Well duh!

Unsurprisingly, Herman Cain has raised more money from donors since the allegations of sexual harassment have been revealed.  Well anyway, unsurprising to those of us who know anything about the how the Republican mind works. It paradoxically celebrates and rewards politicians who sexually infantualize women while simultaneously condemning the "liberal" media that exposes it (even though it was logically the Perry or Romney campaign that leaked it). It's legitimately a win-win for a Republican candidate. That's why I don't think Rick Perry's already famous debate gaffe will hurt him that much (if at all).  The truth is, most Republican activists celebrate and reward stupidity.  I mean this literally. When choosing candidates, this is a feature not a bug.  I mean just watch this clip again below (I can't even make it through it myself).  For the right wing, Rick Perry is super Jesus + super George Bush combined.  I guarantee you, he will be still be a player in the Republican field. He may not be smart, but he's smart enough to know we need to get rid of those big bad government bureaucracies! He can't name them, but we know they're bad!

One day

If I ever find the opportunity to liveblog the first season of Transformers while under the influence, I guarantee you it will be the best, most funny thing I ever write.  Season One is like the Treasure of Sierra Madre of nostalgic and comedic gold.  It's just amazing.  In the meantime, here's a picture of Thundercracker, who was the most underrated Decepticon of his time. Look at'em!  He's just havin' a great time!

Manipulating Audiences

So I got back into wrestling recently, due 100% to a worked shoot from CM Punk. It was pretty awesome.  It's the WWE equivalent of painting cocks on a wall. He knocks down the fourth wall and he really takes on the system at the WWE in an aggressive manner.  The episode caused a phenomenon in WWE, particularly due to a series of worked shoots with Punk and John Cena that were really quite good and they almost pulled off the impossible, which is make me like John Cena.  So of course, the writers milked it for about 5 weeks and then they inexplicably killed the storyline.  I really have no idea why.  Anyway, this is the video that launched the storyline.

I bring this up in a roundabout way (like all of my blogging), of mentioning that I'm always impressed by wrestling's ability to manipulate audiences. I mean, if the writers decide one character is a face ("good guy") one week and a heel ("bad guy") the next week, the audiences instantly fall into line.  I almost always root for the heels - they definitely have funnier and more compelling storylines. I mean, how can you not love, say, Chris Jericho, just lacing into his audience.  It's awesome.  But then you have these kiss ass "good guys" who the audiences just go ga-ga over.  I'm always amazed how easy it is.  One day Santino Marella is despised by the WWE audience, the next day he's a lovable loser that the audience goes ape-shit over.  Forget about falling into line, these people melt into line. That's why if I ever ran for office, or even staffed a campaign office, I'd hire a WWE writer.  I mean, these guys get shit done, and I just don't know how they do it.  I mean, there are theories right?  WWE fans are just a bunch of dumb, red-necked yahoos who will buy into anything.  And I say, yeah, so what?  If you can get them to buy ratty t-shirts by the millions and pony up $100 for Wrestlemania tickets, can't you get them to the polls?  A vote is a vote.  They don't weigh votes by education level, or income level.  If I get Obama to hit current enemy du jour Kevin Nash over the head with a chair, will he carry South Carolina? Will Elizabeth Warren smoke Scott Brown in Massachusetts if she tag teams with John Cena during Summer Slam? Cause as a campaign strategist, I'd say bring it on.

Bridesmaids

I'm a little bit surprised that Bridesmaids was as good as advertised.  I mean, it looked good, and the reviews were just excellent, but sometimes a movie can be overpraised to the point where expectations are just raised too high (The Sixth Sense is a good example).  But Bridesmaids was pretty damn funny.  The second half definitely lagged but Kristen Wiig is compelling enough to suffer through the drama portion of the movie.  And congratulations to Maya Rudolph for finally playing a character I didn't hate.  I didn't think she had it in her!

Anyway, this post is just a roundabout way to link to Mia Rose Frampton (Peter Frampton's daughter) just crushin' Wiig in this deleted scene from the movie. If this was improvised (and even if it's not), this girl has an amazing comedic future.

Can a man join a yoga class?

