gdp's Comments

Mormon Life Hacker : Why Every Bishop Needs Google Voice

Thu, 5 Aug 2010 22:15:12 +0000

As the Executive Secretary to our ward's Bishop, I use Google Voice to the fullest: visual voicemail, call forwarding, SMS via email or a Google Voice desktop app. It's also been great using Gizmo5 and Google Voice to answer or make calls on my computer at work. What's been the biggest timesaver is the visual voicemail. If I'm unavailable when a call comes in, I can triage it quickly by reading the transcript.

Breitbart.com : Report urges action to preserve journalism

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:29:43 +0000

Look, Timmy, if you can't distinguish the news analysis and commentary on Fox News from the news reporting, then maybe you need to put down the paste you're eating. Unless of course you are willing to admit that Dennis the Menace's demented father( i.e. Keith Olbermann), Chris Matthews, George Stephanopoulos, Larry King, Rick ("I make $h1t up without checking the source") Sanchez, and Lou Dobbs are hardly unbiased "journalists." You know, Timmy, if you can read, you should look up Kirster Stendahl's three rules of understanding as applied to religions. Rule number 2 would be particularly applicable in this case: Don't compare your best to their worst.

Breitbart.com : Report urges action to preserve journalism

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:54:37 +0000

Again, Timmy, good effort! You'll get the hang of reading comprehension someday. You don't get extra points for using the pretentious-sounding "moniker" when "name" would suffice, but given your form-over-substance condition, we'll cut you some slack. To reply directly to your claim that Fox News "doesn't do" news, Britt Hume, Carl Cameron, Brett Baier, and Major Garrett would take umbrage with your assertion. But, if the Obama administration says it, it must be true, huh, Timmy?

Breitbart.com : Report urges action to preserve journalism

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:28:11 +0000

Do you remember that kid in preschool who urinated on himself when reminded to color within the lines? Timmy was his name. Well done, Timmy! You have elevated form over substance. Now, go change yourself and try to keep up with the adults.

Big Hollywood : Scientology Exposed: Tom Cruise's Strange Pal

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:10:12 +0000

One of my law school professors was working for the IRS at the time the Service was ramping up to strip Scientology of its tax-exempt status. He says he remembers the day that the mucky-muck from Scientology came to speak with the Director: they took a walk around the building for an hour and came back. Shortly thereafter (I believe he said it was within days), the Director sent out a memo that Scientology's tax-exempt status was no longer an issue to challenge.

Big Hollywood : Scientology Exposed: Tom Cruise's Strange Pal

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:00:12 +0000

I'm glad you brought up the significant financial investment that Scientology demands, Norman. Other cults are characterized by gaining obeisance by sometimes humiliating and dehumanizing acts, or otherwise cutting off adherents from the rest of society. Scientology doesn't usually go to that extreme (that I'm aware of), but their substantial financial requirement, which in some ways is enticing to wealthy celebrities looking for tax breaks, is a way of getting the new recruits to buy into the philosophy, pun intended.

Big Hollywood : Scientology Exposed: Tom Cruise's Strange Pal

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:53:31 +0000

Sure, Dennis. A good place to start: The Extermination order of 1838, signed by the Governor or Missouri. Also the contemporaneous abandonment of Kirtland, Ohio due to violent mobs and persecution.

Breitbart.com : Ensign quits Senate GOP leadership post

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:01:17 +0000

"Why did it get the point where he HAD to testify under oath [?]" It wasn't because of a consensual extramarital affair. He was being sued for sexual harassment in the civil suit Jones v. Clinton. As the Defendant, he was ordered to appear for deposition as part of the discovery, but he kept claiming Executive Privilege prevented him from being sued while in office, which was refuted by the Supreme Court. "Here is how it should have went." change to "Here is how it should have gone." Go, went, have gone.

Big Hollywood : On the Wisdom of an Eleven Year Old Boy in 'Land of the Lost'

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:45:42 +0000

I have been using www.screenit.com for years and have appreciated it. It's so much better to walk into the theater knowing what to expect, or better yet knowing to avoid a movie altogether.

Big Hollywood : 'New Moon' Trailer Arrives

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 21:39:30 +0000

In the words of our big toe, Sgt. Hulka, "Lighten up, Francis." It sounds like you really have not read the books, only the critiques. Otherwise, you wouldn't focus on the extremely negative interpretations of Edward's character without considering any mitigating examples of positive traits. Really, those "lessons" you describe can only be derived from the book/movie if you make a series of increasingly unlikely assumptions given the evidence actually written and portrayed in the material.

Big Hollywood : 'New Moon' Trailer Arrives

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 21:17:47 +0000

Never heard of either of those conservative critics ... both times that you've posted this now. How's that axe coming? Is it ground yet?

Big Hollywood : 'Star Trek' Flicks -- Worst to Best: Part 1

Fri, 8 May 2009 18:40:25 +0000

Ditto for Highlander. Film first (Christopher Lambert), then the (inferior, IMO) series.

