Taking John Cleese, Peter Cook et al (circa 1964) to a whole new level, that's just about as audaciously geek-deep as one can get, and graces the human race with additional redemption points, I congratulate you, sir, on behalf of the rest of us.
And everyone knows that every time you burn a DVD, your dead uncle is watching you.
You bastard! I just ruined yet another keyboard. Goddamn it, why do I insist on drinking beer while reading Slashdot? While ripping the DVDs (about kittens and stuff, you really rather not know) I inherited from my uncle?
Whenever the bank, phone company or any other large corporation sends me a form letter that begins along the lines of "In order to provide a better service to you, our valued customer...", immediately I recoil, 'cause I know I'm just about to be hit with some sort of diminished service.
Take the airliners a decade and a half ago. "In order to provide a better service to you, our valued customer, we will eliminate the olive from the salad in our in-flight meal", all because some smart ass junior exec figured out that the airliner could save up to twenty thousand dollars a year, from a budget of billions, by eliminating the olives. Slippery slope from there, pretty soon the whole salad was gone, and all we were left with was boiled peas, know what I mean?
On the contrary the internet makes knowing 'facts' irrelevant, no one has to memorise information anymore. It's the process of information interpretation that is becoming more important than the knowing of information. The internet is making us smarter.
Agreed. The internet is a tool, whether it makes us smarter or dumber depends on the person who's using it. Before the internet, whoever was using encyclopedias or buying People magazine (or Larry Flint's Hustler, which had astonishingly good journalistic articles, BTW), is still doing so, only more efficiently.
Among many other things, the internet allows me to get dumb little details out of my mind, such as - "Who was such and such actor in what film?" I look it up in IMDb, and just like that, that nagging, distracting little detail is fully satisfied. And then, I've lost count on how many excellent BBC documentaries I've seen on Google Video, which I wouldn't have access to otherwise. It's the proverbial Library Of Alexandria, and then some.
There's always the danger of dumbing down, of course. I've made it a personal rule to never, ever use the internets, no matter how strong the temptation, to help me solve the NYT Sunday crossword, for example.
Democrats should get rid of the Socialists, Enviro-Radicals, and Hollywood liberals if they want to clean up their party.
Sure, why not. The Radicals and the Sharon Stones are few and noisy. But which Socialists? Where are they? Last time I checked, Labor Unions were cut off at the knees. If anything, corporate capitalism is unhinged.
Take a look at many of Richard Nixon's domestic accomplishments during his presidency, he seems positively pinko even by today's Democrat standards. The shift to the right has been so massive in the United States that even right-leaning moderates (such as HRC) are regarded by the "general populace" (the proverbial "boiling frogs") as pseudo-socialists, and with each right-wing "victory", the "pinko bar" shifts along ever further in their eyes, until they're decrying reds in their beds for the most absurdly microscopic details, even as they ignore the fact that their children are blissfully sucking on Chinese toys with lead paint, which BTW entered the United States unimpeded and unchecked, all for the sake of (all together now:) Capitalism.
They need to purge all the religious zealots, war mongers, and lobbyist puppets.
Zealots and mongers are damaged people who live and die by irrational ideology, but lobbyists are looking for practical gain, and may possibly be the least difficult to emasculate under the current circumstances. Let me explain:
Corporate money has such a powerful influence in Washington because their contribution money is essential for the way general election campaigns are run - concentrate the money on a few key states, such as Ohio and Florida, possibly tinker with the Diebolds and Sequoias, and voilá, you have the corporate kingmaker, and the return of investment is always massive. They have the game, under the current techniques, by the balls. Rinse and repeat, over and over again, every few years.
If Obama pulls a few surprises with his current strategy, a well organized grass-roots movement in all fifty states, the risk/return of investment for corporations will become too lopsided. Sure, they'll finance Florida and Ohio with a nod and a wink, but twenty or thirty other states, with no clear outcome? Yes, lobbyists will still be in Washington like a swarm of flies, but no, they won't be the anointers of elected politicians. As a result, their influence diminishes. (The pessimistic retort - until they figure out a way to exploit and manipulate the new paradigm).
