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Look at this poor disfigured girl. Disfigured because people choose to believe in fictitious religion rather than scientific reality. In a world without religion, things like this cannot happen for these reasons. And things like this don’t tend to happen for other reasons. In fact, I can’t think of a time I’ve heard of acid-disfigurement NOT being due to religious reasons — though I’m sure there are some examples out there. They just aren’t the usual case.
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God: giving excuses for people to infringe other peoples’ rights for most of recorded history.
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The tide of information flow cannot be stopped. It can be hindered, but in the end, information flow will win. Seize a domain? We’ll just come up with a new DNS. Good stuff, good stuff.
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Netflix should get involved somehow. It would have been better to get Comcast customers all pissed off at not being able to use Netflix streaming, and have them cancel their cable. Cable cancellations are at an all-time high right now. Netflix has the leverage. Why didn’t they use it?
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A friend of mine was there when this happened. Interesting stuff, hearing about Israeli oppression on the micro-scale. We usually only hear the big stories; but small stories like this have plagued the Palestinian population for a lifetime.
November 2010
November 30, 2010
November 30, 2010
VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Garfield’s Fun Fest (2008)
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video1 Comment
HAIKU REVIEW: Garfield is funny.
Especially the cartoon.
This one, though, sucks ass.
PEOPLE: Frank Welker, an amazing voice actor, does Garfield‘s voice duties. Sorry, it’s just not the same now that Lorenzo Music has died.
VISUALS: 3-D CGI. I would have preferred more Garfield & Friends style animation.
MORALS: The ability to be funny was inside of you all along! Pfft.
BAD STUFF: Pretty much everything. The jokes, the animation, the plot, the dialog, the depiction of the world as being more cartoonish instead of real. Bubbles coming out of the car’s exhaust pipe? What the hell? Garfield is supposed to be set in the real, normal world!
This was worthy of its 3.9/10 IMDB rating.
CONCLUSION: Even hardcore Garfield fans who have seen every one of the 200+ episodes of Garfield & Friends …. will probably still hate this steaming pile.
RATINGS: IMDB: 4/10. Netflix: 2/5 stars.
RECOMMENDATION: STAY AWAY!!!! Go watch Garfield & Friends instead. Now THAT was funny material. Funny for adults, even. (more…)
November 29, 2010
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Now, I am anti-illegal immigrants too. But for Israel — a country created by immigrants who were not ruled legal by the people who actually lived there and had sovereignty over the land — to turn around and deny immigrants entry because they "threaten the Jewish character of the state" (a state that wasn't even Jewish 100 years ago) — smacks of hypocrisy.
And theocracy.And as one of the largest receivers of American tax dollars, this is indeed our business. We're helping pay for this.
If you're pro immigration in America, how can you be pro-Israel too?
November 28, 2010
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Hah. Awesome.
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Apple: A nanny that tells you what you can and cannot read with your own devices that you supposedly "own". Pfft. Not the great company it was in the 1980s. Now more fascist than Microsoft.
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So let's drive people back to real pot instead. Pretty funny. Real pot at least has been studied, but the fact that this stuff is so popular really indicates how prohibition is an unwinnable war. Banning pot simply causes people to migrate to other strange drugs like this "fake pot".
November 27, 2010
VIDEO: MOVIES: ANIME: REVIEW: Millenium Actress (2001) (Satoshi Kon)
Posted by Claire CJS under Anime, Carolyn, Cartoons, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, VideoLeave a Comment
PEOPLE: A film directed by Satoshi Kon, who died this year — so we’re watching all his stuff.
UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Old lady wastes life chasing after man who was actually dead most of the time. Filmmakers exploit her dying moments; dementia hallucinations ensue.
VISUALS: There is a surreal element, as the characters interviewing this elderly movie star end up being drawn into her story — much like what happened in The Last Action Hero. And various time periods look different — the stuff that happens in the 40s/50s is very desaturated, almost black and white. Lots of care was taken by Satoshi Kun to get things to look right.
