Wednesday, April 21, 2004

   How quaint...
Well, here I am in the computer lab, and lo and behold, the MyO domain is no longer blocked!

Seeing as how I'm on a very limited time basis, here's a preview of my next post.

Having watched last night's O'Reilly Factor, I've got plenty to rant about. Plus, the CBS article I alluded to yesterday will also come to the table.

Hey, I've got my own commercials! Now I have to pay revenues...
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Tuesday, April 20, 2004

   What the fnord!?
Before I begin yet another rant, I feel it's appropriate to mention that today is the fifth anniversary of the Columbine incident. I'd try a "moment of silence" thing, but it's kind of hard when you're not making any noise in the first place...

Anyways, the following is a quote from a post on Ars Technica (by a member named "ChaNce", btw) regarding Woodward's interview on :

ChaNce:"Is anyone else physically ill after watching 60 minutes?

Note: I am using W. to represent George W. Bush not as an insult, but as shorthand. If this offends you, feel free to use any other symbolic representation for George W. Bush you like. I just don't want to type his name out repeatedly.

Woodward:

1. The president wanted to attack Iraq 72 days after 9/11. Powell asked him if he was willing to "own it".

2. Bush essentially told Woodward that he was driven by God, and that he did not talk to his dad because he (W.) had a "higher father". He did not talk to Powell because he new that Powell would tell him what he was doing was wrong.

3. Woodward reported that the Saudis had an agreement with W. indicating that they would try to drop oil prices at election time in order to help him.

4. Intellectuals are "evil", and W. believes that they have nothing to contribute to his clearly binary (read: black and white) world. Remember, this is a president that refuses to read, and averaged a C at Yale.

5. When asked about how history would judge him, W. shrugged and said "we will all be dead".

There was absolutely nothing that was not damning to W. and this presidency. If you have been reading the blogs for the past few weeks, you have probably noticed that there have been rumblings about this president from all sides. It is clear that W. and this administration is the most damaging administration that has ever existed in this country. We will look back on this time as the single most damaging presidency in our history.

6. This administration secretly took over 700 million from the Afghanistan reconstruction budget to fund a network of secret informers in Iraq. This is in clear violation of our Constitution, and is an impeachable offense."

Myself, I didn't see the interview. But, from reading this post, and this CBS article, I can safely say Bush shouldn't be in office. I'd post my reasoning, but if you skim through my previous posts, I've given most of these reasons. Except for Bush's blatant ignoring of his promises about the environment, and the useless "No Child Left Behind Act".

I'm about halfway through the CBS article on Woodward's interview, and I will have my complete opinion on the morrow.

And remember: Aloha means both "Hello" and "Goodbye".
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Monday, April 19, 2004

Bill O'Reilly: Racist? No. Moronic? CAN I GET AN AMEN (a minor concurrance, even)?
You know the world isn't as bad as it seems when it reaches 70-something in Central New York. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the heater still manages to stay on in Spanish class (Hey, you can't have it all, especially in the Circle Dante Purposefully Forgot, as I like to call CNY).

Okay, enough of the lovey-dovey happiness. It's time for me to get back to my usual business of political satire.

Bill O'Reilly needs to be beaten with something sharp and painful. He constantly says his show is a "No Spin Zone". But how does he explain this transcript!?

O'REILLY: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Our boycott was directed toward your government, [French President Jacques] Chirac, because we believe his actions led to the deaths of Americans.

What!? The blame for the deaths of American soldiers falls upon the French, and not on the Iraqi soldiers who were shooting at our forces!? I think somebody needs a reality check...

BERROU: French soldiers died, also, Bill.

O'REILLY: Yes, a few of them, but nothing on the scale that we did.


Whoa, back up a sec. Mr. Berrou mentions that French soldiers also died, and Bill brushes it off like it doesn't matter? He's basically saying that French lives matter less than those of Americans! At least, that's one way of interpreting it. I'm not saying that's what he meant, it just sounds that way.

O'Reilly:So I said now look, that was disrespectful to our country, to our dead, and you deserved it. But I understand you don't agree with me. I understand the ambassador thinks I'm crazy. But he doesn't have the right and he's totally off it if he thinks this is racially driven.

Wait a sec. The French ambassador has no right to say Bill is crazy, and that his comments on France are "racially driven", but it's perfectly fine for Bill to call him "totally off it"? Hypocritical, ya? >_< ...

And then there's the end of this:

O'REILLY: But I did call him. But he's not -- come on. But this racist business, that's cowardly. He shouldn't do that.

Mr. Berrou, thanks very much, we appreciate it.


Cowardly? Being offended by comments against one's people isn't cowardly. Insulting a man and then cutting him off so he can't reply... That's cowardly.

