Random Thoughts

I loved watching Ashley Tisdale perform at the Latin VMAs. I don’t like her music, but I just love her as a performer. Especially now that she’s getting more mature and more comfortable with her singing career (and dropping the faux-bad girl shtick, I hope). It’s like she’s fucking the entire audience with music, just commanding attention, without resorting to Lady Gaga-style attention whoring. I wish better things for Tis.

:: The revelation that Christian Bale based his portrayal of American Psycho Patrick Bateman on Tom Cruise’s totally vacuous energy makes perfect sense. I can totally see it now. Plus, it seems like a short hop from jumping on Oprah’s couch in faked faux-hetero joy to killing a couple of hookers.

:: Some girl out there is threatening to kill, cook, and eat her own pet cat if Miley Cyrus doesn’t come back to Twitter. I think that girl is a really good indicator of why Miley Cyrus should never go back to Twitter. Part of the responsibility of being famous is that you don’t reward psychotic behavior by giving irresponsible people what they demand of you. Yes, it sucks that a million of her fans have lost their access to her on Twitter, but Christ, it’s just Twitter. Killing something because you’re a fan of Miley’s is not an act of love, it’s an act of desperate insanity. I hope this girl is just doing this for attention, but that doesn’t make it less disgusting.

:: Check out the Japanese trailer for A Christmas Carol. I still don’t want to see the movie (although I know I will, eventually), but this trailer is much, much better than the slapsticky American commercials. It actually looks like a ghost story, which is what it’s supposed to be.

:: Someone finally figured out which science fiction story James Cameron is ripping off for Avatar. I knew it was only a matter of time. He’s a good filmmaker, but he hasn’t had one remotely original movie. Even Titanic is just a huge remake of A Night to Remember (right down to some of the dialogue) and, oddly enough, the 1943 film Titanic that was made under the Nazis.

:: I’d love to see Mac come up with an ad that isn’t just “Microsoft sucks and you’re an idiot for using a PC.” Hate to break it to the Mac zombies, but not every Apple product works flawlessly, either.

:: We’ve discovered 32 planets outside of our solar system. Too bad we’ll never get there.

:: I resent being told I’m not liking something in the right way.

:: TV Land is making original sitcoms now. Insert my usual rant about why specialty cable channels suck here.

:: I don’t want to see another teenage girl with a music video where she “defiantly” goes out on the town and dances with guys to prove how much being broken up with doesn’t affect her. Acting out to show your ex how emotionally cold you can be is nothing more than proving you can be as big an asshole as a guy. That’s not progress. And defining yourself by how much you don’t define yourself by your relationships is still defining yourself by your relationships. Unfortunately, 98% of girl singers have made this their entire act.

:: Doctors have created a robotic replacement hand that can actually feel. That’s more than God ever did to help an amputee. Science is amazing.

:: Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell wouldn’t “allow” an interracial couple to get married, but he swears he’s not a racist. It’s an amazing phenomenon these days how many racists swear that trying to keep “the races” from “mixing” doesn’t make them racists at all. Except, of course, if you go by definitions of actual words.

:: There’s a plan going around Congress which would end the subsidization of the private student lending market and use the savings to provide direct loans and increase the Pell Grant in order to make college more affordable. (Here in Illinois, they nearly did away entirely with the MAP Grant, so I can feel the need for this.) This would redirect $87 billion over the next decade to students. Of course, since education (just like health care) is something important that ultimately goes towards making our nation stronger, Republicans and ConservaDems are opposed to it. Senator Tom Harkin is talking about using reconciliation rules to push it through, provided they don’t have to use it for health care. The reconciliation would overpower the opposition.

I will never understand in America the way some people think the duty of the government is to protect corporations. Especially when, as in the case of private student loans, it’s subsidized by the federal government through tax money, anyway. How is it wrong to subsidize student loans but okay to subsidize private companies?

:: The new defense budget has money set aside to bribe Taliban leaders not to fight in Afghanistan. We've been using bribery for the last decade as a tactic in the Middle East, but is there any more clear indication that we have no strategy in Afghanistan? And what are we even fighting for at this point? The Taliban's going to take back over, anyway, we've made it a question of when, not if. It's not like the government we're defending is really legitimate, anyway. Do we even have a goal in mind over there? What does success mean in Afghanistan? All we can think of to do is pay people not to fight? And how long is this going to last? Two years? Ten? A hundred?

And remember, there's money for this, but not for health care.

:: The report issued by the American Health Insurance Providers is nothing more than a naked threat. They’re admitting they’re going to raise their premiums by 60% over the next nine years, and basically telling us that if a public option passes, they’ll raise those premiums even higher. This is what corporate politics have come to in America. Our country is broken, and all the political discourse is just arguing over who wants to appear to fix it as opposed to how it’s actually going to get fixed.

