More "GTA IV" Silliness

Mothers Against Drunk Driving is now weighing in on the controversy around "Grand Theft Auto IV." From their press release:

Each year nearly 13,500 people die in drunk driving crashes and another half a million are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes. This is why MADD is extremely disappointed by the decision of the manufacturers of the game Grand Theft Auto IV to include a game module where players have to drive drunk.

Drunk driving is not a game and it is not a joke. Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable. MADD is calling on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to reclassify Grand Theft Auto IV as an Adults Only game, a step up from the current rating of Mature and for the manufacturer to consider a stop in distribution – if not out of responsibility to society then out of respect for the millions of victims/survivors of drunk driving.

Even with an M rating, kids should not be getting their hands on this game. I don't think an AO rating is going to change that.

Update: Hello, fellow morons! :) Thanks, DPUD.

I also added the link of where I found the story: GamePolitics.com.

Sideshow Bob Lives!

My husband is downloading whole seasons of "The Simpsons," and I'm realizing that my favorite episodes tend to be the ones that feature everyone's favorite homicidal maniacal Republican sidekick, Sideshow Bob. There's something about a character that fails so miserably at numerous attempts to kill his enemies that is just so...I don't know...comical. So, what's your favorite Sideshow Bob episode?

"Krusty Gets Busted" -- The first in a long line of Sideshow Bob episodes. Bob frames Krusty for armed robbery.
"Black Widower" -- Sideshow Bob marries Selma for devious intentions.
"Cape Feare" -- Sideshow Bob tracks the family ala "Cape Fear"
"Sideshow Bob Roberts" -- Sideshow Bob runs for mayor
"Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" -- Sideshow Bob tries to kill television
"Brother From Another Series" -- Sideshow Bob's first attempt to go straight. Features the voice of David Hyde Pierce, who played Kelsey Grammer's (Bob) brother on "Frasier."
"Day of the Jackanapes" -- Sideshow Bob plans to use Bart as a human bomb to blow up Krusty's last show
"The Italian Bob" -- Another attempt by Sideshow Bob to go straight
"Funeral For a Fiend" -- Sideshow Bob is finally killed. Or is he?

Woman Fired After High Risk Pregnancy

I wanted to point out this story if only for the fact that I can sympathize for this woman's plight.

April 28, 2008 -- Don't let the Red Door hit you on the way out.

That was the message from an Elizabeth Arden Red Door salon in Woodbury, LI, that fired an assistant sales manager for taking too much time off during her high-risk pregnancy, according to a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court.

Sandra Madero, 35, of Valley Stream, said the company violated her rights and is suing the high-end salon for $4 million.

"I don't understand why they treated me like this," she said.

Madero became pregnant with her second child in 2005, while she said she was working 60 hours a week. When she began losing weight and having contractions, her doctor told her to cut back on hours.

Her bosses said that as a salaried staffer, she wasn't entitled to a lighter schedule, her suit alleges. Instead, she took unpaid leave under the Family Medical Leave Act, which allows pregnant workers to take three months off.

When the three months were up, she faced the same problem. Her doctor didn't want her working more than 30 hours a week - but her bosses wouldn't accept her taking on a lighter workload, the suit claims.

She used vacation days, and she was fired when those ran out - a week before her baby was born, the suit alleges.

A representative for Elizabeth Arden declined to comment.

Fark drew me to the story, but I sensed a little anger from the commenters in the thread accompanying this story. Some of the choice comments:

JoeBagadonutz

2008-04-28 07:00:01 PM

Yep, honey, sometimes you just have to make the decision to be a good parent or be a good employee. You made the decision, why whine about it now? Your employers have no duty to keep you on the payroll if you don't show up for work.

re-elect_jimmy_carter

2008-04-28 08:34:50 PM

pure tough nuts.

she already had a kid, she wanted another.

does the entire world have to bow down at the feet of every mother who decides to get knocked up?

BIRTH CONTROL OR GTFO.

Dubya's_Coke_Dealer

2008-04-28 08:36:31 PM

This is why I never hire broads. Them and their "female issues," got no time for it. Get to work.

Exceptions made of course if they can provide me with proof of sterility.

mtsofthemoon

2008-04-28 08:40:45 PM

Sorry but you reap what you sow... If some lady wants to get preggo and pop out some rugrats thats her perogative, just don't expect her employer to cater to her. She made the choice to have her damn baby instead of getting an abortion, so its her responsibility to make sure she can afford it.

She would have just robbed her employer of productivity by all that post-birth ooohing and aaahing that every woman around is gonna do when she came back to work with baby talk, baby pictures, and sleep deprivation.

Having a baby should be a priviledge not a right, just like having a job. All maternity law does is foster the sense of entitlement women have about having babies.

As someone who was laid off from her previous job three months into her pregnancy, I know how tough it is to be suddenly out of work in a critical point of your life. But some of the comments on the board were just plain downright mean. If I was going through a high risk pregnancy, I would hope that my employer would be more sympathetic to my plight and follow the laws when it comes to pregnant women on the job.

Why Pixar Is Saving Walt Disney

The following story comes out of Walt Disney World in Florida, where the Pixar people are getting a little anxious with the Disney Imagineers over the Toy Story Mania attraction that was supposed to have opened by now.

As it turns out, many of the folks who work at that Emeryville-based animation studio are actually Disney theme park geeks. Consequently, these Pixar employees are well aware of what happened with the last state-of-the-art Audio Animatronic that WDI sent to the field: The Yeti featured in the climax of Disney's Animal Kingdom's "Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain."

And ever since DAK officially opened this nearly-200-foot-tall thrill ride back in April of 2006, the Imagineers have struggled to keep this 22-foot-tall AA figure working properly. But because the Yeti is such a sophisticated piece of machinery, it rarely operates the way that it was supposed to.

And given that Expedition Everest's state-of-the-art Audio Animatronic only makes an appearance at the very end of this DAK attraction (More to the point, given that the Yeti appears in a very dark section of this thrill ride) ... Well, when this AA figure is broken, it's relatively easy to put the Yeti in a very scary pose, throw a strobe lit on him ... And Presto ! 90 % of the guests who zoom through Forbidden Mountain that day have no idea that a key element of this thrill ride was broken.

But since Mr. Potato Head is just as technologically sophisticated as the Yeti (if not more so), the folks at Pixar are wondering what WDI's contingency plan for "Toy Story Mania" is. I mean, given that this AA figure will be right out there in public where any guest that walks by the show building can see him, it's not like the Imagineers can do what they do over at "Expedition Everest" (i.e. Put Mr. Potato Head in a scary pose, throw a strobe light on him and hope that nobody notices).

But when Pixar staffers asked the Imagineers what their "Toy Story Mania" contingency plan was ... WDI officials said (in essence) that " ... We don't really have a plan right now. So if Mr. Potato Head breaks down, I guess we'll just throw a sheet over him until we can get this figure repaired."

Which -- to be honest -- is not really what the folks from Pixar wanted to hear. But after 16 months of dealing day-to-day with Walt Disney Imagineering, it's the sort of answer that they've now come to expect.

The difference in how Disney deals with things as opposed to how Pixar deals with things can be seen in their films. After Pixar's initial contract expired, Disney made "Chicken Little." It wasn't of the same quality as Pixar's pictures.

Since "GTA IV" Is Coming Out Tomorrow...

GamePolitics.com has a series of articles running in anticipation of its release.

Some of the articles focus on the controversy of the series in general and the publisher, such as a mutual fund investor who specializes in "moral investing" taking shots at Rockstar Games and Take Two, while an author of a book on video game violence tells parents to "relax."

Another article looks at the parodies that have come out about the game even before its release.