The pipe dream is for the Electoral College to be dissolved. Here's a novel idea - the person elected president should do it by the majority of the popular vote, period!
He's dirty as fuck, more corrupt than a Louisiana politician.
Appropriate analogy! McCain was eating cake with Bush as New Orleans, Louisiana drowned. While people were dying in one of the greatest natural catastrophes in US history, McCain and Bush were licking delicious sugar icing off each other's noses!
But honestly, I don't think he stands a chance. Democratic voters are voting with their hearts and not their heads.
While it's apparent that fifty and sixty-something Reagan democrats voted for Bush, and this year it's Hillary or McCain for them, they may not have the power to disappoint us again. They've controlled the political landscape for three decades and it's ripe time to see them shocked into irrelevancy. By virtue of Obama winning the nomination, the greatest mobilization of young voters in United States history will occur this November. Imagine how the boomers will react by not getting their fucking way for the first time in three fucking decades! Reagan democrats, meet porch and water hose, this is your sentry and tool from now on. Now stay there until you're called in for your meatloaf dinner.
So Obama supporters have voted with their hearts and aren't realizing how idealistic they are being.
You have to keep in mind that the supposition you're making functions within the parameters of the old paradigm, even as a new one is being created through Obama's state-by-state, supremely well organized grass-roots operation. In fact, nothing like it has ever been seen before. Most so-called "experts" on TV, radio and printed media were stunned when Obama swept up Iowa, wavered and opened their minds for a minute or two, but now they're predictably back to the stale old punditry, even as important developments are bubbling under the radar, such as the grass-roots campaign, and this other tidbit - while the heads of many megachurches still trumpet the republican cause, a very large number of smaller congregations have quietly repudiated it.
Don't underestimate this man. That's what many people did in December and early January. And don't underestimate the damage done by Bush/Cheney and gang to their own party. The timing is exquisite for another voter-driven paradigm shift in the political landscape (Reagan was unfortunately the last one). My take on it, is that history will never forgive us if we don't seize the extraordinary moment.
And how about that Falun Gong? The problem is that they were dumb enough to actually try it.
Profane MothaFucka, anybody who knows The Clash, quotes their lyrics in any form and/or anyplace, is OK in my book:
This is a public service announcement With guitar Know your rights all three of them
Number 1 You have the right not to be killed Murder is a crime! Unless it was done by a Policeman or aristocrat Know your rights
And number 2 You have the right to food money Providing of course you Dont mind a little Investigation, humiliation And if you cross your fingers Rehabilitation
Know your rights These are your rights Wang
Know these rights
Number 3 You have the right to free Speech as long as you're not Dumb enough to actually try it.
Know your rights These are your rights All three of em It has been suggested In some quarters that this is not enough!
It's OK. Just take your soma and have a nice holiday. Everything will be alright.
Funny, last time I checked, I've been resisting soma for the last seven years.
I've lived a bit and have experienced our world for what it really is.
All hail our supposititious messiah... or else! I guess Obama is my pick for prez because I'm looking for a fresh approach, at the risk of being obvious and maybe even stereotypical. At this point, gimme the youngest Baby Boomer available, maybe he/she will be closer to enlightenment! So far, the post-war kids (Bushes and Clintons) have been declaring the throne theirs, for the last twenty years, by divine choosing in one way or another.
American government urgently needs to get weird again. When he gets to the White House, Obama gets no pass from me, the highest tribute a paid official can get from an educated citizen: I'm looking at you.
I have absolutely no idea what you're trying to say. It's nonsensical, if anything you're describing the Bush administration, and your post should read If you agree with this sort of thing, you should vote Bush. Get your brown shirts out! You'll need them.
But then again, political effervescence brings out the irrational in people, even some true Slashdot veterans, and within minutes your post was modded Troll.
Absolutely right, and extreme old habits die extremely hard. The old Chinese curse is "May your children live in interesting times", which translates to "May your children live when the government is actively engaged".
