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10 Feb 2012 18:33

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Culture: George Lucas speaks out on Han vs. Greedo

  • The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo (who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original) to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom… Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down.
  • George Lucas • Addressing one of the biggest fan complaints relating to his serial re-tinkering of Star Wars. There’s two main points here that we somewhat object to: first, Lucas claims that people who thought Han Solo fired his blaster before Greedo did in the original cut of Star Wars were mistaken, and that it was merely unclear that Greedo fired due to the framing of the shot. We’d suggest this is flatly, evidently not the case by any reasoned examination of the original scene. Also, Lucas seems to paint those who’d prefer Han to have fired first as wanting their beloved space-smuggler to be a “cold-blooded killer,” an idea we suspect many would dispute. There’s a difference between being a cold-blooded killer and being unwilling to let every backwoods bounty hunter get a shot off at you before you fire back, isn’t there? But, we digress — what do you think? source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Feb 2012 16:58

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Politics: Rick Santorum says women in combat distracting to male soldiers

  • When you have men and women together in combat, I think men have emotions when you see a woman in harm’s way. I think it’s something that’s natural that’s very much in our culture to be protective. That was my concern, and I think that’s a concern with all the military.
  • GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum • Suggesting, to TODAY’s Ann Curry, that women should not serve on the front lines of military combat. He was careful to qualify his statement, saying that he didn’t believe women themselves were incapable of such combat, but that men in the unit would feel protective and be distracted from their mission by female comrades being “injured” or “vulnerable.” Of course, even if his opinion were true, it begs the question; how is that a problem that women should pay for? What he’s claiming sounds less like women being unfit to serve in combat than male soldiers eschewing their duty for some vision of a “damsel-in-distress” story playing out during a firefight. This is classic, culture-war Santorum. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Feb 2012 21:18

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Politics: South Carolinian adults are not so aware of the Vice President

  • 29.3% of South Carolinians don’t know the VP source
  • » Joe B. Anonymous: According to a recent poll conducted by Winthrop University, the above percentage of adult residents of South Carolina couldn’t name the current Vice President of the United States. In fact, 3% of those polled claimed Dick Cheney was still roaming the halls of the White House. Sounds like Joe Biden has some work to do on his name recognition, no?
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Feb 2012 20:58

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Politics: In case you missed it: Pete Hoekstra’s racist Super Bowl ad

  • “We take your jobs”: We’re a couple days behind on this one (though, admittedly, hannahhorvath did tip us off), but seriously, how about this patently racist ad that aired during the Super Bowl in some markets? It hinges on a particular brand of racial paranoia (the woman in this ad is American, and has absorbed a lot of heat for taking part), itself born from a profound economic paranoia. And it gets worse — apparently the microsite for the video had some perceived-racist source code in it. Reaction to the ad has been strong. What do you think? source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Feb 2012 20:23

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Politics: Big successive days for marriage equality movement

  • yesterday A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down California’s Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban which voters approved in 2008. As we noted, the ruling didn’t endorse same-sex marriage as a right, but said voters had no rational reason to prohibit it; a step forward regardless.
  • today Washington’s state legislature passed, by a vote of 55-43, a bill that legalizes same-sex marriage. The bill will almost assuredly face a legal challenge by opposing advocacy groups, but Democratic Governor Chris Gregoire will likely sign it into law at some point during the next week. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Feb 2012 20:04

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Politics: CNN suspends Roland Martin for offensive Super Bowl tweets

  • Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive. Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated. We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being.
  • A statement issued by CNN • Explaining their decision to suspend Roland Martin from their network, following a series of Super Bowl tweets that landed Martin in hot water with GLAAD, among other LGBT advocacy groups. He said if you knew a guy who liked David Beckham’s underwear ad, you ought to “smack the ish out of him.” Martin insisted, while apologizing for the offense, that he was attempting to be disparaging of soccer fans, not a man  sexually attracted to Beckham, but these excuses fell in deaf ears when it came to his employer. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Feb 2012 15:43

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U.S.: Another teacher suspected of aiding LA school’s pedophilia scandal

  • She was a teacher who would escort little girls into Berndt’s classroom when he was all alone. Berndt would come over in the middle of day, whisper in her ear, and they would giggle, and then teacher would pick out two girls, escort them through a common door, so that they were stuck with a pedophile in this classroom.
  • Lawyer Bryan Claypool • Speaking on the rash of horrific charges to emerge from the pedophilia case at Miramonte Elementary, in the Los Angeles County School District. Claypool says he notified the Sheriff’s department after becoming aware of a female teacher, who he believes “patently aided and abetted” the alleged pedophilic abuse methods of fellow teacher Mark Berndt, one of two former teachers arrested on such charges. As a consequence of the scandal, and the public outrage directed at the school, the entire staff has been removed pending further decision. Be warned, the full details of this story are quite graphic and disgusting. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

08 Feb 2012 14:41

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World: Egypt/U.S. relations strained over detained American NGO workers

  • one As we’ve mentioned before, the Egyptian military government has barred 19 U.S. citizens from leaving the country. They worked for pro-democracy NGOs, and are being held on claim they took foreign money without official approval.
  • twoSenators John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and Joe Lieberman have warned of a potential “disastrous rupture” in U.S./Egypt relations. At risk is nearly $1.3 billion in military aid, which the U.S. has already threatened to halt. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Feb 2012 13:56

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Tech: Iris, Android’s Siri clone, has a biblical insight about abortion

  • “Is abortion wrong?”: You typically might not think to ask such a heady question of your mobile phone, but if you happen to have Android’s “Iris” (is it good marketing to so obviously reverse the name “Siri?”) you’ll get a strong response. The issue seems to be that Iris is powered by an Ask Jeeves style search engine called ChaCha, which answers user questions with answers from paid freelancers. Meaning that in asking your phone whether abortion is wrong, you’re actually asking an unknown human being – one which might have a strong opinion on the subject. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2012 15:23

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Politics: The Obama campaign promotes their Super PAC, with a disclaimer

  • The President opposed the Citizens United decision. … He continues to support a law to force full disclosure of all funding intended to influence our elections, a reform that was blocked in 2010 by a unanimous Republican filibuster in the U.S. Senate. And the President favors action—by constitutional amendment, if necessary—to place reasonable limits on all such spending. But this cycle, our campaign has to face the reality of the law as it currently stands.
  • Obama campaign manager Jim Messina • From a blog post on BarackObama.com, titled “We Will Not Play by Two Sets of Rules.” In it, Messina attempts to explain why the Obama campaign, despite stated opposition to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling (and ostensibly Super PACs themselves), will be playing the same Super PAC game as the GOP candidate this year. This strikes us as a hard sell, especially to independents — saying President Obama needs to use a corrupted system in the hopes of ending said system doesn’t seem like an argument that would have much appeal to those not already extremely trusting of his administration. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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