One group has concerns about the Eastern European origins of the game's "hero."

There are more past and present stories at the site.

They're Banning Everything!

From the Center for Consumer Freedom, a story about the right to wrap our hot dogs in bacon if we want to.

Los Angeles food cops have blacklisted bacon. As a result, the city’s law enforcement is on the lookout for the most notorious ring of pork pushers: food cart vendors who serve bacon-wrapped hot dogs. (The infraction is taken so seriously that one merchant even found herself behind bars for more than a month after a recent series of raids.) Threatening a $1,000 fine, six months in jail, and confiscation and disposal of a violator’s food and equipment, the city’s Health Department is determined to drive home the message that “bacon is a potentially hazardous food.”

Like other nanny-state initiatives, the argument against bacon-wrapped offerings is a technicality at best. Grilling is the traditional way to prepare the classic bacon dog. But the county’s Environmental Health Department only allows vendors to boil or steam hot dogs. As Reason TV noted, this trivial distinction leaves hot dog vendors “trapped between government regulations and consumer demand.”

You can take the bacon from my cold, dead hands.

"This Week In Peeps"

Mary Katherine Ham of Town Hall does an occasional feature as part of her HamNation video blog called "This Week in Peeps." In this fourth installment of the feature, she highlights the last Democratic Debate, the Pope's Visit, Petraeus's testimony before Congress, and Obama's "bitter" comments. Check it out!

I'm Playing Catch-Up Right Now

I was off today for a doctor's appointment, but I had no internet most of the day because our modem crashed. So anything I put up here will likely be old news. But I promise to make up for it on my next day off.

More Information on "Hero" Floyd

I just received this link from Christopher King, who runs "Chris King's 1st Amendment Page" in regards to a post that I wrote on Gregory Floyd's legal troubles.

I won't quote it here (he already put a good portion of the post in his comments on this story), but I thought I would give him the courtesy of linking what he had found out about the initial incident that got him fame in the first place.

This Week's Roger Ebert Reviews 4/25

Looks like Ebert's focusing on EbertFest this week. This week's reviews are still being done by Jim Emerson.

Deception -- 1 star
Chapter 27 -- 1/2 star

Also out this week: "Baby Mama", "Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay", "Deal", and "Then She Found Me."

"Grand Theft Auto 4" Leaked Online

It's the XBox 360 version, and it's the alleged toned-down version for Australian audiences. So someone overseas is either being very bad or very good depending on your point of view.

According to The Inquirer:

Retailers have been threatened with thumbscrews if they dare break the game's street date of April 29, even under intense pressure from gamers desperate to get their hands on what is sure to be the game of the year. So far, all have publicly avoided getting into trouble - but someone, somewhere, has been very naughty indeed.

Cracking group 'Icon' has taken credit for leaking the full 6.32GB disk image of the Xbox 360 version to Bittorrent. This is the PAL version - indicating that it's come from a UK or Australian source - and does appear to be the legit thing. The release notes for the game suggest that eager gamers don't play the game whilst connected to Xbox Live, to avoid the Volish authorities from picking up on the outrage and banning their British butts.

Word on the street is that this is a toned down Australian version, so if you really want to chainsaw hookers' faces off, you'll have to buy the real thing when it comes out.

Reports are also hitting the intertubes that an NTSC version of the game has shown up courtesy of '101'.

Heh. Not going to stop people from buying the real thing, I imagine, if this is the toned down version of the game. We want our sex and violence when we play "GTA 4", dang it!

Update: After I looked this post over this morning, I realized that I unintentionally plagarized the article, so I changed the wording.

Have a Recipe To Contribute?

Have a recipe to share? The Cotillion is getting together recipes from the blogosphere and releasing a cookbook.

I'm thinking of submitting a recipe that my father created when I was a kid that he based on an episode of "Yan Can Cook" that he made his own twist on. I'm going to have to e-mail my brother to see if he can get me the recipe. We called them "Donuts" because they were round like one. But they definitely were a whole different breed of food.

** ANNOUNCEMENT **

After today, I will be playing catch-up with posts at night.

After a month and a half, I FINALLY have a job.

** Do the happy dance with me, folks **

I'll be working as a telephone operator for an answering service in Concord that specializes in funeral homes, but also has other clients (I'll be starting with the other clients before I get the funeral home accounts). I did something similar to this in my younger days, except that I was taking orders and messages for who knows how many companies (been so long I forgot).

So be happy for me, folks. I am once again gainfully employed. :)

"Grand Theft Auto IV" To Be Released Soon -- Controversy Follows...

I had this theory about Lions Gate films awhile ago, and I expressed it once to the VP of marketing there, Tom Ortenberg. My theory was that regardless of the year, they always seemed to manage controversy in the spring months regardless of how benign the film was that they were about to release.

I'm finding that the theory is holding up with Take Two and Rockstar video games, except in their case it's whatever game they happen to release regardless of what's in it.

"Grand Theft Auto IV" is about to be released to the masses in the coming weeks, and it's already getting attention before anyone can play it. Mostly from parental groups who are going a little wild this time around over past content in the games.

Just in the past few weeks, Chicago busses, worried about gun violence, pulled ads for the game. Another article released by MTV Multiplayer detailed how three underage kids got their hands on GTA, showing that it is really up to the parents to monitor what their kids see and do online and on their consoles.

Now the Parents Television Council has decided to weigh in on the upcoming release. And it isn't pretty.

Since the first version was released in 1997, the Grand Theft Auto series has lowered the bar for appalling video game content…

In past versions, players could re-enact having sex with a prostitute, beating her bloody, taking her money and running her over with a car; shooting at police officers; and, by using a code easily accessible on many internet sites, having a realistic sexual encounter on screen — complete with audio commentary.

One of the issues that they want to ensure is that the game is unmodifiable, which any gamer will tell you is impossible. I can understand the reasoning (the now infamous "Hot Coffee" controversy from awhile back, which was not a mod added to the game by a gamer, but content that was already in the game that was unlocked by a modder), but it just isn't going to happen.

I have a copy of "GTA III" that I haven't played in awhile. My mother came into the living room one night as I was playing the game. As I was explaining the game to her, she asked me why running red lights wasn't bringing the cops after me. I had to tell her that the cops didn't care about red lights in this game. Her reaction? "Well, that's stupid!" and walked out of the room. I'm shooting people left and right, and she's more concerned about what happens when I run a red light.

So Obama Lost In Pennsylvania

Not a huge surprise. He had been falling behind there for awhile, even before the controversies that have made him vulnerable to Cilnton.

Some interesting facts from Michelle Malkin:

FNC is reporting a few new exit poll results…

Take with the usual grain of salt.

- Crackerquiddick fallout? Gun owners went for Hillary over Obama, 58 percent 42 percent.

- BO gets the college-educated vote, 54 - 46.

- Who’s more negative and “unfair?” Hillary over BO, 67 - 49.

A map of the state shows where Clinton won county-wise over Obama (courtesy CNN.com).


Hot Air still has some good coverage of the race as it played out and afterwards.

Open Thread: Pennsylvania
Hillary Win Points Out Real Trouble For Obama, Dems

We're in it for the long haul, folks. Might as well strap on your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.

More Obama Association Issues

(H/T Newsbusters)

I was going to post this yesterday, but I got caught up watching the Jason Beghe interview so I could post my thoughts on it.

This one is less tenuous than that of Tony Rezko or Bill Ayers, but still shows what kind of people Obama chooses to associate himself with. Larry Lessig, Obama's technology advisor, has proven himself to be a religious bigot.

