Orange Slices

I picked up a large plastic tub of candy orange slices a few days ago while grocery shopping. During each of the last few days, I've had the exact same experience with these things. I walk through the kitchen, see the orange slices, and think, "Sweet! Orange slices!". Here's how it goes:

Orange Slice #1: Man, these are delicious! Three cheers to whoever invented orange slices!
Orange Slice #s 2-6: I congratulate myself on this ingenious purchase. These should be called "orange slices of heaven"!

At this point, something biological happens.

Orange Slice #7: Sweet holy God I will vomit if I eat another orange slice! Whoever invented orange slices should be stabbed in the neck!

A strong, powerful wall is hit between orange slice 6 and 7. I can't scientifically explain it. But I will tell you that a night's sleep will erase it, and the very next day I am enthusiastic once again about orange slice #1.

Gross Generalizations

Two things that I always find highly amusing are 1) gross generalizations and 2) movie/television reviews that are so negative that they are actually angry. Jeffrey Wells is a movie critic and blogger who occasionally combines those two things ("Your chocolate is in my peanut butter!")

Today, he had this to say about the new Sex and the City movie:

The film is another Taliban recruitment film -- a grotesque and putrid valentine to the insipid "me, my lifestyle, my accessories and I" chick culture of the early 21st Century. Guys everywhere -- if you're in a brand-new relationship, take her to see this thing. If she even half-likes it, dump her and walk away cold. Save yourself!

Priceless!

IQ and Biblical Literalism

Well here's something that is not at ALL controversial. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). A few months ago, scienceblogs.com posted the results of a study that collected the SAT scores of various students and grouped them by religious denomination.

Leading the pack were Unitarian Universalists. Why do I care? I'm a Unitarian Universalist. I never took the SAT (we take the ACT here in Iowa), but now, based on this survey, I have no choice but to conclude that I would've just nailed it.

Then, this week, scienceblogs.com looked at the numbers from that survey again and plotted them against the proportion which believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. This will shock all of you. (ahem). As it turns out, those who believe that the Bible is literally true have (on average) a lower IQ than those who don't.

The semi-serious chicken or the egg question: Are folks with lower IQs drawn to Biblical literalism, or does Biblical literalism lower your IQ?

Generational Media Divide

In a recent blog post, Matthew Yglesias of The Atlantic writes:

It's interesting, though, that we're seeing the emergence of a bifurcated media landscape and political conversation. People over a certain age exist in a universe where it's almost as if the web doesn't exist and things like the nightly news, the daily paper, and the cable networks are utterly dominant. For people below a certain age, the nightly news is totally irrelevant, the daily paper is primarily a website, and things like blogs and web videos matter a great deal.

I hadn't considered this idea of a "bifurcated media landscape" until reading this post, but I fall completely into his bucket of "people below a certain age". I never, and I mean NEVER, watch television news. Wait...I take that back. I do watch cable news on Caucus and Primary nights, because that's the fastest way to get results. I also never miss an episode of The Daily Show. Most people wouldn't consider that "news", but it consistently offers more analysis of news and current events than a conventional news show. I will glance at a newspaper on Sunday mornings, sticking to the local news and the opinion page. Otherwise, though, I get my news entirely from the Internet. However, I'm fairly sure that my parents (who are not elderly by any means) get none of their news from blogs or any other websites.

Generally speaking, I'm in favor of the web's rise in the news space. Reputable blogs often have more in-depth coverage and analysis of events, and they allow for discussion and feedback. My only concern is that it contributes to the rise of "opinion media". Fox News provides conservatives their news sifted through a conservative filter. Increasingly, MSNBC is becoming the liberal equivalent to Fox News. If you're looking for news presented from the viewpoint that makes you the most comfortable or reinforces your opinions...then you're not really getting news as much as a massaging of your world view.

Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Snooty Critics

Tonight (or is it this morning? I don't know the time difference), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will screen at the Cannes Film Festival. It's quite a gamble for a big studio to take a summer blockbuster to Cannes. Sure, you're guaranteed enormous publicity, but a summer movie has to be pretty exceptional to survive the gauntlet of film snobs. The DaVinci Code tried this a couple of years ago, and got a serious smack-down from the critics. Then again, it didn't hurt their box office.

I'll be keeping my eyes open for Cannes reaction... In the dark secret spot of my brain I want it to receive a few minor punches, at least. I need my expectations to be lowered a little if I'm going to enjoy this movie at all. I've got to be realistic about this thing!

Colbert Hilarity

As much as I love Jon Stewart, I have to admit that Colbert is more consistently funny. This clip of Colbert spoofing O'Reilly's on-screen meltdown is priceless.



And, in honor of other on-screen outbursts, here's a collection of some of the finest.

Pandering to the Internets

Yesterday's post about Obama and racism among some West Virginian primary voters brought me twice my normal number of visitors (triple digits, you're on notice!). A quick glimpse at my stats showed that the increase was due to surfers arriving at this site by way of Google. Some of the keyword phrases that brought people here:

• "racism west virginia"
• "west virginia primary exit polls"
• "west virginia exit polls"
  

This is my first taste of the rewards available if I just pander to the internet. So, I'm turning over a new leaf. No more posts about G.I. Joe or Guitar Hero Aerosmith. From now on, it's only current events! Earthquakes in China, tornadoes in the United States, and rising gas prices.

