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TV: Alien: Earth e1+2 

The majority of TV shows the critics laud, I find bleh...I explain why to interested parties...thrillers don't work as good in TV, the ideas are derivative from the movies, acting caliber lower...and then the argument changes to - but you gotta admit, it's good for the TV show. I guess...but isn't that a bit of a bait and switch? I thought it was supposed to be good for an addition to the Alien franchise. Now it just needs to be good "for a tv show?" With a budget far far beyond most tv shows. Married with Children is good for a "tv show." It's made on one set. This seems to have the budget of Avatar. I dunno. I don't think it is good compared to similar scale and budgeted productions. Also, not particularly original. Even the casting seems to remix face-types from the first Alien. But you can't get faces like Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton anymore. Too much lotion and shit. Also, why did the Alien slaughter hundreds of people and then just decide to kidnap one of the main characters at the end of episode 2? I'm confused by some stuff. 

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Documentary: The Truth About Jussie Smollett 

The real subject of the documentaries should be the middle aged white ladies who want to revisit the case and believe they've unlocked some huge conspiracy. They are the most fascinating characters in this saga.

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Book: The Sympathizer

One of those books I forced myself to finish and probably cost me reading two other, better books instead. The humor and voice of the author were fine for awhile, the story I did not find particularly meaningful. Like a decent party that goes on for too long. Why shouldn't a novel be 100 pages long? Who established they must be 200 or more and then any important, award-worthy novel must be 300+? When did this come into being?

Elon Is Not An Engineer

Would be like saying James Cameron is not a screenwriter.

The Books...

...also became less pleasurable. 

Trans Rights

Anyone else get the sneaky suspicion something else going on here. 

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Film: The Naked Gun 2025 Reboot

Really enjoyed the first half. But in the second half of the film it cared too much about the plot. You sense the shift when they introduce one really bizarre little sequence that bore no relation to the rest of the film to split it in two. Puzzling. 

Film: Americana

It was a Paul Walker Hauser weekend! I enjoyed this one, landed a real emotional punch in the end that snuck up on me.

Film: A Working Man

I expected better from Ayers...not sure what happened with this movie/idea. Basically, the movie is just Taken but with a bunch of another, not-entirely-related criminal storylines going on in parallel. Really quite odd if you look very closely.

Book: The Golden Compass

Just getting started, but so far one my favorite reading-with-child books...

Infitada

Wouldn't the "anti-genocide" argument be strengthened by not wearing the Hamas outfits? 

Asking for a friend.

The Worst Things

Trump is doing are flying under the radar. 

Yes, the dumbification of the masses is one of the great problems of our day.

Amurrica

We're gonna make a TV show about the Altadena rebuild before we actually do the rebuild of the city.

Our country is so dumb and useless sometimes. Just let China rule the world already.

Complaining About Ukraine Getting Money

The fatass boomers like Bannon complaining about Ukraine getting pensions and Americans not...the one big difference - they're fighting a war, and their fight benefits us.

Sorry Bannon, they didn't weasel into investing in Seinfeld reruns and get fuck you money to do podcasts. 

Immigration

Why don't Democrats just go all-in on legal immigration reform? Make it easier to come to the US legally. Seriously, why don't we just target certain needs like - childcare, or engineers, or farmworkers, or knowledge workers, or restaurateurs, or hot chicks, or whatever the fuck you want?

It's telling they don't. Because a major cohort of the party likes dysfunction and disorder for strange psychological reasons. 

"Fascism"

The best argument against what liberals call fascists would simply be making their cities functional, fun, and livable. Which doesn't seem like such a tall order. Like bus stops that aren't homeless shelters, public parks where families can go and hang out safely, and commercial areas that people can shop and people watch. 

For All The Europeans

Who think Trump is "betraying" Ukraine to Putin, I would like to hear their strategy for the war. Do they plan to win it? How? Do they plan to cheerlead until the last Ukrainian male is dead? Do they expect America to join the war and fight on Ukraine's behalf? Have they weighed the probabilities of these things happening and working? I really don't understand their position at all.

And for the same types - what is their hope for Israel-Palestine? Do they want the US to pressure Israel to stop the war? Keep Hamas in power? Charge Bibi with crimes and put him in jail? And then what? Establish a Palestinian state? What to do with the Israeli state? Does that get to remain? Or become dissolved? Put all Israeli military, etc into jail? What is the plan here? Trials? Do we think the Israelis will go for this? Who will bring this justice? The Europeans? Do they want to sanction Israel until they are broke? Has this plan worked against Russia? I find all their positioning on the world very confusing and naive.

It seems to me, should Hamas stay in power we will see the exact same Oct 7->post Oct 7th dynamic continue to play out. I should think this would be undesirable, hence step 1 - get rid of Hamas. 

If This Is Gen X...

...then I identify as Gen X. 

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Film: Cloud

Many fascinating ideas...should've just been about success and envy, but then got lost in shenanigans and plot holes. Needed another screenplay pass, it felt like. 

Film: Barbarian

Missed this one first time round. Once I got past fundamentally dumb decisions by characters (horror genre suspension of disbelief), I settled in to enjoy it. Not to be taken too seriously but spoiler alert - how and where did they shit living that far underground? 