At a talk with Google employees, part of his demonstration included introducing a video titled "Jesus: The Musical." In the video, "Jesus" is singing to the song "I Will Survive" while dancing around downtown Los Angeles, ripping off his robe in the beginning to be dancing around in some diaper thing before he is eventually hit by a bus.

I am not making this up.

Lessig tries to assure his audience that he is alive in the sequel. Well, that makes it alright then!

Not only that, he is a self-described "digital communist" -- that there is no such thing as personoal property and that all art is free for the taking.

Where does Obama find these people? You would think that someone calling themselves a "Christian" would have looked into his background before bringing the man into his campaign.

The Jason Beghe Interview Is Now Online

Mark Bunker, due to lack of a YouTube account for now, has put up his video of his interview with Jason Beghe on his blog, The Wog Blog. It's a long interview -- 8 parts. I will post an update once I watch the entire thing for myself.

Let's see how long before Scientology tries to take this down. And I hope Bunker warned Wordpress about the possibility.

Update: I have now finally watched all 8 parts of the interview. He still uses some Scientology terms that might be confusing to those who are unfamiliar with how Scientology works, and there is some swearing. But overall, it was a great interview. Beghe did not hold a thing back. Two additional voices you will hear on the videos are that of Mark Bunker, who is asking him questions about his time in the organization, and Tory Christman, who was a Scientologist for 20 years before leaving. A must watch either way.

Update 2: Since we were talking about Scientology, I thought I would link to this Radar magazine article from the April issue on Scientology possibly meeting their match with the Internet. One of the surprising things mentioned in the article was longtime Scientologist Mike Rinder, who was head of the OSA, leaving the organization last year.

Feminists Piss Me Off

So what got my ire up about them this time? The latest post from Nora Ephron in The Huffington Post. (h/t Hot Air)

Here's another thing I don't like about this primary: now that there are only two Democratic candidates, it's suddenly horribly absolutely crystal-clear that this is an election about gender and race. This may have always been true, but weeks ago it wasn't so obvious -- once upon a time there were eight candidates, and although six of them withered away, their presence in the campaign managed to obscure things. Even around the time of Ohio, when there were primarily three candidates, the outlines were murky, because Edwards was still in there, picking up votes from all sectors.

But now there are two and we're facing Pennsylvania and whom are we kidding? This is an election about whether the people of Pennsylvania hate blacks more than they hate women. And when I say people, I don't mean people, I mean white men. How ironic is this? After all this time, after all these stupid articles about how powerless white men are and how they can't even get into college because of overachieving women and affirmative action and mean lady teachers who expected them to sit still in the third grade even though they were all suffering from terminal attention deficit disorder -- after all this, they turn out (surprise!) to have all the power. (As they always did, by the way; I hope you didn't believe any of those articles.)

To put it bluntly, the next president will be elected by them: the outcome of Tuesday's primary will depend on whether they go for Hillary or Obama, and the outcome of the general election will depend on whether enough of them vote for McCain. A lot of them will: white men cannot be relied on, as all of us know who have spent a lifetime dating them. And McCain is a compelling candidate, particularly because of the Torture Thing. As for the Democratic hope that McCain's temper will be a problem, don't bet on it. A lot of white men have terrible tempers, and what's more, they think it's normal.

1) This is the reason why Democrats have the "elitist" title on them to begin with.

2) She is a step away from calling all white men "abusers" in this piece.

3) She's using the same damn feminists arguments to justify her statements about "white men."

I hate feminists. I really do. As much as I agree to the idea of equal rights for all regardless of race or gender, I can't bear to call myself a feminist because I love men too much. Her whole argument is based on the concept that "white men are evil" and that "they have all the power." Although she will deny it, diversity in this country has forced white man and men in general into the background when it comes to education and employment.

Below is a picture of one of the many men in my life who makes a difference every day -- my husband.

He is the biggest teddy bear in the world. He is not the "typical white male" stereotype that Ephron portrays him to be. I have only seen him raise his voice a few times since I've known him, and never to me. He treats me like a queen, and he's there for me every step of the way. Whenever I hear people denigrate men, I keep thinking to myself that it's because they don't have the pleasure of knowing this man.

My husband, as well as the other men in my life such as my brother (a Navy veteran who served at Guantanamo Bay for a few months) and my late father, are the reason why I don't agree with feminism.

XenuTV and YouTube update

Mark Bunker has further information about the cancellation of his account at YouTube. According to his blog, it all stems from his first account which was cancelled due to copyright issues with Viacom over some Colbert Report clips he had put up. Before he could take them down, his account was gone. He had started the second account, but YouTube rules prohibit having another account even after the first one was cancelled (even if it is original content), so that one was cancelled, as well.

He may end up posting the Jason Beghe interview somewhere else, or another person might host the interview on YouTube. Either way, the interview is going to be released to the public.

Video: My Review of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"

Now that I finally have it up on YouTube, here is the first of hopefully many video reports for this blog. This was filmed and put together yesterday, but I had to wait until today to post it.

This is a review of the new Ben Stein film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed."



Update: I'm already getting some comments on YouTube about the video (mostly disagreeing with me, but thankfully none commenting on my looks so far), so I think the video reports will become popular.

This Week's Top Posts Cancelled For This Week

I'm going to forego doing this bit for tonight -- what I consider "top" might not what you consider "top". And it's been hard to blog this week because my allergies have been acting up all week.

As usual, blogging will be halted for the weekend while I try to get some homework done, as well as get some stuff done around the house and try to get a garden started before planting commences next month. I will probably be in with a video report sometime this weekend with my review of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." Hubby and I are going to be working out the logistics because the theater showing the film does not have any decent kids movies that we can just "drop off" my stepkids with (he wants to see it, too, after I told him what it was about).

If I'm not here with a video report by the end of the weekend, see you next week.

"Dilbert" To Get Outsourced

To the fans, that is.

In a good illustration of how media is becoming ever more conversational and interactive, United Media, “Dilbert’s” syndicate, is revamping Dilbert.com, letting the fans take up the cartoonist’s pen and tinker with, and then widely distribute, each strip.

When registered visitors to the new site click on a “mashups” tab, they can alter the text bubbles in each strip’s last panel. Soon, the syndicate says, visitors will be able to author entire strips, alone or collectively, and Mr. Adams himself will spar with fans and comment on the altered work. These new strips can be e-mailed or posted elsewhere on the Web.

“I’m surrendering myself to the realities of the Internet,” said Mr. Adams in an e-mail message. “People can already doctor strips. We’re just making it easier so people have more reason to visit the site.”

“And it’s fun,” he said. “This makes cartooning a competitive sport. It’s a game changer.”

According to the article, they are putting in filters to safeguard against one of the typical issues with the internet -- loose cannons.

I think it could work.

Time Comparing Global Warming to World War II?

I first saw this at Newsbusters yesterday, and since then everyone else is catching on to the disrespect that Time magazine is showing our veterans.

A number of posters have pointed out that veterans are pissed that this image is being used in this way. I don't blame them. This image is an ultimate symbol of World War II. Using it to compare World War II (a real war) to the "war" on Global Warming (a fake war) is dishonest and self centered.

This quote, from editor Rick Stengal, pretty much says it all about the current state of the mainstream media and their arrogance.

STENGEL: I think since I've been back at the magazine, I have felt that one of the things that's needed in journalism, is that you have to have a point of view about things. You can't always just say "on the one hand, on the other" and you decide. People trust us to make decisions. We're experts in what we do. So I thought, you know what, if we really feel strongly about something let's just say so. And we've done that a number of times since I've been back. We did the case for national service, a cover story last summer. The end of cowboy diplomacy where we said that foreign policy had to change. I think readers expect that. I think, look. You guys are up there all the time. On cable television, people are giving you their point of view, giving their opinions on something and people want to know that.