I agree that Rolling Stone is mostly padded with disposable fluff. But they always take their journalism seriously, so it's a great, subversive starting point for a good chunk of young people: buy the issue for their article on Panic At The Disco, then when you're bored, end up reading the article on how the Bush government has deregulated industrial pollution. And suddenly, shazam! A spark has gone off in your mind and your curiosity is piqued, and you've begun your life's journey as a conscious citizen.
You know what the Greek term is for the citizen who does not participate in public affairs? Idiotis. Rolling Stone has planted the seed to obliterate the idiotis for a huge amount of people.
- Stalinism wasn't Communist, it was Stalinism. In that regard, whatever China's government practices, it's not Communism. - Communism on paper was never about putting antifreeze in toothpaste or lead in child toy's paint. That's the exact opposite, Xtreme Capitalism.
It's heartbreaking how the least enlightened people end up running so many countries, and that goes for China present and past, too.
Ever heard about The Great Sparrow Campaign? In the late fifties, the Mao government decided that sparrows, who ate seeds, were a public menace and implemented a nationwide campaign to kill the sparrows. They succeded, by having the population bang pots and pans in the streets, keeping the sparrows in the air until they dropped dead from exhaustion.
As a result, locusts flourished, with their natural predator virtually gone, devastating the countryside, generating a famine that killed, by most estimates, between 35 and 40 million Chinese. All of it covered up, of course, there is not a single photograph that documents this massive catastrophe, even in the second half of the XX Century.
Another fine example of unthinkably ignorant and incompetent government at work, in full effect, and never mind the symbolic Communist tag.
Fortunately, somebody had the vision to warn us about this sort of thing, sixty years ago. I'm willing to bet that in China, a land where the government censors almost everything in sight, Orwell is banned.
BTW, has 1984 ever been translated into Mandarin? If so, whoever did it, that person should have a statue erected in every Chinatown in the western world, just like Dr Sun Yat-Sen eventually in Shanghai and Beijing.
Since nothing that is observed is happening at the time of the observation, real time is as good a term as any.
Ooh, that was good, and just about closes the book on the whole argument. In fact, now that you mention it that way, a lot of things are starting to make more sense. Words to live by.
Every once in a while, when I'm drunk at 3 in the morning and everyone else has gone to sleep, I pop Return Of The Jedi into the DVD player and watch the final battle, keeping the remote handy to skip the Ewok sequences, and damn if it isn't an unrelenting, sublimely dark piece of mythology and parable of redemption, even though I have to bypass Leia, Solo and Chewie's participation in the proceedings.
What, did Lucas insert some teddy bears because he thought it would be "too intense" for us? I beg to disagree, intensity taken up a few notches is exactly what Empire Strikes Back demanded of the next film!
Watch the re-edit again, with the audio commentary on. It's a great insight into how a story should be told on film, as well as an accurate critique of George Lucas breaking most of the rules that he himself publicly swore by, back in the Original Trilogy days.
Case in point, on several occasions The Phantom Menace repeats itself three times - "Let's split up and meet back up on the surface", then they proceed to split up and meet back up on the surface, then the Federation guys say "They probably split up and met back up on the surface". Was that last sentence tedious reading? Well that's what you saw on film! And made it drag on much longer than it should, or at least left out room for character development and/or subplots that could have given us a broader view of the Star Wars universe.
Then there's the gratuitous Jar Jar slapstick, always happening in the background, distracting from the story trying to be told and advanced.
There are many more examples. The re-edit was a great piece of work on several levels.
I'm pretty sure you're right, Red Dawn was the first, and that was in August of 1984, while Temple was May or June of that same year, hence the confusion, due to proximity.
Slashdot Mirror
Taking John Cleese, Peter Cook et al (circa 1964) to a whole new level, that's just about as audaciously geek-deep as one can get, and graces the human race with additional redemption points, I congratulate you, sir, on behalf of the rest of us.
You bastard! I just ruined yet another keyboard. Goddamn it, why do I insist on drinking beer while reading Slashdot? While ripping the DVDs (about kittens and stuff, you really rather not know) I inherited from my uncle?