Guy Who Threw A Sandwich

So I guess he lost his job and will be charged with a felony, but his real shame and humiliation is being caught on video throwing the sandwich and then running away on video. Coward. 

Inheritance Tax

Anyone who believes in inheritance tax or equity in any fashion should first renounce their own inheritance (the one they stand to receive, not one they plan to give). If they remain uncommitted, you know what they propose is just theft.

Bad Books

The thing about bad books - they take so long to read, they really prevent you from reading the good ones.

We Have A Problem

Yahya has become a popular boy name in the UK over the past year. 

"The West" under attack from all sides and I still think we gonna win.

Interesting Take

Look at cities these days. Libertarians were wrong, church ladies were right.

War on drugs is over. Drugs won.

Mistakes

I'd rather China was making these mistakes during the real deal rather than learning from them as they prepare. 

Here's The Proper Response

Fuck off. Go write your own musical and produce your own play and you get to choose the cast.

 

Tons of Problems With Trump

There are tons of problems with Trump, none of which electing Democrats will help solve unfortunately. 

The Horror

Zuckerberg's home school violated Palo Alto city code. Oh no, kids were learning math!

Yep

"The pathetic thing about modern socialists (that you can’t unsee once you see it) is that what they clearly think should happen is that companies should compete under capitalism, so that the socialists can figure out which ones are going to be successful and which ones aren’t, and then the idea is that socialists should get to take over the successful ones, now that all the initial risk is in the rearview mirror."

Socialists and movie critics, cut from the same cloth.

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Film: Spaceballs

Please don't tell my kids or their friends, but I don't actually find this movie very funny. I'll take The Naked Gun any day.

Serenity Now, Insanity Later

ChatGPT earily similar to modern therapy. 

I'd take a homeboy, buddy, friend, even dad-pal over a random therapist any day (exceptions apply to great therapists).

The Only Relevant Question

Is whether the next President will be Vance or Rubio. If the Republicans play their cards right, it will be both for 16 more years. 

Here Rubio points out how France and Macron just enabled Hamas to keep their dumb resistance going.

The pro-Palestinian movement in the West is the only remaining card Hamas has left to play. Their Persian and Arab sponsors have dried up. They are done for, only propped up by the long shot hope that Western pressure on Israel will keep them alive to murder Jews another day and terrorize their own population into submission.

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Film: The World's End

This film basically predicts Brexit. It's about 5 British dudes from a small British town who discover things are a changing in their town (and country). Robot aliens have replaced the vast majority of the people not because of some nefarious agenda, but rather so that humans can become "better" and join the rest of the galaxy in being nice and gentle and happy. It's basically a rejection of the EU-ification of the UK.

Also, you know the film was made before 2016/2017 because they just have 5 white dudes as friends. Made a few years later and you'd have mandatory diversity. 

I Agree With All These Things

And the folks behind Let Grow. 

More freedom for kids.

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Film: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Texted a friend this:

Poor Cameron's dad. Guy has to deal with a hypochondriac son with depression, probably a wife with similar condition for the past 17 years. He has one peaceful outlet - restoring a Ferrari. Guy works hard to provide for his family and needs this one little thing to take his mind off things and what does his dipshit, ungrateful son do? Destroy it while ditching school and then thinks he's a hero for it.

Other revisionist takes 

--Ben Stein teaching how tariffs don't work in econ class and no one is paying attention. Cut to 2025 when all those dumb yuppie kids are now the MAGA braintrust or the MMT economists

--Rooney is a good dean of students and should have his contract renewed. He does need to stop Ferris Bueller otherwise there will be trickle down effect of truancy across the school.

--Is Sloan British? Why does she have such hairy arms? I guess this isn't a take, but at moments she dips into a British accent. Ferris has a British flag in his room. Or is this just how hot girls in Chicago spoke in the mid-80s

--Is the depiction of the parking attendants racist or not? The only black and hispanic guys in the film do blue collar work and steal the Ferrari, so on the surface they are criminals not to be trusted. But they are also the only people in the film to outfox Ferris Bueller. So are they the true geniuses? The platonic ideal of the film's ethics?

--The film is very patriotic in a way. Bueller tells us he doesn't believe in -isms, he believes in himself. He totally dismisses European socialism by saying: I'm not European. Interesting framing, if you think about it. What does it mean to be "not European". It means he's American. Also consider the Twist and Shout parade sequence. What is going on in this parade? There seems to be some type of German-esque celebration, but the predominant image is that of the American flag. The film is a pure celebration of what some people call "American exceptionalism" embodied by Ferris Bueller himself. 

Good Insight

Nothing wrong with therapy, but it almost entirely depends on the quality of the therapist. Which poses another question: how do you measure the quality of the therapist? What do you measure it against? As a baseline, I would like to see a study that measures well-being against several different paths:

1) Man goes to therapy

2) Man joins softball team

3) Man goes to church

4) Man does nothing

5) Man starts drinking

See who has measurably better mental health in 6 months.

Question

What offer is on the table from the Palestinian side to stop the war? 

Check Sources

When writers use sources to prove the opposite. 

Leaving America

Rich coastal liberals fleeing America prove their critics are 100% right. These are people who don't love and value their country. I suppose that's fine, no one should be forced to love their country. But I don't be mad when your fellow countrymen a) accuse you of it and b) don't care for your dysfunctional values.