Peregry's Comments

Big Peace : India Building Up Military To Deal With China

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 06:59:19 +0000

They know it. Turnabout is fair play to them. I truly fear for the Japanese with an ascendant China. They have not forgiven them for the humiliations and terrors of WW2, nor have they forgotten the humiliation and terrors heaped upon them by the European colonial powers. The only good news here is that the US actually hasn't really done anything to wrong China in all our history of interaction.

Big Journalism : Are Liberals Smarter and Nicer? Just Ask Academia

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 06:30:26 +0000

I normally wouldn't defend Carter, but the guy was a nuclear engineer. That said, technological smarts =/= economic or political smarts. I've met plenty of smart and well educated people who you'd never want to put in charge of things. Carter seems to be one of those.

Big Journalism : Are Liberals Smarter and Nicer? Just Ask Academia

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 06:26:09 +0000

Been there, done that, got the degree. I actually got one professor to shut up after constantly ripping her apart, to the point where she would get this look if I was in her class and she was about to go on one of those tangents.

Big Government : Occupy DC Plans Chaos At CPAC

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 06:17:06 +0000

Err, I know this is old, but for posterity: A Federal Judge's ruling ONLY applies to the area they are given charge over. So that judge in Illinois' ruling only applies in his jurisdiction, not anywhere else. The only court that applies to the entire US is the Supreme Court. Though a quick way to get Supreme Court review is to have two different rulings on the same matter in two different regions. When this happens at the Circuit Court level a Supreme Court review is pretty much ensured.

Big Government : #Occupiers Targeting Breitbart at CPAC, Threaten Physical Violence

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 05:59:58 +0000

Better still: Move the conference to a nice posh hotel just over the river in Virginia. Then exercise your right to Open Carry in Virginia. I have my doubts that the Occupy folks will try to physically assault armed folks. And if they do, well... ...sucks to be them, don't it.

Big Hollywood : Trailer Talk: New 'Amazing Spider-Man' Spot Serves Up the Action ... Too Much of the Plot?

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 03:38:37 +0000

If you read the comics, Spidey was mopey a long time before the Progs made it popular to be so, it is actually a part of the character. Job problems and trouble with the cops were also done back in the original comics, in the 70s there was an entire period where technically Spidey was an actual fugitive (he'd not actually done anything wrong, I don't remember the exact details, but I think it was a misunderstanding or a frame-up), so again, not new.

Big Hollywood : Trailer Talk: New 'Amazing Spider-Man' Spot Serves Up the Action ... Too Much of the Plot?

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 03:35:07 +0000

A huge amount of human emotion comes from the eyes and mouth. If you look at many of the Spidey comics, pay attention to the mask eyes. It's sometimes subtle, sometimes exaggerated, but they change with his emotion, narrow when appropriate, widen when surprised. Many masked super heroes have this kind of "malleable mask" and it's never commented on because it's a venue (not genre, as all comics with masked characters tend to do this, not just super-hero comics) convention designed to help the reader connect with the character. When animated, a similar venue convention applies, and so it is never noticed or commentated on there. Live action, however, is limited by being live action, and cannot do it. Further, when a movie is live-action, the venue convention is that things should behave generally more like real life than comics and animation. The shifts in the size and shape of Spidey's mask would be noticed and be jarring, it wouldn't help the story, and would detract from the overall picture. So the mask, unfortunately, has to come off.

Big Hollywood : End the Occupation: Comic-Creating Conservatives Must Push Back Against Upcoming Pro-OWS Works

Sat, 4 Feb 2012 01:25:48 +0000

Ack, I just realized that I forgot the quotes around "no-name" up there to indicate the sarcasm. For the not-so-much comic geeks out there, Steve Ditko was the artist behind such characters as: The Question Blue Beetle Dr. Strange And last, but certainly not least: Spider-Man

Big Government : GOP Primary Turnout: Mitt Fails to Inspire

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:59:03 +0000

Always shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss, you land among the stars.

Big Hollywood : End the Occupation: Comic-Creating Conservatives Must Push Back Against Upcoming Pro-OWS Works

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:45:25 +0000

Well, back in the late Golden Age/Silver Age of Comics, one of the Big Names was this no-name artist named Steve Ditko, he is/was an avowed Objectivist, so not a old school Conservative, not a liberal either, and he left his belief in absolute morals on many of the characters he worked on. Further, in general the early era set the tone for how comics were understood by the population. In the Bronze Age and Dark Age of Comics we have fewer defined allies, but the pop-culture comic book heroes that people know and love are not from those periods, but rather are the Golden and Silver Age versions. So when movies and TV shows are made, they are reflective of that period rather than the "darker and edgier" of those periods.

Big Hollywood : Marvel Studios Now Making the Lazy Comic Cash-Ins It Was Founded to Replace

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:53:19 +0000

For a self-proclaimed liberal and feminist, Whedon's TV shows have certainly not had over the top liberal messages. Especially Firefly. There's some pretty clear parallels to American history in that series if you look into the history of the 'Verse. Specifically with post-War Between the States. If you pulled out the science fiction parts of Firefly, it's basically the story of a Confederate officer in the west post-war, and him trying to find a new place now that his previous place was destroyed. It's one of the most conservative TV shows of all time, in many respects.

