Saturday, November 28, 2009

I Save You Ten Bucks

On Thanksgiving day, Mrs. Chaos, myself, and a friend saw
"The Road."

I don't want to spoil the plot, such as it is, for anyone who is going to insist on subjecting themselves to this movie, but I will just say thay, after the first 20 minutes or so, I spent the next Two Hours rooting for the main characters to commit suicide.

I know that this movie is getting good reviews, and yes the cast is terrific. And the movie is visually impressive. But it's all in the service of a go-nowhere plot that just drags on monotonously and repetitively. And the voice-over contains lines like this:
"When I have nothing else, I try to dream the dreams of a child's imaginings." (probably not an exact quote, but as close as I can remember)

The basic story is that some un-named catastrophe has killed all the plant and animal life on earth (except for a bunch of humans, for some reason)
The entire earth has gotten extremely cold, damp and cloudy. Cannibalism has become common. And this man and his young son are determined to stave off their inevitable doom long enough to get to the coast. They never explain why they are so hell-bent on getting to the coast, and when they do finally get there, and it's just as desolate and hopeless as everywhere else, they don't seem at all surprised or disappointed. And their pontless journey just goes on pointlessly until the father dies.

And I get that it's supposed to be about people trying to hold on to their last bit of humanity under completely inhuman conditions, or the power of mankind's survival instinct, or the strength of the father-son bond or what-the-fuck-ever, but honst-to-God, when you're trying to keep yourself from shouting at the screen "Just do it! Just shoot the kid then shoot yourself!" it's hard to really care about these sort of themes.

And early on in the movie, the father shows the son how to put the barrel of the gun into his mouth and pull the trigger "when the time comes," but somehow the time never ever comes. Even when the father is dying and leaving his Maybe-10-year-old son to fend for himself, he still doesn't put the poor kid out of his misery.




And this isn't even the most preposterous plot point. Earlier in the movie, the kid and his father find a waterfall cascading into a river. Even thought they are bundled up in parkas and wool hats and gloves, they decide to just strip off and go skinny-dipping, as if they were vacationing in the tropics.

Later, after finding an abandoned bomb shelter full of food, blankets, etc. the father decides that they have to leave because it isn't safe. Which wouldn't be strange except that we've already been shown that there is nowhere safe anywhere in the entire fucking world! So the choice is being in danger, but hidden away with food and shelter, or being in danger out in the open without food. And this goddamned genius picks the no food and shelter option?

And when they get to the coast, the father, who has been pretty understandably paranoid about letting the boy out of his sight, decides to leave the boy in a tent on the beach while he tries to swim out to an abandoned boat offshore to see if there is anything onboard that they can use. Oh, but he does give the kid the gun which at this point has exactly ONE BULLET left. So, yeah, he's probably pretty safe.

Anyway, I guess the short version of my first attempt at writing a movie review is this:
"The Road." Save your money.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Best Buy is Out To Get Us!

I'm really beginning to think that my theory from yesterday may be pretty right on. Just look how people are freaking out over a Best Buy ad!

Do you see anything scary in this ad?

Look closer!


So this has the nutsos in a freaking uproar.

Check out some of the messages they are leaving on Best Buy's website:


Conservative
Member
Conservative
Posts: 11
Registered: 11-22-2009

Happy Eid Al-Adha?

I imagine that since you are celebrating a muslim holiday that commemorates human sacrifice to please Allah, that you will eventually print Merry Christmas on a weekly ad? Eid Al-Adha correlates to Nov 27-30, and I am okay wish wishing others a Happy Whatever during their respective holiday seasons. But if you cover one - you need to cover them all this Holiday Season - including Christmas.

I am thinking that if there is no Merry Christmas from Best Buy in an ad before Dec 25, that Best Buy will be losing my business.

Regards,

Conservative.


Someone needs to tell the creatively named "Conservative" that Eid Al-Adha commemorates the day that God, the God in the Old Testament, The Old testament that is included in the Christian and Jewish Bibles, that God, told Abraham to sacrifice his son, then said "oh wow! You almost did it! I can't believe you fell for that! Seriously, though, don't kill your son, that just seems wrong."

So, it's not actually about human sacrifice, and the God in the story is Old Testament God (who is known in the Muslim world as Allah, known to the Jews as Jaweh, and known to Christians as God the Father)


BassGirl
New Member
BASSGIRL
Posts: 1
Registered: 11-23-2009

Re: Happy Eid Al-Adha?

So all of a sudden, this year you decide to be fair and acknowledge all holidays? or just eid aladha? Why is it that you didn't feel the need to acknowledge it in past years? Will you be celebrating all obscure ethnic/religious holidays or just this one? You insult all of the heros and innocent who died 911 by celebrating a holiday of the religion that said to destroy them! This PC crap is going waaaayyyy too far!!!

You stay classy, "Bass Girl!" There's never a bad time to bring up 9/11!


BillyDKid
New Member
BillyDKidd
Posts: 3
Registered: 11-22-2009

As a Christian, I am sick of being accused of being a racist, or bigot. We all know how this story ends--BB will decide to pull ALL references to religious holidays AFTER the have posted the ad in the current weekly.

