Tag-Archive for » movies «

August 29th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

It doesn’t say anything good about our culture that sexual violence against women is eroticized and mainstream, but women choosing and enjoying sex is just too much for us.

A few songs are worth more than your life.  A lot more.  (via Michael Alan Miller) Oh, and Sweden took down pirate bay.

Well, this should change our lifestyles a bit.  Have I mentioned that overpopulation is a problem?

California is sacrificing education to prevent taxing big oil.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if our government thought just a little more long term? (via Edge of the American West)

Actually, money CAN buy happiness.

The Afghan elections weren’t fair.

Amino acids in space!

Cultural differences in interpretations of facial expressions.

Really, vaccines do not contain aborted fetal tissue.

Russia has some series race issues.

Just because change scares people doesn’t mean it should be slow.

By the way, were at war by bobster on flickr

By the way, we're at war by bobster on flickr

Music + politics = awesome

Think health care reform makes Democrats equivalent to Nazis?  Perhaps you need a quick history lesson.

Another reason to quit smoking: children pick the tobacco you smoke and it poisons them.

I really want to see this movie (via SublimeFemme):

An former health care executive comes clean. And yet another health care myth debunked.

We’re building a wall between Mexico and the US that doesn’t stop illegal immigrants, but is deadly to fragile wildlife populations.

The axolotl is about to go extinct in the wild

The axolotl is about to go extinct in the wild

American citizens in danger from chemical weapons – and they’re ours.

Iran is not a good place to be right now.

June 06th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

It’s about entitlement, stupid.

Dr. Isis gives advice to a grad student who works with a scientist that won’t stop looking at her boobs.  Then she responds to the commenters who suggest it’s the grad student’s fault.

The AZ legislature is shit.

Really, being a girl doesn’t make you bad at math.

More “justice” in the US.

Beavers are being reintroduced in Scotland – after 400 years.

Patriarchy isn’t good for men either.

My roommate just got her first dyke haircut.

American troops in UN peacekeeping missions – definitely not leading.

If the US were in the Organization of the Islamic Conferences…

A letter to Pixar

Rape at Abu Graib

May 25th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

I haven’t seen the new Star Trek movie yet, but I’ve heard there is time travel involved.  I sincerely doubt it follows the rules, but this clip should help you forget all about that:

March 21st, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

Finding effective treatments for Lyme disease and other chronic illnesses has become much more difficult.  As usual, it’s all about the money:

The problem, they say, started back in 1980, when Ronald Reagan changed the rules governing how scientists (and the entities they work for) profit from their work. Where scientists used to gain fame and fortune by publishing and sharing their work in conferences and journals — and were thus rewarded for furthering general knowledge — the new rules encouraged them to hoard their discoveries as trade secrets; and then leverage their patents and their seats on medical boards to write the disease definitions, mandate approved treatments, and completely control the scientific discourse in order to maximize the profits they made.

This story shows we need to make very big changes to how we deal with chemicals and their effects in the workplace.  Right now, workers must prove that a specific chemical caused their problem.  This is often absolutely impossible to do.  Perhaps a better system would be to hold the employer responsible if workers exposed to a certain chemical show symptoms of exposure to that chemical.  It would certainly encourage employers to be more responsible and careful about exposing their employees to dangerous chemicals.

Best review of Watchmenyou’ll ever read.  And a fantastic review of the odious Miss March.

Dr. Isis takes on more sexism in science, specifically this frustratingly common misconception: one of the requirements of scientist-hood is a lack of femininity or sexuality.

A guest at Shakesville on adoption, abortion, and choice:

I’m the birth mother of an adopted child, vehemently pro-choice, non-Christian, very unsuited to motherhood, and after over a decade, have got some things to tell the world about adoption. It’s been stewing since I heard about the recent rash of pre-abortion ultrasound legislation. While I am touched that so many men in such various states are so deeply worried about women possibly being all sad from having an abortion, I wish to point out to these compassionately bleeding hearts that the alternatives are not exactly without their own emotional consequences.

Holy crap. The world O Magazine has actually acknowledged that lesbians and bisexuals actually exist and that gender and sexuality are, well, complicated.

Freedomgirl writes about her experience with marriage:

After the wedding, this circle of people treated us differently.  Our relationship was more serious, our status was higher.  People pressured us about having children, buying a house.

All well and good.  But we were doing this thing without understanding the whole story.  We aren’t straight.  There is nothing we can do to pass in the everyday world as mainstream and ordinary without denying some fundamental facts about who we are.  Which is precisely what we did for a long time.

Most depressing evidence yet of America’s failure to educate its citizens: Only 53% of adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun. via Bad Astronomy.

Have I mentioned how much I love A Softer World?

VOLCANO!!!!

VOLCANO!!!!

A good take-down of the “morality comes from god” idea:

February 09th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

I watched A Room with a View a long time ago and don’t remember the storyline very well.  I do remember beautiful, sunny Italian scenery and being absolutely smitten with Lucy Honeychurch.  I’d much rather be watching this movie again than doing my homework.  It seems like the perfect thing to distract me from such a miserably windy and snowy day.

