Ursus Pacificus

Here it comes again. Super Bowl season.

It’s almost as bad as Christmas… In fact, in some respects, it’s worse. If you don’t like Christmas, all you really have to do is say ,”Bah-humbug!”. Then the fans call you a Scrooge. Everybody knows their place, and gets on with their day.

With football, if you tell a fan you won’t be watching the Super Bowl, suddenly you’re a commie. You’re anti-American. If you go so far as to mention why you won’t be watching the game… Like it’s a freakish amalgam socially sanitized brutality, shameless commercial exploitation, and some kind of sex thing I’m at a loss to describe…. Well, then you’re among the lowest of the low, and probably need to be killed.

Star, Star, Star, Star, St

Generally I’m not a Jack Black fan. We can set that to the side. Ben Stiller can be a mixed bag. He wins here. Robert Downey Jr…. I kinda liked him before this. He was brilliant here. Jay Baruchel and Brandon T. Jackson filled out the “platoon” really well. Steve Coogan … don’t really know his work prior to this, but he did a great job here.

Lighting, camera, sound, music… spfx, makeup… locations… even the story… Excellent.

The gore… the explosions… Lovely… and then there’s the fearlessness. Excellent.

…Although, I have to say I thought the comedic “actors thrust into the reality of their play” thing was a little better executed in Galaxy Quest…

All in all… four and a half out of five stars.

… Oh, and Tom Cruise.

Holy Crappe! A Dummyhead Rehearsal Video!

See and hear Paul Tourville rehearsing vocal and guitar parts for the Dummyhead staple “PickThumb BooBoo” in the Studio at Broadside Ranch! Such excrement! … EXCITEMENT!!!… excitement!

Apparently there has been a fevered rash of updates on Wikipedia to replace every reference to “President George W. Bush” with “Former President George W. Bush”.

I saw one of them, and sighed. He’s gone. Wow. I guess I can take that “1-20-09″ bumper sticker off my car, now.

Despite the difficulty this brings to Jon Stewart and Bill Maher’s jobs, I’m glad he’s gone.

“Former President George W. Bush”… It has a nice ring to it. Not as nice as “Former Presidential hopeful, George W. Bush”, but it’ll do. It will do.

Some notes regarding the Obama inauguration:

• Dick Cheney pulled a muscle in his back … moving… oh… kaaaay…and THAT’s why he was in a wheelchair….
• W enters the capital… nervous smirk.
• Bush 41 looks like hell.
• Jimmy carter still looks spry
• W comes down the stars… I’m guessing he’s glad it’s over.
• Here comes Biden… Plugs look good, Joe!
• That’s a lot of people.
• Obabma already looks a little tired.
• I’m watching the inauguration on CNN.com… they have this facebook thing where people can update their status, and have it show up next to the video feed…. is the world really that superficial?! “The girls are so cute!” eek.
• Diane Feinstein… eloquent.. right up until “God bless America”
• Rick Warren… EEEEK!!! HE MENTIONED JESUS!!! AAAIIGH!!! Rick! You weren’t supposed to mention JESUS!!!
• Aretha!! That’s some HAT!!… and… shall we… let it … ring? At least she didn’t sing “God Bless America”.
• Biden’s oath…. long-ish pause there, Mr. Justice, your honor, sir…
• Caption on CNN: “Itzakh Perlman: Musician” no shit. He’s playing a violin.
• Caption on CNN: “Anthony McGill: Musician” Really?! I never would’ve guessed.
• I’m hoping Ma and Perlman didn’t bring their prime axes out on a day like this.. I’ve seen what a cold day can to do a wooden instrument. It’s not pretty
• Here it comes.
• Roberts is really tripping over himself. I would’ve thought he would have rehearsed.
• Artillery salute: Kaboom!
• Speech. I’m glad the crowd calmed down quickly.
• Oooh… reaction shot of Bush… after BHO mentioned the fallacious choice between security and liberty. He’s not exactly happy.
• Humility and restraint?! That’s novel!
• Good speech. Fairly frank. Concise. Not as goddy as I’d feared.
• Poet. Clunky … list … of … vapid … inanity … haltingly … delivered. That was painful.
• Oh… benediction. Good.
• Joe Lowry seems just on the edge of being visible over the podium, and teetering on the brink of being intelligible.
• The mall is a disaster area. Pack out your trash, people!

