Mort's Comments (183)

“The reason he was under observation was because of the plea deal in which he agreed accept guilty for a lesser charge, undergo a psych evaluation, and then leave the country, an agreement he honored in full, but which the judge & DA violated.”

“I completely agree with you. Big money for celebs is a big scam.

A notion that this is sort of business with revenue is very lame excuse. This is robbery. Media pressing makes almost obligatory for kids to fill their heads with trash.

A word academy rather rise association with Oscar crowd than with National Academy of Sciences.”

“With the exception of the occasional tax supported stadium or arena, no one is taking money away from teachers and giving it to actors and football players and presumably the tax money returns in the form of revenue from said stadium or arena.

Athletes and entertainers make truckloads of money because sports and entertainment are businesses, they generate money from the fans that pay to see them perform and buy their licensed products. Throw in the fact that most of these people not only donate money to charity and that they are actively involved in charitable projects (often on behalf of education) and you will realize that they pose no problem to education.

Teachers are not paid what they are worth because we have been brainwashed against raising taxes to the level where we can properly support the very institution we entrust with our children’s futures as well as properly compensate the generous and selfless individuals who choose to make this their life's work .

Generally speaking, sports and entertainment are two of the very few industries in which those who are actually producing the work are being properly compensated in proportion to the revenue they help generate.

If you’re a liberal like me you can’t possibly be against that.”

“In other words no one gives a $hit.”

“Sister Anne falsely accused me and slapped me around in 8th grade.

I'd like to punch her face in....does she qualify for "life changing?"

I have a Bachelor's in History...­.so I can't forget.”

“co-signed”

“Actually-- ignorance has everything to do with it but whatever..­..... isn't it fascinating how meat eaters can so easlily rationalize their choices and behavior and be so incredibly defensive about it.

Enjoy...”

“I'd like to see some breakdown between grass fed dairy and the feed lot corn fed dairy in this study.”

“Having been a professional researcher in nutrition for the past 40 years, I'm always amazed at the ignorance of what has been scientifically proven; the most religious advocates of a high-protein, high-meat diet ignore decades of indicators that the typical American diet is a major instigator of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, etc. And, yes, vegans and vegetarians do have much better health records as a rule. There are, of course, vegetarians who eat junk food--and, since someone mentioned it, the rural poor of So. India eat white rice and sugar and get inadequate calories, so they don't compare well with some in the No. who eat more meat--but the Indian diet is not at all like the high-protein one advocated by some here. Read John Robbins' The Food Revolution for other reasons to cut down on meat--including the contamination by chemicals and by animal diseases and the ecological implications (you can do more to help global warming by eating less meat than anything else an individual can do).”

“no single person or group gets to define art.

if you don't like it. ignore it. don't give it an audience or your money. you are also free to try and persuade others.

but you don't have the right to force your morals onto others”

“Correct. But art is typically not produced for consumption by the masses. It's really self expression. If that expression jibes with the public, that artist becomes famous. Otherwise, they just sink into oblivion.

Back on topic: who are we to tell an individual "Stop expressing yourself!" We can either consume their works or ignore them. We can't and shouldn't try to stop them. That's morally wrong to pass judgment like that.”

“Who is going to stop you from taking a dump on a plate?”

“the concept of plagiarism has become very complicated in modern society.

there are software programs that can analyze songs and state an opinion of whether a song uses the same melody or beat as another. but we don't have to accept that opinion. some music scholar and programmer wrote that software.

the same goes with so many other aspects of our world. we have built up so much knowledge and ability to share and communicate that many people's work seem to be copies of others.

but really everyone's work is built on top of other people's work. there is not a single person that won a noble prize that doesn't owe 95% of the credit to thousands of other scientists that went before him or her.

i am not excusing plagiarism at all. but i think the fundamental idea behind plagiarism is dishonesty. did the accused intentionally take someone else's work and attempt to cover that up and make it look like it was his or her idea?

i don't think anyone can seriously accuse tarantino of that. his work is filled with homages to other people's work. overtly so by people who are knowledgeable. he isn't hiding anything.”

“Mort, this is a very interesting issue: how far can an homage or an allusion go before it becomes derivative and dishonest? At the risk of making a far-fetched analogy, is he the cinematic equivalent of a mash-up DJ like Girl Talk or DangerMouse, someone who pillages from all types of culture, high and low, and reconstitutes it into a Frankenstein monster? Like the monster, you can see where all the different "body parts" come from, but also recognize that the monster is its own being as well, even if its heart used to belong to someone else.

But how come Woody Allen got away with "plagiarizing" Bergman, Fellini, and Antonioni?”

“Obama received millions from Lobbyist and a huge portion came from the companies whose actions have resulted in the financial crisis we are experiencing right now.”

“like going to rev. wrights church for 20 years. character.”

“Mort did you read my entire comment? you say we need people with the Qualification's you named, well no such Man exist walking on the face of the earth!

You seem to know a lot about what would make a good Politician, are you running for office?

The look is what drew people to the Kennedy men, it is something you are born with, Bill Clinton has the Look! Barack Obama has the Look, this is a God given Glow God will place on some men, Not all!

George Bush did not have the Look! Nixon did not have the look! Jimmy Carter's Glow was not strong, but, yet he had a slight Glow!

Mort if you take heed, you will see that most Democratic men seem to have a caring Spirit, whereas the REP/CON men seem to have lack of Compassion for their Fellowman! so which would you say has more Substance? who do you think would Identify with Christ more?”

“I have a difficult time distinguishing mental disorder from mental strangeness. I know two brothers that are supposedly afflicted with mental disorders. Both are on medication. One, whose IQ was 160+, never completed a coherent sentence until he was on medication. I was shocked to hear him utter complete thoughts. The other, less gifted but still very talented, now seems quite diminished in capacity. He used to be a voracious reader and writer and, I admit, prone to outrageous behavior (he ate a butterfly with Easter dinner and ran down the street naked singing opera); now he is just dull. I think that medication harmed him yet helped his brother. Diagnosing mental illness is one thing; treating it is another.”

“Yes, but doctors don't give insulin to children just because their parents think they're too much effort.
There isn't just some abuse of these drugs, there are MILLIONS of children being unnecessarily medicated. It's important to discuss.”