liked it went out of the way to push the decency standards of basic cable just for the fun of it.

I was thinking that Reaper was dead too (even though I'd heard it was coming back) because the episodes weren't appearing on the Tivo.  Turns out that new episodes have been airing since early March but the season pass wasn't functioning for some unknown reason.  I fixed that and am catching up on the missed episodes online.  I'm also currently enjoying the second seasons of Damages and Breaking Bad.

Out of all of those dead shows, if you haven't seen the following then I'd recommend adding them to your Netflix queue: Pushing Daisies, October Road, Aliens in America, and Notes from the Underbelly.

Mar 28

» Mythical defense cuts

» Robert Reich: Obamanomics Isn't About Big Government

» Barack Obama's learning curve | Learning the hard way | The Economist

» The Worst Neutral Milk Hotel Cover Of All Time, And That's Sayin' Something

» Major Anti-War Groups Staying Quiet About (Or Supporting) Obama’s Afghan Escalation

friendly older gentleman honked, had me roll down my window, and told me that my yawn probably means I’m not getting enough sleep at night

taking Finn to urgent care for earache

approaching 4 days later and I’m still wiped out by some sort of illness

Finn said "Want to know why I wish I was the son of God? Because I could use the force and make a light saber."

I said "We’re all children of God." Finn said "You’re a grown-up of God."

Mar 27

» Teleprompters, Persistence and A Defense of AIG FP :: Swampland - TIME.com

» The Real Story of How AmeriCorps Became Bipartisan

» The Quiet Coup - The Atlantic (May 2009)

» Kevn Kinney: Pre-Approved Pre-Denied

» Dallas Police Officer Makes Death Even Worse

» Hannity Provides Falsehoods To Support His False Definition Of Socialism

» "Friday Night Lights" To Be Renewed, Minus Two Ladies

» Michael Gerson - Obama Speeches Gain From Teleprompter - washingtonpost.com

» Dan Auerbach: A Black Key Plays Solo

» The crisis -- and Geithner plan -- explained

Ain’t nothing more conservative than ridiculing energy conservation, right?

Mar 26

» Facebook Video Embed Service: Interrupted or Worse

» The Poping Of Newt

Mar 25

» New Conservative/Progressive Dialogue to Begin Soon

» Former CNN Anchor Moves to The Onion

» Tony Campolo: I'm the Older Brother

» Isn't Honesty a Catholic Value?

» Mixtape.me is the latest, greatest mp3 playlist site

Finn was sick Sat to Mon. He’s better (except for the cough), but now I’m feeling it.

Mar 24

» Saginaw, Bay City, Flint newspapers to cut to three days weekly starting June 1; Ann Arbor News to close

» Congress and the generous AIG bonuses

at lunch today I saw a guy with a big cock and balls tattoo on the side of his neck. presumably a prank victim.

Mar 23

» John Mellencamp: On My Mind: The State of the Music Business

» Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis Declares Moral Outrage Over an Action He Performed

» How Much Water do you Really Use?

» Saginaw, Bay City, Flint newspapers to cut to three days weekly starting June 1; Ann Arbor News to close

Mar 22

» In Bernie Goldberg's world, even the dictionaries have a liberal bias

» Red State Socialism and the Politics of the Stimulus

Meeting the Bridges water park in Frankenmuth today to celebrate Elliot’s birthday

Is Defense the one department that Barack Obama is cutting?  If so, is that a bad thing?

The Wall Street Journal's editorial writers said so earlier this month in an article titled "Declining Defense":

For all of his lavish new spending plans, President Obama is making one major exception: defense. His fiscal 2010 budget telegraphs that Pentagon spending is going to be under pressure in the years going forward.

The White House proposes to spend $533.7 billion on the Pentagon, a 4% increase over 2009. Include spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, which would be another $130 billion (or a total of $664 billion), and overall defense spending would be around 4.2% of GDP, the same as 2007.

However, that 4% funding increase for the Pentagon trails the 6.7% overall rise in the 2010 budget -- and defense received almost nothing extra in the recent stimulus bill.

Steve Chapman responded in an article titled "Mythical Defense Cuts":

Cindy Williams, a defense scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former assistant director of the Congressional Budget Office, points out that, leaving aside the two wars we are fighting, Obama wants to spend 2 percent more in the next fiscal year than President Bush allocated for this year, and 11 percent more than we spent last year.

Bush also planned for the defense budget (apart from Iraq and Afghanistan) to shrink slightly each year starting in 2010. Obama's blueprint calls for the defense budget to remain about the same. "Spending will actually be higher under Obama's plan than under Bush's," says Williams.

But as conservatives have been known to point out, Washington policymakers have funny ways with numbers. Last year, the Defense Department asked for an increase of nearly $60 billion in the 2010 budget over what had been planned. The Obama administration declined but agreed to a smaller increase.

So conservatives should be pleased, right? Wrong. Since the increase the Pentagon got is less than it wanted, they claim Obama is "cutting" defense spending. By that logic, if you ask for a 50 percent raise and get only 10 percent, you've suffered a pay cut.

The real question is not why Obama wants to spend so little on defense but why he wants to spend so much. Since 2001, our military outlays have soared by 40 percent, after adjusting for inflation. And that's not counting the costs of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We not only spend more than anyone else, we spend more than everyone else. Globalsecurity.org reports that in 2004, the United States lavished $623 billion on the military. All the other governments on Earth together managed only $500 billion. Even this gap understates our dominance, because most of the other top spenders are U.S. allies.

No nation can dream of challenging us in the air or at sea. We have a huge nuclear arsenal capable of inflicting mass annihilation on a moment's notice.

Meanwhile, the demands on our military are easing rather than growing. Under the agreement Bush signed with the Iraqi government, which Obama has reaffirmed, we are supposed to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. The threat from Al Qaeda has been greatly reduced.

We spend more on the military than the combined total of every other country in the world, Obama proposes spending increases relative to what was spent previously and what Bush proposed, yet the WSJ chastises him for "cutting" defense?  I think that's "deranged."

Lisa and I are planning to take an Alaskan cruise with some friends this summer in celebration of our 15-year anniversary.  It will be our first cruise.  Lisa found a Travel Channel "Great Cruises" commercial, I mean TV show, about the cruise. The video is embedded below. It keeps emphasizing its "Vegas vibe." Ha.