Interesting links and notes on updates to my main website.



[to search, use Blogger search in top bar]

bg 2.15

Meh.
I did like the "shiny happy futures are over-rated" line.
The space fighting scenes were good.

UPDATE 2006-02-05: I did like the idea of a smart enemy. I don't like this convention where the "good guys" all have clever strategy and are great shots, and the bad guys just run in wave after wave into the machine guns. While this is certainly convenient from a storytelling perspective, as it leaves your side with live heroes after every battle, there is no reason that the other side can't be both smarter and better at warfare. This has certainly been the case with the overall conflict between the humans and Cylons, but not so much in the previous fighter battles.

Labels: battlestar galactica

posted by Richard at 18:53 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

everything you need to know about the American movie market

total box office to date

$79,670,639 (USA) (29 January 2006) - Cheaper by the Dozen 2
$51,024,343 (USA) (29 January 2006) - Brokeback Mountain

And in case you're going to raise a question of time, Cheaper came out AFTER Brokeback. posted by Richard at 11:51 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

let's have a war on success! we cannot fail to win

Understand that the US right deliberately has chosen problems that cannot be solved, and then works to make them worse, so that they can have their followers in a state of perpetual enragement (and donation frenzy).

If the rage ever settled, people might start thinking things through rationally.

So pick things that
1) Will never change and
2) Make people angry

There have always been gay people, so: War on Homosexuality.
People love to get buzzed so: War on Drugs. And deliberately war on sources of drugs, certain users of drugs, certain types of drugs, all for various reasons.
People perpetually have sex, and particularly the unsafe kind so: War on Abortion. Also, to some extent: War on Sex.

Now abortion you could mostly win with lots of birth control and education but noooooo.
That might work so it must not be tried. It is forbidden!

Garry Wills (reviewing Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter): “the anti-life movement that calls itself pro-life protects ignorance by opposing family planning, sex education, and informed use of contraceptives, tactics that not only increase the likelihood of abortion but tragedies like AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The rigid system of the "pro-life" movement makes poverty harsher as well, with low minimum wages, opposition to maternity leaves, and lack of health services and insurance. In combination, these policies make ideal conditions for promoting abortion, as one can see from the contrast with countries that do have sex education and medical insurance.”

via Just a Gwai Lo

It's really quite a brilliant bit of evil.

Carter was interviewed (video whatever) on The Daily Show. posted by Richard at 22:04 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

shocked by State of the Union tshirts

Cindy Sheehan, mother of a U.S. soldier killed in
Iraq, says she barely had one arm out of her coat when a security officer pounced on her before the president's state of the union address - for having a war-related slogan on her T-shirt.

...

The slogan on her T-shirt - "2245 Dead. How many more?" - was a reference to the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq, she explained.

...

Beverly Young, wife of Representative C.W. Bill Young (news, bio, voting record) of Florida - chairman of the House Defence Appropriations subcommittee - was removed from the gallery because she was wearing a T-shirt that read, "Support the Troops - Defending Our Freedom."

I am shocked.
I am shocked that grown women wore tshirts to a formal event.
What are you, like 12 years old?

You don't think maybe The State of the Union speech from The President of the United States merits maybe something dressier than a tshirt?

You do realize that adults did not traditionally consider their bodies as being walking billboards for their personal beliefs?

You know what they should sell? Bumper stickers for your ass.
They would go like hotcakes in the US. Bum-per stickers they could call them.

World's least classy, least adult society.

'Anti-war Mom' says she was abruptly ejected from gallery before Bush speech posted by Richard at 19:31 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

September now renamed Iraqattackedusber

On September the 11th, 2001, we found that problems originating in a failed and oppressive state 7,000 miles away could bring murder and destruction to our country.

Man, these guys have their Orwellian language mastered.
Not mentioning the country (Saudi Arabia) + vague distance + American confusion with geography and you get... September 11... Iraq.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/

Now, if only the American leadership would devote their energies to something other than crafting clever almost-lies. That would be good. Any time now. I'm waiting.

To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants, revolutionary solar and wind technologies, and clean, safe nuclear energy.

I for one welcome this new smoke-free fire and radiation-free fission.
Shall I translate.
We will invest (huge amount in polluting boondoggle), (tiny amount in technologies that work), and (huge amount in poisonous boondoggle).

Well, our energy future is secure then. posted by Richard at 04:37 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Battlestar Galactica 2.14

Ok, that was pretty gloomy.

Labels: battlestar galactica

posted by Richard at 06:50 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

happy new year

posted by Richard at 13:28 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)