BB, America, and Americans will be pushed into a corner only so long before they begin to leave your business in droves.

See, I really am beginning to think that these people actually believe that Best Buy is "Pushing them into a corner" by acknowledging a non-Christian holiday.
And to this guy, the term "Americans" clearly refers to non-Muslim people, but he can't see why anyone would find him bigoted.

And check out the comments of "Free Republic" which is organizing a boycott of Best Buy:

I am buying both a laptop and desktop for myself this year and will get one of my daughters (the oldest) a laptop. My youngest continues to be a disappointment so she will not be recieving much. Anyway, money is no object because the specs I demand are way up there. I will wait and see what stores are celebrating Christmas as Christmas. Hanahka I can understand, anything else and I do not give my store that business.

Besides being a dick of a father, this dude apparently has decided that acknowledging the Jewey holidays can be tolerated, but that is it! Tolerance has its limits!

To: wally_bert

BB is a Mpls company. Mpls is overrun with ragheads.


18 posted on Sunday, November 22, 2009 8:34:38 PM by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)

To: Eric in the Ozarks
Mpls is overrun with ragheads. You can bet their corporate offices are full of them too.

I assume that BB refers to Best Buy, and Mpls refers to Minneapolis? And the term "ragheads" refers to the bigoted mindset of Eric in the Ozarks. (don't forget impeachment!)

It is time to reclaim Christmas.

Reclaim Christmas? Eid al-Adha runs for three days around the end of November. Some years it may coincide with Thanksgiving, but never Christmas! So from whom or what are these people going to "reclaim Christmas"?

When I was young, people wanted to reclaim Christmas from the retailers who were using a religious holiday as an opportunity to sell stuff. Now these people are upset if retailers DON'T use Christmas as a marketing tool. There's just no pleasing them. They have some sort of psychological need to feel righteous anger. So they will always find something that they can think is oppressing them, or victimizing them, or taking Christmas away from them.

Wow! I’m surrounded! There is a Best Buy across one corner of my neighborhood, and a MOSQUE around the other! YIKES!

I think this Eid is the goat Throat Slitting Holiday. Last year it was 250 goats that gave their lives for this bit of holiday cheer.

posted on Sunday, November 22, 2009 9:01:36 PM by left that other site (Your Mi'KMaq Paddy Whacky Bass Playing Biker Buddy)


So from this person's point of view, Best Buy, by wishing a happy holiday to Muslim customers, has, what, joined forces with the Mosque? And now they are surrounding Biker Buddy? Clearly in cahoots, plotting something nefarious!


To: Eric in the Ozarks
BB is a Mpls company. Mpls is overrun with ragheads.

I know you and I have discussed this before, but I want others to know you are not kidding. I haven't lived in the city proper for a few years now and have visited it less and less as time goes by.

Today we went to the Mall of America's Nickelodeon Adventure park for my son's birthday. Wow! At least a quarter or more of the ticket takers and ride operators were women in muslim garb. Ditto the clientele and workers in the stores. Women in headscarves at the Macy's and Bloomingdale's cosmetic counter, really?? It was amazing to me how much has changed in five years. We're "fully-stocked" here in the Twin Cities. Thanks bleeding heart, Scandinavian Lutheran social(ist) services.

Disclaimer: I'm Scandinavian and was raised Lutheran until the church left us.

Oh my God! They're Everywhere!
Muslim women working at Macy's? God knows what they're up to?
And somehow this is the fault of Lutherans? Let's get Garrison Keillor!

I really think that when these people see Muslims working in department stores just like "real Americans" it is somehow perceived as a threat. Somehow, if Muslim women can work at the same makeup counter as Scandinavian Lutheran women, that in some way diminishes the "real" American women. If American women are not given a higher status than Muslim women, these folks seem to feel like they are under attack. I don't get it, but i am going to work out the details of this theory. I think I'm on to something.


Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The Persecution of Sarah Palin

It's just not fair! Poor Sarah Palin keeps getting picked on for no good reason!

If you don't believe me, just check out this new book about some stuff that happened!



And Matthew Continetti really knows what he's talking about. He is an associate editor at third-rate wingnut liar rag "The Weekly Standard"











So what does Mr Continetti have to say on the subject? Well, I'm sure as hell not going to buy a copy to find out, but let's see what I can find on the old web.

Here's an excerpt from the website "Conservative Book Service"

How the liberal media elite tried to destroy Sarah Palin -- and why their vicious tactics didn't work

The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star

by Matthew Continetti


They did it to Dan Quayle, they did it to George W. Bush, and they've done it to numerous other conservative politicians:

Yes, they made Quayle and Bush incapable of stringing together a coherent sentence!
Actually, that's not really fair. Quayle could at least form sentences. The sentences were usually pretty stupid, but at least they were sentences. Bush? Not so much.

liberal media talking heads and late-night comedians chortle repeatedly and relentlessly over their flubs, their gaffes, their errors --

Does it ever occur to these folks that the actual problem is the flubs, gaffes and errors? Not the comedians pointing them out? Are Letterman, Leno, etc. just supposed to pretend that Bush wasn't saying exceptionally stupid things?

