The “Protecting Children from Indecent Programming” Act

Well here’s a real doozy of a bill that needs defeating.  The name alone makes me hate it. PCIP?  Is this supposed to somehow align it with SCHIP and other “for the children” legislation?  It;s all a load of billshit.  That’s right, billshit.  That’s my new word for legislation that is utterly full of crap.

This bill is designed, and I quote, “To require the FCC, in enforcing its regulations concerning the broadcast of indecent programming , to maintain a policy that a single word or image may be considered indecent.” Wow.  Just...wow.  That entirely removes the concept of context altogether, and gives them the power to declare the word “ass” indecent when used to describe a pack animal used for ferrying goods.  Hell it can render the double entendre dead in the water.

This is just ridiculous.  Are we so pathetic that we are determined to roll over and become servants to a small group of overly moralistic nannies, determined to filter the world through whatever narrow prism they’ve decided is right and good?

ENOUGH.  When you vote for candidates that support crap like this - and immediately Hillary leaps to the forefront as she is the leading Presidential candidate on either side supporting censorship legislation of all kinds, although I will freely admit she is far from alone in this - you are enabling AND SUPPORTING censorship.  You are personally destroying the concept of free speech.  There is no way around it.  If you know about this and you still support politicians like this, you are personally eroding the First Amendment.

Think about that.  Maybe Ron Paul isn’t so crazy.  Well, not all crazy, anyway. :)

Totalitarian legislation is not just the purview of the right wing, my friends.  This little “minor” alteration to Section 16 of the Public Telecommunications Act of 1992 was crafted by a Democrat.  You know who wants it passed, though?  Donald Wildmon and the “American Family Association.” That alone should be enough to make you oppose it.  I just got an “action alert” from them.

It couldn’t be clearer that the broadcast networks are irresponsible stewards of the public airwaves and the FCC needs passage of S.1780 to have the authority to reel them in.

Wildmon wants everyone to “Please call Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) at 202-224-3934 and Ranking Member Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) at 202-224-3004” and puch for this bill.  I say call them and tell them how much you oppose it.  In fact, contact all your Congresspersons.  You will find a box at the top right-hand corner of that site.  Enter your zip code and get the latest contact data for your Senator(s) or Representative(s).  Let them know that enough is enough with this faux “protect the children” crap.  Old people in Washington should not be the arbiters of what writers can (or even should!) put on TV.  YOU are supposed to be that arbiter.  YOU decide with your viewership and your spending habits.  You should have the freedom to decide what is appropriate for your child, not some old people in Washington.

Parents of this country, I beg you, stop asking the government to parent your children, and if you are not asking, then stop allowing it to happen.

Posted by JimK at 04:29 PM on December 03, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Television,  News,  Politics
Tags: Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Congress Politics FCC

Dear Motley Crue - plus Muse

This is pretty awesome.  It’s a site that collects letters written to a musician or band from whom you have stolen music in the past.  The premise is, you confess your sins and send the musician five bucks, and then send a copy of your letter to Dear Rockers.

Here’s how it works:

1. Pick a musician
2. Write them a letter
3. Scan or photograph the letter and send it to us
4. Mail off the letter along with $5
5. Enjoy your new, guilt-free life

Cool!  here’s my entry:

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Click me, I get bigger

Text of my letter:

Dear Motley Crue,

Hi.  I’m sorry I stole your music.  See, back in the day I was trying to be that guy from fast Times.  The guy that could get anything.  Drugs, concert tickets, copies of albums that the other kids parents wouldn’t let them buy.  Shout at The Devil was my number one seller.  Even more than the pot!  I copied that record (from vinyl and cassette) onto what had to be a couple hundred cassettes over the years.

Funnily enough I never made much money, as the cost of cassettes was high and you couldn’t sell copies for more than half of what a new one would cost Plus it was really labor-intensive and all around a stupid idea.  In retrospect I should have just asked for a buck or two over retail and bought them legit copies. That’s what I used to do in second grade with Now & Laters.  I resold them by the piece for profit.  I guess even then I was always scamming something.

