Only ONE good song on the whole freakin' album: "Get By." The rest is filler. Aside from the "Our New Orleans" benefit album, I've not bought a new CD since. Used CDs uber alles!
Why? Because it was already ripped off profusely in "The Matrix." "The Matrix" made it absolutely impossible for a serious "Neuromancer" movie to be made. Ironically, "The Animatrix" was the best iteration of "The Matrix." Better than the first movie, which was damn good. And way, way better than the twin sequels.
Now "Snow Crash" would be a great subject for an Anime movie. Maybe Watanabe Shinichiro or Oshii Mamoru could be persuaded to make it. Or maybe Peter Chung. Ooh, a Peter Chung-designed Hiro Protagonist!!! That could be way cool. ^_^
Oh yeah, on one final note: the live action "Aeon Flux" movie totally blew whatever chances there were for an animated "Aeon Flux" movie. Total suckage. Poor Charlise Theron. You shouldn't have stuck your neck out for that one, literally and figuratively. Owww.
The way I figure it, Episode I was a total waste of time. It was dull, badly written, poorly acted and just generally no damned good. What Liam Neeson was doing in this movie I'll never understand, and the introduction of idiocies like midichlorians and Anakin-as-Jesus-virgin-birth crap was nonsensical, and would require the most bizarre explanation for Anakin's brother Owen in the next film.
Agreed. Episode I raped my childhood. I've already gone off about midichlorians. The idea of Anakin being a created being caused by Sith force-manipulation of one of Shmi Skywalker's ova is interesting, but was introduced clumsily in Episode I. This revelation might have been something for a later episode. Or maybe an aside in a single prequel movie.
I always come back to it, again and again: Episodes I, II and III would have made a bitchen single movie.
Another thing that rankled about Episode I was the blatant pandering to the juvenile audience. Jar Jar Binks was only the tip of the iceberg. Young Anakin as a boy genius was just intolerable and gag-producing. Episode I didn't have to be kidvid. "The Phantom Edit" proved that.
Episode II just didn't seem to know where to go. Did it want to be Obiwan's detective story? Did it want to be the love affair between Anakin and Padme? About Anakin's descent into the dark side? The Sith's bizarre machinations (including a Sith apprentice who tells Anakin that "oh yeah, the Sith control the Senate")? Or is it a political thriller? It wanted to go so many places in two hours that it ultimately went very little distance at all. One way to have patched things up would have been for Anakin to become Darth Vader at the end of that film, which would have made the next film much more interesting.
Again, if the prequels had just been one movie, a lot of this weirdness could have been just asides and flashbacks. Also the main weakness of the film was the actor chosen to play Anakin as an adult. Sorry, but Hayden Christiansen falls completely flat as a pancake. He reminds me of the deer-caught-in-the-headlights performance of John Travolta as "The Boy In The Plastic Bubble." He might have been good elsewhere, but he was a bad Anakin.
Everyone screamed when Leonardo DiCaprio was considered as Anakin. However, he had chops as an actor before "Titanic," (Go rent "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and "The Basketball Diaries" sometime) and he definitely showed he had chops and could portray a character like Anakin in the movie "The Aviator." DiCaprio's Howard Hughes was a swashbuckling, rogueish guy who started coming apart at the seams. Anakin Skywalker always struck me as a swashbuckling roguish guy who came apart at the seams. DiCaprio is going to wind up like fellow ex-teen idol Johnny Depp...a really awesome character actor who can do anything he wants to. I don't know if his oevre will be as quirky as Johnny Depp, whose work I love.
Episode III. As close as we'll ever get in Lucas's post-1980s world to a good Star Wars film. Still clunky, but at least the Emperor comes off interesting (by now he's clearly the only character in the prequels that is really all that interesting). Still, way too much deux ex machina. Anakin still seems to sort of abruptly become Darth Vader rather than a slow descent into evil (which is why I think the more natural transition would have been at the end of Episode II). The whole "my apprentice is in trouble" which gets the Emperor on a ship to fly to Vader's aid was the worst example. The ending was idiotic, the Darth Vader suit sequence seeming anticlimactic, and the whole bit about Padme dying not only ridiculously maudlin but making the Epside VI statement by Leia that she could still remember her mother rather odd, considering Luke didn't.