As much as the rich, creamy base of political satire will likely suffer over the next four years, I have to say, “I’ll gladly take that over what we’ve endured for the last 8.”

Bush left The Capitol this afternoon, and there was palpable sense that everyone in DC was thinking, “K, bye.” … that is assuming they gave him that much consideration. Certainly, no one interested in the inauguration was sorry to see him go. I didn’t even get the impression that anyone even noticed… or cared.

Apparently, when he arrived in Midland, TX, there was a “crowd” waiting to greet him. He told them, “It’s good to be home.” Well, George, I can honestly say, it’s good to have you home. …as opposed to having you in the White House, setting policy.

According to this story, PBXVI (my endearing nickname for the con-artist formerly known as John Ratzinger (itself, a rather amusing name)) will be getting his own “channel” on Google. I’m not entirely sure what that means… A YouTube channel? Hell I have one of those.

So, here is another example of goddy, faith-based religions employing science (or the fruits of scientific labors) to deepen and broaden the suffocating stranglehold they have on the minds of the credulous. It’s disingenuous and highly irritating.

“But…” you might say, “Aren’t you using the Internet to promulgate your own religion?! Isn’t that more than a little disingenuous? Perhaps even hypocritical?”

Yes I am, and no, it’s not. The online meta-parody “ha-ha, only serious” religion I founded has no foundation in “faith”. As we all know, faith (the acceptance of a proposition without supporting evidence) is not compatible with the philosophical underpinnings of science (skepticism, inquiry, methodical investigation, and objective analysis). The Church of No, Thanks openly embraces scientific skepticism and curiosity, and can do so honestly, because The Church of No, Thanks makes no claims, which are inconsistent with the honest, active pursuit of knowledge (unlike some churches I could mention).

PBXVI, on the other hand, has been painted into a rather unpleasant corner. As science has advanced gods have been pushed further and further into the margins. To continue to appear relevant in a world which seems to require a “vicar of Christ on Earth” less and less, the Pope can either dismiss science and cut his group off from science and its teachings (while agonizingly impractical, it at least has the benefit of being self-consistent) or he can minimally and selectively embrace science and its teachings (which makes the church seem more “with it”, but less intellectually honest (or, put another way, more fraudulent)). The Catholic Church has, over the last century or so, cautiously, but clumsily, tiptoed down the latter path. Of course, the further down this path the Pope goes, the harder it is to answer critics who question the infallibility and rectitude of the Papacy through history, when the Church’s official position has slowly morphed to concede the “reality high ground” to scientifically grounded discoveries, leaving the Church less and less to be right about on their own say-so.

What makes this even more difficult to swallow is that PBXVI is the guy who basically is moving to undo Vatican II (although he claims he isn’t). He seeks to restore the “traditional Latin Mass” … so he’s trying to move in two directions at once… he’s bringing back the crusty, decayed, alienating side of Catholicism, while trying to engage the youth via the Internet. Presumably this Internet campaign will draw in the kids and 20-somethings , only to have them turned away by the priest’s back and droning Latin incantations. Good thinking!

Eh, the whole thing is becoming a sad, pathetic side show.

You may recall my post from last December about Li’l Adolph and his B-day cake… well… Adolph and his two Nazi-themed sisters have been removed from the home of their parents by the New Jersey DYFS.

BTW… sorry about the FoxNews link, there…

Anyway… firstly, I can’t say I’m especially surprised.

Secondly, I thought this would have happened sooner.

