JKane

I didn't think much of the smoking 'till I saw this blurb.

Fucking MPAA!!! Bully is going to have to be released UNRATED. Usually a death sentence for a movie, hopefully not this time! The Weinstein Company will release the film Bully unrated on March 30 after the MPAA refused to budge on its 'R' rating on the film, according to a press release received by Movieline: Furthering proof that the R rating for some language is inappropriate for a film that’s meant to educate and help parents, teachers, school officials and children with what’s become an epidemic in schools around the country, the fight against the rating continues on. The outpour of support by politicians, schools, parents, celebrities and activists for the film’s mission to be seen by those it was made for – children – has been overwhelming. Nearly half a million people have signed Michigan high school student and former bullying victim Katy Butler’s petition on Change.org to urge the MPAA to lower the rating. Said BULLY Director Lee Hirsch, “The small amount of language in the film that’s responsible for the R rating is there because it’s real. It’s what the children who are victims of bullying face on most days. All of our supporters see that, and we’re grateful for the support we’ve received across the board. I know the kids will come, so it’s up to the theaters to let them in.” It will be up to movie theaters to decide whether or not to let minors see it. Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2012/03/the-weinstein-company-will-release-bully-unrated.html#ixzz1qGxNk6JK

Love that! Of course Fox tries to spin it when it's actually about the dangers of having people like Murdock and Romney get everything their hearts desire.

More specifically, 2/3rds of the Senate required, so not even if a miracle occurred and we got 60 seats in November. The House of Representatives brings charges, called "articles of impeachment," against officials it considers guilty of criminal or ethical violations. If a simple majority of the House finds sufficient evidence to support impeachment, the official proceeds to trial in the Senate. The Vice-President of the United States presides over impeachment trials involving Article III federal judges and Supreme Court justices. Conviction requires a vote of two-thirds of the Senators present. Plus I don't agree with the principal of removing Justices for controversial opinions, as much as I disagree. It just underlines the importance of not letting a chimp like Bush make the appointments. So the best we can hope for is a sudden death of Scalia and Thomas. And that Obama has enough political capital left to appoint people more worthy to the positions, and I personally hope he continues to appoint women. The oldest justice serving is Ginsberg though.

Ah yes, today I learned... But while there are already (a couple, competing, per Democratic usual) petitions up to 'impeach The Supreme Court 5' it doesn't sound like it has a snowball's chance in hell.

