Month: November 2008

Posted in Politics

We could leave this town

Posted on by Bri

About time I posted a politics blog, eh?

“When the political columnists say ‘Every thinking man’ they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to ‘Every intelligent voter’ they mean everybody who is going to vote for them.” -Franklin P. Adams.

We need to revise campaign funding laws, because money has become too important in elections and special interest groups have an advantage to skew results over the American people.


Under the current campaign finance laws, there is an unfair advantage given to Republicans and Democrats. Current election spending doesn’t give third parties a chance. Only 10% of industry donations went to third party or nonpartisan candidates. Without money, you can’t advertise. Without advertising, no one knows who you are. When no one knows who you are, you can’t get your voice heard. In January 2007, Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael E. Toner estimated the 2008 race will be a $1 billion election, and that to be taken seriously, a candidate needed to raise at least $100 million by the end of 2007. According to OpenSecrets.org, Bob Barr, Libertarian, raised $1 million dollars, getting .4% of the votes. Barak Obama, Democrat, raised $640 million, and won 52.7% of votes.


Second, corporate influence is bad, because they don’t reflect the interests of the people. A month before the 2004 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, if you combine all finance sector donors, the combined total contributions to Democratic and Republican parties and federal candidates so far in this election season is $218 million. Finance sector donors include real estate, accounting corporations, insurance and stock brokers. Again using Bob Barr, 98% of his funds came from individual citizens donating, 1% from Political Action Committees (PAC), and 0% from federal funds, but he only accounted for .4% of votes. John McCain, Republican, had only 54% of his funding coming from individual citizens and 23% coming from federal funds. He raised $320 million total and got 47% of the votes.


Finally, there are better things to spend the money on that directly effect teens. $1,456,396,985 was donated overall, by industries, to political campaigns in 2008 (FollowTheMoney.org) If they instead invested in students, just based on this number:

*Every student who took the SAT in 2007 could receive $974 dollars towards college tuition

*We could build 27 new high schools, or 113 8/9 schools.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is getting ridiculous. I apologize for the infodump, but it was necessary. Doesn’t it make you sick? I think we should impose a law that constrains the amount of money allowed to be donated by industries and special interest groups to political campaigns. Maybe, just maybe, that could cause people to start actually paying attention to issues, not flashy TV ads. But this is only the tip of the iceburg of potential campaign reforms. Next week, please remind me, I will be writing about voter turnout. Stay tooned!

Posted in Movies

Directing Styles

Posted on by Godfather

After watching both Barton Fink and Changeling yesterday, I realized that if you know what kind of movies the director likes to make, its easy to spot them without knowing. So here are a few famous directors and how to tell its their movie.

Quentin Tarantino

Probably the easiest to notice, Quentin’s movies have so far always been violent with lots of swearing. But what differs him from most other directors is the way he presents these acts. Kill Bill for example is one of the most violent movies I’ve ever seen, but he shows these acts in a way that doesn’t freak you out like a horror movie would. Instead, these scenes are filled with classic rock and they’re stylized in a way that makes you wonder what the heck is wrong with the guy who made this. If you watch Reservoir Dogs, you’ll never hear the song “Stuck in the Middle With You” the same. Trust me, if you hate violence portrayed in a manner that almost seems to congratulate it, then don’t see his movies, since they aren’t for everybody.

Joel and Ethan Coen

These two normally stay in the boundary of thrillers or comedies, most of the time their movies are a combination of both. In some cases, they do have movies that have no comedy whatsoever, but so far its only happened two times with No Country For Old Men and Blood Simple. Almost all of these movies though have killers, but not ones that you’ll see in other movies. In Barton Fink, the guy lights a building on fire, kills two policemen, and then talks to his neighbor friend who saw the whole thing and keeps complaining about how hot it is. If someone is being killed, and you were laughing just a second before, then the movie is probably by the Coen Brothers.

Stanley Kubrick

Of these directors, he is definitely the least main stream. To watch Kubrick’s movies, you really do have to love films a lot, because they are kind of like abstract art. People who do understand films and why certain things are chosen can respect his films, while about 90% of people would hate them because of the way they’re told. A Clockwork Orange for example, its extremely violent with lots of nudity, and really the only people who can bear it are those who can respect it for how it portrays these scenes, or those who are really messed up in the head. Really none of his movies go like normal ones, with plots that you’ve never seen before, or just a movie that leaves you wondering why people liked it. Well, they like them because Kubrick is an artist with a camera, and if you do have a knowledge of film you can see that.

