STParker's Comments (862)

“YOU LIE!”

“Oh yes those wonderful centrists who wouldn't stand up for Democracy on the eve of George Bush's inauguration, who wouldn't stand up for fiscal responsibility when he passed his tax-cuts, and took him at his word on WMD.

"Centrists" buy into the false binary that liberals are somehow as equally extreme as conservatives, because they are polar opposites on so many issues, but that is a false logic, it would imply that opposing the Iraq war was equally as extreme as supporting it or that opposing tax-cuts for the rich is equally extreme as supporting them. I could go on, but the point is that just because two points of view stand in opposition to one another it doesn't necessarily make them equally extreme or bad.

It seems to me that if a centrists had a choice between Ghandi and Hitler, they would reject both and choose Pinochet thinking they had just made the "pragmatic" decision.”

“One correction. Joe Leiberman was stabbed in the front.”

“I like this use of "stan." I had never heard that term before, but I love the song.”

“and you have a valid point, but the way I understood it you are encouraging apathy. Rather than confronting celebrities and their fans with their poor choices and simplistic materialistic world view, we write them off as unreachable.

When I say we can only hold our standards of virtue for ourselves I mean that we can't force anyone to share them, which I don't think is the same thing as apathetically letting celeb-worshipers and their shallow idols off the hook for behavior we find tacky distasteful or offensive.

What I meant is that if we can't force people to think the same way as us we can at "be the change we want to see" and be openly critical of things like this.”

“The fact you used the word "dare" is surprising to me. Why shouldn't we "dare" to hold celebrities to a higher standard? If we cannot enforce our standards on the whole world we can at least hold them for ourselves.

Personally I don't understand why so few people DO dare to hold celebrities to ANY standard of decency. Not holding them to any standard, because you don't think that society as a whole is capable is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I suppose that so few people care, because their fans are as equally dumb as they are.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist, though, to choose your role-models and those who receive your dollars with care. A good way to tell a socially responsible artist is to examine the depth of their music. That can tell you what their values are. Beyonce writes shallow, materialistic, psuedo feminist pop music. It is then no surprise that she is a shallow, materialistic, psuedo-feminist pop star.”

“Yeah, but still, cooking takes time, which not everyone has. I cook nearly every meal, but it takes time, and I have to do dishes, busy people come home from a hard day at work and don't really want to have to cook and do dishes when they're tired.

It's easy to say "change your habits," but there should be national support FOR people to make better choices. Ending corn subsidies should be a high priority for instance.”

“It's interesting how everything that could possibly have a tangible positive effect on this country runs afoul of some abstract and misguided Republican or "conservative" (or libertarian) principle.”

“Good, point, but we had guns because the British did, which is, admittedly, more a philosophical point than anything.

Does the prevalence of guns in our society reduce or increase the threat of gun violence? It seems that in this case the presence of guns increased the threat of violence. It seems like one of the players was being hot-headed and reached for a gun. I can't blame the other player for drawing his in that situation, but should either of them have even HAD guns? In a LOCKER room!?!?!

And would either of them have had guns if popular culture (and yes I'm including NRA culture in that as well didn't encourage the idea that a gun is a necessity.

In other words what I'm saying is that guns necessitate themselves.”

“If this is true it was a stupid thing to do. I question whether guns are too ever-present for people to be pulling them on one another in locker rooms.”

“No. What I think it is, is that people believe in the cult of celebrity and they identify personally with the celebrities that they love, so that any criticism or backlash against them becomes a personal affront.
It's the celebified version of the American dream, that since the celebrity they identify with can achieve success so can they (or at least live vicariously through them) What Smith's defenders don't realize is that by creating a star vehicle for his son, no other talented young actor is going to get a chance at that. I shouldn't have to add this, but that actor could be black OR white.
No less than Samuel Jackson once complained about the dirth of roles for black actors due to rappers snatching them up! Hollywood has been doing this forever in one form or another, but this IS a thread on the new Karate kid remake starring Jayden Smith so you might expect people to talk about Jayden Smith and his rather quick ride to the top of the acting heap.
The bottom line is that this is a pretty high profile movie making it a pretty high profile case of nepotism, but more important than that it's ridiculous to appeal to money and celebrity when your favorite celebrity is criticized.

That's it, now I'll go back to crying about my "lack of relevance" in this celeb-obsessed culture.”

