Mike Kriskey's Comments

Big Hollywood : What if Tarantino Had the 'Basterds' Take Taliban Scalps?

Wed, 2 Sep 2009 19:13:04 +0000

Also Roald Dahl.

Big Hollywood : 'Inglourious Basterds' Review

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:17:22 +0000

About that image of the hand holding the sword---am I the only one who first saw it as a sword emerging from an eye socket? In other words, do I need some help?

Big Hollywood : 'Torchwood': Pro-American TV -- From the BBC

Sun, 2 Aug 2009 14:19:05 +0000

I’ve sworn them off since one suggested I “knock her up.” I still have the scars.

Big Hollywood : What About the 'R-Word'?

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:35:26 +0000

In one of the recent Winter Olympics---I think the one in Turin (not Torino!)---a black athlete won some event for the first time, and the announcers did not know how to report it. You see, he wasn't an American. They settled on, "the first African-American from any country!"

Big Hollywood : Obama's Six-Month Report Card

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:30:01 +0000

Oh no you didn't!

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:04:25 +0000

For some reason the moderator decided not to authorize my reply, so I'll try again. My anecdotal evidence is based upon ten years working in bookstores. And I'm not trying to prove anything based upon it. I don't understand why my questioning one of the underpinnings of Whiskey's argument is unacceptable. I believe that factual claims should be true. The types of generalizations Whiskey likes to use are things like "women are left-wing" and "most women are anti-Christian," yet he never bothers to back up those generalizations with any kind of data. What possible insights could come from false generalizations?

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:02:51 +0000

Readership in general is overwhelmingly female when you're talking about adult readers of fiction. Harry Potter is no different. I guess my evidence (working in a bookstore for the last ten years) is anecdotal, but the boys were just as into the books as the girls, and very few adults were buying them for themselves. Those that did were generally women. I'm not sure why it is so outrageous that I ask Whiskey to back up a factual claim he has made. (I, on the other hand, am making no claim about the readership at all. I'm questioning what seems dubious to me.) El Gordo, you don't understand the way Whiskey works. He doesn't look at data and come up with a theory, he has a preconception and makes up data to support it. (Chris E. has told me I mustn't call that lying. It's---I don't know---promoting faleshoods.) What "insights" can be based on not having read (or comprehended) the books? Or from "generalizations" such as 'women are left-wingers' or 'most women are anti-Christian?' I can't imagine that they'd be of any value.

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:02:24 +0000

I've never read or seen "Brokeback Mountain" or "Thelma & Louise," but I have read the Harry Potter books. "Control of fear, acceptance of death and loss, sticking to the right thing, of honor, of duty, and so on, even when they are very difficult and emotionally draining." Whiskey characterizes these themes as "male" and thus foreign to the Harry Potter universe. That's simply incorrect, and laughably so, to anyone who has read the books. I'm surprised that you think Whiskey's "on-the-mark" about this, given that you admit you haven't read them, but I don't have a problem with the rest of what you've said.. But it's clear that Whiskey himself is unfamiliar with the books, their themes, and their readership, and he's making himself look foolish by making these unfounded claims.

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:43:04 +0000

Not an ad hominem. I believe you are Whiskey, but I may be wrong. I don’t base my argument upon that conjecture, which would be an ad hominem attack. Use a dictionary.

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:41:05 +0000

I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. A product of ignorance and misogyny, then.

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:00:41 +0000

You cannot compare "women like to shop" with "most women are anti-Christian." One is a generalization, the other is simply a lie.

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:55:22 +0000

These, and many more, mischaracterizations and overgeneralizations of women, without a shred of evidence (and much evidence refuting same, such as the fact that women are more likely to be religious than men are) leads me to the conclusion that Whiskey is a misogynist.

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:55:08 +0000

As far as Whiskey's misogyny, I responded to a couple of his posts in the past, and was able to find them through my own Intense Debate profile. In addition to the above essay, where he claims that women "drift from relationship to relationship," we've got a comment that Rowling addresses a "female, and therefore left-wing audience/readership," Then there was his comment on television's "Law and Order": "People underestimate how anti-Christian most women are, and how much they really, really hate 'beta males,'" ("beta males" being code for Whiskey) and "Women generally don't like religion in the modern era because of those internal controls, much of them sexual. Hence the attitudes about serial killers and religion in Law and Order-en (they are all the same, with the same villains, the ex-husband types of the series female writers) and Dexter (nihilist, believes in nothing serial killer romantic lead)."

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:37:48 +0000

I'm very familiar with Whiskey (you) from reading his (your) posts here and at Dirty Harry's Place (perhaps at Libertas as well, buit I can't remember). His (your) pet issue is the inferiority of women. That claim in not made in this essay, but it's a pattern of his (your) writing. It's a twisted obsession. He has said that women are less moral, less intelligent, and less discerning than men. I'd love to visit his Intense Debate page to grab all the quotes I need to prove this, but he hasn't registered. (And neither have you.)

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:37:39 +0000

Chris E.-- unless you're just Whiskey under another name, as I suspect---Whiskey's essay is based upon a ridiculous claim for which there is no support: "This is why if you look at the Star Wars fanbase and the Potter fanbase, the former is almost exclusively male (they respond well to the basic themes of the first movie series -- how to be a hero) and the latter almost exclusively female (which responds well to Rowlings themes of how to have relationships). " I've asked him (you) before to provide evidence that Harry Potter fans are "almost exclusively female," and he (you) refuse to do so.

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:40:52 +0000

Reminds me of people who can always find a reason to mention that "they don't even own a television."

Big Hollywood : Harry Potter: A Hero For the 'Entitled Generation'

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:30:57 +0000

Whiskey, you've got to stop with the nonsense that Harry Potter is written for a female audience, or provide some evidence for this outlandish claim. I know that you have issues with women, but you can't keep looking at every issue through misogynist lenses.

Big Hollywood : 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince': An Alternate View

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:22:04 +0000

Whiskey, I don't think Rowling is left-wing. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of that in her books, anyway. All the major characters are white, and roughly half of them are male. Some of those are villains, but Arthur Weasley is a straight, white, married male with a house bursting at the seams with children and is the most likeable character in the books, including Dumbledore. I worked in bookstores for the entirety of the Harry Potter phenomenon. It wasn't a "girl" thing. Boys loved them too. (Twilight is almost exclusively a female phenomenon.) I'm sure Harry Potter readers have moved on, to Twilight or something else (but something, I hope) because there aren't any more HP books.

Big Hollywood : Review: 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:51:14 +0000

"Could someone who previously liked the Dumbledore character, but was of the opinion that homosexuality was wrong, still like and respect Dumbledore?" I see no reason why not. The Catholic Church, for example, has always tried to make it crystal clear that its problem is with homosexual sex, not with homosexual people. Dumbledore's sexual preference would not be important at all----only his behavior, which the author never discussed.

Big Hollywood : 'Torchwood': Pro-American TV -- From the BBC

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:18:48 +0000

Best how? Looks: Peri, Zoe, Susan, Romana I, Sarah Jane Sheer fun: Leela, Sarah Jane, Jamie, Brigadier (I'm counting him!), Romana II Most competent: Romana I, Nyssa, Zoe, Liz, Ian On the other hand: Most useless: Kameleon, K-9, Teegan, Jo, Peri, Victoria Most annoying: Ace, Adric, Teegan, Jo, Peri