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June 21, 2007
Sicko
I was feeling ill today, so I did what everyone should do-- watch a movie about being sick. Duh. Thanks to the miracle of file "sharing", I was able to watch the just-released Micheal Moore file "Sicko" on my very own television...
What was of interest to me was how little new information he presents. If you've been paying any attention at all to the health care debate, you know that America isn't getting what we're paying for. What this movie does is break that down into very simple terms for people who haven't been paying attention. It'll be great for people like my Father who simply don't understand how health care is run...
The strength of the movie lays in its opening half-hour/ 45minutes. Simply: Moore shows how step by step people are denied medical coverage. He points out that it is some people's entire jobs to make sure that as few people as possible are able to use the health care they've paid for. It's an obvious point, yet wildly under appreciated...
Ironically, the the movie is at its weakest when Moore tries to paint another picture of the problem. He indulges in some rather bizarre
conspiracy paranoia, seeming to believe that powerful people conspire to keep Americans from having a stable floor from which to live whatever lives we see fit. Which is upsetting; it is productive to see the very real warfare being waged by the top 1%. It is unproductive to believe that there are any generals on the other side...
Overall, the movie is quite strong, and ought to help shape the presidential debates...
Posted by Andrew at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2007
Things that make you go... wtf?
A more clever man would have made an Axis and Allies joke before writing
this post. A less lazy one would have reworked the post to include the reference at the beginning...
Director on board for movie | NEWS.com.au Entertainment
Clue. I get Clue. I just watched Clue. But Monopoly? How do you even begin to make a story on that?
Posted by Andrew at 06:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 19, 2007
Go me!
| Are you smarter than a monkey? | |
 | YES! You scored 100%, which means that you're 62% smarter than a monkey! |
| 'Are you smarter than a monkey?' at QuizGalaxy.com | |
Posted by Andrew at 09:07 AM | Comments (1)
June 04, 2007
That sound you hear is my head repeatedly hitting the nearest solid object...
If someone wants to believe that the earth is only 5,000 years old, that dinosaurs were farm animals for homo erectus, and that flying/lending money/technology is the spawn of Satan, so much the better for me. It's that much less competition that me and my family have to deal with in the world of high-tech reality.- Brian Miller
This sort of thinking is-- to put it nicely-- idiotic. The underlying assumption is that there is only so much; so many jobs, so much money, so much... stuff; to go around. Insanity! Mr. Miller thinks that as long as he has a larger share of pie than the person next to him, the size of the pie does not matter...
The development of human capital is the only thing which can expand the pie. We can either get that capital from outside the country, or we can train it within. If over 40% of Americans don't believe in basic biology, the pie is going to stay mighty small indeed...
Posted by Andrew at 01:18 AM | Comments (1)
June 03, 2007
Six days of Memories
penraker and I were apparently in the same city on Memorial Day. We were in different universes, however.
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| From if you squint, you can see the Washington Monument |
My Memorial Day was spent at Arlington National Cemetery. There I wandered among the bodies of those who died in service to our country.
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| From the silent dead |
I could not ask them what they thought of their sacrifice-- I could ask, but the only answer I would receive is the echo of my own thoughts. That's the point, I suppose. We must ask ourselves: is it better to have these men and women in the ground? Or upright and asking us questions?
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| From Life, Liberty, etc |
Don't get me wrong: Arlington is alive. I saw children playing amongst the tombstones, a bit of flirting between half-horrified teens. Here and there, Marines were trying to be solemn-- a warm late spring day with fresh-cut grass and the air thick with heady scents-- the Marines failed...
Except for one guy. I didn't get a picture of him. He was aided in his walk by a cane. Half his face was in a bandage. An inch one way, and he was still in Iraq, or Afghanistan. An inch the other way and he was still in Arlington. Just one more white marker on green grass...
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| From "It is sweet and right, to die for your country |
Penraker seems to be calling for more death, more young heroes to die in order to dote on the "magnificence of their sacrifice". Perhaps with the blood of children we are purchasing something valuable, something that cannot be gained any other way. To not even grieve for those who won't be coming home cheapens their lives. On the Day of Memorial, tears are more patriotic than paeans...
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| From Honorable retirement |
Posted by Andrew at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2007
How to Remember stuff
Posted by Andrew at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)