Family Values

What, exactly, are "family values"? You hear this a lot from politicians and clergymen. Usually conservatives tout their adherance to traditional family values. It's an interesting buzzword. It's sort of the right wing version of political correctness. I have some news to break to any halfwit who hangs on the words "family values", though: there isn't any such thing as family values.
 
No unit of people has any shared system of values. Values only exist to the individual, as well as value itself, which can only be assigned to individuals. Families, traditionally, are units that were formed with the intent of holding land and property. Somehow, in the past few decades, politicians have expoused their fondness for "traditional family values". If you value the sterile, unloving concept of merely existing to propogate the species and own material goods, that's fine. But, of course, politicians never mean that when they say "family values".
 

Batman: The Dark Knight Review (SPOILERS)

Tuesday afteroon I saw the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight, at a local theater. Pre-movie, I scoped out the trailer to Christian Bale's next no-doubt-blockbuster, the fourth Terminator movie (which means now there'll be two too many). I also sat awkwardly through the trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen, directed by Zack Synder, who also directed the adaptation of Frank Miller's 300. While it does seem like it might make interesting watching, I still think some comic stories are best left on page. Watchmen deconstructed the superhero comic genre, the movie isn't going to do anything so bold. I can see it going over people's heads, that is, even if they do it justice. But hell, who am I kidding? I'll go see it. Sorry, Mr. Moore. Really, I am.

FCC closer to allowing XM/Sirius merger, but not without throwing shit into mix

According to Twice the long awaited* XM/Sirius merger is closer to approval from the FCC. Unfortunately they have decided to throw a wrench into the gears with a some bullshit additional requests...
The conditions would require the merged company to include HD Radio on any satellite radio product it subsidizes that also includes an AM/FM tuner, according to an Associated Press report. Stipulations would also include a six-year freeze on service fees and that Sirius and XM devote 25 percent of spectrum to minority and public-interest programming, said the AP. Adelstein’s staff could not confirm the conditions at press time.

ArtsNow.com: Shirt Review Part 1

The other week on /m/ a link to ArtsNow.com appeared along with a few nifty coupons. Taking the opportunity I 'designed' a few shirts and placed an order. A week and a half later a bag arrived on my doorstop, a customs declared gift, complete with return address to a random Hong Kong P.O. box. This is the story of those shirts...

Ways today's youth sounds like completely uneducated apes (oh and please stop...)

Grammar. Punctuation. Spelling. Verb usage. Common Sense.

What has happened to these five terms? The more and more I browse the Internet, the more and more I regret doing so. I have always known the general public of this country to be less than scholarly, but the younger generation (even younger than me) makes me fearful of the future. This may be harsh (and possibly exaggerated for effect), however it needs to be said because it holds grains of truth - for more than one reason.

It wasn't too long ago that I sat in a middle school or high school English class. I remember the dull grammar lectures and the spelling tests that made me want to fall asleep half the time. But, as much as I didn't realize it then, I'm thankful I paid attention 85% of the time.

"F**k You" "No, Fuck You!"

Fuck Of the 600,000 plus words in the English language fuck is probably one of the most versatile and the most used. Yet for some bloody reason it remains the most censored, something I can't quite wrap my head around it. I could go go on and on about how words are simply sounds clumped together for communication. I could go on and on about how these hodgepodges of noise mean nothing without the meaning behind them, their syntax and situation, their semantics. That, however, is really for another time and place. (In this case, another article) What I wish to talk about is how pointlessly ignorant censoring words like fuck, ass, cock, shit, god damn, and hobo really is. You may have noticed that whenever these words are used on television they're bleeped out. Despite this it's hardly ever impossible to figure out the phrase used. It really is just censorship for the retarded.

Jokers are Wild!

Can everyone please stop attacking Nicholson's Joker just because there's a new Joker in town? I know that Nicholson gets this reputation for "Jack playing Jack", but anyone who's ever picked up a Batman comic with the Joker in it in the past decade or so and has seen Nicholson's performance should see that he was pretty dead on: a psychotic, sadistic, egotistical mass murderer with a flair for the theatrical. Will the late Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight surpass this? Maybe. Probably. I have a feeling that The Dark Knight is going to be the best Batman movie ever made, even better than the animated Mask of the Phantasm. Still, let's not deny how good Burton's original Batman movie was, and it's not just out of nostalgia. It was a great movie. Not perfect, but great. I like it more than Begins, even, if just a little.

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