I liked the pilot of Community, liked the second episode a little more, and by the third the show had definitely hit a stride. If you enjoy comedy at all and you’re not watching, start! NBC may or may not renew Community, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Speaking of renewals, Dollhouse definitely isn’t getting one, since apparently people have better things to do on Friday nights than watch crazy, awesome Joss Whedon magic. It should be noted that I’m not meandering off into a tirade about the fact that people are not entertained by Dollhouse, but will watch a hundred thousand CSI spinoffs and hospital dramas.

To be honest, I’m fine with Dollhouse being canceled so long as the writers can plan accordingly. Season 1 left plenty of room to grow but ended well, especially when you consider the completely badass Epitaph 1 episode included with the DVDs. Season 2 can wrap up even better, as long as Alan Tudyk returns in time for Tahmoh Penikett to beat his face in sufficiently.

How about movies – there’s some cool stuff coming out next weekend. Michael Caine – shoot, Sir Michael Caine – is in Harry Brown, and all kinds of people are in The Men Who Stare at Goats, a movie whose trailer greatly confused me when Coffing first sent me a link awhile back.

Reuters is carrying a story today about John McCain, who says the GOP had better shape up before the 2010 elections. You remember John McCain, right? He’s that Republican senator whose regular flirtations with big-government nonsense represent the party’s most serious problem. Forgive me if I read this story with more than the standard amount of skepticism.

“There’s something going on out there. And I’d love to sit here and tell you that we Republicans are attracting all of those unhappy people, but we’re not. They’re out there kind of in the middle and they haven’t found a home. And in fact they haven’t even channeled their anger yet,” he said.

Despite what you may think, McCain is not joking. While most pundits muse on whether Tea Party wingnuts who dare complain about out of control spending will pull the GOP too far to the right, McCain crams a new situation into his standard argument that conservatism is for losers and Republicans should “moderate” their ranks.

I seem to recall the leading case for John McCain in 2008 being that he could win “moderate” and “independent” voters. That went… poorly. I’d love to see Republicans offer fiscally and socially conservative candidates in every election – especially given how wildly off-the-rails the Democratic leadership is on spending, personal freedom, and national defense. But instead we have old pros like John McCain telling us, no, the problem is that Republicans aren’t helpful enough when it comes to piling debt on top of debt to pay for things government has no business doing.

But he said Republican candidates running in 2010 needed to “portray a far more positive agenda for America” and that the party needed to recruit good candidates and attract Hispanic voters who have been heavily courted by Democrats. Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority in the United States.

Right… sorry we forgot, John – amnesty for the win. I’m sure you’ll also help the GOP in this election cycle by crafting some cap & trade compromise where Americans get screwed only six instead of seven ways from Sunday, Senator.

At The Corner today, Mark Steyn was commenting on the 23rd District race in New York, where GOP leaders are lining up behind another “moderate” Republican (ie, someone whose positions are indecipherable from the average Democrat’s). Steyn had this to say:

The problem with NY-23 is that we don’t have a two-party system. The GOP leadership decided to join the Democrats in offering voters a one-party system of Dem and Demmer. Nuts to that.

The Dispatch reported this afternoon that Pryor will start against Minnesota on Saturday. It’s not a surprise, given that no amount of fumbles or interceptions was enough to rent him a place on the bench against Purdue. I really don’t think he should lose the starting spot, given the way Tressel screwed Boeckman over to get Pryor as much experience as possible. Trouble is, Tressel will probably keep right on trying to make a great runner stand.

Let’s have a look at some running back numbers, with the preface that (if I haven’t mentioned it before) Brandon Saine grew up in my native land, Miami County, Ohio. These stats are from ESPN.com, as of 10/20/2009:

Who does Tressel start, unless he’s injured? Herron, who has 140 fewer yards on 4 fewer carries. Herron is the “power back,” as far as Tressel is concerned, despite being shorter and lighter than Saine. He scores touchdowns – because Saine doesn’t get the ball anywhere near the endzone. What is it about Tressel and underclassmen? If he’s a sucker for the next big thing, his offensive play calling sure doesn’t reflect that!

One more specific complaint about the Purdue game, and I’m going to try real hard not to complain about Ohio State’s bungling offensive coaches any more. This is the only mention of Brandon Saine in the play-by-play for the third quarter of the Purdue game -

Terrelle Pryor rush for a loss of 6 yards, fumbled, recovered by OhSt Brandon Saine at the OhSt 32.

Yes, in case you didn’t notice on Saturday, Saine – after breaking off a 20 yard run in the first and getting 40 yards on a terrible pitch most RBs would have dropped – touched the ball once in the entire third quarter. And it took falling on another botched shovel pass to do so. Saine took a single hand-off in the fourth, in the final drive when the game was already over.

There should be no question about Ohio State’s problems on offense: it’s not for lack of talent at receiver, or running back, or even at QB. It’s just that Tressel is apparently clueless as to how the guys should be utilized.

I mentioned awhile ago that my roommate and I have been working our way through Battlestar Galactica via Netflix. I loved the first season, and liked the second only a little less. Drama generally doesn’t appeal to me, but the series started with such a good story, such interesting characters, and such cool sci-fi action that I was happy to make an exception.