Anyway, I’m sorry I stole all that cash from you, and I’m sure you need my $5 like Tommy needs another social disease, but here it is anyway.  Thanks for rocking so hard (except that brief period where you all wore too much chiffon) and for being part of the soundtrack to my youth.

Also, please stop Tommy from ever making solo music ever again.  If you have to animate Mick with robotics and pour vodka on the floor to attract Vince on stage like a trail of Reese’s Pieces, then do it.  I’ll send another five bucks for every year he doesn’t make solo music or do reality TV bands.

JimK,
Hamden CT

Hat tip: Michele at a big victory (her entry is here and yes, I totally stole the black & white idea.  The difference is hers is actually a good photo.)

As for Muse, jo-jo turned me on to this band over Thanksgiving and I can’t get enough of Black Holes and Revelations.  It’s like everythingt hat was great about old, edgy U2, plus they are as good as Coldplay is alleged to be (but actually isn’t).  Then they often add some aggressive guitars to the alt.brit.emo.prog rock mix they do.  It;s hard to pin them down to a genre, but I can safely say this album is pretty great.  Go download it, then write them a letter and send them five bucks.  :)

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Posted by JimK at 09:46 PM on November 28, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music,  Technobabble (Technology),  Piracy,  The Internet(s)
Tags: Motley Crue Dear Rockers music piracy downloading

Reporting in, plus Altair is a dick

Oww.  My left elbow is wrecked.  It’s definitely a UCL injury.  It hurts to type.  Or scratch myself.  Or move my arm while walking.  Or, quite frankly, to breathe.  I have to ice it three or four times a day and take anti-inflammatories constantly. I suspect I need a hardcore brace, as everything a human does seems to aggravate it, and the more you bug it, the less it heals.  This is usually a baseball player’s injury, although it seems to also be common to skiers, small game hunters who wring the necks of their kills and idiots that try to swim too hard before they are physically ready.

I might be the only person in that last group.

At least I know I didn’t tear it through, or one of the parts of it anyway.  If I did, my thumb would be flopping and I would likely be crying.  All the time.  The good news, if there is any, is there’s enough stuff at the gym to keep me exercising.  That’s also bad, I suppose, as I don’t have an excuse for staying home and doing nothing.  :)

Surprisingly, the things that bugs it the least?  Playing Xbox.  I’ve been killin ther doodz in Assassin’s Creed all week.  Love.  That.  Game.  If you like Splinter Cell (any) and/or Crackdown, you will like it.  If you didn’t, stay away, you will hate it.

You play mainly as Altair, an assassin who is a bit of a jerk and needs to redeem himself in the eyes of the Assassin’s Bureau.  He’s rude, he’s constantly shoving people, and you can actually get an achievement for hurling the old beggar women to the ground if you do it often enough.  Kind of a dick.  Great game, though.  Long and huge, and for me worth the retail price.  Not many games are these days.  I’m planning to finish the main storyline then go back and do most side things later...because Mass Effect is out and I don’t know how long I can stay away from that.  :)

Posted by JimK at 12:43 AM on November 24, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Gaming,  Xbox 360,  Personal
Tags: Assassin's Creed Xbox 360 gaming

The Orange Box

Quick question - Anyone else out there playing Half-Life 2 or any Valve games on the 360 and getting motion sick from it?  I’m really really not happy about this...I’ve never been motion sick from a game in my life, but every Orange Box game makes me sick to the point of wanting to throw up within 15-20 minutes.  It never happened on the PC version.  I guess the field of vision is limited from 90 degrees to 70 for the 360...that coupled with the head bob is setting it off for a lot of people.

Weird.

