Junofield

Yesterday I saw Juno and Cloverfield. I will now review the movie.

A teenage girl gets pregnant and then attacks New York. Several party goers are bummed out by the people that want to adopt her baby. In the end the US government drops bombs on her when she goes into labor and the camera gets eaten.

This movie was both scary and touching. Im not sure why there was a two hour intermission that required me to travel to different theater to see the end of the movie. I rate this movie two stars up.

Protest

Preface: I am not supporting any particular cause.  This rant is just one of those things where you see someone doing a job badly and it bothers you.

People don’t have a clue how to stage a protest anymore.  I’m not talking about strikes like the current writers guild strike, they are doing what they should be doing.   I am talking about protest geared to enact social change.

There are plenty of causes out there, immigration, environmentalism, animal rights… pick any one.  They go about enacting change by writing angry news letters, occasionally blocking a street or a park somewhere with rally.  When that is all over they call the press and tell them how many people were at the rally or how many donations they have received.  And then they are promptly ignored by the establishment.

Protest today has lost its teeth in this country.  In a nation of 300 million people (+12 million illegal residents) having 50,000 people show up on for one day isn’t even making a dent in the social consciousness let alone affecting the functioning of the organization you are protesting.  How do you expect anyone to even notice you when on the scale of things you are a pebble on a beach.

Additionally message is everything, if your cause is animal rights you can’t go out there looking like a long haired pot smoking hippy who chants a phrase that barely rhymes.  The people you want to listen to you wont take you seriously because you look like an advertisement for the legalization of pot which isn’t even your cause.  People looked like hippies and were taken seriously in the 60s and 70s because that was the fashion.  You cant expect to be taken seriously on an issue if you dont even know what decade it is.

The only two ways to have your protest taken seriously is by looking the part and actually affecting change.

Looks: If your cause is a populist one look like a member of the normal population, you need to look like the people you say you represent.  That’s the reason more people dont join social movements; it’s because normal American people are freaked out by people who stink and are stoned all the time.

Action: If you are going to protest then you should protest.  One protest on a nice summer day will get you no where.  Protests need to happen daily in every city, they should relentlessly seek to tire out the opposition.  They should affect the proper functioning of society.  Your cause will be noticed when daily life grinds to a halt. Ghandi, MLK both knew this.  Its not enough to go home at the end of the day, the opposition should be weary going home at the end of the day and dreading the next one.

If no one can relate to your cause and your movement has no teeth you are wasting your time.

I have to…

I always feel vulgar saying “I have to piss.”  But saying “I have to pee” seems girly and not something a “man” would do.  When I say “pee” I feel like I have slipped up in some way, like I have just been caught wearing womens shoes.

Of course then there are those who feel that any acknowledgment of the bodily functions are disgraceful.  While I dont agree that taking a leak is in some way a private humiliation it does circumvent my declaration of gender while going to the bathroom by keeping quiet about it.  But then I dont want anyone to think I am squeamish about the whole thing which brings me right back to saying “I have to piss” on a regular basis.

The Day After New Hampshire

Obama lost by 3% to Clinton.

One day you are up the next day you are down. It’s funny how when I first found out Obama won Iowa I was bummed out for Clinton. And then I drank the Koolaide and I was all fired up for him to win New Hampshire. Now Clinton won New Hampshire and I’m sad Obama didn’t win. It must be people like me that make political strategists cry.

Home World

Yet another attempt on my part of starting a blog.

The issues that will be touched upon here will be those limited to those that happen on planet Earth. I’d like to cover more issues but one must draw the line somewhere.