My posts here have been far too infrequent which seems odd considering how much has been going on as of late. I don't fool myself into thinking there are droves of people looking forward to these posts, I write them because I enjoy writing in general - not necessarily writing well given the sloppiness and the typos. Maybe there's a way to get back to some semblance of a schedule as things get interesting.
First off, something that affects millions of Americans everywhere and something that we've remained silent on for far too long.
I've always suspected something was off when I wolfed down a Subway footlong, but I always suspected that it was how the sandwich basically had no flavor regardless of what ingredients they threw on the bread. Every sandwich basically tastes like iceberg lettuce, which basically tastes like nothing. I'm willing to bet that Subway's culinary wizards have even found a way to make their lettuce-free melts taste like iceberg lettuce.
Having said that, the NY Post and its tag-team investigative effort took to the streets to confirm a photo that went viral on the internet. The piece cuts through corporate slight-of-hand like "shrinkage," where Subway unintentionally linked the mental image of men's balls to its bread. In the end, the Post's fearless reporting got Subway on record admitting that eleven inches just isn't good enough for their standards, giving them more in common with the porn industry than ever before.
Second... The Hobbit. People who know me know I have a love of film, I've studied film production, and I've made a career of it (so far... sort of...). What intrigued me about Peter Jackson's latest dive into Middle Earth wasn't the chance to once again show up to a midnight premiere dressed as Galadriel, but the new high-frame rate 3D technology used to photograph the film.
I won't spend too much time on this, but basically a typical movie screens at 24 frames per second (fps). 3D movies, because of techniques used to separate the two images to create the 3D effect, often look blurry when shown at 24fps. This blur not only makes the image look like crap during an action scene, it can lead to headaches for the viewers. Jackson filmed The Hobbit at 48fps, double the frames of information. It cured the blurriness I've seen in the few 3D non-animatied films I've seen, it made every movement in every action scene crisp and readable. It also looked like crap.
People complain about how high frame rates make the footage look like a soap opera, and The Hobbit didn't disappoint. That soap opera look shown through the most in daylight scenes, making Middle Earth feel low budget. Shooting digitally meant that every daytime sky looked washed out and the colors as a whole felt flat. The 48fps made certain movements on screen feel like they were sped up almost to unintentionally comic effect. And 3D sucks, as does the use of 2D film techniques in a 3D medium for no reason. So 48fps solves problems created by filming in 3D while making everything look worse. A visual self-inflicted wound (3D) gets a treatment (48fps) instead of not inflicting the wound in the first place (Christopher Nolan's F You to pressure to film Batman in 3D).
There's no way Peter Jackson can look at the 48fps 3D version and feel satisfied across the board. In conclusion, this "get off my lawn" dinosaur will take my movies the old-fashioned way... missionary and in 2D. Wait, I meant-
Moving on. Vice-President Joe Biden handed off his gun control findings to President Obama a few days ago, and President Obama wasted no time putting out his plan. The plan involves a combination of executive actions and a request to Congress for legislative action. Here's a pretty concise summary of what the plan entails, thanks to
WILX 10 News.
NEEDS CONGRESSIONAL ACTION:
-- Requiring background checks on all gun sales. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence says 40 percent of gun sales are conducted with no criminal background check, such as at gun shows and by private sellers over the Internet or through classified ads. Obama said there should be exceptions for cases like certain transfers among family members and temporary transfers for hunting purposes.
-- Reinstating the assault weapons ban. A 10-year ban on high-grade, military-style weapons expired in 2004. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says such a ban might clear the Senate but doubts it could get through the House.
-- Renewing a 10-round limit on the size of ammunition magazines.
-- Prohibiting the possession, transfer, manufacture and import of dangerous armor-piercing bullets.
-- Senate confirmation of a director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The agency has been run by an acting director, Todd Jones, whom Obama will nominate to become director.
-- New gun trafficking laws penalizing people who help criminals get guns.
----EXECUTIVE ORDER:
-- Address legal barriers in health laws that bar some states from making available information about people who are prohibited from having guns.
-- Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
-- Make sure that federal agencies share relevant information with the background check system.
-- Direct the attorney general to work with other agencies to review existing laws to make sure they can identify individuals who shouldn't have access to guns.
-- Direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other research agencies to conduct research into the causes and prevention of gun violence.
-- Clarify that no federal law prohibits doctors or other health care providers from contacting authorities when patients threaten to use violence.
-- Give local communities the opportunity to hire up to 1,000 school resource officers and counselors.-- Require federal law enforcement to trace all recovered guns.
-- Propose regulations that will enable law enforcement to run complete background checks before returning firearms that have been seized.
-- Direct the Justice Department to analyze information on lost and stolen guns and make that information available to law enforcement.
-- Provide training for state and local law enforcement, first responders and school officials on how to handle active-shooter situations.
-- Make sure every school has a comprehensive emergency management plan.
-- Help ensure that young people get needed mental health treatment.
-- Ensure that health insurance plans cover mental health benefits.
-- Encourage development of new technology to make it easier for gun owners to safely use and store their guns.
-- Have the Consumer Product Safety Commission assess the need for new safety standards for gun locks and gun safes.
-- Launch a national campaign about responsible gun ownership.
From the Congressional Action section, the only thing I can see that might be considered a total affront to the second amendment is the assault weapons ban. Nothing else there would prevent law-abiding citizens from exercising their second amendment rights, assuming you're not one of the those who insist that any action whatsoever ever that even mentions the word gun totally tramples on the almighty ghosts of our founding fathers and their second "whoops" in the initial lineup of ten.
The items under the Executive Order section seem to feel pretty second amendment-friendly to me as well, but I'm a bleeding heart liberal, so I imagine that's not surprising.
So right on cue, despite a lot of these measures having broad national support, Congressional leaders start their retreat away from what many people want to the bitch comfort of the NRA. And by bitch comfort, I mean irrational, cowardly fear.
In an Et Tu Brutus fashion, we start with Senate Democrats.
You would think that one of the 200+ groups Biden met with would include his own team in the Senate... anyway, here's one quote.
"We must find a way to balance our Second Amendment rights with the challenges of mental illness, criminal behavior and the safety of our schools and communities," Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said in a statement, noting Louisiana's tradition of hunting, target shooting and gun collecting. She said she would give the proposals "serious consideration."
I find this to be a somewhat dumb statement on some levels. I don't think we need to balance the second amendment with the challenges of mental illness. Those things feel like they should have some space between them. There's no balancing of our Second Amendment rights and criminal behavior, criminals forfeit a number of rights when they choose to break social contracts.
Which leaves the final part of Senator Landrieu's statement. Does Obama's plan balance the Second Amendment with the safety of our communities? I would argue it does. We put more effort into tracking pets than we do weapons. We willingly carry phones with GPS trackers built in, but the moment anyone suggests we try and get a handle on just what the hell is going on with guns, advocates freak out.
As I said, I don't feel the proposed measures prevent a law-abiding citizen from acquiring a gun and I think we've clearly demonstrated that the status quo doesn't have the right mix of guns and people not getting slaughtered. So let's give it a shot. Something doesn't work, we'll adjust. Something does prove to infringe on the Second Amendment, challenge it and it will get taken care of. Our democracy is an on-going experiment, so let's try an experiment that could save lives, even if only a few.
Or we can all just wait for the Congressional puss-ing out to begin because it seems like it's the only thing they know how to do at this point.
