I have several gripes about the upcoming Karate Kid movie starring Jackie Chan and Will Smith's son.
1) Karate is Japanese martial arts. Kung Fu is Chinese martial arts. So, since the setting is in China, at least they could call it "Kung Fu Kid." If not, then they should have sent that kid to fucking Tokyo.
2) As far as I'm concerned, the Karate Kid franchise died with Mr. Miyagi. They should just retire that whole franchise.
3) Jackie Chan beats the crap out of...10 year-olds? Wtf.
4) Jacket on, jacket off. Really? REALLY?
5) Do we really need to implant Yellow Fever in kids at such a young age?
6) Why does Hollywood need to hiphop-tize everything? Is like Save the Last Dance or You Got Served except with Kung Fu?
7) Yeah, all little kids in China can do Kung Fu and get violent when you mess with their girl.
Let's say you're in a room but need to go outide to get to your evacuation center. You have a shotgun, but no shells. There's a bullet proof vending machine that sells a box of shells for $10. You happen to have $15 in your pocket. On Twitter, 90% of the people say there are zombies outside your room, while 10% say there isn't. Do you cheap out and take your chances going outside without ammunition? Or do you spend your cash on some shells just in case you do encounter some zombies outside? We should apply the same logic to the Climate Change debate. Do we recognize the a problem and invest resources into doing something about it or hope it doesn't happen and do absolutely nothing about it? Let's examine the possiblities:
1) If we do buy the shotgun shells and there are no zombies outside, then sure, we wasted $10, but at least we had to take the chance. Damn the shogun shell industry for making a profit off their scare-mongering!
2) If we bought the shells and there were in fact zombies waiting for you, then that would have been the best investment you ever spent in your life.
3) If you didn't buy the shells and there are no zombies in sight, then you got the best of both worlds.
4) If you decided you needed a new pair of shoes instead and decided not to buy the shells and there just so happens to be a grip of zombies waiting for you, then you are royally fucked.
All you have to do is replace "zombies" with "Climate Change" and "shotgun shells" with "cutting emissions." Besides, who's easier to buy off, the 90% of scientists that say Global Warming is very real and very dire, or the 10% that work for think tanks funded by big industry that say everything is fine?
So the next time you meet a Climate Change denier, pose them this scenario.
After watching the pilot episode of Caprica (you can find it on Hulu), it really got me starting to think about the real world applications to what they are talking about. In the near future, it is highly possible to implant a human personality into a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI). Now, if we could somehow download everything about a loved one that passed away and create a perfect avatar in the virtual world, how much would you pay for that?
I'm not talking a SIMs character or a World of Warcraft account, I'm talking about actually transferring the consciousness of a real person into a computer program. The avatar would feel, act, and remember everything about the person that just died. I mean, if you didn't know that person had died at all and this program could completely fool you as the real person, then why not treat it as real? If the only difference is that one existed in the physical world, then why does it matter? Don't we always teach kids that it's what's on the inside that counts?
I think I will expand on this concept in an entry next week since weekend posts don't seem to get much readership.
A couple days ago, Revelife decided to post about the Conservative Christian movement to rid America of the evils of porn. Again this is an example of people trying to use religion and government to dictate the liberties of others. Supposedly, pornography is supposed to be something sinful that leads to sexual deviance and erodes the moral fiber of our country. Sure, criminals view porn, but then again, every guy watches it. It's like saying eating food causes rape or breathing air encourages serial killers. There's no solid study out there that can make the correlation that porn is the root of all evil. In fact, I would argue that it is the very thing that saves America.
Pornography is simultaneously a form of expression and release. Any time a harmless form of expression is repressed, then it's a loss for democracy. Conservatives went up-in-arms when the White House labeled Fox News as not a real news source, and Obama relented because he realized he erred in trying to censor an opposing viewpoint simply because he did not like it. Just because a religion doesn't like a certain message, if it's not hurting someone, then they have no business trying to snuff it out. They may try to play some story about how the women are being abused, exploited, and traumatized but how many are like that really? They're actresses, not crack hos. In fact, most of these women make more money in an hour than most of us make in a year, so how's that for being exploited?
If Conservative Christians really want to live in a society where porn is banned, then move to the Middle East and see how great that turned out. Yeah, you can don a burqa, convert to Islam, and join the Taliban! Once you sexually repress a population and remove their right to expression and consider everything not involving going to the mosque and reading the Koran as a sin, then that's how you breed terrorists. If Muslim women were allowed to wear stilettos and mini-skirts and the men were allowed to have sex with a bunch of virgins in this life instead of the next, then I guarantee you there would be no more terrorism. If we can make life good for them in the corporeal world, then they would think twice about suicide bombing and giving themselves an express ticket to paradise.
If we are given the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then isn't banning porn unconstitutional? Our forefathers gave us the right to enjoy someone getting airtight and then topped off with a money shot. Don't let the Church try to tell you otherwise because they hate America and its freedoms.
When one thinks about the War on Christmas, thoughts of Bill O'Reilly, Focus on the Family, and a variety of other other militant Conservative groups come to mind. This phony war is just a gimmick to attract moronic followers and cause unnecessary controversy for the sake of cheap ratings. During this season, they go on an all-out attack on malls and companies they deem to "secular" because they say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." If a GAP commercial on TV doesn't praise the baby Jesus, then they impose a Christian boycott on GAP. If Wal-mart has candy canes instead of crosses, then boycott Wal-mart! If it were up to them, every business would have a nativity scene in their storefront, no matter if their customers are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Kwanzanist (is that what they call them?), etc. To them, this time of year is for CHRISTMAS ONLY. One would only hope that these are all done in jest, and perhaps in the beginning, it was, but this has grown to Teabagger Party proportions with whackos and conspiracy nuts taking this trivial situation like America depended on it.
But now, a new Christian movement has entered the fray. This one is led by pastor Rick McKinley, member of the Advent Conspiracy. This group of churches is disgusted at the way this War on Christmas is going. It is ridiculous that the followers of Christ now worship consumerism and materialism over Christ during this time of year. Not only that, but they fight to have Jesus's name in Best Buys, Targets, malls, TV commercials for winter wear, etc. The Advent Conspiracy movement is trying to separate Christianity from corporate greed. I mean, why would you want Christianity marketed in shopping malls? Why would you want to celebrate Christ in the same place you buy a washing machine? The aims of this movement is to steer good Christians away from the idea of gift-giving and focus more on being thoughtful to one another. Instead of buying your nephew an X-Box, why not donate some money to help give clean water to villages in some 3rd world country? If this season is so holy and sacred to you, then why not put your money where your mouth is? O'Reilly and the Religious Right are fighting the wrong fight. Instead of helping their religion, they are perverting it further than any Atheist could. I'm an Atheist and even I know that.
