The only difference between Democrats and Republicans fighting and urban gangs is that the Bloods 'n Crips hashing it out never costs the taxpayer billions of dollars.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
How DUKE NUKEM FOREVER imploded
Monday, December 21, 2009
Yah I finally saw AVATAR today
And it was in digital 3-D too, which if at all possible is very sincerely the best way to watch this movie.
As for what I thought of Avatar...
...I can't remember the last movie that left me feeling so many shades of conflicted.
I'm going to see it again tomorrow night with friend and fellow blogger Steven Glaspie. Between now and then I'm thinking enough of it will "sink in" and maybe I can absorb the story as much as I've already beheld the astonishing visual effects (easily the best I have ever seen in a film). I'll attempt a real review afterward.
But for now: yeah, it's good. It's very good. But not without some issues.
AGAIN?! Looks like I'll be fighting Comcast now...
So I got back from a delightful day of various and sundry stuff (including finally seeing Avatar, review or something coming soon) and I started catching up on an inordinate amount of stuff that had piled up in my absence.
Well, there were two e-mails from YouTube in the e-mail account I use for KWerky Productions. And both of them said that the clip I had posted two years ago of E!'s The Soup had been yanked for "copyright infringement".
It's an exact repeat of the situation with Viacom in the summer of 2007.
Sigh...
You know, the first time this happened, I had to laugh. Couldn't help but giggle at the absurdity of it all. I mean, that was about, what... one minute of a television program and most of it consisting of MATERIAL THAT I HAD CREATED FOR MY SCHOOL BOARD CAMPAIGN!!
It was no different than quoting from a news article. But Viacom jumped flunky about it and had that pulled. I fought, it got reinstated (with more than a little help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation) and I thought that whole thing ended amiably enough.
This time however, I'm more than a little pissed-off.
But this is what it's like under the conditions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, dear readers. As things with the law stand now, ANYONE can have ANY material removed from YouTube or any other hosting service, for the most dubious of reasons... and without YouTube even being obligated to check the veracity of such a claim.
One of these days a political candidate who's campaign has been posting clips on YouTube like crazy is going to find all of his or her videos deleted by order of their opponent. And YouTube will be unable to stop it. The videos can be reinstated 'course, but that first video took me two weeks (and a lot of publicity) to be restored. And that's an eternity in politics, and many other things.
So guess I have no choice. Gonna have to fight all over again. But this time I'm gonna do my damndest to make something out of this that Lord willing will make it a lot harder for this crap to happen to anyone again.
Stay tuned.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Dude mounts rocket launchers onto his motorcycle
This guy has apparently watched Megaforce too many times for his own good...
As cool as that looks, I can't help but think that a bike-mounted minigun like the one at the end of the Machete faux trailer would be much more useful/intimidating.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Congrats to my cousin Lauryn for graduating college!
My cousin Lauryn got her college sheepskin today! Always cause for celebration when one of our clan gets a higher education :-)
(That, and because the last time I posted her photo and said that all the women in my family are this beautiful, I literally got over a dozen e-mails asking if Lauryn was taken and if not "where does she live please!?" So I'm curious as to what will happen when I post her photo again and say that she's not currently! But I'm also screening inquiries with common sense and if that fails, a sawed-off shotgun.)
Seriously though: congratulations Lauryn :-)
7 historical figures who were absurdly hard to kill
Cracked.com has documented seven historical figures who were absurdly hard to kill. If you don't mind a bit of profanity lacing the chronicles, it's quite a good read.
(Thanks again to Shane Thacker for a great find!)
First snow of the season has finished falling
There was about 5 or 6 inches of the white stuff here at my place in Reidsville, North Carolina. To the very best of my recollection this is the biggest snowfall this early in the season in any recent memory. I mean, hey it's still autumn, at least for another day or so anyway.
Meanwhile the computer models are still calling for more snow come later this coming week. Like, around December 24th or so.
If that happens, it'll be the third White Christmas of my life. The last one was 1999 (and the one before that was 1998).
Friday, December 18, 2009
About 3 inches of snow so far...
...and it's not a fit night to be out and about if you can help it.
So I'm stayin' in, cooking pizza and watching some good movies for a snowbound evening.
I'm thinking The Shining, Misery, and The Thing :-P
The most horrific news story I have read all year
A Campbell County, Virginia woman gave birth and smothered her newborn child to death. But she won't face murder charges because the umbilical cord was not yet cut so legally it's not murder but abortion.
Officials say that the loophole in the law keeps them from pursuing charges.
God help us.
Read the story here at WSLS if you have the heart for it.
Jack Bauer interrogates Santa Claus
I'm not much of a 24 fan, but this is darned funny!
Rebel Christmas Card gets the credit for this hilarious mashup.
Chuck Baldwin sez: Rage against federal government ain't good enough
Chuck Baldwin - the man who I voted for President in the 2008 election (and not Obama or McCain, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyaaaaaahhh) - has published an EXCELLENT op-ed piece on his website about why the anger of many Americans toward Washington is wildly misplaced. Baldwin recommends instead re-focusing our energies on the states, and reasserting our Tenth Amendment rights.
Here's a hearty morsel of Rev. Baldwin's fine essay...