Clint Eastwood

While he is a great actor too, I still think that he works just as well behind the camera. I’ve noticed that while most of his movies are for a more broad audience, most have the thriller feeling that makes you care for the characters while wondering how things will turn out. He also normally portrays strong characters as the sort of role models we hope we are. Heck, even some of his political views get bounced around a little. When I watched his newest movie Changeling, a mother told her son “Never start a fight but always finish it”. This is just his tendency to lean towards the right shining through without being showy like others. He has changed what movies he’s done though since in the 60s-90s he was mainly making westerns or action movies like Dirty Harry. Now, he’s settled for thrillers with great stories. Since he is so consistent with his quality of movies, I can firmly believe Clint is one of the greatest directors of all time.

So that’s it for now, if I do come up with any more, I might do some more of these in the future. Tell me what you think of these directors and what their best movies are in your opinion.

Posted in Books

I could have gone home

Posted on by Bri

I finished a book yesterday called Escape by Carolyn Jessop. It’s a true story about a woman who escapes from a polygamy cult with her eight children. When she was eighteen, she was married off to a man of 50, and became his fourth wife.

This book is incredible and disturbing at the same time. It’s an interesting look into the lives of the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saits), who are a more radical version of the more common Mormon church. For the record, everyone at my school can stop being so bigoted; Mormons do NOT believe in polygamy, that’s just the FLDS. Even I find it offensive when people automatically assume that.

The story starts out with Jessop’s escape, but then goes back and outlines her early childhood living in Salt Lake City before moving on into her being brought up further in the FLDS. She struggles to get an education, all the time silently dreading that she might possibly have to marry an old man. The most amazing part of this book is Jessop’s determination to succeed and to make a better life for her and her children; she managed to go to college and get her degree, she managed a hotel, she started a web design business from home, she taught second grade for seven years, and she stood up for herself to her very powerful husband. All of this while she was raising and protecting eight children.

I would reccomend this book to anyone. The writing is somewhat simple in it’s style, but the story is captivating and keeps you interested.

Posted in Sports

Break it down!!!

Posted on by Scarface

I figure I might as well mix up my blogs, add a little spice you know. So today I’m going to blog about something I guess is kinda sporty, atleast it keeps you in good shape if you do it a lot. Dancing!!!

Most of the time I HATE dancing, I’m horrible at it. I’m tall and goofy, and I guess I just don’t know how to go about it. Dancing to fast songs makes me feel like a tree swaying in the wind, I feel so out of my comfort zone. Then I have to look around and everyone around me is just totally having a great time, gettin jiggy wit it (not meant to be sexual). I try and get my groove on… but I guess I’m just useless at it.

I’m guessing some of you might feel the same way, or maybe you feel completely opposite.

I’ve enjoyed myself once or twice when it comes to dancing. I think the main way to have fun is to surround yourself with who you’re comfortable looking stupid around, that’s the way to go. And people who’s skills at dancing are around your own, then atleast you’re not the only freak.

My point is this, if you’re at a dance or something and you’re having a bad time (and when you have a bad time at a dance, you REALLY have a bad time), go find some people that are about as bad at dancing as you, then just be yourself and dance like an idiot. I’m telling you, you’ll fit right in and you’ll have a good time.

This is Scarface signing off.

Posted in Movies

Idiocracy

Posted on by Godfather

Never heard of it? Well, you should have. This is one of the most accurate portrayals of modern society I have seen. Sure, in movie making quality, it isn’t THAT great. The comedy is great at first, but kind of dies down towards the end, but I really don’t think that matters. The movie goes like this. A government program is testing a life freezing idea that could keep soldiers alive but in a sleep mode until the next war, then they can come out and fight years later for their country as if it were yesterday. They test it on two average people, but then, before they’re taken out of the chamber, the program is shut down and they’re left for 500 years before a landfill slide wakes them up. It turns out, in 500 years, everyone is an idiot and these average people are now the smartest in the world.