Episode III would provide the backbone to a potential "Mega Phantom Edit." Every important element that moved the plot forward in Episodes I and II could be told in flashback around the framework of Episode III.
My first computer was a 5-slot original IBM PC. It was maxed to 640K, with two half-height 5.25" floppy drives. Eventually it got a 32MB (yes, Megabyte) floppy drive which was rescued from a fried "hard card" and mated with a RLL controller. My uncle was moving his CPA practice from Sherman Oaks to the Westside, and didn't want to move "a broken computer." The thing needed about $200 of fixes when I got it. He gave me a brand new Tandon orange-screen monitor with it. Anyone remember Hercules monochrome graphics? ^_^ Anyone remember 1200bps Everex internal ISA modems? Got myself in big trouble hanging out on BBSes that were enough distance to be toll calls.
If I hadn't made the damn fool mistake of trading the 5150 for a no-name XT clone with a Sanyo proc, I suspect it would still be in working order today.
13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
The bicep is close enough to this to give me pause. I would *never* consent to anything like that. I am not necessarily a believer, but I'm not going to take any chances.
Thanks to Taito and NBC/Universal, Oswald seems to be Big in Japan. Perhaps this is just an attempt by Disney to get a piece of the action on this kawaii revival.
...Disney raided from Termite Terrace to create Chicken Little. There's a fair amount of Tweety Bird in him too. Not the Bob Clampett sadistic Tweety, but the later super-cute, be-feathered Tweety.
Think about what Vista is going to do to the bottom end of the PC market - the Sempron-and-256M-and-integrated-graphics-for-$300- disasters. They're going to be wiped out.
No, on those machines, the contents of their hard drives will be "wiped out" and replaced with Ubuntu, Kubuntu, or any number of other "easy" Linux distributions.
Vista is going to spur a strong interest in alternatives. And Linux will be there, ready to unchain that Sempron and make it useful again.
Nintendo commissions an exercise program that uses a controller you step on. Sound familiar? Only unlike DDR pads, this controller has a second level so that you can do something similar to step aerobics. Also unlike DDR, the music isn't hyperactive techno and J-Pop, but smooth Jazz and R&B. And Oprah's brand is all over the program.
Suddenly fitness-minded women all over America buy Nintendo Revolution consoles bundled with the step controller and Oprah's Fitness Dance Studio game. If Nintendo manages to get Revolution out in time for the Holiday Season this year, watch Sony and Microsoft get jealous as the Revolution gets a New Years Resolution-fueled spurt of sales just as PS3 and XBox 360 cool down.
No mention of the absolute Worst. Star Wars tech. Ever. I suppose midichlorians are so bad they needn't be dignified with a debunking.
I nearly walked out on Episode I because of them. Reducing The Force to a symbiotic critter in your bloodstream is just plain wrong. I don't know what kind of crack Lucas was smoking when he came up with that concept. But I suspect it would do permanent brain damage, hence the quality of the Prequel Trilogy.
Lack of exposure to this substance would explain why Genndy Tartakovsky actually did a good job on the Clone Wars shorts.
And let me also mention that there are perfectly good agencies in existence to collect this "compulsory license," to use the term in US Federal law that made those horrible Radio "pirates" legal. ASCAP. BMI. SESAC. There are others, but those are the biggies. Most musicians who keep their publishing rights (as opposed to those who have signed them away as part of their record deal) are members of one of those three.
My husband's publishing is collected by BMI. They haven't done anything much *for* him, but they haven't done anything *against* him.
A "compulsory license" would cut the gordian knot of "piracy" and obviate the need for Digital Restrictions Management.
However, the RIAA and MPAA actually want MORE. They want to be able to collect RENT on your music. And this is beyond the pale.
Re:Disney's buying John Lassater et al
on
Disney Buys Pixar
·
· Score: 1
Heya David...
John Lasseter has been given the post of Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation and Disney Imagineering (Theme Parks.)
It is to laugh! Ha! Let's see what Merriam-Webster has to say.
