Political Science = Funny Stuff

So I'm taking a political science course this year. International Relations, to be specific. Thought it'd be a good follow-up to the semester I spent in Europe. Boy was I wrong. I thought it'd be about real-world diplomacy, rather than political theory. But I digress...

After several months of examination, I've noticed that my textbook has some rather... interesting viewpoints. Here's a few examples:

• The primary source of all the conflict in the world is the anarchic international system. If all the nations of the world forsook their sovereignty and yielded to the authority of an overaching, unified World Government, everything would be better and there would be no war and everyone would be happy and there'd be sunshine and rainbows and unicorns.
• One of the main reasons for terrorism is the unequal distribution of the world's wealth. If we redistribute wealth from the rich countries to the poor, disadvantaged countries (most of whom were abused by their Imperialist colonial masters), then the terrorists won't have anything to be mad about and they'll lay down their arms.
• The Economically Developed Countries deliberately write the rules of International Trade so that they'll stay ultra-rich and the poor, downtrodded Lesser Developed Countries will never, ever be able to grow and become players on the International Stage.
• The reason that the United Nations is ineffective is because the USA won't ever do what the UN tells us to do.

And I thought International Relations was boring. Boy was I wrong. It's freakin' hilarious!

My Brain is Fried

I know, I know. Once again, I've fallen off the post wagon. This semester... I don't even know how to describe it. Super-crazy busy is all I've been able to manage, and that doesn't seem to come close. I have never, ever, I've been working pretty much non-stop since we started; the only real time I've had off were the three snow days two weeks ago. When I do finally finish my homework, I'm so burned out that I can barely think straight. I feel like my brain's been fried.I have never, ever, ever been this busy before at school. It's not just me; everyone I've talked too, even people in different classes (sophomores, etc.) feel the same way. I don't know what's going on...

So, yeah, that's where I've been for the last 7 weeks. I'll post when I can... when I have the energy... but that's not right now... I kinda think I'm gonna go to bed...

Paging Mr. Gore...

Please come to Philadelphia as soon as possible. The residents would like to have a discussion on "Global Warming" with you...



This is what the Raptor's backyard looked like at about 4:00 yesterday. Only difference now is that the sun's out and the snow has stopped. Oh, and there's about See that little black smudge? That's our gas grill. And to give you an idea of just how much snow there is, those railings are about 3 feet high. Right now, you can barely see them.

Classes were canceled for yesterday and today, so I decided to ride the storm out at home. Better than being snowed in my dormitory with a sick roommate (nothing personal, but I really did not want to catch what he had) Not that it makes much of a difference; still have copious amounts of homework to do...

Yeah, Global Warming. Ha. Ha ha. That's funny. Al Gore can come up here and kiss my frozen @$$.

That's Interesting...

Was doing notes for my International Relations Course tonight. The chapter for tomorrow's class is on styles of government. They've got pretty much everything covered; Monarchism, Communism, Democracy, Republic, Fascism... but not Socialism.

Which is odd, because the book (and to a lesser degree, the professor) seems to be trying to preach the values of Socialism and the Global State. Hmm...

That's interesting...

Well, It Finally Happened...

...I've started getting spam comments. So, I'm sorry to say, but word verification has been turned on.

That is all. We now return you to your regularly scheduled life.

NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

I apologize for the light, relatively meaningless posting as of late. I moved back on campus this week and am re-adjusting to college life. As soon as I get settled in (and used to the huge amounts of homework I already have), the substance of my postage should increase.)

What the...? That... that just ain't right....

WARNING!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT SQUEAMISH!

Arm Tattoos? So Over: Eyeball Tattoos Are Latest Trend

If you think tattoos are so over, you've got another thing coming. The latest in permanent ink? Tats on your eyeball. That's right - a sharp stick in the eye.

When doctors do it, it's called corneal tattooing; but when perfectly healthy folks looking for new horizons in tattooing, piercing, scarring, etc., do it, it's nuts.

Last month, the online magazine BMEzine.com (short for Body Modification) started chronicling three people's efforts to turn the whites of their eyes blue.

To tattoo the eyes, they used two different procedures. First they used a traditional needle with ink on it, but when the ink didn't hold, they switched to a syringe that injected ink into the eye. The most recent posts indicate that all was well, with one of the guys saying it felt like he had something in his eye.

