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Suck it, free market conservatives. If Exxon-Valdez didn't cause everyone to stop buying Exxon gas, this won't have any affect on BP either. Both companies continued to make money. Free markets don't magically solve problems. The invisible hand that Adam Smith talked about was the hand of god, which doesn't actually exist.
BP violated their own safety policies and design standards. Why? There's money in it!
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A longer, well thought out article explaining how the current oil spill problems are the fault of both the Republicans AND the Democrats. But a bit more so about the Republicans. Hypocrisy, Cowardice: Both bad.
Very good points made in the article. We're trying to fix a system now in response to the current oil spill, but did Exxon-Valdez cause anything to actually be fixed? Nope. Nothing changed.
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John The Canadien's review of The Fellowship Of The Air Hockey Table, whereby 12 or 13 people came to my house a night I was getting an air hockey table delivered, helped me out, and had an impromptu jam session.
May 2010
Monthly Archive
May 31, 2010
May 30, 2010
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You gotta love the cop mentality. "My job is dangerous, therefore I can kill any perceived threat." Nevermind that their job is not even in the top 10 most dangerous jobs – taxi drivers, fisherman, and farmers all die on the job at a greater rate than police. Most of them don't shoot 5 month old kittens. (After trapping them…)
What an asshole. Typical douchebag cop. And now he wants his job back. Douchebag, douchebag, douchebag.
As always, safety, order, and security are always the excuses used by people who take rights [including the right for the kitten to live].
Why just the other day, a parent told me that someone wearing a shirt saying something he didn't want his daughter to see was the moral equivalent of punching her in the face. As if a shirt could ever be more distracting than having 29 other kids in the class with you. People's quest for order for the sake of their children often blinds them to logic and reality.
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She's so lucky that god's followers have read the bible and learned how to do good by her!
Another example of the "good" of religion. [/sarcasm]And an arrest only just happened, 12 years later, thanks to online groups for victims of church abuse. The only reason this ever came to light is that churches cause so many children to be raped that groups have to be formed to help them out! Ridiculous. "The cumming of the lord", eh?
The asshole pastor actually told her she was lucky she didn't live in Old Testament time, because she would have been stoned. [sarcasm] PRAISE JESUS. [/sarcasm]
May 30, 2010
VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Pulse
Posted by Clint under Carolyn, Clint, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video[2] Comments
[LIMERICK REVIEW: There once was a groundbreaking engineer
who made an antenna quite queer.
But then the ghosts came
and made Wifi quite lame.
Instead of engineering, he should have just had a beer.
HAIKU REVIEW: Japanese horrors
have ghosts instead of killers.
That’s the big diff’rence.
PEOPLE: Screenplay co-written by Wes Craven. He was slated to direct it, but unfortunately bailed out. Starring Kristen Bell (aka Elle from Heroes, also in Fanboys) and some other minor actors. Hey Compn–it had Brad Dourif too.
QUIRKS: A remake of a Japanese horror movie. And from what I can tell about Japanese horror, it’s not really all that different from American horror. You just substitute ghosts in place of serial killers.
Basically — a computer “virus” rapidly spreads, causing mass suicides. Ghosts in the wifi. They’ll get ya. Basically, once you use your computer and get “infected”, you’re going to die pretty soon. It really reminds me of The Ring in that sense — “see something and then die a few days later”. In fact, Bob Weinstein canceled the movie at one point for being too similar to The Ring.
But then, later, things get really bad. It approaches more of the level of the [non-Japanese-related] horror The Signal. Since wifi is a signal, and hardware gets “infected” by this evil signal, in the end it was a matter of escaping everywhere that the signal could reach — so it went from being more like The Ring to being more like The Signal.
GEEK MOMENT: Seeing someone hang themself with network cable instead of a phone cord. It’s about time.
VISUALS: The ghosts aren’t as visually disturbing as The Grudge. Carolyn still was reminded of The Grudge a lot — but not as much as I was. She says some of the ghostly shapes reminded her of The Grudge twisting; but I disagree. They’re just the standard Americanized depiction of creepy Japanese ghosts, as seen in The Grudge and The Ring.
But what was seen on the computer screens was kind of disturbing. “Do you want to see a ghost?” If my computer spontaneously said that in a way that doesn’t look like it’s coming from any specific application — I’d probably head straight for the power switch. Though if it was someone else’s computer, I’d probably go through with clicking on it to see what happens.
And oh yeah — if I ever have a dead friend IM me… I’m going to freak out a little.
