Link round-up for 1 March 2015
Gays cause mass shootings! And vaccines cause gays! And retards! And rape is legal!
Creationists still have no clue how to make a science movie.
Why do microwaves cook food unevenly?
Lady Atheist has a book review and collection of videos on the true origins of morality (with cute babies!)
The Congressional Republican clown show has PM Carpenter in fine form this week, on governance, DHS funding, why they can't let go, and how to pwn them. Nancy LeTourneau has mixed feelings about the chaos. Jim Wright, of course, is a lot more ruthless. On RedState, the fury and despair are delicious.
The Paleo diet is a lie.
Hannity goes turbo creepy at CPAC.
The legitimate rape guy is looking for a comeback.
The story of bitcoin, Silk Road, and the "deep web" shows the impracticality of anarcho-libertarianism.
A right-wing site's post on Scott Walker triggers a comment-thread argument over evolution, culminating in a popcorn-worthy meltdown.
Here's a detailed analysis of American Sniper (found via Republic of Gilead).
Wisconsin and Minnesota are similar except in who runs them, and the results.
Why were these abuses ever allowed in the first place?
RedState escalates its campaign to punish Republicans who display insufficient lunacy, and goes all Joni Ernst on Mitch McConnell.
Obama's veto gives us a fighting chance to stop Keystone XL permanently.
Per a recent survey, 61% of the British say they're non-religious, 52% think religion does more harm than good, and self-identifying as "Christian" is pretty much meaningless.
Conservatives in the Netherlands are getting tougher on marijuana (which never was actually legal there), with mostly-bad results.
Things haven't been easy for Serbia's first transgender army officer.
ISIS is now clearly losing the war (found via Horizons, which has other links).
Saudi Arabia sentences a man to death for apostasy.
An atheist blogger (and American citizen) is hacked to death in Bangladesh.
posted by Infidel753 at 12:09 AM
6 Comments:
While I wouldn't consider myself a hardcore Trekkie, I was saddened to learn of Leonard Nimoy's passing (funnily enough, for a time back in the late '90s I was under the mistaken impression he was already dead way back then - not sure where I got that idea from). I quite liked him as an actor, though he really creeped me out when I saw him in the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, after the character he played got taken over by the alien pod people!
That piece on American Sniper was an interesting read. I have to admit I'm sort of morbidly curious to see that film for myself, though I have a feeling I'd spend most of it rooting for the "bad" guys! That Chris Kyle character reminds me of stuff I've read about Blackwater, whose founder, Erik Prince, is apparently a theocratic Christian nutjob too (as are many of the people who work for his company). When you've got people like that running amok in a theatre of war, you're not going to win too many "hearts and minds" among the locals!
I was married to a hardcore Trekker (the preferred term at that time), and as with the interests of all my wives, I threw myself into it. I was never especially a Spock fan -- I'm more like Bones with his irrational passions. But certainly, I admired Nimoy. He was the second best Star Trek film director. The first best, of course, was William Shatner. (That's a joke! Everyone knows who the best is -- which I say with all my irrational passion.)
I'm with Zosimus on Body Snatchers. And it was perfect casting, because of the Spock baggage that Nimoy brought to role. The character he played really wasn't any different before and after he was replaced.
I like that they brought Nimoy back for the reboot. However, I seem to be in the minority in thinking that the films sucked. But then I would, wouldn't I? Karl Urban made a shockingly good McCoy, though.
My impression is that American Sniper itself isn't proving popular overseas, as many other American movies have. It sounds like an exercise in jingoism and stoking illusions and fantasies that have little currency outside (a certain subculture of) Americans.
Nimoy -- few actors can claim to have created such a widely-known and well-liked character. As for Star Trek generally, TOS and TNG had some episodes that were good solid science fiction (and drama), but I'm not too familiar with the later incarnations. Once they get to the stage of doing a "reboot", I think they've basically exhausted the concept and are just milking a dead cow. But the show's best days will always be memorable.
Thanks for linking to my blog again. Now I have to link or re-blog *two* of your entries!
And thanks for the post!
Frank: Glad to hear you liked Nimoy in Body Snatchers as well. I found that version of the film probably the creepiest of all of them - its unambiguously depressing ending certainly didn't help.
Re Star Trek, TNG's probably the incarnation I'm most familiar with, though I've dabbled in all the others. One thing that surprised me about the original series (which was actually the last one I started watching episodes of!) was how violent it was (I found out why the term "redshirts" came to acquire the meaning it has!), as well as how scary it could be - there were probably a few episodes of it I regretted watching just before going to bed!
On the subject of reboots, what's up with those? I've heard of them being done for quite a few films lately, though haven't been able to work out what the point of them is. Are they a recent trend?
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