Read the whole story here

"It's quite amazing," says Lane Jensen, who saw the tattooing take place at a Canadian body-modification convention earlier this month. "Over the last couple weeks, it's flooded across the white and stained the eyeball perfectly," Jensen, who also publishes Tattoo & Piercing magazine, tells The Post. "It's trippy - and definitely starts some interesting conversations."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291598,00.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r6:c0.000000:b0:z5

I... I just... okay, I honestly thought I was going to puke when I read this. This just ain't right.

Back to the Grind

Moved back onto campus yesterday. So far so good; my roommates seem pretty cool (one brought a grappling hook to campus. No, I'm not kidding) so I think we're going to get along fine.

First day of classes was today. Theories of the Origin of Life... yawn (it's a required class for THC); Studies in Poetry... I dunno, we'll see (required for my major, but I don't mind); and... Fencing. HECK YEAH!!!! We're going to study both European-style fencing (the kind with foils) and Kendo! (Samurai Swords FTW!!!). Yep, this semester's gonna rock.

I've also managed to catch up with pretty much all of my friends. The ones who aren't abroad this semester, that is. Which is surprising, because I've been spending as much time as possible in the dorm. No, I'm not turning into a hermit; it's bloody COLD outside! High of 30 today; that's the warmest it's been in WEEKS!!! It was warmer in the ALPS than it was in Philly. No lie; I checked Accuweather on Saturday; 23 degrees F in Philly, 28 F in Salzburg. Forget Maine; I'm gonna move to Mississippi.

I Hate it When A Re-Make Comes Together

Well, it's official. Hollywood is adding yet another TV-Show-Re-Made-Into-A-Movie to their list of box-office blunders. This time, it's The A-Team.



Is it too much to ask for Hollywood to come up with something completely original? No, Avatar was not an original movie; it was Dances with Wolves on another planet.

EDIT: So, obviously, the trailer got pulled from Vimeo. I did manage to find one on YouTube. Embedding was disables, so click the link to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL8Nw6eQrrk

NEW EDIT: Ignore that; I found a new embeddable version that's actually decent quality.

Congrats, Larry!

Just want to give a quick shout out and say congratulations to Larry Corriea. His novel, Monster Hunter International, has just entered its THIRD PRINTING with Baen Books! Way to go Larry!

If you've been ignoring and my instructions and haven't picked up a copy of MHI yet, FOR GOSH SAKES GET OFF YOUR FAT REAR END AND GO BUY IT!!!! YOU WILL ENJOY IT, I PROMISE!!!

*pantpantpantcoughgaspWHEESE!*

Again, congratulations Larry.

Standard Disclaimer: I am in no way associated professionally with either Larry Correia or Baen Books and am in no way being compensated for this shameless plug.

Contentment

Nothing like a warm pillow, huh?

Welcome to Detroit

And y'all wonder why I freak about about Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and their agenda...

Need Your Prayers

I haven't really posted about this before, but if you've been following my blog for the last year or so, you'll remember that my grandmother, who has Alzheimer's, has been living with us for the last year. Her condition deteriorated pretty rapidly over the three months I was in Europe, so it was something of a shock when I got home.

Anyway, to make a long story short, she developed a pretty bad cough over the last few days. Yesterday, she started running a fever and had incontinent diarrhea. so today my parents took her to the hospital this morning. They spent a couple of hours running tests, and it looks like she has pneumonia. They're keeping her overnight, but I get the feeling that she might be there for a while longer still. Either way, it's going to be a rough Christmas for us.

Please keep me and my family in your prayers.

I Like Guns...

...but you already knew that.



...I am so jealous of that guy...

My Backyard

Yep, that's a good four inches of snow on our back deck. And we're supposed to get upwards of 14 inches total by the time it's all said and done on Sunday night. That's more snow in two days than we've gotten, total, in the last five years!!! The talking heads on TV are already calling this the worst snowstorm in 13 years; remembering the Great Blizzard of 1996, I'm inclined to agree with them. Even better, it typically doesn't start snowing until January or February around here; I can't remember the last time we've seen so much as a flurry in December.

Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, President Obama has pledged 30 Billion Dollars over the next three years and at least 100 Billion Dollars by 2020... to combat Global Warming.

UPDATE, 2:10 PM: As of approx. five minutes ago, the latest forecast from The Weather Channel is calling for between 13 to 20 inches.

Al Gore... Paging Mister Al Gore... Please come to Philadelphia as soon as possible... The people there would like to have a little chat with you about your Global Warming...

Review: Public Enemies

Well, I finally got around to watching Public Enemies, the film about John Dillinger that starred Johnny Depp as Dillinger and Christian Bale as FBI Agent Melvin Purvis. I had high hopes for this film, primarily because Michael Mann directed the film. Mann, in my opinion, is one of if not the best director in the last twenty years.

