The Ottermanempire.com

One of the original cast  for Now never funny, er Never not funny ( buy  season 1 disk it’s really good  )started a podcast sixteen episodes back.   I forgot to mention it to people.    If you don’t like casual vulgarity , talk of violence towards those that deserve it .

If things like

“I’d stick my dick in a fence just to get it away from Lucy “ 

re Lucille Ball   in  a made  up piece re “the joker”" Cesare Romero  trying to hit on Desi.  His mind doesn’t just wander, it books cruises and  circumnavigates the Earth. 

The show iss deeper than this of course but  I’m  trying to make the point that  if you believe that truth can only  be found in civil company with no naughty words then  please avoid this and go back to your Marmaduke comic collection

Mike Schmidt Comedy - Podcast

I can see a JoCo song  / mashup for this little guy.   But I digress.

It’s really going to be the future soon.  Wall-E  is one future but let’s me just say that  I have nothing to add to the   97% rating that he’s enjoying over there on Rotten Tomatoes.

Why this movie works for me.

Wall-E has more character than the prior Pixar incarnations because you come to him pure, he doesn’t need to fit into car shape, rat shape, fish shape or any of the pre existing personalities from the toy box. 700 years of exposure to our ephemera and the worst that happen to him is show tunes. ( maybe the right wing folks had a point;) )   Wall-e  being seen as  antithetic  to the humans that made him is a point made in many  reviews  has been annoying me.

I  have to be simplistic here and claim that the  US division of thought  falls into right /left wing ideologies ( basically the same fundamental idiocy that reaches divergent conclusions on how it’s best to steal from others for their own benefit, a setup you may  know  better as democracy.) 

This movie has been seen as  a massively pro environment/ anti capitalist movie  by both ends of the moebius strip  so I find myself on familiar ground  in the contrarian position that both sides are wrong.

So in my usual  Socratic ( that means avoiding having to actually solve shit;) )  manner  I have some questions and observations about both side.

1) How is this movie anti capitalist?  The  monopoly position is not practically achievable in capitalism without the intervention of the state and BnL didn’t get that way without help.

2)  How is Wall-e not a reflection on those that created him, how can we be the bad guys in this piece?   Humans  made it to  space,  they made a fricking society that looks pretty close to socialism ( cradle to grave all needs met)  and it pretty much looked like what the  left has wanted to sell us for decades.  They also tried to solve the problem. 

3) The bit I really don’t like.   Farming. We get to the stars  I  and the idea that  we circumvent millennia of improvements to go back to  nature. As if to think that  farming is a default human condition.

I was brought up on a farm have a non romantic view of animals(  unlike the Welsh) and have managed to escape the daily need to hunt food, shelter and the myriad other niceties of living pre dentistry , pre anesthesia  and pre Tetris.  The environment, would it help to call it location? in Wall-e is a background and necessary for his existence, character development.  Basically the framework isn’t built to hang your ideas of the world on and  both sides do this movie a disservice by trying.

To end on a rant.

People that find this liberal really need to get a dictionary and perspective. The root of conservative means what again? It’s more than a greeny trope and can just as easily be seen as an indictment on a socialized system that keeps people stupid , fat and reliant on the state ( corp) from cradle to grave. Seriously politics are what’s stopping most of you from enjoying one of the more touching love stories/ characters in the last few years.

Why bother saving our place on this planet if this is the kind of thought that we’re preserving?

Ah yes I remember this game, Mikrogen’s “everyone’s a wally” but not everyone this weekend was a Wall*e as Wanted took down some serious money too.

Interview with director on ,Daywatch, his prior movie

Wanted 

There’s 182 thousand cheap people out there that need their head examined. Seemingly the point that most people miss here, and one which I will make sure you do not miss is this!    It’s not the state that makes you safe, in fact they abrogated that responsibility to the people that you want them to protect you from.   So we pay more money  to protect ourselves  to the people that say, nah we trust you . go on knock yourself, and your customers out.  Maybe without so much “regulation” there would be enough money to make cars that work  right the first time:)

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors said it will recall 181,516 Chevrolet HHR wagons Wednesday after finding that some of the vehicles don’t meet government standards for protecting occupants from head injury in a crash.

Chevy HHRs not equipped with optional roof rail-mounted airbags and sold between 2006 and 2008 failed GM’s side-impact tests, said GM. Roof rail-mounted airbags are designed to reduce the risk of head injury in the event of a side-impact collision.