:: Some of Obama’s recent talk indicates to me that he’s trying to break the news gently to progressives and pragmatists that the final health reform bill is going to be widely hated. You’re never going to see Obama going after trusts and corporation the way Theodore Roosevelt did. Instead, he’s rushing headlong into a bill that’s going to financially penalize people for not buying private insurance, proving exactly whose interests he serves. He’s dealing with this the same way he’s dealt with every crisis—to take more money from the American taxpayers and make certain that they get nothing out of it, once again robbing from us to nationalize all the risk of a privatized profit system. Thanks for nothing.

:: Jane Hamsher has a very good piece on the House's farce of a health care bill that starts like this: "Nancy Pelosi made a choice with regard to the lifesaving biologic drugs I took when I was in chemotherapy-drugs that will cost many of my fellow breast cancer survivors everything they own, and quite possibly their lives." You should read it. It's an interesting perspective.

:: Is the Republican Party actually saying that it’s okay for government contractors to rape a girl? Seriously? These inhuman war profiteers we have permanently encamped in Baghdad raped not only Iraq, but also 21 year-old Jamie Leigh Jones, an American girl. Seven man drugged her and gang-raped her. She required surgery afterwards. And the evidence “disappeared” and now 30 Republican senators have voted to deny her justice in order to, of course, protect the sovereign rights of the almighty corporations. This is just unforgivably inhuman. Understand, America: you have been locked out of the courtroom. No one is interested in justice or human rights or the law. The Republican Party (with Democratic help, both through ConservaDem support and the complete ineffectualness of fake progressives) is orchestrating a push to place corporations above the law and completely bypass democracy. No one is looking out for you; certainly not the people you elect. We are now in an era when Republican senators can argue, without shame, that rape should be overlooked to protect corporations. That’s who they work for: government against the people, by the privileged, for the corporations. We should just tear this all down and start over again.

I can’t believe people will get so worked up about Roman Polanski’s case from 30 years ago (seriously, it took 25 fucking days to formally extradite him?) and the news that Republicans are fighting to keep it an American policy that government contractors can rape whomever they want with impunity causes no outrage whatsoever. America: who says your priorities are ridiculous?

:: And if you check with insurance companies, you’ll see that being raped is a pre-existing condition. Just like being beaten by your husband.

:: George Will predicted a Republican tidal wave in 2010, so it’s hilarious that the Washington Post, his own paper, shows only 19% have any confidence in the GOP to make the right decisions for this country’s future. They’re evenly divided on Obama. Among those who identified themselves as Republicans, only 40% have confidence in GOP leadership. It also showed that 57% support the public option. A majority also supported a plan with a public option and no Republican support. Message clear: people in the places Sarah Palin likes to call “the real America” don’t give a shit about bipartisanship. No one outside of the Beltway cares. They’d rather be able to take care of their sick relatives. And the Republican response to this has just been to lie and say the numbers mean the opposite of what they mean.

(It’s also worth pointing out that a CNN poll found that more than 70% of Palin’s “real America” doesn’t think she’s fit to be president.)

Yeah, keep up those teabagging parties, Becktards. You’ve got Obama on the ropes, for sure. (Obama: what the fuck is your problem? Run with this and get us some damn results. We didn’t elect you to play nice with everyone. We elected you to fix the goddamn country.)

:: 47 Congressional Democrats are fighting against a robust public option that would save American families $1400 a year on their health premiums in favor of a bill that would give them less financial assistance to help them afford insurance. They don’t care what happens to you. Seriously. The Republicans are bad, but the Democrats are no better. They only care about who pays them. Dismantle this system and start over. Or just let Canada run things from now on.

:: Saudi Arabia is trying to get other oil-producing countries to support a plan where wealthy countries that reduce their oil compensation should pay a penalty to the oil producers. My offer to those companies would be to go and fuck themselves. I am so sick of Saudi Arabia jerking us around by a chain. Shit, Saudi nationals can attack the US and destroy the World Trade Center, and we go and invade Iraq instead. Our government is terrified of Saudi Arabia, as if we would be nothing without their oil. And Saudi Arabia likes to act like we’d better pay whatever they want or the world will come to a standstill. I say bullshit. Remember when America used to be about technological progress? We need to move on from oil, not because we need to save the planet’s resources, but because Saudi Arabia would be nothing without American money, and they know it. We should be setting the prices, not them. What do they do with the money, anyway? It’s not like the Saudi economy depends on our money; the royal family keeps it for themselves and fuck the rest of the country. They’re just trying to manipulate the West, as they always have, in order to widen their cash flow. Just cut these assholes loose and let’s fend for ourselves, god damn it.

Worth mentioning.

:: UPDATE 11:46 PM: When did we get to the point as a society where we started believing the words "no offense" automatically erases an offensive remark? This is why I try not to engage some people. No offense, but you're a jackass.