Main Entry: libertine Pronunciation: 'li-b&r-"tEn Function: noun Etymology: Middle English libertyn freedman, from Latin libertinus, from libertinus, adjective, of a freedman, from libertus freedman, from liber 1 usually disparaging : a freethinker especially in religious matters 2 : a person who is unrestrained by convention or morality; specifically : one leading a dissolute life - libertine adjective
Ronald Reagan made a big deal about his public religiosity, although to be fair, not as much as George W. Bush. So the first definition is right out. Reagan was also a major promoter of conventional morality, at least as defined by his Religious Right allies.
I think this prof isn't a liberal...he's an asshat who needs to take some remedial reading for comprehension courses.
I have had some professors whose political views were way far to the left of mine. But guess what? All of them, to a one, were more than happy to give me decent grades if I was able to back up my disagreements with their political views. I even had one prof who was quite literally a Communist and was pleased to let you know it and 100% open about it. I was a little frightened in the beginning that she would flunk me for my political views, which sit on the Political Compass at Economics: -4.63 Social Issues: -6.92.
Well, I got an A in her class, and I didn't even do the oral presentation of my paper because I got all crossed up about when the final was to be held. I've kept in touch with her, in fact. We disagree a lot, even now, but we respect each other. And on issues that really, really matter, we find more to agree upon than disagree.
I've yet to meet someone on the Right, however. Very odd. Closest thing was another prof who was staunchly pro-Israeli to the point of fanaticism. I suspect that folks that are on the Right tend to get jobs at political think tanks, in campaigns, and in business instead of going for a career as lacking in financial reward and respect as being a Community College or University Professor. You have to have motivations other than the Almighty Buck to put up with all the crap you get teaching for the money you make.
Then again, Kenneth Starr's the Dean of Pepperdine's College of Law, as I pointed out in an earlier post.
In France and Belgium schools are not assigned to students and funded by a school district, basically the French and Belgian governments fund each student's education and the parents can send their kid to any school they please. Public school? Sure. Catholic school? Go right ahead. Yeshiva? Yes. Madrassa? Mais oui. Secular private school? You bet. If there was a Satan's School For Girls franchise in France or Belgium, you'd be able to send your kid there if you wanted to. The schools all have to meet standards for education. They have to teach to government standards.
The trouble with vouchers as they are implemented in the US is that usually voucher schools are not forced to meet the same standards as public schools. So you have egregious abuse, like schools where kids watch movies all day and play Monopoly and this only breaks for Bible Study. And some of the advocates for vouchers are familiar faces in places where white-only academies popped up as an alternative to mandated busing. And the voucher movement is very strongly wedded to the Religious Right.
A "funding follows the student" approach would be an interesting thing to try. I also think that the Charter Schools and "small schools/learning communities" movements have some possibilities. But there must be academic standards that all schools must measure up to. Even if those academic standards upset people who believe that Gawd created Life, the Universe and Everything in 6 literal days and that fossils are either remnants of the Flood or Satan's attempt to fool those of insufficient faith.
Ha ha! Cheese eating surrender monkeys can't do anything right! Or can they?
If the "money follows the student" model of funding education interests you (and they do it in Belgium too) then maybe you should also look into France's wonderful health care system. Does it work? Mais oui!
But then again...it's FRANCE!
Care for a Freedom Fry or a slice of Freedom Toast? ^_^
For those who can't hack the left-of-center politics at UCLA, I have two local suggestions for alternatives:
Alternative 1, for those wanting to study Political Science, Business or Law: Pepperdine, Malibu, CA.
Yes, you can study at a law school where Kenneth Starr is the Dean! And that's just the beginning. Pepperdine was founded by Southern Baptists and is almost thoroughly Conservative-run. Only the school of Education and Psychology (why am I not surprised?) harbors liberal rebel scum. If you avoid that bastion of hippie-dom, you are good to go. And besides, it's in Malibu.Righteous waves and babes in bikinis. You know you want it.
Alternative 2 for those wanting to get their Divinity degree: Biola, La Mirada, southern Los Angeles County, CA.