I have to say, I've always been a little intrigued by yoga classes.  It DOES look relaxing and let's face it, it does not seem particularly tiring (I'm not talking about hot yoga which I have no interest in).  So from time to time, I've been intrigued by the idea of joining a yoga class.  If it works, God knows I could benefit from the stress release.  However, I'm always plagued by the nagging suspicion that I'll be viewed negatively by my fellow female yoga attendees because the females outnumber the guys by such a great number that, if I'm there, I must be either gay, or, I'm there for less noble, pervy reasons (i.e. watching a predominantly attractive female class stretch themselves into pretzels). Here's what makes things worse - if I ever did join, I would be there for the females! They would have me dead to rights! Not in a pervy sense or anything. Clearly there are easier ways for a male to get there perv on in the year 2011.  But in the sense that I would like to meet females in the class. I mean, it's tough to meet girls.  Does it make me a terrible person if I put myself in a position where I can more easily meet women? Or am I invading an outlet where women normally feel free from prying male eyes?  I feel like it's the latter.  But that could be my Catholic guilt talking.  I honestly want to know - if I join, say, a free yoga class at my gym, am I just a super-perv? Female feedback is appreciated!

Whatever

Heavy D sucks - long live Biz Markie!

A request

Are there cool, ironic, and snarky websites for pop culture that I can link to from my blog?  I already have Grantland and Deadspin. What else? TWOP is good, but a little different than what I'm looking for.  Gawker is not really my thing.  So what's good out there?

A sad reminder

I know I'm going to get into trouble for "politicizing" this, but the situation At Penn State is a very sad reminder that people in power protect other people in power.  And people like Joe Paterno, and the Athletic Directors at the Penn State, and campus administrators are powerful people (in every sense of the word), who protected a despicable human being because a) he was also powerful b) it would be embarrassing to their powerful positions and c) powerful people believe (for the most part correctly) that they are above the law.  Now, this wouldn't be the most horrific thing in the world if we had a press corps that held powerful people accountable, but by and large we do not have such a thing.  JoPa, who by most accounts has probably been senile for about 8 years, has been venerated as some moral, untouchable wise man whose character is beyond question.  Jim Tressel was seen that way too. John Calipari has probably broken every single NCAA rule in the book and he just gets rewarded with more wins and much more money at more prestigious programs.  I guess he gets the run of the joint until he fucks a horse or something.
Of course, journalistic deferential to authority figures is not exclusive to the sporting world - it just happens to be the most recent example.  But we don't need a lot of reminders of powerful people protecting other powerful people in other fields like art, religion, business, and politics.  It's why Hollywood cheered that child rapist Roman Polanski at the Oscars a few years back.  It's why Scooter Libby and Karl Rove outed an active and effective CIA agent and they were either effectively pardoned or not prosecuted at all.  It's why not one higher up individual has been prosecuted for the torture and illegal rendition conducted at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and other secret rendition sites across Europe and the Middle East.  It's why the Catholic Church transferred priests around the country and covered-up the rapes of thousands and thousands young boys and girls around the world. It's why not a single banker has been prosecuted for destroying the world economy through deviousness, lies, cheating, and outright fraud. The only remedy against such injustice, I mean the only remedy, is a watchful and dutiful press core that is skeptical of press releases, of candidate statements, of PR spin and of power in general.  But this is not what we see.  We see authoritarian veneration.  We see any unwillingess to raise flags, or alarms, or even question our societal elites. There is a very important difference between us and the powerful.  We get fired for ironic facebook posts.  They get promoted for covering up financial fraud, spying on their own citizens, raping young children, and lying their way into wars.  I'm just not sure what we can do about it all...

What's crazy about all of this is that I still believe government is ultimately a force for good in this world - but we must watch our watchmen.  And right now, we don't.

UPDATE: I guess now we know why Penn State canceled JoPa's press conference. This is what he said to a group of students huddled outside his door today:

"It's hard for me to tell you how much this means to me. I've lived for this place, and I've lived for people like you guys and girls, and I'm just so happy to see that you could feel so strongly about us and about your school. The kids that were victims or whatever they want to say, I think we all ought to say a prayer for them. Tough life, when people do certain things to you. Anyway, you've been great. Everything's great, all right."

What an insufferable prick.  What a doddering old man.  "The kids that were victims or whatever they want to say"??? "Everything's great, all right"??? Fire this asshole already.


UPDATE II: Want to see more MEDIA FAIL?  Look at it preeminently whitewash and edit Paterno's statement above. Who needs PR flacks when the media will clean your reputation for you?