Category: Culture

John Kerry's Extra-Terrestrial Test!

SDG here with a startling clarification from John Kerry about his “global test” debate reference. As quoted in this CNN.com story, Kerry would seem to have a HIGHER authority in mind:

Asked during a town hall meeting in Hampton to explain what he meant, the Massachusetts senator said, “It’s almost sad; it’s certainly pathetic, because all they can do is grab a little phrase and try to play a game and scare Americans…

“And if they were honest enough to give America the full quote, which America heard, they would know that I’m never going to allow America’s security to be outsourced. That’s the job of the president.

“But I can do a better job of protecting America’s security because the test that I was talking about was a test of legitimacy, not just in the globe, but elsewhere.

“If you do things that are illegitimate in the eyes of the other people, it’s very hard to get them to share the burden and risk with you.”

WOW!

John Kerry’s got a way to test the legitimacy of military action against EXTRA-GLOBAL standards?!

Do you suppose he intends to appeal all the way to the United Federation of Planets?!

If so, how much difference does he really think this will make? I hate to say it, but the Klingons have been quietly downsizing their military for decades now.

The Vulcans were in on the kickbacks for the oil-for-food program, and they automatically oppose whatever the Terrans do. They don’t care who is President of one measly super-power.

Heck, the Andorians were actively arming Saddam in the months before the war. And the Kardassians, who actually have the military capacity to make a difference, aren’t even Federation members.

So that doesn’t make sense. Hm, could Kerry possibly have an even HIGHER Court in mind…??!!!

Get the story.

Star Trek Rocks Found!

Gorn_1
Okay, you know the episode (whatever it’s called) where Capt. Kirk fights the Gorn?

Thought so.

Well, in this episode they are fighting each other around some very prominent rocks that kind of jut up and to the right.

These rocks appear in *LOTS* of Star Trek episodes. Can’t tell you how many alien worlds these exact same rocks are on.

They also appear in *LOTS* of things besides Star Trek.

Vazrock_1
Last night I was talking to a friend about how I’m having a problem being distracted by continually recognizing the East and West Mitten Buttes from Monument Valley, Utah when I’m watching old John Ford westerns, and I thought about the ubiquitous “Star Trek rocks.”

So I Googled “star trek” and “rocks.”

FOUND THEM!

Vasquezbandit_2
Turns out that they’re called the Vasquez Rocks (named after an outlaw who hid there), and (according to maps.yahoo.com), they’re only two and a half hours from my house.

I SMELL ROAD TRIP!

JMS Warns Folkses of Hoaxes

This is not a hoax!

Amid controversies regarding forged memos and forged Batmans, Babylon 5 creator and Amazing Spiderman author Joe Michael Straczynski has felt the need to warn people against forged signatures of his name on various pieces of memorabilia. In a message recorded over at JMS News, he writes:

Folkses —

Several usenet folks — foremost among them Jan — have alerted me to a number
of forgeries on Ebay…comics, posters or photos that have the worst fake
signatures I’ve ever seen, supposedly from me.

If you’re out there buying anything that’s allegedly signed by me…compare it
with what’s been out there before. And be careful…a number of JMS-fake
signatures look exactly the same, which leads me to conclude that a bunch of
them are being pumped out by the same guy.

Sometimes it’s good to have a signature that looks like elvish script written
while drunk…harder to counterfeit.

jms

Beyond its posing on JMS News, no evidence that this post actually came from JMS was offered.

Is a phony JMS warning of phony autographs?

(It reminds me of when JMS first showed up on AOL and people questioned whether he was really him. His response was to the effect that: “I am not myself and resent the suggestion that I am.”)

British Abortion Film Wins Prize In Venice

I hate to say bad things about a movie without seeing it, but the data I have on the movie Vera Drake suggests that it is a pro-abort propaganda piece.

It’s also just won a prize at an Italian film festival.

Excerpts from the story:

“Vera Drake,” Mike Leigh’s tough tale of a working-class mother who is caught performing illegal abortions in 1950s England, scooped up the prizes at the Venice Film Festival Saturday, including the coveted Golden Lion.

The film raises difficult questions about abortion in a world where the wealthy have access to discreet and legal abortions and the poor throw themselves on the mercy of practitioners like Drake.

“The audience must walk away with a debate and struggle with it. These things are not black and white,” Leigh said.

