May 09 2008
Archive for May, 2008
May 08 2008
From the Grindhouse…
Although grindhouse theaters were dwindling in the early 80’s, a common B-movie theme was still the out-of-control-juvenile-gangs-of-the-future theme. I remember seeing the trailer for this one back in 1982 when I went and saw The Road Warrior, and finally got around to watching it a few months ago, and it was a blast, lemme tell ya’ folks. Class of 1984 has got it all… a horrible song by Alice Cooper, a pubescent Michael J. Fox, angel dust, a teacher who cuts off a guy’s arm with a table saw, and one of the Van Pattens from “Eight is Enough”. What’s really hilarious as you watch this film is the main gang that’s scaring everybody is so pathetically non-scary. The leader (Van Patten) could easily have had his ass pulverized by the smallest guy on the football team, yet he practically runs the school. Perhaps it’s the sneer and the haircut, who knows? It’s really funny that this film came out in ‘82 and they figured things would have all of a sudden gotten this bad in only two years.. Then again, it was the era of Reagan so things did go downhill rather quickly:
May 06 2008
Olbermann rips Clinton
Just to let you know, it’ll probably be a bit light here at FBC over the next week or two. Lots of construction projects to finish, firewood to be harvested, and I started grad school this week. So bear with me and keep stopping by. In the meantime, have a look at this great Olbermann piece on Clinton’s continual moving of the goalposts. Here’s to hoping that today puts the nail in her coffin, although I’m not too optimistic on that account.
May 06 2008
Dumb All Over: Florida… again
What the hell is it with the educators in Florida? They keep trying to get ID in the classrooms, and ‘academic freedom’ nonsense that would allow teachers to basically teach whatever horseshit they wanted. And fear of wizardry. Yup, that’s what I said. A Florida substitute teacher has been fired for doing a little slight-of-hand trick that makes a toothpick disappear.
The trick requires a toothpick and transparent tape. A sleight-of-hand maneuver causes the toothpick to disappear then reappear. At least, so it seems. In reality, the toothpick hides behind the performer’s thumb, held in place by the tape.
“The whole thing lasted 45 seconds,” Piculas said.
He said the students liked the trick. He showed them how to do it so they could perform it at home.
One student in the Rushe Middle class apparently took the trick the wrong way, Piculas said. He said he was told the student became so traumatized that the student’s father complained.
As someone said in the comments on the article, “Someone needs to beat the shit out of that traumatized kid.” Now, apparently, other reasons were cited for his dismissal as well, but given that ‘wizardry’ statement, that may be a ruse. Given the widespread anti-intellectualism of the state, I wouldn’t be too surprised.
May 01 2008
From the Grindhouse…
It’s really funny how when you look at some of these films, they really just seem to be manifestations of all the many fears conservatives have had over the years but never seem to come to fruition. Crapping one’s pants seem sto be a prerequiste for being an American conservative. Afraid of people of color, gays, and young people, among other things. Such as the gals in Switchblade Sisters. I think I might have actually dated one of these fine ladies:
This one’s the religious right’s nightmare about a gay outlaw biker gang, The Pink Angels. From the days before political correctness was even a figment of the imagination:
May 01 2008
Back in the days when there was “journalism”
..or something similar. The Dem campaign has been increasingly painful for me as of late. This country is more screwed up with some serious problems than I can ever remember in my 37 years of existence and the most important issue of the day facing Americans is what Obama’s preacher said. I’m finding myself screaming at my computer monitor more and more lately. It’s unreal how unbelievably fucked up the media has become in the last decade, and even more is how much damage it’s enabled to happen to our country and the world at large.
I had mixed feelings about the Obama-going-on-Fox thing. This was compounded by the fact that I discovered last week that one of the people I’ve worked with for over 10 years, a regular Fox-watcher actually believes that “al-Qaeda has gotten to Obama. He’s in with them.”
Silly me for thinking these kinds of people only lurked in the right-wingnutosphere of blogland. When she said this, I could only respond, “I’m sorry.” My point is that the majority of Fox-watchers already have their minds made up, irregardless of “facts”, which more often than not, they can’t seem to bother themselves with anyways. So, I didn’t see real net advantage to Obama going on there.
It was this context that apparently prompted an exceptional diary over at Open Left today that examined the radical change in the media now that the well-oiled right wing infrastructure is in place. Now, you really need to go read the article, called “The Impact of Presidential Candidates On the Media OR What Obama Should Have Done on Fox News”, but have a look here at the example he gives… Dan Rather’s grilling of then-candidate George H.W. Bush about his bullshitting on his role in Iran-Contra. The first segment offers some background, and the second is the interview. Rather tears Bush a new asshole and doesn’t let him control the agenda:
As the diary points out succinctly. can you even imagine a journalist questioning someone in position of power like that, unless it came from the right-wing spin angle? It shocked the hell out of me, lemme tell ya. And I don’t think we’ll ever see something like this again, as the ‘journalists’ are more concerned about Laura Bush cooking on the Today show or some teen flavor-of-the-month feeling guilty for showing a bare shoulder on a photo-shoot. Oh, and flag pins. Gotta have flag pins, very important.
Can you imagine a reporter questioning Bush or McCain like this and not letting them off the hook? Neither can I. The ones that would, like Amy Goodman and such don’t have the access or the platform to make it happen.
Posts