The Bible Institute Of Los Angeles has been known as the province of fire-breathing Fundamentalist Christians for about a century. You don't have to go to the Southeast and the Bible Belt to get that old time religious education, it's right there. Perhaps the only place more hardcore than Biola is Bob Jones University.
Both of these places are realistic alternatives for those who would rather not go to UCLA. I guarantee you, you will not have your precious Right-Wing political preferences challenged either place. You might have to pay more, because both of these are private institutions, but that wonderful feeling of not having to listen to grubby liberal eggheads spouting off with opinions that Rush and O'Reilly and Hannity tell you are "just plain wrong" is priceless, right? Right?
Small government conservatism is personified by Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, and is also represented by libertarians. However, there are other types of conservatives. You have social conservatives, who deeply belive in the government protection of morality. (That strand of conservatism flies in the face of Goldwater conservatism; Goldwater's catchphrase is "You can't legislate morality," after all).
You had me at Goldwater, you lost me at Reagan. Reagan was a social conservative who deeply believed in the government protection of morality. Reagan might not have been a Religious Right Winger by personal conviction, but he was certainly beloved by them. The Social Conservatives and the Neo-Conservative imperialists have hijacked "Conservatism." Conservatism wants to preserve what works, like the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the use of the National Guard and the Armed Forces Reserves primarily to handle domestic disasters and public enemies. Theirs is not Conservatism. Theirs is a radicalism of the Right.
Reagan started it all. If he wasn't a believer in what the Social-Cons and Neo-Cons were selling, he used their resources and their monies like he was. And ultimately he advanced their cause. He certainly didn't advance the cause of fiscal conservatism: he ran the deficit up to record heights now only topped by George W. Bush's hideously unbalanced budgets.
You are probably too young to know what it was like living during the Reagan Presidency, when it looked like nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union was right around the corner all the time. I don't know whether these troubled times are as bad or worse. But it sure feels the same or worse.
Slashdot Mirror
Only ONE good song on the whole freakin' album: "Get By." The rest is filler. Aside from the "Our New Orleans" benefit album, I've not bought a new CD since. Used CDs uber alles!
Why? Because it was already ripped off profusely in "The Matrix." "The Matrix" made it absolutely impossible for a serious "Neuromancer" movie to be made. Ironically, "The Animatrix" was the best iteration of "The Matrix." Better than the first movie, which was damn good. And way, way better than the twin sequels.
Now "Snow Crash" would be a great subject for an Anime movie. Maybe Watanabe Shinichiro or Oshii Mamoru could be persuaded to make it. Or maybe Peter Chung. Ooh, a Peter Chung-designed Hiro Protagonist!!! That could be way cool. ^_^
Oh yeah, on one final note: the live action "Aeon Flux" movie totally blew whatever chances there were for an animated "Aeon Flux" movie. Total suckage. Poor Charlise Theron. You shouldn't have stuck your neck out for that one, literally and figuratively. Owww.
The way I figure it, Episode I was a total waste of time. It was dull, badly written, poorly acted and just generally no damned good. What Liam Neeson was doing in this movie I'll never understand, and the introduction of idiocies like midichlorians and Anakin-as-Jesus-virgin-birth crap was nonsensical, and would require the most bizarre explanation for Anakin's brother Owen in the next film.
Agreed. Episode I raped my childhood. I've already gone off about midichlorians. The idea of Anakin being a created being caused by Sith force-manipulation of one of Shmi Skywalker's ova is interesting, but was introduced clumsily in Episode I. This revelation might have been something for a later episode. Or maybe an aside in a single prequel movie.
I always come back to it, again and again: Episodes I, II and III would have made a bitchen single movie.
Another thing that rankled about Episode I was the blatant pandering to the juvenile audience. Jar Jar Binks was only the tip of the iceberg. Young Anakin as a boy genius was just intolerable and gag-producing. Episode I didn't have to be kidvid. "The Phantom Edit" proved that.
Episode II just didn't seem to know where to go. Did it want to be Obiwan's detective story? Did it want to be the love affair between Anakin and Padme? About Anakin's descent into the dark side? The Sith's bizarre machinations (including a Sith apprentice who tells Anakin that "oh yeah, the Sith control the Senate")? Or is it a political thriller? It wanted to go so many places in two hours that it ultimately went very little distance at all. One way to have patched things up would have been for Anakin to become Darth Vader at the end of that film, which would have made the next film much more interesting.
