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Why so much fuss over a simple indexing and measurement system?
(Wed, Jan 01, 2003)
Note: The only 2002-published book I read was Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, and I didn't like any of the music released, so no book or music categories this year
Stupid Software
(Fri, Jan 03, 2003)
People should really try to avoid releasing software this unsophisticated: jpg 1, jpg 2
Capital Punishment Again
(Fri, Jan 03, 2003)

Under most circumstances I am opposed to the imposition of a death penalty--I dislike granting the State the authority to execute its citizens (not to be confused with non-citizens, another matter entirely), but there are, as always, exceptions. The murderer/molester/torturer of 7 year old Danielle van Dam was sentenced today to execution by lethal injection after a trial in which overwhelming evidence was presented against it (sic: the monster can no longer be considered a "man").

This is the right result. It serves society far better to exact revenge against this monster (and you cannot confuse the sentence with anything else while remaining honest with yourself--this is simple revenge) than to pretend to try or even want to rehabilitate it, punish it, or just put it into lifetime storage. Granted, the beast would probably suffer far more in prison than from the needle (child-molesters not being much celebrated by most prisoners or prison guards), but this suffering takes place beyond the sight of the general public, and it's for all of us that the beast must be murdered, as a sacrifice, an expiation of anger and frustration, and most of all as a testimony to the limits that a civilized society can accept from its members.

That said, I do not relish allowing the State to perform this execution. Far better would be a legal provision allowing the child's father or mother or brothers to perform the act if they are willing, behind a closed door, by whatever means and duration they deem most satisfying. If they prove unwilling to perform this chore, then volunteers may be elected to take their place (the supply of which would not be short, but without payment of any kind). In the unlikely case that no volunteers can be found, then the sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment, and the will of the people is served. This to me seems the more rational approach to capital punishment, but then I'm no Hammurabi.
I wrote some movie rants last night!
(Fri, Jan 03, 2003)
Narc (temporarily my best movie of 2002), Star Trek: Nemesis (which I just saw and wished I hadn't), and The Longest Day (which was on AMC the other day, but which one should never watch in 4:3 aspect ratio with commercials).
Crazy North Koreans
(Tue, Jan 07, 2003)
I wonder if the Iraqis are paying the N. Koreans to act crazy and scary in order to divert attention from themselves....
LOTR:TTT
(Tue, Jan 07, 2003)
I saw LOTR:TTT over the weekend, and I have a few thoughts (okay, complaints). (It was a good movie though!) First off, and incidentally, the start time for this movie was 8:00 pm. The actual movie didn't start until 8:20. What took place during those initial 20 minutes? Ads. Ads took place, Sally. Ads.

My God! It's full of ads!
I understand the economics of advertising-revenue supported entertainment. I accept commercials on non-pay television as a necessary annoyance, I forgive web-sites their ad-banners and product links (although not pop-ups, pop-ups are criminal), and I can even tolerate the glossiest pages of magazines and newspapers (most publishing revenue coming not from the cover-price unfortunately), but to assault me with 20 minutes of advertising after I've paid $8.00 to get in the door is not only excessive, not only gratuitous, not only annoying, it's just plain wrong. Again (since I've ranted on this subject before), I don't know if it's the film studio, the movie-house, or the production company that's responsible for this madness, but whomever it is had better figure out that people hate it before people figure out that they don't actually *have* to pay for the movies they see or *sponsor* the advertisers guilty of this most American of annoyances.


Therefore, I have a few new product boycotts (you can dump all the pollution and enslave all the third-world children you like, just don't advertise to me after I paid for an $8 movie ticket!):

There was also an anti-marijuana spot which, while I think most of the hysteria over pot is silly and reactionary, correctly and dramatically conveys the dangers (and idiocy) of driving on it. I don't mind public-service messages as long as they are not preachy, don't lie to me (as with the new drugs-support-terrorists campaign coming out of the Drug Czar's office), and remain few in number. This one is therefore forgiven.