Um...you're supposed to be a news magazine. Not an advocate for every crackpot theory that comes along. And doing it in a way that disrespects veterans doesn't win you brownie points.

If Christopher Were To Act Like This Kid...

I would so be doing this. (h/t Bar Slaves and Bananas...thanks for adding me, BTW :) )

Apparently this kid is a pretty hard-core gamer and his mother has been asking him to do some of the household chores for the past three weeks. He performed none of these but instead squatted on Xbox Live for most of this time screaming “n00bs” and “pwn3d” at every person he could. This snowflake eventually DID get off of his ho-ho eating ass though… but only to break the damned vacuum cleaner.

-Line, you have been crossed.

Now I don’t know if you guys have any idea how much even a cheap vacuum costs, but last time I looked the starting price for just a POS that half-assed does it’s job is around $150, and look higher to about $250 and up if you want one that actually works.

It's sad that these days it takes extreme stuff like this to get a kid's attention. But if this is what it takes, I give a big thumbs up to the mother. The auction has ended, but the entry can be found here.

Keep the Pressure On YouTube!

Earlier this week, I had posted an item on the Church of Scientology and WikiLeaks regarding their documents being posted. As part of the article, I also had an update on actor Jason Beghe, who was teased on XenuTV to have an interview coming up where he talked about his time within Scientology.

Well, XenuTV Proprietor Mark Bunker had his account suspended after anonymous complaints from the Church of Scientology to take it down because it was about to come out with Beghe's interview this week.

Here's the tease that CoS was afraid of (hosted by another YouTuber).



Contact YouTube and continue to put pressure on them to bring Bunker's account back. It was under XenuTV1. Bunker is currently working with YouTube to get it back online.

Update: Roger Friedman has another story on the issue, as well as part of an interview that he did with Beghe after the release of the teaser.

Beghe has more to say, and a longer video, some of which we’ll see here next week. The more he describes the Scientology experience, the scarier it sounds. As he told me the other day: "A Scientologist who’s ‘clear’ believes he’s no longer a Homosapien. He’s Homo-novis, a new race. They believe they are the only hope for this section of the galaxy, starting with planet Earth."

Yes, Tom Cruise and John Travolta evidently believe this, Beghe says.

And, yes, Beghe did confirm with me what he’s talked about on the videos: All Scientology sessions are taped. Every one of them, including those of Cruise, Travolta and all celebrities. Does Beghe care if his tapes ever get out?

"Hell, no," he told me. "They won’t do that anyway because then the whole thing comes out and everyone knows there are tapes. They can’t do anything with them."

I always knew that Scientology was nothing to mess with. This just continues to confirm my point.

Update 2: Longer interview with Jason Beghe in Village Voice about his time in Scientology. Although the title is misleading -- he's not the first celebrity to leave Scientology, but right now he's the most high-profile.

"Flypaper Movies" and "Carwreck Movies"

Ace started this thread at this site yesterday regarding flypaper movies. These are those movies that, no matter how many times you've seen it, you have to sit there and watch it. I had put down my choices there, but to reiterate because it is sure to get lost in the shuffle over there (along with a few additions), mine are:

Army of Darkness and pretty much anything with Bruce Campbell in it. He is just the best B-movie actor out there and makes any movie bearable.
Any early Spielberg movie (movies I grew up on)
A Christmas Story
Popeye
The Goonies
Airplane! (even if it is the edited version)
Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein

Then there are those films that I call the "carwreck" films. I describe them that way because, like a car wreck on the highway, it's a horrible sight, but you just can't look away. These are what people typically also call "guilty pleasure" films. Mine are:

Howard the Duck -- Yes, Howard the Duck is a movie that, as many times as I've seen it, and as much as I know that it is a terrible waste of good film and deserves to die in the pits of Hell, if it's on when I'm channel surfing, I will stop and watch the movie.
Plan 9 From Outer Space -- This is a given. It's just fun to laugh at and make fun of.

This Week's Roger Ebert Reviews 4/18

All reviews are done by Jim Emerson this week. Ebert should be back next week full time.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall -- 3 1/2 stars
My Blueberry Nights -- 2 1/2 stars
Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? -- 2 stars

Also coming out this week: the Al Pacino thriller "88 Minutes," action comedy "The Forbidden Kingdom," and "The Life Before Her Eyes," a Columbine-inspired plot about a woman affected by the school shooting of a friend.

Note: Sorry I didn't do my video picks for this week -- I've been dealing with a sudden allergy attack all week. They will be back this Tuesday.

Kos Kids Go Crazy Because They Didn't Get Their Way

You gotta love how the moonbats over at the Daily Kos get so riled up when they don't get their way. (h/t Newsbusters)

Obama was asked tough questions? Boycott ABC and Disney!

Some of the suggestions for this "boycott" included among the comments:

keep watching the videos you already have. SHARE them with other parents who would otherwise buy the Disney DVD, and don't buy Disney in the future. And talk to your kids about the power of the corporate media and the RESPONSIBILITY of the consumer to use their power as a balance. Spoken as a mom of a 7, 10 and 11 yr old. Yes, I do have these crazy, nerdy conversations with my children.

buy used cars... or keep your current car going, or use mass transit or walk; eat non-Nabisco cookies and crackers, buy electronics from Apple or your local electronics shack, and quit drinking corporate swill beer (Coors, Anheiser Busch products, Miller) and support you local microbrewery. Write letters to these corps and let them know why.

From now on only broadcast on CSPAN or PBS; moderators selected by the Democratic Party. Or produce and feed directly.

One commenter decided that moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopolous needed to go to jail for making things tough for their candidate:

Put me in charge and I will have these conglomerates broken up with their management and lackeys (Gibson, Stephanopoulos) in prison for a long time. Crimes against democracy will be defined, codified and punishments carried out forthwith.

Call the Wahhhhmbulance!

It is just amazing to me the derangement that these people feel. When I was going for my film degree, I had also joined the College Republican group on campus. I was interviewed by a campus reporter (and dormmate) about those on campus who had been acting out because Bush didn't win. I told her that I had two words for her: Bill Clinton. I'm sure there were some that had the same dreangement about Clinton, but they weren't as vocal as the anti-Bush people are now, to my recollection. They were truly on the fringe.

Obama, Clinton and Truth

H/T Hot Air Headlines

More on last night's debate. FactCheck.org took a look at the statements made by Clinton and Obama and sorted out the crap from the gold.

1) William Ayers

Clinton: Senator Obama served on a board with Mr. [William] Ayers for a period of time, the Woods Foundation, which was a paid directorship position.

And if I'm not mistaken, that relationship with Mr. Ayers on this board continued after 9/11 and after his reported comments, which were deeply hurtful to people in New York, and I would hope to every American, because they were published on 9/11 and he said that he was just sorry they hadn't done more. And what they did was set bombs and in some instances people died.

Fact: No one died in the particular bombings that Ayers participated in, and the three people who did were Weather Underground members in Greenwich Village. The interview that Ayers did with the New York Times was before 9/11 in connection with a book he had written on his time on the run.

(Note: I will note it is still deplorable that Ayers was a member of this group.)

2) The Flag Pin

Obama: I have never said that I don't wear flag pins or refuse to wear flag pins. This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with. ...

Fact: Obama, Oct. 2007: I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I'm gonna try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.

3) Social Security Cap

Clinton: Said that lifting the cap on wages would affect the working people of Philadelphia, such as educators, firemen, police officers, "and the like."