“DYFS has their reasons and they normally don’t release any information, so we kind of have to go on faith with them”
— Sgt. John Harris of the Holland Township, NJ, Police Department

What the hell is that?! A cop telling us to take it on faith?!?!?! Um.. how about “rules of evidence” Sgt Harris? How about the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven?! Does all that go out the window? Yeah, I’m sure Li’l Hitler and his SS-Sisters will be far better off in the hands of the state… or in a foster home. That usually works out well, wouldn’t you say?

This just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

Back in 2006, I posted a rant about news people either calling events miracles, or letting other people get away with it unchecked.

Well, yesterday, a very skilled US Airways pilot dead-stick landed his A320 in the Hudson River with no loss of life. Good job! Kudos! A miracle? I think not.

Yet the Governor of New York, David Paterson, seems to feel he is qualified to make just that determination, and declared the landing a “miracle on the Hudson”.

Here are some events that would (or could) have been miracles:

• Birds, about to be sucked into the engine, would vanish briefly and reappear where they had been after the plane had safely passed them by
• The plane, about to fly through a flock of birds, would vanish briefly and reappear safely beyond the birds
• The plane, having had its engines disabled by the multiple bird strikes, actually makes it to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, despite the airport being far outside the plane’s glide path, and such a landing being impossible within the confines of the laws of physics
• The engines, after aspirating some unknown number of birds, self destruct, fail, then regenerate and operate normally for the rest of the flight
• With the plane about to crash in the Hudson River, all 155 passengers, 3 flight attendants and 2 pilots suddenly find themselves back at La Guardia, safe and sound
• I could go on like this for hours

Please. Before you start declaring things to be miracles, find out what the definition of “miracle” is, and brush up on your high school physics, chem and bio. That’s all I’ve got going for me, and I’m way ahead of the Governor of New York on this one.

The Ascent of Money, a (looks like) 2-hour program on the origins, evolution and current state of money and finance. The preceding link points to the page on PBS.org, where you can watch the whole thing.

I found it very interesting. I was also very satisfied with Niall Ferguson harping on the idea that the value of modern money is entirely dependent on the the faith of those exchanging it in its having value.

I was also satisfied with the frankness of the discussion of World War II’s impact on the US economy, and the post-war period, with the “expansion of the ‘American Dream’” (i.e. expanded home ownership). Of course, frank discussions of such periods, especially when talking about the financial standing of individuals (or groups of individuals) really can’t help touching on race. As an example, Ferguson touches on a region in Detriot, MI, where poor African Americans were concentrated and walled off. The ostensible reason for the segregation was creditworthiness, but Ferguson points to racism as the root of the problem.

One viewer commented:

01/14/2009 :: 12:04:23 AM
Former Contributor to PBS Says:

The racism of this program takes away from the message. Mr. Ferguson made it seem as if the current mortgage crisis is due to minority homeowners, particularly in Detroit and Memphis. The camera shots of minorities further supported his theory. Mr. Ferguson should have looked further to Florida, Arizona and Nevada where white homeowners were defaulting in waves. The problem was that many people, whites included, bought homes that they couldn’t afford. If there truly were loans for people with no jobs, income, and bad credit, then everyone would have a home now. And that surely isn’t true.

Well… I think “Former Contributor to PBS” may be reading a little much into this. A), It seems to me that, in order for the program to inform you, it must contain some information you don’t already know. Perhaps the example presented by the situation in Memphis (or Detroit) is so complete and so extreme as to be an excellent “example”. B) White homeowners in CA, AZ, and NV may be defaulting in waves, but I’d be willing to bet you that most of them are gainfully employed, but just stupid (i.e. have overextended themselves and gotten into debt loads they were only tenuously capable of supporting going forward) as opposed to poor people being preyed upon by credit vultures (viz Memphis and Detroit). I think that the frank discussion of the abuse of the poor is more interesting, and valuable, than the plight of greedy Californians trying to elbow their way into the biggest McMansions they can possibly come close to affording, and ignoring the possibility of anything buried in the reams of paperwork coming back to bite them. I have little sympathy for the McMansion set.

I think this one is worth getting the DVD and the book.