Speaking of games, what else is out there for the 360 that is GRAW2/Rainbow Six like?  I cannot get enough of the squad-based tactical stuff in single player.  And don’t say Army of Two.  Already plan to rent it and fully expect to hate it.  Also don’t say Clive Barker’s Jericho.  I don’t know why but the demo made me hate it.  It’s trying too hard to be all things to all gamers, and ends up being needlessly complicated and silly.

What I really want is a single-player mode of GRAW2 that is about four times longer…

Posted by JimK at 04:09 PM on November 13, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Gaming,  Xbox 360
Tags: Valve Half-Life Orange Box Xbox 360 gaming

Dog’s a racist

This is disappointing.  Before anyone starts in and says that the PC police are setting up another victim, listen to the tape.  He’s forcing one of his sons to break up with his black girlfriend if the kid wants to come work for Dog.  Chapman actually says “I’m not gonna take a chance, ever in life, of losin’ everything I’ve worked for for thirty years cuz some fuckin’ nigger heard us say “nigger” and turned us in to the Enquirer magazine.”

Uhh…

No getting around that one.  That’s not a casual use of an innocent word.  You can hear the hate and bile in his voice when he spits it out.  There is no excuse for that.  None at all.  Now I feel like a stupid bastard for ever caring about his legal problems or his show.  Oh, and he’s reaching out to black leaders to teach him how to fix this.  Whatever.  First of all, most of the “black leaders” are racist pieces of greedy shit themselves.  Secondly, it’s too late.  You hate black people, Dog, and you taught that hate to all ninety-seven of your kids and grandkids and who the hell ever else lives in your giant houses.

See also: Not very Christian of you, God boy.  I can’t say with 100% surety, but I imagine this is not what Jesus would do.

Posted by JimK at 01:42 PM on November 01, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Celebridiots
Tags: Dog the Bounty Hunter Duane Chapman

Another stupid celebrity “scandal”

Someday we’ll get over this ridiculous race-baiting bullshit...So Halle Berry made a dumb joke on Leno the other night

Stopping by The Tonight Show Friday to promote Things We Lost in the Fire, Halle Berry brought with her a couple mementos she probably now wishes had also perished in the blaze: Having recently discovered the funhouse-mirror filters on Apple’s Photo Booth program--also employed to terrifying kaleidoscopic effect by Rosie O’Donnell--Berry pulled out several printouts of her morphing handiwork, including a big-nosed alter ego she described as “my Jewish cousin.”.

There’s a video at the link.  I guess we’re supposed to be horrified at her insensitive racism.  Well, here’s a fucking clue; Many, many Jews have big noses.  That’s right, I fucking said it.  You know what else?  Italians are greasy.  That’s right, oily and greasy and slick like a slab of bacon.  Hairy fuckers, too.  Asians are better at math.  Germans hate everyone.  Brits have fucked up teeth.  Canadians are clean and polite.  Black guys have big dicks.  Irish are drunks.  Then again, so are the Germans, Italians, Brits, Poles, Greeks, anyone from a country that is now or was ever part of a Russian empire...come to think of it, everyone’s a frigging drunk.  Scratch that one.

I’m sure there are like seven hundred more ethnic, social and racial stereotypes that can be proved true a million times over.  But it doesn’t matter.  We all have to hate Halle Berry now for one stupid joke.  God knows Long Island isn’t populated with tens of thousands of Jewish girls with nose jobs or anything.

Come to think of it, the other half of Long island are Italian girls with nose jobs.  Lemme tell you about the Roman honker.  That beast can get big.  Real big.  Marlon Brando big.

Christ on a cross I am so sick of this race-baiting “You better apologize or we’ll ruin your career” crap.  Mel Gibson is definitely an old-school anti-Semite.  Halle Berry isn’t.  Can we move on now?