Sadly, I came away from the film feeling disappointed.

It was not the acting that bothered me. Far from it, both Depp and Bale delivered the stunning performances that you would expect from actors of their caliber. Bale absolutely shines as the dedicated yet way out of his league agent that is Purvis, whilst Depp captures the essence, if not necessarily the soul, of the legendary gangster. My only complaint here is that I don't think Bale's character was given quite enough time on screen.

Mann has recently become controversial for his cinematography techniques in the last few years, primarily because he seems to use a Steadicam less and less often in his films, which leads to a picture that can be quite jerky rough at times. While this doesn't bother me quite as much as it does other people, I do think the technique was overused in this film; previously, Mann had limited it to the action scenes and shootouts that he is famous for, giving them a realistic feeling of chaos and confusion. Here, however, it seems as if most of the film was shot without Steadicam, for no real reason that I can discern.

This leads me to another thing I found lacking in the film; Mann's famous shootouts. Michael Mann is famous for his realistic, heart-stopping action sequences, his two most famous being the infamous bank shootout in Heat and Tom Cruise's gunning down of the two muggers in Collateral. With the exception of the Little Bohemia shootout, this film was virtually devoid of the action that is Mann's trademark.

What bothered me most about the film was the character's. Traditionally, the character's in Michael Mann's films have had an incredible amount of depth to them, with back-stories so detailed and personalities so dynamic that they seem to be real people. Sadly, both Dillinger and Purvis lack this realistic depth. While they are not two-dimensional characters by any stretch, compared to Mann's other works, they feel flat, almost to the point of being uninteresting.

Public Enemies, I would have to say, is overall a good movie. Unfortunately, it is not a great movie, and it nowhere near the usual quality of Michael Mann's films. If you haven't already seen it, I would say maybe give it a watch if you like gangster films or are a fan of either Johnny Depp or Christian Bale, but avoid it if you're a Michael Mann fan, otherwise you will come away, as I did, sorely disappointed with both the film and Mr. Mann.

For the FTC

Just realized that I've made some plugs for a few people and/or organizations here on Raptor's Nest, which could potentially be viewed as violations of the FTC's new rules regarding endorsements.

Just to be clear, I am in no way affiliated with Larry Correia, Crusader Weaponry, Trinity Airsoft, or any other person/company I may have mentioned in the past. Yes, I own a copy of Correia's novel Monster Hunter International, but I paid for it out of my own pocket from Barnes & Noble (not affiliated with them either; paid full price for it). Likewise, I paid full price, out of my own pocket, for the airsoft gun I bought from Trinity Airsoft. That was over a year ago, I doubt they remember I exist anymore. And no, I don't own anything from Crusader (yet), but when I do buy a Partisan or their new Broadsword, rest assured that I will pay for it, full price, out of my own pocket.

This ends my long-winded, overblown disclaimer. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

I Wasn't Gone That Long!

• I found Cherry Dr. Pepper on the shelf in a restaurant today.
• Allen Iverson is playing for the 76ers. Again.
• Brett Farve is a Viking.
• Global Warming has (finally) been exposed as a bunch of bulls***.
• Obama is actually in favor of a troop surge in Afghanistan.
• My brother wears jeans on a daily basis.
  

Geez. Leave the country for three months and everything gets all screwed up!

For The Love Of...!!!!!

Normally, I love Gmail. Say what you will about Google and their politics, but out of all the web-based email providers I have experience with, Gmail is, IMHO, the best.

However, there is one thing about them that drives me crazy.

One of the benefits of Gmail is that it allows you to link to other email accounts and send/receive mail from those accounts. I have such an arrangement set up with an old Verizon E-Mail account that I never use anymore. Thing is, I still get loads of spam sent to that address, and every few six months or so, either Verizon or GMail empties its spam filter into my GMail inbox.

Guess what happened today.

I've spent pretty much all day cleaning out both my GMail inbox and Spam Filter. I swear, I've deleted over 200 spam messages in the last four hours, and they're still coming in!!! [CENSORED]!!!!! As I just typed that last paragraph,another one just popped up in my Inbox! Man, this is such a PITA.

Well, whatever. I guess all I can do is deal with it. Just needed to vent, I guess (God this is annoying.)

Well, Peace (or at least there will be when the flow of Spam stops)

-Raptor

Bohemian Muppets

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Not that this video has anything to do with Thanksgiving, but whatever...



Thanks to nerdjedi for sending me this. You rock, bro.