gdp's Comments

Jihad Watch : Jihad Watch: ALA, panelists cave to pressure from terror-linked group, panel with Spencer canceled

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:48:37 +0000

As for the ALA, I have known for about 13 years that all is not well at the libraries, well before post-911 surveillance laws, though I strongly support public libraries. I'm not exactly sure if my experience with the public library here was typical or how broad a policy what I saw go on might have been, but when I was researching something controversial there, the books were not reshelved after I returned them. I noticed that at the time and wondered if someone was watching what I was doing but dismissed my sudden doubts about what that meant. Big mistake. I got in trouble for reading those books. There has been some talk here and there on key subjects that are controversial of resources suddenly disappearing from shelves, and ever since then I always wonder. Best option is to read it on the site and never check it out, but sometimes that's not feasible.

Jihad Watch : Jihad Watch: ALA, panelists cave to pressure from terror-linked group, panel with Spencer canceled

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:46:59 +0000

The email from this Myra person has the schedule for the original program, and that to me seems really odd in itself. Your talk on jihad seems to have nothing remotely to do with the other speakers' topics, unless they thought you meant to talk about it as interior struggle rather than military action. Maybe this was an Alinsky-style set up in that case.

Jihad Watch : Jihad Watch: Shocker: Thai jihadists recruiting in Islamic schools

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:33:12 +0000

Did you actually read the report referenced? It's quite interesting. Here's the link: http://www.crisisgroup.org/library/documents/asia... Definitely worth the time to slog through that and see the direction of things, though I wonder seeing all the typical earmarks this site points out in these cases why the organization had such a dismissive summary of the jihadi intent. Were they a little nervous maybe?

Big Hollywood : Angels & Demonizing: 'Fiction With an Agenda is Propaganda'

Tue, 19 May 2009 22:38:41 +0000

If you read my comments below and on other posts regarding Angels & Demons on this site, I am not taking issue with the fact that historical facts should not be messed with, that is unless they do something like with the Watchmen where they came out and stated at the beginning that this was an alternate reality and not things as they actually happened. This website is getting way too hostile in its conversation, and by no means were any of my comments above out of line or extreme. Many of the people I'm around are more arch-conservative Catholics who do think exactly like your "straw man". I think the tone of your comments above is unnecessarily sharp, and maybe this isn't the site for me to be bothering with anymore.

Big Hollywood : Obama Porn

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:10:01 +0000

This post is a scream. I'm waiting now for the new "WWMD?" bracelets, courtesy of the latest CNN column asking "What Would Michelle Do?" And you thought the Obama Chia Pets were flying off the shelves. Just wait until this one hits. As for the other Obama porn, I try to avoid grocery store checkouts and walk through bookstore chains as if I had blinders. You'd think they'd get tired of it, wouldn't you?

Big Hollywood : Language Wars: The Truth Behind Obama’s Social Construction of Reality

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:50:57 +0000

The social construction of reality is true to the same extent multiculturalism is true. They just take it to such extremes that it becomes a parody of itself. It's true that language and culture limit our ability to perceive and interpret, but there's still some objective truth somewhere even if we don't see it. By the same token, appreciating other cultures and seeing some good in them is a worthy goal, but that doesn't make them equal or to be embraced uncritically.

Big Hollywood : Why Reparations Have Already Been Paid, With Interest

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:43:05 +0000

I have my own theory on past injustices, also not likely to be popular. Here's the rule, if it didn't happen to you personally, then you have no right to be upset about it. Period. If the actual victim is dead, and the actual victimizer is dead, end of story. God will deal justice in the end after death if not in life. I came to this enlightened view after spending five months working on a job where a white Jewish woman and a black woman argued constantly about which of their people were history's ultimate victims. The funny thing was both of them were middle-upper class, families all educated, had good jobs, and neither of them went to the gas chambers or the slave block themselves, though you'd never know it to hear them whine all the time.

Big Hollywood : The American Gorbachev?

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:11:37 +0000

I thought I heard Putin now has a civilian youth corp, Nashi, and has taken on a more KGB style. So much for it snapping back after chaos.

