Are Republicans ALL fucking stupid?

Being so frustrated, lately, over the ever worsening condition of healthcare reform in America I posted this on my facebook as my status and gathered these responses:

So, by "Healthcare Reform" What they mean is NO public option but YES enforced buying into private healthcare? Hmm... must remember to look up the definition of "Corporate Fascism."

Le'mon James Flowers:

the national healthcare forces you into the hands of some doctors you dont have the choice to choose ur own, so its another way for the government to control our minds

TolstoyKafkaEvsky:

No, you've got it all wrong. That's just some old republican bunk they were screaming during Regan's time in order to not have Medicare (which is one of the most successful government programs today) What I"M saying is that with no public option we're all being FORCED to BUY PRIVATE HEALTHCARE thereby making a private business something on par with a federal agency. Corporate Fascism.

Ben Runnoe:

hewy tolstoy dumbass u dont read between the lines do you if the governments paying for health care there going to raise taxes on all sorts of shits thats dangerous, can cause cancer, like have six flags be $80 insted of $40 that bag of doritos having $10 tax cause its too fatty and if you eat it ur costing the government money and if you dont believe ur a as dumb as you look

(Continued)

dude ur just an ignorant kid u probly love barrack too. either u dont no what hes doing or your ignorant theres even a part in the bill raising tax on tanning cause it can cause cancer and thats just the start.

TolstoyKafkaEvsky:

Use the word ignorant about 20 more times, maybe it'll make you sound smarter. Doubt it, though. Great, so there's a tax on tanning. Tanning (like smoking) DOES CAUSE CANCER and should be taxed (like smoking.) Higher taxes can be a good thing. The more we're all willing to pay, the safer we can all be with a better trained, more well equipped police force, and the better off our society will be with increased funding for public education. I'm more than willing to allow more money to go to the system if in return they're going to offer us public healthcare. Countries with universal healthcare (and higher taxes) generally have FAR greater standards of living and health than we do here in America, and they also have higher ratings of overall happiness. We only have to ensure that our government actually spends the money on public programs, which shouldn't be too hard for a country of INTELLIGENT people. America, on the other hand, is a whole different story.

Ben Runnoe:

ok you must not know how radical barrack is and they wont improove education they try to keep ppl dumb so theyll vote for democrats because unless your stupid and dont care about freedom not to mention health care is unconstitutional its only goin to cover 30 million ppl so there goin to start putting value human lives = descrimination so if u support u not as smart as i thought


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That is either the clever prods of a very nearly successful troll or the insane rantings of a sincere republican. I'm not sure exactly what to believe. Recently I was watching something pertaining to the politics of our day, and I watched as the right-winger conservatives started to scream and chant their insane, hyperbolic, non-nonsensical narratives about the way the world really isn't...

(Barrack Obama is an Arab)
(Barrack Obama wants to ban all guns)
(Barrack Obama wasn't born in this country)
(Jesus loves war and money)

And after watching for a few minutes, I started to become so disillusioned with the constant level of insanity that these people seem to think with, and I started to sincerely wonder if it's all just a charade. Perhaps they don't honestly believe it, I thought to myself. Maybe this is all just a grand conspiracy to take our eyes and minds off of where they ought to be, by creating a faux ideological war between the left and the right that seems so outrageous it's almost entertaining, and is more like an episode of Dragon Ball Z than a real world conflict between two parties.

Glen Beck: I will power up my crazy-insano-chi technique and use it rule the world! BWUAHAHAH!

*Does that power up thing that looks like translucent fire and an upward draft*

John Stewart: No way, Glen Beck, I'll stop you with my powerful voice of reason, WAAAAHHH!


And the day is saved and we all feel better even though nothing has really changed, and every 12 minutes in this country someone is dying of medical problems that could have been easily cared for if they only lived in a "privileged" country like Saudi Arabia....

How Big IS the Buster Sword?

Officially? 4.5 feet long. If you look at the original drawing of Cloud in the manual of Final Fantasy 7, and you take into consideration that his (canonically) 5 foot, 7 inches, then you have the proper data to confirm just how long the famous Buster sword is. My calculations have TWICE come out to 4.5 feet long. But that seems even HALF reasonable, when you consider who CLOUD is. The Buster sword (although infinitely cool) was silly from the very first time Square tried to get us all to believe that anyone would wield it as a weapon, especially when guns and even LASERS where all acquirable. I always suspected, though, that with the changing times, the creators of the character, his iconic blade and the people behind Final Fantasy have been HAMMING it up, and extending the tip of the sword to even more ridiculous lengths. Recently I got my chance to measure a plastic model version that came with the Cloud action figure I reviewed. After some measurements and quick work with my graphing calculator, I managed to prove that the action figure came with a sword that was approximately .9 feet longer (in theory) than the Buster Sword was originally supposed to be. Here, have a look:

"Deleted Scenes" for the Cloud Action Figure Review

The rest of the footage that I took that day, from the review I did of the Kingdom Hearts Cloud Action Figure review. I'm quite happy with it, however, it's too bad that it needed to be cut for the gayest of rules (the ten minute bullshit.)