MORALS: Learn when to give up! That’s what I got out of it. [highlight for spoilers]→ She may have enjoyed the chase, but she wasted her whole life on unrequited love. Lame.
CONCLUSION: Too random. Felt like ‘what was the point’ a lot of the time. Seems to be more of an emotional string puller. Reminded me of The Last Action Hero if it were a sappy romance. Carolyn actually liked it, and thought it was an interesting story, but thought it was not as well-executed as Satoshi Kon‘s other movies.
RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 2/5 stars. IMDB: 5/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 3/5 stars. IMDB: 6.6/10 (a low 7).
The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 7.9/10, Netflix: 3.6/5 stars (Netflix‘s predicted rating for us was 3.4/5 stars–well, at least they knew we’d like this less than average).
RECOMMENDATION: Satoshi Kun completists and hopeless romantics might want to check this out.
SIMILAR MOVIES: I can’t help but say The Last Action Hero, even though the characters and plot are completely dissimilar. It has the same gimmicky “being sucked into movies” kind of feel.
MOVIE QUOTE: “The part I really loved, was chasing him.” (more…)
November 27, 2010
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a comment i liked:
"And this is how freedom dies. With open and blatant moves by the ELECTED representatives keeping the public in the dark about their wrongdoings. Right up to the betrayal of the very ideas those countries were founded upon ….The appalling part is that, they are no longer doing this secretly. They have no issues going about in the open and being open about trying to keep people in the dark about what wrongdoings are committed. They slap 'national security' tag to it, and think that this is a magic word that totally stupefies the public and makes them impossible to understand wrong things are being committed…."
I wonder what goodies are going to come out of this next leak? The number of rulers on this world has been unchanged for a long time, but the number of subjects in this world is now higher than ever. It's nice that that the majority (subjects) will now get to find out what is REALLY happening with their rulers. Freedom of information.
November 26, 2010
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The details in this case are astounding.
She called 911 before her daughter was murdered.
She called a neighbor saying she thought the father might harm her.
The father had her blood on his shirt.
The father had her blood on his knife.
The father was a suspect in an unsolved 1977 murder.
The father was later convicted of another murder that happened the same year.
The father worked at a bar co-owned by a cop.
The D.A. let him testify against mommy in exchange for immunity.
And then there's the whole autopsy issue.She finally got out, and is suing the fuck out of everyone. Rightly so. Dennis P. Donohue is a scumbag already in jail for murder, and suspected for another. District Attorneys Frank J. Clark and Joseph J. Marusak sound like corrupt scumbags who did their best to put an innocent woman in jail. They aren't D.A.s anymore, either.
This shows how tilted our justice system is towards simply FINDING A CONVICTION rather than actually solving the real crime.
Disgusting.
November 25, 2010
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Resisting arrest – for covering his own head as cops beat him unconscious. The original charge was unfounded and thus dropped. His only charge is resisting a random beating where he was pulled out of a crowd.
Ironically, this guy has volunteered for police, and mentors children. I wonder if he mentors them to avoid the police, who will randomly beat you and then charge you for defending yourself?
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I wonder what excuse crazy people would have to come up with in a world with no religion? Maybe it would be harder to convince themselves to do shit like this? Craziness may be a physical ailment in many cases… But I just have to wonder what else someone would be screaming while killing their own mother with a samurai sword.
November 24, 2010
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4.5 minutes. Freaks my cat out. Nick Cage, losing his shit.
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Man, if everyone did this, the system would totally collapse and fail. Too bad we’ve been trained to have no balls.
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Wow. Just… wow.
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Lawsuit rightfully won. What the fuck did Deputies Jose Pelayo and Jason Mann think they were doing when they tased a man in his own bedroom? They didn’t have a warrant. They said it was a “welfare check” to see if he was okay, but he wasn’t even the right person. They were only ordered to contact him. He wouldn’t even have to open the door if he was awake. They had no right to enter his house, and no right to tase him for freaking out by two men pulling on his boxers in the middle of the night.