GM to recall more 181,516 Chevy HHRs due to side-impact risk - Feb. 13, 2008

One of my more reckless discussions is that of questioning how effective DUI  and other drug laws are when enforced.  Is the cure worse than the disease?  While many of these questions are   not  designed to provoke or offend  ( I assure you the theological stuff is )  and   are  training wheels for my arguments which  usually I’m 90 percent sure I can justify  to myself.  I’m just trying to get to the other 9%. ( I have to leave 1% open  after all)

Statewide holiday task force reports 2,828 DUI arrests

“A total of 2,828 DUI arrests were made during a statewide holiday
drunken-driving task force …. 6 percent more than the 2,663 arrests
during a comparable period in 2006.”,”
In the latest effort, authorities stopped 36,901 drivers and issued
11,361 citations for traffic offenses other than driving under the
influence, Mulleneaux said.”

Here we go again. In Arizona about 7%  of those stopped are charged DUI  93%  are not.  Despite figures showing that  police looking for dui via traditional patrols is more effective than the roadblocks and assorted gimmicks it just doesn’t play as well to the cameras.   From Tennessee. Roving patrols took about 19 hours per drunk based on observed behavior.  Checkpoints based on the suspicion that you are driving a car on the road the checkpoint is on took 29 hours. 

Sadly roving patrols aren’t as photogenic as a checkpoint. They don’t tell the people that aren’t infringing just what they are doing about dui , but making them wait, stop and interact with the nice officer  certainly  gets that point across.

I am not saying these checkpoints are not stopping people from driving, study after study shows they have an effect … but  at the expense of more effective methods.  About 10%  of the people arrested for DUI are caught at checkpoints during the holiday crackdowns then why not stop the  PR crap and actually get down to the effective keeping of the peace?

This is not a local phenomena.  Check out the experiences in  Florida, Ohio and an aggregate of studies conducted.  Same message from state to state.It’s not about their effectiveness as primary enforcement it’s the appearance to be seen to act rather than acting effectively that’s annoying me.  While you shouldn’t be trading safety for security it would be nice at least if we were getting what we thought

So please don’t pretend you care about DUI yet insist we need to haul over anyone making a trip just to get 7% of those stopped. Oh and the 4th amendment you have to toss out too for your safety at the expense of the rest I’d rather keep. 7% arrested doesn’t equal convicted either. The real numbers could be a lot less

K? Thx Bai.

I really don’t get this level of mental illness being seen as normal. Let’s get this straight.  You have ever lasting life, you never die yet that’s not enough?  Jesus -, no really. The only thing funnier is the State that runs the lottery is investigating those preying on the less fortunate’s desperation.

Only the blessings didn’t come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she believed the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn’t strong enough.

“I wanted to believe God wanted to do something great with me like he was doing with them,” she said. “I’m angry and bitter about it.

Believer bitter over ‘prosperity’ preachings - CNN.com

The Sweeney Todd aka flying squad   in the UK were an “elite”   police unit designed to address the most serious, at least serious to people that like money and property, crimes. It’s a fitting name given the corruption at the core of Sweeney Todd is the apparutus of crime and punishment.

Out of the terrible tale of Sweeney Todd comes a question that  seemed to  I’m assumming you know the basics of the story , and did so prior to the recent movie, but there’s quite a few versions of the tale that predates the musical and movie.   Todd in this incarnation is set up and sent to Australia  by the corrupt judge and the local enforcers for the crime of marrying a woman that the judge has the hots for.  This is the part I have to stress the seriousness of.

Having just read a book about the  British system of transportation to Australia , the Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes, you need to appreciate that this wasn’t just a  playful gambit by the judge in a game of romantic one upsmanship. If Barker( Todd prior to name change) was to survive at all it would be after a journey that the majority did not survive on the earliest boats, to be  worked to death , flogged,  fed rotten food when there was any.      To then have Pirelli  threaten to unmask him to those people was a  very real and present threat to his life and livliehood which he dealt with by what most in the audience, judging by their laughter at the mititagion of this act as being  akin to ” he was blackmailing me”, ” Oh well, then that’s different”

At this point I think there’s a strong case for his actions that I would defend in polite company.   Then , then there’s the rest of story. This is very much  in the style of Chris Rock’s OJ riff.  “i’m not saying he should have killed her but.. I understand”

I’m coming around to the idea that it’s not the police, the judges or even the politicians to blame but those that support them.  I’m taking Sam Harris’s  theory that the religious mild are the largest danger to our evolution being that the give a framework for the truly commited to operate in.  It’s the same with the state.  There’s no way clowns like the Judge could get away with this if the population didn’t want it to occur. We have our own clowns here in Arizona  but the population just like to think that something’s being done.    So when Todd gets all pie eyed at revenge on a world that he see as sanctioning the horrors that befell him  how much truth is there in that?  Like I said  I’m not saying he should have done it but I understand.

