26 January 2009

WARNING: this post may piss you off.

Goddammit, stupid people, stop breeding!

I mean you, {name deleted} of Fort Wayne, Ind., my future (I shudder to think) sister-in-law.

Let's look at the facts. You have two children by two different men. I don't have a problem with that as such, until there's the part where you don't care for them. That's the part I have a problem with. You're not a mother, you're a baby dispenser (a crude term, but it's becoming more true as time goes on).

The first child is healthy and a joy to be around ... until she got abused, and now she's scared as hell of anything remotely male. While pregnant with the second, you discovered you had a bleeding condition, causing you to need shots multiple times a day, every day. Your child is a special needs child whom you will have no chance of properly raising even if you could manage not to be a shitsucking fuckwit for a few minutes.

Then, you went to prison. You didn't even go for something fun, it was for CHEQUE FRAUD. Somewhere around then, you became a scary preachy evangelical Christian. All you need to do is change your position on Mexicans (that is to say, get off their dicks) and you'd be a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. After you got out of prison, you found out you had a uterine tumour ... of the same kind your sister, my fiancee, gets (except on her vaginal wall). The kind of tumour that feeds off œstrogen, one of the main hormones pregnant women practically shit out of every pore. Somehow, this didn't suggest to you that you should avoid having some tosser shoot his beans up your muff and you got pregnant AGAIN.

I'll admit your surroundings certainly aren't helping you. Your mother wants you to get a hysterectomy after the almost-certainly-doomed hellbaby is born. Perhaps I should've said "born", because there's no way that thing's gonna come out looking remotely human, sharing all that space with the tumours. Regardless, the medically not-fucking-idiotic course would be to get an abortion straight away, followed by the hysterectomy. Naturally, you won't do that, and your mother won't let you, saying she would disown you for an abortion. Never mind that she has no problem with her other daughter with this condition getting an abortion should she become pregnant ... I mean it's the same fucking reason, the same fucking procedure, what's the difference? Your mother wouldn't have to be there for Mrs Lestack's abortion? Or is she really that big a knucklefuck idiot?

Regardless, you'll either miscarry or die in childbirth. I don't think either one would teach you to STOP FUCKING WITHOUT PROTECTION, but just in case, I'm bringing you a gift next time I see you. Normally I would suggest getting you a gift card for a free abortion, but the problem with that is threefold: 1) I'm not sure they have those. 2) You wouldn't use it because you're a total fuckwit. 3) I need the money more than you do. So instead I bring gifts of a twelve-pack of condoms (that should last you a couple days), some RU-486 (same), and a wire coat hanger (that one is reusable).

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25 January 2009

Frost/Nixon

I just got back from seeing Frost/Nixon. I would have seen it much sooner than now, but no cinema in the area carried it. Milk was the same situation. I figured it would happen with Milk, this being Southern Indiana and thoroughly homophobic, but Frost/Nixon isn't even a divisive issue ... well, not now. Some may claim it's another instance of "liberal Hollywood elitists tarnishing the character of a conservative icon," but only if they haven't seen the film.

Frost/Nixon, based on the stage play that's based on the actual interview (and lead-up to it), gives a documentary-style account of David Frost's hard-hitting interview with ex-President Richard Nixon, only three years after his resignation. It is documentary-style in that the actors who play certain real-life supporting characters give occasional fourth-wall-breaking interview clips to the camera inter-cut with the story proper. Oliver Platt, known (to me at least) from his work on Huff (as Huff's womanising, drug-addicted lawyer) and The West Wing (as the womanising, four-times-divorced head White House Counsel) plays one of the political advisors and research assistants to David Frost in the lead-up. He also does a hilarious Nixon parody, for the record. Sam Rockwell, whom I must say is one of the best actors to grace the screen, plays another researcher, hell-bent on getting Nixon to confess to any (or all) criminal wrongdoing. 

But Frank Langella's portrayal of Richard Nixon is, dare I say it, moving. Langella does what I never thought possible by making Nixon a more sympathetic character than his real-life counterpart ever appeared to be. There is one scene when the interviewers take a break in the filming for Easter, and Frost stays in his hotel to worry about financing, most if not all of which is falling through. He receives an unexpected call from President Nixon, who has had a little too much to drink. Nixon pours his heart out to the man who is supposed to be dead-set on asking hard-hitting questions and finding out the truth from this criminal of an ex-POTUS. Langella's performance in this scene is brilliantly stirring and even makes me feel for the real Richard Nixon, something I have never said before in my life.