Staunton anchors the movie as a working mother who risks her close-knit family’s love after a girl on whom she performs an abortion falls seriously ill and she is jailed.

Somehow, I suspect that the film is more black-and-white than advertised. Given the plot as described, it would be easy for filmmakers to send the clear message that, as regrettable as injuries like this were, they were caused by the era’s “repressive abortion laws,” to which good riddance.

I could be wrong about that, but the odds of a British company spinning the plot in a pro-life direction (i.e., portraying the lead character as a babykiller who injures mothers, too) or even in neutral manner seem to me to be remarkably low.

The Redemption of Disney

A reader writes down yonder:

I don’t personally criticize Disney’s moves to diversify its business – ESPN, for example, is a valuable addition to the business. In addition, while perhaps Walt’s version of Disney was family-friendly, it’s a stretch of the imagination to claim that it was predominantly Christian (occultic elements run through many of Disney’s early films).

The early Disney problems weren’t limited to occult elements (though these were pretty tame by today’s standards; Mickey as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice even taught a valuable moral lesson). There was also a streak of secular humanism that runs through mid-century Disney material. Still, the company cultivated a fundamentally family-friendly image and jettisoned this as part of the Eisner Era. The company may not have been Christian, but at least it wasn’t trying to subvert family values in the way it came to in recent years.

I only hope that when the history of the Eisner Era is written a couple of years from now, it will recognize that the disaffection of family-oriented patrons contributed substantially to the decline in Disney boxoffice receipts and that, by the time Disney started to produce more family-friendly films again (like the ones Steve mentions), its family base had been so alienated that it wouldn’t come out to the theater for Disney films.

The alienation went far beyond those who formally boycotted Disney. Many who didn’t commit to the boycott still were so turned off by Disney that they would only show up for the most exciting movies (e.g., the Pixar features), passing by less exciting movies they would have turned out to see if not for a general distaste for the company (and they would have seen even more if they had a general like for the company rather than a feeling of betrayal). I know this was the case with me in numerous instances, and I’m sure that it was the case with many, many others.

The level of dissatisfaction with the company reached such levels that even many Christians who weren’t specifically boycotting would feel ashamed to admit to friends that they had been to a Disney movie, and it just wasn’t worth the effort to go.

If the scope of family alienation is recognized then the departure of Eisner will be a chance for the company to make a clean break with recent history and families may again start going to Disney films in the numbers needed to make them profitable. Disney needs to reach out to its alienated family base when Eisner goes. DRAMATICALLY SO. It needs to send a clear signal that Disney intends to serve its family-oriented customers again in a way that it hasn’t in years.

But if the role of family alienation is not recognized then the company may turn in an even more anti-family direction, having concluded that the family-oriented market is either too small to make a profit or too alienated to come back. In that case, look for its profits to continue to decline as the alienation grows worse, with family-oriented customers concluding that Disney passed by its last, best hope for redemption (i.e., the departure of Eisner).

NOTE: If any Disney employees happen to see this, please print it up and share it around.

NOOOOOOO!!!! Sharona Leaves Monk!!!

sharonamonkI’m stunned! I can’t believe it!! It’s HORRIBLE!!!

Actress Bitty Shramm, who plays the long-suffering, tough-as-nails psychiactric nurse Sharona, is leaving Monk!

For those who haven’t yet caught Monk fever, the program stars Tony Shalhoub and is an absolutely hilarious, intelligent, and life-affirming program about a detective who suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It airs on USA Network and is WELL worth your time.

But now Bitty Shramm–the ideal sidekick and sparring partner for Tony Shalhoub–is leaving the show!

It’ll be like Holmes without Watson!–only Holmes didn’t need Watson to give him handy-wipes to control his germophobia!

GET THE SAD, SAD, SAD STORY.

Whatever is Monk going to do without Sharona???

I just know I’m going to obsess about this.

UPDATE: Welcome Google visitors! More information has been revealed about the Sharona situation since the time this post was written. Basically, Sharona and her son, Benjy, moved back to the East Coast to reunite with her former husband. (This was not shown on screen but was talked about.) Subsequently, Monk hired a new assistant, a former bartender named Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard), who has a daughter. Thus far, Natalie seems to be doing as good a job at standing up to Monk as Sharona did, but we’ll always have a special place in our hearts for Sharona. Hopefully she’ll guest star in the future.