Fact: If there are teachers making $102,000 a year in Philadelphia, I'm going to convince my husband that we have to move there after I graduate. According to the Pennsylvania State Education Association, very few teachers even approach that in Philly, and they happen to be long term teachers with Masters degrees and higher. And police officers and firemen do not maek that much in the area.

4) Gun Control Questionnaire

Gibson: And in 1996, your campaign issued a questionnaire, and your writing was on the questionnaire that said you favored a ban on handguns.

Obama: No, my writing wasn't on that particular questionnaire, Charlie. As I said, I have never favored an all-out ban on handguns.

Fact: Yes, it is.

5) The Rising Cost of Gas

Clinton: Number one, we are going to investigate these gas prices. The federal government has certain tools that this administration will not use, in the Federal Trade Commission and other ways, through the Justice Department, because I believe there is market manipulation going on, particularly among energy traders.

Fact: Investigations have been done. It's all market-driven.

6) Capital Gains Tax

This one is actually on moderator Charlie Gibson.

Gibson: And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased. The government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down. So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

Fact: Short term, it's true. Long term, not seen at this point.

More detailed answers on the above can be found at factcheck.org.

Educating Our Children About Politics

I've had several conversations with my stepkids, 13 and 10, about different issues that have come up in the news, in particular global warming and politics. I don't know if it's their ages or just stuff they pick up at school, but I found myself re-educating them on several occasions.

On Global Warming:

I forgot when this was (might have been beginning of winter last year), but my stepdaughter said something about global warming. I just casually said, "Global warming is a myth."

Stepdaughter: No, it isn't!
Me: Yes, it is.
Husband (to stepdaughter): There are different theories about global warming, SD.

Another time, towards the end of this winter, my stepson repeated something he had heard on a show about the Earth being underwater in 2 or 3 years because of global warming. I had done a stint of observation with his Literacy teacher, and I knew that they were doing a unit on media literacy, so I was able to use that in the explanation.

Me: Do you remember what you learned in media literacy? (Quiet from the back seat as he thought about his answer.) I believe you learned not ot believe everything you see on television or on the internet, right?
Him: Yeah.
Me (Pointing to the large New Hampshire snowbanks surrounding us): Does this look like global warming to you?

On the election, I think my stepkids get this partially from school or from their mother. But I also had to educate my stepdaughter (as I was talking about Obama's many gaffes this weekend with my husband) why you should vote for the person who is the most qualified for the position, not for someone just because they happen to be black or a woman. (She was adamant that Obama was the most qualified, although I explained to her that Obama had only served one term in the US senate, Clinton had served two, while McCain had served many terms -- it was the best way I could explain it to her at her level without getting into complicated issues)

At dinner later that afternoon, she asked us questions about the difference between Democrats and Republicans. My husband took over at that point, putting it in the simplest of terms, saying that Democrats have the image of being for the "common person."

Stepdaughter: I want to be a Democrat, then.
Husband: But they also believe in higher taxes.
Stepdaughter (dejected): Republican, then.

I grew up in the era of Reagan. Having a father who was a die-hard Conservative Christian Republican, I kind of had that around me. My dad was such a fan of Reagan that we would jokingly refer to him around the house as "Pepre Reagan." (Pepre being the French for Grandfather) The one thing that I hope to pass down to my stepkids is that they should respect other people's opinions, regardless of whether they agree with them or not. To my own kids, I want to pass down my values and beliefs just as my dad did with me.

Reading some of my papers from elementary school going into high school, I was probably more liberal when I was younger. I registered as a Republican even though I had no clue what it meant -- my dad was a Republican, but I figured if I found that it wasn't the party for me I would change to Democrat. But when I got into college, and I started following politics and realizing there were no easy answers, I started becoming more conservative. And I gladly became a Republican.

So teach your children early and often during this election cycle. Eventually, they'll come around.

Ann Coulter: Obama Woos Gun Toting God Nuts

As usual, good article from Ann Coulter on the past week's controversy as well as comparing it to other attempts by the liberal party to make themselves "like us" and failing miserably.

The rich liberals must have nearly fainted at the revelation that the denizens of small towns in Pennsylvania have absolutely no concern for the rich's ability to acquire servants from Mexico at a reasonable price.

We don't know much about Obama's audience, other than that four fundraisers were held on April 6 at the homes of San Francisco's rich and mighty, such as Alex Mehran, an Iranian who went into daddy's business and married an IBM heiress, and Gordon Getty, heir to the Getty Oil fortune.

It is not known whether any of Getty's three illegitimate children attended the Obama fundraiser -- which turned out to be more of a McCain fundraiser -- but photos from the event indicate that there were a fair number of armed (and presumably bitter) policemen providing security for the billionaire's soiree.

In 1967, Gordon sued his own father to get his hands on money from the family trust -- and lost. So Gordon Getty knows from bitter. It's a wonder he hasn't turned to guns, or even to immigrant-bashing. God knows (whoever he is) there are enough of them working on his home.

Read the rest of the article at the link above.

What Obama Doesn't Understand

Until I can figure out what's going on with my Town Hall account, I'm going to post my weekly essay here.

You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, a lot of them — like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they’ve gone through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, and they cling to guns, or religion, or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

These, my friends, are the words that started his eventual downward spiral into obscurity.

It may seem like I go after Obama more than Clinton on this blog. I see no reason for going after her at this point -- she's already made her bed and is lying in it right now (in more ways than one). It would be like kicking someone when they are down.

The above quote was said at a fundraising event in San Francisco on April 6. On April 11, the words were released on the Huffington Post, and all hell broke loose. Every time he's tried to backtrack from this statement, he just keeps digging himself a deeper and deeper hole.

The reason? There are more of us than there are of you, Senator Obama.

But it isn't just these words that have doomed him. in Wednesday's debate, he did not do as well as he should have, given that many in the Democratic party see him as a messiah figure. The shine was taken off, and his answers to questions regarding his character were just typical elitism politics.

His answer on what has become known in some conservative blog circles as Crackerquiddick did not really explain his answer, but just made him sound more and more like he was out of touch with the common person. He basically reiterated everything he had already said the week before.

On his question about pastor Jeremiah Wright, who has become a controversial figure in past months because of racist statements he had made on the pulpit, he tried to backtrack on that, also, first saying that he "disowned" the pastor, but then said that he "disowned" his remarks.

On former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers, he said that he did not have a strong association with the man, and said that he could not be blamed for things he said. (Of course, this was before Clinton pointed out that he was on a board with Ayers for several years)

But this I had to give props to moderator Charlie Gibson -- the question on the capital gains tax. Gibson asked Obama a question on whether he would raise the capital gains tax, citing that when it was lowered more revenue came in. His answer was priceless, citing the liberal excuse of "fairness." How fair is it for me if I were to make over $250,000 (in my dreams) a year to have to pay more money than the person below me when I can be using that money to open new investments in my portfolio? When are liberals, regardless of who they are, going to understand that life is not and has never been fair? Get over it!

This has not been Obama's best week ever. In fact, probably his worst week. His "bitter" comments, his associations...they're never going to go away. And it looks like when John McCain finally gets his crack at them, he'l have plenty of material to use to his advantage. Plain and simple.

Legal Troubles Mount For Eaton Resident

I told you guys yesterday about Gregory Floyd of Eaton, who had a split reaction after he shot at a suspect upon stumbling on the guy shooting a police officer last year, but was found guilty Tuesday of threatening his neighbor.

Well, it looks like his problems are only just beginning.

HAVERHILL – A day after an angry and obscenity-laced courthouse outburst landed Gregory Floyd in the jail overnight, the Easton man's legal troubles continue to mount.