The plan is to get the whole country laughing at the victim of this tactic, so that his effectiveness on the national stage is ended, and his political career in ruins.

Honest to God! Do You really think that Jay Leno has an agenda beyond getting good ratings? If the Bush jokes or the Quayle jokes bombed, don't you think they'd find another subject of mockery? Do you think that the late-night comedians had a plan to destroy Paris Hilton's political career? No, she just made it easy for them, just like Quayle did, like Bush did, and like Palin does.

Another fearless conservative who has outlasted the liberal attack machine is Sarah Palin.

If by "outlast" you mean quits halfway through her first term, then yeah.

Continetti, a Weekly Standard staff writer, shows how quickly the liberal media turned on this small-town girl with lots of charm and ambition, who had a stellar record as Alaska Governor and impeccable credentials as a truly maverick politician.

Wow! Those sure are some credentials!


Honestly, a stellar record? Really? Do you know what stellar means?

America was initially enthralled with Palin

If by enthralled, you mean scratching their heads and saying "Sarah who?"

America was initially enthralled with Palin – but then came the avalanche of stories about her alleged mistakes in interviews, her daughter's out-of- wedlock pregnancy, her lack of experience, and worse.

You know how those stories could have been avoided? By not making embarrassing mistakes in interviews, by teaching her daughter how to avoid getting pregnant (rhymes with schmondom) and by having some relevant experience. And I don't know if you noticed, but Barack Obama's lack of experience was also a common theme in stories about him.

Corruption charges materialized out of nowhere.

Well, technically, most of them materialized out of her corrupt actions, but let's not split hairs.

Even her campaign wardrobe came under unprecedented scrutiny, as the Leftist elites pulled out all the stops in an effort to destroy her.

Did her $150,000 wardrobe get more negative attention than John Edwards' $400 haircut? Why would you expect Palin to not face the same kind of criticism that Edwards did?


I have a theory about these people. The sort of people who find Sarah Palin inspiring. I'm starting to think that they really can't distinguish between fairness and special treatment. That's why, for instance whenever there are gay people who want equal treatment, who want the same rights as breeders, the Palin types immediately start screaming about gay people wanting "special treatment" or "special rights." I used to think they knew that they were full of shit, but I'm starting to think that maybe they really can't tell the difference.

Maybe that's why when Palin gets asked a question that is absolutely typical of the type of questions asked of every political candidate, they really seem to believe that this is an unfair, "gotcha" question.

And seriously, who can't answer the question "what newspapers and magazines do you read?" Stop anyone on the street and ask them that question. They'll be able to tell you. I could abswer that question off the top of my head, and I'm not qualified to run for dogcatcher, let alone V.P.

Here's another excerpt, this time from "One News Now" the organization who sent me the e-mail alerting me to this book's existence:

Continetti says Sarah Palin represents most of what the left dislikes about the U.S. and wants to change. "She's a forthright Christian. She is a pro-life woman who doesn't subscribe to the establishment feminist narrative, and she hasn't hailed from elite schools on the east or west coast -- and yet she still claims to speak for Americans and presents a challenge to the Democratic Party," the associate editor notes.
Yes, she presents a challenge to the Democratic Party, the same way that the Central High Fightin' Spartans present a challenge to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And I believe that the "establishment feminist narrative" would be something along the lines of "women are capable of holding any office, even governor or president" so Ms Palin might be seen as subscribing to that narrative.

Continetti contends the most egregious myth the media spread about Palin was that she is not the mother of her youngest child, Trigg. This rumor "emerged from far-left websites and then parroted on more prominently trafficked websites and then launched into kind of the ether there, being repeated actually in newspaper accounts of controversies surrounding Palin," Continetti explains. "I think that is probably the most disgusting, and I think Palin would agree."

Yeah, that rumor might have been more offensive if Sarah Palin hadn't hidden her pregnancy, and if it hadn't turned out that her teenage daughter actually was pregnant. When you've got the pregnant teen daughter, and the surprise birth from mom, you can see how that rumor could get started, right? Ordinarily, if blogger people were accusing someone's underaged, un-wed daughter of being pregnant, some righteous indignation might be in order. But if your underaged, un-wed daughter really is pregnant, well your phony outrage rings a little hollow.

Continetti says since Palin energized the Republican grassroots more than any other political figure in the 2008 campaign, she represented a threat to Barack Obama, and now she is a symbol of "someone who doesn't sit down and shut up when the liberal media and Democratic elites tell them to."

Yeah, that was actually the McCain staffers begging Palin to sit down and shut up.



One last thing. From "conservative Book Service"
One of the bullet points from their review:

The Bridge to Nowhere Project: How Sarah Palin ended this waste of taxpayers' money, but the media elites chose to highlight instead her initial support for the project -- in order to make her seem to be a conniving opportunist

I don't even have a joke here. Just reading that bullet point made me laugh out loud.
How dare the liberal media point out that Palin supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it? That would be like highlighting John Kerry's changes of mind. And they would certainly never have done that!

What a freaking joke.