The Question is

“Things I need to avoid a heart attack”

 Wot  ish  ashprin ye gaping  eejit 

“ye fell on yer arsh Trebek.”

Alex Trebek has heart attack - CNN.com

Written in less time than it took  Marillion’s  Grendel to play.. about 17 minutes.

Two movies with heavy CGI that I’ve been “forced” to watch at the behest of ,what’s occasionally referred to as my better half  contained Lara Crotch, I mean Angelina Jolie and both left me annoyed.  I could have watched  “no country for old men” but no ,  3d or not 3d that was the offer.  Wrong Joel E (than)  sadly. Apart from that monstrous pun  let’s ready to diss this Dane.

Grendel… supper’s ready. *

Technically I liked it, best dragon yet,  though there’s a tendency towards too many “oo loook pointy” moments.Drawing attention to the 3D detracts from the movie,if you have to remind me it’s in 3d then somethings gone wrong in the story department. Oh and if we’re really going to innovate  drop the suspense shots that telegraph what’s going to happen. geez, just add a fucking double take for the character’s as Grendel bursts into Heorot.

In short the first half can be summed up as Happpy, drinky ,maudlin , screamy , Shouty, schemy, lusty, sleepy , fighty,  repeat.  Intersperse with a rapper’s vocab on how cool you are,  and that you are indeed Beowulf.  Usual look into man’s failings, who is  really a monster are present , but it’s like watching a video game cut scene that you’d be  pressing triangle furiously on to skip the dialog and get to the kick ass dragon ending.

Keeping on the  theme  Beauty and the beast here’s a couple of reviews that  may help.

From the  Flick Filosopher

:: rogerebert.com :: Reviews (xhtml)

*I had four cars named Grendel. My road home was along country lanes and the numbers of rabbits mowed down by my earth rim walker ( mostly accidentally )  led to the name.

I’ve read enough blogs to know that my posts are  ill formed, scatter brained and  on the whole successful. My only criteria for success is  did it amuse me at that time. So it’s with great glee that I point to a “perfessional” pundit making a case that the Skipper of the container ship that hit the Bay Bridge could  drive through.  So 10% is too low,  mm how about 25%?  you know to bring it in line for the 200 million adults, about 1/2 of which voted and then  half of those voted for the  current President.

Commentary: A few states shouldn’t decide presidency - CNN.com

Americans want fairness, and there is nothing fair about less than 10 percent of the states in America choosing the next president for the rest of us.

Wow,   This is sobering.   Anyone that cared to look at the actions of the Maricopa Sheriff over the past years  probably has questions. That’s cool  just keep them to yourself….

Phoenix - News - Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution

In a breathtaking abuse of the United States Constitution, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, and their increasingly unhinged cat’s paw, special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik, used the grand jury to subpoena “all documents related to articles and other content published by Phoenix New Times newspaper in print and on the Phoenix New Times website, regarding Sheriff Joe Arpaio from January 1, 2004 to the present.”

Every note, tape, and record ……

My personal day wasn’t fun  but I’m not suing people over the fact that Coyotes tickets are $100 for good ones, that I can’t see Tori for $5.23. I can’t get over it Adults want the state to enforce  fixed price entertainment for their kids.. Fuck that .  The only people forcing the issue here are a bunch of people that have failed to realize that their  child’s development is not irrevocably  damaged by  failing to see a concert.. that being the case the kids in New Zealand would be total fucking basket cases

What next?   Not enough tickets on sale so do we force the performers to do extra nights?  If not , why not , those heartless bastards are disappointing the children.   The problem can  be solved  by the brokers , the artists, the fans by not  buying them and countless other solutions that adults  should be able to work out without making  Nanny make it all better.

Fans must pay $350 to $2,000 to brokers to get the $63 tickets

Er no..  they must not.. unless it’s worth it to them.. OH and who shall save us from these evil gougers?  The state! the people that hold you to ransom to pay whatever they  deem necessary to own a house, a car,  pay for  fuel to get to work, license to be allowed to practice your trade and hundreds of other non negotiable fees backed up by violence..   I’m sorry these are not the people to look towards for the moral high ground. 

Brokers snatch joy from Hannah Montana fans - CNN.com

Let’s take a look at the quality of thought possessed by our alleged servants in the Phoenix city council this gem about the recent ban on “texting while driving”, despite an existing law against distracted driving and yet another state one making its way through.

“We’re legislating common sense,” Councilman Doug Lingner said.”

Then why does it need a law?

