Issue 89

News: Harry Potter banned by somebody who doesn't know what she's talking about.
This has been a momentous week for Harry Potter. The fifth film and the last novel have finally been released within a few days of each other. As usual, I got the book at Costco at around noon to avoid the long lines at midnight, and went to see the movie a week or so after it opened. With this in mind, here's another story about a religious fanatic who is trying to ban the books. One mother of four in Georgia is trying to have them banned because keeping them in School libraries violates the principles of Church-state separation because they "promote witchcraft", specifically Wicca. She also claims that the books promote "blood sacrifice"(apparently when the evil Lord Voldemort gets resurrected in Book 4) and teach kids magic spells (which don't work in the real world. For instance, say to somebody "Avada Kedavra" to see if they die; Odds are, they won't die, they'll probably be just confused or they'll laugh at the reference). As I have stated before, what I've seen about Wicca and Harry Potter's Witchcraft are very different things, to the point where the only similarities include the use of "witchcraft." Curiously, the woman has not even read the books which she is trying to ban, citing that she would find it "hypocritical", and that she doesn't even have the time to read them. Of course, she does have time to try her cases through her school, her school board, her state board of education, and her county superior court. She hasn't been successful yet, but she seems to think that she can actually get her way through the supreme court.

Band Name of the Day: The Manschlayers. Inspired by a bizarre essay by a Fundamentalist who equates Homosexuality with "The slaughter of men", or more accurately masculinity, based on the erroneous stereotype of the "nancy-boy" homosexual.

Film Idea of the Day: Nothing this week.

Film Review of the Day: The Godfather trilogy: I just bought the DVD of the trilogy and decuded to review them. The first film was certainly one of the better films I've seen, especially in the first half hour. However, the second film does not live up to its reputation as better than the first film. Of course, the third film, as has been expected through reviews, pales in comparison to the first two. The three films deserve to be seen as a unified whole rather than as three different films, like in the Godfather Saga TV movie, which hasn't been released on DVD, although the films and additional scenes added for the compilation.

Quote of the Day: "Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
____________________The Principal in Billy Madison. It states my views on the aforementioned article.

Link of the Day: My New favorite timewaster: Tetris.

Note: I am going on a vacation for a few weeks, so this will probably be my last entry for a while. I won't have much of a chance to be on computer during the vacation, so I probably may not be able to write another blog entry for a while.

Issue 88

News: The Day they Kicked God out of Schools.
In response to one of many disasters that have happened in our schools in recent years, The American Family Association released a video that claimed that the victims were not protected because "[God] is not allowed in schools". They start off claiming that the problem started when, around the same time, Madalyn Murray O'Hair successfully lobbied to ban school-sponsored prayer (The video fails to state that students may still pray so long as it doesn't disrupt classes), and Edward Schempp successfully managed to get Bible reading out of schools, with the video noting that it said "thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbors as yourself," and not noting that it says many more disturbing things, like "Eye for an eye, force repists to marry their victims, and cut off your hand if it offends you." One wonders why it seems to never occur to the people who rant about subjects like prayer in school don't just read the Bible or pray with their kids themselves instead of fobing off their responsibilities to the Public school system. After a brief tangent condemning Benjamin Spock and a briefer return to the topic at hand by rebuking the school boards for not punishing kids who misbehave (apparently they don't know about detentions and suspensions), they completely veer off-topic by talking about permissive attitudes towards abortion and condom use (which conservatives see as encouraging sex, but is really about discouraging unwanted pregnancies and, to a lesser extend STDs), sex (specifically Monicagate in 1998, having nothing to do with the situation in schools whatsoever), kiddie porn (which they believe the government views as protected speech, and still has nothing to do with the situation at hand), and seemingly permissive attitude towards the content in movies and music and claiming that it promotes profanity, violence, sex, rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanism (not recognizing that the Bible also implicitly promotes many of these things, even including profanity in some versions), and ending by noting that "We Reap What We Sow." So apparently, abortion is a more likely cause of these disasters than sociopathic students drawn into a culture which seems to find violence less taboo of a subject than sex (as inferred from the rating system in this country, which gave Mel Gibson's Passion movie an R rating with its more or less constant violence, yet full frontal nudity is likely to be given given an automatic NC-17, despite being arguably less traumatic for kids). Interestingly, many of the things mentioned by the video as being harmful (no prayer or Bible in schools, abortion (esp. for minors), sex and violence in entertainment, sex in general) are even more tolerated in other countries, and yet the disasters occur primarily in America.

Band Name: The Glassless Grannies. The combination of two "bad Fads" related to eyeglasses in the sixties: "Granny glasses" and "glassless glasses"

Film Idea: The story of the Giuliani crime family, as seen through the eyes of Claudio Giuliani, the autistic family accountant turned Don of the family. Based on a true story, albeit not necessarily a true story that takes place in the same time and place as the film.

