Around the Internets

Been longer than a minute, huh?

1. I dare you to watch the clip and not get pissed off. 
2. When you can wreck a hotel room and catch less hell than someone who didn't put their heart over their hand during the national anthem, then you have privilege. 
3. An example of why it's hard for Democrats to fully support Hillary Clinton.

Blame Reagan

1. Scandals? His put Clinton's and Bush's to shame.
2. Screwed-Up Economy? Started under him, but if your were rich back then you're even wealthier now.
3. Declining Middle Class? If you believe that having strong unions meant having a strong Middle Class, then yes. 
4. The AIDS epidemic? He didn't create it, but he ignored it until it was no longer a "gay person disease."
5. The War On Terror? In a strange twisted way, Bush was stuck trying to clean up a mess Reagan started. (Bonus points for using the then-revered Osama bin Laden for help). 
6. The Rise in Gun Violence/Gun-Related Crime? His policies kicked the crazy and mentally unstable people out of the hospitals an onto the street, and made it harder for them (or any potentially new patients) to get back in. Remember how the NRA is on this "it's not the guns we should blame for all of these mass shootings, it's that crazy people who get the guns" shtick? Ever wonder where the crazy people came from? 

So basically, the Reagan Era turned America into the live-action Gotham City we live in today. Trump 2016, y'all!

"He's he’s not an athlete who made a mistake: he’s a criminal who can swim."

Brock Turner, student athlete of Stanford U and aspiring Olympic swimmer, has been serving his six- month sentence for being convicted of sexual assault of an unconscious woman.

He tried to blame his raping nature on alcohol, his school and women in general. Unfortunately for him, the prosecution has information contradicting his claims at being an alcohol novice. In other words: he fucking lied.

USA Swimming has pretty much made him a pariah.

His father claims that this is much ado over "20 minutes of action."

Six months is lenient. Considering the discovery of his hard-core partying, his proclivity to blame everyone but himself and his dad's disgusting attempt to equate rape to the proverbial hook-up, Turner deserves everything a delusional criminal would have coming.

Oh, The Irony!

Kenneth Starr, the former special prosecutor who wanted America to believe that Bill Clinton's lies about his sex life was important enough to call for impeachment, was demoted by Baylor University for "his handling of sex assault cases."

Hillary Clinton Could Still Lose the Presidential Election

I'm not going to try and write a long, detailed diatribe regarding Secretary/Senator/Former First Lady's chances. I'm not going to even talk about the primary really, even though now the shoe's on the other foot (i.e., in 2008 she was behind Obama and didn't want to give up while in 2016 she's all but kicking Bernie Sanders out of the race).

Her camp claims that Bernie and/or his camp is being mean to her. Her camp wants his to stop, and preferably apologize via dropping out.

OK; fine.

Well here's my simple observation: if she thinks Bernie is "being mean," then she will lose in the general election. Donald Trump has cut through the Republican Primaries like a buzzsaw. That guy does not care who he offends, and his base and supporters will feel no sympathy for him attacking Clinton. There's a chunk of the Democratic Party (made up of liberals/progressives, die-hard Bernie supporters, Black Lives Matter supporters, etc.) who won't support or endorse her, and may not even vote for her.

Clinton has courted Jeb Bush donors, so it's not like she's publicly lamenting losing the base of her own party. But that move, and the implied attitude, is just the type of thing that will turn people off when she starts crying about how Trump dared to disqualify her because she has lady parts.

Bernie Sanders Interviewed by the Young Turks

Because he can't seem to get more than a sound bite elsewhere...

Four Good Actors & Their Disturbing Recurring Character Traits

Chris Evans is a lovable cocky bastard: He'll say or do something smart-assed, but he really has the best of intentions. He really does. He just thinks that it's his duty to point out your many character flaws. Case in point: Not Another Teen Movie, Fantastic Four and the Sequel, and The Losers. Partially subverted in Captain America: The First Avenger, but resurrected in The Avengers , where he seems to slip back into the familiar role (check his confrontation with Robert Downey Jr./Tony Stark/Awesome McFanchisesaver).