As I mentioned in my previous BSG post, season 2 ended on what I felt was shaky ground. Well, now I’ve watched season 3 and enough of season 4 to make a simple recommendation: if you haven’t seen Battlestar Galactica, watch the first two seasons and then stop. Season 3 had its ups and downs, with the balance leaning pretty heavily towards the latter. Season 4…

I gave the show the benefit of a doubt and watched “Razor,” the two-hour special that opens season 4. Razor is a flashback that contains a flashback within a flashback. Yes, tertiary flashbacks. No more need be said about the first disc of season four. I gave the show the benefit of another doubt – and then two episodes into the season I dropped all the remaining discs from my Netflix queue.

Think of every thing sci-fi writers could do to ruin a show, and these guys did it. There are ruthless, vengeful robots that look like humans? Obviously when the plot starts running thin half your favorite characters will be revealed to have been robots all along, while the robots who started as frightening villains devolve into emo windbags. Mysterious, supernatural forces at work? Of course it’s better to keep introducing weirder and weirder nonsense than to ever explain anything. Part of me would like to see how BSG ended, but most of me just doesn’t care.

I’ve always been taken aback by how much people hate Rush Limbaugh – I’m not a talk radio listener myself, but it seems odd that in any group of people you’re guaranteed to piss someone off by mentioning Rush. It’s not kosher to quote the guy with anything but disdain: Rush is a lunatic, he’s a hater, he’s a racist and a jerk. My response, when I care to even give one, is that I agree with a lot of what he says but think he’s obnoxious sometimes. Weak, for sure, but Rush hardly needs the defense of some boring dude who’s never listened to him much.

Then this whole Rams deal came up, and there was a firestorm over Limbaugh wanting to make an investment – not over some insensitive quote, silly ad campaign, or political fight. ‘Real news network’ CNN jumped on the story, essentially daring the NFL to associate itself with Rush and risk being painted as racists by association. Their money quote to prove what a creep Rush is? Made up, so far as anyone can tell. Woops.

And that is why so many people hate Rush Limbaugh. If you don’t listen to talk radio, chances are you’ve never heard a positive word about him. CNN says he’s a racist, drags out Whiners For Hire Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and describes any argument he’s involved in as ‘controversial’ in a way that insinuates everyone on Rush’s side is also likely a member of the KKK. From Powerline:

It’s no coincidence that Democratic Party outlets like CNN had to dredge up fake quotes to make their case. Nothing Rush actually said would do the trick, even though he’s been on the radio three hours a day, five days a week, for more than twenty years. That really tells you all you need to know.

Forget Iraq, Afghanistan, Pah-kee-stahn, Iran, North Korea, Venezu… actually, let’s save time and say “forget foreign policy.” I’m not in the mood to pretend Nobel Laureate Obama has much capacity to shock me when it comes to his dealings with other countries. Why feign disappointment when anyone paying attention knows the progressive position on any foreign policy initiative is, “What can America stop doing wrong so you’ll leave us alone?”

The main concern for President Obama – and maybe an equally troubling issue for Americans – is his dedication to Health Care Reform. President Obama is so serious about increasing the government’s role in health care that he doesn’t have time for opposition, and doesn’t really need anyone in Congress (let alone the public!) to read whatever bill Pelosi and Reid can ram through. From a Wall Street Journal opinion piece:

Washington spent the week waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to roll in with its new cost estimates of the Senate health-care bill, and what a carnival. Behold: a new $829 billion entitlement that will subsidize insurance for tens of millions of people and reduce deficits by $81 billion at the same time. In the next tent, see the mermaid and a two-headed cow.

The political and media classes are proving they’ll believe anything, as they are now pronouncing that this never-before-seen miracle is a “green light” for ObamaCare. (What isn’t these days?) The irony is that the CBO’s guesstimate exposes the fraudulence and fiscal sleight-of-hand underlying this whole exercise. Anyone who reads beyond the top-line numbers will find that the bill creates massive new spending commitments that will inevitably explode over time, and that this is “paid for” with huge tax increases plus phantom spending cuts that will never happen in practice.

Democrats, remember when you’re deriding conservatives for “opposing change” that, while some of us may be doing no more than that, Americans are going to have to pay for this. You’ll never find a majority of people who trust D.C. to do anything that resembles efficiently managing the health care of 300,000,000 people… which is why the White House and Congress will hide behind the latest CBO numbers and work out the details in the Obama-style ‘transparency’ of closed meetings.

I’m reminded of one of many Mark Steyn quotes I love:

More to the point, the only reason why Belgium has gotten away with being Belgium and Sweden Sweden and Germany Germany this long is because America’s America. The soft comfortable cocoon in which western Europe has dozed this last half-century is girded by cold hard American power. What happens when the last serious western nation votes for the same soothing beguiling siren song as its enervated allies?

Emphasis mine. We’re responsible for Obama, Pelosi, and Reid holding the power they have today, and before too long we’re going to find out what that costs.