Michael Sheen's portrayal of Frost is perhaps overshadowed by Langella's Nixon, but as an American I know more about the former POTUS than I do a still-living, still-working television presenter and interviewer. I have never seen an interview of Frost's, although I was interested to know he interviewed all British Prime Ministers up to 2007 and all US Presidents up to 2008 (I suppose it's a little early to interview President Obama). His acting was quite good from an objective point of view, however; virtually the whole film Frost is trying to get funding for this project and failing most of the time. Sheen's face throughout has a look of someone up against it, but covering it up to present a brave face to the world, something I recognise quite well from everyday life. 

The true star of the film, of course, was Clint Howard. Clint, better known as Ron's Brother, always plays a bit role and does it wonderfully. Several years ago he won an MTV Movie Lifetime Achievement Award, an award that has never been more deserved by anyone than Clint Howard. Seriously, Clint Howard has probably the best career in the world. He is guaranteed camera time on his brother's projects and has been in other works with significant (if significantly minor) roles. Frost/Nixon is yet another impressive entry on an already-impressive CV.

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22 January 2009

The twatty t-shirt

Spring is around the corner ... no it frakking isn't, that's ridiculous. Spring is around the corner in the clothing retail world, where I work. Actual spring, however, is still a few months off. But since clothing retailers have to stay ahead of the curve so that people have their spring outfits all ready to wear in the spring (when they go shopping for summer outfits), spring clothes are in stores now, including the shittiest clothing invention of history: the polo shirt.

I wore polo shirts nearly every day for nine years in school, having gone to a Catholic school with those awful not-fetishy-at-all uniforms. As such, I think I can speak with some authority on this topic. Polo shirts are uncomfortable. Universally so. I have never seen, worn, or touched a polo shirt that didn't feel rough and coarse on my skin. Considering I'm intended to wear such a thing, coarse and rough (like sand el oh el star wars) is a bad idea. I prefer to wear clothing that is comfortable, not too tight, and made of fabrics that don't cause itching. Polos fail on nearly every one of those standards. It isn't like they make up for it in appearance. If polos made the ugliest person look like a sex god(dess) I would be able to ignore the awful construction. But no polo ever worn by a human has ever improved anything. They make the wearer look like a complete twat. 

I have to wonder what kind of person would've made polos in the first place. The only answer I come up with is golfers. Golfers already look like fucking morons. They're hitting a small ball with a small stick 300 yards to a tiny hole that you can't even see unless you mark it with a flag. Depending on where you are when you do all this stupid shit, you'll be sweating buckets and unable to use a small electric car to get you from where you hit your ball to where the goddamn thing landed (hint: it won't be near that hole with the flag in). 

But apparently whacking a miniscule ball all over the place doesn't make a person look stupid ENOUGH! No, this is the only sport in which the player wears khakis and a collared shirt. Button down shirts, the only collared shirts that don't look idiotic (by default) aren't the ones though, no, there's a special shirt, for those who can't bother to use ALL the buttons, but just a couple ones at the top. And it won't even be crafted well. We'll make it using the roughest spare fabric we can find, and we'll put it together so loosely you'll think it's mesh. The bonus of it being so loose is the first time you wash it (or step out into humid atmosphere) it shrinks three sizes, so you look like an even bigger douchebag!

Never in my life were polo shirts remotely popular until the past few years. That's when rappers started wearing them and popping the collars. Like many things rappers do, this caused even more people to look retarded. I hadn't thought the polo could look worse on someone than it did on everyone I went to school with until I saw motherfuckers popping their collars. Most of the people I've known throughout my life have been rich white kids, and when rich white kids dress like rappers, it only makes me wish they'd find themselves in the ghetto being shot at. Hell, when people wear polo shirts with popped collars it makes me wish they'd get shot at. 

I think the time has come to remove the polo shirt from the clothing lineup. It does nothing for the wearer, it hurts the eye of the people who have to look at the wearer, and it doesn't even meet the basic clothing function requirements of keeping one warm or keeping one dry. Please, if you claim to have fashion sense, don't wear polo shirts. 