Wait, one more thing: Full-on Italian girls have a strong...uhh...scent.  Did I mention that?  You could bottle it as tear gas under the right circumstances.  Now, if you don’t mind, I am quite sure I shall be forced to take a racial sensitivity class by someone, and I need to prepare.  I hear the teacher is Indian.  Dot, not feather.  Can’t understand a word they say, I swear.

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(If you don’t get the point above and you think I’m actually a racist...fuck off.  Save your typing fingers.  I don’t care to hear or read what you have to say.)

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Posted by JimK at 07:46 PM on October 24, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Celebridiots,  The Stupidity Of Man
Tags: Halle Berry

Dumbledore is gay - the return

Not to rip open still-fresh wounds or anything (Oh my GOD do people have opinions about this...) but I saw something I thought might be worth sharing....

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In the comments over at this post on Cinematical, someone had this to say:

you see, in my mind making him gay is an easy literary device. The relationship between Dumbledore and that other guy (I can’t remember his name) was a very complex one. Dumbledore obviously respected him and was in awe of his abilities. However, later he had to come after him and take him out because the guy had gone bad. That’s like Luke having to go after bad Yoda or something. Its a complex relationship, since D obviously had much respect and deference to this guy. Its kinda like ‘you can’t go home’

However to relegate this complex relationship to a simple love story makes, in my opinion, the story much weaker overall. It makes Dumbledore much less of the wizard who could always think coolly and find the most logical and best solution to a matter and makes him a scorned lover… totally different dynamic.

Not having read the books, I have absolutely no opinion about this.  So I ask you, the folks who read it...is it possible that this guy has a point, or is he full of it.

Also, lolcats:

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Posted by JimK at 03:14 PM on October 23, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Humor

Dumbeldore is gay

I fully expect some outrage over this, but mostly a big yawn…

She took audience questions and was asked if Dumbledore found “true love”.

“Dumbledore is gay,” she said, adding he was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, who he beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago.

Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, she saw the script carried a reference to a girl who was once of interest to Dumbledore.

She said she ensured director David Yates was made aware of the truth about her character.

Why should this even matter, other than the fact that two characters once at odds found a connection?  But mark my words...someone somewhere is throwing out all their Potter stuff and/or taking it away from their kids.  OMGponies!!!1111 teh gayz!

*UPDATE*

Heh.

Posted by JimK at 04:16 PM on October 20, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment
Tags: Harry Potter JK Rowling

NIN no longer needs, wants a record label

Trent posted this in the Nine Inch Nails blog that you have to pay to see (I do not, BTW...got it off a gossip blog):

08 October 2007: Big News Hello everyone. I’ve waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate. Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008. Exciting times, indeed.

posted by Trent Reznor at 10:45 AM.

Very cool.  A lot of small artists are doing, and have been doing this, for some time, but having recognizable names like NIN and Radiohead - and possibly Oasis and Jamiroquai - do these direct relationships with the audience will inspire up-and-comers to NOT SIGN CONTRACTS WITH LABELS.  Fuck them.  Fuck the music unions, the “artist associations” and all that crap.  Make music, turn it into MP3s, sell CDs direct to the music lover and use the Interwebernets to do it.  You don’t need the man anymore.  You don’t need to accept a soul-crushing, money-stealing deal just to get your record out.

The sooner the music “business” dies off, the better.  Good for you Trent.

Posted by JimK at 04:15 PM on October 09, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music,  Technobabble (Technology),  The Internet(s)
Tags: nine inch nails music

Just remake every fuck thing already why don’t you

The idea of remaking Friday the 13th made me killingly angry.  This makes me want to go on a spree.  I didn’t know they were remaking Hellraiser.  Seriously.  STOP FUCKING REMAKING THINGS.  JUST STOP IT.  I’d rather the only films that anyone makes are all British period dramas made from chick lit.

I’m not spending one thin dime on any more remakes.  If I don’t steal ‘em off the webernets I just won’t see them.

Posted by JimK at 01:02 AM on October 06, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment
Tags: movies hellraiser