Good writeup from Towle, though I quite enjoyed going in blind... 03/24/2012 Now Playing: The Hunger Games BY NATHANIEL ROGERS "The Hunger Games," now in their 74th year, began as a way to punish an uprising against the government. The totalitarian regime of Panem (in what remains of the former United States) maintains total control over the outlying districts. Each of the 12 districts is required to send forth two "tributes" annually, a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 to 18 chosen by lottery. They are shipped to the Capital where they are paraded about and then shipped off to die for the amusement of the masses. Everyone in the nation watches. There are no alternatives in this dystopia. Only one adolescent will live bringing supposed honor (and maybe food?) to their starving district... or so claims the capital. What honor there is in forcing teenagers to kill each other is not a question the Capitol asks itself. Any similarities that THE HUNGER GAMES has to the Japanese classic Battle Royale (2000), which also features schoolchildren forced to kill each other by a totalitarian regime -- only one survivor allowed -- are, according to The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins, entirely coincidental. Another film in this subgenre, the little seen Series 7: The Contenders (2001) also features mandatory lotteried killing for televised amusement. In short, the ideas are nothing new, just the treatment; these are topics we're obviously grappling with in popular culture in this era of televised "reality" and winner takes all capitalistic vice. The gap between the haves and have nots grows and this dystopia gives it steroids. When 12 year old Primrose Everdeen (Willow Shields) is named as tribute in "The Reaping" ceremony, her protective sister Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to take her place. The district also sends Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) a sweet strong baker's son who Katniss knows a little. Will they kill or be killed? They're off and running... AFTER THE JUMP... The first hour plus of Hunger Games is touching and quite visually intriguing, "The Reaping" sequence is especially memorable with Effie (Elizabeth Banks) a flamboyant disconcerting fuschia in a sea of grayed out zombie teenagers fearing their name read aloud. The last hour, the actual games, paradoxically thrills less. I have not read the novels so the world building was fascinating and even semi-plausible. For the most part director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) delivers an artful scifi drama. Particularly impressive are the sound and scoring, both less bombastic than this type of film usually receives and more affecting for it. When a contestant dies there is a low "boom" that's surely intended for the combatants to keep count (since the Panem audience will already know who has died) but it adds to the dread. Consider it an artistic reminder that less can be more since the offscreen deaths are just as unsettling as those we witness. Once the tributes reach the arena, basically a forest with clearings, the slaughter begins. The initial bloodbath is filmed mostly in blurry handheld camera and incoherent quick edits (as are most subsequent action sequences), either because Ross has little feel for action, because coherent editing is out of style or because the R rated material wanted a PG-13 for a bigger box office reach; I'm guessing all three. He's also overly fond of foreshadowing and controlling where you're looking on the screen even when several people are in frame. Even if you haven't read the books it's easy to sense who will live longest based merely on who the camera asks you to look at. And one thing above all else becomes clear - this movie belongs solely to Jennifer Lawrence and cares possibly more about how wonderful Jennifer Lawrence is to look at than the sorry plight of teenage tributes as cruel pawns in a snuff film. Here's a basic shot list during the games: clearing, blurry slaughter, Katniss, Katniss, Katniss thinking, confused running, Katniss, tree, a report on who has died, Katniss thinking, Katniss sleeping, trees, Katniss waking, closeup of weapon, Katniss, nature, Katniss sleeping, Katniss, control room, Katniss thinking, Katniss, other contestants, Katniss, control room, Katniss walking, fireballs!, Katniss running, Katniss falling, Katniss running, Katniss, Katniss, Ohmygod it's Peeta, Cato and his gang, Katniss running, Katniss hiding, Katniss climbing, disgruntled teenage assassins, Katniss, Katniss sleeping, everyone sleeping, Katniss waking up, Katniss & Rue, something deadly, Katniss thinking, weapon, a particularly gross death, Katniss, Peeta, Katniss hallucinating, people watching the games, Katniss, Katniss walking, Katniss, Katniss, control room, Katniss & Peeta, Katniss sleeping, fire, Katniss running, Katniss, Katniss singing, Katniss making a friend, Katniss, Katniss crying, Katniss looking at the camera, nature, Katniss, Katniss, control room, Katnis suddenly thinking of Peeta, Peeta, a parachute, Katniss pretending to sleep, Katniss, Katniss strategizing, Katniss, grass, something threatening, another contestant, blurry fighting, Katniss running, Katniss hurting, Katniss, and so on... and some more Katniss. There are 24 tributes but you wouldn't know it to look at her. I didn't know where to begin in reviewing The Hunger Games which is specific enough as a concept to excite immediate feeling but vague enough as a metaphor to invite all sorts of projections. Like many pop culture phenomenons, what you bring in to the theater is half of the experience. The Hunger Games will surely spark a lot of conversation as the angles are endless: man's inhumanity to man as entertainment -- with us since the days of the Gladiators; Television as the opiate of the masses; The politics of wealth distribution; Our complicity in the perpetuation of our own misery; Etcetera. The Hunger Games flexibility with metaphor even extends to mass market entertainment and actors as celebrities. Katniss and Peeta are styled and primped before public apperances preceeding the games and they're repeatedly encouraged to be "likeable" so that they'll win sponsors. The movie hedges its bets this way too, employing the reliable trustworthy Disney tactic of not really making the heroes kill people unless its indirectly. (It might make them more likeable but it also kills some of the psychological horror the concept promises.) The showbiz doesn't end there. Katniss's mentor Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) even encourages her to amp up the drama during the games and she complies. The best thing about Jennifer Lawrence's work here might be the occasional beats of ambiguity -- you're not entirely sure how much her feelings for Peeta are real or amplified for survival, and when she acknowledges the audience on occassion, how much is she really feeling? The Hunger Games will surely make Jennifer Lawrence, who came to fame with an Oscar nominated turn in the poverty-stricken drama Winter's Bone, a huge star. Curiously in both films she plays a destitute but resourceful Appalachian girl who kills squirrels and who happens to be her sister's proxy mother since the real one is terrible at the job. It may be the tiniest niche an actress has ever inhabited but Lawrence is a very big deal. Nathaniel Rogers would live in the movie theater but for the poor internet reception. He blogs daily at the Film Experience. Follow him on Twitter @nathanielr. Read more: http://www.towleroad...l#ixzz1q6v1o9A4