January 07th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

I borrowed Fur: an imaginary portrait of Diane Arbus from a friend months and months ago and finally got around to watching it last weekend.  I had never heard of Diane Arbus, but it turns out I’d seen one of her more famous photos, “Child with Toy Hand Grenade,” on the cover of an SNFU album.  Her photographs are often funny-sad and a little scary sometimes, like “Masked Woman in a Wheelchair:”

Fur got some pretty bad reviews, but I really liked it.  The movie makes clear, even in the title, that this is a highly fictionalized account of Arbus’s life and a lot of what bugs the reviewers is that she and her life are portrayed so differently from what we know of her.  Perhaps if I’d known more about her before I saw the movie, I would have enjoyed it less, but I don’t think so.  I like when artists take a small piece of something and create an almost totally new thing.

January 03rd, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

I had a very nice New Year’s Eve with one of my favorite cousins and fell asleep around 11 watching Life of Brian. Next year I plan on following SublimeFemme’s NYE advice for a much more exciting time.  I’m not one for making resolutions, but Justin’s keys to happiness sound pretty good.

A great comic over at Unreasonable Faith illustrates very effectively the silliness of Biblical punishment.

Chemistry isn’t a crime, no matter what the Canadian police say.

Jessica reminds us that the best part of the holidays are the cookies.

December 20th, 2008 | Author: sarcozona

After Katrina, a white neighborhood militia murdered blacks who wandered into “their” neighborhood.  Disgusting, and a stark reminder that racism is far from eliminated in this country.

An NYT editorial and Glenn Greenwald call for accountability after the Senate Armed Services Committee inquiry into the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody was released this week.

That leaves only two choices:  (1) treat these crimes as the serious war crimes they are by having a Prosecutor investigate and, if warranted, prosecute them, or (2) openly acknowledge — to ourselves and the world — that we believe that our leaders are literally entitled to commit war crimes at will, and that we — but not the rest of the world — should be exempt from the consequences.

Lindsay Beyerstein comments on Obama’s choice of Rick Warren for the inaugural invocation.  She points out that there really shouldn’t be a religious element to the inauguration, which I agree with, and goes on to criticize Obama’s contribution to Warren’s political standing and what this could mean for America’s image and AIDS prevention efforts.

I very much want to see Cléo From 5 to 7 after this 3QD review.

Seeds Aside answers some of the questions that bring readers to his site.  Wonderfully silly.

My birth control is abortion now.

Dorothy Surrenders posts some fantastic pictures of Rachel Maddow, Katie Couric, and Campbell Brown.  I think I’m going to need to buy the January issue of Vogue.

Why unionization led to employer based healthcare in America rather than a national system as in other countries and why that’s a problem.

The system is so complex that even experts – let alone ordinary people trying to find care for themselves and their loved ones – are unable to fully understand it. The system spends one-third of its cost on paperwork, waste and profit over and above the cost of actually providing health care. Yet, nearly one-third of Americans are without health insurance over the course of a year. In all other developed countries, more than 85 percent of citizens have health coverage under public programs. The American health care system is full of inequalities: People who work for one company may have high quality insurance, while those who work for a similar company have none.

Religious freedom in America – not for Muslims, but definitely for Christians who abuse their children.

Please, be out!

Still think we shouldn't raise taxes for the filthy rich?

Union workers definitely don’t make $73/hr.

White supremacists in the U.S. military.

September 06th, 2008 | Author: sarcozona

Indexed expresses a little anger with an awesome Venn diagram.

Hollywood’s five saddest attempts at feminism.  [via Feministing]  Lays out how those “strong” female characters are so very disappointing.

Some Iraqi’s have no hope left:

do you know
that your tomorrow
has no tomorrow?
that your blood
is the ink
of new maps?

Unsurprising news of the day: Many women leave the church because of its “’silence’ about sexual desire and activity, and because of its hostility to single-parent families and unmarried couples.” [via A Spritely Oolong]

Sciencewomen point to an awesome statement by Michelle Obama:

I was raised to believe I could do it all, and that was very empowering. Then I got into the work force and realized there was really no support for me to do it all. … We either have to fix that or be honest about it.

An awesome video – my new crush raps about the LHC.

August 05th, 2008 | Author: sarcozona

Swing Kids – I’ve been learning to swing dance this summer, and I really loved a lot of the dance bits in this movie.  The historical aspect is really interesting and pretty depressing.  Parts of it (especially the very end) were kind of over-dramatic, but it’s a pretty good movie overall.

The Dark Knight – I had to cover my eyes.  To the parents with the 8 and 10 year old behind you, what were you thinking?  Batman and the Joker are both absolutely crazy.  I left the movie feeling pretty terrible about the world.  Which I think is what was supposed to happen.  Gotham is a pretty terrible place.

Lars and the Real Girl – Absolutely wonderful.  I’ve never seen a movie deal so well with the topic of mental illness.  A little understanding can go a long way.

The Man Who Planted Trees – Very short, but very wonderful.  More than a little idealistic.  I kind of wanted to become a tree planting hermit after watching this, but decided that I couldn’t give up wearing cute shoes.