Whenever the bank, phone company or any other large corporation sends me a form letter that begins along the lines of "In order to provide a better service to you, our valued customer...", immediately I recoil, 'cause I know I'm just about to be hit with some sort of diminished service.
Take the airliners a decade and a half ago. "In order to provide a better service to you, our valued customer, we will eliminate the olive from the salad in our in-flight meal", all because some smart ass junior exec figured out that the airliner could save up to twenty thousand dollars a year, from a budget of billions, by eliminating the olives. Slippery slope from there, pretty soon the whole salad was gone, and all we were left with was boiled peas, know what I mean?
On the contrary the internet makes knowing 'facts' irrelevant, no one has to memorise information anymore. It's the process of information interpretation that is becoming more important than the knowing of information.
The internet is making us smarter.
Agreed. The internet is a tool, whether it makes us smarter or dumber depends on the person who's using it. Before the internet, whoever was using encyclopedias or buying People magazine (or Larry Flint's Hustler, which had astonishingly good journalistic articles, BTW), is still doing so, only more efficiently.
Among many other things, the internet allows me to get dumb little details out of my mind, such as - "Who was such and such actor in what film?" I look it up in IMDb, and just like that, that nagging, distracting little detail is fully satisfied. And then, I've lost count on how many excellent BBC documentaries I've seen on Google Video, which I wouldn't have access to otherwise. It's the proverbial Library Of Alexandria, and then some.
There's always the danger of dumbing down, of course. I've made it a personal rule to never, ever use the internets, no matter how strong the temptation, to help me solve the NYT Sunday crossword, for example.
Democrats should get rid of the Socialists, Enviro-Radicals, and Hollywood liberals if they want to clean up their party.
Sure, why not. The Radicals and the Sharon Stones are few and noisy. But which Socialists? Where are they? Last time I checked, Labor Unions were cut off at the knees. If anything, corporate capitalism is unhinged.
Take a look at many of Richard Nixon's domestic accomplishments during his presidency, he seems positively pinko even by today's Democrat standards. The shift to the right has been so massive in the United States that even right-leaning moderates (such as HRC) are regarded by the "general populace" (the proverbial "boiling frogs") as pseudo-socialists, and with each right-wing "victory", the "pinko bar" shifts along ever further in their eyes, until they're decrying reds in their beds for the most absurdly microscopic details, even as they ignore the fact that their children are blissfully sucking on Chinese toys with lead paint, which BTW entered the United States unimpeded and unchecked, all for the sake of (all together now:) Capitalism.
They need to purge all the religious zealots, war mongers, and lobbyist puppets.
Zealots and mongers are damaged people who live and die by irrational ideology, but lobbyists are looking for practical gain, and may possibly be the least difficult to emasculate under the current circumstances. Let me explain:
Corporate money has such a powerful influence in Washington because their contribution money is essential for the way general election campaigns are run - concentrate the money on a few key states, such as Ohio and Florida, possibly tinker with the Diebolds and Sequoias, and voilá, you have the corporate kingmaker, and the return of investment is always massive. They have the game, under the current techniques, by the balls. Rinse and repeat, over and over again, every few years.
If Obama pulls a few surprises with his current strategy, a well organized grass-roots movement in all fifty states, the risk/return of investment for corporations will become too lopsided. Sure, they'll finance Florida and Ohio with a nod and a wink, but twenty or thirty other states, with no clear outcome? Yes, lobbyists will still be in Washington like a swarm of flies, but no, they won't be the anointers of elected politicians. As a result, their influence diminishes. (The pessimistic retort - until they figure out a way to exploit and manipulate the new paradigm).
The pipe dream is for the Electoral College to be dissolved. Here's a novel idea - the person elected president should do it by the majority of the popular vote, period!
He's dirty as fuck, more corrupt than a Louisiana politician.
Appropriate analogy! McCain was eating cake with Bush as New Orleans, Louisiana drowned. While people were dying in one of the greatest natural catastrophes in US history, McCain and Bush were licking delicious sugar icing off each other's noses!
But honestly, I don't think he stands a chance. Democratic voters are voting with their hearts and not their heads.