BAD STUFF: It’s not a bad movie at all. There aren’t a lot of characters, but it really picks up at the end. The [highlight for spoilers]→ non-happy ending surprised me a bit, as I really thought they were going to [highlight for spoilers]→ succeed at stopping the ghosts.
CONCLUSION: 40% The Ring + 40% The Signal + 10% The Grudge = Pulse. We really liked it compared to most horrors, so it gets 4/5 stars on Netflix. But it’s not super groundbreaking, so it only gets 7/10 on IMDB. Carolyn gave it 8/10 on IMDB. Maybe I’m just not remembering it as good as it was. However, IMDB itself only rates this movie 4.4/10.
RECOMMENDATION: If you like technological, ghost, or Japanese-remake horror: Here’s another one. And it has a sequel, so if you like this, you might get 2 movies out of it.
SIMILAR MOVIES: The Signal. The Ring. The Grudge. If you liked all of those, you’re probably guaranteed to like this.
MOVIE QUOTE: Thin Bookish Guy (Brad Douriff): “The whole freakin’ city is going insane, and we’re acting like it’s nothing. Well, it’s not nothing. It’s something we don’t understand, and it is coming for us.”
Goth Girl: “You’re freaking us out, man.” (more…)
May 29, 2010
May 28, 2010
RANTS: on the uselessness of dressing up to get “respect” from the general public
Posted by Clint under Clint, Journal, People, RantsLeave a Comment
Just so you know the basis of some of my various viewpoints:
Firstly, respect [i.e. dressing nice to get respect in public; “general public respect”] has always been a hilarious concept to me. A system of respect based on the quality of someone’s clothes is simply a social more of formalized superficiality.
Until they come up with merit badges that say something like “Saved a kid from a house on fire”, I’m not going to ever know if someone is worth of ‘respect’ simply by looking at their clothes. All someone’s our clothes tell me about you is that you’re willing to spend money on nice clothes. [Which can be taken several ways.]
Jeans at an interview — different kind of situation. Professional is business; clothes are an investment. [You’re buying into their world. Unfortunately, you have to play by their rules.]
But outside of work? Pffffft. I’d *much* rather hang out with the person in sweat pants at Wal-Mart than the person in a suit & tie. [Why the fuck are you all dressed up in a tie to go to Wal Mart? Don’t you hate being choked every second?]
And see? The fuckers even have me doing it! I’m saying I’d rather hang out with the sweatpants person, even though that judgment is completley based on their clothes! ARRRRRGH!! I want no part of this system!! It’s a virus!!
I used to be so unware before professional life. 8th grade spirit week I talked to a friend at the bus stop for the entire wait — before noticing he was wearing pajamas [for spirit week]. Too bad we’re forced to notice — by the viral system of superficial competition for this elusive ‘respect’.
Respect by random strangers who only know what clothes you are wearing may feel good, but it means absolutely nothing. It is a hollow, meaningless feeling. Which, when I stop to think about it, is perfect for the general public. People love to be all sentimental and assign meaning where it isn’t — the prime example being religion. But even those who are spiritual and not religious looooove a good hollow statement. So I can see why people would love “general public respect”; it’s another meaningless easy feelgood mechanism.
I, of course, wouldn’t wear jeans to an interview–but only in the same way that I wouldn’t choose to walk through an all black city neighborhood at 2AM. It’s not that I’m racist and hate black people — I don’t. But I’m scared of black racists who hate white people, and more of them are going to be in an all black neighborhood. (Sorry if this seems crass. Race is such an awkward subject.) In a similar vein, I’m scared of superficial people who hate those who don’t meet their standards, because they’re takin’ all this “respect” I’m supposed to have. Therefore I have to be aware, even though I would rather be blind.
I see no reason to bathe or brush my hair or teeth if I’m going to taco bell… ’bout the only way i wouldn’t enter would be if i’d literally just rolled around in shit.
That, however, would be pretty damn funny.
And obviously — if you’re going out to try to impress people at a club, or hanging out with friends, you don’t want to be offensively unpleasant.
But do I need to buy more clothes to win my friends’ respect?
I sure as hell hope not.
And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say “yeah, I should have just trusted my first vibe, I know right away if i like someone”. I cringe at how many people have based their decisions using clothes.
It’s not like I’m unaffected. It’s not like I haven’t been swayed. But it certainly isn’t going to be how *nice* your clothes are. In fact, if you have a $500 fucking handbag, I am going to think worse of you than someone who appears to be an actual homeless person.
