Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist is the most unfathomably boring & pointless hipster teen romance I have EVER seen. The most unbelievable part of this movie-besides anyone wanting to screw the protagonists- is that it's based on a book. What a monumental POS that must have been. Movies like this are what make red-staters needlessly hate New York. Rent After Hours or High Fidelity instead.
Here's a good example of how the poor get screwed by the legal
system in the United States. Now granted, this case happened
in Georgia, which is not exactly the United States. Georgia
is well known for its corruption and human rights violations.
It should be illegal for anyone to live in Georgia for no other
reasons than the cops are all violent thugs that make the criminals
look like teddy bears in comparison. Or am I thinking of Louisiana?
Genarlow Wilson was 17 when he was sentenced to 10 years in
prison for getting a consensual humjob from a 15-year-old at a
New Year's Eve party. Why this was EVER a felony in Georgia
is a mystery, but they changed the law to make it a misdemeanor
just two years into this kid's sentence. But the state attorney
general won't let the kid out. A judge ordered the kid released
but the attorney general wants to appeal the decision. He wants to
get the kid to agree to plea guilty to a lesser charge in order to be
released. The kid is fighting it and for good reason. If you are not
guilty, you should not have to say that you are to get released from
the joint, especially when a judge, several of the jurors who convicted
you, President Jimmy Carter and most of the country say you should
be set free and should have been charged with a misdemeanor -- at
most -- in the first place.
Let's be honest, if this kid deserves to be in prison, then so do most
of the people reading this. I did this exact same thing when I was
a 17-year-old. Hell, when you're 17, that's what 15-year-olds are
for. And when you're 15, that's the way you think of 13 and 14-year-olds.
And I hate to tell you what the 11 and 12-year-olds are getting up
to today because it would make you puke.
This is a good case to galvanize the American public though. Wilson
and the Attorney General Baker are both black. This isn't about race,
this is about power, poverty, politics, class and good, old-fashioned
American injustice.
I said it myself yesterday while discussing this hideous example
of rich man's justice. Paris is a joke, but her highly publicized
incarceration, moaning, release and re-incarceration is opening
up some eyes to just how bad the poor (which is most of us) have
it in this country. You cannot get equal access to the law unless
you've got duckets. And you will never understand how messed
up the legal system and prison system is in the United States
until you've been victimized by it. This gent says it all very
nicely.
Now, it is unfortunate that I even have to make this clear, but
I'm not soft on crime. I'm just hard on bullshit criminal codes
that will put a 17 year old in jail for 10 years for having consensual
sex with his 15 year old girlfriend while letting rich white assholes
who destroy entire corporations and steal the pensions of hundreds
of employees skate. Leonard Peltier will never get out of prison
for a crime he didn't commit, but Richie Riches can almost kill
with impunity if they promise to go to rehab. Get mad, people.
In a country where the rich and famous can literally get
away with murder, it is sooooo sweet to see a pain-in-the-ass
rich bitch wastrel like Paris Hilton dragged off in cuffs. Man,
when I heard last Thursday that she skated out of the joint
for some mystery illness, I was mad as hell and telling myself
I knew it would happen like that. But when she was carted off
in cuffs the next day crying, my black grudge-filled
heart nearly sang with glee. I want that pampered slut to
suffer. It's what I wanted for Xmas: just one rich white piece
of shit debutante to pay just a fraction of the price for every
poor fuck who's done time for committing a crime that could
ONLY have been committed by a member of the underclass
in this country.
For stocking stuffers, I want sweet, pretty little Paris traumatized
and humiliated as much as possible during her short, candy-assed
jail stint. I want her horrikfied. I want her to come out changed. I
want her to come out and tell us all how bad it was on the county
fair freakshow circuit. I want hayseeds to throw peanuts and small
rocks at her. I want ignorant reporters to ask, "was the food
bad? Was the cell cold? Were people mean to you?" Because hey, guess
what? That's just The Simple Life on a daily basis for most people.