You see, the wizards in Washington and on Wall Street have us figured out. Along with their compatriots in the propaganda press corps, they know that no matter how loudly we scream, how much we protest, or how angry we become, the system is rigged to protect them. The best we the people can seem to come up with is "throwing the bums out" every two or four years. BUT NOTHING CHANGES--at least, not in terms of restoring the fundamental principles of freedom and constitutional government.If anyone cares to know why I've never jumped on the Sarah Palin bandwagon (or why to this date I've yet to listen to a minute of Glenn Beck on the radio and I don't even know what the hell his voice sounds like anyway) well, Baldwin articulates much of my own personal sentiment here.Throw out George H.W. Bush in 1992, and nothing changes. Throw the Democrats out of Congress in 1994, and nothing changes. Throw Bill Clinton's party out of the White House in 2000, and nothing changes. Throw out G.W. Bush's Republicans in 2008, and nothing changes. The only thing that happens with a changing of the guard is an escalation in the pace of whatever version of socialism--or Big Government program--is currently in vogue. With Bush it meant expanding the Warfare State. With Obama it means expanding the Welfare State. But both do everything they can to expand Big Government.
When will we awaken to the reality that Washington, D.C., has had the American people chasing their tails for decades? People, wake up! As long as we continue to focus our attention and energy on Washington, D.C., we will only continue to supply more rope to those who wish to hang us.
Washington, D.C., is too far gone to salvage. Admit it! Washington is a cesspool, a landfill, and a putrid pond of corruption and duplicity. Neither the Republican nor Democratic Party will ever allow a principled constitutionalist to become its Presidential nominee. No matter whom we elect as President, the beat toward Big-Government socialism and one-world internationalism will go on without interruption. Big Government scalawags own the entire federal system, including Big Media, Big Business, Big Labor, Big Religion, and Big Special Interest Groups. They are all feeding at the government teat.
Therefore, it is absolutely obligatory that freedom-minded Americans refocus their attention to electing State legislators, governors, judges and sheriffs who will fearlessly defend their God-given liberties. And, as plainly and emphatically as I know how to say it, I am telling you: ONLY THE STATES CAN DEFEND OUR LIBERTY NOW! And awakening to this reality means we will have to completely readjust our thinking and priorities.
It means awakening to the fact that Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly (and the rest of Big Media's talking heads) are, for the most part, irrelevant to providing real solutions to the continuing loss of liberty. And, in truth, they are, more often than not, part of the problem, because they continue to focus our attention on Washington, D.C., and off the source of genuine solution, which lies with the states drawing a constitutional line in the sand for freedom. Good grief! Beck and O'Reilly have recently even advocated for higher federal taxes! Yeah! That's a real solution: more power and money to Washington, D.C. Ughhh!
Instead of getting all worked up about what Glenn Beck says or what Sarah Palin says or what CFR member and Big Government neocon Newt Gingrich says, start paying attention to what your State legislators and candidates are saying.
Best man rigs newlywed friend's bed to Twitter during sex
Yeah it's a slow news day apparently.
Read the wonderfully lurid technical details about the prank here.
And if you are interested in this kind of... stuff... click here to follow the Twitter feed straight from the newlyweds' bed.
Dan O'Bannon, writer of ALIEN and TOTAL RECALL and creator of the Death Star plans, has passed away
But not long after that O'Bannon turned in a screenplay for a Ridley Scott-directed project called Alien. That would have been more than enough to have Dan O'Bannon's name emblazoned forevermor into movie legend.
He didn't stop there. Some years later O'Bannon wrote the script for Total Recall: another masterpiece of science fiction. Word is he was still working on a number of other screenplays.
And now the sad news has come out of Los Angeles that Dan O'Bannon has passed away at the age of 63.
Thoughts and prayers going out to his family this morning.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
12 inches of snow tomorrow? White Christmas too?!
That's what the meteorologisticians are predicting. Cold air plus a system pumping a lot of moisture up from the Gulf of Mexico. That usually means beaucoups of snow in this part of the country.
And we stand a good chance of snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as well.
The bad news is that it puts a crimp in plans to see Avatar tomorrow. But if worse comes to worst I suppose I can always download it :-P
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Scientists crack entire genome of skin and lung cancer
Researchers working around the globe as part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium have announced that the entire genetic code for skin and lung cancer has been "decrypted".
The scientists have discovered more than 30,000 transcription errors in genetic replication that give rise to melanoma (and almost all of these are triggered from too much sunlight).
And if you're a smoker, think about this the next time you light up: you typically acquire one fresh new mutation for every 15 cigarettes that you smoke. Not all of these are malign, but there are more than 23,000 genetic errors and some of them will lead to lung cancer.
That's about, what... 1.25 mutations per pack of cigarettes, on the conservative side of the figures?
Yul Brynner was smoking five packs a day. This is what he had to say about it, in a 1985 television spot intentionally airing after he died...
The International Cancer Genome Consortium researchers are hailing their findings as a tremendous breakthrough in the fight against cancer. That it certainly is.
But folks, let's not pin too much hope on research. Take care of yourself so that you don't have to likely appreciate the fruits of future medicine.
