Shame Day: Political Ignorance

Do you know what the origin of the word “idiot” is?

It comes from the ancient Greek for someone who is totally self-centered; someone without any interest in public affairs. To the inventors of democracy, “idiocy” was the opposite of “citizenship.”

Readers, we are surrounded by idiots.

When I was putting together yesterday’s post, the pictures I used inevitably had a host of comments sighing “It’s Washington, what do you expect?”, “Politicians have always been dirtbags,” and “This is why I don’t vote.”

The issues change, but the reactions remain the same. People throw up their hands and start spewing folksy, thought-cancelling truisms about how politics is inherently corrupt, or how it’s always been this way and always will be, or how it doesn’t matter who you vote for. Continue reading

A PSA About College

It’s occurred to me that I actually don’t know when high schools in the US finish for the summer. I’m still reducing my speed through school zones on the way to and from work, so I presume some of them are still in session- having been home-schooled overseas my whole life, I can only really guess.

One way or another, though, kids will be finishing up, or will have just finished up, so it’s high time we at Culture War Reporters dispense some unsolicited paternalistic wisdom to all the youngsters about college.

Continue reading

The Internet And That One Scene In Star Trek Into Darkness – You Know The One

Mild spoilers abound.
                                                                                                                                                                      

There are a few directions I could have gone with in writing about the new Star Trek film that came out almost a month ago. The state of the plot and racism in casting have already been covered in the wittily titled Star Trek Into Dumbness and Whiteness, respectively. No, what I’m going to be writing about is a very specific scene I mentioned in our last E&GT. Here’s an image of the scene in question, in case you’d forgotten:

Before I carry on in highlighting the various opinions around the internet on this, allow me to provide some context. The woman  is Carol Marcus, science officer, played by Alice Eve. She leads Captain James T. Kirk into a shuttle where she proceeds to talk to him about torpedoes. As she does so she asks him to turn around, and then begins stripping. He peeks. She looks at him [pictured above], and once again asks him to turn around. He does. Continue reading

Hiatus Extended

So, as you can tell by the title of this post, we are extending our hiatus.

That’s not to say that there will be no posts today- expect one from Gordon and one from myself sometime during this week.

We will be back in full-force on Monday, June 10th, exactly two years after I first purchased [rented?] this domain name. Seems fitting.

I end with a gif of a people-powered Ferris wheel:

The “One Size Fits All” Approach To Casting

Meet Mark Dacascos. As of this writing he is 49 years old, and a reasonably successful actor/martial artist. He has also portrayed more ethnicities than you can find in the average neighbourhood in small-town Western New York.

markymark Continue reading