Wait, who’s that one critic who liked it?

Though a bit stiff in the joints and acted by an undistinguished cast amid TV-movie trappings, this low-budget adaptation of Ayn Rand’s novel nevertheless contains a fire and a fury that makes it more compelling than the average mass-produced studio item.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Kyle Smith of the New York Post.

But before you jump to Murdochian conclusions…

Don’t hold your breath for parts 2 and 3.

…Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal.

Atlas Shrugged Part I [Rotten Tomatoes, via Weigel]

Following the discovery yesterday of That can be my next tweet, a new Internet service that creates a meta-tweet from your existing messages, we thought we’d test it against the Twitter accounts of potential Republican Presidential candidates to see whether we can gain some electoral insight. We think you’ll agree that they make much more sense this way.

Candidate		Composite Tweet
	Donald Trump	I’m real scared. airs tonight on The Apprentice back to tune in on Donald Trump Fabulous World of your.
	Michele Bachmann	With safety protocols, companies must be on Fox News. This Deal is just released budget.
	Mitt Romney	Laughing with Tagg, Ann and pointing out my video opposing the world. Thank you for doing what’s?

Read more »

ABC Axes All My Children and One Life to Live [TVLine]

“People growing marijuana indoors use 1 percent of the U.S. electricity supply, and they create 17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year (not counting the smoke exhaled) according to a report by Evan Mills, an energy analyst at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.” [SF Business Times]

The Arizona Senate passed the Birther Bill last night, which requires Presidential candidates to show either a “long-form” birth certificate — the one Hawaii’s holding back — or two of the following:

• baptismal or circumcision certificate
• hospital birth record
• postpartum medical record
• early census record

Like all Americans, we can get behind required Circumcision Certificates for Presidential candidates. Especially Michele Bachmann.

Arizona ‘Birther’ Bill A Step Closer To Law [KPHO]

We’ve posted 3,535 items — mostly headlines — to the Stinque Twitter account. (Not to be confused with the Stinque Daily Blurb Twitter account, just to confuse you.) Using the new Internet time waster analysis service “That can be my next tweet”, our composite Tweet DNA results in the Dada Haiku above, which we insist be inscribed on our tombstone.

That can be my next tweet

That Can Be Our Next Headline: 21 Perfect Stories by The Machines [The Awl, via flippin eck]

The most significant passage of President Obama’s speech has to be the following:

You will have your choice of a number of plans that offer a few different packages, but every plan would offer an affordable, basic package… And I believe one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market, so that we can force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.

Whoops, we’re sorry! Bookmarked a June 2009 speech by mistake.

But while we’re there, can we just say that we count our blessings every day knowing that, with the electoral winds at his back and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, President Obama was not only able to get the healthcare package he envisioned, but was also able to pass his 2011 budget and avoid nasty showdowns over mid-year funding?

Apparently we can’t.

So reading Wednesday’s speech — the right one — you’ll forgive us if we don’t get excited about the passages where President Obama said the right things. Maybe during the campaign, maybe a couple years ago, but we’ve learned to wait for the hostage crisis to see what gets bargained away. And right now the next capture is looking like May 16, when our National Plastic gets cut off.

Remarks by the President on Fiscal Policy [White House]