Guys Cheat on Maura Tierney: Case in point: Liar, Liar and Semi-Pro. Tierney's an attractive actress who tends to play smart, savvy women. Naturally, this means her Significant Other will sleep around behind her back. Interesting thing is in both movies it was something that happened prior to the events of the film, implying that even the director's don't think people would buy that someone would cheat on Tierney in-movie, but she character needs to have something interesting going on.


Thomas Jane is suicidal: I think Jane is a very good actor, but if I were in a movie I'd keep an eye on the character he plays. Otherwise, you may end up cleaning his brain matter from the ceiling or something. In no less then three movies, Jane has put a gun to his head with the intent of blowing it the fuck off: The Punisher, Dreamcatcher, and The Mist.

In the Punisher, it's kinda understandable: a money-laundering gang brutally slaughters the guy's entire family, culminating with driving over his wife and kid in a truck. That's enough to make anyone a tad suicidal. As for the Mist...well, I suppose finding out everyone you know and/or love has been either poisoned or eaten by extraterrestrial zoo creatures might leave you a bit bummed. But Dreamcatcher? The movie had barely started and the guy was ready to call it quits. Oh yeah, and his character in this one was a teacher who had just finished a class.


Idris Elba can't save you: Elba may play supposedly capable characters in his movies, but odds are if your life depends on any of them coming to the rescue you'll be dead before the end credits roll. For evidence, I present the movies The Reaping, 28 Weeks Later, Prom Night and Obsessed.

Elba's character in 28 Weeks Later ran the American occupation in England after the not-zombies-but-just-as-bad-as-zombies outbreak, and that fared as well as the real-life US occupation of Iraq. In The Reaping, he was the spiritual anchor and pseudo-bodyguard to the protagonist, except when she actually needed saving from the Satanic cult she stumble onto; at the time he was busy being stabbed to death. In Prom Night he was a detective looking for the lamest psycho-villain ever, and barely, barely made in time to save Generic Blonde Horror Victim #492 from having an unwanted neck tattoo. And then there's Obsessed, where he's a businessman who's married to Beyonce and being stalked by Ali Larter. After some back and forth between the two ladies, Elba's character decides maybe he should get the police involved, but since this is a Fatal Attraction-type movie the cops prove less than useful. Doesn't matter, as B takes matters in her own hands and has the Catfight To End All Catfights with Larter (at her own house no less). So while they're a'swinging and a'scratching, giving the male audience validation for being dragged by their girlfriends to see this whole mess, where the hell was Elba? He sure wasn't at the house, but he did arrive just in time to see the ambulance cart of the loser of that fight.

[Editor's Note: This was an old post from around 2010 that I've been constantly tinkering with; finally decided to let it fly and although Evans and Elba have added to their repertoire Elba has still been playing roles where he's less than a savior] 

Quote of the Day

One thing the article mentioned that tends to get glossed over with ISIS is that they are basically an apocalypse cult. The Taliban wants to control the Afghanistan region, Iran wants influence in the Middle East and world events, even Al Qaida wants to rule a greater Islamic Caliphate. ISIS, though, just wants to bring about a massive end time battle. It really is like if Westboro Baptist ruled a country.

"msrobinette," commenting on this Cracked.com story about ISIS.

Around the Internet

• Do you believe what you see?
• Go to sleep.
• The Transformers game I've been waiting for.
• When Karl Rove is scared, that's a good thing. 

Hunter S. Thompson Was Right

"The last half of the 20th century will seem like a wild party for rich kids, compared to what's coming now."

He also said something about how the country was going to become far more conservative then we would ever realize, but I can't find that one.

I say this because after reading this review of the first Democratic Debate, I am in awe of what has become so prophetic. I don't think a dissolution is in order, but I am getting a real V for Vendetta vibe. Why? Well, to be honest, we let this happen.

We allowed one political party to slowly adopt policies that represent our deepest, darkest selves. Our fear, our hate, our confusion. Messages of exclusion. A call for punishing those just for being different. A disdain for violence, but not the tools that engineer it. We allowed the voices to cloak these beliefs in the garb of patriotism and morality, while the mannequins that are suppose to exhibit them indulge in adultery, bribery and treason. In short, we have a party of self-righteous sociopaths.

