Innocent Bystanders

Closing In On the Cheaters July 28, 2017

From a post last January:

The actual magnitude of illegal voting is obviously subject to debate. But I’d rather talk about voter ID at the moment. I’ll attempt to sum up the controversy in a few lines:

Conservatives: We want voter ID because we think you guys are effing cheaters.

Liberals: There is no cheating and you just want voter ID because you’re racist and want to suppress the minority vote.

Conservatives: There’s no way to measure cheating without IDs. Look, we’ll spend the time and money to make sure that every legitimate voter has ID. Just humor us.

Liberals: No. Racists!!

At the end of the post I concluded with this line:

…they’re effing cheaters.

Referring, of course, to the liberal set that is opposed to voter IDs.

It’s becoming more and more evident that they are indeed effing cheaters:

The Government Accountability Institute … compared the (voting) lists using an “extremely conservative matching approach that sought only to identify two votes cast in the same legal name.” It found that 8,471 votes in 2016 were “highly likely” duplicates.

Extrapolating this to all 50 states would likely produce, with “high-confidence,” around 45,000 duplicate votes.

There’s no way to tell which party received those votes, but I’ll just remind everyone (unnecessarily, I’m sure) that there is one party that wants stricter controls on voting and one party that does not.

Man Meets Flare Gun. Twice July 27, 2017

One of our reclusive cobs recommended that I post this video, so here she be. Apparently the flare recipient had been hassling the other guy for quite some time before he got his just deserts. I didn’t listen to the audio, but it’s been claimed that it’s a bit spicy.

Regarding the Trump Administration… July 27, 2017

While I don’t regard his election to the presidency as a sign of the End Times, as do most of my Real Life friends, I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed this  presidency. Even though I agree with many White House policies, I cringe every time I see a new tweet or hear an off-the-cuff remark.

Especially in the last week.

It seems to me that President Trump and his staff don’t have the slightest inkling what it means to be presidential, nor do they understand that every inflammatory tweet and remark creates unnecessary resistance in federal agencies, Congress, the press, and the public. And lately it seem that they don’t even understand what it is to be professional, with ridiculously unprofessional remarks about Sessions, Bannon and Priebus, the poorly handled transsexual/military mess, and the transformation of a Boy Scout jamboree into a political debacle.

I haven’t written much about the president since he’s been elected because I don’t like the man. I’m not a Never-Trumper, but the president and his staff have never given me much cause to warm up to this administration. Even before the past week.

And now I’m starting to count the days until the next inauguration.

So Valerian (Movie Review) July 23, 2017

I’d been looking forward to Luc Besson’s new movie, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, ever since I saw the trailer. Luc Besson wrote La Femme Nikita, Leon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, The Transporter, Taken, District B13, and Wasabi (an unsung personal favorite). He directed many of them as well.

I finally got to the theater last night, after setback after setback. Plunked my butt down in one of those modern lounge seats, and commenced to view.

Sadly, Luc let me down this time. The movie was gorgeous and detailed, but flawed in so many distracting ways that I couldn’t enjoy it. For instance:

• The Lead Dude (Valerian): This guy was supposed to be a bad boy lady-killer Major doing special ops missions for the United Human Federation. But he looked like a choir boy whose “bad boy” persona consisted of putting firecrackers up frogs’ butts. Too young. Too innocent-looking. No personality.
• The Lead Dudette (Laureline): She’s supposed to be the tough mission-oriented Sergeant who’s Valerian’s latest partner. Cute, but her face has no character and she looks like she’s in her late teens. Too young. Too innocent-looking. No personality.
• Dialogue: So, so flat. Banal to the point of distraction.
• The Stupidities:
  • The Pearl People: This Avatarian-type race (confession: I never saw Avatar) is the stuff of liberal fantasy. Completely non-violent, androgynous, low tech, and living in perfect harmony with their planet. I’m pretty sure they never poop. And of course they are used to criticize humanity and all its foibles. The thing they (liberals) don’t think through is that the Pearl folk had two major cheats: an unbelievably awesome power source provided to them by nature, and cute little critters that replicate stuff. Without those ridiculous cheats, their society turns as ugly and nasty as every other society.
  • Barbarians in Space: The hell?
  • Contrived Side Missions: Seems like they wrote in distracting side missions  just to give some room for scenes with Ethan Hawke, Rihanna, and Alain Chabat. The scenes broke the momentum of the movie, which was kind of incoherent anyway. The characters played by Hawke and Chabat were supposed to be quirky, but just seemed like failed attempts to bring a Johnny Depp/Captain Jack Sparrow vibe. And Rihanna sounded like Rihanna, not like a space alien (same complaint I had about Kurt Russell in Guardians of the Galaxy 2).

But, the movie did have Herbie Hancock, which is pretty cool.

Abolishing Civil Asset Forfeiture July 21, 2017

I just signed this petition asking for the removal of civil asset forfeiture. I think it’s something that everybody of every political persuasion should sign. If they reach 100,000 signatures, the White House will issue a response.

I don’t know what Jeff Sessions was thinking when he decided to double down on civil asset forfeiture, but we should help him unthink it.

Volkswagen “Ashes” Commercial July 19, 2017

Saw Spiderman a couple of nights ago (liked it), but didn’t really enjoy the Volkswagen commercial that preceded it.

The commercial shows a family cruising around with a recently-widowed grandmother while we listen to Simon & Garfunkel’s “America.” I’m watching this family reminisce about grandpa as they drive past gorgeous scenery, and saying to myself, “This had better not be a frickin’ car commercial.”

But of course it was, panning back from the final scene where they pour Grandpa’s ashes into the sea to show the Volkswagen Atlas. Because nothing says dignity and respect for the departed like turning their memory and the disposition of their ashes into a car commercial.

Nothing is sacred for some people.

Apparently the commercial’s a couple of months old, and I saw a cut version. You can read an alternate take on it and view the commercial here.

Idiotic NYT Headline July 19, 2017

When a Broken Headlight Leads to Deportation

No, being in the country illegally leads to deportation. A broken headlight leads to one’s illegal status being detected.