While it's apparent that fifty and sixty-something Reagan democrats voted for Bush, and this year it's Hillary or McCain for them, they may not have the power to disappoint us again. They've controlled the political landscape for three decades and it's ripe time to see them shocked into irrelevancy. By virtue of Obama winning the nomination, the greatest mobilization of young voters in United States history will occur this November. Imagine how the boomers will react by not getting their fucking way for the first time in three fucking decades! Reagan democrats, meet porch and water hose, this is your sentry and tool from now on. Now stay there until you're called in for your meatloaf dinner.
So Obama supporters have voted with their hearts and aren't realizing how idealistic they are being.
You have to keep in mind that the supposition you're making functions within the parameters of the old paradigm, even as a new one is being created through Obama's state-by-state, supremely well organized grass-roots operation. In fact, nothing like it has ever been seen before. Most so-called "experts" on TV, radio and printed media were stunned when Obama swept up Iowa, wavered and opened their minds for a minute or two, but now they're predictably back to the stale old punditry, even as important developments are bubbling under the radar, such as the grass-roots campaign, and this other tidbit - while the heads of many megachurches still trumpet the republican cause, a very large number of smaller congregations have quietly repudiated it.
Don't underestimate this man. That's what many people did in December and early January. And don't underestimate the damage done by Bush/Cheney and gang to their own party. The timing is exquisite for another voter-driven paradigm shift in the political landscape (Reagan was unfortunately the last one). My take on it, is that history will never forgive us if we don't seize the extraordinary moment.
And how about that Falun Gong? The problem is that they were dumb enough to actually try it.
Profane MothaFucka, anybody who knows The Clash, quotes their lyrics in any form and/or anyplace, is OK in my book:
This is a public service announcement
With guitar
Know your rights all three of them
Number 1
You have the right not to be killed
Murder is a crime!
Unless it was done by a
Policeman or aristocrat
Know your rights
And number 2
You have the right to food money
Providing of course you
Dont mind a little
Investigation, humiliation
And if you cross your fingers
Rehabilitation
Know your rights
These are your rights
Wang
Know these rights
Number 3
You have the right to free
Speech as long as you're not
Dumb enough to actually try it.
Know your rights
These are your rights
All three of em
It has been suggested
In some quarters that this is not enough!
Get off the streets
Get off the streets
Run
Refuting a point I've just refuted, within the same argument I'm refuting.
Illustrative. Typical. Boring. An0nymous.
Funny, last time I checked, I've been resisting soma for the last seven years. I've lived a bit and have experienced our world for what it really is.
All hail our supposititious messiah... or else! I guess Obama is my pick for prez because I'm looking for a fresh approach, at the risk of being obvious and maybe even stereotypical. At this point, gimme the youngest Baby Boomer available, maybe he/she will be closer to enlightenment! So far, the post-war kids (Bushes and Clintons) have been declaring the throne theirs, for the last twenty years, by divine choosing in one way or another.
American government urgently needs to get weird again. When he gets to the White House, Obama gets no pass from me, the highest tribute a paid official can get from an educated citizen: I'm looking at you.
I have absolutely no idea what you're trying to say. It's nonsensical, if anything you're describing the Bush administration, and your post should read If you agree with this sort of thing, you should vote Bush. Get your brown shirts out! You'll need them.
But then again, political effervescence brings out the irrational in people, even some true Slashdot veterans, and within minutes your post was modded Troll.
Absolutely right, and extreme old habits die extremely hard. The old Chinese curse is "May your children live in interesting times", which translates to "May your children live when the government is actively engaged".
I agree that Rolling Stone is mostly padded with disposable fluff. But they always take their journalism seriously, so it's a great, subversive starting point for a good chunk of young people: buy the issue for their article on Panic At The Disco, then when you're bored, end up reading the article on how the Bush government has deregulated industrial pollution. And suddenly, shazam! A spark has gone off in your mind and your curiosity is piqued, and you've begun your life's journey as a conscious citizen.
You know what the Greek term is for the citizen who does not participate in public affairs? Idiotis. Rolling Stone has planted the seed to obliterate the idiotis for a huge amount of people.