Again, if the prequels had just been one movie, a lot of this weirdness could have been just asides and flashbacks. Also the main weakness of the film was the actor chosen to play Anakin as an adult. Sorry, but Hayden Christiansen falls completely flat as a pancake. He reminds me of the deer-caught-in-the-headlights performance of John Travolta as "The Boy In The Plastic Bubble." He might have been good elsewhere, but he was a bad Anakin.
Everyone screamed when Leonardo DiCaprio was considered as Anakin. However, he had chops as an actor before "Titanic," (Go rent "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and "The Basketball Diaries" sometime) and he definitely showed he had chops and could portray a character like Anakin in the movie "The Aviator." DiCaprio's Howard Hughes was a swashbuckling, rogueish guy who started coming apart at the seams. Anakin Skywalker always struck me as a swashbuckling roguish guy who came apart at the seams. DiCaprio is going to wind up like fellow ex-teen idol Johnny Depp...a really awesome character actor who can do anything he wants to. I don't know if his oevre will be as quirky as Johnny Depp, whose work I love.
Episode III. As close as we'll ever get in Lucas's post-1980s world to a good Star Wars film. Still clunky, but at least the Emperor comes off interesting (by now he's clearly the only character in the prequels that is really all that interesting). Still, way too much deux ex machina. Anakin still seems to sort of abruptly become Darth Vader rather than a slow descent into evil (which is why I think the more natural transition would have been at the end of Episode II). The whole "my apprentice is in trouble" which gets the Emperor on a ship to fly to Vader's aid was the worst example. The ending was idiotic, the Darth Vader suit sequence seeming anticlimactic, and the whole bit about Padme dying not only ridiculously maudlin but making the Epside VI statement by Leia that she could still remember her mother rather odd, considering Luke didn't.
Episode III would provide the backbone to a potential "Mega Phantom Edit." Every important element that moved the plot forward in Episodes I and II could be told in flashback around the framework of Episode III.
The whole relationship between Padme and A
My first computer was a 5-slot original IBM PC. It was maxed to 640K, with two half-height 5.25" floppy drives. Eventually it got a 32MB (yes, Megabyte) floppy drive which was rescued from a fried "hard card" and mated with a RLL controller. My uncle was moving his CPA practice from Sherman Oaks to the Westside, and didn't want to move "a broken computer." The thing needed about $200 of fixes when I got it. He gave me a brand new Tandon orange-screen monitor with it. Anyone remember Hercules monochrome graphics? ^_^ Anyone remember 1200bps Everex internal ISA modems? Got myself in big trouble hanging out on BBSes that were enough distance to be toll calls.
If I hadn't made the damn fool mistake of trading the 5150 for a no-name XT clone with a Sanyo proc, I suspect it would still be in working order today.
13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
The bicep is close enough to this to give me pause. I would *never* consent to anything like that. I am not necessarily a believer, but I'm not going to take any chances.
Besides, I don't believe in recreational surgery.
Thanks to Taito and NBC/Universal, Oswald seems to be Big in Japan. Perhaps this is just an attempt by Disney to get a piece of the action on this kawaii revival.
...Disney raided from Termite Terrace to create Chicken Little. There's a fair amount of Tweety Bird in him too. Not the Bob Clampett sadistic Tweety, but the later super-cute, be-feathered Tweety.
End of an era. Stop.
Think about what Vista is going to do to the bottom end of the PC market - the Sempron-and-256M-and-integrated-graphics-for-$300- disasters. They're going to be wiped out.
No, on those machines, the contents of their hard drives will be "wiped out" and replaced with Ubuntu, Kubuntu, or any number of other "easy" Linux distributions.
Vista is going to spur a strong interest in alternatives. And Linux will be there, ready to unchain that Sempron and make it useful again.
My fearless prediction?
Nintendo commissions an exercise program that uses a controller you step on. Sound familiar? Only unlike DDR pads, this controller has a second level so that you can do something similar to step aerobics. Also unlike DDR, the music isn't hyperactive techno and J-Pop, but smooth Jazz and R&B. And Oprah's brand is all over the program.