One sticky and cunningly evil spot featured NASCAR drivers in a theater critiquing some film, naturally wearing their slogan and trademark graffitoed uniforms. My guess would be that each of those sponsors paid some extra fees to be represented there, but I cannot be sure, so those products will for now be exempt. (Also it would be a real pain to have to remove my Goodyears for the sake of a principle.)


Helm's Deep
I have a few complaints about the siege of Helm's Deep in this movie. First of all, the uber-fortress: this is their uber-fortress? No defensive artillery, no boiling water (and they obviously had the supply), no offensive fire (those ladders looked pretty flammable), not much of a barbican, no murder holes; this place doesn't even have a portcullis! The culvert where the Uruk-hai breach the wall is depicted as an absurd weakness, providing cover from above and reducing the wall to a line of thin iron bars. This spot should have allowed *any* army to take the fortress, even one without explosives.


Secondly, how is it that a band of mounted infantry as supposedly experienced as that commanded by Erkenbrand and Gandalf decide they'll charge a line of pikes? They don't even do it in a wedge formation, but in a line, so that every orcish pike can get a piece of them! I'm not going to look it up but I believe these troops dismounted in the book and advanced on foot (but I guess there were cinematic considerations that outweighed logic in this case).


Speaking of pikes, where did the Rohirrim lose theirs? These guys are drawing swords on top of the wall and at the battered front doors--where are the halberds, the pole-arms, the spears even? Where are the pikes? I might be an idiot, but it seems a sword would pretty much be your last resort (next to daggers and fists). Not to mention they're generally easier and cheaper to manufacture than swords.


to be continued... (or not)
Hamas
(Fri, Jan 10, 2003)

Good old Hamas, still working to reclaim supporters in America, has publicly urged Iraq to employ the proven and time-honored tactic of suicide bombers. "I call on Iraq to prepare an army of would-be martyrs and prepare tens of thousands of explosive belts", said Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi (respected Hamas spokesperson and man-about-town). "Blow yourselves up against the American army." (Seriously, that's not a quote from the Onion.) After that they burned some US and Israeli flags.

Am I just a first-world elitist or does the act of burning a flag seem really primitive these days? They gather around in a circle and pour gasoline and strike a match and then chant and cheer and dance around it. Sometimes they wave the flag while it burns but this can be dangerous (and depending on where you are you may wind up in some Israeli or US mission hospital--how humiliating!). Some enterprising third-worlders even take to constructing life-sized voodoo dolls to burn (which rarely look like their intended victim but there's usually some other indicator attached to the doll, for instance a flag). This is all either sublimation or harmless fun, I'm not sure which. Oh I know: it's an expression of anger by a downtrodden and powerless people toward their imperialist oppressors.

Recently though I saw some video of some South Koreans burning a North Korean flag, and I felt really embarrassed for them. South Korea is supposed to be pretty much first-world these days, isn't it? Well, maybe they do feel powerless toward the North, what with all the doomsday devices and mad scientists they've got up there. I've heard rumors that Übermensche Jones is on their payroll now. Scary times indeed!
Pot-Head Teenagers
(Thu, Jan 16, 2003)

It turns out that pot-head teenagers don't have much respect for authority figures who attempt to guide their opinions (if you can believe it). For instance, lots of them drive their beat up old cars around with D.A.R.E stickers on their bumpers. Not just a simple attempt at dissembling, they've reconstructed the meaning into Drugs Are Really Excellent. I don't think most pot-head teenager's parents know this. (They don't think so either.)

Also, it turns out that those "Truth" anti-smoking advertisements foisted upon the American public by the American Legacy Foundation are "really lame". "Nothing is less cool," the pot-head teenagers tell me, "than hyperly-desperate-to-seem-cool people trying to tell you what's actually cool. Like they would really have a clue! What are we supposed to respect the most about those losers? That they're hippie activists? That they're broke California actors? Or that they're tools for the Surgeon General? What the hell do we care if some geezer redneck tobacco executive lied to some other geezers in Congress? Everybody gotta make a buck, you know? And what stupid-ass loser doesn't know cigarettes are bad for them? What they should be trying to do is convince us to care!"

And you know, suddenly I don't feel so bad about the younger generation.
No joy
(Mon, Jan 20, 2003)
no joy in this person's mudville today!
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