According to the liveleak blurb, this is an “…animated sequence portraying a firefight through the eyes of U.S. Army Specialist Colby Buzzell.” Beyond the story, which is pretty compelling, the animation is absolutely stunning. Two-dimensional drawings are combined with brilliant three-dimensional direction utilizing dust and firebursts to make it come to life.

There’s some strong language and violence, but I think all the swearing is bleeped.

Former DN cartoonist Jim Mehsling is in the news and it has nothing to do with football players or police! I saw in Saturday’s Journal Star that Mehsling has a Star Wars animation that’s a finalist in an atomfilms.com competition.

I never knew the guy, as he preceded me by several years at the DN, but I heard a lot about him and I always liked his cartoons when I was a freshman and sophomore, before I even considered getting in on the gig. Here’s his acclaimed animation, and he has several more at atomfilms.com. I just searched for “Mehsling.”

Related links:
his website
his blog

I hope the man upstairs is proud of his bigoted little followers who shot down LB475, which would grant homosexuals protected status from hiring discrimination.

Sure, they’ll make up lies and play naive on the stand, but then talk about how they don’t want to encourage immoral behavior. The committee heard first-hand testimony about being fired for being gay, yet folks like Senator Erdman claim there’s no discrimination against homosexuals.

Senator Fulton used a study from 15 years ago which showed that, nationwide, homosexual households have a higher average income than households of blacks or Mexicans with 3 years of high school education. Nevermind that the study was 15 years old, was nationwide, and had no clarification of the education of homosexuals - using this as evidence against a discrimination ban is saying “If some gay people make a lot of money, that makes it okay to discriminate against others.”

I’m curious - what is the threshold for income that entitles you to be discriminated against?

Then there is all the nonsense about saying “I’m not bigoted, but I’ll compare homosexuality to bestiality, pedophilia, and other crimes. I’ll compare a gay man’s lover to an abused animal. But I totally respect gays.”

Say you aren’t bigots all you want. Actions speak louder than words.

When 106.9 Bob FM switched to Power 106.9, Omaha got its first “big city” radio station.

It’s more than just a hip-hop station - it is very intelligently programmed, and when you listen to the station, you feel like “This was programmed by someone who knows and loves the music and is making decisions accordingly,” rather than “This was programmed by someone who knows what the trade publications are saying this format should be like, so the decisions are made to prevent being the latest casualty in the radio business.”

I don’t really even like hip-hop, but listening to this station reminds me of listening to KRNU or watching the early days of M2. There just seems to be a layer of depth to what goes on the station to where, even if you don’t necessarily like what’s on the surface, there’s a bigger picture happening with each song selection and that comes through in the listening experience.

One of the greatest things on the station is their power lunch - an hour of live-mixed old-school requests. Today’s set included seamless segues from “Informer” by Snow to “Method Man” by Wu-Tang Clan to “Baby I Got Your Money” by Ol Dirty Bastard to a Slick Rick song (can’t remember the name) to “This is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan.

Listen to this station. It blows away all the timid, tentative conservative programming on every other commercial station in the state.

More at Hightowerdownload.com.

Hey you know CBS - that one network that EVERYONE can agree is SUPER LIBERAL because they used to have that Dan Rather guy and they have 60 Minutes?

Well, at CBS, you can get fired as a ‘News consultant’ for speaking out against the surge because that violates their policy on “expressing a public opinion that is coming from an advocacy point of view…You are not allowed to take a public position on an issue.”

But don’t you worry, if you’re publicly supporting the surge, you’re safe.

And the AP reports that Ann Coulter has been cleared of wrongdoing in her voter fraud investigation in Florida, without bothering to mention that the FBI interfered to stop the investigation and that the FBI agent who intervened - thus prompting an internal investigation at the FBI - is Coulter’s ex-boyfriend.

This was probably the best concert I’ve ever been to, and so much better than when I saw him in London in ‘97. I just think that’s so cool - seeing Morrissey in Omaha was way better than seeing him in London. I should be on an Omaha commercial. But that show 10 years ago was almost spiteful toward the audience - a very short setlist, and the only Smiths song was the very telling “Paint A Vulgar Picture.” But tonight’s show was about as far from that as possible. Morrissey seemed to be having a blast.

here’s the setlist by my notes:
1. The Queen is Dead
2. First of the Gang to Die
3. The Youngest Was the Most Loved
4. You Have Killed Me
5. Disappointed
6. Panic
7. Let Me Kiss You
8. I Just Want to See the Boy Happy
9. I Will See You in Far Off Places
10. I’ve Changed My Plea to Guilty
11. National Front Disco
12. The Boy with the Thorn in His Side
13. Irish Blood, English Heart
14. All You Need is Me (new song)
15. At Last I Am Born
16. In the Future When All’s Well
17. Ganglord
18. Life is a Pigsty
19. How Soon is Now?
20. Every Day is Like Sunday

encore:
21. Drive-In Saturday (Bowie cover)
22. You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side

favorite banter of the night:
He was talking about how one of his heroes was born just down the road. Asking the crowd if they know who he’s talking about, some crowd members guess “Oscar Wilde?”
“Sadly, Oscar Wilde was not born in Lincoln,” Morrissey responds. “His fault, really.”

Gerry Harbison shares his thoughts on McCook Community College’s creationism course, which is offered as a science class. Nice.

Two really unfortunate pieces of recent news, casting a negative light on the good people who are actually trying to make a difference.

Study: Many U.S. Soldiers in Iraq Admit Abusing Civilians, Backing Torture

In a survey of U.S. troops in combat in Iraq, less than half of Marines soldiers said they feel they should treat noncombatants with respect. Only about a half said they would report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian.

More than 40 percent support the idea of torture in some cases, and 10 percent reported personally abusing Iraqi civilians, the Pentagon said Friday in what it called its first ethics study of troops at the war front. Units exposed to the most combat were chosen for the study, officials said.

Looting suspects arrested in storm-ravaged Kansas town

Four soldiers and a reserve police officer were arrested Sunday on suspicion of looting cigarettes and alcohol from a store in this tornado-ravaged town, state officials said.

Just woke up from my post-race nap. I ran the Lincoln half-marathon this morning. It was raining and windy for about the first half, which didn’t bother me too much, but I didn’t think about the rain on the ground. My shoes and socks got soaked, which led my feet to be sitting in water for two hours. They got all waterlogged and cracked and it was one of the most uncomfortably painful feelings I’ve ever experienced. Then I also experienced the dreaded bloody nipples, but I fortunately realized it right before the 9 mile water station and managed to swipe some vaseline without having to stop.

I was really hoping to beat my last year’s time, since this year I trained and everything, but I just checked and I came in 20 seconds slower this year. I did, however, run into Guy Fiorita of Happy Young People, a friend from the undergrad days who now lives in New York City. He was in town for the weekend to run it.