You know, the kind of people who not only know what a Wal-Mart is,
but who shop there because they fucking have to.
And yet, Paris still gets to keep her hair extensions. Something is telling me
that my dreams just aren't gonna come true this time
Let's just assume for the sake of argument that God did indeed create the universe. I'll give you that one just to take it off the table. That fact doesn't mean evolution isn't real. It doesn't mean that The Big Bang is Big BS. God creating the universe doesn't change what real science is all about. What scientists do is observe, test, hypothesize test some more, replicate their findings and then begin to come to some conclusions. Science and religion are only opposites when ignorant people try to keep everyone ignorant. "Intelligent design" attempts to cut science off at the pass by suggesting that we shouldn't look for origins of life anywhere but with God. That is foolish EVEN if we take God creating the universe as a given.
Even the Roman Catholic Church acknowledges evolution. How is this possible? By giving the God that so many people credit with so much omnipotence a little credit. Obviously, Adam and Eve are just fictional characters meant to metaphorically describe creation. God said "Let there be light." Well I'm guessing the Big Bang resulted in a good deal of light. God said "Be fruitful and multiply." Well what can be more fruity and "multiplicitous" than evolution?
You can believe God created the universe and still be a real scientist, but if you count science and God as disparate, then you lack imagination and, I'm sad to say, faith.
The thing about health care in the United States is that it sucks.
I don't mean it is kind of inconvenient to go to the doctor or
a bit pricey but damn it's great quality health care once you
get past the bullshit. I mean it's ALL bullshit all the time and
I'm really not sure it's all that good either.
You see, medicine is a for-profit business in the United States
and that doesn't guarantee quality. The practice of medicine
began out of genuine compassion, but these days it's about
as compassionate as an assembly line.
I don't mind docs making money. I don't even mind drug
companies making money. What I do mind is greed infecting
every aspect of what should be about compassion and healing.
A lot of things are great until money and greedheads get involved.
Religion for example. Smart-ass folks will say that religion has
caused more bloodshed in this world than anything else. I'm not
so sure that's the case any more. Religion wasn't doing too bad
until money got involved. It's no coincidence that a good deal of
gold was brought back from the Crusades. It's no coincidence that
Conquistadors brought crosses and left with Incan treasures.
Introduce money into any system and it stinks to high heaven.
I got me the diabetes and I really think my doctor is a good guy.
I think he really wants to give me the best possible treatment
options that are out there, but I can't trust the system that provides
the drugs and processes my payments. I go to the office and it feels
like it's more about getting my insurance card info correct, taking my
money and then oops, we forgot to do what you came in here for.
I also don't know how much influence the drug companies have over him.
He might honestly think that the drugs he prescribes me are the
best out there but maybe he's just been unduly influenced by some
slick douchebags with a good rap and some free samples. If the Lantus
guy gives my doc a lot of free insulin to give to his patients who can't
afford to buy the stuff that could easily influence a good man to
prescribe the stuff to me even though I have to pay $70 a bottle for
the shit. My insurance company only saves me $8 per bottle at this
time. And that's just one script. The more I spend on drugs, the less
I have to spend on things like proper nutrition. Fresh vegetables
aren't cheap you know.
And because everything is so freakin' expensive, everyone tries to
get as much dosh out of you, your insurance company and anyone else
stupid enough to get involved in medicine directly or tangentially at
every turn. I appreciate that it costs money to create new medicines,
but when was the last time a drug company came up with a cure for
anything?
Here's something to consider: There's no profit in curing disease. There
is only profit in treating disease. You could waste millions on researching
a cure for diabetes but what would be the corporate points? That would
be like McDonald's inventing a hamburger that guaranteed that you would
never eat another hamburger again. It would work against their primary
purpose, which is NOT to make hamburgers, it IS to make money. Mickey
D's could make mud pies. So long as people bought 'em by the bag full,
they wouldn't give a crap. Cure diabetes and suddenly millions of paying
customers disappear. Better to come up with ways of making people
live with a disease with a variety of symptoms each with its own very
expensive prescription medication. That's where the money is.
