it's nice to see that you've all bonded through this disaster.

Dawn of the Dead (2004), the remake of the Romero 1978 classic, is awesome.  Thumbs up.  It was released pretty much concurrently with Shaun of the Dead, and is remarkably similar to it (since they're basing it off the same source material, which admittedly I have not seen) except more action and less comedy (but still fairly comedic).  And I actually thought emotionally it hit very well - something Shaun of the Dead did not at all.  Zombie plague.  Survivors go to a mall for refuge.  Zombies claw at doors.  There's  some genuinely creepy ideas - the infected, dead, undead newborn baby being the most abrasive - and some very realistic, very flawed characters, like the quiet girl who goes bonkers and drives into a throng of zombies in order to save the mall's adopted dog.  The pacing's fast, the plot's remarkably creative, and the characters aren't complete morons that I found myself screaming at (okay, maybe the girl who was obsessed with the dog was pushing it, but their dependence on something like a little yippy dog for hope was believable).  In fact, the characters actually managed to work together; forgiving each other for mistakes, pulling their own weight, and not hesitating to shoot a comrade who was being eaten.  Of course, most of them died anyway, but they were the kind of people I would want to be stuck with in a zombie plague.  And it was nice to have an uplifting zombie plague movie, just for a change of pace.

It also features one of my newly discovered favorite actresses, Sarah Polley, so maybe I'm partial (although Ving Rhames' cop character, Kenneth, was my favorite).

I'd become an independent, but then I wouldn't be able to vote in primaries.

Jesus H. Christ.

As the votes on the agreements were taken, one woman, wearing a blue “Team Hillary” shirt, shoved a man in a suit and tie wearing a small Obama button on his lapel. Another woman in a white Clinton shirt hung her head in her hands.

This is why we keep starting wars against all common sense.  Because as rational as it would be to not vote for the Republicans, who the hell would want to vote for the Democrats?  Fucking disaster zone.  Howard Dean needs to just start firing warning shots.