I've also managed to e-mail Bill, on the subject of his mistake regarding Fallujah not being an uprising. I'm hoping for a reply. Heck, maybe he'll put it on the show! (Doubtful. Usually, the e-mails either agree with him, or are from opponents of his views whose grammar skills aren't, shall we say... refined.)
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Sunday, April 18, 2004

   By the way, Nobuo Uematsu is awesome².
But that's not why we're here, is it? Anyways, I'm having a regular day here in New York State. Which means that today... sucks. It's the last day of vacation, and the entire day it's been dark and cloudy. There was also a relatively long and rainy thunderstorm, and only after I'm too bored to do anything does the sun decide to show its cowardly face!

In other news, I find this very amusing.

"John Kerry's approach to the Second Amendment has been to regulate, regulate and then regulate some more," Cheney said, citing votes against legislation that would protect gun makers from lawsuits and in favor of allowing federal authorities to randomly inspect gun dealers without notice.

What? What's wrong with having law enforcement search gun dealers at random? That way, it would be easier to catch illegal weapons and the people who sell them. What's so wrong with that?

That doesn't look good...

And now, a moment of Zen, gracefully provided by my grandmother:

"This country doesn't have the strength to blame Clinton. Instead, they blame Bush!"

There you have it, your moment of Zen. (John Stewart is going to sue me.)
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   Bill O'Reilly is a Sneaky Bastard
Yes, I know I promised I would send an e-mail to Bill O'Reilly chastising him for his overall stupidity, paying particular attention to his own 'journalistic dishonesty'. But, I have failed. How, you ask? After all, I only have to send him a simple e-mail!

WRONG. Upon clicking the "Email Bill" button, instead of finding his address, I am shown this:

"You are trying to access a Premium Member section of BillOReilly.com. If you are a member, please log in using your username and password in the boxes on the right.
Not a member yet? BillOReilly.com members enjoy a whole host of exclusive benefits. See below for details."

What!? Just to e-mail O'Reilly once, I have to pay him $4.95 a month! Apparently, Bill has set up a very good security system. To make sure he doesn't receive any messages correcting him for his many, many faults, he makes sure that only his worshippers are the ones that e-mail him. Because, let's face it. I'm not going to pay $4.95 a month just to say "Bill, you're an idiot!!!". As much as he needs a good slap in the face... Then again, slapping his face would be a very difficult task- He has to pull his head out of his ass first.
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Saturday, April 17, 2004

   Bill O'Reilly shall FEEL MY WRATH!!!
I... HAAAAAAATE THIS MAN.

Why? Well, he just won't stop being ironic. Once again, he rants about intellectual dishonesty in the media, using the description of Fallujah's uprising as an example. He still insists that it's not an uprising. That it was an insurrection. Ugh.

That is why I'm going to e-mail him, correcting his mistake. Twenty bucks in Monopoly Money says he'll either ignore me, or I'll get an e-mail saying Thank you for your input. Tomorrow sounds like a good send-off date, considering that I am currently too tired to properly chastise him.
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Friday, April 16, 2004

   Whoo! Look at the limbs fly!
In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, I just saw Kill Bill: Volume 1. And, being a big fan of martial arts movies, I loved every minute of it. And, since a lot of it was in Japanese, my grandmother... HATED it. So, this post has two purposes. One, to review Kill Bill v1. Secondly, to reiterate my grandmother's jingoistic ramblings.

Now, for the review. For those who don't know, Kill Bill is directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film is basically a tale of revenge, with tons of samurai-esque action all around. Firstly, the plot is quite solid. As a revenge flick goes, it's full of grit and attitude, thus setting the mood quite well. In the area of martial arts, the movie succeeds quite well. There's tons of sword-swinging action, with a bit of regular martial arts mixed in. Plus, there's the ever-present Hollywood feats of wire-fu and physically-impossible jumping and dodging.

And now we come to the gore. We've all heard about KB's most famous attribute. To be blunt, yes, it's gory. Limbs fly everywhere, blood flies in insane amounts, and plenty of heads roll. But Mr. Tarantino keeps it all in perspective by adding in some comedy, be it in the form of subtle nuances and one-liners or the even subtler pseudo-fakeness of the spewing blood.

All in all, Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a film definitely worth seeing. There's a bit of language, but don't worry. It's not an Eminem album. The action, drama, and overall presentation (akin to Akira Kurosawa's work, combined with styles from American cinema) leave me no choice but to give this film a 10/10.

And now, for the promised report on my grandmother's famous ranting.

Seeing as how she was raised during World War II, it's understandable that she's not exactly a fan of Japanese culture. But I had no idea how bad it was.

As soon as the dialogue turned to mostly Japanese (thankfully with subtitles), she started ranting. Basically, she reiterated her belief that Japan is only pretending to be America's ally, and is basically getting ready to "hit us all over again". Once an enemy, always an enemy, apparently. This is no doubt due to a few things.

1)The propaganda during the war.
2)The fact that she's para-militarily jingoistic towards America.

She also used this movie as a stepping-stone to reiterate my overall "obsession" with Japan. >_< All in all, if it weren't for the subtitles and the fact that I had the movie practically blaring, I wouldn't have enjoyed the movie at all.

