An excellent hung-over New Year's Day activity: screening Kinji Fukasaku's brilliant Battles Without Honor & Humanity six-film epic about the Japanese mafia. Out of the atomic destruction of Hiroshima comes the nihilistic fury of social atomization. There's no apology in Fukasaku -- just lots of betrayal, paranoia and swords chopping off arms. Fitting stuff after the Iraq war murdered 16, 273 Iraqis and nearly 1,000 Americans this year.

I got as far as the first hour of the second film, Deadly Fight in Hiroshima, before the world's worst Rose Bowl came on. We alternated with Decline of Western Civilization II, largely for the scene-stealing performance of Odin.

Meanwhile, the house is now gripped by Boise State insanity. Pete and Yglesias have been doing the Bronco dance.