Jihad Watch : Jihad Watch: Fitzgerald: Who\'s minding the store?

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:28:00 +0000

Take it further and consider what will happen to music, photos of loved ones, and dancing. As a student of bellydance, I know there are worthy elements of their culture, but in spite of them, not because of them.

Big Hollywood : Lonewolf Diaries: Why Atheism is a "Mental Handicap"

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:49:51 +0000

You may want to expand on the theme a bit and go into the results of athiesm, like Pol Pot, Maoist, and Stalinist massacres, because that's rather unique, even when compared to religious violence.

Big Hollywood : Let's Talk About Mormons (and 'Big Love')!

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:33:19 +0000

For the same reason men may want to have more than one car. If you look at the history of polygamy in Asia, the issue is more one of possession rather than relationship, and I recall reading that the Japanese prince at some point found the nuclear families found in European royalty so much more loving and intimate. Royal polygamy often led to murdering half-brothers and other rival wives when the son took over for the dying king, and one could never really be sure of one's position. Plus you had a whole flock to vie for the father's attention. It definitely benefits women and children to stick with lifelong one man-one woman marriages.

Big Hollywood : The plight of 40+ Hollywood actresses; Don't write off Julia Roberts because of DUPLICITY!

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:46:57 +0000

I think the Emmylou Harris look might be more appropriate that Hollywood allows.

Big Hollywood : The plight of 40+ Hollywood actresses; Don't write off Julia Roberts because of DUPLICITY!

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:38:43 +0000

Some of it is a limitation on good roles. They can't very well do what isn't written. And no, I could care less if they wear their hair long after forty. Some people aren't built for short hair, no matter what the age. My problem with the movie list above is that too many of them are traditional crappy "chick flicks". I'm almost 40, and I would never go see "Mamma Mia" or "Sex in the City" just because the stories don't interest me. I want Julia Roberts in a Spiderman costume, darn it. In my world, I have a sixty year old dance class friend who is just as hip and wild as can be, so the writers just need to get with the program.

Big Hollywood : Lonewolf Diaries: Only Conservatives Can Be Racists, You Morons...

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:56:14 +0000

Do you mean a mulatto?

Big Hollywood : Teleprompter Gaffe: President Obama Thanks Himself -- UPDATE: Where's the Video?

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:38:14 +0000

And to think they had to make this stuff up for Sarah Palin!

Big Hollywood : Ron Silver

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:58:49 +0000

If he was a foreign language major and fluent, that in itself tells you alot about him. You have to be pretty individualistic to go that route in America, especially non-Western. I know because I was one 20 years ago and know some even now who don't have it easy. It's the attitude of "so what will you do with basket weaving 101 when you've graduated" kind of contempt that goes with that major.

Big Hollywood : Letter to Congress Regarding the Latest Obama Outrage Against Veterans

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:44:35 +0000

Yeah, but like anybody actually wants to be there. It's not their choice to go, so why should they foot the bill unless they can walk out any time they feel like? I guess this is what comes of putting someone in who was close to Ayers and had the ex-SDS supporting him.

Big Hollywood : My Real Time With Bill Maher

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:27:00 +0000

You're centuries too late in that case. Modern Western law was founded on precisely the "religious crazies" you think should be kicked out of law. Ever hear of canon law? English common law? You'd better get reading on your Western Civ. I think the marriage law tomes we read in my class once alone were two or three volumes.

Big Hollywood : Star Trek: 90210

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:21:15 +0000

I had a college buddy who had all of William Shatner's albums. He raved about them.

Big Hollywood : The True State of 'Film Culture' in Today's Iran

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:56:01 +0000

Good link. Great post in general, very informative. I have noticed that Leftists in the Jamie Glazov sense tend to have not a clue what's going on in the world that they so vigorously defend. I think they just like the glamor of looking like a rebel. Furthermore, this post does a great job in describing the Iranian film industry, which most Americans don't know a lot about. It only shows why it's good some countries don't have more global appeal, though our industry is a mess and it does have global market.