Syrian Intervention for Fun and or profit.

There is an old PSA about the right time to talk to your children about relationship abuse.  It’s a steady shot of a man and his son in a diner, sitting uncomfortably as a couple have a fairly one-sided argument in which the man screams at her, degrades her with name calling and intimidation, and then ultimately decrees “We’re leaving;” pulling her out of the diner by the arm.  The father does nothing to intervene or assist the woman, who will likely get a few black eyes when she goes home with her date.  The ad then poses the question: “When should you intervene in an abusive relationship?” or some pointed question similar to that one.  It zooms in closer on the son, who looks like he just realized his father isn’t Superman, and says, “Right now.”  The idea is simple: end the abusive cycle by immunizing your own children against it.  I can’t seem to find the PSA anywhere online, probably because it’s a terrible PSA, and all PSAs should be banished to the festering wasteland of awful and obvious messages cobbled together by hack directors who couldn’t get a job directing a Ronco Food Dehydrator infomercial.

Because No One Asked: Ranking the 80s teen movies I’ve seen, with little to no explanation whatsoever.

As a child of the mid-80s, I grew up watching the TBS edit of many 1980s movies, and wondering why the pretty white people from upper middle class families in those movies had so many problems not related to their family’s socio-economic status.  Looking back, many of the plots are a weird sort of logic house of cards, in that we need to believe that the cliques existed in high school, and that becoming popular was the most important part of life, and would fix everything once the whole school recognized their value.  As is the case with all my lists, I’ll group them into an overarching and overly simplified collection of movies and provide almost no rationale.  It’s like I’m a surly, passive aggressive person with highly anal-retentive needs to provide order and structure to speciously connected things. Remember, these are only the movies I’ve seen.  You won’t find Risky Business or Fame on here. Let’s go!

Setting the Example in the Racial Discussion

In an earlier post, I stated that referring to a desire to have a smaller government and fewer entitlement programs as a libertarian ideology, not a racist ideology.  I also stated that referring to someone who doesn’t think the government should be helping anyone as “racist” is the equivalent of coughing and saying “douchebag” during a debate.  We’ve gotten to a place in our society where we now consider all conservatives to be racist because they want smaller government, which is not the way to have a conversation about race in the United States.  The problem with labeling people who are ignorant as “racists” is that everything then becomes a racist act, and not all insensitive, ignorant, or stupid act or statement is racist. I hesitate to write this, because insensitivity and ignorance are extremely problematic in our culture, and allow us to be apathetic towards suffering, social injustice, and institutionalized oppression of minority classes in the U.S.  I am not advocating for racists.  Fuck those guys (and girls.)  I am advocating for setting the proper example, and avoiding extremism/line-in-the-sand drawing.  While I will always believe that none of us are truly free until all of us are free, it isn’t helping anything to instantly label well-meaning but misinformed people, or people who have a different opinion as to the role of government as “racist.”

How Breaking Bad is like the Little League World Series

I’m not insane, and this isn’t the dumbest comparison you’ll ever hear, but it’s close.  I realize comparing a show about a man’s slow descent from Edward James Olmos in “Stand and Deliver” to Denzel Washington in “Training Day” with the August rite of passage for 10-12 year olds in the baseball playing world is patently ridiculous on its face.  I want to assure you that this is not about Danny Almonte and the oldest twelve year old you’ve ever met.  No, this is about the general structure of the Little League World Series, and its similarities to Walter White’s rise to power.  A note about spoilers: They are prevalent after the jump.

Grammar Nerd Wednesday: Why is Poor Grammar a Subject of Ridicule?

This is part of an ongoing series of posts designed to make everyone think I'm a colossal prick because of my grammatical specificity. These posts are either me lecturing the masses about how to properly use grammar/punctuation/the rules of the English language, or me figuring out for myself, textually, the aforementioned.  They will run every Wednesday.  If you run afoul of these rules, rest assured, even though I judge you for your poor grammar, I'm still a lesser being than you.

            When you think about it, poor grammar is a failure of sorts.  When someone is bad at mathematics, no one stands around laughing at them for not being able to understand factorials, or thinking “Jesus, that guy is dumb!” But, when my Boss’s boss sends around emails with no concept of the correct usage of your/you’re or there/their/they’re, I judge.  It’s not fair, but I judge.  Hell, these posts are all about judging those who exercise poor grammatical usage.  Why is it so much more open to ridicule/a bellwether of intelligence in a person?