WickedThought

I say "tentative" because I may be making an unfair assumption. However, in his review of "Role Models," he says,

"Danny gets Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), whose life is entirely absorbed in a medieval fantasy game where bizarrely costumed "armies" do battle in parks with fake swords. There are mostly younger teenagers and lonely men with mountain-man beards. Sort of a combination of Dungeons and Dragons and pederasty."

Ahem.

Mr. Ebert, while I am a LARPer, I am not a pederast. Nor are my friends who participate in "boffer LARPs."

Now, to be fair, the movie may portray LARPers as pederasts and he’s only responding to the movie’s portrayal of the environment presented. I am going to assume this is the case until I am proven otherwise.

However, coupling this with his claim that games cannot be art, his complete and utter failure to understand satire, and his giving Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame the same number or more stars than Glenngary Glen Ross, Ran or The Usual Suspects (of which, he only gave 1 and 1/2 star), I now submit to you, humble reader, this question…

If this is the most trusted movie critic in America, then what the fuck do you have to do to be untrustworthy?

… she’s not paying her state taxes anymore.

We still need vigilance. We still need watchfulness. We still need skepticism.

We still need vigilance.

Obama is a break from the last eight years. That is true. But the House and the Senate are still filled with the same people who voted for the Patriot Act. Still filled with people who voted to allow the President to go to war. Still filled with the people who voted to nationalize the banking industry. Still filled with liars, cheats, and scoundrels.

Proposition 102 passed and it looks like Prop 8 will pass as well. Religious bigotry is now law and part of the states’ Constitutions.

Obama himself has made a lot of promises he cannot pay for. The effectiveness of his tax plan is dubious. We had another President promise health care without delivering. And Congress still has to vote to make it law. That same Congress that’s filled with liars, cheats and scoundrels.

The MN Senator who called for a return to the Anti-American Activities Committee has kept her seat. On the other hand, the woman who tried to paint her opponent as a "godless atheist" lost hers… while her opponent renounced atheists and atheism as "un-American."

The economy is still in the toilet, clinging to the bowl with two fingers. We’re still involved in two wars with no realistic way to get out of them. 

Things have changed, but they have not changed. It isn’t "Meet the old boss/Same as the old boss." Not quite.

So, meet the new boss. The devil you don’t know. Sun Tzu tells us to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Because of last night’s election, I have hope. But I haven’t given up my vigilance.

(from the Columbus (OH) Dispatch)

The lines this morning for Precinct B were a little longer than for Precinct A at the Pleasant Township Hall in Knox County.

One of the precinct’s three touch-screen voting machines was out of order for a time because it would only cast ballots for independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

"You can use it if you want to vote for him," a poll worker said.

There were no takers.

A board of elections worker reset the machine and it was back in service just before 9:30 a.m.

(from the daily kos)

"If you are in Philadelphia, PA and you click the box for Obama, and then click straight Democratic ticket, it will cancel out your vote for Obama. No one is quite sure why, but it’s happening . I just talked to the Obama campaign , and they are urging folks either to just vote straight Democratic ticket , or to choose each candidate individually- but not both. Please Digg and spread this piece of information to anyone widely. My understanding is there are Obama folks in Philly trying to work through this problem, but please let anyone who might be voting know as well. Sorry for the shortness of this diary , but I just wanted to get the word out there."