A Hobbit by Any Other Name Would Smell Less Infringing

Posted on October 23, 2013 by wellsdc

The Asylum is an interesting film production company. On the one hand, I give them props for sheer brazenness. In addition to sharing Sharknado with the world, this is the company that produces direct-to-cable or -DVD films that often bear remarkable resemblances to, and with release dates in close proximity to, major Hollywood films. When I Am Legend came out in 2007, The Asylum released I Am Omega (or I Am Ωmega). (That’s even funnier if you know the Will Smith movie’s predecessor.) Its counterpart to Roland Emmerich’s 2008 film 10,000 BC was entitled 100 Million BC, and apparently had dinosaurs. The Keanu Reeves-led remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still was joined, so to speak, by The Day the Earth Stopped. Right before the Brendan Fraser film Journey to the Center of the Earth came out in theaters, The Asylum released a film starring Greg Evigan (the other one of My Two Dads) entitled…..Journey to the Center of the Earth. I guess there’s plenty of Jules Verne to go around. The list goes on and on.

For the most part, The Asylum seems to have avoided serious legal entanglements with regard to their films’ occasional similarity to movies that get actual theatrical releases. Sony, which distributed the 2011 film Battle: Los Angeles in the rental market, took legal action against the directors of 2010’s Skyline because of similarities between the two films. The Asylum’s Battle of Los Angeles [emphasis added], released just before Battle: Los Angeles, did not have the same legal issues.

You might think that The Asylum would have some major copyright problems, with a movie like The Terminators coming out close to the same time as Terminator Salvation. You can’t copyright an idea, though. This is how movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact can coexist. Continue reading →

In Space, No One Can Hear You Meow

Posted on October 22, 2013 by wellsdc

I guess this is from the remake of Alien where they replaced all of the humans with cats. I wonder if they replaced Jones the cat with a human.

The Irony-Free ’80s

Posted on October 22, 2013 by wellsdc

Say what you will about ’80s hair metal, but you have to give them this: they did not give a flying fuck what you thought about their clothes or their hair. Maybe it was all the hipster music I heard at the Austin City Limits Festival a few weeks ago, but there’s something sort of liberating about music that is utterly devoid of irony. Your mileage may vary, and that’s cool.

Here’s a bit of ’80s metal. If I recall correctly, this was the first track on Skid Row’s self-titled debut album, meaning that you could listen to it as soon as you got the tape into the deck, without even having to fast-forward.

Here’s a lesser-known bit of ’80s rock, from Shark Island:

The Civil War Really Was About Slavery. Who Knew?

Posted on October 21, 2013 by wellsdc

Out of a snarky Twitter exchange, a small research project was born. A fellow who tweets under the name @defendheritage tweeted the following:

The Battle flag is not a racist symbol, it is a symbol of defiance to government intrusion and a declaration for… http://t.co/ygXYCKPvq1

— Robert Mestas (@defendheritage) October 19, 2013

…which led to an appropriately snarky response from JC Christian:

rt @defendheritage The Battle flag is not a racist symbol / These guys agree pic.twitter.com/dc9A2Rde0L

— Gen JC Christian (@JC_Christian) October 19, 2013

That got me thinking about how people try to say the Civil War was about almost anything except slavery. The most common alternative rationale for the Civil War is “states’ rights [to allow slavery],” which I took the liberty of amending just now. Continue reading →

Monday Morning Cute: Transitional Cuteness

Posted on October 21, 2013 by wellsdc

I’m not sure if Ambondro mahabo is actually a “transitional fossil,” or if it was really as mean as it looks in this artistic representation, or if it was actually blue. It is kind of cute, though.

By Alannis (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

It is also a relative of the echidna and the platypus, and they’re cute in a weird sort of way.

Photo credit: By Alannis (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons.

“The last time hundreds of Texans showed up at the Alamo with rifles…”

Posted on October 19, 2013 by wellsdc

Jerry Patterson, the current Texas Land Commissioner and candidate for Lieutenant Governor, is promoting a rally (or some other sort of event with people) at the Alamo in San Antonio, at which everyone is encouraged to carry their guns openly. This would be in violation of a city ordinance that gun people think is unconstitutional, and openly flouting the law in massive numbers is just so much more fun than challenging it in court, right?

Anyway, there’s a term for this: civil disobedience. Of course, when liberals practice civil disobedience, they often expect to get arrested. We’ll see how the liberty-loving folk packing heat at the Alamo handle it today.