Where is the moral imperative to do good works in this world where the
pursuit of profit seems to justify everything from selling crap to starting
wars? Corporations are ruining this country with their mammon worship
and we are not only letting them do it, we are complicit in our own
destruction.
People often refer to "the miracle of birth." That's a bit over-the-top,
don't you think? Typically, miracles are things that don't happen
hundreds of thousands of times a day, you know? I don't doubt that
having a baby hurts, takes a lot out of you or that it is a monumental
occasion in your life, but it's still not a miracle ... especially where
people are concerned. Even though we mostly give birth to one live
offspring at a time, we have still managed to over-populate the planet
like nothing else. That's impressive, but hey, rats have litters of six and
up. Rats can have several litters a year. Rats can be great-great-great
grandparents before they die in as short as three years time.
Elephants carry their fetuses for over a year. Pandas have a hell of a
time conceiving at all. Whales getting it on, can you imagine what must
go into that?
No, birth is no miracle. It's pretty common. Just walk into any mall
or grocery store in the country and see just how NOT miraculous
birth is. It would be a miracle of some of these mouth-breathers
DIDN'T have kids. And is there a category GREATER than "miracle"
for someone who can actually control their kids? I think so.
Happy Mother's Day, y'all!
Perhaps you've heard of this ridiculous petition to free Paris Hilton
from the onerous burden of her 45-day jail sentence for driving
on a suspended license? Don't look for a link to that piece of crap
here (though I signed it "Keep the Bitch") because I'm not enabling
any American retards to subvert justice. I will, however, provide
you with a little commentary and some links to petitions to make
sure L.A. County official do their job and keep that stupid skinny
whore locked up for the entire length of her very short jail sentence.
First, the links:
Jail Paris Hilton
Go Away Paris
Get Rid of Paris Hilton for Good
It's funny how this country can be divided into camps
over some skinny skank who's never done anything positive
with her life. In spite of what her mommy thinks, one cannot
"bring beauty to the world" by making the occasional sex tape,
Fox reality show or trip down the catwalk. In fact, I'd say those
things do the opposite of bring beauty to the world.
The Free Paris Petition starts off saying: “Paris Whitney
Hilton is an American celebrity and socialite."
That alone suggests to me that not only is she guilty, but deserving
of the guillotine.
"She provides hope for young people all over the U.S. and the world."
Hope? You gotta be fuckin' kidding me. I just hope she gets the shit
kicked out of her in the joint so she can't model any more.
"She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise
mundane lives.”
Yeah, she really doesn't and if her antics uplift your existence, you've
got more problems than being mundane. You know, I cannot state
it strongly enough that I really hope that Paris Hilton gets the
holy living shit kicked out of her in the joint on a daily basis. It would
really do her some good to know what mundane life is like for the rest
of humanity ... no, scratch that. It would do her some good to know what
life is like for real human beings.
I really know how this guys feels, for I too have been punched in the guts by Spider-man 3
Gehringer, Andy (CCI-Omaha) [2:17 PM]:
did you see Spiderman yet?
Jerrett, Greg (CCI-Omaha) [2:17 PM]:
yup, disappointed
Jerrett, Greg (CCI-Omaha) [2:18 PM]:
I got up to go three time, this thing had more endings than Return of the King
Gehringer, Andy (CCI-Omaha) [2:18 PM]:
yeah, I was looking forward to seeing Venom on the big screen since I was 12 years old. And that was a serious let down.