Cynical point 1:

This law is “needed” since the money goes to Phoenix while enforcing a general law on distracted driving wouldn’t be as advantageous financially, I mean the people just.. oh wait I mean 3.9% of the eligible voters of Phoenix just inflicted another tax rise to pay for 500 additional police which one hopes will catch most of those “do gooders” with a nice fine Secondly I don’t for a second believe that those additional officers will ever see the street and the money will go to something shiny that no one uses.

Cynical point 2:

As usual those super humans that have state jobs , like those that enforce the new law ,are… EXEMPT… in the state version. The same reason most of us have to prove we’re not on drugs while state legislators do not , what a lovely country you lost.

Texting-while-driving ban passed

Cynical point 3:

There is no way an officer can tell if you are engaging in legal ( dialing the phone) versus illegal activity and this law is merely a pretext to  allow the police to pull over anyone to start their “fishing expedition” 

Note that the newspaper of record doesn’t tell you the bill’s name or contents in either case.

It’s that old DIVX mindset ( a competing lower quality  DVD system that nearly took out Circuit City due to their stunning hubris) is alive and well.  In short treating your customer’s as thieves is not going to be a winning strategy where we have the choice.  More on that in a moment.

I’ve written on this,   before  since it’s been one of the most annoying  dissonances I have between being in the USA where the idea of freedom is more appreciated than , holy fuck! we didn’t mean you to actuallyuse it!!!  and often I decline the offer to have my purchases made in line of sight from the checkout to the door  re examined..

Here’s another  fun account http://www.michaelrighi.com/ from one guy that is the new  “man bites dog”  e.g   “cops arrest the person being victimized”

 

Me: “Is there a problem?”
Joe: “I need to examine your bag and receipt before letting you leave this parking lot.”
Me: “I paid for the contents in this bag. Are you accusing me of stealing?”
Joe: “I’m not accusing you of anything, but I’m allowed by law to look through your bag when you leave.”
Me: “Which law states that? Name the law that gives you the right to examine my bag when I leave a Circuit City.”

Except that the law doesn’t.    He calls the police to have the store staff allow them to leave , legally, and is arrested for failing to  obey what looks like another , I don’t want to say illegal request since the cop can ask him to do anything, request to produce a driving licence etc.. when he’s not  driving. but you don’t need to. That’s what the law seems to state, doesn’t matter for all practical purposes the law = $45k a year law enforcers ( not peace officers ) at the application end.

In short the fiction that we’re better than the “commies” unt “nazis” because you don’t need papers to move around is just that  fictional. Have you tried to even  get in to a social security office these days?   With a kid, which they search, you they search plus you can’t have your phone,  mp3 player, drinks, food or other items your baby may need to be amused. This hostility towards “customers”  isn’t unrelated to the people that , after years of training at school to be good citizens,  are willing to  jump through any hoop demanded by those with a badge, be it federal, state or now a nametag asking you to inquire about their 0% for 18  months offer.

Either design the stores so that there’s no way out  or  , and since you really hate us going over to a Soviet model may be better,  just let us check boxes on forms we fill out on the way round your store,  we pay for it, you hand it over.

There’s nothing but display  this way you’ll see that most of your shrinkage is from your staff, and your staff’s friends. 

Onto the larger point the depressingly  large number of people decrying his actions.Why ? Other than point them out to be the complacent slugs they are what harm is he causing?   Less than the good I suspect that will come out of this. 

Ok on the customer choice part.  CC is a bad example  you can get around it, easily the town that sends  their cops out to arrest the law abiding (least seems that way to me) a much bigger question and one that most people don’t want to examine. It’s just SOOOO much easier , and reassuring to their ability to sleep, to blame it not on the activist than to come to the conclusion of just how little freedom they really have. 

Hell’s donkey’s.

It’s not Run Jason Run since thankfully it’s linear and there’s no need to relive it another two times( unless you had the misfortune to see the prequels)

The first above 90% review on Rotten Tomatoes that I disagree with. That this is called intelligent thriller would seem to suggest a population too stupid to not keep voting for wars ( that would mean by voting either side) oh wait I’d better stop.:D

Smart? I’m sorry but pointing out that most trained killers volunteer for this is hardly intelligent, it’s a gee duh! Then again most of the country believes that doing so is the highest civic good. Smart? There’s a reason Quis custodiet ipsos custodes isn’t exactly a revelation.

Visual flair does not equal unlocking a tripod and whip panning the audience into oblivion. There’s a scene, a continuous take with Tony Jaa that show’s exactly what’s possible and yes the impacts lost on You Tube but I really can’t stand violence choppy , fragmented and then it’s carried over into cars. The Director must not have seen the amazing work on “Children of men” and decided that the real world is shaky, really shaky. It’s like trying to watch a hammer work out it’s relationship to a nail.

The Bourne Ultimatum - Rotten Tomatoes