When your sister is attacked by a moose, what do you do hotshot? Well, if you are a well-trained World of Warcraft player, you know to distract the moose with your actions, lead it away from your sister, then feign death until it goes away.
Day: December 8, 2007
The Golden Compass viewer reviews
I’ve recently spent some time reading user reviews of the movie The Golden Compass on Yahoo. I just want to point out to all the people there complaining about the movie that a) you are an idiot if you rate a movie you haven’t even seen just because it has a different message than you feel comfortable hearing/sharing, b) America was most emphatically NOT founded as a Christian nation, and therefore this movie is not anti-America, and c) you should rate the fucking movie, not spew your own god damn beliefs and how they differ from the hidden/obvious/subtle/subliminal/obnoxious message in the movie.
I haven’t seen the movie nor read the book, so I can’t review it. I do plan on seeing the movie, and if I do I will share thoughts if anyone is interested. I happen to believe in a God with a sense of humor, open mind, and interest in people making decisions on their own. Therefore, I’m pretty sure he/she would approve of me watching the movie and deciding on my own whether or not it is a good movie.
[tags]The Golden Compass, Fucking idiots, Learn history[/tags]
For sale: One Magna Carta – gently used
Folks, I know some of you are collectors. And some of you probably have a few million dollars to spare. Of that small group of my amazing collected readership, I’m sure at least a few thousand are also historical artifact fanatics. For those few, I would like to point out the impending sale of one original, signed, limited edition Magna Carta documents, up for auction by Sotheby’s. It is one of only 2 copies known to exist outside of Britain – the other in the land of prisoners, kangaroos and dingoes known as Australia.
In the year 1215, a group of English barons handed King John a document written on parchment. Put your royal seal on this, they said. John did, and forever changed the relationship between the monarchy and those it governed.
. . .
While that original edict was initially ignored and John died the next year, its key ideas were included in other variations over the next few decades, most notably the right of Habeas Corpus, which protects citizens against unlawful imprisonment.
Of course, that most notable right is no longer honored in America, but many other democracies around the world still have ideas originated in the Magna Carta as the basis for their rules and rights.
So, how much will it be to take this treasure into your own home?
The document, which Sotheby’s vice chairman David Redden calls “the most important document in the world,” is expected to fetch a record $20-30 million.
Personally, I’m guessing it will go for more than that. In recent years, so many things of real or imagined import seem to have gone for far more than expected by the auctioneers. I’m going to peg this at $44-45 million. What say we check back in two weeks and see how much this will cost Santa to deliver to some lucky and wealthy collector? Same web-channel, same web-dork.
[tags]Magna Carter, Writ of Habeas Corpus, Birth of democracy, Sotheby’s[/tags]