Jerrett, Greg (CCI-Omaha) [2:18 PM]:
Topher Grace makes me ill and angry
Gehringer, Andy (CCI-Omaha) [2:19 PM]:
how could you make Venom a whimpy little guy
Jerrett, Greg (CCI-Omaha) [2:20 PM]:
oh and let's make hobgoblin and spidey friends again one last time... and hey thanks butler guy for not sharing that piece of info about my dad whackin' himself two movies back, you jagoff
Jerrett, Greg (CCI-Omaha) [2:20 PM]:
cuz i might NOT have wanted to know that my best friend didn't kill my father
Jerrett, Greg (CCI-Omaha) [2:20 PM]:
I'd also like to punch Kirsten Dunst in that weird face of hers as well
Jerrett, Greg (CCI-Omaha) [2:23 PM]:
I had to pee so I took off during the amazing final dance sequence. pray tell, did I miss anytihing?
Gehringer, Andy (CCI-Omaha) [2:24 PM]:
haha, what was with the Jazz club
Jerrett, Greg (CCI-Omaha) [2:24 PM]:
this turd was so rank, that was my favorite part! especially when PP hit MJ in her weird little face ... she WAS kinda askin' for it
Jerrett, Greg (CCI-Omaha) [2:29 PM]:
say something funny andy so I can use this on my blog
Gehringer, Andy (CCI-Omaha) [2:40 PM]:
There was just too much going on in this Movie. I wanted 15 years to see Venom tear it up on the big screen and Topher didn't cut it. They could of at least gave Venom more than 20 minutes of screen time.
Jerrett, Greg (CCI-Omaha) [3:00 PM]:
yeah and a script that wasn't total shite would have been nice too. *ring ring* "hello, this is Sam
Raimi, I'm just calling to let you know I'll be PHONING IT IN!"
Gehringer, Andy (CCI-Omaha) [3:00 PM]:
hahaha
There are a handful of words that are commonly misused
by most American ... because most Americans are idiots.
Here's brief list.
Facetious
As in: "Stop being facetious" or "he's just being facetious."
This word is used as a synonym for "funny" but facetious means
"ill-timed humor." But even Webster's second definition for "facetious"
lends credence to this deviation. One isn't facetious for telling a joke. One isn't
being facetious for telling a bad joke. One is facetious for telling
a joke - good or bad - at the wrong time. Saying; "Wow, your grandma
sure has big tits" to someone especially at her funeral is facetious because
the circumstances are all wrong. Put the same joke in a movie like
"American Pie" and it gets big laughs. When we make words with subtly
shades of meaning synonyms for the simplest possible terms, then all
words come to represent the simplest possible concepts. We lose the
ability to express complex ideas.
Nectar
As in: "This beer is the nectar of the gods!" Well, yes, isn't just? Every drunk
in the United States has said "nectar of the gods" at one point or another.
This isn't inaccurate so much as it is just redundant hyperbole. It's a cliche
and cliche's said over and over again lose their meaning. The gods on
Mt. Olympus drink nectar and eat ambrosia. These items are really concepts
to describe food and drink so good they are beyond the human capacity
to comprehend. There is no "nectar of the Poles" or "nectar of the Congress."
So nectar is only nectar of the gods. No one ever says "ambrosia of he gods"
do they? Additionally, fruits and vegetables produce nectar and nectar is the
primary component of honey, but these things take their name from the
original and no one is usually referring to fruit juice when they say "nectar
of the gods."
Myriad
This word literally meant 10,000 when the Greeks came up with it, but
soon came to mean "a great number." And it's not a bad word. Kind of
flows gently from between the lips with a sight bounciness and just a hint
of the tip of the tongue at the end for authority. It's fun to say. Which is
probably why every bugger says it way too much especially in the form
"a myriad of ..." That phrasing was popularized by Henry David Thoreau,
but to his credit, he only said it once. Meanwhile, every geek with a chub
on for Greek word uses "myriad of ..." instead of "lots of ..." every chance
they get. Funny turn on this one, the high brow crowd of word-smith
psuedo-intellectuals and grammarian rule mongers disdain the use of
the word myriad as a noun operating under the mistaken assumption
that the word is only properly used as an adjective. These pinheads are
wrong. Myriad is properly used as a noun first and an adjective second.
So not all of these words are corrupted by the lowly.
Plethora
As in just another word for "lots"; used interchangeably with myriad.
