Obviously the economics - and I have no real knowledge - will ultimately dictate whether things are made into movies or serialized TeeVee shows, but I do look forward to the day when the obvious visual translation of a good novel isn't the big screen. Or, hell, bring back serials on the big screen!

Though, ultimately, nothing is medium specific anymore. Someone should try a big serial. My guess is that if Harry Potter came out today (with associated popularity) it might be a good test case.

That future may soon be here:

The 37-year effort to bring "Atlas Shrugged" to the screen is finally gaining momentum.

Sort of.

Oscar winner Charlize Theron has been meeting during the past several months with Lionsgate and producers Howard and Karen Baldwin, who are developing the project's latest iteration, about starring as main character Dagny Taggart.

Theron has been eager to play the role but has been concerned that a feature would lose many of the nuances of the monster-sized novel. So the Rand adaptation would, under a plan she and producers discussed, be turned into a miniseries for Epix, the pay-cable network Lionsgate is forming with MGM and Viacom/Paramount.

The project, according to this plan, would be to make the mini one of the fledgling network’s programming linchpins. While insiders are not ruling out the possibility of releasing a condensed version to theaters, the main thrust would be the network, where the mini could be used to lure the book's legion of fans to subscribe.

And a resultant drop in water consumption at trailer parks and assisted-living facilities during the hours when the series is run.

The Deaths of American Soldiers Mean Nothing to Me, Says Glenn Reynolds

From the Instacracker:

ONE OF ANDREW SULLIVAN’S GUESTBLOGGERS is, ironically, enough, slagging people for being too pro-war in 2003. Yeah, not like Andrew was back then. At any rate, according to a comment in the linked post, I was off by 39 for the casualty [sic - fatality] toll of the invasion through "mission accomplished." I'm willing to admit the error. That's better than Ted Kennedy, who predicted we'd lose "battalions a day."

Reynolds is referring to a comment which identified US deaths in Iraq before "Mission Accomplished" as 139, whereas Reynolds offered "100" in response to the question asked. But the question which was asked of the 'Cracker was this:

If we go into Iraq, how many casualties do you expect to see (on the side of the US and our allies)

The question says nothing about the period of "the invasion through 'mission accomplished,'" an event of epic meaninglessness even apart from its absence in the question. If your son or daughter or husband or wife or father or mother died after the flight-suit prance photo-op, Reynolds couldn't give a shit. He's only concerned with rewriting the question (and history) so it looks as if he was merely off by 39, and more prescient than Teddy K. The thousands of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen who died later, and those from other countries who died, don't matter to Reynolds.

In fact, Glenn is pissed that people have forgotten his greatest sacrifice when the speak of the war.

And I didn't take a post-invasion "mission accomplished" vacation, either.

Some gave Dollywood.

The Anchoress Would Like To Think

...and doesn't realize it's beyond her limited capabilities.

Here is the Red Nun, on the occasion of Walter Cronkite's passing, linking to things she just can't understand:

I'm sure Cronkite would have loved President Obama, just like the rest of the media hordes. But I would like to think that he would not have countenanced this sort of news-manipulation on his watch – that he would not have ignored those grassroots movements that did not fit his ideology, or enabled startling doublestandards, but who knows? Perhaps he’d have jumped into Free-American-Press-into-Pravda Devolution with both feet, if it made him feel like he was part of something "too big to fail."

The "news-manipulation" link goes to another blog which bitches about how the New York Times didn't put the CBO health care reform numbers on page one, above the fold, while the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal did.

The "ignored" and "grassroots movement" links go to Instacracker, who in turn links to teabaggers who self-report that groups of 30, 150 and 250+ 'baggers managed to find their way to various home state Congressional offices.

The "startling doublestandards [sic]" link makes no sense whatsoever in the context in which it's placed, but it leads to this, which is a lovely example of disinglennuousness at its finest and features a cameo from a former unemployed blogger turned unemployed creepy cartoon enthusiast to boot.

One gets the impression that the Red Nun collected a bunch of links, decided it would be a sin to delete them without using them, and then shoved them into the Cronkite post to avoid confession.

The Red Nun ends her funeral oration thusly:

So, RIP, Mr. Cronkite. I will not blame you for the media excesses we will have to endure for the next week to ten days.

I recall hoping that Tim Russert's sad death would inspire some self-reflection within the ranks of the press, but that did not happen, so I doubt Cronkite's death will wake them from their self-destructive sleep, either.

Say what the fuck? How or why Pumpkinhead's death would cause self-reflection in the press is a mystery, since his death had nothing to do the way the press operated. The way Russert conducted himself in life might cause those in the press with a sense of self-awareness to question the ethics of acting as combination answering service, father confessor and megaphone for the G.O.P. (although it surely didn't in Howard Kurtz's case), but his death provides no particular illumination on how a free press should do its job.

Governor Mark Sanford writes some crap about how getting caught banging his soulmate has made him more humble:

I've realized that as much as I have and will continue to advocate for things ranging from restructuring to responsible spending to school choice, my approach needs to be less about my will and more about looking for ways to more humbly present the greater principals and ideas at play. It needs to be less strident and more about finding ways to work with legislative leaders to advance the ideas so many of us believe in. It means less time fighting the tide, and a greater awareness of the fact that God controls it. In working with a few alterations to my approach, I think this could be a far more productive last session than the one that would have been had the tragedy that has unfolded not occurred, and in turn, people's lives can be made better.

Apology not accepted.

Anyone who pimps "school choice" without knowing the proper spelling and usage of the word principles is not fit to hold any office. Nor is anyone who characterizes government confiscation of private property to subsidize Big Religion. Nor is anyone who considers self-inflicted mockery a tragedy.