RandySF
RandySF's JournalJapanese fans accuse the new 'American' Godzilla of being too fat
The new trailer for impending summer blockbuster Godzilla finally gives fans a glimpse of the monster in all his glory and some fans have been quick to point out that he is looking a little on the hefty side.
The character was originally created for a 1954 Japanese sci-fi movie and it is fans in that country that has been quick to voice that alarm at the bulkier version on display in the latest Hollywood re-imagination.
Fans on internet forum 2ch had comments such as 'Did he get fat?' and 'That's what happens when all you do is eat and lay around.'
Others commenting described him as 'out of shape', with either 'no neck' or one 'like an American football athlete's.'
One user said simply: 'He's gone Supersize Me,' while another was more forgiving and described him as 'pudgy and cute'.
Some viewers thought he looked like 'a komodo dragon', as another asked if he was 'Sin from Final Fantasy X', and someone explained that he must have become 'beefed up from the radiation at Fukushima.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2615908/New-Godzilla-trailer-gives-closer-look-monster-finally-reveals-enemies.html#ixzz30pCU2l2A
ACA: 87% of signups were previously uninsured.
One of the more interesting parts of the March/April HHS report is that they finally released the data for the "Are you currently insured?" question on the HC.gov enrollment process.
Given all the fuss about "But how many were ALREADY INSURED???" from various outlets, this would seem to be a bit of a Holy Grail answer: At last, we know the answer, and it's pretty impressive: Only 13% responded that they had health insurance coverage at the time of their application, meaning a whopping 87% were newly insured! Wowzers!!
HOWEVER...there's a LOT of caveats here, just as there were with the infamous McKinsey study which claimed only 27% were previously uninsured back in February.
http://acasignups.net
FL Teabagger blocks financial literacy course in state schools
It’s hard to find a bigger loser than Marlene O’Toole this legislative session.
She singlehandedly blocked the Money Course, a favorite of this blogger, which would have required a financial literacy course in high school.
The measure would have required the Florida Department of Education to work with nonprofit organizations to develop standards, curriculum and professional development guidelines for teaching financial literacy. Who knows — this could have benefited not only the next generation of Floridians, but perhaps also their teachers and parents in the process.
What’s worse? O’Toole told the Associated Press she supported it but didn’t have time to hear it in her committee.
You know who that pissed off? The Florida Chamber of Commerce, CFO Jeff Atwater, the Florida Council on Economic Education, the Florida Bankers Association, the Business Section of the Florida Bar, the Florida Prosperity Partnership, and any other rational person watching this bill.
HB 367, sponsored by Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen and cosponsored by, oh, just a bipartisan coalition of more than a third of the entire House, never had a hearing.
Meanwhile, its companion bill (SB 212), sponsored by Sen. Dorothy Hukill, made its way through two committees before halting on April 9 — due to the House’s failure to do its part.
If O’Toole doesn’t fix this next year, she will secure herself a position in the Saint Petersblog Losers Hall of Fame.
http://www.saintpetersblog.com/2014-legislative-session-loser-rep-marlene-otoole
Combat veteran convicted for hitting someone in the nose; Scott Walker is not issuing pardons
he transition from decorated Iraq War veteran to felon happened in an instant for Eric Pizer.
A night of drinking. One punch. A broken nose. A felony charge.
Pizer wishes he could take back that moment in 2004 just two days after he returned to Wisconsin from the war.
He can’t......
During his four years in the Marines, the 6-foot-2 former high school wrestler and football player excelled, earning two commendations and the rank of corporal.
Pizer served two tours of duty, one in Kuwait and one in Iraq. During that deployment, he faced peril on refueling missions from bombs hidden along the roads and from rocket-propelled grenades fired into the Al Asad Airbase, where he was stationed.
One night, Pizer said, a grenade hit the wall just outside his tent, blasting him out of his bunk.
His second deployment was voluntary, said Tim Woods, a fellow Marine who is now an officer for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department in Bridgeton, N.J....
The only option Pizer and his attorneys see now is for Walker or a future governor to issue a pardon. That action would not erase the conviction but would restore Pizer’s right to possess a firearm, which he needs to become a police officer.
But the governor, who has sole discretion over pardons, is not accepting any applications.
Pizer and his advocates haven’t applied for a pardon but stand ready to do so if Walker changes his mind.
http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/combat-veteran-seeks-relief-from-felony-conviction-scott-walker-is/article_6e7714ac-4fb1-5d04-a773-506c65a97ee9.html#ixzz30lvDKkvR
This thing with Cliven Bundy is not going to end well.
BUNKERVILLE — American flags flap in the wind on the two-lane state highway to Cliven Bundy's ranch. Along the roadside, self-described militia members in camouflage who came to defend him from the federal government lounge and smoke, loaded pistols on their hips.
Ten miles from these desert encampments, the telephone is ringing more than usual at the police department in Mesquite, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
Travelers from around the country are calling, wondering if it's safe to pass on Interstate 15, where Bundy and his supporters, some armed with military-style weapons, faced down federal officials in an April 12 standoff over his cattle grazing on federal land.