New Camera Test Video

It's not common knowledge, but a lot of my viewers are aware that my old "true and blue" camera, the Canon Powershot A540 was entrusted to someone else and then stolen from them, among other things. That camera wasn't even state of the art, but it sure took excellent pictures and movies, despite some big flaws like battery life. Well I started doing research, thinking it was time to upgrade, and replace the old lost camera, and I finally came to a decision with another Powershot. This one is the SD1200 IS model and it's ugh... it's... I dunno...

It SHOULD have 4 more megapixels, however in all of the still photos I've taken there doesn't seem to be any clear superiority in comparison. The 6 megapixel photos seem to be about equal in clarity to the new one... which is quite concerning... But of course what REALLY matter here is the VIDEO capability...

I'm not sure what to think about this. The video stats are just about the same as the last camera, although I think the footage it takes is more grainy. On the upside, I've noticed that the sound quality is actually BETTER than the last one, it has less bass and more of a.... well it just sounds more realistic, I guess. Here's a test video I produced. Try not to cringe too much, because I'm not sure that I'll be returning it before the 90 days is up.

This Post is Dedicated to the Memory of All Freedom Fighters -- Past, Present, and Future...

Read the title of this post. Don't get the reference? I've used those words before. The first time that there was supposed to be a "black out" on youtube I made a reference to the miniseries turned 80's television show "V." I re-read the letter the Jewish grandfather writes in the end of the second movie, and I "spray-painted" the red "V" over top of the youtube logo, in order to make a point.

Tolstoy's Call to War

You can say whatever you want about how silly the video is, I recognize that everyone thinks the internet is not "serious business," but I maintain that showing absolutely NO RESISTANCE to corporate agenda will rarely ever result in positive things. Even now, youtube is probably preparing to change for the worse... again...

For the longest time I've been expressing outrage at Hollywood's constant debasing of original and memorable art. It's not enough to dumb down modern culture, they have to change old artworks as well; make them simpler, and completely change them thematically until they no longer represent anything that they originally stood for. The latest victim of this trend, is sadly Kenneth Johnson's lesser known science fiction series "V."

When I first saw the miniseries, I was probably a little too young to understand any point that the writing was trying to make. It was late at night, and I have this distinct feeling that I had school in the morning. Nevertheless, my brother was flipping through the channels, and my mother was sitting on the couch next to him, and was surprised to see an advertisement on the SciFi channel, promising to air the first movie after the commercials. Mom was instantly stricken with nostalgia, and her description of the story was more than enough to enthrall us, and coax us into staying tuned. I remember being quite taken with it, although I don't remember much of the finer details, and I'm willing to admit that I probably just thought it was "neat-o" because my brother thought it was cool.

For years I had always intended to go back and re-watch the miniseries, with hopes of understanding it better in my adult years. I finally got my opportunity when I had to get all of my wisdom teeth removed surgically. For whatever reason, I decided that while my mouth was healing, I would take the pain medication and watch 80's scifi movies in a marathon. Fortunately, the pain medication made it just bearable. "V" was on the list next to, the Robocop Trilogy and the first and second Terminator movies, among others.

Kenneth Johnson was heavily inspired by one of my favorite authors, who I have heavily quoted through the years. Originally, he wanted to base a television series off of "IT CAN"T HAPPEN HERE," a novel by Sinclair Lewis (not to be confused with Upton Sinclair) about how easily Fascism can rise to power here in America. I'm pretty certain it already had by the 1980's, however, considering how stupid the average American is, NBC decided to water it all down with aliens. Fair enough...

SPOILER ALERT

In the original "V," the aliens were clearly symbolic of fascism. When things first go wrong, they generate a propagandist war on scientists who they proclaim are all in a conspiracy against them. In order to capture and control any and all scientists they create a ghestapo like police force that incorporates human youth, and wears a symbol which is similar to the swastika.




Having just finished watching the first episode of this new celebrated remake I can easily say that I more than disappointed. With the first episode being only an hour, the new writers attempted to compact the plot of the first MINISERIES (about 197 minutes) into about 45 minutes of air time. The rushed way they handled the plot is disgusting enough, and now on top of mediocre writing and piss poor acting, it is MY belief that the show's writers have attempted to re-create Kenneth Johnson's ideas into a political satire of the LEFT WING!

