(spoilers included)

Man, it's hard to find good shots of all the X people together, so here you get a lovely picture of Logan making out with two women at one time (haha).

This was probably the most anticipated of the movie for me so far this year. I think if I had been a boy and had access to comic books as a child, I would have been a hopeless fanatic. I never did collect comics, but after school or on Saturday mornings, I always watched the cartoons of Superman, Batman, and the X-Men. I loved the first two movies in this series and was very excited about this one, although I kept my excitement at a cautious level because of the change in directors. That was a good decision on my part, because this one was just a bit off the mark. That being said, I'd watch it again!

The movie itself was way too short. They could have stood to add another half an hour to the run-time to allow the story to flesh out more. It started off at a good pace, then went into mega-action mode, and then ended too quickly, leaving us with a lot of questions and a lot of unfinished business. There is a boy whose possible kidnap or rescue is the climax of the movie, yet we never see what happens to him, or in which direction his future is headed.

Characters we needed more of: the children. The younglings were the most interesting part of the movie. The way they interact with each other and discover how to use their powers is much more interesting than Storm trying to decide if she wants to take over being "principal" of the academy. I loved the stuff with Shadowcat and Iceman.

Storm herself is a phone-in from Berry. I've never liked Berry as Storm and feel like her character is the most bland. Show me more about Beast and Angel, instead of having them look confused and harmless for 90% of the movie, with only a couple of minutes of glory!

One thing that bugged me was that apparently Magneto's followers consisted only of people who looked like goths, punks, or people in drag. Arclight, especially, was a pet peeve for me. I thought the character was a guy in drag for the entire movie, and then had to look up the character online to find out it was a girl. I hated that curly-cue on her forehead, and writhed while looking at it any time she was on the screen. Looks nothing like the drawings I have found on the internet of Arclight. Most of Magneto's gang just looked like a bunch of posers instead of an actual threat to the X-Men.

Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut: I had no idea from the commercials that Jones was playing that character, and was so excited when I saw him locked up in that truck! He was great, Bob (that's for Mean Machine fans). Multiple Man cracked me up as well.

I enjoyed seeing the Golden Gate Bridge scene, especially the touch with the family stuck inside their car, with the mom locking the doors when Magneto looks at her. I loved all of the action that followed too.. I just hoped we might have seen, as Ric pointed out to me, a little more teamwork from Team X. They talked about it a lot throughout the movie, but when it came to fighting, almost all of the action involved individual faceoffs.

I know this is just a mishmash of ideas, so I'll stop. I loved many parts of it and thought it looked really good. A few little things bugged me, but not enough to keep me from enjoying it. Overall, I'd rank it either tied with or below the first movie, with X2 at the top.

Was the 2004 Election Stolen? - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote an article for Rolling Stone that sums up an extensive investigation into allegations of fraud and disenfranchisement in Ohio in the 2004 Presidential election. The article is very long and well-referenced (208 citations) and well worth the time it will take you to read it.

Kennedy alleges that the GOP used a variety of tactics to prevent people from voting for Kerry, to disqualify ballots from Democratic voters, to shift votes from Kerry to other candidates and to avoid recounting the votes. At the center of the controversy is Kenneth Blackwell, the Ohio Secretary of State. He served as the Chief Elections Officer, overseeing the elections process for the state, and as the co-chair of the Committee to Re-elect George Bush in Ohio, a clear conflict of interest. Blackwell is now the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio. If he wins this fall, we can expect more of the same from Ohio in 2008.

One of the many sources that the article draws from is the report from the Congressional investigation led by John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan. You can get the report here (see the PDF link at the bottom) or you can buy it in book form: What Went Wrong In Ohio: The Conyers Report On The 2004 Presidential Election. The report concludes that there were significant problems. "We have found numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio presidential election, which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of voters. Cumulatively, these irregularities, which affected hundreds of thousand of votes and voters in Ohio, raise grave doubts regarding whether it can be said the Ohio electors selected on December 13, 2004, were chosen in a manner that conforms to Ohio law, let alone federal requirements and constitutional standards." To refresh your memory, the Ohio election was decided by 118,601 votes. The win in Ohio gave President Bush the electoral votes he needed to win the election. If even a few of the allegations of the article and the report are true, then Bush was not the rightful winner of the 2004 election.

I tip my hat to EdB at Wonderwinds.com for pointing the article out. I highly recommend that you take the time to read this article all the way through. I knew that there were some rumblings about problems in Ohio, but when I see all the evidence laid out like this, it's pretty shocking. If you read the article and the government report and still want more information on the issue, Wikipedia has a very long article about it.

Middle East Invasion Map - Now you can know how the world will end. While you're at the site, be sure to order your copy of the Animals in Heaven? DVD and watch as Jack Van Impe answers reader questions in his "Question of the Week". He deals with the tough questions, such as "I stand behind you 100%."