Big Hollywood : 'Star Trek' Flicks -- Worst to Best: Part 1

Fri, 8 May 2009 18:32:59 +0000

*begin macfanboy rant* And yet, here you are, 23 years later typing your comment using a computer with a what attached to it? Somebody knew what they were doing back in the '80s, and it wasn't IBM/Microsoft. */macfanboyrant* Oh, and how cool was it when not more than a decade later, Macs started shipping with built-in voice recognitions, so you could control your Mac by saying, for instance, "Computer open Word"?

Big Hollywood : Remembering a 'Sweet' Little Birthday

Tue, 5 May 2009 21:20:40 +0000

I know it's terribly politically incorrect today, but some of the best lines are delivered by Gedde Watanabe. "I love, uh, visiting with Grandma and Grandpa...and writing letters to parents...and pushing lawn-mowing machine...so Grandpa's hyena don't get disturbed." I always worried about the foreign exchange students. The situations they were in seemed so ripe for exploitation that this line always made me wonder what other, more horrid tasks Long Duc Dong was forced to do.

Big Hollywood : Ron Howard's 'Demon' Defense Doesn't Hold Water

Fri, 1 May 2009 17:10:50 +0000

For those who are getting upset that Dan Brown's novels include a comment in the beginning claiming that certain things are fact, did you get similarly upset when Jack Webb would claim at the beginning of every Dragnet, "The story you are about to hear [or "see" for T.V. episodes] is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." Were there stereotypical and offensive portrayals in those pulpy episodes? Definitely. Where's the outrage for Jack Webb's claim that those were "true?" Interestingly, Hanks seems to be drawn to these types of over-the-top fictional accounts which claim to be "true" given his participation in the 80s Dragnet movie.

Big Hollywood : Ron Howard's 'Demon' Defense Doesn't Hold Water

Fri, 1 May 2009 16:40:01 +0000

I just reread my previous post, and realized it comes off a little dismissive. If that's the case, I'm sorry. I don't trust Hanks or Howard any farther than I can spit. And if Brown or Howard and Hanks had claimed that they hired a "former Catholic" to help them with the historical accuracy, and came out swinging like this, similar to the recent "Big Love" temple controversy, I would be squarely in your camp. Sure, this is possibly thinly-veiled propaganda; but it is (or should be) an exciting story also. Unless and until Hanks or Howard come out and say that this movie represents their personal beliefs, or I hear other evidence that that is the case, I'll see it as nothing more than that.

Big Hollywood : Ron Howard's 'Demon' Defense Doesn't Hold Water

Fri, 1 May 2009 16:24:45 +0000

Having read all of Dan Brown's pulpy novels (they were great mindless reads in law school), and seen Howard's Da Vinci Code and was unimpressed, I'm not pursuaded by most of the post's attempt to correct the "inaccuracies" in either the books or the movies. After all the books were in the "Fiction" section of the bookstore when I purchased it. I wasn't expecting David McCullough, after all. As Sean Foushee said, "It's escapist fun, nothing more." I do agree that changing the Hassassin character to a generic Danish "assassin" is a cowardly move on Howard's part, and probably helps your argument that Howard is more sympathetic to, or perhaps afraid of, Muslims than Catholics.

Big Hollywood : Television's Lame Attack on Guns

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:56:10 +0000

Agreed! It was nothing short of awsome ... until I realized it was the season finale! But, please don't sound that death knell yet! This has been one of my favorite network series in years and I'm not ready to give up on it. I agree that the episode mentioned does not get the proper treatment here. At first, it appeared to be anti-gun, but Crewe's partner at the time gave a damned fine defense of the Second Amendment. The writers made the anti-gun individuals smarmy and unsympathetic, and the gun-manufacturer a sympathetic character. Other than the portrayal of everyone that works at P & K guns carrying (even the mail guy, for crying out Pete's sake!) I would say this epsiode was a net positive for gun rights.

Big Hollywood : Me? Or Your Lying Eyes? II

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:36:24 +0000

John, you have made a point I've been trying to hammer home to my union-card-carrying father for a while. Yes, the things the Administration have been lying about pale in comparison to our nation's bigger problems, but as me dear ol' Dad used to say, "Son, if you lie about the little things, do you really think you'll be honest about the big things?"

Big Hollywood : Remember When SNL Was Funny? (Obama Ushers in New Era of Comedic Irresponsibility)

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:17:18 +0000

See how easy that is? Nice one TBM. That one is going to my union-member, Democratic party lovin' Dad. And I'll eat my shoe if he doesn't respond with an insult against W. With the lefties in the government and the media salivating to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine and this Administration's proven intolerance to dissenting voices ("I won! Get over it"), I wonder if those with the talent to create good humor at the expense of the President are conciously withholding because they understand the retribution they would suffer if the First Amendment continues to be eroded under this Administration and Congress. Surely there are some out there willing to skewer their party for a good (truthful) laugh in the mold of Will Rogers.