Drunken Mystic

Ok, so I changed my blog over from blogspot to my own site earlier this year.  While there have been and continue to be advantages to this (thanks d10!), the comments situation is fairly annoying.

Every couple weeks I get ten plus spam comments that I must delete from my site.  It has gotten a little better over time, but it still happens way too often since I am supposedly reporting them as spam.  Most of these spam comments are just gibberish, although some are ads.

Then we get the spam comments from people who go on a rant because I used a specific word or mentioned something on my blog.  This has increasingly happened since I’ve been doing my Top Ten Lists.

For example, a couple weeks ago I wrote a blog detailing why the Church is the hero of the story and I used the movie Hook to make a point.  I got a comment from some dude ranting about how Hook wasn’t true to the Peter Pan mythology and linking to some site about such important matters … to him.  Of course this had nothing to do with the original post, so I deleted it.

This happens often; which means that there are individuals who somehow know immediately when a blog is posted that mentions some artist or subject (these comments are pretty soon after the post) and they have some sort of canned response or they respond personally.

Which means someone has dedicated an inordinate amount of their time and energy to making sure everyone on the internet is informed, in their mind, about the truth of Peter Pan as he relates to a Robin Williams movie.

How do these people have enough free time for this?  That’s always my question.  Do they really have nothing better to do than indiscriminately spam people with gibberish and crap?  Do they have friends, a girlfriend, a wife, kids?

I would support (someone get Obama on the phone) legislation where we track down these internet terrorists and force them to do some hard labor or community service in their free time.

But they’d probably just find a way to spam me about that, too.

Peace.

Why are all the black characters in many movies the flattest of them all?  Why does every black character have to have this attitude and stereotypical dialogue and reaction to situations?

It’s not every movie, but it happens more than I’d like.  It’s like, in some movies, the writers have this formula: Do we need more “diversity” and humor in the movie?  Put in a sidekick black man or gossipy black woman, give them some attitude and eyes that roll around in their head and you’ve got instant comedy.  It is similar to the overused little animal/animated inanimate object comic relief employed by almost every recent Disney movie since the Little Mermaid.  Although, when it is an ethnic group used in such a way, it is a little more offensive.

And I am, admittedly, a white dude.  I’m not saying that playing on stereotypes is totally unacceptable, only that OVER playing them is questionable.  Gets old pretty fast.

And we could talk about other ethnic groups that this happens with, too.  It just seems to happen most with African Americans.

Any thoughts?

Peace.

Mostly from one side of the political aisle and most of the “mainstream” media, you hear it all the time.  Evil oil companies, price gouging, all that.

And while I’m not here to defend oil companies (while the price of gas continues to fall), I’m left wondering why we don’t have the same attitudes about the entertainment industry.

One movie ticket costs ten bucks.  Really?  But not just movie tickets, the price of entertainment (and the money they make) continues to skyrocket beyond average inflation.  Why don’t we hear talk of evil movie or television companies?  Oh, yeah, 99% of them vote Democrat and make “documentaries” that support ultra-liberal causes.  You get to make as much money as you want, then.

I would personally support major “windfall taxes” on movie and music companies.  While we’re at it, let’s throw in professional athletes that rake in millions for fairly useless but impressive skills (throwing a pitch, dunking a basketball, throwing a touchdown, etc.)  Entertaining, sure, but otherwise useless for civilization.  The prices for sports events have also become outrageous.

Why don’t we talk about a price freeze on a Coke and popcorn at the movie theater?

I would support a tax system that did this: rewarded actual producers.  Do you make millions providing an actual service or producing an actual product that enhances people’s lives?  We’ll cut your taxes.  A lot.  Do you make millions in some form of entertainment that waste’s people’s time and money instead of providing a service?  We raise your taxes.  A lot.

That sounds pretty fair and neighborly to me.

Peace.

We went to Huntsville, Alabama last weekend.  Had an awesome time with some close friends from Korea.  We drove over on Saturday, going through Chattanooga.

We made a wrong turn off of 24 onto hwy 72.  We followed the directions from Google exactly.  The directions were wrong.

I felt we had made a wrong turn from the beginning, but we trusted Google.  Luckily, our wrong turn landed us back towards Chattanooga, and we were able to internet booty call the E-man and get back on track.

Our first mistake: trusting Google without looking at a map.

Our second mistake: not having an atlas in the car.

Our third mistake: not trusting our own instincts.

Our fourth mistake: stopping to ask for directions.

As we increasingly felt like we were going in the wrong direction, I finally stopped and asked for directions.

I’m old.  I understand that.  I distinctly remember a time when you could stop at a gas station or other roadside store and some dude would roll his eyes, say something like, “You ain’t from ’round here, are ye?” and you would just humbly admit your own ignorance in submission to this gentleman in exchange for some directions.

Well, nowadays you get some kid at a convenience store who barely passed English and Tech math in some public school and needs the cash register to do such simple things like ADD and SUBTRACT.

So I stopped at this store and asked if I was going the right way to get to Huntsville.  The response I received: “Huntsville?  Hmmn.  I’ve heard of Huntsville.”

You know how you can sometimes immediately tell if something is a lost cause?

Yeah.  No Child Left Behind, baby.

So I had Becca call the E-man.  I was so frustrated at my own stupidity and public schools in general that I couldn’t really talk.  Turns out E-man was a big help in telling us how we went wrong, but I got us back on track using … wait for it … my brain.  And I tried not to curse too much in front of my three year old son.

I swear, one of these days I’m gonna write a book called The Dumbest Generation.  Our modern gadgets have become our crutches in more ways than one.  And living in Georgia, like 49th in education, gives great resource material.

Peace.

p.s. per last statement … yes, I realize Chattanooga is in Tennessee.