$380,000 lawsuit won. I just wish the originally uppity bitch who caused this by giving his license plate to the police — because he cursed after stubbing his toe — would also have to pay for this. Cursing is not illegal; giving peoples’ information to the police is asking for violence to be committed against them. She should pay too.
Deputy Jose Pelayo is an asshole and a pig.
Deputy Jason Mann is an asshole and a pig. -
And people didn’t know Children’s Hospital. I would have pwned them.
November 24, 2010
VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: The Last Action Hero (1993)
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video[9] Comments
PEOPLE: From the director of Die Hard, Predator, and Red October (John McTiernan), co-written by one of the writers for the 2nd and 3rd X-Men movies… Comes a movie starring starring Arnold Schwarzenneger both as a character *and* as himself. Also starring annoying kid Austin O’Brien (who managed to later be in 4 episodes of Touched By An Angel).
Also Art Carney’s last movie. (aka Ed Norton from the hilarious 1950s sitcom The Honeymooners, which begat The Flintstones which begat The Simpsons which begat Family Guy which begat American Dad). It was kind of a fitting last movie for him. There was even a tiny role for Tina Turner. Also: Mercedes Ruehl (The Fisher King, Crazy People, Married To The Mob). And when you see Maria Shriver — remember she had to swallow her vomit on live television. It’s just nice to think about.
But mostly it’s just Ahhhnold and the annoying kid.
QUIRKS: An incredibly quirky movie about movies in general, and a magic ticket that lets you travel into a movie.
They pull out every action movie cliche imaginably possible. And they do it as cornily as possible. Seriously… I can hardly think of a more corny movie in my life.
They even sent a rocket into space with an advertisement painted on the side, just to be the “first movie to advertise from space”. And it still took us 16 yrs to watch it. haha.
VISUALS: There are a few neat visuals with going from one world to another, but the movie is mostly standard action movie special effects. Gratuitous explosions, gunshots, etc.
SOUNDTRACK: Megadeth?!?! Really?? And Alice In Chains, Anthrax, Cypress Hill, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Queensryche, Def Leppard, Tesla, & Fishbone. Kind of surprised by that.
BAD STUFF: PAIIIIINFULLY corny. I mean, jesus. Talk about sugar-coated. Having a kid as the main character is bad enough, but they made it even worse. The corniness hurt at times, but we also realized it was somewhat intentional, as a parody of the action movie genre.
CONCLUSION: This was an ***incredibly*** corny parody of action movies… But that was intentional, so you can’t completely fault it for it. Not a great movie, but certainly interesting. Way too much heart, though. Really, it was so corny it burned my brain at times.
RATINGS: Netflix: 3/5 stars. IMDB: 7/10 stars. Carolyn said she was tempted to say 2.5/5 stars. We liked it, but it also hurt at the same time.
RECOMMENDATION: I wouldn’t really recommend this, per se. If you have a kid next to you, really like Schwarzeneggar, or are an action movie buff… You *might* enjoy this. Or you might vomit from having so much heart shoved down your throat. Hard to say.
MOVIE QUOTE: Nick: There are lots of things worse than movies: politicians, wars, forest fires, famine, plague, sickness, pain, warts, politicians…
Jack Slater: You already mentioned them.
Nick: I know I did. They are twice as bad as anything else.
… And then Jack Slater (Ahhnold) went on to become governor of California! Someone should play this clip back to him!
FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Jordan hated it. I think my mom saw it in the theatres and liked it. (more…)
November 23, 2010
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It's about time. Polygamy absolutely should be legal. People should be able to define their families in whatever terms THEY like, not whatever terms the tyrannical majority petitions the government to allow. If you don't want women and children abused, ENFORCE LAWS AGAINST ABUSE. More laws don't solve those kinds of problems, they drive the victims underground.
