I fucking HATE Rick Santorum
Hate is a big word. It isn’t a word you should just throw around because it gets people interested. I don’t, honestly, hate a lot of people. I dislike people. I don’t enjoy spending time with some people. You need to be a special kind of jackass for me to hate you.
Rick Santorum is a special kind of jackass.
Boys will be Boys – Even when they Shouldn’t
In my traditional act of commenting on something on the internet long after everyone is done talking about it, I have finally started to collect my thoughts about a recent post on Skepchick.org about guys being idiots on Reddit.
The initial post by Rebecca Watson was in response to a Reddit thread in which a 15-year-old girl posted that her super religious mom gave her a Carl Sagan book for Christmas. I personally think it is fantastic that a very religious mother gave her atheist daughter a book that was all about her daughter’s interests rather than her own.
The Persistence of Complaining about Time
2011 is drawing to a close. In the annuls of recorded history this will be the first and last time this event will take place.
The passage of time is absolute but the way we mark it is arbitrary. Why don’t we mark the new year as happening on the solstice? Because we don’t. Yes, there are a lot of reasons why we mark time the way we do but in reality, we mark the passage of the year the way we do because we are used to marking it this way.
Also, I know that time is relative but just go with me here.
Taking the Christ out of Christmas
I’ve read a lot of cranky posts from atheists who are annoyed by the Christmas season and I can totally understand why. In my grinchiest of moods, I see how the December holiday season is entirely about convincing a whole lot of people who don’t have very much money to buy things they don’t need.
At the same time, certain members of the Christian right raise a hue and cry about “taking back Christmas” from those who choose to say “Happy Holidays” because, you know, Christmas isn’t the only fucking holiday happening right about now.
The holiday decorations are now going up right after Halloween and it is only a matter of time before Labor day becomes the date that stores start devoting some of their space to holiday decorations for folks who like to plan ahead.
If you don’t believe in the religious mythology that surrounds the season, you have to accept that you are going to be bombarded with it anyway. From a “Glee” Christmas special that includes a bible verse to nativity scenes on neighbors’ lawns, it is there. Like it or not, this season is about religious holidays (yes – more than one) and you are going to hear about it.
I totally get why some members of the atheist community get cranky around this time of year. Read More…
3-2-1 Contact
Roger Ebert has a very good series of essays he calls “The Great Movies.” In it, he writes about movies he personally considers the greatest films ever made.
Most of his choices are fairly indisputable. Films like Citizen Kane, Singin’ in the Rain and Casablanca are, if not universally loved, at least universally respected. He does make rather controversial choices, though, and his latest is one of those.
This week, he posted an article about the 1997 film Contact. My immediate response was “Great film? Really?”
Alphabetical Movie – A Hard Day’s Night
I’ve been in no particular rush to write a blog about this film because I’m currently in the middle of the Harry Potter films and there are eight of them. While I could do an individual blog about each film, I have to ask myself if my time is better served by doing other things.
The answer, of course, is no. But I’m going to wait anyway.
Laziness, my friends, is a skill that must be practiced like any other.
Reality TV is way too real
My eldest son is a freak when it comes to mornings. He wakes up at 6:00 and is told that he must stay in bed until 7:00. This is to ensure that he spends the first hour that he is up reading rather than watching TV.
Recently, he has discovered Hulu and the endless variety of reality TV Game shows available for viewing. Having worked his way through numerous seasons of the (in my opinion) repetitive, insulting and nearly unwatchable “Wipeout,” he has moved on to other things.
Glee doesn’t always make me happy
Yes, I confess that I watch “Glee.” Every week I punch that show up on Hulu because I like musicals and I love the idea that there is a weekly TV show that is a musical.
Yeah, they mercilessly edit the songs and use autotune way too much.
Yeah, they have great broadway singers like Idina Menzel and then give her one solo in a half season.
But it is a musical! On TV! Come on! How is that not awesome???? Read More…
Butt-Numb-a-Thon 13: The roundup
I blogged a while back about how I missed out on Butt-Numb-a-Thon 12 and it sucked. Well, I was fortunate enough to be invited back for BNAT (pronounced Bee-Nat for you uninitiated) this year and I’m writing about the experience for – well – mostly my own benefit.
So hey, future me, enjoy! Read More…
Alphabetical Movie – The Hangover
A recent office conversation revolved around the question of whether or not there have been any truly great movies in the last five years. I’m terrible at remembering which year a movie came out so for me, the question was hard to answer. Of course I did what any geek with internet access would do and I looked it up.
When you actually look up what movies have been released over a five year period, you will probably come across a great man films that you liked or even loved. The question then becomes – what constitutes a “great” movie? If you don’t define your terms, you are pretty stuck.
I bring all this up because as we compiled our lists, The Hangover was suggested as fitting in the category of “great” films. I’m not sure that I agree but it could depend more on my definition than on anything else.
Grail Diary 