Archive | May 12, 2009

Haters of Gays versus Lovers of War Propaganda

Carrie Prejean, pageant contestant and anti-equality activist, explains:

On April 19, on that stage, I exercised my freedom of speech, and I was punished for doing so. This should not happen in America. It undermines the constitutional rights for which my grandfather fought for [sic].

Wow! What happened? Was she arrested? Was she fined?

Um … no. All that happened was that she was verbally attacked for her views. Does she really think she has a constitutional right not to be criticised? That she can express whatever bigoted views she wants, but others have no right to call her out for them? Is freedom of speech something that applies only to herself and not to her critics?

Carrie Prejean and Keith Olbermann

On the other hand, some of her critics have been saying inane things too. Olbermann, for example (sorry), tonight said something like “Her grandfather didn’t fight for her right to speak her mind in a beauty contest, he fought for her right not to have her speech interfered with by the government.”

Huh? What did World War II have to do with defending her right not to have her speech interfered with by the government? Didn’t the U.S. government on the contrary use World War II as a pretext to increase such interference? Or does Olbermann mean that Prejean’s grandfather was fighting to prevent Nazi Germany from conquering the U.S. and imposing still harsher censorship? If so, does Olbermann really believe that the U.S. was in serious danger of being conquered during World War II?


Minimax

If you hear that a movie’s being presented in IMAX format, would you assume that it was going to be on a really huge screen?

Well, guess what: turns out IMAX is just a brand name and not necessarily a description – so fans are being suckered into shelling out extra cash to see movies on screens that are called “IMAX” but are only slightly larger than a regular screen. (Conical hat tip to AICN.)

Here’s a size comparison of standard IMAX screens versus the new tinyfied verisons:

IMAX size comparison

Spread the word – ’cause IMAX really deserves to take a financial hit over this.


Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes