GET INFORMED

I’ve talked about this one way or another before, but I thought it particularly apt in the wake of a few movies that have sparked some interesting chats in recent days.

Oh, and this whole thing is full of Spoilers! So beware.

Although only one is based on a true story, both “The Blind Side” and “Avatar,” Academy-Award Winners now, have troubling racial narratives. Everyone on earth has seen one or both of these movies, but the quick rundown is as follows: “The Blind Side” is a fictionalized story about a white family (specifically a rich white Christian lady and her family) that takes in a massive black man who is literally shivering on the street in front of their house one night, and makes sure he learns real good how to be a gentleman so he can succeed at what you must succeed at if you’re a massive black man: sports, and in this case football. And then he goes to the NFL. And housewives in Middle America cry. Heh. (I finally downloaded this movie the other night. Bullock is fine. Not Oscar great, but, hey, whatever. But the plot is vomitorious.) [READ MORE]

I have a riddle for you. You’re not allowed to look it up. There’s no trick, really.

I have 100 (American) coins that add up to make 5 dollars. But I have NO NICKELS. What are the coins?

You work on that.

Anyway, so let’s talk about currency. [READ MORE]

I wrote a whole long interesting post. It was eaten by something. I am mad.

I shall summarize.

- When I was at the sauna in Korea, the middle aged nude men would never ask me where I was from in Korean, but merely shouted country names at me. [READ MORE]

There are way too many blow-jobs in mainstream porn. Who is enjoying this?

And does anyone think that the music helps anything?

But, more seriously, there’s a lot of really messed up porn out there. People can get off to whatever they want, but the coprophagia market isn’t one I feel that needs to be catered to so much. (And oh my god is it catered to.) [READ MORE]

I’d like to use my final post from South Korea to say thank you.

I’ll start by saying thank you to Korean food, for feeding me, filling me, for having snack aisles full of odd-tasting things that convinced me to stop buying snacks altogether and allowing me to thus stay in shape. [READ MORE]

So, I posted this article about Sarah Palin earlier today. If you haven't read it, check it out, it makes some damn good points. But, the purpose of today's post isn't really to rehash Tuesday's Palin-infected discussion. Hilarious though she may be, I would rather not have to speak of her ever again. (I can dream...) [READ MORE]

Yeah, I'm back.

And I'm peeved. Perturbed. Pissed.

I have this dream that, in the next political cycle, whether it takes five months or five years, both major American parties will no longer be filled walking, talking, squawking stereotypes and self-parodies. I understand that charisma sells, and that people have been convinced that someone they can "relate" to is the best leader to vote for, but what I want, for my side and for that of those I consider the opposition, is some knock-down, drag-out, rigorously and forcefully intellectual discussions helping to form and push forward policy. And I don't just want this occurring behind the scenes. I want this out in the open for all of us to see and judge for ourselves. [READ MORE]

So the way I see it, everyone’s got the right to believe what they want. You wanna believe the things I consider absolutely insane – things like: Holocaust denial; no moon landing; that Dane Cook is AWESOME – go right ahead. Long as you’re not hurting anyone, or trying force some impressionable youth to follow your beliefs, then it’s all good in the hood. [READ MORE]

So, check this link out. Read it. Chew it over. Digest it.

Basically, I’m wondering, for each of you, where is that line? We’re talking about children here, and there are a whole host of other issues wrapped up in it. [READ MORE]

One thing I learned from spending the last few days in Beijing is that you can really make your dollars stretch there. You could be stupid and go upscale and stay in a 5-star hotel if you want, and you can find yourself ripped off by shady cabbies if you’re not being a smart traveler (lessons learned on day one...), but I was able to stay significantly under my budget for my trip, and this is without skipping anything I wanted to do. In fact I did more than I originally planned. (Going during low season also helped, which is another thing to keep in mind.) [READ MORE]