DifferencEngine

Overreaction and the 9/11 anniversary

So, I was just reading an article about a woman of Arab/Jewish decent who was pulled off a plane yesterday due to what it appears in the colour of her skin (Blog).  At least one site, the new york based Channel 6 News, is reporting that passengers became concerned when “two men and a woman seated in the same row repeatedly went to the plane’s bathroom and spent a long amount of time there”.  This directly contradicts the woman’s story.  What she told police and homeland security officers was “ I didn’t get up at all, read, slept and played on my phone (in airplane mode, don’t worry).”  Who has the facts straight here?  WHO CARES, it doesn’t really matter.  If it had been two white guys and a white woman going to the bathroom, nobody would have said boo, I bet someone would have cheered.  9/11 was a horrific event, one I hope never repeats itself.  But being of middle-eastern descent is NOT a crime and should not bring about fear and suspicion.  Unfortunately, these days it does and I feel bad for them because most of them are ordinary folks just like you and I (I’m a white Canadian btw).  But lets look at the facts, since the late 1800’s there have been quite a few acts of terrorism. Some of you may dispute what makes these acts of terror over something else, in which case I invite you to look at a previous post of mine from right after the recent Norway attacks (Terrorism).  Here are just some of the terrorist groups to have operated in the past 150 years;

Narodnaya Volya
Hunchakian Revolutionary Party
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
Irish Republican Army
Irgun
Lehi
Muslim Brotherhood
Front de Liberation National
EOKA
ETA
Fatah
PLO
PFLP
PFLP-GC
DFLP
Front de libération du Québec
Provisional IRA
Ulster Defence Association (UDA)
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
FALN
ASALA
PKK
Red Army Faction
Weathermen
Italian Red Brigade
Japanese Red Army
Tamil Tigers
Hezbollah
Egyptian Islamic Jihad
Hamas
Al-Qaeda
East Turkestan Liberation Organization
Aum Shinrikyo
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Chechnyan Separatists
Jundallah

Looking at this list, we’ve got pretty much every nationality represented.  Middle Easterns, Caucasians, Asians, etc etc etc. So, who should you trust, anyone can be a potential terrorist. People need to start using their brains and not immediately thinking every little action is a potential threat. Living in fear is a terrible way to live. 

Mentally disabled man robbed of his epic Superman collection

Ok, I saw this article on BoingBoing earlier today.  It seems that some asshole stole a fairly valuable collection of Superman comics and other collectibles from a mentally disabled individual.  According to the story Mike Meyer, the victim, was befriended by an individual named Gary. According to Mike he worked with Gary at a Hardee’s on Madison Ave in Granite City, back in 1991.  Currently there are no Hardee’s on Madison Ave in that city.  Now according to Mike, Gary asked him if he still collected Superman items and if he could see his collection.  Eventually Mike let him see the collection. The next night, Gary came back, this time bringing his “girlfriend” with the ruse of having here watch a Superman movie with Mike. During that time, Mike disappeared for a while, and it was two days later when Mike discovered he had been robbed.  Unfortunately, Mikes description of Gary is fairly vague; dark hair, a goatee, is about 35 and drives a silver or gray car.

If you live in Granite City, do you know someone that could be a huge asshole like this.  Someone who would be willing to take advantage of a mentally disabled person the the step of stealing their life long collection.  This person needs to be found and punished.

Conan The Barbarian

Ok, I went and saw this movie over the weekend, knowing before hand that it hasn’t been getting the best reviews anywhere on the internet, with an average rating of 3.9/10 on RottenTomatoes. So, I went in knowing full well that it could turn out to be a complete turd.  Guess what, I disagree with the overall feeling of the reviews.  Sure, it’s not a Shakespearean drama, or anything that could be considered Oscar worthy, but guess what, IT’S CONAN THE BARBARIAN.  I had one expectation when I went to see it, that’s lots of violence with sharp edged implements of cutting, hacking, and stabbing.  The movie did not disappoint.  My biggest complaint about the movie, is Hollywood’s insistence to do things in 3D, especially in this case.  It added nothing to the movie, in fact I found it distracting.  IMO, the best 3D effect in the entire movie is during the closing credits when the embers from the fire are floating around, it was a good effect, simple, but good.  Everything else was complete crap as far as the 3D effects go.  Hollywood needs to stop making everything 3D, or at least give us the option to have the 2D version available to watch.  Right now, at my nearby theaters that show current movies, of the 2 closest, there are 7 3D movies playing, and only 1 of those has a non-3D option, and that’s Harry Potter.  Does Glee need to be 3D?  How about Fright Night?  In fact of all the movies playing, the only one I can see getting some sort of benefit from 3D, is Final Destination 5 and even that is pushing things.  Hollywood really needs to back off the 3D, or at least make it worthwhile.  If I’m going to pay extra for 3D glasses that are apparently single use, since you get a new pair each time, even though you last pair is probably perfectly fine, then I better get a 3D experience that’s worth the extra $$$ I just paid.

Terrorism

On Friday, two horrible events occurred in Norway.  The first was a massive explosion in the government quarter of the capital city.  The second occurred a short time later, when a gunman dressed as a policeman opened fire at a youth retreat on the nearby island of Utoya, killing at least 92 individuals including children.  Today people have had the gall to say that this was not an act of terrorism because Muslim extremists were not involved.  A PERSON DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A MUSLIM EXTREMIST TO BE A TERRORIST.  Anyone that thinks otherwise is an idiot.

Terrorist is defined as follows by the Random House Dictionary (and dictionary.com, which is based on the Random House Dictionary); 

the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

The shootings were carried out by Anders Behring Breivik who it seems has a manifesto in which he calls for a Christian war against Muslim domination in Europe. The fact is, this man has used terror in an attempt to bring about political change which makes him a terrorist. There are no ifs ands or buts here, he is a terrorist, plain and simple, anyone that says otherwise is deluded.

IMO, what we need now is really large, really deep hole that we can throw this individual, and others like him, into and just forget about them.  When I say hole, I’m not being figurative, I truly mean a hole, throw them in and just walk away, a hole something like this.

Black-Tokyo

Stumbled upon these guys on Google+, interesting sound

(Source: black-tokyo.bandcamp.com)