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Israel passes law making peace process harder. Israel doesn't want land for peace. Israel wants war, so it can continue justifying to its own tyrannical majority the continued theft of more and more Palestinian land. It's amazing that Palestine would now be happy with the 1967 borders, which are completely different [and not considered legal by national law] than the original borders set up after WW2 [which also should have been illegal, but weren't].
Israel is not interested in peace. They're interested in utterly exterminating Palestine. Of course Palestine wants to fight back. Americans would fight back in the same situation, too.
Erekat is dead right – this decision is Isreal's attempt to veil its oppression of the Palestinian people as an exercise in democracy. Thus, it gets tagged Tyranny Of The Majority.
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Hmm. I think they nailed it.
November 22, 2010
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Pastor instructs church leaders to delete their facebook profiles, or resign.
Religion: Constant enemy of technological, scientific, and social progress.
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Upload a photo. Age it 20 or 30 yrs [I prefer 30]. Pick drug addict or not. Save and upload. Fun.
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Another op-ed piece about a friend of mine who was abused and falsely arrested by racist cops in NYC.
November 21, 2010
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Oh, it's an area off-limit to adults unaccompanied by kids. How is that fair again? Oh yeah, childless people are not a protected anti-discrimination class. Therefore the government can legally discriminate against us: Take our taxes to pay for parks that we aren't allowed to use, and then storm in like stormtroopers and arrest people for daring to play a game in a park their tax dollars paid for. How is this government for the people again? Sounds more like tyranny of the majority by cowardly parents against those who dare to not have their own kids. When people petition the government to govern the behavior of consenting adults instead of stopping actual crime, it never really turns out well.
How about they just put up a sign: "No child kidnapping." Y'know, since signs work so well and people who don't obey them should be prosecuted. That way,they could prosecute pedophiles with yet another offense! But, if criminals don't follow signs, then this only affects legal citizens. Great.
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I love how there are a bunch of real-life super-heroes now! Friggin' awesome.
November 21, 2010
VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Iron Man 2 (2010)
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video[5] Comments
UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ U.S. government steals corporate property, funds terrorist.
PEOPLE: Isn’t it weird how Jon Favreau directs these? Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow — looking great as a redhead, Scarlett Johansson — looking quite interesting as a brunette (dark redhead, really). I think I’d pick redhead Paltrow over a brunette Johansson, but I’m in the minority on this one. Johansson oozes sex, but I just think her features look a bit weird. Perfect, but weird. Paltrow is imperfect, but not so weird. Of course, I used to think Paltrow was soooo overrated and not that hot, but I changed my mind after Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow (which made that the most memorable thing of that movie for me).
And… Gary Shandling! Funny stuff. And Stan Lee as Larry King! IMDB incorrectly lists him as “himself”.
QUIRKS: Sequel.
VISUALS: Pretty friggin’ awesome. Good action scenes storyboarded by Genndy Tartakovsky of Samurai Jack / Dexter’s Lab / PowerPuff Girls / Clone Wars fame.
SOUNDTRACK: AC/DC FTW. And does every movie have to have “It Takes Two” in it? It seems to be showing up a lot in what we watch lately.
MORALS: No man is an island.
POLITICS: The U.S. government funds terrorism, then commits crimes against its own citizens to stop such terrorism. Sounds really friggin’ familiar.
GOOD STUFF: The actors and the action. War Machine. S.H.I.E.L.D.
BAD STUFF: Not quite as good as Iron Man 1.
CONCLUSION: Pretty damn awesome.
RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 4.2/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10.
The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 7.4/10, Netflix: 4.2/5 stars (Netflix‘s predicted rating for us was 4.5/5 stars).
RECOMMENDATION: Don’t stop at Iron Man 1! The sequel is soo worth seeing!
SIMILAR MOVIES: Most superhero movies.
MOVIE QUOTE:
Ivan Vanko: If you could make God bleed, people will cease to believe in Him.