Suddenly fitness-minded women all over America buy Nintendo Revolution consoles bundled with the step controller and Oprah's Fitness Dance Studio game. If Nintendo manages to get Revolution out in time for the Holiday Season this year, watch Sony and Microsoft get jealous as the Revolution gets a New Years Resolution-fueled spurt of sales just as PS3 and XBox 360 cool down.
I believe this is precisely what they were insinuating.
I don't necessarily *like* it, but it does seem to be what they were insinuating.
No mention of the absolute Worst. Star Wars tech. Ever. I suppose midichlorians are so bad they needn't be dignified with a debunking.
I nearly walked out on Episode I because of them. Reducing The Force to a symbiotic critter in your bloodstream is just plain wrong. I don't know what kind of crack Lucas was smoking when he came up with that concept. But I suspect it would do permanent brain damage, hence the quality of the Prequel Trilogy.
Lack of exposure to this substance would explain why Genndy Tartakovsky actually did a good job on the Clone Wars shorts.
Midichlorians. I hate those guys.
Someone mod this up.
And let me also mention that there are perfectly good agencies in existence to collect this "compulsory license," to use the term in US Federal law that made those horrible Radio "pirates" legal. ASCAP. BMI. SESAC. There are others, but those are the biggies. Most musicians who keep their publishing rights (as opposed to those who have signed them away as part of their record deal) are members of one of those three.
My husband's publishing is collected by BMI. They haven't done anything much *for* him, but they haven't done anything *against* him.
A "compulsory license" would cut the gordian knot of "piracy" and obviate the need for Digital Restrictions Management.
However, the RIAA and MPAA actually want MORE. They want to be able to collect RENT on your music. And this is beyond the pale.
Heya David...
John Lasseter has been given the post of Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation and Disney Imagineering (Theme Parks.)
I think he's got a job he can hang with now.
Michelle
Ronald Reagan made a big deal about his public religiosity, although to be fair, not as much as George W. Bush. So the first definition is right out. Reagan was also a major promoter of conventional morality, at least as defined by his Religious Right allies.
I think this prof isn't a liberal...he's an asshat who needs to take some remedial reading for comprehension courses.
I have had some professors whose political views were way far to the left of mine. But guess what? All of them, to a one, were more than happy to give me decent grades if I was able to back up my disagreements with their political views. I even had one prof who was quite literally a Communist and was pleased to let you know it and 100% open about it. I was a little frightened in the beginning that she would flunk me for my political views, which sit on the Political Compass at Economics: -4.63 Social Issues: -6.92.
Well, I got an A in her class, and I didn't even do the oral presentation of my paper because I got all crossed up about when the final was to be held. I've kept in touch with her, in fact. We disagree a lot, even now, but we respect each other. And on issues that really, really matter, we find more to agree upon than disagree.
I've yet to meet someone on the Right, however. Very odd. Closest thing was another prof who was staunchly pro-Israeli to the point of fanaticism. I suspect that folks that are on the Right tend to get jobs at political think tanks, in campaigns, and in business instead of going for a career as lacking in financial reward and respect as being a Community College or University Professor. You have to have motivations other than the Almighty Buck to put up with all the crap you get teaching for the money you make.
Then again, Kenneth Starr's the Dean of Pepperdine's College of Law, as I pointed out in an earlier post.
Read what David Horowitz himself had to say about it. And I don't mean the guy who was the consumer reporter on KNBC Channel 4 in Los Angeles, either.
In France and Belgium schools are not assigned to students and funded by a school district, basically the French and Belgian governments fund each student's education and the parents can send their kid to any school they please. Public school? Sure. Catholic school? Go right ahead. Yeshiva? Yes. Madrassa? Mais oui. Secular private school? You bet. If there was a Satan's School For Girls franchise in France or Belgium, you'd be able to send your kid there if you wanted to. The schools all have to meet standards for education. They have to teach to government standards.