Big Journalism : One Exception To Media's Abysmal March For Life Coverage

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:29:43 +0000

Hey, at least anti-abortion is better than what they called it on NPR. That, at least, is accurate to the position of the movement. On NPR they called them "anti-choice" or "anto-women's rights" protesters. No seriously, I just about put my fist through the radio when I heard it. In other words, they did not even feign "neutrality" by using the negative-neutral term. To explain, there's basically five ways to couch the terms for the two sides: Pro-"Pro-Life": Pro-Life/Anti-Life - This makes the Pro-Life side sound like the good guys. Positive-Neutral: Pro-Life/Pro-Choice - This is the most neutral, as it uses the terms each sides uses for themselves, with no inherent bias. What a truly neutral media should use since it contains no value judgement. Joke-Neutral: Anti-Choice/Anti-Life - Just as neutral as the Positive-Neutral, just demonizing BOTH sides! ;p Negative-Neutral: Anti-Abortion/Pro-Abortion - The most "technically" accurate terms, since it is describing a position on a matter. However, it is not so neutral because the emotional reaction to a negative position is generally negative, so it skews the emotion of the recipient slightly towards the Pro-abortion side. Pro-"Pro-Choice": Anti-Choice (or Women's Rights, etc)/Pro-Choice - Don't really need any explanation, couches the terms firmly on one side and displays an obvious bias. Word choice in media is a huge deal, and don't think they don't know the type of message they send out by simply choosing the terms they talk about them in.

Big Journalism : Credit Where It's Due: Tablet Calls Out Media Matters, Center for American Progress, J Street on Ant

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:14:58 +0000

Japan is noted in that only people of Japanese decent can be Japanese citizens. Likewise many other European nations make it very difficult to become citizens of their nations. In fact, one of the only countries in the world that regards citizenship as both a birthright and willingly gives it away for almost nothing is the USA. Your view on nationality is pretty obviously skewed by a limited understanding of the world, and thinking every country is like the US. They're not, we're the odd one out in how open we are.

Big Government : GOP Debate Reactions: Romney on Points

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:09:13 +0000

Grade A top of the line Brain Bleach for you sir: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrainB...

Big Government : Gingrich Sees Permanent US Moon Base by End of His Second Term

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:51:49 +0000

You're forgetting something. The Space Program made huge amounts of money for the country, it was one of the few areas the government spent money on that actually generated jobs and money in the private sector due to new technologies and new applications of technology developed for the space program (similar, in fact, to how military research and expenditures help generate private sector jobs and benefits). There's still new technologies to develop, many of which would likely have private sector application and create new industries and new jobs. Thereby increasing economic activity and creating new revenues for the government. If you don't like that argument, also consider national security. As it stands the US has no orbital lift capability. We are fully dependent on foreign countries to launch satellites. This means that maintenance on our communication grid, weather, and anything that deals with satellites goes through the Russians, our best friends... Further, the militarization of space is inevitable, UN treaties be damned. As they say: space is the ultimate high ground. It doesn't take much to weaponize space and create devices that can cause nuclear level destruction using nothing more than gravity (Rods from God, as they're known). We've already retreated on almost every technology front and ceded it. We've stopped producing our most advanced fighters, we've stopped development on the Railgun (which would have changed the face of surface navel warfare and practically made the Carrier group obsolete), and we've stripped our space program. All these lead to a much weaker US militarily and internationally. In other words, a vibrant US space program is not only good for big dreams, it's essential for national security.

Big Hollywood : Hollywood's Problems Deeper Than Roster of Best Picture Noms No One Saw

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:37:01 +0000

TV programs, of course, can be killed by a network by screwing up the broadcast of it (classic case: Firefly, broadcast out of order, in a slot that is known to be terrible for it's primary demograph). Movies don't have that excuse.

Big Government : South Carolina Ended the Myth of Romney's 'Inevitability' And Other Lessons

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:10:08 +0000

There's a pretty strong under current in Virginia to vote for Paul just to deny Romney the delegates and give the middle finger to the party establishment. I know that's what I plan on doing, at least, and it's an idea that's floating around the Virginia blogosphere a lot.

Big Government : BREAKING: Anonymous Hits FBI, DOJ, Others After Feds Bust File Sharing Website

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:27:28 +0000

Fraud? I see no counts of fraud, I see counts of conspiracy and criminal copyright violation, but no fraud. All criminal activity is "potential" until proven in a court of law, under our system, my example still stands. I am genuinely confused by your adamant insistence that the government is wrong to enforce the law in this case. It's almost like you consider copyright infringement not a crime.

Big Government : BREAKING: Anonymous Hits FBI, DOJ, Others After Feds Bust File Sharing Website

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:53:02 +0000

Going by the Constitution: "The Congress shall have Power To... promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;" - Article 1, Section 8. The creation and enforcement of copyright laws is one of the fundamental activities of the Federal Government. To claim that not enforcing copyright against an organization that is enabling the bypass of Copyright Laws is somehow more Constitutional than enforcing the law is to ignore what the Constitution says. Aside from your idiotic claim that enforcing copyright law isn't Constitutional, the fact that the investigation began because of one complaint over one song is immaterial. Yes, it was sleazy on the part of Universal, but it led to a two year investigation (this seems to me to indicate that were looking at more than that single song) that uncovered further copyright violations. Just because it started with one small complaint doesn't make the rest of the case immaterial, many major investigations and arrest come from investigating single small complaints. Finally, your standard for what action the government should take is based on who stands to lose more money? So if a thief comes in an steals $5000 worth of goods from my house, and then sells it off, the fact that reclaiming that material from those who purchased it (without knowing it was stolen) would cost $10,000 or more (because, say, one of them used my computer to start a home business) means that the thief and those who distributed the stolen goods should not be prosecuted, and I should not get my stuff back? I know you don't seem to grasp it, but this is exactly what you're arguing. The distribution of copyrighted material is aiding and abetting theft.

Big Government : Saturday Open Thread: South Carolina Edition

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:23:14 +0000

Which they started. ;p