I just remembered what the proper term is: Totalitarianism. Whether Capitalist, Communist or whatever, it's always bad news for everyone.
These are Communists in name only, on two fronts:
- Stalinism wasn't Communist, it was Stalinism. In that regard, whatever China's government practices, it's not Communism.
- Communism on paper was never about putting antifreeze in toothpaste or lead in child toy's paint. That's the exact opposite, Xtreme Capitalism.
It's heartbreaking how the least enlightened people end up running so many countries, and that goes for China present and past, too.
Ever heard about The Great Sparrow Campaign? In the late fifties, the Mao government decided that sparrows, who ate seeds, were a public menace and implemented a nationwide campaign to kill the sparrows. They succeded, by having the population bang pots and pans in the streets, keeping the sparrows in the air until they dropped dead from exhaustion.
As a result, locusts flourished, with their natural predator virtually gone, devastating the countryside, generating a famine that killed, by most estimates, between 35 and 40 million Chinese. All of it covered up, of course, there is not a single photograph that documents this massive catastrophe, even in the second half of the XX Century.
Another fine example of unthinkably ignorant and incompetent government at work, in full effect, and never mind the symbolic Communist tag.
Oops, missed a comma between "Dr Sun Yat-Sen" and "eventually".
Fortunately, somebody had the vision to warn us about this sort of thing, sixty years ago. I'm willing to bet that in China, a land where the government censors almost everything in sight, Orwell is banned.
BTW, has 1984 ever been translated into Mandarin? If so, whoever did it, that person should have a statue erected in every Chinatown in the western world, just like Dr Sun Yat-Sen eventually in Shanghai and Beijing.
Since nothing that is observed is happening at the time of the observation, real time is as good a term as any.
Ooh, that was good, and just about closes the book on the whole argument.
In fact, now that you mention it that way, a lot of things are starting to make more sense.
Words to live by.
Every once in a while, when I'm drunk at 3 in the morning and everyone else has gone to sleep, I pop Return Of The Jedi into the DVD player and watch the final battle, keeping the remote handy to skip the Ewok sequences, and damn if it isn't an unrelenting, sublimely dark piece of mythology and parable of redemption, even though I have to bypass Leia, Solo and Chewie's participation in the proceedings.
What, did Lucas insert some teddy bears because he thought it would be "too intense" for us? I beg to disagree, intensity taken up a few notches is exactly what Empire Strikes Back demanded of the next film!
Watch the re-edit again, with the audio commentary on. It's a great insight into how a story should be told on film, as well as an accurate critique of George Lucas breaking most of the rules that he himself publicly swore by, back in the Original Trilogy days.
Case in point, on several occasions The Phantom Menace repeats itself three times - "Let's split up and meet back up on the surface", then they proceed to split up and meet back up on the surface, then the Federation guys say "They probably split up and met back up on the surface". Was that last sentence tedious reading? Well that's what you saw on film! And made it drag on much longer than it should, or at least left out room for character development and/or subplots that could have given us a broader view of the Star Wars universe.
Then there's the gratuitous Jar Jar slapstick, always happening in the background, distracting from the story trying to be told and advanced.
There are many more examples. The re-edit was a great piece of work on several levels.
Then there's the older stuff that one discovers in later years, blowing most of the newer stuff out of the water:
- Excalibur (1981) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082348/
- Get Carter (1971) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067128/
- Le Samourai (1968) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062229/
- The Wicker Man (1973) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070917/
- The Day Of The Jackal (1973) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069947/
- Performance (1971) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066214/
And for popcorn, violent rock n' roll sci-fi action, there's
- The Hidden (1987) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093185/
The list can go on and on, it is long and distinguished.
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream,
Merrily merrily merrily merrily,
Life is but a dream.
Aaaaaaargh!
I'm pretty sure you're right, Red Dawn was the first, and that was in August of 1984, while Temple was May or June of that same year, hence the confusion, due to proximity.
Here's a guy who hates almost everything - Duncan Shepherd of the San Diego Reader:
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/movies/reviews/