He not only faces sentencing for Tuesday's criminal threatening conviction, but three new charges. Earlier yesterday, Assistant Grafton County Attorney James Vara filed a motion to bring forward a suspended one- to three-year state prison sentence Floyd received nearly 10 years ago for simple assault.

And his $10,000 cash bail set Tuesday night was doubled following his arraignment yesterday in Haverhill District Court, after a law enforcement officer testified that Floyd is a danger to the community.

Like I said yesterday, as much as I will defend his right to own a gun, I can't stand bullies.

One Union Leader commenter yesterday said that he thought that he should have joined the Browns in their compound last year.

Another Scare Story

This has been going around the past week or so. Now Foster's Daily Democrat has picked up on it.

DURHAM — A chemical commonly found in plastic infant bottles and products could cause developmental problems, a preliminary study has found.

Ties between the chemical — called bisphenol A (BPA) — and myriad potential health risks in humans is anything but concrete. Scientists say any safety decisions made by parents will be based on incomplete data.

This substance is typically found in nondisposable hard plastic containers, such as some Nalgene bottles and many nursing bottles. In general, if it's soft plastic, it does not contain the polymer base scientists are concerned about.

The federal National Toxicology Program said Tuesday experiments on rats found precancerous tumors, urinary tract problems and early puberty when the animals were fed or injected with low doses of BPA.

Many national scientists suspect that exposure early in life disrupts hormones and alters genes, programming a fetus or child for breast or prostate cancer, premature female puberty, attention deficit disorders and other reproductive or neurological disorders.

At least they acknowledge that the risks are relatively unknown at this point.

While such animal studies only provide "limited evidence" of bisphenol's developmental risks, a draft report by the group — made up of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration and the Institutes of Health — stresses the possible effects on humans "cannot be dismissed."

And therein lies the rub.

According to Bauer, there are thousands of similar chemicals that humans of all ages ingest during the course of their lives. In fact, there are too many to list.

"We're exposed to a lot of different substances at very small levels," Bauer said. "We can find most every chemical in every thing you can think of, but we can't do the health assessment in those amounts."

And The Winner of Tonight's Debate Is...

John McCain!

Moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopolous did not pull punches with any of the candidates on any of their recent scandals -- from Crackerquiddick to Wright to Snipergate.

Highlights:

-- Obama's digging himself deeper over Crackerquiddick and not really saying anything different than what he said that night.
-- Obama not really answering the question regarding Wright.
-- Clinton taking every opportunity to zing him on the above topics.
-- Both candidates attacking each other over William Ayres -- Clinton for associating with him, Obama for her husband pardoning two members of the Weather Underground.
-- Gibson having to give a tax lesson to Obama, that lowering the capital gains tax brings in more revenue.

It was fun watching them dig into each other like that. All debates should be like this.

Update: Hot Air has clips from Hillary's answer to the Wright question and both their answers to Ayres question. Also, does anyone know where I can find a full clip with both their answers to the Wright question? While I was watching the debate last night my husband made me turn off the live feed I was watching so he could play Call of Duty 4.

V-Tech One Year Later: Still Blaming Everyone Else But The Killer

DoublePlusUndead had this link as part of his daily "Around The World In 80 IQ Points" lineup today, so it got me looking over at GamePolitics.com to see what they had on this as well as other aspects of the V-Tech anniversary.

Morality In Media: Blame The Violent Culture!
Pro-Gun Control Advocate: Blame the Guns, Not Games!

I got a novel idea -- how about blaming the guy who shot all those people?

The killer (whose name I will not utter here for fear of giving him legitimacy) was mentally ill. What did not stop him was a loophole in our gun control laws that would have forbid him from having a gun if the courts at the time had done their job (yes, the courts). If he had been declared a harm to himself and others, the laws would have stopped him from getting the guns.

I am not in favor of putting more laws on the books for guns -- I believe in enforcing the ones we have against the true criminals who have no regard for the law. Anytime a tragedy like this happens, people are either blaming it on the media (video games are always a favorite target) or calling out for more gun laws. I don't believe in neither, because correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation. There have been a few cases where younger kids have been influenced by something they saw -- I remember a case where a young teenager killed his friend just to see what it felt like to kill someone after watching movies like "Friday the 13th" - but those cases are rare, and parental supervision of such media would be more beneficial than keeping it from them altogether.

I'm not saying that I'm going to be showing my stepkids or my soon to be biological kid violent movies along those lines anytime soon. But my husband and I can only shield them from so much.

Al Gore: The New Smokey The Bear?

Newsbusters has a video from Citizen Link up on their site making fun of Gore's $300 million campaign to make people aware about global warming and climate change.

Money quote: "Only you can prevent dumb ideas from catching fire."



Very funny, and true.

After Guilty Verdict, Man Has Violent Outburst

For those outside of New Hampshire not familiar with the story. Gregory Floyd of Eaton was involved in an incident last year where he was hailed a hero by some, but others felt there were still some unanswered questions.

Floyd happened to come upon the fatal shooting of Franconia police officer Cpl. Bruce McKay by Lilo Kenny, who had fired several rounds into McKay. Floyd, who happened to have a gun on him, shot Kenny dead. The police and attorney general's office declined to prosecute, saying that what Floyd did was justifiable under the circumstances.

Now, Floyd is in jail for an unrelated incident involving a neighbor who was trying to cross him on the road.

LITTLETON – Moments after he was convicted yesterday for threatening his neighbor's life, Gregory Floyd made his way out of the courtroom shouting obscenities and waving his cane, before being subdued by a half-dozen police officers in the courthouse hallway.

"Don't you (expletive) know anything about the Constitution?" he shouted, as court security officers, New Hampshire State Police and Grafton County Sheriff's deputies wrestled with him in the narrow hallway.

Floyd, 50, of Easton, was immediately taken to the county jail. He has been charged with disorderly conduct, simple assault and resisting arrest, all class A misdemeanors. Bail was set at $10,000 cash last night.

After he was found guilty, Floyd started waving his cane around and yelling at Sheriff's Department and Grafton County personnel about his "constitutional rights." His lawyer said that he intends to appeal.

He's claiming that she had a gun on her, and threatened him.

The incident that landed Floyd in court yesterday happened in December, when Boisvert met Floyd and his son, Gregory P., along Hummingbird Lane, where they all live. She was in a 1996 Lincoln Town Car; the Floyds were in a pickup truck.

Boisvert was nervous and shaking as she gave her testimony. She said she asked the Floyds to back up so she could get by, because they were on a straight part of the road, while she would have had to back up a hill and a sharp curve to let them go by.

The standoff lasted about a half-hour. At one point, Floyd asked her if she wanted him to pull a gun. Boisvert said she never saw a gun.

"I didn't dare move," she said, adding that when he mentioned a gun, "it really scared the beejeebies out of me. I didn't dare move, I didn't dare turn my back." The younger Floyd walked up to his house, where he got his mother and called police. Michelle Floyd eventually backed up the pickup truck so Boisvert could go by.

By the time Boisvert drove to Lincoln, she said she was scared and shaking.

"I was afraid he might do something," she said, and decided to stop at the Lincoln police station and talk with an officer.

Since that day, Boisvert said she has been very frightened of her next-door neighbor, even though that afternoon in December was the first time she had ever met him.

Michelle Floyd and her son testified that it was Boisvert who had the gun that afternoon.

"I could see an outline of a gun in her sweater," Gregory P. Floyd said, adding, "Ever since May, I've been in fear of guns," referring to the May 11 shootings of McKay and Kenney, which he witnessed.

Father and son were returning from a doctor's appointment in Whitefield that December afternoon, Gregory P. Floyd said, when they met Boisvert on the road.