One thing Patterson said causes me some concern, though: “The last time hundreds of Texans showed up at the Alamo with rifles, they were hailed as heroes in their stand against a tyrannical government.”

They also all died.

Photo credit: “The Fall of the Alamo” by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The Quest to Repeal the 17th Amendment, Because of Reasons

Posted on October 18, 2013 by wellsdc

By Udo J. Keppler, 1872-1956 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Apparently the 17th Amendment saved America from a giant octopus named Standard Oil, or something.

A movement is afoot among certain people on the right end of the political spectrum to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This movement seems unlikely to rile up the masses, given that the changes brought by the Seventeenth Amendment are pretty much presumed to be the status quo at this stage of America. Understanding what the 17th Amendment does, and why it was enacted in the first place, is at least as important as understanding why some people want to repeal it. I have some idea as to why it was enacted, ratified, etc., but I’m still working on understanding the reasons for seeking repeal.

What is the Seventeenth Amendment?

The Constitution, in Article III, Section 3, Clauses 1 and 2, originally provided for election of U.S. Senators by state legislatures.

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.

The Seventeenth Amendment superseded the parts in bold. It pretty much took those provisions verbatim, except that it replaced references to state legislatures with references to “the people.”

Drawing from the resources available to me on a laptop in a coffeehouse (Justia and Wikipedia), I can say that much of the impetus for the 17th Amendment was “popular dissatisfaction with the operation of the originally established method of electing Senators.” As more and more people got the right to vote, people began to think that they should be able to elect senators directly. The idea had apparently come up multiple times since the 1820’s, but didn’t make it into the Constitution until 1913.

What’s the problem with directly electing Senators? Continue reading →

This Week in WTF, October 18, 2013

Posted on October 18, 2013 by wellsdc

Kitty is shocked! Shocked I say!

– You know, I never really intended this to be a series on weird sex stories, but it seems to work out that way quite a bit. “Florida threesome turns violent when one partner has ‘thrust issues,’ say police.”

– This happened in England:

A near-toothless Dover man has been jailed for eight years for biting and gnawing a neighbour’s penis in a row over loud music.

Photo credit: CANDROVIKTOR from morguefile.com.

The Coming Class Action Lawsuit Against Big Gay

Posted on October 17, 2013 by wellsdc

Via southpark.wikia.com

Rick Scarborough thinks that the threat of homosexuality merits a class action lawsuit similar to those waged against the tobacco industry, according to Right Wing Watch. In a conversation with Peter LaBarbera, they reportedly said:

Scarborough: Peter, the whole issue of a class action lawsuit, you and I have talked about this a little bit. I just wonder if you’ve explored that, talked to anyone about it. Obviously, statistically now even the Centers for Disease Control verifies that homosexuality much more likely leads to AIDS than smoking leads to cancer. And yet the entire nation has rejected smoking, billions of dollars are put into a trust fund to help cancer victims and the tobacco industry was held accountable for that. Any thoughts on that kind of an approach?

LaBarbera: Yeah I think that’s great. I would love to see it. We always wanted to see one of the kid in high school who was counseled by the official school counselor to just be gay, then he comes down with HIV. But we never really got the client for that.

Are they talking about suing school counselors? Is Big Gay composed of people with bachelor’s degrees in social work who are employed by county-level school districts? As far as corporate conspiracies go, that’s pretty darn thin.

Seriously, though, whom does he intend to sue? You have to identify and serve a defendant to have a lawsuit. No matter how difficult obtaining service of process may be—even if you have to go through a back door—you can’t have a lawsuit without a defendant and adequate notice. Otherwise, who’s going to set up a trust fund for AIDS victims that’s analogous to the fund set up for cancer victims? I ask because it sure as shit isn’t going to be Rick Scarborough or Peter LaBarbera.

Post-Shutdown Thoughts, Penal Edition

Posted on October 17, 2013 by wellsdc

Here’s a bit of wisdom from Australian astrophysicist Katie Mack.

If the #shutdown is ending, let's remember that when a hostage-taker releases the hostages, he doesn't get a "thank you." He goes to jail.

— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) October 17, 2013

I’m not saying her status as an Australian astrophysicist has any specific relevance to the matter at hand, but it sounds really cool.

Cryptic Philosopher

What was Sundered and Undone