"Plethora" is used in the exact same way as "myriad," which is funny
since "plethora" refers to an excess of blood in the body. "Plethora" is
a variety of abundance usually treated with leeches by doctors in the
Middle Ages. The subtle usage of plethora would tend to indicate
something at least vaguely sick, uncomfortable or disquieting. A plethora
of choices is a good thing typically, but a plethora of diseases might be
more accurate. A plethora of choices in the potato chip isle might
connote the right amount of irony for so many unhealthy options.
Cornucopia
Literally, a horn of plenty. Originally a goat's horn filled with fruit and
grain symbolizing plenitude around harvest time. Today, it's mostly a
wicker cone used as a center piece at Thanksgiving. It's overused by
people with a dearth of vocabulary and scant imagination who frequently
precede it with "veritable." The USA Steak Buffet offers a veritable
cornucopia of dishes. The irony of this is that veritable means that the
thing being described is actually the thing being described and not false or
imaginary. Mostly it's just mental laziness and lack of imagination that
leads folk to say this over and over again. Which leads us to the king
of all overused, misused and abuse terms.
Ironic
Here is a good example of WHY most people misuse ironic from a
junior high school English class web site:
Meaning of ironic (adj.) contradictory; inconsistent; sarcastic.NO! It is not!
Example of ironic: Is it not ironic that Americans will toss out leftover
French fries while people around the globe continue to starve?
I hate it when celebrities make me feel like less of a lefty
than they are. Their money and ample free time makes it
easy to have an expansive social conscience the rest of us
cannot easily afford. Hey, maybe I'm not buying tissues
made of recycled paper, but then maybe I'm not buying
tissues at all. Maybe I'm using leftover fast food napkins
because I'm not only tight but truly willing to sacrifice
a bit of comffort for my planet.
The average person can't buy things like recycled tissues
and super expensive green products. And I really do think
celebs don't get it that mowt Americans can't just opt to
spend twice as much on their basics and still expect to feed
their kids and pay their rent. Fine. Maybe they are a bit out
of touch, but it doesnt excuse it when they make bad jokes
and embarrass the environmental movement with their
silliness.
Recently singer Sheryl Crowe jokingly advocated limiting
toilet paper usage to one square per visit. It wasn't taken
entirely as a joke because this is exactly the kind of "quirky"
BS people expect to hear from celebrities. It's like listening
to Britney Spears make fun of people who think she's
stupid and trashy by "ironically" pretending to be stupid
and trashy. Nobody's gonna get that. It's like making a
joke by pretending to be upset about something that you
are actually kind of upset about. If the the joke is too close
to the truth as other people might see it, then it is a really
bad joke that undermines your point.
Celebrities have a lot of access and therefore a disproportionate
voice to be used however they see fit. Rich people, politicians
and TV pundits do as well. So there are no rules suggesting
anyone is entitled to a greater voice or obligated to no take
advantage of greater access. But use your damn head. If you
jokingly suggest that people should only use one sheet
of toilet paper in the context of making suggestion about
what people should do to protect the earth in a country where
many people still think environmentalists are crying
"the sky is falling" then the misunderstanding is your fault,
not theirs.
All you're doing is giving the crazy hateful right-wingers a
grand opening to attack you, belittle the environmental cause,
and alienate sensible left-wingers who don't want to be associated
with crazy.
Addendum: As I was writing this, an SUV commercial came on
featuring Crowe's song "Every Day is a Winding Road." The main
bragging point in this commercial? The SUV gets 26 mpg. Oh that's
rich. Hypocrisy on top of facetiousness.
Jerrry Miller went to prison at 22 for a crime he didn't commit.
Read more about it HERE. Consider my disgust fully registered.
The monumental weaknesses in our criminal justice system are
overshadowed only by the bloodthirsty masses who stand ready
at every opportunity to burn anyone accused of any crime at the
stake of public opinion.