But we did not stop there. Because the human mind needs a choice, and there's no better base decision than "This or That," we allowed the other party to become a mush-mash of "We ain't Them." It's like all of the socially liberal Republicans, disenfranchised libertarians, and old-school Teddy Roosevelt conservatives saw the Democratic party and went, "Might as well make camp here for the night," except that "night" started around the late 70's and has ended. And instead of us, the American People, saying, "WTF? You can't just leave one party, join another and change like, only 2% of your political views then try to act like there's a major difference!" we were all, "Wait; we converted them!" Yeah, right. And while we tried to convince ourselves that the enemy of my enemy was our friend, they slowly turned the party into a mirror version of the one they left, only with better branding and a splash of diversity. Maybe that's why a lot of people believed that Obama was some far-left biracial hippie and not a slightly left-leaning pragmatist; compared to McCain and Romney the guy looked like FDR. In other words, we have another party full of irony-deficient enablers.

Let's be clear here: currently the three highest-polling Republicans have never been elected to anything or ever been in a political position where they could not get 100% of what they wanted. Currently at least two of the three most popular Democrats would have been Republicans 40 years ago, and the third isn't really saying anything more radical then what John Stewart had been saying on the Daily Show for the last 10 years. Sure, someone from the second tier may pop up, but the catch is that they are from the second tier, which implies that they aren't any better, they just outlasted the others.

We have been playing the lesser of two evils game for quite some time, but the unofficial promise was that this game would be sporadic, not periodical. And worse, we have gotten to the point where even if elected, these guys cannot govern. And by "cannot govern," I mean they are either constantly stymied or they seriously do not have the human skills and emotional intelligence necessary navigate the rigors that is American politics.

(Seriously, how many times have we witnessed both sides of the American political system do purity tests? How many "shutdowns" of the government have we had? Arguments about raising the Debt Ceiling or Minimum Wage or fixing a damn bridge?)

And really, we should be angry with these guys. All of them. To many of them are playing games with our lives for power and profit. I've told people many times the biggest problem with political office is that those in it treat it as a career when it was never intended to be that way. Being a doctor, lawyer, scientist, CEO or teacher is a career. No little kid says they want to work in Congress when they group up, and most of the one who say they want to be President is because the President is on TV just like characters from their favorite show.

But if we are being honest, "just voting" is the electoral equivalent of "liking" something on Facebook. If you have to hold you nose in the ballot box/curtain/whatever, your participation in the political started too late. Unless the man or woman you've always supported is running right now, you should really think about the following:

• Get involved in local politics. Everyone started somewhere, even these guys. And you don't have to run yourself; if you have a neighbor or friend or relative or ex you're still cool with, ask them to try it out. If that fails, make sure the people there are people you wouldn't mine voter for to make major decisions about your entire state, because believe me, some of them will turn career. 
• Be careful who you give money to. Donating is like a step up from voting, but in the world of politics, you don't always know if you're financing one specific campaign or an entire group/party. 
• Get information from both sides. It doesn't pay to just go to all-liberal or all-conservative media outlets. Regardless of the way you lean, you need to how the "other side" talks and walks. My criticism aside, there are still decent-minded folk in both parties; they just aren't the high profile types. 
• Check and double-check your sources. The words on this blog is just one person's opinion, and I'll never claim it to be gospel. It's just how I see it. Be careful of those who claim otherwise: they what they say is 100% truth. Don't be the political Cliff Clavin of your circle. 
• Don't accept the status quo. Comedian Christopher Titus once mused that we are very nonchalant about getting out of bad relationships, but will fight like hell over a bad coffee order (he's not entirely wrong). We are the same way with politics; we allow candidates to run amok in a way we'd never accept if we knew or worked with them personally. Don't be afraid to ruffle feathers. But please, please, do so in context: it may conflict with your views,Is it impacting our economy or national security? Is it excluding one group in favor of another? Does it go against the Constitution? Look at the big picture!