Have you ever heard a conversation sort of like this: “wah wah i don’t want photos of me drunk online” / “why?” / “some employer may see it and my chances are narrowed” / “Well, do you really want to work for that kind employer in the first place?” And I pretty much agree with that.
Well, do you really want the respect of someone who truly thinks like that in the first place?
I’ve also heard that we are simply doing the rational thing to maximize our opportunity based on peoples’ first impression. Sorry, I can’t just reduce the idealism out of the equation and only think of it in practical terms. That argument is akin to “don’t hate the playa, hate the game”. But you can’t have this game without a bunch of people conspiring to play it together.
And yes, it’s a game. People are wearing costumes to make other people feel certain ways. There is no real substance to these interactions.
Remember that kid who did extra credit and messed up the curve? That is exactly what every impeccable dresser does to society. They mess up the curve. They raise the bar — unnecessarily – for the rest of us. They become the “Joneses” that we all must keep up with. They make us look that much worse in comparison. They cause us to keep less of our wages, as we now have to pay for dry cleaning, pressing, ironing boards, and other things to keep up with their fastidious superficial obsession. They ruin everyone.
In closing, the idea that the general public owes us something for how we dress, or that we owe them something for how they dress — is, to me, just a dangerous dishonest superficial control virus. (more…)
May 28, 2010
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This, after the 2nd season hasn't even aired! Long live PFFR! Everything they do is gold! This may be the worst of their endeavors, but the show still must go on!
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Always nice when a deceased cartoon [no pun intended] comes back to visit for awhile. Long live Space Ghost Coast To Coast, CartoonNetwork's ORIGINAL AdultSwim Cartoon. This was back when the only adult cartoons were The Simpsons (barely), Beavis & Butt-head(mostly), and Duckman (totally).
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Sick and wrong. I believe THIS comment:
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/05/disney-joins-marvel-in-copyright-fight-with-kirby-family/#comment-32843
says it all. That comment is actually more informative than the article itself! -
Bestiality may be disgusting, but if the animals can't be documented as suffering, who is the victim here?
I had no clue there were "animal whorehouses" in Norway. Not my thing. But I'm kind of impressed with the level of freedom here.
Dogs DO enjoy fucking humans – they'll fuck anything. Sorry, if the animal is on the *giving* end, there's no way it's being victimized. If it's on the *receiving* end, then it gets a bit more complicated. If the animal isn't tied down, and can run away if it wants, and doesn't complain — again, who is the victim here?
Let people do what they want. Roll around in a pile of shit for all I care. You're a revolting, filthy human being, but I'd rather let you do what you want than tell you what you can't do.
Of course, they are talking about closing this hole [no pun intended] up.
Another thing: Legalization and regulation prevents abuse. Animals are going to get raped no matter what the law is. So why not have some who don't mind it?
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Submit a dare, get videos of people doing it! This is like Jackass meets YouTube! What a great idea! HT Dildo Valerie.
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A disgusting situation! Pfizer deserved prosecution, but if they prosecuted it, a bunch of people would go without medicine. Therefore, they had to create a fake company and prosecute that.
Uh – This is the definition of too big to fail. Not the banks.
This should be considered antitrust. When you are so big that you are above the law, you need to be broken up in the public interest.
This is not how the original concept of a corporate charter was supposed to work. This is the Americanized corporate beast at work.
This is the result of unbridled capitalism and corpratism.
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Wow. Shit like this is why I think Fox News is worse than CNN. I'm glad I don't get ANY television news anymore. They're going for advertising and ratings. News is, generally, meant to be read, not watched.
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It's nice that somebody big, who isn't a biased country, can call us out on our bullshit – including shielding Israel from accountability for its war crimes against Gaza civilians. [War crime accusations were also made against Hamas.]
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Yes!!
May 27, 2010
Carolyn: "The big one in the middle was totally hissing at me. " ........ Clint: "ducks hiss?" ........ Carolyn: "Canadian geese do. Those things are mean. Ask Tabbitha."
Tabbitha, on geese:
“I am tickled that my pure and poignant hatred for geese (especially of the Canadian variety) has made enough of an impression on others that it can be referenced in a caption.
Geese are evil and must die. Fucking geese. I spit on you, flying oversized rodents. If only there were flying oversized snakes that could sqeeze the breath out of them mid-air and swallow their twitching goose bodies whole.”
“So many geese. So few opportunities to kick them in the head with my Doc Martins.” (more…)