Tony Stark: The question I get asked most often is how do you go to the bathroom in the suit…
[pauses with eyes closed]
Tony Stark: …just like that.
COINCIDENCES: Natalie’s real name is Natasha. In real life, we met a Natasha who turned out to have a real name of Natalie. (more…)
November 20, 2010
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Gee, doesn't this sound like the BART Oakland Oscar Grant killing? "Oops, I meant to use my taser, but I shot him!" Now we get the sequel: "Oops, I meant to use my flashlight, but I shot him!"
Basically, cops can murder you, without charges being placed again you, say "oops", and get away with it.
The article doesn't say he was armed, which meant the police never said he was armed, which meant that he wasn't.
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An iPhone is like a car you're not allowed to paint another color, apparently. People pay $700 [I'm not making this up, a friend just had one stolen and said it would cost $700 to replace] for something they aren't even allowed to make into another color? Someone had the audacity to recently tell me that Microsoft was more fascist than Apple. I say bullshit. Apple is the most fascist PC and phone company out there.
November 19, 2010
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And how long 'til this is used against WikiLeaks, or other dissident sites who dare to express something the powers that be don't like? "Oh! You're violating copyright! Takedown! Takedown!"
Currently *NO GOVERNMENT* has the power to take over domain names. That power belongs exclusively to ICANN, and always has. The whole point was that it was supposed to be free of government control. But of course, America hates not being in control of things.
The EFF is right. They pretty much always are.
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In a state where almost 50% of people voted to make marijuana legal, the cops think it's a good idea to stage a terror drill where a pot grower is committing acts of terrorism?
Bin Laden has successfully confused us as to the difference between "crime" and "terrorism".
Let us not forget that California was also the first place to make drugs illegal — with the 1875 opium ban.
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I say kill the fucking parasite.
November 18, 2010
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Capt. Robert Arnold fatally shot James Whitehead. He was not on duty. He went there to return an item, got in an argument, and ended up shooting the guy to death. If the store doesn't want to let you return a part, that is a civil issue. You don't get to argue with someone. If they ask you to leave, you have to leave. Any fight is tresspassing on your part. This cannot be fucking self defense when the officer created the situation by arguing in the first place. But do you think he'll face a murder conviction? Not a chance. That's only for civilians.
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Police: You're better off just owning a gun and shooting burglars to death, because when they come, they are just as likely to arrest you. Assholes.
Officer Louis Facciponti and Officer Steven James sound like total fucking douchebags who should be working in McDonald's rather than carrying guns and dealing with a public they seem to have no clue how to deal with. Dicks. And O'Brien Atkinson, president of the local Fraternal Order Of Police, of course voiced his support for these thugs.
The article makes it sound like deaf guy placed a note on the cop's chest to get his attention, and the cop then turned around and said he punched him in the chest. Given that police officers charge people with assault for the stupidest bullshit reasons [like sneezing on them] — and that there is a litany of cases of officers doing this — and given that people calling the cops for help don't tend to punch them — my opinion is that it is the cop who is lying, and the deaf guy who was abused.
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I found out a few things I didn't really know from this article. Links to articles on more mainstream sources. PrisonPlanet's value usually lies not in reporting events, but in relating existing stories together into one panicky piece. But this time, they are dead. fucking. right.
Remember: They let the underwear bomber in the country even though he was on the terror watchlist. Very convenient.
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A great chart showing the taxonomy of beers. Yuengling is right there at the bottom left.
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Wow. The cop did not even have to pay back $21K in restitution – the judge said "oh, you're gonna lose your pension, and it will be paid out of our insurance, so we'll let you keep out". Wow. Pays to be a cop.
Judge G. Kendall Sharp – what the fuck are you thinking? You allow people to keep stolen funds because their actions caused them to lose money elsewhere? You call yourself a judge? That's pathetic.
