Tag Archives: movies

Bunches of Comic Con Things, Big Discussions on Israel and the Gaza Strip, Some Levity to Balance that Out, and Musing on the Culture of Fear

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This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

There are no shortage of fear-inducing, attention-grabbing headlines out there. Most of them turn out to be utter hype, but you don’t discover that until after you’ve clicked through. And if you don’t click through, well, the damage to your peace of mind is already done.

For a long time now I’ve been interested in fear and how it gets used–both by us and on us. Part of that is due to growing up on a steady diet of classic horror films. Another part is from growing up through the tail end of the Cold War and a few not-so-cold-wars.

I’ve seen a growing problem over the years. One that’s not going away and only seems to be getting worse.

The problem is the overall culture of fear and paranoia we’re all soaking in… and have been for our entire lives. That’s the reason we (in general) are even suspicious when anonymous gifts show up.

We assume malicious intent.

That’s… not healthy.

And it’s most certainly not conducive to sensibility.

And, perhaps worst, it leaves us open to all sorts of manipulation. The kind that’s been used again and again and again over the past two decades to make us give up more and more of our freedoms in the name of security. Security from threats that, even when they do exist, are far from immediate, imminent, or actually damaging to the vast majority of the population.

This is the kind of fear that, at worst, expresses itself in events like those riots in France the other day. Or in people getting shot just because they look different from the person holding the gun. Or in war.

So, yeah, there are, indeed, things out there to be afraid of, but there are far more things that strike us as creepy or fear-inducing. We have to be fully aware of *why* it strikes us as such and how problematic that actually is.

That all said, here’s the feed starting from Friday (including the article about dolls that spurred most of the above musing)…

Cultural Perspective, Political Wranglings, a Really Big Hole, and Some Humor

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This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

My brain is feeling particularly fried and unfocused tonight… bit of a busier day at work than expected plus not enough sleep last night leads to that, I guess.

So the “additional content” part of the feed is going to be even more lame than it’s been lately.

Sorry ’bout that…

Lots of Oddities, Some Real Stupidity, A Bit of Humor, and the Blackest Black

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This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Apparently, the push yesterday to let the FCC know how we think they should rule on Net Neutrality once again crashed their website. So much so that at least one of the groups that was facilitating the electronic submissions just up and printed out the messages that didn’t get through and hand delivered them so they’d be in by the comment deadline.

Maybe, just maybe, there’s enough volume of ordinary people and money from big organizations (like Google) to swing this the right way.

I’m not holding my breath. I’m not even all that optimistic. But at least I can see there’s a chance.

Guess we’ll see soon enough.

Everyone keep your fingers and things crossed.

Now, on with the feed…

Awesomecon Flashback, Modified Mario, Elegance, Ramone-less, and Various Other Bits of Stuff from the Weekend

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This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

The weekend wasn’t anywhere near as productive as it should have been.

Sure, I finished off another canceled series or two from my Hulu queue and finally got around to a couple of movies I’ve been meaning to watch for years. Even read things that weren’t being displayed on a screen (I think we call them “books”). But there was more I probably should have done.

There’s a big difference between “should” and “could”, though. I don’t think I legitimately could have been much more productive. I needed the break, as seems to be the case often. Life in the “regular” world by a “normal” schedule just grinds me down more now than it ever has before.

I know there are reasons for that. I’m working through them as best I can. But, well, it’s slow going.

So, instead of being as productive as I “should” be, I do what I can when I can and learn to live with that.

But, there were still a lot of fun links to be had over the past four days.

Here’s hoping you enjoy them.

 

Bad Dice, Blackwater, Continued Hobby Lobby Hubbub, Nature, and a Little Fan Service

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This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

The two big bits of news that were bouncing around today were the Supreme Court’s decision in the case for Hobby Lobby regarding whether it should have to pay for insurance plans that cover contraception and the recently released documents that show just how messed up the U.S. relationship with “freelance security” firm Blackwater was.

Both of these stories point toward different, yet similar, machinations that go on when powerful ideologies get involved and sensibility takes a back seat to making a point.

In the Hobby Lobby case, it seems the only reason they’ve suddenly started to care about what insurance their employees have is because they’re against the healthcare reform act that was passed. They’re needling their way into nooks and crannies that were left open in the law as part of the eviscerating “negotiations” that had to take place in order to get it moved through congress.

In the Blackwater case, it’s about a company given far too much power in a war zone and how that power was abused. Many Blackwater employees and management staff seem to have thought that they were above the law… and, it seems, some of them may have been right.

Both of these are playing games with the lives of people outside of the debate–Hobby Lobby’s employees (who are just trying to make a living and stay healthy) and the U.S. and Iraqi people who were harassed, threatened, and in some cases murdered by Blackwater.

Now, undoubtedly, the Blackwater situation was a lot more immediately serious, but the Supreme Court decision on the Hobby Lobby case opens up a more insidious can of worms. With Blackwater, you had a bunch of hooligan with guns doing as they please. Worst case scenario there is they end up on the other side of the list for the U.S. military–as targets instead of assistants. Pretty cut and dried when you really get down to it. The Supreme Court decision, though, seems to open the door to all sorts of denials of service based on an amorphously defined religious preference and privilege.  That’s the sort of thing that can quietly accrue bits of case law here and there for months or years before there’s someone with enough time and resources to challenge it… and in that time, it can touch thousands, if not tens of thousands of lives.

It’s going to be interesting (and, I’m suspecting, unpleasant) to watch both of these situations play out now that they’ve come to light and are on the table for discussion.