The commentary they use throughout the first episode is pretty blatant, and wasn't hard to spot at all. I am by NO means the fist person to call this new show out as a mouth piece for republican whining. There is a debate on the wiki talk-page, and a myriad of bloggers who have all come to this conclusion.

Allowing me the freedom to comment freely on every one of my suspicions, I would list them as such:

- The aliens won't be interviewed by the media unless they are presented in a positive light. This is probably meant to infer that the "liberal media" never casts democrats negatively, which explains why Obama got into office and all these democrats were elected to public service... yeah... right...

- When the reporter goes through with the interview without asking any hard questions an alien thanks him for doing this and says something like, "It's ok to sacrifice for the collective sometimes." This could be meant to demonize anyone who thinks socially, or isn't a complete RANDROID!

- The "EVIL" aliens at one point use the word "CHANGE" in a way that is far too obvious to not recognize. It's on par with the "cute" Bush reference in the movie "WALL-E" where the all controlling, over-bearing auto-pilot says, "Stay the Course."

- The aliens begin healing people with their advanced technology in ways that it could easily be compared to stem cell research. At one point, a character who was in a wheelchair stands up and walks. But of course, since the technology is ALIEN it must be evil... *SIGH*

- The aliens want to start healing all humans, the world over, and the reporter specifically uses the word, "UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE." Another carefully chosen term, that is far too obvious.

- Another phrase that the supporters of the Aliens use is "Spreading Hope." That one is a little more conspicuous.

- It is suggested that the aliens are being "worshipped" by those who welcome them, in the same way that Obama might have been seen as a savior to some people who didn't want to spend another 4 years with GOP in office. Granted, some people were getting a little too close to becoming "Change Zombies" for my taste, but whatever, the election is over and I cast my ballot.

- Two of the main characters, who get a significant amount of focus (who certainly weren't in the original miniseries) are two priests, who SOME have theorized may become the new focus of the oppression in this new series, instead of scientists the aliens would be oppressing religious people.

- An underground resistance group is started to combat the alien conspiracy, where (unlike in the original) they suggest that the aliens have been creating crises around the world, in order to create and environment that would be far more welcoming to the new "saviors." Terrorism, un-necessary wars, economic collapse, civil unrest all have NOTHING to do with the religiously corrupt and psychotic policies of the Republican part, no, according to the new "V," it's the fault of DEMOCRATS -- *COUGH* Errr... I mean... Aliens... riiiiiggghhhttt

I could be wrong. Right now I feel pretty strongly that this could easily become the next "Battle Star Galactica" the remake of which was extremely popular with conservatives for it's... well... something about it was in support of their ideals, I don't know. Either way, remakes are almost never necessary, and often times RUIN the spirit of the original. This is probably another example of that, I'm not very impressed with anything about it, and I can only hope that this whole thing is just another failed television abortion like every FOX show that they canceled FAMILY GUY for.

The Cult of Plastic Crap

It is MASSIVELY IRONIC that just recently, through means that would not drain my shallow funds, I have come across a few things that would make decent reviews, and the camera that I have been using for years now, has just been stolen. I even felt that I had the motivation to do a review with the same zest that I used to apply to my work, before Youtube became a tyrant. I just can't do any filming with my non-existant camera. To make matters worse, the person in my family charged with replacing the camera isn't listening to reason, and feels that if Canon produced the last camera ANY camera will be good as long as it bears the Canon name. They won't shop ANYWHERE ELSE besides Best Buys, and tried to reassure me by showing me the new camera on Best Buy's website, where the read-out of the camera's stats told me that it (quote)

"Takes brilliant pictures and videos that SOMETIMES have sound"..... fuck....



Regardless of how broke I am, and how very hopeless my hunt for a job is, every weekend my brother quite easily drags me to a myriad of places that are only good for spending money, so that he can look for Transformers, and that I can window shop and think about my life. He always seems to find a "great deal" on something, I always try to postpone my inevitable descent into madness and focus on something trivial like price tags, and all the stores always seem to carry the same old crap. However, every so often something new and interesting, or rare and collectible will grace the shelves of our local Wall-Mart or Toys R Us. If it interests either of us, or is somehow related to an intellectual property that we enjoy, or is thematically consistent with a growing collection of ours, then there is a good possibility it will be bought. Just a few days ago, I was re-watching the BEST movie that Adam Sandler ever starred in, "REIGN OVER ME," where the psychotic behavior of his character Charlie Fineman is described in a very similar sense:

NIGEL: So, what do you do, Charlie?

CHARLIE: I'm a Collector

NIGEL: Really? What do you collect?

CHARLIE: What do I collect? I don't know. Johnson, you can answer for me.