"She was trying to provoke my dad into having a heart attack," he said.

Michelle Floyd testified that she "saw bits and pieces of a butt of a gun" as she talked to Boisvert.

Both said they told state police investigators the day after the incident about the gun, but those statements did not appear on the reports, Gainor said.

Floyd's attorney, William Christie, said the guilty verdict will be appealed to the Grafton County Superior Court, at which time he will request a jury trial.

I'm more likely to believe her than him on this, just based on the outburst. The raw footage is available at the WMUR website. This guy has a lot of anger inside of him. And this wasn't the first time he had been involved in an incident similar to this -- in the past, he had been involved in another threatening case where he told utility workers that if they didn't get off his property he would give them a "third eye."

I'm all for gun rights, but this guy sounds like a bully.

MediaCurves: Obama's Bitter Comments

Full Disclosure: I participated in this survey.

I thought that the results here were interesting, but predictable.

More detailed results are here for each question. Surprise -- likely Clinton and Obama voters among Democrats were almost divided equally, with Clinton having a one percentage point advantage.

Church of Scientology In Legal Fight on Internet

Same old, same old, really.

Wikinews has learned that the Church of Scientology warned the documents-leaking site Wikileaks.org that they are in violation of United States copyright laws after they published several documents related to the Church. Wikileaks has no intention of complying, and states that in response, it intends to publish thousand pages of additional Scientology materials beginning Monday.

In the letter to Wikileaks, lawyers for the Church's Religious Technology Center (RTC), which oversees the use of the their logos, writings and religious content, states that the site "placed RTC's Advanced Technology works on Wikileaks.org's website without the authorization" of the Church.

"I have a good faith belief, and in fact know for certain, that posting copies of these works through your system was not authorized by my client, any agent of my client, or the law. Please be advised that your customer's action in this regard violates United States copyright law. Accordingly, we ask for your help in removing these works immediately from your service," states the letter from Ava Paquette of Moxon & Kobrin, which was published by Wikileaks.

And the response from Wikileaks?

Despite the letter, Wikileaks states it will not comply with the "abusive request" by the Church.

"Wikileaks will not comply with legally abusive requests from Scientology any more than Wikileaks has complied with similar demands from Swiss banks, Russian off-shore stem cell centers, former African Kleptocrats, or the Pentagon. Wikileaks will remain a place where people of the world may safely expose injustice and corruption," stated Wikileaks in a release on its website.

Wikileaks further states that, "in response to the attempted suppression, Wikileaks will release several thousand additional pages of Scientology material next week."

Heh. Wonder if they got the documents from Sweden.

It just amazes me how stupid the CoS can be sometimes. Threatening to sue over their "copyrighted" documents just brings more attention to them and makes people want to check them out more without paying the millions of dollars to do so.

Right now, Wikileaks isn't up and running properly. So once they are I'll provide a link to the documents myself.

(h/t Fark)

Update: Television actor Jason Beghe, who played Demi Moore's love interest in "G.I. Jane" and has been in numerous television shows such as "Criminal Minds" and "Numb3rs," is now speaking out against his time in the Church of Scientology. This is a teaser video put up on YouTube by XenuTV of him talking about his experience. A full interview will be available soon, but this little bit is eye-opening, especially when you know that he's Operating Thetan V, Class V. (pretty high up in the church)

Update 2: WikiLeaks is up and running again (although I think it was more my end than theirs). A list of the currently available documents can be found here.

This Was Intended For My MySpace Blog

But it's acting a little funky when I try to start a new post, so it's going to go here for now.

I've actually finished a second draft of my screenplay that I've been working on since college.

Work has put the biggest hold on me getting it done in a timely manner. But with me now out of work for the time being, I figured I should probably finish the second draft and put it out there for comment.

Behold..."ZombieMart!"

I've made my corrections on a hard copy that I'm going to transfer over within the next week or so. My husband is looking over the draft and making suggestions (fresh pair of eyes). So I'm giving you folks the chance to make comments and suggestions on what I can do to this script, also.

The plot: A former Wal-Mart employee is forced to go back to the store where she worked with her fiance after her manager is bitten by someone carrying a mysterious illness that has turned citizens into zombies. But because she is a movie fan (and recently graduated with her degree in film), she knows the ins and outs of zombie films, so she knows what to do even though the rest of her crew doesn't believe her.

I know, zombie movies have been done to death lately. But, they're also still commercial enough to warrant capitalizing on them. I got the idea as 1) a worse case scenario if something were to happen between the time I graduated and the time I got married, and 2) after watching almost a month long stretch of zombie films.

I've made some changes on a hard copy already, so some things you see here won't be in the final script. My husband has already made the comment about some of the language being "stilted" (he said it was fine for the lead character because she is an academic type, but all my characters were talking the same way she was). But any other changes that you guys can suggest would be great.

Harry Potter and the Creativity Lawsuit

Note: There are spoilers to the film "Troll" in this post, so if you want to go out and see this movie for yourself don't read any further.

I've been waiting to post on this, only because it seemed stupid to sue because two characters happened to have the same name. But as I was reading the description of the movie, there might be some SLIGHT similarities between this and the Harry Potter books.

FILM goliath Warner Bros has begun a legal fight with a director who says he devised an earlier version of the Harry Potter character.

John Buechler was behind a little known film called Troll, released in 1986, which featured a young boy called Harry Potter Jnr.

He's about to embark on a search for a star for a $45m remake of the film.

His partner, Hollywood producer Peter Davy, told The Daily Mail: "In John's opinion, he created the first Harry Potter.

"J.K. Rowling says the idea just came to her. John doesn't think so.

"There are a lot of similarities between the theme of her books and the original Troll."

From Wikipedia:

The film begins with the Potter family moving into a new apartment complex. While unpacking, their young daughter Wendy is attacked by a troll inexplicably living in the basement. Using an emerald ring, it captures Wendy in it and transforms into her. After meeting the other eccentric tenants, the family notices Wendy's unusual behavior (roaring, biting, tossing people across rooms...) but attributes her behavior to the stress of the move. The only one that notices something is terribly wrong is Harry Potter Jr. (Noah Hathaway)— not to be confused with the hero of J.K. Rowling's famous series. Frightened by his sister's sudden violent changes, he seeks solace in the company of a mysterious old lady, named Eunice St. Clair (June Lockhart), who lives upstairs. When he begins to tell her of the strange goings-on, she reveals to him her real profession: a witch. She tells him of her long history stretching back to the time of magic, when she and a man named Torok fell in love. However, the balance of the realms of magic and men where challenged by Torok in a great war and he was punished to be forever transformed into a troll. Eunice stands guard at this apartment, waiting patiently for Torok to challenge the realms again, and that is what is going on now. The troll had already began going room to room, attacking the tenants and hideously transforming them into pods and their rooms into fairy worlds full of grotesque beasts. In a final attempt to stop Torok's hostile takeover of the apartment complex, Eunice and Harry enter the troll's fairy world. Eunice is attacked by Torok and turned into a tree stump and Harry find his sister trapped in a coffin of glass a la Snow White. Suddenly Torok's great bat monster attacks, disabling Harry. When it goes after Wendy, Torok kills it, destroying his carefully constructed fairy realm. As the magic world collapses around them, Harry and his family are given a chance to escape, leaving just as the police arrive. As the police investigate the house, one of them is drawn into a remaining fragment of the fairy world, setting up for the unrelated sequel.

Frankly, I highly doubt that Rowling saw this movie and that it was a coincidence. The character happens to have the same name, and it's in a magical world. That's about as far as it goes, as far as I'm concerned. Besides, why is he suing now?

