BBC News has an interesting story about the current elections in Iran. I found some of the facts and comments surrounding them to be extremely interesting:

"Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy," [President Bush] said.

How awful. Fortunately, in America there's no way that somebody could seize power without being elected democratically.

Mr Khatami swept to victory in 1997 on a reformist ticket. But apathy has taken hold after his programme failed to deliver change in the face of the conservative religious establishment, which is able to veto legislation and political candidates.

Mixing religious conservatism with public politics? That's terrible!

A day before the election, Mr Khatami warned of an organised dirty tricks campaign.

Have they no shame?

Mr Moin's supporters say a high turnout would benefit him, but correspondents says many young people and reformists are too disillusioned with the political and economic situation to bother voting.

That's the last straw. Voter apathy is a sure sign that a government has failed in its duty to provide democratic representation of its citizens. If ever a country was in need of democratic reform, it's Ameri- I mean, Iran.

So we just had another earthquake. That's two down here in less than a week. There were also two earthquakes in northern California a couple days ago that caused a tsunami warning. Pretty nuts.

This has been a week of blessings, and today would be another example, most definitely.

I forgot to call the jury duty phone number last night because we went to see Batman Begins. I remembered at around 7am this morning, and of course, I was called. It was a mad rush to get dressed (there's now a big bruise on my knee from running around), have Ric drop me off to pick up my parents' car because he's using my car while his is in the shop, and head on out. I was supposed to report at 7:45 in Compton and picked up the parental automobile at 7:30. Uhoh. I was sure they were going to make me come back another week. So I got there about 25 minutes late, and they were just doing instructions. I and one other girl who came in late snuck right in and were fine!

We watched Liar, Liar and then they called about 2/3 of the people in for a case. After that, the rest of us were sent home. Rock on! So that was one very fortunate morning--getting there in just the nick of time and being let go so quickly.

After that, I tried to get back home, took one street the wrong way, got turned around, ended up on the wrong freeway, and had to turn around. At the offramp, I proceeded to rear-end a car that suddenly stopped, pull over into a parking lot, find out that he had no insurance, resist his attempt to get me to pay him cash, and turn him down after he hit on me. Yes, that's right, I hit a guy's car, he tries to grift me for cash (the car already looked like crap so we couldn't even tell where I hit it), and then he hits on me.

I wasn't in a good neighborhood, so I'm so grateful that the guy was young, nice, and stupid, as well as ininsured. He told me I seemed like a nice girl and we drove our separate ways. I'm glad to be safe, a little bit shaken, and happy there was no real damage, although my shoulders/neck are a bit stiff. I'm sure if I take the rest of the day I'll be fine. I'm just so fortunate to have God taking care of me.

How can anyone buy into this? I mean, really.

According to sources close to the Church, it means [Holmes "friend" Jessica Rodriguez] joined the elite group of Scientologists who’ve been enlightened with the six-figure secrets of Xenu, the evil intergalactic ruler who implanted “thetans,” or alien spirits, in earth’s volcanoes 75 million years ago, after which they escaped and invaded human bodies. As a “New OT IV,” Rodriguez has the power to, “control life, thought, matter, energy, space, and time,” according to Scientology’s official web site. Having completed the Church’s “False Purpose Rundown,” Katie’s spiritual escort also has the ability to spot any “suppressive persons” (read: enemies of Scientology, like skeptical journalists and concerned friends and family members) who interact with her celebrity charge.

This is just super freaky deaky. Maybe I can convince Katie that I can teach her the secrets of Xenu. Or maybe I can sell her the Brooklyn Bridge. One of those would probably work.

Hat tip to Defamer.

Here is a great site that allows you to send someone a file up to 100 MB in size. This will be great for sending podcast segments and such.

Happy 24th birthday to brendoman.com elder Honzo, also known as Henry. Henry also recently celebrated his third anniversary with his wife Meredith, whose birthday is also coming up. Congrats guys!

Just got back from seeing Batman Begins. Holy cow, that movie was fantastic. Christopher Nolan did a bang up job and the cast was fabulous. Jeri disagrees with me, but I really liked Cillian Murphy. I really can't pick a fave though. Everyone was fantastic. Michael Caine WAS Alfred. Christian Bale was perfect. Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, and Gary Oldman were great in their supporting roles. Wow. The only complaint I can think of is that Nolan used a bit too much of the jarring jump cuts and such, especially during some of the fight scenes, but it's not that bad. The movie on a whole is visually stunning and dark at the same time, just as it should be. It took all the crap Schumacher put into the franchise and swept it away, giving Bats a clean slate. Nicely done. That's an A picture.