Ken's Weblog

People should not fear their governments; governments should fear their people.

Month: February 2014

  • Hollywood finds new things to rip off

    I just watched a trailer for an upcoming Hollywood movie called Brick Mansions, and immediately noticed that it looked like a crappy ripoff of a fairly well-known French action movie that aired in the US with the title District B13 (the original French title was Banlieue 13). It even had the same actor playing what looked like the same part. Then at the end of the trailer, the words “based on the screenplay for Banlieue 13” flashed on the screen.

    I guess they ran out of Japanese and European horror movies to make bad copies of, so now they’ve moved on to European action movies.

  • Traditions are not necessarily good

    Steve Chapman on the Myth of ‘Traditional Marriage’. Gay marriageIn the
    battle over same-sex marriage, opponents are strongly in favor of
    deferring to the wisdom of our ancestors. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence
    uses the prevailing formula when he says, “I support traditional
    marriage.” The Christian Coalition of America urges its friends to
    “Say ‘I Do’ to Traditional Marriage.” But invoking age-old customs
    has not served to convince the American people, most of whom now
    favor letting gays wed. As Steve Chapman writes, Americans have
    rarely rallied to the idea that we should do something just because
    that’s what was done in the time of Henry VII or even George
    Washington. [Reason.com]

    When Conservatives go on about “traditional marriage,” they are actually talking about 1950’s sitcom marriage. A real traditional marriage is between a man and one or more female slaves bought from their fathers for some goats (or other livestock). The goats can expect much better treatment from their new owners.