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Last week the U.S. began fingerprinting and photographing visiting foreigners arriving at air- and seaports. And a recent poll, conducted after Saddam's capture, revealed that 7 out of 10 Americans still think Saddam had something to do with 9-11. And so continues the spinning of American media, owned largely by Bush's buddies, while the White House itself gets caught in lie after lie after lie... even one about the poem Dubya supposedly wrote for his wife... tsk tsk... for shame, Dubya, for shame. Cribbing poetry? That's just a whole new low. Even for you.

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Apparently Brother Bear is the second-to-last traditional 2D animated film from Disney. The last one will be Home on the Range, whose trailer I've seen and it didn't really do anything for me. It certainly feels like an era's ending, although you have to be honest that their traditional 2D films haven't really been staggeringly good lately. It's pretty much been downhill since Hunchback, for me. There were a few good ones along the way (I quite like The Emperor's New Groove, and Neva likes Lilo & Stitch). Disney as an empire has been crumbling, it's on its last legs now and those will give way soon if they don't do something. One interesting piece of news I've read recently is that a majority of the employees from the animation division that they're shutting down are banding (or really just remaining) together to form a mini-animation studio of their own. It is hoped that this will mean they're free to do stories they really want to do, and not have to answer to higher-ups who really know nothing about storytelling, and won't have to pander to children as a main audience. So this could be exciting; they're like an indie production company, but in animation.

No one sees the Pixar films as Disney films, they're seen as Pixar films, and even their contract is soon going to be up with Disney, and word is they don't want to renew (so they can make all the profit they deserve), while EVERYONE knows Disney is desperate to keep Pixar happy, because really, they're all Disney's got left that's both excellent and making boatloads of money. I mean, has anyone noticed all these straight-to-video sequels they've been pumping out the past few years? All of it bollocks. The only way Disney is going to keep Pixar happy is by offering some record-shattering new contract. All advantages are on Pixar's side. The afterbirth that was Titan A.E. resulted in Fox dissolving its animation division, and when Warner mishandled the marketing of the wonderful The Iron Giant, Pixar immediately hired director Brad Bird (whose name I first noticed when he was working for The Simpsons), who's now doing the next Pixar film (The Incredibles).

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Thank you God. New Shithouse strips (and an overhaul of the website, too).

And, sadly, Maria Schneider's Pathetic Geek Stories is leaving its home, The Onion. At least it's just to her own website.