Film Review: "Dog Day Afternoon". Sidney Lumet presents this film about a true story of a bank robbery committed for the purpose of raising the money for a sex change. As with many films from the 1970s, It will not disappoint you to see this movie, as it is very good, even better than his next film "Network".

Quote: "I mean, at home, if you kill someone, they arrest you. Here, they give you a gun and show you what to do, sir."
___________A soldier in Monty Python's Meaning of Life.

Link: The Bad Fads museum: http://badfads.com/

Ps, Sorry, about the lack of Italics and links in this essay; Blogger seems to work with these things almost entirely on shortcuts now.

Issue 87

HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS BE S-Y-WHAT CELEBRATED ITS SECOND ANNIVERSARY TWO DAYS AGO!!!!
So, without further ado, here is a new entry in the style of the previous anniversary issue.
Average time between updates (2006-7): 8 Days, 8 Hours, 10 Minutes, 54.545454545 seconds.
Average time between updates (Total): 8 Days, 5 Hours, 23 minutes, 35.730 seconds.

News stories by category: The Bible: 6
Music: 4
Creationism: 3
Rebuttal: 2
Drugs: 2
Satanism: 2
Holocaust: 2
Schadenfreude: 2
Abortion: 2
simple rant: 1
Marriage: 1
Death Penalty: 1
Theatre: 1
Islam: 1
Book idea: 1
2008: 1
Film Idea: 1
Belebrities: 1
Ethics: 1
Updates: 1
Wicca: 1
Christianity: 1
Smoking: 1
Star Wars: 1
Hralth Care: 1

Movie Ideas by Type: Feature: 10
Play: 4
Musical: 3
Short: 2
TV Series :2
Based on a previous source: 2
Commentary: 1

Reviews by Type: Film: 49
Book: 3
TV Series: 3
Opretta: 1

Sites by Type: Shorts :9
Webcomic: 4
Blog: 4
Music: 3
Transcripts: 2
Evolution: 1
Parody church: 1
Chick Tracts: 1
Rifftrax: 1
Religion of the Founding Fathers: 1
Borat: 1
Quotes: 1
Bible: 1
AFA: 1
Million-Dollar Homepage: 1
Jokes: 1
Monologues: 1
The Law: 1
Review: 1
Child Stars: 1
Radio: 1
Ads: 1
Fiction: 1
Amusement: 1
Fox NEws: 1

Tract Review: Guilty. This is by far the Chick Tract which makes the most of any I've read in a long time. A judge saves a boy from getting hit by a truck. They become friends. He gets the idea to see how great their friendship is by killing a man. The Judge is less than amused. The moral: Don't expect to get away with murder, even if your friend is a judge.

Issue 86

News/Film Review: Michael Moore's Sicko.
Friday marked the release of Michael Moore's newest film Sicko, about the poor health care in America. Unlike many of his previous films, his critisism is nonpartisan in that he criticises not only Republicans who still champion the HMOs and the Democrats who aren't championing universal health care. He contrasts the poor and expensive medical care recieved by several American citizens and the great (in comparison) and free medical treatment offered in other countries (like Canada, Britain, France, and Japan). For example, one man in America sawed off the tops of two of his fingers in an accident and he was given the choice of which finger to reattach (one would cost $12000 and the other $60000; He chose the cheaper one). In Canada, another man lost all five fingers of one hand. He found them all and they were reattached to his hand for no cost to him. Also, it is shown that many of the 9/11 rescue workers gained diseases (physical and mental) as a result of their heroic efforts, which the government will not pay for. Ironically, the prisoners at Gitmo detained after 9/11 are shown to be the only people on U.S. soil with universal health care. With this in mind, Mike brings many of the people seen in the film earlier, including the 9/11 rescue workers in a boat to Cuba. After an unsuccessful attempt to get it from the doctors at Gitmo, they go to the mainland of Cuba, which, while having worse health coverage than the united states, is certainly greater than most third world countries. My favorite part of the film was where Mike showed a man who, at the famous Abbey Road crosswalk, had his shoulder go out while he attempted to cartwheel across the crosswalk, and he only paid £6.65 ($13.36 in our money) for the drugs the hospital gave him.

Band Name of the Day: The Grand Space Inquisitors, from a very loud and tall character from an episode of The Venture Brothers.

Film Idea of the Day: Untitled right now, it is about a prom night from many different perspectives in an Altmanesque manner, including a pregnant teen who goes into labor during the ceremony.

Quote of the Day: "Ignore Me!"
__________Grand Space Inquisitor, "20 Seconds to Midnight", The Venture Brothers

Link of the Day: Sicko gets glowing reviews from a news source notorious for its normally right0wing views.