From the BBC website in re: the recent Virgina Tech shooting:"A six-member independent panel - including former
homeland security chief Tom Ridge - will examine how
authorities reacted to the crisis, amid claims officials
ignored warning signs that Cho, who had been admitted
to a mental health unit in late 2005, was a danger."
If only the administration had responded this fast to Katrina.
If only we showed this much compassion for life in other countries.
If only this weren't some thinly veiled political move to demonstrate
compassion.
God forbid I don't jump straight onto the "we are united in grief"
bandwagon every time some freak goes on a shooting spree, but
in a country where having the right to bear arms is considered
sacrosanct above life itself, I think it's hypocritical in the extreme
to constantly search around for someone to blame post-massacre.
Is it really a surprise that Virginal Tech officials didn't have a game
plan in place to cover rampaging psycho killers? Do we really think
that just because an English major sends some annoying text messages
and writes dark, disturbing crap that someone should have caught
this guy BEFORE he killed 32 people? Being "in" the mental health
care system and taking anti-depressants are de rigeur for crappy
writers. Having a couple of professors hate you and not want you
in their class is also not unusual, especially if those professors are
weak-willed lecturers who don't like vigorous argument or weird-
asses./I cannot repeat this enough: college creative writing classes/
/are filled with hacks writing about psycho killers ... it would/
/be a red flag if a fiction class didn't have one of these guys in it/
And now we all bow our heads, lower our flags and make a public display
of our shock and grief because quiet dignity is too easy to mistake in a
country where subtlety is appreciated about as much as a healthy meal.
We all want to look "normal" and "good" even if the truth is most of us are
just mimics any way. I mean, pretending to be shocked and grieving is
what good and normal people do after the largest mass killing in American
history -- not counting 9-11 apparently -- isn't it?
We are such phony bastards. If we are going to be bully on guns, innocent
people are going to get killed. The least we can do is not pretend surprise.
For the best part of a year, CNN rabble-rouser, Nancy Grace,
has gone on a tear over these Duke lacrosse players who were
accused of sexually assaulting an "exotic dancer" or "stripper (yes,
there really is a difference). Grace's job is supposed to be examining
current legal cases, but mostly she just bitches about how much
she hates people who are accused of crimes and talks about how
she'd like to either see them get the death penalty or kill them
herself. Her second favorite activity is blaming everyone in sigt
for not having done something in advance to stop whatever
horrendous and unstoppable horror it is that she's kvetching
about. She loves to make everyone else the Judas goat, man.
So it should come as no surprise that now that the charges
against the lacrosse players have been dropped, she isn't making
much of an effort to apologize. In fact, the very night the charges
were dismissed and it was revealed the stripper made it all up, Grace
had a substitute anchor her show. I'm sure it wouldn't even occur to
her that she was wrong in the first place. After all, these boys were
accused of a crime and isn't that all we really need are some alleged
criminals to hang? Isn't that all a primitive society needs to feel like
something is being done to stop crime? Who cars if that is an injustice
in its own right?
Luckily for Grace, the Virginia Tech shooting took place the very next
day so she can change the subject and go on another tear about how
irresponsible Virginia Tech administrators were for not locking down
the campus in a timely manner or for not detecting the shooter's "obvious"
insanity based on his violent-themed creative writing exercises and few
annoying text messages that are now being deemed as evidence of stalking.
She is the epitome of sensationalistic television presenters (not journalists,
I wouldn't give her that kind of credit) who will say and do anything for ratings.
She needs to go.
Most people know by now that England is covered in CCTV
cameras that capture everything from suspected bombers
to litterers. Now the Brits have taken the 1984 paradigm
one step further by adding loudspeakers to the mix so anyone
starting a fight or even just littering can be admonished,
instructed and even thanked for conforming.
Read the story here.
It's tempting. I'm sure people feel safer in the downtown areas,
but Jesus is this really the answer? You can get on board with
stopping crime because that's how all this stuff always starts.
But "anti-social" behavior? That could mean just about anything...
and ultimately will.