21 January 2009

I thought Rick Warren was bad

Rick Warren is an asshole. Also, a boring bastard. Anyone who saw the prayers at the inauguration yesterday could see that. Rick Warren gave an invocation that was utter bullshit, coming from him. Inclusiveness, indeed! Unless it involves gay people having rights (apart from the rights to cookies and water, or whatever stupid fucking excuse he gave for how he loves gay people). Meanwhile, the man who gave the closing prayer, Joseph E Lowery, was fantastic. I know some who've asked exactly what religion has given us: I point to such things as the answer: black rhythmic preaching. Granted, they've also given us the awful, dull, monotonous old-white-man RC/C of E preaching style, but you take the good with the bad. Plus it works great as a soporific.

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Speaking of religious idiots, there's this story from Oz. This is a story of a Muslim cleric giving a sermon (or whatever they call them in Islam) on "Keys to a successful marriage". One of which was if your wife doesn't do what you tell her to do straight away, kick the bitch's ass. 

Perhaps "kick the bitch's ass" is too strong, actually, as he advised restraint - well, he said the husband cannot make her bruise or bleed. Then again, he certainly didn't draw the line at rape, because he said the woman must fuck her husband the instant he demands it. Now, in civilisation, we have this thing called "not being in the mood" and "choice". Both of them mean nobody HAS to have sex with ANYONE at ANY TIME if they don't want to. This guy is in AUSTRALIA! 

He even comments about how absurd he thinks it is that a man can have sex with his wife without her consent and it is considered rape. Maybe all he needs is a dictionary. Maybe all he needs is a dictionary smashed about his head and neck. That's the very definition of rape: when one is forced to engage in sexual behaviour with another against their will. It doesn't matter if they're married, engaged, have had sex together before, planned to have sex together someday, or anything else. No means no (unless you're doing kinky stuff, in which case "red" means no).

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Lost is back tonight. I remain one of the few sci-fi nerds who doesn't give a monkey's left ball about it. Don't get me wrong: I watched the first series and thought it was awesome most of the way through it. I enjoyed many of the characters and their stories. I just need a balance of character development and something actually happening.

The first series was something like 75 percent backstory. Now I'm normally fine with a lot of backstory, but frankly, when you have multiple one-character backstory episodes per season, and it's only the same four or five characters, YOU NEED SOMETHING TO HAPPEN SO BAD YOU HAVE NO IDEA. Which brings me to the stuff that DID happen. If you didn't watch Lost season one and want to sometime, stop reading now (all one of you who read this).

They crashed on an island in the South Pacific on the way from Australia to LAX. The plane was ripped in two in mid-air somehow, and there were about forty-something survivors. They kept getting a signal on the radio and eventually found it - it was some French woman. Then they found "The Others" (DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN) who were there much longer. "The Others" stole a baby or something, I'm not really sure. Meanwhile, John Locke (yes, that's his name), recovering paraplægic (thanks to the Island's MAGICAL POWERS) finds a hatch in the ground somewhere in the jungle. He spends about two months of episodes trying to get into the damn thing and then in the finale, GASP! THERE'S A TUNNEL INSIDE THE HATCH! It was about at this point that I decided I could give the entire series a miss. Oh, and there's some sort of monster that you never see (think of another JJ Abrams project, Cloverfield). 

I've been told by many that the series really picks up around series three, but frankly, I'm a completist and I can't bear the thought of sitting through the boring seasons to get to the good ones. I'm already doing that with Doctor Who serials.

19 January 2009

I wrote this on an "illegal" copy of Openoffice.org

A friend linked me to one of the dumbest stories of the year. The fact that the year began just over 20 days ago doesn't make me feel better about this situation.

The story's from a blog, so there's no dateline. There's also no dateline because the nice people at HeliOS didn't want to out a complete fucking moron to the entire universe. A teacher in the Austin Independent School District saw a student giving a presentation on Linux. The teacher confiscated the discs, called a “conference” with the student (as we all surely remember, “conferences” with teachers in anything lower than university-level would be more accurately described as dressings-down). She found out about HeliOS and sent an email to Ken Starks who runs the HeliOS blog. Among the utter idiocy published in this email:

At this point, I am not sure what you are doing is legal. No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful.

No software is free, is it? Hmm, that means I must have “stolen” my copies of Firefox, Opera, iSquint, Openoffice.org, Yahoo! Messenger!, TweetDeck, TwitterPod, VLC media player, iTunes (when I used Windows), Last.fm, AVG antivirus programme, iAntiVirus (for Mac), Google Earth, Handbrake, and Twitterrific. Damn, that's quite the list of charges, isn't it? I think if it weren't for Opera I'd be okay, but since I have Opera, it's a Federal Pound Me In The Ass Prison!