“If that was a joke it was pretty funny.

If it wasn't I guess that that is the difficulty of communicating on the internet, if you leave any ambiguity or ambivalence in your posts people pounce on it.”

“Not to mention the fact that senators who wish to filibuster don't really have to stand up for that filibuster the majority just accepts that they intend to filibuster.

It protects the rights of the minority, but then we already have the Senate which is an elite institution in any case.”

“I am not "an" acting critic but it's pretty easy to identify bad acting, because MOST people have built in BS detectors that tell them when someone is acting "fake."

I don't even think that either Jayden or the movie looks that bad, and even if it did I enjoy "bad" movies with "bad" acting.

I get sick and tired of two things, though; people who repeat the mantra "it's only entertainment" when confronted with the fact that their choices in entertainment are shallow (and therefore reflecting on their tastes), and people who ride celebrity %@#^ whenever somebody criticizes that celebrity and labels critics as "haters" or "jealous."

If someone said I was jealous they might even be a little bit right, I don't worship money, but it would be nice to make a comfortable living, especially as it seems you don't have to have that much talent to do it. I don't envy Jayden Smith's acting, however.”

“I'm sorry, but it's quite obvious just from the trailer that Jayden Smith can't act. Sure he can read lines, and he can pretend the emotions, but he can't make believe that he is feeling those emotions. I've seen enough child actors to know that it's difficult to find children that CAN do this with ease, but I figure you have to look farther than Will Smith's son to find that.

Another thing is I hate how this society has become so convinced that everyone who "earns" success is above criticism. I mean come on people, just because Tiger Woods is a great golfer doesn't mean that recognizing him as a cad is an born of jealousy. Just because Will Smith has been entertaining in movies doesn't mean we can't call him out for nepotism and stunt-casting of his children.

The "hating" trope is old and overused by people who think that success and celebrity excuses people from common decency.”

“on the one hand this is mostly due to migration from more liberal states. On the other hand Southern states are notorious gerrymandering and ghettoizing liberal and minority voters to minimize their influence.

Still demographic change nationwide still favors Democrats - on the third hand this doesn't help us much if the Dems continue on placating the far right.”

“Beat me to it. It's literally four ingredients put in a blender and pureed.”

“Funny how Brittney Murphy's problems were an open secret in Hollywood, but it seems that no-one really did anything to help her. I don't mean funny haha, I mean funny weird.”

“Before it was called "PC" by the right wingers it was called "manners."”

“Yes. The "prequels" were not merely disappointing they were actually bad. Bad writing + bad acting + bad (ie. unnecessary and overdone) CGI equals a "bad movie."

Yes there were elements of the first three movies that could be called bad, but taken together I don't think that they reach the heights (or depths) of their successors (predecessors). The special effects look somewhat dated, but they don't have the sleek (ie. fake) look of 1-3, and the Ewoks, though cutesy seem somewhat naturalistic next to floppy eared psuedo-Jamaican-patois speaking CGI lamo's like jar-jar.

Plus George may not have been "good" at dialogue on 4-6, but he actually DID get worse on 1-3.”

“not to mention the current Christian violence which is legitimized by state power. It might only be indirectly related to Christian beliefs, but it IS related.”

“THere are a couple of borderline selections here, I mean, "Indian Jones and the Crystal Skull?" I know that it doesn't stand up that well next to other Indiana Jones movies, but is it really terrible enough to be included among the worst?

I'm thinking the final three Star Wars films? (although one was released in '99)

Mostly I object to the ring being included, maybe it is partially due to no having seen the original, but that was a genuinely creepy horror film that didn't rely on gore and shock to frighten it's audience. I really liked it, and I think whomever compiled this list was on the wrong track there.”

“The woman in the crest commercial isn't so bad herself!”

“What's up with all the Tiger jock-sniffers?

Like because he's rich and famous he can't also be a jerk? and for anyone to judge them they must be jealous? Whatever happened to simply having basic decency?

Apparently the new ethical code is that money and talent mean that you're never in the wrong.

I'm not even judging Tiger on his behavior, because that's between him and his wife, and I'm not sure I could comport myself better, but I just get sick of these nimrod posters who insist that he's above criticism because the "haters" are 'just jealous."

Not trying to shock anybody but if you have a lot of detractors it might actually be because you are a JERK!”

“"too small" for her "just right" for me!”