Now, if you have gone to High School in the last few years, we all know its not all the dancing and gayness (as in happy, geez you people are immature) of High School Musical. But we also see a trend, the smart people are doing good in school and going on to higher education, as the idiots get pregnant or do drugs. This is a little stereotypical, but it is the basic flow of things. Now, while these idiots have more and more kids, the smart people only have one or two, making for more stupid people in the world. While Idiocracy is just a comedy at a short glance, its also a horrifying glance into a worst case scenario of where our world is headed. If you have any brains, watch this movie and see for yourself an extreme possibility of the future.

Posted in Politics

Obama Wins…

Posted on by Godfather

Ugh, another election, another major party member easily making it in the White House, will the U.S. ever actually change from the two party system? No, because people are just gullible enough to think there are only two viable candidates that have a shot. If news showed more of these third parties, then there would be a much better chance that people hear of them, and vote for them.

Posted in Sports

Your mom’s like a postcard

Posted on by Scarface

Something I find a little… funny actually in sports, is how players get traded from team to team, state to state, city to city.

I don’t like it for a lot of reasons, I can just imagine having a family and all of a sudden having to completely change lifestyles because your coach doesn’t want you anymore. It’s absolutely a crazy thought, professional athletes are away from their family a ton as it is. It’s kinda funny because it’s so simple. A coach can just say he doesn’t want a living human being and easily send them away, it’s just so easy. I can’t imagine doing that to someone either, telling them they have to go live a world away and work for a guy they don’t know. I hate that, athletes lives are so unstable.

But the funny thing is I actually think it’s right. Athletes are obviously paid big bucks, a lot of people get traded to places where they’re gonna make more money anyway. It’s what they asked for, sports are extremely extremely unstable, nothing is set in stone. It’s the entertainment industry too, if they’re going to get a team more money by getting more people to go to the games then that’s it, it’s their job.

I don’t like it because I just wouldn’t want that to happen to me, it’d be so hard on a family. But the long and short of it is that it’s the world of sports, people have to get traded. They took the job understanding the risks, their jobs have cons too, not just pros. Trades are part of the game in my opinion, what’s yours?

This is Scarface signing off.

Posted in Bri

Why do we keep this up?

Posted on by Bri

I’m ashamed. But it had to be done. I hope you’ll understand.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen of Planet Bri, I have thrown away my spoon collection.

NOW, NOW, settle. Don’t freak out too much. I kept all the really cool spoons (colored ones and what not), one spoon from each person (I wrote who they were each from on them a while ago), and the spoons with the message on them from my dear Bridget. So I have the IMPORTANT ones. But come on, at least admit that 349 useless plastic spoons would take up space….

So I managed to contain the remaining in one drawer, which I will refer to the Horde Drawer. I then put all my tiny paper unicorns in there. (I have 89). The Horde Drawer is the drawer dedicated to my many obsessions and strange collections. Once it gets full, I have to throw stuff away to fit in more. Hopefully this will contain my packrat tendencies.

Posted in Movies

Some of My Favorite Scenes

Posted on by Godfather

There are so many great movies out there, and with that comes some of the greatest scenes that I’ve seen. Watching some of these whole movies can get kind of boring, but sometimes there is just one section that makes the whole movie.

Planet Terror (Part of Grindhouse)

This is a new zombie movie by director Robert Rodriguez with the help of Quentin Tarantino, and really is a departure from my favorite types of movies. I’m not really a fan of gore, but when El Wrey, one of the best action heroes I’ve seen for a while goes through a hospital to get to his girlfriend, the scene just had me pumped to go and kill some zombies. He took these knives and just plowed his way through the group, and came out pretty much without a scratch.

Fight Club

While there it doesn’t stick out too far from this overall great movie, there is this one section of the movie that just keeps me laughing every time I see it. Since the narrator has insomnia, he decides to go to some peer support groups to see what real pain is like. After going to one, he becomes addicted to them and just goes to every single one he can find.

Kill Bill Volume 1

I will kind of ruin this one, but hey, I’m not telling you the ending of the series. So after the bride kills another one of her targets, she takes a woman hostage and uses her in order to find Bill. The scene goes between before and after the questioning, and Bill is asking the girl questions about the bride. At the end, he lets loose a secret that just blindsides you, making you beg to watch the second one. The way this scene is shot is why it was so good, too bad the next movie wasn’t anywhere near as good as this scene.

That’s all I can think of for now, but I’ll do some more in the future.