[…] if you are doing anything illegal, I will pursue charges as the law allows. Mr. Starks, I along with many others tried Linux during college and I assure you, the claims you make are grossly over-stated and hinge on falsehoods.

What the hell do you think Linux is, lady? Is Linux the “L” in LSD? Linux isn't a drug, it's a fucking open-source software platform! I tried Linux on a trial version of Parallels once and guess what? The only problem was Parallels wouldn't let me connect to the fucking internet! I would consider using Linux if I didn't have a good thing going with OSX and if I could program things my damn self. The latter, by the way, isn't a deal-breaker. I'd figure it out on my own if I had to program.

[…] putting linux on these machines is holding our kids back.


Now that's just fucking stupid. It's been approximately two years since Windows Shitsta came out and underwhelmed took a steaming shit on everybody who got it, and Linux is holding people back? I sincerely doubt learning to use a computer that works is going to disadvantage anybody. In fact, if more people were willing to try other operating systems, the so-called marketplace of ideas could stop being a capitalist's wet dream and become an actual way of determining what is good, what is bad, and what functions well enough for the time being.

This is a world where Windows runs on virtually every computer and putting on a carnival show for an operating system is not helping these children at all. I am sure if you contacted Microsoft, they would be more than happy to supply you with copies of an older verison of Windows and that way, your computers would actually be of service to those receiving them..."

Even the idiot arguing for Microsoft Supremacy acknowledges that to “actually be of service to those receiving” these computers, they would have to be equipped with older versions of Windows. Now, certainly, old-ass software on old-ass machines can be of service. Okay, I'm totally lying. I've worked jobs where I had to use Windows 98 as recently as the past two years, and if there was one thing those machines didn't do, it was SERVE me in any useful way. Certainly I got to smack something around in a way I couldn't do to anything else at the job, but as computers, old computers with old systems are worth doo-doo.

Now I'm not a Linux or Mac evangelist. Well, I tell Windows users they need to get a Mac, but I don't go out of my way for it. I tell them this only after they've complained about how shitty Windows is. I offer them an alternative, and usually I get the same response: “I can't afford a Mac.” Linux is, in fact, free, and is, in fact, better than Windows. Granted that doesn't say a lot but it's true. Thanks to this idiot, I'm going to start trying to educate people who ask about the two significantly better alternatives. Thank you, Karen Namewithheld, for being so stupid to inspire me to action yet again.

18 January 2009

Idiotic Adverts

I'm watching the Rangers-Penguins game because it's the first time in a very long time I've seen hockey on TV, and it's in HD to boot. It's the first interval now, and I'm seeing some adverts I've wondered about for some time.

I'm sure nearly everyone has seen the poker website ads. There's one where a bunch of cards are trying to get on board a bus but they can't because there's already a hand on board. There's another similar one with the cards in a bar. There's still another where a guy is talking about how you're playing everyone until there's one left, implying he's playing himself (I think).

The thing these ads have in common is the website they're for. I don't know if it's literally the same website, but every one of the sites is "not a gambling website". How do you have a poker website that isn't gambling? What's the point? If I want to play poker Senate Rules, I'll download a freeware game. Apparently it's a learning website. Really? It's a "learning" to gamble website. I don't think that qualifies as "not a gambling website".

Another ad that utterly fails to convince me of the quality of the product is for My Bloody Valentine 3D. They're advertising it as a movie full of sex and violence. I'm actually in favour of advertising that, because that's what's IN the damn movie. I don't see it as a bad thing because it's a MOVIE. Anyway, in the adverts, there's a blond girl having sex, looking up into a mirror on the ceiling, and saying, "I'm SO hot." Nobody told me Paris Hilton was in this film!

Seriously, the girl is much more physically appealling than Hilton, but that makes her just appealing enough to be murdered in a horror movie. The part that makes the ad even more unsexy is when she's being chased by the murderer through what looks like a rural motel car park ... still bare-ass naked. Is there a rule now that says horror movies have to have a Tara Reid lookalike running about naked? I can understand why many view that as a good thing, but I would hate to see nothing but Tara Reid clones in horror movies. For one thing, Tara (and very probably her clones) cannot act for SHIT. Her most convincing line ever was in The Big Lebowski - where she said to The Dude, "I'll suck your cock for $1000." Best delivery she's ever done.