(This post would be much longer and wittier, but I'm very tired. Long day, and whatnot. I'll probably add more tomorrow. :D )
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Baron Samedi Reads This Blog! I'm FAMOUS!
Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. First order of news...

Thanfully, Europe has
rejected Osama bin Laden's proposed 'truce'. A wise decision, considering Osama's back-stabbing nature. And the fact that he's just a big, bad meanie.

And now, for the bad news. It seems the NRA has decided to make their own news channel!!! I kid you not. You never know, could end up being a reputable news source. As long as they don't hire any Bill O'Reilly-clones, or have a FOX-esque abundance of commercial breaks.

Speaking of the NRA, according to a regularly-scheduled news update from ABC News this morning, Vice President Dick Cheney is apparently attending an NRA convention. It's pretty discomforting when you're in the middle of two wars (Terror and Iraq 2.0, for those of us not paying attention) and you've got a trigger-happy VP...

That's it for news. However, I do have a bit of humor. No more than fifteen minutes ago, sitting at the breakfast table, I learned yet another aspect of my grandmother's political ideology. For once, no religion involved! Basically, here's how it went down.

I brought up the subject of NRA News, which somehow caused her to respond by telling me that the country should be prepared, should the terrorists decide to invade. We apparently have to learn how to defend ourselves from any invaders. Wow.

Now, my grandmother is by no means insane. She's just... jingoistic and zealous TO THE MAX². Fortunately, her constant pro-Bush rhetoric and constant reiteration of the Truth have given me a reason to contemplate her reasoning, and I've come to this conclusion; fearmongering, maybe? The whole WWII-era propaganda, Red-scare sort of thing. It's the only explanation I can come up with for blind jingoism. >_<

Now, to get back to the news, I'm watching Good Morning America, and what do I see/hear? The Bush Administration bashing Kerry... because he speaks French. WOW. Fortunately, this can mean only one thing- Bush might not get into office. I mean, once a candidate has to resort to French-bashing to 'debase' a rival... Whooboy. (And now, it's time to turn from news to my political stance.)

"America, John Kerry speaks French. He's no American. VOTE BOOOOOOOOOOSH!"

Apparently, John Kerry speaking French and having a cousin in France is a big no-no. However, Bush speaking Spanish and having ties to fervent Reconstructionist evangelism is perfectly fine, and raising your eyebrows at that is just un-American! And yes, people have called me "un-American".
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Thursday, April 15, 2004

   The French might buy it, but nobody else will...
That's right, kids. Osama bin Laden is offering a 'truce' to Europe, if they pull out their troops before a three-month deadline. Naturally, the US is excluded.

(Rat Bastard)

If any European nations decide to fall for this, I will feel no pity if -no, when, Osama sneak-attacks them. Because, if memory serves, Osama used to say that he would not attack the US. And we all know what happened with that.

In other news, Jack Chick is still a friggin' retard. Apparently, all the evils of our time stem from the teaching of evolution in school, and not from the fact that people are generally retarded. What scares me most is that people actually believe this guy.
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Wednesday, April 14, 2004

   Oh, for the love of Gruumsh!
Jack Chick is even dumber than I thought. No, this article is not written by him, but he shares these views. >_<

Firstly, one can tell that these people have never actually sat down and played a game of Dungeons and Dragons. The claims that D&D spells are 'real incantations' and whatnot are sheerly utter tripe. When you 'cast' a spell in D&D, you don't say an incantation, or offer your soul to the devil. You say "I cast Cone of Cold" or something. Now, if I were to walk up to Jack Chick and say "I kick you in the junk", would it happen? As much as I'd like to, no, it wouldn't.

Also, all the examples of deaths "caused" by D&D... Please. Just because a person dies by suicide, and just happened to play D&D does not mean that the game is at fault! By this logic, if I died today, the blame would fall upon Rurouni Kenshin! Or my left sock! Anything in existence could be blamed for my death! Doesn't make it true, though.

And of course, the inherent 'evilness' of the franchise... I've seen tons of classic paintings depicting angels with swords. Does that mean that the paintings are evil? No.

And then there's this one. More of the same, and by more, I mean MORE. Apparently, all RPGs are evil! If Final Fantasy's evil, consider me hellbound. (GHA already does!)

"This is not just chess, football or bridge. This is a game that envelops the player in an entirely different fantasy world in which the power of magic and violence is pervasive. It is a game with a distinct and seductive spiritual worldview that is diametrically opposed to the Bible. Yes, sorcery appears in the Bible. But it is NEVER in the context of a good thing to do. It is always presented as something dangerous and utterly contrary to the will of God. "

Is it just me, or is violence also a problem in the real world? And as for the 'worldview', we've all got our own worldviews. Which is apparently what Jack Chick has a problem with.

Well, that's rant #3 for the day. Let's see what other inspiration I can find.
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