That's right, I'm totally selling out. If the Rolling Stones can sell "Start Me Up" to Microsoft, who am I to defend artistic integrity?

Racism, Ignorance or Both?

Ok...so Obama's going to get destroyed in today's West Virginia primary. I realize that. A Hillary blowout won't surprise me. What has surprised me is the free expression of shameless racism and ignorance by some of Hillary's supporters in the media over the past day or so.

This clip on Gawker from West Virginia television shows an older white woman saying that she won't vote for Obama because "he's a Muslim and that has a lot to do with it". When the reporter points out that he's a Christian, she flat out refuses to believe it.

From a story in the Financial Times this weekend:

“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coal mining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.

Stephen Colbert has been jokingly referring to Obama as a "secret Muslim terrorist" for weeks...but it's getting less funny as I realize that people really believe it. Many pundits and political journalists assumed that the only upside to the Rev. Wright controversy is that it would put to rest the "Obama is a Muslim" urban legend.

The Washington Post today reports on the open racism that has been directed towards Obama volunteers. One woman told an Obama volunteer, "He's a half-breed and he's a Muslim. How can you trust that?".

My initial reaction would be to shrug these people off as people that don't vote Democratic anyway...but many of these folks are Hillary supporters. I'm betting that someone that refers to Obama as a "half-breed" is probably not going to back him when Hillary fails to get the nomination.

Is this generational? The exit polls have shown time and time again that the older you are, the more likely you are to have difficulty voting for an African-American. Does progress in America only come as those generations unwilling to yield die off? Is it related to education? West Virginia ranks dead last in the nation for percentage of adults with a college education. Income? Again, West Virginia is at the bottom. As I heard one political commentator say this weekend, "I'm not sure why Hillary thinks it's a selling point that she attracts the least educated voters."

Or am I just the height of elitism, looking for some formula to explain away people that think differently than myself?

I believe that Obama will win the presidency. A recent Washington Times poll has Obama several points ahead of McCain...and, theoretically, this should be McCain's peak time. He's faced no real "softening" from Obama or the DNC yet. What I wonder is...will 4 years of an Obama presidency resolve a little of this ignorance? Will some of these folks look back in the year 2012 and say, "You know...he DIDN'T invite Osama Bin Laden to the White House for tea. Maybe he's not a secret Muslim terrorist after all." Or am I simply overly optimistic?

Basic Biology

My Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture desktop calendar recently asked me the following question: What film was hyped with the line: "When the son of a hundred maniacs...meets an unstoppable killing machine...no one will survive"?

The answer is Freddy Vs. Jason.

The "son of a hundred maniacs" line refers to Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy...and reading that description of him jarred a vague memory of Freddy's origins. If I remember correctly, the story is that Freddy's mother was maybe working at an insane asylum? Or just visiting? Passing through? Not important. Anyway, somehow the inmates escaped or got to her in some way and she was raped by a large group of them, hence the idea that Freddy is the "son of a hundred maniacs". But this really just goes against basic biology. Even when I first saw that movie at age 12ish, I can remember thinking..."yeah, but only one sperm actually fertilized the egg, right?".

Wait...I was kind of lame, wasn't I?

Coolest Celebrity Endorsement Ever

This is the best celebrity endorsement I've ever seen. The whole idea of celebrity endorsements is a little silly...and Tom addresses the ridiculousness of it from the start. But then he makes an intelligent, rational and earnest statement that I happen to agree with 100%.

I'm Back! And...where the hell have I been?

After an extended absence, I'm back and hopefully able to do some more blogging.

So what's kept me away? Well, several things converging at once.

First, I was preparing for and traveling to a concert that I was involved in. Also, due to some other circumstances that are connected to that show, I have been going through the necessary steps to start a small business. That means meeting with a lawyer and an accountant, applying for an Iowa sales tax permit, becoming incorporated, writing up and revising a contract, etc... It's been extraordinarily stressful but I find that I can always find just a little more gas in the tank to burn when I'm working on something that's my OWN. Hey...a business owner...do I have to become a republican now? Naaaaah.

How much of my time has it taken? Well...I'll give you three pieces of evidence. Exhibit A: There are two episodes of 30 Rock on my DVR. Exhibit B: I've had the same two Netflix movies on top of my TV for close to three weeks. Exhibit C: I haven't touched Guitar Hero* for over TWO WEEKS!

I know. Sad, really.

On top of all of this activity, I've not had much bloggy material at my disposal. I've been so completely obsessed about the Obama/Hillary race that if I were to write what's on my mind, this blog would become a full-time political blog, and there are so many great political blogs out there, I could never compete.

But now, I'm hoping to get back to regular life. Out to dinner with friends tonight, two chilly and windy soccer games to watch tomorrow, and then Mother's day activities.

*Quick side-story about Guitar Hero. As you may know, I'm desperately waiting for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith's release. Up until now, Activision has been really slippery and coy about the release date, saying only "June 2008". This last Sunday's Best Buy ad finally had a date: June 29, 2008. WHAT? They almost could NOT release this game any later and still keep their promise. Not cool.