Police Chief Troy Tanner tells callers it's safe. But local authorities and Bundy's neighbors are growing weary of the attention and the unresolved dispute. Since the standoff, Bundy went from being proclaimed a patriot by some for his resistance to a racist for comments he made about blacks being better off under slavery.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/may/01/militia-digs-neighbors-tired-cliven-bundy-brouhaha/
Diagnosing Paul Ryan’s psychopathy: Arrogant, manipulative, deceitful, remorseless
A flim-flam artist is a specific kind of con-man, and a con-man, in turn, is often enough a specific kind of psychopath. Although it’s impossible to clinically diagnose someone from a distance, I believe a good case can be made that Ryan has exhibited classic signs of psychopathic traits, especially in two closely related dimensions, the interpersonal dimension: glibness/superficial charm (just look at how the Beltway press falls for him), grandiose sense of self-worth (it never bothers Ryan however wrong he may be about anything), cunning/manipulative (see how effortlessly he got a positive-looking photo-op with the Congressional Black Caucus, without giving up a single thing), and pathological lying (calling his decades-long devotion to Ayn Rand “an urban legend”), as well as the affective dimension: lack of remorse or guilt, and failure to accept responsibility for own actions (failure to apologize for his racist remarks about “inner-city culture,” brushing it off as merely being “inarticulate”), emotionally shallow and callous/lack of empathy (his draconian budget cuts, which would take us back to Dickensian England).
Simply listing those examples is not a proper argument, of course. Doing that would take a much longer and more ambitious effort. But it is an indication that such an argument could be made — and that people really should stop simply assuming that Ryan will act like a normal non-psychopathic person does. At the very least, we should keep an open mind — maybe he’ll act like a psychopath, maybe he won’t. Let’s watch closely, and see how things turn out.
However, there are two more reasons to suspect Ryan of being psychopathic. The first is his long-term devotion to Ayn Rand, the second his totally unconvincing split from her — and other similarly unconvincing acts of reinvention he’s performed from time to time.
Ryan’s devotion to Rand is problematic because, as conservative crime novelist Michael Prescott explained, Rand herself modeled the protagonist of her first novel, Danny Renahan, on a notorious serial killer, William Edward Hickman, the most despicable sort of psychopath there is. It was her first-draft portrayal of her ideal man, and in a journal entry she wrote:
“[Renahan] is born with a wonderful, free, light consciousness — [resulting from] the absolute lack of social instinct or herd feeling. He does not understand, because he has no organ for understanding, the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people … Other people do not exist for him and he does not understand why they should.”
http://www.salon.com/2014/05/03/diagnosing_paul_ryans_psychopathy_arrogant_manipulative_deceitful_remorseless/
Arkansas Attorney General Supports Gay Marriage, But Will Defend State's Ban
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Saturday he supports allowing same-sex couples to wed but will continue defending his state's 2004 ban on gay marriages in court.
McDaniel, a Democrat serving his final year as the state's top attorney, became the first statewide official in Arkansas to back same-sex marriage.
"I want to tell you I do support marriage equality and I do believe Arkansans should have the right to be equal in the eyes of the law," said McDaniel, speaking at the Associated Press Managing Editors convention.
Voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, but that ban and others nationwide are facing legal challenges.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/03/arkansas-gay-marriage_n_5259683.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Rifle-toting "advocates" frighten restaurant workers in Texas
The conversation about the rights of Texans to openly carry guns in public came to Fort Worth early Thursday evening, which caught the attention of some fast-food employees and police.
Members of the group Open Carry Texas planned to conduct a demonstration in the Home Depot parking lot off of Interstate 35W in south Fort Worth.
But first, the participants wanted to get a bite to eat at a nearby Jack in the Box restaurant.
That's when things got scary for some restaurant workers, according to Fort Worth police.
"Upon arrival, officers discovered a group of six males carrying rifles," Sgt. Raymond Bush said in an email. "The men reported that they were conducting an open-carry demonstration.
"Officers spoke with Jack in the Box employees who reported that they feared for their lives and believed they were being robbed. They locked themselves inside a freezer for protection out of fear the rifle-carrying men would rob them."
Members of the group could not be reached for comment Frida.
http://blogs.star-telegram.com/crime_time/2014/05/restaurant-workers-alarmed-by-open-carry-display-police-say.html#storylink=cpy
Open Carry Texas intimidates woman, posts her phone number on YouTube video
Open Carry Texas, an extreme gun rights group, publicly posted on YouTube the name of a citizen who called the Plano police department. The group has previously harassed Moms Demand Action, once again proving that they can only count to the Second Amendment as long as they skip over the first. In the description it reads, “Another helpless sheep calls its master to report scary inanimate objects and shaking flags. You be the judge.”
Open Carry Texas actually stalked Moms Demand Action previously at a restaurant and looked like snipers out in the parking lot. This is not how we have a reasonable discussion. Their intimidation tactics have amped up since then, and now they released details on a concerned citizen who phoned the police after seeing men with assault rifles. This woman is not with Moms Demand Action. She was simply concerned.
http://freakoutnation.com/2014/04/12/open-carry-texas-intimidates-woman-posts-her-phone-number-on-youtube-video/
Montana man shoots 17-year-old after deliberately leaving garage door open
Markus Kaarma fired several shots from a shotgun into his darkened garage, allegedly without warning, in Missoula, Montana, early on Sunday, killing the teenager from Hamburg. It is unclear what Diren was doing in the garage.
Mr Kaarma, a 29-year-old firefighter, told police that he fired after he had seen a male in his garage through video camera he was monitoring, claiming his home had twice been hit by burglars.
According to a BBC report, it is alleged that on the night of the killing Mr Kaarma had deliberately left the garage door open and placed his partner’s purse in there to bait intruders. The couple then stayed up monitoring motion sensors and a video feed.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/17yearold-german-exchange-student-shot-dead-after-trespassing-in-montana-garage-9315806.html
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