Alphabetical Movie – Jason and the Argonauts
About ten years ago, I took my first trip to the San Diego ComiCon. At the time, it was a relatively tiny 60,000 person convention.
If you’ve never been to ComiCon, it is quite the experience. These days they have 100,000+ attendees and I’ve ceased going because the crowds make it a nearly unbearable experience for me. No, I don’t really want to wait in line for 30 minutes just to go to a panel about Batman.
The first time I went, it was crowded but not “get me the fuck out of here” crowded.
A Very Special Birthday Episode of Geeks Without God!
Today is my birthday. It is also time for a new episode of Geeks Without God! Of course, I took some time to geek about the fact that the Indiana Jones Blu-Ray set was released for my birthday. We also talked about the manned space program in the wake of Neil Armstrongs passing and we had our first set of listener submitted answers to our five questions! It made us feel all important and stuff! Go over and have a listen!
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 9/14
Christian Mother Looks for Advice after her Daughter Comes out as an Atheist
Here’s the problem we face in this country. When a child comes out as an atheist, a parent immediately views the situation as a parental failure.
This woman says she tried to instill her children with “good Christian values” and the problem I see is the fundamental question of what “good Christian values” might be.
If she wants her daughter to treat others with respect, she can do that if she is an atheist.
If she wants her daughter to value her life and strive to live it as best she can, she can do that if she is an atheist.
If she wants her daughter to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, she can do that if she is an atheist. She probably won’t but she can.
Instead of being upset, this young woman’s mother should be proud. Her daughter is growing up and making her own choices. No parent will like every choice that their child makes but at some point, we all need to allow our children to make them. If her thinking wasn’t so clouded by her religion, she might recognize that she hasn’t failed raising her daughter. She succeeded.
New Geeks Without God Podcast!
Yes, it’s Tuesday morning and that means a new Geeks Without God podcast is up at our website just this morning! This week we have a discussion with Joshua Humprhey about The Amazing Meeting, which he attended in 2011 and 2012. He really made us want to go. Maybe we need to do a kickstarter to fund a GWG trip to Vegas so we can record a bunch of podcasts there!
Anyway, listen to the podcast because it’s awesome! Or should I say AMAZING???
The Dark Knight Rises – Spoileriffic
I wasn’t able to see The Dark Knight Rises until Tuesday. I’ve managed to stay almost completely free of spoilers for the film, which is rare for me.
If I don’t see a movie early in the run, I don’t care about spoilers. I’ve enjoyed movies when I’ve known “too much” as much as movies when I’ve gone in with a blank slate. A good movie is a good movie.
Sure, Cabin in the Woods is a better film if you go in completely blind. But it’s a good movie anyway. There’s an additional layer of enjoyment if you don’t know anything going into the film but I still look forward to watching it again.
Let’s face it. Every viewing after the first is filled with spoilers.
I’m getting seriously off track.
I didn’t need to be spoiler free to see The Dark Knight Rises but I’m glad I was. If you haven’t seen it yet and would prefer to avoid spoilers, read no further. Yeah, I just spent all that time warning you to stop reading this post if you haven’t seen the film.
Sorry about that.
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 8/31
Apologies to those hoping for lots of stuff from the Republican National Convention. I just can’t get to riled up about a bunch of rah-rah speeches meant to serve as a sort of infomercial for the Republican product. I get as annoyed by the Republican convention as I get excited by the Democratic convention.
Not much at all.
Boy, that Paul Ryan is a lying douchebag, though.
Mitt Romney Pandered to the Birthers?
I have to hand it to Romney. Up to this point in the campaign, I haven’t given a shit about what he’s had to say because he’s been so unerringly dull. He finally said something (sort of) interesting when he pointed out that nobody has asked to see his birth certificate.
You know why that is, right Mitt? It’s because you are white.
Hey Mitt – if you could only ask to see one of these two guys’ birth certificates, which one would you ask?
I think we should start asking to see Mitt’s birth certificate, don’t you? Hey Mitt, where the fuck is your long form birth certificate? How do we know you aren’t Canadian? Or from some Nordic country? WE DEMAND TO KNOW!!!!
Alphabetical Movie – Iron Man
To the few folks who enjoy my Alphabetical Movie Blogs, sorry for the lengthy dry spell. Fringe and the Renaissance Festival tend to slow down my movie viewing. For everyone who isn’t reading them anyway, this preamble was completely unneccessary.
I actually talked quite a bit about Iron Man on Episode 5 of Geeks Without God. My feelings about the recent slate of Marvel movies have been quite positive but having re-watched most of them recently, I feel Iron Man continues to be the best.
Neil Armstrong and the Moon
One of my favorite movies of all time is The Dish. In it, a bunch of Australians running a radio telescope help relay pictures of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s walk on the moon. At one point, one of them observes that the first moon walk was science’s chance to be “daring.”
After Armstrong died this week, I read a tweet that observed 24 human beings have walked on the moon. 17 are still alive. The youngest is 76. (Correction – the numbers are off. The actual numbers are worse. See the correct info in the comments – serves me right for failing to double check numbers off a tweet!)
The odds are quite good that none of them will live to see the 25th.
That makes me sad.
Shit that pissed me off this week – 8/24
Todd Akin says “Legitimate Rape” Rarely Results in Pregnancy
Yeah, yeah, a lot of people are talking about this one so it may seem pointless that I even bring him up so late in the week. Ignoring his messed up statistics and knowledge of biology for a moment, what really has me upset is the concept of “legitimate rape.”
Now by this I assume he meant to insinuate that many women who claim to have been raped are lying. That is a pretty common tactic. Point out that some cases of rape are not legitimate (which is true) and you cast doubt on all claims of rape.
Because we’re stupid, we think that if one woman lies about rape, any claim of rape must be viewed as suspect. That’s what Akin taps into here. He is trying to diffuse the question of abortion in the case of rape by suggesting that women are lying about rape in order to get an abortion.
He may have issued an apology but the language was no accident. He knew exactly what he was saying and to whom he was speaking.
Note that Akin has brought all sorts of other stupid people out of the woodwork who have interesting thoughts about pregnancy and “legitimate” rape.
Molly on the Booth Babe Issue
Molly wrote a great article over at Geeks Without God about Joe Peacock’s objection to booth babes.
Speaking as a ranter myself, I’m a big fan of Molly’s ranty style. Go read!
Grail Diary 