Defiantone.com

Its eight o’clock and I want to watch TV. The Olympics, along with some obscure and nearly unwatchable sports, are gone and back is the regular television schedule. Unfortunately, on the second night on Olympics free television I’ve found that everything that I want to watch has been preempted by the Democratic National Convention. Hillary is jabbering at the moment about blue collared Americans - she hasn’t really mentioned wall street employees and members of the financial sector - how odd for a Democrat to make such a major gaffe. Uh oh… here comes the let’s think about the children line. What a trite and tired line - I love politics but come on. This is why I love the internet. I can get a full transcript of this speech in a couple of hours when I’ll have the time to properly dissect it. Most of us are only watching this because there is nothing else on at the moment - we really don’t care. In fact, the overwhelming majority of us are already decided and only a minority can be considered swing voters. As a swing voter I think they’re making a mistake. They really don’t want to piss off a potential voter by preempting my regular television schedule. It’s time to pack it up DNC - go to bed - I’ve got some TV to watch.

Political correctness has been on a rampage for years and it’s time to give it a rest. Giants of industry have been sued for their description or portrayal of minorities or individuals with disabilities. It’s high time that these people stop wearing their hearts on their sleeves and start growing a backbone. What has drawn my ire today? The Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles and the Disability Rights Coalition is up in arms about the upcoming Ben Stiller flick ‘Tropic Thunder.’

Tropic Thunder

In the movie, Stiller’s character makes reference to a movie where he portrayed a retard in a fake movie called Simple Jack. (note: at one point there was a spoof movie site - the hubub has caused someone to think twice and remove it) The coalition isn’t too happy with Stiller’s portrayal. It’s a shame when people are born with disabilities and it downright sucks - but - the movie wasn’t making fun of disabilities. There were making light of how actors will attempt to gain favor with Oscar and Emmy voters by taking a challenging role of a disabled person. Has anyone ever seen Rainman?

Their demands are quite extensive - they want free screenings, public apologies, film editing, removal of specific film promotions, specifically created trailers, a national educational and advertising campaign, and a film studio summit.

This situation is just ridiculous. Feel free to read all of the gory details at Film School Rejects

I’ll give you a second to let all of that sink in. You’re probably wondering what I was when I first heard about this - uhh…. what happened to free speech? They aren’t exactly yelling “FIRE” in a crowded theater. People aren’t being hurt by the movie. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.

This particular post was not inspired by some random urge to write about the state that for the longest time I knew as my home. In fact, I’m only writing about Iowa because someone else did all of the hard work for me.

The Iowa State Fair is probably going full swing right now and it’s quite an event if you should ever happen to be stuck in the midwest in the hottest (and muggiest) part of the year. The fair, as far as I know, is probably the largest and most iconic in America - I may be incorrect but I’m not going to bother a google search to find out if I’m wrong - I’m going to rely on someone leaving a comment and pointing out the error of my ways. What you may not know about the state fair, aside from where you can find Iowa on a US map (when someone is unable to name a state based upon the shape alone I get annoyed - don’t they teach geography anymore? I can probably still name all of the state capitals to a 80% accuracy and I doubt that I will ever travel to Montpelier (the capital of VT)), is that they love to hold contests of all sorts - some of them quite bizarre. If you’re traveling to the fair from the east via I-80 you’re bound to pass another Iowa oddity - the worlds largest truck stop

I love Iowa - I just don’t think I could live there and maintain my sanity - I do like to visit when I’ve got a chance - They have great pies (thank you Amana colony pie lady), great vegetables (hooray for corn!), fantastic thunderstorms (the damn mountains greatly diminish the odds of thunderstorms in this part of the country), and…. oh yeah, most of my family still resides in Iowa.

We have the option of using headsets and talking to anyone we desire via VOIP with the computers in the internet “cafe”. Normally, I can blank out any other conversations but the guy next to me is a complete and total idiot. The person on the other end of the conversation has got to be slightly retarded. He spends most of the time explaining, in intricate detail, the most mundane and commonly known things. He has talked about how phones are great because you can call anywhere in the world (duh), he has cried about mortar attacks (whiner - there aren’t that many), and how hard it is over here (it isn’t). I’m surprised that he hasn’t yet discussed how the sun tends to heat the middle east to seasonably warmer temperatures due to its proximity to the equator. Maybe after that he’ll talk about how consuming water will keep you alive. If nothing else, he might talk about how dropping heavy objects on your foot can be painful.

If there were justice someone - me maybe - would punch him in the back of the skull and tell him to think before he utters another word. Maybe I’m in a bad mood, maybe I sound like this on the phone - but, then again, this guy could be the biggest tool in Iraq. No, let me take that back - he is more than a tool, more than a tool box, more than a tool shed. I think this guy qualifies as a tool emporium.

Odds are is that he is an officer - oh well