Hillary Clinton and the 2nd Amendment

Hat tip to Doug from Granite Grok for the following video. This was an event that Hillary Clinton gave in December 2007, where someone asked her the question on the "proliferation of guns" within the United States. Her answer seems a little different than what she's been promoting since Obama's little gaffe from this past week.

(I should also note that the commentary in the video is Granite Grok's and not mine)

"Battlestar Galactica" Does The Top 10

Again, this is one of those things I find amusing only because 1) my husband recently got me into it, or 2) it's one of those shows that I don't watch on a regular basis, but will sit and watch with hubby asking him the occasional question about something I don't understand, and still get the joke. In the case with "Battlestar Galactica" it's #2.

I don't know when this aired, but after I saw this on Fark I was laughing pretty hard. Check it out.

Roundup of the Elitist Barack Obama Stories

This was the buzz the entire weekend. This one little comment made by Senator Barack Obama.

You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, a lot of them — like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they’ve gone through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, and they cling to guns, or religion, or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

I don't have much more to say on this because everyone else on the right has pretty much said it for me. So I'm just going to provide the links to the best of this weekend.

-- Zombie has a photo essay on his visit to the San Francisco Billionaires Row to make the now infamous speech. Including an additional photo essay on seven things he didn't know about Obama before that day.

-- Michelle Malkin has a good roundup of stories, including a very fitting photoshop for Obama's campaign.

-- As usual, Hot Air has a good roundup.

-- Ace also has a decent set of stories from Ace to the usual group of Moronosphere bloggers and beyond who sub for him.

-- DPUD thinks Obama did more than just burn his bridges with the average Pennsylvanian.

-- The Anchoress discusses other smug leftists other than Obama.

So How Much Does Fame Cost?

Apparently $37,000. At least according to the Dr. Phil Show.

From reading the blurb, it sounds like some wayward staff members broke the rules of the show itself in regards to guests. But it just shows how low some shows will go in order to get an exclusive.

The case involves a group of seven teenagers who beat the living snot out of one girl and videotaped it. They put the tape up on YouTube, and got in trouble for it. Currently, they are going to be tried as adults.

Some staff members, in an attempt to secure ringleader Mercades Nichols as a guest on the show, they bailed her out of jail and tried to block local press from taking pictures of her citing "exclusivity."

The statement from the show:

"In this case, certain staff members went beyond our guidelines (re the bail being paid). These staff members have been spoken to and our policies reiterated. In addition, we have decided not to go forward with the story as our guidelines have been compromised."

All it does is teach the girl that she will get famous from this, regardless of how she is seen on the tape. And since the show is not going to be doing an episode about it because of the issues surrounding her release, she doesn't feel any consequences for her actions, either.

Hell of a world we live in, isn't it?

It Won't Be Until Late August/Early September

But I'm looking for those among the Moronosphere and beyond that would like to be guest contributors to this blog while I go on maternity leave.

Only qualifications: conservative thinking, smart writing, and willingness to keep up with politics, news and entertainment items that they find of interest.

If I get a good list, we could have some great things happening within that time.

Some Lighthearted Fun For The Weekend

I was holding off on this weekend to tell my stepkids that they were going to get a little brother. This is their separate reactions to the news.

The Week In Review

Again, I won't be blogging this weekend. Here is the best of the past week.

The following were linked by DoublePlusUndead this week.

"America's Favorite Little S*&$"
"Dartmouth College Finds Cannon"
"What Is The Best NY Post Headline?"
"Jack Thompson Gets Pwned!"

Other notable posts from this week:

WBC Gets PWNED!
This Is The Reason Why I Don't Believe In Abortion
A Mother's Worry

Also continue to check out my fellow Moronosphere members over the weekend.

A Mother's Worry

(This was intended for my weekly Town Hall essay, but things aren't working over there right now for logging in. So I am going to post it here this week.)

I just found out Wednesday that I am having a son. There was no mistaking it in the ultrasound – his little “winky” was very visible to the techs. And with this knowledge, I’ve had some time to think about his future. What’s he going to be like when he’s finally born? Will he get into a good college when he grows up? Will he be able to get ahead in life just because of who he is? Will society accept him for who he is instead of molding him into what they want him to be?

You have to be aware that I am asking these questions to myself as a Caucasian mother. My husband is Caucasian, as well.

You would think the fact that I am asking myself these questions might make some people think I’m nuts. But I’ve seen how men, particularly white men, are treated in our society these days. They are often seen as the “oppressors,” “rapists,” or worse.

Incidents such as the Duke Lacrosse case make me worry about the fate of my own son. If he glances at a woman wrong, will he get charged with sexual harassment? If he asks a woman out on a date, will he get charged with rape?

And then there’s the current educational system. Because of some faulty studies involving self esteem in boys and girls in regards to education, girls are more likely to succeed in schools because the school system is more focused on them. Boys are less likely to have the grades that girls have, especially in English. They are getting cheated out of the education that they should be getting equally.

Currently in colleges around the country, boys are outnumbered by girls, with some college possibly ratios of 60 to 40 in the near future. The colleges are trying to attract more boys, but it’s tough when not many have the grades to go on to college or are not encouraged to do so. I worry especially on those campuses where the anti-male bias is prevalent amongst very active feminist groups.

And God forbid that he were to get married, then divorced for whatever reason. My husband was one of the lucky ones – we get along great with his ex-wife, and she tends to be reasonable in ensuring that he gets as much time as possible with his two kids. But women in general have an easier time in the family courts because of a built in bias against fathers. If my son were to become a father, he might not have the same luck that his father had.

There’s time to worry about that stuff. Right now, I just want him to be happy and healthy and to be able to enjoy life before the adult world hits him. I just hope that by the time he does become an adult things will be more evened out between the sexes.

Barack Obama: Jedi Mind Trick

So this is how he's doing it!

Click on the image to watch.

H/T Hot Air.

Anticipated Summer Blockbusters

Now that the stepkids are a little older, we won't have the same restrictions when it comes to going to summer movies that we have in the past. (A couple of weeks ago I took my stepson to see "Superhero Movie," which if he were younger I would have never done). So her are some summer releases that I am looking forward to coming in the summer months.

The Dark Knight -- I've always liked director Christopher Nolan's work, from "Memento" to "Insomnia." He did a great job with "Batman Begins," so I don't expect any less of him with this release (of course, I said the same thing about M. Night Shyamalan, too, once upon a time, so we'll see).

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- How the heck can you go wrong with Indiana Jones? I intend to show the stepkids all three of the previous films before we go see this one. I've loved these movies since I was a kid, so I'm like a kid in a candy store with the word of this coming out.

Wall-E -- Can't go wrong with Pixar, although I have yet to see "Ratatouille."

Iron Man -- Only because this looks halfway decent. I'm not a fan of the comics (or of any comic, for that matter, really), but Robert Downey Jr. has gotten past his previous problems.

Speed Racer -- My stepson saw the trailer for this and thought it was based on another anime. I'll have to rent him the original series so he understands where this is coming from. But it looks like the "Matrix" for the teenybopper set.

Get Smart -- This actually looks pretty funny. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a pretty good comedian in his own right (I always thought he was damn funny in his SNL appearance). And Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway look like they fill in the shoes well of Maxwell Smart and Agent 99.

X-Files Sequel -- Long time "X-Files" fan. My screenname on several sites is still "ScullyToo".

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Empire -- Brendan Fraser is back. 'Nuff said.

Tropic Thunder -- Political correctness run amok. Got buzz earlier this year when photos of Robert Downey Jr. looking like a black man appeared on the net. Let's hope that the premise is as funny as it sounds.