Insurmountable Opportunities

  

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6/28/2004

Protest Movie Inexplicably Sets Attendance Record

Filed under: Opportunities by Tim @ 9:24 am

In an absolutely shocking development, Michael Moore’s latest documentarian assault on corporate and governmental greed and dishonesty saw it’s opening weekend attendance boosted by the tight-lipped crusade against it’s release. Oddly, the attack by a transparently dogmatic and partisan group, against a transparently dogmatic and partisan filmmaker, backfired and resulted in record attendance for a documentary and the highest showing for any movie this weekend. Surprising, after it worked so well with Mel Gibson’s movie!

The success of “Farenheit 9/11″ certainly came as a huge shock to the makers and distributors of it’s competition - “White Chicks” and “Garfield” - who were expecting a larger turnout following the intense pre-release excitement surrounding their movies. “I don’t understand it. Garfield is so popular. I remember when I was in Junior High in 1980…I just couldn’t get enough of Garfield,” Pete Hewitt, director of “Garfield,” definitely did not say. “And we got Jennifer Love Hewitt,” the director continued to whine, “Everybody loves J-Lo. Don’t they? Don’t they?”

John Blofeld, a guy walking down the street in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, said of “White Girls”: “I just don’t get it. How could that offensive, ill-informed piece of political trash beat out a comedy about two black guys dressing up like white girls? The world just doesn’t make sense any more.”

After a whithering piece by Christopher Hitchens (Slate), and the public relations onslaught put on by freakishly tight-assed christian groups across the country, how anybody saw their way clear to dropping the 8 bones to watch this movie is also beyond the imagining of school marm Francis Fornofsky of Homer, Michigan. “It’s a mystery to me. I mean, who in their right mind would want to see something so controversial? Not me, I assure you,” scolded Fornofsky through (of course) pursed lips.

When Hitchens (Formerly of “The Nation,” nice liberal turned pro-war hawk) reduces Moore’s film to a quivering mass that by all rights owes us all very sincere apology, we all must look deep within to try and discover what it is that drives us to subject ourselves to such self-flaggelating (so-called) entertainment.

“To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of “dissenting” bravery.”

Well, it’s a good thing that he didn’t call is “dishonest and demogogic,” or “a piece of crap.” I mean, really…after reading that, who would want to see the film? You? I think not.

Filed under: Opportunities

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6/27/2004

All Geeked Out With No Place To Go

Filed under: Opportunities by Tim @ 11:14 am

Apparently, faced with the possibility of a whole month of leisure after the big move, I’ve decided that I’ll be watching some TV. It all started when Julie and I sold our house and decided to each splurge on a gift for ourselves. Julie chose a chocolate temperer. Good choice.

I picked a ReplayTV. It’s the same thing as a Tivo, but infinitely more hackable. So far, in the two weeks since I bought it, I have:

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Filed under: Opportunities

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6/26/2004

Can a Career Rock?

Filed under: Opportunities by Tim @ 10:55 pm

In exactly one week, we will pack up the last of our belongings and depart Cincinnati for the familial ties (and hopeful support that those ties will bring) of “The D.C. Area.” This is not to say that Julie and I are taking the kids to D.C., but “The D.C. Area” conveys more urban hipness and adventureous spirit than does “Suburban Maryland” which is where we’re really moving. Oh yeah, and we’re moving in with her parents.

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6/25/2004

Our Founders and the Unbalance of Power - Gore Speech

Filed under: Opportunities by Tim @ 8:20 pm

Speech Delivered by Vice President Al Gore

Thursday, June 24, 2004, 12:30pm

Georgetown University Law Center

When we Americans first began, our biggest danger was clearly in view: we knew from the bitter experience with King George III that the most serious threat to democracy is usually the accumulation of too much power in the hands of an Executive, whether he be a King or a president. Our ingrained American distrust of concentrated power has very little to do with the character or persona of the individual who wields that power. It is the power itself that must be constrained, checked, dispersed and carefully balanced, in order to ensure the survival of freedom. In addition, our founders taught us that public fear is the most dangerous enemy of democracy because under the right circumstances it can trigger the temptation of those who govern themselves to surrender that power to someone who promises strength and offers safety, security and freedom from fear.

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6/24/2004

Jon Stewart Concerened About Cheney’s Pants

Filed under: Opportunities by Tim @ 9:28 am

Yes, it’s true: the Vice President is having a problem with his pants and Jon Stewart (”The Daily Show) is worried about him.

Yesterday, in addition to the sound (and hilarious) spanking given pro-war stooge Stephen F. Hayes, author of the book, “The Connection : How al Qaeda’s Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America,” Jon showed some truly heartfelt concern for the Vice President’s pants.
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6/23/2004

Fresno Cops Spying on Peace Groups

Filed under: Opportunities by Tim @ 3:51 pm

Cory Doctorow posted on Boing Boing about a Fresno cop accidentally exposed when working undercover (bullshit L.A. Times registration required) in a Fresno, CA peace group.

Filed under: Opportunities

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Back in Black

Filed under: Opportunities by Tim @ 2:04 pm

It’s taken me a few weeks to get this thing back up and running. I’ve just been way to busy with other shit and nobody reads my blog anyway so who cares?

I’m trying to decide if I want to bring all my old posts over to this new system or not. Probably not, but if I get bored enough I just might.

Filed under: Opportunities

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6/20/2004

All About Me

Filed under: Music, Personal, Work by Tim @ 11:37 am

I am an mostly sedentary activist who thinks that corporate greed, right-wing politics, and the christian right (is there really a difference?) is turning our world to shit. In my professional life I have actually been known to demonstrate a passing familiarity with competence for hours on end.

I was a rock star once for about fifteen minutes and have nothing to show for it but a few CDs, some videos that are starting to deteriorate, a gold record for a band that I played with ten years before they made it big, loss of hearing in my right ear, and a slight tendency to drink beer.

I can be selfish.

I get too worked up about things I care about, but have a sometimes alarming disconnection with the world around me.

I never, ever, ever get enough sleep.

The right song at the right time can completely change me.  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) this effect only seems to last a few hours at the most.

Filed under: Music | Personal | Work

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