Naturally, the ad ends with Naked-Tara-Double hiding under the bed (still naked). Maybe I'm weird but I don't find naked blondes running in sheer terror through a parking lot to be sexy. I don't even find it necessary for a horror film - not even a cheap slasher flick like this is obviously intended to be (let's be honest, nothing says "cheap slasher flick" like 3D glasses). When a film has a naked blonde running for her life, it makes me think her performance was so bad but they already had her under contract, so they decided to throw in a nude scene so they didn't feel bad for casting her.

Don't get me wrong; I have no problem with gratuitous screen nudity. But sometimes it actually takes away from the film. I greatly prefer when gratuitous nudity is in a film as a BONUS feature (not on the DVD, I mean you go to the movie to see the movie and SURPRISE! tits). If your movie needs to advertise gratuitous nudity (in 3D or not) to sell the god damn movie, you are doing something wrong.

Skiing holiday

I'm completely knackered after my dad and I went on a skiing holiday at Paoli. Anyone who's properly skied would laugh their asses off at this hill, but it's nearby and I like it. I'm not writing today because of all that, but instead I got some nice photos of other completely random people doing jumps and stuff.

Spinner

I think this is called an "olly"

yet another ass-slide

defying gravity

airborne

maybe "air-grab"

Some guy

Snowboarder speeding past

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Now playing: MSNBC Rachel Maddow (video) - 01-16-2009-195223
via FoxyTunes

17 January 2009

Time for a change

Earth was the final straw. Laura Roslin has to go.

Laura Roslin as President of the Colonies has led us on a fruitless chase for earth. She has caused uncountable deaths of civilians and military men and women. She attempted election fraud which, if successful, likely would have doomed the entire human race. And she took hallucinogens and based her government off those hallucinations. Recently she wandered off on a selfish quest for "answers" (to what, we'll probably never know) on board a Cylon BaseStar, where, if the reports are accurate, she based even more judgements on hallucinations (this time from a Cylon Hybrid).

It has become clear to me as well as many others that President Roslin is unfit for the job of President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and should resign post-haste. The Vice President should also resign, in fact he never should have been in office. But when I think about it the Vice Presidency of a convicted terrorist reflects more on the judgement of Roslin than anything else.

Neither Laura Roslin nor her Vice President Zarek have ever been elected to the highest office in the fleet, yet we constantly find them on Colonial One. How do they keep ending up there? Certainly, Roslin's first term is excusable; the line of succession was carefully detailed in the Articles of Confederation. There should not have been a fight over whether the election should take place seven months after the destruction of the Colonies, but there was. It is clear from that incident, not to mention Roslin's attempt to falsify the election results, that Laura Roslin is anti-democratic. What, I have to wonder, is she doing in democratic politics?

There is one man who I think should be Laura Roslin's obvious replacement. It is not Gaius Baltar; he's busy with leading his new monotheistic cult. Not Galen Tyrol, the leader of the New Caprica and Fleet Unified Workers; he is still needed fighting for the working man (ironically against Laura Roslin's union-busting hard line). One man has worked as a lawyer, soldier, and politician, and therefore knows all the aspects of power and how best to balance it. He commanded a Battlestar, rescued us off New Caprica, has a long career as a Viper pilot (and Commander of the Air Group), successfully defended Gaius Baltar against one of the most controversial trials in the history of the Colonial Justice System. And most recently he has served the people as the Quorum delegate for Caprica and, when Roslin went on one of her vendettas, Acting-President of the Colonies. I speak of course of Leland Joseph Adama.

Adama is pro-union, pro-peace with the Cylons, yet is not above taking a hard line to do the right thing. He stopped Vice President Zarek's prisoner rebellion on the Astral Queen and still solved the problem Zarek brought up of elections. He helped prevent a possible assassination attempt on Cloud 9. He sided against Colonel Saul Tigh's military junta when then-Commander William Adama, Delegate Adama's own father, was under medical treatment after being shot by a Cylon sleeper agent. He almost single-handedly brought down the fleet black market under the control of a mob boss. He is a natural leader: tough at times, sympathetic at others, and always doing the right thing. Best of all, however, Lee Adama is not completely crazy like the past two presidents (one legitimate, one not, at least the second time).

I implore the people of the fleet to vote Lee Adama in the election.