The trouble with vouchers as they are implemented in the US is that usually voucher schools are not forced to meet the same standards as public schools. So you have egregious abuse, like schools where kids watch movies all day and play Monopoly and this only breaks for Bible Study. And some of the advocates for vouchers are familiar faces in places where white-only academies popped up as an alternative to mandated busing. And the voucher movement is very strongly wedded to the Religious Right.
A "funding follows the student" approach would be an interesting thing to try. I also think that the Charter Schools and "small schools/learning communities" movements have some possibilities. But there must be academic standards that all schools must measure up to. Even if those academic standards upset people who believe that Gawd created Life, the Universe and Everything in 6 literal days and that fossils are either remnants of the Flood or Satan's attempt to fool those of insufficient faith.
Ha ha! Cheese eating surrender monkeys can't do anything right! Or can they?
If the "money follows the student" model of funding education interests you (and they do it in Belgium too) then maybe you should also look into France's wonderful health care system. Does it work? Mais oui!
But then again...it's FRANCE!
Care for a Freedom Fry or a slice of Freedom Toast? ^_^
For those who can't hack the left-of-center politics at UCLA, I have two local suggestions for alternatives:
Alternative 1, for those wanting to study Political Science, Business or Law: Pepperdine, Malibu, CA.
Yes, you can study at a law school where Kenneth Starr is the Dean! And that's just the beginning. Pepperdine was founded by Southern Baptists and is almost thoroughly Conservative-run. Only the school of Education and Psychology (why am I not surprised?) harbors liberal rebel scum. If you avoid that bastion of hippie-dom, you are good to go. And besides, it's in Malibu. Righteous waves and babes in bikinis. You know you want it.
Alternative 2 for those wanting to get their Divinity degree: Biola, La Mirada, southern Los Angeles County, CA.
The Bible Institute Of Los Angeles has been known as the province of fire-breathing Fundamentalist Christians for about a century. You don't have to go to the Southeast and the Bible Belt to get that old time religious education, it's right there. Perhaps the only place more hardcore than Biola is Bob Jones University.
Both of these places are realistic alternatives for those who would rather not go to UCLA. I guarantee you, you will not have your precious Right-Wing political preferences challenged either place. You might have to pay more, because both of these are private institutions, but that wonderful feeling of not having to listen to grubby liberal eggheads spouting off with opinions that Rush and O'Reilly and Hannity tell you are "just plain wrong" is priceless, right? Right?
Small government conservatism is personified by Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, and is also represented by libertarians. However, there are other types of conservatives. You have social conservatives, who deeply belive in the government protection of morality. (That strand of conservatism flies in the face of Goldwater conservatism; Goldwater's catchphrase is "You can't legislate morality," after all).
You had me at Goldwater, you lost me at Reagan. Reagan was a social conservative who deeply believed in the government protection of morality. Reagan might not have been a Religious Right Winger by personal conviction, but he was certainly beloved by them. The Social Conservatives and the Neo-Conservative imperialists have hijacked "Conservatism." Conservatism wants to preserve what works, like the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the use of the National Guard and the Armed Forces Reserves primarily to handle domestic disasters and public enemies. Theirs is not Conservatism. Theirs is a radicalism of the Right.
Reagan started it all. If he wasn't a believer in what the Social-Cons and Neo-Cons were selling, he used their resources and their monies like he was. And ultimately he advanced their cause. He certainly didn't advance the cause of fiscal conservatism: he ran the deficit up to record heights now only topped by George W. Bush's hideously unbalanced budgets.
You are probably too young to know what it was like living during the Reagan Presidency, when it looked like nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union was right around the corner all the time. I don't know whether these troubled times are as bad or worse. But it sure feels the same or worse.
He just adds a "signing statement."
Where have recent Disney movies, including Chicken Little, failed?
Story.
What is John Lasseter the best at?
Story.
Why do the Pixar feature movies have ownage over Disney's output?
Story.
How is Lasseter going to save Disney's ass? He's going to give the Disney animators a master class in how to create a good story.
With John Lasseter running Disney Animation, I guarantee a renaissance there. Now if only he'd revive the Traditional Animation unit...sigh...
...is going down, Amelio stylee.
Resistance is futile. He will be assimilated.
...*BSD. Well, sort of, anyway...