Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
In very short order, this link will die, which is a bloody shame. And for those of you wondering, I did not use the services of the organization in question for I am far too stingy. I am, however, not stingy enough when it comes to buying grossly overpriced hardcover books from semi-prestigious academic publishers. But the thread -- the soon-to-be-dead thread, that is -- does make a crucially important point, namely that short dudes catch a bum rap. Fortunately for yours truly, I'm just outside of the freakish range, which is a very difficult place to be. (Reich shouldn't be mocked for his size; rather, he should be gently ribbed, at the very least, for his outsized ego and his tendency to bloviate. I don't agree with him often, but he did write a brilliant, and I don't use the term lightly, WSJ op-ed on school choice.) Even so, I am definitely one of the scrappy millions "below average," the average in this nation of giants, literal and not figurative, that is. I attribute my modest size, which places me at or around the global average (in a world wracked by mass starvation, not to mention severe vitamin deficiencies, catastrophic plagues, and massive irritability), to a persistent failure to eat my greens. Eat these greens, punks.
In December 1995, The Economist published a wonderful essay on "heightism." If anyone would like a copy, let me know. Discretely.
Normative political theorists have not, by my lights, addressed this issue adequately, and so there's a large and inviting research agenda for a young woman or man with the talent, energy, and verve to pursue it.
In December 1995, The Economist published a wonderful essay on "heightism." If anyone would like a copy, let me know. Discretely.
Normative political theorists have not, by my lights, addressed this issue adequately, and so there's a large and inviting research agenda for a young woman or man with the talent, energy, and verve to pursue it.
Monday, March 18, 2002
Are kittens evil?
One kitten bore a striking resemblance to Winston Churchill.
"I think I'm hyper enough as it is."
Has anyone seen John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars? I recall seeing it with a dear friend of mine and finding it almost entirely inexplicable. It was definitely dreadful -- that much is beyond any shadow of a doubt, I assure you -- and yet it was entertaining nonetheless, in part because Ice Cube has a great deal of charisma (and, lest we forget, Clea DuVall of But I'm a Cheerleader fame was in it, which is enough to make any movie spectacular) but mainly due to the prominent role given to crazed, undead metalhead-zombies, "led" by a brainless figure called "Big Daddy Mars," I kid you not, a name that appeared only in the credits. And I sat there, utterly dumbfounded by how inspiringly awful a movie could be. Apparenty, Mars was ruled by lesbians. But this issue was never explored -- not at all. This could be a very emancipated plot decision, i.e., the creators could've deemed this detail incidental -- but then why mention the fact of total lesbian rule at all? It is at least somewhat interesting, I think it's fair to say. I know I'd be fascinated by an account of how lesbian rule came about, and how we can hasten its arrival in our own reality, in large part because a disproportionate share of those I like and trust are lesbians. I'd much prefer such a state of affairs to bourgeois liberal democracy as we know it, or perhaps not.
I came to John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars with a host of expectations informed by Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series, which recounted the exploits of a nineteenth-century Virginian in a fantastical Martian landscape, some would call it an Orientalist fantasy no doubt, in which our hero battled otherwordly monsters and married a beautiful Martian princess, if I recall correctly. In light of the fascist modern aesthetic of the previews, I was convinced that the movie was going to be some sort of half-hearted, ham-fisted update of the John Carter series, which would've been pretty damn cool.
I mention John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars because I just saw a peculiar, and entertaining, movie called Resident Evil, loosely based on the video game of the same name. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed the movie very much. Milla Jovovich is one of the great beauties of our time, or, for that matter, of any time. Also, I love gun-toting corporate goons as a rule. That said, it didn't escape my notice that this movie, with its crazed, undead zombies, was almost identical to John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars. Both movies have bad-ass blondes killing zombies, Natasha Henstridge in the first and Milla in the second. Is this really nothing more than mere coincidence?
That's evil.
Also, I saw The Son's Room (much, much later than I ought to have done, and on a Sunday night no less). It was amazingly good. What was most amazingly great about it was Laura Morente, possibly the most gorgeous woman ever. I say possibly only because we must never disrespect the Pope. Decisions, decisions!
One kitten bore a striking resemblance to Winston Churchill.
"I think I'm hyper enough as it is."
Has anyone seen John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars? I recall seeing it with a dear friend of mine and finding it almost entirely inexplicable. It was definitely dreadful -- that much is beyond any shadow of a doubt, I assure you -- and yet it was entertaining nonetheless, in part because Ice Cube has a great deal of charisma (and, lest we forget, Clea DuVall of But I'm a Cheerleader fame was in it, which is enough to make any movie spectacular) but mainly due to the prominent role given to crazed, undead metalhead-zombies, "led" by a brainless figure called "Big Daddy Mars," I kid you not, a name that appeared only in the credits. And I sat there, utterly dumbfounded by how inspiringly awful a movie could be. Apparenty, Mars was ruled by lesbians. But this issue was never explored -- not at all. This could be a very emancipated plot decision, i.e., the creators could've deemed this detail incidental -- but then why mention the fact of total lesbian rule at all? It is at least somewhat interesting, I think it's fair to say. I know I'd be fascinated by an account of how lesbian rule came about, and how we can hasten its arrival in our own reality, in large part because a disproportionate share of those I like and trust are lesbians. I'd much prefer such a state of affairs to bourgeois liberal democracy as we know it, or perhaps not.
I came to John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars with a host of expectations informed by Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series, which recounted the exploits of a nineteenth-century Virginian in a fantastical Martian landscape, some would call it an Orientalist fantasy no doubt, in which our hero battled otherwordly monsters and married a beautiful Martian princess, if I recall correctly. In light of the fascist modern aesthetic of the previews, I was convinced that the movie was going to be some sort of half-hearted, ham-fisted update of the John Carter series, which would've been pretty damn cool.
I mention John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars because I just saw a peculiar, and entertaining, movie called Resident Evil, loosely based on the video game of the same name. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed the movie very much. Milla Jovovich is one of the great beauties of our time, or, for that matter, of any time. Also, I love gun-toting corporate goons as a rule. That said, it didn't escape my notice that this movie, with its crazed, undead zombies, was almost identical to John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars. Both movies have bad-ass blondes killing zombies, Natasha Henstridge in the first and Milla in the second. Is this really nothing more than mere coincidence?
That's evil.
Also, I saw The Son's Room (much, much later than I ought to have done, and on a Sunday night no less). It was amazingly good. What was most amazingly great about it was Laura Morente, possibly the most gorgeous woman ever. I say possibly only because we must never disrespect the Pope. Decisions, decisions!