Lee Adama campaign poster

14 January 2009

Galactica pwns your face

I, like many of my fellow geeks, have been amping up for the return and finish of Battlestar Galactica this Friday. Then my fiancee's boss has to commit the third-worst case of party-pooping in history and have Liz work Friday night. When the mall closes right when Galactica comes on the air, that's definitely NOT enough time to get home.

If you're reading this and are unfamiliar with Battlestar Galactica (the 2003 series) (yes, it makes a huge difference) I'll give you a rundown of any given episode. There is a Cylon opening bit. In series one it gave a brief history of the Cylons (they were created by man, rebelled, evolved, look and feel human, some think they are human, and they have a PLAN). In series two, they dropped the look/feel human and some think they are, because by this point everyone knew was a Cylon. In series three, the intro only changed the pictures used. Series 4.0 gave a shot of every known Cylon with captions about that (twelve cylon models, etc).

The next part is a "previously on" segment, which is fairly common in serialised television, and I don't have to explain it (thank gods). Then they have a cold open, or a segment of the show that airs before the main titles. This is frequently either a) action-packed and some of the best television ever, or b) heavy on character development and some of the best television ever. Then the opening titles play. Series four's premiere, "He That Believeth in Me," was a perfect example of this format. Hell, that cold open even managed to give us character development AND be action-packed.

What follows the first ad break is some of the best storytelling, acting, writing, etc, that has ever been filmed. Since the show debuted in 2004 (after a 2003 miniseries pilot), it has been nominated for a Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) every year, winning in 2005 for the first series episode "33". In fairness, the only reason BSG did not win in 2006-8 for Pegasus, Downloaded, and Razor respectively is that those episodes were up against Doctor Who episodes penned by Steven Moffat, the best television writer in the known universe.

BSG has been critically praised and is probably one of the best things Sci-Fi has ever had going for them. Indeed, in late 2007 when their original remake of Flash Gordon was failing ... for good reason ... several Galactica mini-sodes aired during Flash Gordon episodes to draw viewers in as well as promote the upcoming feature-length episode, Razor. Like many things Galactica, the sodes (as they were known in fandom, coined by Galactica Watercooler podcast) brought up more questions than they ever answered. Luckily, that's just how Galactica fans like it. Among questions being asked about this final series include: Who or what is Starbuck, What's up with the final four Cylons, who is the final fifth, are the main group of Cylons going to come back and destroy Galactica and the humans, can the Cylons be trusted, and the ever-present question of Earth.

To quote Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly: "If you speculate and it turns out you were right, you will have retroactively spoiled me. Which means I will have to retroactively kill you."


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Now playing: Bear McCreary - Prelude To War
via FoxyTunes

13 January 2009

What's the matter with kids today?

Every now and then (roughly once a week) I have an off-day. I didn't sleep well last night, when I got back from class I went directly to bed, and now I can't think of a damn thing to write. In an effort to combat such days becoming anything more than an inconvenience, I use these days as an opportunity to watch telly and hope for a muse.

I'm watching West Wing series six and one of Santos's (Jimmy Smits) campaign issues is a longer school year. Personally, as a child I would've kicked this congressman in the tits for suggesting extending the (to me) already long school year. Now, when I see kids in the mall acting like little entitled shitheads who know next to nothing of literature, science, and maths, I think putting them in school year round, six days a week, is a damned good fucking idea. Hell, if you lock the shits in and don't let them go home at the end of the day I'm not horribly opposed to that.

I'm not a fan of kids in the best of times, and can count on one hand the number of children I actively like as people. I like them because they happen to have enough critical thinking skills to make them seem like adult humans as opposed to dropout-adults-in-training like I usually have to deal with. I only recently began actively considering having children of my own, with no small amount of pressuring from my fiancee. I had several caveats such as no faery stories pretended to be real (tooth faery et al), public schooling unless there's no other option, and under no circumstances will they be taught that one way is right and all others wrong without significant information on all levels.

This hasn't brought me any lack of worries that our children would have poorly-developed imaginations. In the end I don't think that's such a problem, as at least half the films in my DVD collection are sci-fi or fantasy. Plus at first glance, ... all of the books on my bookshelf are sci-fi or fantasy. And if there was ever a worry about imagination, we single-handedly ended it by deciding we would read to our child from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Voices and everything.
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Now playing: Rachel Maddow 01-12-09
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