Seriously, there was no better candidate for a viable donor heart than this sack of shit? I'm sure there's somebody half his age (or less) dying today because they didn't have the connections or black soul of Dick Cheney!

Yep! He needs to make hay out of their war on women! It's sad that two groups he's done the most for, the military (getting them out of Iraq and now Afghanistan) and us (LGBT) are dissatisfied at best!

There's been stuff said between Romney and Frothy that make it seem really unlikely he'd be invited onto Romney's ticket. Neuter is clearly game, in fact he may well be a prop now to keep Romney from having to take on Frothy directly. But Neuter's showing in the south was bad and he's got many enemies and a *lot* of baggage. There was a lot of speculation that the governor now known as 'Governor Vaginal Probe' was on the short list... now that he's known for that though... is winning the south worth losing women everywhere? Love the Republican primaries!

Yes! I would in a second if I thought it'd do any good! But AFAIK there's no constitutional method for removing a justice. Best we can do is pray for them to die. Absurd as that sounds, there are apparently religious conservatives routinely praying for 'liberal' justices to die! Good thing it accomplishes exactly jack and shit, I suppose!

Tired of people paying for couple-hundred-dollar purchases entirely in wadded up ones?

Do they still have the laser hair removal ad with the bear on all fours, "yes, even there!"? Always loved that one!

This is something I'm concerned about too, and I'd guess many other gay guys are as well! It's hard to imagine myself in a marriage-type relationship (even if it wasn't explicitly outlawed under my state's "proposition 8"). So once my mother passes I won't even have siblings should something go wrong. No idea how to plan a will or much more importantly who should make decisions should I be medically or mentally incapacitated... But I'm glad you're doing better, Lurker!

If Russians are anything like American politicians it's because he's actually a huge closet-case himself!

I'm not sure that's what they did, they may've been naked together on their balcony, or may've been visible having sex within their private cabin. For all we know they could've just been kissing on *their* balcony... Either way, for a country to invade a ship and take people into custody--for something not illegal in the country the ship is flagged under--seems problematic, more so when it's something as loaded as sodomy. Even if it'd been public display of affection or sex on land, this seems like lose-lose for the country that chooses to prosecute, given the prevalence of homosexuality among cruise employees (and passengers) combined with the importance of cruise ships to the local economy!

Well, it's just a petition, so the result may well be between fuck and all, but it's worth a shot!

Couple more weird things I've noticed: After you've posted a comment you have to leave the thread and come back to be able to edit it. No longer a button to link media, luckily I remembered it's [media] youtube.link [/media][/CODE] I'm wondering if there's a more automatic way that I just don't know about. Like how copy/paste of news stories post, keep all their formatting and even links...

I will certainly have a whole new respect for her if she gets herself arrested protesting Russia's actions in this matter... Author of St. Petersburg's Anti-Gay Law Will Attend Madonna Concert, Prosecute If Necessary The man behind St. Petersburg, Russia's gay "propaganda" bill is threatening Madonna over her plans to speak out against the law when she comes to the city for a concert, ABC News reports. The bill’s author, city assemblyman Vitaly Milanov, says he wants Madonna charged under the new law if she speaks out against it during her concert. He said he was willing to attend the show “to control its moral content.” “I’m ready to personally suffer a couple of hours of her concert,” he told the Russian Interfax news agency. Read more: http://www.towleroad...l#ixzz1q4nCF300