November 18, 2010
VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Step Brothers
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video[6] Comments
PEOPLE: Will Farrel, and John C. Reilly (Dr. Steve Brule from Tim & Eric!). Written by Adam McKey (Talladega Nights, Anchorman) & Will Farrel. Also with Mary Steenburgen (looking very hot for 55! I thought she was a bit old 18 yrs ago in Back To The Future 3!), Richard Jenkins (the dead dad from Six Feet Under), Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn (Anchorman, and Edina in the new american Ab Fab / Absolutely Fabulous remake series)…. And a short scene with Seth Rogan (This is a Judd Apatow production, after all.)
Kathryn Hahn’s few scenes are possibly her most erotic & funny scenes ever. Her comedic lust was inspiring. “I want to roll you up in a little ball and keep you in my vagina.” Haha.
QUIRKS: Two grown men acting like children, and the hilarity that ensues.
SOUNDTRACK: Vampire Weekend, LCD Soundsystem, Vanilla Ice, an a capella version of Guns N’ Roses Sweet Child O’ Mine, Hall & Oates, Billy Joel, The Kinks, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
MORALS: You can only live with your parents for so long.
BAD STUFF/CONCLUSION: This was pretty funny — and Farrel and Reilly are a great combination with great chemistry. However, it could have been funnier. A lot of the humor was basically “watch grown men act like children”. While that is a funny gimmick, it doesn’t remove the responsibility to make every joke funny. A responsibility which I think ultimately was not quite fulfilled.
RATINGS: Netflix: Clint: 3/5 stars, Carolyn 4/5 stars. IMDB: Clint: 7/10, Carolyn 8/10.
RECOMMENDATION: Worth seeing, but not a top tier comedy.
MOVIE QUOTE: Brennan Huff: This house is a fucking prison!
Dale Doback: On Planet Bullshit!
Brennan Huff: In the galaxy of This Sucks Camel Dicks!
FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Scott S, Jordan, and Benj all really liked it (4/5 stars). (more…)
November 17, 2010
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I hope the Canadians stand up against this.
So what happened to the Canadian Charter of Rights?
"8. Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure."
Having your communications monitored in real time is unreasonable. It's police state bullshit.
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another celebrity twitter… He won me over with the current tweet: "Just saw a lady that looked like Tom Araya. If you're a lady and you have to look like a guy in Slayer I guess Tom is your best choice." … Bwahahhaa. "That's now a blow job, that's a bro job!"
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Yup. Obama himself issued a memo saying child soldiers are okay in 4 countries. Must be that hope & change I keep hearing about, but not experiencing…
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Religion: The cause of a great deal of mankind's stupidity. Religion has always been anti-science and anti-technology, but to claim USB is the mark of Satan? Because the logo chosen for USB has a trident? Really?
People who get their morals from sexist books that are 1000s of years old are idiots, plain and simple.
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Homeland Security itself estimates a 70% chance a pathogen causing $50B in damages would be released within 50 years. That's why the existing center is on an isolated island. But now they want to move it to Manhattan? And near 10% of the animals we eat? STUPID FUCKING IDEA.
November 16, 2010
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Once again, true freedom is having the option to purchase non-licensed goods as well. If I want to get cupcakes from someone who hasn't paid for a $1M insurance policy, or a $350 use permit — I should have that freedom. Busting lemonade stands and cupcake stands run by children? Wow. This is not how things used to go down in this country.
New Castle Councilman Michael Wolfsensohn sounds like the rod up his ass has a rod up it's ass. What an asshole.
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I don't blame him for getting mad. But you've got to be pretty fucking stupid go continue to beat an unconscious child, and then to kick a handcuffed kid in the head in front of other police. Why did he think he could get away with it? Probably because that's how cops actually act. Sounds like he made the mistake of being a dickhead pig in front of honorable cops, who rightfully indicted him and arrested him.
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Probably not a lot of Coroner fans reading this blog.. But this guy covers Tunnel Of Pain on a YouTube video… And never have I been more impressed with that song. Seeing it played really helps.