ALLEN JOHNSON: Charlie collects things from his life. You know, things that he finds germane to his lifestyle.

That scene is just a sample of a great piece of, dramatic, cinema, and is one of the more surreal and authentically awkward feeling scenes throughout the whole movie. Charlie is painted up to be a really disturbed person, who ultimately throws violent temper tantrums anytime anyone begins to question him about his lifestyle choices or his past. Either way, I found it a little unnerving that a character that desperately needs help would so closely resemble people like me in any way. Even though Adam Sandler manages to create the insane character in a very charismatic way, I still find it disturbing to identify with him, knowing fully that he's not well.

When my brother and I first started scrounging around the usual places, specifically Toys R Us, they didn't have as many appealing items as they do now. In fact, the frequency of the cool shit on the shelves has gone up drastically in the last few months. Just this afternoon, I was looking at a Doctor Who action figure, and wondering if Nerds haven't actually changed what's being stocked in these stores, just by voting with their wallets in the past few years. Maybe that's just me...

Needless to say, all this crap wants to be bought by me, or rather, I feel the need to buy all this plastic crap. I've always loved action figures and collectibles, and I really have no idea why. It's sort of a small, smoldering passion of mine, like the way I feel when sharpening the edge of a knife and polishing the metal, or smelling the glue on the inside of a book, rubbing my fingers against the print of a comic page, feeling and modeling the fabric of a new hat or coat.

I sort of makes me feel guilty, like I shouldn't be this way. In many societies the world over, there are always negative connotations with feelings of materialistic desires. There's, apparently, something shameful in the desire or love of PHYSICAL THINGS. While a lot of my ideologies, and the philosophies that I admire would AGREE with this statement, I must admit that I have a love of material myself, and that I suspect that I am not the only one, considering the amount of money being generated from the keen art of selling crap you don't even need. It may just be human nature, or it could possibly be the influence of commercials on our minds, even though I try to avoid brainwashing advertisements as often as possible. Either way, I often times feel guilty for participating in rampant consumerism. I used to scoff at people who would buy a shirt that said HOLLISTER on it, and then I looked down and saw that I was wearing a Metal Gear Solid shirt. The only thing I can say in my defense is that wearing a shirt that shows support for a long running video game series which is VERY important to modern artistic and even philosophical thinking is in some way better than wearing a shirt just because it has a brand name on it.

Still, though, there is another thing that bothers me about my habit, which is simply this: I can manage to hold my head up high when it comes to most hobbies. I generally never took any shit from anyone, concerning the unorthodox life that I have lived. For the most part I've worn it as a red badge of courage. But lately, I feel more vulnerable to other people's judgment than I ever have before. It may have something to do with the fact that I have to get a job, and I realize that I stand a much better chance of getting a job if I'm white, have a normal American name, and wear a shirt that doesn't seem "radical" in anyway. All of you out there wearing "Rage Against the Machine" merchandise may want to have a quick wardrobe change before turning in that application to SEARS.

Even though I never felt the need to answer to anyone but myself, I always had a good "fuck you" speech ready for every alternative choice I made in my life. Don't like my FABULOUS fashion sense? You're a homo-phobe. Don't like it that I'm a gamer? You must be an OLD TIMER! What's-a-matter? Think I'm strange for having THAT MANY KNIVES!? Tch, that just shows how USELESS you'll be when the zombie-apocalypse occurs. Hope, you can run fast, motha-fucker, otherwise you're gonna be ZOMBIE-CHOW!

But I find the most difficult hobbie to justify is the "Cult of Plastic Crap." I really don't have ANYWHERE NEAR the number of figures that my brother has. In fact, I've always wanted to make a video showing the COLLOSAL number of Transformers and Halo characters he has IN STORAGE!

I guess it's not easy to justify collecting this stuff, because it's quite easily associated with kids. I recognize that most action figures are aimed at 12 year old boys, and I really don't help my case by OPENING THE BOXES, thereby destroying any "collectors value" they originally had. At best, I can argue three things:

1) I'm not hurting anyone, and YOU"RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!

2) People keep statues in their house and that's considered classy, but if it's made of plastic and articulate then it's not?

3) Cliffy B is one of those really cool nerds and he has an entire transformers corner in his office that he refers to as the "Optimus Prime Shrine." He's way past cool.... right?

Bob Dylan's a Sell-Out (Youtube Outtake)

This was some aborted mess of a video that started when two users on my youtube page (Dunnfield and Stude444) started having a debate on what musical artists have "Sold-Out." I had been doing some research on EARLY and LATE Bob Dylan songs, and at the same time dressing like him:




... So whatever, I tried to make a point in this video, and halfway through decided to just give up.