Alan Turing is a national hero. His contribution to computer science, and hence to the life of the nation and the world, is incalculable. The ripple-effect of his theories on modern life continues to grow, and may never stop. http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/31659 Best way England could recognize his importance to his field and apologize for their past bigotry... Probably no point in non-subjects signing it though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgiWu_ANSU I hope to hell cruise ship companies start bypassing this shithole and it tanks the local economy! Update: Retired police officer Dennis Jay Mayer and his partner, John Robert Hart, the gay couple arrested on the Atlantis Cruise ship in Dominica are speaking out about their experience, KTLA reports. "I'm not going to implicate myself one way or another, but we were charged with being naked on the balcony," he said. A photo shows Mayer and Hart, under police escort, being led from court to go to a bank to withdraw money for their fine, as a crowd of residents watched. "I've never seen something like this," Mayer said. "I've never seen people chanting and protesting in the street. It was amazing." Mayer and Hart have been together 17 years, and told the station "We weren't trying to put on a show for people." Mayer says the judge called them "rogues and vagabonds and authorities wanted to have them medically evacuated to determine whether or not they had engaged in anal sex. The charge of "buggery" (sodomy) was dropped. Mayer and Hart say they were taunted all night long in a jail cell with no light, no water, and no toilet. Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/#ixzz1q4kjO3gk

Yesterday afternoon the Rick Santorum campaign dropped the weirdest, most terrifying ad of the American political season thus far. They did it via YouTube, where, as noted at MSNBC.com, the video is unlisted: Only those with a link can see it. Seems like a silly way to disseminate an ad. Maybe it'll hit our televisions after the opinion makers weigh in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DApjHZq9o7M&hd=1 Entitled Obamaville, it presents a horror-show vision of America in the dread year 2014. In Obamaville the streets are empty, and scary-looking crows are everywhere. Children's shoes are discarded in the dirt -- and where are the children? They're gone! Look at the abandoned playgrounds, the equipment therein manipulated by naught but the lonely wind. (Or is it something more sinister?) This is 28 Days Later, reimagined in the rustbelt. Lookit the little lonesome baby, squirming in what might be a bathtub. Lookit the psychotic smiling nurse wearing too much lipstick, saying "Shhhhhhh" -- is she euthanizing us? Is that horrible nurse lady euthanizing the American Dream? And see the man who appears to be blowing his brains out with a gasoline pump. And see, in particular, the television sitting on the floor in some dilapidated Obamavillian house, relaying pictures of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The narrator intones: "A rogue nation, and sworn American enemy, has become a nuclear threat." As the narrator says "sworn American enemy," Ahmadinejad's face is replaced for just an instant with Barack Obama's. They are one and the same, goes the implication; brother jihadis beneath the skin. The ad's got no ideas, no arguments, no obvious references to the actual objective reality inhabited by actual citizens in the actual world. Whoever made it doesn't think the American people are smart enough to be swayed by such things. Rather, the ad's an appeal for the votes of idiots and paranoiacs -- which, you'd think, would be galling to the potential Santorumites at whom it's aimed. It may sometimes be difficult to discern who the good guys are in American politics, but the really bad guys are never hard to locate. They're the ones who make ads like this. Read more: http://www.towleroad.../#ixzz1q4irSuGP

The problem is this runs right into the establishment clause. Sure, Catholics won't marry a gay couple, but Unitarians, Church of England, etc... would be happy to. I get the idea some Jewish congregations would be happy to as well. Why do a couple of Christian sects get government permission to decide for everybody whether or not they can be married? Especially when there are other Christians backing the opposite! And the other problem is currently we have marriages in some states not recognized in others which is also constitutionally problematic, I believe. But we've been here before with mixed-race couples...

Every bit of his pandering mewing about imposing *Christian* values on everybody would be in direct contradiction of the establishment clause of the constitution, if enacted.

So I noticed the lack of the spellchecking as I created a topic, and again as I made the post above. But now it's working?!

Just found out getting my taxes done this year cost me $400. But I also got a lot more back on them than I expected, so overall a win. WTF, now the underline spellcheck is working?!